Daily Archives: May 7, 2020

Drug Topics: Hi, my name is Gabrielle Ientile with Drug Topics and today we're talking to Dr Devin English, [PhD], assistant professor at Rutgers School of Public Health. Dr Englishs research is focused on how forms of oppression lead to health inequalities in the United States, and today we're talking about how COVID-19 pandemic is affecting minorities. Dr English, thanks so much for joining us today.

English: Thank you so much for having me. And thank you for focusing on this this important topic.

Drug Topics: So before we get started, I'd love for you to provide a little bit of your professional background and your day-to-day during quarantine.

English: Absolutely. So as you mentioned, I'm assistant professor at Rutgers School of Public Health. My training is in clinical community psychology. And as you mentioned, my research focuses on how forms of prayer can lead to some of the health inequities that we see across race and sexual orientation such as those in major depression and HIV. During the pandemic, I've been teaching remotely, mentoring remotely, and trying to continue to shine the light on the ways in which structural oppression is playing out in the [United States]. But me being able to stay at home and do these things, I think is something tied into this as it's a privilege. Its something that I'm able to do that many of our neighbors are not able to do in New York and New Jersey.

Drug Topics: Thanks for shedding light on that. And this is kind of a complex topic, can you break down a little bit the issues that inform minority health and why we might be seeing disproportionately higher coronavirus cases in minority populations?

English: So bear with me a little bit because I'm going to get into a little bit of history. Because I believe to understand the inequities in COVID-19 that we're seeing, we must understand the history of the United States. In the example of racial inequities that we're seeing in COVID-19, we must see how the [United States] has become extremely racially and economically segregated. Because what we're seeing with COVID-19 is completely predictable, policies like redlining and systematic disinvestment have led to racial segregation that we see in black and Latinx communities today. Now, this matters because we know that your zip code often determines whether you have high levels of pollution and overcrowding and whether you have access to quality health care and economic opportunity. Right now, black and Latinx communities, where there are additional disproportionately high levels of pollution and overcrowding and low levels of access to health care and economic opportunity; there are also high levels of COVID-19 related risk factors: these include conditions like asthma, the inability to socially isolate or socially distance because there are lots of low paying yet essential jobs. And there's lower quality health care in overcrowded and under resourced local hospitals. Because of this, we are seeing that black and Latinx communities make up huge percentages of COVID-19 related deaths.

Drug Topics: And the New York Times reported that most cities and states aren't reporting race where they're confirmed cases and fatalities. Why do you think this might be?

English: That's a good question, and I understand that not all places and not all states and cities are race and ethnicity recorded at time of death. However, that is the failure at multiple levels of government, because this information should be required of hospitals and health care facilities. And this is a decision that governors and mayors can make today, so that we are collecting this information. And this information is essential because we know that one of the most profound forms of oppression is the erasure. It is saying that the experience is not happening that is actually there. If we're not collecting this data, then the federal government, state governments and city governments can say that it's not happening. So it is an absolute imperative that we are collecting race ethnicity data - that we're collecting data on sexual and gender identity, in addition to what many places already collecting around age, and other demographic factors.

Drug Topics: Dr English, thank you so much for shedding light on this super important topic today. And stay safe out there.

English: Thank you so much for having me.

Editors note: This interview transcription has been lightly edited for style and clarity.

Check back to drugtopics.com for part 2 of this interview and more expert interviews on COVID-19.

Originally posted here:

A Spotlight on Health Care Disparity During COVID-19 - Drug Topics

We live in the world that is forcedly controlled and dominated by economically elite in ways of institutionalized power exercised on the lives of working class. We see that the control of every move is in the hands of large state organizations, autocratic institutions, and governments. With the control of monopoly in the hands of the state and the impact of representative democracy on the economic sphere as well, working class in capitalist societies gain no control of the economy. This thought raises the questions, what it at the heart of democratic freedom? Which groups or organizations or thought system mainly governs the whole world? What would happen in a situation when common masses are controlled by the governing elite? What strategies these people come up to get rid from the rule of domination. The Spanish series, Money Heist is a radical insight towards the understanding of these questions.

Money Heist is a crime drama series created and written by Alex Pina, depicting the tale of heist against the Spanish government and its capitalistic ideology. The series was originally filmed as a Spanish series titled as La Casa de Papel. Later on Netflix in 2017 accepted the streaming of this series with English dub and renamed it as Money Heist to catch the attention of international audience. Focused on the idea of resistance, the series goes by the enigmatic character of the mastermind who goes by the name, The Professor (Avaro Morte). His idea is to plan something unique and incredible: to prepare for the biggest heist in history. For this, he recruits eight people with special abilities, and none of which has anything to lose, in a hope of carrying out the massive heist in recorded history. Following the ambitious plan set by Professor, the group of thieves with ring leader Berlin (Pedro Alonso) takes 67 hostages at the Royal Mint of Spain to aid in their negotiations with the authorities. Though the central idea of the series is the resistance towards the government, it, however, rests with full of action, intrigue, romance, humor, emotion and alliance.

In its essence, Money Heist presents an anarcho-centric attitude through the emotions of professor and primary characters towards the government. The series goes in accordance with the Noem Chomsky idea of anarcho-syndicalism. According to him, an anarchist society is one that is free from power structures and is made of organic social solidarity. Anarcho-syndicalism believes in the replacement of hierarchical structure of economic control with prime focus on the abolition of private property. Thus, in an anarchist world the confinement of power rests not only in the hands of state but also in common masses. With this anarcho-centric nature, the protagonist of the series, Money Heist, The Professor proves to come up with legal justification in his defiance while exposing the uneven practices of the Spanish government to whom he protest. He raised his stance after showing people the governments fiscal policies and its inhuman treatment towards Spanish people. Moreover, the Professor succeeded in overthrowing the social structure and hierarchical system while exemplifying the festive nature of the series.

To retain our initiative towards free spirited and independent journalism we require your support |Pay Now

Although, the series Money Heist is filmed entirely with the heist as its primary plot, but the underlying theme seems to be the fight for resistance against fascist ideology. This is evident from the Professor`s hatred for any form of government, which he believes to hold power for its selfish interests and oppression. Exemplifying the fascist nature of Spanish government in the form of oppression, inequality, class structure and unemployment The Professor and his team come up to challenge all forms of power by the state through a movement identified in the series as The Resistance. It begins with the resistance to the government by The Professor and other characters because of some past painful experiences and finally ended with the resistance to the government from the citizens of the Spain. We see the Professor and his group singing a song Bella Ciao as a symbol of resistance against Spanish fascist regime. The song, Bella Ciao originally an Italian folk ballad and translated in English as Goodbye beautiful was adopted as an anthem of the anti-fascist resistance. This song is used in the entire series by the Professor to remind his gang their rebellion against the government.

As explained by many scholars through their work on power and authority, overthrowing the unjust authority and democratic control and replaced by something justifiable and equitable is precisely what the resistance tries to do. The series highlights the power and hypocrisy of Spanish government to whom The Professor and his team takes stance by revealing the unjust economic policy of Spain. From the first episode, The Professor can be seen warning his gang about his anti-capitalist feeling by explaining them the economic inequalities of the country. Although, the series runs in chaos, but the reasons behind the robbery is understandable through the moves and motivations of the characters. At some point, The Professor claims his idea of resistance with inspector Raquel Murillo (Itziar Ituno) at his workshop after accusing her being a representative of the state who views people as either good guys or bad guys (Money Heist 2019 S3.E8). Citing the fiscal policy of the Spain as being unjust to the poor, he questions the idea of liquidity injections- an injection of money from Royal mint to the bankers, filling the pockets of the rich and left poor behind.

One of the important aspects of the series which goes in parallel with the Chomsky idea of an anarchic society is the use of confidential government information by the robbers against their stance for resistance. Chomsky says that if the power, authority and control of the state are not properly justified, it must be dismantled and replaced by something fair and equitable. Through the control on government information and its divulgence, The Professor has taught us how power can be transferred from the hands of government to the common masses. From the social lens of the series, The Professor and his whole team seems to be humanitarian, respecting the human rights of the people by laying the rule of the game, newer to kill any of the hostages in hand (Money Heist 2018 S2.E2).

Another issue that has been highlighted in the series, Money Heist is the manipulation of mass media by the state. It gives an insight about the coercion the government play by using mass media as a source of information. There is a powerful relationship between the mass media and the state based on the economic necessity and mutual interest. This is evident in the series where we witness the State as carrying out misleading information about the robbers in order to manipulate the viewers. For instance, Raquel invented a narrative about Berlin to defame his social life, a fake interview of Rio`s parents to the media to weaken his sprit in Heist, Alicia Sierra (Najwa Nimri) plan to construct face documents that The Professor plans to release, highlights the use of mass media as an instrument to propagate vested interests.

As of now, the story of Money Heist depicts the conception of Resistance encouraged by the feelings and emotions of the characters. The narrative and characterization of the show revels that the series is deep rooted in an anarchist ideology, trying to highlight the anti-capitalistic stance of Spanish people against the State. The show highly depicts the coming together of citizens of Spain from all the sections of society for a unified agenda of overthrowing oppression and inequality. Still, the reality had the last laugh. Everyone is waiting to see whether the rebellion will lead to a revolution at the end of the show.

Afaq Ahmad Mir is a Research Scholar at Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh.

Now that you are here...From bottled water to oxygen cans, not even the basics are free in a market-driven world. Why then, do we take free and independent journalism for granted? We find ourselves at a time when more people like you, are reading and coming out in support of The New Leams independent, in-depth and throughly issue based journalism than ever before. From grassroot stories and field-reports, to in-depth analysis of the pertinent political issues of our times, to news on gender, culture and educational issues- The New Leam has been dedicated to bringing out stories that speak out the soul of India and take you beyond the propaganda-filled corridors of mainstream journalism in India. We have made an important choice of keeping our journalism free of vested political interests, commercial funding and influence of partisan stakeholders, so that we can bring forward news and stories based on facts and provide a platform where readers can find information with integrity and a journalism premised on honesty.

Your support to The New Leam is your contribution towards giving a voice to the voiceless, going to the depths of issues that others shy away from and rigorously illuminating the flame of criticality and courage in dark times. We hope that you will come forward to support The New Leam today so that we can keep delivering quality-independent journalism to you and inform public opinion in the right direction. No matter how big or small your contribution may be, it is tremendously important.It takes only a moment, Support The New Leam now!

Read more:

Money Heist: An Exhaustive Review of Alex Pina's New Series - The New Leam

Beyond the carnage on his watch in New York City, where public health measures were seemingly less effective per capita than anywhere else in the world, his dictatorial control of every aspect of New York life has crippled the liberties and livelihoods of a state.

He denied people the right to work, worship, socialize and use their time and their resources as they wished.

And now he threatens to send the State Police against people who dont wear face masks, or who go to parks or congregate in unacceptable numbers.

All in the name of fighting a virus whose potential impact has been dramatically and manipulatively overblown to aggrandize power and advance a political agenda.

And no one has exploited this virus more for his own megalomaniacal arousal than Andrew Cuomo.

And no one has suffered more from the oppression of government overreach than the people of upstate New York.

Here are examples.

He decreed that the academic year was officially over and that no schools in New York could reopen. No exceptions, no local input, no variance for presence or absence of the disease.

And so it is that communities that have literally had no coronavirus in their midst whatsoever must deny their sons and daughters a graduation ceremony. Local superintendents and parents cannot be allowed to decide, it must be handed down by one man, with no personal experience as a public school student or parent.

And stores and businesses are arbitrarily shut down by his dictate, eliminating the jobs of some and destroying the lifes savings and labors for others. When two stores in a five-store plaza are allowed to open, but the other three arent, thats not public health, thats political arrogance.

If any store is safe, then all stores are safe.

And if we can go to Walmart and Costco, we can go to church and synagogue.

If he can have a hundred healthcare workers crowd together to cheer his mask-less arrival at a press conference, people can gather for Ramadan dinner.

But New Yorkers can do none of these things.

They may not go to funerals, they may not attend weddings, they may not celebrate gramas 100thor mom and dads 50th.

They may only look ahead at the cascading collapse of their lives and communities, all caused by the overreaching dictate of Andrew Cuomo. Because it is not just lives being shattered by this dictators arrogance, it is institutions.

Hospitals will be bankrupted, local governments and schools will be bankrupted, businesses will be bankrupted. Not because of a virus, but because of a tyrants exploitation of a virus.

An exploitation that allows him to impose a political agenda that is nothing less than a restructuring of New York society to serve his vanity and Marxist aspirations.

He wants the state to control hospitals, and so in the name of fighting the virus he imposes occupancy and practice restrictions that plunge hospitals deep into deficit and inexorably into insolvency, to be saved in a few months by being brought under his control. Likewise, a governor who has been at war with local government since his inauguration has choked off sales tax revenues, putting countless teachers and municipal employees out of work, and dooming their school districts, towns and counties to economic collapse.

All to be rescued by the all-powerful governor whose state government will take over everything.

People are denied medical treatment by his only slightly reduced ban on elective procedures. They must suffer alone in hospitals because of his guidelines for visitation.

And they lose the right to support themselves and their families because he arbitrarily controls their jobs and their businesses. He dooms them, through this period of oppression, to a financial slump from which they may never emerge. He pushes them toward government dependence, so that he might enslave them and their children, and their childrens children.

All in the name of a virus.

And a cure that is far worse than the disease.

He said the virus is death. And yet, from the standpoint of liberty and prosperity, his dictates are death.

And his personal motto, now emblazoned on the states seal, E pluribus unum.

Out of many, one.

Out of many New Yorkers, just one gets to decide.

Many must follow, one must dictate.

Andrew the Pierced, the virus king.

Read more here:

Andrew Cuomo, The Virus King | 570 WSYR | Bob Lonsberry - KFI AM 640

The Pulitzer Prize has officially revealed the winners for 2020. The prize for Breaking News Photography went to the entire Reuters photography staff for their coverage of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, while the prize for Feature Photography was awarded to Channi Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasin of the Associated Press for their striking documentary photos of life in Kashmir.

The entire Reuters photography staff was awarded this years prize for Breaking News Photography, for their wide-ranging and illuminating photographs of Hong Kong as citizens protested infringement of their civil liberties and defended the regions autonomy by the Chinese government.

In addition to the award itself, the Reuters staff takes home a $15,000 cash prize in recognition of their achievement. You can view the full gallery of winning photos with captions here.

The photography staff of @Reuters has won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography for its coverage of last year's violent protests in Hong Kong. More images: https://t.co/uvENRgibZW pic.twitter.com/GIxpmSSZuW

Reuters Pictures (@reuterspictures) May 5, 2020

Congratulations to the @Reuters team, including @jamespomfret, @GregTorode, David Lague, @TomLasseter, @a_roantree, @QiZHAI, @DavidKirton_, @farahmaster, @clarejim & @stecklow for being a #Pulitzer Prize finalist in International Reporting for 'The Revolt of Hong Kong' series! pic.twitter.com/mMcLSjxQ7f

PR Team at Reuters (@ReutersPR) May 4, 2020

The prize for Feature Photography was awarded to three photographers from the Associated PressChanni Anand, Mukhtar Khan and Dar Yasinfor their striking images of life in the contested territory of Kashmir as India revoked its independence, executed through a communications blackout.

As with the Breaking News Pulitzer, the photo agency will also receive a $15,000 cash prize in recognition of their Feature Photography award. You can view the full gallery of winning photos with captions here.

Associated Press photographers @daryasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand found ways to let outsiders see what was happening. Now, their work has been honored with the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in feature photography. https://t.co/0Nf4FMG4xn

AP Images (@AP_Images) May 4, 2020

Dear colleagues and friends I just want to say Thank you and that this award @PulitzerPrizes an honor for us. I could never have imagine in my life time. it could have also been impossible without my family both at home and AP Thank you for always sanding by us.

mukhtar khan (@muukhtark_khan) May 4, 2020

Thank you Colleagues, friends, brothers. I would just like to say thank you for standing by us always. Its an honour and a privilege beyond any we could have ever imagined. Its overwhelming to receive this honor.

Dar Yasin (@daryasin) May 4, 2020

Thankyou everyone https://t.co/4Sh4EP9s68

Channi Anand (@channiap) May 5, 2020

To find out more about the prizes or see the full galleries for each prize, head over to the Pulitzer website. And if you want to see how the 2020 winners stack up compared to last year, check out our coverage from 2019 here.

Here is the original post:

2020 Pulitzer Prizes Won by Photos of Protests in Hong Kong and Oppression in Kashmir - PetaPixel

Paramount is set to go to the future with2084, a sci-fi film fromThe Batman writerMattson Tomlin. The project is being described as a spiritual sister to George Orwells classic1984, whichreally just sounds like theyre adapting1984 but changing the year so its no longer dated. The script is also described as having a tone similar to bothThe Matrix andInception.

THR has the scoop on2084, which was just snapped up by Paramount.Lorenzo di Bonaventura will produce. And just what is this movie about? Dont ask, because no one is saying. Instead, the quality of Mattson Tomlins script is being played up, with THR reporting that 2084 generated interest from filmmakers and talent who were eager to get involved before its pick-up, a testament to Tomlins writing prowess.

Beyond that, all we know is that the movie will be similar in tone toThe Matrix andInception, and that its a spiritual sister to1984.1984 is, of course, George Orwells classic about government oppression, totalitarianism, mass surveillance, and a bunch of other stuff that all feels uncomfortably familiar to us saps here in the 21st century.1984 was previously adapted into a 1984 film starringJohn Hurt and Richard Burton. Its also served as partial inspiration for plenty of other films, includingEquilibriumand Equals. More often than not, the themes of1984 tend to get blended into movies along with books likeBrave New World andFahrenheit 451, which also deal withtotalitarian future societies. Its almost as if the writers of the past were all warning us that the future our present was going to be a constant waking nightmare.

Giving the film the title2084 and connecting it to1984 really makes me think this is going to end up being an updated, more futuristic take on Orwells tale, but well have to wait and see how that shakes out. Comparing the tone toThe Matrix andInception suggests there will be plenty of mind-bending elements at play, though.Tomlin has directed several short films and penned multiple scripts, but hes likely to become a big up-and-comer based on having worked onThe Batman with Matt Reeves. Tomlin is also responsible for a currently unproduced script based on the video gameMega Man.

Continue reading here:

'2084': Paramount Making '1984'-Inspired Sci-Fi Film From 'The Batman' Writer - /FILM

Two police officers from the mounted unit of NYPD are seen near the Emergency Service at NYU Langone Health-Tisch Hospital during the coronavirus pandemic, on April 23, 2020. (Photo by Selcuk Acar / NurPhoto via Getty Images)

EDITORS NOTE: The Nation believes that helping readers stay informed about the impact of the coronavirus crisis is a form of public service. For that reason, this article, and all of our coronavirus coverage, is now free. Please subscribe to support our writers and staff, and stay healthy.

Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month!

A fringe benefit of the coronavirus lockdown is that this is the longest Ive gone as an adult without being harassed by, or fearing harassment from, the police. My home might as well be Wakanda during this crisis: a safe haven, with lots of toilet paper and no colonizers, from which I can watch, but am not directly subjected to, the oppression of white society.Ad Policy

The good times cannot last forever. I suppose Im lucky to have had any good times at all. Essential workers already have to leave their private sanctuaries and contend with oppression. So has everybody without the financial means to pay grossly inflated prices for groceries and other essentials via delivery services. Black people who just want to catch a bit of fresh air have already caught hell from the police. Im safe from the cops right now only because I can afford to be.

Eventually, the country will force all of us to reopen and, as it does, police will be more empowered than ever to stop and brutalize black and brown people. Thats because the cops will useare already usingsocial distancing enforcement as an excuse for more racially biased harassment. Reopening will force African Americans back into the crosshairs of two predators. On the one side, Covid-19 will be waiting to kill us in even greater disproportion to white folks than it is now. On the other? Our alpha predator, the American police officer.

Just this past weekend, as spring finally hit the East Coast, New York City was not a tale of two cities so much as a tale of two races. In the West Village, predominately white crowds gathered in blatant violation of social distancing rules. Friendly neighborhood police officers could be spotted handing out masks. Meanwhile, in the East Village, a black man was brutally beaten and arrested for allegedly not keeping social distance from a woman companion as they left a deli. After the beating, one of the plainclothes officers was photographed casually sitting on the mans head as he lay prone on the pavement.

This is the kind of unequal and brutal treatment African Americans can expect from police as were all forced to resume normal routines. Normal for black people is being in potentially mortal danger every time we are within six feet of a police officer, whether or not the cop has Covid-19.

The new normal for black people will include all of the old reasons cops use to harass us, plus new excuses that will be used to justify brutality in the name of public health, of all things.Current Issue

Subscribe today and Save up to $129.

Every time we give cops power to interdict citizens, they use that power in a racially biased way. Black people are 20 percent more likely to be pulled over while driving. Black people are more likely to be prosecuted for drug possession or use. Black people are more likely to be stopped for walking down the damn street.

A society committed to racial and social equality would be looking for ways to strip power from police forces that have so completely shown they are unable or unwilling to wield it fairly. Instead, the coronavirus has made this society eager to give even more power to law enforcement.

Consider New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. He is one of the leaders in the response to the pandemic, but he has also been one of the leaders in talking tough about the need for penalties for people who violate social distancing guidelines. He wants large gatherings broken up. He wants people to wear masks. He said, at his daily press conference on Monday, that he wants to empower local governments to impose fines and penalties to help enforce social distancing rules in their community.

Well, who enforces those rules and guidelines? Who imposes the penalty for violating orders? In most situations, it will be a cop on the street who is empowered to determine who is violating social distancing, and what to do about them. Maybe Cuomo trusts the cops to use their newfound power reasonably and responsibly. Maybe Cuomo thinks were living in a post-racial utopia where the cops can be trusted to serve and protect all people equallybut Ive got 41 years of lived black experience to tell him hes wrong.

What is particularly maddening is that black and brown communities havent been the biggest violators of social distancing rules. Its been the Covid-loving Trump people. White MAGA confederates are the ones menacing state governments with guns. White MAGA confederates are the ones who have decided that wearing a mask is just like slavery and that being told to shelter-in-place is like being put in a concentration camp. White MAGA confederates have turned public health rules into grounds for a culture war. But when it comes time for cops to crack some skulls, you best believe that the police brutality well see will be visited upon black and brown communities.

We know whats going to happen, yet no government officials, be they in red states or blue, seem willing to do anything to stop the impending over-policing of places that black people occupy. We know white people will congregate at beaches without keeping appropriate distance from each other, while black people will be chased off courts and playgrounds by police zealously enforcing new rules. We know that white bars will exceed occupancy guidelines with impunity, while black clubs will be fined for packing too many people inside. We know white people who violently threaten police officers trying to enforce social distancing will get off with a warning, while black people who so much as talk back to a cop will get the snot beat out of them, or worse.

We know whats going to happen, because its already happening. Yet many white politicians will end up defending the police for the brutal measures they take to enforce new public health guidelines. And even the best white leaders will only manage to be performatively shocked and appalled when the thing they allowed to happen inevitably continues to happen.

Whenever the discussion of racially biased police brutality comes up, theres always a chorus of people who claim that cops wouldnt harass black people if black people followed the rules. Thats always a ridiculous argument, but the coronavirus is going to expose the weakness of that logic even more than usual. Thats because black people will be harassed for not following social distancing rules, but well also be harassed if we do. Earlier in the crisis, a video went viral of a black man being kicked out of a Walmart for, apparently, wearing a mask in the store.

I cannot emphasize this point enough: Every piece of advice Ive had scolded into me by my parents tells me to never, ever wear a mask or a scarf or any kind of face covering around white folks, even when its freezing. Ive owned maybe three hooded sweatshirts in my entire life, all of them emblazoned with my university insignia, which in my mind reads, Dont Shoot: I went to Harvard. And I still only wear one on the very coldest days. My 4-year-old son loves his little dinosaur hoodie, and I dread the day when I have to explain to him why he cant wear it anymore; I know that day is coming when he gets, not older, but merely taller.

I ordered N95 masks for my family back in February, long before the general public was properly concerned about the virus. I think the reason I was so quick off the mark with those was because I knew that wed need something with the prominent little air filter thingies to keep us safe, not from Covid-19 but from white store owners. Maybe this coronavirus changes white peoples reactions to black people wearing masks, but Im not willing to bet my life on it.

This is the reality I have waiting for me when the government forces me out of my cop-free quarantine. I will become vulnerable again. One cop could see me as a menace if I walk around with a mask. Another cop could see me as a lawbreaker if I stand too close to my wife. One neighbor might call the cops on me if I invite friends over for a barbeque. Another might call the cops on me if they see a masked black man taking a solitary walk near their home. No matter what I do, it will be my fault for inviting whatever harassment I get.

Its been wonderful to spend a few weeks worrying about how to survive a virus, instead of how to survive an encounter with police. Quarantine is probably as close as Ill ever come to living like a white person. I could get used to all this freedom and liberty the coronavirus has provided.

But it wont last. Our society wont open up without giving law enforcement additional excuses to put black people back in a choke hold.

See the rest here:

Covid Is About to Become the Newest Excuse for Police Brutality - The Nation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Continued here:

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

Today marks the 39th anniversary of the death of Bobby Sands inside the H-blocks of Long Kesh internment camp. On 5 May 1981, Sands laid down his life for his and his comrades right for recognition as political prisoners. On this day, we should remember the sacrifice he made for the cause of Irish freedom. But his struggle does not just provide an example that all anti-imperialists should follow. It also serves as an important reminder of the ruthless brutality of the British government in Ireland under the leadership of then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher. And that is equally something that we should never forget.

On 1 March, 1976, the British government announced an end to Special Category status for members of paramilitary organisations imprisoned for offences related to the conflict in Ireland. This formed part of a multi-pronged propaganda strategy to falsely portray the republican insurrection against British rule as some kind of aggravated crime wave.

In response, republican prisoners began a series of protests to regain the lost privileges, as well as the symbolic importance of prisoner of war status. This included the right to wear ones own clothes, free association and exemption from prison work. IRA volunteer Kieran Nugent began the blanket protest when he refused to wear a prison uniform. Thrown into his cell naked, he draped himself in the only thing available a grey, prison-issue blanket.

After suffering beatings from prison officers on their way to the shower areas, republican prisoners began the no wash protest, in which they refused to bathe, cut their hair or shave. When prison officers refused to empty their chamber pots, republican prisoners were forced to smear their own excrement on the walls, which marked the beginning of the dirty protest.

In 1979, their prospects became even bleaker with the election of the right-wing government of Margaret Thatcher in Britain. When it became clear that Thatcher wouldnt grant even the most modest of concessions, republican prisoners began a hunger strike in 1980. It ended without any deaths when her government appeared to concede some of the strikers demands. But the document containing the terms of the agreement turned out to be vague and open to interpretation, and the prison regime was quickly returned to a situation little better than how it was before.

Determined not to be double-crossed again, the new Officer Commanding (OC) of the republican prisoners, 27-year-old Bobby Sands, launched a second hunger strike with a crucial difference from the last. The strikers would stagger their joining of the fast one-by-one and two weeks apart so that each would near death one at a time. As OC, Sands volunteered to go first, making him the most likely to die. On 1 March, 1981, Sands refused his prison food, beginning the second hunger strike in Long Kesh just over two months after the end of the first.

On 5 March, less than a week into Sands fast, Frank Maguire, the independent nationalist member of parliament for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, died suddenly and unexpectedly, leaving his seat in Westminster vacant. The republican leadership on the outside hatched a plan. They were forever getting dismissed by political opponents for not having a mandate, but if they stood Sands as a candidate in the resultant by-election and won, they could demonstrate to the British government and the wider world that the hunger strikers demands had popular support in the community.

On 9 April 1981, Bobby Sands won the election with over 30,000 votes almost 10,000 more than Thatcher had won in her home constituency of Finchley in the 1979 UK general election. The victory provided the republican movement with a powerful morale boost and demolished the British governments argument that they had no support.

But in spite of Sands victory, along with international pressure from the Irish diaspora abroad and others around the world, Thatcher refused to budge. On May 5, 1981, Bobby Sands died of starvation 66 days into his fast at 27 years of age. Over 100,000 mourners lined his cortege in one of the largest political funerals in Irish history.

Sands death led to international outcry at the treatment of the prisoners and Thatchers intransigence in meeting their demands. Critics pointed out that as members of a guerrilla army operating in contested territory, republican prisoners were entitled under the Geneva Convention to be recognised as prisoners of war. One letter, sent from one Bernard Sanders (then-mayor of Burlington, Vermont in the US), stated:

We are deeply disturbed by your governments unwillingness to stop the abuse, humiliation and degrading treatment of the Irish prisoners now on strike in Northern Ireland

We ask you to end your intransigent policy towards the prisoners before the reputation of the English people for fair play and simple decency is further damaged in the eyes of the people of Vermont and the United States.

In October 1981, the British government eventually conceded most of the prisoners demands; but not before nine more republican hunger strikers had followed Sands to the grave.

This episode perhaps shows more than any other the utter depravity, brutality, ruthlessness and lack of humanity that lurked within the twisted soul of Margaret Thatcher. All but one of the men were under 30 years old and left behind grieving mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and, in some cases, children all for the crime of fighting back against foreign oppression and discrimination in their own country.

Sands brave sacrifice stands as an example that all anti-imperialists and advocates of justice can aspire to. But it also serves as a reminder of Thatchers sordid legacy of death and destruction in Ireland.

Featured image via Wikimedia /Flickr Levi Ramishvili

Read the original post:

We should never forget Bobby Sands, nor the brutality of the Thatcher government in Ireland - The Canary

India may be the worlds largest democracy, but it also has other claims to fame: according to a recent report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, it is the worlds second-largest importer of arms. With its allocation for defense almost five times as much as that for health, the country also spends a significant part of its budget manufacturing as many weapons as it can domestically.

The Indian authorities transport much of this weaponry to the northern valley of Kashmir, where it is deployed on the streets against unarmed protesters demanding their right to self-determination. Indian forces have experimented on the people of Kashmir with a whole range of weapons over the years.

They have used pellet guns which they claim are nonlethal to maim and blind tens of thousands of ordinary people. They routinely fire tear gas canisters of various kinds which have, along with many other casualties, resulted in the deaths of two schoolboys after military men shot them in the head at point-blank range. Indian forces have killed thousands with the weapons they consider nonlethal and countless more with the lethal ones. All with complete impunity.

On the streets of Kashmir, the excessive use of tear gas has predictably caused grave damage to the respiratory systems of the civilian population, who find their homes engulfed in smoke and pepper gas, even with the windows closed. A paper published by Turkish researchers showed that inhaling tear gas over a period of time can have a significant harmful effect on a persons lungs. The people of Kashmir have been breathing it in for decades now.

In this place of sadness and defiance, news of the first confirmed COVID-19 case in March spread like the smoke of a tear gas canister. It stoked up panic and chaos in the immediate vicinity, while in regions further afield, people initially scoffed at those who displayed signs of alarm.

Soon, however, people stocked up on rice, pulses, and potatoes and sat inside their homes, perhaps aware that no one in power would want to save a people under occupation if the pandemic took hold, and also conscious of the shortcomings of Indias malformed health care system.

Medical experts and health organizations have insisted that in most cases, only people with an underlying medical condition succumb to the virus: hypertension, diabetes, or respiratory problems. Unfortunately, this means that the people of Kashmir are especially vulnerable to this deadly virus, because of their ruined lungs and the hypertension caused by years of conflict.

Only last year, on August 5, when Indias far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government officially (but illegally) revoked what was left of Kashmirs autonomy, it also implemented one of the longest and most rigorous clampdowns in history throughout the region. Any space for dissent was eliminated. The authorities detained thousands of activists, academics, and journalists, including even politicians who are considered apologists for the Indian government; most of them are still locked up.

They also booked tens of thousands of ordinary people under draconian laws, including children as young as nine years old, many of whom were tortured. Life as we know it, already precarious in Kashmir, came to a standstill.

The government withdrew some of the restrictions on physical movement after months of international pressure. But the constraints on mobile communication have only recently been relaxed, and internet coverage is still limited to an ancient and tortoise-paced 2G.

Even in the midst of a global medical emergency, after eight long months, the Indian state is not allowing people access to reliable high-speed internet. Because of this, doctors and medical experts in Kashmir are unable to obtain the latest information about COVID-19.

Students, who have been out of school since August 5 last year, have no facilities to study online. Working from home for professionals is out of the question. People associated with handicrafts and the tourism industry the majority of the population in Kashmir have been out of work since August, too, not merely since the start of the pandemic. They are increasingly forced to take up odd jobs to make ends meet.

The never-ending conflict has left Kashmirs health care system in ruins, if it can even be said to exist at all. At a time when the World Health Organization has been urging states to carry out tests on a grand scale, fewer than 15,000 tests had been carried out in Jammu and Kashmir by April 27, for a population of 12.5 million.

There are just ninety-seven ventilators and a handful of functioning hospitals that are ill-equipped, as patients have repeatedly complained. A senior doctor warned Al Jazeera that if the pandemic takes root in Kashmir, we will die like cattle.

To add to the crippling shortcomings of the health care system, the Indian state has threatened the doctors and health care workers in Kashmir who had spoken out against poor management and the lack of proper equipment by telling them that strict action would be taken against anyone who publicly criticizes the efforts of the authorities to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. After this statement, the state-run media interviewed doctors and health care workers on a regular basis to back up an apologetic narrative, praising the authorities for doing an excellent job.

Outside, on the streets, the Indian forces have been harassing and beating up health care workers, even though they are exempt from the lockdown. A person who was on his way home from the hospital told a national publication that he was brutally roughed up and hit on the head with a rifle butt.

Soldiers stopped a journalist who works for a local magazine at a checkpoint and demanded that he open up his bag. When he tried asking questions, the Indian soldier cut him short: This is not the virus curfew, this is our curfew.

The Indian states approach to the COVID-19 outbreak in Kashmir reeks of its imperial and militaristic attitude. Further proof of this came when it issued a new set of domicile orders, taking advantage of the pandemic and the lockdown, in the full knowledge that popular resistance in a time of emergency would be minimal.

Indian military forces have already occupied thousands of acres of land in Kashmir for decades, but the new rules make it possible for any Indian citizen to own land or acquire a much-coveted government job in the region. This poses a serious demographic threat, as the BJP and its parent organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have vowed to turn India into a Hindu nation. This act of pulling Kashmir completely under the dominance of the Indian constitution also makes the question of self-determination yet more difficult.

Even in the midst of a pandemic, the Indian state still finds the time to persecute Kashmiri journalists. Only last week, the authorities booked a female photojournalist under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) which allows the government to designate any individual as a terrorist without evidence for sharing her previously published photographs on social media.

Within twenty-four hours, police had booked two more senior journalists, also using the UAPA in one case, for equally fatuous reasons. This brazen attempt to intimidate journalists who are trying to cover the Kashmir conflict is not a new development, but the fact that those journalists are now being branded as terrorists is deeply concerning.

Even scarier, perhaps, is the way that the Indian state is exploiting this opportunity to normalize a pervasive regime of surveillance, both physical and electronic, which will remain in place even after the pandemic is over. Although surveillance has long been a major tool for perpetuating the occupation of Kashmir, the authorities are taking such measures to a qualitatively higher level, with every action of every individual now being monitored.

A senior police officer said that he felt like he was chasing a militant while tracing peoples travel histories via call records and bank transactions. This comment underlines how the Indian state is building in the phrase of Edward Snowden the architecture of oppression.

This intensified surveillance regime is just one aspect of a broader reality: the Indian state has approached the task of containing the pandemic in Kashmir as if it were a military operation. In response, people have been trying to avoid being taken by the authorities to quarantine centers.

They distrust these state-controlled centers intensely, associating them with detention camps where torture is routine. The idea of a quarantine center evokes not hope, as it should, but fear: in the minds of Kashmiri people, it looks like a jail.

Meanwhile, in faraway villages of South Kashmir, the Indian forces continue to kill rebels fighting against the state (or as the Indian media likes to put it, they eliminate terrorists). On April 12, as the world was still preoccupied with the humanitarian crisis, Indian soldiers moved into a mountain village in North Kashmir and used the poor villagers as human shields, firing at Pakistani forces across the Line of Control (LoC).

The two countries, which dont have enough face masks to contain the virus, still had the resources for an exchange of heavy artillery fire, which resulted in the death of at least four people on both sides of the border, including two children aged eight and two.

This helps the Indian state in more ways than one: as well as driving home the message to the people of Kashmir that nothing, not even a medical emergency, can prevent the state from doing what it wants to do with them, it also diverts the attention of Indias Hindu majority from the countrys collapsed health care system and an economy whose condition is even worse, toward an enemy who wants to attack us.

In spite of these horrors, the Kashmiris are holding up with a sense of harmony, perhaps rooted in years of conflict and shared suffering. Many people from different organizations as well as individuals have come forward to provide money and supplies to people who might not be able to survive the lockdown without assistance.

Such groups took the initiative to provide thousands of doctors and medical workers with personal protective equipment (PPE). The administration has rewarded these efforts with constant harassment and attempts to regulate their work.

As much of the worlds population sits with their fingers crossed, hoping for the pandemic to disappear as unexpectedly as it arrived, they at least have the luxury of thinking that once this is all over, they will again be able to walk without fear on the roads, meet their loved ones, and lead a normal life.

However, the people of Kashmir know that the current lockdown is just the latest in a long series of curfews. Even if the COVID-19 pandemic is halted and life returns to normal elsewhere, for them, life is only going to get worse.

Read more:

Modi's Government Is Exploiting the Pandemic to Ramp up Repression in Kashmir - Jacobin magazine

The word karrabing, from which the Karrabing Film Collective takes its name, means tide out in the Emmiyengal language, invoking the northwest coastline of Australia that connects the members of the collective, an intergenerational group of around thirty artists and filmmakers, most of whom are indigenous to the Northern Territory of Australia. Their use of the word offers an immediate insight into their work. As Karrabing member Natasha Bigfoot Lewis puts it, We are all saltwater from the same coastconnected lands from the same coast.

Karrabings films are varied in style, but the group members have adopted an approach that they refer to as improvisational realism. Shooting with iPhones or handheld cameras, they typically begin with a loose idea rooted in their everyday experiences rather than a fixed script, developing the plot and dialogue as they go, incorporating input from each participant. While their immediate community and environment are the foundation of Karrabings films, often positioning viewers as fly-on-the-wall observers, these are not straightforward documentaries: realism is interwoven with alternative histories, speculative futures, and Dreaming narratives. As Nhanda and Nyoongar artist and curator Glenn Iseger-Pilkington explains, the Dreaming is the realm of ancestral spirits who formed Australia, giving plants, animals, language, lore, and law to the land. It operates beyond Western constructs of time, as a realm of cultural manifestation and unfolding that exists concurrently in our past, our present, and our future.

One main catalyst for the groups formation was the 2007 Northern Territory National Emergency Response, commonly known as the Intervention, a set of policies implemented by a federal government task force in response to a report commissioned by regional authorities on child sexual abuse and neglect in Aboriginal communities. The federal government enacted broad new legislation that gave it heightened control over Aboriginal communities, including restrictions on alcohol consumption, mandatory child welfare inspections, and a significant rise in policing.

The Intervention coincided with the fallout from a riot at the Belyuen settlement, a rural Aboriginal community where many of the Karrabing members lived. The riot had attracted the attention of mainstream media outlets, and the membersmany of whom had been left temporarily homelessdecided to produce their own accounts representing their perspective on issues affecting their communities. Along with American anthropologist Elizabeth A. Povinelli, a professor at Columbia University who first visited Belyuen in 1984 and has maintained a close relationship with the community since, they formed the Karrabing Film Collective and made their first short film, Karrabing! Low Tide Turning, in 2011.

As a Mori person from Karrabings neighboring country, Aotearoa (New Zealand), I have certain historical commonalities with Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, Australias two distinct Indigenous groups. We are all also citizens of Commonwealth countries with a long and sustained relationship built on geographical proximity, and we share a head of state, Queen Elizabeth II. Indigenous communities around the worldwhat Mori refer to as iwi taketake, or the long-established peoplehave similarities in terms of our relationships to our environments, and how our cultures are sustained by intergenerational connection. Despite a sense of solidarity in these shared values and the dubious honor of having experienced colonization, however, we reject a simplistic view of global Indigenous homogeneity. We are not the same and cannot speak for one another; what we can do is speak with adjacency.

This is something I consider when approached to write about an Indigenous culture that I dont whakapapahave a kin connectionto: I mustnt oversimplify our similarities, nor overstate the closeness of our connections. Instead, I want to focus on what is most compelling to me about the Karrabing Film Collectives work: the way they tell their histories, unashamedly from their own perspectives. They have what I would call mana motuhake in their approach, mana motuhake being self-determination of your future.

Karrabings most recent film, Day in the Life (2020), charts a day, presumably like many others, in which the authoritative hand of the government is a constant, shadowy presence over the community. The film comprises five satirically titled vignettesBreakfast, Play Break, Lunch Run, Cocktail Hour, Takeout Dinnerillustrating the ways in which the communitys everyday lives are shaped by external influences and constraints, in the form of state agents policing their behavior or private mining companies stealing resources and polluting their lands. In the work, the perspectives of the Karrabing cast are always central, creating an empathetic viewing experience that flips mainstream assumptions about Aboriginal communities on their head.

The films dialogue is interspersed with a rap soundtrack composed by younger members of the collective and audio clips from radio and television programssourced predominantly from the Australian Broadcasting Corporationrepeating deficit statistics about Aboriginal communities. These samples mention community impoverishment, overcrowded housing, and, most tellingly, the amount of money provided by state and federal governments, illustrating how the mainstream media and Australian politicians perpetuate negative stereotypes about Aboriginal communities squandering government aid. The effects of one particularly damaging stereotypethat Aboriginal parents are unable to care for their childrenare highlighted in the Play Break segment of Day in the Life: two women enjoying an idyllic afternoon playing outdoors with their kids are abruptly interrupted by the arrival of government authorities.

It is in these mothers fear that the effects of governmental oppression are felt most keenly. Fear accelerates their movements as they seek to hide the children. The segment reveals the double-edged sword of living under a government that provides significant welfare: it also determines what good parenting looks like and will enforce that model accordingly. When the authorities ultimately take one womans children, she morphs from close kin to pariah. The fear and stigma surrounding her make her repellent to others: will the events that befell her rub off on the community? This is a victory for colonization: Indigenous families turning on each other in order to protect themselves.

The mothers fear is an inherited one, evident in a refrain repeated throughout the film: Were gonna do what our old people did, were gonna hide our kids. This is one of many references Karrabing filmmakers make to the Stolen Generations, the thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who were forcibly removed from their families between roughly 1905 and the 1970s. The effects of these removals are everywhere in Karrabing films, regardless of whether they are explicitly mentioned. The consequences are seen in the dependence on welfare, the overcrowded housing, and the fear of government authorities. They are also evident in the quest to reclaim traditional knowledge and relationships to country. As Karrabing films increasingly circulate internationally, perhaps their focus on the social inequity experienced by Indigenous people will compel audiences around the world to examine how their own governments legislated the assimilation of dying Indigenous peoples into dominant settler power structures. After all, knowledge is a collective responsibility.

One Scene in Day in the Life follows a young man who wakes to find he is unable to cook breakfast and have a shower, as the utilities in his house have been cut off. As he walks from house to house along seemingly deserted streets, it becomes evident that other households are in the same impoverished predicament: pipes are blocked and the residents are waiting for assistance, or the electricity has gone out. A refrain from the accompanying rap soundtrack lodged itself squarely in my brain: Forward to the bush, but wheres he going to go? There is a popular belief, even among Indigenous people, that we know best how to live harmoniously, symbiotically, with the environment. Frankly, its a romanticized view. The reality is that as Indigenous individuals, we dont inherently hold that knowledge. Because of colonization, which systematically removed Indigenous people from their lands and subsequently stripped them of their languages and cultures, we dont all know how to survive on our own land. One of the most devastating pieces of legislation passed in Aotearoa was the Tohunga Suppression Act (1907), which outlawed Mori cultural and spiritual practices, dismantled our traditional wnanga teaching systems, and led to the eventual banning of our language in schools. As with the Stolen Generations in Australia, it is impossible to quantify how government interventions have contributed to shorter life expectancy, lower quality of life, and Mori overrepresentation in prisons. So, forward to the bush, but whats he going to eat, and wear, and wheres he going to live?

My iwi (tribe) are bush people from the Te Urewera mountains, and many of my family members are hunters, a role that feels completely entwined with who we are as Mori. However, the animals that we hunt in the twenty-first centurywild pigs, deer, tahrare all animals that were introduced by European settlers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There are no mammals (apart from bats) endemic to Aotearoa: native birds, which would have traditionally been hunted, are now protected species. Knowledge of edible flora, another traditional food source, has eroded due to violent disruptions to our cultural well-being such as land confiscations, postwar migration from tribal homelands into urban centers, and the convenience of the supermarket. Meticulous crafting of bird snares and spears has been eschewed in favor of guns. As is likewise seen in Karrabing films, displacement from land and the removal of younger generations also disrupts another foundation of Indigenous life: intergenerational living. If this way of life is interrupted, so too is the ability to pass knowledge down.

This predicament is portrayed in the Takeout Dinner segment of Day in the Life, wherein an elder is taking a younger family member on country to teach him the ways of the land when they are distracted by the discovery of a lithium extraction site. Both the elder and his protg question how theyre meant to learn from and protect their land if its being dug up and poisoned by white people. As portrayed here, the health of the land and the health of the people are inextricably linked. But, as is often the case in Karrabing films, the rather depressing storylines in Day in the Life are saved when Indigenous peoples own stories and ways of life are asserted. In the films closing scene, the protagonists initiate a corroboree, creating a swirl of time in which the ills of the past are undone. Karrabing stories become powerful catalysts for survival itself.

One Karrabing film, Night Time Go (2017), addresses the past directly, posing as a documentary depicting an alternative history of Australias domestic experience of World War II. Combining archival newsreel footage with grainy, black-and-white reenactments staged by Karrabing members, the film narrates the wartime experiences of Karrabing ancestors who were forcibly relocated to inland internment camps in anticipation of an imminent Japanese invasion, lest their simple minds be manipulated by Axis influences to undermine the Australian government. The Karrabing ancestors escaped from the camp in September 1943 and returned to their homes on foot, a journey of more than two hundred miles. A title card at the beginning of the film states, No record of their journey, or others like it, exists in the settler archive.

This film is an intervention into what mandated truth looks like, speaking back to the settler governments portrayal of official history. Researching the Katherine internment camp depicted in the film, I came across the following description on the government-run Northern Territory Tourism website: The Mataranka Aboriginal Army Camp was established by late 1943 comprised of 350 Aboriginal workers who were supporting the war effort by working for the Army.4 Supporting the war effort and working for the Army is an interpretation of events far different from the one portrayed in Night Time Go.

The government voice in the film, represented through archival clips, presents a picture of Australia that is pastoral and patriotic: the government is the benevolent patron of Aboriginal peoples, who are enjoying their simple lifestyle . . . under the shelter of our great nation. But Karrabing subverts this government archive, bringing historic photographs to life in reenactments. Settler histories have often ignored the fates of the people depicted in these images, but the film shows them as fully fledged individuals on a mission to re-chart their futures. In the process, Karrabing members also rewrite history, imagining an alternative course of events in which their ancestors not only escape the internment camp but expel the whitefulla from their lands on their journey home. At the end of Night Time Go, the Karrabing Free Broadcast System announces: Australian North Falls. Army Retreats to Brisbane Line. Indigenous Peoples Celebrate Freedom. Though the film borders on mockumentary, its satire isnt done for the sake of humor. Rather, Karrabings re-creations elicit hope for what an alternative, mana motuhake, future would look like for Karrabing members and their families. It also illustrates that for Indigenous peoples living in settler states, participation in the World Wars meant turning attention to fighting external enemies at times when their own freedom was still under internal threat.

The Karrabing Film Collective has shown me that hope lives and dies on belief. For Indigenous peoples, this belief is tied to knowing our land, our kin, and our stories. To believe in ourselves is to unlearn much of what is told to us by the dominant media, and to escape all the tentacles of government that find their way into our schools and homes. The swirling circularity of history that Karrabing so deftly foregrounds in their work reminds us that our story has not yet ended.

1 Growing up Karrabing: a conversation with Gavin Bianamu, Sheree Bianamu, Natasha Bigfoot Lewis, Ethan Jorrock and Elizabeth Povinelli, UN Magazine, 2017, unprojects.org.au.2 Glenn Iseger-Pilkington, email to the author, April 6, 2020.3 Elizabeth A. Povinelli, Geontologies: A Requiem to Late Liberalism, Durham, N.C., and London, Duke University Press, 2016, pp. 2425.4 Katherine in WWII, Northern Territory Tourism, northernterritory.com.

This article appears under the titleSurvival Stories in the May 2020 issue, pp. 5053.

View post:

Karrabing Film Collective Tackles the Cultural and Environmental Devastation of Settler Colonialism - ARTnews