Monthly Archives: January 2022

In the lead up to the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy one of the men involved in the early days of the protest say those fighting for a better future for Aboriginal people need to find creative new ways for their messages to gain traction.

Gary Foley spoke to the National Indigenous Times ahead of the January 26 milestone.

It was Billy Craigie, Bert Williams, Michael Anderson and Tony Coorey who originally took the fight for Aboriginal land rights to Canberra.

Just the day before, the Prime Minister at the time rejected allowing independent ownership of traditional land to Indigenous people and instead announced a plan for 50-year leases.

The men erected a beach umbrella on the lawn across from Parliament House and dubbed it the Aboriginal Embassy.

Mr Foley (now a History Professor) who was involved in the first few months of the protest said the greatest gains made by the Aboriginal political movement, were those that came out of the Aboriginal embassy.

It brought an end to the era of assimilation that had existed ever since Federation for 72 years, it brought an end to 23 consecutive years of Liberal Party government, he said.

The people manning the embassy, and the location of it has changed over the years and at times so have the issues being focused on but at the heart of it has always been the issue of land rights and self determination.

Mr Foley said there is still much to fight for in terms of Aboriginal rights and equality in Australian society.

The fact that the majority of the embassy people who were about the same age as me, 19 or 20 years old when the embassy was set up, most of them are dead, thats an indication yet again of the discrepancy in life expectations still. The majority of Aboriginal people my age today are dead.

He said land rights and self determination were matters that were still yet to be properly addressed in Australia but he is not sure the Tent Embassy is the best way to progress these matters.

One of the reasons why we in the Black Power movement developed our own tactics and strategies was because we no longer believed in the tactics and strategies of the older generation, the mob who fought for the (1967) Referendum, he said.

We set about to develop our own analysis, and our own tactics and strategies, which resulted in the most effective Aboriginal protest for the entire 20th century.

What todays generations got to do is, forget about the tactics that were around in my time and my generation. Today is a different world altogether.

He suggested social media could play a big role.

Today you can talk to anyone, anywhere in the world in an instant today. You couldnt do that in 1972, Prof Foley said.

The new generation has to look at the situation that exists today hopefully, with as sophisticated political analysis as we had back in our day.

Tomorrow belongs to them, the future is theirs.

He said the reason the original Tent Embassy was so effective was because at the time it was a very original stunt.

It captured the imagination of the Australian public, we got an enormous support in the first three months when the embassy was there, we used to hold huge forums on the lawn, large bus loads of tourists used to come, people were genuinely interested.

Prof Foley said the Tent Embassy being there for so long has meant the original effectiveness and the coherence of the message thats been put across, has degraded over time.

He said the current embassy does not have a fraction of the support it had in the first half of 1972.

As well as the four original founders of the Tent Embassy, there was a large group of men and women who played important roles in the early days and Prof Foley hopes they will be recognised on January 26, 2022 and into the future.

He said he was concerned activists touting different objectives would overshadow the important anniversary.

I think the challenge for the those at the embassy is to come up with something on the occasion of the 50th anniversary that excludes all anti-vaxxers or right wingers, which in particular, focuses on the people who made the first embassy so effective and especially those who are no longer with us, Prof Foley said.

He said he wont be in Canberra on the 26th to mark the occasion and will instead (if COVID permits) be in Melbourne for the Invasion Day march.

By Aleisha Orr

Link:

Today's Aboriginal Tent Embassy movement must move with the times - National Indigenous Times

BETHLEHEM (IDN) Perhaps the biggest single misthink in Western history is best understood by standing in the town square of Bethlehem, allowing ones gaze to pass over the roof top of the Church that covers the stable where Jesus was supposedly born, and let ones eye drift into the blue sky beyond and thinking:

By Jonathan Power

How on earth could it be that the Christians, whose belief in the divine centre around Jesus crucifixion carried out by Roman soldiers but done at the behest of the Jewish populace, could turn round nearly two millennia later and say to the Jews in effect: we buy the argument that you are Gods chosen people and this land is your land and we are going to turn it over to you as your national home, even though the Arabs or their forefathers have been living here since the Romans kicked the Jews out of Babylon after demolishing the Temple in AD 70.

This is what British foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, did in his famous Declaration, strongly backed by prime minister Lloyd George, a religious man who saw the Jewish cause as one that must be supported by Christian charity.

The British had taken Palestine following the break-up of the Ottoman Empire during World War 1. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 at best was an emotional cause, at worst a political adventure. The next generation of British politicians and colonial administrators, faced with a bloody Arab revolt that they had to mercilessly repress, felt that the British had made an awful mistake.

A more recent misthink: How could it be that the Jews of today could elect as prime minister in the year 2001 Ariel Sharon, when they had been voting for a peace candidate barely two years before? Sharons most successful campaign trick was to walk with a muscular entourage across the courtyard of Jerusalems Dome of the Rock, the sacred Islamic territory from where Mohammed ascended to heaven for a night and claim this as Jewish territory for ever because down below are the remains of the Temple that the Romans destroyed.

In helping provoke the second Intifada (uprising) and thus undermining the democratically elected government of Palestine to the great advantage of the militant Hamas, he showed both his irresponsibility and his total contempt for 1400 years of continuous Muslim presence.

How would Christians have felt if he had strutted across the Piazza in front of St Peters and made a speech that slighted Christian claims to that piece of earth? How would the Jews have felt if the Palestinians had suspended political banners from the Dome at the top of the hill down over the sacred Wailing Wall below?

Is there no sense of consistency or basic justice in the Israeli body politic? What is the point of subscribing to a religion of values if one can be so easily led by the nose by an unscrupulous politician out for power and vainglory and careless of human life that gets in his way? And arent the Jews as a rather small religious group the ones who have the most to lose if religious tolerance is undermined?

Christians are meant to turn the other cheek. The Jews have long been satisfied with an eye for an eye. But both religions have stressed the need for justice and for consideration of how those one is dealing with might feel. Do unto others what you want them to do to you is part of both Old and New Testament teaching. Neither Balfour nor Sharon appears to have possessed a profound notion of the core values of their religion.

The Jewish notion that they can have this land and no one else can is so wildly anachronistic by any Western standards or historical experience that it is amazing that in 1917 it got the time of day. If every ethnic group in the world asserted so vigorously ancient yearnings to exclusive possession, the world would become totally chaotic in short time, and nowhere quicker than North America itself. China united by the Mongol invasion would have to be today subject to the rule of Mongolia.

Also overlooked is that Palestine was described in the 12th century before Christ as an area of land between modern day Tel Aviv and Gaza. This was around the time Moses led the Jews out of Egypt to find the Promised Land. Moses led the Jewish troops up towards modern day Israel, fighting a number of tribes on the way.

When it came to the most vigorous of their opponents, the Midianites, Moses said, according to the Bibles Book of Numbers in the Old Testament (in the Jewish Torah) that all the Midianites must be killed including women and children, apart from young virgins who must be married off to Jewish soldiers. This passage in the Old Testament is very rarely referred to by Jews, Christians or Muslims. It is rarely mentioned in todays books on Jewish history, nor in the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Why should Israel get a free pass today? If the Jews want to believe that Temple Mount (on which the Dome of the Rock is built) is the focal point of creation and that in the centre of the hill lies the foundation stone of the world and that here Adam came into being they may be allowed to believe it.

But that the arbiters of the United Nations, including the U.S., Russia and Europe could go along with this myth at the expense of traditional Palestinian centuries-old occupancy rights is almost impossible to digest. And the worst of it is that even liberal voices in the Western political world calling today for Israel to compromise seem to accept that even if the Palestinians recovered all of the pre-1967 territories on the West Bank they would still only have barely 20% of the land that the United Nations divided into Jewish and Arab states in 1948 when the British withdrew.

I have long been a supporter of the Jews, as those who read my latest book on war crimes will see (Ending War Crimes, Chasing the War Criminals). The Holocaust was the most horrific act in human history. But I cant support Judaism when its believers put their head in the sand.

The Jews must start to grapple honestly with their past. They have no moral or Biblical right to do what they have done to the Palestinians over the last century.

About the author: The writer was for 17 years a foreign affairs columnist and commentator for the International Herald Tribune, now the New York Times. He has also written many dozens of columns for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe and the Los Angeles Times. He is the European who has appeared most on the opinion pages of these papers. Visit his website: http://www.jonathanpowerjournalist.com [IDN-InDepthNews 11 January 2021]

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Israel and the Biggest Single Misthink in Western History - PRESSENZA International News Agency

Production is expected to reach 12.4 million barrels per day next year after dipping during the pandemic. Photo byDavid McNew/Getty Images

Climate change be damned: U.S. oil production is about to soar to new heights.

In spite of President Joe Bidens pledge to slash U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, U.S. drillers will shatter their pre-pandemic record for pulling dirty crude out of the ground in 2023, according to a new official estimate released Tuesday.

Production will reach an eye-popping 12.4 million barrels per day next year after dipping during the pandemic, the Energy Information Administration said Tuesday.

The rebound shows how Bidens promise to actually do something about the climate crisis already risks being crushed under intense political and economic pressures, including the need to reboot the economy while keeping gas prices low for average Americans.

The result is the political spectacle of an American president attempting to have it both ways: urging Congress to approve over $500 billion in new climate spending, while asking foreign oil powers to pump more crude and leaning on U.S. energy companies to raise output. Less than a year in office, Biden has approved more oil and gas drilling on public land per month than former President Donald Trump did during his first three years, according to a recent report by Public Citizen, a liberal advocacy group.

Higher gas prices arent just political trouble for Biden. Theyre also encouraging U.S. oil producers to pull more crude out of the ground: Drillers are on track to top their 2019 peak of 12.3 million barrels a day by next year, when production of natural gas is also expected to reach a new record.

Experts on the economics of climate change said this dynamic shows the need for Congress to pass legislation that will encourage greater reliance on clean, renewable energy. Right now, those plans are being held up indefinitely primarily by a single Democratic politician from a coal-producing state, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin.

Increasing demand for oil and resulting emissions growth demonstrates the urgency of passing the electric vehicle and other clean energy incentives in President Bidens climate plan as soon as possible, Paul Bledsoe, a former Clinton White House climate aide now with the Progressive Policy Institute, told VICE News. But Biden must also walk a political tightrope right now of keeping inflation down and gasoline prices modest to help consumers until climate legislation makes EVs more affordable, accessible, and easy to charge.

On Monday, another report found that U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are roaring back after their pandemic dip, with growth being fueled by a rebound in coal-generated electricity. Greenhouse gas emissions grew even faster than U.S. economic growth in 2021, increasing at 6.2 percent compared to an estimated 5.7 percent for the economy overall, according to the Rhodium Group.

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US Oil Production Will Surge to an All-Time High in 2023 - VICE

The Europeans came to Bengal to trade, being attracted by its prosperity. Many British businessmen and employees of the East India Company made their fortune by investing in the famous limestone business in Sylhet. However, Greek merchants set foot in Sylhet before the British did.

The limestone hills in that area were then under the control of different hill tribes. The Greeks established good relations with the tribes, including the Khasias.

But the situation began to get complicated as soon as the East India company obtained the Diwani (right to collect tax), which engendered conflicts among various parties, including the Greek merchants, the company, local zamindars, hill tribes and Bengalis over the control of various trade routes, forests and mineral resources in the hills and plainland.

Arrival of Greeks in Bengal

People of the Ottoman Empire got the opportunity to work as interpreters and ambassadors to various European embassies under a treaty with France in 1740. As a result, Greeks, Jews and Armenians started to come to India with the European traders as interpreters. They were regarded as lower caste Europeans by the British and even by the Indians.

Meanwhile, various ethnic groups under Ottoman rule started revolting during that time and their relations with Russia became hostile. Greece was still not an independent country. The migration of Greeks to India increased in that period due to this political instability.

The Greeks began trading in Bengal through the Greek merchant Alexios Argyree, who was given employment as an Arabic interpreter and ambassador at an East India Company ship in 1770. The company successfully obtained formal approval to trade in the Suez region in Cairo with the help of Argyree.

In 1772, Warren Hastings became the Governor of Bengal. He gave permission to Argyree to establish a church in Kolkata. However, Argyree died in 1777 before the construction of the church.

Argyree expanded commercial activities from Kolkata to the then East Bengal and made huge properties in Dhaka and Bakerganj. After his death, his eldest son, Alexander Panioty, took over the business. Paniotti was born in 1750 in Philippopolis and came to Bengal in 1771. He helped his father's business expand in Bengal and led the Greek traders in lime business in Sylhet.

The social system of Sylhet

The influence of the British in Bengal increased after the defeat of Nawab Sirajuddaula in the Battle of Plassey. The East India Company gained the Diwani of Bengal, Bihar and Odisha in 1765 during the reign of Mir Jafar. Sylhet was then under Bengal. However, the company was only responsible for revenue collection, and power was still in the hands of Muslim faujdars.

According to historian David Laden, it was not possible to spread colonial power that much in Sylhet due to its geographical features and floods. A large part of the area used to remain under water until the change of the course of the Brahmaputra River following the earthquake of 1787. Besides, the British failed to advance outside the Sylhet region due to the resistance of the Khasias and other hill tribes.

The social system of Sylhet was then liberal as social and marital relations were normal between Bengalis and Khasias. The Greeks and other foreigners could easily become part of this society due to its liberal character. After a dispute with the Greeks and the Khasias, the British followed a 'divide and rule' policy in this region by demarcating the borders of Bengal. As a result, many years of ethnic diversity were lost.

Limestone trade

The limestone of Sylhet, famous in India for its high quality, could not be found anywhere else in the country. The East India Company mentioned the limestone of Sylhet in the treaty with Mir Jafar and Mir Qasim. But before the British, the Greeks and Armenians had invested in the limestone mines.

Miners used to extract limestone from different mines in different years. They used to select the mines depending on availability of transport facilities. The stones were broken by iron shovels and stored in the mountainside. They were transported by boats during the rainy season. The limestones then were processed through using various techniques and sent from Sylhet to Dhaka and Kolkata. The traders used make double profits even after paying all the taxes, wages of the labourers and other officials. Very few businesses could offer more profit than this one during in those days.

Lime business of Robert Lindsay

Robert Lindsay came to India in 1776. After a stay in Dhaka for two and a half years, he was sent to Sylhet as a resident and collector of the company. He held this position for more than ten years.

The autobiography of Robert Lindsay gives an account of the limestone business in Sylhet. He wrote that after his arrival in Sylhet, the local Khasias revolted.

Lindsay entered the lime business in the hope of making a profit. In his autobiography, he wrote, "After searching for lime, I came to know that the Greeks, Armenians and other lower Europeans have been trading lime to a limited extent. I thought that I could do monopoly business in this sector as I had a much more favourable position than they did."

Lindsay's idea was not unreasonable. Within a few days, he earned a profit in the lime business. During the Nawabi period, cowrie was introduced as money in the Sylhet region and Lindsay used to collect and export limestone with cowrie. Within six months, silver coins were introduced as money.

However, the limestone hills were not in the possession of the British. They were under the control of different tribes, who leased mountains to the Greeks and Armenians. When Lindsay wanted to lease limestone hills, the leaders of these tribes sat with him to discuss the issue in Pandua.

Lindsay was fascinated by the natural beauty of Pandua. But as soon as he sat down for the meeting, he was astonished. Lindsay wrote, "I am shocked to see the inhabitants of this Garden of Eden. Numerous warlords from various parts of the vast hilly kingdom arrived accompanied by their comrades as if they were on the battlefield."

Conflicts between the British, Greeks and locals

Historian David Laden said that the entry of Lindsay into the lime business caused a great deal of chaos in Sylhet as the parties concerned got involved in conflicts with one another over the limestone trade, various trade routes in the hills and plains, over forests and other mineral resources.

In this situation, Alexander Panioty, along with other Greek merchants, raised the issue with the governor general through Father Constantine Parthenios, a priest of the Greek Church in Kolkata. They also complained about Lindsay's personal interests in the lime business.

Warren Hastings was generous to Greek businessmen in his time as governor general. However, he faced impeachment in the British Parliament on charges of corruption and oppression in Bengal. Lord Cornwallis became the governor general in 1786. With the arrival of Cornwallis, the company's attitude toward Greek merchants began to change.

The arrest of Greek officials by East India Company

In 1788, John Wills was appointed as collector in Sylhet, replacing Lindsay. Conflict emerged between Wills and Panioty.

Panioty lived in Dhaka and sent Paoli Strati, a Greek immigrant, to Sylhet as his representative. Paoli leased the Tehli canal from the local zamindar Puroya Raj Shri Ram for 16 rupees per annum. He also got permission to produce lime by extracting limestone from the mines. He employed about 100 workers there. But John Wills had Paoli's workers arrested.

Panioty again informed the new governor general of the matter through the priest of the Greek Church. He alleged that Wills had only allowed a handful of European traders to trade in lime in Sylhet. He was also accused of using the company's troops to evict other traders.

Wills, on the other hand, claimed that although the Mughal government had handed over the Teli Khal to the company, the Khasias had forcibly taken possession of it and leased it to the Greeks. However, little is known about how the conflict was resolved. Shortly afterwards, Paoli was ordered to leave Sylhet. As a result, Panioty suffered huge losses.

Allegations of arms supply to the Khasias against the Greeks

The collectors of the company were annoyed with the Greek merchants as they had good trade relations with the Khasias.

British collectors suspected that the Greeks and other lower-class Europeans would supply guns and other weapons to the Khasias and incite them against the British to resist control of the company.

The collectors often even seized arms from European traders in the hilly areas. They feared that the flames of the Khasia attack would affect the company's rule in Dhaka as well. So they kept a close watch on the Greek merchants. They also feared that these merchants would establish separate colonies by establishing their dominance in the Khasia region.

Suppression of rebellion and demarcation of Bengal

In 1788, the company's fears came true as Bengali and Khasia zamindars, including Ganga Singh, attacked a company office in Pandua.

According to Lindsay's autobiography, Warren Hastings liked Ganga Singh and leased him several parts of Bengal, including Sylhet.

However, the new governor general sent troops to quell Ganga Singh's rebellion. Ganga Singh was arrested in 1790.

According to David Laden, the arrest of Ganga Singh led to major changes in the region. In 1790, the company decided to demarcate Bengal in the north. The boundary of the plain land with the hilly region was also demarcated after that.

According to the new boundaries, the hilly lands came under the control of the Khasias and the plain lands under the control of the company. Through this the social distance of Khasias with Bengalis was also created. The ethnic diversity of the region was lost as the control of the company was established through creating division in the liberal Bengali-Khasia society.

British domination established in lime trade

This new boundary also affected the activities of traders. Wills decided to run all kinds of business in Sylhet under the company. After 1790, all private trade in the Khasia areas was banned. On the other hand, the authority of the plain land in Sylhet, including the power of business registration, was handed over to the collector.

The lime business then required the approval of the collector and the company allowed the extraction of limestone only in Sunamganj and Companyganj. It is believed that Companyganj developed as a focal point of the company's trade relations with the hilly region.

However, the merchants of the plain lands continued to lease mines in the Khasia region. Many British limestone traders also started extracting limestone illegally from those areas with the support of the company.

A new law in 1799 opened up the lime business to everyone, including the Greeks. But the Greeks had already shifted their trade focus to other directions as Alexander Panioty left the lime business and concentrated on the salt business in Narayanganj. At last, the British merchants established their monopoly over the limestone mines in Sylhet. Over time, the presence of the Greeks became a story out of the past in Sylhet.

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The Greeks and the limestone trade in Sylhet during the British period - The Business Standard

We need to resolve the systemic crisis engulfing the black working class in the townships, writes Ebrahim Harvey

11 January 2022 - 05:10 Ebrahim Harvey

The ever-deepening and in fact unprecedented socioeconomic and political crises in SA, in which the devastating legacy of our history for the black majority has combined with the negative effects of neoliberalism in the purportedly post apartheid period since 1994, must serve to reshape liberalism and its likely future. Of that there must be not an iota of doubt, so very clear is the magnitude and contours of our multifaceted crises which is incontrovertibly systemic in nature.

Liberalism has essentially dominated oppositionist political history from the time of the old Cape slave colony, having had its origins in the remedial work of the British missionaries, led by its best-known representative then, John Philip. It was pivoted upon a strong opposition to slavery and racism in politics, public life and society at large, and an equally strong and abiding principle of respect for individual, civil and civic rights, including the right to political organisation, protest and...

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BIG READ: The path forward for liberalism in SA - Business Day

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The state government has announced a training program for North-West agricultural employers, which is set to benefit 150 workers. Access to vocational training and providing agricultural businesses with advice are some of the benefits of the Liberal government's North West Agriculture Skills Delivery Program. Skills, Training and Workforce Growth Minister Sarah Courtney hoped the program would create a training and development culture. "We want to help more Tasmanians into jobs and make it easier for employers to take on employees, which is exactly what this program will do," Ms Courtney said. "The funding - through Skills Tasmania - will fund an organisation to identify training opportunities for the workforce and facilitate participation in training pathways, helping the sector to address current and future workforce needs." IN OTHER NEWS The program is part of the wider North West Job Ready Generation Package, which has seen $3.9 million invested in providing more jobs and apprenticeship opportunities for people on the Coast. Braddon Liberal MP Felix Ellis said the program would give opportunities for people to enter the industry. "Agriculture is a career that can set you up for life, and training up locals gives them a chance to work on the land and grow our economy right here in the North West", he said. "We know that with Tasmania's economy growing stronger, there are plenty of opportunities out there for Tasmanians to grasp across a broad range of industries". Applications for the North West Agriculture Skills Delivery Program close February 7. Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:

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The state government has announced a training program for North-West agricultural employers, which is set to benefit 150 workers.

Access to vocational training and providing agricultural businesses with advice are some of the benefits of the Liberal government's North West Agriculture Skills Delivery Program.

Skills, Training and Workforce Growth Minister Sarah Courtney hoped the program would create a training and development culture.

"We want to help more Tasmanians into jobs and make it easier for employers to take on employees, which is exactly what this program will do," Ms Courtney said.

"The funding - through Skills Tasmania - will fund an organisation to identify training opportunities for the workforce and facilitate participation in training pathways, helping the sector to address current and future workforce needs."

The program is part of the wider North West Job Ready Generation Package, which has seen $3.9 million invested in providing more jobs and apprenticeship opportunities for people on the Coast.

Braddon Liberal MP Felix Ellis said the program would give opportunities for people to enter the industry.

"Agriculture is a career that can set you up for life, and training up locals gives them a chance to work on the land and grow our economy right here in the North West", he said.

"We know that with Tasmania's economy growing stronger, there are plenty of opportunities out there for Tasmanians to grasp across a broad range of industries".

Applications for the North West Agriculture Skills Delivery Program close February 7.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:

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North-West agricultural industry set to receive boost through government program - The Advocate

If approved, existing buildings at the site will be demolished to make way for the new studio, which will be used to record sound effects to be used in video games.

Planning documents say the two-storey building will attract and retain high quality jobs, and help the expansion of Pitstop Productions, a locally based world leader in the field of sound recordings for the video game industry.

The company currently employs total of 45 staff, and is looking to expand after sales increased by 122 per cent.

The scheme could create a further 15 new jobs within a year, and 50 jobs over the next five years, according to the plans.

The building would include a full height recording hall, seven mix rooms, a recording room, meeting rooms and storage as well as toilets, showering and kitchen facilities, and 11 parking spaces.

Externally, there will be four sound booths, a hoist and pit as well as a small pond at the rear of the building, to be used for external sound recording.

Although the land is allocated green belt, a council report states that the site is not accessible green space.

Councillor Steve Hunt, Liberal Democrat representative for Darton East, said that the loss of green belt land in an area already subject to so much development is a concern, and asked if another location could be found.

Coun Hunt added that the potential to set a precedent for other industrial development in the area is also of concern.

Councillor Harry Spence, Labour representative for Darton east, objected to the plan, stating that the site is not suitable and there are no special circumstances to allow this project to go ahead on green belt land.

A number of objections have been lodged by residents, on the grounds of loss of greenbelt, loss of privacy, highways and traffic concerns, and biodiversity concerns.

One resident wrote: The building design is not in keeping with the area, it looks like a warehouse, is two storey and will be highly visible, detracting from the area and spoiling views of the area as a whole.

However, council planning officers have recommended the scheme for approval, and say it will deliver a unique facility in sound design, and attract investment and jobs.

In addition, the business already works with Barnsley College and there is continued commitment to do so with the proposed facility providing opportunities for students to gain experience.

The highways impacts have been assessed as acceptable and trips to the site are not expected to be significant with only five staff located here permanently.

It is accepted that the benefits of the proposed, taking account of the lack of alternative suitable sites in the borough and unique case of the applicant, clearly outweighs the harm to the green belt and any other harm and the proposed is recommended for approval subject to conditions.

Councillors will decide the application at the next planning board meeting on January 18.

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Plans revealed for new videogame sound production studio that could create dozens of jobs - The Star

Except among a few coastal communities in southern Kerala, families belonging to different Christian denominations deny womens right to ancestral property.

When Soniya Thomas, who belongs to a Syrian Christian family in Keralas Kannur district, got married in 2010, her father spent around Rs 13 lakh, which included 30 sovereigns of gold and Rs 5 lakh in cash. This was deemed to be her full and final inheritance from her fathers property as per a tradition common to Christian communities across denominations in Kerala. When her father passed away without leaving behind a will, his property became intestate and, as per custom, the Rs 1 crore estate was shared between Soniyas two brothers.

Ancestral property provides security to many women who want to leave a marriage or choose a life without depending on someone else. Soniya, who wants to leave an abusive relationship, feels insecure to go back to her house as she has no rights there. Im not able to stay with my husband now, Im being mentally tortured by his family. Im not allowed to go to work, Im forbidden to go out to meet friends or family. When my father died, I was not allowed to stay at my house even for a day. Im treated like a slave. But I have no place to go. My two brothers share the ancestral property, they will not give me any. Where will I go with my 3 children? Soniya breaks down, adding that she has no rights over the home she was born and brought up in.

The tradition of male heirs distributing intestate properties among themselves has persisted despite being outlawed more than three decades ago. Soniya hasnt heard about the landmark 1986 Supreme Court judgement in the Mary Roy v. State Of Kerala case. Through this judgement, the apex court repealed the Travancore Christian Succession Act, 1916 and brought all Christians under the Indian Succession Act of 1925.

The Indian Succession Act says that intestate properties, that is properties where the owner fails to leave behind a written will, shall be distributed equally among all the children after deducting the one-third share of the widow. But if the father wrote a will to give his property only to his sons, it cannot be contested in court.

Except for a few coastal communities in southern Kerala such as the Latin Catholics that are matriarchal, families belonging to different Christian denominations deny womens right to ancestral property. While in recent times there are families that divide property equally, they are an exception.

Sheena, another woman from a Syrian Catholic family, explains how she has been labelled a troublemaker by her brothers as well as her parents for asking for a share in the ancestral property.

Im the only one among my seven siblings who doesnt have a house or a decent income. Everyone else got land from our ancestral property. The gold given to me was just one-tenth of what everyone else got. My sister-in-law is not at all happy with me visiting my parents. My family says I was sent off with my share when they married me off. I used to ask my father what makes me different from his other children, the gender? she asks.

For many families, dowry is just an excuse to deny women their rightful share of the family property.

Mary, a 70-year-old unmarried woman from Kannurs Thaliparamba, died last year at an old age home. A nun who took care of her says, She had three brothers. They each own four acres of land, transferred to them by their father. She had a sister who became a nun; she was not left a single penny from her parents. Mary stayed with one of her brothers with a lot of difficulties, and one day he kicked her out. So dowry is just an excuse to not give property to women, because nothing is given even if she is unmarried.

Seeing nothing wrong with the brazenly patriarchal custom, Kurien Thomas, an 80-year-old Syrian Catholic from Kozhikode who is a farmer by profession, says, Basically we do not want our property to get into the hands of other families. After women are married off, they become a part of another family, they take a different family name. We also give dowry so that she will be taken care of. Also her husband will possess property from his ancestors.

Property inheritance for women has always been a fraught issue in the subcontinent irrespective of religion. In 1948 a committee headed by Dr BR Ambedkar, the countrys first Law Minister, drafted a revised form of the Hindu Code Bill. One of the main features of the Bill was that daughters were to be given a share of the inheritance along with sons after the demise of parents, and widows shall have complete rights over the husbands property. But there was huge opposition to the Bill.

Even Congress leaders who were identified as liberal, such as Rajendra Prasad and Govind Ballabh Pant, ardently opposed the Bill. Sarojini Naidu threatened to go on an indefinite hunger strike if it was not dropped. Many other Congress leaders put pressure on Jawaharlal Nehru to defer it.

Syama Prasad Mukherjee, then Minister for Industry and Supply in Jawaharlal Nehrus cabinet, did not object to it when he was in the cabinet, but opposed it heavily in 1951 saying it would tamper with Hindu tradition. Ambedkar resigned from his post in September 1951 in protest over Parliament stalling the draft Bill. But the Bill was resubmitted in 1952 in different forms, where Nehru split them into four parts; subsequently the Hindu Marriage Act, Hindu Succession Act, Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act, and Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act were passed during his tenure between 1956 and 1957.

While this was the case for Hindu women, Christian inheritance practices have links to canon law. The Book of Genesis in the Bible says, That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24)

A senior priest from Kottayam who sought anonymity explains, In fact, this verse from the Bible gives superiority to the woman. But the meaning has been inverted to support patriarchy, suggesting that she fully leaves behind all her property and her home and merges with her husband, and that she cannot have anything of her own. That the man remains in his house with his parents whereas the woman leaves hers to serve the husbands family. What an irony!

The first laws on intestate succession in Christian communities were the Travancore Christian Succession Act, 1916 (Regulation II of 1092) in the erstwhile Travancore state and the Cochin Christian Succession Act, 1921 and the Indian Succession Act, 1865, which was later amended to the Indian Succession Act, 1925. In fact, these three laws were followed in three regions of Kerala: Travancore (South), Cochin State (Central) and Malabar (North). Even after Kerala state was formed, these laws continued to guide succession of ancestral properties.

According to the Travancore Christian Succession Act, passed by the princely state of Travancore, the intestates property passes on to son or sons equally; there is no mention of daughters. It also says that a daughters dowry should be one-fourth a sons share or Rs 5,000, whichever is lesser. However, the Cochin Christian Succession Act, passed by the erstwhile state of Cochin, directed that a woman can inherit property if she is not given dowry.

As per Indian secular law or the Succession Act of 1865, there was no separate mention about sons and daughters if the father died intestate. It says the property will be inherited by children of the deceased, which means both sons and daughters are entitled to get the property. Mainly Hindus in the Malabar region followed this. There were hardly any Christians in the region and consequently no special law of inheritance was designed for the community.

Christianity in Kerala began with the visit of St Thomas, a disciple of Jesus Christ, in AD 52. St Thomas primarily travelled in central and southern Kerala, and established seven churches. That is how Christians are mainly located in these regions.

A majority of Christians in the north or Malabar follow the Syro-Malabar Church and are relatively recent migrants to the region. Mostly agriculturists, they started migrating from Travancore and Cochin to Kozhikode, Kannur, Wayanad and Calicut, as fertile land was abundant and cheaply available. Naturally, they brought with them the customs followed in Travancore and Cochin, down to property inheritance practices.

It was in 1986 that the Supreme Court in Mary Roy v. State of Kerala repealed the Travancore and Cochin Christian Succession Regulations. Since then, Christians are bound to follow the inheritance under the Indian Succession Act, 1925. As per the law a Christian daughter has no pre-existing right to the family property, but she has rights when her parents die intestate. So if the fathers will gives the family property only to his sons, it cannot be questioned in court.

After the Mary Roy case, families started preparing wills in advance so that the property goes just to sons, says Kerala Womens Commission Chairperson P Sathidevi.

The 1925 act also says that a daughter-in-law has no right of succession to the estate of her intestate father-in-law. So practically women have no rights over any ancestral property.

Though the laws have been repealed, the patriarchal system followed by the community still gives no place for women in most homes.

In Christian communities, aged parents are ashamed to live with their daughters as their tradition is to live with the youngest son. Whatever happens they wont stay with their daughters family. Its considered an insult. Even if they are not comfortable staying with the son and his family, they stick to the tradition, says a young priest from Ernakulam.

In the case of nuns, they are not allowed to own property or have money. Even if they work and earn a salary, the money goes to the congregation. However, male priests in many congregations are allowed to handle money. They can even buy a vehicle or phone from their personal assets.

A senior nun, who is 70, recalls, My father was not so rich, we were seven siblings and he had eight acres of land. He gave 1.5 acres of land each to my four brothers and the youngest got the ancestral home. Since my two sisters were not married when the will was written, they were given 25 cents of land each, which is one-sixth of what my brothers got. I was left with nothing as I became a nun. Without any personal money to my name, I had to take the help of relatives to buy even small things, like a watch or a phone.

Even after the primitive laws were repealed, a majority of Christian families are not ready to change.

How can an ordinary woman like me go to court and fight a long battle all alone? I have three children to look after. To get my rightful share, I will have to fight my brothers. No one will support me, as its a tradition that Christian women are not supposed to get any share, Soniya says.

Sr Jesme, a former nun, activist and writer who has spoken against the ill-practices in Christianity, says that even well-educated, progressive Christians follow the tradition of not giving the women in their families a share of the ancestral property. Stressing on the role of awareness rather than laws to wipe out these evil practices, Sr Jesme adds, Today we speak a lot about equality and gender rights in education. So why dont we create awareness about these laws at a young age? Why cant lessons about rights be included in the school syllabus? Let the change begin at home.

However, Sathidevi feels that it is the law that has to be changed. One can give their property to whomever they want. Since this is the age-old tradition, most families prefer to follow it. So there has to be a policy or a law that provides equality to women in property distribution. Dowry is banned and cannot be practised, so that cannot be an excuse. If there is a partition of the family property, then women should get an equal share, she says. She adds that more discussion is needed around this issue.

In August 2020, a Supreme Court verdictupheld the equal rights of Hindu women over ancestral property. But legal experts then opined that the verdict has less impact in Kerala as equality is already being practised in Hindu communities in the state. But for Christian and Muslim women, the denial of right to property is an issue that needs immediate attention. There is hardly any outrage in the state over the unequal distribution of ancestral property, just because many of the affected women are underprivileged and do not have the resources to fight for their rights.

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Christian women in Kerala still denied the right to inherit property, heres why - The News Minute