Monthly Archives: March 2022

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I've been typing this column through tears of frustration, anger and sadness at this bitter news

On Nov. 2, I asked Rachel Pulfer the executive director of Journalists for Human Rights, a small but mighty NGO in Toronto if there was any update regarding a young Afghan journalist Id been trying to help, who was hiding from the Taliban in Kabul. I had previously sent his information to her in an encrypted file.

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Pulfer responded almost immediately that there was one spot left on a plane JHR had chartered to fly out of Afghanistans chaotic capital city headed for Islamabad, Pakistan, in two days.

It was the first good news Fahim had heard since his country that hed worked so hard to improve was seized by the Taliban on Aug. 15, 2021. Two days later, Fahim was safe in Pakistan.

I had met Fahim in December 2003 when I travelled to Afghanistan to cover how our troops helped liberate the people of that country from the Talibans tyranny and oppression. Fahim was just 12 years old then, a student at the Children of War School in Paghman, and asked me to write my contact information in his notebook which he had just received from Samaritans Purse during an Operation Christmas Child gift box distribution. Our compassionate and professional Canadian Armed Forces troops handled the logistics of the distribution of the boxes filled with school supplies, toys and hygiene items.

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In a recent interview, Pulfer called the work JHR has done helping Afghan journalists and their families a minor miracle, considering all the challenges.

From their list of 500 Afghan journalists JHR has evacuated 388 people, of which 178 have landed in either Canada or another safe country for permanent settlement. Another 20 have Canadian visas and should arrive in Canada in the next several weeks.

Sadly, 112 are still in Afghanistan, being hidden and supported in safe houses paid for entirely by JHR. Fahim is one of the 144 Afghan journalists waiting for his paperwork to appear as he waits in Pakistan.

Since the air bridge went down in Afghanistan, JHR has done more to get Afghans out of Afghanistan than our federal government, a fact that Pulfer says is pretty shocking when you think about it, cuz were a non-profit held together with love and chocolate.

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The Taliban, added Pulfer, have used the opportunity of the Wests distraction with the buildup in Ukraine and then the breakout of war in Ukraine to crack down. In particular, theyve been cracking down on women activists travelling without male guardians. That has been a major issue.

The Taliban have indicated that they want to have the right to appoint a male guardian for a woman who has to travel. They have required that people provide them with a clear reason for why they wish to travel out of the country, and Taliban have also been going door-to-door removing women activists passports, women journalists passports and also arresting prominent women.

So, the West is focused on Ukraine and the Taliban is reverting to type, said Pulfer.

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The only support the federal government has provided to JHR and the veterans groups helping to get Afghans out of their country including Aman Lara (which means sheltered path in Pashto) is to support people who already have a coveted Canadian G-number.

The numbers I shared with you of the original list of 500 journalists and their family members, were helping them with private donations from Canadians and that money is running out, said Pulfer.

We have ongoing discussions with the Canadian government but nothing ever seems to happen, added Pulfer. I wish I could be more positive than that. But, you know, now theyre all focused on Ukraine.

Canada should help as many Ukrainians as possible. But surely the same should be done to help Afghans who acted as interpreters to our brave troops and for journalists whose lives are at risk for writing about Taliban atrocities and advocating for human rights.

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Tom Kmiec, the MP for Calgary Shepard, has been trying to help Fahim but found out this week that despite Fahim receiving an email from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada back in August, the government cant find any record of his application.

On Monday, a spokesperson for Immigration Minister Sean Fraser recommended that Fahim reapply for refuge through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Ive been typing this column through tears of frustration, anger and sadness at this bitter news.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said back in August and September that Canada would clear the way to accept 40,000 Afghan refugees after he called an unnecessary election on the very day that Kabul fell to the Taliban. Other than doing paperwork in Ottawa, the federal government is doing nothing to help those who are languishing and waiting for some kind of word people like Fahim.

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I could talk to you for a long time about the difference between how those brave Afghans who patrolled with our troops are treated and how Ukrainians are treated, said Kmiec, a Polish-Canadian, who is in favour of helping as many Ukrainians move to Canada as possible but who also thinks Afghans should be helped.

And how the Kurds were treated even though they fought side by side with our allies in Northern Iraq against ISIS, its the same and the way we treated the Yazidis, same, said Kmiec.

A spokesperson for the federal immigration minister wrote: Canada remains firm in our commitment in resettling at least 40,000 vulnerable Afghan nationals and to date more than 9,400 are already beginning their new lives in Canada.

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IRCC utilizes a referral process with partners like the United Nations Refugee Agency to identify individuals who are eligible for our Government Assisted Refugee spaces. This system supports IRCC in validating applications received and ensures a rigorous screening process. A referral to IRCC by the UNHCR indicates that the UNHCR has assessed the case and concluded that resettlement is the best option.

It would have been nice if the automated reply Fahim received in August and which Ive seen would have told him that. Instead, he relied on the virtue signalling of our government and prime minister and the online forms for Afghans he filled in on the federal immigration website. Now, six months later, this government is telling Afghans to stop going through the government and to go through the UN? Its disgusting.

As for Pulfer, she says her organization only has enough money to keep those theyre trying to help supported for another month or two.

So, please, readers, donate what you can to Journalists for Human Rights. Help bring Fahim and others like him to safety.

Licia Corbella is a Postmedia columnist in Calgary.

lcorbella@postmedia.com

Twitter: @LiciaCorbella

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Corbella: Small but mighty non-profit does the heavy lifting to help Afghans while feds do little - Calgary Herald

Washington, D.C. U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Jim Risch (R-ID), Dick Durbin (D-IL), James Lankford (R-OK), and Chris Coons (D-DE) introduced legislation to reauthorize the independent, bipartisan United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) through fiscal year 2024.Freedom of religion is a God-given right afforded to all individuals. Our nation is blessed to have a constitution that protects this right and a proud tradition of defending this principle since its founding, Rubio said. Tragically, many around the world are deprived of this fundamental protection. Christians in Nigeria, Nicaragua, and Cuba, Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, Buddhists in Tibet, and many more risk persecution and even death because of their beliefs. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom plays a critical role in shining a light on religious freedom violations worldwide. Im proud to lead my colleagues in this bipartisan effort so that men and women across the globe are free to safely and peacefully worship.As we bear witness to dangerous global trends toward authoritarianism and democratic backsliding, religious freedom, like other human rights, is increasingly imperiled worldwide, Menendez said. From Chinas genocide against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang and horrific abuses against Buddhists in Tibet, to Irans totalitarian restrictions and undeniable violence against religious minorities, the United States action to advance and support free religious expression is more crucial than ever. Todays reauthorization of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom reflects our enduring commitment to safeguard human rights, and I remain deeply committed to continue our work to build on and strengthen the ways the U.S. government elevates the voices and causes of marginalized religious communities everywhere.Religious freedom is increasingly under attack around the world, Risch said. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is working to advance and protect the right to practice ones religion of choice in peace and without fear. This reauthorization will allow USCIRF to continue promoting religious freedom globally and investigate violations, such as the genocide of Uyghurs in China, attacks on Jehovahs Witnesses in Russia, and the persecution of Yazidis, Baha'is, Christians, and others in the Middle East.The United States has a long tradition of promoting religious freedom abroad, and this Commission is dedicated to advising Congress and the Executive Branch about how to successfully ensure religious freedom is protected and that religion is not exploited to justify human-rights abuses, Durbin said. As the global refugee crisis worsens, the United States must do more to address the scourge of religious persecution, including holding perpetrators accountable and providing a safe haven to refugees. Its heartening to see a bipartisan group of Senators come together on this pressing issue to ensure that the Commission can effectively fulfill its mission.The United States has the responsibility to call out religious persecution around the world. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom conducts crucial research and provides vital information on the status of religious liberty worldwide so we can ensure that religious freedom is protected and promoted for people of faith around the world, Lankford said. The right to practice any faith, change faiths, or have no faith is a fundamental human right of all people everywhere. It is vital that the U.S. stand up for religious freedom and unequivocally denounce violence, oppression, and genocide against people of faith worldwide. Im grateful for the continued work of USCIRF. We need their work to continue to help shine a light on bad actors who do not protect the unalienable human right of religious freedom for all people.Im proud to support this legislation to reauthorize the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and continue the vital work to monitor and prevent the persecution of religious minorities around the world,"Coons said. From Uyghur Muslims in China to diverse faiths across Nigeria to those who practice no religion at all, there is a clear, urgent need for this organization and continued U.S. leadership in championing human rights around the world. Im glad to join a bipartisan group of my colleagues to introduce this reauthorization of USCIRF and reaffirm our commitment to international religious freedom.Background:

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Rubio Leads Colleagues in Introducing Bill to Reauthorize the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom - Senator Marco Rubio

By Mike Fegelman

In the mid-1960s, psychologist Abraham Maslowfamously wroteI suppose it is tempting if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. His adage, now more than a half-century old, could just as easily have been written today about anti-Israel activists, who seem to look for an opportunity to drag Israel into any subject.

In anopinion column in the Georgia Straight on March 5 entitled B.C. governments decision to ban Russian liquor exposes its doublespeak on human rights, Gurpreet Singh discussed the recent decision by the British Columbia government to ban Russian alcohol from the provinces liquor stores in protest of the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine.

But Singhs column was not largely about Russia or Ukraine, but it also focused on Israel, and why Russian alcohol could be banned, but not alcohol from the Jewish state.

such massive outrage remains missing whenever Palestinians come under attack from Israel. Even as the Israeli occupation of Palestine continues for years, Canadian politicians have largely looked away. B.C. politicians are therefore no exception,Singh wrote.

When Singh later observed that the Israeli occupation of Palestine continues for years, he apparently takes this statement as an indisputable fact which requires no supporting evidence.

There is a reason Singh provides only rhetoric, not facts, when accusing Israel of occupying Palestinian land: because it is empty rhetoric utterly devoid of supporting evidence.

The Jewish peoples history in the land of Israel stretches back three thousand years, and this tiny strip of landsmaller than Vancouver Islandhas been the indigenous homeland for Jews ever since then. It is the land where the Jewish prophets walked, where Hebrew has been read, studied and spoken for millennia, where two Jewish temples stood, and where observant Jews face when they pray, no matter where in the world they are today.

Israels legal basis for land ownership is well established in international law. The San Remo Declaration in 1920, which was the foundation for Israels legal land claims, came nearly half a century before Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat claimed that the Palestinians were a defined people who owned the land.

Clearly, the State of Israel is not occupying Palestinian land. If Singh is perhaps referring to Judea and Samariacommonly referred to as the West Bank in media coveragethen he is still wrong. Judea and Samaria were occupied by the sovereign Kingdom of Jordan, and was lost to Israel in 1967 when, under the leadership of King Hussein, Jordan attacked Israel. Today, Jordan does not claim the land as its own anymore, and international law simply does not allow the Palestinianswho do not represent a sovereign state that has ever been in existenceto claim the land as their own.

Perhaps even more remarkable than his claims about Israels alleged land theft is Singhs statement that BDS has received mostly hostile press. It is unclear on what basis Singh argues that BDSor the Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement against Israelhas been all but rejected or ignored by the news media. In fact, BDS is regularly covered by the news mediathanks to anti-Israel detractors who propel its cause, including a recent CTV News Montreal story about a Russian pianist whose performance was cancelled by the Montreal Symphony Orhestra in protest of the war in Ukraine.

Whether at the United Nations General Assembly, where Israel is condemned more than all other countries combined,yearafteryear, or at college and university campuses, whereanti-Israel BDS votesand initiatives are regularly introduced, Israel, Israelis, and indeed quite often Jews, are favourite targets of boycotts, divestments, sanctions, and opprobrium. In fact, each spring, campuses around the world are home to events and programs related to Israeli Apartheid Week, a cacophony of anti-Israel misinformation and bigotry under the guise of anti-oppression politics.

Singh appears to live in a world where Israel is a brutal occupier and attacker of the Palestinians, and where the BDS movement is ignored or rejected. But in the real world, Israel is a tiny country under constant threat from a constellation of groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and Iran, as a small sample, and which despite 3,000 years of habitation in its historic homeland, continues to have its very right to exist questioned and challenged on an ongoing basis.

Singhs concern for the well-being of the Palestinian people is admirable, but his commitment to factual accuracy leaves much to be desired.

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Mike Fegelman: Jewish people's history in the land of Israel stretches back three thousand years - The Georgia Straight

Outside two world wars and the protracted Cold War, what most defined 20th century geopolitics were two competing global projects: imperialism and anti-colonialism. Totalitarian rulers embraced both banners, launching wars of aggression that crushed the ambitions of free peoples and those yearning to be free.

Today, those malignant projects are back, once again setting the world aflame. Extinguishing the fires will take both might and moral clarity. It will also require the radical left to admit its been radically wrong. The free world will have to tack right to win.

End of the Beginning

InThe End of History and the Last Man(1992), Francis Fukuyama confidently declared that threats to a liberal world order were waning, never to rise again. That fanciful notion is now dead: trampled by Russian tanks, flattened by Iranian missiles, and paved over by Chinese belts and roads. China, Russia, and Irancollectively and individuallyrepresent grave threats to the liberties, security. Underpinning these physical dangers are a dangerous set of ideas that held sway throughout much of the 20thCentury.

The worst impulses of imperialism are nothing new. The last century started with the struggles of competing imperialist powers. Though Europe was ground zero for the Great War, the impact stretched globally as the fate of the Great Power combatants rippled across their vast empires. (See Michael Howard,The First World War,2003.)

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Then came fascism, a new imperialism on steroids from Italy, Germany and Japan. Those powers instigated World War II. If there are any doubts where these monsters were headed read Gerhard Weinbergs 2005 book,Visions of Victory: The Hopes of Eight World War II Leaders.Their conquests would have left the world looking like a horror show.

After World War II, formal empires declined, leading to a new force to be reckoned with: decolonization. The U.S. championed this movement. So, too, did the Soviet Union and China, but for very different reasons. American foreign policy viewed the dismantling of empires into nation-states self-governed by their peoples, as a natural evolution toward a more stable world order.

The Soviet Union used decolonizations language of liberation to mask its imperialist designs, ultimately enslaving half of Europe in an iron grip. Mao implemented his communist ideology by slaughtering 20 million of his countrymen during the Cultural Revolution, all the while dismissing opposition from the free world as effort of colonialists to shore-up the old world order. By the iron laws of Marxist history, opposition to the Communist system was, by definition, a feudal and futile attempt to suppress the masses that Stalin and Mao purported to liberate.

This was a new war: a war of ideas. And the U.S. position was challenging. Unlike in World War II, the world wasnt simply black and white, where siding with new or old powers would axiomatically further the cause of freedom.

The best exemplar of this dilemma was President Eisenhowers struggle to find a sure path through the Suez Crisis in 1956, juggling independent nations (backed by the Kremlin) against former regional powerbrokers Britain and France. This dilemma is described well in Mike Dorans book,Ikes Gamble: Americas Rise to Dominance in the Middle East(2016). The crisis demonstrated that the U.S. had a real fight on its hands to keep the free world free and that figuring out how to do thatlet alone explain it to Americans and the rest of the worldwas very hard indeed.

For one thing, the U.S. had to fight off Soviet efforts to weaponize decolonization as a propaganda tool to undercut American promotion of democratic governance. Some critics in the West and the non-aligned world (a movement that claimed independence from either sides in the Cold War, but was heavily supported and influenced by Moscow and Beijing) simply parroted Communist propaganda.

Other leftist scholars derived the same conclusions from Marx and Engels, their passions and intellect fueled in part by the Vietnam anti-war movement and later the radical environmental and anti-nuclear campaigns. The most extreme examples included the likes of the Black Panthers and the Weather Underground, as described inDays of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violenceby Bryan Burrough (2015).

Marxist ideology was the basis of an interpretation of history championed William Appelman Williams and the Wisconsin School. (See, for example, hisEmpire as a Way of Life,1980). They accused Washington of everything from cultural imperialism (jazz music and Coca Cola) to running an informal empire.

Thus, the U.S. found itself continually fighting two fronts in the Cold War of ideas: one against the physical expansion of Soviet imperialism (clothed as Communism), the other against the canard that democracies were themselves the real imperialists battling decolonization every step of the way.

These debates became largely academic when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, giving Fukuyama free range to run with his geopolitical imagination.

Prologue is Past

Today, we are back in a dangerous place.

There is no question that Russia, China and Iran have imperial designs, visions that are far more dangerous than winsome musings of past glories. Putin has launched a campaign of brutal conquests to reclaim lands in the West. Xis goal is to reestablish the Middle Kingdom, not by isolating it from the outside world, but by using every tool availablefrom military threats and cyberspace to debt diplomacyto seize near dictatorial control over markets, information, territory, and supply chains. Iran seeks the destruction of Israel, in large part because Tehran views the country as the only real obstacle to the expansion of its power and influence throughout the Middle East.

Anti-colonialism has also returned. The ideals of popular sovereignty are under assault again at home and abroad, denounced as artificial constructs imposed on others. In America, everything woke from ANTIFA and BLM to the most radical of the radical left, condemns our constitutional order as fascist. If that seems like history repeating itselfwell, it is. Many radical left leaders propound ideas are entrenched in Marxist-Leninist ideology and the legacies of Stalin and Mao. The radical roots of Black Lives Matter, for example, are exposed in Mike GonzalezsBLM: The Making of a New Marxist Revolution(2021).

Wokeness has also been weaponized against American allies, attacking our friends for not being liberal enough because that dont share far left ideology on topics from gender identity and abortion to climate action. Many of these critiques are steeped in the same impulses of Marxist critiques from the Cold War attacking religion, economic liberalism, history, traditions, culture, and democratic practices as institutions of Western oppression and racism.

A New, New Beginning?

Once again, the West is in a two-front ideological war from within and without. One is a physical struggle, a new kind of war against the likes of Russia, China and Iran. We must defend not just our territory, but our economies, supply chains, and infrastructure from their malicious and malevolent designs. That starts with rebuilding our military, striving for energy independence, freeing the free world from economic exploitation by Communist China, and checkmating Chinas efforts to overtake and corrupt international organizations. In short, we cant win without being proactive and securing our freedom, safety, and prosperity.

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The second war is one of ideas. To prevail in this fight will require a common moral and ethical compass. That wont come from compromising in the center. The right and left sides of the political spectrum are not equipoised. The modern left has been sucked far toward its extreme Marxist flank, like a planet swallowed by a black hole.

The left must wake up. They are on the wrong side of historyagain. When it comes to the threat they pose to freedom, Communists and fascists are a distinction without a difference. The only difference between Antifa and Putin is that Putin has tanks.

In the 1950s, the U.S. achieved bipartisanship in foreign policy not by splitting the difference between right and left. Democrats returned to national power only by becoming more anti-communist than the anti-communists. JFK, for instance, could only follow Ike in office by showing as much determination to take on Moscow as did Richard Nixon (who took second place to no one as an anti-communist). The left will not be relevant in todays new kind of war unless they tack right, embracing peace through strength, empowering economies by freeing them from unnecessary regulation and excessive government spending, and respecting the popular sovereignty of states.

Unhappy with this administrations progressive agenda, the American people already are moving in that direction. It the left doesnt tack right, their party might not survive. If the West doesnt tack right, it might not survive.

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In a New Kind of War, the Old Wars of Ideas Are Back - Heritage.org

BY Tatenda MazaruraSOUTH Africa is home to millions of immigrants, mainly from Lesotho, Nigeria, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The regional giant has played an immense role for more than a century in attracting labour for its economy. However, this has come at a cost. While the influx of migrants continues as a result of several push-and-pull factors, the question arises: how will coexistence with increasingly anxious locals be possible?

One of the major challenges facing migrants in South Africa is xenophobia and xenophobic violence. The worst wave to date, the nationwide attacks on migrants and refugees in 2008, was followed by a second round of nationwide xenophobic violence in early 2015 when migrant-owned businesses were targeted by mobs. Scores of people died unimaginably violent deaths.

Over the years these attacks have increasingly targeted migrants and refugees, including many Zimbabweans seeking to make a living in that country.

Now, Operation Dudula, a Soweto-born movement comprising Soweto and Alexandra residents is wreaking havoc, reportedly targeting foreign traders and alleged criminals spreading the call to #PutSouthAfricansFirst.

Migrant-owned informal businesses are being systematically targeted while illegal migrants are being forcibly evicted from their rented homes and marketplaces in areas such as Johannesburgs Turffontein, Alexandra and Hillbrow.

The hashtag #PutSouthAfricansFirst has become prominent on social media (trending almost daily), calling on government and the private sector to prioritise locals over foreigners, while accusing undocumented foreigners of being responsible for rising crime in communities, as well as running drug and prostitution syndicates, among other social ills.

As Operation Dudula intensifies, many immigrant traders and shopkeepers now live in fear. For most Zimbabweans, returning to Zimbabwe is not a viable option because of the economic and political conditions in the country.

Last week, the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, which comprises more than 75 civil society organisations and focuses on democracy, human rights, good governance and sustainable development, hosted a Twitter space to reflect on the possibility of coexistence among South Africans and other Africans in the country.

Vusumuzi Sibanda, president and CEO of the African Diaspora Global Network said in order to address the challenges of the migration crisis, one needs to look at the causes of xenophobia and the natural hatred of other Africans in South Africa. As in many parts of the world where a significant and in most cases growing portion of the population comprises migrants, immigration is an emotive issue and, to politicians delight, an election issue.

Sibanda criticised right-wing extremists and politicians in South Africa for often using political opportunism and populism to blow issues of migration and poor service delivery out of proportion by attributing government failure to service its people to the influx of migrants.

For a while now, there are people in government and in opposition parties that prey on the issue of migration. They blame migrants for crime and as the people that make it difficult for the government to deliver housing and adequate hospital facilities, noted Sibanda.

While acknowledging that migrants do commit crime, he insisted that crime must be addressed as a human phenomenon, not an exclusively migrant phenomenon, arguing that, just like natives, if migrants commit crime they must face the full wrath of the law.

Sibanda bemoaned the resurgence of xenophobia in South Africa, which he believes is hinged on the principle of divide and rule by incumbents and those trying to get into power, in order to mislead the people, diverting their attention from real governance issues.

While Africa may have attained political independence, there remains a gap in terms of properly applying effective public policy, democracy, constitutionalism and the rule of law. The failure of governments in the region to abide by even the minimum governance standards sets in motion the phenomenon of forced or involuntary migration from ones country to another.

When migrants arrive in South Africa, which is facing its own economic and governance challenges, the stage is set and all that is required is for immigrants to be blamed for everything. All that is required to detonate the bomb is a simple trigger in any form.

Sibanda accused politicians of brainwashing communities by controlling access to information and interfering with Press freedoms.

The information put out there by our leaders is information that is meant to vilify certain groups of people and make other people feel inadequate rather than educate people and make them realise that they are the ones that can hold governments to account, because they vote governments into power and can always take them out of power.

The ability of South Africans and migrants to coexist lies with removing the prejudices that have been sown into peoples minds, such as the simplistic microphone statements that if migrants are kicked out of South Africa there will be better job opportunities and better service delivery, among other things. Targeting foreigners is just a fallacy and a diversion from the governments failure to deliver on its promises and obligations.

Sibanda concluded by urging civil society organisations to provide adequate civic education to the people of Africa so that they understand and appreciate the power they have. The people must be empowered so they can hold African leaders, the Southern African Development Community and the African Union to account for presiding over sham elections and poor democracies and start demanding political and economic stability instead of fighting among themselves.

Speaking on the same platform, Trevor Ngwane, one of the Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia organisers, a movement formed in February 2022 in response to attacks on immigrants, added that the struggle against xenophobia is a struggle to complete the revolution and end all forms of exploitation and oppression in South Africa, the African continent and throughout the world.

Xenophobia presents an attempt to use the old colonisers tactic of divide and rule, instead of us uniting with each other and demanding land, jobs, our factories and our minerals back. Instead, we start fighting over scraps from the masters table.

Ngwane expressed concern that these tactics of fighting poverty and inequality favour the exploiter, the oppressor and the former coloniser.

Certainly, the minds of the ordinary people are still owned by the bourgeoisie. Many ordinary working-class people find themselves without skills, without hope, and many of them are still stuck in the ghetto, in the shacks and townships.

But instead of challenging their government, they are now being influenced by the bourgeoisie, especially the black bourgeoisie who are enriching themselves by scapegoating immigrants. So, this is part of a bigger strategy to defend capitalism, the new black elite and the old white monopolycapitalism.

Ngwane said winning the fight against xenophobia hinges on collective efforts by the ordinary people of Africa.

We must abolish colonial borders that force us to view our African brothers and sisters as illegal foreigners and go with the pan-Africanism spirit of Kwame Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba. We must unite against the bourgeois class, our former exploiters, and the new aspirant black bourgeoisie. We must unite as the exploited and the oppressed and fight for a better life. Whether you come from Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Malawi, South Africa, let us unite as the oppressed, speak with one voice and say no to xenophobia!

The now predictable cyclical episodes of xenophobic violence in South Africa is an embarrassing blight on the very idea of African solidarity and oneness that the regional leaders espouse at every opportunity. Besides being responsible for fanning the flames, it is tragic that there seems to be no real political will to address this phenomenon from a systemic and genuineposition.

As long as selfish politicians put a premium on whipping up emotions for narrow political gains, the noble dream of a united Africa so gallantly fought for by the continents late icons such as Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Robert Mugabe, Julius Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah, will forever be delayed.

In the main, governments in and around South Africa have an urgent obligation to reset their governance systems in a manner that is people-focused through deliberate broad-based development agendas. Countries like Zimbabwe are so rich in minerals; in normal circumstances there shouldnt be such a daily influx of illegal immigrants to South Africa.

Xenophobia is unnecessary and avoidable and the solution is not even magical: we just need to get back to basics in the form of good governance in the region as well as responsible leadership, especially at the epicentre South Africa.

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The political agency of xenophobia, violence in SA - NewsDay