Category Archives: Government Oppression

I wish our esteemed brothers and sisters of the Spiritual Shouter Baptist Community a joyful and safe Spiritual Shouter Baptist Liberation Day 2020.

For many years I have joined this community in a communal celebration. This year, as a result of the COVID 19 threat, like many of my brothers and sisters in the Baptist faith I too will be engaging in prayer for my community, country and the world from the confines of my home.

I believe that together, you and I, and our Lord, will persevere and live to see the sun rise again over our beloved country. What our country needs now are our prayers.

Spiritual Shouter Baptist Liberation Day is a national event where we celebrate the courage of a people who fought not only to practice what they believed in, but who united and stood up for their way of life. Today, we all stand proud of the accomplishments of our Spiritual Shouter Baptist brothers and sisters who for 34 years after the enactment of the Shouters Prohibition Ordinance in 1917 valiantly kept their beliefs alive despite major oppression until it was finally repealed in 1951.

Sixty-nine years since the repeal of this Ordinance, the people of our twin-island Republic have been truly blessed with the beautiful, enriching contributions by the Spiritual Shouter Baptist Community towards our national culture, music, artwork, cuisine and belief system. As a result, on this special day, we should not only celebrate the accomplishments of this community but thank them for their contributions, as without them, we would not have developed into the nation we are today.

Their courage should continue to inspire us as a nation. It was in recognition of their contributions that on 26 January 1996, Spiritual Shouter Baptist Liberation was declared a public holiday by the then UNC Government led by Basdeo Panday. The Government I led continued to honour the community and delivered on a promise to build the first Spiritual Baptist school the St Barbaras Spiritual Baptist Primary school and an Early Childhood Care and Education Centre.

The capacity of the Baptist community to persist and prosper in times of significant adversity is an example for Trinidad and Tobago as a whole. Today, as we face trying times and challenges in our nation, we can look to Spiritual Shouter Baptists for inspiration, and as they did, seek to keep hope and faith alive.

Today, we are facing one of the most vulnerable and uncertain times with the COVID-19 crisis. Let us replicate the courage our Spiritual Baptist community demonstrated between 1917 to 1951 and beyond, to fight to ensure the liberation of our nation from hardship, suffering and ill effects which this virus brings with it.

Like our Spiritual Shouter Baptist brothers and sisters, we must unite in purpose to ensure the way of life that defines us and the future which we desire will not slip away from our grasp but instead become a reality through unity, social responsibility and being our brothers keeper.

Further, while we fight this global pandemic, our problems as a people did not begin with COVID-19. We must remember that in the past years, inequality, high unemployment, crime, absence of opportunity for youth and institutional break down have oppressed the full liberation of our people from realising their true potential.

Therefore, our fight as a nation must be to unite in purpose to achieve true national liberation where all can enjoy the fruits of their labour, manifest peacefully in their beliefs and achieve their goals.

I have no doubt that with the strength, determination and indomitable spirit of our people that we will overcome this crisis, and emerge stronger and more united.

May God bless our nation on this special day.

Kamla Persad-Bissessar, SC, MP

Leader of the Opposition

30th March, 2020

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Kamla: Let the courage of the Shouter Baptist inspire us to achieve national liberation - unctt.org

March 26, 2020| By Sikh Siyasat Bureau

Surrey/Brampton: The British Columbia Gurdwaras Council (BCGC) and Ontario Gurdwaras Committee (OGC) are very concerned over the recent attack and mass incident of violence that occurred at Gurdwara Guru Har Rai Sahib in Kabul, Afghanistan. This attack has resulted in the murder of dozens of Sikhs from an already very vulnerable and marginalized minority community in Afghanistan and again shows the need for Canada and the world to step in and protect minority communities in Afghanistan that have been continuous targets of oppression, intimidation, and murder for almost 3 decades.

Reports have been coming in regarding a gunman firing on Sikh worshippers inside the Gurdwara. About 150-200 Sikhs were trapped inside the Gurdwara Sahib at the time of the attack which later the Islamic State claimed responsibility for. The Islamic State has targeted Sikhs and other religious minorities before in Afghanistan. In June of 2018 the Islamic State carried out a bombing targeting the Sikh community where 19 Sikhs were killed and dozens injured. After this recent attack and the ongoing persecution of Sikhs within India, the question of religious freedom and the safety/security of the Sikh community internationally is in the minds of Sikhs across the world.

Images of Sikhs killed in attack on Gurdwara Sahib in Kabul

The threat Afghan Sikhs face is all too real and we need to work with the Government of Canada to have the marginalized minority community of Afghan Sikhs resettled in Canada before more are killed. The Canadian Sikh community is prepared to cover the costs related to resettlement and to ensure a successful integration into Canada through resources, education, and a sense of community said Amarjit Singh Mann, Spokesperson of the OGC.

For many years now, Gurdwaras across Canada along with other organizations including the Manmeet Singh Bhullar Foundation have been actively lobbying the Government of Canada to quickly process the refugee claims of Afghan Sikhs so that they may come to Canada and live their lives in peace. Although a dozen or so families have been resettled, more needs to be done as the Sikh community of Canada has repeatedly made this request but the process is proving to be slow and inefficient especially when the preservation of lives is concerned.

Moninder Singh, Spokesperson for the BCGC, stated Sikhs have long been targeted with violence, oppression, and intimidation in India and we are seeing the plight of our community in countries like Afghanistan deteriorating steadily over several decades. The number of Sikhs in Afghanistan continues to dwindle due to these types of attacks and daily harassment and intimidation forcing Sikh families who have lived in Afghanistan for hundreds of years to rethink their future and flee as refugees. As a proclaimed leader in furthering the cause of human rights in the world, we again call upon the Government of Canada to expedite the refugee claims process of Afghan Sikhs so horrendous acts of violence like this can be avoided.

The BCGC and OGC ask that the Government of Canada strongly condemn this attack on the Sikh community in Afghanistan and ask the same from their international partners as the ongoing murder, oppression, and forced migration of Afghan Sikhs over the last several decades is a crisis that must be dealt with urgently. We urge all federal political parties to see this as a joint humanitarian issue and all jointly move it to the immediate resettlement of Afghan Sikhs to Canada and the Sikh community is prepared to work with you every step of the way.

Related Topics: Attack on Sikh Gurdwara Sahib in Kabul (Afghanistan), Gurdwaras in Ontario, Ontario Gurdwaras Committee, Ontario Gurudwara Committee, Sikh Diaspora, Sikh News Afghanistan, Sikh News Canada, Sikhs in Afghanistan, Sikhs in Canada

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Canadian Sikhs Demand Action Following Attack on Sikhs in Kabul - Sikh Siyasat News

Do you have something to say? Send us a letter by clicking here!THINKING OF YOU

As a senior, I am writing to encourage our seniors to know that they are loved and not forgotten. Not being able to get out or see family and friends is very hard. Every day we need to be thankful for so many blessings. We have time, so lets pray for each other, our first responders, service people, government, doctors, nurses, care workers, cashiers, grocers, truckers, pastors, news people and so many more doing so much to look after all of us. Lets be the encouragers for the younger people to let them know its okay, we will get through this if we all do our part. To everyone else out there, lets not only wash our hands but let us wash our hearts to think of others instead of complaining. No one is more important than the other. Lets all pray for comfort, peace and healing and realize we are so blessed to be living in such a great country as Canada.

B. ALEXANDER

(Thanks for sharing the positivity.)

Thank you Andrew Scheer for refusing to give the Trudeau government emergency taxing and spending authority which would have amounted to taxation without representation, an affront to our very democracy. Shame on Trudeau for incorporating this into the $82 billion COVID-19 relief Bill, as well as the Bloc Party that was ready to agree. I cannot imagine anything scarier than giving Trudeau/Morneau the ability for uncontrolled taxation and fettered discretion to spend. Canada is already buried under a mountain of debt a Direct result of Trudeaus reckless spending? How we ever dig out of the huge fiscal mess after COVID-19 is a big question on Canadian minds, without any answers.

Larry Comeau

(Thankfully, the process worked, and the opposition was able to hold the governments feet to the fire.)

With his failed attempt to subvert our democracy and legislate dictatorial powers for himself, Trudeau has only continued his legacy of failure on every issue. He is the classic weak leader, frozen by indecision and indifference, then finally over reacting. Will this weakness of Justin Trudeau now plunge our nation into years of anarchy, oppression and poverty?

Iain G. Foulds

(It certainly was a stumble.)

Re: Fourth horseman. I like your response to Al Willeys letter. Too bad we couldnt have that horseman committed before he does more damage.

MURAY McANDREWS

(Only time will tell.)

Re: Notley reiterates call for UCP to ban evictions days before rent payments due. And, of course, Rachel Notley and her NDP have a far better plan than that of Premier (Jason) Kenney and the UCP provincial government. Just like all the great plans she had for the province during the NDP reign for four very long years.

DONALD K. MUNROE

(Shes trying to help Albertans during a time of great stress. Cant fault that.)

Sign of the times for the grocery stores: You touch it, you buy it! Please leave our precious young ones at home or youll go broke.

RICK RHEU BOTTOM

(We all need to stop that horrible habit.)

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Letters March, 26: No one is more important than the other - Edmonton Sun

When will people recognize that more government is the problem, not the solution? The lure of empty promises itching the ears of the gullible while distracting and blurring the vision of what America truly is, is one of the saddest things Ive ever witnessed.

Americans have fought and died for the freedoms this country enjoys in every chapter of its history. Unfortunately, our younger generations havent read the book. Half of us have no memory of the Cold War, let alone appreciate the sacrifices of World War II.

When we say Freedom isnt Free, its not a bumper sticker. Its engraved on every tombstone in Arlington National Cemetery.

When we entertain the promises of something for nothing as long as its the other guy that pays for it, we show our tremendous ignorance of the lessons of the past.

The simple truth is that the size of our government is axiomatic with the quality and quantity of our freedom of life, liberty and our individual pursuit of happiness.

Giving up independence for a little undeserved security is just the opposite of the American Dream. Dependence on the government to give you want you need in exchange for no chance to be what you want to be will absolutely result in a life of comfortable, predictable poverty at best.

I witnessed this in East Berlin in the 80s before the fall of the wall. For three and a half years, I got to see the very best of the very worst form of oppression of the human spirit. Existing with no hope of betterment is not just un-American, its anti-American.

Vote American.

Paul Dorsey

Green Valley

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Size of government weighs on our freedoms - Beckley Register-Herald

Photos by Allie Levin

Imagine checkpoints lining 8 Mile Road. A bus approaches the border of Detroit and the suburbs, headed for Oakland County, and two heavily armed officers step on board to check IDs. Depending on your residency status and ability to obtain a rare permit from Oakland Countys government, youre permitted to cross. Few Detroiters are able to obtain these permits, but residents of the majority-white Oakland County are able to travel freely.

In Detroit, we know about segregation. We can see the long-lasting impact of its history in our communities. As American Jews, we denounce these practices in the United States. So why do we allow these systems of oppression in Israel and Palestine? Some say that its for security, our safety. Some speak of their fear of the worst that could happen to Israel, and to us.

These are valid concerns and emotions for a community that faces continued violence and trauma. We want a safe place to live and thrive, like all people. I hear this and honor this desire. But is a violent military occupation the answer? Does this really keep our community safe?

A few days into the new year, I traveled with a group of more than 150 Palestinians, Israelis and diaspora Jews like myself to Ein Albeida Spring, a central water source that villages in the South Hebron hills in the West Bank have depended on for centuries. The goal was to restore Palestinian access to this central water source, which was historically used to nourish these communities. The day was planned and led by Palestinian activists, as well as the Center for Jewish Nonviolence.

The spring is located in Area C, meaning that its under complete Israeli military and civil control. Fifteen years ago, settlers from a nearby outpost called Avigayil took the area over, renaming the spring and swimming in it, destroying its use as a drinking water source. Palestinians have described facing harassment from settlers when they attempted to use the spring, ultimately dissuading most from using it completely. Furthermore, according to reports in Haaretz, any water infrastructure Palestinians do construct, the Israeli Civil Administration routinely destroys.

When we visited, activists put a banner over the springs sign to state its real name, Ein Albeida. Not even 10 minutes had passed when a group of settlers arrived and ripped the banner down. They continued to harass our group, confidently knowing that the presence of the army and police were there to defend them, even though their outpost is technically illegal under both Israeli and international law. Yet our group continued to clear bushes, chip away at rock and lay down new stone pathways to the spring. We were ultimately successful at reopening access, and, for the day, Palestinians drew water from the spring for the first time in more than 15 years.

As we celebrated in a nearby village, I looked around at the group of Palestinians, Israelis and other Jews: eating, talking, embracing, laughing. In that moment, I knew that another world was possible. I could see it right in front of me.

The American Jewish community can no longer support a brutal military occupation that oppresses Palestinians. We cannot support sham peace plans that maintain this system, like the one recently unveiled by President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Today, Israeli authorities and settlers continue to build settlements, obstruct access to water and electricity, demolish homes and violently control the daily lives of Palestinians. This is not about the safety of the Israeli people; its about power.

I will never forget what a Palestinian activist and mother asked our group at the end of our trip, Did you see the difference in our childrens lives and your childrens? Does the soldier block the road for them?

When you meet with a mother of two in Ramallah or families in the South Hebron hills, its easy to see how the current status quo fails to provide dignity and freedom to the Palestinian people. When you are welcomed again and again into homes and villages in the West Bank, always with ample hot tea, coffee and smiles, you can see how ridiculous and discriminatory these practices are.

It may feel vulnerable and scary for American Jews to acknowledge and criticize wrongdoing by the state of Israel, but our moral conscience demands it. Palestinians, like us, want to live their lives with dignity and safety. We must call for our governments to shift course and promote a real path toward peace for all Israelis and Palestinians. The soul and future of our Jewish community, and the lives of millions of Palestinians, depend on it.

Lisa Tencer is a member of IfNotNow Detroit.

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A Visit to Ein Albeida Spring in West Bank Exposes Truth About Oppression Detroit Jewish News - The Jewish News

The vile, anti-Trump conspiracy

Anyone who hasnt seen it, should review immediately Glenn Becks The Democrats Hydra. There is far, far more going on than the Democratic/deep state persecution of President Trump. Why was Trump impeached over essentially nothing? Surprise, it has little to do with which candidate can be elected.

The deep state (primarily in the State Department and ranking intelligence officers) are puppets/co-conspirators with the world level Fabian Society including George Soros. That society is training and causing the rise of leader-less revolts like the Arab Spring in Egypt and the uprising currently in Chile. The same process has been underway in corrupt Ukraine. (In the US they trained Antifa.)

The known, so-called whistleblower is smack in the middle of all this. The deep state has its own foreign policy regardless of any president. That is why they are so irate about any presidential action outside their normal practices. Trumps bypass of the usual diplomatic lanes is a problem for them which impedes their efforts. Even if they didnt hate Trump personally, they deplore his strengthening of America and his free-range cowboy diplomacy that is beyond their control.

Functioning as a part of or in collusion with the Fabian Society, the U.S. deep state is aiding in the destabilization of any and all governments (via internal uprisings) that are either weak or corrupt, aimed at the goal of replacing them with more pliable socialist governments. As Trump engages in his own international diplomacy, he often bypasses the State Department, circumventing or even thwarting their existing goals.

In addition, Trump is making America powerful and strong again, which is perhaps the greatest impedance to their ultimate goal of a one world government. Barack Obama spent eight years weakening America both militarily and in world prominence because a strong America would never subordinate itself to any international governing body. Trump has reversed that, making him the greatest enemy of the Fabian Society, the Deep State and the left-wing media. Is it any wonder he is under constant attack?

The greatest threat posed by whichever Democratic candidate who emerges is simply the fact that they will do nothing to oppose the international march toward a one world government. And their socialist platforms would actually aid in weakening America and moving us in that direction as well.

There is fundamentally no difference between socialism and democratic socialism. And as Vladimir Lenin stated the goal of socialism is communism. Over the last century, communism was tried by 47 different countries and has been thrown off by 43 of them. Communism is responsible for oppression, mass starvation and millions of murders. The Nazis pale in comparison. Lets not move America in that direction.

Isnt it wonderful, according to House of Delegates Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, that Virginia is getting on with the business of Virginia by allowing illegal aliens to pay in state tuition at Virginias state schools?

Lets dont worry that it may prevent an actual law-abiding citizen or their children from attending said school. These same people who are so pleased to get on with the business of Virginia they are proposing to allow illegal aliens to obtain a Virginia drivers license all while trying to stop the practice of requiring proper identification to vote. What part of illegal do they not understand?

While I have no problem with immigration (our country was founded on that), I do in fact have a problem with illegal immigration. It seems like our government is working its hardest to promote people to come into this country illegally by giving them the same rights as citizens, at no cost. This same government gives out free Narcan to revive drug addicts who have overdosed (by choice) as well as offer free needles to drug addicts to inject illegal drugs (by choice) but turns a blind eye to individuals who need Epi-Pens or insulin to live.

Our government has gone astray as to the needs of taxpaying citizens.

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Letters to the Editor for Saturday, February 29, 2020 - Lynchburg News and Advance

By TOM ODHIAMBOMore by this Author

The name Stella Nyanzi excites very many people on social media. She splits opinion on her unending troubles with Makerere University and the government of Uganda.

Those in her corner see her as a mkombozi against the tyranny of an academy that no longer promotes freedom of thought, speech and debate; as well as the vanguard in the struggle against a government that is increasingly becoming intolerant. Those in the other corner argue that she is a belligerent feminist who does not respect others and authority.

But one imagines that both corners would agree that Stella Nyanzi is a voice of conscience in Uganda and a symbol of resistance to the oppression of women and intellectuals.

Stella Nyanzi was, until last week, incarcerated at Luzira Women Prison, Kampala. Stella Nyanzi had been charged and jailed on November 2, 2018 for cyber harassing and offending President Museveni and his dead mother in a poem that unkindly referred to the presidents mother.

Stella had been harassed and suspended from Makerere University for disagreeing with the director of Makerere Institute for Social and Economic Research, and protesting naked.

When the courts ordered that she be reinstated by the university, the management did not do so. But Stella Nyanzis protests took on a broader subject: that of oppression and violence against women.

Stella Nyanzi argued that women expected the state to protect them yet it seemed that government agents were the perpetrators of the violence against women.

Her protests took a turn when she challenged President Yoweri Museveni on his promise during election campaigns to provide sanitary pads to girls, a promise which was not delivered.

Even when in prison, Stella continued to speak out against tyranny. And she chose poetry or should we say poetry as her medium.

No Roses from My Mouth (Ubuntu Reading Group, 2020) is Stella Nyanzis address to all and sundry. She speaks to authority. She addresses the ordinary woman and man.

She talks to the educated and knowing class. She excoriates against the injustices of the state against poor women trying to make a living, who end up in prison charged with trading without a licence.

She riles against the elite for keeping silent when the majority are disenfranchised, violated and repressed. Stella deliberately uses impolite language. In some poems and her previous comments she tends towards the vulgar.

Why? Because if one considers the language of power well, it is probably more violent than Stella Nyanzis. Power can be vulgar. Power decrees that poor people can be arrested for being poor.

It violates the ordinary by speaking of vagrancy, loitering, indecent dressing, bad language etc. How does one contest such seemingly harmless words which can easily be transformed into terrifying actions such as arrests, beating, killing etc innocently?

Reading the poems in No Roses from My Mouth, one meets a woman who has suffered too much for speaking her mind. Because of questioning authority, she lost her job at the university, lost a pregnancy, lost her freedom and was incarcerated.

This is why she sees her suffering as political. She declares, I am a political prisoner/I am a prisoner of conscience, and follows it up with a defiant declaration: No amount of trumped up charges deter me/If my poetry offend the dictator, fine!/If my written truth chokes the tyrant, fine.

Because she is no longer terrorised just as Stella Nyanzi, she speaks on behalf of many other women who fall afoul of the government. She reminds the reader of how easy it is to be arrested for being poor in the poem Poverty is a Crime in Kampala City, when she writes, The prisons are full unnecessarily/Hardworking citizens arrested and charged for poverty/Women selling baskets of mangoes and bananas by the roadside/Girls hawking roasted groundnuts, steamed maize and sweetened simsim balls/More girl-hawkers of mukonzikonzi brooms, mingling spoons and papyrus mats Earnest citizens making an honest living from informal trade/The entire stock of their capital confiscated as exhibits of crime/Earnest citizens striving hard to make ends meet/Arrested violently by Kampala City Council Authority agents/Detained for weeks in dirty at cells scattered at police posts/Charged for being idle and disorderly at the Kampala City Hall Court .

These quoted lines summarise the tragedy of modern Uganda you can replace Uganda with many other African countries where poor citizens struggle.

Stella is provoking readers of her poetry to ask questions, to probe the actions, thoughts, declarations, behaviour etc of those in power.

The genesis of her battles with the state is her questioning of the promises of rulers, who, when challenged about their failed offers, turn violent.

The violence then becomes the language of the relationship between the rulers and the ruled, with the rulers having the resources to sustain the violence through the police, the court system, laws, the prisons.

Stella remains defiant in the face of the violations that she suffers. The lice and bedbugs in the prison, the indignity of the crowded cells, lack of basic amenities in the prisons, the denial of her rights such as when the state attempted to declare her mad, the general depiction of her as a mere protester etc, all do not cow Stella.

Instead, they seem to give her the inspiration to struggle on. This is why No Roses from my Mouth is also a cry for her countrys fate. It may be a personal search for freedom, but Stella Nyanzi is aware that her personal freedom isnt useful in a society where the majority walk about free but are in fact incarcerated in various ways.

So, Stella Nyanzis prison poems urges its readers to write, to protest, to speak up to their rulers about their freedoms, human dignity, justice. She makes this position so clear in the poem, My Take on my Writing, My writing may be cheap/But it is rather effective/My poetry may be tasteless/But it is shaking the nation/ My language may be dirty/But it exposed the dictatorship/My pen never stops writing/I will write myself to freedom. Indeed, in a world where the artist can no longer dream of ruling politically, Stella Nyanzis poems and speeches and social media postings demonstrate that the pen can still contest for power with the gun.

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Stella Nyanzi stands up for oppressed women - Daily Nation

Kashmiri teens protest India's revocation of Kashmir's semiautonomous status. (Photo by Muzamil Mattoo / NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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Ive been watching the images of bloodshed and targeted attacks against Indian Muslims breaking out on the streets of Delhi. The role of the police in precipitating violence in Delhi and the detention spree in Kashmir since August 5, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked the regions nominal autonomous status, has laid bare a glaring truth: The Indian government is willing to use any means to crack down on dissent.

For as long as I can remember, my father has suffered under the Indian state. Ive seen him in the guise of a prisoner all my life. Its hard for me to even conjure him as a free man. On February 5, he completed his 27th year of imprisonment. Im 20 years old.

In his absence, my mother raised me. But I havent seen her for two years. Both my parents are in solitary confinement, in two different jails. As Kashmiris, they have been detained by the government of India for speaking out against the occupation and demanding the right to self-determination. In Kashmir, my story is commonplace.

While much media attention in India has shown great concern vis--vis the detention of pro-Indian politicians like Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti in Kashmir, there has been little backlash against the horrible detention of those Kashmiris who do not see their future with India. Every such Kashmiri is deemed inherently criminal and punishable.Related Article

In addition to those who have been languishing in jails for years, India has detained thousands of Kashmiris since August 5. According to various fact-finding reports, the government of India arrested an estimated 4,000 to 13,000 people. The crackdown was so massive that Indian authorities ran out of space in the local prisons and had to send detainees to jails across India.

Of the total number of detentions, 412 were booked under the Public Safety Acta law that India has used for decades to quell any protest. The detainees do not have the right to legal representation, and can be held up to two years without charges. Amnesty International has called this a lawless law. The authorities are not required to inform the detainees about the grounds for their arrest if they decide that revealing the information goes against the public interest. In fact, its the very existence of this draconian law that violates our public interest.

A 76-year-old lawyer, Mian Qayoom, who has practiced law for over four decades in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court and Indian Supreme Court, has been detained under the act. The High Court dismissed a petition challenging his detention. He is a diabetic patient surviving on a single kidney and has recently had a heart attack. He needs urgent medical carea basic right that our prisoners have long been deprived of.Current Issue

When it comes to our political prisoners, India disregards international law, and its judiciary only validates this injustice.

When my own mother calls me from prison once a month, the authorized time is 12 minutes. But the jailers rarely allow us to talk that long. The underlying message is clear: They are more entitled to my mother than I am. They violate their own laws and ignore their own dicta, to put in our mind that there is no system or law that a Kashmiri can count on.

Yasin Malik, a popular resistance leader, has been in a solitary cell for more than a year. He espouses a peaceful method of struggling for the right to self-determination. The prolonged and harsh imprisonment of a political activist like him conveys an important message: The democracy of India will not tolerate even nonviolent Kashmiri resistance.

Children as young as 13 have been taken into custody. They have been arrested while they were busy playing on the streets or picked up from their homes in the dead of night.

Fifteen-year-old Umar is an orphan but the sole breadwinner for his family; he dropped out of school a few years back when his father passed away. On August 7, he was detained from his home, handcuffed, and sent to a prison a thousand miles from his home. For three months, he was confined inside a small cell. Umar was finally released, but his life is not the same. He is in a state of war within. He has abandoned the bakery shop amid fears he would be arrested again.

Families like his are finding it hard to battle for justice and livelihood at the same time. Some of them cant even afford the cost of traveling to the distant jails where their loved ones have been kept.

I know a mother who scurried from one police station to another, with eyes hopeful of catching one glimpse of her detained child. In most of the cases, the authorities do not inform the family regarding the whereabouts of the detainee.

On December 20, 65-year-old detainee Ghulam Muhammad Bhat died during imprisonment. Ever since his death, many families in Kashmir fear that they could be faced with a similar fate. With little or no communication with their detained family members, they wonder if they will have the closure of saying goodbye to their loved ones before they die.

In the ongoing violence against Muslims by right-wing Hindu supremacists, the lives of Kashmiri detainees in Indian jails remain in great peril. Kashmiris have always been soft targets of majoritarian nationalism. Now those attacks are increasingly also aimed at Muslims across the country. Oppression in Kashmir prefigures injustice elsewhere.

Violence is the natural state of the Indian governments rule in Kashmir. The individual liberty of every Kashmiri comes into conflict with the national integrity of India. The Indian states plan of action in Kashmir is simple: crush every form of dissent and increase the cost of resistance. By compelling the people to choose between survival and resistance, the Indian government thinks it can subdue Kashmiri political aspirations. What it does not realize is that for many Kashmiris, resistance is survival.

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Delhi Is On Fire, and My Kashmiri Parents Are in Prison - The Nation

Access Now, a non-profit digital rights advocacy group, has released its annual report on global internet shutdowns. The report reveals governments around world increasingly shutting down the internet, often to stifle dissent, and frequently doing so during times of protest or elections.

The annual report, entitled Keep It On, counts a record number of 213 internet shutdowns around the world in 2019. This rapidly rising count grew from 196 in 2018, and only 75 back in 2016.

The technical definition used by Access Now to determine what constitutes an internet shutdown is, an intentional disruption of internet or electronic communications, rendering them inaccessible or effectively unusable, for a specific population or within a location, often to exert control over the flow of information.

Unlike the more sophisticated methods countries such as China employ to censor and control digital communications, the kinds of internet shutdowns chronicled by Access Now are more literal, brute-force disconnections. As well as entire internet blackouts, the report includes cases of governments blocking access to social media platforms during specific periods.

Whether governments are using shutdowns as a tool to silence critics, in an attempt to contain protests, or to conceal human rights abuses, 2019 has been the year of longer internet shutdowns, as well as targeted shutdowns affecting vulnerable groups or during crucial events during a protest, an election, or a political speech by an opponent, for example, explains Berhan Taye, a senior analyst at Access Now.

Access Now

The report notes a growing trend of longer and longer internet shutdowns, with 35 cases of shutdowns in 2019 lasting for stretches longer than seven days. Sri Lanka, Turkey, Zimbabwe, Iran, and Iraq were just a few of the countries deploying the tactic for more than a week.

Chad, the land-locked African nation, takes the dubious honor of longest internet blackout in history with a 472 day shutdown spanning March 2018 to July 2019. The incredible block was mainly focused on social media platforms and messaging services such as WhatsApp.

President of Chad, Idriss Deby, first instituted the shutdown in 2018 as the countrys parliament was recommending an amendment to the constitution allowing Deby to remain in office until 2033. Deby said at the time that the internet restrictions were designed to maintain security of the nation in the face of terrorist threats, and upon lifting the restrictions over a year later he reiterated those justifications.

"For a country like Chad that has gone through dark times, it is not permissible for the internet to be hijacked for malicious purposes by certain individuals with evil intentions for peace and national unity," Deby said in July 2019.

While the longest comprehensive internet shutdown in history is still ongoing in Myanmar, over 240 days and counting, the complete internet blackout in targeted regions of India takes the prize for most devastating under the pretense of a democratic nation.

On August 5, 2019, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi completely blocked internet access to the Jammu and Kashmir region of India. Literally overnight, millions of peoples lives were thrown into chaos as the implications of such a profound internet shutdown really took hold.

Hospitals and doctors, who shared information virtually, were instantly thrown into disarray. Educational institutions desperately turned back to old text books, while almost all businesses struggled to find ways to continue operating in a new world of no digital communication. Even the regions law enforcement agencies struggled. losing contact with informants due to blocks on internet messaging services. One source recently told Buzzfeed the internet blackout has fueled the local narcotic trade.

Access Now log the Jammu and Kashmir internet shutdown as lasting 175 days. Officially the shutdown was lifted in January 2020, after the Indian Supreme Court deemed the restriction constitutionally suspect. However, 3G and 4G internet access is still suspended in the region, with the government only switching on 2G internet. And, even now, most social media access is still blocked with internet access only delivering a small number of white-listed websites that have been approved by the government.

Another growing trend noted in the Access Now report is increasingly specific targeting of internet shutdowns. Instead of broad sweeping blackouts, 2019 saw an increasing number of shutdowns focusing on particular geographic regions, almost always concentrating on silencing minority groups.

The aforementioned Myanmar internet shutdown presented as one of the more perniciously targeted blackouts of recent times. The laser-focused, and still ongoing, shutdown covers the Rakhine and Chin states in west Myanmar, where the countrys minority Rohingya muslim population have been battling military oppression for several years.

The shutdown was justified by the Myanmar government as a response to violent actions by Rohingya militants, who were alleged to be using internet messaging services to coordinate attacks on security forces. Human rights organizations have claimed the internet blackouts are fundamentally designed to prevent documentation of criminal abuses undertaken against the minority muslim population.

In a related scenario, another stunningly targeted internet shutdown in 2019 focused on Rohingya refugees fleeing the violence in Myanmar by crossing the border into neighboring Bangladesh. Nearly one million refugees in camps in Bangladesh suffered frequent telecommunications network blackouts as the Bangladesh government says internet-based communications were being blocked due to criminal uses. Human rights observers have suggested the tactic is intended to dissuade further refugees from seeking safety in Bangladesh.

As we look into the countries that are ordering shutdowns and the context in which they occur, we are concerned at the numerous cases of intentional internet disruptions that took place during critical events such as protests or elections, says Access Nows advocacy director, Melody Patry.

The report discusses 12 internet shutdowns in 2019 that occurred during election periods, and 65 shutdowns during civil protests. Election-related shutdowns were seen in India, Malawi, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Mauritania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The most striking election-related shutdown chronicled in the report was seen in the small democratic African nation of Benin. Because Benin was previously seen as a free democratic nation, the Access Now report describes the blanket internet shutdown that occurred on the countrys election day as unexpected and most alarming.

Benin had, since the 1990s, been regarded as an ideal model of multiparty democracy for burgeoning African nations, but repressive crackdowns on civil liberties by an increasingly authoritarian president over the past year culminated in an election day internet blackout, with the government citing concerns over dissemination of fake news.

2019 revealed the increasingly common tactic of oppressive governments deploying total internet shutdowns to quell, control and suppress street protests. Blackouts during protests were detected in Zimbabwe, Venezuela, India, Indonesia, and Egypt. But the most concerning protest-related internet blackouts noted by Access Now were not ones simply devised to disrupt organization and assembly tactics.

As protests against the government in Sudan expanded in June 2019, activist groups began a series of civil disobedience campaigns. The government responded by gradually broadening its internet shutdowns, until the entire country was essentially blacked out.

On June 3, 2019, more than 100 people participating in a reportedly peaceful sit-in were killed, and another 700 injured, as the military moved in to disperse the protesters. The internet shutdown blocked the ability for protesters to livestream the violent attack, or even effectively communicate the violence to the outside world.

A similar scenario played out in Iraq in October. As protests against the government escalated, a near-total internet shutdown was deployed before thousands of armed security forces were sent out onto the streets. At least 100 people were killed, and hundreds more injured or arrested.

Access Now

How do governments justify these dramatic internet shutdowns? Echoing the 2018 Keep It On report, the most common reason is to fight fake news, hate speech and content promoting violence. It is suggested the reasons often cited by governments to justify these internet blackouts are rarely what independent observers conclude to be the real cause.

Precautionary measures to maintain public safety are often cited by governments, particularly in India, to justify internet blackouts. However, the Access Now report suggests these excuses often coincide with military actions and protest movements suggesting the internet blocks are primarily being used as a way to stifle dissent and control information flows.

While internet shutdowns are being increasingly used as a tool for oppressive governments to maintain systems of control, there are growing numbers of legal challenges to these shutdowns, often instigated with the support of international human rights organizations.

Cases in Sudan, India, Zimbabwe and Pakistan in 2019 have all demonstrated court victories over governments exceeding their legal authority. These legal battles are becoming increasingly important in establishing whether internet access should be declared to be a basic human right, a move that could subsequently criminalize the act of shutting it off.

In 2016 the United Nations Human Rights Council did pass a resolution affirming internet access to be a human right, and condemning governments disrupting access. Of course, this was non-binding resolution, intended to serve as a guideline for nations.

In 2019 University of Birmingham ethicist and philosopher Merten Reglitz presented a comprehensive case for establishing free and uncensored internet access as a basic human right. Reglitz argued that in the 21st century internet access is not a luxury, but instead a vital way of obtaining information and exercising free speech. When internet access is withheld or blocked by a government it actively stifles a citizen's basic human rights.

Without such access, many people lack a meaningful way to influence and hold accountable supranational rule-makers and institutions, Reglitz said in late 2019. These individuals simply dont have a say in the making of the rules they must obey and which shape their life chances.

Source: Access Now, #KeepItOn 2019 Internet Shutdown Report

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How governments shut the internet down to suppress dissent - New Atlas

February 29, 2020, 2:02 PM

7 min read

BERLIN -- Held in the German capital from Feb. 20 to March 1, the Berlin International Film Festival is taking a darker view of the world, perhaps a reflection on the current state of world affairs, on its 70th anniversary. That focus is apparent in one of the festivals most-awaited premieres, "Berlin Alexanderplatz," an adaptation of the seminal book by Alfred Dblin set in 1920s Berlin.

The original story is of a small-time criminal who, upon being released from jail, tries to live an honest life and avoid the temptations of the corrupt world around him. 40-year-old director Burhan Qurbani, the son of Afghan refugees, brings the story to the present day through the protagonist, Francis, a refugee from Guinea-Bissau who promises to be a good person and make an honest living. Francis, played skillfully by Brazilian actor Welket Bungu, soon gets sucked into a world of gangsters in his quest to gain status and make a life for himself with the means available to him.

Welket Bungue stars in the 2020 film, "Berlin Alexanderplatz," directed by Burhan Qurbani.

One of the more poignant films at the festival is "The Roads Not Taken" by British director Sally Potter. Featuring Salma Hayek, Elle Fanning and Javier Bardem, the story revolves around a mentally ill man reminiscing on his life and the different ways it could have gone. Potter is one of six female directors with films in the competition. Although Berlins film festival has a way to go before gender parity is reached among film contenders, the outlook is better on the management level. According to the festivals diversity data, leadership positions were equally balanced between men and women, as well as members of the executive board.

Salma Hayek and Javier Bardem star in British director Sally Potter's 2020 film, "The Roads Not Taken."

Last year, director Dieter Kosslick signed a gender parity pledge which requires the festival to release information about the gender and race of everyone involved in the festival, from members of the selection committees to casts and crews of participating films.

This years festival also introduced a new category called encounters, which is a platform aiming to foster aesthetically and structurally daring works from independent, innovative filmmakers according to the festivals description, and includes both documentary and fiction films. A standout entry in this category is Servants, by Slovakian director Ivan Ostrochovsk. Set in a seminary in Czechoslovakia during the Cold War in the 1980s, the film tells the story of two young seminarians who must choose between faith and politics as the oppressive regime tries to control the Catholic Church.

The struggle for ideological freedom in the face of oppression is a theme in other films at this years festival. There is no Evil by acclaimed Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, a former Cannes winner, tells five stories of people who committed small acts of rebellion while living under a controlling government.

"There Is No Evil," by Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof premiered at the Berlinale on Feb. 28, 2020, although the director was not allowed to travel to Berlin to attend.

The four stories that make up the film loosely center on Irans death penalty. Although Rasoulof is one Irans most famous directors, his films are banned in the country. In 2011, after his film about censorship, Goodbye, won two awards, he and his co-director were sentenced to 20 years in prison, charges later dropped and Rasoulof released on bail. However, Rasoulof was not permitted to travel to Berlin for the premiere on Friday The right to choose between being present or absent at the festival is simply not mine, Rasoulof said in a statement to the press the day of the premiere. Imposing such restrictions very clearly exposes the intolerant and despotic nature of the Iranian government.

This years festival marks an important change in leadership under artistic director Carlo Chatrian and executive director Mariette Rissenbeek. Former director Dieter Kosslick stepped down after 18 years at the helm.The lineup features 340 films produced in 71 countries. Eighteen films in the competition category battle for the top award, the Golden Bear, which will be announced Sunday, the final day of the festival.

Berlinale Executive Director Mariette Rissenbeek and Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian attend the opening ceremony of the 70th Berlin International Film Festival in Berlin, Feb. 20, 2020.

The Berlin Film Festival, also called the Berlinale, is one of the most prominent of European film festivals, along with Cannes and the Venice Film Festival. In the film world, the Berlinale has a reputation for being the rebel among its peers and this year is no different.

"A good number of films in the competition decided to look at the dark side of the human being," Chatrian told press before the festival, according to The Associated Press.

"They are not without hope, but at the same time they want to really face whats happening around us," he said. "Sometimes talking about the inner fear. Sometimes talking about the fear thats in the world outside us."

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Berlin Film Festival highlights dark themes on its 70th anniversary - ABC News