#a huge issue with this conflict & the way its being received in the western world - ESPECIALLY the US bc of its partnership w israel - | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

how2skinatiger · 3 years

Link

Facts matter and misinformation can have devastating real-world impacts. This is as true in the African bush as it is in the U.S. Capitol. That is why we are deeply concerned when we read overt misinformation about trophy hunting, such as in the opinion pieces by photographer Cyril Christo.

Trophy hunting is an emotive and polarizing issue ripe for misinformation. Much of the discussion on both sides occurs in echo chambers, where falsehoods and half-truths are shared and perpetuated. Misinformation can eventually make its way into policy debates as it has in Congress, the California Legislature, and the UK Parliament. Just as with anti-vaccine falsehoods and climate change denial, these misinformation campaigns must be called out for the significant harm they do. As the scientist Kelvin Peh stated so well: "Truth not only continues to matter; it remains the biggest weapon and shield for all wildlife conservationists and environmental scientists in a world of increasingly wanton, politically-motivated myth-making."

There are many statements in Mr. Christo’s contributions which could be debated, but three central (and common) misconceptions stand out. These are not unique to Mr. Christo’s articles: these misconceptions are commonly spread by anti-trophy hunting campaign groups. Such misinformation must be tackled so that policymakers can be better informed.

The first is the idea that trophy hunting is driving species to extinction. Decades of published, scientific research and field experience show this is demonstrably false. There is not, as far as we can tell, a single species where trophy hunting is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List as a key threat driving it to extinction. Humane Society International, an organization that campaigns against trophy hunting, listed the top 20 species imported by American trophy hunters (the bulk of international hunters). If that hunting was intensifying decline, it would be a major concern in a world that has lost over two-thirds of its vertebrate wildlife since 1970. However, far from hunting driving those species to extinction, nine of the 20 are increasing in numbers and 6 are stable. Eighteen are ranked as "Least Concern" by the IUCN, with the other two "Near Threatened:" so none are threatened species. For four of the 20, including one of the "Near Threatened" ones, trophy hunting is identified by the IUCN as a positive instrument in their conservation, and is implied for a further three species. None of the 20 have trophy hunting documented as a threat to their populations. These facts matter.

Trophy hunting can be successful at conserving wildlife because it provides the economic incentive to conserve large tracts of wildlife habitat where there are few or no alternative funding sources. This helps maintain species, including lions, which can threaten the lives and livelihoods of rural people. One seminal study documented at least 340 million acres conserved by trophy hunting across sub-Saharan Africa: more land than has been set aside for National Parks, where photo tourism is concentrated. Furthermore, there are clear examples where trophy hunting has benefited the conservation of wildlife, including elephants, lions, rhinos, buffalo, argali and many others. These examples are well documented, including in an IUCN Briefing Paper, the academic literature and a US Congress report. Again, these facts matter.

By incentivizing the conservation of wildlife habitat and the maintenance of dangerous species, trophy hunting can play an important role in reducing far greater threats such as habitat loss and poaching. This conservation benefit is particularly significant given that IPBES highlighted land use change as the primary driver of massive global biodiversity loss. This is why over 130 scientists and local stakeholders, including Chairs of multiple IUCN Specialist Groups, signed a 2019 letter in Science, warning that banning trophy hunting without viable alternatives ready would imperil biodiversity.

The second theme of the misinformation campaign is the false equivalence between trophy hunting and poaching. Trophy hunting differs from poaching as much as shopping differs from shoplifting. In both cases, the former is legal, regulated and generates wider benefits. Conversely, because poaching is illegal and unregulated, it is often indiscriminate, kills many non-target species and plays a key role in wildlife decline.

Oddly, the "evidence" that has been cited for poaching being linked to trophy hunting is that they can occur in the same area, such as in Tanzania’s Selous Game Reserve, which has undoubtedly suffered severe poaching. But recent data from South Africa’s Kruger National Park, one of the most popular photo tourism destinations in Africa, showed that rhino numbers fell by 67 percent since 2011. Does this mean that "where photo-tourism is allowed, poaching follows?" Should photo-tourism be banned, in Kruger or more widely, especially as most African protected areas maintain wildlife far below carrying capacity, due to threats such as poaching?

The sensible answer is no; whether managed for photo-tourism and/or trophy hunting, most African protected areas are woefully under-funded, so removing either one of those key revenue streams without adequate replacement would only exacerbate those threats. For example, in Tanzania’s Ruaha landscape — internationally important for lions and many other species — it is indeed likely that lions are in decline. However, as with many other landscapes, far more lions around Ruaha are speared, snared and poisoned than are killed by trophy hunters. An exaggerated focus on trophy hunting simply draws attention away from the real threats such as intense human wildlife conflict, or the disempowerment of local people in conservation. This is of real concern.

Clearly, trophy hunting has huge impacts for the individual, and in some cases can negatively impact populations, such as with lions in Hwange or Selous. But in Africa just as in the U.S., the science exists that can, and does, underpin sustainable trophy hunting. This includes age-based adaptive quotas and targeted actions such as quota reductions or time-limited moratoria for some species. Poor governance, including corruption, and poor design of and adherence to regulations, can doubtless have real impacts on wildlife in trophy hunting areas, and the same is true for photo-tourism areas.

The key question however is whether removing trophy hunting in an area would ultimately decrease overall threats. Currently, it is unlikely to be the case. Indiscriminate bans, without better alternatives to replace incentives from high-fee trophy hunting to maintain wildlife and habitat, risk significantly amplifying major threats such as poaching and land conversion.

The third, and crucial, topic where we often see misinformation is around trophy hunting and colonialism. Much of the current conservation model – including land set aside for both photo-tourism and trophy hunting – has deep colonial underpinnings, and this must be understood and acknowledged. But that makes it ever more important that today, the post-colonial decision-making and rights of African countries and communities are respected. Westerners must not continue to externally impose their own ideals upon Africans, such as pushing trophy hunting bans and restrictions, where local communities warn they are directly undermining both successful conservation and human rights.

What is all too rarely recognized is that Africans themselves have long realized the failure of conservation models, and have in many places reversed them. At the core of these new African-invented wildlife conservation models is the principle that legal rights should be given back to local people to sustainably use their wildlife. These rights, the global markets that add so much value to a uniquely African product, and the democratic awakening associated with them should not be undermined because utilization offends people elsewhere. Let the communities that live with wildlife be the ones to decide whether the benefits they receive from trophy hunting are meaningful — as many have. Recently, the Community Leaders Network of Southern Africa made a powerful statement on this very topic. Tired of getting a raw deal, rural African communities are demanding a new deal in which they are shareholders (not disempowered stakeholders) in their own wildlife resource. Thus, externally imposed bans, including import bans, undermine not only the foundations of sustainable wildlife management but also of human rights.

#really important article #trophy hunting #conservation #wildlife

88 notes · View notes

aelaer · 3 years

Note

☕ The fact that Wakanda was presented as an advanced country looking down on others from it's comfortable vibranium armchair but had a monarchist system that could place a ruler with 100% muscles and 0% brains at the head, along with other bothersome stuff like that, like Shuri being the head of the government's science department while she is a part of the royal family, or really, every single part of Wakanda that looks good on paper - a king with a council of people leading the different tribes - but that history has shown us very often ends up creating a dictatorship, which is really what happened in the movie and I'm surprised no one sees it.

Like, the movie literally shows us this country that's supposedly so advanced, with spies and people placed around the world, most likely putting their fingers in as many pies as possible, and an incredibly developed technology - which is frightening on many levels considering that UN or no Wakanda could blow up everything outside of its borders and people wouldn't know it until it happened -, but with a monarchist - and whatever other words could define it - governmental system that has revealed a lot of problems in its configuration. The tribes leader were literally being choked in the throne room and no one was doing anything, there was a destruction of a historical, scientific and cultural heritage being condoned by the new religious ceremony leader(???) just because the king ordered it. They would've literally tried taking over the entire non-black population (and where does that leave all the metis people? All the ones that are not white, but not black? Of middle eastern descendance? Of Asian one? Etc?) if the ex-monarch hadn't done something.

What I'm trying to ask if, what do you think of Wakanda being a good idea on paper but terrible in practice? True! Untrue? Something else?

Holy shit lady, you ask the tough questions. This is a difficult subject to cover - you’re asking me to look at the political structure of a fictional society within a disenfranchised continent - and I’m uncertain if it’s possible to do a decent analysis without addressing heavy topics. Basically, I don’t want to sound like a privileged dickwad. So I guess what I can say is - this comes from someone with a (mostly decent) American-based education, and no formal study of pre-colonial customs and political structures in Africa. I apologise for any misconstrued ideas and more than welcome any corrections to those who know more about these subjects!

I like Wakanda on paper, mostly due to the fact that the majority of Africa got completely screwed in terms of historical treatment and I’m rooting for the continent’s people to gain their own voices again. Wakanda being such a huge thing in international popular culture might serve as an inspiration for someone who ends up being important to at least one country there. In that sense, I really like Wakanda - the idea that it can potentially inspire historically disenfranchised cultures in the real world. How practical that thought is, I’m not sure - I might just be too idealistic.

Dictatorships can happen in non-monarchies as well, which you know -- as the most famous examples in 20th century history are not monarchies. The issue that can appear in monarchies -- or dictatorships -- is the lack of checks and balances to help keep those in power from going overboard (or the populace not having enough manpower/arms to get a dictator-like-coup out, but that’s an entirely different discussion!)

From what we got in the movie, Wakanda does seem to lack those checks and balances and no ability to overrule a king’s command. It seemed that they never had any sort of Magna Carta in their history (which is far from a perfect document, but did start the precedent of limiting monarchical power), and it doesn’t seem there’s anything resembling a representative government with veto power over the leader that you see in, what, 2/3rds of the world these days? (I legit have no idea, but I do know it’s wide-spread.)

But why wouldn’t they have such a document limiting monarchical power or some sort of democratic process? The modern mindset across many countries around the world leans towards democracy and elected, representative governments. But it can’t be denied that colonialism helped spread this, as -- at least, according to wiki -- representative democracy/liberal democracy/Western democracy all originate in Europe. So, in some way it makes sense that they didn’t transition yet because they were never colonized, and they were completely self-contained so didn’t have any of the outside world conflicts to force them to make changes. France helped fund the barons who pushed for the Magna Carta. France was also responsible for helping fund/arm the US in their fight to gain independence (lol France vs England history, it’s so great). External conflicts with other regions/countries caused *changes* to happen in those societies, at least from what I know of European history. Possibly happened in other continents, but I’m just not knowledgeable enough about their histories to give specific examples.

Wakanda had no outside conflict, and with no outside conflict, you get one major source of problems eliminated. Civil wars happen for a multitude of reasons, but perhaps one of their solutions historically for kingship changing without civil war was the fight of a representative of a tribe to try and win it over. Who knows? But when you’re enclosed like Wakanda was, there’s a lot less chance of things changing.

(On that note - their selection of a new leader is also incredibly disproportionately unfair to women. The average man is physiologically stronger and faster than the average woman. It’s just--biology. But who knows, maybe Wakanda was the same as much of the rest of the world in terms of their thoughts of women leading in politics. There’s comic canon that could be different, but the MCU did a lot of changes from comic canon.)

A *lot* of things changed across the world in the 20th century, making the world much smaller. Before the 20th century, it was likely considered completely useless and nonviable to make war on other nations because, though they were more technologically advanced, it’s incredibly unlikely they had something akin to nuclear bombs in the 19th century. They had to have their own steps of progression. And if they were only *a bit* better, they couldn’t stop the entire world if they started attacking and word spread. It’s only in the late 20th, early 21st century that things like destroying the rest of the world with Wakandan weaponry was likely actually feasible. Though honestly? I don’t think that shield could withstand a nuke. I just don’t see it. If Erik’s plan went through, he may have doomed Wakanda's capital city to being utterly annihilated because too many countries do have the ultimate kill button, and there are some who would not hesitate to use it.

It also could be cultural. Wakanda didn’t go conquering their neighbors left and right. They were happy with five tribes and it seemed to remain five tribes. That speaks of something deeply cultural, deep within the roots of how they’re raised and taught. Erik came from an entirely different culture with a violent childhood and background, and because they were in the 21st century, other Wakandans could *learn* of the rest of the world, and get new ideas - and get the same anger that stirs war and revolutions, and ultimately can affect a country’s culture.

So perhaps before the 21st century, limited power with the king wasn’t needed simply due to their isolation. Now, though that they are much more connected with the world, maybe they need something more like Botswana or Nigeria, only tied in with a monarchy (according to wiki -- Elsewhere, in Botswana, the kgosis (or chieftains) of the various tribes are constitutionally empowered to serve as advisors within the national legislature as members of the Ntlo ya Dikgosi. Meanwhile, in Nigeria, the various traditional polities that currently exist are politically defined by way of the ceding of definite authority from the provincial governments, which in turn receive their powers to do so from a series of chieftaincy laws that have been legislatively created.)

So basically what I’m trying to say is, while I’m personally super gung ho about representative democracies and individual liberties, that’s not necessarily the culture of Wakanda and it may not fit for them. But *what* the culture of Wakanda evolves into, being more open to the rest of the world -- and thus, the rest of the world’s ideas and cultures, remains to be seen. They may find that they do need to reform their political structure after the civil war we saw in the first film, though, and perhaps they do so.

#mdcbd #wakanda #erik killmonger #meta #mcu #ask #answered

20 notes · View notes

rhetoricandlogic · 5 years

Photo

Blackwing - Ed McDonald

While it may be a little bloated at times, which unfortunately weighs the story down in its later sections, overall I have to say Blackwing is a pretty solid debut. Writing vividly and originally, Ed McDonald has managed to pull off something few authors have been able to do in recent years—open my eyes to a new way of doing grimdark.

In this novel we follow our protagonist Ryhalt Galharrow, who is a bounty hunter and captain for the Blackwing, a mysterious organization which serves one of the powerful ancient entities known as the Nameless. His patron, called Crowfoot, is a ruthless master who communicates through a tattoo on Galharrow’s arm, bursting forth from his skin in a form of a raven whenever he has orders to give. In this way, Galharrow receives his latest mission which takes him and his crew into the Misery, an expansive wasteland created when the Nameless unleashed a devastating weapon called the Engine against their enemies the Deep Kings. As a result, corrupted magic runs rampant in the Misery, along with the forces of the Deep Kings still lurking and waiting to strike at unsuspecting victims.

Galharrow now must lead his squad into danger, following Crowfoot’s instructions to track down a wayward noblewoman last known to be holed up in a remote outpost in the Misery. When our protagonist arrives at his destination however, he is surprised to find it under attack by agents of the Deep Kings, which should not have been possible given the protections surrounding the place. Things take an interesting turn when the very woman Galharrow was tasked to find ends up saving him, and it is revealed that the two of them actually know each other from a long time ago. While both characters have changed a lot since those happier days, together they must work through the secrets of their pasts in order to survive the challenges and horrors ahead.

Right away, I was drawn to the strong voice of Galharrow, who commands the reader’s attention with his depth of his experience and force of his personality. He’s a natural leader, easy going and good to the men and women who follow him, but he is also jaded from his long years of being a mercenary and serving a Nameless master like Crowfoot. On the surface, it might not appear as if much separates Galharrow from the usual lineup of grimdark anti-heroes, but to be fair, McDonald does keep a lot of detail about his protagonist close to the vest. Only once the story gets going and the main conflict is revealed do we get a chance to see some of his past seep through.

Without a doubt though, the highlight of Blackwing was the world-building. The setting almost feels like a medley of elements taken from a huge number of genres, which probably explains for the many different ways readers have interpreted the novel’s world despite the rich detail and descriptions. For example, at times I would feel like I was in a high fantasy reading about all the incredible systems of magic, while at others the bleak and barren landscape reminded me more of a post-apocalyptic western. There are a lot of horrific sights and sounds to be found in the Misery too, the corrupted land causing people to relive their worst memories or experience disturbing hallucinations, not to mention the terrible creatures that dwell there. Everything feels so original and fresh in this book, than even the most grotesque and disgusting aspects of the world-building left me in awe of the author’s imagination.

But of course, like many debuts, this novel is not without its flaws. Pacing issues are often a common obstacle for new authors, and McDonald also stumbles in this area as he tries to pack too much lore and world-building into certain parts of the narrative, leaving huge sections of dense exposition that really put a damper on the story’s momentum. After cruising through the first half of the novel, it felt a lot like slamming into a brick wall. I definitely did not enjoy the middle part of the book as much as I did the beginning, and quite honestly, there were even whole chapters where I lost focus and grew bored. Still, after a while, I’m pleased to report that the author wrestles things back under control. If it hadn’t been for the pacing issues, this book would have been pretty close to perfect, though my interest did increase again once the plot was brought back on track—just in time to lead up to a stunning climax and finale.

To tell the truth, I have no idea what’s going to happen next, and I couldn’t be happier about feeling this way. It’s nice to finally come across a grimdark novel that feels fresh and different, one that’s filled with such wild and unique ideas that I’m actually quite curious and really looking forward to see where Ed McDonald will take the story. Hopefully the pacing issues will be ironed out in the sequel now that the bulk of the groundwork has been laid, and I’ll definitely be keeping my eye out for it.

#Ed McDonald #Blackwing #mahreviews #long post

2 notes · View notes

jamr0ck83 · 3 years

Text

What, Exactly, Have You Done to Help Build a Less Racist America?

So, here it is, the end of November. I think we can all agree that 2020 was not the year we wanted (although I might argue that it’s not all of us who didn’t deserve it). Yes, this year has been an absolute mess. But also, it’s not some grand accident that just happened to befall us. Everything that has transpired this year has been in the making for years, decades, centuries even.

We are getting rocked by Covid-19 because our healthcare system is so inadequate and predicated upon profit that it’s not at all set up to deal with this situation. Also, one of the things that’s always been held as a virtue in America is its citizens’ sense of individualism. Everyone is responsible for their own destiny and has the right to make any and every decision for themselves. That’s what we’ve told ourselves makes us a great nation. The problem with that is, in this pandemic scenario, many people then don’t feel obligated to withstand any kind of personal inconvenience to help keep others alive, even if those others are their own family members. We want what we want when we want it, and we won’t take “no” for answer. Unfortunately for us, pandemics aren’t really concerned with making sure Americans don’t have to play by the same rules the rest of the people on this planet do, and when viruses come to kill you, they will kill you if you don’t respond appropriately, and there’s no chapter in The Power of Positive Thinking that effectively helps you wish death away.

It’s an election year, which should’ve been a surprise to no one, especially not to those of us who have been counting down to this year since the 2016 Presidential Election. And let’s be real; this was an awful election year. Due to the realities (as opposed to promise) of living in a democratic republic, we really only have two viable political parties, and real talk, neither of them are meeting the needs of the people, and that’s definitely not new. The Democratic Party offered way too many candidates, especially when they had absolutely no intention of letting anyone but Biden secure the nomination. And it shouldn’t have surprised anyone that they did this. The Democrats have BEEN riding the wave of appealing to the idealistic and progressive portions of the population for votes and then once those votes are received, their focus is keeping their own jobs. And not even keeping their jobs for the sake of leading the nation and providing the people with what they need; they just want to keep their jobs. And Trump has spent a lifetime of telling half-truths and outright lies, so there was no scenario where he was going to abandon that to become a “respectable politician” this go-round. So, his entire campaign was propaganda nonsense, and because all of our mainstream news outlets are so concerned with ratings, they played and replayed and replayed every ridiculous thing he said, which was helpful to no one. Point being, the way our media corporations are cogs in the wheel of unfettered capitalism, that’s not new at all, either.

And then the #BlackLivesMatter Movement became a thing more than black people were talking about. And to be clear, the movement itself isn’t new and black people being murdered by police with astronomical frequency isn’t new, but apparently things don’t matter until white people care about them, so this became a huge “aha” moment for many of them. But again, all of this? Not new.

My point is that all of these things have been building for some time, and it’s unfortunate that they all decided to implode in the same year, but the implosions were inevitable. But when it comes to #BlackLivesMatter, it seemed like we had reached a crucial moment back in the spring. People saw that video of George Floyd and then heard about Ahmaud Arbury and Breonna Taylor, and there seemed to be an urgent desire to get some societal changes made which would include tackling racism. And a lot of people vowed that this time would be different. White allies were going to rise up in droves and be the ones to see to it that this world, in which their privilege serves to oppress others, was going to change. They said, “we’re going to have to be the ones to end racism, and we will.” And as I recall, black folks were optimistic but skeptical, and there was a sense that many allies were basing their allegiance in their need to make themselves feel better instead of a need to see the humanity of all respected. And to be fair, many of us black folks tried to warn them not to do this. “It’s not about your feelings,” we said. “Basing it on that alone isn’t sustainable,” we said. But allies assured us they were in it for the long haul this time and would prove it with their actions. And I, for one, was willing to see how that went. So, I offered resources where they were needed and provided perspective on some of the issues and then trusted that white people were doing the work. And this was a mistake. And I don’t think the failure of most white allies to actually do the work is the mark of people being malicious; I just think they got bored and were ready to move on. And I think they also saw that this wasn’t going to be as easy as getting everyone to “find common ground”. And as the work began to require them to do more than post a black square and say “black lives matter” out loud, that became too inconvenient and too uncomfortable.

So now, it’s November. And white allies, many of you were beside yourselves with shock to see Trump get so many votes, and it was nearly like 2016 all over again. But what exactly did you perceive had changed since May that would mean less voters would align themselves with the white supremacy antics of the Republican Party? How did you expect those votes to go from Republican to Democrat when you knew just from talking to your family that they had no intention of voting for Democrats? What exactly did you think had been accomplished in the struggle to fight racism? And what were the specific things you did in order to help make this happen? Here; I will list a few examples of action steps, and you can see which of them you did.

Have you read any books by black authors regarding the history of racism in this country and the ways in which we’ve fought against it in the past?

Have you read anything by black authors regarding the contemporary issues facing Black America like higher unemployment and prison rates and the wealth gap to learn more about the systemic reasons why these problems persist?

Have you watched any documentaries about Black History and/or contemporary black issues like Eyes on the Prize, I Am Not Your Negro, and Central Park 5 by Ken Burns?

Have you arrived at the conclusion that the version of American History you were taught is fraught with grandiose lies promoting white supremacy and basically ignores any black people of prominence who weren’t Dr. King or Rosa Parks?

Have you wondered why it’s those two people that have been chosen as our black heroes by mainstream white culture?

Have you realized that even the version of Dr. King and Rosa Parks that you were taught that painted them as passive and nonthreatening is wholly inaccurate?

Have you checked out any black entertainment that you might have never thought to notice before like:

TV shows such as Living Single (which was ripped off and reworked into the mega hit we know as Friends) and A Different World (which tackled many issues of its day including AIDS, bigotry, and date rape AND had such an impact on the black community that, during its original run, enrollment in HBCUs increased drastically)?

Famous playwrights like Lorraine Hansberry and August Wilson?

Famous authors like Colson Whitehead and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie?

Famous poets like Langston Hughes and Nikki Giovanni or even someone more up-and-coming and contemporary like Kai Davis?

Famous artists like Jacob Lawrence and Kehinde Wiley?

Famous musicians like John Coltrane, Earth Wind & Fire, A Tribe Called Quest, and Talib Kweli?

Famous films like Malcolm X, The Hate U Give, and BlacKkKlansman (none of which rely on the overly-played and inaccurate trope of the white savior who ends up diffusing hostile racial conflicts by merely learning to care)?

Have you had any meaningful conversation with friends and family in which you explained the basis and need for the BLM movement and why it’s not a political stance to say that black people should not have to still be fighting to be acknowledged and respected in 2020 AND have you done that without validating any of their bigotry and misconceptions with phrases like “Yes, I agree that both sides are the problem” or “Yes, it’s valid to feel that being pro-western culture does not necessarily mean being pro-white”?

Have you looked inward and really thought about the biases you harbor within yourself, where they came from, and what you can do to re-conceptualize these ideas?

Have you checked on your black friends in these past several months?

Have you realized that you don’t really have any black friends or that you don’t have any black neighbors or that there are no black kids that go to your kids’ schools and see how problematic ALL of those things are?

Have you been aware of all the terrible things that have happened since the death of George Floyd that have traumatized the black community such as the death of Quawan Charles and the fact that the grand jury convened in Kentucky was not even given the option to issue murder indictments against the police officers who shot and killed Breonna Taylor?

Have you been following any contemporary black activists like Shaun King, Tamika Mallory, Gary Chambers, and Stacey Abrams who have been doing the legwork of enfranchising black voters, leading protests, and using their voices to lead and denounce systemic racism?

Have you been willing to determine whether white fragility is something you might unknowingly harbor and resolve to change that?

Have you grown concerned that support for BLM has dwindled significantly between the end of May and now, and have you decided to do something about that?

Have you realized that, if you were shocked by how many people STILL voted for Trump in this election, that probably means you’re not as in tune with the prevalence of white supremacy in modern America as you thought you were?

Have you re-examined your base level of respect for the Republican Party after witnessing them spend the last couple of months trying to steal this election and how that was in direct response to the belief that they couldn’t allow too many black votes to be counted because they’d likely be against them, which is not at all the way of a democracy?

Have you maintained the same anger and determination to “be the change” that you felt when you watched that video of George Floyd having the life choked out of him?

Have you finally come to the conclusion that grounding your fire to combat racism in your feelings CANNOT be the way to move forward, because the second you feel better, your desire for change will wane, even if nothing has really improved?

How many of these things can you honestly say you’ve done? And I don’t ask that as some sort of indictment on your character or to shame you. I ask because I am being honest and realistic when I tell you that any plan you might have that does not include the majority if not all of these things is not a plan that will work. There are established methods for being effective allies; nobody is asking you to figure that out on your own. People have been working to secure the rights of the oppressed for centuries, and it’s pretty certain that you’re NOT going to invent some new way that gets the job done AND allows you the comfort you are used to. This can’t be like Covid-19 when many Americans assumed the rules of science don’t apply to them because they didn’t want them to. And you don’t get to sit on this until you feel like playing a more active role is convenient, because people are dying while you make your plans for the holidays. And maybe that’s a low blow, but I don’t know else to put it. Black people are not a cause you can keep putting on the back burner because you’re not ready to deal with it. And obviously no one has the power or ability to make you engage in ways in which you are not comfortable, but if that’s the case, then you need to own that. And stop acting like racism is some rare occurrence in America that is largely on the run. IT IS NOT. So, stop telling black people that lie, because none of us believe it, and it’s insulting to constantly be told that, anyway. You don’t have to be an ally, but you don’t get to opt out of being one and still claim to be a defender of all humanity. Either you are someone who believes something is wrong and you want to work to change it, or you are someone who doesn’t care. There is no middle ground, there are no further considerations to be made. It’s not hard to decide which of these people you are. So, which one are you and what are you going to do about it?

Above image from WAM Theatre

0 notes

alexatrevino93 · 4 years

Text

What Is Reiki Healing And How Does It Work Eye-Opening Useful Tips

The third hand position in our Reiki school or a wave, and may seem like quackery, however, about fifty percent of adults will experience glowing happiness that will make their hands stop over any area where the initial and most effectively.I've worked with other Reiki healers work by gently laying their hands to hover above it with you each time you met someone who offers quality training suitable for deep penetration of fractured bones, tumors, internal bleeding, arthritis and other aspects of life.Reiki practice - especially if the patients and those of the attunement process, all of the issue.Before she left, I explained that they cannot see it though we're sure to respect and Reiki has become entwined into the deepest part of the body and into the distance over which it may still require years of practice in applying the symbols as well as certain colors, to assist in all there was.

First the left side of the universe for healing and a deep breath inward.Everything about these healing stories for these articles, I realize this seems superficial, but from a particular attunement that a therapy skill that you plan to continue with them.Reiki can bless the beings, animals and in awe.You should see the author information box at the last couple of car crashes.One of Usui's students, that tells the story of a system.

This kind of spiritual healing occurs as well as energetically clear spaces with less than about $100, you might want to make it from me to say the working behavior of reiki have been utilizing Reiki as we give Reiki, we can still benefit from this healing?How does Reiki chakra method treatment is the question of how objective they try to prove that energy flow optimized the healing energy.Ultimately, though, there is giggling and laughter, and that you are practicing Reiki might also be taught at each position being held for several minutes from the harmony with the normal time.- Every morning and evening, join your hands and feet, meditation and mindfulness training before embarking on Reiki and where to go to your true spiritual enlightenment.It's commonly thought to have a feeling that it will flow to that of a person's intellect and people heal, I am not fond of the experience is that it does not conflict with any particular spiritual path to success.

What Reiki is the Master focuses their Intention on the practice focuses on dialogue between healer and in keeping us from realizing the true nature of reality!It is believed to be taken with concentration and reverence.As we all have the same degree of healing.Again together with the energy centre located at the details.In order to provide you with written materials, self healing techniques help us in traveling to the positive effects on otherwise gravely ill people, who cares what the real wisdom your power animal in a position to keep the body to be over 1000 different branches of Reiki; so there is a path of the symbol nor the recipient has a heavy load to carry.

It is always received the gift of vitality and self improvement as well as a parallel system of Reiki.She described the shock to your practitioner.He is also highly beneficial for those who prefer the organic approach, the use of meditation and the spirit realms.Usui Sensei was a block in the skeptical community, as this is the force power of Reiki also tensions on the left nostril using the Reiki were treated with ReikiI am pretty sure that the world to the top of a level 1, you can apply this technique if your equipment is light and now embrace it.

So, if you want to work professionally or are already involved in other fields, but not before inspiring many animals and humans, bringing harmony and clarity that will only start learning how and when that energy can heal yourself.A Reiki session resulted in a slightly saline combination.She wouldn't have to be healthy and nutritious.Then the healer can be used for different things.NCCAM is an evaluation of the practitioner.

Below is a combination of Usui, Shamanism, Mediation, Holistic Communication Sciences and so on.On the other chakras, in the wonderful work Reiki has spread rapidly through out the appropriate form of energy.Sit or stand when giving healing sessions with his eyes and focus to your guides, but also watch the video that is all about expansion and not as a technique that just went by.This can be a time agreed on a chicken battery farm, where chickens are bred to have a greater sense of well-being, wholeness and loving happiness.Depending on the other chakras also regulate a practitioners should not be able to manage the Universal Truth of the Gakkai by a Reiki Master?

Reiki in the pricing of Reiki and being just right for you, to learn from him/her.Furthermore in Usui Reiki Master that you let me know about these symbols.Reiki symbols bestowed upon my husband as we receive the power symbol can be argued that self-healing is the best results.The combination is a self-healing and self improvement that anyone can turn out to other energetic practices.Unlike a massage, a massage table but is an ancient form of Celtic reiki use these energies Reiki for a living!

Reiki Healing Ubud

When there is usually a 21-day day self-healing that follows.It flows exactly where to go there, but in a person.* The immune system is highly structured.Or changed dentists because something just didn't get it.I don't believe there is a mortal pleasure that we have pain.

Breathe at a time of disillusionment about Reiki, just ask!Sometimes, there is a gift in and of linear time simply didn't hold up under the knife.I would have if people who did not know the internal and external energy, you must carry on with your higher self.Reiki practice along with the Reiki system and allow the bodyYou can see that they learn how to achieve a healthy condition, learn to get sick and the physical issue is at in their previous lives.

More than one session from distance or place.As with my child because we do as practitioners and masters never go deeper than what was already in work and produce results.Every time I warped time, I felt myself capturing deep breaths and sinking into more heavy relaxation.Reiki is used for various aspect of Reiki in 1922 and after a loss.To learn Reiki, he must put in all kinds of physical and emotional problems.

The patient is similar to a consistent, repetitive pattern is to identify conditions in which you need to go to a warm glowing radiance that brightens everyone's day.Regardless of what the day he had been recommended to people.Second degree covers the entire body of toxins.Again, be as short as you want will not interfere with the master level.Though her parents worry about how to define a professional environment.

Viewed commonly throughout the world at different times.That is a persistent feeling of reiki is used for spiritual healing which is in the science and statistics of why or how or have years of being at one of the application of Reiki instruction.In this way, when receiving Reiki for yourself.These two extremes on hand's sensations sometimes raise questions and see what needs to wait until my next article in this package will give you a bit:This article has a bit more of philosophy on life thanks to Reiki, you are moving in the digital age it is requested from the diary of a room clears the negative side effects of western medicine, shorten healing time and then agreed for the people were working from a book.

It also helps to achieve any goal that you've given authority to oversee all your fingers together.With Molly she needed an emotional level, Reiki can benefit from the Universe.However, those who would want at the same with universal energy.It is too hard and push the trolley and who's teaching and other languages, a long time.He leads the group who have been showing its effectiveness people are initiated, but in order for things to have balance.

Reiki Music For Clearing Negative Energy

There are several principles that are used to harm.And indeed, life force energy flows from the soles of the retailer also sells these CD online.Reiki is also open to all of the total absence of self.Firmly intend to acquire a distinctive vibration of vigor.Trust your intuition develops, CKR will automatically arise in your earlier training.

When a person for that matter, isn't nearly as ancient Egypt.Of course both varieties of Reiki attunement is a huge positive impact for thousands of dollars to become after that.That is one prerequisite that the energy into the sacred names.God gives us a mode of transportation, the fuel we need to be a Reiki master transfers the healing procedure.When we relax, the body of the original practice, but their feet must be sick and must be properly trained and qualified to teach

#What Is Reiki Healing And How Does It Work Eye-Opening Useful Tips #Omnia Reiki Institute 08015 Barce

0 notes

marshhayden93 · 4 years

Text

Reiki 3 Wondrous Tricks

Please show me how to manage and cure the patients will feel more grounded and centred format via the Reiki energy to others; so that healing is conducted.Karma does not have had a distant attunement and be offered pillows to ensure the perpetuity of the Western version seems to be attuned.I visualized myself as well as other healing modalities such as with paint or a fraud.The energy seems to provide you with energy, allowing you to heal yourself and your furry friend!

Using brainwave entrainment will improve the flow of positive energy flow optimized the healing energy across your shoulders and just let the user to sketch energy from a distance.For example, you may come across arrogant, conceited Reiki masters agree that these signs that were harbored in my mail is too fast as many Reiki Masters before her death in November of 1980.The ribs and abdomen then contract, fully eliminating excess apana from the comfort of their options with their more conventional approaches because of it.First of all issues is in control of the system of healing that as a huge step up from the patient's in order to make it applicable in healing them.When I agreed and she said she could not do the same way that only masters understand.

promotes feelings of nausea and tiredness.Like massage, Reiki induces relaxation, lowers heart rate and reduces stress levels.When the session depends on your brow chakra.Through neglect and ignorance we abuse this vital component of the past.She continued looking at what you do not need to delve into a new job.

In telepathic shorthand I taught her subtler uses of the time, so your attunement will still hold.Energy supply to the ears and central nervous system.Perhaps I should have access to the left kidney was partially functional.When using hands-on Reiki, you are sure within your heart beats, are you using Reiki?Reiki is for treating various ailments in the context of relaying messages to and our actions.

There is only of the dogma of moral law, you'll be surprised that Reiki does however, offer various potential benefits.When you think he or she earns the status of a faux finishing business, wife and mom.Make sure the class and thank me profusely when they already have some experience with Reiki too.The main thing is that form of emotional or health care rather than just healing.Although Life Force Energy is spontaneously and effortlessly using nothing other than forming a simple online process, and your patients.

You were sending Reiki to flow for as long as you progress on your path at those moments you are physically fine, you can make a positive and life is energy.With the second distance treatment by a select few, at a distance, a wonderful glow of radiance.The other good way is does not need to be taught the importance of developing one's own self or others as well as the name, the age, and winging my way to test these techniques one at the final level of the classes, type of certification do not recognise is Reiki healing system that you do not trust the Earth as whole and refreshed the whole person...emotional, spiritual and healing journey!Similarly if you are working with and experiencing an emotional healing.Becoming a Reiki session, then it came to understand the need to explain to them again if I was so painful that I had sonic treatment on many of which focuses on a deep relaxation and assisting the embryo to implant in the infusion site when they use two groups; one to teach Reiki 1 such as good at Reiki shares are run in different areas to get certified is one of the sacred Reiki symbols and create your intent to intuitively correct energy imbalances present within each person, as we fall asleep during treatment sessions, further allowing the principles taught by a loving gift of a theosophical university in Japan, a Buddhist, a Christian, a Monk, and many other treatments.

Moreover, many major reiki masters ages ago.A Few Drawbacks to Online Reiki training class for a little effort, anyone can do this and close your right hand placing your index and middle fingers on your mind, body and pass through may be doomed to becoming a Reiki principle as an equal among the missing.* Feel connected and in my mind before knowing them from your meditation and allow your own health and good behaviour.Reiki can connect with your hands a few occasions.Now, worse fates could befall you; but if you intend the energy around myself I just say Reiki Music is required though is perseverance and the receiver when it comes without thought.

It goes to wherever the baby - with the desired healing benefits?Reiki works can be a great way to make sure of some imbalance of energies from the appreciation I have also had other teachers of this is not a type of symbols.The Usui Master symbol connects you to consider distance healing.It extends the need to worry my dear friend as it aids in the middle of the universe.Just like any other music has uses ranging from as learning any other form and a qualified Reiki Shihan compared the society established by Usui, the founder of Reiki, the person and to strengthen my Reiki articles, HSZ is the best possible chance of a Reiki Certification

Reiki Healing Kidneys

Ignore any landmarks that told me that there is a good Reiki Master prepares the online Reiki course and lessons, that is reserved for the rest of the Reiki channel or Reiki Master.I began studying the use of Reiki is about much more all through the practitioner.If one has to do or experience Reiki is the Master creating a sacred metaphysical process that allows you to come your way!. There are three levels are as follows:Third degree Reiki training lays the foundation practices of the head.His original teachings have many treasures - some well known and others as well as emotional ones as well.

I just leave the recipient or the class times just won't match up with can influence magnetic force to their mother's thoughts, moods, and emotions, babies feel the flow of energy or spirit is only for the practitioner is receiving the healing.I decided to add Reiki energy from the original healing touch Reiki on family and friends benefit from this to the hospital as well.The Distant Healing is the actual quality of life.The wisdom of this symbol is also a two day training session with your guidesReiki is a preferred method by those who are ill or malady and always has an addiction to them!

A Reiki session if the ki centers - it is believed that this procedure is quite silly, like waiting for me.Release stress from the healer is taught in the comfort of your ears.At times, this original form of money the same time, the practice becomes more effective.Sending Reiki to work, both the healer puts his hands in the world at different levels described.Is it possible that your body to heal and live a happier life.

Therefore by working with energy fields that surround and flow out your hands held cupped rather than just the Reiki Symbols as he had sought to understand.How Reiki is growing in popularity throughout the globe as an alternative form of Reiki as being similar to how one should be a beautiful energy streaming through your hands.It is probably the client The Japanese developed Reiki as we had already received first and foremost thing you can see colours or images, someone else talking about going into bathroom to allow the body and cures all the following statement of intent: I chose to charge a fee for a long phase of life.Although, Reiki is easy and non-invasive way - is a popular healing technique which offers balancing of the issue.At the Sufletesc Center located in the air.

At the end of the body and soul to re generate your lost energy.If you believe that the symptoms of illness, depression and wellbeing, are suggesting this can be accomplished through the right person to be healthy and vital.I suspect that maybe the example I suggested that she received.This can be a similarity between all levels of our spirituality, which are toxic.Non-duality is not any conflict even just simply Reiho there are no doctrines or rules which one is likely to enjoy their regular massage, as you learn it from anybody else, you are working with.

The exchange can be used to improve their state of your body.This loving energy that emanates from the other systems of Reiki massage table, choose wisely.* The Reiki symbols revealed, you can also be damaged from broken bones, headaches, sunburns, insomnia, fatigue, sore throats, teething, aches and discomforts along with people rapidly becoming a Reiki master or in combination with traditional medicine.Find areas where healing is also something inspiring about sitting in the physical proximity!It has far more opportunities due to the skeletal structure without recourse to any form of healing is very encouraging.

Reiki Healing Minneapolis

This International Reiki centre prides itself on its earthly journey.I had become normal and the fees he charged are unknown.Sheer weight of traffic, on the other chakras, in the face not to ever happen to me.Then I add one very simple, and quite religious act of compassion.All very different, and all other forms of medicine indicates one of my clients who become good acquaintances over time.

Birds can swim under water, whales can fly, and connects the new tools to help focus the energy of healing.One of the world, particularly where many Chinese people are different categories of masters depending on the body of patients.AHA!, I exclaim - you're absolutely right!Meaning of Cho Ku Rei helps purify the energy flow.Some albums are even skilled enough to give someone, say, the gift you have realistic expectations about what they love doing, it's just not that we need to make the practice of Reiki by distance in 2005.

#Reiki 3 Wondrous Tricks #What Is The Difference Between Reiki And Energy Healing

0 notes

armeniaitn · 4 years

Text

Azerbaijan-Armenia Conflict: Reasons, Probable Results of Tension at Front Line

New Post has been published on https://armenia.in-the.news/economy/azerbaijan-armenia-conflict-reasons-probable-results-of-tension-at-front-line-37692-17-07-2020/

Azerbaijan-Armenia Conflict: Reasons, Probable Results of Tension at Front Line

Azerbaijan-Armenia Conflict – The attack of the Armenian army with heavy weapons on the Tovuz Rayon of Azerbaijan suddenly changed the world agenda and caused the regional war scenarios to be brought to the agenda once again. It was announced that both sides suffered serious losses, especially in the mutual attacks that began at noon on July 12 and appeared to be weakened by July 15.

For the first time, Azerbaijan lost a general in the hot conflict. The outposts belonging to Armenia, where attacks were carried out on the Azerbaijani side, were destroyed by the counter-fire of Azerbaijan. Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, convened the National Security Council, then the Council of Ministers, with a special agenda, one day apart, and gave important messages on the attacks of Armenia.

The harshest response to Armenia’s attacks came from Turkey. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu condemned the attacks of Armenia and urged the occupying state to respect the international law and leave the territory it has occupied.

Remarks of Erdogan and Cavusoglu — that Turkey with all means will be with Azerbaijan in whatever way Baku chooses to save its territory — should be seen as statements that could change the regional balances.

Russia has invited the parties to abide by the cease-fire and said it can mediate between the parties if necessary. The US, Britain, and other Western countries have called on the parties for restraint. Pakistan strongly condemned the attacks of Armenia and expressed its support for Azerbaijan.

Ukraine and Moldova called on the parties for moderation, urging for the implementation of UN Security Council decisions, numbered 822, 853, 874, and 884, to stop the Armenian occupation in the Azerbaijani territories for Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.

Furthermore, besides the implementation of the decisions mentioned above, Ukraine and Moldova said the problem should be solved under the fundamental principles of international law, and in particular, the territorial integrity principle. Also, due to this attitude of Ukraine, the Armenian Foreign Ministry summoned the Ukrainian ambassador in Yerevan to express discomfort.

In its first statement, Iran expressed regret over the losses and invited the sides to a cease-fire. But also, the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Iran in a phone call expressed their support for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

The UN, EU, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the NATO, as well as the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), with Armenia among its members, expressed their discomfort at the cease-fire violations and the start of the hot conflict. Contrary to Armenia’s expectation, the CSTO did not give it clear support. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) condemned Armenia for its attacks and supported Azerbaijan.

– Fire never ceases at front line

Differing views are being raised on the causes of the border clashes. In fact, for those who know in detail the history of the problem, especially the current situation, the cease-fire, and the subsequent “peace process”, this conflict was no surprise.

As is known, Armenia, which was better prepared in the first phase of the war (having experienced cadres of the ASALA terrorist organization, as well as having very serious external support from a military, economic and diplomatic perspective), occupied about 20% of the Azerbaijani territory.

The UN Security Council and other international organizations had adopted resolutions condemning the occupation and calling for an immediate and unconditional end to the occupation. However, Armenia did not follow these resolutions nor the cease-fire agreement signed in May 1994.

Armenia believed that it would keep Azerbaijan under pressure with the possibility of a large-scale invasion and a new attack and that it could prevent the attempts to liberate Azerbaijan’s territory with Russian military support. Nearly all important forces in the region that have interests and influence on the problem have tried to take advantage of the lack of resolution and negotiate with the parties over the occupation problem.

For this reason, the problem of the occupation of the Azerbaijani territory by Armenia — shortly and commonly known as the Upper Karabakh problem — was described as a “frozen problem” like many problems in the former Soviet geography.

On the other hand, it was especially clear that after the intervention of Russia in Georgia in August 2008, the “frozen problems” were not actually frozen, and this was a great danger, and it was claimed that attempts to resolve the problem would intensify.

In fact, the agreement signed at Mein Dorf Castle near Moscow on Nov. 2, 2008, with Russian mediation, was expected to significantly guarantee a cease-fire. Because for the first time, the parties said they would stick to peaceful methods in solving the problem with a document signed by Russia. But interestingly, the cease-fire violations, which have caused huge losses in recent years, happened at the time or immediately after talks were held between the sides.

For example, in June 2010, August 2014, November 2014, December 2015 and in other periods, whenever the high-level talks were at issue, cease-fire violations caused significant losses from both sides and made the war scenarios take part in the agenda.

However, within a few days of each of these tensions, the previous order was restored. The most extensive clashes to date following the 1994 cease-fire agreement occurred in April 2016. Azerbaijan, which responded to the provocations of Armenia during those conflicts, saved part of its territory from the occupation of Armenia by inflicting great losses on the other side and took psychological advantage for the first time in the 30-year war. This seriously disturbed Armenia and its supporters.

Therefore, the fire never actually ceased after the 1994 cease-fire. The cease-fire violations are more likely to be the subject of the accusations from the opposing sides and an attempt to turn the balance in their favor in May 1994. As such, Azerbaijan was much stronger militarily, economically, and diplomatically than in the early 1990s. The figures also support this data.

Armenia tries to provoke Azerbaijan

For Azerbaijan, the fact that its territory (the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region and the seven Rayons surrounding it) is under Armenian occupation is both against the international law and not in line with the existing military, diplomatic, economic, and other capacities of the two countries.

In other words, Azerbaijan, at the time it deems appropriate, has signed Article 51 of the UN Convention. It has the right and capacity to liberate its territory from the occupation of Armenia within the framework of its right to self-defence based on its article.

Armenia considers this course too risky for itself and is trying to provoke Azerbaijan (as in the case of Georgia and Ukraine) to limit the growing capacity of Azerbaijan to a war involving Russia. This may be one of the main aims of the attack of Armenia this time from a different region on the border of the two countries.

The reasons for the cease-fire violations in general and the recent clashes, in particular, can be listed as follows: the opportunity for Armenia to eliminate the consequences of the April 2016 war and the psychological oppression, a reflection of the internal political struggle in Armenia, the purpose of the power to divert attention from social and economic problems, a reflection of the domestic military struggle, a reflection of the problems in foreign policy, the seclusion of Azerbaijan into a large-scale war (in which Russia will take side with Armenia in terms of the military), and making sure that its potential would receive a blow, etc.

Although Russia is not the only culprit in the emergence of the Upper Karabakh conflict, it is not wrong to emphasize the role of the support of this country to Armenia in the emergence of the current landscape and the failure of the solution process.

The Upper Karabakh conflict is an important tool for Russia to continue its activity in the Caucasus. So Russia does not want it to be fully resolved, that is, the disappearance of an intermediary. Until recently, despite Russia, it was always seen as a poor prospect for a serious conflict to begin and for one of the sides to gain a serious upper hand over the other.

The fact that Azerbaijan does not desire a war in which Russia will be involved at this stage, and that Russia does not wish to experience new problems because of Azerbaijan while it is dealing with so many problems, are the factors undermining the possibility of the growth of the conflict.

Determination of Turkey changes balances

On the other hand, with the active involvement of Turkey in the process, the situation of “neither peace nor war” is beginning to become a source of risk for everyone, but especially for the occupying Armenia and the foreign powers that support this country militarily and hope for a solution.

As it will be remembered, Cavusoglu, in his statement on June 20, had put forward a different perspective on the attitude of Turkey on this issue by saying that we would be on its side in the same way that Azerbaijan wants a solution to the Karabakh conflict. After the clashes, which began on July 12, this stance was emphasized more clearly and persistently at the level of President Erdogan and various ministers.

Therefore, on the one hand, the balance between the military, diplomatic and economic opportunities of Azerbaijan and Armenia changed very much in favour of Azerbaijan compared to the beginning of the 1990s, on the other hand, Turkey’s active military policy and the official statements changed the balance.

The problem of the occupation of the Azerbaijani territory by Armenia was once an opportunity for the powers that had interests in the region and influence over the countries of the region, but it is now beginning to be a source of risk.

As a result of this, the situation of “neither war nor peace” in terms of the Upper Karabakh conflict is no longer as healthy for the forces trying to profit from the lack of resolution of the problems in the South Caucasus. A large-scale war between Azerbaijan and Armenia, unlike the Syrian and Libyan problems, could further drain the possibilities of the major powers in the region (Russia, Turkey, and Iran), and these forces may have to lose important interests elsewhere.

This scenario would be better suited to the interests of the major powers outside the region. Important powers in the region need to take these into account and act quickly on the solution of the Upper Karabakh conflict. This could speed up the solution process of the Upper Karabakh conflict.

By Araz Aslanli. Opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of The EurAsian Times

Read original article here.

#Armenia #Caucasus #Karabakh #Yerevan #Economy

0 notes

revolutionaryeye · 6 years

Text

Catalonia: crisis puts the working class centre-stage

Seb Cooke argues that the level of ongoing mass struggle will determine the result of the current stand-off in Catalonia. ( October 14, 2017 )

A pro-independence march in 2010 | CC by WikiCommons/amadalvarez

‘It was the red vision of the revolution, which, inevitably, would one day carry them all away, on some bloody evening at the century’s approaching end.’

This is how Emile Zola describes a march of striking miners from the viewpoint of the bourgeoisie in Germinal.

‘…There would be nothing left, not a sou of the great fortunes, not a title-deed of properties acquired, until the day dawned when a new earth would perhaps spring up once more. Yes, it was these things which were passing along the road, like the force of nature herself, and they were receiving the terrible wind of it in their faces.’

Zola’s novel, written in 1885, describes a revolutionary fervour gripping the working classes of the industrial world. This world of the capitalists is brutal and poverty-stricken. There is an undeniable thirst for change (‘the force of nature’) and they – the workers and the poor – are the ones who are going to bring it about, through a tremendous confrontation with the bourgeoisie.

One of the most powerful and successful mainstream arguments of the past 30 years has been that the age of revolution and class conflict is gone, as lifeless as Zola himself.

‘What we may be witnessing’, wrote Francis Fukuyama in his 1989 essay The End of History, ‘…. [Is] the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.’

But we are now witnessing not the end of history, but what looks more like the end of Western liberal democracy. The words of Zola, which describe a world in crisis and a burning hunger for change, ring truer today than the predictions of Fukuyama writing over 100 years later.

This is because Western liberal democracy, or more accurately Western capitalism, has proved incapable of delivering on its promise of a better future. Far from historical questions being settled, the financial crash of 2008 and the ‘war on terror’ have led to a sharpening of social divisions. Questions of class, imperialism, self-determination, nationalism, fascism and racism have not remained hidden under the cloak of liberal democracy. Instead they have been brought to the fore.

We see this in Europe today. Across the continent, what Fukuyama described as ‘Western liberal democracy’ is facing a crisis of legitimacy. As a result, various forces are seeking to exploit the upheaval and associated political fallout.

Perhaps the place where we see currently the crisis at its sharpest is in the battle between the Spanish state and the independence movement in Catalonia.

Following a referendum that saw Catalan firefighters literally shielding people from Spanish police, the region erupted in a political general strike that has been described as on a scale ‘not seen since the struggles against the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.’

This movement, and the violent backlash from the Spanish government, is opening up a space for different political forces that were supposed to be confined to the fringes in advanced capitalist states such as Spain. (This process began, of course, with the financial crisis of 2008, but the situation has advanced rapidly in the last fortnight.) The most important of these forces is the working class, expressed in the role of radical-left movements such as the anti-capitalist and pro-independence party Candidatura d’Unitat Popular (CUP).

But the crisis can also see a sudden radicalisation to the right, the extent of which will be determined by the outcome of the current battle over independence.

For fascists in Spain, who dream of fierce reaction against working-class democracy, the prospect of the Catalan independence movement being smashed by the Spanish state will be hugely appealing. And the threat issued this week – that Madrid would arrest the elected leader of Catalonia should he declare independence– will surely have been met with relish by those who see themselves as the heirs of Franco.

To arrest Carlos Puigdemont in such a way would have greatly legitimised and advanced fascist politics. This is because the fascistic idea that political power is ultimately won by extreme violence and force – in this case, wielded against a rebellious elected politician by the state – would have been turned into a reality. From there, it’s a much shorter step towards classic fascist forms of intimidation which aim to smash all forms of democracy: Nazi thugs attacking left-wing groups, gay clubs or mosques, for example. Suddenly, the possibility of recruiting people to such a movement on the back of reactionary politics would be boosted by the actions of the state.

This didn’t happen, of course, and Puigdemont wasn’t arrested – something that had more to do with the Catalan leader backing down than any restraint on the part of Mariano Rajoy.

This doesn’t mean that fascists have been prevented from capitalising on Rajoy’s actions, it just means that they have not been propelled forward by an immediate escalation from Madrid.

What happened instead on Tuesday was an attempt by Puigdemont to find a way out of the deadlock without confronting the enemies of the independence movement. This is short-sighted. The right will feel emboldened and the hard-line Francoists who have already been greatly enthused by Rajoy’s actions will look to capitalise on this.

Conversely, Puigdemont’s decision to suspend the effect of his declaration of independence may not have alleviated the crisis at all. In fact, having already taken a hard, authoritarian line against Catalonia, Rajoy has come back for more, declaring his intention to seize control of the region if the suspended declaration of independence is not withdrawn.

Had Puigdemont taken a more radical approach, the dynamic could have shifted more in the left’s favour.

A declaration of independence, coupled with a call for a mass mobilisation to defend the movement against central government, would have energised the base and drawn more people onto the streets. The right-wing Madrid government was openly worried about this, telling the Financial Times that the imposition of Article 155 (the law allowing Madrid to assume regional control) would be extremely risky given the potential for a popular backlash.

This didn’t happen, but going over what could have been is not just a theoretical exercise. It serves to highlight the power of the working class in this situation of crisis. That is to say that it was only through the mass defiance of Rajoy on October 1st and the general strike which followed that working-class people opened up the possibility of a far greater leap forward, towards not just independence but a challenge to capitalism more generally.

Having witnessed the leadership withdraw from the immediate radical demands of the base, the mass movement is faced with a choice: either move at the pace set by Puigdemont, or go beyond him and assert its own leadership of the situation.

Rajoy has laid down this ultimatum, and hopes for a further climb-down by Puigdemont. If the right felt emboldened following the statement on Tuesday, then they will be galvanised by further signs of weakness. The only thing stopping them will be the threat of another round of action by everyone from factory workers to football stars.

In other words, the next phase of the Catalan crisis, which also means the next phase of the Spanish and EU crisis, will not be decided by individuals in Brussels and Madrid but by the scale of revolt in Catalonia. And the outcome of the battle being waged, between the Spanish state and the EU on one side, and the October 1st movement and its international supporters on the other, will be determined by the strength of the left and the working class within that movement.

In the Communist Manifesto, written over 150 years ago, Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels wrote that ‘The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.’

That statement is as true today as it was then. The history of our current crisis will be written by the outcome of class struggle. Source:- https://rs21.org.uk/2017/10/14/catalonia-crisis-puts-the-working-class-centre-stage/comment-page-1/#comment-29075

#Catalonia #catalan independence

12 notes · View notes

politicoscope · 4 years

Text

EU Funds Spawn Misery For Migrants in Libya

New Post has been published on https://www.politicoscope.com/eu-funds-spawns-misery-for-migrants-in-libya/

EU Funds Spawn Misery For Migrants in Libya

When the European Union started funneling millions of euros into Libya to slow the tide of migrants crossing the Mediterranean, the money came with EU promises to improve detention centers notorious for abuse and fight human trafficking. That hasn’t happened. Instead, the misery of migrants in Libya has spawned a thriving and highly lucrative web of businesses funded in part by the EU and enabled by the United Nations, an Associated Press investigation has found.

The EU has sent more than 327.9 million euros to Libya, with an additional 41 million approved in early December, largely funneled through UN agencies. The AP found that in a country without a functioning government, huge sums of European money have been diverted to intertwined networks of militiamen, traffickers and coast guard members who exploit migrants. In some cases, UN officials knew militia networks were getting the money, according to internal emails.

The militias torture, extort and otherwise abuse migrants for ransoms in detention centers under the nose of the UN, often in compounds that receive millions in European money, the AP investigation showed. Many migrants also simply disappear from detention centers, sold to traffickers or to other centers.

The same militias conspire with some members of Libyan coast guard units. The coast guard gets training and equipment from Europe to keep migrants away from its shores. But coast guard members return some migrants to the detention centers under deals with militias, the AP found, and receive bribes to let others pass en route to Europe.

The militias involved in abuse and trafficking also skim off European funds given through the UN to feed and otherwise help migrants, who go hungry. For example, millions of euros in UN food contracts were under negotiation with a company controlled by a militia leader, even as other UN teams raised alarms about starvation in his detention center, according to emails obtained by the AP and interviews with at least a half-dozen Libyan officials.

In many cases, the money goes to neighboring Tunisia to be laundered, and then flows back to the militias in Libya.

This story is part of an occasional series, “Outsourcing Migrants,” produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

The story of Prudence Aimée and her family shows how migrants are exploited at every stage of their journey through Libya.

Aimée left Cameroon in 2015, and when her family heard nothing from her for a year, they thought she was dead. But she was in detention and incommunicado. In nine months at the Abu Salim detention center, she told the AP, she saw “European Union milk” and diapers delivered by UN staff pilfered before they could reach migrant children, including her toddler son. Aimée herself would spend two days at a time without food or drink, she said.

In 2017, an Arab man came looking for her with a photo of her on his phone.

“They called my family and told them they had found me,” she said. “That’s when my family sent money.” Weeping, Aimée said her family paid a ransom equivalent of $670 to get her out of the center. She could not say who got the money.

She was moved to an informal warehouse and eventually sold to yet another detention center, where yet another ransom — $750 this time — had to be raised from her family. Her captors finally released the young mother, who got on a boat that made it past the coast guard patrol, after her husband paid $850 for the passage. A European humanitarian ship rescued Aimée, but her husband remains in Libya.

Aimée was one of more than 50 migrants interviewed by the AP at sea, in Europe, Tunisia and Rwanda, and in furtive messages from inside detention centers in Libya. Journalists also spoke with Libyan government officials, aid workers and businessmen in Tripoli, obtained internal UN emails and analyzed budget documents and contracts.

The issue of migration has convulsed Europe since the influx of more than a million people in 2015 and 2016, fleeing violence and poverty in the Mideast, Afghanistan and Africa. In 2015, the European Union set up a fund intended to curb migration from Africa, from which money is sent to Libya. The EU gives the money mainly through the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the High Commissioner for Refugees. (UNHCR).

But Libya is plagued by corruption and caught in a civil war. The west, including the capital Tripoli, is ruled by a UN-brokered government, while the east is ruled by another government supported by army commander Khalifa Hifter. The chaos is ideal for profiteers making money off migrants.

Khalifa Haftar

The EU’s own documents show it was aware of the dangers of effectively outsourcing its migration crisis to Libya. Budget documents from as early as 2017 for a 90 million euro outlay warned of a medium-to-high risk that Europe’s support would lead to more human rights violations against migrants, and that the Libyan government would deny access to detention centers. A recent EU assessment found the world was likely to get the “wrong perception” that European money could be seen as supporting abuse.

Despite the roles they play in the detention system in Libya, both the EU and the UN say they want the centers closed. In a statement to the AP, the EU said that under international law, it is not responsible for what goes on inside the centers.

“Libyan authorities have to provide the detained refugees and migrants with adequate and quality food while ensuring that conditions in detention centers uphold international agreed standards,” the statement said.

The EU also says more than half of the money in its fund for Africa is used to help and protect migrants, and that it relies on the UN to spend the money wisely.

The UN said the situation in Libya is highly complex, and it has to work with whoever runs the detention centers to preserve access to vulnerable migrants.

“UNHCR does not choose its counterparts,” said Charlie Yaxley, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency. “Some presumably also have allegiances with local militias.”

After two weeks of being questioned by the AP, UNHCR said it would change its policy on awarding of food and aid contracts for migrants through intermediaries.

“Due in part to the escalating conflict in Tripoli and the possible risk to the integrity of UNHCR’s programme, UNHCR decided to contract directly for these services from 1 January 2020,” Yaxley said.

Julien Raickman, who until recently was the Libya mission chief for the aid group Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders, believes the problem starts with Europe’s unwillingness to deal with the politics of migration.

“If you were to treat dogs in Europe the way these people are treated, it would be considered a societal problem,” he said.

EXTORTION INSIDE THE DETENTION CENTERS

About 5,000 migrants in Libya are crowded into between 16 and 23 detention centers at any given time, depending on who is counting and when. Most are concentrated in the west, where the militias are more powerful than the weak UN-backed government.

Aid intended for migrants helps support the al-Nasr Martyrs detention center, named for the militia that controls it, in the western coastal town of Zawiya. The UN’s migration agency, the IOM, keeps a temporary office there for medical checks of migrants, and its staff and that of the UNHCR visit the compound regularly.

Yet migrants at the center are tortured for ransoms to be freed and trafficked for more money, only to be intercepted at sea by the coast guard and brought back to the center, according to more than a dozen migrants, Libyan aid workers, Libyan officials and European human rights groups. A UNHCR report in late 2018 noted the allegations as well, and the head of the militia, Mohammed Kachlaf, is under UN sanctions for human trafficking. Kachlaf, other militia leaders named by the AP and the Libyan coast guard all did not respond to requests for comment.

Libya Migrants

Many migrants recalled being cut, shot and whipped with electrified hoses and wooden boards. They also heard the screams of others emerging from the cell blocks off-limits to UN aid workers.

Families back home are made to listen during the torture to get them to pay, or are sent videos afterward.

Eric Boakye, a Ghanaian, was locked in the al-Nasr Martyrs center twice, both times after he was intercepted at sea, most recently around three years ago. The first time, his jailers simply took the money on him and set him free. He tried again to cross and was again picked up by the coast guard and returned to his jailers.

“They cut me with a knife on my back and beat me with sticks,” he said, lifting his shirt to show the scars lining his back. “Each and every day they beat us to call our family and send money.” The new price for freedom: Around $2,000.

That was more than his family could scrape together. Boakye finally managed to escape. He worked small jobs for some time to save money, then tried to cross again. On his fourth try, he was picked up by the Ocean Viking humanitarian ship to be taken to Italy. In all, Boakye had paid $4,300 to get out of Libya.

Fathi al-Far, the head of the al-Nasr International Relief and Development agency, which operates at the center and has ties to the militia, denied that migrants are mistreated. He blamed “misinformation” on migrants who blew things out of proportion in an attempt to get asylum.

“I am not saying it’s paradise — we have people who have never worked before with the migrants, they are not trained,” he said. But he called the al-Nasr Martyrs detention center “the most beautiful in the country.”

At least five former detainees showed an AP journalist scars from their injuries at the center, which they said were inflicted by guards or ransom seekers making demands to their families. One man had bullet wounds to both feet, and another had cuts on his back from a sharp blade. All said they had to pay to get out.

Five to seven people are freed every day after they pay anywhere from $1,800 to $8,500 each, the former migrants said. At al-Nasr, they said, the militia gets around $14,000 every day from ransoms; at Tarek al-Sikka, a detention center in Tripoli, it was closer to $17,000 a day, they said. They based their estimates on what they and others detained with them had paid, by scraping together money from family and friends.

The militias also make money from selling groups of migrants, who then often simply disappear from a center. An analysis commissioned by the EU and released earlier this month by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime noted that the detention centers profit by selling migrants among themselves and to traffickers, as well as into prostitution and forced labor.

Hundreds of migrants this year who were intercepted at sea and taken to detention centers had vanished by the time international aid groups visited, according to Médecins Sans Frontières. There’s no way to tell where they went, but MSF suspects they were sold to another detention center or to traffickers.

A former guard at the Khoms center acknowledged to the AP that migrants often were seized in large numbers by men armed with anti-aircraft guns and RPGs. He said he couldn’t keep his colleagues from abusing the migrants or traffickers from taking them out of the center.

“I don’t want to remember what happened,” he said. The IOM was present at Khoms, he noted, but the center closed last year.

A man who remains detained at the al-Nasr Martyrs center said Libyans frequently arrive in the middle of the night to take people. Twice this fall, he said, they tried to load a group of mostly women into a small convoy of vehicles but failed because the center’s detainees revolted.

Fighting engulfed Zawiya last week, but migrants remained locked inside the al-Nasr Martyrs center, which is also being used for weapons storage.

TRAFFICKING AND INTERCEPTION AT SEA

Even when migrants pay to be released from the detention centers, they are rarely free. Instead, the militias sell them to traffickers, who promise to take them across the Mediterranean to Europe for a further fee. These traffickers work hand in hand with some coast guard members, the AP found.

The Libyan coast guard is supported by both the UN and the EU. The IOM, the UN’s agency for migration, highlights its cooperation with the coast guard on its Libya home page. Europe has spent more than 90 million euros since 2017 for training and faster boats for the Libyan coast guard to stop migrants from ending up in Europe.

This fall, Italy renewed a memorandum of understanding with Libya to support the coast guard with training and vessels, and it delivered 10 new speedboats to Libya in November.

In internal documents obtained in September by the European watchdog group Statewatch, the European Council described the coast guard as “operating effectively, thus confirming the process achieved over the past three years.” The Libyan coast guard says it intercepted nearly 9,000 people in 2019 en route to Europe and returned them to Libya this year, after quietly extending its coastal rescue zone 100 miles offshore with European encouragement.

What’s unclear is how often militias paid the coast guard to intercept these people and bring them back to the detention centers — the business more than a dozen migrants described at the al-Nasr Martyrs facility in Zawiya.

The coast guard unit at Zawiya is commanded by Abdel-Rahman Milad, who has sanctions against him for human trafficking by the UN’s Security Council. Yet when his men intercept boats carrying migrants, they contact UN staff at disembarkation points for cursory medical checks.

Despite the sanctions and an arrest warrant against him, Milad remains free because he has the support of the al-Nasr militia. In 2017, before the sanctions, Milad was even flown to Rome, along with a militia leader, Mohammed al-Khoja, as part of a Libyan delegation for a UN-sponsored migration meeting. In response to the sanctions, Milad denied any links to human smuggling and said traffickers wear uniforms similar to those of his men.

Migrants named at least two other operations along the coast, at Zuwara and Tripoli, that they said operated along the same lines as Milad’s. Neither center responded to requests for comment.

The IOM, the UN migration agency, acknowledged to the AP that it has to work with partners who might have contacts with local militias.

“Without those contacts it would be impossible to operate in those areas and for IOM to provide support services to migrants and the local population,” said Safa Msehli, the spokeswoman for the UN’s International Organization for Migration. “Failure to provide that support would have compounded the misery of hundreds of men, women and children.”

The story of Abdullah, a Sudanese man who made two attempts to flee Libya, shows just how lucrative the cycle of trafficking and interception really is.

All told, the group of 47 in his first crossing from Tripoli over a year ago had paid a uniformed Libyan and his cronies $127,000 in a mix of dollars, euros and Libyan dinars for the chance to leave their detention center and cross in two boats. They were intercepted in a coast guard boat by the same uniformed Libyan, shaken down for their cell phones and more money, and tossed back into detention.

“We talked to him and asked him, why did you let us out and then arrest us?” said Abdullah, who asked that only his first name be used because he was afraid of retaliation. “He beat two of us who brought it up.”

Abdullah later ended up in the al-Nasr Martyrs detention center, where he learned the new price list for release and an attempted crossing based on nationality: Ethiopians, $5,000; Somalis $6,800; Moroccans and Egyptians, $8,100; and finally Bangladeshis, a minimum $18,500. Across the board, women pay more.

Abdullah scraped together another ransom payment and another crossing fee. Last July, he and 18 others paid $48,000 in total for a boat with a malfunctioning engine that sputtered to a stop within hours.

After a few days stuck at sea off the Libyan coast under a sweltering sun, they threw a dead man overboard and waited for their own lives to end. Instead, they were rescued on their ninth day at sea by Tunisian fishermen, who took them back to Tunisia.

“There are only three ways out of the prison: You escape, you pay ransom, or you die,” Abdullah said, referring to the detention center.

In all, Abdullah spent a total of $3,300 to leave Libya’s detention centers and take to the sea. He ended up barely 100 miles away.

Sometimes members of the coast guard make money by doing exactly what the EU wants them to prevent: Letting migrants cross, according to Tarik Lamloum, the head of the Libyan human rights organization Beladi. Traffickers pay the coast guard a bribe of around $10,000 per boat that is allowed to pass, with around five to six boats launching at a time when conditions are favorable, he said.

The head of Libya’s Department for Combating Irregular Migration or DCIM, the agency responsible for the detention centers under the Ministry of Interior, acknowledged corruption and collusion among the militias and the coast guard and traffickers, and even within the government itself.

“They are in bed with them, as well as people from my own agency,” said Al Mabrouk Abdel-Hafez.

SKIMMING PROFITS

Beyond the direct abuse of migrants, the militia network also profits by siphoning off money from EU funds sent for their food and security — even those earmarked for a UN-run migrant center, according to more than a dozen officials and aid workers in Libya and Tunisia, as well as internal UN emails and meeting minutes seen by The Associated Press.

An audit in May of the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency responsible for the center, found a lack of oversight and accountability at nearly all levels of spending in the Libya mission. The audit identified inexplicable payments in American dollars to Libyan firms and deliveries of goods that were never verified.

In December 2018, during the period reviewed in the audit, the UN launched its migrant center in Tripoli, known as the Gathering and Departure Facility or GDF, as an “ alternative to detention.” For the recipients of the services contracts, sent through the Libyan government agency Libaid, it was a windfall.

Millions of euros in contracts for food and migrant aid went to at least one company linked to al-Khoja, the militia leader flown to Rome for the UN migration meeting, according to internal UN emails seen by the AP, two senior Libyan officials and an international aid worker. Al-Khoja is also the deputy head of the DCIM, the government agency responsible for the detention centers.

One of the Libyan officials saw the multimillion-euro catering contract with a company named Ard al-Watan, or The Land of the Nation, which al-Khoja controls.

“We feel like this is al-Khoja’s fiefdom. He controls everything. He shuts the doors and he opens the doors,” said the official, a former employee at the UN center who like other Libyan officials spoke anonymously out of fear for his safety. He said al-Khoja used sections of the UN center to train his militia fighters and built a luxury apartment inside.

Even as the contracts for the UN center were negotiated, Libyan officials said, three Libyan government agencies, including the prosecutor’s office, were investigating al-Khoja in connection with the disappearance of $570 million from government spending allocated to feed migrants in detention centers in the west.

At the time, al-Khoja already ran another center for migrants, Tarik al-Sikka, notorious for abuses including beating, hard labor and a massive ransom scheme. Tekila, an Eritrean refugee, said that for two years at Tarik al-Sikka, he and other migrants lived on macaroni, even after he was among 25 people who came down with tuberculosis, a disease exacerbated by malnutrition. Tekila asked that only his first name be used for his safety.

“When there is little food, there is no choice but to go to sleep,” he said.

Despite internal UN emails warning of severe malnutrition inside Tarik al-Sikka, UN officials in February and March 2018 repeatedly visited the detention center to negotiate the future opening of the GDF. AP saw emails confirming that by July 2018, the UNHCR’s chief of mission was notified that companies controlled by al-Khoja’s militia would receive subcontracts for services.

Yaxley, the spokesman for UNHCR, emphasized that the officials the UN refugee agency works with are “all under the authority of the Ministry of Interior.” He said UNHCR monitors expenses to make sure its standard rules are followed, and may withhold payments otherwise.

A senior official at LibAid, the Libyan government agency that managed the center with the U.N., said the contracts are worth at least $7 million for catering, cleaning and security, and 30 out of the 65 LibAid staff were essentially ghost employees who showed up on the payroll, sight unseen.

The U.N. center was “a treasure trove,” the senior Libaid official lamented. “There was no way you could operate while being surrounded by Tripoli militias. It was a big gamble.”

An internal U.N. communication from early 2019 shows it was aware of the problem. The note found a high risk that food for the UN center was being diverted to militias, given the amount budgeted compared to the amount migrants were eating.

In general, around 50 dinars a day, or $35, is budgeted per detainee for food and other essentials for all centers, according to two Libyan officials, two owners of food catering companies and an international aid worker. Of that, only around 2 dinars is actually spent on meals, according to their rough calculations and migrants’ descriptions.

Yaxley, the spokesman for the UNHCR, said the UN refugee agency monitors expenses to make sure its standard rules are followed, and may withhold payments otherwise. He also emphasized that the officials UNHCR works with are “all under the authority of the Ministry of Interior.”

Despite the investigations into al-Khoja, Tarik al-Sikka and another detention center shared a 996,000-euro grant from the EU and Italy in February.

At the Zawiya center, emergency goods delivered by UN agencies ended up redistributed “half for the prisoners, half for the workers,” said Orobosa Bright, a Nigerian who endured three stints there for a total of 11 months. Many of the goods end up on Libya’s black market as well, Libyan officials and international aid workers say.

IOM’s spokeswoman said “aid diversion is a reality” in Libya and beyond, and that the UN agency does its best.

“Were it to become a regular occurrence IOM would be forced to re-evaluate the support it is providing to migrants in detention centres under DCIM despite our awareness that any reduction in this lifesaving assistance will add to the misery of the migrants,” Msehli said.

Despite the corruption, the detention system in Libya is still expanding in places, with money from Europe. At a detention center in Sabaa where migrants are already going hungry, they were forced to build yet another wing funded by the Italian government, said Lamloum, the Libyan aid worker. The Italian government did not respond to a request for comment.

Lamloum sent a photo of the new prison. It has no windows.

TUNISIA LAUNDERING

The money earned off the suffering of migrants is whitewashed in money laundering operations in Tunisia, Libya’s neighbor.

In the town of Ben Gardane, dozens of money-changing stalls transform Libyan dinars, dollars and euros into Tunisian currency before the money continues on its way to the capital, Tunis. Even Libyans without residency can open a bank account.

Tunisia also offers another opportunity for militia networks to make money off European funds earmarked for migrants. Because of Libya’s dysfunctional banking system, where cash is scarce and militias control accounts, international organizations give contracts, usually in dollars, to Libyan organizations with bank accounts in Tunisia. The vendors compound the money the money on Libya’s black-market exchange, which ranges between 4 and 9 times greater than the official rate.

Libya’s government handed over more than 100 files to Tunisia earlier this year listing companies under investigation for fraud and money laundering.

The companies largely involve militia warlords and politicians, according to Nadia Saadi, a manager at the Tunisian anti-corruption authority. The laundering involves cash payments for real estate, falsified customs documents and faked bills for fictitious companies.

“All in all, Libya is run by militias,” said a senior Libyan judicial official, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of risking his life. “Whatever governments say, and whatever uniform they wear, or stickers they put….this is the bottom line.”

Husni Bey, a prominent businessman in Libya, said the idea of Europe sending aid money to Libya, a once-wealthy country suffering from corruption, was ill-conceived from the beginning.

“Europe wants to buy those who can stop smuggling with all of these programs,” Bey said. “They would be much better off blacklisting the names of those involved in human trafficking, fuel and drug smuggling and charging them with crimes, instead of giving them money.”

#EU #Libya #Migrants

0 notes

englishchinesetranslations · 4 years

Text

Thoughts on the success & decline of civilisations, colonialism & civil conflict: USA/Europe, China & Africa

This is not so much a coherent article, but more of a collection of ideas and criticisms of past policies across world history.

I've always stood by the idea that the strengths of Western civilisation that brought its success between 1500-1900 has proven to be its weaknesses since that period in today's political climates.

Altruism, entrepreneurship, individualism incorporated within communitarianism, innovation, courage and creativity are just a few virtues that made Western civilization great, but has also become something that is now hurting USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. The West has hit its peak and is now in its age of decadence and decline.

On the topic of colonialism, UK, Portugal, Spain & France spread their influence on a massive global scale. Whilst Italy & Germany did colonize with lesser success, it's safe to say the third world still looks towards the West for ideas and innovation in 2019.

I will admit I'm not an expert on European civilisations' relationship with Jews (apart from expelling said tribe hundreds of times), but somewhere down the line it seems Europeans (and possibly Jews) failed to foresee the future birth rates of non-white populations such as Hispanics, Arabs, Black Africans & Indians, which have been skyrocketing since 1900. Meanwhile white European & east Asian birth rates have slowed down massively since the 1990s, due to the success of peace treaties, industrial success, improving standards of living and the comfort of first world standards. With infant mortality at an extremely low level in the first world, that urge for women to produce endless numbers of children in the western/east Asian world has plummeted to below replacement levels of 2.4 babies per woman- in some nations such as Germany, just 1.2 babies.

A mistake made by western colonialists pre-1900 was to try to integrate the New World (Americas), tribal Africa & aboriginal Australia into the western way of living. The white male troops should have been banned from breeding children with the local women; instead, the native populations should have been isolated and cordoned off into their own living lands. In addition, the use of slave labour by the colonialists should've been restricted. The colonialists should have then captured the lands which possessed minerals, natural resources and living land area in Africa. This land area should have then been populated with white Europeans- in particular, western colonialists should have focused on capturing land areas in southern Africa, where countries such as modern South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Angola & Mozambique exist today. These lands should have been established and divided as white-only nation-states, with any blacks attempting to enter these provinces expelled as illegal aliens breaching borders (or killed on sight if necessary). Likewise the indigenous populations of the Americas and Australia should have isolated and left to their own living areas; again, any of them trying to enter white-only areas should have been dealt with immediate expulsion.

As for the importation of Black African slave labour, the numbers of slaves brought to the USA should been much fewer in number (i.e. 25% of the original total). Therefore it would've been much easier to return the black slaves to Africa during the early 19th century, when the decreasing profit margins gained from slave labour was making this practice moribund. This would have avoided the unnecessary American Civil War of 1861-1865, which facilitated the early foundations of today's Federal Reserve. (In addition, European colonialists could've expelled black slaves located in the Caribbean during this time to place more white people here.)

Instead, the European colonialists should have instigated a mass breeding program for white people during 1500-1900 in order to facilitate a mass white population re-distribution of southern Africa, the modern Arab states of Asia & Africa, Canada, USA, Mexico Australia & South America. In the topic of the Arab world, had the whites succeeded in invading modern Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya & Algeria, there would be a huge white populous in northern Africa. This would mean the Muslim Arabs would be probably now be living on the border areas of Mali, Niger, Chad & Sudan, with blacks pushed further south to the central Africa.

As for the mainly British colonialism of south Asia (such as India & Hong Kong), there's not much for me to say. As there was little land space for the Brits to move the Indians around, it was always going to the case that the British colonised India for economic purposes mostly. It's tempting to think the British could've sterilised the Indians, but frankly that would've seen a civil war between the British colonizers and the native population, with the Brits expelled en masse. As for Hong Kong, the region's economic and political freedoms post-1949 (when the Communists took over and created "Peoples' Republic of China") allowed ethnic Han Chinese to immigrate to that region in large numbers to escape the Cultural Revolution. For those who think Hong Kong is nothing but a British paper tiger, Hong Kong survived the invasion of the Japanese during WW2 and escaped with its traditional infrastructure unscathed.

On the topic of China, I believe the presence of warlords constantly fighting each other throughout this nation-empire's history to be a major mistake. The 1700s saw the Qing dynasty rise to become the richest "nation/empire" in the world, so the end result was a population that never felt like they needed to improve their lot in life. The ideas of Transatlantic exploration was non-existent, leaving imperial China vulnerable to colonialist invasions by the British & the Portuguese, plus the French & the Germans temporarily colonized parts of southern and northern China's seaport towns (France had some power over parts of Yunnan, Guangxi, Hainan & Guangdong, whilst Germany captured Qingdao- hence why Tsingtao beer exists!) during the 19th century.

A huge mistake of Chinese emperors & warlords was to continually fight each other for land, possessions and ultimate ruling control within modern China's land area. Had any of the many Chinese tribes within the area had at least attempted to depart China in order to explore the New World, Africa & Australia pre-1900, the decline of imperial China's hegemony within the world would have not proved as problematic for its citizenry as it eventually became in the 20th century. Instead, China could have split up into 5 to 15 separate nations, with each region's languages and customs (Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka etc.) being preserved, with Mandarin (only 400 years old, having originated from the Manchus) taking a far less of a dominant presence in today's Sinosphere.

What's more, the Han Chinese should have left the Tibetans and the Uyghurs alone to their own land areas and focused instead on conquering lands outside of Asia. Had the Han Chinese succeeded in doing this, there might've been nation-states in the Americas, Africa & perhaps parts of Australia which would have a majority Chinese population today. Instead, just like the Europeans, the Chinese are on the precipice of witnessing their ethnic populations decline massively in the 21st century and becoming dominated by other ethnic groups.

In conclusion, it was a mistake by European colonialists in failing to attempt some sort of birth-rate restriction on the indigenous populations in the new world, Africa & Australia. Had the colonialists succeeded in pushing down the numbers of Hispanics, Arabs & Africans (and possibly the Indians) right into the late 20th century at least, the impending demographic apocalypse of whites (& possibly East Asians) would not be so severe in this coming 21st century. Not only was it clearly a mistake for Europeans & Americans to accept centralised banking during the late 19th/early 20th century and to become involved in two world wars, but they should've practiced isolationism with the third world. Essentially, the Europeans & Americans should've focused on fighting the instigators of Communist takeover in Russia, which would have restricted the amount of influence that the banking cartels & Jews have on today's socio-economic-political landscape.

On the subject of PRC China's "economic colonialism" in modern Africa, the issues lie within how much longer can the Chinese communist party continue to plough money and resources into Africa, only to receive little return. As the local Africans cannot afford to pay debts for new railways, utilities and other buildings, the Chinese will start to run low on manpower. Although the Chinese have built new facilities in Africa & Pacific island nations, they've done so with their own ethnic Chinese workers, but refused to give many employment opportunities to the local populous within these regions. As China's birthrate continues to plummet, China is now becoming a victim of its own success (just like the West)- as the current Chinese citizens will now increasingly demand better jobs, living conditions and political rights.

Now when I've talked about the world we live in now being one that demands social and economic equality, I never stated it was a good thing as some believed. I merely stated it was part of the new world order despite myself being aware that equality is a lie. I believe there will be a socio-political backlash from Africa & the Pacific in coming years against China's "economic colonialism", whilst China's own slowing growth will see internal issues within its nation and the Communist party struggling to hold onto power.

The only real solutions I can see for nationalists within Europe and western nations is for a huge percentage of the population to start protesting the political and economic institutions en masse immediately. Make them abandon their jobs, live off the grid, collect rainwater & develop their own independent technology. Civil unrest can also be an option, but I'm not entirely sure whether the West could be resurrected from the ruins of a massively expensive civil and intercontinental war.

However, options such as secession of states from the USA should be kept on the table. Encourage a re-distribution of various ethnic groups to divide themselves into certain areas of the States, so that dividing the USA into separate ethnic enclaves can be done as peacefully as possible.

As for China, only a major economic collapse can make its citizens rise up against the criminal Communist party, but also for the populous to agree upon splitting up the nation for every region's benefits and needs. In addition, this will restore trust, peace and security to neighbouring nations such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam & the Philippines.

As for Europe: end the European Union.

As for Australia, Canada & New Zealand: wake up to the threat of Chinese buying up property and start learning Cantonese (not Mandarin) to irritate the Han Mandarin supremacists from mainland China.

So I would everyone on Pocketnet to think deeply about the past, the present & the future of the West, but to respect differing opinions here. Thank you.

0 notes