"I
was on the bus coming southbound over London Bridge. We had just pulled
away from the bus stop when the bus came to a sudden stop, because
there were people running across the bridge into the road, sort of
looking over their shoulders and filming behind them." "It
looked like there was a fight going on ... people tussling with each
other. And then you realize it was police wrestling with one tall
bearded man. I had my baby with me, so I moved her behind the stairwell
to be safe. Then there was two shots or two loud pops. I think they were
gunshots." "[I
saw the attacker lying on the ground and pulling his coat back,
revealing] some sort of vest underneath. The police then really quickly
moved backwards." Karen Bosch, London stabbing aftermath witness "I jumped in and kicked him [the knife-assailant] in the head to make him release his knife. A few others did so." "He was shouting 'get off me, get off me'." Stevie Hurst, London tour guide
"Our
Counter Terrorism detectives will be working 'round the clock to
identify those who have lost their lives, to support all the victims and
their families." "We are also working at full tilt to understand exactly what has happened and whether anyone else was involved." London police chief Cressida Dick
"I
... want to pay tribute to the extraordinary bravery of those members
of the public who physically intervened to protect the lives of others." "This country will never be cowed, or divided, or intimidated by this sort of attack." British Prime Minister Boris Johnson
A police officer cordons off a street close to the scene of Friday's deadly stabbings at London Bridge. (Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA-EFE)
Police Chief Cressida Dick might want to have a conversation with the
head of MI5. Which was ostensibly tracking the knifer, a known Islamist
terrorist whose early release from a lengthy prison sentence for
conspiring to bomb on behalf of al Qaeda, the London Stock Exchange,
allowed him to attend a workshop designed to guide wannabe terrorists
such as he back from the dark to the light taking place at Fishmongers'
Hall, which he used as a launching point for his obviously planned knife
attacks.
Earlier this month Britain had decided, likely on the advice of its
Intelligence services, to lower the national alert status from "severe"
to "substantial", the lower rating not necessarily an opportunity to
relax, but that the terror threat level in the U.K. rated somewhat less
vigilance. While the new rating still judged an attack to be likely, it
was not quite so much as the previous level. One step behind the mindset
of those who fester in bleak hatred, anxious to kill innocents to prove
to themselves and others that jihad is serious business, downgrading
aside.
Uzman Khan, the 28-year-old from Birmingham, had more all-encompassing
plans than merely stabbing unfortunate passersby in central London; he
envisaged his grand role in co-sponsoring a "terrorist military training facility"
for the greater glory of Islamist jihad. What he is now known for is
killing two people, wounding three others, while wearing a mock suicide
belt. His victim count is remarkably high, but would have been far more
so, had it not been for the response of witnesses to his attack.
Witnesses were widely praised for intervening in the attack @HLOBlog/Twitter/PA Wire
One man had hauled down from the wall at Fishmongers' Hall a narwhal
tusk, a long, straight, twisted spiral of a 'tooth', reminiscent of a
Unicorn's fabled horn, meaning to use it as a cudgel as he responded to
the attack. Khan was wearing an ankle bracelet as part of his
pre-release conditions, and presumably he was being tracked. That he was
able to arm himself, plan and mount an attack of this magnitude in a
public place surely means that he wasn't being monitored as closely as
he should have been.
While this can be viewed as a fault of Intelligence services, it can
also be viewed from the perspective of staff shortages. As many people
on staff to do the required due diligence to ensure that none such as he
run amok, terrorizing and slaughtering, there will never be sufficient
numbers for the job at hand. Polls taken in Great Britain attest to the
large number of sympathizers among the much larger number of British
Muslims who feel violence in the name of Islam and its mission to jihad
is perfectly acceptable.
As for the proposed "terrorist military academy",
in the case of Khan, his Pakistani-born family proves that old adage of
the apple never falling far from the tree. Khan's family owns land in
Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan geography between India and Pakistan
that has been a flashpoint for conflict since India was partitioned for
the creation of Pakistan in 1947. A mosque was built on the land and
plans were to proceed to "establish and operate a terrorist military training facility" there.
Khan busied himself with the thought of producing "more serious and effective terrorists".
Charges against the man and another suspect were of attending
operational meetings, fundraising and preparing to travel abroad for the
purpose to "engage in training for acts of terrorism",
earning him a 16-year-sentence, which British jurisprudence obviously
saw fit to reduce by half, giving him early pre-release and the
opportunity to practise what he was so eager to preach.
One of the people he stabbed to death was involved as a university
graduate student with the Cambridge University conference on prison
rehabilitation, which Khan was instructed to attend. For his troubles as
a course coordinator for Leaning Together, a prisoners' rehabilitation
program hosting the conference at Fishmongers' Hall, Jack Merritt became
a sacrifice to Islam, making his killer a martyr whose death and daring
exploits in murdering those who attempted to help him, a hero in his
native Pakistan.
Usman Khan appeared as case study in a report by Learning Together
In the event, as things played out, when the bystanders to this London
stabbing atrocity tackled the knife attacker to bring him down and
remove his knife, the police arrived to take charge. They hauled one of
the courageous witnesses off the prostrate Khan who then revealed the
fake suicide belt he was wearing. Its revelation caused his death.
Police shot him dead to stop him from detonating the bomb vest, and
completed his mission to become a martyred hero of Islam
"[The attack on the [Iranian] consulate was] a brave act and a reaction from the Iraqi people. We don’t want the Iranians." “There will be revenge from Iran, I’m sure." "They’re still here and the security forces are going to keep shooting at us.“ Ali, Iraqi demonstrator, Najaf, Iraq
"Do not give them cover to end your revolution, and stay clear of
religious sites." "[If the government
does not resign], this is the beginning of the end of Iraq." Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr
“We don’t know who Adel Abdul Mahdi [Iraq's Iran-backed Prime Minister] is, he did not come through
elections." "We want all of the government to resign, we don’t
want parties, so this step of Adel [agreeing to resign, as demanded by protesters] means nothing, they are trying to
fool us and then they will replace him with someone worse." Abu Mohammad, 45, construction worker, Baghdad
Scores of protesters take to the streets in the Iraq capital, Baghdad.
Dozens have been shot in a wave of violence, including the torching of
Iran’s consulate.
Photograph: Khalid Mohammed/AP
Security forces in Iraq using live fire, shot 35 protesters dead on Thursday when demonstrators stormed and torched an Iranian consulate overnight in Najaf, a Shiite holy city. In Nasiriya troops opened fire on demonstrators who had blocked a bridge on Thursday before dawn. According to police and medical sources, dozens of other protesters were wounded. In fact, since the protests began the death toll clocks in at 354 Iraqis killed and no fewer than eight thousand Iraqis wounded.
Security forces in Baghdad opened fire with live ammunition and rubber bullets near a bridge over the Tigris River where four other Iraqi citizens were killed. Thousands of mourners in Nassiriya crowded the streets in defiance of a curfew, to bury the dead in the wake of the mass shooting. Protesters cheered as flames billowed from the Iranian consulate in the night. Years of Tehran's meddling in Shiite Muslim affairs in Arab states have come to roost for the Republic.
Not only is Iran itself struggling with its own inner protests with Iranians compelled to crowd their own streets with protests against their corrupt government whose international sanctioned status has enormously weakened the oil-rich state's economy causing food shortages and sky-high prices for fuel, food, medicines that people teetering on the edge of insolvency cannot afford.
They are out protesting their government's lavish spending in support of their proxy terrorist militias abroad, their government's interference in the affairs of their neighbours.
Young men trying to pull down blast walls on Rasheed Street in Baghdad during clashes with Iraqi security forces on Sunday. Credit...Ivor Prickett for The New York Times
In Iraq, one of the most violent days of bloodshed followed the torching of the consulate, reduced to charred ruins after its overnight misadventure at the hands of outraged Iraqis. Accusing the Iraqi authorities of turning against their own people to defend Iran, the protesters refuse to accept the half measures to placate their demands that the resignation of the prime minister now represents to them.
They want assurances that the entire government apparatus will resign, that Iran will no longer have its malign presence in their country.
"All the riot police in Najaf and the security forces started shooting at us as if we were burning Iraq as a whole", a witness to the consulate destruction stated, refusing to identify himself by name. The attack was condemned by Iran's foreign ministry, demanding "the Iraqi government's firm response to the aggressors". Even as the firm response of the Iraqi government continued to create more deaths, in defence of Iranian aggression in Iraq.
Mourners in Baghdad on Friday lit candles and prayed for protesters killed by security forces. Credit...Ivor Prickett for The New York Times
The government's half-hearted, flaccid proposals for political reform in the hopes of defusing the anger of the protesters has yielded dismissive accusations of 'trivial' and 'cosmetic' from the protesters in the face of government orders to shoot to kill, arming police with live ammunition and tear gas, Iran's Revolutinary Guards' Quds Force standing nearby encouraging the government to defend and support Iran's presence in Iraq.
What former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein failed to accomplish when his troops attacked Iran and the seven-year Iran-Iraq war commenced -- at a cost of 500,000 wasted lives sacrificed to a sectarian war launched by the Sunni-led Baathist government, concerned that its majority Shiite population would be infected by the Islamic Republic's revolutionary Islamism foisted on Iran by fundamentalist Ayatollahs enforced by the Iranian Republican Guard Corps -- was finally accomplished thanks to U.S. intervention in Iraq to remove Saddam, opening an opportunity for Iran to theocratically contaminate Iraqi Shiites.
The fly in that ointment is the Iraqi Shiites' ultimate renunciation of Iranian-style Islamist government.
A
shrine set up in Tahrir Square in Baghdad to commemorate some of the
people who have been killed since protests began in October. Credit...Ivor Prickett for The New York Times
"All of the European countries, especially those with most of the foreign fighters, have desperately been looking for the past year for a way to deal with them without bringing them back." "But now, European nations are being forced to consider repatriation since Turkey is going to put people on the plane." Rik Coolsaet, expert, Egmont Institute research group, Brussels "They'll be freed one day, that's for sure. But it's preferable that they be incarcerated in French prisons from where they can't escape." "In Iraq or Syria, I don't have much faith in their intelligence services keeping track of our jihadists." Jean-Charles Brisard, Center for Analysis of Terrorism
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a joint news
conference after talks with his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic in
Belgrade, Serbia, Monday, Oct. 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Previously, Turkey's President Erdogan coerced Europe into paying immense sums to guarantee that Turkey will continue to ensure that a renewed flood of Syrian refugees will not re-emerge. He agreed to keep the flood-gates closed as long as Europe paid a share of what Erdogan claimed it cost his country to give haven to the millions of Syrian refugees who have fled that charnel house for Sunni Syrians that their country of birth became when Bashar al-Assad responded to their first timid protests with the wrath of a Medieval-era bloodthirsty despot.
Now, Europe continues to try to cope with migrants from North Africa and the Middle East who arrive in much more discrete numbers, impacting Italy and Greece badly, and far less so the rest of Europe. But another dilemma looms on the horizon where the countries from which Islamist jihadists left to join the then-growing caliphate of Islamic Jihad of Iraq and the Levant and who now wish to be rescued from their hellhole detention camps, knowing their countries of origin have no wish to repatriate them.
Logically these jihadists should be tried in a court of law and imprisoned for their crimes against humanity, but Western justice is such that it requires irrefutable proof of guilt, and where is that proof to be found within countries which no one not associated with ISIS could enter to discover that damning evidence? Laws could be re-written to assume that all the jihadists are equally guilty of the atrocities perpetuated on minorities and 'enemies' of ISIL, but that kind of 'solution' is antithetical to democratic Western values.
While Iraq and Syria might see no problem in simply executing them all, Europe would blanch at the suggestion, and so they are stuck with a moral, legal dilemma of what to do, how to treat, in what manner to respond to the return of these Islamist jihadis now detained by the Turkish forces whom the United States effectively gave permission to occupy a corridor inside Syria just outside Turkey's borders with the country. In the process completely deserting the loyal Kurds upon whom the U.S. depended to vanquish Islamic State.
Turkey launched the incursion against Kurdish forces(Image: getty)
Turkey's green light to mount an offensive against the Kurdish enclaves for whom that area is home, and to create a hundred thousand refugees fleeing the Shiite militias who have murdered Kurdish civilians as they have taken control of towns and villages, has also left Turkey with the incarcerated ISIL jihadis. Turkey's solution to Europe's (and North America's) reluctance to take back their citizens is to simply send them back, whereas the Kurds politely urged Europe to take the jihadis off their hands, all the while knowing they would not, and struggling to cope on their own.
Britain has already received a dozen or more of its Islamist citizens, with more, far more to come. Denmark, Germany and the United States have seen the return of some of theirs and that's just for starters. Erdogan is once again using the jihadis as a handy threat against the Europeans who criticized his treatment of the Kurds and the incursion into Syria. Their threat of sanctions with respect to Turkey's plans to drill for oil in the eastern Mediterranean off Cypress no doubt gives Erdogan ever greater satisfaction that he has another cudgel to beat them with.
FILE - In this March 31, 2019 file photo, women residents from former
Islamic State-held areas in Syria line up for aid supplies at Al-Hol
camp in Hassakeh province, Syria. Syrian Kurdish forces said Monday,
Oct. 28, 2019 they are beefing up security in prisons and detention
facilities where tens of thousands of Islamic State militants and
supporters are held, including foreigners, following the killing of the
extremist group's leader. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)
European justice systems are now being confronted with issues relating to security and civil liberties evolving around citizens to be returned who were engaged in terrorism. Returnees will all be investigated, with decisions made whether they should be detained and cases built against them for crimes that occurred in far distant lands. Europe faces an issue of public safety and security either way, even while experts in the field assess that having the jihadis in European detention provides Europe with the potential for tighter control and security.
France has repatriated over 250 jihadis with ISIL so far and half have been judged, given sentences averaging ten years. France awaits the return of yet another 400 of its fine citizens dedicated to global jihad. And under French law there will be no reason to continue detaining them once the decade of their sentence has elapsed; they will be free to roam wherever they wish as citizens, and presumably return to their pressing ideal of establishing a more lasting caliphate.
"Anti-Zonism
is unique because its view is that the Zionist enterprise, that is to
say, the state of Israel, is misconceived, it's wrong, and at the end of
the day, it isn't simply Israeli policy that has to change, but it is
Israel itself that has to go." "This
is unique when you think about other countries around the world. Many
of us are critics of China's occupation of Tibet, or Russia's occupation
of parts of Ukraine. Some people are aware that Turkey is occupying
norther Cypress, in violation of international law and putting down
settlements there too. But none of those critiques extend to calls that
are now increasingly pervasive around the world, not only for Russia,
China, or Turkey to change their policies but for the states themselves
to disappear, to be eliminated. So even if you accepted the premise for
one second that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism, you have to come to
grips with the eliminationist ideology that is at the heart of
anti-Zionism." Bret Stephens, New York Times columnist, Munk Debates
"[Anti-Semitism
is a] poison [within the British Labour party led by Jeremy Corbyn
aspiring to the Prime Ministership of Great Britain, raising deep
concerns about Britain's] moral compass [should Labour win the scheduled
December 12 election]." "It
is a failure to see this [the place of Jewish life in Britain under a
Labour government] as a human problem rather than a political one." "It
is a failure of culture. It is a failure of leadership. A new poison --
sanctioned from the top has taken root in the Labour party." "It
is not my place to tell any person how they should vote. I regret being
in this situation at all. I simply pose the question: What will the
result of this election say about the moral compass of our country?" Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth
"I'm
looking forward to having a discussion with him [Chief Rabbi Ephraim
Mirvis] because I want to hear why he would say such a thing [a
'mendacious fiction' to say Labour was doing everything possible to
tackle anti-Semitism]." "He's
not right. Because he would have to produce the evidence to say that's
mendacious. [Anti-Semitism] didn't rise after I became leader." "I
am determined that our society will be safe for people of all faiths. I
don't want anyone to be feeling insecure in our society. Racism in our
society is a total poison." Labour leader Jeremy Corbin
Jeremy Corbyn
has said he was present but not involved at a wreath-laying for
individuals behind the group that carried out the Munich Olympic
massacre Photo posted on the Facebook page of the Embassy of Palestine in
Tunisia, in October 2014, of Jeremy Corbyn’s visit to the Cemetery of
the Martyrs of Palestine, Tunis.
Photograph: Embassy of the State of Palestine in Tunisia
London's Times newspaper published a highly unusual opinion piece, a
reluctant one, to be sure, but one the author, the chief rabbi in
Britain, felt constrained to write and to find a public space for, to
make certain that if there were any lingering doubts that the fewer than
300,000 Jews who are British subjects feel themselves under the
oppressive and frightening re-introduction of anti-Semitic fire, those
doubts should be put to rest. Labour, once the
natural-gravitational-political-pull of Jews, has become a comfortable
home under Corbyn for a renaissance of anti-Semitism.
Because the Labour leader is seen to be quite at home among Jew-haters
and -baiters, Labour has attracted the new membership of formerly
closet-anti-Semites whose rancid hatred and expressions leaving no
question of their toxic sympathies having caused staunch former Labour
supporters to remove themselves from the once-trusted umbrella of
Labour. Prominent Jewish Labour members have denounced the starkly
obvious turn the party has taken, have stepped down and the situation
has become so dire British Jews feel their future in the country of
their birth untenable.
This is not a situation where uber-sensitive Jews whose anti-Semitism
feelers are always on high alert have overplayed the situation. It is
clear enough to anyone the direction that Labour has taken. In the wake
of Rabbi Mirvis's published sentiments, the Reverend Justin Welby,
archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Church of England,
endorsed those views, himself remarking on the "deep sense of insecurity and fear felt by many British Jews", a fear and insecurity that does not emanate from nowhere, with no just cause.
Corbyn's sensitive empathy for the 'plight' of the Palestinians under
'occupation' by Israel has resulted in ample public statements to
clarify his sympathies: "We cannot stand by or stay silent at the continuing denial of rights
and justice to the Palestinian people. The Labour Party is united in
condemning the ongoing human rights abuses by Israeli forces, including
the shooting of hundreds of unarmed Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza -
most of them refugees or families of refugees - demanding their rights."
In a gross, one-sided view of a complex issue of self-defence by the
IDF against the violent intentions of Hamas-inspired threats to Israeli
lives.
And his very public actions in attending 'Nakba Day' events in memory of
the creation of the modern State of Israel, returning as a people to
their historical homeland and re-establishing its permanent presence, a
contrary devastating blow for Palestinians who refused the United
Nation's Partition Plan, has endeared him to the very Palestinian groups
that most Western democracies classify as terrorists: "We have received with great respect and appreciation the solidarity
message sent by the British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn to the
participants in the mass rally", Hamas stated. "We also
salute Mr Jeremy Corbyn for his principled position in rejecting the
so-called Trump plan for the Middle East."
Mr. Corbyn's support and affection for -- and affiliation with violent
Palestinian groups whose actions have earned them the identifying
terrorist stamp, is certainly not new; his leftist 'progressive'
activism puts him squarely in the camp of any number of brutal tyrants
on the left, in support of the former USSR, Cuba's Castro, Venezuela's
Chavez among others. He attended
a 2012 conference in Qatar whose featured speakers were Palestinian
militants released by Israel in exchange for a captured Israeli soldier.
UK Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn (second right) attends a 2012
conference in Doha along with several Palestinian terrorists convicted
of murdering Israelis. (Screen capture: Twitter)
Among those
speakers was Abdul Aziz Umar, convicted in Israel for his active participation in a
2003 suicide bombing that took place in Jerusalem killing seven people. Along with Husam
Badran, a former head of Hamas’s military operations who had engaged in the planning of
suicide bombings that destroyed the lives of over one hundred people. Corbyn thought their contributions to the conference to be "fascinating and electrifying".
The kind of 'fascination' that lends ready support to slanderous
descriptions of Israel and proposals in support of delegitimizing the
state's right to exist. Yet as a result of all the damning publicity
that has come Labour's way, Corbyn stated last year a review undertaken
of online posts Labour members were responsible for, revealed
"examples of Holocaust denial, crude stereotypes of Jewish bankers,
conspiracy theories blaming 9/11 on Israel, and even one individual who
appeared to believe that Hitler had been misunderstood."
He himself hosted a panel in 2010 where Israelis were described in comparison to Nazis, while in 2012 he spoke of an artist's "freedom of speech",
in defending that artist's London mural depicting Jewish bankers
playing a game of monopoly with a board balanced on the bent backs of
workers. That ages-old accusations of Jews ruling the world of finance,
of oppressing ordinary working people, as though the plot for world
domination pace The Protocols of the Elders of Zion represented Labour's working manual on addressing the Jewish menace.
The 'Freedom for Humanity' mural by artist Kalen Ockerman in London in 2012.Photographer: Mike Kemp/In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images
"[Traditional race relations in Bolivia is similar to] the apartheid system in South Africa, with Indigenous people being second-class citizens." "The significance of Evo [Morales] was he rose up and achieved a lot of positive things for Indigenous people." "He rallied his Indigenous base through the rhetoric of racial distinctions, which has now polarized much of the country." Diego von Vacano, Bolivian political scientist, Texas A&M University
"Racism exists in Bolivia: it existed before Evo, and it will never disappear." "While Evo started an important discussion, he also manipulated the race issue, and that has caused disunity. And now people of different races look at each other with suspicion." Michelle Kieffer, insurance broker, La Paz, Bolivia
"They have burned our flag. They have laughed at our culture." "This is racism; this is discrimination. We will give our lives for our rights." Alfonso Coque, cocoa grower, Bolivia
Police fired tear gas and live rounds of ammunition on November 15 at Indigenous supporters of former Bolivian President Evo Morales. The protesters attempted to march into Cochambamba, about 400 kilometres east of La Paz. Nine people were killed, dozens others were injured. In Mr. Morales's time in office Indigenous representatives grew in number as he redistributed the country's natural gas wealth, sharing it with native communities.
His time in office led to a renaissance of traditional Bolivian cuisine, music and cultural dress. A multicoloured flag representing the country's diverse Indigenous groups was introduced to give pride to those who had been too long neglected and marginalized. This became an official flag to fly alongside the traditional Independence-era banner of red, green and yellow. All of this and much, much more saw him idolized in many of Bolivia's Indigenous communities.
On the other hand, the major Quechua and Aymara Indigenous tribes comprising roughly a third of the country's adult population were given primary status, leaving many other Bolivians of mixed or European descent, along with smaller Indigenous groups resentful, accusing Mr. Morales of ethnic favoritism. Oddly enough there was a drop in the numbers of Bolivians identifying as members of Indigenous groups, falling to 41 percent in the last census, from 62 percent a decade earlier.
In former President Morales' absence an acting president of European descent has installed herself, even as police have removed insignia representing Indigenous symbols from their uniforms. The Indigenous flag has been burned by protesters, while the acting president appointed an initial cabinet lacking any Indigenous members. "We feel threatened. They don't represent us, they reject us, the Indigenous", stated Juan Acume, a farmer of the Quechua Indigenous group.
Jeanine Afiez Chavez, an opposition senator, proclaimed herself interim president, promising to unite the nation, and that new elections would take place in January. Divisive action began almost immediately when of eleven ministers not one was identified as a member of an Indigenous group until sensing the antagonism directed toward her moves, she relented, appointing an Indigenous minister of culture. The new president revived Catholic rituals in public events despite the Constitution defining Bolivia as a secular state.
Security forces block supporters of former President Evo Morales outside Cochabamba, Bolivia, Nov. 18, 2019.AP Photo/Juan Karita
The presence of European descendants of the original Spanish from colonial times amounted to a type of apartheid, with the European Bolivians in elite positions and the Indigenous population considered lower class citizens. Relations won't be helped by Ms.Afiez having published Twitter posts mocking the Indigenous culture, branding religious rites of their faith as "satanic".
"The public hospital system has collapsed. Citizens are dying like flies. The power blackouts are now permanent. Hyperinflation has spiralled out of control." "But they sat and named roads after themselves." Tendai Biti, vice-president, opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Zimbabwe
President Emmerson Mnangagwa rose to power in 2017 Getty Images
Zimbabwe, once the regional breadbasket that produced agricultural crops to feed its population and ample excess to sell to less productive countries, now imports a huge proportion of the food its population needs for survival. Under Robert Mugabe who ruled like a typical African tyrant belying the belief that he would lead his country forward in development when he was viewed as a saviour in the first years of his rule after independence, took the country down the path of total ruin.
The Rhodesian-era white settler-farmers who had farmed the land for generations, employing hundreds of thousands of farm labourers, feeding the nation, sending food crops abroad, loyal to the country, received a shock when their family farms were peremptorily expropriated by the state. They were forced from the farms, often violently, and some lost their lives in the process. The reason was to reclaim Zimbabwe's agricultural land and return it to its indigenous population.
Those who fought for independence monopolize power. AFP
Black Zimbabwean farm workers lost their employment. The farms were given over to Mugabe's fellow 'freedom fighters' who had no idea how agrarian methods of raising crops would maintain a working farm. But they did relish the idea of land ownership. Even while the once-working farms lay fallow, no crops were grown because no one cared and no one knew how to proceed nor was interested in finding out how to restore the functionality of farms that once fed the nation.
patrick mpandawana
@patrick_mpa
Replying to
@larry_moyo
Breaking News: Prices Set To Fall And Exchange Rates Stabalise After Govt Announces New Street Names
2:12 AM · Nov 22, 2019, Twitter
Zimbabwe suffered sky-high inflation, unemployment soared, food and medicine became scarce, but President Mugabe saw nothing amiss and was disinterested in useful criticism while his people suffered. He is dead now; he almost ruled for life, but was eventually deposed and in his place is President Emmerson Mnangagwa whose administration has done very little to raise the hopes and expectations of Zimbabweans that their long-suffering travails are over.
He is too busy renaming streets whose names reflect the colonial era. In ten of the country's largest cities and towns, Harare included, thoroughfares are being renamed to reflect the name of the president, Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa. Hughes Street, Etherton Road, and other British-type names are the past and are now consigned to the past. In their place will be Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa Road, Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa Street, and so on.
And nor are members of the Zanu-PF leading party to be ignored; streets are slated to be named after them as well, including that of Solomon Mujuru a party kingpin whose collection of confiscated farms when white farmers were purged, runs to 16. But Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev will be memorialized by an Avenue and so will Fidel Castro and Chairman Mao. These are vitally important cultural, political and social steps forward for the country.
"All the other name changes are to cover up this wicked ambition", said Arthur Mutambara, veteran opposition figure, accusing the Zimbabwean president of striving to "immortalize himself." Like Robert Mugabe before him the current president is busy ensuring that he has the 'respect' of his fellow Zimbabweans, for whom he has done scant to ensure that their lives will see any kind of improvement any time soon.
He has other, more important things to take his time and notice and energy. As for example, the unveiling of a statue of himself in southern Zimbabwe, at Masvingo Airport. And no doubt many more in the planning stages.
China, Helping Canada See the Error of its Ways ....
"I
had never even thought of China [back in 1979 when Beijing began
opening up to its version of democracy-plus-free-enterprise]. It was not
on my radar at all, but this sounded really interesting." "So,
my husband and I went over to China [to travel in China, which led to a
master's degree in international relations with a Chinese focus]." "When
I came home [40 years later], I decided to speak out. Up until January
[of 2019], I had never done an interview in my life. But I feel it's
important that friends of China -- former friends of China -- speak out
about this [Beijing's increasingly authoritarian streak]." "I'm not feeling very friendly toward China, if you can tell." Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, former vice-president, Canada-China Friendship Association
"We
are rolling over, we are acquiescing, at a time when Chinese aggression
is on the rise. We should be working with like-minded allies to send a
real signal that such conduct is not condoned." "[If keeping quiet and friendly were going to work with China, Spavor and Kovrig] would have been released months ago." Erin O'Toole, Parliamentary opposition, foreign affairs critic
"[Beijing] is good at co-opting former government officials and politicians by offering them seats on boards and contracts." "Obviously, then it becomes very difficult for you to become critical of China." Guy Saint-Jacques, former Canadian ambassador to China
"There's nothing like back door devices being installed by Huawei. So that's a groundless accusation." "So
we do hope that the Canadian side will provide a fair, just and a
non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese companies, including Huawei." "We do hope that the Canadian side will reflect on what has
happened and take concrete measures to push our relationship back to the
normal track. So that's the task for the government." "And we do
hope that those important people in the new [Liberal] cabinet will play an active
role in making sure that relations of our two countries return to their
normal track on the basis of mutual respect and equality." Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Canada Cong Peiwu
Cong Peiwu spoke to reporters at China's Embassy in Ottawa CBC
"When
they get Huawei into Canada ... they're going to know every health
record, every banking record, every social media post -- they're going
to know everything about every single Canadian." "What
the Chinese are doing makes Facebook and Google look like child's play,
as far as collecting information on folks. The Huawei Trojan horse is
frightening, it's terrifying." "I
find it amazing that our allies and friends in other liberal
democracies would allow Huawei in ... I'm surprised that there's even a
debate out there." "[Such
an intrusion would impact on Canada's participation in the Five Eyes
Intelligence alliance of Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and the
U.S.]." Robert O'Brien, U.S. National Security Adviser
Ambassador Cong, in delivering Beijing's message to Ottawa, is using
coded language when he urges the Liberal government of Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau to 'return to their normal track', and to 'take concrete
measures to push our relationship back to the normal track'. He has
outlined the 'task for the government' of Canada. There is nothing
necessarily that Beijing must do to restore relations between the two
nations, for it has done nothing untoward. It was Canada's concurrence
through its extradition treaty with its southern neighbour that launched
the unfortunate decision to comply with the U.S. by assaulting China.
For in arresting Huawei Technology's CFO Meng Wenzhou at the behest of
the U.S. State Department, this is what Beijing has accused Canada of --
criminal malfeasance, defying international law. Whereas China's
response to the insult bestowed upon one of its citizens by summarily
arresting two Canadians in China for business purposes and accusing them
of plotting against China -- charging them with espionage,
incarcerating them under harsh conditions while Ms. Meng, out on bail,
lives in one of her luxury mansions in Vancouver -- has been mindful of
and obedient to the rule of law.
Beijing knows with whom it is dealing. While former Liberal Prime
Minister Jean Chretien was in office he led numerous elaborate 'trade
missions' to China from Canada, familiarizing himself with useful
Chinese officials whom he called upon once he left office to become a
private citizen and continued to lead trade missions to China, the
prestige of a former prime minister opening doors, and with his insider
status intact. When former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's
policy was to regard trade with China as second to its human rights
abuses, Mr. Chretien poured scorn upon him; nothing should impede
unrestrained trade alliances with China.
This Liberal government under Justin Trudeau has tread softly around
China's outrageous response to the U.S.-Canada extradition treaty, when
Beijing arrested two Canadians, imposed death sentences for drug
smuggling on another two Canadians and placed punishing constraints on
the importation of Canadian canola, soy, peas, pork and beef products,
devastating the Canadian agricultural sector through punishing sanctions
on a country that refused to come to heel and release the Huawei
executive.
Michael Spavor, left, former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig, right (Canadian Press)
Margaret McCuaig-Johnston had dedicated her working life to enhancing
relations between Canada and China, collaborating to advance the
relationship between the two countries. She aided China in its science
and technology development during its period of reform, as a Canadian
civil servant, while considering herself a staunch "friend of China".
And then, after forty years of work in that realm the arrest of Meng
Wanzhou, followed by the incarceration of Michael Kovrig and Michael
Spavor, she discovered her locked luggage had been unlocked and rifled
through in her Shanghai hotel room.
Soon a local business acquaintance informed her of a list of 100
Canadians that Chinese authorities had compiled representing those who
could be detained and interrogated, among the hundreds of thousands of
Canadians who live and work in China; Hong Kong alone has 300,000 people
with Canadian citizenship. In other words, Canadians living in Hong
Kong are also under scrutiny and their security is of concern as well,
particularly given the violent turn of the protests in the partially
autonomous city.
And China has warned Canada, through the stern advice of its latest
ambassador that it would not be in Canada's interests to 'interfere' in
China's internal affairs.
A protester is detained by riot police while attempting to
leave the campus of Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) during
clashes with police in Hong Kong, China November 18, 2019. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)
The current Liberal government in Canada takes advice from its past
prime minister on such issues; and no doubt the advice was not to
further ruffle any feathers, to sit back and let events take their
course. Naturally, the imprisoned Canadians, despite the harsh
conditions they are suffering, would staunchly opt to sit back and
suffer their circumstances, in support of their government's position,
for no sacrifice is too great to protect Canadian trade with China.
Some 140 and more signatories in the academic and diplomatic global
community demanded through a joint letter that China release Kovrig and
Spavor. A mere 6 Canadian academics and six former Canadian ambassadors
to China signed.
It has been observed that more than a few advisers to the Liberal
government have what they consider to be valued and hard-won ties and
interests in China. The new ambassador to Beijing, Dominic Barton, among
them. Many Canadian academics, politicians and business leaders have
compromised positions finding it difficult to criticize China, for to do
so would be to risk the status they have won and cherish for the
opportunities and funding that status guarantees them.
"It sounds morbid to say this, but my family has always had the outlook that anything worth doing comes at a cost. And if you're doing the right thing and something happens to you, then it was meant to be and you should just accept it." "We take as many precautions as we can, but we are under threat -- constantly." Ilwad Elman, Canadian-Somali peace activist
"It doesn't happen anywhere else in the world that you have a prime minister who just graduated from Carleton University or Ottawa University and did a great job in Somalia." "It is really something that's unique and we need to build on that." Gamal Hassan, Somalia Economic Development Minister, dual Canadian-Somali citizen
"They went back to Somalia to do what a lot of Canadians do, which is to go around the world providing leadership on a lot of issues around peacemaking and helping communities to build reconstruction after a conflict." "The Elman family has been amazing in contributing that to Somalia. Finding that news [death of Almaas Elman, Canadian-Somali dual citizen] was really difficult for a lot of people, including myself." Liberal cabinet minister Ahmed Hussen, former Canadian Minister of Immigration
Ilwad Elman, center, who was reportedly shortlisted for this year's
Nobel Peace Prize, attends the funeral service for her sister, Somali
Canadian peace activist Almaas Elman, in the capital Mogadishu, Somalia
Friday, Nov. 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
A wave of over 55,000 Somali refugees arrived in Canada in the 1980s and 1990s, escaping conflict in Somalia when the country was deeply engulfed in a civil war, and the aftermath of that war left a country torn asunder, ungovernable, violent and shattered. During that period Elman Ali Ahmed, a Somali peace activist was assassinated in Mogadishu. His wife and their three daughters left Somalia, to arrive in Canada as refugees.
But they eventually returned to their country of birth, where they resumed their human rights activism. One of the three sisters joined the national military, a second, Ilwad, was nominated for the 2019 Nobel Prize, recognizing her humanitarian work in Somalia and elsewhere. And the third, Almaas, met her death earlier this week while in a car inside a heavily defended base close to the international airport; a 'safe zone', where diplomats and aid workers have offices.
In July, 27 people were killed by a suicide bomb in the southern port city of Kismayo, among them Hodan Nalayeh, another Somali-Canadian, a journalist who had been a child when her family moved to Canada. She too returned to Somalia determined to help in rebuilding her country of origin, as have thousands of other Somalis who had sought refuge from war. Two of Somalia's prime ministers held dual Somali-Canadian citizenship. At present the Somali government is comprised of 30 percent elected cabinet ministers with Canadian connections.
MP Ahmed Hussen said the Elman family has a long history of demonstrating Canadian generosity in Somalia. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
The Russian Security Services Throwing Their Intimidating Weight Around
"[The raids had] delivered colossal reputational damage with law enforcement organs discrediting themselves in the eyes of the scientific community." "[The actions of the security forces] are impossible to imagine in a civilized country in which law enforcement agencies concern themselves with real, not invented, problems." Lebedev Institute Scientific Council statement
The
Lebedev Physics Institute in Moscow. Many were shocked last week when
its halls were suddenly swarming with security officers wearing masks
and armed with automatic weapons. Credit...Emile Ducke for The New York Times
Vladimir Putin issued both a congratulation and a caution to the Federal Security Service, better known at home and abroad as the F.S.B. -- successor to the Soviet-era K.G.B., referring to its increasing presence within "Russia's integrated security", at the same time referring to its need to pay attention to "strengthening public confidence" in their operations. They are, in fact, rather clumsy in their operations, using easily-traced toxic chemicals abroad intending to extinguish critical voices of expatriates living abroad, say in London, England.
As for a lack of discretionary class, and choosing to behave like thugs, that too occurs not only abroad but right at home as well. And sometimes in the most unexpected of places. Take, for example, the Lebedev Physics Institute in Moscow, a highly respected professional body of elite scientific investigation known internationally for the precision and high integrity of its research. Its usefulness in enabling the USSR to build a hydrogen bomb after detonating its first nuclear device should have endowed it with 'hands-off' status.
All the more so, given that seven of its employees, scientists who won Nobel Prizes further distinguished the Institute's glowing international credentials. This is a different time and era, however, a return to state-sanctioned thuggery in the name of safeguarding the Russian Federation's 'security'. Still, it occasioned surprise and shock when masked security officers armed with automatic weapons stormed the halls of the institute, searching the director's office, questioning him for six hours, over a 'plot' to export military glass abroad.
Nikolai N. Kolachevsky, director of the Lebedev Institute is not accustomed to such rough, disrespectful handling, denouncing the raid as a "masked show"; an intervention by law enforcement that far exceeds both their authority and the purported intelligence they were in hot pursuit of. This, at a time when Vladimir Putin exhorts Russian scientists to use their expertise in helping construct a modern economy, and for their efforts are subjected to abuse by 'law enforcement'.
Even as security services raided the Lebedev Physics Institute they also conducted raids simultaneously on scientists' homes, along with those of their family members for good measure. They appear to have been targeting the 36-year-old daughter of a Lebedev scientist, owner of a company that sells precision glassware out of an office rented at the Institute. Olga Kanorskaya's apartment was raided by security officers, as another team searched the apartment of her parents.
In a search for evidence to prove their accusation that she exported glass whose properties have potential military applications to Germany, her possessions were thoroughly inspected. This charge, they claim, represents a criminal offence carrying a sentence of seven to 20 years in prison. She was taken into custody and questioned by police investigators along with an interrogation by an F.S.B. officer. President Putin would know all about what that entails from his own years with the K.G.B.
Neither Ms.Kanorskaya, her father Sergei, nor Mr. Kolachevsky have been charged with any criminal offence. Nor will they ever expect to receive an apology for the humiliating treatment they were exposed to. "There is nothing especially surprising here. Everything fits into the 'witch hunt' script that has been gaining momentum with every year", commented Mr. Kolachevsky.
The
main target of the criminal investigation that led to the raids seems
to have been Olga S. Kanorskaya, who has built up a small business
selling precision glassware. Credit...Emile Ducke for The New York Times
"[The Arctic is a region of] concentration of practically all aspects of national security -- military, political, economic, technological, environment and that of resources." "[Shipping through the Northern Sea Route would increase from 20 million metric tonnes today to 80 million tonnes by 2035; this is] a realistic, well-calculated and concrete task ahead for Russia." "[The new National Security Strategy explicitly aims to increase the] competitiveness and international prestige of the Russian Federation [in the Arctic]." Russian President Vladimir Putin
People attend the float-out ceremony of the nuclear-powered icebreaker
Ural at the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg, Russia, (Anton Vaganov/Reuters)
"Global warming in recent years has accelerated the melting of ice and snow [posing a security threat to China and the world." "[China is] a near Arctic State, an important stakeholder in Arctic affairs." "[China is prepared to include Arctic states in its] Belt and Road Initiative." White paper on China's Arctic Policy
The Chinese icebreaking research vessel Xue Long – or Ice Dragon – has
played a key part in Chinese capacity building in the Arctic since the
1990s. Photo: dracophylla
"All that's been stated before [Issues of health, sustainable development and sovereignty over the Northwest Passage]." "What's not being stated here is any idea of how the [Canadian] government is going to address these well-known issues." Rob Huebert, Arctic specialist, University of Calgary
President Putin's commitment to the Arctic is obvious; by 2035 Russia plans to add four nuclear icebreakers to its Arctic fleet for a total of 13 heavy icebreakers, nine nuclear. In the Arctic, Russia is a superpower, and has been since the days of the czars. Russia has its eye on the untold wealth of natural resources, both mineral and fossil fuels known to lie on and under the seabed, and Russia is eager to take possession of its generous share of that wealth, not to mention ownership of an impressive, albeit contested share of its geography.
And then there is China which despite being nowhere near the Arctic Circle -- over 7,000 kilometres' distance in fact -- considers itself a shareholder, an 'important stakeholder' with goals to explore and deepen knowledge of the Arctic, including protection of the environment, making use of Arctic resources, and actively taking part in governance of the Arctic. China joined the Arctic Council as an 'observer' in 2013, innocent enough at the time, but with long-range future consequences.
In the Spitsbergen archipelago, China built the Arctic Yellow River Station and carried out eight scientific explorations by the end of 2017. Like Russia, China is expanding its Arctic fleet as well, planning on building a second heavy icebreaker to join its first which transited the Northwest Passage in 2017. Tenders have gone out for the construction of a nuclear icebreaker to bring China in line with elite Arctic capabilities.
And Canada? It has produced a document with input from twenty-five Indigenous organizations, the territories of Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and Yukon and the provinces of Manitoba, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador. A wide-ranging yet unfocused document addressing the issues of climate change, melting sea ice and great power interest in the Arctic; objectives that may or may not be realized, but likely not under the current government.
What is known and anticipated is that melting ice will permit for shipping use of the Arctic sea routes connecting China and Europe. An estimated 20 days' voyage would be sliced off the 48 days currently taken from Rotterdam to China via the Suez Canal. But the severe climate threat mandates that science must be focused along with technology to be developed and enhanced adaptation to counter the growth in greenhouse gases. Only possible through international co-operation.
"It creates a big vacuum in Venezuela. If this situation is prolonged it will be even more difficult to think about the reset of Venezuela." "It will for sure change the profile of Latin America, this movement of people. We are speaking about six million people." "It will have an impact no doubt on the future of Venezuela proper and in the receiving countries." "These countries seem to be willing to integrate Venezuelans, but they cannot do it alone."
Renata Dubini, U.S. director, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
"It's the largest human migration in the history of this hemisphere since the arrival of Europeans." "For fifty years it was Colombia that was the unstable country with extraordinary levels of violence and organized crime activity. And Colombians were voting with their feet as well and they established themselves in all kinds of Latin American countries." "The Venezuelans of 2019 are starting to occupy the role that Colombians have played for so many years. I suspect that Venezuelan communities are going to become relatively permanent fixtures of so many other Latin American countries over the generations to come." "I'm painting a rather bleak notion of Venezuela being the new Haiti. Over the years and years to come, decades to come, there's going to be a requirement for a very significant economic and humanitarian support." Ben Rowswell, former Canadian ambassador to Venezuela
"When you have four and a half million people leaving a country, you get a brain drain, you get a deterioration in basic services because medical staff, teaching staff, businesspeople leave." "It contributes to the degradation of that society." Dr. Hugo Slim, head, policy and human diplomacy, International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva
The tragic dissolution of a country. The world saw it happening in slow motion in Zimbabwe, and it is repeating itself in Venezuela. The outflow of over four and a half million Venezuelans, choosing refuge outside their own country, driven by violence, crime, corruption, medical emergencies, food shortages, unemployment, financial crisis, sees the collapse of a country well endowed with natural resources, that was once one of the wealthiest nations in Latin America. The social revolution that Hugo Chavez brought to the country began its long slide into insolvency and irreparable disarray.
Before his death, however, it might have been difficult to foresee just how rapidly the disintegration of the country would proceed under the stewardship of his chosen successor, a man as qualified, as a bus driver, to lead the country, as Chavez was, a former low-level military man. Had Nicolas Maduro remained a bus driver the country would unquestionably have been far better off than the wreckage the world looks in on today. According to new estimates released by the United Nations, by the end of 2020, the number of Venezuelan refugees could top 6 million.
And though the country itself is groaning under the sheet weight of its incompetent, corrupt ruling body, its neighbours are straining mightily to honour their duty to give haven to the oppressed and the indigent. Venezuela's neighbours are taking up the slack of millions of Venezuelan lives left in the limbo of statelessness and concern for the future. The entire continent is in the grip of change in their political and social order, and must cope as well with the overflow of Venezuelan refugees.
Mass protests have rocked Chile, forcing it to cancel major international summits;
Bolivia has undergone a contested election that has seen its first and perhaps only Indigenous president, Evo Morales sent into exile in Mexico;
Argentina has once again elected a left-leaning government;
Brazil is governed by a controversial populist.
The Venezuelan military has been called upon by the international community to give their support to opposition leader Juan Guaido as a legitimate interim president in the wake of an election held to be wildly corrupt, and to oust the government of Nicolas Maduro. The Lima Group of the hemisphere, (with the exception of the U.S.), along with four dozen other countries have thrown their support to Juan Guaido. Nothing, however, has changed. Maduro has his supporters, primarily from other socialist countries who will brook no interference in Venezuela.
Venezuela's economy continues to flounder, the health and education systems have seen a major collapse in the once oil-rich state with hyperinflation and food and medicine shortages persuading Venezuela's educated elite, its professionals, to look elsewhere for their future, alongside those for whom poverty has been a lifelong affliction. Even Venezuelans who decamp their country to hope for haven and opportunity elsewhere have no illusions that their country of birth will ever recover from its current crisis; it is too far gone, and they harbour no aspirations to return.
Peru's foreign ministry took a survey recently of new arrivals, to discover that 90 percent claimed they had no wish to return to Venezuela. Peru now hosts 861,000 Venezuelan refugees, a number that is expected to grow to an estimated 978,00 by the closing of 2020. Colombia has absorbed 1.4 million Venezuelans, in the anticipation that even that number will inevitably increase by another million by the end of 2020.
Many Venezuelan refugees represent an elite, educationally qualified as professionals in the field of medicine and engineering. Canada has requested of the World Bank that Colombia, Peru and Ecuador be granted new and stable economic assistance to help them cope with the infusion of refugees; loans that would have no-payment grace periods of several years' duration to provide long-term support to enable Colombia and Peru to pay for education and health care for their new residents.
Latin American countries host the vast majority of Venezuelan migrants and refugees Reuters
This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.
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