"Many communities and families insist that their misplaced sense of 'honor' is located in a woman's body and actions."
"That
is also why control over a woman's actions and rights find so many
colluders across the board in keeping heinous customs like this alive."
Senator Sherry Rehman, Pakistan
"In a country where conviction
rates often fall to single digits, visibility — and the uproar it brings
— has its advantages."
"It jolts a complacent state that continues to tolerate jirgas [Loya Jirgas ... 'grand councils'] in areas beyond its writ."
Constitutional lawyer Asad Rahim Khan
The scene in Balochistan province, Pakistan, before the "honor killing" was carried out. NBC News
The
two people involved, a man and a woman, accused of having an illicit
love affair -- in a country whose strict Islamic moral codes include
capital punishment for women who stray from their assigned roles as
subservient to men in all matters, for whom the human rights freedom of
women in other societies are severely restricted; they may not be in the
company of men other than husband, father, brother, uncle or risk the
ultimate punishment -- were lured to a neutral place in their village
where they were informed they were condemned to death.
Taken
to an open desert in southern Pakistan, a village crowd of both men and
women backgrounded them; for the women a warning lest they ever
surrender to the temptation to dishonour their family, their clan, their
village; for the men a validation that women who stray from their
assigned role as modest wife, daughter, sister, there will be due
punishment delivered to restore the honour their disgraceful actions
blemished.
Bano
Bibi was 35, a wife and mother of three. The man accused of being her
lover, Ehsanullah Samalani, 50, a father of four, was in this instance,
also punished to restore the honour he had besmirched intolerably. She
was shot first, three times, by her younger brother. Her mother, also
present, condemned her daughter and supported the punishment that took
her life -- for the killing "was necessary to cleanse our family's honor".
Particularly
in rural areas of Pakistan, honor killings are rampant; bringing shame
by irregular, disapproved conduct by a woman will guarantee lethal
punishment. And it is usually family members closest to the woman who
will carry out the death sentence. Even a child who refuses marriage to
an elderly man, thus bringing dishonor to her family can present as a
candidate for death, for centuries-old cultural practices do not bend to
the contours of modernity or human rights.
The
double execution took place in mid-July. Since then, public protests
have broken out, causing authorities to take notice, and with that
notice, action. That action was spurred by an investigation that
resulted in arrests, including that of Bano Bibi's mother for her role
in the death of her daughter. On average a woman dies every day for the
cultural crime of dishonoring family. A video of that double execution
went viral, fully six weeks after the event.
Bano Bibi's mother, Gul Jan Bibi, said the killings were based on traditional Baloch traditions and were not sinful. (Reuters: Abdul Wali)
Pakistan,
a nation of over 240 million where fundamental Islam is the law of the
land under Sharia, saw politicians and law enforcement officials
spurred to take action. After all, they have time and again vowed to
commit to the protection of women, and to take action against
perpetrators of honor killings. But traditions die hard, even while
women's lives are easily taken in punishment of carnal sins attributed
to both the innocent and the 'guilty'. Despite the government
assurances of imminent action, tradition carries on.
The
video shows male onlookers watching in silent intensity, some of them
filming the execution with their smart phones. Modernity is viewed
through the lens of technology, but cultural tradition is set in the
crystalline cast of a society whose moral piety is a death machine for
any who dare challenge tradition through the irresistible draw of human
emotions.
The
early June executions, thanks to the video and protests that
accompanied its viewing, saw an investigation begin in July, leading to
the arrest of over 15 people involved in the double killing. Last year
over four hundred women were victimized by these cultural executions,
according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, independent of
government. Pakistan does have laws to protect against gender-based
violence; still such murders go unpunished; tribal code trumping civil
law in rural Pakistan.
Relatives
most often kill women for refusing forced marriage, for seeking
divorce, or for engaging in relationships that men categorize as
violations of their values. Criminal convictions resulted in 0.5 percent
of all reported honor killings last year. "Incidents every now and then get traction in the media, but it continues in a shameful way", stated Farah Zia, director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
A video of an "honour killing" of a woman and her lover in Pakistan has sparked protests in Quetta city. (Reuters: Rizwan Saeed)
"If a woman is wearing very few clothes it will have an impact on the men unless they are robots."
"If you raise temptation in society to a point -- and all these young guys have nowhere to go -- it has a consequence in the society."
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan
"The crowd pulled me from all sides to such an extent that my clothes were torn."
"I was hurled in the air. They assaulted me brutally."
"Is this the punishment for being one of Pakistan’s daughters? I did not
go there in any lewd clothes nor have I ever filmed lewd TikTok videos.
I was in a proper dress."
"We were shooting the clip when a good number of youngsters started
teasing me. They were joined by more and more. Seeing
the suspects harassing me, the security guard of the Minar-e-Pakistan
Park opened the central gate. When I crossed the gate and entered the
park, the suspects came after me."
"They also beat my team members, and used abusive language."
Young Pakistani woman
"Are #400MEN still not enough for the people of this country to finally convince themselves and their misogynistic & sick mindset about how wrong they are about 'not all men'?"
Outraged Pakistani Twitter comment
"I saw that girl’s interview where she said her team made several calls
to 15 for help but they didn’t respond."
"Hold police accountable for
their criminal negligence as well."
Beenish Zaman, Twitter comment
Representational image | Aurat Azaadi March in Pakistan | Twitter | @wdf_pk
The mass male assault on a young women in Lahore's Greater Iqbal park took place on August 14. Officials failed to take notice until an interview was televised with the young woman who tearfully told her story, and the public reacted with outrage. That moved authorities to declare their shock and disbelief that such a thing could happen in public, during the day, in a respectable area of a great city in Pakistan. And they would take steps to ensure that such a wretched event would never recur.
Some among the assaulters of the young woman took videos of what was occurring, and then proudly posted the video on social media. The reaction was immediate, and perhaps more than they had imagined with women all over Pakistan -- and even from India where such outrages and atrocities are even more common -- responding with venomous words of disgust and fury that such an occurrence could take place in a civilized society.
"We are working on it full throttle", said Pakistan's information minister, Fawad Chaudhry, as police now seek to identify no fewer than 400 men seen on that CCTV video footage attacking and molesting the young woman. She had gone out with six of her friends to film a social media video to be placed on TikTok. It was Pakistan's national celebratory holiday of Independence Day. So the group headed out to the Greater Iqbal park.
Now that the public is livid with anger over the event, Imran Khan is paying attention, noting developments. Complaints have been filed against 300 to 400 individuals. The young woman claimed the men took her money, her earrings and her cellphone in her filing. The park is beside another public area, Minar-e-Pakistan, an iconic monument. When the men converged on the young woman, a security guard at the monument opened the gate for her to escape the groping mob, but it was too late.
In the video footage, the crowd of men is seen tearing at her clothing, throwing her about and groping her relentlessly. Social media comments focused on the event highlighting the country's pervasive culture of misogyny where the phrase "Not all men" is frequently used as an exculpatory comment responding to sexual violence against women. Up sprang a rebuttal: "Yes all men", swiftly trending in acid response.
And as one Twitter commenter said when no one appeared in the video to have taken any steps to give aid to the woman: "Not all men right? Just 400 men in the smack middle of Lahore groping one single woman". Ranking as one of the most dangerous places in the world for women, Pakistan has much to discuss with itself at number 7. If it maintains this continuum it will rival India for number 1 spot.
Simlyn J/Feminism In India
A mere 0.3 percent of 22,037 rape cases reported in the country between 2015 and 2020 led to convictions. Reason enough to explain why it is that few rapes are reported at all in comparison to the numbers that actually prevail when only 77 of the cases saw the rapist convicted of his crime, according to the Human Rights commission of Pakistan.
"Deeply disturbed at the harassment of a young woman & her
companions by hundreds of people at Greater Iqbal Park in Lahore."
"What is more worrying is the direction our society
is headed in. The recent anti-women incidents are a reminder that
malaise is deep-rooted. Very Shameful!"
Shehbaz Sharif, leader of Opposition, Pakistan’s National
Assembly
The woman TikToker was assaulted by hundreds of people in
Pakistan. (Image for representation: Rahul Gupta | India Today)
"Slavery was not genocide -- otherwise there wouldn't be so many damn
Blacks in Africa or in Britain, would there? An awful lot of them
survived." "As for the idea that slavery is this kind of terrible disease that
dare not speak its name, it only dare not speak its name ...
because we settled it nearly 200 years ago." "We don't normally go
on about the fact that Roman Catholics once upon a time didn't have the
vote and weren't allowed to have their own churches because we had
Catholic emancipation." "And do you know what -- we had Catholic emancipation at pretty much
exactly the same time that we got rid of slavery in the 1830s. We don't
go on about that because it's part of history, it's a question that's
settled." "And again there is no point in arguing against globalization or
Western civilization - they are all products of it. We are all products
of it." "[The British Empire was] generally speaking, in most ways, actually fruitful." Dr.David Starkey
Move on folks. The words of this intellectual and public figure -- no longer a celebrity in academic circles -- are a reflection of the truth, honestly spoken and honestly come by. Yet an expression of verity that breaks the eggshell of the shibboleth of recent adoption that the tragic suffering of Blacks throughout history is somehow unique to humankind, akin to a genocide, none of which is accurate, and which Dr. Starkey was quick to point out. Slavery has existed since time immemorial and slaves have not only been black, but white and any other colour of the spectrum of humanity.
There have indeed been periods in history when genocidal intent has been carried out in a mass slaughter of an ethnic-cultural-religious group with the intention of total annihilation in conformation with a racist ideology regarding them as vermin to be eradicated from the face of the Earth. During those years of institutionalized and carefully orchestrated violation of humanity, the targets were enslaved, tortured and methodically murdered. Six million in number, representing a significant mass proportion of their presence globally. That is genocide.
At a time in many Western civilizations when signs proliferated in the early- and mid-20th Centuries that "Jews, Blacks and Dogs" were not permitted entry, assaults on the dignity and humanity of people of such specific origins were widespread and supported both by the citizenry and the governments representing them. This kind of degradation of humanity was common and broadly accepted. To the present day, racist discrimination, oppression and deranged violence targets specific groups.
Black Lives Matter protesters in Hyde Park in June Reuters
Dr. Starkey, for all his academic acclaim and reputation as a historian of the first order is also a plainspoken man; he does not cloak his utterances in the precious exclusionary language of academia; he speaks directly and plainly of what he knows, of historical precedents, giving his studied opinion based on reality, not the popularity of the most recent publicly-adopted issue designating it the flavour-of-the-moment, which crowds of people, eager to portray themselves as engaged progressives march sanctimoniously in favour of.
Rectifying the past to better reflect the outrage of the present over established customs and values long since abandoned in favour of more enlightened practises reflecting the public weal as humanity drew closer in the event of mass exoduses from countries where enslavement still persists, where violations of human rights are ongoing, where exploitation of human potential is rampant, where internecine and sectarian and tribal enmities cause explosions of violence and civil war. Refugees and emigrants stream into developed societies to add their dreams to national aspirations.
And living in those present-day situations, opportunistic groups still favour revolutionary hatreds and chaos over secure societal normalcy. Bringing hate groups like Antifa and Black Lives Matter together with the Muslim Brotherhood to espouse change in an imperfect society that has offered them freedom and the potential to succeed in normalizing their own lives, to prosper and to meld with a society meant to embrace equality of opportunity and the recognition of how much we have in common.
For speaking his mind based on fact, not the fiction of victimhood and blame, Dr.Starkey is no longer academically associated with Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and Canterbury Christ Church University; no longer a visiting fellow at University of Buckingham, and Lancaster and Kent Universities have placed his honorary graduate status under review. His publisher cacnelled the release of Dr.Starkey's latest history books.
"He's been saying this stuff for years. It's only because of the work of #BlackLivesMatter that it's being taken more seriously Personally I believe he should lose his CBE (Commander of the British Empire) too", claimed an academic colleague, obviously in the progressive league, and without doubt green with jealousy and schadenfreude of the now-destroyed popular reputation of Dr.Starkey in his so-recent heyday as an acclaimed debater, historian, author.
"It's just not acceptable what he said. With freedom of speech goes responsibility. It's not an absolute right, and you cannot thoughtlessly provoke and incite and inflame, particularly at such a sensitive time", commented Sir Anthony Seldon, Dr.Starkey's employer at the University of Buckingham. Unwittingly (perhaps as a reflection of his own witlessness) describing precisely what Black Lives Matter's campaign is promoting: incitement, inflaming attitudes, and indulging in violent chaos.
These academic institutions are quavering in fear lest they be labelled anti-Black racists.
"We cannot decolonize the curriculum, because you Black Lives Matter are wholly and entirely a product of white colonization."
"You are not culturally black Africans." "You would die in seconds if you were dumped back in black Africa, you wouldn’t know how to cope." "[The same white people who support the BLM movement were the people] who work themselves up into a lather about leaving the European Union." "These are the people who tie themselves in knots
despite the fact they have lots of money, live in big houses, drive big
cars." "They get wildly excited about extinction. It’s a form of upper class and middle class arrogant patronage." Dr.David Starkey
David Starkey made the comments on YouTube channel Reasoned UK (Photo: Getty)
Joyti Singh, who was fatally assaulted by six men on a bus in Delhi.
Photographs: Arkaprava Ghosh / Barcroft India via Getty Images and
Natisha Mallick
"Today is dedicated to the daughters of the country," "As soon as I returned from the Supreme Court I hugged the picture of my daughter and said, 'Today, you got justice'." Asha Devi, mother of Jyoti Singh
"Justice has prevailed." "[I hope to] build a nation where the focus is on women's empowerment." Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi "The horrific gang rape has shocked the entire nation, the crime was so brutal that an entire country was outraged." "We
welcome the hanging of the rapists and believe that the country needs
to now work on stricter laws to ensure no one ever dares to commit such
crimes again." Swati Maliwal, chairwoman, Delhi Commission for Women
The victim's parents Badrinath Singh (left) and Asha Devi (centre)
celebrated what they said was justice for their daughter's murder
India, with its vast population rivalling that of China's, is a huge
democracy, whereas China is a communist, police-state. China and India
both, each of them with well over a billion people and on the increase,
are known for the brilliance of their scientists, that among their
populations are people with distinguished careers in medicine,
technology, biology. But there is nothing to explain the disparity
between the two nations in the plight of women. Where, in India, so many
women and girls are victims of male violence. The caste system?
The world was aghast in 2012 when news circulated of a horribly vicious
attack that took place on a bus in Delhi, an attack whose malevolent
bestiality was beyond comprehension. Physiotherapy student, 23-year-old
Jyoti Singh, was gang-raped and her internal organs destroyed by the
insertion of a metal rod by the attackers who had raped her. She and a
male friend had boarded what they thought was a public bus.
There were five men and a teen on the bus and they started taunting and
then abusing the two students. The escalation in violence began when an
iron bar was used to beat them, and then developed into a mass rape, and
finally the use of the iron bar to express their hateful malice against
a defenceless young woman who died shortly afterward, in hospital. The
two students had been tossed out of the bus and left to die. The young
woman's male friend survived, she did not.
The brutal attack on Jyoti Singh sparked weeks of demonstrations in India.
India now knows her as 'Nirbhaya'; fearless in Hindi. This atrocity
aroused the anger of India's women and the men in India who support the
right of women to be safe and secure within society. Rallies were held,
protests loudly demanded the government act to stem the tide of
femicide. Stricter legislation was enacted to punish acts of violence
against women. And despite that, nothing appears to have impressed upon
misogynistic Indian men that viciously abusing women is a crime for
which they will pay, dearly.
In 2018, over 34,000 rapes were reported to Indian police, representing
one every 15 minutes, but no one is under the illusion that this is a
reliable number, since most rapes go unreported as a result of shame and
fear and threats. Rapes are so common, of girls and women that police
often fail to take them seriously. There are estimates that up to 99
percent of sex assaults go unreported, according to the 2014-15 Indian
National Family Health Survey. Males of rank in the caste system abuse
young Dalit women; rape and often kill them but are 'protected' from
reprisal.
In the case of the five men who faced the death penalty, one committed
suicide while in prison. The under-age teen who had taken part in the
rape and beatings of Jyoti Singh and her companion had been sentenced as
a minor and spent three years in a reform facility, reflecting the
maximum sentence under natioal law for his age. The other four men were
executed at the high-security Tihar prison, where a crowd gathered
outside, chanting: "Death to rapists".
An Indian man holds a placard reading ‘morning of justice’ outside the prison complex before the hangings in Delhi on Friday.
Photograph: Rajat Gupta/EPA
"I find that there was little evidence provided to support that the respondent knowingly observed and performed virginity tests for the purpose of having women convicted of zina."
Immigration and Refugee Board Appeal Division, Canada
"The authorities wanted us to check her virginity and also to find
out if there were any signs of sexual intercourse. This is not an
uncommon occurrence in Afghanistan." “In
Islamic law and tradition, a woman is forbidden from having any sexual
relationship before marriage." "Both the law and the public punishes women
for such ‘sins’ and it is called zina."
A young girl holds a rose during an event marking the International
Women’s Day in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, March 8, 2020. (AP
Photo/Rahmat Gul)
In Afghanistan the criminal code lists a crime called "zina". This describes a societal criminal sin that only women can be guilty of. And it is a sin that ostracizes women, criminalizes them, and ruins their lives after imprisoning them. Zina is the crime of pre-marriage sex. And to identify women who are guilty of this crime, female doctors are tasked with conducting "virginity tests". A virginity test is incontestably a humiliating ritual of shaming a woman whose behaviour deserves that she be degraded with a digital probe of the vagina to ensure that the hymen is intact.
Before arriving in Canada to make a refugee clain in 2017, Saida Ahmadi, an Afghan female medical doctor, worked at a hospital in northern Afghanistan. There, virginity tests become court evidence used by prosecuters charging women and girls of having engaged in sexual relations before marriage, the crime of zina. "Virginity exams were part of her duties, though they were not routine", Dr.Ahmadi explained to Canadian immigration officials.
She conducted manual inspections of female genitalia to determine whether the hymen had "broken". A 'broken' hymen would also have the effect on the Afghan marriage market of marking any woman designated as having committed zina, as unmarriagable. No self-respecting Afghan man would take for a wife any woman or girl who had comported herself so unforgivably disgracefully, insulting Islamic precepts and compromising Afghan culture.
Canadian government officials are now attempting to remove Dr.Ahmadi from Canada as undesirable, accusing her of performing virginity tests at the "request of the state", and testifying on her results, identifying women as zina criminals in courts of law. Aiding prosecutions in Afghanistan geared toward criminalizing women's freedom to use their body as they wished despite the cultural disapproval is not looked upon kindly in Canada, and is, in fact, defined as a human rights assault.
Dr.Ahmadi claims that she was under the impression that the tests she performed were done with the willing consent of the women involved. She would not have undertaken the tests, she claims, had she known they were done under duress. As to say that she, an educated Afghan woman, a medical doctor, had no idea of the repercussions that accrue to any women or girl with the audacity to defy convention where a woman's sexuality is the business of the state, and where men can rape with impunity but require their wives to be virgins.
Dr.Ahmadi came to Canada to claim refugee status after having examined a woman named Soraya in August of 2016 who had been accused of zina. After the examination Dr.Ahmadi signed a report attesting to her opinion that Soraya was definitely not virginal. And then she went on to testify in court of the woman's lapse in Afghan morality. All of which was most useful to the prosecution which led to Soraya's being sentenced to seven years in jail.
When threatening calls arrived from Soraya's family, Dr.Ahmadi felt it was time for her to find a new residence, and Canada was her choice. The Immigration and Refugee Board ruled although the tests were "part of the systematic oppression of women in Afghanistan", they were not a crime against humanity and its Appeal Division ruled that Dr.Ahmadi made no significant contribution to "the systems in Afghanistan which oppress women".
Women wait for a polling station to open in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Nooroozi)
"Hard-core believers in 'jinbu' seem to buy into the notion: 'Like-shapes eaten strengthen like-shapes', with the word 'shapes' sometimes referring to human organs and their functions. Adherents count as favourites a long list of exotic foods -- whose methods of procurement or preparation can be outright cruel, with some simply too revolting to describe here." "I have seen snakes and the penises of bulls or horses -- great for men, the theory goes -- on offer at restaurants in many cities in southern China. Bats, which are thought to be the original source of both the current coronavirus and the SARS virus, are said to be good for restoring eyesight -- especially the animals' granular feces, called 'sands of nocturnal shine'." "Gallbladders and bile harvested from live bears are good for treating jaundice; tiger bone is for erections." Yizheng Lian, The New York Times
A security guard stands outside the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market where the coronavirus was detected in Wuhan on January 24.
It was initially called Wuhan Virus, Chinese Virus, Novel Coronavirus, and now it is COVID-19, named so by the World Health Organization, sensitive to Beijing's bristling outrage that a virus should be identified with China. WHO empathetically sought to discourage giving emerging diseases the names of locations where they emanated from, as unfair, to avoid"unintended negative impacts by stigmatizing certain communities". So,what has finally been declared a 'global pandemic' is CO(corona)VI(virus)D(disease)-19(2019.
On the other hand, realistically, the zoonotic that is the COVID-19 virus has a cultural, distinctly Chinese origin and there is little that soft-peddling a name can do to change that reality. China's infamous sensitivity to be linked to anything deleterious, threatening, leaving a bad odour to its name has led it repeatedly to downplay and ignore all such events. Its leaders have a tendency to hide dangerous events and it was no different this time, when doctors who detected something wrong arising, sought to alert their counterparts.
Picture taken in May 2003 shows a policeman watching over a civet cat
captured in the wild by a farmer in Wuhan, central China's Hubei
province.
Warnings were issued by Chinese authorities, threats that the targets were well aware might imperil them should they persist in warning the wider public of an emerging danger. Somehow, the Chinese public sooner or later discovers the perfidy of their government and expresses its outrage at threat of danger to itself. As occurred this time when one of the physicians who warned his colleagues of a strange new pneumonia, was threatened by authorities, himself contracted the virus, and died of it.
And then there is the issue of Chinese cultural preferences in cuisine and pharmaceuticals; its use of exotic and rare plant and animal species for their supposed powers of healing. A culture that is doing its part in reducing the numbers and species of wild animals and plants to the detriment of risking species' survival. "Jinbu" in Chinese food culture describes the use of food to cure a disease, part of a holistic theory holding that disease and illness results when the body is depleted of blood and energy.
A vendor sells three peacocks at a wildlife animals market in Guangzhou
Jinbu for men relates to a mystical exhausted energy that can be rectified and virility restored along with sexual prowess; for women replacing blood to improve beauty and fertility, and in those interests rare plants and animals are thought to replenish 'blood' and 'energy', all the more so when wild animals and plants are eaten fresh or raw. Winter is the season when the body cries out for more "jinbu" foods.
A
pangolin in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2002. Prized in China as a
delicacy and for the purported medicinal virtues of their scales,
pangolins are said to be the most trafficked mammal in the world. Credit...Jimin Lai/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The palm civet, a small, wild quadruped is suspected of having been the source of the SARS virus in humans; stewed with snake meat, it is relied upon as a cure for insomnia. The ordinary population feels that dog meat, preferentially a dog that has been chased before slaughter to ensure more "jinbu" benefits accrue from eating an animal whose blood and energy has been exercised to high mode, suffices. Animals slaughtered before serving are believed to be more "jinbu" potent.
And this is where the wet markets comes in, where live, wild exotic animals are obtainable; sold live as more potent "jinbu" sources before they end up on the dinner table. Unbeknownst to the diner, their potency comes strengthened with the presence of viruses which are passed from animal to human on occasion. The Chinese culture is deeply permeated with the belief that exotic wildlife translate to healthful foods.
"Racism is a poison; hate is a poison." "This poison exists in our society and it's to blame for too many tragic events." "Everything will be done to investigate the circumstances of these
terrible murders. [The government] and every state institution would] stand up with all our strength and decisiveness to those people
who try to divide Germany." German Chancellor Angela Merkel
"If people are silent for long enough, then things like this will
happen." "You could have set the clock by this attack. People tell us
they have learnt from Auschwitz, but this shows that sort of talk is
just ‘blah, blah’." Mehmet Daimagüler, lawyer for victims of far-right
terrorism
A police officer outside the Midnight shisha bar in Hanau.
Photograph: Ralph Orlowski/Reuters
A country divided. Where once it was united. But that was under the Third Reich of 'National Socialism', when everyone adored Hitler and was eager to do his bidding. Even the Protestant and Catholic Churches were silent and held their counsel at a time when their voices raised high in condemnation of a murderously racist public national agenda based on an Aryan ideal meticulously planned and carried out the mass murder and extermination of Jews, Roma, Gays, political dissenters and the occasional cleric who would not countenance that agenda.
German citizens have now, for the most part, turned their backs on that odiously shameful history. But within their psyches burns a social exclusionary devotion to heimat and all things Germanic. The mass presence of peoples from another heritage, religion, customs and values and legal system does not sit well with most people, anywhere in the world, when their own becomes degraded and a competition ensues between theirs and those who arrive who set no store by the indigenous laws and culture.
Fuelled in no small part by the stern unwillingness of a religious political system that spurns theirs and demands the foreign one be elevated to official status. Add to that the culture of oppression and repression that Islam represents, its hostility to other religions, politics, cultures and values along with the prevalence among Muslim youth of violent tendencies and the vulnerability of women in Islamic culture and there is a perfect storm brewing.
Two hostile sentiments in an arena where sparks of rage set off a firestorm of reaction. The German tendency to fascism is reborn within a society viewing itself as hard-pressed to maintain its culture and respect for its heritage. The left and the right, both of which tend in their extremes toward totalitarianism, yet despising one another, are in the process of clashing as they do periodically. Violence is always on the cusp of an explosion.
National Socialism demonstrated the extent that fascistic extremism could descend to in its mass extermination of European Jewry. That same population that devoured their Fuhrer's words of national superiority and scorn for all others, has now divided itself. Half driven by remorse and willing to accept migrants and refugees whatever their source, the other half resentful of the presence of strangers and reverting to the racist ideology that gave birth to the Holocaust.
Those killed in Hanau, by a white supremacist in two hookah bars were targeted because they were not German nationals, and the irony is that though some of the victims were Turkish in origin they were also Kurds, oppressed by Turks, seeking haven from that oppression in a Germany that declares itself open to refugees and migrants. There is injustice everywhere and anywhere. The tragedy is that human nature incessantly turns on itself, ravenous and hateful.
A woman leaves flowers at a makeshift memorial for the nine people killed in Hanau.
Photograph: Armando Babani/EPA
"They didn't say [postponement], just that for now the trip was off. They just left it in very simple terms." "I see it as a bump in the road, but every indication is that it is a postponement. We have the highest regard for that relationship and we will continue to cultivate that in the coming months." "They gave us no reason. We would only be speculating as to why at this stage." "It's a disappointment, absolutely, because we see tremendous potential. We have seen right across the board in all of our exports a quantum growth ... and now the cultural sector with our art, our music and visual arts." Nova Scotia Heritage Minister Leo Glavine
Maud Lewis stands outside her humble yet colorful home. A tour of her
famous paintings in China has been cancelled, the province announced on
Tuesday. (Bob Brooks)
No reason? Puzzled? Give that man a good, hard shake!
Treasuring the opportunity to share the province's cultural artefacts with China and unable to understand the cooling off of an anticipated arrangement for an exhibition showing the naive folk art treasured by Nova Scotians produced by a modest woman, one of their very own, whose art has been recognized as special internationally. Like the art work of William Kurelek of a farming community in Saskatchewan, appreciated for its vibrancy and artistic vision, Maud Lewis's paintings have roused the popular imagination to acclaim for her vision.
During her lifetime of hardscrabble existence in rural Nova Scotia, living in a tiny house with her controlling husband, Maud Lewis sold her paintings for a trifle. They were popular for their bright, cheerful, childlike quality of celebrating life. Like many such artists before her, her fame arose after her death and the prices realized in the sale of her artwork has soared exponentially. Had that been the case during her lifetime, it might have eased her life, but she was an expressive, happy person by character.
Arrangements had been underway for a Chinese art museum to exhibit Maud Lewis's artwork along with the art of other female contemporary Nova Scotian artists. It was to coincide with a cultural trade mission in the spring, to augment the many trade missions that have arisen with Nova Scotia sending representatives to China in recognition of trade ties; China buys a lot of produce of the sea that Nova Scotia fishermen excel in.
China represents the tiny maritime province's second-largest trading partner after the U.S. Exports have grown from 2012's $150 million to $494 million in 2016. Six trade missions were embarked upon by the Nova Scotia premier to China in recent years. The sudden cancellation of the cultural exhibition is quite the disappointment. Landscapes around Marshalltown where Maud Lewis's tiny house stood, close to Digby, a much larger Nova Scotia town, featured large in her output.
She painted animals, snow-covered landscapes, oxen pulling sleds filled with logs, and idyllic coastal village scenes, seagulls coasting on the wind. One of her most famous paintings, Three Black Cats, sold for $36,000 at a Toronto auction in 2017. Before she died in 1970, in the 1960s her paintings began attracting international attention; two were bought during the presidency of Richard Nixon by the White House.
(Consignor Canadian Fine Art)
What mystifies Nova Scotia authorities isn't all that difficult to decipher. No whiplash too obscure for Beijing to manipulate to send a message to Ottawa that the federal government has been remiss in its international diplomatic exchanges by honouring an American Justice Department's extradition request, and arresting giant Heuwei Technology's CFO Meng Wanzhou on December 1 in a stopover at the Vancouver airport.
Since then, while Meng Wanzhou is out on bail, free to do what she pleases in Vancouver while living in one of her luxury mansions there, China has harangued and threatened Canada with repercussions. Those repercussions started with the arrest of a former Canadian diplomat in China, along with a Canadian businessman on trumped-up charges of espionage. Another Canadian sentenced to death for drug trafficking. And a halt placed on the importation to China of Western Canada-produced Canola.
And now, this latest little backhand slap proving that no stone will go unturned nor thorn set aside that will produce discomfiture and loss of trade between the trade giant and its smaller trade partners who happen to be unguarded enough to expose themselves to China's wrath.
The Maud Lewis house, where the late folk artist lived and painted for
years in rural Nova Scotia, is one of the enduring displays at the Art
Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax on Nov, 19, 2007. A Chinese art museum
has postponed its exhibition of Nova Scotia folk artist Maud Lewis, but
there are few details as to why. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan)
"It's child labour and child abuse." "These kids earn. They feed their families and their promoters with their winning. We are destroying our children for sport." Dr. Jiraporn Laothamatas, neuroadiologist, Thailand
"This [limits on fights; barring children under 12 from competitive boxing] will destroy muay Thai. We should be focused on prevention instead of pushing kids away." "They are fighting for their lives." "It's in our blood to fight. These laws will only push people away from doing it safely." Dr. Sudhichai Chokekijchai, professional boxing medic, fight enthusiast
Chai in the red corner, moments before the start of his fight. Forbes
Child boxing called muay Thai is honoured throughout the country. Its greatest proponents and source of child boxers is in poor, rural regions of the country. There is little doubt that its allure has much to do with children earning prize money that can make a huge difference in their families' lives. Farm families may earn $200 for a month's labour whereas a successful child fighter can bring home $60 to $600 for a winning fight or a knockout.
For these children devotion to muay Thai reflects the need for instilling discipline at an early age where in small, makeshift training camps in rural areas children are taught to fight. They use rotting gloves and donated punching bags and the most successful are soon recruited by fight gyms in Bangkok, which act as makeshift boarding schools where elite young fighters live together in place of being with their families.
There, a rigorous training schedule becomes their lifestyle where at 4:30 a.m. they spurt through a 10-kilometer run, box from 5:30 to 7 and attend school until the afternoon when another training session is scheduled. Going professional is their aspiration and that of their parents, for them. Muay Thai bouts are held four times weekly at the Rajadamnern Stadium in the capital city where middle-aged Thai men and foreign tourists pack the stadium, drinking beer and betting during fight bouts.
The fighting ring at a typical festival. Forbes
Muay Thai is sacred in Thailand, a kickboxing sport favoured by all strata of society. For the wealthy it acts as a gambling forum where tens of thousands can be won or lost. For the far more numerous poor, muay Thai can represent a form of social mobility, honours, a means through which well-muscled young boxers -- boys and girls -- can fight toward success, heralding their families' entry into the growing middle class.
The country suddenly sat back in November when thirteen-year-old Anucha Tasako, knocked out in a muay Thai fight, died of a brain hemorrhage. The knockout occurred after five fierce head blows caused Anucha to buckle to the ground, limp, detailed on video. He died two days later after a career that saw him since the age of eight, fighting 174 bouts. Thailand is experiencing reluctant second thoughts about the brutality of such a sport for underage fighters.
A charge to ban boxing by children is being led by neuroradiologist Dr. Jiraporn Laothamatas who released a seven-year study on the effect of muay Thai on children's brains which indicated a steady drop in I.Q. and brain functions for those who fight. Thai lawmakers have proposed a measure to place limits on fights and to bar children under age twelve from competitive boxing.
Fellow fighters in the training ring of Chai's gym. Forbes
At the present time, national rules require boxes over 15 to register to fight officially. Rules are vague, requiring merely parental permission for competitors under age fifteen, and most fights are unofficial. Only 10,373 child fighters had registered between 2010 to 2017,according to a Thai investigative journalism center; on the other hand, close to 200,000 children under fifteen regularly compete, according to boxing officials.
Kicking, punching, kneeing and elbowing to defeat an opponent is typical of muay Thai, with fights of five rounds or three minutes of fighting with no headgear, and competitors wearing 10-ounce gloves. The competitions remain outside the child protection and labour laws stating that only salaried children are considered to be workers, while money won in muay Thai fights is considered an award, and as such legal.
Chai watches Phetsiam practice the clinch on the punching bag Forbes
"[Establishing a safe zone sends a] devastating message." "By doing so one is saying there are safe zones and unsafe zones for women that could result in] the end of equality, freedom of movement and self-determination." Rainer Wendt, head, DpolG police union, Berlin
Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters
"This is a good opportunity to offer women a place to retreat to if they feel harassed." Valeska Jakubowski, Berlin police spokesperson
"It’s doubtful that this will really prevent attacks. You
would need to make up special zones for everybody, but this is not
tangible. So, I think the policy should change." "We should not continue
to have this illegal mass migration. We have to count and see who the
people are who came to our country; we have to register them." Frank Hansel, member of parliament,
Alternative for Germany (AfD)
New Year's stage show at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. The creation of a
special safe zone for women at the annual New Year's Eve party drew
criticism from a police union chief.(Jens Kalaene / The Associated Press photo)
The fallout of Chancellor Angela Merkel having generously opened Germany's gates to over a million refugees and migrants from Syria, the wider Middle East and North Africa in the past several years wasn't long in arriving, when countless young, unattached males from Muslim-majority countries demonstrated their cultural attachment to the belief that unaccompanied females bewitching in their freedom, were ripe for the plucking.
New Year's Eve in 2015 proved to be quite an especial event, one that authorities made an effort to stifle, but failed to succeed in so doing, when over 1,200 women were sexually assaulted during celebrations taking place in a number of cities, most notably Cologne. Initially, the government grudgingly admitted that several hundred women had been assaulted, only to have their cautionary numbers overtaken by release of the true numbers. Several thousand newly-arrived men described as being of Middle Eastern descent were finally admitted to having been responsible.
And the result was that authorities finally understood where the threat was coming from, and something had to be done to prevent any recurrence. That something that needed doing turned out mounting a protective area in critical areas, since the monitoring and tracking of potentially thousands of men on the loose and seeking opportunities to mount sex attacks would be virtually impossible; that many police tasked for that singular purpose and deciding who qualified as a potential sex attacker would be an impossible goal.
It's difficult to determine which issue was recognized by authorities as more important; protecting women from rape, or protecting the massive number of refugees/migrants from accusations of violent rape. Women were outraged, needless to say, demanding that their stories of having been assaulted be taken seriously and that those responsible for making them vulnerable to such degrading violations of their human rights take the initiative to overturn their ill-thought generosity lacking sufficiently required preventives to ensure that people incapable of respecting German law and human rights were denied entry to the country.
Police union head Rainer Wendt's point is that the influx of young men seeking haven in Germany from their countries of origin where opportunities to advance themselves into a secure and remunerative future introduced Germany to another culture entirely, one where women's place is seen to be a hidden affair; women never venturing outside their homes unless they're 'modestly' garbed as per tradition and seldom on their own where male counterparts prowl as sexual predators and where women are held responsible for any violence committed upon them by men whom their presence has aroused.
And that by their very presence in such great numbers, undisciplined and oblivious by choice of German law and a prevailing culture of equality and respect for women's rights to be free in society, uninhibited by fears of violent molestation, Germany is accommodating itself to the presence of these rapists and teaching women that this is their new reality. The very establishment by the organizers of Berlin's annual open-air New Year's Eve party of a 'safety area' for women informs them that they must remain within those physical barriers, else if they venture without them they will be prey.
In this, the organizers have simply acceded to the new reality recognized by German authorities that in selflessly bringing in those seeking haven, they have surrendered peace and security to the social chaos that follows when young men spurn laws not their own, even if they regulate the greater society which has permitted them entry. The 2015 Cologne event at New Year's Eve where hundreds of women were assaulted and robbed, identifying their assailants as being of Middle Eastern descent has taught the government little.
The Berlin police themselves requested that a "Women's Safety Area" be established at the Brandenburg Gate in the midst of thousands of revelers, in emulation of a similar area set aside for women in Munich at Oktoberfest. The Red Cross awaited those seeking help, but in the event, there were still occurrences targeting women which police responded to, making a number of arrests. Chancellor Merkel conceded in her New Year's address to the nation the divisive nature of the concerns some in her nation profess in the social change attributed to the rise in migration.
"We get both kinds of extremists. They both espouse the same garbage -- and in the middle is us." "Upstairs is filling up -- start moving them [an excess of worshippers] to the upper hall of the community centre!" "[Born in Barking] Do I feel scared walking down the street? No, London is my home." Ashfaq Siddique, Al-Madina Mosque, Barking, East London
Roughly 9,000 attend a morning prayer at Al Madina Mosque in the working-class neighbourhood of Barking. The tensions in the area once seemed peripheral to London. Andrew Testa Photos/The New York Times
"The culture has changed completely. The English, traditional people are just not there anymore." "It is getting frightening. On a Friday afternoon there are Muslims coming out of the woodwork. In 15 or 20 years, this will be a Muslim state completely." "Look, the mayor of London is a Muslim! If nothing is done about it, they are going to be running this country." Mark Stubbs, 59, Roofer, Barking
"He [a local politician] is trying to do what he believes will protect his people." "We are trying to tell him, 'Hey, we are the same people'. If something happens to the United Kingdom, we will be with you by your side to protect it!" Asim Khan, Pakistan-born financial adviser
"People hear things about Muslims in the media and say, 'Let's kill Muslims'." "But London is different than any more place. We feel like our roots are here. We feel proud of London." Khalid Salem, 36, Egypt born, Uber driver
Over twelve percent of London's inhabitants now are Muslim. London further distinguished itself as a pluralist society by electing a Muslim mayor a year and a half ago. That no doubt delighted the Muslims who have been seen and heard in public to state their belief that it is only a matter of time before Britain becomes a Muslim sharia state. Londoners are truly conflicted; on the one hand proud of their acceptance of others, on the others alarmed that the heritage and culture they so value is dissipating beyond recognition.
Muslims feel comfortable living in Britain. Britons don't feel quite as comfortable living in their country, surrounded by Muslims wearing conspicuously different clothing, speaking an entirely different language, faithful to a religion that is inimical to the presence of other religions in its most basic instructions to its faithful. The occasional sight of large numbers of Muslim men prostrating themselves in public to pray because despite the proliferation of mosques their numbers are insufficient to serve the population of Muslims.
That from time to time an eruption of Islamist psychotic violence strikes killing people in surprise attacks with the refrain 'Allahu Akbar!' ringing out for good measure is not comforting to non-Muslims, and nor are the attacks taking place elsewhere in Europe, informing Britons that their turn once again, is coming up. That there are among them foreign-born clerics preaching in Arabic of the divine merits of jihad represents another alert and discomfort. The event feared by native Britons is not one Muslims will comfort them for, standing foursquare with them.
In 2015 the BBC took a poll to discover that 45% of British Muslims agree that clerics preaching
violence against the West represent "mainstream Islam". With all of this baggage little wonder there's an uneasy truce between the two populations; one indigenous the other of immigrant stock so far from the countries of their heritage, religion and culture. All three of which they bring with them when they emigrate, importing some elements of culture that do no favours to the welcoming nation.
It's too easy for those who view the presence of a significantly growing population of Muslims as a menace to their traditional way of life as 'bigots', expressing 'Islamophobia' through distrust and suspicion. In another nearby borough of London, Dagenham, neighbour to Barking, Peter Harris, leader of the local branch of UKIP, a nationalist conservative group, has done his utmost to forestall the building of additional community centres and mosques to accommodate that growing number of Muslims.
White British natives like himself, according to Harris represent "an endangered species" in London, with the borough he represents "the front line" of a battleground". He will go to any length to contest any initiatives to use available space for Islamic community centres with spaces for prayer rooms. Considered far-right UKIP, the British National Party succeeded in winning roughly 20 percent of the vote (U.K. Independence Party).
At the Al Madina Mosque, Ashfaq Siddique places flyers in the mosque's lobby reminding those in attendance of their 'religious duty' to report signs of radicalization to a confidential police hotline. On the other hand, he disagrees with the Home Office's counterterrorism program, Prevent which requires teachers, social workers and other government employees to notify local coordinators (usually a police officer) of any Muslim matching a checklist of "warning signs".
This kind of 'domestic surveillance' targeting Muslims doesn't sit well with the community. "Concerned parents come to us and say, 'I don't want to go to the police; the Prevent program will tag my child'," said Siddique.
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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