Palestine MP: Administrative detention 'open-ended life sentence'

December 12, 2022 

Palestinians holding banners gather to protest against the decision of Israel's administrative detention policy on 20 December 2021 [Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu Agency]

December 12, 2022 

Israel's use of administrative detentions, imprisonment without charge or trial, is an 'open-ended life sentence' against Palestinians, Palestinian Member of Parliament Ahmad Attoun said yesterday.

Calling for urgent action to stop the Israeli violations, Attoun said Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails need serious support and their cause needs to be prioritised.

"I spent 17 years in Israeli jails," he said, "more than nine of them under administrative detention. Whenever I am released, just a number of days pass, and I am detained again and locked down under claims of secret files."

READ: All Israeli settlements violate international laws and conventions

He stated: "This is a systematic Israeli policy that goes against all international laws and conventions, and see the Israeli occupation does not respect any of the legal bases or the pledges to release prisoners when the terms of their detention end."

Report: Israel facing difficulties recruiting collaborators in Gaza

December 12, 2022

A child holds Palestinian flags during an event in Rafah, Gaza on August 09, 2022. [Abed Rahim Khatib - Anadolu Agency]

December 12, 2022 at 9:46 am

Israeli newspaper Ynet News yesterday revealed that Israeli intelligence service Shin Bet is facing difficulties recruiting collaborators in Gaza.

The newspaper reported how a Palestinian from Gaza allegedly became a double agent after he was sent into Israel to gather information for the Palestinian resistance but was then recruited by Israel and provided with a phone. However, he later told the Israeli operator he didn't want to work with him, and cut all ties with him.

He then returned to Gaza and told the Palestinian factions everything that had happened. He was then asked by Palestinian factions to return and work with Israel, however when he did he was detained by Shin Bet.

The Israeli news website reported that Hamas is monitoring and analysing Shin Bet's activities in Gaza.

Don’t Get Too Excited About That Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough


Beth Skwarecki
Thu, December 15, 2022 

This is totally what nuclear fusion looks like, probably.

It is big, big news that scientists were recently able to perform a nuclear fusion reaction that gave off more energy than it consumed. It is also true that this type of reaction could potentially be a useful energy source in the future. Or as physicists are fond of saying, useful nuclear fusion has been “10 years away” for the last 50 years or so. Read on for more on why scientists are excited, but also why our homes are likely to be powered by the same ol’ power plants for a long time to come.

Is nuclear fusion the same as nuclear power?

Nuclear power plants and nuclear bombs use a fission reaction, which is different from the fusion reaction that made the news recently. Fission occurs when an atom is split apart. Typically you start with a uranium or plutonium atom, smack a neutron into it, and split that atom into multiple pieces which can then break into yet more pieces. Fission produces energy in the form of heat, and nuclear power plants use that heat to boil or vaporize water. There are no emissions from nuclear power, but there is the inconvenient problem of nuclear waste—those smaller atoms that are still radioactive.

Nuclear fusion is the opposite reaction: Smaller atoms are combined into a larger one. It’s an exciting possibility because it doesn’t produce carbon emissions or present issues with radioactive waste.
So fusion could be a waste-free, emissions-free power source?

That’s the dream. We know that fusion reactions can create energy, because that’s what the sun does all day. It fuses hydrogen atoms so that they become helium (helium atoms being twice the size of hydrogen). Fusion reactions are what create the sun’s heat and light. Fusion happens so easily on the sun because of the extreme temperatures and gravity there; getting it to happen on Earth is a lot harder.

Fortunately, hydrogen is easy to come by, at least; it’s the most common element in the universe. Instead of coal that’s been dug out of the earth, a fusion reactor could use deuterium (heavy hydrogen) from plentiful sources like water as its main fuel. As CNN reports, a glass of tap water contains enough deuterium to theoretically power a house for a year. You also need tritium, a rarer form of hydrogen, but finding fuel is not the main problem.

The tricky part is that it takes a lot of energy to get a fusion reaction to happen. Scientists have been able to fuse atoms before, but before this week, the reaction always used more energy than it produced—which is the opposite of what you need a power source to do.
What happened in the National Ignition Facility breakthrough?

For the first time, scientists managed to initiate a fusion reaction that created more energy than it used up. Sort of. Big caveat on that.

Technically, the reaction created more energy than the laser energy that powered it. But if you compare the output of the reaction to the facility’s entire power bill, it’s a different story: The lasers delivered 2.05 megajoules of energy to the reaction, and the reaction produced 3.15 megajoules as output. But those lasers themselves use a lot of electricity—more like 300 megajoules.

The whole setup for the reaction wasn’t cheap or easy to put together, either. In addition to the hydrogen, gold, uranium, and diamonds were also involved, and it took researchers months to figure out the exact shape the diamond portion needed to be.

Scaling this process up to the size of a power plant isn’t likely to be possible anytime soon. Science Magazine reports that a different type of reactor, called a tokamak, is considered to be a better bet for practical power generation, but the major facility in France that is supposed to be working on tokamak fusion is “vastly over budget, long overdue, and will not reach breakeven until the late 2030s at the earliest.” So we’ll be waiting for our space-age power source for a little while longer.

More from Lifehacker

UK

Constitutional recognition for social rights

Colm O’Cinneide sets out the proposals of Gordon Brown’s Commission on the UK’s Future for giving constitutional recognition to basic social rights, observing that the proposals represent a departure from the modest ambition typical of British constitutional thinking but that their envisaged legal effect remains vague.

AUTHOR
Professor Colm O'Cinneide
12 Dec 2022

The report of Gordon Brown’s Commission on the UK’s Future cannot be faulted for ambition. It aims to reset the UK with radically new economic, social and constitutional settings, by way of establishing a ‘New Britain’. Most reaction to the report has focused on its proposals for institutional reform. But there is another part of the report which has not received the attention it deserves, namely its proposals to give constitutional recognition to certain basic social rights. These are worth a closer look.

The commission’s proposals

In diagnosing the ills of contemporary Britain, the report emphasises the economic damage wrought by ‘outdated neo-liberal economic dogma’, as well as by ‘an unreformed, over-centralised way of governing that leaves millions of people… left to feel as if they are treated as second class citizens in their own country’. It suggests this undermines ‘national unity’ and people’s desire to feel ‘part of a common endeavour’.

The report thus calls for a new emphasis on identifying ‘common values’ and building a stronger shared national identity – based on recognition of how resources are pooled and shared across the UK. It considers that constitutional framing can advance this project, by ‘setting out the purpose and direction of a country and the values and principles recognised by the people…’.

As such, the report proposes that these common purposes should be set out in a new ‘constitutional statute’ enacted by Parliament, guiding how political power is exercised across the UK. Shared social values would be emphasised: in particular, this national ‘statement of purpose’ would affirm that the UK is a ‘social union’ and recognise its obligation to guarantee ‘social support to all…with a view to ensuring that no child, no family and no elderly citizen need live in poverty’.

The report also suggests that these commitments should be backed up by more explicit social rights provisions, starting with four concrete guarantees: (i) free healthcare for every person entitled to it in the UK, including a general right of access to emergency treatment; (ii) free primary and secondary education for all children; (iii) guaranteed social assistance to ‘every person legitimately present in the UK’, supplemented by a general guarantee of non-destitution; and (iv) entitlement to decent accommodation, ‘in accordance with…relevant law’.

Additional social rights might also be guaranteed, along with environmental and cultural rights, depending on the outcome of further consultation and debate.

Time to embrace social constitutionalism?

These proposals represent a significant departure from conventional thinking about the UK constitution. British constitutionalism tends to have modest ambitions. It focuses on regulating the political process and coordinating the interaction of the major institutions of state.

But the commission’s report envisages a modified UK constitutional framework playing a much more ambitious role – with its social rights proposals being integral to this expanded functionality.

For example, the proposed constitutional ‘mission statement’ is viewed as a mechanism for both reinforcing national identity and steering the exercise of public power. This is a function similar to the role that ‘constitutional directives’ are supposed to play in a range of different constitutional systems across the democratic world, including many Commonwealth states.

Indeed, the suggestion that the UK affirm its identity as a ‘social union’ has clear parallels in the provisions of Article 20 of the German Basic Law, which states that the German Federal Republic is a ‘democratic and social federal state’.

Similarly, the proposed basic social rights guarantees are echoed in similar provisions of e.g. Articles 75-76 of the Danish Constitutional Act, Article 2(1) of the Swedish Instrument of Government, or Articles 31-47 of the Constitution of Italy.

Perhaps wisely, the report does not draw specific attention to these European comparisons. However, similar social rights clauses can now be found in the majority of the world’s written constitutions. Their practical impact can be difficult to assess. In some states, their influence is negligible. However, in other states, they are regarded as having real symbolic value – and such ‘social constitutionalism’ can exert some influence on national law and politics.

It remains to be seen whether the commission’s proposals generate interest and enthusiasm in the specific UK context. However, Gordon Brown for one is doubtless well aware that the Scottish government has been actively seeking to enshrine social rights in law, to emphasise the values assigned to such rights in Scotland. It is thus not surprising that the report highlights the potential value of giving constitutional articulation to shared UK social values.

The added value of entrenching social rights

The report is vague on the legal effect of its proposals. The report indicates that ‘it is our intention to guide governments rather than put the running of services into the hands of the courts’. However, it also acknowledges that the constitutional ‘statement of purpose’ clause might guide ‘the interpretation of later constitutional provisions’, and there is some loose talk about the basic social rights guarantees ‘acting as a constraint on public bodies’ – including the devolved legislatures.

The suggested wording of these rights guarantees, outlined above, largely reflects the legal status quo. However, they still could prove to be legally potent.

As a result, it is not clear whether the commission envisages the courts playing a residual role in enforcing compliance with these social rights guarantees, as for example German courts do. It seems the commission views this as a matter of detail, to be decided through further consultation and political debate.

What is clear, however, is that the commission considers that the real added value gained by constitutionalising social rights is the enhanced political protection they will get against ‘future threats of removal’.

Irrespective of reaction to the commission’s specific proposals, it will be interesting to see whether its overall ambition of giving greater status, heft and salience to social rights gains traction in the future.

Colm O’Cinneide, Professor of Constitutional and Human Rights Law, University College London.

How Greece is embracing offshore wind energy with EBRD support

By Olga Aristeidou

12 Dec 2022

Countries around the world are embracing offshore wind energy, and innovative floating offshore wind platforms are hitting the headlines. As European Union countries try to reduce their dependency on energy from Russia and speed up their green energy transition, offshore wind energy is gaining ground as a proven and reliable source of renewable energy. 

Offshore wind energy is the generation of electricity through wind farms in water, usually at sea, where wind reaches a higher and more constant speed than on land. Thus, offshore farms can generate more electricity and have less impact on people, animals and the landscape. 

Greece, a country with remarkable wind resources, currently has 4.5 GW of installed onshore wind capacity. It has immense potential for offshore wind energy produced by both fixed-bottom and floating technology.  

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Environment and Energy of Greece created a high-level plan and new law on the development of offshore wind power in the country. These were approved by the Greek parliament in July 2022. 

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) supported the ministry throughout the process, providing technical assistance on the legal and regulatory framework for offshore wind energy development.  

“The new law is a milestone for Greece’s energy sector, as it can help the country capitalise on its unique offshore wind energy sources and become carbon neutral by 2050,” says George Gkiaouris, EBRD Regional Head for Energy in South East Europe. 

The law will promote competitiveness through an auctioning system, fostering cost efficiency and the development of innovative technologies, including fixed-bottom and floating offshore wind. 

“The Offshore Wind Framework we adopted, with the EBRD’s invaluable assistance, ensures transparency and competitiveness,” says Alexandra Sdoukou, Secretary General for Energy and Mineral Resources at the Ministry of Environment and Energy of Greece. “Moreover, our approach significantly de-risks investment, both legally and financially, in order to provide a solid foundation for international developers and investors.” 

Greece’s National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) envisages a total of 7 GW of onshore wind energy by 2030. That target is expected to increase substantially once the current revision of the NECP has been completed. The Greek government has also committed to an additional 2 GW of offshore wind capacity by that time. This could play a key role in supplying clean and reliable energy to the mainland, as well as the Greek islands. 

“The sectoral development envisaged in the high-level plan takes into account the country’s topography and considers the process of interconnection of new offshore plants and islands in an effort to maximise benefits and minimise costs,” says George Gkiaouris. “The plan also sets out mechanisms to ensure that offshore wind power is beneficial to local communities.”   

In the coming months, the Greek government will adopt a series of decrees setting out processes such as site selection, spatial planning and licensing/permitting.  

“Having completed the first step by adopting the Offshore Wind Law, we will move rapidly forward with the next steps in the coming months: the adoption of a National Programme for the Development of Offshore Wind and the selection of the first sites to be auctioned,” says Alexandra Sdoukou. 

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, onshore and offshore wind could generate more than one-third of Greece’s total electricity needs and become the country’s prominent generation source by 2050. It estimates that the global cumulative installed capacity of offshore wind power will increase almost ten-fold to 228 GW by 2030, with total offshore installation nearing 1,000 GW by 2050. 

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AI Can Enable a New Era in Manufacturing Sector, Says World Economic Forum White Paper Published

12 Dec 2022
Sahil Raina, Public Engagement, World Economic Forum, 

 sahil.raina@weforum.org

New white paper provides decision-makers with a better understanding of how to unlock the potential of industrial artificial intelligence (AI)

Written in collaboration with the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Türkiye, paper sheds light on how scalable AI applications can be developed in manufacturing
Over 20 case studies from organizations illustrate the impact achieved from industrial AI applications

Read the full white paper here

Istanbul, Turkey, 12 December 2022 – Artificial intelligence can enable a new era in the digital transformation journey for industry, offering new opportunities as well as challenges. A new white paper, published by the World Economic Forum together with the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Türkiye, examines the opportunities and proposes a step-by-step approach to overcome the challenges.

Unlocking Value from Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing, with input from industry, technology and academic experts, highlights over 20 case studies from organizations on the impact, feasibility and scalability of AI in manufacturing. It identifies several opportunities and lessons from the community on how to increase operational efficiency, sustainability and workforce engagement in manufacturing and value chains by using AI.

The white paper is an output of the ongoing partnership between the Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Advanced Manufacturing and Value Chains and the Platform for Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, with the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) Türkiye, hosted by Turkish Employers’ Association of Metal Industries (MESS) and its Technology Centre MEXT.

“The complexity of current challenges impacting manufacturers calls for the need to go beyond the traditional means of driving productivity. Artificial intelligence can help companies unlock innovation, resilience and sustainability. We look forward to working with the Network of Centres for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the global manufacturing community to support its deployment at scale,” said Francisco Betti, Head of Advanced Manufacturing and Production, Member of Executive Committee, World Economic Forum.

“This paper showcases the tremendous value potential of AI in manufacturing. Not only in terms of efficiency but also in terms of sustainability and worker engagement. The insights were generated thanks to a collaborative effort by the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution affiliate in Türkiye, the Forum’s Platform for Shaping the Future of Advanced Manufacturing and Value Chains and the Platform for Shaping the Future of Technology Governance: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning,” said Kay Firth-Butterfield, Head of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at World Economic Forum.

Over 20 use cases were collected from more than 35 senior executives and technology experts from more than 10 industries, including automotive, electronics, energy, textiles, cement, steel, food and chemicals. These cases demonstrate how leading manufacturers have successfully captured value from AI applications in manufacturing and cover six main areas: health and safety, quality, maintenance, production process, supply chains and energy management.

While opportunities enabled by AI in manufacturing are promising and attracting many leaders, organizations are looking for a common framework on how to implement AI solutions and ensure a successful return on investment. Based on the consultations, this white paper summarizes the six main barriers to the deployment of AI in manufacturing and presents a step-by-step process to overcome barriers.

Efe Erdem, Head of C4IR Türkiye and Executive Director of MEXT Technology Centre, said: “With a granular understanding of the industry pain points in their digital transformation journey and the need for the deployment of the AI use cases, we took a leading role in led this initiative globally. For the next step, MEXT has been positioned as a global testbed. We are looking forward to conducting pilot studies and developing solution-oriented and scalable applications with the public, private, academia and start-ups.”

Özgür Burak Akkol, MESS Chairman, said: “We completed more than 160 digital maturity assessments in over 10 industries, and we witnessed that industry leaders believe in creating value from AI but they do not know how to start. As we initiated the AI in Manufacturing project together with the World Economic Forum and the network of Centres for the Fourth Industrial Revolution to accelerate the use of AI in manufacturing, we would like to increase the added value generated from AI as a continuation of digital transformation. We continue to work to keep our MEXT Digital Factory at the highest technology level by developing AI-oriented use case scenarios together with technology providers.”

The World Economic Forum’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution global network is a platform for multi-stakeholder collaboration, bringing together the public and private sectors to maximize technological benefits to society while minimizing the risks associated with Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies.

Read more about the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network

A RENNISANCE HUMANIST

Venerable Matteo Ricci, Pope Francis’s great gift to China

by Gianni Criveller *

12/14/22

The pontiff signed the decree recognising Ricci’s heroic virtues, the first stage in a process of beatification that has had a troubled history. Ricci brought the Gospel to China through the path of friendship. The communities he founded have preserved and passed on the faith, despite persecution and all sorts of hardships. Now it is possible to dream that he will become a Blessed together with his Chinese disciple and friend Xu Guangqi.

Milan (AsiaNews) – Pope Francis declared Fr Matteo Ricci venerable, making an important gift to the Church in China and all those hoping for such a result; he did it this morning, 17 December, his birthday. This means that the Church now recognises Fr Ricci’s “heroic virtues”, a key stage on the path of the Jesuit missionary’s beatification.

In an audience with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Francis authorised the proclamation of 10 new Blessed and as well 14 new Venerables, including Father Ricci.

The cause of beatification of Matteo Ricci (Macerata 1552- Beijing 1610) followed a rather turbulent route. Since he was improperly associated for centuries with the controversial affair of Chinese Rites, his reputation was seriously harmed. The Vatican first condemned Chinese ritual practices of honouring family ancestors (1742) and then reassessed the issue and allowed them (1939).

First Pope John XXIII, then all the popes who followed him spoke highly of the Jesuit missionary, in particular, John Paul II (1982 and 2001), Benedict XVI (2010) and Francis. The latter very often pointed to Ricci as the ideal missionary, one capable of inculturation, dialogue and openness to others.

Usually the causes of beatification begin in the diocese where the candidate dies. Matteo Ricci died on 11 May 1610 at the age of 57 in Beijing where he is buried, in the Jesuit cemetery that is now included in the large garden of the Beijing Administrative College, also known as the Beijing Municipal Party Committee School of the Communist Party of China. Given the Church’s particular situation in China, the cause of beatification has been assigned to the Diocese of Macerata, where the Venerable came from.

The original process of beatification began in 1982, but never reached a clear conclusion. In 2010, on the 400th anniversary of Fr Ricci's death, the time was finally ripe. Bishop Claudio Giuliodori restarted the process, appointing this writer to chair the historical commission, which was responsible for tracing the profile of the Macerata missionary, showing not only the heroic nature of his virtues, but also the reputation of holiness that has surrounded him since his death.

In 2013 the documentation was sent to Rome, where the cause continued, following the usually complex procedures. The pope's act this morning is at the same time a point of arrival and a significant step towards other goals.

In recent years, some suggested that the Vatican wanted to link Matteo Ricci’s process of beatification with that of his disciple and friend, Paul Xu Guangqi, a scientist, scholar and political leader originally from Shanghai, who was a fundamental pillar of Chinese Christianity.

The idea is very evocative: offer Catholics in China and around the world the opportunity to venerate both the foreign missionary and the one person who heeded his proclamation, making the Gospel the raison d’être of his life. At that time, Bishop Aloysius Jin Luxian of Shanghai, now deceased, got me involved in the investigation for Xu’s beatification process, known as “Dr Paul” in Jesuit sources because he was an apostle among his people.

Unfortunately, the tragic events of the Church in Shanghai, where Bishop Thaddeus Ma Daqin was placed under house arrest in 2012, prevented the cause of Paul Xu from going forward. It has not yet been possible to undertake the necessary historical research and combine the two causes.

The pope’s decision to continue with Matteo Ricci is good news, as there was a risk that his cause might again be postponed indefinitely for reasons independent of the merit of the holiness of his life.

The declaration of “venerability” required the approval of the theological commission that declared his heroic virtues, as well as that of the cardinals and bishops members of the dicastery.

Fr Matteo Ricci brought the Gospel to China through the path of friendship, cultural and scientific dialogue, and accommodation. In 1595, after a series of failures that plunged him into a state of 'melancholy' (his own words), he decided to write his first book in Chinese. The title, “Friendship”, really says a lot. It was his missionary manifesto.

Friendship is in fact a Confucian virtue: the fifth of five social relations, but the only one based on freedom. The Christian humanist Ricci appreciated friendship as an evangelical and humanistic value, and it was precisely around this common value that he built a network of friends that allowed him to found Christian communities in five important cities of China.

In 1601 Ricci reached Beijing, welcomed in the Forbidden City for his scientific and cultural knowledge. He was buried in the imperial capital, the only foreigner to whom the emperor granted such a privilege. Today, Ricci is included in China in high school textbooks, remembered in the Millennium Museum, along with Marco Polo, as the only important foreigner in the country’s history.

But Ricci was above all a missionary. Like Paul of Tarsus, he suffered and gave his whole self to preach the Gospel. The communities he founded have preserved and passed on the faith and, despite persecution and all sorts of hardships, are still present among the Chinese people.

Catholics in that country know this well, which is why today is a day of joy, and one of hope for the future of the faith in the land of China.

* PIME missionary and sinologist

HINDUTVA CRITIC AND OPPONENT
Report finds Fr Stan was jailed and died because of documents planted on his computer
by Nirmala Carvalho

Arsenal Consulting found 44 documents planted via malware, which India’s National investigation agency used as “evidence” of terrorism against the Jesuit who died at 84 in July 2021 after many months in prison. His confrere, Fr Mascarenhas, told AsiaNews that the hacking began in 2014, soon after current Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office for the first time.

Mumbai (AsiaNews) – Arsenal Consulting, a Boston-based forensic firm specialising in cybercrimes, found that documents purported to show electronic correspondence between Fr Stan Swamy SJ and Maoist guerrillas were planted via malware.

The clergyman, who was known for his long commitment to tribal people and their rights in the State of Jharkhand, spent almost nine months in prison before he died at the age of 84 in a Mumbai hospital on 5 July 2021 from COVID-19, which he contracted in detention.

Fr Swamy, along with 15 other jailed defendants, was on trial for instigating violence during a protest by Dalits on 1 January 2018 in a village in Maharashtra. The defendants say that Hindu nationalists provoked the clashes.

Defence lawyers involved in the Bhima Koregaon (BK16) case hired Arsenal Consulting, which found that someone had hacked into the priest’s computer, planted 44 documents, including the so-called Maoist letters, starting in 2014 until it was seized by the authorities during a raid in the Jesuit’s home in 2019.

On the basis of those documents, India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) charged the clergyman in October 2020 and held him at the Taloja prison in Mumbai.

After making several requests for release, all turned down, Fr Swamy, who was already suffering from Parkinson's at the time of arrest, was eventually moved to a hospital in Mumbai, but by then his health was irrevocably compromised.

Arsenal Consulting found that whoever hacked Fr Swamy's computer used WinSCP, a free and open-source file transfer tool for Microsoft Windows operating system to copy more than 24,000 files and folders to its server.

While the Boston-based forensic firm could not trace the identity of the hacker, it found that the same user targeted the computers of Wilson and Gandling, two other people arrested in connection with the BK16 case. The command and control servers and NetWire configurations are the same in all three hacking operations.

Arsenal Consulting’s report, which sounds like a serious indictment of the National Investigation Agency, has renewed media interest in the case.

Fr Frazer Mascarenhas SJ, a friend of Fr Swamy appointed by a court after his death as the custodian of the case, now wants his fellow Jesuit to be completely clearly even after his death.

“We are not surprised at the latest report regarding the computer of Fr Stan Swamy being compromised and files planted in it,” Fr Mascarenhas told AsiaNews.

“Fr Stan had nothing to do with such correspondence so it is only logical that such an intervention had been done by someone. What is surprising is that this happened within a few months of the change of government at the Centre and in Maharashtra, indicating deliberate long-term planning involved.”

In other words, the hacking allegedly began in 2014, a few months after the change of government in New Delhi when current Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected for the first time.

“What the Arsenal Report also helps us to understand is why the BK16, especially 83-year-old Fr. Stan, were treated in such an inhuman way in jail.

“With no possibility of conviction since the evidence was all concocted, the human rights activists needed to be treated harshly while incarcerated [. . .], so that other activists and members of civil society would be deterred from continuing with their defence of the powerless.

“This is the reason why our court case is not only about clearing the good name of Fr Stan from this accusation but also about making an enquiry into the harsh conditions in jail which led to the deterioration of Fr Stan’s health and eventual death”.

FEMICIDE MISOGYNISTIC PATRIARCHY
Acid attacks in India are a social and legal issue
by Alessandra De Poli

The country has the highest number of such attacks worldwide. In 60 per cent of cases, victims do not report the attack because the wheels of justice turn at a snail’s pace. The reasons behind the violence are rooted in a patriarchal culture.

Milan (AsiaNews) – Two days ago, two youths on a bicycle threw acid at a 17-year-old girl hitting her in the eyes. The victim was on her way to school in Mohan Garden, southwest of Delhi, with her younger sister.

Three people were arrested in connection with the crime, one of them was a friend of the girl who sought revenge after the two had a falling-out.

Police said the acid was likely ordered online, while doctors said the extent of the burns would not be known for a few days.

Acid attacks against girls and young women are a never-ending scourge in India, which has held the world record of cases every year.

It is estimated that at least a thousand cases out of some 1,500 reported worldwide take place in India. Some 90 per cent of attacks are in developing countries, including Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Colombia.

Despite attempts by the Indian government and the Supreme Court to stem the problem, the numbers keep on rising.

Based on partial data (because about an estimated 60 per cent of cases are not reported), the number of cases rose from 80 in 2010 to 240 in 2019.

According to various studies, this increase is largely due to India’s patriarchal culture (over 80 per cent of cases involved women) and the country’s poor legal protections.

In addition, acid not only causes painful burns and permanent scarring to the victims, but also psychological trauma that will last a lifetime.

This problem also has a social and economic impact on the victims, who end up isolated, stigmatised, and hard to hire in certain lines of work.

In short, a bottle of cheap corrosive substance, which can be easily found, will ruin a woman’s life in just a few seconds.

Until 2013 India’s Penal Code had nothing specific for this type of crime, considered by the Indian Supreme Court worse than murder.

Until a few years ago, anyone convicted of such bodily harm could expect at worse a year in prison and a fine worth a thousand rupees (US$ 12).

Following the passing of the Criminal Amendment Act (CMA), offenders can now expect to get seven to 10 years in prison, while a 2015 Supreme Court ruling provides free medical care for the victim and a US$ 4,500 fine for the offender.

However, changing the penal code has proven ineffective so far, since the wheels of Indian justice are so slow.

According to a study conducted last year by researcher Vidhik Kumar, 90 per cent of acid attack cases reported in a year do not reach the trial phase until 12 months later, while the conviction rate was 2.45 per cent in 2016, 3.39 per cent in 2017 and 3.36 per cent in 2018.

Such low percentages are mainly due to slow investigations and a time-consuming justice system, a situation that discourages victims from reporting since memories fade over time, evidence withers, while legal fees for victims mount.

Under the Criminal Amendment Act, unrestricted over-the-counter sales of various corrosive substances (used mostly to clean bathrooms) are banned, while sellers are required to keep a log (registry) with information about authorised buyers.

Yet, the Delhi Commission for Women found that acids are widely available in one-litre bottles in several shops in the capital for less than one rupee (US$ 0.012), and shopkeepers often have no idea what the law says.

A cultural change is needed to address the issue. The reasons for such attacks lie with India’s patriarchal culture.

Around the world, attacks are more common in countries where the gender gap is most pronounced, but India still has a higher rate of attacks than nations with roughly the same level of gender inequality. In 76 per cent of cases, the offender is a person known to the victim.

The leading reasons for aggressions are refusal of marriage proposals or sexual advances, personal enmity, suspicion of extramarital affairs, jealousy of the victim’s beauty or success, and disputes over property with the victim’s family (often related to dowry).

Climate crisis in Africa finally exposes real cause of hunger

People harvesting beans in Djibomben village in Togo, West Africa. 

The ravages of climate change and hunger do not occur in isolation

 but are part of the system we have built. 

PHOTO | GODONG | ROBERT HARDING HERITAGE |

THE CONVERSATION
SUNDAY DECEMBER 18 2022
By William G. Moseley

In the waning hours of the year’s biggest climate change conference – COP27 – we learned of a deal to create a loss and damage fund. This is essentially a source of finance to compensate poor countries for the pain they are incurring because of climate change. An often-cited example of such suffering is the ongoing drought in the Horn of Africa region, which has put 22 million people at risk of severe hunger.

While some have heralded this agreement as long overdue climate reparations, others point out that the loss and damage fund does nothing to address the root causes of climate change – fossil fuel emissions.

Here I seek to raise a different concern: this approach glosses over the fact that the types of food production systems that the global community has fostered in Africa leave the poorest more exposed and vulnerable to climatic variability and economic shocks.

These food production systems refer to the ways people produce, store, process and distribute food, as well as the inputs into the system along the way.
Lion’s share

Related

No excuse for anyone to die of hunger in Africa

Bittersweet win for vulnerable nations at COP27

Historically, smallholder and women farmers have produced the lion’s share of food crops in Africa.

Over the past 60 years, global decision makers, big philanthropy, business interests and large swathes of the scientific community have focused on increased food production, trade, and energy intensive farming methods as the best way to address global and African hunger.

This approach to addressing hunger has failed to address food insecurity on the continent.

The idea that the solution is to produce more dates back to the colonial period. It’s bad for the global environment, highly vulnerable to climate and energy shocks, and does not feed the poorest of the poor.

I approach this topic as a nature-society geographer who has spent his career studying agricultural development approaches and food systems in west and southern Africa. Through this work, I have come to see agroecology as more accessible to the poorest.
Favoured solution

Each time there has been a global food crisis, variations on the formula of increased agricultural production, trade and energy intensive farming methods have been the favoured solution.

These include the first Green Revolution of the 1960s-1970s, commodity production and trade in the 1980s-1990s, the New Green Revolution for Africa and public-private partnerships in the 2000s-2010s.

We now understand that food security has six dimensions, of which only one is addressed by food production.

Looking at all six dimensions reveals the complex drivers of hunger, namely:

●Food availability – local production and net imports

●Access – the ability of households to acquire food that is available

●Utilisation – the cooking, water and sanitation facilities needed to prepare healthy food

●Stability of food prices and supplies over time

●Sustainability – the ability to produce food without undermining the resource base

●Agency – people’s ability to control their food systems, from production to consumption.

So, how did we get here?

Certain countries and businesses profit from productionist approaches to addressing hunger. These include, for example, Monsanto, which developed the herbicide Round-Up. Or the four companies (Archer-Daniels-Midland, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus) that control 70-90 per cent of the global grain trade.

The productionist focus is also engrained in the agricultural sciences. Tropical agronomy, now known as “development agronomy”, was central to the colonial enterprise in Africa.
Transform local food systems

The main objective for colonial powers was to transform local food systems. This pushed many African households away from subsistence farming and the production of food for local markets.

Instead, they moved towards the cultivation of commodity crops needed to fuel European economic expansion, such as cotton in Mali, coffee in Kenya, and cacao in Côte d’Ivoire.

While forced labour was employed in some instances, head taxes became the preferred strategy in many cases for facilitating commodity crop production. Forced to pay such taxes in cash or face jail time, African farmers begrudgingly started to produce cash crops, or went to work on nearby plantations.
Loss of risk management practices

Accompanying the transition to commodity crop production was a gradual loss of risk management practices like storage of surplus grain. Many farmers and herders in Africa have had to deal with highly variable rainfall patterns for centuries. This makes them some of the foremost experts on climate change adaptation.

Farmers would also plant a diverse range of crops with different rainfall requirements. Herders moved across large areas in search of the best pastures.

In the name of progress, colonial regimes often encouraged herders to be less mobile throughout East Africa. They also pushed farmers via taxation policies to store less grain in order to maximise commodity crop production. This opened up farmers to the full, deadly force of extended droughts, a situation that is well documented in northern Nigeria.
Problematic approaches

Many problematic approaches have continued in the post-colonial period.

Various international and national policies and programmes have encouraged African farmers to produce more crops, using imported seeds, pesticides and fertilisers in the name of development or hunger alleviation. African farmers may be producing more, but are left exposed to the ravages of variable climatic conditions.

Agroecologists can offer a different way forward. They seek to understand the ecological interactions between different crops, crops and the soil and atmosphere, and crops and insect communities. They seek to maintain soil fertility, minimise predation from pests and grow more crops without using chemical inputs.

Agroecologists often collaborate with and learn from farmers who have developed such practices over time and are in tune with local ecologies.

This combination of experiential knowledge and formal science training makes agroecology a more decolonial science. It is also more accessible to the poor because there’s no need to buy expensive inputs or risk becoming indebted when crops fail.
Less expensive

The fact that agroecological farming is less expensive has not been lost on the business community. They would lose out substantially if conventional farming approaches were no longer associated with hunger alleviation.

Furthermore, those in the agricultural sciences who have supported productionist approaches to hunger alleviation also see agroecology as a threat as it could lead to a decline of prestige and research funding.

There are signs that the global community may be on the cusp of a major shift in thinking with regard to food systems, climate change and hunger.

A global food crisis has led some to question why previous solutions have not worked. We also now have an emerging, more decolonial science of agroecology that is increasingly accepted within the UN system. It’s backed by a powerful social movement that refused to back down when corporate agricultural interests tried to hijack the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit.

In some cases, there are also large institutional donors experimenting with agroecological approaches, something almost unheard of a decade ago.

Lastly, there is a new set of leaders within some African governments who understand what agroecology offers.

The ravages of climate change and hunger do not occur in isolation but are part of the system we have built. That means we can build something different. The current crisis lays bare this problem and the right combination of new ideas, resources and political will can solve it.

Deconstructing the ‘Jewess’: an Exploration of Gendered Antisemitism

By Hannah Rose

6th December 2022

GNET  In 16 Days, Insights

This Insight is part of GNET’s Gender and Online Violent Extremism series in partnership with Monash Gender, Peace and Security Centre. This series aligns with the UN’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gendered Violence (25 November-10 December).

Fat, bloodthirsty, and wicked. The adjectives ascribed to ‘Jewesses’ on far-right social media forums give some insight into the denotation intended by the term. The use of specific terminology reflects a wider stream of misogynistic antisemitic rhetoric, which does not merely manifest in the targeting of Jewish women, but in itself constitutes the source of specific tropes and imaginings of the role of masculinity and femininity in anti-Jewish sentiments.

This Insight will seek to provide an overview of the specific phenomena of gendered antisemitism. Even in its contemporary manifestations, antisemitism remains rooted in historical context, redressing many of the same tropes popularised centuries ago. Gendered antisemitism is twofold: it embodies unique tropes about Jewish women and targets them with misogyny. Moving from ideological imaginings to practical manifestations, this Insight will subsequently analyse the scale of the problem, cutting through often contradictory literature. It concludes that while literature disagrees on the scale of the targeting of Jewish women, the central themes of gendered antisemitism which first arose centuries ago continue to underpin broad conspiracy theories today.

From Jewess to JAP: the Language and Tropes of Gendered Antisemitism

Evelyn Torton Beck articulates the intersection of “the familiar anti-Semitic figure of the Jew as controlling and insatiably greedy, always wanting more, combining with the misogynist stereotype of the insatiable woman, the woman who is infinitely orgasmic, who will destroy men with her desire.” Creating a stereotype of a “Jewish American Princess”, is, according to Beck, merely the transplant of “traditional antisemitic tropes onto a female form: she is materialistic, money-grabbing, manipulative, shallow, crafty and ostentatious”

Mirroring the wider construction of femininity in traditionalist spaces, gendered antisemitism particularly demonises sexual promiscuity and liberation. It weaves misogynistic narratives into existing antisemitic tropes, forming the building blocks of far-reaching conspiracy theories in often contradictory ways.

Such stereotypes can take multiple directions. On the one hand, Jewish women are essentialised as undesirable and hyper-masculine. Antisemitic theories emerging in the 19th century began to emphasise the femininity of Jewish men, and the masculinity of Jewish women. As such, according to Stefanie Schüler-Springorum, Jews were seen to challenge the desired familial framework, where the Jewish woman was seen as dominant over her feminised husband.

On the other hand, Jewish women are over-sexualised and painted as the embodiment of sexual greed – a sexual parasite draining their hosts. Where Jews are seen as money-grabbing and ostentatious, Jewish women are typified as materialistic and trivial, only interested in looks and clothes; a symbol of the decadent and powerful elite. The essentialised Jewish woman is the embodiment of globalised capitalism, leeching off others, exhibiting both laziness and greed; the misogynist imagining of the parasite symbology. Schüler-Springorum summarises the “erotically threatening fantasy” of the ‘Jewess’ as “an exotic temptress who inspired male fantasies”. She articulates how, with the rise of racial antisemitism in the early 20th century, the threat of sin from the ’Jewess’ was emphasised, and “the Jewish woman became the veritable incarnation of the femme fatale”. Therefore, as traditionalism combined with nationalism to demonise sexual promiscuity, Judaism was co-demonised.

These tropes can still be seen in the roots of contemporary gendered antisemitic constructions. Karin Stogner notes that “due to the intermediate position regarding gender and sexuality attributed to them, Jews were seen as an essential threat to the unity of the cultural community, which is still inseparably linked to the heteronormative order today”. Blyth Crawford investigates this linkage between antisemitism and familialism in neofascist militant accelerationist discourse, concluding that feminism is seen as a Jewish plot to lower white birthrates and therefore control or eliminate white people. Expansive conspiracy theories about ‘The Great Replacement’, rest on alleged Jewish control of the ‘gay agenda’ or attempts to undermine the white nuclear family unit, and are therefore rooted in gendered antisemitic tropes of the manipulative ‘Jewess’.

In the extreme-right imagining, Jewish women are both debauched and desired; a temptation and a taboo; promiscuous and parasitic.

Measuring Gendered Antisemitism: A Brief Literature Review

Quantitative measures of gendered antisemitism produce mixed results. The Fundamental Rights Agency’s survey on the experiences of European Jews, the largest survey of its kind, was analysed by Mie Astrup Jensen using gender identity as the independent variable. Ultimately, it concluded that Jewish men were more likely than women to experience antisemitic discrimination, including physical attacks, offensive or threatening comments, offensive gestures in public or online harassment. The data was adjusted for multiple factors, including the increased visibility of religious Jewish men in public, given the overtly identifiable traditions which govern Jewish male dress and appearance more than women’s, including peyot, facial hair, hats and clothing. Jensen comments that both her literature review and data analysis led to the same conclusion that men are more likely to experience antisemitic discrimination.

The Jewish Policy Research’s 2014 survey also registered lower levels of antisemitic abuse against Jewish women than men. Equally, research for the Antisemitism Policy Trust and the Community Security Trust by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz analysing 9000 Stormfront threads found that Jewish women entertainers were mentioned less than men.

One place where antisemitism was found to target women more than men was the political arena. The same FRA survey which served as data for Jensen’s gender analysis also concludes that political life is one of the main places where antisemitism is reported, particularly in the UK. On the Stormfront threads analysed by Stephens-Davidowitz, the most mentions were of Luciana Berger and Margaret Hodge, former and current Labour MPs who experienced abuse for their opposition to antisemitism in the Labour Party. He notes the overlap of sexist and antisemitic attitudes towards the politicians, with heightened negativity about their appearances, exemplified by insults such as “equine-faced Zionist”. Berger and Hodge have previously both spoken about the soaring levels of antisemitism they and other Jewish women in parliament experienced, including four convictions for abuse of Berger.

Specifically speaking to the increasing divergence of white supremacist and manosphere online communities, Media Matters recorded a 180% increase in posts containing both misogynistic and antisemitic language on 4chan between 2015 and 2017. This suggests an overall growth of online abuse of women but does not measure whether this increase is proportionate to that experienced by Jewish men.

As such, literature attempting to quantitively measure the levels of gendered antisemitism, and the intersection between misogyny and antisemitism, generates mixed findings. There is likely to be some divergence in results where there is a difference in arena or type of incident being recorded, particularly given the lack of uniformity in how online antisemitism is measured, and equally a lack of consensus on what exactly constitutes antisemitism. This review is therefore indicative of a patchy field of literature, with only sporadic, rather than methodological, analysis. Currently, little definitive and authoritative literature on the topic exists, and as such, much remains unknown.

Conclusions

Where sexism is often ingrained into the contemporary psyche, antisemitic discourse is no different. Ranging from the unconscious targeting of Jewish women, the torrents of abuse experienced by female Jewish politicians, to the overtly misogynistic intersections of extreme-right antisemitism, gendered antisemitism is diverse in its manifestations.

Gendered antisemitism may be particularly tricky to survey quantitively, both due to the coded and often covert nature of all forms of antisemitism, and what the Antisemitism Policy Trust theorise as a “less challenged” form of hatred due to its relation to wider structural sexism. If, as has already been explored, gendered antisemitism is not just antisemitism targeted at women, but a specific worldview which underpins much of wider antisemitic discourse, its contribution to conspiratorial, extreme-right and even mainstream thinking is arguably immeasurable.

It is also pertinent to address a perception gap between Jewish men and women in JPR’s survey, where the women surveyed reported higher concerns over rising levels of antisemitic abuse. Where the bottom line of the Jewish community’s safety is not just statistical, but threat perceptions and feelings of security, the intersection of misogyny and antisemitism must be addressed by victim-centred threat reduction measures.

Despite recent attempts to reclaim the term, the ‘Jewess’ remains a shadowy figure seen through a gendered lens, hated by many, and understood by few. Much more must be learned about the diversity of intersections between gender and antisemitism in order to definitively understand the issue, and therefore combat it.

Hannah Rose
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