China overtakes US to become EU's top trading partner

Issued on: 17/02/2021 - 

This aerial photo shows shipping containers stacked at a port in Lianyungang, in China's eastern Jiangsu province on January 14, 2021. AFP - STR

China last year overtook the United States as the EU's biggest trading partner, the EU statistics agency Eurostat said Monday.

Britain meanwhile, which is no longer part of the European Union, was the third-largest trading partner for the bloc, behind China and the United States, the agency said.

The supremacy of China came after it suffered from the coronavirus pandemic during the first quarter but recovered vigorously with consumption even exceeding its level of a year ago at the end of 2020.

This helped drive sales of European products, particularly in the automobile and luxury goods sectors, while China's exports to Europe benefited from strong demand for medical equipment and electronics.

The dethroning of the US comes as the EU and China are seeking to ratify a long-negotiated investment deal that would give European companies better access to the Chinese market.

Eurostat said the trade volume with China reached 586 billion euros ($711 billion) in 2020, compared to 555 billion euros ($673 billion) for the US.

The agency said EU exports rose by 2.2 percent to 202.5 billion euros while at the same time, imports from the People's Republic of China increased by 5.6 percent to 383.5 billion euros.

EU exports to the United States fell by 13.2 per cent in the same period and imports by 8.2 percent.

In addition to the Covid-19 crisis, transatlantic trade has been impaired by a series of tit-for-tat feuds that have resulted with tariffs being on steel and products such as French champagne or Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Eurostat said trade with the UK plummeted in 2020, the year Britain officially left the bloc, though it was in a transition period to blunt the effects of Brexit until December 31.

EU exports to the UK fell by 13.2 percent, while imports from across the channel dropped by 13.9 percent, Eurostat said.

(AFP)

Spain's Irene Montero: from anti-austerity agitator to minister


Issued on: 18/02/2021 

Irene Montero is known for a confrontational, unabashedly feminist style of politics 

PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU AFP

Madrid (AFP)

A protester-turned-politician, Spain's Equality Minister Irene Montero is an outspoken feminist and young mover-and-shaker in the leftwing government.

A huge rainbow flag graces the front of her ministry, trailing the draft law on transgender rights that Montero -- the partner of the leader of the radical leftwing Podemos -- will present this spring.

Her plan to let people register a gender change on their identity documents without a medical report faces stern opposition from the Socialists, who run Spain's coalition government in which Podemos is the junior partner.

Born in Madrid to a father in the removals business and a teacher mother, Montero went to a liberal Montessori-style school then as a teen joined a Communist youth organisation.

In politics, she has embraced a confrontational style hallmarked by an assertive defence of feminism.

While she can both divide and annoy, in 2017 the strategy saw her flagged by Forbes magazine as one of the most influential European politicians under 30.

Her persona is pure Podemos, slotting into the party led by her partner Pablo Iglesias which emerged out of the anti-austerity "Indignados" movement that occupied squares across Spain in 2011 at the height of the economic crisis.

With a PhD in psychology, Montero has been at the forefront of Iglesias' leadership team since the party was formed in 2014, and a year later was elected as an MP when Podemos surged into Spanish parliament for the first time.

- Two at the top -

At 33, her style is casual, with a jacket thrown over a T-shirt.

And she's well versed in "speaking the language of the people, in a simple, unsophisticated way that is 'less highbrow' than her Podemos colleagues, almost all of whom are political scientists or university professors", says political analyst Euprepio Padula.

Just 29 when she became the leader of Podemos' parliamentary group, Montero made her mark in 2017 when she took to the podium to argue for an ultimately unsuccessful motion of censure against then rightwing premier Mariano Rajoy.

"It was the first time that a woman had stood up to defend a censure motion," Montero told AFP in an interview, saying she felt "a great sense of responsibility".

As she has gained visibility, the spotlight has also turned on her relationship with Iglesias.

When Podemos entered government in January 2020, Montero was named equality minister and Iglesias became one of Spain's four deputy prime ministers.

Her portfolio was a solid win for a party that until then had made few inroads among female voters and was looking to compete with the Socialists, who "for years have attracted most female voters," noted Jose Rama, a political scientist at Madrid's Autonomous University.

- 'Difficult being in politics' -

As a leadership duo, Iglesias and Montero wield "a huge amount of power because not only do they both hold ministerial portfolios... but they also control the party's internal institutions," he said.

But it has also earned them criticism from within their own party, with the pair under fire for buying a villa with a swimming pool outside Madrid in 2018.

Montero does not take kindly to public questions about her private life, lashing out when an MP from the rightwing opposition Popular Party dared raise the issue of her partner in October.

"I'll have whoever I like in my bed," she snapped in an exchange in parliament.

Describing herself as "psychologist, mother and feminist", Montero has no qualms about attending a TV debate with a baby in a carrier, breastfeeding in an interview or shedding a tear during a speech on gender violence.

On prostitution, gender self-determination and other issues, her opinions have often laid her bare to rightwing and centrist accusations of being a "radical feminist" who has even sown divisions among feminists themselves.

"It's difficult for a young woman to be in politics," mother-of-three Montero admits.

"Regardless of how competent you are, how much experience you have or how politically successful you are, there will always be a political argument that undermines you, whether it's your partner, your friends or your youth."

© 2021 AFP

Georgia PM resigns over plans to arrest opposition leader

Issued on: 18/02/2021 - 

Georgia's opposition held protests in Tbilisi in January Vano Shlamov AFP/File

Tbilisi (AFP)

Georgia's prime minister resigned on Thursday over plans to arrest a top opposition leader, saying it risked escalating a political crisis in the ex-Soviet nation.

Giorgi Gakharia said he was stepping down because of disagreement in the government over enforcing the court order to arrest opposition leader Nika Melia.

"It is inadmissible to enforce a judiciary decision... if that poses a risk to the health and lives of our citizens or creates the possibility of a political escalation in the country."


A court in Georgia on Wednesday ruled to place Melia in pre-trial detention.

Melia, who faces up to nine years behind bars if found guilty of "organising mass violence" during anti-government protests in 2019, has rejected the charges as politically motivated.

"The case against me is judicial nonsense... It is part of ongoing repressions against the opposition," he told AFP.

The move to arrest Melia -- chairman of the country's main opposition force, the United National Movement (UNM) -- raised the stakes in a political crisis that has gripped Georgia since parliamentary elections in October.

The opposition denounced the polls as rigged after the ruling Georgian Dream party claimed victory, while rights groups and international observers said the vote has been marred by irregularities.

Leaders of nearly all of the country's opposition parties have gathered since Wednesday at the UNM party headquarters in the capital Tbilisi, vowing to obstruct police if they moved to arrest Melia.

Georgian television stations on Wednesday night aired footage of riot police mobilising close to the UNM headquarters.

Georgia's interior ministry said in a statement it had "temporarily postponed the planned detention" of Melia in connection with the prime minister's resignation.

- 'Moscow's man' -

All of the ex-Soviet country's opposition parties have refused to take up their mandates in the new parliament, a boycott that weighs heavily on the political legitimacy of Georgian Dream, controlled by oligarch former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Melia is accused of fomenting violence during mass protests that erupted in Tbilisi in June 2019 after a Russian lawmaker addressed parliament from the speaker's seat, a controversial move in a country where ties with Moscow remain strained after a brief war in 2008.

The rallies saw thousands of protesters clash with police who used tear gas and rubber bullets against the crowds, injuring scores of demonstrators.

Then-interior minister Gakharia led the police crackdown and was appointed premier in September 2019.

Dubbed by the opposition as "Moscow's man", Gakharia, 45, worked in Russia as a regional director for German aviation company Lufthansa and is a graduate at Moscow's Lomonosov University.

In a statement ahead of Melia's trial, the European Union envoy to Georgia described the circumstances surrounding Melia's prosecution as a "dangerous trajectory for Georgia and for Georgian democracy."

The US embassy in Tbilisi said on Twitter that the crisis "must be resolved peacefully", urging both the government and the opposition to show restraint.

© 2021 AFP

Belarus court sentences two journalists to two years in prison

Issued on: 18/02/2021 - 

Chultsova, left, and Bakhvalova, shown here flashing the V for victory sign from inside a defendants' cage, had been in pre-trial custody since November STRINGER AFP

Minsk (AFP)

A court in Belarus on Thursday sentenced two journalists to two years in prison on charges of fomenting protests against strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko.

Authorities in the ex-Soviet country are pursuing a number of criminal cases against activists and journalists in the wake of months of anti-government protests last year.

The demonstrations swept Belarus after Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory in an August election that the opposition and many Western countries said was fraudulent.

In response, the authorities unleashed a mass crackdown, which left at least four protesters dead, thousands in jail and hundreds claiming torture in custody.

Poland-based opposition television station Belsat reported Thursday that the two journalists, Katerina Bakhvalova, 27, and Daria Chultsova, 23, were sentenced for leading "group actions that grossly violate public order" while filming a November rally in support of a dead anti-government protester.

Both women, who were photographed Thursday smiling and flashing the V for victory sign from inside a cage for defendants, had been held in pre-trial custody since.

"I showed these events live. For this I was thrown into jail on trumped-up charges," Belsat reported Bakhvalova as telling a judge Wednesday in her final statement before sentencing.

As the journalists were handed their verdict Thursday morning, the prosecutor general's office said in a statement it had opened a criminal case into the death of the protester.

- Growing crackdown -

The protester, 31-year-old former soldier Roman Bondarenko, died from brain damage in Minsk after police arrested him following a dispute in a city square that was a regular meeting place for the opposition.

The opposition believes Bondarenko suffered the injuries at the hands of Lukashenko's security services.

Lukashenko has weathered the opposition protests and last week gathered loyalists for a defiant address, claiming his country had defeated a foreign intervention.

The European Union has slapped sanctions on the strongman leader and his allies, and the case of the two journalists drew sharp condemnation from diplomats in Western countries, who demanded that the women be released.

The verdict in their trial came after police earlier this week said they raided around 90 homes and offices of journalists, rights defenders and trade union members.

It also came a day after a trial began in the case of leading opposition member Viktor Babaryko, who was arrested in June ahead of the presidential election after he announced he would run against Lukashenko.

The former banker was one of several opposition figures who were arrested or fled the former Soviet country ahead of last year's election.

© 2021 AFP

Belarus: Police raid homes of journalists, activists

Massive anti-government rallies swept the nation in 2020. Europe's "last dictatorship" is cracking down on dissent in a bid to maintain control.


Police raid the independent Belarusian Association of Journalists' office in Minsk

Police in Belarus carried out more than 20 raids on the homes and offices of journalists, human rights activists and trade union members on Tuesday. The raids were part of an investigation into mass anti-government protests, officials said.

The former Soviet nation has been gripped by weekend protests ever since strongman President Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory in a disputed election on August 9, 2020.

But authorities clamped down hard on the public resistance, detaining tens of thousands of demonstrators and opposition members.


Law enforcement in Belarus cracked down on journalists during mass anti-government protests in 2020
Who was targeted?

The home of Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) chief Andrei Bastunets was raided. According to the BAJ, Bastunets was detained by police, but later released.

The human rights organization Viasna also said it was targeted. Authorities seized phones and other devices, and several members were detained, the organization said in a statement.

Watch video 01:53 Belarus moves to stop journalists reporting on protests

Peter Stano, EU Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, commented on the raids to DW, criticizing the actions against activists and journalists as a "complete violation of their fundamental freedoms, human rights and the rule of law."

He said that the continued law-enforcement crackdown "is unacceptable. Hundreds of politically motivated trials have taken place. Belarusians have been denied the most basic rights, including the right to fair trial and the right to humane treatment in custody," Stano continued.

Since the "fraudulent" August 2020 elections, "hundreds of documented cases of torture have been collected to date," Stano said.
Belarus justifies the raids

Belarus's Investigative Committee, a body charged with probing major crimes, said they were part of a probe into the "organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order."

"As part of a preliminary investigation to establish the circumstances of the financing of protest activities, investigators initiated searches on organizations positioning themselves as human rights defenders," the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
Crackdown provokes anger

Harassment through searches, arrests and criminal prosecution of journalists and human rights defenders, including Council of Europe (CoE) and UN partners is unacceptable, tweeted the CoE's Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic.

"Freedoms of expression, association and assembly should be ensured according to international human rights standards," she added.

"A sad new climax of harassment against journalists has been reached" with the raids, Germany's Journalist Union, the DJV said in a statement to DW. "The repression against independent media must 

Watch video02:56 Young Belarusians take stock after 6 months of protests

Belarus' anti-press stance

The government has come down hard on independent media during the anti-government protests.

Belarus canceled all accreditation for foreign journalistsin October 2020 in response to EU sanctions.

Police detained journalists a total of 477 times last year, according to the BAJ.

Several are now facing criminal charges.

Two journalists were due in court Tuesday on charges of organizing and preparing protests. The charges can carry a maximum penalty of three years in prison.
Democracy is the only way forward says the EU

Responding to government actions, the EU has imposed sanctions against 84 individuals and 7 entities responsible for the on-going repression and intimidation of peaceful demonstrators, opposition members and journalists, as well as for misconduct of the electoral process, related Stano.

Though further sanctions could be adopted, "the EU firmly believes that only democracy, the rule of law and conducting free and fair elections in respect of the democratic will of the people of Belarus is the only way forward," said Stano. Only this "will guarantee the long-term stability and sovereignty of Belarus," he continued.

kmm, mb/msh (dpa, Reuters)

Cologne Catholic sex abuse probe seen as cover-up

Germany's secular panel on sexualized violence against children says Cologne's Catholic archdiocese has "severely damaged" moves to own up to its abusive past.



Cologne's archbishopric "severely damaged" the process of owning up to decades of sexualized violence against children in its ranks as demanded by victims and lay Catholics, a top secular German panel found on Monday.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse — a commission mandated by parliament since 2016 to probe cases across German society — decried the diocese's own internal review, saying this must be done instead by outsiders.

Its statement coincided Monday with Munich lawyers refuting a claim by Cologne Archbishop Rainer Maria Woelki that their report, delivered to him last year but kept secret, only examined 15 selected cases out of "all 236 available cases."

All cases were examined, insisted the Munich law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW), but to protect victims from being re-traumatized the report focused on 15 anonymized examples.

Cardinal Woelki, facing widespread disquiet, even rebellion, in his diocese, has sworn to publish a second report compiled by a Cologne lawyer on March 18, with his office rebuffing calls to release the original WSW report.
Public sees 'cover-up"

The Berlin-based panel on Monday, referring to the "Cologne Archbishopric" but not Woelki by name, said from the outside" the public saw a "cover-up."

And, those affected — once children and adolescent victims, who had advised the archdiocese as a group during its internal inquiry — now felt "instrumentalized," said the panel.

Catholics wanting their church to face up to its past felt a "great burden" of disappointment, added the seven-member pane

Watch video 02:53 Refusal to publish abuse report criticized

Independent examination essential

The archbishopric's assertion in October that the WSW report could not be published due to "methodical flaws," had raised "considerable doubts about the (church's) willingness to honestly come to terms with the past," said the panel,

It pointed out that recommendations it made in 2019 on how to probe abuses within institutions, families and sport associations included, centered on the need for independence, transparency as well as direct consultation with persons victimized.

Germany's Independent Commission for Investigation of sexualized Child Abuse

Catholic community broadcasts satirical broadside

Cologne cabaret artist and author Jürgen Becker, delivering a satirical online sermon from the city's Saint Agnes church Monday accused archdiocese leaders of "systematically covered up the mass clergy sexual abuse for decades."

While Cardinal Woelki maintained a "holy silence," opined Becker, his predecessor, the late Cardinal Joachim Meisner, who died in 2017, had established a cover-up "system."

Becker's address, delivered via Youtube and Facebook by the church's own central Cologne community, had attracted tens of thousands of viewers by Monday evening as Rhineland stuck to coronavirus strictures ruling out its normal Rose Monday Carnival festivities.

Becker finished his address by saying Cologne's next bishop should not be Catholic and should be a woman, echoing demands by the Catholic women's initiative Maria 2.0.

ipj/aw (KNA, epd, AFP)

COVID: German politicians, scientists face threats online

German public figures who support pandemic restrictions have been targeted with death threats and abuse online. Officials are concerned by the anger directed at health authorities.



German politician and virologist Karl Lauterbach has received online hate and abuse


"Hang him from a tree, once and for all," one user wrote. "How is he still not locked up?" another asked.

These are just two examples of the online abuse received by the German member of parliament and epidemiologist Karl Lauterbach, who posted screenshots on his Twitter account over the weekend.

"A wave of hate is rolling over me online," Lauterbach wrote. "The death threats and insults are hard to bear. Again and again, there are calls for violence."

Much of the abuse centers around the prominent role Lauterbach has taken in calling for stricter shutdowns to counter the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The member of the center-left Social Democrats, the junior coalition partner in the government, has been vocal with his projections of possible developments in the pandemic without tight restrictions.

'Hostility against scientists'

Lauterbach is not the only public figure who has received more abuse online over the course of the past year. In Berlin alone, figures for reported online hate rose by 45% in the first 11 months of 2020 compared with the year before, according to the city's justice department.

Statistics for the rest of Germany for 2020 are still being compiled.

"It is certainly not a new phenomenon that people who are in the public eye are treated with hostility online," Christoph Hebbeckerm, from the Central Cybercrime Office in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, told DW. "But we suspect that there are more incidents because of the pandemic."

And counselors and advice services have also seen a spike in requests for help.

"At the beginning of the pandemic, we actually saw a decline in the number of inquiries for advice, which we could not really explain," said Josephine Ballon from HateAid, a Berlin-based foundation that offers support and counselling to victims of online hate speech. "A short time later, however, this trend was reversed and we are currently reaching new weekly highs in counseling rates."

"In the context of the pandemic, we have observed increased hostility against scientists and politicians," she added.

Watch video 02:08 HateAid: Help against hate speech

Scientists victimized

The virologist Melanie Brinkmann, one of the scientists who advises Chancellor Angela Merkel on pandemic response, told Spiegel magazine that she has been afraid in her home because of online threats she received. And Gerald Haug, head of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, told the media outlet RND that, although he himself is not active on the internet, he has received online hate and threats over the course of the last year.

A number of high-profile scientists have spoken out against the so-called Querdenker, or "lateral thinkers," movement, which has gained traction in Germany in the past year. Adherents believe that the coronavirus is a hoax and have held protests, sometimes illegally, to protest restrictions on public life. Participants at these demonstrations have included right-wing extremists who turned violent when police requested that they adhere to pandemic restrictions such as social distancing and wearing masks.

"We observed an increase in hate speech in connection with the criticism of the coronavirus measures," Ballon said. "In the run-up to the demonstrations in Berlin, we even saw very serious threats against people who, among other things, were standing up against conspiracy theory narratives and hate online."

And it is not just nationally known figures such as Lauterbach who have become targets.

"A doctor in Cologne who questioned reports that suggested wearing masks had a detrimental effect on the muscles of the respiratory tract, subsequently received hate messages online," Hebbecker said. "We never heard about incidents like that before the pandemic."

Because of coronavirus restrictions, more people have turned to the internet to get information and interact with other people.

"We assume that the increased need for counseling is due to the greater shift of social life to the internet," Ballon said.

Hebbecker said his cybercrime unit was working on the "hypothesis" that more hate has gone online during the shutdowns because people are spending more time on the internet.

Watch video12:06 Spreading conspiracy theories, spreading coronavirus?

Worldwide problem

The phenomenon is not confined to Germany. A study by tech giant Microsoft indicated that reported hate speech was up 4% in 2020 in the Asia-Pacific region. In the United States, top immunologist and President Joe Biden's chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci has received hate online for his stance calling for strict regulations and criticizing former President Donald Trump's pandemic response.

And, aside from the pandemic, online hate speech has been the precursor to recent attacks and terrorist actions, for example the storming of the US Capitol on January 6.

In Germany, the neo-Nazi terrorists behind the 2019 killings in Halle and the murder of politician Walter Lübcke, were also reportedly radicalized online.

"The increased hostility against scientists and politicians is primarily aimed at undermining their legitimacy," Ballon said. "In our view, however, this already began in 2015 in connection with the so-called refugee crisis, in the course of which pro-refugee politicians were attacked and democratic structures were called into question."

Partly because of the attention that Lauterbach has brought to the issue, the German government is looking at tightening online hate speech laws. Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht told RND on Tuesday that she was aware that "anyone who contributes with facts to help us better combat the pandemic is overrun with threats."

"This must finally come to an end," she said.

But the government has yet to offer a time frame for new regulations to take effect. In the meantime, Lauterbach, for one, has indicated the online hate will not stop him from commenting on the pandemic.

Watch video02:57 GMF compact: Hate speech online and violence offline

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Opinion:
Crisis-crippled Burkina Faso needs urgent help

One million people have been driven from their homes by armed groups in Burkina Faso. The international community must address the world's fastest-growing displacement crisis, writes OCHA's Ramesh Rajasingham.

Unless the international community acts quickly, the crisis in Burkina Faso will become protracted

Last week in northern Burkina Faso I met Fatoumata, a mother of 10, by a water point in the northern town of Djibo. Violence had forced her from her home, leaving her life and all her belongings behind. She is now surviving with the help of aid groups in this local community.

Her wish, she told me, is to grow and sell vegetables in a local market to make a living and rebuild a future for herself and her children. But Fatoumata knows that for the moment, it's impossible. For her and her family, safety and security are of paramount importance and she is grateful for the host community that protects her. This is echoed by many displaced women who are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence by armed men.

Violence and climate change have drastically reduced food production. One person in 10 is food insecure. Without the humanitarian assistance that they receive, thousands of families would go hungry, not knowing where the next meal will come from.
COVID-19 exacerbates a dire situation

Nearly a million people have no access to medical care and COVID-19 and the subsequent economic problems have made the situation worse.


OCHA's Ramesh Rajasingham

Almost 2,200 schools are closed in affected areas across the country, depriving 311,000 children of education and putting them at risk of exploitation and abuse. In one of Burkina Faso's most affected regions, Sahel, school attendance has dropped from an already low average of 50-60% to 25% over the past two years. This has an enormous impact on children's futures, particularly for girls, who are often unlikely to return to school.

Aid groups have significantly scaled up their presence and tripled humanitarian deliveries since 2019. Last year, thanks to help from donors, they assisted more than 2.4 million people, including in areas that were previously very hard to reach. But the conflict continues unabated, and the needs keep growing.

People themselves are a key source of relief. In Djibo, the number of displaced people hosted by the community far exceeds the number of inhabitants in the town. Their generosity cannot be overestimated.
International community must act

Together with the government,the UN and partners have launched their Humanitarian Response Plan for 2021 to comprehensively address the needs in Burkina Faso. The plan aims to reach 2.9 million of the county's most vulnerable people with aid this year. It needs $608 million (€500 million) in donor funding to be able to implement the program.

Lifesaving aid must go hand in hand with sustainable action to build up resilience and reduce future needs. Humanitarian partners in the city of Kaya have launched several innovative steps to support local basic service networks and infrastructure — a more sustainable solution for the entire community.

Most important of all is peace to avoid a protracted humanitarian crisis which suffocates the hope and dignity of a proud people.

I have been struck by people's resilience in the face of near-impossible challenges. But communities desperately need international support to get back on their feet. Fatoumata needs more than just security and safety.

Humanitarian organizations have demonstrated that with adequate resources they can help more people in more places with more effective support. As I leave Burkina Faso, I urgently call on the rest of the world to help them do just that.

Ramesh Rajasingham is the Acting UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Meet the Creators of the Toni Morrison Project
In Celebration of an Iconic American Writer

By Rasheeda Saka

February 18, 2021

On this day, 90 years ago, the great Toni Morrison was born; and in a span of 88 years, she not only managed to publish 11 groundbreaking novels, which earned her a Pulitzer and Nobel Prize, but also championed some of the most enduring Black literary voices of our time.

To celebrate her birthday, I reached out to a few of her most dedicated readers, ones who have taken it upon themselves to honor her, her work, and her legacy—the creators of the Toni Morrison Project: Cameron Bell, Imani Thorton, and Ozichi Okorom.

Cameron is a historian and bookworm from Virginia, who works as a community organizer and educator. Imani is a law school student and aspiring novelist. And Ozichi is a recent college graduate from Queens, New York, and an early career Black feminist artist and researcher.


After realizing they wanted to see more of Morrison’s presence in their everyday lives, they created the Toni Morrison Project with the hopes it would also allow people to find an opening to her work, which is occasionally regarded as too difficult (and rightfully so!). The Project operates across Twitter and Instagram, and posts a citation from a Morrison novel, short story, speech, or essay every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (with a few notable exceptions—today, for example). You can even submit a quote to their platforms, here.


More than that, though, the Project posts archival photos, videos, critical essays, and letters to showcase the expansive world of Morrison.

The Project began at the end of August and, as of today, has amassed a remarkable following. Some of its most popular posts include a quote from Song of Solomon: “Perhaps that’s what all human relationships boiled down to: Would you save my life? Or would you take it?”; and most recently, Beloved: “Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all.”


*

Rasheeda Saka: Why do you love Toni Morrison? What does her work mean to you?

Cameron Bell: Her WAY WITH WORDS! Her writing is so crisp, clear, and on point! Also, she consistently and unapologetically wrote about and to Black people—no little explanations to white people, no trying to “prove” Black people are also worthy and artistic. She just wrote!

Imani Thornton: Ms. Morrison’s work has represented the importance of second chances. I first read Beloved when I was in high school and hated it because I didn’t understand it. I revisited her with Tar Baby and God Help the Child which compelled me to try re-reading Beloved a couple years ago. To say I loved Beloved is an understatement. It was one of the most remarkable literary experiences I’ve ever had and it changed the way I think about slavery and its afterlives. I am thankful to Beloved for being around for me to read again.


Ozichi Okorom: I love Toni Morrison because her life and work is an example of a deeply rooted and radical love for Black people. While the English language mostly fails to represent Black feeling, memory, and other forms of knowledge, it never feels so close than when I’m reading one of her essays or books. She has taught me the importance of incoherence, misunderstanding, and silence in forming a narrative. Some things can’t be explained, you just have to feel it! She wrote with love for us and that love is palpable on every page.


RS: Why do you think people should read and engage with Morrison’s work?

IT: The characters that Ms. Morrison created somehow manage to be both familiar and unfamiliar. The best way I can describe it is with the theory that when you dream, every face you see is someone you’ve seen before because your mind cannot invent faces, but it may be a face you’ve seen only once in your entire life. That is the experience I’ve had reading Ms. Morrison’s work—reading characters who are not real but it’s clear they represent someone you or your grandmother or your great uncle may have encountered at some point.

OO: Her storytelling on Black interior life. She created worlds with her words almost as if casting a spell. She told stories about Black girls and women and the difficulty in finding security in the face of so much oppression and injustice. Her work is vital to understanding the nuances and contradictions of being Black in America and she shows us that Black literature captures history in a way that traditional archives don’t. Lastly, if you want to experience language that will tug at your heart, have you puzzled for weeks, warm your belly and make you laugh, then Toni Morrison is the one to read.

CB: Every novel, every article, every speech gives something new to chew on every time you read or reread it.


RS: What is your favorite Morrison novel?

OO: The Bluest Eye has meant a lot to me. I read it for the first time three years ago, after having already read some of Toni Morrison’s later works, and it was amazing to see where her career started. Morrison portrayed Pecola Breedlove’s all consuming desire to be loved as tied to her appearance with such innocence. She embodied the violence done to Black girls like Pecola who grow up fully convinced of their inferiority. This book allowed me to deeply reflect on the role desirability and colorism shaped my upbringing as a young Black girl and to continue to hold space and tenderness for other Black girls trying to find themselves among a world of hatred and misogynoir.


CB: Song of Solomon. I literally tell this story every time I talk about it, but it is just too perfect: I received this novel as a gift in college and to this day have no clue where or who it is from. I got a package with Song of Solomon and Ellison’s Invisible Man in February that I didn’t order and none of my friends or family ordered. I read it that summer and it pushed and challenged my imagination in ways I didn’t think possible. The historical and Biblical allusions are just *chef’s kiss* I also could not have read it at a more pivotal time in my life, coming off of a year of campus protests and trying to get the administration to do better, and entering a senior year where I had so many decisions to make about not only my senior independent work but also what I wanted my work to look like post-graduation.

IT: Sula. I have read most of Ms. Morrison’s books on trains or pacing around outside and I have very vivid memories of rushing through Sula on a spring day while commuting from work. There was something about Sula that touched me deeply, particularly its focus on the complications that arise out of friendships between Black women. It’s also a book that as soon as I finished it, I knew I needed to read it again one day.


RS: Which of Morrison’s books do you think is highly underrated?

CB: Paradise. I finally read it last year and was blown away, in a similar way to how I felt when I first read Song of Solomon. It is breathtaking, haunting, surprising, and timely in so many ways.

IT: Tar Baby. It’s the most mysterious Morrison novel (that I’ve read) to me.

OO: Jazz. The perspective shifts are extremely dynamic! It is sensuous, unconstrained and rhythmic like the musical genre.

RS: What book would you recommend to a first time reader of Morrison?

IT: The Bluest Eye, and it’s not just because it was written first!

OO: Beloved; it was the first book I read from her.

CB: Sula or The Bluest Eye.

RS: What is your favorite quote on the Toni Morrison Project’s social media accounts?

OO: “Imagine yourself in that dark, all alone in the sky at night. Nobody is around you. You are by yourself, just shining there. You know how a star is supposed to twinkle? We say twinkle because that is how it looks, but when a star feels itself, it’s not a twinkle, it’s more like a throb. Star throbs…Stars just throb and throb and throb and sometimes, when they can’t throb anymore, when they can’t hold it anymore, they fall out of the sky.” –Tar Baby

In this quote, Son is telling Jadine what it feels like when they are together, likening their passion to stars about to burst. The world around us (and beyond) contains so many metaphors for human relationships and Toni Morrison draws on them when literal description are inadequate. I think it’s brilliant. It’s a kind of knowledge that I feel is taken for granted but is well within our oral and literary traditions as Black people.



CB: “Can’t nobody fly with all that shit. Wanna fly, you gotta give up the shit that weighs you down.” –Song of Solomon

I mean, you already know what it is! This is my favorite quote from my favorite book. My man Guitar was always speaking unfiltered truth. I just adore how direct and apt this statement is, for this point of the story and in general. It evokes literal flight in a way that pushes my imagination of what it means to be free and how we get there. It is a simple yet profound assertion and advice: flying (liberation) is possible, if only we can give up the shit that weighs us down. Now, not to go toooo far on a tangent, how this plays out in the story is also complicated by questions of what exactly is weighing the characters down? Who and what do they leave behind in order to flee? What is that legacy?

IT: “This soil is bad for certain kinds of flowers. Certain seeds it will not nurture, certain fruit it will not bear, and when the land kills of its own volition, we acquiesce and say the victim had no right to live.” –The Bluest Eye


The care that Ms. Morrison took in writing The Bluest Eye and her other works, is captured in this line. Her work, while not perfect, isn’t interested in the pathologization or victim-blaming of its Black characters but is invested in something deeper—about what kind of world we live in where “tragedy” is not only the norm but required to make others feel good about themselves. I also think this is one of the best metaphors I’ve ever read.




Rasheeda SakaRasheeda Saka is Literary Hub's 2020 fall-winter Editorial Fellow. She graduated from Princeton University, where she studied English and Creative Writing. In 2018, she was named one of Epiphany Magazine's Breakout 8 writers for her short story "The Killers' Den."

Myanmar coup: Thousands rally against military build up

Demonstrators are blocking roads with vehicles to stop troops from moving through the country's largest city. Experts warn that the protests could spark a wave of violence.

Demonstrators block a road in Yangon

Thousands of anti-coup protesters took to the streets of Myanmar on Wednesday in even larger demonstrations than seen in previous days.

Demonstrators rallied in Yangon, the nation's biggest city, with protesters blockading roads with vehicles to stop troops from moving through the area.
Fears the protests could turn violent

UN special rapporteur Tom Andrews warned that reports of soldiers being brought into Yangon could lead to a largely violent situation.

"I fear that Wednesday has the potential for violence on a greater scale in Myanmar than we have seen since the illegal takeover of the government on February 1," Andrews said in a statement.

"In the past, such troop movements preceded killings, disappearances, and detentions on a mass scale,'' he added.

The UN Special Envoy on Myanmar echoed those concerns. "We also should not forget that we have around 21 ethnic armed organizations in the country who are against this coup. So the potential for violence is very high… this could end in a very severe situation," Christine Schraner Burgener told DW.

Watch video 04:31 Maung Zarni, Human Rights Activist from Myanmar: regime has zero regard for citizen’s lives

Activist Phyu Phyu Thaw told DW she was "not afraid" of the consequences of an ongoing civil disobedience campaign.

"We have been under military control for years. This time we have to finish them. We want true democracy. We no longer want the military ruling our country."

Internet blackouts continue

Organizers took to social media to call for protests, despite ongoing internet blackouts. "Let's march en masse. Let's show our force against the coup government that has destroyed the future of youth and our country,'' Kyi Toe, a spokesman for detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party wrote on his Facebook page late Tuesday.

The military additionally ordered an internet blackout for the third night in a row on Tuesday, almost entirely blocking online access from 1 a.m. to 9 a.m. local time. It has also prepared a draft law that would cirminalize many online activities.

There were also unconfirmed local reports that trucks and private cars had blocked trade roads between China and Myanmar.

Watch video01:51 Protests continue in Myanmar as Suu Kyi faces new charges

What's behind the latest protests?

The protests kicked off amid rumors Suu Kyi had gone on trial in secret.

Suu Kyi is facing a new charge of violating the country's disaster management law, according to her lawyer Khin Maung Zaw.

He added that while Suu Kyi's trial was set to begin on March 1, there were signs that she had already made an initial appearance in court on Tuesday, without legal representation.

Suu Kyi was first charged after her detention on February 1, for possessing unregistered walkie-talkies.