New Dutch exhibition examines Indonesia's independence


AMSTERDAM (AP) — Video of Dutch troops overseeing the torching of houses in an Indonesian village plays in one room of the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam. A few meters away, a baby's clothes sewn from book covers — the only scraps of cloth the mother could find — are laid out.

The displays, which cast into stark relief two different elements of suffering, are part of a new exhibition at the national museum of the Netherlands. “Revolusi! Indonesia Independent” presents a multifaceted view of the violent birth of the Southeast Asian nation from the ashes of World War II and three centuries of colonial rule.

The array of baby clothes "doesn’t show the violence directly, but it’s this indirect impact of the violence that’s been shown by these objects,” museum director Taco Dibbits told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Indonesia's War of Independence is shown through the eyes of 23 witnesses, ranging from a young Indonesian boy with a box of watercolors covertly painting troop movements in his hometown to famed photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson's iconic images of President Sukarno being sworn into office at the sultan's palace in Yogyakarta on Dec. 17, 1949.

The exhibit includes paintings, propaganda, video and photographs of the tumultuous transformation of the Dutch East Indies into Indonesia.

The show is part of the Rijks Museum's examination of the Netherlands’ colonial past that last year featured a major exhibition on the country’s role in the global slave trade.

“If you look at the Dutch educational system, the Indonesian independence is described from a Dutch perspective, and we feel it very important to continuously broaden our history," Dibbits said.

The exhibition, which will travel to Indonesia next year, was pulled together by four curators, two from the Netherlands and two from Indonesia.

One of the Indonesian curators, historian Bonnie Triyana, sparked controversy last month when he criticized the use of the word “bersiap” in the exhibition.

“If we use the term ‘bersiap’ in general to refer to violence against the Dutch during the revolution, it takes on a strongly racist connotation,” he wrote in Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad.

The word, meaning “be ready,” is often used in the Netherlands to refer to violence by Indonesians in the early days of the independence struggle immediately after the end of World War II.

One group has filed a complaint with police and prosecutors over use of the term, saying the museum “knowingly continues to use a term that stigmatizes Indonesians in a colonial way.”

“We want to use (the word)," Triyana told the AP. “What I want to do is (give) the contextual explanation into it. To make the people understand what does this term means, at least from my perspective, as Indonesian historian.”

Dibbits understands the controversy about a term that is used to describe one part of the suffering unleashed by the conflict.

“It’s very understandable that there’s this discussion and I think very important that there’s this discussion on the usage of words or usage of term, because for a lot of people who suffered immensely — their children, their grandchildren," he said. "For them, it’s still very much history of today that’s important.”

Indonesia proclaimed independence on Aug. 17, 1945, declaring an end to Japan’s World War II dominance as well as 350 years of Dutch colonial rule. But the Netherlands fought fiercely to maintain control for four years before recognizing Indonesia’s independence in 1949.

The Netherlands' leaders have addressed widespread reports of excessive violence by Dutch troops during the independence war. During a state visit to Indonesia in 2020, King Willem-Alexander apologized for “the excessive violence on the part of the Dutch” during the independence struggle.

A major research project into the violence is due to present its findings later this month.

Remco Raben, a history professor at the University of Amsterdam, said the exhibition is groundbreaking in its approach.

“It’s ... the first time that the Indonesian revolution is presented to the Dutch public as an Indonesian revolution and not only as a Dutch experience of a decolonization war in Indonesia.” he said.

Mike Corder, The Associated Press

How I Shed My Shame Around Caste

Meera Estrada - Yesterday 

Refinery29

Five years ago, at a playdate with one of my oldest girlfriends and our babies, I asked her about her experience with using a surrogate in India. We’re both Indian-Canadian living in Toronto, and I had read that lower-caste surrogates were being paid nearly $2,000 less than higher-caste women at the clinic she used in Gujarat. She confirmed it was true and then said something that hit me like a punch in the gut: “I wouldn’t use a lower-caste surrogate. I wouldn’t want my kid to be stupid.”

What she didn’t know about me — her friend of over 20 years — was that I was from a lower caste. And even at 38 years old, I carried so much shame and fear about it, I hadn’t shared it with my closest friends.

The Hindu caste system is one of the oldest forms of social classification. It divides Hindus into four main groups: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras. And then there is a fifth group, one that is considered so unworthy it doesn’t fall within the caste system but below it — the Dalits (the broken ones) or the Untouchables. While the term “Untouchable” is used less frequently and deemed derogatory, I still refer to it in instances of explanation because it’s an explicit reminder of its ugliness: “Untouchable” people are considered tainted by their birth into a caste system that deems them impure and less than human.

In India, to be born Dalit is to be trapped in a cycle of extreme poverty and oppression, as caste determines whether you can go to school, what kind of job you have, and even who you marry. While legally abolished in 1950, caste remains deeply embedded in the country’s psyche. India is home to over 200 million Dalits.

The pandemic has worsened circumstances for people like me in India — 90% of the 5 million people who work in sanitation and cleaning are Dalits. While deemed essential work, most of these workers are not provided with proper personal protective equipment (PPE), regularly ostracized for their work, denied basic rights like water breaks, and some were even sprayed with bleach in the name of public health in the early months of the pandemic. To this day, it is not uncommon to hear about police violence and inter-caste violence.

Growing up in Canada, I’d heard about this system but I actually didn’t know what caste I was part of until I was 15. I remember as a child telling people “I don’t believe in that” when asked what caste I belonged to, echoing a phrase my mother often said in awkward social encounters. It wasn’t until my parents revealed we were Dalits, and what that meant, that I understood what lay behind my mother’s response. Despite knowing, we kept it to ourselves. My parents heard the casual jokes and denigrating remarks about lower caste people, even in the diaspora. Already labelled outsiders as immigrants, they didn’t want to be stigmatized by their own community too. It then became a secret I also guarded closely.

Despite living in Canada, I started to notice caste all around me. I realized that the only ones I ever heard about were upper castes. There was never mention of lower castes, besides off-color jokes. By default, people assumed I was part of an acceptable group — and I would let them. When I was a teen, my Gujarati language teacher referred to her neighbor’s caste, one I hadn’t heard of, saying her neighbor was just like me. My face flushed, thinking I was found out, and then there was shameful relief when she followed up with a reference to the warriors or Rajput caste, which she assumed I belonged to.

Unlike racism, casteism is intra-racial and is practised among people of the same nationality, ethnicity, or cultural background. As an immigrant who is Dalit, it means not only do you face discrimination from outside your community, but also within it. Studies in Britain and the United States reveal caste discrimination in places of work, places of worship, and schools.

Caste also has implications for who you can marry even in the diaspora. Watching Netflix’s Indian Matchmaking — where clients in the U.S. and India are guided by matchmaker Sima Taparia through the arranged marriage process — caste was mentioned in nearly every episode of season one. It was listed on each client’s profile card or “bio-data.” Every time Taparia sang praise about a “good girl” from a “good family,” my stomach would twist in knots. It’s a euphemism for high caste, wealthy, and fair-skinned — one I heard repeatedly when I was single. One that made me question if I was a “good girl” since I wasn’t any of those things.

Feeling inadequate and oftentimes unworthy, I gravitated towards non-Indians in my twenties because I feared being judged for my caste by other Indians. I fell in love with an incredible man, who happens to be of Spanish and South American descent. Even though he isn’t Indian, my family felt obliged to tell his family about our caste ahead of our wedding. They didn’t know anything about caste, and thankfully, they didn’t care. The moment they shared their indifference, I thought I can just be me and that’s good enough.

But something changed when my girlfriend made that comment to me at her house that day. Two years ago, I openly spoke up about caste for the first time at a Women’s Day event in Toronto, for the Southern Africa Embrace Foundation. I shared how caste played a role in shaping my identity, and how it’s archaic categorization of people like me has systematically made us feel like less-worthy humans. My father came to the event with me, the only man in a crowded room of women. He wept as I spoke, and when I finished, everyone rose to their feet to give my father a standing ovation.

I now feel profound pride in my family’s courage, grace, and resilience. I hope people will stop turning a blind eye to casteism, or buy into the false narrative that it no longer exists. Most importantly, I hope for the many Dalit people who feel alone, like I did for so many years, they feel seen, understood, and worthy.

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Hinduism Is Fascism 

Bender Voice Actor John DiMaggio Reacts to Fans Boycotting ‘Futurama’ Reboot if He’s Recast

Zack Sharf - 
Variety

In the 24 hours since Hulu announced it was bringing back David X. Cohen and Matt Groening’s animated sci-fi comedy series “Futurama,” original cast member John DiMaggio has used social media to champion the many fans who are upset over his potential recasting in the reboot. DiMaggio, who voiced Bender and several minor characters, is not currently attached to the project. His original co-stars Billy West, Katey Sagal, Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche, Lauren Tom, Phil LaMarr and David Herman are all returning.

As reported by Variety, the producers of the series are hopeful DiMaggio will return. An individual with knowledge of the project said a deal for DiMaggio’s return was still being worked out at the time of the reboot’s announcement. Should one not happen, Bender will be recast.

More from Variety

'Futurama' Revival Ordered at Hulu With Multiple Original Cast Members Returning

The possibility of a recast Bender sent “Futurama” fans into a frenzy, with many of them threatening to boycott the reboot should DiMaggio not return. The voice actor shared articles of the fan boycott to his Twitter page, accompanied by Bender’s famous “cheese it!” line.

DiMaggio reposted one fan message that reads: “Hulu should just pay DiMaggio, love ‘Futurama’ but Bender is the face of the show.” He also reposted another message that mentioned he is “ready, willing and able” to join the reboot, but he just needs “a balanced and contextual deal.”

While DiMaggio has not gone into detail about where his “Futurama” reboot deal stands, he did send the following message to fans hours after the reboot’s announcement: “Thanks for the concern and the props, everyone. I really appreciate it. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you posted, but until then… CHEESE IT!”

“When presented with the opportunity to bring fans and viewers new episodes of ‘Futurama,’ we couldn’t wait to dive in,” said Craig Erwich, president of Hulu Originals and ABC Entertainment, in a statement announcing the reboot. “This iconic series helped blaze the trail for the success of adult animation since its initial launch and we look forward to Matt & David continuing to pave the way and further establishing Hulu as the premiere destination for fans of the genre.”

Production on Hulu’s “Futurama” reboot will begin this month with an eye towards a 2023 premiere.


'Futurama' Revived at Hulu

Tim Baysinger - Wednesday
TheWrap


"Futurama" is coming back… again. Hulu has ordered a 20-episode revival of Matt Groening's futuristic animated comedy, the second time that show has been brought back.

It first aired on Fox for five seasons from 1993-2003 and was Groening's follow-up to "The Simpsons." It was later revived for a three season run on Comedy Central in 2007, airing its last episode in 2012. That run included four straight-to-DVD specials that were recut as 30-minute episodes.

Groening is returning alongside co-creator David X. Cohen. The original voice cast, including Billy West and Katey Segal, are returning along with Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche, Lauren Tom, Phil LaMarr and David Herman. John DiMaggio, who voiced the alcoholic wise-cracking robot Bender, is said to be finalizing a deal to return.

"When presented with the opportunity to bring fans and viewers new episodes of Futurama, we couldn't wait to dive in. This iconic series helped blaze the trail for the success of adult animation since its initial launch and we look forward to Matt & David continuing to pave the way and further establishing Hulu as the premiere destination for fans of the genre," Craig Erwich, president, Hulu Originals and ABC Entertainment, said in a statement.

"I'm thrilled to have another chance to think about the future... or really anything other than the present," said David X. Cohen.

"It's a true honor to announce the triumphant return of 'Futurama' one more time before we get canceled abruptly again," commented Matt Groening.

"What I love about animation is that it's possible for a successful show to take a pause and then resume years later, even on a different platform, and pick up right where it left off. Futurama is one of those shows. The excitement from Hulu about returning Matt and David's genius creation for all-new episodes has been off the charts. I'm thrilled that this incredible team will get to tell more stories, and that our Planet Express crew will have more adventures together. It's a win for the fans who have loved the show since the beginning, and for the ones who will now discover it for the very first time," commented Marci Proietto, Head of 20th Television Animation.

REST IN POWER

Betty Davis, Iconic Funk Singer, Has Died

Amanda Wicks, Madison Bloom

 - Wednesday
Pitchfork

© Betty Davis, February 1976 (Fin Costello/Redferns)

NEW YORK - 1st FEBRUARY: American singer Betty Davis posed in New York in February 1976. (Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns)

Iconic funk singer Betty Davis has died, Rolling Stone reports. The news was confirmed to Rolling Stone by Davis’ close friend, Danielle Maggio (an ethnomusicologist who has been researching the singer’s body of work), as well as Allegheny County communications director Amie Downs, who said that Davis died of natural causes.

Davis’ records were distinctive thanks to her wild and overtly sexual vocal performances. The first, her self-titled debut, arrived in 1973. She followed it with two more: 1974’s They Say I’m Different and 1975’s Nasty Gal. Before her own music career took off, Davis married Miles Davis in 1968. The couple remained together for only one year, but it proved to be an influential relationship for the jazz musician. She introduced him to the rock icons of the time, including guitarist Jimi Hendrix. And, not only did Miles go include Betty on the cover of his 1968 album Filles de Kilimanjaro, but also the album contained the song “Mademoiselle Mabry.”

Born in North Carolina, Betty Mabry ended up slightly farther north in Pittsburgh, where she spent her childhood. She eventually moved to New York in the 1960s, and flourished within the city’s artistic scene. For her debut album, Davis worked with bassist Larry Graham and drummer Greg Errico (of Sly and the Family Stone), keyboardist Merl Saunders, and guitarists Neal Schon and Douglas Rodriguez. Slow sales plagued the album, as well as her two follow-ups, and she slowly receded from view. All three albums were later reissued along with her early sessions with Miles Davis and a previously unreleased 1976 LP, Crashin’ from Passion.

A documentary about Davis’ life premiered in 2017. And, in 2019, Davis returned with the new song “A Little Bit Hot Tonight.” Davis wrote, arranged, and produced the track, which was sung by Danielle Maggio.

See the video on YouTube.




Pioneer in electronic and electro-acoustic music dies

Wednesday

A composer, professor and pioneer in electronic and electro-acoustic music, who helped develop the Synclavier, an early digital synthesizer, has died.

Jon Appleton died Jan. 30 in White River Junction, Vt., at the age of 83, his son JJ Appleton said Wednesday.

Appleton, who was born in Los Angeles, became part of the faculty at Dartmouth College in 1967 and developed one of the first programs and studios for electronic music in the country.

“That really was a pioneering vision of his to create a center for electronic music at Dartmouth and it propelled Dartmouth very quickly to the forefront of the work in electronic, electro-acoustic music,” said colleague and friend Theodore Levin, the Arthur R. Virgin Professor of Music at Dartmouth.

While he was a musical visionary and one of the pioneers of electronic and electro-acoustic music, he “wasn't a geek or a gearhead ... whirling knobs and moving slider bars to make weird sounds,” contrary to stereotypes, particularly in the early years, Levin said.

“He couldn’t have been farther from that. He was at heart a kind of musical romantic,” he said.

Appleton's interest in electronic music was on the side of electro-acoustic, “as a way to extend the expressive possibilities and potential of acoustic musical instruments and the human voice,” Levin said.

“I think he regarded his electronic music as a kind of folk music for our age,” he said.

The Synclavier, developed in 1975 by Appleton, Dartmouth Thayer School of Engineering research professor Sydney Alonso and student Cameron Jones, went on to become the Rolls Royce of the music industry, selling for $75,000 to $500,000, and used by Sting, Stevie Wonder, Frank Zappa, and many other musicians, according to Dartmouth Engineer Magazine.

At Dartmouth, Appleton was the Arthur R. Virgin Professor of Music Emeritus and the Ted and Helen Geisel Professor in the Humanities Emeritus. He also had been a visiting professor at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan; the University of California, Santa Cruz; the Moscow Conservatory in Russia and the University of Hawaii.

He was beloved by many of his students, said JJ Appleton.

“He was a composer, a very accomplished one, but he was also a very accomplished professor and mentor to a lot of people,” he said.

Lisa Rathke, The Associated Press



'2001,' 'Blade Runner' effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull dies

Tuesday


Douglas Trumbull, a visual effects master who showed movie audiences indelible images of the future and of space in films like “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Blade Runner,” has died. He was 79.

His wife Julia Trumbull said he died Monday of complications from mesothelioma.

Director Edgar Wright tweeted, “RIP to an actual visionary, Doug Trumbull...he directed a childhood favourite of mine, the sci fi gem ‘Silent Running.’ Watch it tonight.”

Producer and documentarian Charles de Lauzirika, who worked with Trumbull on “Blade Runner: The Final Cut,” tweeted that, “He wasn’t just innovating magnificent visuals, but also pursuing the big ideas behind whatever story he was telling.”

Born in Los Angeles in 1942, Trumbull’s father was visual effects supervisor Donald Trumbull, who worked on “The Wizard of Oz.” He got his start at Graphic Works Films, where a short of his caught the attention of Stanley Kubrick who was beginning work on “2001: A Space Odyssey.” At 23 years old, he not only talked himself into a key job on “2001" but helped innovate the process that would be used to create the iconic star-gate sequence.

"It was a really unique time because we were at these Borehamwood Studios outside of London and it was a highly unionized studio," he said in an interview. “Here I am, this weird, L.A., young 23-year-old cowboy kid that they took on as kind of a mascot more than anything. It didn’t frighten them that I would crossover between all these different departments and get components built for me to do the things I wanted to do. They were totally supportive and thought it was funny and weird and whatever, and this kid’s going to do it and Kubrick says it’s okay, so we’ll do it, and we did some pretty amazing stuff that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.”

Over the course of his career, which recently included work on Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life,” he pushed forward filmmaking techniques like slit-scan photography, which was used for “2001." He also developed the Showscan film process, in which 70mm film is projected at 60 frames per second to create a sense of heightened reality.

After he made a name for himself on “2001,” he worked on Robert Wise's adaptation of “The Andromeda Strain,” Steven Spielberg's “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” Wise's “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” and Ridley Scott's “Blade Runner.”

He made his directorial debut with “Silent Running,” a dystopian sci-fi film starring Bruce Dern in which plant life is becoming extinct on earth. Roger Ebert, in his review, wrote that Trumbull “is one of the best science-fiction special-effects men. ‘Silent Running,’ which has deep space effects every bit the equal of those in ‘2001,’ also introduces him as an intelligent, if not sensational, director.”

He also directed the 1983 sci-fi film “Brainstorm,” which had the distinction of being Natalie Wood’s last role. Wood died during a break in production after most of her scenes had been completed. The tragic death and the subsequent fights with MGM soured Trumbull on the business and he said in an interview that he had no interest in doing another Hollywood feature.

“I just had to stop,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2013. “I had been a writer-director all my life, and I decided it wasn’t for me because I was put through a really challenging personal experience. I do not think the story has ever been told. I don’t know the story myself, but I know what my experience was. I decided to leave the movie business.”

He didn't exactly retire though — he developed the “Back to the Future” ride at Universal Studios in Orlando and Los Angeles from his new home in the Berkshires. And Trumbull would eventually return to Hollywood films after some 30 years with work on “Tree of Life," where he consulted on the beginning of the universe sequence, and an experimental sci-fi short “UFOTOG" among other projects.

Trumbull got three Academy Award nominations for visual effects (for “Blade Runner,” “Star Trek” and “Close Encounters”) and, in 1992, a special scientific and engineering award for his work helping to design the CP-65 Showscan Camera System for motion picture photography.

In 2012, he received the Academy’s Gordon E. Sawyer Award, a special technical Oscar for his contributions to the industry. More recently, he was at work on a documentary about “2001” and developing a sci-fi script with John Sayles.

The family said in a statement that, “In Trumbull’s memory and his love of the giant screen, we hope that you will support your local theaters.”

Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press

Turkish opposition head refuses to pay power bill in price rise protest

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's main opposition party leader said late on Wednesday he will not pay his electricity bills until President Tayyip Erdogan withdraws recent price increases, as signs of discontent over surging inflation emerged across the country.

In January, inflation jumped to nearly 50% after a currency crash late last year triggered by Erdogan's unorthodox low interest rate policy, raising the cost of living for Turks already struggling to make ends meet.

In response, the government has raised the minimum wage by 50% but also increased the prices of gas, power, petrol and road tolls to account for import price volatility.

"I will not pay any of my electricity bills from today until Erdogan withdraws the price hikes which he signed on December 31," Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said overnight.

In a video released on his Twitter account, Kilicdaroglu also called for a reduction in the value-added tax imposed on power bills to 1% from 18%.

Electricity prices were raised by as much as 125% for high-demand commercial users and by around 50% for lower-demand households at the beginning of January.

Kilicdaroglu's announcement came after shopkeepers, city councils and a religious community group spoke out this week about the rising energy bills.

Some restaurant owners posted notices on windows highlighting ballooning electricity bills, social media posts showed, while Turkey's Alevi religious minority decided not to pay power bills for their places of worship, known as cemevis.

The record currency depreciation and soaring prices have hit Erdogan's opinion poll ratings ahead of elections set for no later than June 2023. The government says credit, exports and investment will help the country weather inflation.

Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said this week a new measure on power bills would be announced "very soon".

(Reporting by Daren Butler; Editng by Robert Birsel)

Refugee camp in Bogota park evokes pain of conflict

AFP - Wednesday

Far from their ancestral homes, more than 1,000 indigenous people displaced by conflict have been squatting in squalor since September in one of the Colombian capital's most emblematic parks.

© Juan BARRETO

"No-one should live in these conditions," said one volunteer delivering supplies to the camp

"We want rights and dignified conditions... food and security," said Luz Mary Queragama, one of the group's representatives.


© Juan BARRETO

The National Park is a rare island of greenery in the capital but it is now filled with tarpaulin, camp fires and washing lines

There are around 550 children among about 1,300 people camping in the National Park that sits alongside one of the busiest avenues in Bogota.

Some children are suffering from "malnutrition" and cold, said Queragama.

The majority of the squatters come from the Embera indigenous community based in the southwest regions of Cauca and Choco.

They say they fled violence by armed groups in their homelands and cannot return.

After five months of fruitless negotiations, the humanitarian problem has become a "historic crisis" according to the Colombian press.

- 'Rats and tuberculosis' -

With its shady paths, huge trees and playgrounds, the National Park is a rare island of greenery in the capital that attracts crowds at the weekend.


© Juan BARRETO

An Embera indigenous child plays in a makeshift camp

But instead of walkers, the park is now filled with tarpaulin, camp fires and washing lines.

Bare-footed children run around while mothers carrying babies on their backs sweep the paths and tidy up their makeshift shelters.

The smell of cooked corn and plantains fill the air.

There are just two public toilets in the park, while clothes are washed under a bridge using a sewer.

Men carrying sticks provide security for the camp.

"No-one should live in these conditions," said one volunteer delivering supplies to the camp.

"There are rats, tuberculosis, all sorts of illnesses ... the mayor's office is neglecting them, the government is doing nothing for them," she added, without giving her name.

The mayor's office insists it deployed "immediate humanitarian assistance" and is trying to find shelter for the refugees in Bogota ahead of helping them to "return in safety" to their homes.

But the squatters accuse the government of failing them.

In January, the interior ministry agreed to work with the mayor's office to coordinate the displaced people's return home.

The mayor's office says close to 1,200 Embera people have already returned to their villages with another 400 rehoused elsewhere.

Mayor Claudia Lopez has ruled out the "installation of an indigenous territory in the city."

- Unprecedented -

Indigenous people have been the most affected by Colombia's interminable conflict, after black Colombians.

A series of bloody attacks and murders in Cauca, where armed groups are battling over control of the lucrative drug trade, has caught the national attention.

During 60 years of conflict, Bogota -- home to eight million people -- welcomed hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the conflict.

Since the 2016 peace deal signed by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the government, the capital has been home to 380,000 of the conflict's victims, including more than 19,000 indigenous people.

Most of them live in poverty in the poor south of the capital, getting by selling their handicrafts and begging.

But the gathering of more than 1,000 indigenous people in a single location of the capital is unprecedented.

The coronavirus pandemic -- which has left 40 percent of Colombians living in poverty -- has made things worse, particularly since the end of a housing allowance that forced many to head to the National Park.

The current priority for the mayor's office is to carry out a census of the occupants of the camp.

But the last time municipal officials tried so they were beaten and kicked out.

"They are illegally occupying a public park and preventing the public from using it," said one traffic policeman.

"They cut down trees for wood. They beg during the daytime and drink at night," she complained.

"It's a terrible situation for local residents," said a cook who works in a nearby restaurant.

"Some more or less political organizations bring them food and encourage them to stay there. It's getting very difficult."

A bloody tragedy flared up tensions at the end of January.

An Embera mother and her two young daughters were crushed to death by a truck, whose driver was beaten to death by a mob.

The only solution is "to have everyone rehoused here in Bogota," said Queragama.

"What we need from the government is guarantees that we will have housing here in the city, not outside Bogota.

"If there are government guarantees, we can start talking about a return to our territories."

But she fears that the "government is lying to take us back to our territory (and) to leave us there."

hba-dl/bc/bgs

Guatemala's Supreme Court strips anti-corruption judge of immunity


GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemala's highest court announced on Wednesday it had revoked immunity from prosecution for Judge Pablo Xitumul, a prominent anti-graft crusader, in the latest setback in the fight against corruption in the Central American nation.

Xitumul is a judge in the country's high-risk courts, which were created after the U.N.-backed anti-corruption commission CICIG pushed reforms to investigate organized crime and corruption.

He has faced a slew of legal challenges that he regards as revenge for some of his high-level rulings, which have involved a former leader and top officials.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court decided by a majority to revoke his immunity, clearing the way for him to be investigated over a traffic-related incident from 2019.

The Supreme Court's move comes after other prominent anti-corruption judges and officials have been removed from their posts, jailed, or pushed into exile.

Xitumul was among a handful of judges on Guatemala's high-risk courts who submitted a formal complaint to the public prosecutor's office last year saying they were being persecuted and harassed by unidentified armed individuals.

In 2013, he handed down an 80-year sentence for genocide to the deceased former dictator, Efraín Ríos Montt. The sentence was later overturned.

Five years later, Xitumul also sentenced former Vice President Roxana Baldetti to 15 years in prison for corruption.

Last year, he drew praise from the United States ambassador to Guatemala, William Popp, who congratulated him for "being a fundamental pillar for a democratic state."

(Reporting by Sofia Menchu; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responded to Marjorie Taylor Greene's 'gazpacho police' gaffe: 'She clearly banned all books from her house'

aharoun@insider.com (Azmi Haroun)

Reps. Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene "clearly banned all books from her house years ago."

The comment was in response to Greene mistakenly saying "gazpacho police," instead of "Gestapo."

Gazpacho is a beloved Spanish cold soup, and the Gestapo were the horrific Nazi secret police.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said her Republican colleague Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene "clearly banned all books from her house years ago" after Greene mistakenly said "gazpacho police" instead of "Gestapo" on Wednesday while criticizing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the US House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot.

"Not only do we have the DC jail, which is the DC Gulag, but now we have Nancy Pelosi's gazpacho police spying on members of Congress," Greene said on the far-right channel OAN's show "Real America with Dan Ball." "Spying on the legislative work that we do, spying on our staff, and spying on American citizens that want to come talk to their representatives."

Greene surely meant to say "Gestapo," the name of the Nazis' secret police in the 1930s and 1940s. Gazpacho is a Spanish cold soup, popular across the world.

Responding to a request for comment about the gaffe, a representative for Greene told Insider, "No soup for those who illegally spy on Members of Congress, but they will be thrown in the goulash."

During the show segment, Greene was criticizing subpoenas handed out to affiliates of former President Donald Trump by the House January 6 committee. She also lamented the treatment of people jailed in Washington, DC, on charges related to the attack.

There is no evidence the Capitol Police are spying on lawmakers, their staff members, or private citizens.

It wasn't the first time Greene had compared Democratic leadership or the Biden administration to the Nazi regime. In June, Greene eventually apologized after repeatedly comparing COVID-19 measures like vaccine and mask mandates to the Holocaust.

Greene was panned online over her latest comment, with Ocasio-Cortez poking fun at efforts by GOP legislators and some school boards to ban books in schools.



"At least she leads by example. She clearly banned all books from her house years ago," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted in response to the gaffe.

"For real though when you see how the GOP openly embrace and leverage fascist members of their party vs how much some Dems run away and frame their own base mobilizers as 'just as extreme' it's not hard to see how that asymmetry/false equivalence has contributed to where we are," she continued in an additional tweet.

More than 760 people have been arrested and charged with crimes related to the attack on the Capitol.

Ocasio-Cortez's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Senate candidate who smoked blunt in ad burns Confederate flag in latest spot

Brad Dress - Wednesday

The Hill

Gary Chambers, a U.S. Senate candidate in Louisiana who went viral last month for smoking a blunt in a campaign ad, burned a Confederate flag while decrying restrictive voting laws in his latest video released on Wednesday.

In a one-minute video titled "Scars and Bars," Chambers is seen wearing a camo jacket as he pins a Confederate flag on a clothesline and ignites it with a lighter - right after he cites the famous Declaration of Independence line "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

As the flag burns, the Louisiana Democrat argues that inequality lingers and "remnants of the Confederacy remain" in the South. The candidate mentions gerrymandered districts and restrictive voting laws as "byproducts" of the Confederacy.

"The attacks against Black people, our right to vote and participate in this democracy, are methodical," he said. "Our system isn't broken. It's designed to do exactly what it's doing, which is producing measurable inequity."

According to the Brennan Center, 19 states passed 34 restrictive voting laws in response to a conservative push to tighten up elections following former President Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Earlier this year, Congressional Democrats attempted to push through a voting rights package to address the restrictive voting laws but failed to secure enough votes in the Senate.

Chambers is running to unseat Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) in the upcoming midterm election. He gained national attention last month with the release of a campaign ad in which he puffs on a blunt while arguing for the legalization of cannabis, the criminalization of which disproportionately affects Black people.

The candidate is a co-founder of a media outlet called The Rouge Collection and ran unsuccessfully for a U.S. House seat last year in Louisiana.

In Wednesday's video, Chambers mentioned other issues that affect Black Americans, including access to health care, which has been highlighted during the pandemic, as minorities have had higher rates of severe illness and death from COVID-19.

Chambers said 1 in 9 Black Americans do not have health insurance and 1 in 3 Black children live in poverty.

"It's time to burn what remains of the Confederacy down," he said in the video. "I do believe the South will rise again, but this time it will be on our terms."

Proposed Alabama bills would protect Confederate monuments and raise fines if they're removed

By Maya Brown, CNN - Wednesday

An Alabama legislative committee has advanced two bills designed to further protect Confederate monuments and criminalize people who attempt to remove them.

State Sen. Gerald Allen introduced the bills Tuesday. Under one of the proposed bills, the fine for removing a monument would increase from a flat fee of $25,000 to $5,000 for each day a monument isn't restored.

These bills come at a time when Americans continue to debate whether Confederate monuments should remain or be taken down across the country.

About 73 Confederate monuments were removed or renamed in 2021 and there are now 723 left in the United States, according to a Southern Poverty Law Center report released last week. There are also an additional 741 roadways, 201 schools, 51 buildings, 38 parks and 22 holidays honoring the Confederacy. According to the SPLC, there are about 156 Confederate symbols throughout Alabama.

The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee's move Tuesday puts the bills in line for a vote by the Senate.

Jerome Dees, the Southern Poverty Law Center's Alabama policy director, told CNN he believes the proposed bills are part of a broader movement across the South to "preserve the Confederacy" and oppression that the monuments represent.

"The legislation that we're seeing are just reiterations of old Jim Crow oppression that works to continue that same psychological and mental pressure," he said.
What the bills would mean

One of the bills would make it a Class C felony to mark or damage a monument or a Class B felony if damage is done during a "riot, aggravated riot or unlawful assembly." The Class C felony carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years and the Class B felony could lead up to 20 years behind bars.

The other bill requires governments that demolish a historic building to make certain that the building or park that replaces it keeps the same name.

Dees said he believes the proposed bills are "wrong" from both a moral standpoint and a good governance standpoint.

"These are oppressive pieces of legislation that work to enshrine the Confederacy further, and also work to strip agency from local citizens and elected officials who just want to have a say in what their cities and their communities truly mean," Dees said.

Alabama is one of the six states that have preservation laws. In an attempt to amend the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act, which forbids the "relocation, removal, alteration, renaming, or other disturbance of any monument located on public property" for 40 years or more, the bill would also raise the fine from $25,000 to $5,000 per day. It would additionally empower the attorney general to sue any government found in violation.

Even with the $25,000 fine, several Alabama cities have removed Confederate monuments since the law was passed in 2017.

Last October, the city of Montgomery renamed a street named after Confederate President Jefferson Davis and changed it to Fred D. Gray Avenue to honor the civil rights activist and attorney who represented Rosa Parks and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The city must pay the fine or may face a lawsuit. In 2020, the city of Birmingham was fined for placing a plywood barrier around the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Linn Park. That same year the city of Huntsville received a fine for removing a Confederate statue from the outside the Madison County courthouse.

A Confederate statue in Tuskegee has also been a target of community resistance for years and is now at the center of an upcoming lawsuit.

Allen's proposed bill also calls for the Alabama Historical Commission to design, construct and erect a statue of the late civil rights leader John Lewis.

"The statue shall include a protective barrier and pedestal base and shall be placed near the southeastern entrance to the Edmund Pettus Bridge," the bill text says.

Dees told CNN the SPLC's hope is that the Alabama legislature hears the voices of individuals from the local community who have spoken against the Confederacy.


© Jake Crandall/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP

Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed, second from left, poses with Fred Gray Jr. and Stanley Gray after the city council voted unanimously to rename Jefferson Davis Avenue after Gray's father, civil rights attorney Fred Gray last year.