UN court to open hearings in Rohingya genocide case

 Rohingya refugees gather near a fence during a government organized media tour, to a no-man's land between Myanmar and Bangladesh, near Taungpyolatyar village, Maung Daw, northern Rakhine State, Myanmar, June 29, 2018. An international case accusing Myanmar of genocide against the Rohingya ethnic minority returns to the United Nations' highest court Monday, Feb. 21, 2022, amid questions over whether the country's military rulers should even be allowed to represent the Southeast Asian nation. 

(AP Photo/Min Kyi Thein, File)

MIKE CORDER
Mon, February 21, 2022

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Myanmar's shadow civilian administration called on the United Nations' top court Monday not to allow the country's military rulers to represent the Southeast Asian nation at hearings into a case accusing the country of genocide against the Rohingya ethnic minority.

Four days of hearings into the Myanmar military's deadly 2017 crackdown on the Rohingya are scheduled to open Monday afternoon at the International Court of Justice amid a dispute over who should represent the country in court.

Representatives of Myanmar are scheduled to address judges to outline why they believe the case that was filed by the African nation of Gambia, representing a group of Muslim nations, should be dropped.

But members of Myanmar's National Unity Government, urged the court not to accept representatives of the military rulers.

"We do not believe that the International Court of Justice will want to allow the military to appear before them as if they speak for the Republic of the Union of Myanmar," said the unity government's foreign minister, Zin Mar Aung. "It would be a most profound injustice to the Rohingya if the military were to be both their abusers and have any voice in the court.”

The shadow administration said it has contacted the court to withdraw Myanmar's preliminary objections to the case, but it remains to be seen whether the court will recognize the unity administration.

The shadow administration is made up of a diverse group of representatives including elected lawmakers who were prevented from taking their seats by the military takeover. It says it is the country's only legitimate government but no foreign government has recognized the unity group.

The dispute at the world court in The Hague reflects a broader struggle in the international community over whom to accept as Myanmar’s legitimate rulers in the aftermath of the coup.

Southeast Asian foreign ministers held their annual retreat last week without their counterpart from Myanmar, who was blackballed from participating but allowed to attend online as an observer.

The military launched what it called a clearance campaign in Rakhine state in 2017 after an attack by a Rohingya insurgent group. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled into neighboring Bangladesh and security forces were accused of mass rapes, killings and torching thousands of homes.

In 2019, lawyers representing Gambia at the ICJ outlined their allegations of genocide by showing judges maps, satellite images and graphic photos of the military campaign. That led the court to order Myanmar to do all it can to prevent genocide against the Rohingya. The interim ruling was intended to protect the minority while the case is decided in The Hague, a process likely to take years.

Former pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi represented Myanmar at the 2019 hearings, but she now is imprisoned after being convicted on what supporters call trumped-up charges.

Last year's military takeover in Myanmar sparked widespread peaceful protests and civil disobedience that security forces suppressed with lethal force. About 1,500 civilians have been killed, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Akila Radhakrishnan, president of the Global Justice Center, said this week’s International Court of Justice hearings “are laying the groundwork for accountability in Myanmar — not only for the Rohingya, but for all others who have suffered at the hands of the military.”

The International Court of Justice rules on state responsibility for breaches of international law. It is not linked to the International Criminal Court, also based in The Hague, which holds individuals accountable for atrocities. Prosecutors at the ICC are investigating crimes committed against the Rohingya who were forced to flee to Bangladesh but have not yet filed any indictments.

Garment Workers Face a 45 Percent Wage Gap, New Report Finds


Kaley Roshitsh
Mon, February 21, 2022


Living wages aren’t happening broadly in fashion.

On average, garment workers face a 45 percent wage gap, meaning the further away from zero, the larger the gap between decent living and minimum wage. This is the case for more than half a dozen countries, including Pakistan, India and Vietnam, according to a new report from The Industry We Want, a recently launched multi-stakeholder coalition and industry dashboard meant to bring light to wage gaps and purchasing practices in fashion and footwear.

The dashboard features relevant and timely data on the living wage gap, purchasing practices and GHG emissions over the past year.

For the report, researchers gathered data on wage gaps and purchasing practices from responses of more than 500 suppliers in the garment and footwear industry in the Better Buying Institute’s Partnership Index. Additional estimates include figures from the Global Living Wage Foundation, Wage Indicator Foundation, the Asia Floor Wage Alliance and the Clean Clothes Campaign, among others. Of those responses, 57 percent of behaviors were considered those of a “true partner,” or one doing the most to advance fair business, 28 percent were of a “collaborator” or closely aligned partner and 17 percent of behaviors were of a “detractor,” or those mitigating progress.

Better Buying Institute’s Partnership Index, referenced by TIWW in its dashboard, gave buyers an annual score of just 39 out of a maximum of 100.

“The Industry We Want has been established to measure, track and accelerate progress but also to act as a convener so we’re here to support the work that we think is going to make an impact on these indicators,” said Olivia Windham Stewart, a business and human rights consultant who contributed to the dashboard. “So for each of these focus areas, we are working with all of the stakeholders who are relevant and expert in that area to define the strategies and work out how we need to move forward.”

“Some would argue it would require buyers to commit to the key principles of purchasing practices, so they commit to fair payment terms and various other things. Better Buying [Institute] has the Five Principles [Visibility, Stability, Time, Financials and Shared Responsibility]. That would be the soft-branded approach,” said Windham Stewart. “I would argue for either commitments to much stronger contract terms but really I’d get behind policy change. So there are two pieces of regulation, one in the E.U. and one in the U.K., that I think are very important. One is the Unfair Trading Practices directive in the E.U. It currently only exists in food and agriculture but the Fair Trade Advocacy Office is looking to extend it to garments. That limits payment terms to 30 days to perishable goods and 60 days for non-perishable goods. And the other is the Garment Trade Adjudicator,” which is a relatively new push.

Last year, the garment sector was responsible for 1.025 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent or about 2 percent of annual global GHG emissions, according to estimates by the World Resources Institute and the Apparel Impact Institute (Aii) in the “Roadmap to Net Zero: Delivering Science-Based Targets in the Apparel Sector” report.

TIWW debuted the dashboard alongside the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development forum on due diligence in a webinar titled, “Launching Drivers for Change.”

Striving to release “regular, updated data sets to hold the industry accountable to the targets set and for impacts created,” TIWW announced its commitment to partner with Aii to update GHG data on an annual basis until 2025.

The Industry We Want said, on average, workers in the garment and footwear sector are receiving just over half of the money they need to reach a decent standard of living. - Credit: Courtesy TIWW

Click here to read the full article.

China warns consumers not to use Abbott formula products



Mon, February 21, 2022, 

BEIJING (Reuters) -China Customs has warned consumers from buying and eating infant and baby products of Abbott Laboratories, according to said in a post issued on Sunday on its website.

The General Administration of Customs said in a post issued on Sunday on its website that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Feb. 18 had suggested consumers not buy or eat certain baby formula products made by Abbott.

China Customs said the products have not entered China through general trade, but added that those consumers who purchased them via cross-border e-commerce should stop using them.

Abbott said on Feb 17 it was recalling powdered baby formulas, including Similac, made at a Michigan facility.

Excluding Similac HMFortifi, products that Abbott China sells in mainland China were not affected by the issue, state-backed news outlet The Paper reported on Monday citing a company response.

(Reporting by Sophie Yu, Brenda Goh; additional reporting by Roxanne Liu; editing by Jason Neely)

Hooked on History: Goshen Township coal mine was cursed with bad luck


Jon Baker, The Times-Reporter
Mon, February 21, 2022

The New Castle Mine was one the earliest coal mines in Tuscarawas County.

The mines at New Castle were among the earliest and most profitable of the coal mines which once dotted Tuscarawas County and provided employment to hundreds.

The mines, located along what is now state Route 416 between New Philadelphia and Goshen, opened shortly after the Ohio & Erie Canal was completed through Tuscarawas County. The mines were next to the canal.

Coal was first discovered in the county in 1755 near Bolivar because a vein was seen on fire.

One of the earliest references to the mines at New Castle can be found in the journals of Prince Maximilian of Wied, a German nobleman who toured North America between 1832 and 1834.

In his journal, he wrote, "A few hours later, we reached the coal mines near New Castle, where a lock is located. Here, too, mine cars were run (on top of) scaffolding and unloaded at the end. The coal falls down (in a) heap right at the bank (where it is) loaded on boats at once and transported farther.

"New Castle is a new place, not listed in the Ohio Gazetteer for 1833. Rubus odoratus (flowering raspberry) grows in the picturesque rocks nearby and in front of the lock."

There was a strong market in Cleveland for New Castle coal, which had a reputation as being "strong" coal, well suited for the generation of steam. But it had too much sulfur to be used in the manufacturing of iron.

The principal mine at New Castle was owned by Judge Jacob Blickensderfer of Dover. The Geological Survey of the State of Ohio, published in 1836, said the mine "is worked with more judgment and vigor than any in the county. The coal is well known in market, and if I am correctly informed, is considered superior to that of many localities."

The mines operated successfully for many years, shipping coal to Cleveland by canal boat. It maintained its place of prominence as long as the canal was the only way to transport coal out of Tuscarawas County. With the coming of the railroads, New Castle declined in prominence, eclipsed by the new mines opened in Pike Run City (now Barnhill).

In the late 1890s, the New Castle Coal Co., based in New Philadelphia, made an attempt to open a mine there.

According to the 1898 Ohio Bureau of Mines report, it was a drift mine, an underground mine in which the entry or access is above water level and generally on the slope of a hill, driven horizontally into the ore seam. The mine employed 22 miners and four day hands.

But as local newspapers noted, the mine was cursed by bad luck.

On March 17, 1901, Frank Stowe, a plumber from New Philadelphia, was called to the mine to repair the gasoline engine used to pump water out of the mine.

The pump was a considerable distance inside the mine. Stowe was accompanied by John S. Kollar, a co-owner of the mine, Arthur Hill and Sam Carlisle, a 16-year-old boy, according to the Uhrichsville-Dennison News-Democrat newspaper.

After Stowe repaired the engine, he told the others, "I am getting sick." They started to leave, but Stowe became dazed and fell to the ground. Kollar turned to shut off the engine and collapsed. Soon after, Hill was also overcome.

Carlisle, who was in advance of the others, ran to the mouth of the mine to get help. Two miners, James and Robert Carlisle, risked their lives to bring the three men out.

Doctors soon arrived on the scene to provide medical assistance. They were able to revive Kollar and Hill.

"But with Stowe the vital spark had fled, and though they persisted in their efforts, ever after hope had fled, no signs of returning animation rewarded their efforts," the paper said.

Stowe, "one of the most genial and best liked men in New Philadelphia," was a member of the New Philadelphia Fire Department and the Knights of Pythias.

Five years later, the company had changed its name to the North Newcastle Coal Co., and Kollar was now partners with Thomas Quinn.

In February 1906, Quinn brought suit against Kollar, seeking a dissolution of the partnership, an accounting of the business since Aug. 25, 1904, and the appointment of a receiver to close out the firm's business.

The records of the canal toll collector's office showed that 143 boat loads of coal had been shipped on the canal from the mine during the summer and fall of 1905, going to Massillon, Akron and Cleveland. However, the company books contained a record of only 113 loads.

Kollar acknowledged 122 loads, but that left 21 loads of coal unaccounted for.

"Many sales of coal from the tipple at the mine are unaccounted for, the plaintiff (Quinn) asserts and charges the partner with having appropriated the proceeds of these sales for his own use," the New Philadelphia Daily Times reported.

A judge appointed a receiver for the company.

"A train of ill luck seems to follow the working of this mine," the Daily Times reported, noting the death of Stowe and a strike there a few weeks before Quinn filed suit.

The lawsuit pretty much marked the end of coal mining in New Castle, which faded away in years to come.

Jon Baker is a reporter for The Times-Reporter and can be reached at jon.baker@timesreporter.com.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: History: Goshen Township coal mine was cursed with bad luck

Unprecedented view of supermassive black hole could change our understanding of galaxies, researchers say


Jon Kelvey
Sun, February 20, 2022

Supermassive black holes at the center of many galaxies might look more like pancakes than doughnuts, pancakes smoking as the black holes at their center burn their inner edges.

That’s how Université de la Côte d’Azur astronomer Romain Petrov described the findings of his colleagues in a new paper published Wednesday in Nature. It’s a finding that confirms, and extends, a long-held theory about active galactic nuclei, the extremely bright centers of some galaxies believed to be driven by supermassive black holes and could have implications for how we understand our own existence.

“The co-evolution between the black hole and the host galaxy — what was first, the black hole or the galaxy? — has a strong impact on the evolution of the galaxy, including the formation of stars in that galaxy,” Dr Petrov said. “A link in the chain of events that lead to the existence of people that can discuss these issues.”

Dr. Petrov and his colleagues used the Multi-AperTure mid-Infrared SpectroScopic Experiment (MATISSE) instrument and the Very Large Telescope in Chile to make new observations of the galaxy Messier 77, a barred spiral galaxy about 47 million light-years from Earth.

Messier 77 is one of the easiest to observe galaxies with an active galactic nucleus and was the basis for what is known as the Unified Model of Active Galactic Nuclei, which holds that differences in observed behavior among different nuclei are a function of our angle of view when observing them and how much the central black hole is hidden by a torus of dust and gas. This torus forms as matter spirals inward to feed the central black hole, the material whirling and compressing and releasing the tremendous amount of energy that makes active galactic nuclei “active.”

A white gass cloud is blown out from the center of active galaxy Messier 77, presumably by the supermassive black hole that lurks in its core. (Nasa)

Messier 77 is the canonical Active Galactic Nuclei, its torus hiding the central black hole from direct view, Dr Petrov said, “making it the cornerstone of the unified model of Active Galactic Nuclei that explains a large class of then mysterious phenomena with a single mechanism.”

But in 2019, a team using the GRAVITY instrument through the Very Large Telescope published results that Dr Petrov said challenged the accepted geometry of Messier 77, and thus the unified model.

GRAVITY, like MATISSE, is an infrared instrument, and the GRAVITY team concluded they could see the hot inner edge of the “doughnut,” the torus that should be hiding the black hole at the center of Messier 77.

“If you see the inner edge of the doughnut, then it cannot hide the central structure that is in the middle of that ‘doughnut,’” Dr Petrov said. “Then the unified model does not describe properly the target that was used to propose the unified model.”

But GRAVITY is a near-infrared instrument, sensitive to the K-band, infrared light of wavelengths between 2 and 2.4 microns. MATISSE sees in the L, M, and N bands, Dr. Petrov noted, wavelengths between 3 and 14 microns, which are more senstive to the type of temperature differences at questions in observations of Messier 77. The new observations conducted by Dr. Petrov and his colleagues disprove the GRAVITY collaboration’s predictions for what should be seen with MATISSE, he said, and thus preserve the unified model of Active Galactic Nuclei.

“It favors again the unified model, with an update: the dust torus is indeed hiding the central structure in [Messier 77], but it looks more like a pancake with a central hole,” Dr. Petrov said. “And we see flows of material above that ‘pancake’ — The central hot source is burning the edges of the hole in the pancake and we see the smoke,” smoke that is really dust blown from the inner edge of the torus by the intense radiation from the black hole.

The newly reinforced unified model can now be applied to the study of other active galactic nuclei, Dr. Petrov said, and will help astronomers as they attempt to unravel just how black holes and galaxies evolve together, and that that can tell us about star formation, planet formation, and the development of life itself.

In the meantime, Dr. Petrov has more questions specific to Messier 77, like what exactly does the dust at the center of this Active Galactic Nuclei consist of?

“What exactly is the dusty wind process, the ‘smoke’ above the central hole of the pancake?” he said. “This can be obtained from higher spectral resolution with MATISSE — images in much more narrow spectral Bands — and we are working on improving MATISSE to allow that. I am currently in the Paranal Observatory [in Chile] precisely for that.”

WHO DO SANCTIONS HURT
Mali's workers feel the squeeze as sanctions take hold




A view of a building under construction along the Niger river, in Bamako

Sun, February 20, 2022
By Paul Lorgerie and Tiemoko Diallo

BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mohamed Cisse used to employ hundreds of workers in Mali's capital Bamako before economic sanctions last month shut borders and cut the lifeblood of his construction business.

Cement is scarce. Its key ingredient, clinker, comes from neighbouring Senegal, from which all but essential goods are blocked. Cisse has been forced to shut three of his four building sites.


The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) meant to send a powerful message to Mali's military leaders when it imposed the sanctions after the junta delayed plans to hold elections in February following two coups.

But workers, many of whom have so far supported the junta for ousting unpopular President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in 2020, are worried about the outsized impact on ordinary citizens in one of the world's poorest countries.

Hundreds are being laid off; goods for import are stuck in mammoth traffic jams at border crossings; cotton and gold, major economic drivers, cannot reach regional buyers.

How successful the sanctions are in forcing Mali's leaders to hold elections sooner, or if they reduce support for the junta, could influence how ECOWAS seeks to punish other coup leaders in Guinea and Burkina Faso who have also snatched power over the past year.

"We had a lot of hope when we saw these well-trained, well-structured soldiers. But the situation of this embargo, I would say that it is ... 70% the fault of the government, which presented an imprecise (election) timetable," Cisse said.

The interim government set up by the junta did not respond to requests for comment. It had previously said the sanctions were "disproportionate, inhumane, illegitimate and illegal" and will have severe consequences on the population.

ECOWAS says it is imposing the sanctions because Mali's leaders said they would delay elections until December 2025, nearly four years later than they originally agreed.

TIGHTENING NOOSE

Malians are accustomed to hardship. A decade-old Islamist insurgency has taken over parts of the north and centre, killing thousands. The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a rise in the cost of fuel and other goods.

But now the economy is under severe strain. Mali has defaulted on 54 billion CFA francs ($93 million) in interest and principal payments since January, data from the West Africa monetary union's debt agency Umoa-Titres shows.

The government says it is unable to meet its obligations because the sanctions have cut it off from regional financial markets.

"Closing landlocked Mali's borders, in a country that depends entirely on its coastal neighbours for trade, is nothing short of catastrophic," said Eric Humphery-Smith, an analyst at risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft.

The authorities need tax income to pay about $120 million in yearly government wages, said Modibo Mao Makalou, an economist and former adviser to the ousted president Keita. But revenues, including from customs duties and income taxes, are under threat, he said.

Remittances from the region, key to the economy, are also being blocked as wire transfers and bank transfers fail to go through.

"I think (the government) can last 2-3 months maximum, but the noose must be loosened," Makalou said, referring to the funds left to be able to pay wages and meet other outgoings.

While the impact has yet to be shown in hard economic data, Malians are struggling.

Issiaka Mahmoud Bah, managing director of Bamako-based recruitment firm Golden Resources Management, used to receive resumes from about 25 job applicants per day. He now gets up to 100. Meanwhile, the number of employers seeking workers has plummeted, he said.

Revenues for Sonef, a transport company that buses people from Mali across West Africa, have dropped 80% in recent weeks, said company manager Mamadou Traore. Its customers, including people who transport dyed fabrics to Ivory Coast or bring in fish from Senegal, cannot travel, he said.

"We have had to close several stopovers and put dozens of agents on technical unemployment," he said.

($1 = 582.7500 CFA francs)

(Writing by Edward McAllister; Editing by Bate Felix and Alison Williams)

More Black families fight to regain land taken from ancestors after Bruce's Beach success


Bill Keveney, USA TODAY
Mon, February 21, 2022, 3:37 AM·10 min read

Jonathan Burgess treasures the historic legacy of his 19th Century ancestor, Rufus Burgess, who gained freedom from slavery after coming to California in the late 1840s and built a prosperous life for his family in gold rush country.

The northern California fire battalion chief also values the more than 80 acres of land owned by his great great grandfather and his descendants, which he says the state wrongly took in 1947 and is now part of Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park in Coloma. He and his family want the state to return that land, once home to abundant fruit-bearing orchards and Rufus Burgess's blacksmith shop.

"Ultimately, our goal is to have our land returned, but first to recognize what actually took place," said Burgess, who has documents he claims support his case, including one showing ownership of a church still on the land. "If we as Americans want to truly heal our nation and atone for what happened to Black people that were formerly enslaved and descendants of slaves, we've got to first tell the truth, as difficult as (that) may be."


The Burgesses are one of a number of Black families across the country seeking the return of land they say has been wrongly confiscated, often by government entities, over the century-plus since the end of the Civil War. The times, places and details differ, but all share the contention that their forebears were mistreated because of race.

Jonathan Burgess, left, and his twin brother Matthew, hold a portrait of their great great grandfather, Rufus Burgess, who gained his freedom in California in the mid-1800s and then bought property and ran businesses. The Burgess family says the state wrongly seized the family's property in the 1940s and they want it returned.

At stake for these families is millions in dollars worth of valuable property that has become public land or was sold to other families, often white. The loss of these properties is one reason that Black generational wealth is just a fraction of that accumulated and inherited by white families, experts say.

Some claims have been ongoing, such as a decades-long fight by Black farmers to be compensated for mistreatment, including discrimination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, that cost them millions of acres of farmland. After a class-action suit yielded little relief, recent governmental efforts to make amends to those farmers, who lost 90% of their property during the 20th Century, have been stalled by lawsuits by white farmers and Congress' failure to pass Build Back Better legislation, a roughly $2 trillion package designed to strengthen the social safety net by providing for free preschool, subsidized child care and Medicare expansion.

Other efforts are more recent, with some fortified by the Bruce family, who last year saw state legislation passed that will allow them to regain valuable oceanfront property taken by Manhattan Beach, California, via eminent domain in the 1920s. Willa and Charles Bruce bought the property in 1912, turning it into a resort popular with Black visitors during segregated times. After frequent harassment, including a Ku Klux Klan arson attempt, the city seized the property in 1924, saying it would be used as a park. The property, which was later turned over to the state and then Los Angeles County in 1995, is estimated to be worth $75 million.

Growing conversation: Will California become the first state to pay Black people reparations?

"Black and Latino (people) have been the primary victims of eminent domain abuse and have almost never been paid market value for their property," said Thomas W. Mitchell, a Texas A&M law professor who focuses on property law and the loss of Black-owned land. "Bruce's Beach really is the first time in U.S. history that the descendants of an African American family have actually gotten some form of justice when their property was taken unjustly."

The Bruce's Beach success also spawned the creation of Where Is My Land, a non-profit organization formed in California whose national mission is "to help Black Americans reclaim stolen land and secure restitution" through advocacy, research and technology.

Since its formation last year, Where Is My Land has received about 400 requests for help from families across the United States, including Burgess and his relatives, said co-founder Kavon Ward, who earlier created the Justice for Bruce's Beach advocacy group.

A Black entrepreneur's claim against the Cleveland Clinic, a renowned medical institution, for property taken in the 1980s and a group of descendants seeking restitution from Palm Springs, California, for the destruction of family homes in the 1950s and 1960s reflect the range of cases taken on by the group.

More than half of the cases are viable in terms of supportive evidence and documentation, Ward said.

The land-return movement has gained momentum since Bruce's Beach, with claims coming in from all over the country, especially the Midwest and the South, Ward said. The greatest chances for success are in California, due to its willingness to consider such claims, she said.

"I'm a little bit more cautiously optimistic here in California because the governor has already told folks where he stands on redress and reparations and then the state Legislature has done a phenomenal job with the Bruce's Beach situation," said Ward, who is based in Los Angeles.

The individual family claims are gaining greater prominence at the same time as larger, broader examinations are looking at the possibility of reparations for descendants of enslaved Black people, including a California state task force.

Jonathan Burgess testified before the task force in September. He said more people need to know the story of his family and other Black families who lived in Coloma.

"I think that California, but more importantIy America, is ready for the truth. I plan to yell on every mountaintop until we get there and somebody pays attention or people begin to question: Why don't we talk about the pioneer Black families or the Black congregations that were here in the town? None of that's talked about," Burgess said.

Both the land-return efforts and the reparations discussions have roots in the historic mistreatment of Black people, from slavery to Jim Crow laws to more recent discrimination, but they differ in a significant way, said A. Kirsten Mullen, a folklorist and co-author of "From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century."

Bruce's Beach in Manhattan Beach, California, was once a resort popular with Black visitors before the city seized the property in 1924. The state last year passed legislation to return the property, now valued at $75 million, to descendants of Charles and Willa Bruce, the original owners.

Justice and restitution for the Bruce, Burgess and other families with specific property claims are important for historical, financial and moral reasons, but Mullen said they won't resolve the $840,000 wealth gap between Black and white households that has roots in the federal government's failure to provide 40-acre land grants to emancipated Black people after the Civil War.

"None of those things, as valuable as they are from the standpoint of increasing goodwill and doing what the cities and states should have done in the first place, are going to move the needle on the racial wealth gap, (whose) elimination is … the primary purpose of reparations," Mullen said.

Where Is My Land co-founder Ashanti Martin, who lives in Philadelphia, also sees the land cases as separate from the larger question of reparations.

"We consider the issue of returning stolen land as one of property rights, as a legal issue, as something that involves principles that every American regardless of race holds in esteem," Martin said.

Bruce's Beach may be the model case needed to defeat long odds because the family's ownership was well documented and the state supported the return of the land via legislation.

"Folks never thought that Black people would get land back and it happened. So, we're taking that mindset. We're not saying it may happen the same exact way, but we believe that we can make it happen again," Ward said.

In many other cases, lack of ownership documents, sometimes through willful destruction by government officials, is an obstacle. And, for many Black farm owners, the absence of wills has led to divided inheritances that often result in forced land sales at bargain rates for buyers who are typically white.

Rosalind Alexander-Kasparik, a descendant of once enslaved horse breeder and trainer Daniel Alexander, who started a historic Texas farm in Pilot Knob in 1847, sees Bruce's Beach as inspiration in her family's fight to prevent the state of Texas from taking a piece of the farm by eminent domain for expansion of a highway near Austin. The state previously took a piece in 1968 when it built part of U.S. 183, she said.

Rosalind Alexander-Kasparik is a sixth-generation descendant of Daniel Alexander, a once-enslaved horse breeder and trainer who established a farm near Austin, Texas, in 1847.

"It was a very, very nice little pick-me-up with the Bruce's Beach thing, even as far away as Texas, because it was a family that actually did get their land back," said Alexander-Kasparik, whose family is working with Where Is My Land. "Here was a family that actually did meet at least some of the promise of reparations. Here was a family that prevailed and actually got a little bit back of what was taken."

Alexander-Kasparik said state officials told her the eminent domain process is on "indefinite hold," but she wants any land-taking consideration to be canceled, recalling "how upset and how devastated the family was that the roadway could not be stopped" in 1968.

The Texas Department of Transportation said in a statement Friday that the highway expansion is currently unfunded "and no design footprint has been established." As for the property's long heritage, the department said, "We always try to avoid impacts to eligible or designated historic properties, if at all possible."

The public may connect more readily and emotionally with individual families and their stories, whether it's the Bruces, the Burgesses or the Alexanders, Martin said.

"That's when people's empathy is triggered. If you've worked so hard to buy a home, (you) wouldn't want to lose that" home, she said. "I think a lot of decent people would say it's wrong. And if we agree that it's wrong, then someone should attempt to do something about it to remedy that."

Beyond an individual success such as Bruce's Beach, Texas A&M 's Mitchell sees hope in other areas. Legislation he drafted to protect heirs from forced farm sales in cases where an owner dies without a will, a situation that disproportionately harms Black families, has passed in 18 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

"I am seeing progress made on addressing an area of property law that had been abused forever," said Mitchell, who is part of a land-loss reparations research team seeking to value the massive agricultural land loss suffered by Black families between 1920 and 1996.

Efforts by some cities, including Seattle, Minneapolis and Richmond, to map areas subject to racially restrictive covenants and others discriminated against via redlining, a practice in which loans and other assistance are denied in areas with predominantly Black populations, are promising, he said.

That kind of research, which reveals discrimination in liberal bastions in the North as well as areas of the Deep South, could lead to redress and restitution, he said. It's also an important step in a growing effort to chronicle the true story of inequality in the United States, even as another movement seeks to stifle such discussion.

"We're at this very strange intersection in history where … there seems to be interest in having a more accurate and truthful accounting of what happened in the past, including some of the racialized history," he said. At the same time, there's a different "notion that (we can't) talk about actual history, to the extent that it will make people feel bad. It's an interesting parallel, opportunities to go forward but opportunities to drag us way back to the past, and makes it an incredibly confusing moment."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Black families want land returned, say it was stolen from ancestors

Why Mikaela Shiffrin bared her soul amid 

Olympic failure

Henry Bushnell

Sun, February 20, 2022

YANQING, China — Mikaela Shiffrin spent her darkest moments of a dark Olympics staring into a spotlight. At the base of the “Ice River,” the ski slope that felled her, again and again, she’d hop from one television camera to the next, and bare her soul. She’d laugh and cry and probe, searching for proper words, exploring the intricacies of failure.

Many people would rather anguish in private. Shiffrin, who anguished more than most at these Games, broadcast her emotional psychoanalysis to the world. She spoke about heartbreak and showed it, willingly, in more than a half dozen interviews after each blunder. Last Wednesday, during a 20-minute session with print and digital reporters, tears dripped from her eyelashes to the snow.

That was after her second of three DNFs, and the following day, a spokeswoman told us that Shiffrin would not “be doing any media for the foreseeable future.” But she kept coming back, whether she finished races or bungled them, whether she felt relief or immense frustration, and I wondered: Why?

Shiffrin acknowledged Sunday, with some of her final words at these Games, that she hadn’t defined a reason. “Maybe I just don’t have any filter,” she said with a laugh.

But then she gave two answers that could become the legacy of her 2022 Olympics.

The media, and by extension the public, she said, deserved a window into her mind. “I mean, there's a lot of talk about this battle between athletes and pressure, and that the media falls on the pressure side of things,” she said. “And I just — it doesn't have to be that big of a battle.

“I feel like you're the reason that our stories get told, and it's our duty to help you tell those stories the best you can,” she explained. “And if it gets out into the world, and people decide they like it or they don't … that's their personal opinion, that's their decision, it is what it is.”

It’s clear, though, that she wanted everyday people to see an extraordinary person coping with sadness, and struggling to lift herself up after being thrown to her haunches.

“Every single person on earth goes through some kind of hardship, and you just need to get up,” she said. “And it's the most important takeaway from these last couple weeks for me.”

Mikaela Shiffrin of Team United States talks with the media after she skied off course during the Women's Alpine Combined Slalom on day 13 of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games at National Alpine Ski Centre on February 17, 2022 in Yanqing, China. (Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

Addressing her heartbreak

Shiffrin knew after her first stunning crash that the first Monday of the Olympics was not the time for emotion. “I’m not gonna cry about this,” she said, “because that's just wasting energy.”

She had a full two-week program to attack, and more gold medals to win. Most athletes in her situation would give stock answers about short memories and moving on.

Shiffrin did, but also acknowledged: moving on is hard.

“I won't ever get over this,” she said of her giant slalom gaffe, and then she rattled off a list of other DNFs that have stuck in her mind. There was the time she straddled a gate in Croatia, “six or something years ago.” The time she skied out in Switzerland four years ago. And a few days before that, her last giant slalom wipeout. In an interview afterward, she’d wiped away a tear, and said: “It’s really heartbreaking.”

“That heartbreak,” she said here in Yanqing, “it just builds up, and it never goes away.”

Four days later, she spoke about the recurring nightmares that her failures had stimulated. She’d dream about skiing out at the fifth gate, again and again. She’d awake with a start, and “it really felt pretty awful,” she said.

She could have ignored this. Suppressed it. Kept it to herself, in hopes that heartbreak would dissipate. But, she said, “I just think it's fair to address that.” By addressing it, she normalized the struggle. She knows, as most people do, that it isn’t possible to simply stuff disappointment down a chute and never confront it again.

So she confronted it, publicly, on an Olympic platform, for the world to see.

'Just get up'

After the slip that completed the trifecta, in Thursday’s combined, Shiffrin reposted a sampling of the vitriol she’d received on social media. She’d been called a “choker,” a “dumb blonde” and a “narcissist.” She’d been called a “disgrace” and told to retire and much worse.

She, like most elite athletes, is used to it by now, and many would simply brush it aside. Shiffrin, though, has admitted that blocking out “noise” is darn near impossible. Years ago, the external expectations and pressure would make her nauseous. At age 26, she’s more comfortable with it, and more practiced in tuning out trolls.

“But there's moments when it's — it's so strong, and people can be so mean, that you don't want to get out of bed,” she said here Sunday. “You don't even want to exist anymore. You feel so small.”

She reposted all the invective so that she could say this: “Get up. … Get up because you can, because you like what you do when it’s not infested with the people who have so much apparent hate for you. Just get up. It’s not always easy, but it’s also not the end of the world to fail. Fail twice. Fail five times. At the Olympics.”

By facing cameras in her lowest moments, she hoped to spread that message. To show that distress is real and lasting, natural and difficult to overcome. She hoped to connect with people who’ve “felt some immense level of disappointment, or they've lost their father, or they've been bullied in school, or whatever.” She wanted to help them rebound from it by allowing them to see what she was rebounding from.

She happened to be at the Olympics, with microphones awaiting her behind rows of red barriers, ready to amplify her message to millions.

The Olympics, though, were also just “three weeks of my life,” she said. “And there's never been a period of time in three weeks of my life where I haven't felt some sort of disappointment, regret, hope, optimism, pessimism, triumph, failure, and — like, that's life.”

Ontario police watchdog opens investigation into woman reportedly trampled by mounted officer


Jon Brown

FOX 

Sun, February 20, 2022

A civilian oversight agency in Ontario announced Sunday that it is investigating reports of a 49-year-old woman being seriously injured when a mounted Toronto police officer allegedly trampled her during the government crackdown on protesters in Ottawa.

"On Friday, February 18 at approximately 5:14 p.m. there was an interaction between a Toronto Police Service officer on a horse and a 49-year-old woman on Rideau Street and Mackenzie Avenue," read the press release from the Special Investigations Unit (SIU).

SIU is an independent government agency that investigates the conduct of police officers that may have resulted in death, serious injury, sexual assault and/or the discharge of a firearm at a person.

The agency also announced that it is looking into reports that Vancouver Police Department officers, who were brought in to help clear the lingering "Freedom Convoy" protests, discharged non-lethal firearms at individuals. No serious injuries were reported from the projectiles, but SIU requested that anyone who had been struck by one to contact them.

CANADIAN CLERGY REBUKE TRUDEAU FOR INVOKING EMERGENCIES ACT, OTHER ‘TYRANNICAL ACTIONS’

Horses are brought in to disperse the crowd in front of Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Feb. 18, 2022. Steve Russell/Toronto Star

Six investigators and two forensic investigators have been assigned to the cases, the SIU further explained, and urged anyone with video or other information about the incidents to reach out online or by calling 1-800-787-8529.

Video circulated widely online Friday of a woman apparently being run over by a police horse while she was participating in demonstrations against vaccine mandates in the Canadian capital. Rumors swirled on social media following the incident that the woman had died from the encounter, though such reports proved to be inaccurate.

"We respect the oversight process and will always fully cooperate," the Ottawa Police tweeted a statement regarding SIU's investigations.

"Now that the SIU has invoked their mandate we are prohibited from commenting until the SIU has completed their investigation," the Toronto Police told Fox News Digital.

Ottawa Police Service said Sunday that 191 arrests have been made so far in connection to the protest. Of those arrested, 103 were charged, and the main charges were mischief and obstruction. Of the remaining, 89 have been released on conditions that "include a boundary they are not allowed to attend," and the others were released unconditionally. So far, 57 vehicles have been towed.

The Ottawa police did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

Canadians Go Bitcoin (BTC) as Government Targets Bank Accounts



Bob Mason
Sun, February 20, 2022

Canada has become one of a growing list of nations facing backlash from citizens over COVID-19 curbs. Protests began in late January in response to new laws for cross-border truckers. Effective 15th January, all cross-border truck drivers became subject to mandatory vaccine and quarantine requirements.

The late January protest began with a convoy of truck drivers congregating in Ottawa in protest. This progressed to “The Freedom Convoy 2022” movement that resulted in the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s relocation for safety reasons.

Through February, the situation has escalated, forcing Trudeau to invoke a state of emergency last week. Adding fuel to the fire, Trudeau warned of plans to freeze the bank accounts of anti-mandate protestors. By invoking a state of emergency, the Canadian government can freeze personal bank accounts without need for a court order.

Canadian’s Turn to Bitcoin and Other Cryptos

In response to the state of emergency, Canadians have been reportedly withdrawing money from bank accounts in fear of assets being frozen. UK economic journalist James Melville posted graphs of bank outages from last week, reflecting the surge in banking activity.

Bank runs are self-perpetuating. As more people withdraw funds, the chances of a bank default rise, leading to further bank withdrawals. Without government intervention, this could lead to bankruptcies, in a worst-case scenario.

Ahead of James Melville’s tweet, law enforcement had ordered all regulated financial firms to stop allowing transactions across 34 crypto wallets linked to funding the “The Freedom Convoy 2022”. To date, however, there has yet to be an attempt to freeze the transfer of assets from fiat to crypto.

With Canadians reportedly turning to Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies, however, the government could exert pressure on regulated exchanges to also freeze crypto accounts. While Bitcoin’s very ethos of decentralization favors Canadians looking to be free of the state of emergency, the regulation of crypto exchanges gives authority to the government.

Canada Looking for Crypto Regulatory Framework

Earlier this month, news had hit the wires of a Canadian lawmaker introducing a Bill to create a regulatory framework.

Bill C-249 would require Canada’s Minister of Finance to consult with designated crypto exports across each province. While a number of regulators are looking to clamp down on crypto activity, the Bill aims to support crypto sector growth. To achieve this, the Bill looks to ensure that lawmakers are well-versed with the crypto market before making policy decisions.

The Bill is titled “An Act Representing the Encouragement of the Growth of the Cryptoasset Sector”. The Bill acknowledges that cryptoassets have a significant economic and innovative potential for Canada. The purpose of the Bill is to focus policy “on lowering barriers to entry into the sector”. Additionally, the bill aims to “protect those working in the sector, and minimize administrative burden”.

Following the latest news and shift to cryptocurrencies, however, the Canadian government may be less willing to ease crypto regulations. In fact, the latest protests could result in more stringent regulations, particularly if the government fails to bring an end to the protests by means of freezing bank assets and Canadian crypto exchange accounts.

This article was originally posted on FX Empire