Sunday, April 03, 2022

PAGAN RITUAL AGAINST INVADER
In Tbilisi, Georgia, even Russian activists get a less friendly welcome


BY INNA LAZAREVA• THE WASHINGTON POST • APRIL 3, 2022


People participate in the burning of the doll of Russian president Vladimir Putin  
as a part of pagan rituals marking end of winter season and beginning of spring in Tbilisi, Georgia, on March 27, 2022.
(Justyna Mielnikiewicz/for MAPS and The Washington Post)

TBILISI, Georgia — The president’s effigy was propped up on a stake, stuffed with straw and clad in a suit bursting with bank notes. Dozens of people gathered around, some with flaming torches. Within moments, they set Vladimir Putin ablaze.

“We want him to burn for a long time,” said Lada Titova, a performance artist from Lviv, Ukraine.

Titova was visiting Tbilisi when Russian forces launched their assault on her homeland, and over the past month, she has staged events to protest a war that already has claimed thousands of lives — including seven of her friends. Many of her collaborators here come from the country that invaded Ukraine.

“Almost everyone helping me is Russian or Belorussian,” Titova said. The majority are in their 20s and 30s. Even before the war, most were fighting Putin’s regime. Some had been imprisoned for their efforts. “They were chased out of Russia,” she said.

Yet their current activism is not insulating them from public anger and animosity in Georgia, which spent most of the 20th century under the rule of Russia or the Soviet Union. The country declared its independence in 1991 but less than two decades later was attacked again by its powerful northern neighbor. The scars of that conflict are still raw, and even today Russian troops remain deployed in the secessionist enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia — a de facto occupation of a fifth of Georgia’s territory.

About 35,000 Russians have arrived since the war’s outbreak in Ukraine in late February, according to government estimates. The vast majority are in Tbilisi, a city of 1.1 million residents where they are now all too conspicuous and, increasingly, unwelcome.


The doll and show were prepared by Lada Titova, a Ukrainian from Lviv and Femen protester; Anna Kuzminikh, a Russian from Moscow and member of activist punk band Pussy Riot's art collective; and Anna Zizeva, a Russian living in Seattle who moved to Georgia to be closer to event. From left to right: Titova, Kuzminikh and Zizeva.
(Justyna Mielnikiewicz/for MAPS and The Washington Post)

Thousands of people have signed an online petition demanding a visa regime for Russian nationals and tougher immigration rules. Others are taking a more direct approach, with signs declaring “Russians not welcome” and profane graffiti about them visible on many central Tbilisi streets. Airbnb hosts regularly post that “Russian occupiers are not welcome.” Even the country’s most famous nightclub, Bassiani, renowned for its ultraliberal, pro-diversity stance, bans anyone with a Russian passport.

Anna Kuzminikh has been in the city since last summer. A film director and a member of Pussy Riot, a punk and performance band that has protested against Putin’s government for almost a decade, she fled Moscow after she and others in the group became locked in a cycle of arrest, detention and release, followed almost immediately by another arrest. She says she was physically mistreated while behind bars.

Though life in Tbilisi was “unbelievably nice and comfortable” at first, her nationality now makes her a target. Two landlords refused to rent her an apartment. She twice was kicked out of taxis.


“In one case, I was coming home late from volunteering to help Ukrainian refugees find a place to stay. I was exhausted. But as soon as the driver found out I was Russian, he stopped the car in the middle of the street and shouted at me to get out,” she recounted recently.

“I tried to tell him about the activism we were doing in Russia, about the protests, the detentions,” she continued. “He said he didn’t believe me. It was like it was all white noise to him.”

Lera Sokova, a journalist from St. Petersburg, came to Tbilisi in 2021 after quitting her job in protest of her employer’s pro-government editorial stance. A few weeks ago, she was verbally attacked while standing in a bank queue, where she had been careful to only speak English.

“A man suddenly started shouting and swearing at me,” Sokova said. “He wouldn’t stop. Even the guards had to intervene.” She ran out of the bank, doubled over on the pavement and threw up. “I couldn’t leave my house for four days. I kept thinking, how can I live in this reality?”


Here they are cutting yellow and blue ribbon for participants to represent Ukraine. 
(Justyna Mielnikiewicz/for MAPS and The Washington Post)

She is in the midst of finishing an antiwar film and, with others, planning what is envisioned as an “antiwar festival of arts” in Tbilisi. “Any Russian person who is against the government is now a foreigner everywhere,” Sokova said. “No one wants us anywhere. It’s very easy to give up.”

These activists admit their anti-regime views aren’t shared by all Russians in Tbilisi and certainly not all of their relatives and friends back home, who Kuzminikh said dismiss the destruction in Ukraine as “just a few bombs.”

Still, they want to return to their country at some point — and rebuild it post-Putin.

“We hope that there’s regime change. We need to start again, to reform our country,” said Egor Stoskov, an actor from Moscow who crossed the border several weeks ago. For the past year he had been evading a court hearing over his social media posts, including a TikTok video that poked fun at Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov.

“I realized I could no longer stay while [the war] was going on,” he said. These days shares a small Tbilisi apartment with five friends, two of them from Ukraine.

Sitting in a cafe within sight of another recent performance protest — where she had knelt in cold wintry winds clutching a bundle of blankets that represented a young child killed in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol — Titova talked about the work to come. It keeps her going, she said, and counters some of her feelings that she is betraying her country by not being there to fight back. She has no idea when she will return.

“My aim is to make sure that Putin becomes recognized as a war criminal not just for what he is doing in Ukraine but what he has been doing around the world — killing people in Russia, his war in Georgia, poisoning people in the U.K.,” she said. “The list is very long.”

Friends have told her the Putin effigy burning was the “best event of the spring.” It was staged on the shores of a lake in Tbilisi, and as the effigy’s head tumbled into the flames, the crowd cheered, applauded and chanted.

Titova smiled brightly: “Any day for burning evil is a good day.”



Russian, Belarussian and some Ukrainian youth gather at Tbilisi sea to participate at burning the doll of Russian president Vladimir Putin doll as a part of pagan rituals marking end of winter season and beginning of spring in Tbilisi, Georgia, on March 27, 2022. 
(Justyna Mielnikiewicz/for MAPS and The Washington Post)

Compilation of Statements From the Left on the Ukraine Crisis

Here we collect statements from Ukrainian, Russian, and other grassroots organizations on the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Alexander Yarashu, Belarusian Union Leader: Russia’s War in Ukraine Is Not Our War. We Can Stop it, We Must Stop It!

CGT Spectacle, We Demand the Immediate Release of Ukrainian Political Prisoners Abducted by Russian Army

Oxana Timofeeva, Between War and Terror: A Letter from Russia

Journalists, Journalists’ Statement on Ukraine:

Socialists Against War – Russia, Russia: Manifesto of the “Socialists Against War” Coalition

Sotsialnyi Rukh (Social Movement), The Ukrainian “Social Movement” Appeal to Leftists

National Federation of Ports and Docks CGT, For Peace and Unity Among all Peoples

Unite Union / Unite the Union, Trade Union (Britain): Unite Executive Council – Statement on Ukraine crisis

Many organizations, Call to Demonstrate against the War in Ukraine

ITUC and ETUC, Ukraine: Putin’s War Must Stop

AFL-CIO, U.S. Unions Oppose Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine

Fedor Ustinov, Nao Hong, Interview with a Leftwing Ukrainian activist in Kyiv

Several Left Parties, Left solidarity with Ukraine

Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association (AMEJA), Statement from Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association on Ukraine

Social Movement (Ukraine), Appeal from Ukrainian socialists of Social Movement

Global Labour Institute, Worker Activists Call for Solidarity Against war

Croatian Women for Peace, Ukraine: Women’s Appeal for Peace (Croatia)

French Unions, Joint Declaration of French Unions

Mehdi Chebil, Exodus to the Ukraine-Poland border: “They turn us away because we’re black!”

Zapatista Army of National Liberation, Zapatista Statement on Russian Invasion of Ukraine

Open letter from Israel to the Russian Anti-War Movement

Feminist Anti-War Resistance, Russia’s Feminists Are in the Streets Protesting Putin’s War

Women in Black (Madrid), Women in Black Against War (Madrid)

Russian Cultural and Art Workers, An Open Letter from Russian Cultural and Art Workers Against the War with Ukraine

Chuang, Sharing the Shame: A Letter from Internationalists in China

Ignacy Jóźwiak and Witalij Machinko, Interview with Witalij Machinko, Workers’ Solidarity Union (Trudowa Solidarnist, Kiev)

New York State Nurses Association, Statement on Ukraine

Caminar, The absence of solidarity is a mistake and a denial of humanism

Anti-War Round Table of the Left, Resolution of the Anti-War Round Table of the Left forces

transform europe, Stop the War! An Appeal for a Europe of Peace

SUD-Rail and Solidaires, SUD-Rail and Solidaires demand free transport for refugees from Ukraine!

Chinese Professors, Our Attitude Towards Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo), Letter of protest to President Putin of Russia

CNDP (India), Statement on Ukraine

Hong Kong University students, Statement of Hong Kong University students on the Russian invasion and war on ukraine

Independent Belarusian Labor Union BKDP, Belarusian Labor Union on War in Ukraine

Russian Scientists, A Call from Russian Scientists against War

Confederation of Labor of Russia (KTR), Confederation of Labor Russia, Communique on Ukraine Situation

Autonomous Action, Committee of Resistance, Food Not Bombs, Moscow, Russian and Ukrainian Anarchists Speak Out

Workers’ Initiative Union, Against war – for international workers’ solidarity! Statement of OZZ IP (Poland), member of the International Labor Network of Solidarity and Struggles Network

International Labor Solidarity Network, Stop Russian aggression in Ukraine!

Ukrainian Sectoral Trade Unions, Ukrainian Trade Unions on Situation in Ukraine

Solidarités Suisse, No to Russia’s Imperialist Aggression against Ukraine


 Poet wrote about Vietnam War horrors before moving from U.S. to Canada

What I Think About the Situation in Ukraine

The Nguyen family, in the early 1980s in San Jose, Calif., where his parents owned the New Saigon Mini Market. Photograph courtesy Viet Thanh Nguyen

Viet Than Nguyen posted the following statement on his Facebook page on March 18, 2022. We thank him for permission to publish it.

Some people have asked me what I think about the situation in Ukraine. A prominent magazine also asked me. Here’s what I wrote. I wonder if they’ll publish it:

I was born in Viet Nam and made in America.

I fled from Viet Nam as a refugee in 1975 and came to the United States. While I’m grateful for American aid, I wouldn’t have needed American aid if the United States hadn’t invaded Viet Nam in the first place.

As a refugee, I am aware that wars kill more civilians than soldiers, and that wars always produce refugees. I have seen that wars do not end simply because we say they do, and that war’s effects will ripple through bodies, minds, and souls for decades afterwards.

As a refugee, a writer, and a human being, I stand with the people of Ukraine, who are suffering now and will suffer in the future even after the violence is over. I stand against Putin and authoritarians and autocrats and Russia, and I stand against powerful, imperial nations invading or imposing their will on smaller and weaker countries. I believe that all Ukrainian refugees should be accepted everywhere with open borders, open hearts, open arms, and open minds.

Therefore, I also stand against every instance of nations unilaterally invading other countries, which means I oppose my own government and the United States in its many instances of imposing its will on other nations, from Iraq and Afghanistan in very recent memory to many other instances, such as the Philippines, Cuba, Haiti, Viet Nam, to name just a few, in addition to the many indigenous nations that the United States currently occupies.

Since I oppose authoritarians and autocrats, I also oppose whenever the United States and its allies support authoritarians and autocrats, in places present and past like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Guatemala, and South Korea, to name a few examples. Since I oppose occupations of all kinds, I am not only opposed to Russia’s attempt to occupy Ukraine, I am opposed to the Israeli occupation of Palestine and to the United States’ unwavering support for Israel.

And since I support Ukrainian refugees, I support refugees no matter where they come from, what religion they believe in, what color their skin is, what language they speak, and regardless of whether or not my country will benefit politically, economically, or morally for taking them in.

As a Vietnamese refugee from a communist victory, I am well aware that I was let into the United States because it was advantageous for the United States to show the evils of communism. Likewise, Ukrainian refugees are welcome now because it is in the interest of the West and the United States to demonstrate the evils of Putin.

What about all the other refugees who need our compassion, our empathy, our love, and our action? Will we stand for them?

 

 

About Author
Viet Thanh Nguyen is a novelist.

CARTOON


 Hasan Aycın (yenisafak.com)

Israeli escalation to lead to explosion: Palestine

Israeli forces kills 3 Palestinians near Jenin


News Service
April 02, 2022

File photo

The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Saturday condemned the Israeli killing of three Palestinians in the West Bank, warning that the Israeli escalation risks to explode the situation in the region.

"The dangerous Israeli escalation, which coincided today with the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, is strongly rejected and condemned, and it would explode the situation," PA spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said in a statement cited by the state news agency Wafa.

He slammed the Israeli actions as constituting “a flagrant challenge to international legitimacy and international law.”

Abu Rudeina called on Tel Aviv to “stop all these dangerous practices” which threaten security and stability, noting that Jewish extremists still continue to storm the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound hence “creating an atmosphere of tension.”

Israel’s domestic intelligence service Shin Bet said early Saturday that three Palestinians were killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli forces near the city of Jenin. Four Israeli soldiers were injured in the violence.

An official with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society told Anadolu Agency that Israeli forces seized the bodies of the three dead Palestinians.

For his part, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamed Shtayyeh described the killings as a "crime” and called on the International Criminal Court to hold accountable those responsible.

In a statement, Shtayyeh called on Israeli leaders to "stop committing crimes and violations against the Palestinian people, respond to their legitimate rights to freedom and independence, end the occupation and establish their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital."
'Unscientific and Unlawful': Biden EPA Will Not Regulate Rocket Fuel Chemical in Water

A boy pours tap water into a drinking glass. On Thursday, the Biden administration announced it will not impose new limits on perchlorate in drinking water. (Photo: Teresa Short/Getty Images)

"The Trump EPA gave perchlorate a pass; it was a bad decision then, and it's a bad decision now," said one environmental advocate.


JULIA CONLEY
April 1, 2022


Public health advocates said Thursday that they plan to resume litigation against the Environmental Protection Agency after the Biden administration announced it would uphold former President Donald Trump's decision to not regulate drinking water levels of a chemical used to make rocket fuel and explosives.

Former President Barack Obama's administration proposed limits for perchlorate after finding in 2011 that drinking water for 16 million people may have unsafe levels of the contaminant, which poses a risk to the development of children and fetuses.

"Tap water across America will remain contaminated by this toxic chemical."

Groups including the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) were outraged when Trump refused to impose the limits, claiming regulation was "not in the public interest." The EPA's announcement this week sparked renewed criticism, with the NRDC calling the decision "unscientific and unlawful."

"The Trump EPA gave perchlorate a pass; it was a bad decision then, and it's a bad decision now," said Erik D. Olson, senior strategic director for health at the organization. "Tap water across America will remain contaminated by this toxic chemical, which threatens the brain development of babies in the womb, infants, and young children at extremely low levels."

The Trump administration claimed that 56 parts per billion (ppb) was an acceptable level of perchlorate in drinking water—far higher than limits that Massachusetts and California have imposed at the state level, requiring water to contain no more than two ppb and six ppb, respectively.

Before Thursday's announcement, the American Academy of Pediatrics had called on the EPA to establish the "strongest possible" limits on the chemical.

Exposure to perchlorate has been linked to measurable decreases in IQ in newborns; the chemical interferes with the thyroid gland and stunts the production of hormones needed for proper child development.

High concentrations of perchlorate have been found in at least 26 states, with communities near military bases at high risk for exposure because the chemical is a component in munitions.

The limits proposed by the Obama administration were met with aggressive lobbying by military contractors including Northrup Grumman and Lockheed Martin and were never imposed. The NRDC sued the EPA after it failed to set new standards, securing a court order requiring the agency to regulate the chemical by 2019.

The group then sued the Trump administration when it announced it would not impose limits, but paused the litigation after Biden won the 2020 election.

The risk sciences department at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said the EPA's decision represents "a step backwards that leaves the states and communities most impacted out there by themselves."

The EPA said that instead of imposing limits, it will develop a plan to clean up detonation sites with very high levels of perchlorate contamination, provide a "web-based toolkit" to advise water systems about perchlorate, and "continue to consider new information on the health effects and occurrence of perchlorate."

According to Olson, "By refusing to establish a standard or water testing requirements, the EPA decision will also keep members of the public in the dark, without even basic information about whether they are being exposed to perchlorate."

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

perchlorate is a chemical compound containing the perchlorate ionClO4. The majority of perchlorates are commercially produced salts. They are mainly used as oxidizers for pyrotechnic devices and to control static electricity in food packaging.[2] Perchlorate contamination in food, water, and other parts of the environment has been studied in the U.S. because of harmful effects on human health. Perchlorate ions are somewhat toxic to the thyroid gland.

Most perchlorates are colorless solids that are soluble in water. Four perchlorates are of primary commercial interest: ammonium perchlorate NH4ClO4perchloric acid HClO4potassium perchlorate KClO4 and sodium perchlorate NaClO4. Perchlorate is the anion resulting from the dissociation of perchloric acid and its salts upon their dissolution in water. Many perchlorate salts are soluble in non-aqueous solutions.


Perchlorate

Perchlorate (ClO4-) is an inorganic compound that occurs naturally in nitrate deposits and potash ore. It may also be present in air, soil, and water as a result of the industrial uses of perchlorate salts (perchlorate combined with another element or compound such as sodium or ammonium) and nitrate fertilizers. Perchlorate salts are primarily used in solid fuels, explosives, fireworks, road flares, air bag inflators, rubber manufacturing, paint and enamel manufacturing and pulp and paper processing. As a result of its ubiquitous presence in the environment, trace amounts of perchlorate may also enter the food chain.

In humans, high doses of perchlorate have been used to treat hyperthyroidism since it has the ability to disrupt the function of the thyroid gland by preventing the uptake of iodine. However, the potential exposure to perchlorate from the diet is expected to be orders of magnitude less than a therapeutic dose.

Health authorities became concerned with perchlorate when it was detected in a number of well water and drinking water supplies across the United States in the 1990s. However, it was mostly detected in water sources in proximity to military areas or perchlorate salt production facilities. Perchlorate has been detected in samples of ground and surface water in Canada, but levels are so low that there would be no human health concern associated with consuming this water. It has also been detected at low levels in certain foods.

Perchlorate

G. Karimi, R. Rezaee, in Encyclopedia of Toxicology (Third Edition), 2014

Water

Perchlorate was sampled in drinking water supplies as part of the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Regulation (UCMR) 1, List 1 Assessment Monitoring program. Occurrence data for perchlorate was collected from 3865 public water supplies between 2001 and 2005. Approximately 160 (4.1%) of these systems had at least one analytical detection of perchlorate (in at least one entry/sampling point) at levels ≥4 μg l−1. These 160 systems are located in 26 states and two territories. Approximately 1.9% (or 637) of the 34 331 samples collected by all 3865 public water supplies had positive detections of perchlorate at levels ≥4 μg l−1. The maximum reported concentration of perchlorate, 420 μg l−1, was found in a single surface water sample from a public water supply in Puerto Rico. The average concentration of perchlorate for those samples with positive detections for perchlorate was 9.85 μg l−1 and the median concentration was 6.40 μg l−1. There is limited information on the release of perchlorate to ambient water. Perchlorate may be released to water from its manufacture, processing, or use. Perchlorate may ultimately be released to surface water from the runoff or erosion of sand or soil contaminated with the compound, whereas the percolation of water through contaminated sand or soil could result in perchlorate contaminating groundwater.

Identities divided (Pt. 2): Okinawan Amerasians fight racism, embrace their Black roots


April 2, 2022 
(Mainichi Japan)
Japanese version

Ai Oyafuso, who makes original clothing using local plant dyes and runs a cafe at a market, is seen in Motobu, Okinawa Prefecture, on Feb. 21, 2022. 
(Mainichi/Shinnosuke Kyan)

NAHA -- Okinawa, Japan's southernmost prefecture, was under U.S. military rule for 27 years after World War II. Even after its return to Japan in 1972, it has continued to be host to most of the U.S. military bases in the country. Okinawans have rejected the United States' power over their islands, but some children have been caught in the middle: those born between local parents and Americans affiliated with the bases.

The stories of these Amerasians are often painful, laced with prejudice over their appearance and otherness. And the group to suffer the worst of this hateful bullying are those with Black ancestry.



Ai Oyafuso, who makes original clothing using local plant dyes and runs a cafe at a market, is seen in Motobu, Okinawa Prefecture, on Feb. 21, 2022. (Mainichi/Shinnosuke Kyan)

One Amerasian woman in her 50s living in the south of the main island told the Mainichi Shimbun that her father, a U.S. serviceman, had both Black and white roots, though it wasn't obvious from his appearance. Her Okinawan mother did not know he had Black ancestry, and was surprised by her newborn daughter's dark skin tone. Her mother complained that she had been "cursed with bad karma." At age 5, the woman moved in with her maternal grandparents, but was still the target of discrimination outside the home.

At elementary school, when she handed copies to classmates, they told her, "Don't touch them. They'll get dirty," and someone dumped muddy water into her backpack. When locals began protesting U.S. B-52 bombing missions flown over Vietnam from the U.S. military's Kadena Air Base near her home, kids yelled, "B-52 go home!" at the school gate. And sometimes she did.

Once, she bought some U.S.-made bleach with her allowance, dissolved it in the bath and used a brush to scrub herself, trying to turn her skin white. "Won't it get white?" she wondered. She felt like her whole body had been scalded, but her skin stayed dark. She found it increasingly tough to go to school, and she would hide under the bedcovers, crying. "I wanted to run away from the world," she recalled.

After graduating from junior high, she went to a private high school far from her hometown. There, for the first time, she met people who had gone through the same things. "It was like paradise," she said. She continued to face discrimination and prejudice at every turn, including when she got a job and when she was married. However, she also recognized that, "because I went through that hardship, I'm capable of being kind, and strict, with people."

Ai Oyafuso, a 39-year-old living in the Okinawan town of Motobu, has a Black father who was once in the U.S. military. Although she was born after the end of direct U.S. military rule in 1972, since she was young she has still been subjected to painful racist barbs from people she doesn't know. That pain has grown new dimensions as her four children suffer similar experiences.

Several months ago, her eldest daughter's third-grade classmates painted their skin with calligraphy ink and crowed, "We're black!" Her eldest son, in fifth grade, has also been called "gaijin," which literally means "outsider" and is used to refer to foreigners.

"I can ignore words aimed at me. But I cannot tolerate it when they're aimed at my children," she said. She has approached the school and talked with the children responsible for the racist acts as well as their parents, urging them to be open to diversity.

Oyafuso has also joined protests against the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, to the Henoko district of Nago, also in Okinawa. However, when she hears others speak with open antagonism toward the U.S. military, she feels uncomfortable and out of place. She said, "I've asserted my identity as an 'Uchinanchu' (Okinawan), but society and those around me will not let me be one. I've always been Black in their eyes."

It was the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement that rippled through the United States and across the world in 2020 that made her feel more positive. Oyafuso also joined BLM demonstrations near Kadena Air Base with family and friends, holding signs condemning anti-Black racism.

Through creating information pamphlets on Black history and Black Lives Matter, she gradually began to feel good that she'd been born Black. When she was young, Oyafuso used to be insecure about her hair, but she now enjoys styling it with colorful braids.


"I feel much more at ease now than the time I wanted to avoid being seen as a Black person," she said. She said hopefully, "Although society doesn't change easily, I'd like Amerasians to get educated about diversity and live without blaming themselves. After all, it's always the side engaging in the discrimination that is 100% in the wrong."

(Japanese original by Shinnosuke Kyan, Kyushu Photo Department)

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