CRIMINAL CAPITALISM; NEO- COLONIALISM

Iraq exhibits restored art pillaged after 2003 invasion
AFP

Published April 24, 2022 - 

A wooden sculpture of a gazelle with undulating curves is on display at Iraq’s Ministry of Culture.—AFP


BAGHDAD: Verdant landscapes, stylised portraits of peasant women, curved sculptures — an exhibition in Baghdad is allowing art aficionados to rediscover the pioneers of contemporary Iraqi art.

Around one hundred items are on display in the capital, returned and restored nearly two decades after they were looted.

Many of the works, including pieces by renowned artists Jawad Selim and Fayiq Hassan, disappeared in 2003 when museums and other institutions were pillaged in the chaos that followed the US-led invasion to topple dictator Saddam Hussein.

Thousands of pieces were stolen, and organised criminal networks often sold them outside Iraq.

Tracked down in Switzerland, the US, Qatar and neighbouring Jordan, sculptures and paintings dating between the 1940s and 1960s have been on display since late March at the Ministry of Culture, in a vast room that used to serve as a restaurant.

“These works are part of the history of contemporary art in Iraq,” ministry official Fakher Mohamed said. Pictures and sculptures were in 2003 spirited away from the Saddam Arts Centre, one of Baghdad’s most prestigious cultural venues at the time.

While he crushed all political dissent, Saddam cultivated the image of a patron of the arts. The invasion and years of violence that followed ended a flourishing arts scene, particularly in Baghdad.

Now, relative stability has led to a fledgling artistic renaissance, including book fairs and concerts, of which the exhibition organised by the ministry is an example.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2022

Ilhan Omar regrets Kashmir not getting US attention it merits

Tariq Naqash

Published April 22, 2022 

Ilhan Omar attends the press conference in Muzaffarabad.—AFP

MUZAFFARABAD: US Congre­ss­woman Ilhan Abdullahi Omar on Thursday acknowledged that Kash­mir dispute was not being talked about in the power centres of the United States of America at the required level, but expressed the hope that the situation would change.

At an interaction with local media at the President House, Rep. Omar said, “On the question of Kashmir, we held a committee hearing on the foreign affairs committee to look at the reports of human rights violations and to talk about the bigger issue with the [Narendra] Modi administration’s anti-Muslim rhetoric and how that’s leading to human rights violations as well.”

On the occasion, Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) President Barrister Sultan Mahmood was present.

In the same breath, she added: “I don’t believe that it [Kashmir] is being talked about to the extent it needs to be, not only in Congress but also with the [US] administration.”

India reacts strongly to US Congresswoman’s visit to AJK

She, however, expressed the hope that her visit would pave the way for “many more conversations” on the Kashmir issue.

“And that the condemnations and concerns of those who fight for human rights and the question of the Kashmir issue will be included in those [hearings],” she said.

Local reporters had asked questions about anti-minorities legislation and state-sponsored assaults on religious minorities, mainly Muslims, in India, as well as the worsening human rights situation in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, particularly after it was stripped of its special status in August 2019.

One of them also asked if former prime minister and PTI chief Imran Khan, who blames the US for regime change in Pakistan, had also complained about it during their meeting the other day and if yes, what was her reply? However, Ms Omar avoided replying to it.

She thanked journalists for their “very spirited questions” and said she would address a formal press conference at the end of her trip and “probably answer some of the questions you all asked [here].”

Earlier, during her meeting with President Mahmood, she said she had voiced serious concern over the human rights violations in India and Kashmir and would [again] take up the issue with the US Congress as well as the Biden administration.

“We are deeply worried about India’s August 5, 2019 move,” she told the AJK president, according to a press release by the latter’s office.

She said she was delighted to be given this opportunity to be in meetings [with officials in Pakistan and AJK] and looked forward to seeing different parts of it and learning more first-hand.

“For me, human rights have been the priority of my work, and you can’t fight for the rights of others if you are not doing it in partnership with them,” she said.

On his part, Mr Mahmood said India’s traditional intransigence was the stumbling block in the way of resolving the longstanding Kashmir issue that had now assumed dangerous proportions.

Due to India’s obduracy, no progress whatsoever has been made on the issue since 1947. Instead of resolving the dispute peacefully, India has deployed over 900,000 troops in the disputed territory, who are engaged in the systematic genocide of Kashmiris. “

The AJK president also drew her attention to demographic engineering in occupied Kashmir and said India had issued fake domiciles to 4.2 million Indian Hindus to change the proportion of the population in occupied Kashmir.

“Under the prevailing circumstances, there is a dire need for the international community, particularly the US, to come forward and help resolve this dispute between the two nuclear powers.”

He expressed gratitude to Ms Omar for taking a strong stance on human rights violations and underscoring the importance of dialogue.

“The manner in which you have condemned the human rights violations in occupied Kashmir by India is a source of strength for us,” he said.

According to official sources, the Congresswoman was also flown to the Line of Control (LoC) in the Chakothi sector, where she was briefed on the situation before and after the fresh understanding between the Pakistani and Indian armies to respect the 2003 ceasefire agreement.

Some residents, who had been affected by Indian shelling prior to the ceasefire, had also gathered there and shared their tales of horror with the visitors.

The Chakothi sector was home to one of the three active crossing points along the LoC, which had been opened in 2005 as a Kashmir specific confidence-building measure (CBM). Three years later, barter trade between the divided parts of Kashmir was also started as another CBM to increase people-to-people contact.

However, India unilaterally discontinued both travel and trade on flimsy grounds in April 2019 – just four months after scrapping the special status of occupied Jammu and Kashmir in a blatant disregard of the UN Security Council resolutions.

It’s not the first time that Ms Omar, a Somali-American who belongs to President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party, has drawn attention to India’s poor human rights record.

In early April, she questioned the alleged reluctance of the US government to criticise Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on human rights.

Days later, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Washington was monitoring the rise in human rights abuses in India by some government, police, and prison officials.

On Thursday, while Rep Omar was still in AJK, India issued a strongly-worded reaction to condemn her visit.

According to Indian media reports, Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson for India’s ministry of external affairs, said: “Let me just say that if such a politician wishes to practice her narrow-minded politics at home, that’s her business.

“But violating our territorial integrity and sovereignty... makes this ours, and we think the visit is condemnable.”

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2022

#KASHMIR IS #INDIA'S #GAZA

Demonstrations in AJK as Indian PM Modi’s visit to IoK observed as 'black day'

APP | AFP | Tariq Naqqash

Published April 24, 2022 - Updated about 3 hours ago

Protesters take part in a demonstration in Muzaffarabad against the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region, April 24. — AFP

A "black day" was observed and anti-India demonstrations were held in Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited occupied Jammu and Kashmir in what was his first visit to the disputed territory since New Delhi revoked special status nearly three years ago.

New Delhi nullified the area's special status in August 2019, when authorities arrested thousands and imposed the world's longest internet shutdown, seeking to forestall local opposition to the move.

Tight security was in place for Modi's appearance at Palli village in Jammu, the Hindu-majority southern part of the territory, which celebrated New Delhi's introduction of direct rule as a defence against Kashmir's freedom movement.

Sunday's event marked Panchayati Raj, a day that commemorates grassroots democracy — although occupied Kashmir has been without an elected regional government since 2018.

There was a complete shutdown in occupied Kashmir, the official Pakistani press agency APP reported. The call for the strike was given by the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference.

In Azad Kashmir, demonstrations were held on the call of AJK Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas yesterday.

Today, a large "black day" protest rally was held in the capital Muzaffarabad and led by AJK minister Khawaja Farooq Ahmed and representatives of other political parties. The rally started from Burhan Wani Chowk and ended at Ghari Pin Chowk. Apart from banners with anti-India and pro-independence slogans, the participants also held black flags and chanted slogans against Modi.

Addressing the participants on the occasion, Khawaja Farooq Ahmed said the protesters wanted to convince the international community through demonstrations that Kashmiris never recognised the Indian occupation and the arrival of a person like Modi — whose "hands are stained with the blood of innocent Kashmiris" — in any part of the territory was a "highly undesirable" thing for them.

He called on the international community, especially the United States and the United Kingdom, to sever their relations with India, as they had done with Russia over the war in Ukraine. He lamented the "double standards" of the international community in the case of Kashmiris.

Ahmed said that the UN and the international community should press India to give Kashmiris their right to self-determination. He said that India-occupied Kashmir was under a continuous curfew in which people's livelihoods were being destroyed under a "premeditated plan" so that they could not raise voices against India.

He also expressed gratitude to the institutions and people of Pakistan for always supporting Kashmiris.

Ahmed said that the day was not far when Kashmiris would become independent and a part of Pakistan.

Mushaal Hussein Malik, the wife of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik, said that Modi's visit was "nothing but a cruel joke with the Kashmiri people", according to APP.

She vowed that the brave people of Kashmir would observe a complete shutdown on Modi's visit to give a clear message to him as well as to the world that Kashmiris would not accept brutal subjugation anymore.

At the end of the rally, prayers were offered for the independence of the occupied territory.
Tight security in Jammu

Indian authorities deployed troops and police personnel across the occupied territory, particularly in the Jammu region, as security measures ahead of Modi’s visit.

According to state-run APP, Indian personnel conducted random checking of vehicles and frisked passengers at checkpoints which mushroomed on the roads of all major cities and towns as well as the Srinagar-Jammu highway.

Indian police and troops used CCTV cameras to keep a watch on the movement of people. Sharpshooters were also deployed at high rise buildings while drone cameras and sniffer dogs were included in service. Indian police seized scores of bikes from different areas of Srinagar.

Black day to be observed on Modi’s visit to occupied Kashmir: AJK PM

Iftikhar A. Khan

Published April 24, 2022

Azad Kashmir Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas addresses a press conference at the Kashmir House in Islamabad on Saturday. — APP

ISLAMABAD: Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) will observe black day today (Sunday) when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi undertakes his first visit to occupied Kashmir.

This was announced by Azad Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas while speaking at a crowded press conference at the Kashmir House.

This was Tanveer Ilyas’ first press conference in the capital after assuming the office of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir prime minister.

Convener All Parties Hurriyat Conference-Azad Kashmir chapter (APHC) Farooq Rehmani and members of the AJK legislative assembly were also present on the occasion.

Mr Ilyas said protest demonstrations would be held and rallies taken out in Azad Kashmir as well as India-held Kashmir.

Protests, rallies to be taken out in Azad Kashmir, India-held Kashmir

He said Modi could not hoodwink the world by visiting occupied Kashmir in the presence of 800,000 Indian troops.

Terming Modi the ‘biggest terrorist’ and ‘killer of Kashmiris’, the AJK premier said his Hindutva ideology posed a serious threat to peace in the region and beyond, urging the United Nations to play its due role in resolving the lingering Kashmir dispute peacefully.

He said it was high time that the international community, particularly the UN, came forward in a big way to resolve the Kashmir dispute which was the main cause of unrest in the region.

The dire situation in occupied Kashmir merits immediate attention of the United Nations, Mr Ilyas said, adding that Kashmiris wanted the right to self-determination and did not want to be with India.

Referring to the enforced disappearances and killings of youth in fake encounters, the AJK premier said thousands of unmarked mass graves spread all across the territory spoke volumes about the systematic genocide of Kashmiris at the hands of India’s occupation machinery.

“At a time when Kashmiris stand deprived even of the inconsequential rights of governance due to stripping of the special status of their state, when the Indian occupation forces have stepped up the worst ever atrocities, Modi’s visit amounts to rubbing salt into the wounds of Kashmiris,” he said.

In fact, he said, the visit was part of the BJP government’s ploy to hoodwink the international community and create a false impression that “all is well in Kashmir”.

Paying rich tributes to veteran Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Gilani, PM Ilyas said Gilani was the voice of Pakistan.

Speaking on the occasion, Hurriyat leader Mohammad Farooq Rahmani said: “Indian army is killing Kashmiris the way Hitler committed mass killings in Germany and Israel massacred the Palestinians.”

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2022

Violence erupts ahead of Modi visit to contested Jammu and Kashmir


Indian paramilitary soldiers walk near site of gunfight at a village near Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir, on Friday. 

Photo by Farooq Khan/EPA-EFE

April 23 (UPI) -- Violence has erupted near an Indian army base in Jammu ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's scheduled visit to the disputed Kashmir region on Sunday, reports said.

Modi is expected to hold his first public rally in Kashmir since 2019, when the government revoked the disputed region's special autonomous status, according to the Spanish news agency EFE.

Jammu and Kashmir, administered by India as a union territory, is a bifurcated subregion of the larger Kashmir region contested by Pakistan and India since 1947.

The Muslim-majority territory is separated from the Pakistani-administered territories of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan by the Line of Control, which serves as an unofficial border along the ceasefire lines from the end of the India-Pakistan War of 1971.

Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, prime minister of the Kashmir region controlled by Pakistan, said during a press conference in Islamabad Saturday Kashmiris on both sides of Line of Control would observe "Black Day" during Modi's visit to Jammu, Pakistan Today reported.

India and Pakistan each typically commemorate an annual "Black Day" in October to remember the start of the conflict over Kashmir in 1947.

Ilyas accused Indian security forces of the "extrajudicial executions" of thousands of Kashmiris and claimed India was settling Hindus in Kashmir to "disturb the ratio of population."

Dilbag Singh, the police chief in the India-controlled Jammu and Kashmir territory, said Friday that a "suicide squad" from the Kashmir-focused Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group had killed at least one security personnel and injured nine others, the Times of India reported.

Jaish-e-Mohammed has been described as a terrorist organization by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, which said such groups "that aspire to be active in Indian-controlled Kashmir remain a concern."

Singh said the group had "planned a major attack" in Jammu ahead of Modi's visit to "sabotage" the event, which was thwarted.

In a separate gunfight, Indian security forces killed four militants in the northern Baramulla district of the Kashmir Valley, police said. Five security personnel were killed during the incident.

Pakistan has accused India of "the worst form of state terrorism" and a "disregard for international human rights and humanitarian laws" during previous "Black Day" commemorations.

PAKISTAN

No conspiracy

Editorial

Published April 24, 2022

THE National Security Committee — the country’s highest security forum — has now unequivocally stated that it does not believe there was an international conspiracy to dislodge Imran Khan from PM House. It has subsequently become clear that the former prime minister made selfish political use of a secret diplomatic communication to squeeze his way back into the running for the next general elections.

To protect his political interests, Mr Khan also engineered a series of controversies to try to discredit parliamentary processes, the judiciary as well as the security establishment for making the ‘mistake’ of not protecting his government from being ousted with a vote of no-confidence. He simultaneously cast aspersions on the loyalties of his political rivals while rebranding the PTI as the only party fighting to keep Pakistan’s foreign policy independent from interference.

Read: PTI supporters' blind devotion to Imran is further polarising society and there will be consequences

Rather than take stock of his party’s less-than-stellar performance in its three-odd years in power, the PTI chief distracted both supporters and critics by stoking moral panic over a shadowy transnational plot to take down the Pakistani government. One need only question why the PTI is frequently switching its narrative between ‘conspiracy’, ‘interference’ and ‘establishment’s mistake’ to understand that it is a smokescreen. Its real purpose is to make sure there is an early election.

In all this, the efforts of Pakistan’s erstwhile ambassador to the US stand vindicated. Two NSC meetings have confirmed that whatever he reported about his interaction with the senior US official did indeed provide cause for alarm. It is commendable that the ambassador immediately alerted the Foreign Office of the unnatural and undiplomatic language used by the US official during their interaction.

Read: Cable, conspiracy & populism

He also reportedly recommended that foreign ministry officials immediately take the matter up with both the US ambassador in Pakistan and the authorities in Washington to determine if what was discussed was indeed the official US position. The matter was serious enough that it has again been confirmed as ‘blatant interference’ in Pakistan’s affairs by the NSC. The question then arises: what prevented then foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi from acting immediately on the ambassador’s advice? Why did he take weeks to bring the matter to the NSC?

It is true that the US does indeed have a history of meddling in Pakistan’s internal affairs both overtly and covertly. However, an act of interference is quite different from an act of conspiracy, and the NSC seems quite clear on this particular matter. As Pakistan’s highest security forum, its assessment has weight and cannot be contested without counter-evidence.

It is unfortunate, however, that whatever it says is unlikely to have much of an impact on the PTI and its supporters. PTI’s politics now seems to have moved to the ‘post-truth’ phase where inconvenient facts are not entertained and leaders take collective oaths of obedience from their emotionally charged followers.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2022

PAKISTAN

Battle with ‘alternative facts’

Abbas Nasir

Published April 24, 2022

The writer is a former editor of Dawn.

ECONOMIC stabilisation through tough, unpopular measures such as withdrawal of the fuel subsidy or a cut in development expenditure, against the backdrop of public mobilisation by the Imran Khan-led PTI, seems a daunting challenge for a new coalition government with a wafer-thin majority.

The latest fuel subsidy was given early last month in a desperate gamble to remain in the saddle by a government facing a united opposition, desertion of allies and dissension in the ranks of its own parliamentarians as a no-confidence motion was around the corner.

Although when it announced the subsidy, instead of a regulator-recommended increase, the government said it would manage the cost of the nearly Rs400 billion subsidy till the summer from higher than expected revenues and savings in other areas.

But the widening deficit in less than two months since the subsidy was awarded is sounding alarm bells in the corridors of power as it is abundantly clear the gamble was meant to thwart a likely no-confidence move at the time, and would have been withdrawn as soon as the danger was averted.

Read: Lessons from Lanka: How can Pakistan's policymakers avoid economic pitfalls?

Two things have happened since. One, the vote was successfully carried and the prime minister, despite trying every trick in the bag, including some constitutionally questionable ones, could not stay in office, and one of his arch rivals was elected and sworn into office.

Miftah Ismail’s credentials are not in doubt; how much elbow room he has is.

Second, the former prime minister has not taken kindly to his constitutional ouster from office and has embarked on an aggressive mass mobilisation campaign, relying on incendiary, populist slogans and is threatening to take to the streets to force an immediate election.

Editorial: Imran's narrative seems to be working for him, and yet he needs to change it

This week, the government categorically said that parliament would complete its term and elections would only be held next year, but Imran Khan’s aggressive campaign, seemingly backed by some renegade elements in a key institution, continues to cast doubts about the incumbents’ longevity.

And this element makes any possible attempt to balance the books fraught with danger. The withdrawal of the fuel subsidy will further spur the back-breaking inflation, particularly for the poor and middle classes, and the voting public will likely punish those it sees as responsible.

When your life is a relentless struggle to put food on the table, it is not surprising that the short-term, rather than the long-term memory, informs your reactions. Who will remember the PTI’s mismanagement and decisions that brought the economy to this pass?

The most likely target for the people’s wrath would be the hand that signed the withdrawal notification. That is why Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif shot down the first summary for a fuel price rise. But this can’t be sustained for too long, as the widening deficit and Islamabad’s commitment to the IMF dictate a changed course.

Perhaps mindful of the consequences of raising this poisoned chalice to its lips the government may consider other options as well to reduce the deficit. And these include a cut in development expenditure.

The proponents of this course argue that roads and bridges and other infrastructure can wait and all the savings from these areas be used to provide targeted relief to the most needy. However, this path isn’t easy either.

Even if parliament is able to complete its term, it has some 16 months to go. Can the governing coalition afford to stay development expenditure in the country, including in swing constituencies, where such projects will likely deliver a political dividend and may be a determinant of who forms the next government?

Some independent economists have high hopes of Finance Minister Miftah Ismail. Even then, given the very few options at his disposal, one wonders if he can pull a rabbit out of his hat. His credentials are not in doubt; how much elbow room he has is.

If meeting these challenges was not enough, the government may have to address another issue that may be equally, or even more, important. Let me explain what I mean. In the Jan 31, 2021, issue of the Dawn’s magazine ‘Eos’ centre spread Carmen Gonzalez, my partner who has been a BBC and Instagram editor, and I covered the topic of ‘fake news’. Here are a few paras from that piece:

“In January 2017, the 45th president of the United States of America was being inaugurated in front of a crowd that — let’s say — wasn’t as large as expected. The live TV images spoke for themselves. The new president’s press secretary swiftly declared this was the ‘largest audience to ever witness an inauguration (…) on the globe’. Challenged about her blatant lie, her response was truly Orwellian. She said her views were ‘alternative facts’.

“Entering truly dystopian territory, Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani told an astonished Chuck Todd of NBC, ‘Truth isn’t truth!’ And to complete the Orwe­l­­lian scenario, Trump gave a speech in July 2018, where he said: ‘What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening’. Like Orwell warns in 1984, once you are told ‘to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears’, you can expect total alienation.

“The ‘alienated’ assaulted the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, provoked by Trump’s ‘alternative facts’ in a reminder of our very own 2014 ‘D’ Chowk dharna. Trump claimed to have won the November 2020 presidential election. Official data shows Joe Biden got seven million votes more than Trump, giving him 51 per cent of the vote, and 306 seats of the US Electoral College.

“But these ‘alternative facts’ resulted in five dead, dozens arrested; lawmakers’ and their aides’ children terrorised in the crèche inside the Capitol and the US legislature besieged by an inflamed mob. A recent Reuter/Ipsos poll showed 68 per cent of Republican voters still believe the election was rigged, which means a whopping 50 million Ameri­cans have no faith in their democracy anymore.”

Need I say more about what we need to tackle head-on?


abbas.nasir@hotmail.com
Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2022

Ilhan Omar 

US lawmaker meets Afghans at vocational centre in Haripur, Pakistan

The Newspaper's Correspondent

Published April 24, 2022

HARIPUR: US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar visited the Government Technical and Vocational Centre here on Saturday and met Afghan refugees being trained.

She told them that the people of her country would continue providing every possible support for the well-being of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan.

The US lawmaker said she, being a refugee herself, could understand the feelings of Afghans, who, despite having facilities from by the hosts or other aid agencies, desperately wanted to go home.

“On return to the US, I will explore avenues for better services for and uplift of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan,” she said.

Ms Ilhan Omar appreciated the Pakistani government, Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees, Haripur administration and aid agencies for providing education and healthcare to refugees for over four decades.

Says Americans will continue working for their well-being

The centre’s administration briefed her on vocational training programmes offered to Afghan refugees along with the children of hosting communities.

The US Congresswoman also visited the primary school set up for Afghan girls in the Panian refugee camp, where the students presented different tableaus in their native languages.

She interacted with them and asked them about their education.

Also, a group of Afghan elders met her and appreciated the initiatives of Pakistani government and INGOs for striving to improve the standard of their living.

Assistant commissioner Rao Hashim Azeem briefed her about the facilities provided by the district administration to Afghan refugees and said Hazara division hosted over 150,000 refugees and provided education and healthcare and livelihood opportunities to them for their development.

Commissioner for Afghan Refugees Mohammad Abbas Khan, who was also in attendance, informed the US lawmaker about the government’s steps for the well-being of refugees.

Earlier, the assistant commissioner and the commissioner for Afghan refugees received her on arrival at the helipad and took her to the GTVC and Afghan camp amid tight security measures.

The residents said there was a curfew-like situation in Khalabat Township and the areas housing refugee camps during the visit of the US congresswoman and that some link roads leading to those places were closed to traffic.

PROTEST: The residents of Khalabat Township on Saturday protested gas outages and warned they would agitate if the issue wasn’t resolved in two days.

Led by elders Qari Mohammad Ihjaz, Mohammad Ibrahim and Sajid Tofiq, the protesters complained about the suspension of gas supply during Iftar and Sehr time for the last few days in Mohallah Alflah, Jagal and Mohallah Ilyasi of Sector No 2 of the Khalabat Township.

They demanded the early restoration of smooth gas supply to prevent more street protests.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2022

Loyalists turn on Sri Lankan PM as protest pressure grows

AFP

Published April 24, 2022 - 

Demonstrators shout slogans against Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, near the Presidential Secretariat, amid the country's economic crisis, in Colombo on April 23. 

— Reuters

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s beleaguered prime minister came under increased pressure to step down on Satu­rday, as a cabinet minister and other senior party members backed street protests calling for resignations over a worsening economic crisis.

Media minister Nalaka Godahewa announced his support for the thousands outside President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s office who are demanding he and other members of his powerful family quit power.

Sri Lanka is suffering its most painful economic downturn since independence in 1948, with months of lengthy blackouts and acute shortages of food, fuel and other essentials. The crisis has sparked countrywide protests, with angry demonstrators camped outside Rajapaksa’s office for more than three weeks.

Under pressure, the president dropped two of his brothers — Chamal and Basil — and nephew Namal from the cabinet this month, but protesters rejected the changes as cosmetic.

Godahewa, previously a staunch Rajapaksa loyalist, said the president should sack his elder brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa — the head of the family — and allow an all-party interim government to take over.

He said the government had lost its credibility after the police killing of a protester on Tuesday. Godahewa said he had offered his resignation but President Rajap­aksa had not accepted it. “We need to restore political stability to successfully meet the economic crisis,” Godahewa said in a statement on his Facebook page.

“The entire cabinet, including the prime minister, should resign and [there should be] an interim cabinet that can win the confidence of all.”

Police and the military stepped up security in the central town of Rambukkana on Saturday, ahead of the funeral of 42-year-old Chaminda Lakshan, who was shot dead when police broke up a protest against spiralling fuel prices.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2022

'I’m exhausted': Why these nurses are preparing to strike — and others already have
2022/4/23
© The Mercury News

Mark O'Neill plays a game with his daughter Emily, 4, in their home on April 20, 2022, in Oakland, California. - Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group/TNS

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Stanford nurse Mark O’Neill could have quit his job caring for desperately ill COVID and cardiac patients, joining the exodus of other health care workers seeking a reprieve from the stress of the past two years.

Instead, on Monday he’ll walk a picket line.

“I’m exhausted, but we need to push really hard to get help for the issues we’re facing,” said O’Neill, one of 5,000 nurses slated to strike next week at prestigious Stanford Hospital and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital after the collapse of three months of labor negotiations, with no future bargaining sessions scheduled. “We’re asking Stanford for a change.”

The Stanford nurses join a growing number of other U.S. health care workers with shared grievances about staffing, pay, benefits and quality of life that have mounted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last Monday, 8,000 nurses across Northern California staged a one-day strike at 18 Sutter Health facilities. Recent health care strikes also occurred in Oregon, Massachusetts, New York, Montana and Alabama. A massive strike of 50,000 Kaiser health care workers was narrowly averted last November.

With nurses in short supply, unions have new leverage — and have emerged as increasingly powerful voices in a tight job market. Fatigued by the pandemic, many nurses are rethinking their careers. A new McKinsey report found that the share of nurses who said they were likely to leave their positions in the coming year rose to 32%, up from 22% last February.

In preparation for Monday’s walkout, “strike nurses” from around the nation are being flown into the Bay Area and delivered by bus to Stanford’s top-ranked hospitals. Strike nurses are typically the highest compensated nurses in the industry, with agencies like HSG and U.S. Nursing paying $12,000 to $13,000 a week to the Stanford replacements.

“If you put your badge down, I’m going to pick it up,” said Aleehya Carr of San Antonio, Texas, who hopes to work the Stanford strike. “People walk out on patients that still need help…Imagine if it was your mother or your father.”

But the regular nurses have their own set of frustrations toward the highly-paid temps. That tension played out at Sutter Health this past week, when nurses staged a one-day walkout but were replaced for the whole week by contract nurses.

“They’re getting housed, they’re getting transported to the hospital, they’re getting fed, they have extra lab people and clerks — all the things that we want,” said Carol Hawthorne-Johnson, a registered nurse who has worked in Eden’s intensive care unit in Castro Valley for 30 years. “They’re also getting different salaries and that’s what’s encouraging nurses to come out here.”

During the pandemic nursing shortage, hospitals have increasingly turned to high-paid travel nurses to fill the gaps, fostering resentment year-round.

To reduce its workload next week and ensure it can provide critical and emergency care, Stanford may reschedule some elective procedures, said spokesperson Julie Greicius. But the larger issue looms.

There are several reasons why nurses have chosen this moment to push for change, said Joanne Spetz, director of the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at UC San Francisco.

For one, contracts have expired, so it’s time to re-negotiate. Nurses have seen profits rise at Stanford and other large health systems, even as COVID cases soared. According to the university’s 2021 annual report, revenues at the two hospitals exceeded expenses by $845 million, compared to $107 million in 2020 — although some of that was due to one-time federal relief grants.

Nurses also know they are harder to replace – and want their contributions acknowledged in the form of improved working conditions, protected vacation time, higher wages and better benefits.

“Nurses have given so much during this pandemic,” Spetz said.

On a relative basis, nursing is a lucrative profession, and not just for the strike replacements. But throughout the country, nurses say they’re depleted by long hours and short staffing, and traumatized by the magnitude of death. Through surge after surge, they risked infection. They responded to repeated appeals to work overtime shifts. They missed family dinners and canceled vacations. They helped dying patients say goodbye to their families on video calls. They cried in their cars and fought deep fatigue on their long drives home.

“Nurses are fed up,” said Diana Mason, professor with the Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement at George Washington University School of Nursing.

“When you are working short staffed, there’s moral distress,” she said. “You know that patients are getting complications that they should not have gotten, because you couldn’t be there for them.”

To be sure, hospitals must meet legal nurse-to-patient ratios. But that just sets the bare minimum, said Mason and Spetz. Few hospitals have solid strategies to adjust these staffing ratios in response to very sick patients.

Stanford nurses are asking for annual wage increases of 7% for each of the next two years and 6% in the final year of their contract, with $3,000 bonuses and ongoing mental health counseling.

This will boost staffing levels, they say, because it will be easier to recruit and retain workers.

Stanford is offering wage increases — 5%, 4% and 3%, plus ratification and retention bonuses. In the first year, annual base salaries for entry level nurses would start at $143,000 and climb to $211,500 for nurses at the top of the pay scale.

With so many nurses out on quarantine during the pandemic, Stanford boosted ranks by bringing on traveling nurses who work on a contract basis. Stanford would not provide a count of these traveling nurses, but the union says it can approach 25% in some sites, such as the Intensive Care Unit.

But veteran nurses say it’s challenging to work with a rotating cast of newcomers, who earn much more than they do. Because these traveling nurses aren’t allowed to work on the very sickest patients, they say, the toughest work gets shifted to the lower-paid veterans.

Despite the influx of traveling nurses, there still isn’t enough staff, they say.

When working overtime shifts in the ICU and later the post-anesthesia care unit, Kathy Stormberg recalled times at home when “there weren’t enough hours in a row to get a load of laundry washed, dried and folded….I cancelled going places, and seeing friends. I cancelled eating dinner with my family.”

For O’Neill, who lived in hotels during the first three months of the pandemic, “the hardest part was the time that has been spent away from my family,” missing his young daughter’s new vocabulary and sense of humor. “FaceTime calls aren’t the same as a hug or kiss.”

And the pleas for overtime shifts are constant, he said. “You’ll be working a 12-hour shift, and be asked to stay over for another four hours. On a daily basis, we’ll get at least one text message saying the unit is short-staffed, asking ‘can I come in to work overtime?’ ”

“Nurses can’t even relax on their day off, because they keep getting these texts,” said Stormberg.

Stanford warns that the strike will be unsettling for patients and highly divisive to its care teams. “The impact can be deep and long lasting and should not be taken lightly,” it cautioned.

But it could fundamentally change the standing of many veteran workers, said Spetz.

“This is really an opportunity to draw attention to the fact that nursing is a highly respected profession that requires a lot of skill and knowledge to do it well,” she said. “And often it is overlooked.”

2 homeless camps removed ahead of President Biden's Seattle visit

2022/4/23 
© The Seattle Times

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks on Earth Day at Seward Park in Seattle on April 22, 2022. -

 MANDEL NGAN/Getty Images North America/TNS

SEATTLE — The city of Seattle cleared two homeless encampments within a few blocks of the Westin Seattle this week in anticipation of President Joe Biden's visit.

Biden visited Seattle on Earth Day, in part to sign an executive order at Seward Park aimed at protecting old-growth forests from the ravages of wildfires. He also touched on ever-rising health care and prescription drug costs as a driver of booming inflation in a speech at Green River College in Auburn.

His visit caused traffic snarls around the county and large gatherings of people who wanted to see or protest the president.

It also spurred Mayor Bruce Harrell to remove about 15 people from the two downtown encampments where they had been living, according to Jamie Housen, spokesperson for the mayor's office.

Housen said that the people living there were to leave so that the city could close the streets and limit access to sidewalks to ensure the safety of the president. The mayor's office said that staff were unaware of Biden's exact travel routes and timing.

Seattle Parks and Recreation staff gave two days' notice that any remaining belongings must be removed by Thursday.

Housen said that nine tents and shelter structures were removed from Virginia Street to Olive Way between Sixth and Fifth avenues. Three people staying there left on their own and four others were referred to shelter by the city's encampment outreach team.

Four tents were removed between Lenora and Virginia streets, from Fifth Avenue to Fourth Avenue. Four people there left voluntarily and two others were referred to shelters.

Several other encampments were also cleared this week, including one at Thorndyke Park. Housen said those were unrelated to Biden's visit.

However, the reduced visibility of one of the region's top issues rubbed some the wrong way.

Executive director of the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness Alison Eisinger denounced the city's decision to remove the camps.

She said the city needs a "better planned" and "genuinely helpful" approach to addressing encampments, and criticized Harrell's approach. She said that residents of camps should be given more forewarning that the city plans to make them move, and that it disrupts homeless people's ability to stay connected to social services.

"Attempting to justify these harmful actions because of a presidential visit is shameful," Eisinger said.

Oh, the irony: Boris Johnson slams ‘misogynistic abuse’ of Angela Rayner

Boris Johnson condemned the 'misogynistic' article directed at Angela Rayner on Sunday - turning a mirror towards his own 'sexist language'.

 by Tom Head
2022-04-24 

22/04/2022. Delhi, India. Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrives 

Hyderabad House with Prime Minister Modi. 

Picture by Andrew Parsons / No 10 Downing Street

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has responded to a vile report in the Daily Mail, which claimed that Labour Deputy Leader Angela Rayner tried to distract him by ‘showing off her legs’. This playground behaviour has been slammed by BoJo, but he’s perhaps not one to talk…

Boris Johnson slams ‘misogynistic abuse’ – for a change…

In a Tweet posted on Sunday morning, Johnson felt the need to distance himself from Rayner’s political views before offering her some very basic human decency. He rejected the offending Mail on Sunday article as ‘deplorable’ and ‘misogynistic’.

“As much as I disagree with Angela Rayner on almost every political issue, I respect her as a parliamentarian and deplore the misogyny directed at her anonymously today.”Boris Johnson

Angela Rayner fights back in row with Mail on Sunday

Rayner herself has responded to the bizarre – and downright weird – claims made by The Mail. Although she thanked Johnson for his show of support, the firebrand politician still slammed the PM for ‘dragging his party into the sewer’. Ouch…

“Boris Johnson’s cheerleaders have resorted to spreading desperate, perverted smears in their doomed attempts to save his skin. It is the PM who is dragging the Conservative Party into the sewer – and the anonymous Tory MPs doing his bidding are complicit.”Angela Rayner

A brief history of misogyny staring Boris Johnson!

Meanwhile, many social media users have been keen to point out that Boris Johnson *maybe* isn’t the best person to call out the use of misogynistic language. After all, Boris is very well versed in his own use of sexist terms…

We’re talking about the same bloke who once said the best way to manage a female colleague was to “pat her on the bottom and send her on her way” – a remark that even drew condemnation from Priti Patel.

In his journalistic days, Boris was previously scathing of single mothers, and even made reference to a ‘tottymeter’ in one of his columns. His time in politics hasn’t been much better. During a 2005 election campaign, her argued that voting Tory would ‘make your wife’s breasts larger’. And it doesn’t end there…

‘Girly swots’, ‘women volleyball players glistening like wet otters‘, and ‘big girl’s blouse’ are all terms used by the Prime Minister during his career in public service. All that, without mentioning his sincere belief that misogyny shouldn’t be classed as a hate crime.

A senior UK Conservative has claimed that the House of Commons is a safe place to be a woman despite more than 50 MPs being subject to sexual misconduct allegations.'

Row over claims Angela Rayner distracted Boris Johnson by “crossing and uncrossing her legs”

Angela Rayner has accused Tory MPs of using anonymous briefings to spread “desperate, perverted smears” about her by claiming she has sought to distract the Prime Minister provocatively in the Commons.

By The Newsroom

Sunday, 24th April 2022,

Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner who has accused Tory MPs of using anonymous briefings to spread "desperate, perverted smears" about her by claiming she has sought to distract the Prime Minister provocatively in the Commons. Boris Johnson, in a show of support for the deputy Labour leader, said he "deplored the misogyny directed at her anonymously"

Boris Johnson, in a show of support for the deputy Labour leader, said he “deplored the misogyny directed at her anonymously”.

The Mail On Sunday (MoS) reported that Conservatives had claimed Ms Rayner enjoyed attempting to put Mr Johnson “off his stride” during Prime Minister’s Questions by “crossing and uncrossing her legs”.

Ms Rayner often sits next to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and opposite the Prime Minister during the weekly Commons clashes.

In a series of tweets, Ms Rayner lashed out at the “lies” being briefed about her.

The Ashton-under-Lyne MP said: “Boris Johnson’s cheerleaders have resorted to spreading desperate, perverted smears in their doomed attempts to save his skin.

“They know exactly what they are doing. The lies they are telling.”

She said Mr Johnson and his backers “clearly have a big problem with women in public life” and that they “should be ashamed of themselves”.

“I won’t be letting their vile lies deter me. Their attempts to harass and intimidate me will fail,” Ms Rayner added.

Sir Keir said the sexism displayed by those briefing the Sunday paper was a “disgraceful new low from a party mired in scandal and chaos”.

Tulip Siddiq, the shadow economic secretary to the Treasury, said the accusations were “disgraceful”.

The Labour politician told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday: “At the end of the day, Angela Rayner is an MP who was elected on merit.

“To talk about the fact she is using her legs or her posture to manipulate the Prime Minister is ridiculous and I’m really upset about it.”

One Tory MP is said to have told the MoS: “She (Ms Rayner) knows she can’t compete with Boris’s Oxford Union debating training, but she has other skills which he lacks.

“She has admitted as much when enjoying drinks with us on the (Commons) terrace.”

Mr Johnson tweeted: “As much as I disagree with Angela Rayner on almost every political issue, I respect her as a parliamentarian and deplore the misogyny directed at her anonymously today.”

Ms Rayner thanked the Conservative Party leader for standing up for her.

When asked on Sophy Ridge about the coverage, Tory chairman Oliver Dowden said he did not recognise the claims attributed to his party’s MPs.

Former Commons leader Andrea Leadsom said she agreed with Ms Rayner’s assessment that she had been targeted for being a woman.

“Really sorry Angela. Totally unacceptable comments,” the Tory MP tweeted.