Saturday, February 12, 2022


Honduran supreme court orders release of six anti-mining protesters

Nina Lakhani - The Guardian


The Honduran supreme court has ordered the release of six anti-mining protesters, ruling that they should never have been put on trial.

The environmentalists, who have been held on remand for two and half years for trying to protect a river in a national park, faced up to 14 years in prison after being convicted on Wednesday of criminal damage and illegal detention. Two others were absolved of the same charges.

Wednesday’s verdict, which cemented Honduras’ ranking as the most dangerous country in the world for environmentalists and land rights defenders, was condemned as “appalling” by the UN special rapporteur for human rights defenders.

Amnesty International described the verdict as “outrageous” and said the Guapinol activists were prisoners of conscience.

Related: UN rapporteur ‘appalled’ by convictions for Honduran environmentalists who opposed open-pit mine

But in a dramatic move, the supreme court accepted an appeal filed months earlier that challenged the constitutionality of the charges and the refusal to grant bail.

The court found that the case should never have gone to trial because the judge who sanctioned the indictment against the defenders – and later ordered pre-trial detention – was not authorised to do so. The charges must be annulled and the men freed, as the judge violated due process by presiding on cases outside her jurisdiction.

The eight men, from a poor, semi-rural community called Guapinol, have been held in an overcrowded prison throughout the pandemic as a result of bail being denied – yet the conditions requiring pre-trial detention were never met, according to Thursday’s supreme-court decision.

“The rulings confirm that the case should never have proceeded and that the pre-trial detention was illegal,” said defence lawyer Edy Tabora. “The Guapinol defenders were arbitrarily detained.”

The case stems from a huge open-pit mine in Tocoa, owned by one of the country’s most powerful couples, which was sanctioned inside a protected national park without community consultation in a process mired by irregularities, according to international experts.

The Guapinol community set-up a peaceful protest camp after the mine polluted rivers relied upon by thousands of people. Security forces violently evicted the encampment and dozens of arrest warrants were issued against the protesters.

International legal and human rights experts widely condemned the criminalization of the activists and the subsequent militarization of the community, which has forced several people to flee and seek asylum in the US.

After a trial mired my delays, irregularities and accusations of judicial bias and falsified evidence, the criminal court ruled on Wednesday that José Márquez, Kelvin Romero Martínez, José Abelino Cedillo, Porfirio Sorto Cedillo, Orbín Nahúm Hernández, and Ewer Alexander Cedillo Cruz were guilty of criminal damage of the mining company’s property and illegal detention of its private security chief.

Arnold Alemán and Jeremías Martínez were absolved of the same charges and allowed to return home.

As a result of the supreme court rulings, defence lawyers will today petition the court to immediately release the six imprisoned men.

Juana Zuniga, partner of Jose Albino Cedillo was among the six found guilty, said: “We the families are in shock, but full of joy. We hope that our companions will be freed as soon as possible and allowed to return home as the defenders that they are and have always been.

“Our struggle will continue until the national park is free from mining and environmental destruction.”


Mexico on track for one of deadliest years for media

AFP - Yesterday 


Mexico is on course for one of its deadliest years yet for the press, with five journalists murdered already in 2022, prompting calls for authorities to end a culture of impunity.

Reporters in the Latin American country are killed "because it's cheap," Juan Vazquez, spokesman for media rights group Article 19, told AFP.

"Those who run the greatest risk are the journalists with their pen, computer, recorder or microphone. In the end those who run the least risk are those who pull the trigger," he said.


© PEDRO PARDOA man holds a sign reading
 "Do Not Shoot. The Truth Does Not Kill" 
at a protest against the murders of journalists outside
 the interior ministry in Mexico City

The latest victim was Heber Lopez Vazquez, the 39-year-old manager of news website Noticias Web in the southern state of Oaxaca who was shot dead on Thursday.

Two suspects were arrested as they tried to flee the scene of the crime, according to prosecutors.

Lopez had previously received threats that he believed were linked to allegations of corruption against a local mayor, said Balbina Flores, representative for media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).


© Guillermo AriasA protester holds a candle with a photo of
 Lourdes Maldonado, one of five journalists murdered already in 2022 in Mexico

Even so, he was not part of a government program providing protection for around 500 journalists.

His murder puts Mexico on course to surpass the toll of seven journalists killed in 2021.

"The first six weeks of 2022 have been the deadliest for the Mexican press in over a decade," said Jan-Albert Hootsen, representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The media rights group said it "urges Mexican authorities to immediately and transparently investigate all murders and bring the perpetrators to justice."

Mexican authorities said Wednesday that three men had been arrested over the murder of journalist Lourdes Maldonado last month in Tijuana.

Her death came in the wake of the shooting of photographer Margarito Martinez in the same northwestern border city.

Roberto Toledo, who worked with a news site in the central state of Michoacan, as well as Jose Luis Gamboa, a journalist and social media activist in eastern Veracruz state, were also killed in January.

- 'Zero impunity'

Around 150 journalists have been murdered since 2000 in Mexico, and only a fraction of the crimes have resulted in convictions, according to RSF.

Around 100 of them were killed under presidents Felipe Calderon (2006-2012) and Enrique Pena Nieto (2012-2018), whose terms were marked by a bloody war on drug trafficking.

Another 29 murders have been registered since President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office in 2018 championing a "hugs not bullets" strategy to tackle violent crime at its roots by fighting poverty and inequality.

"This six-year term (of Lopez Obrador) will be classified as one of the bloodiest" for the press, Flores predicted.

Mexico's president on Friday promised "zero impunity" for the latest murder.

His critics argue that his outspoken attacks against a media that he calls "mercenary" and accuses of serving the interests of his opponents only add to the difficulties facing journalists.

The fact that more than 90 percent of the murders of media workers go unpunished in Mexico is a major driver of the violence, according to activists.

If the authorities had taken tougher action to prevent such crimes, relatives would not be burying more victims, said Vazquez.

Mexico was failing to comply with its obligations in terms of protection and prevention of deadly attacks against journalists, he said.

This country of 126 million people plagued by drug cartel-related violence, ranks 143rd out of 180 nations in RSF's World Press Freedom Index.

Most of the crimes against Mexican media involve small outlets whose journalists are "very vulnerable" and sometimes unaware of the protection mechanisms available to them, Flores said.

Given the poor pay this kind of work offers, they often combine journalism with other jobs.

This means authorities can sometimes be quick to separate the crimes from the victims' media activities and not to investigate them as violations of press freedom.

Journalism is a "very precarious" way of eking out a living in Mexico, said Flores.

jla-axm-dr/mdl/dw
Push for global treaty to cut ocean plastic pollution

Pamela Falk - Yesterday 

© Rich Carey/Shutterstock.comocean-pollutioncropped620x350.jpg

United Nations – The United Nations, the U.S. and France have set their sights on forging an ambitious U.N. treaty to reduce the amount of plastic pollution in the world's oceans. They're hoping to get other nations to sign onto a deal modeled on the 2015 Paris climate pact.

"Plastic waste is choking the seas," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a video message delivered Friday to a global summit in France on the state of the world's oceans.

National delegations will start negotiating to establish staffing and the agenda for a plastics treaty at the U.N.'s Environment Assembly in Nairobi from February 28-March 2, but the U.S. and France lost no time, announcing on Friday at the three-day "One Oceans Summit" in Brest, on France's coast, their intention to cut plastic pollution.

More than 57 million pounds of pandemic waste polluting oceans

"With rising waters, coastal landfills are threatening to release their waste into the sea," French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday.

The White House said in a statement the two nations "are committed to protecting our environment for future generations," announcing negotiations with France to promote a "global agreement to address the full lifecycle of plastics."

"The agreement should include binding and non-binding commitments, call on countries to develop and implement ambitious national action plans, and foster robust engagement of stakeholders to contribute toward the agreement's objectives while complementing national government contributions," the White House said.

Other aspects of ocean protection were being discussed at the One Oceans Summit, as well as at other upcoming conferences. The U.N. will meet June 27-July 1 in Lisbon, Portugal, and coral reefs will be the focus of the "Our Ocean" conference, sponsored by the U.S. and the Republic of Palau from April 13-14.

"The 'One Ocean Summit' in France is the first in a series of ocean action meetings in 2022 that we hope will stop the decline in the ocean's health this year … urgent action is required," Peter Thomson, U.N. Secretary General's Special Envoy for the Ocean, told CBS News.

The flurry of meetings on the human impact on the oceans is a result of the increasingly apparent urgency of the problem, and because the coronavirus pandemic has largely curbed international gatherings for the past two years.

Experts from the U.S. say that at least 8 million metric tons of plastic waste enters the world's oceans each year — the equivalent of dumping a garbage truck of plastic waste into the ocean every minute, according to the report published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in December.

The National Academies report said that as far back as 2016, "the U.S. generated more plastic waste than any other country, exceeding that of all European Union member states combined."

The U.N. plan is to try to negotiate a plastics treaty in just two years, which would be record speed for any global accord, according to Inger Anderson, the executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme.

The U.N.'s estimate is even higher than the U.S.'s numbers: "We currently dump 11 million metric tons of plastic into the ocean each year, and this figure is projected to double by 2030 and nearly triple by 2040."

"Even people that don't live near a coast, they have seen pictures of sea turtles with plastic choking him… they've seen examples of the plastics that are in necks of seabirds," Susan Gardner, director of UNEP's Ecosystem Division, told CBS News.

"People really understand that when you see plastic on the beach of a remote desert island coming from far away, that we're all contributing to that problem."

The European Union's Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries said at a U.N. press conference last week COVID-19 had stalled talks needed to clean up the oceans. "This year must be the year of the oceans," said Virginijus Sinkevičius. "This year must be the year of biodiversity… it is essential to get plastics under control and the only way to do it is globally."


Bolsonaro allies allegedly pushing fake news effort, Brazil police document says

BRASILIA (Reuters) - A group of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's allies allegedly is coordinating a disinformation campaign and targeting of his political rivals ahead of the Oct. 2 presidential election, according to a public extract from a federal police probe.

The partial report, which became publicly accessible after it was sent to the Supreme Court on Thursday, is from the so-called "Digital Militias" investigation led by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, a crusading justice who has headed previous high-profile probes into Bolsonaro and his supporters.

Moraes, accused by Bolsonaro of favoring leftist front-runner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in this year's presidential election, is probing what lead police investigator Denisse Ribeiro has described as a "cabinet of hate" comprised of supporters of the far-right populist who are allegedly flooding social media with fake news and trashing Bolsonaro's enemies.

Ribeiro said in the partial report that there is evidence to suggest an "orchestrated action" to identify targets, and create and spread disinformation for "ideological, party-political and financial gains."

The partial report has not yet named any of the people allegedly engaged in the fake news effort. Bolsonaro's office did not respond to a request for comment.

The report is likely to worsen relations between Bolsonaro and the Supreme Court, and stoke growing institutional tensions ahead of a vote in which the incumbent faces an uphill re-election battle.

Moraes has become a key Bolsonaro antagonist and a lightning rod for the president's supporters.

In December, the justice ordered that a probe be opened after Bolsonaro said during a live broadcast on multiple social media platforms that COVID-19 vaccines might raise the chance of contracting AIDS.

Bolsonaro, however, faces little jeopardy from the probes while in office, experts say. Earlier this month, the federal police said the president committed a crime by revealing details about a sealed criminal probe, but chose not to recommend he be charged due to his immunity while in office. Bolsonaro's office did not respond to a request for comment when contacted earlier this month about the matter.

(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; Writing by Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Paul Simao)

Indonesia to urge G20 to establish global health fund



JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia will urge the Group of 20 leading economies to establish a global body that can dispense emergency funds during a health crisis, functioning in a similar way to international financial institutions, its health minister said on Friday.

Under the current system, countries are "basically on their own" if they need emergency funds, vaccines, therapeutics or diagnostics, and as G20 president this year, Indonesia will seek to change that, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin told a news conference.

"There is no global health institution that has enough power or money to jump in and help, you are basically on your own," he said.

The idea adds to a proposal by Indonesia and the United States last year to create an international pandemic response system.

Budi likened the health fund proposal to the creation of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) following the Bretton Woods conference of 1944.

His remarks come a day after the World Health Organization (WHO) and other aid groups said a global health initiative to make COVID-19 vaccines and testing available to poorer countries had received just 5% of targeted donations for this year's aims.

Indonesia President Joko Widodo on Thursday urged support for that initiative from developed countries, saying all nations needed equal chance to prepare themselves for future pandemics.

Budi, a former banker, said he doubted the WHO would be up to the task of managing a global health fund of the scale Indonesia was proposing.

"Whether the WHO is equipped to raise a trillion USD like the IMF, to be honest, (after) 30 years in finance, I don't think so," he said. "The WHO is not built to do this job."

Indonesia's WHO chapter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Budi said organisations like the Global Fund, an international financing organisation, or GAVI, the global Vaccine Alliance, might be better suited.

Indonesia would also push for a global genomic data sharing platform, harmonised global health protocols and a global manufacturing and research hub, especially for developing countries, he added.

(Reporting by Stanley Widianto in Jakarta and Kate Lamb in Sydney; Editing by Martin Petty)

BRIT BYKE
This Stunning 1936 Brough Superior SS80 
Is Looking For A New Home

Enrico Punsalang - Yesterday 
 RideApart.com

A legendary machine from the early days of motorcycling.

If you wanted to standout in any outlandish way, shape, or form in the thirties, being into motorcycles—fast ones, at that—was a surefire way to do so. Back then, a certain motorcycle company called Brough Superior, pronounced the same way you'd say "rough" was considered the Rolls Royce of two-wheels. It had a certain model which went down in history as one of the most iconic bikes of all time: the SS80.



The SS80 was, quite possibly, the very first iteration of a Super Sport bike to ever exist. Although it looks nothing like what we would consider as supersports of today, the SS80 was all about performance when it was first introduced. The SS80 model was created shortly after George Brough founded Brough Superior in 1920. Brough's promise that it could achieve 80 miles per hour—super fast for the time—was the basis for the SS80's model name. The SS80 established the main features of all Brough Superior models to come, as it wasbuilt to a standard that put it way beyond the reach of most motorcycle enthusiasts of the time.



The SS80's engine was updated by Brough Superior in 1935. From that year forward, models were equipped with a 982cc Matchless V-twin engine, which was similar to the one used in the Matchless Model X, but with key modifications. A total of 1,086 SS80s were produced before the onset of World War II in 1939. Only 460 Matchless V-twin models were produced, making them a rare breed.



This stunning 1936 model was delivered new to Hooleys Garage in Nottingham. A copy of the Works Record Card confirms that it's a correct numbers machine. Since 1982, the bike has only had two registered owners and has spent the last few years dry-stored in a private collection. As a result, the bike will require some servicing and maintenance before it can be used on the road again. The seller claims that the engine has good compression and that the bike is in excellent condition, as evidenced by the photos.

The auction is set to take place on Saturday, February 12, 2022. Interested bidders can register via the Silverstone Auctions official website linked below. Bidding can be done live on site, online, over the phone, or via commission.

Republican state senator joins Democrats to block ban on transgender youth health care

Natalie Prieb - Yesterday 
The Hill


A Republican state senator in Arizona broke with his party over legislation that would have banned gender-affirming treatment for transgender and nonbinary minors.

State Sen. Tyler Pace (R) on Wednesday voted with three Democrats, which split the vote among the state's Health and Human Services Committee 4-4, effectively axing the legislation.

"The testimonies we heard today about the many people who are using these avenues of medical treatments to save lives, to improve lives, I don't want my vote to stop those great things," Pace said during the committee hearing.


Lizette Trujillo testified in front of state lawmakers about SB 1138 in defense of her teenage transgender son and told NBC News that although she was "very surprised" that Pace chose to vote with Democrats, she views his decision as one that was made as a result of hearing the stories of transgender youth.

"When you meet our kids and you see them and you meet our community, a lot of those biases that people carry are dispelled, because we're just families trying to do the right thing," Trujillo said. "I think that Senator Pace saw that in that moment."

Republican state lawmakers have introduced more than 160 bills this year that would negatively impact the LGBTQ community, 92 of which target transgender people, according to NBC. Arizona state lawmakers have introduced the most anti-LGBTQ bills of any state, at 15 pieces of legislation.

Arkansas and Tennessee also enacted bills that restricted gender-affirming care into last year. However, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Arkansas legislation in July following a challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Arizona lawmakers will hear oral arguments Monday on a bill that would criminalize transgender people using bathrooms that match their gender identity, NBC reported. On Wednesday, the state's House Judiciary Committee will examine a similar bill to SB 1138 that would restrict gender-affirming treatment among transgender youth.
Deaf musicians part of Super Bowl halftime show for 1st time

The Super Bowl will include a spectacular halftime show, as usual, with some of the biggest names in hip-hop entertaining the masses while championship-contending teams take a break.

And for the first time, two of the performers are deaf.

Dr. Dre added deaf stars Warren “Wawa” Snipe and Sean Forbes to Sunday's lineup that also includes Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar

Wawa and Forbes will use their hands, body and facial expressions to deliver unique renditions of the songs in American Sign Language as the superstars sing on stage in an inclusive and accessible show.

“The opportunity to be here at the Super Bowl is just unreal," Forbes said from Los Angeles in an interview with The Associated Press this week. “I never in a million years dream of, imagined, ever being here. As a performer, this is about as high as it gets. It’s the biggest stage in the world.

“To be here, to represent the deaf community, and to really put ASL on the map."

Deaf culture and ASL have increasingly become mainstream, showing that men and woman who have hearing loss can let their talent shine if provided with opportunities. Earlier this week, two films with deaf actors earned Oscar nominations.

“CODA," a drama that follows the child of deaf adults, is nominated for best picture and best adapted screenplay. Troy Kotsur became the second deaf actor nominated for an Oscar, joining co-star Marlee Matlin, who won best actress for her performance in the 1987 film “Children of a Lesser God.”

“Audible," a documentary short focused on a football team at the Maryland School for the Deaf, also earned a nomination.

“The 21st century, we’re starting to be seen," Snipe told the AP through an interpreter. “Many doors are opening throughout our community. Many people are seeing what our talented deaf people can do as actors, musicians, producers, directors, writers, artists in general.

“We are here and we are ready. We’ve been here and we've been knocking on that door for a long, long time, trying to gain this access."

Snipe is making a return engagement to the NFL's annual showcase. He signed the national anthem and “America the Beautiful," before last year's game alongside Jazmine Sullivan and Eric Church.

“It’s different and it’s historic,” said the 51-year-old Snipe, who is from Virginia. “This has never happened before, where deaf people actually sign. Now is the time. I hope that this is a door open and it continues to be open for the halftime show from this point. We need that.”

Matlin has also been a part of three Super Bowl pregame performances. The National Association of the Deaf began working with the NFL in 2010 to connect the league with deaf artists to perform the anthem in ASL.

“The mission of the NAD is to advance equal access and equality of deaf people, and there’s no bigger way to elevate visibility of ASL as an art form and to showcase the talents of deaf artists than the Super Bowl," NAD CEO Howard A. Rosenblum told the AP Thursday night.

Actress Sandra Mae Frank will perform the national anthem and “America the Beautiful” in ASL as country star Mickey Guyton and R&B hitmaker Jhené Aiko sing before the Los Angeles Rams face the Cincinnati Bengals.

Members of the California School for the Deaf football team, as honorary captains, will be at midfield for the coin toss.

“It's all about us continuing to be more inclusive and providing more opportunities for everyone," NFL spokeswoman Jordyn White said. “It's all about celebrating people for their differences, and coming together for the things we love. Inclusion is a priority for the league, and we hope the fans get to see that, especially at halftime and pregame."

While closed captioning has been available for decades, the text on the screen in English does not truly provide access to the deaf community that uses ASL as its first language.

“The captions are often delayed, they're often not on time and they miss a lot of words," said the 40-year-old Forbes, who is from Michigan. “To see this performance in ASL, it’s not just an interpretation. It's a full-blown performance."

NBC's broadcast is expected to show glimpses of the Snipe and Forbes, whose entire performance will be available on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app.

“It's time," Forbes said. “The deaf community has worked so hard. ASL is such a beautiful and rich language. I’ve been in this business for 16 years, and to see like how we've come with all of this, it has just been incredible."

___

Lage, whose parents and nephews are deaf, is a Michigan-based sports writer.

___

Follow Larry Lage at https://twitter.com/larrylage

___

More AP Entertainment: https://apnews.com/hub/arts-and-entertainment

Larry Lage, The Associated Press


ITS A CLASS FOR ADULTS

A look inside Mississippi's only critical race theory class and an unlikely ally

By Giselle Rhoden, Nick Valencia and Jade Gordon, 
CNN
 - Yesterday

Three weeks ago, Brittany Murphree enrolled in Law 743, a unique class for the University of Mississippi. Despite the skepticism from fellow Republican friends and family, the second-year law student wanted to take the class "to see what it's all about."

"Honestly, I love it," Murphree told CNN. She feels very respected as a White, Republican student in a class on critical race theory, the first of which to be taught in the state of Mississippi.

Critical race theory (CRT) has become a political and social lightning rod with several states banning the concept in the last year. Educators insist that CRT is generally not included in grade school curriculum. The concept is usually taught in graduate-level courses like the one Murphree enrolled in this semester.

Yvette Butler, the professor of Law 743, said CRT was born from the legal academy in the 1980s to analyze and understand why racial inequality still exists despite the aftermath of the civil rights movement.

It acknowledges that racism is both systemic and institutional in American society and that White people have historically held racial power.

Murphree said many Republicans believe CRT is inherently designed to make White people the enemy, but she said she is learning the opposite. She said the class opened her eyes to new perspectives from a theoretical lens.

"We basically study different theories analyzing race and the law and how it applies to our country," she said. "I thought the whole class would be like criticizing White people, but we didn't really even mention White people."

'Another way of looking at the world'

Butler wants others to know her course is simply another class on theoretical framework. It's not meant to shame White people for the discrimination their ancestors may have inflicted on a marginalized group.

"The point isn't to focus on shame and the past," she said. "The point is to say, 'OK, all we want to do is reckon with how the law has been used to perpetuate inequality and how can we get creative about fixing that.'"

Law 743 is designed to give "a full picture of what racial inequality looks like," specifically from a law perspective, Butler said, and to have students think critically.

Her students learn about racial issues beyond just Black and White. Butler emphasizes how important it is for her law students to have access to all aspects of thought from a variety of viewpoints. Analyzing how the justice system has dealt with different marginalized groups is what her class intends to do, she said.


© CNN
Professor Yvette Butler teaches critical race theory at the University of Mississippi.

In the class, Butler often applies CRT to current events, such as the racial reckoning in the summer of 2020.

Those moments of racial injustice are the same events that Butler said furthered the backlash against CRT.


© CNN
University of Mississippi Law School Student Brittany Murphree

Last month, the Mississippi Senate passed Senate Bill 2113, a legislation banning CRT in K-12 schools. After many Black lawmakers walked out of the chamber, the bill passed 32-2 and is on its way to the House.

Mississippi State Sen. Republican Chris McDaniel -- who co-authored the bill -- said CRT promotes "victimhood" instead of student success.

"Here in Mississippi, we were thinking about a way that our children, particularly in K-12, were taught not to be victims but instead to be successful. We're trying to teach upward mobility and prosperity and empowering the individual," he said.

McDaniel wants students to be taught they are capable of anything, rather than be told racism does not allow for achievement. The senator also said the bill is an act that fights against racial inequality. Senate Bill 2113 bans the teaching of a superior and inferior race, gender, sex or ethnic group.

He said he still encourages schools to teach about the history of racism and discrimination in the United States.

"We're not trying to move away from the past or move away from those sins," he said, but "teaching that the sins of our past scar our entire future -- I don't believe that. I think that we're all capable of achieving anything despite our past."

History and other objective courses -- like mathematics -- are more important in the classroom in comparison to theoretical perspectives such as CRT, McDaniel said.

"Taxpayer dollars" and limited hours of teaching prioritize what needs to be taught to children, he told CNN.

Changing misconceptions


Professor Butler said CRT promotes a thorough education for students.

"In K-12, it wouldn't be an accurate representation of the world, cutting out key pieces of history from reconstruction to the civil rights movement or other places where people of color have been instrumental," she said.

She hopes that CRT can be used as an opportunity to expand student knowledge in pursuit of higher education. For now, Butler continues to teach Law 743 with that hope in mind.

Murphree said using what she has learned from this class will be crucial to opening a dialogue with other members of the Republican Party. CRT has been politicized by both parties, thus perpetuating vastly different views on the theory's implications.

As a Republican student studying CRT, Murphree wants to address the implicit biases and misunderstandings of systemic racism expressed by her party.

"I'm still Republican, like I honestly feel more enthused about being Republican," she said. "I really do believe that there are some things that go beyond party lines...I think that I wanna set an example to my party and be like 'we can still be Republican and think this class is OK.'"


© WLBT
Last month, Black lawmakers walk out as Mississippi Senate passes legislation described as a critical race theory bill.


© CNN
State Sen. Chris McDaniel said critical race theory promotes "victimhood" instead of student success.
HISTORY: SINDH BEFORE THE ARABS ARRIVED

Dr Muhammad Ali Shaikh
Published February 6, 2022
The ruins of Alor, once a capital of the Buddhist kingdom; 
| Photos courtesy the writer

There are many facets of Sindh’s history that are shrouded in mystery. One such aspect is the era before the advent of Arab rule in 711, when the region was under Buddhist and Brahmin rule.

The limited scholarship that has been carried out on the subject portrays Sindh as a highly developed and prosperous society back then. Dutch scholar J. E. van Lohuizen-De Leeuw, in her 1981 essay ‘The Pre-Muslim Antiquities of Sind’, from the book Sind Through the Centuries, states: “Sind [sic] appears to have been a rich country in those days, materially rich due to its flourishing trade and culturally rich on account of its diversified religious patterns.”

An effort has been made here to draw a picture of Sindh during the interesting times of the 7th and early 8th century CE when, in a span of just 60 years, Sindh went through three great dynastic transitions, from Buddhist to Brahmin rule and then the Muslim conquest.

The Buddhist Rai Dynasty

The dawn of the seventh century saw the Buddhist Rai dynasty ruling Sindh for several generations. The region’s peace was stirred in 626 CE during the rule of Rai Seharas, when, “All of a sudden, an army of the king of Nimruz invaded his [Seharas’] country, entering Makran,” reads The Chachnama, the oldest multi-genre chronicle on the era. It was translated into English from Farsi by Mirza Kaleech Beg in 1900, under the title The Chachnama: An Ancient History of Sind.

Though Sindh’s army repulsed the attack, it lost its king in the battle. He was succeeded by his son Sahasi II, who ruled Sindh from 626 to 652 CE, according to Dr N.A. Baloch in his article ‘The Historical Sind Era’, published in Sind Through the Centuries.

What was Sindh like before the advent of Islam in the region in 711 CE? Who were the Buddhist and Brahmin dynasties that ruled in the 7th century, before they were displaced by the Arabs? Dr Muhammad Ali Shaikh attempts to piece together a picture from the existing historical sources

It was around 642 CE when a Chinese pilgrim, Hsuan Tsang, visited Sindh and “found innumerable stupas” and “several hundred Sangharama occupied by about ten thousand monks,” states British historian John Keay in India: A History. Although Buddhism was the most dominant religion in Sindh, Hinduism had a presence too, with about “thirty Hindu temples.”

Speaking about people, the Chinese pilgrim observed that they “as whole were hardy and impulsive and their kingdom ... was famed for its cereal production, its livestock and its export of salt,” Keay quotes him.

The Earliest Portrait of a ‘Sindhi’


One of the most important relics from the Buddhist era was discovered from among the remains of a stupa near Mirpurkhas. About 18 centuries old, it is a plaque containing a man’s portrait, which most of the scholars believe was either that of the builder or donor of the temple. Thus, it is held by H.T. Lambrick, in his 1973 book Sindh Before the Muslim Conquest, as “the earliest known portrait of an individual inhabitant of Sindh: perhaps a prominent merchant of the second or third century AD [CE].”

Describing the portrait, Lambrick states: “The figure wears a waist cloth, a necklace and an elaborate headdress which may have been a wig. It was painted; the complexion was wheat-coloured, with black eyes, eyebrows and moustache. One hand holds a small lotus flower, the other is placed carefully on a fold of waistcloth, which we may suppose did duty as a purse.”

The Brahmin ‘Soft Coup’


During the closing years of Buddhist king Sahasi II’s 28-year-long rule, most of the affairs of state were entrusted to his most loyal Brahmin minister Chach. Chach originally came from a humble background, but earned the admiration and confidence of the king on account of his sheer merit, talent and hard work.

“Having the entire support and confidence of the king, his [Chach’s] personal authority over Sindh and its dependencies was absolute,” notes Lambrick.

Another person that enjoyed the confidence of the king was his young queen, Suhandi. “Sahasi [was] entirely under influence of his wife, who was evidently a woman of strong mind as well as of strong passions,” observes Lambrick.

An incident brought Chach and Suhandi closer to each other. Once, Chach wanted to see the king regarding an urgent state business. The king was resting in his palace with his queen. He granted audience to Chach in the presence of the queen, who “fell desperately in love with the handsome Brahmin,” writes Lambrick. Initially, Chach resisted Suhandi’s romantic overtures, citing his religious and moral limitations, but eventually he succumbed to the queen’s persuasions.


Lambrick’s map shows kingdom of Sindh circa 642 AD 

Apart from this romantic tale, there were the hard political realities which may have compelled the two to foster an alliance. King Sahasi was childless. Suhandi feared that, after his death, the kingdom would fall to his relatives, who would not only divest her of her property, but perhaps not even spare her life. Meanwhile, Chach realised that his position would be even more precarious than hers. Hence, the two may have formed an alliance to safeguard their personal interests.

The story goes that when the king fell terminally ill, with Chach’s help, Suhandi called the ailing king’s sympathisers and close relatives from the capital of Alor to the palace. There she detained them and they were all ultimately put to death. In their stead, Suhandi and Chach appointed courtesans who pledged their loyalty to the queen. Suhandi declared Chach as the king’s vicegerent during the king’s illness. After the king’s death, Suhandi married Chach, who ascended the throne, marking the transition from Buddhist to Brahmin rule in the region.

Though Alor had already been pacified, Chach’s assumption of power invoked rebellions from governors and attacks from neighbours. In these circumstances, Chach “had to prove his right to rule, and this took him two or three years,” writes Lambrick. During the process, “he won the capital and the metropolitan region by a mixture of force, fraud and the influence of his former master’s widow.”

Proto Pakistan?


The kingdom of Sindh during the 7th century AD, as shown in the map, comprised most of the Indus Valley, excluding its northern reaches. After ascending the throne, as Chach fought wars, he invented a novel way of demarcating his kingdom’s borders, by planting trees suitable to those environs.

“In the north, we learn, he [Chach] reached ‘Kashmir,’” observes Keay, based on the account given in The Chachnama. “Even if this meant not the Kashmir valley but Kashmir territory, which then extended down to the plains of the Punjab, he must have entered the Himalayan foothills, for he marked his frontier by planting a chinar, or plane tree, and a deodar, or Himalayan cedar; both native to the hills.”

“Heading west, he laid claim to Makran, the coastal region of Baluchistan [sic], where he planted date palms,” Keay continues. It was against this backdrop that “Chach’s kingdom lacked only the erstwhile Gandhara in the north-west to qualify as a proto-Pakistan,” Keay writes.

Internally, the kingdom was divided into four provinces ruled by governors, in addition to the central territory directly ruled by the monarch. The territories of two provinces comprised present-day Sindh, while the other two comprised what is now Punjab. The Sindh provinces were Brahminabad, which covered “central Sindh eastward of the Indus together with the whole of lower Sindh and possibly Cutch [sic],” and that of Sehwan (Siwistan) included “the modern districts of Larkana and Dadu, and possibly Las Bela,” notes Lambrick.

Among the Punjab provinces, the Askaland “corresponded broadly with Bahawalpur state and part of adjoining Punjab districts, and the Multan province would seem to have run up at least as far as the Salt Range, as it is said to have bordered in Kashmir,” Lambrick outlines.

The important cities included the capital Alor (near Sukkur), the port-city Debal (near modern-day Karachi), Nerun (Hyderabad), Brahminabad (in present Sanghar district), Sehwan and Multan.

Chach proved to be an able administrator and ruled the country for about 40 years. It may seem strange, but the Arab chroniclers of Chachnama valued him highly, prompting Keay to observe that “for an infidel, Chach would be rated highly by Muslim rulers.”

Chach’s Succession and Raja Dahar

Chach had two sons, Daharsiah and Dahar, from Queen Suhandi, and a daughter, Bai, from another wife. On Chach’s death, initially his brother Chandar succeeded him, but finally power was transferred to his youngest son, Dahar.

Dahar too was a brave man and an able administrator who ruled for about 13 years. However, his morality stood compromised when he reportedly ‘ceremoniously’ married his half-sister to evade an astrologer’s prediction, which said that his half-sister’s husband would rule his kingdom.

This immoral act on his part sent shockwaves across the kingdom and even his elder brother took up arms against him, leading an expedition against Dahar. But he fell ill and died encamped outside Dahar’s fort.

Commenting on this, prominent Hindu scholar Dayaram Gidumal, states in the introduction to Mirza Kaleech Beg’s English translation of The Chachnama: “The king [Dahar] was undoubtedly a greater sinner. It was he who, by the advice of a credulous minister, solemnised his marriage with his own sister, to prevent the working of a prediction. The marriage was not intended to be consummated and, as a matter of fact, it was not consummated; but [the] impious ceremony nevertheless alienated from Dahar not only his brother but all the best and bravest men in the land.”

The king’s alienation from the people played a key role in the Arab victory in 711 CE over Sindh, a land which had in the past repulsed several Arab attacks. This brought an end to the Brahmin dynasty and the power was transferred to the Arabs.

A note on the sources: Three main sources on the history of this period are the accounts rendered by Chinese and Arab travellers, archaeological discoveries and three books on the subject, namely The Chachnama, the Tarikh-e-Maasumi and the Tuhfatul-Kiram. The oldest amongst them is The Chachnama and various scholars have attached varying weightage to its contents.

The writer is former Vice-Chancellor of Sindh Madressatul Islam University and has served as a faculty-fellow/ Fulbright Scholar at American University, Washington DC. He tweets @DrMAliShaikh. He can be reached at drshaikhma@gmail.com


Published in Dawn, EOS, February 6th, 2022
Whither Anglo-Saxon nonsense?

Jawed Naqvi
February 8, 2022

THERE was this gangly gentleman, the sweet Mr Saleh, Egyptian translator at the Gulf News in Dubai who incessantly amused the morning meetings headed by the editor, Aziz Siddiqui, the late Pakistani scribe of leftist politics with an impish sense of humour. Turning over the pages of Al Bayan, Ittehad, Al Khaleej etc. to scour for Arabic news that the English-speaking journalists from Britain, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and other places could find useful, Mr Saleh would almost without exception dismiss each page with a suspicious grunt: “Nonsense!”

One can imagine a similar reaction from President Putin, were he to scan the English media every morning, as he did the other day but with an added description. Responding to the UK’s accusation that Russia was plotting to replace the regime in Ukraine with a Moscow-friendly government, Mr Putin flicked off the question dismissively: “The Anglo-Saxon nonsense!”

You turn to the Chinese spokespersons and they would be scoffing at persistent Anglo-Saxon ‘plots’, one apparently currently on to disrupt the Winter Olympics in Beijing. The city is now unique in hosting both the Winter and Summer Olympics. Four miffed countries are diplomatically boycotting the Beijing show although their players are participating. Again, the churlish quartet baiting China comprises Anglo-Saxon nations — Australia, Britain, Canada and the US. What is their grouse? Human rights! One would take them seriously had they not been inflicting humanitarian catastrophes around the world. To cite just one, helping the daily dastardly bombings of a proud Yemeni people, killing, maiming, starving them callously, these sticklers for human rights.

Read more: Putin, Xi hail ‘no limits’ partnership, assail US policies

There’s a tendency one has noticed about the cultures, which Russia and China see as essentially Anglo-Saxon in nature. They love to turn a perfectly normal secular challenge to their authority into a communal, religious one. Behind all the fluff about Houthi religiosity that their media proclaim to give the conflict a religious colour, there’s the cold fact that Aden was the capital of the only Marxist government in the Arab world ever. That memory needs to be crushed.

The Anglo-Saxon powers turn a secular challenge to their authority into a communal, religious one.

Likewise, the Anglo-Saxons have led the complete destruction of a secular Iraq to produce clerical rule there. They destroyed the syncretic PLO to give the Palestinian struggle for self-determination a religious hue under Hamas. Gone are the fighting Christian Palestinians like George Habash and their supporters of other faiths, including the better-informed Jewish intellectuals. They turned a secular Libya into a religiously fractured wreck. And they raised and armed religious fanatics in Syria and Afghanistan to dismantle secular adversaries. Closer home, the Anglo-Saxon rulers used religion to divide and rule India, a ploy they had used to produce unending bad blood in Ireland. Their victims are still suffering the consequences of the perfidy.

Read more: Ahead of key polls, India's ruling BJP revives Hindu-Muslim dispute

Should their unwitting allies, say, Germany or France oppose their reckless quests, the Anglo-Saxon club could resort to cheap tricks, not least spying on them with sophisticated devices, as recently happened with Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron. So the Anglo-Saxons belong to themselves, almost like a secret society. In fact, that is what they set out to be: The Five Eyes, a club of post-war snoops, exchanging notes and sharing them with each other, exclusively. If a British citizen has to be snooped on, as they did with Charlie Chaplin in the US, they would get the other to do the job so as not to break their own rules, keeping up the pretence of human rights.

Let’s step back. It’s 1980. Moscow was planning to host the Olympics when a call went out from Margaret Thatcher and Jimmy Carter to boycott the Games. The Soviets had raided Afghanistan. And the British? Had they just recaptured the Falklands from the English Channel? And what were the Americans doing in 1980, ahead of the Lake Placid Winter Olympics they hosted? They were weighing their chances between two ‘defenders of human rights’, the Shah of Iran and the Shia clerics. The clerics sided with Ronald Reagan to extract revenge on Carter for daring to mount the ill-fated Dasht-i-Lut rescue operation to free American hostages in Tehran. What followed was the Iran-Contra arms deal with Reagan, the mascot of human rights defenders!

It was Sept 6, 1993. I was travelling to Beijing from the airport with a Chinese minder as part of Narasimha Rao’s media convoy. I asked my interlocutor whether the impressive display of flags and buntings was to welcome Rao. He said: “Sorry. This is for our Olympics campaign.” The Chinese were preparing to host the 2000 Olympics in 1993. Everyone was certain they would get it. The Chinese signed a deal with Rao apart from a landmark agreement on peace and tranquillity along their borders. They bought a bunch of buffaloes from India. The idea was to start a dairy programme, hitherto alien to Chinese culture, to welcome milk-guzzling foreign athletes. How did Sydney suddenly get that Olympic, leaving the Chinese delegates to clap politely at the decision? The Manchester votes were transferred at the last minute, in the third round of voting, to boost fellow Anglo-Saxon Australia. The world of sports was stumped. Human rights was the fronted issue to deprive Beijing of its due claim.

Did China then tweak its human rights policy to get the Olympics eventually, hosted so impressively too, to the chagrin of its detractors? There’s no answer to these questions. Now, President Macron appears to have seen through the “Anglo-Saxon nonsense” as he openly believes that Russia has a legitimate security concern in the Ukraine stand-off, and that it could be resolved peacefully. In the meantime, the US embassy is pressing its staff to leave Beijing citing rigorous anti-Covid measures, something the Chinese see as an attempt to disrupt the Winter Games. Like Mr Saleh, they too would be wondering when, if ever, the nonsense will stop.

The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.
jawednaqvi@gmail.com
Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2022
KASHMIR
ENVIRONMENT: CRACKING UNDER PRESSURE

Sajid Mir
Published February 6, 2022
Nuzhat Bibi, a walnut grower in Shahkot, Neelum Valley, packs dried walnuts |
 Photos by the writer

Marium Bibi, 50, has roots in the village of Bandi, in Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s Neelum Valley. This is where she was born, raised and got married. Now, a widow, she looks after her family of five. Cattle-keeping is the main source of livelihood for her. But, she also relies on seasonal farming. Since her childhood, she has been involved in walnut farming, like half the women in her community.

In her garden grow four walnut trees which yield the hard-shelled nut which she sells in the fall of every year. “For me, selling walnuts has remained a seasonal livelihood support, like other women in the area,” Marium says.

Bandi is one of the major walnut producing villages in the Neelum district, along with Leepa in Jhelum in Muzaffarabad Division. For generations, the superfood walnut has supported the local economy of these areas in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

Every landowner, like Marium, grows walnut trees on their land and is engaged in walnut farming. The reason is simple. Local farmers say, once a walnut tree starts giving fruit, it requires no hard work at all. It is low maintenance and the trees require no special care.

A walnut tree begins to fruit after 10 years of planting and one tree can yield anywhere from 60 kgs to 80 kgs of nuts. Moreover, walnut plantation does not require any specific prerequisites, as other vegetation practices can be carried on simultaneously in the same farming area.

Growing organic walnuts at home has been an easy seasonal income for villagers in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, especially its women. But climate change and lack of government attention are turning opportunity into a challenge

Mostly women are involved in walnut farming. Some pick the fruit from the trees themselves, dry them in their homes and sell them in the market, or they shell the nuts to be sold. Local contractors buy the nuts from the villagers or they outsource the fruit-picking as well. When the women are done with a hard day’s work, they gather in one of their homes for a chat, meanwhile shelling walnuts or sorting them to pass their evenings.

“Since I have to feed my family of five, I have to work hard during the off-season of walnuts to cover my losses. However, my seasonal earnings have also reduced from 50,000 rupees to 20,000 rupees in the last five years or so,” says Marium.

There is a general downturn in the walnut business.

Walnut farming supports families in Bandi and Leepa

The unusual phenomenon of rains over the last decade or so in Neelum and Jhelum during the fruit harvesting months of September and October has led to the quality of walnuts deteriorating. Dry fruit rates have dropped to a quarter of their price over the last 10 years, diminishing the source of earning for the farming population comprising some 30,000 families.

“With every passing year, the monsoon and post-monsoon rainfall is rising in the region, especially in the walnut districts of Neelum and Jhelum,” Khawaja Masood Iqbal, director at the Agriculture Research Department, Azad Kashmir, tells Eos. This is negatively affecting fruit productivity.

In AJK, harvesting of walnuts starts in the month of August and continues till the end of October. In the past, the dry weather during this period favoured the ripening of the walnuts, turning the walnut kernels white. In contrast, the recent heavy rainfalls during harvesting season raised humidity and that makes the kernels a substandard brown.

According to experts, another factor connected with changing weather is insect infestation and the spread of diseases on tree stems and kernels.

“We didn’t have insect infestation in walnut crops in the past,” says Zafar Jahangir, a Muzaffarabad-based agriculture scientist, “but they have become very common as they are getting a favourable environment due to changing climatic conditions. Stemborer [insects] destroy walnut tree stems while walnut weevil damages the fruit,” Jahangir tells Eos.

Damage to the crop is, of course, damage to the pocket. Profits are nosediving for farmers who are finding it a challenge to ensure kernel quality. For instance, the rate of the superior white kernels in the market is around 1,800 rupees per kg as compared to the brown- and grey-kernelled walnuts, priced at 700 rupees for the same weight.

Kashmir-produced walnuts are traded to other parts of Pakistan, mainly through Rawalpindi. “Our walnuts were exported to other countries not long ago,” Khalid Shah, a trader from Neelum, tells Eos. “However, due to the deteriorating quality of crops that are producing brown kernels, we are importing walnuts from China [for the last 8 to 10 years].” For Kashmiri traders, the arrival of Chinese walnuts in the Pakistani market has added to their problems.

According to Shah, there was strong competition for the organic Kashmiri walnuts in the market with the arrival of Chinese walnuts. The walnuts coming from China have soft shells and white kernels but locally grown walnuts are organic and are better in taste. Unfortunately, they are outnumbered by the Chinese nuts in volume.


Given these impediments in selling Kashmiri nuts, local landlords are losing interest in walnut cultivation, and that will severely hit local businesses, says Shah.

Raja Shafiq, another grower from Jhelum’s Leepa area, demands of the government to seriously look into the decline of walnut farming. “Our trees are getting sick now,” he says, “they are drying up. The government should help us get rid of the walnut tree diseases. It can play an important role in pest control, which will curb the loss to our business.”

Shafiq says, “The government’s help is our last hope. It can save the existing trees as well as enhance walnut cultivation in the Kashmir region, as it is a very low-investment plantation.”


The writer is a freelance environmental journalist based in Muzaffarabad. He tweets @sajidmir44

Published in Dawn, EOS, February 6th, 2022
PAKISTAN
Old wine in new bottles

Aqdas Afzal


RECENTLY, Pakistan’s first-ever national security policy was unfurled to much fanfare. The new policy, we are told, seeks to go beyond the guns-versus-butter trade-off model by connecting the attainment of security objectives to first enlarging the economic pie. In a sense, the national security policy en­­­d­­orses continued reliance on the Washington Con­sensus, or neoliberal policies on economic growth, so that the resulting increase in available resources can assist in strengthening security.

Not only is this idea not new, Pakistan’s reliance on neoliberal economic policies has largely failed in bringing about economic growth. Moreover, in addition to the failure to grow economically, almost all gains from stop-and-go growth have accrued to a small coterie in this country. While a sound economy is certainly important, the foundations of a secure and prosperous Pakistan can only be laid by strengthening political institutions like democracy.

The new security policy tells us that an inclusive economic growth model is the need of the hour. A cursory examination of previous vision statements released by different governments shows that this purported new focus on inclusive economic growth is not new. For instance, Pakistan 2025, a vision relea­sed in 2014, talked specifically about sustained, indi­g­­­enous and inclusive growth. As a matter of fact, Pakistan 2025 specifically traced the connection bet­w­­een per capita economic growth and defence agai­nst non-traditional threats like poverty and disease.

And, like the previous national visions in Pakistan, the new security policy borrows economic growth prescriptions out of the now defunct neoliberal playbook. The new security policy recommends standard neoliberal prescriptions of free markets, fiscal austerity, mobilising savings to increase investment, as well as finding ways to spur exports. The problem is that these neoliberal prescriptions have not worked in the past as Pakistan has not been able to see any meaningful increase in employment or exports. In a sense, Pakistan’s experience with growth has not been sustainable and instead of improving the standard of living, following neoliberal policies has only led to pernicious declines in the exchange rate thereby making everything expensive.

Following neoliberal policies has only led to pernicious declines in the exchange rate thereby making everything expensive.


The ideology of neoliberalism is the foundation of the Washington Consensus, which, in turn, encouraged IMF to impose rigorous conditions on borrower nations. One of the core precepts of neoliberalism focuses on keeping the state out of economic management. However, Covid-19 has brought the efficacy of using the state as an optimal tool for economic and social turnarounds into stark relief. Developed nations, in particular, have channelled massive support through state institutions in the wake of Covid-19. As of July 2021, total global fiscal support stood at $16 trillion.


At the same time, a very strong political challenge to the already crumbling neoliberal order is underway in South America. Chile, the veritable birth place of neoliberal policies, recently elected a leftist former student leader, thereby driving another nail in neoliberalism’s coffin. Some have argued that the sun is now finally setting on neoliberalism and the world is now moving into an era of neo-statism, where the state will play a significant and permanent role in economic and social policy for some time to come.

Given the failure of neoliberal policies in bringing about real inclusive economic growth and the advent of neo-statism necessitates a rethink with respect to the new security policy. It is clear that the state would need to play an important role in a re-examined security policy in order to provide direction and guidance towards inclusive economic growth. Moreover, a thorough, concerted and long-term programme of strengthening key state institutions needs to be undertaken. Some key state institutions besides the State Bank like the Higher Education Commission and Planning Commission will have to be given required technical resources and complete autonomy so that they can chart out an education and industrial policy for an inclusive economic transformation.

Read more: Why economists believe the SBP Act is not as bad as opposition parties perceive

A blind reliance on the state to address all issues is also problematic since states can be captured by vested interests. For this reason, where the state needs to take a driving seat in the economic and social transformation, the state must exhibit democratic hues working under and being accountable to Pakistani democracy.

In a sense, a democratic state must be placed at the centre of any new security policy in order to bring about the required social and economic transformation in Pakistan. Dani Rodrik, a leading development expert, has highlighted the institution of democracy as a ‘meta-institution’ that assists with the building of other good institutions. Rodrik cites a range of evidence to show that democracies enable high-quality growth — sustainable growth that improves living standards.

What this points out is that democracy must be the foundation or the starting point for a secure and prosperous Pakistan. For this reason, in order to improve various dimensions of the Pakistani democratic process, a new reform agenda needs to be launched so that democracy can become more representative, responsive, transparent and accountable. These reforms could entail moving from a plurality basis to a proptional representation basis. Perhaps, in order to safeguard minorities, the efficacy of quadratic voting needs to be assessed given that it allows for how strongly voters feel about particular issues. And, the feasibility of wholescale campaign finance legislation needs to be evaluated so that better leaders can be encouraged and incentivised to participate in the democratic process. Finally, it goes without saying that improving the quality of democracy will also prove salubrious for countering various ethnic and linguistic conflicts that exhibit centrifugal tendencies.

The new security policy seeks to address traditional and non-traditional threats facing Pakistan through neoliberal economic growth policies. It is old wine in a new bottle. Not only have these policies failed to deliver in the past, the world is now moving towards neo-statism where democratic states will become the engines of social and economic transformation. The journey to a secure and prosperous Pakistan must start with giving democracy the pride of place.

The writer completed his doctorate in economics on a Fulbright scholarship.

aqdas.afzal@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2022
Engage the Taliban

A.G. Noorani
Published February 12, 2022


The writer is an author and a lawyer based in Mumbai.

ANYONE who consults archival material of the sorry phase in Afghanistan’s international exertions, prior to America’s war on the hapless country, would be struck by the then Taliban’s regime’s sincere and dogged efforts for a dialogue with officials of the US State Department. Formulae for dealing with Osama bin Laden were on the cards. They were rudely, repeatedly snubbed.

There is a different situation today. But the Taliban who returned to power in 2021 have the same yearning for diplomatic recognition and dialogue with the great powers and some significant others. Once again, they are being ignored if not snubbed.

Right now, Afghanistan faces calamity on a massive scale that is unknown even to our South Asian subcontinent, used as it is to the harrowing saga of sheer destitution. Large parts of the country face virtual famine.
No words need to be wasted on insecurity of life in vast areas. The new Taliban regime would and could have been rendered amenable to persuasion if its requests for diplomatic relations were accepted. It has, of course, a lot to answer for; especially in the realm of human rights, and in particular, women’s rights. Not surprisingly the standard bearer of human rights, the United States of America has turned a Nelson’s eye on happenings in states that are rich in oil.

The last century produced a hybrid animal in the realm of diplomacy — a diplomatic agent to conduct dialogue without formal recognition as an ambassador. He was a product of the First World War.


Pre-eminent among them was Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart. He described his ambiguities and turmoil later in his book Memoirs of a British Agent. That is just what he was dubbed — agent to the Czarist, Kerensky and Bolshevik regimes. He wrote: “…[T]he Foreign Office insisted on keeping my own position as vague as possible. If in the House of Commons some irate interventionist wished to know why in the name of decency the British Government maintained an official representative with a government of cut-throats, who boasted of their determination to destroy civilisation, Mr Balfour, the Foreign Secretary or his Under-Secretary would then reply quite truthfully that we had no official representative accredited to the Bolshevik Government.

“On the other hand, when some revolutionary-minded Liberal charged the British Government with the folly of not maintaining an accredited representative in Moscow in order to protect British interests and to assist the Bolsheviks in their struggle with German militarism, Mr Balfour would reply, with the same strict regard for the truth, that in Moscow we had a representative — an official with great experience of Russia — who was charged precisely with these duties.”

His task was to engage and report to London where sheer ignorance ruled the roost. “I could not share the general belief, stimulated by the opinion of nearly all the Russian experts in London that the Lenin regime could not last more than a few weeks and that then Russia would revert to Tsarism or a military dictatorship.

“Still less could I believe that the Russian peasant would return to the trenches. Russia was out of the war, Bolshevism would last — certainly as long as the war lasted. I deprecated as sheer folly our militarist propaganda, because it took no account of the war-weariness which had raised the Bolsheviks to the supreme power. In my opinion, we had to take the Bolshevik peace proposals seriously. Our policy should now aim at achieving an anti-German peace in Russia.

“Rather futilely I sought to combat the firmly rooted conviction that Lenin and Trotsky were Ger­man staff officers in disguise or at least service age­nts of German policy. I was more successful when I argued that it was madness not to establish some contact with the men who at that moment were controlling Russia’s destinies.”

This is an accurate description of almost all such situations as the American White Paper on relations with China reveals. Diplomats who spoke the truth then were dubbed fellow travellers by Senator McCarthy who dominated American’s political dialogue in those days. America and Chinese diplomats conducted long and very useful talks at Warsaw. In 1972, president Richard Nixon visited a country whose state and government his own government had not recognised. History has vindicated his bold step.

In the last century, a new form of dialogue came into being — secret diplomatic exchanges between spy chiefs of both sides with the advantage of deniability.

Afghanistan seeks an open dialogue with no peremptory demands on either side. The international community would gain and bring succour to Afghan lives by engaging with the Taliban. Both sides will profit thereby. And regional peace will be all the more secure for that.


Afghans protest US order to give $3.5bn to 9/11 victims, central banks demands reversal of decision

AP | Dawn.com | Naveed Siddiqui
Published February 12, 2022 

Afghan protesters hold placards and shout slogans against US during a protest condemning President Joe Biden's decision, in Kabul, Afghanistan. — AP

Demonstrators in Afghanistan’s capital on Saturday condemned US President Joe Biden’s order freeing up $3.5 billion in Afghan assets held in the US for families of America’s 9/11 victims — saying the money belongs to Afghans.

Protesters who gathered outside Kabul’s grand Eid Gah mosque asked America for financial compensation for the tens of thousands of Afghans killed during the last 20 years of war in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s central bank, known as Da Afghanistan Bank or DAB, also opposed the move, calling it "an injustice to the people of Afghanistan" and demanding that the decision be withdrawn.

"DAB considers the latest decision of [the] USA on blocking FX (foreign exchange) reserves and allocating them to irrelevant purposes [an] injustice to the people of Afghanistan and will never accept if the FX reserves of Afghanistan [are] paid [in] the name of compensation or humanitarian assistance to others, and wants the reversal of the decision and release of all FX reserves of Afghanistan," it said in a press release.

The bank said the "real owners" of the said assets were the people of Afghanistan.

"These reserves were not and [are] not the property of governments, parties and groups and [are] never used as per their demand and decisions," it added.

With regards to the management of the assets, the bank highlighted: "Considering the specified objectives, the FX reserves of Afghanistan is managed based on the international practices. [The] condition of these reserves are regularly and precisely monitored by DAB. A certain portion of these reserves [is] invested in the USA as per the accepted rules to be secure and be available to DAB for achieving the determined objectives."
'What about our Afghan people?'

Biden’s order, signed on Friday, allocates another $3.5bn in Afghan assets for humanitarian aid to a trust fund to be managed by the UN to provide aid to Afghans. The country’s economy is teetering on the brink of collapse after international money stopped coming into Afghanistan with the arrival in mid-August of the Taliban.

Read: UN warns of 'colossal' collapse of Afghan banking system

At the protest in Kabul, misspelled placards in English accused the US of being cruel and of stealing the money of Afghans.

“What about our Afghan people who gave many sacrifices and thousands of losses of lives?” asked the demonstration’s organiser, Abdul Rahman, a civil society activist.

Rahman said he planned to organise more demonstrations across the capital to protest Biden’s order. “This money belongs to the people of Afghanistan, not to the United States. This is the right of Afghans,” he said.

Torek Farhadi, a financial adviser to Afghanistan’s former US-backed government, questioned the UN managing Afghan Central Bank reserves. He said those funds are not meant for humanitarian aid but “to back up the country’s currency, help in monetary policy and manage the country’s balance of payment.”

He also questioned the legality of Biden’s order.

“These reserves belong to the people of Afghanistan, not the Taliban ... Biden’s decision is one-sided and does not match with international law,” said Farhadi. “No other country on earth makes such confiscation decisions about another country’s reserves.”

Afghanistan has about $9bn in assets overseas, including the $7bn in the United States. The rest is mostly in Germany, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland.
Condemnation on Twitter

Biden’s Friday order generated a social media storm with Twitter saying #USAstolemoneyfromafghan was trending among Afghans. Tweets repeatedly pointed out that the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi nationals, not Afghans.




Taliban political spokesperson Mohammad Naeem accused the Biden administration in a tweet late on Friday of showing “the lowest level of humanity ... of a country and a nation.”

Obaidullah Baheer, a lecturer at the American University in Afghanistan and a social activist, tweeted: “Let’s remind the world that #AfghansDidntCommit911 and that #BidenStealingAfgMoney!”

Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the US-based Wilson Centre, called Biden’s order to divert $3.5 billion away from Afghanistan “heartless.”

“It’s great that $3.5bn in new humanitarian aid for Afghanistan has been freed up. But to take another $3.5bn that belongs to the Afghan people, and divert it elsewhere — that is misguided and quite frankly heartless,” he tweeted.

Kugelman also said the opposition to Biden’s order crossed Afghanistan’s wide political divide.

“I can’t remember the last time so many people of such vastly different worldviews were so united over a US policy decision on Afghanistan,” he tweeted.
Pakistan's stance

Neighbouring Pakistan, which has been urging the world not to abandon Afghanistan, unfreeze its assets, and ensure the delivery of aid and assistance to the war-ravaged country that faces a humanitarian crisis, also issued a statement backing Afghanistan's call to receive all the funds.

"Over the past several months, Pakistan has been consistently emphasising the need for the international community to quickly act to address the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan and to help revive the Afghan economy, as the two are inextricably linked. Finding ways to unfreeze Afghan foreign reserves urgently would help address the humanitarian and economic needs of the Afghan people," the Foreign Office said in a statement.

It added that "Pakistan’s principled position on the frozen Afghan foreign bank reserves remains that these are owned by the Afghan nation and these should be released. The utilisation of Afghan funds should be the sovereign decision of Afghanistan."

"The Afghan people are facing grave economic and humanitarian challenges and the international community must continue to play its important and constructive role in alleviating their sufferings. Time is of the essence," the FO concluded.