NEPAL

Construction of Upper Trishuli-1 hydel project halted after workers’ protest

Wage dispute leads to vandalism, four security personnel injured.

Published at : September 15, 2024

Nuwakot

The construction of the 216 MW Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project in Mailung, Rasuwa, has been halted after workers protested over wages issues.

Workers employed by the Nepal Water and Energy Development Company, which is constructing the project, vandalised the office and vehicles on Saturday. They protested after the contractor, Power China, allegedly reduced wages and benefits without prior notice.

The main developer, Korean company Korea Energy, holds a 90 percent stake in the project. Power China reduced their basic wage from Rs15,550 to Rs12,800, leading to dissatisfaction, said Dinesh Shrestha, a worker from Ramechhap.

Clashes between workers and Power China employees escalated, resulting in the injury of four Armed Police Force personnel. During the confrontation, the offices and vehicles of Nepal Water and Energy, the main Korean construction company Doosan, and Power China were vandalised, according to the police.

A Korean Energy official said workers resorted to vandalism after Power China failed to pay them for leaves.

Construction work was suspended after the vandalism, and workers returned home. The $640 million project, which started in 2022, aims to be completed by December 2026.

(With inputs from Kantipur TV’s reporter Raj Krishna Shrestha from Nuwakot.)

One Welsh prison is one of the most overcrowded in England and Wales

It was confirmed this week that around 5,500 prisoners in England and Wales are expected to be released early throughout September and October in order to 'avert a disaster'

By  Robert Harries

Senior Reporter

 15 SEP 2024

Inside Swansea Prison (Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne)

The most overcrowded prison in Wales has been revealed after it was announced that thousands of prisoners would be released early across the country. The UK Government is trying to tackle a long-standing problem which has seen jails operate way over their capacity.

It was confirmed this week that around 5,500 prisoners are expected to be released early throughout September and October, with as many as 1,700 convicts allowed to leave on Tuesday (September 10) alone. Burglars, shoplifters, and fraudsters who are serving short sentences are among those expected to be released early.

The plan, which will be reviewed in 18 months’ time, will apply to prisoners in most prisons bar high security (Category A) ones, with varying amounts released from each. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said she was forced to trigger the emergency measure “to avert a disaster” as there were only around 1,000 jail places available, adding that she had no choice but to reduce the automatic release point for certain sentences to free up space in the prisons system.

Ministry of Justice figures can reveal just how overcrowded prisons are in Wales - with one in particular making the list of the 10-most crowded prisons in both England and Wales. Wales has five prisons - in Cardiff, Bridgend, Swansea, Usk, and Wrexham. According to prison numbers in July, four out of those five were above capacity, meaning they were above the ‘certified normal standard’ of one prisoner per cell, a metric used to create a ‘level of crowding’.

Only HMP Berwyn in Wrexham actually came out at below 100% full, according to the data, but only just. With 2,000 cells in use, it had a prison population of 1,982. At HMP Parc in Bridgend, a prison population of 1,810 is way over the number of cells (1,159), giving it a ‘level of crowding’ of 116%.

The situation is even worse elsewhere in south Wales. At HMP Prescoed in Usk there was 476 prisoners and 373 cells in use, resulting in a ‘level of crowding’ of 128%, while Cardiff had a ‘level of crowding’ of 139%, with 743 prisoners and 534 cells in use. The most overcrowded prison in Wales however is in Swansea, a Category B/C prison for adult males. With a prison population of 380 and only 265 cells in use, it has a much higher ‘level of crowding’ of 143% - making it the tenth most crowded prison in England and Wales.

While Swansea has the most overcrowded prison in Wales, the situation is even more serious in parts of England, with overcrowding at higher levels at prisons in Exeter, Altcourse, Doncaster, Preston, Wandsworth, Bedford, Lincoln and Leeds. But the most overcrowded prison in England and Wales is HMP Durham. In July it had a prison population of 984, and 573 usable cells to accommodate them.

That means the prison was 172% full. The jail’s operational capacity was only one higher than the number of prisoners housed in July, although some of them may have been on authorised absence, for example, if a prisoner was ill and needed hospital treatment.

The figures reveal that in July there was a prison population of 87,479 offenders in jails across England and Wales, which is just 1,383 below the operational capacity - the number of places needed to accommodate different classes of prisoner by age, sex, security category, and conviction status.

Trade union urges Scottish Government to drop opposition to new nuclear energy

Ross Hunter
Sat 14 September 2024 

Torness Nuclear Power Station in East Lothian is set to close by 2028

A TRADE union is urging the Scottish Government to drop its opposition to new nuclear energy and claimed Scotland is “missing the opportunities that come with nuclear expansion”.

Currently, Scotland has just one active nuclear power plant at Torness in East Lothian, which is due to be closed by 2028.

However, ministers have maintained that Scotland does not need new nuclear energy plants due to an abundance of renewables and concerns about the timescale, cost and safety of such infrastructure.

Now, in a letter to Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes and Net Zero Secretary Gillian Martin, GMB Scotland policy and external relations officer Rory Steel called on the Scottish Government to reconsider its opposition.

“Scotland is missing the opportunities that come with nuclear expansion," said Steel.

“The Scottish Government’s continued block on new nuclear energy is forcing the sector into decline despite the benefits it brings to meeting net zero targets, energy security and high skilled, high-paid employment to thousands.

“The jobs promised through the just transition have not materialised.”

He continued: “If new nuclear sites are being built in Scotland, then the work has to be done here.

“According to the ONS [Office for National Statistics], each nuclear job supports a further 2.3 jobs in the wider economy.

Torness is the last operational nuclear power station in Scotland

“This ‘multiplier effect’ is the greatest of any part of the low carbon and renewable energy economy (LCREE), and it is significantly higher than investment in wind power can deliver due to the strong nuclear supply chain.”

Construction on the UK’s newest nuclear infrastructure, Hinkley Point C in Somerset, began in 2017.

It was set to open in 2027 but earlier this year owner EDF announced that it was unlikely to be operational before 2030 due to delays and spiralling costs.

The site was expected to cost up to £26 billion but overall costs have since been revised and could stretch to up to £34 billion.

Still, the Labour-affiliated union said decades-long timescales shouldn’t deter ministers.

“This is no quick fix and will take decades, but that means there is an even greater imperative to begin work as quickly as possible,” said GMB Scotland secretary Louise Gilmour.

“We must make the plans and investments now to meet tomorrow’s targets and if Scotland is at all serious about net zero, then ministers must reconsider nuclear and exploit its potential to reduce emissions and deliver stable and secure energy.

“Hunterston and Torness offer us the opportunity to expand and create low carbon energy and highly-paid jobs. Those jobs are already being created and the economic benefits seized elsewhere on these islands and Scotland must no longer drag our feet.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “New nuclear power is expensive, will take years to become operational and involves significant environmental concerns – not least the long-term disposal and management of radioactive waste.

“Rather than waste further money on nuclear, the Scottish Government has been consistently clear that it makes far greater economic and environmental sense to make greater use of renewable electricity generation.

“We are embracing renewables, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage to drive economic growth, support green jobs and deliver secure, affordable and clean energy for Scotland.

“Our upcoming energy strategy and just transition plan will set out how we will support workers to take advantage of the enormous opportunities offered by becoming a net zero economy.”

It comes after bosses at Grangemouth oil refinery confirmed the site will close by next summer with around four-fifths of the workforce set to lose their jobs.

Exclusive:

SNP told to rethink nuclear opposition after Grangemouth energy jobs losses

How woman with coconut placard was tracked down, taken to court - and acquitted


Ashitha Nagesh

BBC
Community affairs correspondent•@ashnagesh

BBC/Ashitha Nagesh
Marieha Hussain was found not guilty after a two-day trial in London

Marieha Hussain had marched for three hours with her family, and the children with them were getting tired.

“We opened some snacks to keep them going,” she said. They were part of a 300,000-strong group at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in central London on 11 November 2023.

“Then, somebody from my side of the street where I was standing called out and asked: ‘Can I take a picture of your placard?’”

This wasn’t the first time she’d been asked for a picture. Her family’s placards, she said, had drawn a lot of attention.

On one side of the placard was a cartoon of Suella Braverman, then the Home Secretary, dressed like Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians. Ms Hussain held up the sign and posed.

“The voice called out, ‘no, not that one, can you turn it around please?’ – and I did.

“And that was it.”

Her account was told to Westminster Magistrates Court this week during her two-day trial on a charge of a racially aggravated public order offence.

She was accused of this offence – of which she was found not guilty on Friday – because of what was on the other side of that placard.

It was a drawing of a palm tree with coconuts falling off it; pasted over two of those coconuts were the faces of Ms Braverman and of the then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

At the heart of this case was the word “coconut” - and whether it could be considered racially abusive.

Metropolitan Police
The photo of Ms Hussain holding her placard was posted online by an anonymous blog


Ms Hussain told the court that on the drive home from the demonstration, a family friend messaged to tell her that her photo had been posted by an anonymous right-wing blog called Harry’s Place and that it was going viral on X (it has since been viewed more than four million times).

“It doesn’t get more racist than this,” the post said. “Among anti-racists you get the worst racists of them all.”

Underneath she then saw a reply from the Metropolitan Police, saying that they were “actively looking for” her.

Chris Humphreys, a member of Metropolitan Police staff working in the force’s communications team that day, saw the post after the Met was tagged in it. “The account that posted it typically generates a significant response,” Mr Humphreys told the court. He was called to give evidence on behalf of the Crown Prosecution Service.

In the 10 months since that day, anonymous accounts on social media called her a racist while tabloid newspapers published details of her family and the cost of her parents’ home. Ms Hussain, 37, also lost her job as a secondary school teacher.

After the Metropolitan Police posted that they wished to identify Ms Hussain, she consulted with solicitors and voluntarily attended a police station three days later, on 14 November, she told the court.

There, she gave them a prepared statement outlining who she was, what had happened that day, and her reasons for making the sign.

“I am a teacher of almost 10 years standing with an academic background in psychology,” she wrote in the statement. “It is exceptionally difficult to convey complex, serious political statements in a nutshell, and we did our best.”

She was not formally charged until six months later, in May this year. She found out she was charged from a journalist working for Al Jazeera, she told the court.

At this point, the support for Ms Hussain from activists and campaigners grew increasingly vocal. When she first appeared at the magistrates court in June – visibly pregnant – to enter her not guilty plea, protesters stood outside the court held copycat “coconut” placards.


‘This is our language’


The term "coconut" is instantly recognisable to many people from black and Asian communities in the UK.

It is a word with a generally negative meaning and can range from light-hearted banter to more severe criticism or insults.

What the court had to contend with was whether, on Ms Hussain’s placard, it could be considered racially abusive.

Prosecutor Jonathan Bryan argued coconut was a well-known racial slur. "[It has] a very clear meaning – you may be brown on the outside, but you are white on the inside,” Mr Bryan told the court.

“In other words, you’re a ‘race traitor’ – you’re less brown or black than you should be.”

Mr Bryan said that Ms Hussain had crossed the line from legitimate political expression to racial insult.

This was not the first time the term “coconut” has come before the courts: in 2009 Shirley Brown, the first black Liberal Democrat elected to Bristol City Council, used the term to describe Conservative councillor Jay Jethwa during a heated debate about funding for the council’s Legacy Commission.

The following year, in 2010, Ms Brown was convicted of racial harassment for the comment. She was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £620 in costs. Mr Bryan referenced Ms Brown’s case during this week's trial.

For Ms Hussain, one of those who’s been particularly fervent in his support is the writer and anti-racism campaigner Nels Abbey.

“The word ‘coconut’ didn’t fall out of a coconut tree, to quote Kamala Harris’s mum,” Mr Abbey told me after the trial’s first day, adding that the word “fell out of our experience as former colonised people”.

The term emerged as a way of critiquing those who “collaborated with our oppressors”, he said.

“This is our language,” he said. “We share this language because we share a history, we share origins and share a community… You cannot criminalise people’s history, and the language that emerged from that.”

In court, this was echoed by two academic experts in racism who gave evidence in support of Ms Hussain – Prof Gus John and Prof Gargi Bhattacharyya.

They quoted postcolonial theorist Frantz Fanon, Black liberation activist Marcus Garvey, the late poet Benjamin Zephaniah, and comedian Romesh Ranganathan, who has frequently joked that his mum calls him a coconut for not speaking Tamil.

These were citations more commonly heard in a university lecture hall than a courtroom.

The court heard that the investigating team had also contacted three experts in racism to give evidence for the prosecution, but they had all refused. One of those, Black Studies specialist Prof Kehinde Andrews, sent “quite a lengthy response” saying the word was not a racial slur, and asked that this be shared with the CPS.

Prof John told the court he was “disappointed” that the CPS hadn’t called any experts to support their case.

“I’d have wanted to be informed and educated on when coconut is a racist slur,” he said. “I would have loved to see the evidence of that. I’m not aware of that at all.”

Ms Hussain wrote in her statement that “coconut” was “common language, particularly in our culture”.

Asked by her barrister Mr Menon what she meant by that, she answered that she had grown up hearing the word used among South Asians.

“If I’m truly honest, sometimes, when I was younger, my own dad called me a coconut,” she said, prompting laughter from the public gallery.

'Political satire'


Ms Hussain also argued that her use of the term was a form of political critique against what she said were "politicians in high office who perpetuate and push racist policies".

On Friday afternoon, District Judge Vanessa Lloyd ruled that the placard was "part of the genre of political satire", and that the prosecution had "not proved to a criminal standard that it was abusive".

As the verdict was read out, cheers and whooping erupted from the public gallery while Ms Hussain burst into tears.

Outside the court she said: “The damage done to my reputation and image can never be undone.

“The laws on hate speech must serve to protect us more, but this trial shows that these rules are being weaponised to target ethnic minorities.

"It goes without saying that this ordeal has been agonising for my family and I. Instead of enjoying my pregnancy I’ve been vilified by the media, I’ve lost my career, I’ve been dragged through the court system."

But, she said, "I’m more determined than ever to continue using my voice" for Palestinians.

Marieha Hussain walks free in victory for Palestine movement

The state is witch-hunting Palestine solidarity campaigners on spurious grounds

Marieha Hussain on a Palestine demonstration

By Tomáš Tengely-Evans
Saturday 14 September 2024  

SOCIALIST WORKER  Issue

The British state’s attempts to repress and silence Palestine campaigners have suffered a blow.

Cheers broke out in the public gallery of Westminster Magistrates Court on Friday after a judge found Marieha Hussain not guilty of a “racially aggravated public order offence”

The state prosecuted Marieha for carrying a placard, which depicted Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman as coconuts, on a Palestine demonstration last year.

The then prime minister and home secretary were backing Israel’s genocide in Gaza and whipping up Islamophobia at home.

Outside the court, teacher Marieha said, “The damage done to my reputation and image can never be undone. The laws on hate speech must serve to protect us more, but this trial shows that these rules are being weaponised to target ethnic minorities.

“It goes without saying that this ordeal has been agonising for my family and me. Instead of enjoying my pregnancy I’ve been vilified by the media, I’ve lost my career, I’ve been dragged through the court system.

“Nearly a year on from the genocide in Gaza, and despite this trial, I’m more determined than ever to continue using my voice to defend Palestine.”

Rajiv Menon KC said Marieha’s prosecution took place “while the likes of Braverman and Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson are seemingly free to make inflammatory and divisive statements”. “That Marieha Hussain of all people is being prosecuted for a racially aggravated offence is incomprehensible to many people,” her lawyer told the court.

He said the placard was an “attempt to criticise the policy of Rishi Sunak and, particularly, Suella Braverman”.

Some activists use “coconut” as a term for politically critiquing black and Asian politicians who push racist policies. It’s brown on the outside and white inside, which suggests that a black or brown person has “betrayed” their heritage.



Cheers as jury fails to convict ‘Teledyne Four’ Palestine activists
Read More

Naila Ahmed is head of campaigns at the Cage International human rights organisation. After the not guilty verdict, she said, “This prosecution has been vindictive from the very start. It will be a huge relief for Marieha and her family that this ordeal is now over and she can put all this behind her.

“The state is increasingly exploring insidious ways to prosecute activists, especially those taking action for Palestine.

“We hope today’s verdict puts a stop to these sorts of politicised prosecutions.”

Marieha’s not guilty verdict came on the same day that a jury failed to convict the Teledyne Four. Laila Gao, Ruby Hamill, Daniel Jones and Najam Shah face charges of criminal damage for targeting an arms factory near Bradford. The four were released on bail and face a retrial in February 2026.

The best way to stand up to repression is to keep building the Palestine movement.

SPACE

Iran says new research satellite launched into orbit

Published: 14 Sep 2024 -


Pic: IRNA / X

AFP

Tehran: Iran on Saturday blasted a new research satellite into orbit, state media said, in the latest such development for an aerospace programme that has long faced Western criticism.

"The Chamran-1 research satellite was successfully launched and put into orbit by the Ghaem-100 carrier," state television said.

The satellite, which weighs around 60 kilograms (132 pounds), is designed to test hardware and software systems for orbital manoeuvre technology, the TV report said.

The device was designed and built by Iranian Electronics Industries affiliated with the defence ministry, state TV said.

Western governments including the United States have repeatedly warned Iran against such launches, saying the same technology can be used for ballistic missiles, including ones designed to deliver a nuclear warhead.

Iran has countered that it is not seeking nuclear weapons and that its satellite and rocket launches are for civil or defence purposes only.

The Ghaem-100 rocket which carried the latest satellite is manufactured by the aerospace organisation of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, an arm of the military.

The carrier is the country's first three-stage solid-fuel satellite launcher, and official media reported its use in January to send a satellite for the first time into an orbit above 500 kilometres (310 miles).

Iran has for years been advancing its aerospace activities, insisting they are peaceful and in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolutions.

Iran says research satellite successfully launched into orbit

Iran successfully launched its new research satellite Chamran-1 into orbit on Saturday, according to state media. Despite Tehran's insistence that its space activities are solely for peaceful and defence purposes, Western governments have repeatedly warned the Iranian government against such launches, fearing the same technology could be used for ballistic missiles.


Issued on: 14/09/2024 - 
2 min

File photo of an Iranian satellite carrier named "Simorgh" during the 45th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Tehran, Iran, February 11, 2024.

 © Wana News Agency via Reuters

By: NEWS WIRES

Iran on Saturday blasted a new research satellite into orbit, state media said, in the latest such development for an aerospace programme that has long faced Western criticism.

"The Chamran-1 research satellite was successfully launched and put into orbit by the Ghaem-100 carrier," state television said.

The satellite, which weighs around 60 kilograms (132 pounds), is designed to test hardware and software systems for orbital manoeuvre technology, the TV report said.

The device was designed and built by Iranian Electronics Industries affiliated with the defence ministry, state TV said.

Western governments including the United States have repeatedly warned Iran against such launches, saying the same technology can be used for ballistic missiles, including ones designed to deliver a nuclear warhead.

Iran has countered that it is not seeking nuclear weapons and that its satellite and rocket launches are for civil or defence purposes only.

The Ghaem-100 rocket which carried the latest satellite is manufactured by the aerospace organisation of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, an arm of the military.

The carrier is the country's first three-stage solid-fuel satellite launcher, and official media reported its use in January to send a satellite for the first time into an orbit above 500 kilometres (310 miles).

Iran has for years been advancing its aerospace activities, insisting they are peaceful and in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolutions.

In February, Russia put into orbit an Iranian remote sensing and imaging satellite, drawing condemnation from the United States.

At the time, Iran's telecommunications minister said Iran had carried out a dozen satellite launches over the previous two years.

Iran in January said it simultaneously sent three satellites into orbit, nearly a week after the launch of a research satellite by the Guards.


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Read moreIran launches three satellites into orbit amid rising tensions with West

The Islamic republic has struggled with several satellite launch failures in the past.

Iran has suffered years of crippling Western sanctions, especially after its arch-foe the United States, under then-president Donald Trump, in 2018 unilaterally abandoned a landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers.

Iran on Thursday summoned four European ambassadors after they imposed new sanctions over its alleged supply of ballistic missiles to Russia for use in Ukraine, which Tehran denies.

(AFP)

Social workers in S’pore raise concerns over deepfake porn

A protest in Seoul on Aug 30 against deepfake porn. AI-created sexually explicit images are widely shared in South Korea. 

PHOTO: AFP

Osmond Chia
Updated
Sep 15, 2024


SINGAPORE – Social workers and online safety advocates in Singapore are bracing themselves for a wave of AI-generated porn targeting victims here, as deepfake-on-demand services are popping up on publicly accessible online channels.

Such programs allow users to generate realistic deepfakes within seconds – and often for free – simply by uploading a picture of someone’s face, which the AI, or artificial intelligence, will combine with a digitally rendered body.

Celebrities have long been targeted by explicit deepfakes created using programs such as Photoshop, but now the accessibility and rapid processing of deepfake-on-demand programs lower the barrier to entry for anyone.


Widely circulated on platforms like Telegram, these apps have fuelled a deepfake pornography crisis in countries like South Korea, where sexually explicit deepfake images of women and young girls – often created based on school photos and social media content – are being widely shared in online chatrooms.

Social workers here have not encountered victims of deepfake harassment, but warn that South Korea’s situation should be a warning to the rest of the world.

The Straits Times found more than six Telegram channels offering deepfake services that allow users to develop “nude renders” using photos of real people within seconds.

These channels, which have up to 95,000 subscribers, are accessible to anyone.

Subscribers can generate deepfakes based on pictures they upload, as long as the target’s face is clearly visible.

In some channels, users upload pictures of real people and request the channels’ administrators to “undress” them, which they do for a fee.

Customers can tweak the footage to their fancy, such as by changing the size of the modified image’s body parts. And the more one pays, the more explicit the generated images can get.

“Deepfakes are a genre of pornography that we are seeing more among addicts,” said We Care Community Services’ counsellor Alvin Seng, who specialises in therapy for those with sex- and porn-related addiction.

The addiction recovery centre has not dealt with victims of deepfakes here as the trend is still new, but the issue has cropped up in an increasing number of talks with school partners, said Mr Seng.

“But it is still early and could be happening right now. I’d imagine that cases are coming soon,” he told ST.

ST ILLUSTRATION: CEL GULAPA

More On This Topic

Stigma and criticism follow victims of deepfake content in South Korea

Explainer: Why South Korea is on high alert over deepfake sex crimes

Mr Seng said deepfakes should not be viewed lightly, no matter how unrealistic the renders seem.

“To a victim, seeing their face on a deepfake will feel very personal,” he said. “It is a violation of privacy and a betrayal of their trust.”

One of the earliest cases of deepfake sexploitation reported here occurred in June, when at least four men were blackmailed by fraudsters with deepfakes using their faces.

One of the victims received an explicit video of himself from an unknown contact, who threatened to circulate it unless he paid $700.

It is not known how many more cases like that have occurred in Singapore. The police said then that they do not track the number of deepfake-related scams.

The deepfake threat has prompted counsellors at non-profit Touch Cyber Wellness to develop a module for parents and young people to address emerging online dangers, including image-based sexual abuse and cyber bullying, according to manager Shem Yao.

Set to launch in 2025, the module will educate young people on the impact of deepfakes, as well as how to spot them and respond if they encounter them.

Deepfakes should not be ignored just because they are fake, said Mr Yao.

“Victims often endure profound emotional distress, feeling ashamed and powerless over their own image,” he said. “This violation can lead to significant stress and lasting harm to their reputation.”

With time, deepfake images are sure to become even more realistic, he added.

Singapore has seen a number of cases involving online sexual harassment.

Notably, more than 44,000 Telegram users were part of a chat group formed in 2018 – SG Nasi Lemak – where lewd images of young girls and revenge pornography were circulated. It was shut down in 2019.

Image-based sexual abuse is among the most common types of online harms faced by clients of SheCares@SCWO, a support centre for victims of online harms, said assistant director of research Natalie Chia from SG Her Empowerment, which runs the centre.

A study by the non-profit organisation in 2023 found that nearly a tenth of internet users have personally experienced image-based sexual abuse, including deepfakes. Women were almost twice as likely to be sexually harassed online than men.

More On This Topic

How Singapore, six other territories deal with online harms

Deepfake threats are here to stay. Are S’pore firms prepared?

Advocates and experts have long called for new policies that will help online harassment victims seek redress swiftly.

This was echoed by Minister for Law and Home Affairs K. Shanmugam, who said in 2023 that the law needs to be expanded to enable victims of harmful online content to take action and protect themselves.

Since then, the authorities have allocated $50 million for a new Centre for Advanced Technologies in Online Safety which will research tools to detect harmful online content, including misinformation and deepfakes.

New measures to counter deepfakes of candidates during elections were also announced on Sept 11.

More can be done in Singapore to protect those who have limited options to seek redress, as online harassers are usually anonymous, said Cyber Youth Singapore president and chief executive Ben Chua.

The charity conducts cyber-wellness workshops and is revamping its course material to raise awareness of deepfakes.

Tech companies can be slow to remove content too, said Mr Chua.

Messaging app Telegram, for instance, has been slammed for its lack of cooperation with the authorities worldwide, leading to the arrest of its founder Pavel Durov in August over allegedly allowing criminal activity on the platform, including drug trafficking and child sexual abuse images.

Durov’s arrest reflects an increase in pressure to hold platforms responsible for not complying with the authorities in the fight against online harms, said Ms Chia, who called for stronger regulations to make it illegal to create, possess and share image-based sexual abuse materials.

Cyber-security expert Abhishek Singh of Check Point Software Technologies said Telegram is an ideal platform for vices to thrive.

This is because it allows large files to be shared across massive groups of up to 200,000 members, who can choose not to disclose their phone numbers to remain anonymous.

“It has brought dark web content to the masses on a public channel,” he added.

Deepfake software, in particular, has become more widely available since late 2023, said senior threat researcher David Sancho from cyber-security firm Trend Micro.

He said: “Any teenager can (use these apps). It’s not expensive and there are even support forums to guide users on how to do it.”

Mr Sancho added: “The trouble is, if you close one platform, another pops up.”
Advice to guard against deepfakes

Avoid allowing unfamiliar accounts to follow your social media accounts, and be mindful of the content that you post, although this can be hard to control in this day and age, said Mr Seng.

Victims of deepfake porn should make a police report and flag the content to the online platform, said Mr Yao.

They should collect evidence, including images of the online material, time and date, and the usernames of those who have shared it. Mr Yao said: “Evidence is vital, even if the specifics are painful to recall.”

HK pivots to Asean, Belt and Road partners as ties with the West deteriorate

Magdalene Fung
Hong Kong Correspondent

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee said his government was doing everything it could to strengthen ties with Asean. 

PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

Updated  Sep 15, 2024

HONG KONG – Hong Kong has intensified efforts to carve out international space for itself, especially among developing economies, as it increasingly comes under fire from the West for its governance.

Chief Executive John Lee on Sept 13 said his government was doing everything it could to strengthen ties with Asean, including improving trade, business and cultural links with the regional bloc.

On Sept 11, he talked up Hong Kong’s value to the world as a “super connector”, touting its pivotal role in inking deals with countries in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), as Beijing said it would expand the city’s scope of participation in the initiative.

Mr Lee’s speeches came after the United States on Sept 11 passed a Bill targeting the closure of Hong Kong’s trade offices in the country and on Sept 6 warned US businesses and individuals of the rising risks of operating in the city under its national security law.

The law was first imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong in June 2020, with Hong Kong later enacting its own legislation in March 2024.

Hundreds of activists have been arrested and dozens charged under the regulations, which criminalise treason, sedition and external interference, among other offences.


Mr Lee on Sept 14 warned that US businesses would “foot the bill” for their “very shameless and ugly political tactics” if they shut Hong Kong’s trade offices in America.

Separately, Britain on Sept 12 said in a parliamentary report on Hong Kong that the city had prioritised national security over the freedoms and rights of its residents.

The growing criticism from the West that Hong Kong has faced in recent years has contributed to a fresh urgency within Mr Lee’s administration to improve its ties with the rest of the world, an international relations expert said.

“In the past, Hong Kong used to target the developed world more in its external relations efforts, such as reaching out to the US and countries in Europe,” Dr Wilson Chan, director of policy research and co-founder of local think-tank Pagoda Institute, told The Straits Times.

“But now, to sidestep the growing geopolitical tensions with the West, Hong Kong has recognised that it needs to diversify its business and trade networks and has hence shifted its focus to Asean, the Middle East, Africa and other Belt and Road countries. So the government is now more eager to engage with these fast-developing economies.”

Dr Chan described Hong Kong’s approach as a form of “paradiplomacy” centred around global economic engagement. Paradiplomacy refers to the involvement of non-central governments and organisations in conducting international relations.

Under the one country, two systems framework, China’s central government conducts foreign affairs relating to Hong Kong. As a special administrative region, however, Hong Kong has the autonomy to handle certain external affairs on its own, including trade, finance, tourism, culture and sports.

The city is also authorised to participate in inter-governmental international organisations including the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec), the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Hong Kong has over the past year engaged in a rapid string of global outreach efforts to bring together the city’s top leaders and those from its surrounding countries.

A Belt and Road Summit on Sept 11 and 12 was attended by Malaysia’s Trade Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz, Cambodia’s Secretary of State for Commerce Lim Lork Piseth and Kazakhstan’s National Economy Vice-Minister Arman Kassenov, among other senior officials.

A Hong Kong-Asean Summit on Sept 13 heard speeches delivered by Datuk Seri Zafrul, Lao Deputy Finance Minister Phouthanouphet Saysombath and Cambodian Secretary of State for Tourism Prak Phannara.

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Quiet optimism about Hong Kong’s ‘breakthrough policy’


In July, Mr Lee visited Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam on a trip that yielded 55 memorandums of understanding (MOUs) in areas including finance, culture and education.

In May, Hong Kong’s Belt and Road Commissioner Nicholas Ho led a business delegation to Hungary and Kazakhstan, signing 10 MOUs, including in green development and technology. That same month, Hong Kong hosted its first geopolitical summit, signalling its intention to redefine its role in global development and solidify its position as an intermediary between mainland China and the rest of the world.

Its efforts appear to have been well received by its target countries at the recent summits.

“Hong Kong has (been organising) a lot of expos, and these types of forums are very important in deal-making... It’s how we can increase trade,” Cambodia’s Mr Piseth said at a BRI policy dialogue on Sept 11, noting that his country’s trade with Hong Kong in the first half of 2024 had risen by 60 per cent compared with the same period the previous year.

Mrs Shinta Widjaja Kamdani, CEO of Indonesian conglomerate Sintesa Group and chairwoman of the country’s employers’ association, urged more concrete efforts to help Indonesia’s small and medium-sized enterprises capitalise on BRI opportunities.

“Beyond the big forums and business summits, we want real deals to happen,” said Mrs Shinta. “We from Indonesia want Hong Kong’s help to access the GBA (Greater Bay Area) market and specific projects in specific sectors and more business-to-business connections.”

The GBA refers to Hong Kong, Macau and the nine cities in Guangdong province on mainland China.

Malaysia’s Mr Zafrul, meanwhile, leveraged the BRI summit on Sept 12 to urge closer cooperation between his country and the Middle East nations at the event, drawing upon commonalities between the two regions.

“We (Malaysia and the Middle East) fundamentally face similar challenges – a desire to shift from dependence on natural resources, as well as the need to move up the value chain economically and improve talent, all against the backdrop of geopolitical uncertainties and the threats of climate change,” he said.

More On This Topic

Hong Kong wants more talent from Malaysia as it seeks to diversify workforce

Hong Kong, Singapore and the new China gateway


At the Hong Kong-Asean summit the following day, he called for Asean to develop stronger partnerships with regions such as the GBA and financial centres like Hong Kong. Malaysia is due to take up the Asean bloc’s rotating chairmanship in 2025.

Hong Kong’s Belt and Road Commissioner Nicholas Ho expressed positivity about the impact of Hong Kong’s efforts at economic and diplomatic facilitation.

“Under Chief Executive John Lee’s leadership, Hong Kong has transformed, in many ways, our external outreach and approach to global collaboration,” he told ST. “The Belt and Road Initiative, now in its 11th year, has presented a new wave of opportunity... where public and private capital can come together to drive bankable projects... in the international sector.”

Mr Ho added that work to open a Hong Kong trade office in Kuala Lumpur was “in full force (with) the intention to open it as soon as possible”. It would be Hong Kong’s fourth such office in South-east Asia, after Singapore, Bangkok and Jakarta.

Pagoda Institute’s Dr Chan said Hong Kong’s immediate goal for its intensified global outreach efforts was “to bring the city back on the international stage”.

“That these efforts result in providing another platform that facilitates economic and political cooperation between and among countries, demonstrates Hong Kong’s unique model of paradiplomacy under the one country, two systems framework,” he said.

Rohingya detainees protest 'abominable' conditions in Indian camp

HINDUTVA ISLAMOPHOBIA

September 14, 2024
By VOA News

A Rohingya child at a refugee camp in Faridabad, Haryana, India, in April of 2024.

More than 100 Rohingya refugees who have for years been detained at a transit camp in the northeast Indian state of Assam have launched a hunger strike demanding that they be handed over to the United Nations refugee agency in New Delhi, transferred to a detention facility in the Indian capital, and that the process of resettlement in a third country be started.

The 103 Muslim Rohingya refugees have been on hunger strike since Monday at the Matia Transit Camp, where immigrants, most of whom entered the country illegally, are held. Local authorities said 30 Christian Chin refugees, also from Myanmar, are on hunger strike, too, in solidarity with the Rohingyas.

A midlevel police officer in Goalpara district, where the camp is located, told VOA Thursday that senior Home Affairs Ministry officials from the state headquarters were on their way to investigate the issue.

“The officials will interact with their counterparts at the camp, as well as the detainees who are on hunger strike, and aim to resolve the issues. The detainees, who are from Myanmar, are demanding to be released from the camp,” said the police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. “All the officials are trying to resolve the issue as soon as possible.”

A Rohingya and her children at a Rohingya refugee camp in Faridabad, India, in April 2024.

Sabber Kyaw Min, an India-based Rohingya rights activist who is monitoring the situation, said that the refugees in the detention center were living in poor hygienic conditions and received “inhumane treatment.”

“Fleeing genocide in Myanmar, our people took refuge in India. Our home country continues to be increasingly unsafe for us. But we are facing persecution here — our people are being imprisoned in India,” Min, head of the Rohingya Human Rights Initiative, told VOA.

“At least 40 of the Rohingya refugees at the Matia camp hold UNHCR cards,” he said, using the acronym for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. “Yet they are treated like criminals and have been detained. Many Rohingyas have been in detention for as long as 10 or 12 years. They have finished their terms long ago. Yet they are being detained.”

India has not signed the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol and views all Rohingya refugees as "illegal immigrants," although they have lived peacefully in the country for decades.

Since Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014, however, Rohingya refugees have faced trouble in India.

After repeated directives from the Indian Home Affairs Ministry in recent years, Indian states have been detaining Rohingya refugees under charges of illegal entry into the country.

According to the UNHCR, 676 Rohingyas are in detention in India, but Rohingya rights activists put the figure at 1,000.

Min said that in many cases, Rohingya refugees are being held in detention “illegally.”

Rohingya refugees pick through what remains after a fire broke out at a camp in Delhi in 2021. Around 50 shanties were reduced to ashes by the fire. Many Rohingya believe that right-wing Hindu groups who want the refugee community to be thrown out of India set fire to the camp.

Jan Mohammad, a Rohingya refugee who recently moved back to Bangladesh from India, told VOA Friday that a relative at the Matia camp told him Rohingyas there were facing torture.

“My relative sent an audio message to me from inside the camp in which he said that the inmates were suffering from poor health care facilities. The supply of drinking water was inadequate. Some were even drinking toilet water. The living conditions in the camp were abominable,” Mohammad said. “During winter, they often could not sleep at night because they did not have enough blankets. When they complained about the poor amenities, they were beaten by the guards there.

“Many inmates there often cried, saying that their detention was for an indefinite period and they would die there, my relative said in his message, three months ago.”

VOA’s email to the Assam home ministry seeking a reaction to the issue has not received a response.

In July, a Supreme Court said the living conditions in several detention centers were “deplorable” while hearing a related petition.

In July, 35 Rohingya inmates of the Matia camp wrote to the local administration seeking resettlement in a third country or transfer to a facility with better conditions. The inmates began their hunger strike on Monday, apparently because the authorities did not respond to their appeal.

The Indian Home Affairs Ministry said years ago Rohingyas detained in India would ultimately be deported to Myanmar, but only 18 have been deported there since 2021.

The London-based Burmese Rohingya Organization UK said in a statement Wednesday that the hunger strike at Matia camp was a “direct response to their prolonged and arbitrary detention and the severe human rights abuses they endure.”

“The arbitrary detention of Rohingya refugees in India represents a grave injustice. These individuals, who have already faced unimaginable atrocities, are subjected to further mistreatment. The Indian government must act immediately to end these unlawful detentions and address the abysmal conditions within detention centers,” Tun Khin, president of the organization, said in the statement.

Rohingya refugees collect food from a community charitable organization in Faridabad, Haryana, India, in early 2024.

New Delhi-based lawyer Ujjaini Chatterji, who argues against indefinite detention of Rohingya refugees in India, told VOA Friday that "the Rohingyas cannot be detained without following the due process established by law.”

“The due process includes serving prior notice to them with an opportunity to present their case, and also for the Rohingyas to be told the grounds for their arrest or detention while being given access to adequate legal representation and contact with friends and family,” Chatterji told the VOA.

“Indefinite detention is an absolute violation of not only the very thrust of the Constitution of India, but also against various precedents set through judgments by the high courts and the Supreme Court of India,” said Chatterji.

Exiled, jailed or silenced: Thailand’s youth protest leaders languish under prosecution blitz

(Clockwise from top left) Benjamaporn Nivas, Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, Bunkueanun Paothong and Patsaravalee Tanakitvibulpon. 

PHOTOS: COURTESY OF BENJAMAPORN NIVAS, TAN HUI YEE

Tan Hui Yee
Indochina Bureau Chief
Sep 15, 2024, 05:00 AM


BANGKOK - Benjamaporn Nivas, 19, sells bubble tea in Vancouver while taking adult education classes to make up for her interrupted schooling.

It has been two years since she has seen her friends and family in Thailand, and four years since she co-founded a student group to reform Thai education.

The mass protests she helped to lead eventually challenged the status quo and demanded reform of Thailand’s powerful monarchy.


But she paid the price for her activism.

“I never imagined I would end up so far away,” she told The Straits Times in a video call from Canada, where she received asylum after fleeing a possible lese majeste conviction in 2022.

“Sometimes I feel sad and miss home. But I am safe. There are things which I had to give up in exchange for that, and it was painful. But I have to keep going.”

Four years after student protests first broke out across South-east Asia’s second largest economy – challenging the then military-linked government and eminence of King Maha Vajiralongkorn – the young people who drew thousands of protesters onto the streets are grappling with prosecutions that have driven some into exile, others to incarceration and many more to silence.

Benjamaporn Nivas shows artwork she created in Canada about the Thai political situation. 

PHOTO: COURTESY OF BENJAMAPORN NIVAS

According to advocacy group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, more than 1,900 people have been charged – for taking part in public assemblies or expressing their political opinion – since youth protests first broke out in July 2020.

Among them were 272 people charged with lese majeste – an offence that carries a jail term of up to 15 years.

At least 126 of the 155 lese majeste cases known to be concluded so far have resulted in jail sentences. Prominent protest leader and activist lawyer Arnon Nampa, 40, is serving 14 years in prison for the royal insult cases against him concluded so far.

Arnon was the first activist at the protests to call for discussion about the King, who controls his own military units as well as billions of dollars of assets he took over from the Crown Property Bureau, an agency which managed assets on behalf of the palace.

For lese majeste defendants yet to be convicted, pre-trial detention in prison is common. Democracy activist Netiporn Sanesangkhom, who was facing lese majeste and other charges, died in detention in May at the age of 28, after a months-long hunger strike to protest against the justice system.

Some youth leaders have decided to skip town. Fugitive activist Panupong Jadnok, 27, reportedly arrived in New Zealand in August after missing a lese majeste-related court date months earlier. Parit Chiwarak, a 26-year-old student leader who goes by the nickname of Penguin, was saddled with 25 royal defamation cases when he skipped a court hearing in June. He is presumed to have fled Thailand.

Youth protest leaders who remain in Thailand say they are forced to structure their lives around a revolving door of court appointments and make peace with the ever-present possibility of losing their freedom.

Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, 25, is trying to cram studies for a master’s degree in human rights with attending court hearings for the 31 cases filed against her. Nine of them involve alleged lese majeste.

Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul has 31 cases filed against her. 

ST PHOTO: TAN HUI YEE


Rung, as she is known among friends, stunned the Thai public in August 2020 when she read out a list of 10 demands for monarchy reform before thousands of protesters just outside Bangkok. Among other things, it called for the monarch to be stripped of legal immunity and the royal budget to be reduced in line with economic conditions. It also demanded that the lese majeste law be abolished.

Then a sociology and anthropology undergraduate at Thammasat University in Pathum Thani province, Rung went on stage to speak at many other protests as part of a group called the United Front of Thammasat and Demonstration.

But the resulting state surveillance, prosecution and body-shaming online attacks by conservatives left her “stressed and anxious”, she told ST.

“I am still an activist and human rights defender,” she said in an interview near her home in Nonthaburi province. “With the time that I have left, I will use it to study human rights and democratisation. If I am sent to jail, I would have some knowledge or skills that can protect other inmates in prison.”

Other youth leaders – spooked by state pressure on them and their relatives – have sworn off demonstrations.

Bunkueanun Paothong, a 25-year-old international relations undergraduate at Mahidol University, told ST: “A lot of protest leaders paid a price. I am no different. Even though I hate to admit it as much, I believe that now it’s not a price I can pay any more.”

He is instead focusing on his work in the Mahidol University student council, of which he is a member.

Bunkueanun Paothong is focusing on his work in the Mahidol University student council. ST PHOTO: TAN HUI YEE


He recalled “almost” losing his sanity after being constantly tailed by people he identified as police officers.

“I lost the ability to confidently walk and do things without being surveilled all the time,” he said.

New political developments have drawn public attention away from these youth leaders.

The street protests eased as Thailand emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic and held a general election in May 2023.

Coup leader and then prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha – a major source of public ire – was relegated to political obscurity after a disastrous showing by his political party in the 2023 general election. He is now a privy councillor.

Many people who took to the streets in 2020 to call for reforms later pinned their hopes on the progressive Move Forward Party, which won the 2023 election but was blocked by royalist factions in Parliament from forming a government.

The Constitutional Court deemed that Move Forward’s campaign to amend the lese majeste law was illegal – and dissolved the party on those grounds. This pushed the possibility of amending the draconian law even further back.

Meanwhile, election runner-up Pheu Thai Party has joined hands with parties across the political spectrum to form two coalition governments so far.

While the current government is helmed by 38-year-old Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, it is thought to be controlled by her father Thaksin Shinawatra.

Mr Thaksin, himself a former prime minister, spent 15 years in self-exile to evade graft-related charges but returned to Thailand in 2023 through what was seen as a political deal for lenient treatment. Tellingly, he prostrated himself before a picture of the King and Queen as soon as he returned.

Still, while fading from public consciousness, the youth protesters have left an indelible mark on Thai politics.

“The main legacy of the youth movement is their contribution to the ideological shift in Thailand,” said Dr Janjira Sombatpoonsiri, a Bangkok-based research fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies. “The popular mood back then – right in the middle of the pandemic – was a questioning of the status quo. There was real resentment against injustice and elite privileges.

“The movement voiced this in public, and it started the conversation about key institutions that undergird the status quo.”

She added: “Now that cannot be undone, regardless of the repression of the movement and the fact that there is currently no mass mobilisation against the elite.”

Some youth leaders say they can afford to wait.

Patsaravalee Tanakitvibulpon, 29, is fighting 15 protest-related charges – including three involving lese majeste. She has focused on campaigning work related to resources like land and water, which she feels are closely tied to Thailand’s power structure.

“I am still fighting, but the method that I have chosen is appropriate for the current circumstances,” she told ST. “Discussions about the monarchy are still taking place online even though there is no protest.”

Patsaravalee Tanakitvibulpon is fighting 15 protest-related charges – including three involving lese majeste. 

 ST PHOTO: TAN HUI YEE

While there have been efforts to introduce an amnesty Bill for victims of political prosecution, individuals accused of lese majeste are unlikely to get a reprieve under this move, said Dr Janjira, who is a member of a parliamentary committee looking into this.

This is because there is not enough support among legislators or even the public for amnesty on this controversial issue.

Despite the threat of jail, Rung is optimistic about political change in Thailand, simply because the biggest defenders of the status quo belong to the older generation.

“They are older than us. They will die before us,” she said matter-of-factly. “If we can maintain the idea of change, the idea of democracy, the idea of equality within our generation and the generation after us, maybe one day Thailand will become more diverse and more equitable.”

Benjamaporn, meanwhile, has no regrets despite being driven into exile.

“The Thai education system has gradually changed and students have become braver and more aware of their rights,” she said. “I am proud of what I had done. Even if I could turn back the clock, I still would have done what I did.”

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Kirill: Russian culture and the salvation of the world

by Stefano Caprio

Trying not to limit himself to the usual statements of state propaganda amid the universal conflict between Russia and the West, the Patriarch of Moscow spoke a few days ago in St Petersburg using philosophical and literary arguments to further explain the reasons why Russia today feels called to spread the “great values” that universal society has seemingly abandoned.

The Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill (Gundyayev) spoke at the 10th Forum of "Unitary Cultures" in St Petersburg, in the solemn hall of the Mariinsky Palace, home to the city's Legislative Assembly, centred on “Culture in the 21st century: sovereignty or globalism?" to reiterate the fundamental theses of the mission of the "Russian world" in our age.

Trying not to limit himself to repeating the usual statements of state propaganda in the context of the universal conflict between Russia and the West, the patriarch sought to further develop philosophical and literary arguments of why Russia today feels called to spread the “great values” that universal society appears to abandon.

It is, in some way, a matter of rediscovering the fundamental role of the Orthodox Church in militarist Russia, a role that Kirill had to yield to Putin in the phase of wars of the last 20 years, starting with the war with Georgia, the annexation of Crimea, and eventually the invasion of Ukraine.

The patriarch did not initially back the president in his radical confrontation, but in the last two and a half years of war he could not (or did not want) to do anything but support the justifications of the conflict in the defence of traditional values, which the degraded West would like to erase from the conscience of Ukrainians, Russians, and all peoples historically linked to the "spiritual beacon" of super-Orthodox Moscow.

The patriarchate has inspired this ideological line since the late 1990s, and now perhaps realises that it has gone too far in its claims to a global definition of “religious and cultural truth”.

It is no coincidence that Kirill began his speech by emphasising the identity of St Petersburg, whereby "the small homeland always remains the city on the Neva", which represents the westernmost part of the Russian identity, culturally even more than geographically. The people of St Petersburg, according to the patriarch, "have never lost their inner spiritual, cultural and intellectual bond with the city".

Unlike Kirill, President Vladimir Putin, who hails from Russia’s northern capital, represents the less evolved and erudite segment of the city, as Putin himself often claims, defining himself as a "man of the people" and certainly not as an intellectual from the aristocratic elites.

Thus, Kirill's speech takes on deeper and more courtly tones, stating that "a serious reasoning on culture must always be axiological, that is, about values", elevating the definition that concerns precisely "traditional values", reiterated by Putin and all Russian politicians almost without real content to the point of boredom.

Instead, "culture is what carries values within itself," explains the patriarch, otherwise, "without values no culture is preserved, which dissolves into dust... We know these cataclysms that have destroyed entire civilisations."

This is the challenge Russian Orthodoxy wants to throw at the whole world, namely the preservation of tradition as a guarantee of the survival of true civilisation, the “mechanism of transmission of values.”

Through a series of erudite quotes, Kirill comments on the very origin of the term "culture" starting from the concept of "cult", which justifies “the axiological approach: What has value is what is holy for society in its historical development.”

The prevalence of religion over philosophy itself is a theme very dear to Kirill, who in his argumentation criticises the main theorists of Western rationalism, from August Comte and Ludwig Feuerbach to Karl Marx, who is “well-known to us Russians.”




The patriarch has often linked this "positivist tendency" with the legacy of Latin scholasticism, a classic topic of theological polemics between Catholics and Orthodox, but now he is trying to go further, since "in our times this claim of philosophical superiority over religion is now recognised as inconsistent, especially after the end of the tragedy of humanist atheism of the twentieth century."

Today's challenge, according to Kirill, is to find a new meaning of life in world societies, dried up from the sources of true spirituality. Marxist philosophy stated that man “lives for future generations, but this is absurd, so what value can one’s personal life have?”

If man is only a "transmission belt", even those who come after us will live without giving any meaning to existence. This is "a destructive relationship with the human personality, with the rational being that God has destined for high purposes", says the patriarch.

There is a need for a new paideia, a process of education and rearing of man, the Greek term that gives rise to the very meaning of "culture".

Today's world is no longer capable of rearing, it does not even transmit "physical culture and the aesthetic sense"; instead, it is necessary today "to make every effort to defend and protect the very foundations of culture, like a farmer who does not forget the seeds in the ground, which would end up smothered by wild nature.”

This is precisely the image that the patriarch wants to promote, comparing the Russian care for values with the "uncultured forest" of the West and, in general, of universal society, in what he calls the raskulturivanie (раскультуривание), the “de-culturisation” of the world.

The Paris Olympics are an example of this degradation, with its irreverent symbolism and its gender diatribes. “When I looked at the images of the inaugural processions on the Seine,” the patriarch said, “I said to myself: ‘You cannot offend God this way! This is an incredible regression of Western civilisation, which seeks to smother all other cultures.”

People today, according to Kirill, "continue to use common words and follow habits, without asking themselves anything about their origin and meaning.”

To say thank you, Russians use the word Spasibo (СПАСИБО), which derives from Spasi Bog (СПАСИ БОГ), "God save”. There are many examples that the patriarch cites to indicate the roots of the sense of shared life, which must be found to avoid raskulturivanie, de-culturisation, and prevent it from becoming raschelovechivaniye (расчеловечивание), “dehumanisation” in which “culture loses its soul”.

The patriarch notes that "Christianity has never been the property of a single culture; it belongs to the whole world," and goes far beyond the concept of the "Christian world" because it values “every national culture as a treasure of the whole world”.

Russian culture is no exception, but having gone through particularly hard trials, "which it has been able to face with courage", it is today the culture that can "enrich the whole world" and counter “globalism that cancels and flattens different cultures, trying to make all men equal... These men will not be able to transmit values to future generations, in cancel culture, the culture of the click in which everything is allowed.”

Ultimately, Patriarch Kirill asks the question that divides the whole world today: “Should the culture of the twenty-first century be sovereign or global?” On a deeper level, “should it be a culture, or an anti-culture?”

It is a question of "what man must be today", and the answer he proposes is podvig (подвиг, feat), the monastic term that indicates the sacrifice a person makes for the common good.

Finally, turning to Pavel Florensky, martyr to Stalinist communism in the camps on Solovki Islands, he cites the words of the great Russian theologian: “Do nothing that does not have a true taste for life, because just doing things can make you lose the meaning of everything.”

Taking up the thoughts of other Orthodox ideologues, the Russian patriarch tries to avoid excessively trite and radical syntheses, turning to thinkers like the theologian and political scientist Aleksandr Shchipkov, whose recently published essay on the "Crisis of the theory and practice of actions to defend human rights" focuses on the “problem of conceptualising liberal (interpretations of) rights and the crisis of humanitarian institutions."

Russians insist on highlighting the weakness of the Western conception of freedom, which has been transformed into a "dogmatic doctrine", a "false metaphysics", that makes it impossible to regain the true freedom of the "values" for which Russia is fighting today.

There is a military war and an information war, but the Russian war is foremost a war of principles, calling for answers to the deepest questions in the contemporary world.