PM Hun Sen's United Nations appearance draws Cambodian diaspora protest

Members of the Cambodian diaspora rallied near the U.N. headquarters during the General Assembly.

By Sokunthea Hong for RFA Khmer
2022.09.23

Protestors hold signs at a demonstration by members of the Cambodian diaspora at United Nations headquarters as Prime Minister Hun Sen was set to give a speech at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Sept. 23, 2022.

About 300 members of the Cambodian diaspora in the U.S. rallied at United Nations headquarters in New York on Friday, demanding that the Phnom Penh government release political prisoners and implement democratic reforms as Prime Minister Hun Sen was set to address the U.N. General Assembly. 

The protesters displayed photos of detained activists from the now-dissolved Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP), whose leader Sam Rainsy has been in exile in France, and urged Hun Sen, the country’s long-ruling strongman, to release his grip on power. 

“Please respect human rights, release political activists to their freedom, and have free and fair elections in which all parties can participate,” Sam Vathana of Long Beach, California, told RFA when asked what his message was for Hun Sen. 

Chun Sothy, a CNRP activist who recently received asylum in the United States, traveled from North Carolina to attend the New York protest, told RFA that he was persecuted in Cambodia and fled to Thailand for three years before coming to the U.S. 

“I want Hun Sen to return our positions that he robbed from us. I am a former commune councilor. He robbed 5,007 seats,” Chun Sothy said. “He robbed the wills of more than 3 million people. If Hun Sen loves peace, why did he rob the wills of the people?”

Chun Sothy was referring to Cambodia’s recent communal elections, which opposition activists and civil society groups said was marred by pressure campaigns from Hun Sen’s allies. 

“I want to tell the world that Hun Sen is not a leader who was elected. He stole power and we are living under a dictatorial and corrupt regime,” Chun Sothy said.  

The prime minister, who has ruled Cambodia for more than three decades, did not schedule any meetings with Cambodians now living in the U.S. while on his trip to the U.S., saying he was too busy. But some of his supporters greeted him at his hotel in New York.

Members of the Cambodian diaspora protest against 

Prime Minister Hun Sen's authoritarian rule as the

 long-time strongman was set to address the 

U.N. General Assembly in New York, Sept. 23, 2022.

The protest was organized by the Cambodia-Myanmar Group, in opposition to “Hun Sen and his Cambodian People’s Party’s (CPP) decades-long tyrannical rule in the country,” the group said. 

It called on Cambodia “to reverse all wrongful convictions and detentions,” including the recent conviction of Cambodian American human rights attorney Seng Theary for conspiracy to commit treason, part of a mass trial largely viewed as part of a broader crackdown on critics of Hun Sen.

Since coming to power in 1985, Hun Sen has consistently targeted opponents to his rule and placed CPP officials in positions of authority nationwide. Parties that challenge his rule are often subjected to investigations, arrests and other forms of harassment by CPP officials and their supporters. 

Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Nawar Nemeh.

Villagers take protest over long-running land dispute to Cambodian capital

They say local authorities in their home provinces have refused 

to help them resolve the issue.

By RFA Khmer
2022.09.06

Villagers protest in front of Cambodia's Ministry of Justice, seeking the government's intervention in resolving a long-running land dispute, in Phnom Penh, Sept. 6, 2022. Photo courtesy of a citizen journalist

More than 1,000 people from two Cambodian provinces staged a protest on Tuesday outside the Ministry of Justice in Phnom Penh, calling on the government to resolve a long-running dispute over land taken by politically connected businesspeople, sources in the country said.

The residents of several hundred villages in Koh Kong and Kampong Speu provinces west of Phnom Penh contend that they did not receive adequate compensation for farmland seized to build an airport and have been forced into poverty as a result.

Land disputes are common in Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries. Government officials routinely seize land for lucrative real estate ventures, leaving displaced locals with little or no recourse.

The villagers said they took their decade-long grievances to the capital city after provincial authorities turned down their request for help.

They raised banners imploring Prime Minister Hun Sen and his wife, Bun Rany, to intervene and deliver justice, saying the ongoing dispute has caused them financial hardship. They also petitioned the Ministry of Justice and Hun Sen’s Cabinet, requesting that charges against more than 30 representatives of the villagers be dropped.

Authorities arrested the representatives in September 2021 during a violent roundup of protesters in Kandal province, which surrounds the capital region. They were demonstrating against land the government took from them and gave to a businessman with ties to the autocratic leader to build an airport.

Det Huor, a representative of the Koh Kong villagers, told RFA that the 1,000 people who protested on Tuesday also intended to march to the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction, but were stopped by security officers.

She said villagers involved in the land dispute can no longer afford to send their children to school. She and other villagers have been imprisoned for defending their rights, she said.

“Villagers’ representatives are the most vulnerable,” she said. “When we demanded [a solution], companies filed complaints to the court. I myself was sentenced to two years in jail and ordered to pay a fine.”

The protesters’ banners displayed portraits of Hun Sen and requested he identify villagers as citizens with incomes below the poverty line, so they can receive free medical services and other benefits. They also asked that officials stop pursuing legal action against them and against village representatives in court.

Pheap Teng, another representative from Koh Kong, said authorities and wealthy Cambodians used the courts to prosecute the villagers in the land dispute between her community and the provincial airport company owned by Ly Yong Phat, a casino tycoon and senator from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party.

Pheap Teng said she worries she will become even more impoverished if the dispute drags on.

“Please speed up a solution for my community,” she said. “Only Samdech [an honorific for Hun Sen] can give us a solution with Okhna [honorific] Ly Yong Phat.”

RFA couldn’t reach government spokesman Phay Siphan for comment on Tuesday.

Soeung Sengkaruna, spokesman for Cambodian rights group Adhoc, said after local authorities neglected the villagers’ entreaties, the residents had to spend a lot of money seeking intervention from the central government to no avail. Because of this, he urged Hun Sen to provide a solution.

“People think that only the prime minister can resolve the conflict,” he told RFA. “This is why they urged him to deliver a solution.”

Translated by Samean Yun for RFA Khmer. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

White House rebukes World Bank chief in climate row

In this file photo taken on November 3, 2021 World Bank president David Malpass

 speaks during a panel discussion at the COP26 UN Climate Summit in Glasgow. — AFP pic

Saturday, 24 Sep 2022 7:31 AM MYT

WASHINGTON, Sept 24 — The White House on Friday rebuked the head of the World Bank David Malpass, who is battling charges of climate denial for dodging questions on the role of man-made emissions in global warming.

Under mounting fire, Malpass has rejected suggestions he might quit over the uproar — and has moved to clarify his position several times in recent days.

“Look, it’s clear that greenhouse gas emissions from human activity are adding to, are causing climate change,” he told Politico Friday, affirming that none of the bank’s member countries had asked him to leave and that he was “not resigning.”

“The task for us, for the world, is to pull together the projects and the funding that actually has an impact,” he said.

Malpass is a veteran of Republican US administrations and was tapped to lead the bank in 2019 by then-president Donald Trump, who famously and repeatedly denied the science behind climate change.

Climate activists have previously called for Malpass to be removed for what they say is an inadequate approach to the climate crisis — but the chorus grew suddenly louder after his appearance at a New York Times-organised conference this week.

Asked on stage to respond to a claim by former US vice president Al Gore that he was a climate denier, Malpass declined multiple times to say whether he believed man-made emissions were warming the planet — responding, “I’m not a scientist.”

“We condemn the words of the president,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a White House briefing in response to the incident.

“We expect the World Bank to be a global leader” on the climate crisis response, she said, adding that the US Treasury Department “has and will continue to make that expectation clear to the World Bank leadership.”

Malpass has been seeking to course-correct since the row erupted earlier this week, and in an interview with CNN on Thursday he clearly acknowledged that climate-warming emissions were “coming from manmade sources, including fossil fuels, methane, agricultural uses and industrial uses.”

“I’m not a denier,” he told the network, saying his message had been “tangled” and he was “not always good at conveying” what he means.

But the uproar shows little sign of dying down, with the Union of Concerned Scientists the latest group to call for him to be “replaced immediately.”

Pressed on whether President Joe Biden still has confidence in Malpass and media reports that some US officials are seeking his removal, Jean-Pierre said: “Removing him requires a majority of shareholders, so that’s something to keep in mind.”

“The US believes the World Bank must be a full partner in delivering on the aggressive climate agenda, poverty reduction and sustainability development. Again, Treasury will hold Malpass accountable to this position and support the many staff working to fight climate change.”

‘I am worried’

Malpass’s initial nomination faced intense criticism but since taking the role he has been a staunch supporter of aid and debt relief for the poorest nations, in addition to consistently noting the dangers from climate change.

In a speech in June where he warned about the overlapping crises facing the global community amid soaring inflation and debt distress, he emphasized the need to “effectively address climate change.”

“It requires massive investments in cleaner energy, energy efficiency, and electricity grids and transmission. Gas flaring, methane leakage, and the operation of antiquated coal-fired power plants, with severe health and environmental impacts, continue with little abatement,” he said.

Even so, critics of the lending institution have grown increasingly loud.

“I am worried right now about the World Bank,” the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz told AFP earlier this week.

“Unfortunately the World Bank has not taken the kind of global leadership that the world needs right now” on climate and other critical issues, said Stiglitz, himself a former chief economist of the institution.

The head of the World Bank is traditionally an American, while the leader of the other big international lender in Washington, the IMF, tends to be European.

Malpass is not the first leader of one of those institutions to come under fire for personal or professional behaviour.

His predecessor Jim Yong Kim faced controversy over reforms and management of the Bank and then left early to join the private sector, while current IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva fell into hot water over changes made to data in a now discontinued World Bank report that painted China in a more positive light. — AFP

 Pakistan’s dire floods signal global climate crisis, PM tells UN

Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif speaks at the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters on September 23, 2022 in New York City. — Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images/AFP pic

Saturday, 24 Sep 2022 

NEW YORK, Sept 24 — Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif warned Friday that his country’s worst-ever floods were a sign of climate catastrophes to come around the world, as he urged justice for developing nations that bear little responsibility for warming.

Unprecedented monsoon downpours flooded a third of the country — an area the size of the United Kingdom — killing nearly 1,600 people and displacing more than seven million.

-ADVERTISEMENT-

“What happened in Pakistan will not stay in Pakistan,” he said in a passionate address to the United Nations General Assembly, adding that lost homes, decimated livelihoods and deluged cropland had meant that for many, life had “changed forever.”

Sharif said injustice was inherent in the crisis, with his country of 220 million people at “ground zero” of climate change but responsible for less than one percent of carbon emissions.

“Why are my people paying the price of such high global warming through no fault of their own? Nature has unleashed her fury on Pakistan without looking at our carbon footprint, which is next to nothing,” he said.

“It is therefore entirely reasonable to expect some approximation of justice for this loss and damage,” he continued, adding his voice to growing calls among developing countries for financial compensation from rich polluters.

Climate compensation

The issue of “loss and damage” payments is deeply contentious.

Supporters argue that historic polluters have a moral imperative to pay for the loss and damage already caused by multiplying extreme weather events, which have not been prevented by measures to mitigate or adapt to global warming.

The idea has so far been shot down by rich nations, but UN chief Antonio Guterres endorsed the proposal a few days ago and it is due to be discussed at the next UN climate summit in Egypt.

Pakistan has estimated total financial losses at US$30 billion (RM137 billion), and on Friday its finance minister Miftah Ismail tweeted the county was seeking debt relief from bilateral creditors.

Turning his attention to neighbouring Afghanistan, Sharif urged the international community to heed a US$4.2 billion UN appeal for humanitarian and economic assistance and release the country’s financial reserves, frozen since the Taliban seized power last year.

“Pakistan is working to encourage respect for the rights of Afghan girls and women to education and work. Yet, at this point, isolating the Afghan Interim Government could aggravate the suffering of the Afghan people, who are already destitute,” he said.

The United States recently set up an outside fund to manage Afghanistan’s frozen assets, saying it did not trust the Taliban.

On Kashmir, the Himalayan territory disputed between Pakistan and India since the two countries’ independence from Britain, Sharif accused New Delhi of embarking on “illegal demographic changes” by opening the Muslim-majority region to mass migration by Hindu Indians.

He called on India to “walk the path of peace and dialogue by reversing its illegal steps of 15 August 2019,” when New Delhi revoked Kashmir’s constitutional autonomy. — AFP

 

Two Views Of Abraham’s Sons On Rosh HaShanah – OpEd

 September 24, 2022 

By Rabbi Allen S. Maller

In the June 13, 2022 issue of Islamicity Barnaby Rogerson writes: “In the Muslim account Abraham has two separate families. His Jewish descendants come from his marriage to his cousin-wife Sarah. His Arab descendants come from Hagar, his Egyptian concubine. Hagar had been given to Sarah as a gift from Pharaoh’s sister and, although Sarah had initially allowed her husband to sleep with her, Sarah became jealous when she remained barren while Hagar became pregnant. 

“When Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, Abraham was forced to separate his two women. He took Hagar and her baby across the Arabian desert and left them with just a bag of dates and a jar of water in the empty valley of Mecca. As he climbed out of the valley he stopped on the plain and prayed to God to care for them.

“As their supplies dwindled, Ishmael began to cry out with thirst. Hagar ran distractedly up first one hill and then another (these two hillocks, the hill of Safa and the hill of Marwah, stand just outside the Kaaba sanctuary) searching desperately for water. She ran between these hillocks seven times (the origin of the oldest of the practices of the Muslim pilgrimage) before finally collapsing. The Archangel Gabriel then appeared to her and dug down into the earth in order to expose the Zemzem spring, whose waters bubbled out to save both mother and son.

“Many years later Abraham returned to find his son Ishmael grown into manhood and Hagar presiding over the town of Mecca. His joy was great but his dismay even greater when God tested him by calling upon him to sacrifice his first born son. 

“Ishmael, like his half-brother Isaac, was of course spared this terrible fate. Instead father and son built the Kaaba as an altar to the One God. In the process they discovered the foundations of an earlier altar built by Adam; which had been washed away in the flood. They instituted a three-day festival, which culminated in the sacrifice of a ram to commemorate God’s mercy. This is the original Eid el Kebir, the feast of sacrifice. It is the single greatest festival of the Islamic year.” From “The Prophet Muhammad” by Barnaby Rogerson.

Since I have been writing articles for Islamicity for more than 15 years, I thought I should add some views of Hagar and her son Ishmael that appeared in an article that I, Rabbi Allen Maller, wrote with Rabbi Ron Kronish titled: The Descendants of Prophets Isaac and Ishmael Can Live Together Peacefully. 

Muslims know that Hagar and her son Prophet Ishmael are mentioned in the biblical book of Genesis, (chapter 21); but very few know that “every year Jews in synagogues worldwide read Genesis chapters 21 and 22 on the first and second days of Rosh Hashanah; the Jewish New Year Festival.”

Rosh HaShanah begins this year on the evening of September 25 and ends before sunset on September 26 for Reform Jews; and on September 27 for Conservative and Orthodox Jews. Rosh HaShanah ushers in a ten day period of seeking self-improvement by doing a self-judgement review of our deeds in the past year; and then making specific commitments to doing better in the new year.

Rabbi Kronish writes: “On these very special holy days we read about Prophet Ishmael as well as Prophet Isaac. Reading about the patriarch of the Arab people is part of our Jewish tradition because these foundational events are essential to our identity as Jews and Chapter 21—the story of the birth and banishment of Ishmael—establishes our Jewish connection to God’s non-Jewish children. 

“God saw Ishmael was about to die and the text tells us the God of the Hebrew Bible hears the voice of all children, including Ishmael, in their suffering and misery, as well as in their joyous and hopeful moments.

“After these events we next hear about Ishmael a few chapters later, when Isaac and Ishmael meet again (Genesis 25:9) at the funeral of their father Abraham. Islamic and Jewish tradition both agree that Prophet Abraham visited Prophet Ishmael’s distant home on at least two different occasions to make sure that his family relationships were suitable. These pre and post funeral reconciliations would be why the Torah’s describes Abraham as ‘contented’ in his old age. 

“Can we see this as a very good model for family reconciliations [today by] forgiving old hurts? And can it also become a model for the descendants of Prophet Ishmael and Prophet Isaac, the contemporary Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews, to find the grounds to attain, after the military funerals are over, the forgiveness and reconciliation that both Islam and Judaism teach are holy goals.

“Rabbi Kronish’s answer is Yes. “But Jews and Muslims have to overcome some deeply ingrained negative stereotypes of each other. Some of this comes from our understanding –or purposeful misunderstanding — of our sacred texts, which can be very problematic and often lead to negative stereotyping. It is time to choose reconciliation rather than retribution between Jews and Muslims in this world. The time for enmity is over.”

And I would add to the words of Rabbi Kronish that everyone knows how important fasting during Ramadan, and daily worship and prayer are in Islam; but few know that Islam considers reconciling people better than many acts of worship. 

Prophet Muhammad said: “Should I not tell you what is better in degree than prayer, fasting, and charity.” They (the companions) said: “Yes.” He said: “Reconciling people, because grudges and disputes are a razor (that shaves off faith).” (Ahmad, Abu Dawood, and At-Tirmithi)

Even more amazing the Prophet said: “The one who reconciles people is not considered a liar if he exaggerates what is good or says what is good.” [Ahmad] 

This is an excellent guide to dealing with the three-generation old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rather than focusing mostly on what the other side did to us, we all should focus on how the conflict has hurt all of us, and how much better our future would be if we could live next to each other in peace. 

If the descendants of Prophet Isaac and Prophet Ishmael negotiate a settlement that reflects the religious policy that “…there is no sin upon them if they make terms of settlement between them – and settlement [reconciliation] is best.” (Quran 4: 128) 

For in Jewish tradition family harmony is of such importance that a rabbinic dicta states that this goal even warrants engaging in a “white lie”. When God tells Sarah she will give birth to a son, she says: “After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my husband being old also?” But when God speaks to Abraham, God says: “Why did Sarah say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?” (Genesis: 18:12-13). 

The rabbis comment that God omitted Sarah’s mention of Abraham’s even older age out of concern for their family harmony. And the Sages of the school of Hillel taught that one can praise the beauty of a bride even though she is not very pretty.

Prophet Muhammad said: “He is not a liar who seeks to reconcile between people and says [only] good things.” (al-Bukhaari, 2490) This is because the Qur’an refers to Prophet Abraham as a community or nation: “Abraham was a nation/community [Ummah]; dutiful to God, a monotheist [hanif], not one of the polytheists.” (16:120) 

If Prophet Abraham is himself an Ummah, then fighting between the descendants of Prophets Ishmael and Isaac is a civil war and should always be avoided.

Rabbi Dr Ron Kronish is the Founding Director the Inter-religious Coordinating Council in Israel (ICCI), which he directed for 25 years. His book, The Other Peace Process: Inter-religious Dialogue, a View from Jerusalem, was published by Hamilton Books, an imprint of Rowman and LIttlefield, in September 2017.

Rabbi Allen S. Maller
Allen Maller retired in 2006 after 39 years as Rabbi of Temple Akiba in Culver City, Calif. He is the author of an introduction to Jewish mysticism. God. Sex and Kabbalah and editor of the Tikun series of High Holy Day prayerbooks.

PICTURE The dismissal of Hagar, by Pieter Pietersz Lastman. Credit: Wikipedia Commons

Restoring America's Oyster Population Through Conservation & Farming 

NBC Nightly News Films

Sep 23, 2022

From ocean to table, oysters play an important role as both a habitat and a fishing industry. Now, as the country’s wild oyster populations are under threat from overharvesting and climate change, there is a growing movement to establish sustainable aquaculture in the south. Together, scientists and aquafarmers are working to protect wild oyster reefs across the country, fight pollution and continue the Gulf’s rich oyster tradition.

Lofgren signals that stock trading ban will include Supreme Court justices

Mychael Schnell - Yesterday 

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) signaled in a letter to colleagues that legislation banning congressional lawmakers from trading stocks will include Supreme Court justices.

© Provided by The Hill

Lofgren, the chair of the House Administration Committee, outlined a framework for “Combating Financial Conflicts of Interest and Restoring Public Faith and Trust in Government” in Thursday’s letter, with the first prong pertaining to a stock trading ban for “senior government officials,” their spouses and their dependent children.

That group of officials, according to Lofgren, includes members of Congress and the Supreme Court.

If enacted, individuals subject to the ban would be prohibited from investing in securities, commodities, futures, cryptocurrency and other similar investments and be banned from shorting stocks. Investments in diversified mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, widely held investment funds and U.S. Treasury or state and local government bills, notes or bonds would, however, be allowed.

Officials would have the choice of divesting their holdings or placing them in a qualified blind trust.

Lofgren’s framework comes as the House is preparing to consider a lawmaker stock trading ban next week, after months of deliberations on the topic. But it was unclear if Supreme Court justices would be included in the ban.

The push for such a prohibition gained supporters on Capitol Hill after reports surfaced that members violated laws meant to prevent financial conflicts of interest.

Earlier this month, The New York Times published an extensive report that found nearly 100 lawmakers or their family members made financial trades in the past three years that may be conflicts of interest.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) threw her support behind a lawmaker stock ban in February, a reversal of her previous opposition to the push, while also floating the idea of including the judiciary in any reforms made to financial reporting requirements.

Under current law, Supreme Court justices are permitted to trade stocks, which some say could pose a conflict of interest.

Lofgren in Thursday’s letter said she will introduce legislation reflecting her four-point framework.

“A number of bills that have been introduced to date address some of these issues and include thoughtful proposals, but no one bill addresses each of these four elements with this level of detail. I will soon introduce legislative text for a bill built on this framework for reform,” the California Democrat wrote.

“Many Members have already concluded that reforms are necessary. I agree,” she added.

Lofgren’s framework also calls for increasing the “granularity” of financial disclosures by asking for more specific information. It would additionally require electronic filings of all financial disclosure filings from all three branches of government.

Thirdly, the framework would increase penalties for failure to comply with financial disclosure requirements and implement additional fines that would be tied to the sum of assets or transactions that violated rules.

The fourth tenet of the framework is aimed at increasing accountability and public awareness. The measure would require that information about compliance is publicly disclosed and direct the Justice Department to present an annual report to Congress outlining criminal and civil proceedings taken against violators.

Pelosi told reporters last week that a ban on lawmaker stock trading could come to the floor this month. The House is scheduled to leave Washington next week, and it is not set to return until after the November midterm elections.

On the House floor Thursday, top lawmakers said the House may consider legislation to reform the STOCK Act next week. That 2012 statute, an acronym for the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, banned congressional employees and staffers from utilizing information received through work to benefit personally.

Serbian police cancel Europride parade in Belgrade

Online News EditorSeptember 13, 2022

 

Belgrade, Sep 13 (EFE).- Serbian police have banned the Europride parade that was scheduled to take place in Belgrade on September 17, the country’s interior ministry said Tuesday.

The ministry justified the decision with security concerns over an anti-globalist march set to take place at the same time.

“It has been assessed that there is a risk of attacks and confrontations, there is a risk of violence, destruction of property and other forms of threat to the public order of great magnitude,” the interior ministry said in a statement.

Interior minister Aleksandar Vulin added that possible clashes would put those taking part in the marches, as well as other citizens, in danger.

The organizers of the parade celebrating the LGBT community condemned Serbia’s political leadership for canceling the event, calling it a “total failure.”

“We are working with the @BelgradePride team on alternative solutions,” the European Pride Organizers Association (EPOA) added in a Twitter post.

EPOA chief Kristine Garina added that banning pride parades is “anti-constitutional.”

“It’s been ruled by the Serbian court several times. The ban will be appealed in court and will be overturned,” she tweeted.

According to Garina, thousands of LGBT people, as well as their friends, will gather in Belgrade on Saturday, despite the ban.

Belgrade Europride week kicked off on Monday by hoisting the rainbow flag outside Serbian government headquarters. It will end on Sunday with more than 130 concerts, human rights conferences and exhibitions, among other events across the Serbian capital.

Belgrade was chosen by EPOA three years ago to host Europride 2022, to be the first city in Southeast Europe to do so.

In recent weeks, traditionalists, right-wing extremists and members of the Serbian Orthodox Church have taken to the streets to protest the event.EFE

sn-jk/smq/mp

‘What doors will open?’: Hope in Singapore ahead of gay sex decriminalization

Online News EditorSeptember 23, 2022

 

By Paloma Almoguera

Singapore, Sep 24 (EFE).- After almost a century in force, Singapore is preparing to repeal a law inherited from the British Empire that criminalizes sex between men – a decision that generates elation but also doubt among the LGBT community of the conservative island state.

“There (is) a question on what else would come. Still there is a lot of insecurity of what the trade-offs are. Okay, we will repeal the law, but what are you going to take away from the lives of gay people?” asks Becca D’Bus, the pseudonym of Eugene Tan, creator of a successful drag queen show.

Becca, 44, is referring to the fine print of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s Aug. 22 announcement that Section 377A of the penal code will be repealed, and that she thinks the government will try to “appease” certain groups who have expressed opposition on the island of 5.7 million people.

Among them is part of the influential religious sector. Singapore has a 33 percent Buddhist population, while about 20 percent are Christian and 14 percent Muslim, in addition to other minority faiths.

In force since 1938, section 377A includes penalties of up to two years in prison for men who commit acts of “gross indecency” with another man.

Lee said the repeal, the date of which has not been announced, will “bring the law into line with current social morals, and I hope, provide some relief to gay Singaporeans.”

Initially, it does. The repeal has for decades been the main goal for the LGBT+ community in Singapore, which in February suffered great disappointment when the appeals court ruled against a claim of unconstitutionality.

“I feel happy for the people who had fought hard for the repeal. They should be recognized for their hard work,” says Joseph (not his real name), a Singaporean who has been in a gay relationship for years and who prefers to remain anonymous.

His happiness is shared by Becca, although from a different perspective.

“Marriage is not something that I care about, but it is clear that there is an attempt to sort of limit the ways in which citizens can be heard,” she tells EFE.

“I think we should be talking about care, families and how people choose to care for each other and how we protect these relationships, whatever they may be,” she adds.

The eventual repeal of 377A, which India annulled in 2018 and which is still in force in former British colonies such as neighboring Malaysia and Myanmar, is considered the definitive end of the criminalization of gay sex in Singapore, even though the government has not been enforcing the law for years.

“I have never felt any form of discrimination here due to my sexuality – both personally and at a professional level,” Joseph says.

However, sitting in a cafe devoid of the make-up and wardrobe she wears on stage every Saturday night, Becca says that many companies and theaters have refused to contract her show for being too queer, and questions the impact that the repeal will have on vital issues.

“There are suggestions that materially things won’t change: housing laws (Singapore, where 80 percent of the population lives in government-subsidized housing, makes it easier for married people and families to access accommodation), marriage, discrimination in the work environment…”

“If someone thinks he has been fired because his bosses are homophobic, he doesn’t have a case in court – we are not protected,” Becca denounces.

What they both agree on is that new discussions must be had and that their lives will not change much immediately after the repeal.

“As a guy who is in a long-term relationship, who shares a household with another man, this repeal does not really impact me. Our lives before and after the repeal will remain the same,” says Joseph.

Becca jokes: “I don’t think I will be having more sex.”

The nomadic day laborers sustaining Turkey’s agricultural industry

Online News EditorSeptember 17, 2022

 

By Dogan Tiliç

Ankara, Sep 17 (EFE).- The unease is palpable among the day laborers getting ready to work at an onion field outside Ankara.

“Stop filming,” says one. “Delete the photos, we don’t want press, it doesn’t help and only brings problems.”

The man worried about the presence of journalists is Ahmed, who is from the province of Sanliurfa, some 700 kilometers away in southeast Turkey.

Ahmed is a university student but, like his father, Ömer, 66, he earns a living by traveling around the country for seven months of the year in search of work to sustain the family.

Turkey’s agriculture sector, a major exporter to European markers, is kept afloat by some two million day mostly Kurdish laborers.

They are not granted labor rights and toil away in poor conditions.

“We start in April,” Ömer, who has been a seasonal worker for as long as he can remember, tells Efe.

“We left the village and we went to Adana (western Turkey) to work in the fields. Then we went to Malatya (eastern Turkey) to harvest apricots and now we will be with the onions in Ankara for a month.”

Day laborers such as Ahmed and Ömer make up an estimated fifth of the five to six-million strong agricultural workforce in Turkey.

The vast majority of the informal laborers are Kurds who leave their native southeastern Turkey from April to November, migrating across the country from the greenhouses of the Mediterranean coast to the fields of central Anatolia and the Black Sea.

Myriad sectors rely on their labor, from cotton, peanuts and hazelnuts to onions, garlic, potatoes, beets, peppers, tomato and watermelons.

This year, the going rate for a seasonal laborer is around 175 Turkish lira ($9.60) per day. Under those conditions, a laborer would have to work an entire month with no days off to reach the minimum wage.

It is common for entire families to travel around in search of work.

Men, women and children toil away for up to 12 hours under the sun and live in camps set up far from the nearest towns and villages.

“We arrive here, surrounded by dirt and mud, we don’t have water, nothing. There’s no electricity,” Hasan, a young day laborer, tells Efe.

Ömer adds: “We don’t have baths or a shower. We travel. Now we are here, in two days we will be somewhere else. If we stayed in one place, we would be part of society.”

Many day laborers return to the same spots each year.

“If you live for five or 10 years in a European country, they give you nationality,” Hasan says.

“We’ve been coming here for 18 years and they don’t even give us electricity. You have to walk 10 kilometers to find a cafe to charge your mobile.”