It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, September 12, 2023
UK republican group head to sue over coronation arrest
Issued on: 12/09/2023 -
London (AFP) – The head of UK anti-monarchy group Republic said on Tuesday he was suing police for wrongful arrest before King Charles III's coronation.
Six members of the campaign group Republic were arrested before protests at King Charles III's coronation
Graham Smith and five other members of the group were detained before the ceremony on May 6, leaving them unable to join planned protests.
Police said at the time the six were arrested "on suspicion of going equipped for locking on", referring to items used by demonstrators to attach themselves to one another, an object or the ground.
Officers were given the powers just days before the coronation, following repeated direct action protests by environmental activists and concerns the same could happen during the showpiece royal event.
Smith, who had liaised for several months with London's Metropolitan Police before the planned protest, wants a judicial review of the decision to hold him.
"We expect a full apology and public acknowledgement that the Met got it wrong," he said.
"There were no grounds for detaining us, searching us or arresting us. It was an appalling attack on the rights of peaceful protesters."
Smith is seeking an admission from the Met that the arrests were unlawful, damages and costs.
He and his colleagues were released more than 16 hours after they were arrested and then told that no further action would be taken against them.
The Met confirmed it had received a claim for judicial review.
"It would be inappropriate to comment on ongoing proceedings," a spokesman said.
The force previously expressed "regret" that the protesters were unable to join others who held aloft "Not My King" placards as part of their campaign for an end to constitutional monarchy.
Human Rights Watch called the arrests "incredibly alarming", likening it to "something you would expect to see in Moscow, not London".
Police arrested 64 people on the day, including three members of a local council-run women's safety group -- that the Met sponsored -- for carrying rape alarms.
The Daily Mail newspaper had previously claimed that protesters were planning to throw rape alarms to spook military horses taking part in the parade.
UN maps out decarbonisation of polluting construction sector
Issued on: 12/09/2023 -
Paris (AFP) – The construction sector -- the most polluting and difficult to decarbonise -- must build less, use more sustainable materials and clean up conventional ones to slash its emissions, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
Mushrooming urban environments pose serious challenges to fighting climate change and damage to life-sustaining ecosystems
The industry is responsible for 37 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions and growing urbanisation is spurring the construction of new buildings made from carbon-heavy materials, especially concrete and steel.
Mushrooming urban environments -- which add new buildings in an area equivalent in size to Paris every five days -- damage life-sustaining ecosystems and pose serious challenges to fighting climate change.
A report published by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and Yale Center for Ecosystems and Architecture on Tuesday called on the sector to prioritise a "circular" approach that avoids waste.
Net zero by 2050 in construction is achievable if "governments put in place the right policy, incentives and regulation to bring a shift the industry action", said Sheila Aggarwal-Khan, director of UNEP's industry and economy division.
Building less and repurposing existing structures generates 50-75 percent fewer emissions than new constructions, the report said.
Switching to renewable bio-based materials such as timber and biomass could see emissions savings of up to 40 percent by 2050 in some regions, it added.
Conventional materials that cannot be replaced -- concrete, steel, aluminium, glass and bricks -- must find ways to decarbonise further, said the report.
Electrifying production, scaling up innovative technologies, and using more recycled materials would accelerate efforts to clean up these especially carbon-intensive materials.
Concrete, aluminium and steel alone account for 23 percent of overall global emissions.
The share of concrete in world construction should be cut by half between 2020 and 2060 for an effective decarbonisation of the sector, the report recommended.
Two-thirds should be "circular" -- concrete that has been recycled, reused or created using low-carbon cement.
The remainder would be new, low-emissions cement.
Anna Dyson, a lead author of the report and a professor at the Yale Schools of Architecture in the United States, said the sector needed a "revolution", including a "dramatic reduction" in new concrete production.
Concrete, aluminium and steel alone account for 23 percent of overall global emissions
Steel and concrete "often give only the illusion of durability, usually ending up in landfills and contributing to the growing climate crisis", said Aggarwal-Khan. 'Back to the future'
Until the mid-20th century, building materials were usually sourced locally and from renewable or organic sources such as stone and timber.
Buildings were designed "with climate conditions in mind", and only in recent decades have materials mostly used "extractive, toxic and non-renewable methods", said Dyson.
The construction industry must cooperate with the forest and agricultural sectors to manage wood and biomass resources and the materials needed for future cities, she added.
"It's a kind of back-to-the-future revolution."
Living biomass on walls or roofs can be an important low-carbon material for cities in the future, Dyson added.
There is no "silver bullet" to decarbonise the industry, said fellow lead author Naomi Keena of Canada's McGill University.
"It's about adding new materials" and "shifting the processes", she said.
The report, which drew on contributions from researchers and architects from across the world, will be presented during a climate gathering of ministers and business leaders in New York next week.
It will also play an important role in an international meeting due in Paris in March 2024 bringing together government ministers responsible for construction and climate, according to a UN source.
Some countries could make "breakthrough" commitments during UN climate talks in Dubai starting in November, just as they did for the transport, energy, steel, agriculture and hydrogen sectors in 2021, the source added.
This week on France 24 we’re celebrating 50 years since the birth of Hip Hop. More than a musical genre, it’s a global phenomenon. Business, sport, fashion, politics – hip hop influences it all. Our culture team has recorded a four part series in New York and Paris to trace its journey from the streets of 1970s the Bronx to becoming the most popular and lucrative music genre in the world. From meeting the godfather of Hip Hop Grandmaster Flash in his Bronx studio, to rising star Kenzo B and fashion legend Dapper Dan, Jennifer Ben Brahim, the producer, tells us more.
Romania builds air-raid shelters near Ukraine border
Issued on: 12/09/2023 -
Bucharest (AFP) – NATO member Romania announced Tuesday that it has begun building air-raid shelters for residents near the Ukraine border, after drone fragments were found there last week.
Romanian soldiers at work building a bomb shelter in the border town of Plauru on Tuesday
Romanian soldiers on Saturday found fragments of a drone "similar to those used by the Russian army" in the Plauru area across the border from Ukraine.
Bucharest has already beefed up measures to strengthen monitoring and airspace security following repeated Russian attacks close to its border.
Approximately 50 Romanian soldiers began building two shelters on Tuesday, the defence ministry said in a statement.
The concrete shelters are aimed at "protecting the residents" of Plauru and will be handed over to local authorities once completed, it added.
The move follows a decision by the Romanian National Committee for Emergency Situations to adopt "protection measures on the national territory in the immediate vicinity of the conflict zone in Ukraine".
Romanians living in the area close to the Ukrainian ports of Reni and Izmail will also be alerted on their phones in case of any "risk from the fall of elements" related to the war.
Moscow has ramped up attacks on Ukraine's southern Odesa and Mykolaiv regions, home to ports and infrastructure vital for agriculture exports following the collapse of a deal allowing grain shipments from Black Sea ports.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg discussed the drone fragment discovery on Saturday.
Stoltenberg said on X, formerly Twitter, there was "no indication of intent to hit NATO, but the strikes are destabilising".
Iohannis said the discovery indicated "there took place an absolutely unacceptable breach of the Romanian sovereign airspace".
Since Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine in February last year, NATO has been focused on preventing the war from spilling over onto its territory.
Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot | Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy
Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective with the flamboyant moustache and keen eye for detail, is one of the most beloved characters in crime fiction. He was created by British writer Agatha Christie and first arrived on our bookshelves in 1920. He has since appeared in 33 novels, 51 short stories and two plays.
He has also been depicted in film and television by an array of actors, with Kenneth Branagh’s latest iteration, A Haunting in Venice, opening on the big screen this month.
Poirot’s characteristics have led us to speculate that he may be autistic, even though Christie never explicitly said so.
Headcanon and autistic representation
When audiences “headcanon” a character, this means they have interpreted it in a way which is not openly stated in the film, TV or other media in which they feature.
Here are seven clues that Hercule Poirot might be autistic
As media portrayals of autistic people are rare and often unrealistic, the autistic and wider neurodivergent communities sometimes headcanon characters who aren’t explicitly confirmed as neurodivergent (ND).
However, creating a headcanon can cause controversy. They are subjective and some people believe the process of identifying a character as ND-coded is an over-simplification of the complexities of autism and other neurotypes. But celebrating difference can be positive for those who feel under-represented in the media.
The detective
Detectives are often ND-coded in crime fiction stories. Their actions and diverse thought patterns are typically not understood by those around them. So, their personalities are labelled as “different”, or their mannerisms are classed as odd or eccentric.
Some are explicitly ND, such as Adrian Monk in the US series Monk and Saga Norén in the Nordic noir series The Bridge. Others have been headcanoned as ND — most frequently, Sherlock Holmes in his various iterations.
Here are seven reasons why Hercule Poirot is also ND-coded:
1. Social exclusion
Poirot is regularly seen as “different” by those around him. Often, this is attributed to him being Belgian, with other characters drawing attention to his “odd” behaviours. He is also described as “positively exotic” in 1937’s Dumb Witness, and is regularly referred to as being French, something which angers Poirot.
2. Scripting
Poirot scripts conversations prior to having them, planning out what he will say and how he will act towards people, much like autistic people often do.
3. Masking
He also masks, which is a phenomenon frequently reported by autistic people, in which they hide or reduce elements of themselves to fit in. Poirot does this by putting on his “foreign shield of exaggerated mannerisms” — sometimes taking advantage of his uniqueness, knowing how others will see him and behaving accordingly.
4. Psychology
Poirot is interested in psychology, a common special interest for autistic people, who often wish to have an in-depth understanding of people.
He states that his brain and mind work differently to those around him, and arguably values his enduring companion Hastings for his “neurotypical” insights, telling him: “In you, Hastings, I find the normal mind almost perfectly illustrated.”
5. Interaction
Poirot also displays a unique interaction style, which other characters often do not understand, or label peculiar. This mirrors the differences in communication preferences, and misunderstandings this can lead to, between neurotypical and ND people.
Poirot is less governed by social norms and customs, considering each character as an individual, regardless of their age, sex, gender or socio-economic status. Christie often played on the readers’ prejudice, with the detective obliged to see beyond this.
For example, in Peril at End House (1932), Hastings believes that an affable sea commander must be above suspicion, but Poirot responds: “Doubtless he has been to what you consider the right school. Happily, being a foreigner, I am free from these prejudices, and can make investigations unhampered by them.”
6. Routine
Poirot is very particular in the way he solves crimes, through order and method. He enjoys keeping a routine, typically revolving around his meals, which he is also very particular about: “For my breakfast, I have only toast which is cut into neat little squares.”
Autistic people often find comfort in familiarity and in eating the same or safe foods.
7. Sensory regulation
Poirot wears tight, patent leather shoes, as described in Hallowe’en Party (1969): “He was unsuitably attired as to the feet in patent leather shoes which were, so Mr Fullerton guessed shrewdly, too tight for him.”
This habit is arguably for sensory reasons, which is very important for autistic people and their wellbeing.
Poirot requires a particular sensory environment to think properly, and values his alone time to process what he has learnt. He also likes to keep his immediate surroundings, including his friend Hastings, neat and orderly.
Although Poirot’s neurotype is never explicitly detailed in Christie’s works, fellow ND readers who understand and recognise these codes may headcanon Poirot as part of their community. The writer is an Assistant Researcher in Public Health at the Swansea University in the UK Republished from The Conversation
Furqan* spends his days and nights in immense mental anguish and inadequate security in the notorious Adiala jail in Rawalpindi.
Around six months ago, the Catholic Christian was picked up by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) from an impoverished neighbourhood in Karachi and whisked away to Islamabad to face trial under the blasphemy law.
A rights activist, who recently met Furqan in Adiala, said the allegation against him is that he had sent a text message to a Muslim friend who claimed it contained blasphemous content, hurting the latter’s religious feelings.
“Initially, the FIA team travelled all the way from the federal capital to Karachi to arrest Furqan’s younger brother. After subjecting him to physical torture and incarcerating him in Adiala jail for a month, the FIA released him, and arrested Furqan,” added the activist, who wished to not be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
“In jail, I surprisingly had the chance to meet around 150 other inmates, who are also languishing — from months to years — under the same allegations of having blasphemed the Muslim majority’s religion,” the activist says. The case against Furqan was lodged in 2021-2022. However, this case is just the tip of a rock-hard iceberg that shows no signs of melting in the foreseeable future.
A difficult year
Despite the distressing circumstances Furqan is currently in, his family believes he is lucky to be alive since the prison at least protects him from vigilante mobs like those that were behind the recent Jaranwala incident.
Hundreds of enraged men had torched dozens of churches and many more houses following rumours that two Christian brothers had desecrated pages of the Holy Quran.
“The incidents show a pattern and a replication of what happened in Shanti Nagar in 1997, Sangla Hill in 2005, Gojra in 2009 and many other incidents, where frenzied mobs are collected through provocative announcements on the pretext of blasphemy,” said Peter Jacob, executive director of the Centre for Social Justice Pakistan (CSJ), sharing the preliminary facts of the incident.
The CSJ has been keeping a record of cases against religious minorities nationwide since the promulgation of blasphemy laws by military dictator Ziaul Haq in the 1980s. More specifically Sections 295, 295-A, 295-B and 295-C that deal with blasphemy were introduced to the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), under Gen Zia.
The watchdog says the year 2023 has witnessed a worryingly high number of blasphemy-related incidents. “In 2023, there has been an exponential increase in the abuse of blasphemy laws. Till August, 16,198 persons have been accused [of blasphemy] with 85 per cent [of them] Muslims, 9pc Ahmadis, and 4.4pc Christians,” said Jacob.
When did the matter exacerbate?
Jacob believes that the rise in blasphemy cases is deeply rooted in the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) former government, and the rising religio-political party Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP).
Commenting on the CSJ’s 2023 report, he stated that it is unfortunate that the highest number of blasphemy cases in recent years have been reported under the PTI regime. According to the CSJ, 499 blasphemy cases were reported during the PTI’s three-and-a-half-year-long tenure between 2018-2022. This number had only been exceeded under Gen Pervez Musharraf’s regime with 503 cases over 2000-2007.
“The PTI government’s tenure was the worst compared to its predecessors in terms of victimisation of religious minorities and Muslims alike over allegations of blaspheming the majority religion,” he says.
There is a clear upward trend in the use of blasphemy laws over the years.
Government-wise statistics show that in the years after the law was promulgated, Zia’s regime (1987-1988) saw only 31 cases compared to the recent hundreds. Sixteen cases were filed in the PPP’s 1989-1990 government, 98 during PML-N’s 1991-1993 rule, 76 in PPP’s second tenure (1994-1996) and 195 during PML-N’s 1997-1999 regime. While the numbers already saw an exponential rise, it was during the Musharraf regime that the numbers crossed the 500 mark.
The successive civilian governments that followed the Musharraf dictatorship failed to control the misuse of the laws with 441 blasphemy cases registered during the PPP’s 2008-2013 and 261 during PML-N’s 2014-2018 tenures.
After the PML-N, the number surged close to 500 once again during the PTI government.
Asad Iqbal Butt from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan also agreed that there was a clear rise in blasphemy cases during the PTI government’s tenure. “It was firstly because former prime minister Imran Khan was openly in support of having a dialogue with terrorists and militant outfits,” he opined.
“Then, the TLP, which has a very radical view about one specific Muslim sect, was allowed to be launched. They not only lodged blasphemy cases against religious minorities but also didn’t spare Muslims,” he told Prism. He noted that TLP activists and supporters had also been involved in the Jaranwala incident.
However, Amir Mufti Qasim Fakhri of TLP’s Karachi chapter denied allegations that his party was involved in the arson and violence at Jaranwala.
However, Fakhri admitted that his party’s leaders and activists had lodged a large number of blasphemy cases across the country, saying: “If anyone blasphemes our Prophet (PBUH) and other personalities, it is our duty to stop them.”
Fakhri declared that the punishment for blasphemy is the death sentence, as it is clearly defined in Section 295-C of the PPC.
The cleric alleged that the media and other elements which “toe American and Western lines”, portray a bad image of the TLP over the issue of blasphemy.
He also hit out at reports that linked the group to the violence in Jaranwala and demanded the stories be retracted.
Politicisation of law
In recent years, the use of blasphemy laws against opponents seems to have become a regular occurrence.
On the grassroots level, common people have been using blasphemy allegations as a tool to settle personal scores, most commonly monetary and land disputes, by accusing opponents — from religious minorities — of blaspheming Islam. In 2013, at least 125 houses in a Christian community were burned down by mobs for the sole purpose — as it transpired later — of dispossessing them of prime lands in the Badami Bagh outskirts of Lahore and usurping the same.
This practice of false blasphemy allegations has also been observed with politicians and religious outfits that openly use it to settle personal scores against rivals.
PML-N vs PTI
In September last year, the PTI announced legal action against PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz for what it called her “controversial social media campaign” accusing PTI Chairman Imran Khan of blasphemy that could potentially endanger his life.
Earlier, Maryam had uploaded two purported statements of Imran Khan and as many verses of the Holy Quran on her X (formerly Twitter) account to draw comparisons between them. She also posted saying: “This man (Imran) is using religion for his politics and promoting his false narrative. Save your faith and the country from this devil.”
Most recently, the PML-N resorted to using the religious card against Imran when reports emerged that the PTI was engaging human rights barrister Geoffrey Robertson — who had reportedly represented Salman Rushdie — to represent Imran in international courts in relation to unlawful detention and human rights abuses. The PML-N alleged that Imran was “conspiring against Islam and Pakistan” while Maryam insisted that this shows Imran’s double standards.
In a post on September 2, 2023, she said: “Isn’t it strange that Imran Khan chose a man to fight his case internationally who represented Salman Rushdie, a blasphemer. This shows two faces of Imran Khan. In Pakistan, Khan makes a claim of striving for Riasat-i-Madina and outside the country, he seeks the help of an anti-Islam firm.”
A PTI spokesperson rejected all claims of hiring a foreign law firm clarifying that Imran never supported any such initiative even in the face of the worst state operation.
Rushdie was also used by the PTI to attack the PML-N.
PTI goes after PML-N
In September 2022, PTI claimed that Maryam’s post against Imran Khan was followed by over 65,000 posts targeting the PTI chairman. There were also posts critical of Maryam, telling her not to drag religion into politics, which could endanger one’s life.
Fawad Chaudhry, then a leader of the PTI, had declared that: “We will not let this matter go unnoticed. Legal action will be taken against Maryam Nawaz for using the tool of blasphemy to endanger the life of the PTI chairman.”
In September last year, then-prime minister Shehbaz Sharif had met French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. In August, he had also thanked the French president in a post for expressing solidarity with the flood-ravaged people of Pakistan.
In 2021, the TLP spearheaded a campaign to pressure Islamabad to expel French envoys from Pakistan over “blasphemous” comments by the French president and for allowing caricatures of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) to be drawn.
At the time, PTI leader Yasmin Rashid took to X to highlight how Imran Khan had penned a letter to leaders of Muslim states on how the Holy Prophet’s (PBUH) honour was a “red line” for Muslims after Macron had defended the publication of blasphemous caricatures.
Rashid had railed against Shehbaz and Maryam, adding in the post that “uncle (Shehbaz) was making merry with an individual who had defended blasphemy the world over while his niece (Maryam) was using the blasphemy card against Imran Khan”.
On Aug 7 this year, the Senate passed a bill to increase the punishment for using derogatory remarks against revered personalities — including the Holy Prophet’s (PBUH) family, wives and companions, and the four Caliphs — from three to at least 10 years of imprisonment.
The bill’s statement of objectives and reasons highlight that some individuals are involved in “blasphemy on the internet and social media”, and that acts of disrespect towards revered personalities, including the Holy Prophet’s (PBUH) companions, were a cause of “terrorism”, “disruption in the country” and hurt to people from all walks of life.
It terms the current punishment for the offence “simple”, adding that it led to people punishing the suspects on their own, leading to an increase in violence.
Earlier, in February, then-human rights minister Riaz Hussain Pirzada had urged Shehbaz to undo the amendments, arguing that their purpose was to “please a specific group” and that they had been approved without “fulfilling the norms of parliamentary proceedings”.
In a letter to the premier, Pirzada had said the state had a duty to protect religious minorities as it was an Islamic injunction as well as a constitutional obligation.
“Minority groups have raised their eyebrows on ignoring a good practice in parliamentary business followed for amending a law to eliminate technical defects rather intending to persecute a specific group,” the letter said.
Six months later, the Senate passed the bill after PML-N Senator Hafiz Abdul Karim presented it. The Senate agenda also mentioned Jamaat-i-Islami’s Senator Mushtaq Ahmad as a mover of the bill.
In his argument in favour of the legislation, Ahmad maintained that acts of blasphemy were being witnessed on social media. He highlighted that the current law was somewhat “ineffective” and the bill aimed to fine-tune it to make it more effective.
“This bill should be passed unanimously,” he asserted.
Similarly, Religious Affairs Minister Senator Talha Mahmood maintained that the bill did not hurt anyone’s sentiments and that it should be passed unanimously.
However, some members of the House, prominently PPP’s Sherry Rehman, insisted that the bill should be referred to the relevant committee for review.
“There’s an inclination of passing bills in haste,” Rehman pointed out, adding that they — the lawmakers — had not even seen the bill. “We do care about the respect of all prophets … but a bill should not be passed without analysis, in the name of religion,” she said.
But Karim insisted that the bill be put to vote, and so it was. And it was passed.
For people like Furqan, who are languishing in their dark cells, their families wonder if lawmakers will ever go beyond empty promises and actually pass legislation to help them. Given the lawmakers’ track record this year, it seems like an impossible ask.
*The name of the accused has been changed due to security concerns.
*Header Image:Rioters burn a pile of furniture and a cross during violence in Lahore’s Joseph colony over alleged blasphemy in 2013.—Reuters/file
