Monday, September 12, 2022

In a win for gun control advocates, Visa, Mastercard, and American Express plan to start separately categorizing sales at gun stores

Isabella Zavaris

Sat, September 10, 2022

TINLEY PARK, ILLINOIS - APRIL 08: A customer purchases a gun at Freddie Bear Sports on April 08, 2021 in Tinley Park, Illinois. President Joe Biden today announced gun control measures which included stricter controls on the purchase of homemade firearms, commonly referred to as Ghost Guns and he made a push for national Red Flag legislation and other measures.Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

Visa, Mastercard and American Express will separately categorize sales at gun shops.
The decision is a win for gun control advocates who say it will help track gun sales.
Until Friday, gun store sales were considered general merchandise.

Visa, Mastercard, and American Express will separately categorize purchases at gun shops in a win for gun control advocates who say the decision will help alert law enforcement to potentially illegal firearm sales.

According to The Associated Press, the payment processors announced the change on Saturday, after the International Organization for Standardization, a Geneva-based nonprofit, approved the creation of a merchant code for gun retailers.

Until Friday, gun store sales did not have a unique code and were considered "general merchandise," according to a spokeswoman for the ISO.

"Following ISO's decision to establish a new merchant category code, Visa will proceed with next steps, while ensuring we protect all legal commerce on the Visa network in accordance with our long-standing rules," the company said in a statement to Insider.

AmericanExpress said it will work with its third-party processors and partners to implement the new merchant category codes.

"It is important to note that MCC codes are one of many data points that help us understand the industries in which our merchants operate," the company said in a statement.

Reuters reported the ISO was influenced by gun control advocates, including US Senator Elizabeth Warren, w\ho urged the CEOs of Mastercard, American Express, and Visa to make the change.

"Mass shooters have repeatedly financed deadly massacres using credit cards, and bank CEOs need to step up to save lives," Warren said.

In a statement to Insider, Mastercard said: "We understand and appreciate the significant policy imperative in reducing gun violence and see the recent bipartisan action in Congress as a positive step. We believe it is that type of effort that will meaningfully address the tragic gun violence facing the country."

The AP reported gun rights advocates argue that tracking gun sales unfairly targets legal gun purchases.

Lars Dalseide a spokesman for the National Rifle Association told Insider that the ISO's decision to create a firearm specific code is "nothing more than a capitulation to anti-gun politicians and activists bent on eroding the rights of law-abiding Americans one transaction at a time. This is not about tracking or prevention or any virtuous motivation – it's about creating a national registry of gun owners."

Sen. Warren did not respond to Insider's request for comment

NRA slams credit card company code to track purchases at US gun shops, claiming it's 'creating a national registry of gun owners'

Sam Tabahriti

Sun, September 11, 2022

Machine guns displayed in a shop.Getty Images

Visa, MasterCard, and American Express will categorize the purchase of firearms in US shops.
Gun control activists support the move, while the NRA is calling it an attempt to create a national database of gun owners.
The International Organization for Standardization approved the creation of the new code on Friday.

Visa, MasterCard, and American Express will use a new code for gun shop purchases in US stores in a win for gun control advocates that has angered the NRA.

The merchant category codes are four-digit numbers used to classify businesses, indicating the types of services or goods being sold, according to Investopedia. The merchant code does not affect the gun purchase itself, but would allow for more transparency.

Gun-control activists say the new code will help track large or suspicious weapons purchases, while gun rights advocates argue that the new code is unfair to those buying firearms legally since it tracks the type of merchant — stigmatizing all gun shop purchases — not the actual items purchased, Mint reported.

"The ISO's decision to create a firearm specific code is nothing more than a capitulation to anti-gun politicians and activists bent on eroding the rights of law-abiding Americans one transaction at a time," a spokesman for the National Rifle Association said in a statement Sunday.

"This is not about tracking or prevention or any virtuous motivation — it's about creating a national registry of gun owners," the spokesman continued.

The payment giants' decision follows the approval on Friday of the new merchant code by the International Organization for Standardization, a group of standards bodies from more than 160 countries.

Reuters and other outlets first reported the news.

The new code will apply to all purchases at gun and ammunition stores, though gun sales at other types of retailers won't be captured separately, Bloomberg reported.

Following the news, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander said the move would help financial institutions flag suspicious activity at these stores and help save lives.

Visa, the world's largest payment processor, acknowledged the change in a statement Saturday, and said it would "protect all legal commerce on the Visa network in accordance with our long-standing rules."

MasterCard announced Friday that it would protect customers' privacy while focusing on "how it will be implemented by merchants and their banks as we continue to support lawful purchases on our network," per Reuters.

Meanwhile, American Express also said in a statement that it will meet regulations and work to "prevent illegal activity on our network," according to Bloomberg.

A 71-year-old Black woman who won $20,000 at a casino is now suing Michigan bank for racial discrimination after employees refused to cash her check

Taylor Ardrey Sun, September 11, 2022

Lizzie Pugh, a retiree of Detroit Public Schools, alleges that employees at Fifth Third Bank refused to cash her check, claiming that it was "fraudulent."Courtesy of Deborah Gordon Law

Lizzie Pugh, 71, hit the jackpot and won thousands of dollars at a Michigan casino earlier this year.
When she tried to cash in her check at Fifth Third Bank, she said that she was turned away by employees.
Now she is filing a lawsuit against the bank. Fifth Third Bank denies her allegations.

Growing up in the Jim Crow South, Lizzie Pugh is no stranger to racism.

But, decades later and now living in Michigan, the 71-year-old never thought she'd be disdainfully turned away by a bank for trying to cash in honest winnings she collected from Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort during an April trip with her church group.

"I won 20,000, and I was very excited," Pugh told Insider. "The first time for me."

Pugh said she went to a Fifth Third Bank branch in Livonia, Michigan — in the Detroit metropolitan area — to open a new savings account but waited for a long time before anyone helped her. Once Pugh, a retiree of Detroit public schools, was finally assisted, she handed over the check and a valid driver's license.

But, she said, the bank told her the check was "fraudulent" and that she would not be able to make the deposit.

After being accused of trying to cash in a fake check, Pugh said it sent her into a tailspin — conjuring up old memories of racism growing up in Alabama.

Now, Pugh is suing Fifth Third Bank for racial discrimination, saying the incident caused her physical and emotional distress

'It's just overwhelming'

The check, according to the lawsuit, included the casino's logo and address. The complaint alleges that there was no evidence to back up that the check was not real. But after she handed over the check, the bank refused to give it back.

"They said they couldn't give me the check back because it was the bank policy to keep checks that were fraudulent," Pugh said. "And I said, 'Well, how it's fraudulent?' And she said, 'Oh, we get two or three checks a week like this."

Pugh said she called her son and a friend during the incident because she was concerned, and even offered to call the police. Ultimately, the employees gave her back the check. She was then able to deposit her check at another bank without any issues, per the complaint.

"It's just overwhelming that I have to go through all of this," Pugh said.

Pugh recalled to Insider that it reminded her of the kind of experiences she faced as a kid in Alabama. For instance, she said she has vivid memories of white students beating on their desks in the classroom during the days of school desegregation.

"That frightened me really bad because I really didn't know why they were beating on their desk," Pugh said, recalling the incident. "I found out years later that they were demonstrating monkeys hitting on the table."

'They're gonna give you your respect one way or the other'

"We're seeking damages, monetary damages with regard to what Ms. Pugh has had to go through," Deborah Gordon, Pugh's attorney, told Insider, noting that Michigan has a law prohibiting this kind of discrimination.

Fifth Third Bank did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment but told CNN: "We are committed to fair and responsible banking and prohibit discrimination of any kind. From our review of the claims, we believe the facts to be different than what is alleged. Our employees are trained to help every customer with their banking needs, and our employees follow procedures to facilitate the opening of any new account."

The bank, which denied the allegations in a court record this week, added that their employees' actions "have been misinterpreted," according to the outlet.

"That said, we regret Ms. Pugh has come away feeling mistreated after her interactions at our branch, as our employees' actions were consistent with our process and the dual goals of serving our customers while also preventing potential frauds that can victimize both the bank and our customers," the bank told the outlet.

Pugh's allegations, however, highlight a phenomenon called "Banking while Black," in which Black Americans often face discrimination while merely trying to cash a check or open a bank account.

Last year, a Black man in Minnesota reached a settlement with US Bank for being racially profiled after an employee accused him of trying to cash a fake check, resulting in him being handcuffed by police. In March, "Black Panther" director Ryan Coogler was detained after a Bank of America employee thought he was trying to rob the bank in Atlanta, Georgia.

Pugh's niece, Yolanda McGee, told Insider that the emotional toll that her aunt has faced is clear.

"She called me on the day of this incident, I heard it in her voice. She was very scared and had a lot of anxiety," McGee said.

"Being the target of discrimination stirs up a lot of emotions for her, some anger for past incidents, sadness, she's really embarrassed and cries a lot. And that is what she's been through back in Alabama, she feels like it's her fault or that's what the rule is."

She continued, "I encouraged her. You're gonna stand up for yourself. They're gonna give you your respect one way or the other. They're gonna figure out a way to make her whole and give her back her dignity. And that's what she feels that she lost... her dignity in that bank."

Steve Bannon said being arrested on money laundering and conspiracy charges was 'one of the best days of my life

Yelena Dzhanova
Sat, September 10, 2022

A handcuffed Steve Bannon is led to his arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Court on September 8, 2022.Caitlin Ochs/Reuters

Steve Bannon, Trump's chief strategist, said getting arrested was "one of the best days" of his life.

Bannon earlier this week was arrested and charged with money laundering and conspiracy.

Prosecutors alleged Bannon had conspired to commit fraud through a sham crowdfunded charity to build a US-Mexico border wall.

Steve Bannon, who was arrested earlier this week in connection with a scheme to build a border wall on the US-Mexico border, said the experience of being handcuffed marked one of his favorite days.

"It was a very powerful, spiritual day for me," he said in a segment of conservative pundit Charlie Kirk's podcast on Friday. "A lot of things came into high clarity."

He then called the event "one of the best days of my life."

"I was totally in the zone — as you say in sports — the entire time. They're not gonna shut me up," he continued.

Bannon, who served as an advisor to former President Donald Trump in the White House, was indicted Thursday on money laundering and conspiracy charges in connection to his role in the "We Build the Wall" organization, as Insider's Laura Italiano reported.

An indictment from the Manhattan district attorney's office alleged that Bannon had conspired with three men — Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage, venture capitalist Andrew Badolato and Colorado businessman Timothy Shea — to launder money and commit fraud through a sham crowdfunded charity.

Back in 2020, federal prosecutors alleged that Bannon scammed people who donated with the intention of helping to erect a wall between the US and Mexico — the crux of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. Millions of dollars poured in, and Bannon and the three men pocketed the money instead, prosecutors said.

"As alleged, the defendants defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, capitalizing on their interest in funding a border wall to raise millions of dollars, under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction," acting Manhattan US attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement at the time.

"While repeatedly assuring donors that Brian Kolfage, the founder and public face of We Build the Wall, would not be paid a cent, the defendants secretly schemed to pass hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kolfage, which he used to fund his lavish lifestyle."

Earlier this year, Kolfage and Badolato pleaded guilty in federal court. Neither has been sentenced yet. And Shea will be re-tried in October after his first trial ended in a hung jury.

"It's a crime to turn a profit by lying to donors, and in New York, you will be held accountable," Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said in a statement, adding that Bannon and the three others defrauded thousands of people across the country.

Bannon received a pardon from Trump in the remaining days of his presidency. But as Insider's Tom Porter notes, presidential pardons are only applicable when it comes to federal crimes, meaning state prosecutors can investigate and file separate charges if they choose to do so.

Steve Bannon said being arrested on money laundering and conspiracy charges was 'one of the best days of my life

Yelena Dzhanova
Sat, September 10, 2022

Scroll back up to restore default view.

An indictment from the Manhattan district attorney's office alleged that Bannon had conspired with three men — Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage, venture capitalist Andrew Badolato and Colorado businessman Timothy Shea — to launder money and commit fraud through a sham crowdfunded charity.

Back in 2020, federal prosecutors alleged that Bannon scammed people who donated with the intention of helping to erect a wall between the US and Mexico — the crux of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. Millions of dollars poured in, and Bannon and the three men pocketed the money instead, prosecutors said.

"As alleged, the defendants defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, capitalizing on their interest in funding a border wall to raise millions of dollars, under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction," acting Manhattan US attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement at the time.

"While repeatedly assuring donors that Brian Kolfage, the founder and public face of We Build the Wall, would not be paid a cent, the defendants secretly schemed to pass hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kolfage, which he used to fund his lavish lifestyle."

Earlier this year, Kolfage and Badolato pleaded guilty in federal court. Neither has been sentenced yet. And Shea will be re-tried in October after his first trial ended in a hung jury.

"It's a crime to turn a profit by lying to donors, and in New York, you will be held accountable," Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said in a statement, adding that Bannon and the three others defrauded thousands of people across the country.

Bannon received a pardon from Trump in the remaining days of his presidency. But as Insider's Tom Porter notes, presidential pardons are only applicable when it comes to federal crimes, meaning state prosecutors can investigate and file separate charges if they choose to do so.

DECRIMINALIZE DRUGS

Killing of Mexican public workers reflects cartel brutality

Thu, September 8, 2022

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The killing of two utility workers in northern Mexico may be related to the scorched-earth tactics of warring drug cartels, Mexico's president said Thursday.

Drug cartels in Mexico have increasingly targeted civilian communities in their turf battles, isolating towns that don’t support them by cutting off roads and electricity, or forcing residents to leave.

On Tuesday, assailants opened fire on two trucks carrying workers from the state-owned electrical power company on a highway. Two workers escaped and two were killed.

On Thursday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the area in the northern border state of Sonora was the scene of fighting between gangs, who had cut electricity to two villages as “reprisals.”

“There is fighting between groups there,” López Obrador said of the area around the village of Onavas, where the attack occurred.

While he said the attackers might have mistaken the utility trucks for those of a rival gang, López Obrador noted “there is another hypothesis that suggests they were performing their duties by going to reconnect electricity to two villages that had been cut off by one of the groups as reprisals.”

In the western state of Michoacan, warring drug cartels have periodically cut off villages that appear to support a rival gang, by downing power lines or digging trenches across roadways.

But the attack Tuesday was unusual, because up to now cartels have largely avoided going after public workers trying to reconnect roads or power lines. Moreover, resuscitating the debt-strapped state-owned utility, the Federal Electricity Commission, has been one of López Obrador's main policy initiatives.

Drug cartels — including the La Linea gang based in Ciudad Juarez and factions of the Sinaloa cartel — have been fighting over the lucrative drug-producing and shipping zones of Sonora state for years.

The cartel conflict may have played a role in the 2019 ambush slayings of nine U.S.-Mexican dual citizens in a rural area relatively near Onavas.

The three women and six children from the extended Langford, LeBaron and Miller families were ambushed and slain by suspected drug gang assassins on Nov. 4, 2019.

Initial investigations suggested a squad of gunmen from the La Linea gang had set up the ambush to kill members of the rival cartel. However, relatives of the victims say that at some point, the gunmen must have known who they were killing.

The Queen owned swans, dolphins, whales, and sturgeons.

Here's who inherits them now.

Bethany Biron Sun, September 11, 2022

Queen Elizabeth II smiles as she is being shown an orphaned swan — Queen Elizabeth II smiles as she is being shown an orphaned cygnet at Oakley Court on the river bank during the Swan Upping census, the ancient ritual of her swans being counted on the River Thames near Windsor.Sang Tan/PA Images via Getty Images)

King Charles III will inherit thousands of swans, dolphins, whales, and sturgeon belonging to the Crown.
The reigning monarch was given symbolic ownership of these species in the 12th century to protect from poachers.
The royal family oversees the annual "Swan Upping" event, a census of the swan population on the River Thames.

King Charles III is set to receive a vast inheritance from both the Crown and the private estate of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, after she died Thursday — but some of the assets are a bit surprising.

While his inheritance includes items and entities long synonymous with the royal family — including much of the Queen's expansive jewel collection and the $750 million Duchy of Lancaster estate — it also includes stranger assets such as 32,000 swans and an unidentified number of dolphins, whales, and sturgeons, El País reported.

According to El País, the species became the symbolic property of the Crown in the 12th century in order to protect them from poachers. As part of their ownership, the monarch oversees the annual "Swan Upping" event, a census of the swan population on the River Thames.

In the past, the process — which involves weighing, measuring, and assessing the health of the birds — has been conducted by the Queen's Swan Marker, David Barber, according to the Royal Family's official website. The last Swan Upping the Queen attended was in 2009, Metro UK reported.

Queen Elizabeth II attends Swan Upping — Queen Elizabeth II (front left) accompanied by Swan Marker David Barber (front right) on the steam launch Alaska, as she watches a swan upper place a swan back into the River Thames near Windsor.Sang Tan/PA Images via Getty Images

The event also became an educational opportunity for school children, who attend to learn more about the biology of swans and the species's place in the ecosystem, according to Metro UK.

Whales and dolphins officially came under the ownership of the Crown in 1324, thanks to an obscure statute that states they are recognized as "fishes royal." This was later expanded to include sturgeon and porpoises, and under the law, the monarch can claim any that are captured or washed ashore within 3 miles of UK shores, according to Time.

The animals are among the many assets that are part of the Crown — or items that belong to the institution and are not privately owned by the reigning monarch. Across all assets, both privately owned and those belonging to the Crown, El País estimates the Queen's total fortune at $16.2 billion.

According to The Sunday Times annual Rich List, the Queen's private net worth is $429 million, cumulatively amassed during her seven decades on the throne.

'I cannot mourn': Former colonies conflicted over the queen

1/17

Huge portraits of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Ghana's President Kwame Nkrumah are displayed in Accra, Nov. 9, 1961, as the city prepares for the arrival of the British monarch on a state visit to Ghana. The queen and her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, arrived in Accra by plane from London later that that day.

(AP Photo, File)

CARA ANNA, DANICA COTO and RODNEY MUHUMUZA
Sun, September 11, 2022

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Upon taking the throne in 1952, Queen Elizabeth II inherited millions of subjects around the world, many of them unwilling. Today, in the British Empire's former colonies, her death brings complicated feelings, including anger.

Beyond official condolences praising the queen’s longevity and service, there is some bitterness about the past in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and elsewhere. Talk has turned to the legacies of colonialism, from slavery to corporal punishment in African schools to looted artifacts held in British institutions. For many, the queen came to represent all of that during her seven decades on the throne.

In Kenya, where decades ago a young Elizabeth learned of her father’s death and her enormous new role as queen, a lawyer named Alice Mugo shared online a photograph of a fading document from 1956. It was issued four years into the queen’s reign, and well into Britain’s harsh response to the Mau Mau rebellion against colonial rule.

“Movement permit,” the document says. While over 100,000 Kenyans were rounded up in camps under grim conditions, others, like Mugo’s grandmother, were forced to request British permission to go from place to place.

“Most of our grandparents were oppressed,” Mugo tweeted hours after the queen’s death Thursday. “I cannot mourn.”

But Kenya's outgoing president, Uhuru Kenyatta, whose father, Jomo Kenyatta, was imprisoned during the queen's rule before becoming the country's first president in 1964, overlooked past troubles, as did other African heads of state. “The most iconic figure of the 20th and 21st centuries,” Uhuru Kenyatta called her.

Anger came from ordinary people. Some called for apologies for past abuses like slavery, others for something more tangible.

“This commonwealth of nations, that wealth belongs to England. That wealth is something never shared in,” said Bert Samuels, a member of the National Council on Reparations in Jamaica.

Elizabeth’s reign saw the hard-won independence of African countries from Ghana to Zimbabwe, along with a string of Caribbean islands and nations along the edge of the Arabian Peninsula.

Some historians see her as a monarch who helped oversee the mostly peaceful transition from empire to the Commonwealth, a voluntary association of 56 nations with historic and linguistic ties. But she was also the symbol of a nation that often rode roughshod over people it subjugated.

There were few signs of public grief or even interest in her death across the Middle East, where many still hold Britain responsible for colonial actions that drew much of the region’s borders and laid the groundwork for many of its modern conflicts. On Saturday, Gaza’s Hamas rulers called on King Charles III to “correct” British mandate decisions that they said oppressed Palestinians.

In ethnically divided Cyprus, many Greek Cypriots remembered the four-year guerrilla campaign waged in the late 1950s against colonial rule and the queen's perceived indifference over the plight of nine people whom British authorities executed by hanging.

Yiannis Spanos, president of the Association of National Organization of Cypriot Fighters, said the queen was “held by many as bearing responsibility” for the island’s tragedies.

Now, with her passing, there are new efforts to address the colonial past, or hide it.

India is renewing its efforts under Prime Minister Narendra Modi to remove colonial names and symbols. The country has long moved on, even overtaking the British economy in size.

“I do not think we have any place for kings and queens in today’s world, because we are the world’s largest democratic country,” said Dhiren Singh, a 57-year-old entrepreneur in New Delhi.

There was some sympathy for the Elizabeth and the circumstances she was born under and then thrust into.

In Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, resident Max Kahindi remembered the Mau Mau rebellion “with a lot of bitterness” and recalled how some elders were detained or killed. But he said the queen was “a very young lady” then, and he believes someone else likely was running British affairs.

“We cannot blame the queen for all the sufferings that we had at that particular time,” Kahindi said.

Timothy Kalyegira, a political analyst in Uganda, said there is a lingering “spiritual connection” in some African countries, from the colonial experience to the Commonwealth. “It is a moment of pain, a moment of nostalgia," he said.

The queen’s dignified persona and age, and the centrality of the English language in global affairs, are powerful enough to temper some criticisms, Kalyegira added: “She’s seen more as the mother of the world.”

Mixed views were also found in the Caribbean, where some countries are removing the British monarch as their head of state.

“You have contradictory consciousness,” said Maziki Thame, a senior lecturer in development studies at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, whose prime minister announced during this year’s visit of Prince William, who is now heir to the throne, and Kate that the island intended to become fully independent.

The younger generation of royals seem to have greater sensitivity to colonialism’s implications, Thame said — during the visit, William expressed his “profound sorrow” for slavery.

Nadeen Spence, an activist, said appreciation for Elizabeth among older Jamaicans isn't surprising since she was presented by the British as “this benevolent queen who has always looked out for us,” but young people aren't awed by the royal family.

“The only thing I noted about the queen’s passing is that she died and never apologized for slavery,” Spence said. “She should’ve apologized.”

___

Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP stories on Queen Elizabeth II’s death and other stories about the British monarchy at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii

John Oliver Brutally Mocks Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles III, and Liz Truss

Marlow Stern
Sun, September 11, 2022

HBO

After laying into new U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss, whom he referred to as “Margaret Thatcher if she were high on glue,” Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver took on the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Sunday night.

The British comic, who is also a U.S. citizen, was addressing comments Truss made about a proposed windfall tax on oil and gas companies in order to help offset skyrocketing energy bills in England.

When asked about the tax, Truss delivered a rambling response, saying in part, “I don’t think ‘profit’ is a dirty word. The fact it’s become a dirty word in our society is a massive problem.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” exclaimed Oliver. “Look, I’m just gonna say this, and you may not like it, but it doesn’t make it any less true: The nicest thing the Queen of England ever did for anyone was die the week that woman became prime minister. Because for at least a week, she’s not going to get justifiably destroyed for answers like that.”

He then continued: “Look, things are pretty fucking bleak in the U.K. right now. This fucking guy is about to be on all the money”—pointing to a photo of King Charles III—“and morning TV is now basically The Hunger Games,” alluding to a segment where hosts were spinning a wheel to pay for people’s energy bills.

“But don’t worry, Britain: Your future is now securely in the hands of dollar-store British Leslie Knope here. Everything is going to be fine!”

The Queen Represented Racist Violence As Much As She Did Glamour

Scaachi Koul

BUZZFEED NEWS
Fri, September 9, 2022

I don’t know why people get sad when someone famous, old, and comfortable finally dies. It just doesn’t strike me as that devastating; death is the ultimate retirement, and I’ve been trying to be idle since the minute I was born. But on Sept. 8 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, at 96, Queen Elizabeth II died. She had a long, well-documented, dutiful life: She was the eighth Queen of England, a thorn in the sides of several nonwhite countries for seven decades, and, of course, the reason why immigrant mothers like my own defended Princess Diana so fiercely. The internet appears deeply divided between people dunking on her (myself included) and people mourning someone whose best quality was how much she loved corgis. (Those tweets are also pretty funny but clearly not intentionally so.)

I don’t care that the Queen is dead. She had a good run and I didn’t know her, so why should I waste the six tears I am allotted per year on a stranger? The only reason I’m here is because I delight in upsetting Europeans, a long-held tradition for nonwhite Canadians for at least a century and a half. (Have you ever confused a shepherd’s pie and a chicken pot pie in front of a white person? You should. It turns into a whole thing.) But I struggle with the fact that so many people are actively devastated about her death. We are sure to enter at least a week of celebrations of her very long life, but…why?

Her wealth and influence persisted entirely because of colonialism.

Queen Elizabeth’s death, unlike those of other famous older women, signals almost nothing at all for the day-to-day lives of people around the world; it might mean some changes for how we view the monarchy, but politically, her death is a nonevent. Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death meant that Roe v. Wade would certainly be overturned (and boy were we right). Queer activist Urvashi Vaid died earlier this spring, a loss to several civil rights movements, from healthcare justice to anti-war efforts. When activist and writer Barbara Ehrenreich died at the beginning of the month, it meant one fewer voice of reason in the public discourse of socialism, feminism, and community.

Queen Elizabeth’s death, conversely, means nothing other than that she opted not to be cryogenically frozen in order to be brought back during the next fall of civilization so she can take more jewels that never belonged to her or her family in the first place.

Do I sound bitter? I do not care. There’s something uniquely pitiful about mourning a woman who has been running an organization notorious for its genocidal tendencies. In the short time since her death, some people have argued that you can mourn the individual without mourning the empire. This, as far as I, a brown person, am concerned, is impossible, because Queen Elizabeth didn’t just profit from the pillaging and racial evisceration her lineage propagated since the beginning of British civilization; she was an active participant. Ultimately, her entire existence was buoyed by the atrocities of her family’s past; her wealth and influence persisted entirely because of colonialism.

I know it’s nice to rewrite history, to present Queen Elizabeth as a softer member of the monarchy. But it’s not like she wasn’t alive during colonialism guided by British exceptionalism or the political unrest it caused (and continues to cause). People who were children when the British ruled their countries are still alive; it was just under a year ago that Barbados removed her as its head of state. Countries like India and Pakistan continue to wrestle with the economic, geographic, and cultural impacts of British colonialism, while others, like Saint Kitts and Nevis, have only recently gained true independence after centuries of meddling from the royals.

There are many photos and videos of the Queen visiting her former colonies, with locals fawning over her as if her legacy isn’t a part of what hurled their countries into upheaval in the first place. I find that coverage creepy, like photos of a prison warden walking the grounds, the inmates grateful to be in the presence of such disproportionate wealth and ambivalence. Why did she keep coming back to India, to Canada, to Ghana? To remind everyone that she still could, that her reach would always extend to their shores?

Nations impacted by the British Empire struggle to own their histories; they’re simply stopovers in the long march of imperialism. The empire didn’t grow organically. Their riches were stolen in the form of labor from enslaved people, pilfered bijous, and of course, tea. Elizabeth could have given any of the wealth back. She could have cemented herself as the royal who redistributed what was taken. She didn’t, though, and that wasn’t by mistake.

What global value do you have if your relevancy is tied entirely to what your family has stolen?

Don’t get me wrong; the Queen was certainly historically significant. The royals have always thought they knew how to run countries better than the native populations did; she followed in these footsteps. She had parties where people showed up wearing blackface brooches. She was a walking, living piece of undeniable history. It’s not like anyone was going to, or will, cancel the Queen; she was too fundamental to England and the Commonwealth. Even Canada is still obsessed with her, and we formally cut ourselves off from the royal teat in the late ’70s. We still have a representative of the monarchy in the federal government! She’s still featured on our comically green $20 bills! No wonder everyone else in the UN makes fun of us.

Yet by the end of her life, the Queen had almost no tangible political power. As colonialism became less popular, her influence waned as well. Are you actually powerful if that power comes only through destruction? What global value do you have if your relevancy is tied entirely to what your family has stolen?

Most of us can agree symbols are important. That doesn’t mean we need to mourn when those historical figures take their last gasps. Swastikas are an indisputable part of European history, but most of us agree we don’t need to keep them around in order to remember the Holocaust. (Another thing white people took from Hindus, but, whatever, one enormous trespass at a time I guess.) You can go to all the Jubilees and celebrate all the sesquicentennials you want (a fun word that the Canadian government made all of us learn in 2017 that has never been useful since), but the British Empire has a long, well-documented history of racist violence. The Queen, ultimately, is a symbol of destruction in the same way she’s a symbol of glamour and wealth and history. That’s an unforgettable reality for most of us, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to celebrate it, either.

And frankly, the empire’s history of racism isn’t even that far back in the past. Even the treatment of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, within both the family and the firm made it clear the monarchy learned very little. British tabloids are brutal, but they would’ve easily bent at the knee had the Queen told them to stop ritualistically harassing the only nonwhite member of her entire lineage. Instead, she toed the party line. Timid in your 90s? What’s the point?

If you’re sad about the Queen, no matter your nationality, it requires some deep introspection. What are you sad about?

And yet, celebrities like Liz Phair and Paris Hilton (what??) are out here praising her for being the “original girl boss” icon, for not taking shit from men while, let’s say, British soldiers tortured and killed thousands of Kenyans in the ’50s. We’re only just beginning to understand the abuses coming from the British Empire; documents that were thought to be “lost” but resurfaced in 2011 reveal so much barbarity. While she was alive, the Queen never apologized for these crimes done in her name. As the head of the firm, she never even acknowledged England’s grisly history.

I’ve been visiting family in Canada for the last two weeks, perfect timing to be visiting the Commonwealth. My parents are from India; they’re native Kashmiris, a community still reeling from the effects of Partition. My dad was born three years after the British decided to leave, and as such, the Queen hasn’t exactly been held in high esteem by my family. When my dad found out that she died, he barely reacted — if anyone should care, it should perhaps be an Indian Canadian with a Napoleon complex who likes gilded chairs and unyielding allegiance to a cause. Instead, he grumbled how she should posthumously return the Koh-i-Noor diamond to India. “I know she won’t,” he admitted, resigned, while sucking down some falooda. He’s right — apparently, the diamond will go to Camilla, because I guess the royals want my dad to have a heart attack and for my mom to scream at me for a fortnight about why white women don’t even look good in flashy jewelry in the first place.

If you’re sad about the Queen, no matter your nationality, it requires some deep introspection. What are you sad about? What do you feel like we lost? A piece of history already so thoroughly documented? A reminder of what imperialism looked like back when whiteness, wealth, and European domination were even more pronounced than it currently is? Is it nostalgia for a time when things were easier — for you? The monarchy is defunct, its members are institutionally powerless, and now the Queen is dead. The world is moving on past what the monarchy gave us or, rather, what the monarchy took. Diana’s gone, Meghan’s making podcasts in Palo Alto, and you want me to feel sad that the Queen died? Pass. Save your tears for something that matters. ●

Former Obama official calls out US networks over Queen Elizabeth coverage, zeroing in on her connection to British colonialism

John Haltiwanger
Fri, September 9, 2022

Queen Elizabeth in Cape Town, South Africa in March 1995.Getty Images

Richard Stengel, an ex-Obama official, called out US networks for their heavy coverage of Queen Elizabeth's death.

"There's a weakness in the American character that still yearns for that era of hereditary privilege," he said.

Stengel also zeroed in on Queen Elizabeth's ties to British colonialism.

Richard Stengel, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs in the Obama administration from 2013 to 2016, in an appearance on MSNBC on Thursday called out US networks over extensive coverage of Queen Elizabeth II's death.

"I have to say to your earlier question, why why are news American news networks dedicating all of this time to Queen Elizabeth's funeral? I think it's a good question," Stengel said. "There's a weakness in the American character that still yearns for that era of hereditary privilege, which is the very thing that we escaped from."

Stengel underscored that it was Queen Elizabeth's "great-great-great-great-grandfather George III who we rebelled from to start the United States of America."

Though the former Obama official said he pays "tribute to Queen Elizabeth for her unrivaled service," he also critiqued her connection to British colonialism.

"You played a clip of her speaking in Cape Town in 1947 in South Africa. That's the year apartheid took effect in South Africa. That was something that British colonialism ushered in. British colonialism, which she presided over for all these years, had a terrible effect on much of the world. It's something that people revolt from," he said.
—The Recount (@therecount) September 8, 2022

Apartheid was an institutionalized system of white supremacy involving racial segregation and discrimination against South Africa's non-white inhabitants. "Although many of the segregationist policies dated back to the early decades of the twentieth century, it was the election of the Nationalist Party in 1948 that marked the beginning of legalized racism's harshest features called Apartheid," per the State Department.

South Africa was colonized by both the Dutch and British, and apartheid was firmly rooted in that history.

Queen Elizabeth was head of state to 32 countries over the course of her 70-year reign, which is intrinsically linked to Britain's long history of imperialism. Seventeen of those countries — including South Africa in 1961 — ultimately cut ties with the British monarchy during the same period. The most recent country to do so, Barbados, removed Queen Elizabeth as head of state and became a republic in late 2021.

Reactions to Queen Elizabeth's death in South Africa highlight how the legacy of British colonialism has bred mixed feelings about the British royal family.

"We do not mourn the death of Elizabeth," South Africa's Marxist opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, said, per Reuters. "Our interaction with Britain has been one of pain...death and dispossession, and of the dehumanization of the African people.

That said, Queen Elizabeth had an amicable relationship with Nelson Mandela, who was the first Black president of South Africa following the end of apartheid.

"By his own admission, Nelson Mandela was an anglophile, and in the years after his release from prison cultivated a close relationship with the Queen," the Nelson Mandela Foundation wrote in a statement on Queen Elizabeth's death, adding, "They also talked on the phone frequently, using their first names with each other as a sign of mutual respect as well as affection."

"For Madiba it was important that the former colonial power in southern Africa should be drawn into cordial and productive relations with the newly democratic republic of South Africa," the statement went on to say, employing Mandela's clan name. "In later life Madiba would often take pleasure in reminding interlocutors from Britain that South Africa had thrown off the colonial yoke."

ARGENTINA
Judge indicts 19 in yoga sect that used sex to lure powerful

Police escort Juan Percowicz to serve pre-trial detention at his home in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Aug. 30, 2022. Authorities have identified Percowicz, 84, as the leader of the sect-like Buenos Aires Yoga School, which did not offer yoga classes and is under investigation for alleged sex trafficking, money laundering, extortion and other crimes.

(AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, File)

DANIEL POLITI
Thu, September 8, 2022 at 5:21 PM·2 min read

BUENOS AIRES (AP) — A judge in Argentina indicted 19 people on Thursday for their alleged involvement in a yoga school in Buenos Aires that operated like a sect and coerced female members to have sex with rich and powerful men in order to obtain money and other benefits.

Judge Ariel Lijo formally charged 19 people on crimes including criminal conspiracy, human trafficking with the purpose of sexual exploitation, money laundering and smuggling.

The Buenos Aires Yoga School, which operated for more than 30 years in Argentina’s capital under the leadership of 84-year-old Juan Percowicz, did not actually offer yoga classes. Instead, it lured in people with promises of eternal happiness before it exploited them sexually and financially, prosecutors say.

The investigation into the group revealed that opera star Placido Domingo had contact with the organization’s leaders for more than two decades.

Lijo ruled that 14 of the 19 people indicted will be remanded in custody and an embargo has been placed on their assets. Prosecutors had requested indictments of 20 people.

Law enforcement officials continue to search for six suspects believed to be in the United States, where the school had offices in New York, Las Vegas and Chicago

In his resolution, Lijo says the school tricked vulnerable people to join, noting leaders preyed particularly on those who were underage or had serious health problems, including addictions. People were wooed to join with promises of healing and support, but were later exploited, often sexually, for the benefit of the organization’s leaders.

The group operated by cutting students off from the outside world by giving them living quarters, work within the organization and making sure they started socializing exclusively with people who were part of the organization.

Students were used and exploited, both sexually and financially, to obtain economic benefit for Percowicz and other top leaders of the organization, Lijo said. Members were often forced to have sex with wealthy or powerful men in order to build a commercial relationship with the men deemed their “boyfriends.”

Female students were forced to determine what they could get from each person and they had to do everything possible to obtain it, Lijo said.

Percowicz claimed to have great wisdom and even “divine powers” as a way to indoctrinate students and explained his beliefs on a mixture of classic literature as well as religious and spiritual texts.

It was up to Percowicz to decide how students moved up the seven levels of the school’s strict hierarchy that had the leader at the top, a system that amounts to psychological coercion, according to Lijo.

Even though the leaders of the group promised students they would receive teachings in philosophy and they would be healed, the only goal of the group’s leaders was to make money, Lijo said.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment