PATRIARCHY IS MISOGYNY

Iranian woman in coma after morality police arrest: activists

AFP - Yesterday 

A young Iranian woman is in a coma and fighting for her life after being arrested in Tehran by the Islamic republic's morality police, campaigners said Thursday.


The Islamic hijab has been compulsory for women in Iran since 

shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution

© ATTA KENARE

The woman, named as Mahsa Amini, 22, was on a visit to the Iranian capital with her family when she was detained by the special police unit that enforces the strict dress rules for women, including the compulsory headscarf.

Her brother Kiaresh told the Iran Wire news website that while he was waiting outside the police station for her to be released an ambulance drove out taking her to hospital.

He was told that she had had a heart attack and a brain seizure and was now in a coma.

"There were only two hours between her arrest and being taken to hospital," he said.

Vowing to file a criminal complaint he added: "I have nothing to lose. I will not let this end without making a noise."

A statement by the Tehran police confirmed she had been detained for "explanation and instruction" about the dress rules, along with other women.

"She suddenly suffered a heart problem while in the company of other guided people (and)... was immediately taken to the hospital with the cooperation of police and emergency services."

It is not yet clear what happened between her arriving at the police station and her departure for hospital.

- 'Sickening' -

The 1500tasvir social media channel, which chronicles rights violations by the Iranian police, posted a picture of her in hospital with a tube in her mouth and said she was in a coma.

"Sickening," the Iranian-British actress and campaigner Nazanin Boniadi wrote on Twitter. "How many innocent young lives must be brutally robbed before we all rise?"

"Mahsa Amini's situation is an example of an intentional crime," the Iranian freedom of expression campaigner Hossein Ronaghi wrote on social media.

"The systematic suppression of Iranian women under the pretext of enforcing the hijab by the guidance patrol and the police force is a crime."

The incident comes as controversy grows -- both inside and outside Iran -- over the conduct of the gasht-e ershad (guidance patrol) who monitor and enforce the dress code in Iran.

The Islamic hijab has been compulsory for women in Iran since shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the shah.

Some women, encouraged by the US-based campaigner Masih Alinejad, have sought to protest the rule by removing their hijabs in public.

In mid-July, a young Iranian woman, Sepideh Rashno, disappeared in mid-July after becoming involved with a dispute on a Tehran bus with another woman who accused her of removing her headscarf.

She was held by the Revolutionary Guards and appeared on TV in what activists said was a forced confession.

She was released on bail in late August after about one and a half months behind bars.

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Will Uber Eats Crack Down on U.S. Undocumented Migrants After French Purge?

Fatma Khaled - Yesterday 

This week, UberEats cracked down on undocumented delivery workers in France in a company effort to combat fraud by disconnecting the accounts of those with false IDs, raising questions about whether something similar might happen in the United States.


Pictured above, an Uber Eats delivery man rides a moped in Paris on March 22, 2020, as a strict lockdown is in effect to limit the spread of the COVID-19 caused by novel coronavirus in the country prohibiting all but essential outings.

© Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images

When asked whether UberEats will look to remove the accounts of the company's undocumented workers in the United States, a spokesperson for the food-delivery platform told Newsweek on Thursday that the purge of accounts in France was part of fighting fraud and illegal account sharing as per a request by the French government.

What To Know As UberEats Purges Accounts Of Undocumented French Workers

View on Watch   Duration 0:40

Hundreds of undocumented UberEats workers protested on Monday in Paris against the crackdown, chanting "justice for couriers" and "documents for UberEats" after the company deactivated accounts that belonged to its workers, Wired reported.

UberEats deactivated the accounts of dozens of delivery workers in France earlier this summer, according to Jérôme Pimot, president of the Collective of Platform Couriers (CLAP), the union that organized the workers' protest in Paris.

The union president added that UberEats later announced that it had deleted 2,500 accounts, an action that Pimot described as "a massacre."

Protesters accused the company of taking advantage of undocumented workers and letting them go as demand increased and decreased. Undocumented workers found it easy to apply to work on the platform during the pandemic when demand for food deliveries were spiking as many were under lockdown.

However, delivery demand is now expected to continue to slide as consumers scale back on their spending amid high inflation, according to analysts, Reuters reported last month.

"Investors have written off food delivery as the next shoe to drop as consumers tighten up their wallets," Bernstein analyst Nikhil Devnani said, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, UberEats' latest financial results revealed that monthly users, basket size, and order frequency increased only between 1 and 3 percent over the three months leading to June, compared to last year.

"As part of our commitment to fight document fraud and illegal work, we conducted a thorough audit of Uber Eats courier accounts in France. We identified fraudulent uses of our application and have taken action by deactivating these accounts while setting up an appeal procedure for couriers who want their case to be re-examined," an UberEats spokesperson told Newsweek in an emailed statement. "We are determined to fight illegal work and open to discussion with all relevant stakeholders whom we have kept informed of our actions."

An external company specializing in document authentication audited 60,000 UberEats delivery workers in France and found that 4 percent of those accounts were either fraudulent or were linked to multiple courier accounts, according to Wired.

It is common for undocumented workers in France to use a work permit and documents that belonged to someone else to apply for jobs in the country and work under an alias.

"Every restaurant owner in Paris has someone working under an alias," Jean Ganizate, the cofounder of the Melt restaurant group, told Le Monde in June.

Many delivery workers who had their UberEats accounts deactivated had Italian ID cards which can't be used outside Italy, but the company in 2018 allowed workers to use this card to create an account, the president of the Independents Union, Thomas Aonzo, told Wired.

Newsweek has reached out to the White House and Uber for comment and additional information.

HINDUTVA IS RACISM, CASTISM, SEXISM
Bodies of teenage Dalit sisters found hanging from tree in India

Rifat Fareed - Yesterday 

There is uproar in India after the bodies of two sisters belonging to the marginalised Dalit community were found hanging from a tree in the northern Uttar Pradesh state.

Police suspect the two girls, aged 15 and 17, were gang raped and murdered in the Lakhimpur Kheri district. Six accused men have been arrested, they said.

Sanjeev Suman, the police chief in Lakhimpur Kheri, told reporters the two minors, residents of Tamoli Purva village in the district, were lured to a nearby field on Wednesday afternoon and allegedly raped by the accused.

“The men allegedly strangulated them with their scarf and hung them from a tree. The investigation is on,” he said.

Police identified the six accused as Chhotu, Junaid, Sohail, Hafizul, Karimuddin, and Arif. They said Chhotu is the victims’ neighbour and had introduced the two sisters to the rest of the men a few days ago.

Dalits, formerly referred to as the “untouchables”, fall at the bottom of India’s complex caste system. For centuries, they have been victims of discrimination and persecution by privileged caste groups despite laws in place for their protection.

Ram Gautam, the uncle of the girls and a construction worker in Lakhimpur Kheri, said the family is waiting for a postmortem report.

“We are shocked. The younger one was a high school student and the older one was a school dropout,” he told Al Jazeera.

On Wednesday, the residents of Tamoli Purva village blocked roads in protest against the gang rape and killing of the two Dalit sisters.

Uttar Pradesh is considered one of the most unsafe Indian states for women. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data shows that crimes against women in India’s most populous state increased by 15 percent in 2021 compared with the previous year.

The NCRB data also shows that there was a 45 percent increase in reported rapes of Dalit women between 2015 and 2020 in India.

In 2020, a 19-year-old Dalit girl was gang raped and murdered in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district. The incident sparked weeks of protests and outrage after the police were accused of forcibly burning the victim’s body in the dead of the night. A Muslim journalist on his way to report the crime was arrested.

In October last year, a similar incident was reported in Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha district where a teenage rape survivor was murdered by the accused neighbour and her body hung on a tree. In the same state’s Badaun district in 2014, the bodies of two cousins were found hanging from a tree.


Women from various organisations protest in New Delhi against the alleged gang rape of a Dalit teenager in Uttar Pradesh state [

File: Money Sharma/AFP]© Provided by Al Jazeera

Opposition leaders and activists are demanding answers from the state government led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which also heads the federal government.

Senior Congress Party leader Priyanka Gandhi said the Lakhimpur Kheri incident was “heart-wrenching”.

“The relatives say that those girls were abducted in broad daylight. Giving false advertisements in newspapers and TV every day does not improve law and order. After all, why are heinous crimes against women increasing in Uttar Pradesh?” she asked in a tweet.

In response, Himanshu Dubey, the media incharge of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, told Al Jazeera there is “zero tolerance for crimes” in the state.

“The criminals have been nabbed. In Uttar Pradesh, no matter who the people are behind a crime, the government is tough against them,” he said.

New Delhi-based feminist and activist Kavita Krishnan said Uttar Pradesh since 2017 is being ruled by an “aggressive Hindu supremacist ruler whose rule has emboldened criminals, especially those who indulge in violence against oppressed caste, women and minorities”.

The state is ruled by the BJP’s Yogi Adityanath, a saffron-clad Hindu monk known for his anti-Muslim hate speech and policies.

“Generally, it (state) has great lawlessness because he (chief minister) is someone who has made no secret of his contempt for the idea of respect for women’s rights and women’s equality,” Krishnan told Al Jazeera.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for HINDUISM IS FASCISM 

The Caribbean People Who Were On Slave Ships But Never Enslaved

Stephen Nartey - Yesterday 

The Garifuna people, descendants of Carib, Arawak and West Africa have always fought for their place, cultural identity and heritage since the 1800s against colonial rule and discrimination.

They fought to survive when the slave ship transporting them got wrecked at sea. When they settled at St. Vincent in the Caribbean, they faced persecution and were eventually drove away by the British forces, but, they prevailed. They even pushed forcefully to have their culture accepted at their present settlement in Belize.

The Garifuna people had to stand up for themselves in Belize because even though they were accepted in the country, they were discriminated against by the indigenous settlers.

The formal language of communication among the Garifuna, which comes from the Arawak and Carib, were banned in basic schools and their religious practices were frowned by the local churches.

Tenacity and resilience is the character of the Garifuna people. When the Catholics discriminated against them, they socialized some catholic faithful in their religion and it survived. When they were barred from joining indigenous cities in the Caribbean, they created their own communities. When the school system discriminated against them, they trained their own to be teachers, lawyers and doctors to superintend over the system and controlled policies governing it.

H Gilbert Swaso, former mayor of Dangriga, told the BBC the Garifuna have mastered the act of being receptive to harsh circumstances and turning it into their advantage to survive without sacrificing their culture.

It is reminiscent of their journey to Belize in 1832 where they travelled from St. Vincent in the Caribbean after they were drove away three times by the British government before finally settling in Belize.

In 1660, they were settled in the Caribbean Island of St. Vincent after a British peace treaty granted them stay. But, a decade on, the British government broke the agreement and reclaimed the Island, not until military expedition that drove them away.

They suffered another revolt in Honduras in 1821 and they migrated once again until settling at Belize in 1832.

The former mayor said they requested to settle in Belize and were turned away three times. The Garifuna community rather grown on the fringes of the South and have now become a force to reckon with.

Oral tradition has it that the Garifuna people were involved in two ship wrecks in 1635 while on their way from the New World’s slave markets. That’s how they gained their freedom.

The enslaved who survived the storms of the oceans and swam to safety to the Caribbean island of St. Vincent were warmly received by the Carib and Arawak.

Each year, the Garifuna people commemorate this day by holding Garifuna Settlement Day on November 19.

They start the ceremony by re-enacting the boat landing, enjoy music, food and dance while making merry. It is a national holiday where unique cultural heritage is displayed.

Gilbert said the people Garifuna take pride in the history that they were never colonized or enslaved.

He said the national holiday is important because that is when they exhibit their food which is different from the rest of Belize. The uniqueness of the food lies in its simplicity and respect for nature.

According to him, the Garifuna food is organic and clean. He said Garifuna eat ingredients such as ripe and green plantains that are boiled and then beaten and then mixed together. They use coconut in making gravy which is spiced with basil, oregano and okra.

EU votes in favor of minimum wage rules

China Daily - Europe Weekly - Yesterday 
By JONATHAN POWELL in London | China Daily Global | Updated: 2022-09-16 


The European Parliament has voted in favor of new legislation that aims to guarantee adequate minimum wages for workers across the 27-nation bloc and strengthen their collective bargaining powers.

Lawmakers in Strasbourg on Wednesday debated a deal that was negotiated with European Union member states in June. In voting, 505 members of Parliament were in favor, while 92 votes were against and there were 44 abstentions.

Agnes Jongerius, a lawmaker from the Socialists and Democrats group and co-rapporteur of the directive, welcomed the adoption of the bill, saying that it "sets the standards for what an adequate minimum wage should look like", reported the Associated Press news agency.

"Prices for groceries, energy bills and housing are exploding. People are really struggling to make ends meet. We have no time to waste, work must pay again," said Jongerius.

The directive will now be formally adopted, giving member states two years to implement it in national law.

Euractiv news website quoted Mounir Satouri, a Green member of European Parliament, or MEP, as saying that "thanks to this directive, 25 million workers will see their salary increase by 20 percent," and adding that this would also erode some of the gender pay gap between men and women in Europe.

AP noted data from the EU that showed across the bloc, the minimum wage varies, with the highest in Luxembourg, Ireland and Germany, and the lowest in Bulgaria, Latvia and Estonia.

The legislation will require member countries to guarantee "that their national minimum wages allow workers to lead a decent life, taking into account the cost of living and wider pay levels," the Parliament said in a statement, adding that it will apply to all EU workers who have an employment contract or employment relationship.

It said the new law also promotes collective bargaining for pay in countries where fewer than 80 percent of workers are covered by the process.

Most member states will now have to find ways to increase their collective bargaining coverage, which means strengthening trade unions, said Euractiv.

Hungarian socialist MEP, Klara Dobrev, said it is the "end of an era "in Europe.

"For decades, European countries have competed among themselves where workers are cheaper, where they are vulnerable, and that was a so-called advantage," Dobrev told Euronews. "And this is the end of an era when competitiveness is measured by a cheap and vulnerable labour force."

Green MEP and co-chair Ska Keller told Euronews that the introduction of the new law was vital in the current cost of living crisis.

"This directive is a very, very important step in order to tackle the structural poverty that we see in the European Union," Keller said.

She added: "There are so many people who struggle to make ends meet even before we talk about inflation, even before we talk about sky-rocketing energy prices. So, it's very important to get a structural change there into place. This will benefit millions of European citizens."

Violent threats halt Edmonton’s Pride Corner protests temporarily

Lauren Boothby -  Edmonton Journal



People dance and wave flags in front of street preachers at the corner of 104 Street and Jasper Avenue, in Edmonton Friday June 4, 2021.

Violent threats against youth and volunteers have prompted Pride Corner on Whyte Avenue to cancel its event this week, but organizers say they won’t be silenced.

Pride Corner is seeing an influx of hate, aggression and harassment against its 2SLGBTQ+ teenagers and adult volunteers, according to organizers. Two weeks ago on Sept. 2, they say a man with a bat walked through the crowd menacing them and making homophobic remarks. Last Friday, organizers got an anonymous message to their Instagram account allegedly saying they had a gun and are two kilometers away.

Volunteer Erynn Christie was there when the man with the bat arrived. He walked through the crowd in a “very poised, aggressive, puffed-out manner,” she said, adding the experience was traumatizing, especially for the youth. One volunteer told Christie the man said he wanted to “beat the gay” out of them. They separated the children from the man, told him to leave, and contacted police.

“I was very scared, to be honest. I’ve never dealt with something like that in my life. Even right now I want to cry about it,” she told Postmedia. “I don’t identify as queer but that doesn’t mean that I don’t see the pain and the struggles and the difficulties that these people and youth face just to be themselves. We’re in 2022 — I don’t know why this continues to happen. If you don’t like the way somebody lives their life, if they’re not hurting you, then it doesn’t affect you.

“To have it change into a gun threat the following week, we don’t want anything bad to happen to anybody, especially the kids on the corner.”

Related
Edmonton recognizes 'Pride Corner' on Whyte Avenue

Edmonton Pride Festival returns to Churchill Square this June

Around 50 to 100 people have been rallying and dancing at the intersection of Whyte Avenue and 104 Street for the last 18 months. It started as a protest against homophobic comments made by street preachers.

This week’s event was cancelled to assess the group’s safety plans. Rallies are expected to resume next week.

Christie said the youth are getting support, such as counselling, and they’re working with other organizations and activists to make sure the security plans are effective. They’re also asking local businesses nearby to install cameras facing the corner, and have filed reports with the police.

But Christie says they won’t let threats hold them back.

The space has become really important, especially for young queer youth, she said.

“The city really does love us. We’re not going anywhere … If anything, we’re kicking it into overdrive and Pride Corner is going to continue to grow and be better than ever,” she said.

“It is very important to the kids. It allowed a community to grow when we were stuck in a pandemic and they really didn’t have anybody. If you imagine a queer young person trying to discover themselves and find people like them, and they’re left at home … to come out to a corner and be able to meet other like-minded peers and be able to grow together is something that is indescribable to watch.”

Postmedia has reached out to Edmonton Police Service for comment.

More to come…

GEMOLOGY

The Controversial History Of The Cullinan Diamond Used In The Queen's Crown

 Placed on Coffin During Funeral

Dylan Hofer - Yesterday 

In the wake of Queen Elizabeth II's death, controversy about some of the Royal Family's most prized jewels has begun to arise once again. Some argue that the jewels represent the Royal Family's legacy with imperialism and colonialism, and to put them on exhibit at Her Majesty's funeral would be an insult to people around the world who have been oppressed by the British Empire and subsequently the royals themselves. One of these controversial diamonds is the Cullinan diamond that is implanted inside the queen's coffin crown.


Cullinan Diamond inside Imperial State Crown© Max Mumby/indigo/Getty Images

The gem that is integrated into the queen's coffin crown is known as the Second Star of Africa. It comes from a South African mine that was once owned by Thomas Cullinan (hence the name) and is the second-largest cut gem from the diamond, according to ABC. But what was the largest cut gem then? Well, the British royal family actually possesses this one as well, and is known as the Great Star of Africa, and is the largest diamond-cut gem in the world, weighing a whopping 530.2 carats, per Snopes. But the history of the Cullinan diamond is shrouded in war and violence.

The Origin Of The Diamond


Man holding Uncut Cullinan Diamond© Fox Photos/Getty Images

The Cullinan diamond was discovered in 1905 and weighed 3,106 carats in its uncut form per Britannica -- or 1.33 pounds as Natural Diamonds explains. Before its discovery, the largest uncut diamond that had ever been discovered was the Excelsior diamond, which had also been discovered from a South African mine in the province of Orange Free State on June 3rd, 1893, by a worker who had been loading a truck (via Britannica). The Excelsior diamond weighed 995 carats when it was found and was sold to the famous I.J. Asscher and Company of Amsterdam for cutting, the same company that was also responsible for cutting the Cullinan diamond.

After the Cullinan diamond was discovered in 1905, it was sold to the local Transvaal government before being presented to the king of England at the time, King Edward VII. The diamond was given to the British as a way to make amends for the bloody Boer War which had just taken place a few years earlier, according to ABC.

Imperialism In South Africa


Cape of good hope and ships© Hulton Archive/Getty Images

In order to understand the origins of the Boer War, context is needed. The first European to discover South Africa was Bartolomeu Dias in 1488, when the Portuguese sailor went around an area he named the Cape of Good Hope. The land was originally inhabited by nomadic people groups known as the San and Khoikhoi people who were often referred to as Khoisan people by the Europeans, according to Encyclopedia. In 1652, the Dutch East India Company made a permanent settlement known as Cape Town, which was used as a supply station from the Netherlands to the colonies in the East.

Due to the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, British forces were occupying the Cape Town colony in 1795 and officially ruled the colony 11 years later, in 1806. With it, the British brought their own way of life and abolished slavery, and the Boers, which were descendants of Dutch and French colonists, went north to escape the British colony and established their own independent governments known as the Boer republics, according to Encyclopedia.

The Transvaal People


Boer family© Boer Family

In the 1830s, a group of 12,000 Boers left Cape Town and ventured into the northern part of South Africa. After warring with the local Ndebele people, the Boers were able to claim sovereignty over all the land between the Limpopo and Vaal river, hence where the name "Transvaal" comes from, literally meaning across the Vaal, according to Britannica. However, infighting within the Transvaal government made it hard to have good leadership, but when the British invaded the Boer Republic of Natal, more and more Boers left Cape Town and emigrated to the Transvaal.

Discoveries of gold and diamonds made the British interested in the Transvaal republic, and in 1877 Sir Theophilus Shepstone conquered the republic for Great Britain. In 1881, the Boers revolted against their British rulers and established a new Transvaal government, known as the South African Republic. A new problem arose for the Boers in 1886, when large gold deposits attracted more and more Europeans, dubbed Uitlanders who were mostly Germans and Englishmen, to emigrate to the Transvaal region in hopes of becoming rich. Soon, Europeans outnumbered the local Boers by double, which led to internal conflicts within the republic, and eventually the Boer War.

The Boer War


Map of Transvaal and Orange River Colony© Print Collector/Getty Images

Eventually, the bubble burst between the local Boers and the European immigrants, when Dr. Leander Starr Jameson attempted to start an uprising by the new Uitlanders, but it failed dramatically. This only heightened tensions between the two groups and as a result of the failed coup, Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain appointed Sir Alfred Milner, a staunch imperialist, as High Commissioner in 1897, according to National Army Museum. This coup also led to the reelection of Paul Kruger as president of the new South African Republic in 1898, the same man who opposed giving the European immigrants political power.

Kruger then proposed that the South African Republic would give the European immigrants more power, and in return, the British government would stop claiming they ruled the SAR. Chamberlain declined this proposal, and so the SAR invaded Cape Town and other British colonies, culminating in a war between the two nations, and the Boers proved to be a powerful force to be dealt with. It's estimated 400,000 soldiers were involved in the Boer War, according to National Army Museum. The British also created concentration camps for the Boers and local Africans, but in 1902 the war finally came to an end, and the nations attempted to make amends.

The Legacy Of The Cullinan Diamond


The Great Star of Africa© Print Collector/Getty Images

After the Boer War ended, the South African Republic gradually became integrated into Britain's colony, and three years after the war ended was when the Cullinan Diamond had been discovered. Since it was given to the royal family in 1907, the Cullinan diamond has been used in royal regalia. The Great Star of Africa, also known as Cullinan I, was integrated into the Sovereign's Sceptre with Cross, which was used for a coronation in 1910, according to ABC. The Second Star of Africa, or Cullinan II, the second-largest gem cut from the Cullinan diamond was added to the Imperial State Crown for KingGeorge VI's coronation in 1937. This crown was laid atop Queen Elizabeth II's coffin in preparation for her funeral.

Given the legacy of the diamonds, dating back to the dark Boer war, many have criticized the royal family for utilizing these jewels, claiming that the British empire stole them from colonial Africa. But, it is still a matter of debate if the British monarchy actually stole the Cullinan diamond, or if it is their rightful property. Nevertheless, the diamond carries with it a legacy of bloodshed that continues to follow the monarchy to this day.

 

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The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins - Free Ebook - Project Gutenberg 

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What the British Monarchy Actually Does—And How Hard It Would Be To Abolish It

Yasmeen Serhan/London - Yesterday

If the outpour of grief—or public polling—in the aftermath of Queen Elizabeth II’s death is anything to go by, it is clear that Britain is still largely a nation of royalists. 

But as anti-monarchy sentiment attracts more attention, and as some protesters even get arrested for voicing such views, it’s worth revisiting what role the monarchy plays in Britain’s constitutional system and just how complicated it would be to abolish the institution.


The Imperial State Crown is driven down The Mall, in a Rolls Royce Phantom VI, en route to the Houses of Parliament where Queen Elizabeth II is to deliver The Queen's Speech in the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament on May 11, 2021 in London, England.© Max Mumby—Indigo/Getty

Contrary to conventional wisdom, the power to abolish the monarchy doesn’t lie with the monarch alone. In fact, there isn’t a whole lot that British Kings and Queens can actually do beyond the bounds of their constitutionally-defined mandate—one that primarily involves tasks such as appointing prime ministers, approving new laws, receiving foreign dignitaries, and presiding over the opening and dissolving of parliament. Over the course of Queen Elizabeth II’s 70-year reign, she would have likely held thousands of meetings with the 15 prime ministers she worked with, appointed hundreds of ministers, and given her ascent to an untold number of laws, all while having virtually zero say in who those ministers were or what their legislative agenda ought to have been. As the English poet Tennyson once noted, Britain is a crowned republic—one in which the monarch reigns, but does not rule. The Queen acknowledged these limits in her first televised address to the country in 1957. “I do not give you laws or administer justice. But I can do something else. I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations,” she said.

While the lack of political power doesn’t overshadow the Royal Family’s enormous privilege—especially when it comes to its vast wealth and financial arrangements—it does help explain how such a seemingly outdated institution has persisted for so long. While the pomp, tradition, and sense of history undoubtedly play a part in the monarchy’s continued appeal, so too does the fact that the monarch is seen as an apolitical figure whose entire existence is devoted to service, and therefore above the compromises inherent to electoral politics. Constitutionally-speaking, “the monarch, in almost everything they do, has no choice,” says Robert Hazell, a professor of government and the constitution at University College London. In the case of Queen Elizabeth II, this was perhaps best illustrated by the many times in which she had to play host to authoritarian leaders such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, and Romania’s Nicolae Ceaușescu. Such was the Queen’s lack of autonomy that, as one story goes, she once resorted to hiding in a bush in the Buckingham Palace gardens in order to avoid having another conversation with Ceaușescu, who at the time was her houseguest.

If Britain ever did decide to get rid of the monarchy, it would be a constitutional matter requiring legislation from parliament. Even before that, it would need to be endorsed by the British public through a referendum, which would have to be called for by the government (just as the Brexit referendum was). If such a vote were held today, polling from June suggests that the country would opt to keep the monarchy by a significant margin. And Britain wouldn’t be alone in doing so. Although previous referendums have led to the abolition of the monarchy in Italy and Greece, they have also reaffirmed support for the institution in Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway, and Spain.

Getting rid of the monarchy, or simply rescinding it of its ceremonial duties, would constitute “a huge change,” says Hazell, in large part because it would require a complete shakeup of the way the British state is governed. Unlike in the U.S., where the elected President acts as both the country’s head of state and its head of government, Britain’s parliamentary system splits those responsibilities between the monarch, whose role as head of state is inherited at birth, and the Prime Minister, whose role as head of government is decided by the British public (or, in the case of the current occupant of 10 Downing Street, a select group of Conservative Party members).

With the monarch gone, Britain would need a new head of state, as is required in almost all parliamentary systems. This would most likely be in the form of a President, a role that already exists in parliamentary systems such as Germany and Italy. This person would have most of the existing responsibilities of the monarch, such as certifying laws, going on state visits, and speaking to the nation in times of national crisis. But an elected head of state would also likely have the responsibility of acting as “a kind of constitutional umpire,” says Hazell—something that a monarch could never be.

Republicanism isn’t a strong force in Britain at the moment, which makes the abolition of the monarchy unlikely for the foreseeable future. But that could change if the institution does, or if it fails to attract the support of the younger British population. Among those aged 18 to 24, support for the monarchy has fallen from 59% in 2011 to just 33% today.

The Queen's death may open a new chapter in the Caribbean and force crucial conversations about colonialism
Brandon Tensley - Yesterday 

Since the death of Queen Elizabeth II last week, Kris Manjapra has been thinking a lot about a peculiar moment from his childhood.

He told CNN that, in 1990, when he was 12 years old and living with his family in Calgary, Canada, the Queen visited the city. The students at his school were instructed to assemble along the side of the road so that they could behold her cavalcade and receive her wave.

“I was an immigrant child in a very White city with my parents. We were struggling as new immigrants,” said Manjapra, a history professor at Tufts University in Massachusetts, where his research focuses on, among other things, the critical study of race and colonialism. “And I remember thinking how odd it was that we (the students) were being used as props in a kind of pageant.”

Manjapra, who’s of mixed African and Indian parentage, was born in The Bahamas in 1978, one year after the Queen made her Silver Jubilee tour to the country. And like many others in the US with roots in Britain’s former Caribbean colonies, he’s had a complicated reaction to the death of the Queen – of someone indelibly linked to a history of empire. For them, the past week has been marked less by grief than by frustration over how there seems to be little room in the narrative for engagement with the often overlooked legacy of British colonialism in the region.

“What’s striking to me is how so much energy seems to be available to feel sorrow for the loss of one individual,” Manjapra said. “Certainly, the loss of a person should be mourned, especially by her family. But why is it so inaccessible to feel remorse and sorrow for all the damage that was done in the name of this very same person?”

Marcia Bartlett, who was born in Jamaica in 1956 and grew up under British colonial rule, echoed some of Manjapra’s sentiments. She lived on the island for almost 30 years before she moved to New York, one of the states with the most Caribbean immigrants, and said that she’s interrogated Britain and Jamaica’s relationship since she was a curious high schooler.

“From then on, I’ve had seeds of resentment toward these people governing my island,” Bartlett told CNN.

Many former British colonies are tethered to one another in the Commonwealth of Nations, a loose and voluntary association of 56 countries. Most members are republics. But 14, including The Bahamas and Jamaica, recognize the British monarch as their official head of state. In November 2021, Barbados became the first realm since 1992 to cast off the crown.

Like many others in the US with ties to the Caribbean, Bartlett was deeply moved by Barbados’ decision to jettison the monarchy, and hopes that the remaining former imperial possessions in the region will follow suit.

“I was cheering,” she said. “I think that it (transitioning to a republic) is going to come up in a referendum at some point in Jamaica. There are still people with the mindset that it’s good to be led by the Brits. But as far as I’m concerned, Jamaica needs to sink or swim on its own.”

Long-simmering animosity

To understand the Queen’s mixed legacy in the eyes of many Caribbean people and their descendants, let’s revisit some of the region’s history.

By the 18th century, the Caribbean was a crown jewel of the British imperial economy; according to the SlaveVoyages database, north of 2 million enslaved people disembarked in the empire’s Caribbean colonies by the time the British slave trade was abolished in 1807.

Yet “after slavery, freed people were denied access to land and expected to work for low wages,” the University of Toronto history professor Padraic Scanlan wrote for the Washington Post last year. “Emancipation policies also proved to be a useful justification for imperialism.”

Social and political challenges have persisted even since the middle of the 20th century, a groundbreaking time when many British colonies declared their independence.

“The British left a mess behind when formal colonization began to end in the 1960s,” Manjapra explained. “During the Queen’s first speech while in Jamaica in 1966, however, she spoke only of the ‘loyalty and kindness’ of the people of the Commonwealth. She never acknowledged the harm caused by the plunder, massacres, deprivation and racism of British rule.”

Manjapra underlined the irresponsibility Britain demonstrated in the Caribbean during the decade.

“There was this kind of walking away from the mess that colonialism had created, leaving the Caribbean in deep debt, with no resources, with very weak institutions – things people there still suffer from today,” he said.

Further, there’s the issue of slavery’s legacy – the Queen’s relative silence around it. After Britain formally abolished the practice of human bondage in its colonies in the 1830s, it took out a loan of 20 million pounds to compensate slave owners.

“Up until 2015, the British state was paying off this debt,” Manjapra said. “A deeply immoral practice was taking place and finally came to light a few years ago. But the Queen stayed silent. The silence of the Queen on so many matters related to justice for people of color in Britain and in former colonies – I can’t read it as duty or dignity or being ‘apolitical.’ That silence was a very political act, and essential to the mechanism of the British state.”

The Royal Family has acknowledged, but has stopped short of apologizing for, Britain’s numerous imperial crimes and their lingering effects.

“An apology would be nice, but – nothing,” Bartlett said.

Frayed relationships were on full display this past March, when Prince William and Kate toured the Caribbean and were met by anti-colonial protests.

‘Denial won’t make anything go away’

The Queen’s death may well open a new chapter in the Caribbean.

The New York University law professor Melissa Murray, whose family is from Jamaica, recently noted on Twitter that the Queen’s passing could rekindle crucial discussions about the role of Commonwealth ties in the region.

“I imagine that her death will accelerate debates about colonialism, reparations and the future of the Commonwealth,” Murray wrote. “We’re likely overdue for the difficult conversation that will inevitably come from reckoning with our past. And even for those who respect and revere the Queen, the residue of colonialism shadows day-to-day life in Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean.”

Manjapra, who’s the author of the 2022 book “Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation,” shared Murray’s sentiments. In particular, he stressed that paving a path forward hinges on not obscuring Britain’s egregious legacy of colonial violence.

“We don’t deal with painful histories by ignoring them or denying them, or even by trying to immediately find a resolution,” he said. “We deal with painful histories by acknowledging their presence with us in our lives and in our world, and then by engaging in discussion, by creating opportunities for meaningful conversation on what a future of healing can look like.”

Doing all this, of course, takes time and effort and investment.

“Frankly, it’s the conversation on reparations,” Manjapra said. “Reparations are on the table, and need to be on the table to deal with what happened and what continues to unfold.”

Put a little bit more bluntly, he added, “colonial conditions aren’t in the past – they persist, and continue to buttress the racial caste system.”

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Germany takes control of 3 Russian-owned oil refineries

By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press - Yesterday 

BERLIN (AP) — Germany is taking control of three Russian-owned refineries in the country to ensure energy security before an embargo on oil from Russia takes effect next year, officials said Friday.


The facilities of the oil refinery on the industrial site of PCK-Raffinerie GmbH, jointly owned by Rosneft, are illuminated in the evening in Schwedt, Germany, on May 4, 2022. The German government says it is taking control of Russian oil giant Rosneft’s subsidiary in Germany, citing the need to ensure continued operations at three oil refineries in the country. The Economy Min
As a result, the agency will also control the companies’ shares in the refineries PCK Schwedt, MiRo and Bayernoil, located in the east and south of Germany.

“This is a far-reaching energy policy decision to protect our country,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said. “We've long known that Russia isn't a reliable supplier of energy anymore.”



German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) speaks at the 2022 Bundeswehr Conference in Berlin, Friday, Sept. 16, 2022. Germany is taking control of three Russian-owned refineries in the country to ensure energy security before an embargo on oil from Russia takes effect next year. The Economy Ministry said in a statement Friday that Rosneft Deutschland GmbH and RN Refining & Marketing GmbH will be put under the administration of Germany’s Federal Network Agency. (Carsten Koall/dpa via AP)© Provided by Associated Press

“With today's decision, we're ensuring that Germany is supplied with oil in the medium- and long-term as well,” Scholz said. “That is particularly true for the Schwedt refinery.”

Related video: Germany takes control of Russia-owned refinery

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The facility provides petroleum products to much of northeastern Germany, including Berlin.

Rosneft accounts for about 12% of Germany’s oil refining capacity, importing oil worth several hundred million euros (dollars) every month, the ministry said.

It said the move would help ensure continued energy supplies and was initially due to last for six months.

Rosneft had previously made clear it had no intention to stop imports of oil via the Druzhba pipeline, which runs from Russia through Ukraine to refineries in central Europe, despite a looming EU embargo coming into force on Jan 1, 2023.



German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, centre, joins Robert Habeck, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, left and Dietmar Woidke, Minister President of Brandenburg, at a press conference, in Berlin, Friday, Sept. 16, 2022. Germany is taking control of three Russian-owned refineries in the country to ensure energy security before an embargo on oil from Russia takes effect next year. The Economy Ministry said in a statement Friday that Rosneft Deutschland GmbH and RN Refining & Marketing GmbH will be put under the administration of Germany’s Federal Network Agency. 

(Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP)© Provided by Associated Press

Scholz said a 1-billion-euro (dollar) aid package would secure jobs for about 1,200 people currently working at the PCK refinery in Schwedt and help with its long-term transformation as part of the transition toward a green economy.

Economy Minister Robert Habeck said the refinery would in the future receive oil through a pipeline from the port city of Rostock and via neighboring Poland, which had refused to provide supplies as long as there was a risk that Rosneft might profit from them.



German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, centre, joins Robert Habeck, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, left and Dietmar Woidke, Minister President of Brandenburg, at a press conference, in Berlin, Friday, Sept. 16, 2022. Germany is taking control of three Russian-owned refineries in the country to ensure energy security before an embargo on oil from Russia takes effect next year. The Economy Ministry said in a statement Friday that Rosneft Deutschland GmbH and RN Refining & Marketing GmbH will be put under the administration of Germany’s Federal Network Agency.

 (Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP)©