Resistance by other means

KASHMIR IS INDIA'S GAZA

Maleeha Lodhi 

Published July 1, 2024 

DAWN

ON his first visit to Srinagar after he was re-elected prime minister, Narendra Modi declared that elections in occupied Jammu and Kashmir would soon be held. He also indicated that its statehood would be restored.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission of India announced that updated electoral rolls for J&K would be published on Aug 20. To understand the significance of this development and what the BJP government’s motives and intentions are, it is necessary to rewind and recall what happened five years ago and thereafter.

Ever since India illegally annexed J&K in 2019 by abrogating Article 370 of its constitution, which gave the state special status, it has tried to convey the impression that the situation there was normalising. Aug 5, 2019, had, in fact, opened a new chapter in the tortured history of the occupied territory.

The bifurcation of the state and its absorption in the Indian union was in brazen violation of UN Security Council resolutions and was condemned throughout the state. A prolonged lockdown and communication blackout followed, the military siege tightened, public assembly was banned, the press silenced and Kashmiri leaders jailed, including pro-Delhi politicians, to prevent a popular upsurge against the move, which robbed the Kashmiri people of virtually all their rights.

The Modi government’s claim that, over time, normalcy and stability had returned to Kashmir, was belied by continuing repression and human right violations, curbs on political activities, crackdown on the media, jailing of journalists, and induction of additional troops into what was already the world’s most militarised region. Leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) continued to languish in jail or house detention.

Modi’s earlier efforts to hold legislative elections by enticing pro-Indian political leaders to participate came to naught. In June 2021, he invited these leaders to a round table conference on Kashmir. The aim was to consolidate the 2019 action by persuading select politicians to rejoin a revived political process and create a facade of ‘normality’. But even handpicked Kashmiri leaders rejected the government’s controversial delimitation move and, instead, demanded restoration of J&K’s statehood. The meeting ended in failure.

People of occupied Kashmir will always find a way to say no to India.

In May 2022, India’s Delimitation Commission carved out new electoral constituencies in J&K that aimed to disempower the Muslim population. The delimitation plan handed Jammu six more seats in the 90-member J&K Assembly, while Kashmir was given only one more. Under this plan, Jammu’s representation went to 43 seats, leaving Kashmir with 47. This, despite the fact that, according to the 2011 census, the Kashmir Valley’s population was seven million, while Jammu’s was 5.3m. Delhi’s move to recast the electoral map was rejected across Kashmir. APHC leaders denounced it while pro-Delhi Kashmiri politicians called the plan unacceptable as it sought to alter Kashmir’s demography and aimed to turn the Muslim majority into a minority.

The post-2019 period saw almost every aspect of life for Muslims in occupied J&K come under assault by the BJP government. A series of steps — administrative, demographic, electoral — were taken to disempower and disenfranchise Kashmiris and alter the Muslim identity of Kashmir.

Several actions mimicked Israeli settler policies in occupied Palestine. Demographic changes involved new domicile rules, with millions of so-called domicile certificates issued to non-Kashmiri outsiders, who became eligible after abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A of the constitution. Voting rights were also given to non-residents. Properties were confiscated and newland laws introduced to enable land to be seized from locals and transferred to outsiders.

In 2022, BJP authorities seized the J&K Waqf Board and all its properties across the region. This marked a drive to take control of all prominent places of religious significance for Muslims in the occupied territory, including shrines. Religious leaders and Islamic scholars were arrested and prayers barred in many mosques across Kashmir. These and other measures sought to systematically erode Kashmiri religious identity and culture.


The announcement about polls in J&K comes against this grim backdrop of Delhi’s use of force and fraud to marginalise Kashmiri Muslims and set the stage for assembly elections, designed to ‘endorse’ and legitimise its 2019 action. The government is legally obliged to hold polls by Sept 30, 2024, by the supreme court verdict of December 2023, which upheld the abrogation of Article 370 as ‘constitutional’. The last assembly elections were held in 2014.

Apart from having to comply with the supreme court order, the Modi government has read the higher turnout in the Lok Sabha elections in J&K as a return to normalcy. Turnout in the three Lok Sabha constituencies in Kashmir certainly went up compared to the past, although in Srinagar, two-thirds of voters didn’t cast their ballot. Still, the higher turnout was disingenuously cast by BJP leaders as ‘vindication’ of the abrogation of Article 370.

This was contrary to reality, which was so strongly evidenced by the election of Abdul Rasheed Sheikh from Baramulla. A fierce opponent of abrogation, he won from jail, being incarcerated on terrorism charges, defeating former chief minister Omar Abdullah. His campaign was run on the slogan “Jail ka badla vote se leinge” (Voting will avenge the jailing). The support he drew across the board, especially from youth, reflected the depth of Kashmiri anger with Delhi in what was widely seen in the Valley as a vote against India.

There are some indications that many Kashmiris may want to use the vote in the assembly elections to convey their discontent and rejection of Delhi’s policies. This could be a departure from the past, when they boycotted polls as a sham process under occupation. With other avenues to voice their demands closed, the vote may become a vehicle of protest against Delhi.

Although it is too early to say how this will play out, for now many Kashmiri residents are quoted in news reports as saying that voting, far from endorsing India or its policies, would be a way to register their dissent and resistance. The question, then, is if Delhi sees an electoral upsurge of resistance, would it still hold assembly elections?

What is beyond doubt is that the people of occupied Kashmir will reject any regime foisted on them and continue, one way or another, to express their aspiration for freedom from Indian occupation.

The writer is a former ambassador to the US, UK and UN.
Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2024

Lives lost, lessons unlearned: Fire in the city by the sea

Karachi's fire safety measures languish in neglect until calamity compels action, leaving authorities reactive rather than proactive in their approach.

Hawwa Fazal 

Published July 1, 2024  

DAWN

At the far corner of the pediatric unit at Karachi Burns Center, a woman desperately tries to latch her daughter for feeding. The infant, covered in gauze, fails to hold on as her shrill cries fill the room, cutting through the white walls of the facility.

Two-year-old Fariha Hassan bears the burns of a fire that ripped through her apartment in Kharadar last week. The story is not unheard of; a gas cylinder explosion that engulfed her family into flames.

The incident, one of many reported across the metropolis every week, was preventable if only a handful of safety rules and regulations were followed.

According to an analysis of five-year data compiled by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), at least six fires erupt in the city daily. The reasons behind these fires may vary from case to case, but the casualties and injuries that arise from them are easily preventible if only the authorities and citizens themselves take some basic precautions.

Doctors say Fariha, who sustained burns on 30 per cent of her body, will eventually recover, albeit with scars. They deem her ‘lucky’ to have survived despite the intensity of the fire. Unlike her, thousands of families have lost their loved ones to fires that erupt across Karachi almost every day.

Last November, Bilal Tajuddin bid farewell to his mother and left for the night shift at a coffee shop located at Karachi’s RJ Mall. The next morning, Bilal’s father was jolted awake by a phone call.

“A fire has broken out in the building and I am stuck inside, just pray for me,” the 24-year-old said frantically. That was the last time Bilal’s family heard from him.

“The day was hell for us,” his uncle, Zubairuddin, recalled. “Bilal was the second eldest son of the family and shared the responsibility of supporting his father and four younger siblings,” he told Dawn.com.

Eleven people, including Bilal, died in the blaze that erupted at the mall. Officials said that the deaths occurred because the completely covered six-storey commercial building lacked proper ventilation shafts, which could have allowed the victims and smoke to escape.

The post-mortem reports of the deceased also confirmed that the victims had died from suffocation, not burns.
What could and should be

KMC data shows that 1,515 commercial fires were reported at banks, restaurants, plazas, hotels and small cabins across the city over the last five years. Another 1,952 residential and 1,203 factory fires were also recorded during the same period.




All of these incidents could have been prevented if only the Civil Defence Department, Sindh Building Control Authority (SCBA), and the KMC Fire Department enforced existing safety laws and mechanisms, designed to minimise damage and provide immediate relief in the event of an accident.

These include the Factory Act 1934 (amended in 1997), the Sindh Factories Act, 2015 and the Karachi Building and Town Planning Regulations, 2002 (KB&TPR). The first two are neither stringent nor very comprehensive on fire safety. However, the KB&TPR, which covers basic aspects of fire safety, are bound to be taken into consideration by the SBCA when approving a building plan and granting a completion certificate.

According to the SBCA by-laws, buildings that are ground plus three or above 43 feet should have a set of vertically installed standpipe systems, allowing the connection of fire hoses for manual fire fighting.

Ishtiaque Ahmed, KMC’s chief fire officer, told Dawn.com that these inlets are only present in a few buildings, most of which are located in industrial areas. But in residential areas, these water-filling points are like “salt in flour”, he said, using a metaphor to describe the rare find.

The laws also mandate the installation of an automatic sprinkler system in every institutional building with a parking area where combustible products are sold, displayed, or manufactured. The sprinkler system should be connected to a tank capable of supplying water for up to 20 minutes.

Besides, the law also mandates the availability of at least one manual fire extinguisher for every 2,400 square feet of space in public assembly buildings such as wedding halls and other enclosed public spaces. Similarly, at least one extinguisher should be available at every stairway landing in residential and commercial buildings.

As per the by-laws, an interior fire alarm system should be installed in all hotels, motels and dormitories with more than one floor and a capacity of 50 or more occupants. All hospital and institutional buildings accommodating over 20 occupants above ground must also have this alarm system installed.

Furthermore, buildings are required to have a signal connected to the nearest fire station to ensure immediate response in case of a blaze.

The by-laws state that buildings should have fire-resistant structures such as non-combustible materials for walls to withstand fire heat for some time and prevent collapse.

Moreover, buildings must incorporate protected shafts constructed solely for stairways, lifts, chutes, ducts, or any other purposes that allow people, objects, or air to pass between different compartments. These shafts help smoke escape the building during a fire.

Ironically, the by-laws entirely overlook fire exits.

To address this and other deficiencies, the Building Code of Pakistan (BCP) Fire Safety Provisions 2016 was introduced. However, compliance with these provisions is rarely observed in city buildings.

“The BCP emphasises means of egress, stipulating a three-foot safe passage in high-rise buildings leading to exit staircases and final discharge doors,” explained Sufyan Sheikh, secretary general of the Fire Protection Association of Pakistan (FPAP).

He highlighted that fire alarm systems, extinguishers, and emergency drill training requirements for residents and staff were mandatory. But while these additional provisions are present, their implementation varies based on occupancy and risk assessment.

“Converting these codes into an Act is imperative,” Sheikh stressed. But there is a long way to go because today even the mandated laws aren’t followed.

“It is all about saving money … using the right certified material to prevent these accidents would cost money. Builders always want to minimise their cost,” lamented Architect Arif Belgami.

“The other problem is that the contractors involved in the construction of these buildings, whether it be a single-storey or 19-storey building, have no qualifications; anybody can do this work as long as they have the basic know-how,” he added.

This lack of knowledge, the architect explained, meant that the contractors did not understand the importance of safety measures and often completely skipped them.
Authorities in deep slumber

Although the Sindh government has not set these provisions in law, the Civil Defence Department — which operates under both the provincial and federal governments under the provisions of the Civil Defence Act of 1952 — is mandated to inspect and ensure the implementation of safety measures enlisted in the BCP.

“Every district of Karachi has a deputy controller, additional controller and technical team responsible for ensuring the implementation of fire safety protocols,” said Safdar Ali Bghio, the director of the Civil Defence Department, describing the workings of the authority.

Map of KMC fire station in Karachi — DAWN GIS



According to the law, the authority’s representatives may inspect any building at any time and issue warning letters. If the owners or occupiers of the building do not comply with the orders, they can be fined and face imprisonment of up to three years.

“We inspect buildings against the safety guidelines set in the BCP and provide owners with a fire assessment report which tells them the safety measures needed in their building,” said Mirza Mursalin Baig, senior technician at the Civil Defence Department.

He explained that each building has different requirements depending on the size of the plot, covered area and several other specific details.

But despite having powers to hold individuals responsible, the authority has failed to ensure the implementation of these laws. When asked about the reason, Shahabuddin Siddiqui, additional controller for East, Korangi and Malir, stated: “There is a huge staffing problem. Most appointed people have retired, and new appointments have been stalled for the past 20-25 years.”

“A primary problem in all old and even under-construction buildings is the lack of emergency exits,” Baig sighed. “This provision can easily be implemented when the building is being planned or built but the SBCA never shows us the layout plan before giving approvals.”

“How are these high-rise buildings that don’t even have emergency exits being given completion certificates?” he questioned. However, when asked if the Civil Defence Department took any action in the absence of compliance with safety measures, Baig had no answer.

It is important to note that the Civil Defence Department is also responsible for educating people about the use of fire safety equipment, such as operating a fire extinguisher. However, most people have no idea how to operate the equipment in case of an emergency.

Ali Hassan, a 36-year-old mechanic from Gharo, sustained burns on 20pc of his body when a fire broke out in the rice factory he worked at. The incident took place while he was replacing a broken wire, bare-handed.

“The factory owners do provide us safety gadgets but I have never used them because we haven’t seen anyone doing the same,” he said.

10,956 fire calls were received by KMC in the past five years

Source: Database of Fire department, KMC

Not important enough?

Dr Ehmer-al-Ibran, a consultant plastic surgeon who worked at the Burns Centre for over a decade, told Dawn.com that most of the deaths in incidents of fire take place from smoke inhalation injuries rather than burns.

“When a fire breaks out, it releases carbon monoxide, which deposits in the respiratory tract, making it difficult to breathe and eventually leading to death,” he explained.

Another reason for the high casualties is the lack of safety exits in most buildings. “Buildings, whether commercial or residential, usually have a single entrance and exit. If that too is blocked, the chances of injuries increase because people start jumping off the floors to escape.

“Fewer people die from the fires and more from these incidents,” he said.

Despite this, rarely do people consider implementing fire safety mechanisms when building houses. As KMC’s Ahmed highlighted, most of the interest lies in measures such as barbed wires and adapters for protection against thieves and short circuits.

“But almost no importance is given to fire precautionary measures,” he said. “If they do consider fire safety, it usually involves placing equipment as decoration pieces, not realising that they need to be serviced every six months.”

The chief fire officer pointed out that some of the most prestigious organisations rely on outdated fire safety measures such as buckets filled with sand. “They realise the importance of proper safety measures only when an incident occurs.”

The Civil Defence Department’s Baig concurred. Residents buy apartments in buildings worth millions without even giving a second thought to the availability of emergency exits. “They never think how they will escape from their fancy flats in the event of an earthquake or fire,” he lamented.

Unfortunately, while people neglect these basic safety details, so do the authorities. The latter only feel compelled to take action on safety matters when an incident occurs. Otherwise, the issue is conveniently brushed under the carpet.
Fractured system

In 2021, a division bench of the Sindh High Court, headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, directed the SBCA to formulate a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), requiring builders to obtain a no-objection certificate from Civil Defence and fire departments before constructing buildings.

Fire Survey

Findings of the deputy commissioners' reports

District East
In total 54 buildings were examined. In survey of 25 out of 54 questions related to layout plans were asked, the results showed that 10 buildings had approved plans but the plans did not have emergency exits.

District Keamari
In total 55 buildings in the district were surveyed. The results showed that 19 commercial buildings in the district do not have emergency exits.

District Central
In total 29 buildings in the district were surveyed. The results showed that only 9 buildings had people trained by civil defence.


District Korangi
A summary of the report showed that 88 buildings were examined of which 72 were stated to have satisfactory and 16 had unsatisfactory fire safety provisions.

* DC Korangi said that the survey is still ongoing.

District Malir
In Ibrahim Hyderi 28 buildings surveyed 8 of those lack layout plans and emergency exits. In Bin Qasim Town 37 buildings did not have layout plans, while in Murad Memon there are 12 buildings which have no fire safety measures.

* Complete suirvey of district malir, detailed survey district south and survey of west were not shared by the deputy commissioner's offices despite several requests by Dawn.com

Three years later, the fractured system has yet to be fixed.

It was only when the RJ Mall fire occurred that the government finally jolted awake. Immediately after the incident, Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab ordered a ‘fire security audit’ of all high-rises located along three major arteries of the city. The then Karachi commissioner Muhammad Saleem Rajput issued orders to all Deputy Commissioners (DC) and related departments to conduct the fire safety audits of all high-rises in the city.

The orders stated that the teams should inspect fire safety mechanisms in all shopping malls, centres, plazas, and residential, commercial and government buildings. The commissioner also instructed the teams to examine approved building plans and assess whether the SBCA building by-laws have been implemented. The deputy commissioners were to submit a report within seven days, besides follow-up reports every quarter.

A month on, some districts reported back while others are still conducting their survey. Dawn.com compiled survey reports of six districts, for which the data was available. An analysis of the surveys unveiled the incompetence of authorities and mishaps — the absence of layout plans, training and emergency exits among others.

DC Korangi Jawwad Muzaffar explained that the survey teams comprised representatives from nine departments. They were responsible for assessing fire safety provisions and declaring them as satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

Commenting on the findings of the survey, Korangi Assistant Commissioner Imran ul Haq noted: “Most big industries fulfilled the requirements, it is the cottage industries that lacked them.”

Meanwhile, AC Landhi Madiha Narejo, while talking about the survey conducted in her jurisdiction, said: “The civil defence representatives accompanying us knew which factory had the provisions and which company lacked what requirements; they know what is going on where.”

Dawn.com reached out to the South district office multiple times, requesting the detailed survey, but was only given a summary. It stated that buildings in the Saddar sub-division did have more than one exit but none of them were declared an emergency exit. In the Arambagh sub-division — a high-density old town locality — 90 per cent of the buildings are constructed in contravention with the SBCA layout plans, with basements converted into godowns and fire exits blocked.

In the sub-division Civil Lines, it said that in various shopping malls surveyed, loose wiring was a common problem while fire alarm systems, fire extinguishers and fire safety-related signage were absent. It added that the management of these malls “instead of acknowledging their shortcomings, kept blaming builders”.

According to the report of the Lyari sub-division, a low-income and predominantly residential area, builders were alien to the concept of layout plans, fire detection systems, fire extinguisher mechanisms and emergency response planning. However, people acknowledged fire hazards and the management of the buildings committed to fire safety systems in the minimum time possible.

Speaking to Dawn.com, Rajput said he had instructed deputy commissioners of each district to meet building owners and associations to decide on a phased implementation of fire safety provisions.

“I have directed the DCs to give them six months to implement these measures,” he said. Rajput explained that residents could not be held accountable as building owners are usually unreachable after they sell off their properties and purchasing safety equipment could be expensive.

The former commissioner noted another problem: the quality of the fire safety equipment available in the market, which, according to him, was often sub-standard. “We have cracked down on markets to resolve the issue, but the results have remained the same.”

In a meeting chaired by former caretaker chief minister Justice Maqbool Baqar, it was relayed to the DG SBCA that strict action would be taken against officials if any building is constructed without adhering to the by-laws. “I have told officers to inspect all buildings for fire safety provisions and ensure their implementation,” Abdul Rasheed Solangi, the director general of the SBCA, told Dawn.com.

Solangi said he had also directed officials to ensure that future layout plans included fire exits and that no completion certificates would be issued to buildings that have not implemented fire safety provisions. He added that notices had been issued to officers who issued completion certificates for buildings lacking the requirements.

When Dawn.com pointed out that the commissioner had already conducted a survey, the DG replied that he had only recently been appointed and was unaware of the survey. “We will still conduct our own survey, which has already begun,” he said.

While the authorities repeatedly take the same actions without result, emergency workers like Muhammad Farooq are left to pull burnt bodies from buildings.

“I still get nightmares. The victims of the Baldia factory fire ask me, ‘Why didn’t you do enough to save us?’” said Muhammad Farooq, who is in charge of emergency rescue operations at Edhi Foundation. He was referring to the deadliest industrial fire in the country’s history, when 260 trapped workers were burnt or suffocated to death inside a garment factory in Baldia Town, Karachi, in 2011.

After a long pause, Farooq broke the silence. “Nobody wants to lose their life. Everyone tries their best to save themselves. They did too. There were 15-20 bodies piled on top of each other at every blocked exit and barricaded window. They just wanted a gasp of air to survive a few more minutes,” he told Dawn.com.

“The odour is so strong that it stays with us for days. The cries of those families are so loud that they echo in my ears for the nights to come,” Farooq said as he collected his equipment and headed out to address yet another fire emergency call.

Special thanks to Jamal Hassan from Dawn GIS

Header image create with generative AI

Educating the privileged

Farid Panjwani 

DAWN

Published June 28, 2024

THE state of education in Pakistan is nothing short of a crisis. Arguably, 95 per cent of school-age children are either not in schools or receiving substandard education.

Most conversations and reforms, consequently, focus on the circumstances of the majority, and particularly out-of-school children. But, what also matters is the education of the remaining 5pc, approximately three million children, studying in institutions capable of giving excellent education. A nation’s fate hinges on the character and capacity of what Martin Luther King Jr calls a “creative dedicated minority”.

Today, 95pc of kids are not getting a good education partly because of the decisions of a privileged minority of yesteryear. The fate of the country over the coming decades will depend significantly on the choices of those who will become the elite in the coming years.

Privileged here refers not only to those who are directly in power but also to the intellectual, civil and economic notables who influence public and private decision-making. Societies are almost always under elite capture, with a small group wielding disproportionate power to decide or influence policy and resource distribution.

The real question, then, is about the nature of these elites. Ali Mazuri, a Kenyan philosopher, bifurcates them: the elite of leisure and the elite of labour. The elite of leisure “minimises social commitment and exertion and is placed in a situation in which it can pursue a life of comfort without worrying about social disapproval. Elite of labour, on the other hand, is one which finds it necessary to justify its elite status by providing effective leadership and by setting an example of hard work through its own behaviour and performance”.

For now, it seems the education of the privileged in Pakistan is driven by economic goals of lucrative jobs inside or outside the country. The entire system works under the shadow of economics, which transforms education primarily into an investment that needs to be recouped in due course. This is a recipe for creating the elites of leisure, in Mazuri’s terms.

What kind of education is likely to turn a privileged group of 3m children into an elite of labour?

As a conversation starter, I propose the following: To begin with, there should be no compromise on the quality of scientific, mathematical, artistic and literary education. However, this academically rigorous education should happen in the crucible of equity and emancipation.

For example, economics education should question the highly skewed distribution of wealth and control over resources, the causes of poverty, and the link between wealth and politics. Integrated in the teaching of technology must be the moral questions it raises, its social consequences, and its link with economics. Literature should go beyond canon and include writers who bring to the forefront the lives of the dispossessed and exploited. All this and more to help the young grasp the historical and contemporary structures and power relations shaping the visible state of the world.

This segues into nurturing empathy, which is the seam stitching academic tools with the realities of the downtrodden. Beyond books, this can be done through projects and research, which can help get in the shoes of those whose lives need to be touched with a spark of hope. It will show that material success and failures are almost never individualistic. Social structures and moral luck play a key role in what one achieves. For Aristotle, educating the mind without educating the heart was no education. For us, it is a recipe for producing clever monsters.

There is much stress on the ideal of critical thinking. Arguably, the best roads to critical thinking are philosophy and history. The former helps raise first-order questions and scrutinise the premise of knowledge claims, while the latter helps create a cognitive distance from the present, the here and now, allowing for its critical interrogation. These should be a significant part of education.

Excellent communication skills with a desire to speak honestly and courageously is yet another ability that the privileged should have. Exposure to those who spoke truth to power, from biblical prophets to modern-day whistle-blowers, can be very inspiring for young idealistic minds. An equally important area is physical health and fitness. A life of social responsibility is often born of physical hard work.

A major educational concern these days is the dwindling attention span and decreasing capacity to memorise. Without the ability to pay attention, no great achievement is possible in any field. Halting the weakening of these capacities should also be an aim of education. Here, meditative habits and the prudent use of screen time, particularly in early education, is of immense value.

Until not too long ago, the talk of the educated was punctuated with apt quotes from memory. Many difficult situations are dealt with through citing a befitting couplet that dissolves the tension. The tradition of learning great literature by heart is dying out because of the conflation of memorisation with regurgitation. The latter is a problem, the former a gift which needs to be nurtured and enjoyed.

The biggest barrier to such an education for the privileged is the conscious or subconscious threat of power sharing — the daughter of my servant might get ahead of my son. But this threat is misguided. Societies with a better quality of life are also high on equity and distribution of resources.

Both, the moral imperative that all humans deserve equal opportunities to fulfil their potential, and the practical consideration that no one is safe until all are safe, call for an elite that works for the wider society and not against it. Privilege brings responsibility. As Nyerere noted, education should aim not for a better life, but for making a better world.

The writer is dean of the Institute for Educational Development, Aga Khan University.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2024

Married in Auschwitz. 80th anniversary of the only known wedding in the camp

Source:TVN24

 News in English, PAP
18 March 2024

The only wedding known to have taken place in the Auschwitz concentration camp was held exactly 80 years ago. Austrian inmate Rudolf Friemel and Spanish forced laborer Margarita Ferrer Rey made their vows in one of the most terrifying places the world has ever seen.

The union was sealed on March 18, 1944, under the law of the Third Reich. The wedding ceremony was attended by the Margarita's and Rudolf's 3-year-old son Edouard as well as the groom's father and brother.

The married couple were allowed to spend the wedding night in a cell inside the camp brothel located in Block 24. The following day, Margarita and little Edouard headed back home.

A camp orchestra provided music accompaniment, while Wilhelm Brasse - a Polish inmate - took photographs of the newlyweds.

Before the ceremony, the groom had been allowed to grow his hair back and borrowed a suit, tie, and shoes from the SS wardrobe.

The first marriage

Born in 1907, Rudolf Friemel was an Austrian communist. Margarita was nine years younger. The two met during the Spanish Civil War. Friemel went there to fight with the International Brigades in 1936 against General Franco's fascists. Ferrer Rey was part of Mujeres Antifascistas, an organization of anti-fascist women who came to cheer up the soldiers during the fighting. The pair got married for the first time in Spain, under the republican law.

After the fall of the Spanish Republic, Friemel and Rey fled to France in separate ways. There, after being interned, they got separated once again. Their son was born in 1941. Margarita found shelter at Rudolf's father's place in Vienna. Rudolf tried to join them, but he got arrested by the Nazis. After being held in various prisons, he was taken to Auschwitz in the first months of 1942.

German authorities, having supported General Francisco Franco, did not recognize the law of the collapsed republic, including marriage certificates issued under said code. Friemel's father and Margarita made efforts so that Rudolf could get married under German law. He was granted that privilege by SS Chief Heinrich Himmler himself.

Death in a wedding shirt

Margarita and Friemel's family were allowed to come to Auschwitz. The wedding ceremony was organized in the commandant's building, which also housed the camp's registry office.

A leader of the prisoner resistance, the Austrian did not survive WWII. The Germans hanged him on December 30, 1944, after his unsuccessful escape attempt. He died wearing the very shirt he had got married in. Female inmates had embroided the shirt with roses on the occassion. His wife and son survived the war.

Margarita died in 1987.

Auschwitz concentration camp

The Germans set up the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1940. Two years later, Auschwitz II-Birkenau was constructed. It became the place of genocide of the European Jews. The entire camp complex included a network of more than 40 sub-camps that exploited the prisoners as slave laborers.

It is estimated that at least 1.1 million people were murdered in Auschwitz, mainly Jews but also Poles, the Romani, Soviet POWs, and people of other nationalities.

Dubai court grants divorce to woman, rejects husband denial of parentage


Picture used for illustrative purpose only.


Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

Dubai Personal Status Court ruled that an Arab woman be divorced from her husband irrevocably. The court also rejected the husband’s request to force wife to go through a DNA test and be checked by a specialist doctor to determine the duration of the pregnancy.

The court also rejected the husband’s denial of paternity of the embryo.

According to the case file, an Arab husband filed a lawsuit before the Personal Status Court in Dubai, in which he demanded that his wife be obligated to have a DNA test, accepting his denial of his paternity to the embryo, and a divorce due to harm caused by the appellee constantly insulting him, expelling him from the marital home, and depriving him of his marital rights.

The plaintiff stated that he married the appellee in November 2023, and after only one month, she started to treat him badly as she used to constantly curse him, and also drove him away from the house.

He added that she also deprived him of having his legal rights, indicating that he tried using all amicable ways to settle matters and contacted her mother to reach a solution to return to living together, but all attempts failed.

The husband added that after one month of marriage, his wife told him that she was pregnant in the third month, so he suspected her, and in order to preserve her reputation, he did not show any bad reaction but asked her to go with him to a specialist doctor to confirm the validity of the pregnancy, but she refused.

She then asked him for a divorce in return for giving up all her rights, on the condition that the child be registered in his name after birth.

The wife denied the husband’s allegations, and mentioned in her memorandum that he used to mistreat her since the beginning of marriage, besides refraining from spending on her and refusing to care for her during pregnancy.

She explained that the marital home was rented in her name and that the husband lived there at her expense. She submitted a copy of the lease contract and asked the court to reject the husband’s requests.

The wife’s lawyer, Dr Ahmed Abdel Shafi, said that the wife admitted insulting the husband via WhatsApp in response to his insulting her, so the court made sure that it was impossible for the marriage to continue between the two parties.

The court also clarified that for a husband to accuse his wife of adultery, he must have personally witnessed her doing it or have already verified it, and since he did not see her, his request was considered without evidence.

Abdul Shafi added that the Personal Status Court in Dubai decided that a man has the right to deny the child’s parentage within seven days from the date of learning of the birth or pregnancy, and to file his lawsuit within 30 days of learning of the birth or pregnancy, and that the four religious school of Islamic jurisprudence have set several conditions for denying parentage, the most important of which is that the denial must be without delay, but if the husband remains silent, he is not permitted to deny it, and since the husband did not deny his parentage for approximately 5 months of pregnancy, the legal period has expired and he, then is not permitted to do that.

That Big Jan. 6 Supreme Court Decision Is Not the Win for Trump People Think It Is

BY RICHARD L. HASEN

SLATE

JUNE 28, 2024

John Roberts created a big potential legal problem for Trump. Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Samuel Corum/Getty Images, Shawn Thew/Pool/Getty Images, and supremecourt.gov.

This is part of Opinionpalooza, Slate’s coverage of the major decisions from the Supreme Court this June. Alongside Amicus, we kicked things off this year by explaining How Originalism Ate the Law. The best way to support our work is by joining Slate Plus. (If you are already a member, consider a donation or merch!)

In Fischer v. United States, a divided Supreme Court, in an opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, handed Donald Trump a political victory by saying the government overreached in prosecuting some of the Jan. 6 rioters. But it created a potentially big legal problem for him by confirming that the submission of “false evidence” in an official proceeding—as Trump allegedly help orchestrate with the fake electors scheme after he lost the 2020 election—indeed violates federal law. Should Donald Trump ever go to trial on 2020 election interference, and that’s a big if depending on what the Supreme Court does Monday in the pending Trump immunity case, he could well face some serious jail time.

Roberts barely acknowledged the factual circumstances surrounding the Fischer case. For months, Donald Trump had been telling his supporters that the 2020 presidential election was going to be (and eventually was) stolen from him. He encouraged his supporters to come to D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, for “wild” protests. That was a significant day because it was when Vice President Mike Pence presided over a joint session of Congress and the Electoral College votes were to be counted confirming Joe Biden as the winner. After (and during) Trump’s speech before a boisterous crowd, large segments of that group went to the U.S. Capitol and invaded. The result was a violent insurrection, leaving five dead and 140 law enforcement officers injured. Four officers later died by suicide. It was horrendous.

Roberts sadly doesn’t acknowledge this unfortunate history and ongoing threat to American democracy or take any position on it, other than to state, contrary to the antifa takes, that “a crowd of supporters of then-President Donald Trump gathered outside the Capitol” and eventually invaded. This stands in sharp contrast with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson who, in her concurring opinion, opened by calling out and condemning what happened:


On January 6, 2021, an angry mob stormed the United States Capitol seeking to prevent Congress from fulfilling its constitutional duty to certify the electoral votes in the 2020 Presidential election. The peaceful transfer of power is a fundamental democratic norm, and those who attempted to disrupt it in this way inflicted a deep wound on this Nation. But today’s case is not about the immorality of those acts.

Roberts instead approached the question as an antiseptic one of statutory interpretation, involving a statute concerning the “obstruction” of an official proceeding. There’s no question that the rioters could be charged with certain crimes that are straightforward, like criminal trespass or destruction of government property. Those charges will still stand against many of the Jan. 6 rioters, but the obstruction charges mattered because they raised the potential for much more jail time.

Related From Slate 

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Follow me into the weeds for a moment. Here’s the obstruction statute at issue:


(c) Whoever corruptly—

(1) alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or

(2) otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so,

shall be fined … or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.

The question was whether Joseph Fischer, one of the Jan. 6 invaders, “otherwise” “obstruct[ed]” or “imped[ed]” an official proceeding. More precisely, how should the legal system read the word otherwise? Does it apply to any way in which a proceeding might be obstructed, or was it limited to doing so in ways like the ways done in (c)(1), which involves the interference or manipulation of evidence? The majority—including Jackson in her concurrence—read the statute in context to apply to doing something with evidence. Congress enacted the statute after the Enron accounting scandal, and the prime concern was about the evidence manipulation and tampering. The dissenters, led by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, read the statute more broadly to apply to all different ways one might obstruct or impede an official proceeding, including through criminal acts of trespass and violence.

Barrett is a committed textualist, and she makes a good case to read the statute broadly. But the chief justice and Jackson, a former federal public defender, had their own arguments for reading it more narrowly. As a matter of statutory interpretation, this was one of those cases that could have gone either way. My own view is that there’s no reason Congress in writing the statute would have wanted to stop obstruction or impeding of official proceedings only through the use of evidence, not violence, and that the statute was fairly applied to people like Fischer, who knew what they were doing was wrong.

So this is a political victory for the Trumpists, who can now claim judicial overreach as a number of Jan. 6 insurrectionists get part of their charges thrown out. Of course, no one is going to be getting into the weeds of statutory interpretation when they debate this in public. The point is that supporters of the rioters can say the Biden Department of Justice overreached in aggressively applying the statute. As I write this, the banner headline on the New York Times website says, “Supreme Court Says Prosecutors in Jan. 6 Case Overstepped.” That surely hands a victory to Trump and his supporters.

But Roberts did one thing that he did not have to do that surely would hurt Trump if he ever goes on trial for election interference. Trump too was charged with interfering with an official proceeding. He did not physically invade the Capitol or destroy property. He instead is alleged to have engaged in election subversion, including causing the submission of fake electors in an effort to swing the election that he lost from Biden to him.

Could that conduct count as a violation of the statute? The majority opinion states that “it is possible to violate (c)(2) by creating false evidence—rather than altering incriminating evidence.” That’s exactly what Trump is alleged to have engaged in a conspiracy to do. If Trump acted corruptly and if the fake slates of electors count as “false evidence,” well then he and others could be in a lot of criminal trouble.


Roberts’ opinion was joined by other conservative justices, including Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Clarence Thomas. Getting them on the record on this is no small thing. And surely the Barrett dissenters would agree too that the statute covers the creation of false evidence.

That’s legally bad news for Donald Trump, should he ever go on trial. Tune in Monday to see if that’s even possible. Trump has argued that the charges against him need to be dismissed because he’s immune from prosecution. The Supreme Court is expected to issue its opinion, and I’m not expecting good news.

Katie Thurston Shares Resources For Rape Victims As She Reveals Traumatic Experience From Past

Katie Thurston, the star of Season 17 of "The Bachelorette," has publicly revealed that she was raped and shared resources for victims of rape and sexual assault. She also criticized the justice system for failing her.

Outlook International Desk
Updated on: 30 June 2024

Katie Thurston Photo: Pinterest

Katie Thurston, the star of Season 17 of "The Bachelorette," has publicly revealed that she was raped and criticized the justice system for failing her. Thurston shared her story in an emotional Instagram post on Friday, providing resources for others who have experienced sexual assault and rape.

While she did not delve into specific details, Thurston recounted calling 911 to report her rape. She was taken by an officer for a sexual assault forensic exam, a process during which she felt like a "vulnerable child." She expressed gratitude to the nurse and advocate who supported her through the examination.

Katie shared that the forensic kit took four months to process. During this time, she consulted with a therapist and educated herself on how to navigate conversations with detectives investigating her case. She handed over all relevant evidence, including texts, phone call records, DNA, videos, and her own body, but said her quest for justice was ultimately thwarted. She did not specify how the investigation was stopped.

"This isn't just a loss for me," Thurston wrote. "It's yet another loss in a broken system. Change happens in failure, and the justice system failed me. And continues to fail thousands every single day.

Thurston ended her post with an encouraging message to her followers, reminding them of their value, strength, and that she believes them.

Katie Thurston with Blake Moynes Photo: Pinterest


Katie Thurston ended up with Blake Moynes during her season of "The Bachelorette," though the couple broke up in 2021. She later dated John Hershey, another contestant from her season, before they split in 2022.

Frauenkultur.co.ukfrauenkultur.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Against-Our-Will.pdf

Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape - Frauenkultur

... Against. Our Will. Men, Women and Rape. SUSAN BROWNMILLER. Fawcett Columbine • New York. Page 5. Sale of this book without a front cover may be unauthorized. If ...

CREEPY

Scientists create humanoid robot with ‘living’ skin that can smile

WATCH

ByArya Vaishnavi
Jun 30, 2024 

“By mimicking human skin-ligament structures, we found a way to bind skin to complex structures,” Professor Shoji Takeuchi said

Japanese researchers have created an alien-like robot with “living” skin. What looks like a pink blob with beady eyes is actually a humanoid robot bound with engineered skin tissue that allows it to smile. The University of Tokyo announced the successful experiment by Professor Shoji Takeuchi-led group of researchers on Wednesday, June 26.

A group of Japanese researchers have created a humanoid robot with 'living' skin(The University of Tokyo)

Scientists create humanoid robot with ‘living’ skin

Takeuchi explained how he and his team succeeded in creating a humanoid robot with “living” skin by drawing inspiration from his previous experiments. “During previous research on a finger-shaped robot covered in engineered skin tissue we grew in our lab, I felt the need for better adhesion between the robotic features and the subcutaneous structure of the skin,” he said.

“By mimicking human skin-ligament structures and by using specially made V-shaped perforations in solid materials, we found a way to bind skin to complex structures. The natural flexibility of the skin and the strong method of adhesion mean the skin can move with the mechanical components of the robot without tearing or peeling away,” Takeuchi continued.

“In this study, we managed to replicate human appearance to some extent by creating a face with the same surface material and structure as humans,” said Takeuchi, who holds expertise in the field of biohybrid robotics, where biology and mechanical engineering meet.

“Additionally, through this research, we identified new challenges, such as the necessity for surface wrinkles and a thicker epidermis to achieve a more humanlike appearance.” “We believe that creating a thicker and more realistic skin can be achieved by incorporating sweat glands, sebaceous glands, pores, blood vessels, fat and nerves.”

“Of course, movement is also a crucial factor, not just the material, so another important challenge is creating humanlike expressions by integrating sophisticated actuators, or muscles, inside the robot,” he explained. “Creating robots that can heal themselves, sense their environment more accurately and perform tasks with humanlike dexterity is incredibly motivating.”

Japanese scientists create living robot skin with human cells

 | Latest News | WION

I'VE SEEN THINGS YOU PEOPLE WOULDN'T BELIEVE —

Researchers craft smiling robot face from living human skin cells

Human cells isolated from juvenile foreskin are flexible enough to grin when moved.

BENJ EDWARDS - 6/28/2024,

Enlarge / A movable robotic face covered with living human skin cells.
Takeuchi et al.178

In a new study, researchers from the University of Tokyo, Harvard University, and the International Research Center for Neurointelligence have unveiled a technique for creating lifelike robotic skin using living human cells. As a proof of concept, the team engineered a small robotic face capable of smiling, covered entirely with a layer of pink living tissue.

FURTHER READINGHuman cells hacked to act like squid skin cells could unlock key to camouflage

The researchers note that using living skin tissue as a robot covering has benefits, as it's flexible enough to convey emotions and can potentially repair itself. "As the role of robots continues to evolve, the materials used to cover social robots need to exhibit lifelike functions, such as self-healing," wrote the researchers in the study.

Shoji Takeuchi, Michio Kawai, Minghao Nie, and Haruka Oda authored the study, titled "Perforation-type anchors inspired by skin ligament for robotic face covered with living skin," which is due for July publication in Cell Reports Physical Science. We learned of the study from a report published earlier this week by New Scientist.

The study describes a novel method for attaching cultured skin to robotic surfaces using "perforation-type anchors" inspired by natural skin ligaments. These tiny v-shaped cavities in the robot's structure allow living tissue to infiltrate and create a secure bond, mimicking how human skin attaches to underlying tissues.

To demonstrate the skin's capabilities, the team engineered a palm-sized robotic face able to form a convincing smile. Actuators connected to the base allowed the face to move, with the living skin flexing. The researchers also covered a static 3D-printed head shape with the engineered skin

.
Enlarge / "Demonstration of the perforation-type anchors to cover the facial device with skin equivalent."
Takeuchi et al.

Takeuchi et al. created their robotic face by first 3D-printing a resin base embedded with the perforation-type anchors. They then applied a mixture of human skin cells in a collagen scaffold, allowing the living tissue to grow into the anchors.

Real human skin cells

So whose skin did the researchers use? As it turns out, living human skin cells are readily available for purchase, and the cells came from a large number of anonymous human donors.

In their experiments, the researchers used commercially available human cells, purchasing what are called Normal Human Dermal Fibroblasts (NHDFs) and Normal Human Epidermal Keratinocytes (NHEKs) that were isolated from either juvenile foreskin or different skin locations from adult donors by a company called PromoCell GmbH.

A fibroblast is a special type of structural cell that contributes to the formation of connective tissue. And Keratinocytes represent "the major cell type of the epidermis, the outermost of the layers of the skin, making up about 90 percent of the cells there," according to PromoCell's website.

Enlarge / "Conceptual illustration of the tissue-fixation method using perforation-type anchor."
Takeuchi et al.

After obtaining the cells, the researchers then cultured them in specialized growth media to create the living skin layer. To keep the skin cells alive, the researchers used a special growth media supplemented with some antibiotics to keep bacteria at bay. The paper states that "Fibroblast growth medium (DMEM supplemented with 10% FBS, 1% penicillin-streptomycin, and 70 mg/mL L-ascorbic acid phosphate magnesium salt n-hydrate)" was used for the dermal fibroblasts. For the epidermal keratinocytes, the researchers used "keratinocyte growth medium (Keratinocyte Growth Medium 3 Kit supplemented with 1% penicillin-streptomycin)."

The researchers also note that "for both NHDFs and NHEKs, media were refurbished once every 2 days." This regular refreshing of the growth media provided the necessary nutrients to keep the cells alive during the experiment.

Potentially useful for testing

While ethical questions inevitably arise from using real human skin cells, the researchers state that their goal is to improve human-robot communication and advance tissue engineering. They hope their techniques will find applications not just in robotics but in fields like reconstructive medicine and drug testing. Instead of using real human test subjects, experimenters could grow artificial skin layers from real cells.


FURTHER READINGTesla unveils its latest humanoid robot, Optimus Gen 2, in demo video

Beyond improving robotic interfaces, the research team believes their technique could have applications in cosmetics testing. By repeatedly actuating their smiling robot face over time, they observed the formation of expression lines analogous to human wrinkles.

The paper notes: "One significant next step in this research is to leverage this model to enhance our understanding of the mechanisms underlying wrinkle formation. Moreover, applying this knowledge to recreate such expressions on a chip could find applications in the cosmetics industry and the orthopedic surgery industry."

Enlarge / "The smiling robotic face covered with dermis equivalent demonstrating actuation of the dermis equivalent via the perforation-type anchors."
Takeuchi et al.

However, the researchers caution that significant hurdles remain before the technology can be applied to full-scale humanoid robots. The engineered skin currently lacks sensory capabilities and requires constant nutrient supply, limiting its lifespan in open air. To address these issues, the researchers hope to incorporate new mechanisms that will help the skin survive over longer periods of time.

With continued refinement, living robotic skin could create machine coverings that are not just lifelike but literally alive. Eventually, they may even live long enough to see attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. Or watch C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. But we're hoping those moments will not be lost in time—like tears in rain.

BENJ EDWARDSBenj Edwards is Ars Technica's Senior AI Reporter. In his free time, he writes and records music, collects vintage computers, and enjoys nature. He lives in Raleigh, NC.

The Biden-Trump Debate: The Obsolescence of White Supremacy as Perspective

The commentaries about the Biden-Trump debate the other night , last Thursday to be exact,tells us how ageist the United States remains even after decades of anti-ageism federal laws and policies.

BYPROF. JOHN H. STANFIELD II
JUNE 30, 2024

MODERN DIPLOMACY

Former President Donald Trump, left, and President Joe Biden take part in the CNN presidential debate on Thursday, June 27. Will Lanzoni/CNN

The commentaries about the Biden-Trump debate the other night , last Thursday to be exact,tells us how ageist the United States remains even after decades of anti-ageism federal laws and policies. It hasn’t been surprising to find others around the world following suit considering ageism is the most basic prejudice and inequality we human beings practice. You feel it as you get older since the expectations of your capacities in all ways decline in the aging process as seen in all the childlike stereotypes which come your way as an older person. If you are too young to understand what I mean just wait if you are blessed to grow older, much older.

The media gurus and the politicians and their donors were just waiting to pounce on Biden when the traits of his aging behavior became apparent on prime time. Do we prefer to have a confirmed raging lying egomaniac with clear Fascist dictator tendencies to return to the White House rather than a decent man be re-elected doing the best he can to protect Americans in our declining democracy? 

I ask this while not agreeing with Biden on allowing the right wing Israeli head of state do genocide and keeping America active in the lost war in Ukraine and his refusal to use restorative justice measures to resolve racial polarization in America. He actually has embraced too many Trump domestic and foreign policies for me to stomach. In fact in many respects that night, early morning in Mauritius, Biden and Trump sounded alike though with different ideological twists here and there such as their neoliberal views on how to help Black families and their militaristic views on maintaining American global greatness real or delusionary depending on which side of the political aisle you are sitting or standing on or both.

People naively think what we need is a younger person who doesn’t lose his or her words while speaking though many actually do too. It is not age, it is perspective change we need. There are younger people as well as older persons who are centralists or right wing or populists which America does not need at this moment. And there are those with twisted views on religion while being haters who are young as well as old. And there are those younger as well as older who are warmongers, who don’t care about the poor or about the young or old.

We need fresh empowering ideas about what it means to be an American society which has always been multicultural in denial with a too long history of denying the constitutional and human rights of too many due to their skin color, ancestry, class, and gender. Now as the nation quickly moves along the path of becoming nonwhite in which historical minorities are becoming the majority rather than denying or resisting or trying to remain in usual power while pretending to change, we need leadership which embrace such transformations and weave them into a just America for all as challenging as that would be in a nation not comfortable with having difficult though imperative conversations about cultural differences and the value for all for authentic not just symbolic multicultural unity.

The 2024 Presidential election year with two older white guys going for it symbolizes not age but ageless White Supremacy perspectives which are obsolete but still adhered to widely in an America still in denial about its white greatness and power in a society no longer all that white demographically and ideologically. 

Be it through Democrats and Republicans finding new transformative Presidential leaders to sponsor in 2028 or we see the emergence of one or more alternative parties which do take note that change is on its way since it has to be. White Supremacy no matter its ideological flavors or the demographics of its adherents has run out of steam. That is what we saw in that debate. Not age but the last breath of White Supremacy in how conventional politics are articulated. 

If this is all so hard to believe just look at what in fact is going on with American youth today. The media establishment wrapped in its older White Supremacy privileged garments fails to report well if at all about how different the George Floyd and more recent academic freedom ,Israeli arms disinvestment , and pro-Palestinian youth protest movements. They are not just the white youth only of the 1960s and 1970s. They are in the elite historically white universities sector,rich ethnic demographic mixtures reflective of the composition of the majority or near majority of the student bodies of their elite campuses too often governed by majority White boards, senior administrators , and alumni in a sea of chaos and change. The right wing majority of the United States Supreme Court can pass down as many anti-affirmative decisions it wishes but these youth movements plus older people in influential places who get it have already changed America for the good of a just society.

 We just now need the Presidential, Congressional, and Judicial leadership which as well gets it in understanding America is no longer a White Supremacy dominated land in a world in which White Supremacy still reigns. 2024 is a breaking point from being a nation in denial and resistance regarding who we are as a multicultural democracy as we proceed down the difficult road of transformation demanding the leaders who get it and will lead be it government, business, faith,education, media, law, health, social services,and AI.

And as I sit here in another multicultural society struggling out of its history of denial and with severe problems of demographic marginality and exclusion allow me to say this is no time in this culturally polarized and bigoted world to smugly point to America without addressing effectively such prejudices persisting in other back and front yards around the world. We the world with our international as well as national tools of justice governance need to do much more sincere “ better” in rooting out racialized and xenophobic prejudices and inequalities rather than pretending we are free from such or solely doing the minimum or the symbolic. If we don’t we all suffer from not only the loss of human capital but our dignity as human beings since when others are deprived of their human rights because of their ancestry or skin color or gender, it taints and degrades all of us. Let us all be aware multicultural justice is what we all deserve and need, not just in America. Everywhere we are.

Prof. John H. Stanfield II

Director ASARPI: The Institute for Advanced Study of African Renaissance Policies Ideas Mauritius and South Africa former University of Mauritius SSR Chair of African Studies