African Contradictions in the World of Science

African contributions to the globalized world cannot be celebrated while the place occupied by African peoples remains on the periphery.

By Priscilla Marques Campos

October 18, 2024

Source: Africa Is a Country


Abdul Wahid shows a manuscript from 14th century at his house in Timbuktu, North of Mali. Image credit Marco Dormino for MINUSMA via Flickr CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

June 30 marked the celebration of Africa Scientific Renaissance Day (ASRD). This date was established in 1987 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, by the Organization of African Unity (OAU), now known as the African Union (AU), to be observed in all member countries, to recognize Africa’s modern contributions to science and technology globally and highlight the continent’s ancient and ancestral technologies, such as forest medicines for healing, climate pattern interpretation, sustainability, food security, and more.

We acknowledge epistemicide, a philosophical concept developed by Sueli Carneiro, as a means by which European whiteness, during the period of slavery, suppressed African knowledge and traditions as a strategy to dominate and discredit them as cognizant subjects. This led to the concealment of African contributions to the cultural heritage of humanity, particularly by denying Africans and their descendants the status of being subjects of their own history’s knowledge. A counterpoint to this understanding is the work Geniuses of Humanity: African and Afro-descendant Science, Technology, and Innovation, by Carlos Eduardo Dias Machado and Alexandra Baldeh Loras (2017), which explores the historical contributions of Africans to the exact, biological, and human sciences that were marginalized by Eurocentrism in modern times.

In the Eurocentric view—where the book was the primary vehicle of cultural heritage, and writing was considered superior to orality—it was long believed that nonliterate peoples were devoid of science and knowledge. It is worth noting, in line with Cheikh Anta Diop, that in addition to various nonliterate civilizations, there were also civilizations with their own writing systems that originated in Africa.

As mentioned by Ìyálòrìsá Marli Ògún Méjìre Azevedo, scientific sources come from various origins, including written documents; archeology (e.g., silent material evidence that reveals valuable contributions to African history, iron objects and the technology involved in their production, ceramic objects with their production techniques and style, writings, and graphic symbols); and oral tradition, which is repository and vector of the accumulated socio-cultural creations of so-called nonliterate peoples.

June 30 was marked as a (re)birth, to strengthen dialogue among African leaders in the present day and to highlight scientific discoveries by Africans for the social development of humanity. This day’s celebration also typically takes place in African universities, such as the event at the University of Ghana that brought together experts to discuss the challenges of illegal mining and solutions to reduce its impact on the environment and health.

Another milestone in African Studies was the collection edited by UNESCO called the General History of Africa, which in its original form comprised eight published volumes. In recent years, UNESCO has embarked on the preparation of three new volumes, and in November 2023, the 10th volume was launched during the third Global Forum Against Racism and Discrimination in São Paulo, Brazil. Under the subtitle “Global Africa,” the volume integrates the discussion of the African diaspora as an integral part of knowledge about Africa. The movement to create this series began in the 1960s, during the wave of independence struggles across the continent, when a significant portion of leaders and scholars were focused on writing the history of Africa from an African perspective, breaking away from the legacy of Eurocentric colonial libraries.

The project, which was begun in 1964, involved hundreds of historians and experts and faced many challenges during its production. Research drew from oral and archaeological sources, as well as analyses from antiquity up until 1935. The material is available in Portuguese, English, Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, Swahili, Fulani, and Hausa. Undoubtedly, it is one of the most important collections of the 20th century, a significant contribution to the field of humanities and part of a great epistemological revolution from an academic and scientific perspective.

Africa Scientific Renaissance Day, which celebrates the continent’s contributions to human and technological sciences, offers a bitter contrast when we consider the reality behind the extraction of natural resources like cobalt. The violence and oppression involved in this industry are examples of how capitalist globalization benefits at the expense of many, perpetuating a cycle of inequality between the Global North and South. Cobalt has been dubbed “blood cobalt,” analogous to “blood diamonds” exploited in Sierra Leone in the 1990s, to raise awareness of the devastating impacts of this exploitation.

Cobalt, an essential element for lithium battery production, has been hailed as a sustainable alternative for electric vehicles and electronic devices. However, the exploitation of its mines, especially in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), raises serious concerns due to appalling working conditions, which include child labor. The DRC is responsible for about 60 percent of global cobalt production, and reports of human rights abuses and slavery-like conditions are alarming.

Despite promises of reform from the industry and major tech companies like Apple and Google, which use cobalt in their products, demand for the metal continues to grow. In 2016, Amnesty International denounced the use of child labor in DRC mines, linking major corporations to these practices. However, a US court recently refused to hold companies accountable for these violations, highlighting the difficulty of achieving justice.

Therefore, the contradiction we present here underscores the fact that although in the 20th and 21st centuries there have been substantial denunciations of racism in the human sciences and recognition of the scientific and social contributions of Africans in the history of humanity, there is still much struggle ahead—as Amílcar Cabral said, “the struggle continues.”

African contributions to the globalized world cannot be celebrated while the place occupied by African peoples remains on the periphery of the social division of labor, relegating them to violent and inhumane living conditions, such as the exploitation of workers in cobalt mines in the DRC.

Companies involved, such as Huayou Cobalt and Gécamines, which profit millions of dollars from the trade of mineral resources, must be held accountable and punished, and the denunciations widely publicized. We do not want history to repeat itself; sustainability and technological development should not be achieved at the cost of human dignity.

Priscilla Marques Campos is a Brazilian master of African social history. She is chief editor of Hydra Journal and enconto orí Review.

U.S. and China — Why Not a Deal?

By Richard D. Wolff

October 18, 2024

Source: Originally published by Z. Feel free to share widely.


Image from Freedom Press


An old theme within social theory holds that societies with very unequal distributions of wealth can sustain their social cohesion so long as total wealth is growing. Such total growth enables all who get a distributed share of that wealth—even those with the smallest shares—to experience at least some increase. The rich with the biggest shares can grab most of the growth so long as some is provided to those with small shares. The pie analogy works well: so long as the pie is growing all distributed shares of it can also grow. Some will grow more, others less, but all can grow. If all do grow, social stability is facilitated (assuming the society’s population accepts unequal shares). Modern capitalism’s prioritization of economic growth as urgently necessary reflects such social theory (much as economic growth has reinforced it).

Of course, if instead, a society’s population prioritizes movement toward less unequal shares, economic growth becomes relatively less important. If a society’s population seriously accommodates climate change, economic growth can become still less important. Were social movements endorsing such priorities to grow and ally, they could well alter societies’ attitudes toward and commitments to economic growth.

U.S. capitalism from 1820 to 1980 favored and fostered rising total wealth. The share going to wages grew while the share going to capital grew more. Notwithstanding many bitter capital/labor struggles, the United States as a whole exhibited considerable social cohesion. This was because, in part, a growing pie allowed nearly all to experience some growth in their real income. “Nearly all” could be rewritten as “whites.”

In contrast, the last 40 years, 1980–2020, represent an inflection point inside the United States. The growth of total wealth slowed while corporations and the rich took greater relative shares. Therefore, middle-income people and the poor found their wealth either not growing much or not at all.

The reasons for slowing U.S. wealth growth include chiefly the profit-driven relocations of capitalism’s dynamic centers. Industrial production moved from Western Europe, North America, and Japan to China, India, Brazil, and others. Financialization prevailed in the capitalism left behind. China and its BRICS allies increasingly match or exceed the United States and its G7 allies in levels of production, technical innovation, and foreign trade. The U.S. response to their competition—growing protectionism expressed by imposing tariffs, trade wars, and sanctions—mobilizes increasing retaliation that worsens the U.S. situation. This process is continuing with no end now visible. The U.S. dollar’s role in the world economy declines. Geopolitically, the United States sees former allies such as Brazil, India, and Egypt shift loyalties toward China or else toward a more neutral position relative to the United States and China.

The combination of slowing total wealth growth with a larger share going to corporations and those they enrich undercuts the United States’ internal social cohesion. Political and cultural divisions inside the United States, exposed sharply in the Trump-Harris contest, have become social hostilities that further undermine the global position of the United States. Empires’ declines and their internal social divisions often accelerate each other. For example, consider the scapegoating of immigrants in the United States that now includes charging Haitians with eating pets and ignoring data showing the greater criminality of citizens relative to immigrants. White supremacy resurged to become more public and fuel increasingly divisive regionalism and racism. Struggles over the issues of patriarchy, sexuality, and gender are sharper than they have perhaps ever been. Long deferred protests over social conditions proliferate when empires decline, growth slows, and social cohesion unravels.

Via a parallel logic, matters in China differ very significantly. For the last several decades, China’s GDP growth has been two to three times faster than that of the United States. The growth of average real wages in China has been faster than that in the United States by much larger multiples. These differences are stark and have been sustained for a generation. The Chinese leadership—its Communist Party and government—was thereby enabled to distribute the fruits of its rapid economic growth—its rising wealth—to support internal social cohesion. It did so by its policies of raising real wages and moving hundreds of millions from rural and agricultural to urban and industrial positions. For those Chinese people, this was a historic transition from poverty to middle-income status.

China’s growth plus that of its BRICS allies produced a major competitor for the United States and the G7 by 2010. Both blocs now scour the globe looking for secure, cheap sources of food, raw materials, and energy. Both likewise seek access to markets, secure transport routes and supply chains, and friendly governments. Both subsidize cutting-edge technological advances such that the United States and China now virtually monopolize their achievement (relative to what Europe or Japan once did).

U.S. policy-makers portray China’s global efforts as aggressive, threatening the U.S. empire and thereby potentially U.S. capitalism itself. Chinese policymakers see U.S. efforts (protectionist tariffs and trade restrictions, South China Sea maneuvers, foreign military bases and wars) as aimed to slow or stop China’s economic development. For them, the United States is blocking China’s growth opportunities and dynamism, possibly foreshadowing a resumption of years of China’s humiliation that it finds totally unacceptable. National security anxieties haunt both sides’ rhetoric. Predictions spread of imminent military conflicts and even another world war.

At a time when the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East lead many to call for immediate ceasefires and negotiated settlements, might history suggest something similar for the United States and China now? Britain tried twice (1776 and 1812) to use war to slow or stop the independence and growth of its North American colony. After failing twice, Britain changed its policies. Negotiations enabled the new United States and Britain increasingly to trade with and economically develop one another. Britain focused on retaining, profiting from, and building up the rest of its empire. The United States declared that its imperial focus would henceforth be South America (the “Monroe Doctrine”). This remained the deal until World War II ended Britain’s empire and allowed the United States to extend its own.

Why not a comparable deal between the United States and China, bringing in the G7, BRICS, and the Global South? With genuine global participation, might such a deal finally end empires? The very real dangers—ecological as well as geopolitical—that the world now faces encourage finding some kind of negotiated agreement on a multipolar world. After World War I, such goals inspired the League of Nations. After World War II, they inspired the United Nations. The realism of those goals was challenged then. It cannot suffer that indignity again now. Might we manage to achieve those goals now without World War III?

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.


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Richard D. Wolff
Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, New York City. Earlier he taught economics at Yale University (1967-1969) and at the City College of the City University of New York (1969-1973). In 1994, he was a Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Paris (France), I (Sorbonne). Wolff was also regular lecturer at the Brecht Forum in New York City. Prof Wolff is the co-founder of Democracy at Work and host of their nationally syndicated show Economic Update.

UK

Who Are the Terrorists?

By Craig Murray

October 18, 2024

Source: Craig Murray


Photo from Alisdare Hickson (Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)

I have a confession to make.

When a journalist writes this it generally means they will proceed to reveal something they hope will actually show them in a good light or justified in some way. But I have a real confession to make, of something I did that was wrong.

Somewhere in the UK, among the papers of a dead loved one which nobody has the heart to throw out, in cardboard boxes in dusty attics or deep in the filing cabinets of Jeremy Corbyn, exist still a few copies of thousands of letters bearing my authentic signature.

These letters, on expensive paper with an impressive Foreign and Commonwealth Office crested header, state that the British Government will not deal with the African National Congress because it is a terrorist organisation.

Many of them go on to state that Nelson Mandela is a terrorist who was rightly convicted of terrorism by a South African court after a free and fair trial.

I really did write those thousands of letters, not just sign them. I did not believe a single word of it, and was only “doing my job” as a civil servant, but in a sense that makes it worse.

So I know how many government functionaries currently feel in carrying out the government’s policy of supporting and indeed actively participating in genocide.

When I joined the FCO, in my “fast stream” intake of 22 I was one of only two who was not public school and the only one who was not Oxbridge. I also had the unusual background of being a member of CND, Friends of Palestine and various other activist groups.

I could not be excluded because in the several days and stages of public examinations I had (tied with 2 others) outperformed everybody else of the 80,000 people who had entered the Civil Service administrative exams (it was 1984 with 3.5 million unemployed).

But the security services were not happy, and my “positive vetting” was delayed. This is an extremely exhaustive process (nowadays direct vetting) for those with the highest security clearance. An MOD officer, usually retired military, is assigned to investigate everything about you for months, including interviewing many who know you.

So while I joined the FCO in September 1984, for five months I was not given a job but rather put on full time French language training together with three other misfits (one of whom I think was being given extra investigation because his uncle was Roger Hollis).

In the end my positive vetting was left with a query, and I was pulled in to see the Head of Personnel Department. They said that they had decided to grant my vetting certificate, but that I was going to be placed on the South Africa (Political) desk as a direct test of whether it was possible for me to put my politics aside and function as a civil servant.

So I did. You tell yourself many things to get by, chiefly that the UK is a democracy and ministers are elected by voters to determine policy; whereas you as a civil servant are merely carrying through the wishes of the voters.

Thatcher was Prime Minister and she simply was a straightforward supporter of apartheid. This is much denied but I am an eye witness. Geoffrey Howe was Foreign Minister and it was never easy to determine what he thought about anything. Junior ministers running day to day policy were Lynda Chalker and Malcolm Rifkind, who were both viscerally anti-apartheid.

But the line that Mandela was a terrorist and the ANC a terrorist organisation was dictated by Thatcher and absolutely insisted upon.

It is difficult now to explain the intensity of feeling in the UK and the strength of the anti-apartheid campaign. Scores of letters would arrive every day, many from MPs, and – this bit is hard to believe now – in those days every letter would be answered point by point, not with a generic reply.

I was writing those replies by hand, and then giving them to the secretaries to type up. In 1985 the Department got its first word processor and I was able to draft forty template paragraphs and select from those for the replies. But out those replies went from Craig Murray, stating that Nelson Mandela was a terrorist, thousands of them.

I was very actively involved in the Whitehall battle to change the policy, but that is a different story which I have in part explained before.

But this is an extremely important thought that I want you all to ponder.

In 1985, the Terrorism Act 2000 was still 15 years away. There was no such thing as a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act.

Under today’s legislation, every single one of those people writing in support of the African National Congress or out campaigning for the release of Nelson Mandela would have been liable for arrest under Section 12 1 (a) of the Terrorism Act.

That is the danger of allowing the state to dictate whom you must consider a terrorist and punishing those who disagree with the state.

In 1985 the official position of the British state was that the ANC were terrorists and apartheid South Africa were the good guys.

In 2024 the official position of the British state is that Hamas and Hezbollah are terrorists and apartheid Israel are the good guys.

The state can be wrong.

It is therefore not an irony that Starmer and Cooper banned Nelson Mandela’s grandson from entering the UK as a “terrorist sympathiser” because of his support for Palestine. In this as so much else, Starmer is a follower of Thatcher.

The difference forty years later is that the state is now persecuting British citizens and locking them up for daring to say that the state can be wrong.

The ANC example explains why it is essential we do not give way to this pressure.

Let us face facts. Like most resistance units against colonialism, the ANC were indeed forced by the exigencies of asymmetric warfare into actions that were careless of, or even targeted the lives of, colonial settler civilians.

That did not put them on the wrong side of history. Apartheid South Africa was wrong just as Apartheid Israel is wrong. Occupied people have, in international law, the right of armed resistance. Within that context of lawful struggle, individuals remain accountable for individual war crimes.

The Terrorism Act, abused by the Israel lobby to make it illegal to support Israel’s opponents, is fundamentally bad legislation. It literally provides for up to 14 years in jail if you “express an opinion” in favour of a proscribed organisation.

40 years ago it would have been used against the large majority of the population who “expressed an opinion” in favour of the ANC, officially viewed as a terrorist organisation.

The sickening ratcheting up of pressure on Palestine supporters by super Zionist Keir Starmer continued yesterday with a 6am raid on highly distinguished journalist Asa Winstanley. All his electronics and journalistic materials were seized.

Panicked Zionist “elites” who run western states are lashing out in fear at their opponents. As their popular support evaporates in the face of clear evidence of appalling Israeli atrocities, they are resorting to the methods of fascism.

Diljit Dosanjh makes history as first South Asian on cover of Billboard Magazine

The magazine offers four collectible covers, each capturing different aspects of Dosanjh’s journey and identity.


Culture
Images Staff
19 Oct, 2024

DAWN

Diljit Dosanjh, the Punjabi superstar, has become the first South Asian artist to grace the cover of Billboard Magazine. As a pioneer of the “Punjabi wave” that blends folk music with rap and hip-hop, Dosanjh will be on the cover of the first-ever print edition of Billboard Canada, set to be published in December.

Dosanjh’s Dil-Luminati tour, although marred with controversy about dancers not getting paid, has been making headlines for being one of the most successful by a South Asian artist. Now, Billboard Canada’s debut print edition will feature exclusive behind-the-scenes stories from the tour, shared by his manager Sonali Singh, according to Billboard.

The magazine offers four collectible covers, each capturing different aspects of Dosanjh’s journey and identity. One cover, part of a global Billboard initiative, will remain a surprise until December. Limited signed copies will also be available for collectors with the special box set featuring editions in multiple languages, symbolising his impact across continents.

At his recent sold-out show at the O2 Arena in London, Dosanjh thrilled fans by announcing that pre-orders for the magazine are now live.

The Billboard cover is one of many firsts for the 40-year-old Punjabi singer-actor, who continues to break barriers for South Asian artists worldwide.

Last year, Dosanjh became the first Punjabi artist to perform at Coachella music festival. In June, he made his debut on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

Fallon introduced Dosanjh as “the biggest Punjabi artist on the planet”, a fitting title for someone who has seamlessly navigated the intersections of music, film, and fashion.

As a versatile actor and singer, Dosanjh stars in films where he performs his own songs, such as Crew, alongside Tabu, Kareena Kapoor and Kriti Sanon.

Hailing from a small village in India’s Punjab, Dosanjh’s organic blend of modern and traditional aesthetics defies cliches. His music leans into soulful melodies, often showcasing his baritone voice laced with raw emotion.

His collaborations with international icons such as Ed Sheeran, Sia, and Saweetie are illustrative of his global influence. During one memorable concert, he even convinced Ed Sheeran to sing a few lines in Punjabi — a moment fans still rave about.

'Chilling' South Wales pub named among top 10 most haunted places in the world

Patrick Glover
Fri 18 October 2024 

According to Time Out its the "chilling tales" and history behind the oldest pub in Wales is what makes it so scary. (Image: Google Maps)


A south Wales pub has been named among the top 10 most haunted places in the world.

If you're looking for a good fright, or perhaps you are someone who believes in ghouls, ghosts and all things supernatural, then Time Out has you covered.

They have come up with a list of the top 20 most haunted places in the world and one of the top 10 happens to be located right here in South Wales.


La Recoleta Cemetery, Argentina, was named the most haunted place in the world. (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Introducing the list, author - Time Out Travel writer John Bills said: "We’re far from the first people to roam the Earth so, everywhere we go, we’re likely co-existing with the spirits of those who came before us.

"While we usually don’t give that idea a second thought, some places put it front and centre of your mind – especially locations that are teeming with ghosts who’ve not quite found their way into the afterlife.

"The most haunted places in the world will definitely make you consider what invisible spectres might be lurking nearby, whether you’re in an ornate old mansion, a derelict hospital or just a cosy pub with a ton of history.

"If you find yourself in any of these places, you might want to keep your eyes peeled (and make sure you’re not alone)."
The top 20 most haunted places in the world

The top 20 most haunted places in the world, according to Time Out, are:

La Recoleta Cemetery, Argentina


Lawang Sewu, Indonesia


Lizzie Borden House, USA


Poveglia, Italy


La Isla de la Muñecas


Bhangarh Fort, India


The Skirrid Inn, Wales


Port Arthur, Australia


Chuuk Lagoon, Micronesia


Banff Springs Hotel, Canada


Tower of London, England


Castle of Good Hope, South Africa


Aley Grand Hotel, Lebanon


Dragsholm Castle, Denmark


Eastern State Penitentiary, USA


Chase Vault, Barbados


Al Jazirah Al Hamra, UAE


Edinburgh Castle, Scotland


Teatro Tapia, Puerto Rico


Paris Catacombs, France

The Skirrid Inn, in Abergavenny, has been named the seventh most haunted place in the world by Time Out.

Mr Bills said the "chilling tales" and history behind the oldest pub in Wales is what makes it so scary.

He said: "The Welsh love a pub almost as much as they love a story, and the oldest pub in Wales is packed with chilling tales.

"Located in the hills near Abergavenny, The Skirrid Inn doubled up as a centre for hangings over the centuries, and the spirits of the executed still stalk the corridors.

"Not exactly first-pint small talk."

The Skirrid Inn website describes it as "truly one of a kind" and also refers to its spooky surprises and legends.

Most haunted houses across Gwent including the oldest pub in Wales

The website reads: "At over 900 years old, The Skirrid Inn is Wales’ oldest pub and truly one of a kind.

"Located in the stunning Brecon Beacons National Park, the Skirrid Inn is steeped in history, overflowing with character and charm, from its roaring fires to its stone walls and wooden panelling.

"Stay a night or two – or take part in one of our thrilling ghost hunts – and you might even encounter a spooky surprise if the legends are to be believed."

Belgrade's landmark Hotel Yugoslavia faces likely demolition, with many opposed

Belgrade’s iconic Hotel Yugoslavia was once a symbol of progress in the former socialist state of Yugoslavia, and a gathering place for local residents and world leaders

ByDUSAN STOJANOVIC 

Associated Press
October 19, 2024



BELGRADE, Serbia -- Belgrade’s iconic Hotel Yugoslavia, once a symbol of progress in the former socialist state of Yugoslavia that broke apart in the 1990s and a favorite gathering place for local residents as well as world leaders, now stands in eerie silence awaiting its likely demolition.

The once-bustling landmark — a leading example of modernist architecture when it was built in the 1960s — has fallen into disrepair, its future clouded by debates over its historical significance and the push for advanced development.

Its white facade, once polished and welcoming, is marred by crumbling concrete and graffiti. Inside, debris litters once-pristine red carpeted floors, while scattered pieces of broken furniture hint at the opulence that once filled its rooms and lobbies: Faded velvet armchairs, torn bed mattresses, sagging curtains and broken windows are all that remain of the luxury that once was. The wood-paneled presidential suite where top dignitaries would stay is now home to pigeons that fly in through the shattered glass.

As the Serbian capital grapples with hectic growth and new high-rises that dot its skyline, the almost certain fate of the hotel has sparked controversy, with some seeing it as a relic worth preserving and others envisioning new possibilities rising from its ruins.

In its heyday after it received its first guests in 1969, it was a five-star hotel boasting one of the biggest chandeliers in the world made of 40,000 Swarovski crystals and 5,000 bulbs.

Its guest list included Queen Elizabeth II, United States Presidents Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter, astronauts including Neil Armstrong, and Belgian and Dutch royals.

The hotel, with a spectacular view of the Danube River in the capital's New Belgrade district, was damaged in NATO bombing in 1999 in an armed intervention over Serbia’s bloody crackdown on Kosovo Albanian separatists.

Only parts of the hotel were fully renovated, and it kept receiving guests until a few months ago, when private investors announced plans to demolish the structure and build a new one in its place. Two 150-meter (500-foot) -tall towers containing a luxury hotel, offices and private apartments will be built, according to the new owners.

Asked why the landmark hotel needs to be completely destroyed instead of incorporated into the new project, Zivorad Vasic, a spokesperson for the investors, said there were several reasons.

"One is during the bombing in 1999, quite a lot of parts of the hotel were destroyed. Second, the hospitality industry completely and tremendously changed. When you look at hotels now and how they looked before, they were completely different,” he said.

Architect and tourist guide Matija Zlatanovic, who often takes tourists to the hotel to explain its rich history, said the plans for the new hotel are “quite controversial," especially because “there are valid concerns about the size of the buildings that are going to be erected here.”

“It follows the trend of towerization of Belgrade and the erection of enormous high rises all over," he said. “And we yet have to see about the impact that they’re going to have on this neighborhood.”

Neighbors who face living in the future shadows of the planned skyscrapers are not happy. Some are holding weekly protests against the new project, saying they will stop the demolition with their bodies if necessary.

Svetlana Gojun, one of the protesters, said Hotel Yugoslavia “represents a huge part of our history.”

“Half the world came to this hotel, from actors, musicians, politicians, writers,” she said. “Everyone is tied to this hotel. The whole world knows about that hotel. And now we will allow something like that to disappear?”

Lebanese Christians, caught in crossfire, refuse to leave war zone

As Israel and Hezbollah fight all around them, defiant villagers stay put in hopes their presence will deter attacks on their homes.



By Abbie Cheeseman and Suzan Haidamous
October 19, 2024

WASHINGTON POST


QLAAYA, Lebanon — The Israeli fighter jet, roaring overhead, unleashed devastation on its nearby target. The blast shook Marita El Hajj’s house and rattled the windows.

The 9-year-old continued to stare straight ahead. Eyes glazed, face impassive, she barely flinched. In this Maronite Christian village less than three miles from the Israeli border, such strikes are now nearly constant.

Through the past year, Marita has physically felt the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah growing more intense. The symptoms of her autism have deteriorated sharply in the past three weeks, her parents said, as the fight around their village has exploded into all-out war.

“We just want peace,” said Marita’s mother, Manal El Hajj. “We do not want this war.”

While much of southern Lebanon falls under the de facto control of Hezbollah, the ancient valleys here hold a scattering of towns and villages that are predominantly Christian, Druze or Sunni Muslim. None of them have rallied to support Hezbollah. Their neutrality largely protected them during the first 11 months of the conflict, but now the war is creeping quickly toward them.

While most residents have evacuated, people in some Christian towns — and their priests — are refusing to leave their homes again.

Their reasons are a kaleidoscope of defiance, resolve and generational trauma. Some say they can’t afford to relocate. Some believe their presence deters attacks on their lands. Some fear they won’t be able to return.

For Robert and Manal El Hajj, Marita’s parents, and many across the country, this war in particular has brought feelings of complete helplessness: Lebanon’s five-year-long economic crisis has left them unable to escape the danger zone of a war they do not even support.

When Israel issued an evacuation notice to Qlaaya this month, Manal said, she collapsed in tears. She wanted to leave, but it’s not an option. The family, already dependent on food aid before the war, simply doesn’t have the money for accommodation elsewhere. Enduring the “humiliation” of staying in a shelter for displaced people in Beirut would worsen Marita’s symptoms tenfold, Manal said. Her eldest daughter, 15, told her it would be better to die at home. The younger children begged to leave the country.

Her voice and hands shaking, she glanced at the TV, with its endless coverage of children in Gaza and Lebanon pulled, lifeless, from the rubble of their former homes, and cried some more. “All I pray for is that nothing happens to my children, that they don’t end up like the kids I see on TV.”

On Monday, the deep thuds of incoming artillery every few minutes reverberated across the steep open valley, punctuated by the periodic thunder of apartment-shaking airstrikes. As the day wore on, the strikes grew closer and louder. The nights, the family said, are hell.

Their top-floor flat looks out over southern Lebanon and northern Israel. “It’s a strategic view,” Robert said, and laughed. From their living room window alone, they see smoke rising from between 10 and 20 airstrikes each day. Waves of rockets, missiles, artillery and machine gun rounds assault an otherwise serene soundscape. On a border so accustomed to violence, some children can discern the difference in sound of incoming and outgoing fire. The force of the blows has broken tiles in their kitchen.

Israeli ground forces have advanced into Lebanon from several directions to fight Hezbollah in villages emptied of people. They have yet to enter any Christian areas, but they can be heard. Vehicle tracks in satellite imagery taken on Sunday, provided by Planet Labs, show evidence that Israeli troops had been in an area just four miles from the El Hajjs’ house.

Each evening, when the bombing grows heavier, volunteers gather to prepare aid packages for the community. On Monday, it was winter clothes. People need the help, organizers said, but it’s also keeping the community together and distracting them from the sound of war being waged just a few miles away.

“If the village is empty and anyone can come and go then it will be even more dangerous for our homes,” said the Rev. Pierre Raï at St George’s Church. “It’s better if we stay here and protect our home or land. Even if we don’t have weapons, we will protect it with our presence.”

But religion offers only thin protection. In Ebel El Saqi, six miles from Qlaaya, the Rev. Gregorius Salloum, a Greek orthodox priest, was mortally wounded in an Israeli airstrike in September. Christian villages that have largely evacuated, such an Ain Ebel, have also been hit hard.

Mass displacement under relentless airstrikes is testing Lebanon’s fragile sectarian balance. The Israeli air force has brought down entire buildings of displaced people in Christian areas to target single Hezbollah targets passing through the area, including in the north of the country.

The Rev. Phillipe Al Akla, an Orthodox priest in Jdeidet Marjayoun, less than three miles from Qlaaya, said a Hezbollah member fired several rounds at him this month after he barred him from sheltering at his church. He escaped unharmed and the man was detained, he said, but a parishioner who witnessed it said one bullet whizzed past his ear.

People here believed the conflict would escalate and stockpiled food. But they fear the coming winter and the security of fuel supplies, particularly if Israeli airstrikes continue cutting roads to and from the villages. If the fighting continues, it could become increasingly difficult to supply these villages with food and fuel, UNICEF spokeswoman Tess Ingram said.

More than 250 people displaced from mixed-religion villages are sheltering in a church in Rmeish, a Christian village that sits on the Israeli border. It’s one of the most difficult populated areas to reach along the border.

As Israeli troops work to clear a stretch of southern Lebanon of Hezbollah and its infrastructure, people in the few largely untouched Christian villages say they quietly fear they could soon be subsumed into a temporary Israeli buffer zone — or another occupation.

Marjayoun has not yet been issued an evacuation warning, but it’s still a ghost town. Only 121 families, most of them just one person, remain, local officials said. Apples have been left on their trees to rot; abandoned cats and dogs roam streets of shuttered businesses. The one event that gets the remaining residents out of their homes is Sunday Mass. Last week, only 40 attended.

Fighter jets roared overhead. Samy Abla, the mukhtar, or local leader, of Jdeidet Marjayoun, opened his windows in case of an explosion. No one here wants to leave their land, not knowing if they will be able to return or what they will return home to, but his ties to his land now run deeper than ever. He pointed to the grave in his backyard. His youngest daughter died of cancer three years ago at 24. “There is a piece of me here,” he said. “How could I leave her?”

For the most part, Abla and Al Akla said, the choice to stay is rooted in history, not money. Marjayoun was the headquarters for the South Lebanon Army, a Christian-led proxy militia armed funded by Israel during its decades-long occupation of southern Lebanon.

When Israeli tanks rolled through those villages in 2006, all but two or three residents fled, Al Akla said. Israeli aircraft attacked the panicked evacuation convoy, killing six people. At the time, then-Mayor Fouad Hamra told The Washington Post he hadn’t left Marjayoun in previous wars and vowed to return. This week, he said the incident has never left him.

If the tanks returned, would he evacuate? He dabbed tears from his eyes. “Never again,” he vowed.

A convoy of U.N. peacekeepers stops and reverses on the road from Hasbayya to Marjayoun, damaged by an Israeli airstrike. (Lorenzo Tugnoli for The Washington Post)

Imogen Piper in London contributed to this report.

In Scotland, Afghan women find another chance to pursue their dreams of becoming doctors

Oct 18, 2024 
By — Malcolm Brabant
PBS NEWS HOUR


Nineteen talented Afghan women, whose university education was cut short by the Taliban, now have a chance to fulfill their dreams in Scotland. They’re all aiming to be doctors and have been given places at Scottish medical schools through a program created in memory of a Scottish aid worker killed in tragic circumstances in Afghanistan 14 years ago. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports.

Full Transcript


Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

Geoff Bennett:

And now a story about the power of determination and turning grief into a force for good.

Nineteen talented Afghan female university students whose educations were cut short by the Taliban have been given the chance to fulfill their dreams in Scotland. They're all aiming to be doctors, and they have been given places at Scottish medical schools.

As special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports, the program is the legacy of a young Scottish aid worker killed in tragic circumstances in Afghanistan 14 years ago.


Malcolm Brabant:

St. Andrews is the home of Scotland's most prestigious university. For trainee doctor Banin Sultani, it's worlds away from planet Taliban.


Banin Sultani, Medical Student:

I love Scotland. The people are so friendly. I love the people, because their attitude is so much different. They're open-minded. I really love it.


Malcolm Brabant:

How do you feel about the freedom you have in Scotland, the freedom to be a woman?


Banin Sultani:

Yes. Actually, the freedom is something that existed in the soul of every human. And I think here is that opportunity. We can use from the freedom that every single human has. And here is the place I can use it.


Malcolm Brabant:

Fifteen miles north, Dundee's medical school has given Hajera Safi a second chance to become a doctor. She was two years away from qualifying when the Taliban canceled her studies.


Hajera Safi, Medical Student:

Of course, it's very heartbreaking and sad that you are stopped from going to university or going to give your exam. It's like you're taking a basic human right from someone, and just like someone is breathing and just someone is eating something. You are taking that from them.

How can they be surviving in that environment then?


Malcolm Brabant:

I'm on a ferry from the Northwestern Scottish mainland going to the island of Lewis, which is part of the Hebrides archipelago. It's one of the most remote places in the United Kingdom. My journey, of course, is nothing compared to that of the Afghan students.

But I'm going to see the remarkable people who have made it possible for the Afghans to become doctors.


John Norgrove, Linda Norgrove Foundation:

Is that her on top of the tank?


Lorna Norgrove, Linda Norgrove Foundation:

Yes. Yes.


John Norgrove:

I haven't seen that one before.


Malcolm Brabant:

After their daughter Linda was killed in Afghanistan in 2010, John and Lorna Norgrove channeled their grief into a force for good by creating a nonprofit in her name.

Linda Norgrove was kidnapped by the Taliban and died in a grenade blast when a rescue attempt by American special forces went wrong. She lies in a simple grave overlooking a bay where as a child she rode horses with her younger sister, Sofie.


Lorna Norgrove:

It wasn't our daughter that the Taliban were looking for that day. It was actually her boss. Linda was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I think you have got to forgive. It wouldn't have done us any good to blame and to go down that route. It was much better for us to do something a bit positive and to try and do something she would have approved of and which would help people in Afghanistan.


John Norgrove:

We're a very small charity. I think we're a drop in the ocean. There's a huge, huge need in that country. So we're just a drop in the ocean. But we make a huge difference to individuals. That's for sure. And that's the real pleasure of it, being able to change individual people's lives.


Malcolm Brabant:

Do you think that you will ever be able to go back to Afghanistan to practice medicine, or do you think that you will forever be in exile because you are a woman?


Hajera Safi:

Well, we all have a hope, because that's something I believe in. And we all hope for the better. Of course, I want to go back and serve my people.


Malcolm Brabant:

Under pressure from the Linda Norgrove Foundation, the Scottish government amended education legislation to enable the Afghan students to receive free tuition and cost of living support.

Ellie Hothersall-Davis is head of undergraduate medicine.

How much do you hope that the Taliban is actually watching what is happening here to perhaps learn that women are worth educating?

Ellie Hothersall-Davis, School of Medicine, University of Dundee: I really hope that they see the value in educating women. I think to undermine that value is so counterproductive and will lead to everybody suffering. You need equality in education, equality in health care to look after everybody.


Malcolm Brabant:

Dr. Panna Muqit is a senior lecturer and clinical mentor at St. Andrews Medical School. She says the Taliban's interpretation of Islam is wrong.

Dr. Panna Muqit, School of Medicine, University of St. Andrews: I think it's vital that women are educated. And Islam has always taught that a woman ought to be highly educated because she effectively is taking care of the next generation, with her husband, of course, but she plays a primary role.

And to have an uneducated woman in a household is not a good thing and definitely not something that's celebrated by Islam, if you study the religion properly, not through the interpretation of the Taliban.


Malcolm Brabant:

How determined are you to become a doctor? What sort of drive and ambition do you have?


Banin Sultani:

Actually, we are always asked that, when you finish your medicine, do you supposed to go to your own country or be here? But I want to say, like, my aim is to serve the world, not — or serve the humanity, not the specific people in Afghanistan or other countries.


Malcolm Brabant:

What message would you send to women and girls in Afghanistan?


Hajera Safi:

That always believe on yourself, don't give up. After every dark night, there is a bright and shiny, sunny day, so that's all in our life happens. Even I would always say that, if you educate a man, you educate a man. If you educate a woman, you educate a generation.

So always believe on that statement and stick to that.


Lorna Norgrove:

This is in Ethiopia. We weren't trekking in Ethiopia with her.


Malcolm Brabant:

While the Norgroves have attained serenity and joy from their charity work, they're fueled by the injustice of the Taliban regime.


Lorna Norgrove:

I am angry because I can't — I just can't understand their way of thinking. I just feel that the Taliban need women doctors. They don't want their women folk seen by men, male doctors, so perhaps a lot of women are going untreated. I know a lot of women are going untreated, because there aren't the women doctors about.

So why don't they let women study to become doctors? I just cannot get my head round that.


John Norgrove:

We see lots of people in Afghanistan who are here having an absolutely awful time, and you have the capability of changing their life. And that's a really good feeling. So, that's what it comes down to at the end of the day.


Malcolm Brabant:

Do you feel that you're continuing the work that your daughter did?


Lorna Norgrove:

She was very passionate about helping women and children in Afghanistan, yes, and she would have been absolutely over the moon that we were doing that, we're able to do that.


Malcolm Brabant:

And the love the Norgroves have extended has created an unbreakable bond.


Banin Sultani:

I really thank them, and I hope to be able to do something to just compensate it for them. They are so kind. And I think, like, we are having a spiritual connection. Like, we are far from our fathers and mothers, but we have another father and mother here. We are really connected with them.


Malcolm Brabant:

The 19 Afghan students will continue to enjoy the support of the Norgrove Foundation, but the nonprofit's main focus remains women and children facing draconian restrictions far across the water in Afghanistan.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Malcolm Brabant in Scotland.

‘Forgotten’ 1000-year-old Jewish cemetery discovered beneath famous London landmark

Laura Brick

Published Oct 18, 2024
METRO UK

Jewish medieval cemetery discovered beneath Barbican (Picture: Instagram)

A medieval Jewish cemetery was found hidden beneath the Barbican after hundreds of years.

Volunteer group The Jewish Square Mile is drawing attention to the cemetery next to the remains of an ancient wall in the Thomas More Garden.

It was the first Jewish burial ground in England and existed until Jews were expelled from England in 1290, after which the cemetery was desecrated and neglected.

Howard and Gaby Morris, founder members of the The Jewish Square Mile project, told Jewish News: ‘The burial ground existed as a rumour, a legend.’

‘Now the ancient burial ground has been found. Gaby and I heard the story when we moved into the Barbican but it was Father Jack Noble of St Giles Cripplegate, the very old church actually in the Barbican (where Oliver Cromwell was married) who, by word of mouth, drew together a group of Jewish residents to find out if there really was a cemetery and its location.’

The project is now comprised of people of all faiths and none including a medievalist historian and writer, researchers, an architect, plus musicians and composers.

The Barbican cemetery was the first Jewish burial ground in England(Picture: @the_jewish_square_mile/Instagram)

Howard says: ‘The Jews were brought to London by William soon after the Norman occupation. They weren’t free but lived under the protection of William. They didn’t even own the hair on their heads.’

‘They were permitted a place to bury their dead according to our customs and beliefs. That must have given them some sense of permanence and community.’

The goal of the Jewish Square Mile project is to ‘rediscover those people, their lives and the contribution they made to the City.’

The group aim is to move away from anti-Semitic stereotypes ‘help show the impact and contribution of Jewish Londoners then and since” and in so doing “move on from the stereotypes of medieval Jews like Isaac and Rebecca in Ivanhoe or Shylock, as usurers.’

On 5 June next year the project will launch a two week-long exhibition in the church of St. Giles(Picture: @the_jewish_square_mile/Instagram)

On 5 June the project will launch a two week-long exhibition in the church of St. Giles, and will unveil of a plaque in the Barber-Surgeons’ Garden.

A Jewish choir will perform at the Moat Theatre of the City of London School for Girls.

Howard Morris added: ‘The exhibition will go far beyond simply identifying the location of the cemetery and the dates of its history. We will bring the medieval Jewish community to life, show the contribution they made to the success of the City following the conquest of England by William and over the next 200 years until Edward I expelled the Jews from the country.’

‘We’ll cover the massacres and persecutions and the expulsion but also explore the lives of the people, how the community lived, their families, their education, their culture and in this way aim to get past the ghastly stereotype of the Jewish usurer.’

The goal of the Jewish Square Mile project is to ‘rediscover’ thelives of the Jewish people who lived in the city (Picture: @the_jewish_square_mile/Instagram)

The Reverend Canon Jack Noble of St Giles Cripplegate told Jewish News: ‘I initiated this project and gathered the beginnings of what would become the Jewish Square Mile team over tea in St Giles’ Rectory, because it was so clear that this was important, and needed responding too. It came as a surprise to many of them!’

He said that the initiative ‘Unearths vital realities of our Jewish heritage, not just for The City, but of national significance”.

Reverend Noble added: ‘I am honoured to be something of a ‘token gentile’ in this amazing group of people – residents, workers, academics, school children, musicians, historians – who have become friends as we reveal and share this Jewish Square Mile story.’

‘What will success look like? Well, a joy of this project has been celebrating the past, present and future of Jewish life in the Square Mile, for the good of all.’

Anti-Semitic incidents have more than doubled since the 7 October attack on Israel last year(Picture: @the_jewish_square_mile/Instagram)

Other parts of the historic site lie below the City of London School for Girls and adjacent lake stretching south below Mountjoy House, the Barber-Surgeons’ Gardens and the former Museum of London.

The only publicly accessible part of the burial ground is below the Gardens although the whole area can be viewed from the Defoe House and Wallside Highwalks.

Since the 7 October attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, anti-Semitic incidents in the UK more than doubled in the year to March 2024, from 1,543 to 3,282.

This represents a 113% increase per cent increase and the highest on record.

 

Jewish Students Mark Sukkot Holiday With Calls to End Israel’s Genocide in Gaza

Some universities have torn down the student-built sukkahs, which are traditional structures for the Sukkot holiday.

By Chris Walker

October 19, 2024

Source: Truthout

Image provided by Kenny Daici

Several Jewish-led student groups are marking the holiday of Sukkot on campuses across the country by constructing small, temporary structures called sukkahs and adorning them with messages of solidarity with Palestinians amid Israel’s genocide.

Sukkot, sometimes known as the Feast of Booths, is a weeklong Jewish holiday commemorating the story of the 40 years that Israelites spent in the wilderness after Moses led them out of slavery in Egypt. Jewish people often celebrate Sukkot by constructing sukkahs, which are reminiscent of the shelters their ancestors lived in during displacement.

Sukkot began at sunset on Wednesday, and will last through this coming Wednesday, October 23.

Jewish students at campuses across the U.S. are using the occasion to call for their institutions to divest from Israel and for a U.S. arms embargo on Israel — with many noting that the holiday has increased resonance this year as millions of Palestinians have been forcibly displaced and now live in tents due to Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign.

Around 18 college chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) have set up sukkahs at colleges and universities across the country. Other Jewish students and groups have also taken part in the demonstrations.

Many of the sukkahs feature both Jewish and Palestinian imagery, including olive trees. The structures are also marked with messages like “Gaza Solidarity Sukkah” and “Stop Arming Israel.” At the sukkahs, students have hosted teach-ins featuring university faculty, JVP said in a press release shared with Truthout.

The construction of sukkahs on university campuses has been met with varying responses from administrators.

At Brown University, for example, the student group Jews for Ceasefire Now (JFCN) received permit approval for the temporary construction of their sukkah, with the Office of Chaplains and Religious Life allowing it to stand during the weeklong holiday.

Still, leaders from JFCN said that university officials must do more to address U.S. complicity in Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Image via Jewish Voice for Peace

“It is important to take up space on this campus and show that the undemocratic Corporation” — the formal name given to the governing body of Brown University — “will not silence the student movement,” Rafi Ash, a member of JFCN, told The Brown Daily Herald. “We want to show the Corporation that as they arrive on campus, they are working against the student body.”

Not all universities were receptive to the construction of sukkahs on their grounds. Northwestern University, for example, ordered employees, accompanied by police, to tear down students’ Gaza solidarity sukkah.

As the religious structure was being torn down, the Northwestern students who had constructed it read a poem out loud, observing the symbolism of the university destroying their sukkah that was calling for Palestinian liberation.

“We asked if we could stay on this lawn, as we are students of this campus and have every right to be here. So we stayed and watched the police tear down the beautiful structure that we built only hours ago,” student Isabelle Butera said.

At the University of California-Berkeley, administrators ordered another sukkah to be torn down. Jewish students condemned the action, with some saying it demonstrated the university-wide sentiment against anti-Zionist Jews on campus.

The students relocated their sukkah to a different location, where a guest lecturer spoke. However, the next morning, the university called the police and again tore the structure down, removing materials from it, including items donated by community farms.

“They don’t see us as real Jews or make claims that we’re self hating Jews because we refuse to support a genocide and the colonization of Indigenous Palestinians,” said Gus, who participated in building the sukkah at Berkeley. “Then, when we try to make our own space on the campus that we pay for, our administration destroys our religious dwelling not once, but twice. Both times accompanied by a swarm of police.”

“At Brown, we are unequivocally in solidarity with Northwestern, Cornell, Columbia, and all other Jewish and non-Jewish organizers who are facing repression for pro-Palestinian activism, whether right now in their sukkahs, on their campuses, or throughout the entirety of the past year,” Eden Fine, a participant in the Sukkot event and a senior at Brown University, said in a statement to Truthout.

A pro-Palestinian sukkah was also torn down by officials at the University of Washington.