Category: International Affairs,

Iraq says goodbye to its beloved archaeologist al-Gailani – ABC News

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Middle East,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Iraq on Monday mourned the loss of Lamia al-Gailani, a beloved archaeologist who helped rebuild the Baghdad museum after it was looted following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.

Al-Gailani, who died in Amman, Jordan, on Friday at the age of 80, was one of Iraq‘s first women to excavate the country’s archaeological heritage.

…”She was very keen to communicate on the popular level and make archaeology accessible to ordinary people,” said her daughter, Noorah al-Gailani, who curates the Islamic civilizations collection at the Glasgow Museum in Scotland.

Iraq says goodbye to its beloved archaeologist al-Gailani – ABC News

Sounds like an incredible lady. R. I. P.

Palestinian man shot dead during settler violence in West Bank

On By peanutgallerynhIn Middle East,Leave a comment

A Palestinian man has been shot dead, and dozens others have been wounded in the occupied West Bank during a confrontation with Israeli soldiers and settlers in the village of al-Mugheir, northeast of Ramallah.

The 38-year-old, identified as Hamdi Naasan, was shot in the back [emphasis: mine] and succumbed to his wounds shortly after at a hospital in Ramallah, the health ministry said on Saturday.

An Israeli military official confirmed to Haaretz newspaper that settlers used live fire during the confrontation.

…According to local media, confrontations broke out when Jewish settlers attempted to raid the village with the protection of Israeli soldiers.

…Between 600,000 to 750,000 Israelis live in the occupied Palestinian territories of occupied East Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza. They live in hundreds of illegal Jewish-only settlements built on Palestinian land.

…Meanwhile, a Palestinian teenager who was shot dead by the Israeli army on Friday was buried in his village of Silwad, near the city of Ramallah. 

Ayman Hamed, 18, was shot in the chest with live ammunition by Israeli soldiers stationed at a watchtower near the village, the Palestinian health ministry said. 

Hamed’s mother Inas accused the Israeli army of executing her son in cold blood, leaving him bleeding until he died and preventing ambulances from immediately reaching him.

Palestinian man shot dead during settler violence in West Bank | Israel News | Al Jazeera

Until the settler who fired the gun is arrest, prosecuted, and jailed for murder, Israel cannot make the claim to law and order.

Tolerating theft and murder by individuals whose very presence in the area is an aggressive criminal act because the victims aren’t Jewish doesn’t make Israel a Jewish state, it makes it culpable.

UN envoy: Prosecute Myanmar army chief for Rohingya ‘genocide’

On By peanutgallerynhIn Southern Central Asia,Leave a comment

Myanmar’s army chief should be prosecuted for “genocide” against the Rohingya, a United Nations’ human rights investigator has said.

Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, added that holding the perpetrators to account for their crimes was necessary before the refugees who fled the country could return.

Prosecute Myanmar army chief for Rohingya ‘genocide’: UN envoy | Myanmar News | Al Jazeera

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Ukraine’s ex-president Viktor Yanukovych found guilty of treason

On By peanutgallerynhIn Central Northern Asia and The Caucasus,, Europe,Leave a comment

A Ukrainian court has found the former president Viktor Yanukovych guilty of treason for his efforts to crush the 2014 pro-western demonstrations that eventually toppled his government.

Yanukovych was also charged with asking Vladimir Putin to send Russian troops to invade Ukraine after he had fled the country.

The verdict came almost five years after Yanukovych was overthrown, and could serve as an important symbolic conclusion to the events of 2014. More than 100 people were killed, many by sniper fire, on Kiev’s Maidan Square in clashes between protesters and police.

The charges will have little real effect on Yanukovych, 68, who has lived in exile in the Russian city of Rostov since fleeing Ukraine under armed guard nearly five years ago.

Ukraine’s ex-president Viktor Yanukovych found guilty of treason | World news | The Guardian

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The End Of Plastic Cutlery, Plates And Straws: EU Market Says Goodbye To Single-Use Plastic Products

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Europe,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

The aim of the directive, which is part of the European Plastics Strategy, is to protect the environment and reduce marine litter by avoiding the emission of 3.4 million tonnes of CO2. However, it should be noted the importance of the economic benefits that the new regulation will bring: the directive may avoid environmental damages which would cost the equivalent of €22 billion ($24.9 billion) by 2030 and save consumers a projected €6.5 billion ($7.38 billion). 

…The measures discussed are closely related to the latest estimates on marine litter, according to the European Commission, plastics make up 85% of beach litter, which is causing catastrophic consequences on the environment. The organization WWF has already pointed out the dramatic effects that the excessive use of plastics, poor management of waste and mass tourism are having in the Mediterranean Sea, the most visited sea in Europe.

…The new rules aim to stop the use of throwaway plastic products and packaging for which alternatives exist and is focused on the most frequently found items polluting European seas: plastic cutlery (forks, knives, spoons, and chopsticks), plastic plates, plastic straws, cotton bud sticks made of plastic, beverage and food containers made of expanded polystyrene (such as fast food and takeaway boxes), and products made from oxo-degradable plastic, which contributes to microplastic pollution.  According to the European Commission, together these products constitute 70% of all marine litter items.

…The global production of plastics has not stopped to increase since 1960. According to the European Commission, in 2015 the global production reached 322 million tonnes and it is expected to double over the next 20 years. In Europe, around 25.8 million tonnes of plastic waste is generated every year and less than 30% of such waste is collected for recycling. 

The End Of Plastic Cutlery, Plates And Straws: EU Market Says Goodbye To Single-Use Plastic Products

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First Nations, Inuit an Métis food guides may be coming, Health Canada indicates

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, The Americas,Leave a comment

But the colourful palette of fresh produce, grains and proteins—like chickpeas and tofu—adorning the guide’s front page doesn’t necessarily represent or reflect Indigenous peoples’ food preferences or the barriers that many face in accessing healthy foods.

Treena Wasonti:io Delormier, an associate professor of human nutrition at McGill University, says the food guide—first developed in 1942—has historically neglected Indigenous peoples’ traditional dietary needs and the social, cultural and historical determinants of food availability and food choices within Indigenous communities.

…Delormier says now that traditional foods have been identified as “important and nutritious,” the next question is: “how do we now make programs, or learn from other programs, that support…communities to access food that is their right to access?”

She says that question directly relates to food sovereignty, which is “the notion that people have control over their food systems.

“But Indigenous food sovereignty then becomes about Indigenous peoples’ self-determination around accessing their foods, and rights and access to land,” she continues.

First Nations, Inuit an Métis food guides may be coming, Health Canada indicates – APTN NewsAPTN News

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The View From Here: Time’s up for Skowhegan ‘Indians’

On By peanutgallerynhIn Local Interest,, Media and Culture,, Race,, Schools,, The Americas,Leave a comment

You don’t need to have bad intentions to cause real pain for native people fighting for their culture.

…“Genocide has two phases,” wrote Raphael Lemkin, the lawyer who coined the term in 1944. “One, destruction of the national pattern of the oppressed group; the other, the imposition of the national pattern of the oppressor.”

It’s that second part of the definition, cultural genocide, that needs to be considered as the town of Skowhegan considers dropping the name “Indians” from its sports teams.

…We may not think of it as genocide, but that’s been happening to Indians in Maine – not just in Colonial times but also in our era, while white people were cheering for sports teams with names like “Redskins.”

In 2015, the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth & Reconciliation Commission issued a report after 27 months of fact-finding among the state’s native people, a process that’s the subject of the documentary “Dawnland” (it aired on PBS last year and is scheduled for several screenings around Maine this winter). It describes the lifelong trauma that follows Indian children who were taken away from their homes and brought up in an alien culture. 

…They found that in the years leading up to their study, Maine Wabanaki children were being taken into state custody more than five times as often as non-native children. Tribal relationships were not treated with the same deference given to family relationships, even though federal law required the state to do that.

These removals, probably done with good intentions, hurt many children. It also tore the fabric of community and decreased the population of people who could speak native languages and participate in religious practices. In other words, cultural genocide.

…And what’s even more disturbing is the idea that we can participate in cultural genocide without having any bad intent. All it requires of us is blindness.

The View From Here: Time’s up for Skowhegan ‘Indians’ – Portland Press Herald

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Herrera v. Wyoming: Can U.S. Void Any Tribe’s Treaty? – The Atlantic

On By peanutgallerynhIn Race,, The Americas,Leave a comment

Herrera v. Wyoming, an Indian treaty-rights case argued in the Supreme Court last Tuesday, revolves around a basic of federal Indian law: No promise to Indian people actually binds the United States. Congress can unilaterally void any treaty or agreement. The only limit on this power so far has been a requirement that Congress say it is doing so. It is not supposed to act by “implication.” 

…Herrera and the tribe argue that the hunt was legal, because the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie guarantees the Crow “the right to hunt on the unoccupied lands of the United States so long as game may be found thereon, and as long as peace subsists among the whites and Indians on the borders of the hunting districts.” When Herrera was brought to trial, however, the state court refused to hear his argument. The treaty, the court said, was invalid under a 120-year-old Supreme Court case.

Herrera v. Wyoming: Can U.S. Void Any Tribe’s Treaty? – The Atlantic

Why is this an issue? It’s so embarrassing to be a citizen of the United States sometimes…

Advocate hopeful Indigenous newborn taken by authorities to be returned to family this week

On By peanutgallerynhIn Modern Parenting,, Race,, The Americas,Leave a comment

A total of 354 infants were removed from their families in Manitoba in 2017, 87 per cent of them First Nations; and 259 remained in care 12 months later, putting them on the fast-track for permanent wardship.

The members of the baby’s family, including the mother, said in a news conference Friday that officials with Manitoba’s CFS told them she was removed from St. Boniface Hospital because her mother appeared intoxicated when she arrived at the hospital. The mother vehemently denied this, saying doctors and nurses allowed her to breastfeed, which they would have stopped had they believed she had been drinking.

Advocate hopeful Indigenous newborn taken by authorities to be returned to family this week – The Globe and Mail

Screwing over indigenous peoples, it’s not just an American thing!

Elizabeth Warren’s claim to Cherokee ancestry is a form of violence?

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Race,, The Americas,Leave a comment

Elizabeth Warren’s claim to Cherokee ancestry is a form of violence — High Country News

Ummm, Nope!

No, it’s not.

If she was claiming Cherokee heritage or identity it would be though.

The issue is this. Other people should not define what it is to be [insert ethnicity, etc. here], only people of that background are able to define their experience.

Another big looming issue is that white people have dominated the narrative for far to long and should not be the arbitrators of what is and what isn’t defined or discussed. That is a wrong that should be righted but if we are to right it as a society we have to be consistent. If for no other reason than being inconsistent is what got us here in the first place….

For example, the people of the Cherokee nation are the only ones who can define what it is to be Cherokee, just like only Jewish people can define what it is to be Jewish.

A member of my father’s ancestry was Jewish. Does that make me Jewish? Hell, no. For one thing it travels down the matrilinear side. For another, I was raised as a mostly-Christian person in a largely Christian community. My experience with Judaism is as an outsider and and an observer.

It does make me someone whose ancestors were Jewish though. Their experiences escaping persecution in Europe and living in the United States are part of how my family (and I!) came to be. Along with the experiences of all my ancestors, they are part of me and who I am. To pretend I had no Jewish ancestry would be to deny those members of my family tree their story and that’s not something I think I should do.

It would be very different if Senator Warren was claiming to BE Cherokee, but she is not. Instead she is just affirming that she has a Cherokee ancestor, an ancestor that she is as proud of (if not more) than she is any of the rest of her forebearers.

And isn’t that the goal here? For people of all background to be able to define themselves as members of their own communities?

Whitewashing and eradication of native cultures in the United State is a horrid injustice. One that deserves to be confronted, stopped, and turned right around. I just don’t think blurring the line between those who claim ancestry and those who claim membership does us any good.

 

Transgender Asylum-Seeker Who Died In ICE Custody Was Beaten, Autopsy Shows | HuffPost

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Domestic Affairs,, The Americas,Leave a comment

A transgender asylum-seeker who fell sick and died while being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement may have been beaten while in federal custody, according to an independent autopsy report released this week.

The body of 33-year-old trans woman Roxsana Hernández Rodriguez was marked by “deep bruises” and “contusions” consistent with “blows and/or kicks and possible strikes with a blunt object,” The Washington Post reported on Monday, citing the autopsy commissioned by Hernández’s family. Her wrists showed signs of extensive hemorrhaging, which the report said was “typical of handcuff injuries.”

…According to the Union-Tribune, ICE has yet to release a detainee death report for Hernández, even though Congress now requires the agency to finalize such reports within 60 days. It has been more than 180 days since Hernández died, the paper noted.

Transgender Asylum-Seeker Who Died In ICE Custody Was Beaten, Autopsy Shows | HuffPost

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Thousands rally against Hungary’s ‘slave-law’, PM Orban

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,Leave a comment

Thousands of Hungarians have rallied in capital Budapest demanding the abolition of the so-called “slave-law” that allows employers to demand that staff work up to 400 hours of overtime a year.

…Protesters had a wide range of demands, including the removal of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

They “want academic freedom, they want free media, they want the abolition of the so-called ‘slave law’, they also want the abolition of the so-called ‘administrative courts’,” she said.

In addition to the labour code reform, the Fidesz-dominated parliament also passed a law to set up a new administrative court system to rule on issues such as corruption.

Critics say the courts could be politically manipulated as the judges are to be appointed by the justice minister.

Thousands rally against Hungary’s ‘slave-law’, PM Orban | Hungary News | Al Jazeera

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Emotional And Psychological Abuse Are Now Crimes In Ireland

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Europe,Leave a comment

The legislation defines coercive control as “psychological abuse in an intimate relationship that causes fear of violence, or serious alarm or distress that has a substantial adverse impact on a person’s day-to-day activities.”

…The new law recognizes that “the effect of non-violent control in an intimate relationship can be as harmful to victims as physical abuse because it is an abuse of the unique trust associated with an intimate relationship,” Ireland’s Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan, said in a statement on Wednesday.

…The Domestic Violence Act 2018 also criminalizes forced marriage, allows restraining orders for couples who do not live together and restricts media coverage in cases of gender-based violence.

Emotional And Psychological Abuse Are Now Crimes In Ireland | HuffPost

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