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El país de Oriente Próximo cuya revolución fue silencia y olvidada por Occidente

Por: Alberto Rodríguez García

Hubo hace diez años un intento de revolución que se ignoró, se silenció y que pereció ahogada en sus propias lágrimas y sangre mientras el mundo miraba hacia otro lado. Una primavera que por no ser como las de Túnez, Libia, Egipto o Siria, por estar en el lado incorrecto de la nueva –ya no tanto– guerra fría de Oriente Próximo, estaba condenada desde el principio. Las protestas, que comenzaron para pedir una mejor calidad de vida para los bareiníes y un sistema político parlamentario para todos, pronto derivaron en reivindicaciones más profundas, con un mayor protagonismo de propuestas como dar más derechos a los chiíes; marginados por el sistema. Unas reivindicaciones, es importante matizar, que no explotaban el odio sectario, enarboladas desde unas protestas en las que participaban los suníes opositores de la monarquía junto a la comunidad chií. Una comunidad chií que pedía gozar de plenos derechos en un país en el que, si bien son la mayoría, gobierna una monarquía suní minoritaria tan brutal, que era –y es– la hermana pequeña de la tiranía saudí.

El 14 de febrero de 2011, mientras gran parte del mundo celebraba el día del amor, Baréin se encontraba muy lejos de algo que pudiese parecerse a una fantasía de bombones y rosas. En Baréin se estaba gestando una movilización popular que muy pronto se convertiría en masacre por parte de las autoridades. Una movilización olvidada por Occidente, y es que si bien las revueltas en otros países como Egipto y Siria eran útiles para los intereses atlantistas (por su naturaleza y contra los gobiernos que se movilizaban), el rey Hamad bin Isa Al Jalifa es lo que Franklin D. Roosevelt, de seguir vivo, llamaría «nuestro hijo de puta». Y para más INRI, aunque era un escenario tan improbable que solo plantearlo es absurdo, la monarquía bareiní justificaba su violencia hablando constantemente de la injerencia iraní como si se tratase del lobo llegando.

Y antes de continuar, es necesario explicar por qué la teoría de la injerencia iraní es absurda. Necesario porque gracias a esa mentira, muchos encontraron el argumento moral necesario para llenarse la boca con democracia y otras tantas palabras vacías en todo Oriente, mientras olvidaban al centenar de bareiníes asesinados, a los miles de heridos y los cientos de exiliados en apenas un mes. Al contrario de lo que se pudo observar en el escenario sirio, con medio mundo armando y financiando a sus grupos insurgentes más afines, en Baréin ni los chiíes son títeres de Irán (tampoco lo quieren), ni Irán tuvo jamás oportunidad de introducir asesores y armamento a un país que de facto es una fortaleza rodeada por mar. Una fortaleza conectada a Arabia Saudí en la que viviendo millón y medio de personas, hay cerca de 10.000 soldados (y familiares) de EEUU vigilando toda su costa.

En uno de los primeros países de la [mal llamada] Primavera árabe, en el país con más manifestantes per capita en aquel momento, una década después ya no hay disidencia. Ya no existe oposición, porque está encarcelada o en el extranjero.

Y siendo los olvidados, Baréin no empezó telediarios ni llenó periódicos. Medios (pseudo)comprometidos con los derechos humanos como el New York Times, lejos del vocabulario agresivo que utilizaban contra otros gobiernos, escribían, si acaso, que había habido alguna protesta o que Baréin era una batalla proxy entre Irán y Arabia Saudí; aunque como con las armas de destrucción masiva, para esto último jamás hubiese pruebas ni hechos que corroborasen tales afirmaciones. Únicamente la propaganda de la monarquía y alguna pincelada para sonar imparciales. El viejo truco. Y estos eran los mejores casos, porque otros medios como CNN directamente censuraron la información que perjudicaba a la monarquía títere de los saudíes.

La intervención saudí (porque sí, el reino intervino para acallar las protestas) no fue para frenar una injerencia iraní (porque en Riad no son tontos, y no siempre se creen las notas de prensa que pasan bajo la mesa), sino para evitar la presencia de una monarquía parlamentaria en su frontera, el derrocamiento de un gobierno dependiente y la llegada al poder de los chiíes; algo que lejos del sectarismo con el que muchos explican todo, sería útil para reforzar a los chiíes de Qatif hoy maltratados y sin apenas derechos. Y al igual que Arabia Saudí, EEUU se posicionó abiertamente contra los manifestantes, porque mientras destruía países en nombre de la democracia, en Baréin debía proteger a «sus hijos de puta».

Una década después, hablar de Baréin suena a algo lejano. En uno de los primeros países de la [mal llamada] Primavera árabe, en el país con más manifestantes per capita en aquel momento, ya no hay disidencia. Ya no existe oposición, porque está encarcelada o en el extranjero. Sus vidas no valen nada, porque nunca nadie quiso escuchar su voz. Que no vengan con el cuento de la democracia los mismos que voluntaria y conscientemente silenciaron lo que sucedía en Baréin. Diez años después, el levantamiento solo es el recuerdo de una revolución ignorada, silenciada, suprimida.

https://actualidad.rt.com/opinion/alberto-rodriguez-garcia/383825-pais-oriente-proximo-revolucion-silenciada-olvidada

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China: Refuge For Bookworms and The Broken-Hearted

Refuge For Bookworms and The Broken-Hearted

Wu Guichun stands in front of Dongguan Library. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY.

BY YANG YANG

It was dusk in late November in subtropical Guangdong province. Cool winds had dispersed the perennial humidity.

In the well-lit sitting room of a bungalow in an alley in Nancheng town of Dongguan, Wu Guichun, 54, was eating a 15-yuan ($2.3) takeaway dinner on a desk. It consisted of steamed rice, vegetables and three kinds of stir-fried meats as well as a pickled duck egg.

The place belonged to a shoe factory owner whom Wu had known for 17 years since he arrived. Normal rent was 500 yuan a month, but Wu lived here temporarily free of charge.

The only furniture in the sitting room was a desk and a stool. Under the desk were a pair of dark navy blue plastic slippers and a pair of canvas shoes of the same color, all the shoes he owned besides the black leather ones on his feet, he said. For years, Wu had been a minimalist with his belongings, given that he was always having to move, he said.

In June, Wu, one of 6 million migrant workers in Dongguan, became an instant celebrity nationwide after working there for 17 years because of comments he had made about the city’s main library, comments that millions found both touching and inspirational after they made their way onto the internet.

Wu, of Xiaogan, Hubei province, said he first came to Dongguan to look for opportunities in 2003 after his wife left him.

Dongguan, which many know as “the Factory of the World”, was attracting young people from all over the country, many working in the city when labor-intensive light industries held sway.

Wu, 37 at the time, was deemed too old for these manufacturing behemoths and had to look for opportunities in small shoe factories, where his job was to put glue on shoe parts.

In those days Wu’s monthly salary was 3,000 yuan, which grew to more than 10,000 yuan in busy periods. In recent years he has been happy to receive 5,000 yuan a month.

At first he bought cheap books, but in 2008 started going to Dongguan Library.

The conditions were pleasant, there was access to water, you could read anything you liked and, best of all, it was free.

Over the past 20 years, as Dongguan’s importance as a manufacturing center has grown, its GDP has risen 20-fold to nearly 950 billion yuan in 2019. As the economy has grown the city has tried to improve people’s cultural lives.

In 2002 a library covering 45,000 square meters (484,400 sq. ft.) was built, the largest of its kind for a prefecture-level city in China.

Two years later the city set about building an extensive library network, opening branches around the city. A bus library delivers books to different towns every day so that workers in factories can borrow or return books without traveling long distances.

In 2005 Dongguan Library started offering services 24 hours a day, believed to be a first in China.

Six years after this great literary adventure began, the American Library Association bestowed on Dongguan Library the International Innovation Award for its services, the first time it was given outside the United States.

In most of his years in Dongguan, Wu, unlike hundreds of millions of other Chinese, did not return to his hometown for Spring Festival.

In January last year Wu unusually went back home for the Spring Festival. He did not return until June because of the COVID-19 lockdown. On June 24, aware that he might never return to Dongguan, went to the library to return his 12-year-old library card and get his 100 yuan security deposit back.

A librarian, Wang Yanjun, sensing his hesitancy as she took care of the paper work, took out the library’s comments book and asked Wu to leave a comment.

“I’ve worked in Dongguan for 17 years, and been reading at this library for 12 years,” he wrote. “Books enlighten people. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of factories have closed, migrant workers cannot find jobs, and we choose to go back to our hometowns. Thinking about all my years in Dongguan, the best place for me has been the library. As much I want to stay, I cannot, but I will never forget you, Dongguan Library.”

Another librarian took a photo of the comment and posted it online, and before long it was doing the rounds of the internet.

In October he returned to his hometown and found that although his granddaughters wanted to read books, there was no book available. So he cashed in a 6,000 yuan book coupon he had received and mailed all the books.

“My goal is to build a small library for my hometown,” he said.

Fuente de la Información: https://partners.time.com/partners/china-daily/refuge-for-bookworms-and-the-broken-hearted/?prx_t=AYMGAJ4hKAyvcQA&utm_campaign=159028

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Estudiantes internacionales celebran «Año del Buey» en China

Asia/China/19-02-2021/Autor(a) y Fuente: Spanish. xinhuanet. com

Hacer ravioles chinos, escribir coplas antitéticas, pasar la noche en vela… en cuanto a las costumbres del Año Nuevo Chino (que cae este año el 12 de febrero), Bigirimana Theoneste sabe más que cualquier otro estudiante internacional de la universidad.

Este joven de Ruanda va a pasar su cuarto Año Nuevo Chino en China (según el horóscopo chino, este año es el Año del buey) y es el encargado de explicar a los estudiantes internacionales el origen de costumbres tales como tirar petardos y repartir el sobre rojo de la Fiesta de la Primavera.

Bigirimana está haciendo su doctorado en el Instituto de Ingeniería Civil de la Universidad Jiaotong de Lanzhou, en la provincia noroccidental china de Gansu. El año pasado, tuvo que renunciar a su plan de volver a Ruanda a causa del brote de la epidemia de COVID-19.

Al igual todos los extranjeros que están lejos de casa, echaba de menos a su familia y sus amigos, y especialmente la comida de su pueblo natal. Sin embargo, los cuidados de sus profesores y la hospitalidad de sus amigos aliviaron su nostalgia.

Zhang Guojin, decana del Instituto de Educación Internacional de la Universidad Jiaotong de Lanzhou, explicó que hay un total de 486 estudiantes internacionales en la facultad, entre los cuales 81 no pudieron volver a casa debido a la epidemia. Así que la universidad se esforzó por ofrecer un buen servicio logístico, con la esperanza de que pudieran pasar una significativa Fiesta de la Primavera al igual que los chinos.

Antes de la Nochevieja, la Facultad de Educación Internacional de la Universidad Jiaotong de Lanzhou compró una gran cantidad de arroz, papas, cebollas, zanahorias y huevos. Bigirimana ayudó a los profesores en la distribución de las provisiones.

«Puedo chatear por vídeo con mi familia, para no sentirme tan solo. A la vez, planeo aprovechar este tiempo para leer, escribir y aprender a tocar algunas canciones chinas», dijo Bigirimana.

El campus estaba muy tranquilo durante las vacaciones. Sin embargo, se oían de vez en cuando las carcajadas de Bigirimana y otros estudiantes internacionales.

Chen Xingchong, vicerrector de la Universidad Jiaotong de Lanzhou, llevó a los estudiantes internacionales regalos por el Año Nuevo Chino, los cuales incluían coplas de primavera y la inscripción del carácter chino «Fu» (suerte).

«A causa de la epidemia, muchos estudiantes internacionales no han visitado a sus familiares durante al menos un año. Comprendo que sienten mucha nostalgia por estar lejos de su país, y agradezco a todos los estudiantes internacionales su confianza en China y en la universidad durante la epidemia. Espero que aprovechen la oportunidad de estudiar en China, y se integren activamente al cálido ambiente festivo de China», dijo Chen.

Debido a las necesidades de prevención y control de la epidemia, la universidad animó a los estudiantes a celebrar la Fiesta de la Primavera según su manera favorita y a pequeña escala.

Bigirimana cantó y tocó su guitarra para mostrar a los alumnos canciones chinas recién aprendidas; los alumnos ruandeses escribieron caracteres «Fu» en papel rojo con pinceles; los alumnos ucranianos decoraron las ventanas con papeles recortados; los estudiantes de Yemen bailaron la danza tradicional de su pueblo natal; y los estudiantes de Kazajistán hicieron el dibujo de un buey.

«¡También hicimos ravioles chinos juntos! Al no volver a casa, no dejamos que la universidad se preocupe, ni causamos problemas a nuestras familias, lo que me parece muy significativo,» dijo Kompanets Oleksandr, estudiante de Ucrania.

Además, la universidad invitó a los estudiantes internacionales a grabar vídeos cortos que mostraran la cultura tradicional china durante las vacaciones, para ayudarlos a pasar unas vacaciones satisfactorias.

«Creo que no hay invierno que sea insuperable ni primavera que no llegue. La epidemia pasará tarde o temprano, y los estudiantes internacionales podrán volver a casa y reunirse con sus familias algún día», agregó Zhang.

Fuente: http://spanish.xinhuanet.com/2021-02/11/c_139737624.htm

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Bután: Cómo un pequeño país está superando la pandemia y el cambio climático

Cómo un pequeño país está superando la pandemia y el cambio climático

Un pequeño país del Himalaya, conocido principalmente por medir la felicidad nacional en lugar del PIB, es el único país del planeta con emisiones de carbono negativas. Lo crea o no, sólo ha tenido una muerte por COVID-19. ¿Es eso una coincidencia?

El nuevo artículo de Madeline Drexler en el Atlántico, “ La historia de éxito más improbable de una pandemia ”, se sumerge en las razones por las que Bután se las ha arreglado tan bien contra el nuevo coronavirus, mientras que los países ricos y de ingresos medios han luchado por mantenerlo bajo control. El pequeño país en desarrollo, sin salida al mar entre la India y el Tíbet, no estaba exactamente preparado para el éxito. Comenzó 2020 con exactamente una máquina de PCR para detectar el virus, según el informe de Drexler, y un médico con capacitación avanzada en cuidados críticos.

Para cualquiera que haya pensado mucho en el problema de acción colectiva que plantea el cambio climático, la receta del éxito de Bután puede sonar familiar. Responder a una crisis no se trata solo de la gran tecnología que tiene, sino de la rapidez con la que actúa, de la forma en que apoya a sus vecinos y de su disposición a sacrificarse por el bien común.

Ayuda a explicar por qué Bután es el único país del mundo “carbono negativo”. Eso significa que extrae más dióxido de carbono de la atmósfera del que emite, lo que, si se unieran más países, podría revertir el calentamiento global. Las ricas características naturales de Bután lo hacen posible. Su constitución ordena que el 60 por ciento de su tierra total esté cubierta por bosques. Un extenso sistema de ríos proporciona abundante hidroelectricidad, gran parte de la cual Bután exporta a la India. En la cumbre climática internacional de París en 2015, se dijo que Bután tenía la promesa más ambiciosa del mundo: ya estaba absorbiendo tres veces más dióxido de carbono del que emitía.

Por supuesto, con una población de 760.000 habitantes y un ingreso medio de 3.400 dólares por persona, el ejemplo de Bután no puede llegar tan lejos. Aún así, su respuesta a la doble crisis del coronavirus y el cambio climático es inspiradora.

Al primer indicio de alarma, el país actuó con rapidez y firmeza

Bután confirmó su primer caso de COVID-19 en marzo: un turista estadounidense. En 6 horas y 18 minutos, unas 300 personas habían sido rastreadas por contrato y puestas en cuarentena, escribe Drexler. La comunicación fue clara: se pidieron máscaras faciales desde el principio. El país entró en un bloqueo total para suprimir el virus cada vez que encontró riesgo de transmisión comunitaria, primero en agosto y luego en diciembre. Es una reminiscencia de lo proactivo que ha sido Bután con respecto al cambio climático.

Su liderazgo era competente y de confianza

El rey de Bután no pasó meses negando los peligros del virus ni años negando la realidad del calentamiento global . En cambio, el rey Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck dijo que incluso una muerte por COVID-19 era demasiado. Participó en planes detallados contra la pandemia y visitó a los trabajadores de primera línea para alentarlos. Otros líderes también se pusieron de pie: los miembros del Parlamento de Bután donaron el salario de un mes al esfuerzo de respuesta. “No creo que ningún otro país pueda decir que los líderes y la gente común disfrutan de tal confianza mutua”, dijo un periodista en Bután al Atlantic.

El gobierno proporcionó recursos para que la gente pudiera hacer lo correcto

El sacrificio personal, ya sea poner en cuarentena o reducir su huella de carbono, no funciona bien si está preparado para fallar. Cuando Bután emitió una cuarentena obligatoria en marzo para cualquier persona que pudiera haber estado expuesta al virus, proporcionó alojamiento y comida gratis en los hoteles. También entregó alimentos y paquetes de atención y ofreció asesoramiento a los que estaban en cuarentena. Un fondo de ayuda en curso lanzado por el rey ha dado $ 19 millones a unos 34.000 butaneses que luchan por llegar a fin de mes.

Un país en el que el altruismo y el sacrificio están incorporados

“Resiliencia” no es solo una palabra de moda en Bután, que es budista en tres cuartas partes, sino un principio rector arraigado en soportar las dificultades, escribe Drexler. Los médicos y funcionarios gubernamentales de Bután que podrían haber estado expuestos al COVID-19 durmieron solos, lejos de sus familias. Los agricultores donaron cosechas y los lugareños llevaron té con leche caliente y comida al Ministerio de Salud en medio de la noche.

En tiempos difíciles, la cooperación es clave para el éxito . “La gente dice que el desastre de COVID en Estados Unidos ha sido una negación de la ciencia”, dijo al Atlantic Asaf Bitton, director ejecutivo del centro de salud Ariadne Labs, con sede en Boston. “Pero en lo que no pudimos ponernos de acuerdo es en el pacto social que necesitaríamos para tomar decisiones dolorosas juntos en unidad, por el bien colectivo”.

Por Kate Yoder. Artículo en inglés

Fuente de la Información: https://www.ecoportal.net/paises/pequeno-pais-superando-la-pandemia/

 

 

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India: What the Arrest of Disha Ravi, a Climate Activist Linked to Greta Thunberg, Says About India’s Crackdown on Dissent

What the Arrest of Disha Ravi, a Climate Activist Linked to Greta Thunberg, Says About India’s Crackdown on Dissent

Police in India have accused Disha Ravi, a 22-year-old climate activist with ties to Greta Thunberg, of sedition. Her alleged crime: helping to create and share an online “protest toolkit” that outlined how to support the mass protests by farmers in the country.

Critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government say the charges against Ravi are politically motivated and represent an escalation of the Indian government’s clampdown on dissenters.

“It’s a brazen move by Modi to ramp up repression and to wait to see if there are international repercussions,” says Subir Sinha, a senior lecturer in institutions and development at SOAS, University of London.

Ravi’s Feb. 13 arrest, and the connection with Thunberg, who shared the “toolkit” on social media, have brought even more international scrutiny to India’s backsliding democratic freedoms, including worsening freedom of the press and detentions of journalists, internet shutdowns and violent responses to non-violent protesters.

The farmers’ protests are some of the biggest in the country’s history, and present an unprecedented challenge to Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. The protests have already received worldwide attention—including viral tweets from Rihanna and Vice President Kamala Harris’ niece Meena Harris.

Here’s what to know about Ravi’s arrest.

What are the accusations against Disha Ravi?

Ravi, the founder of the Bengaluru chapter of Thunberg’s climate justice movement Fridays for Future, has been charged with sedition—the crime of inciting hatred against the government.

Delhi police say Ravi is a “key conspirator” in the “formulation [and] dissemination” of the “toolkit” document containing methods for supporting the farmers’ protest.

Police allege she also started a WhatsApp group and collaborated to make the document. “She was the one who shared the [document] with Greta Thunberg,” they said.

Thunberg has not commented.

Police said the document contained links to websites that supported a Sikh independence movement, and that the sharing of the document on social media indicated that there was a “conspiracy” behind violence on Jan. 26, when farmer protests escalated into clashes with police.

“The main aim of the toolkit was to create misinformation and disaffection against the lawfully enacted government,” Delhi police official Prem Nath said at a Monday press briefing.

Ravi told a Delhi court that she did not make the document, but she edited two lines of it, according to local media.

Warrants have been issued for at least two other activists, including Nikita Jacob and Shantanu Muluk.

Police say that the three activists held a Zoom meeting with a “pro-Khalistani” organization in Canada, referring to a Sikh independence movement, according to local media.

Why was Disha Ravi arrested?

Activists and critics of Modi’s government say Ravi’s arrest is part of a larger crackdown on all forms of dissent in the country.

“The government wants us to believe that anyone and everyone who disagrees with its views is part of some sinister international conspiracy,” Satish Deshpande, a sociology professor in India, says. “The aim is to terrorize dissenters into silence.”

Since November, hundreds of thousands of farmers have been protesting on the outskirts of the capital against new agricultural laws that aim to deregulate and open India’s agricultural industry to free-market forces. Farmers are worried they could lose business and land to large corporations. Tweets from international celebrities, including Rihanna, have been met with a swift backlash from the Indian government, who labeled the criticism propaganda. Swedish climate activist Thunberg tweeted in support of the protests, posting a link to the online toolkit Ravi is accused of helping to create.

“I think when Greta tweeted, Rihanna tweeted, they had to find a narrative to say that there is something of a threat to the nation,” says Leo Saldanha, who works for the advocacy group Environment Support Group and is also based in Bengaluru.

Gilles Verniers, an assistant professor of political science at Ashoka University in India, says that any international attention is unlikely to make the government change its stance as “they equate concessions with expressions of weakness.”

Saldanha says activists like him have lived under “the threat of excessive state action” for several years.

The most plausible explanation for what appears to be an escalation in the government’s crackdown is the continuing farmers’ protests, Deshpande says.

“The farmers’ protests are holding firm despite all odds,” he says. “The current moves show that the government is sticking to its formula of declaring all democratic opposition—or even dissent—to be acts of sedition.”

How are people reacting?

Opposition politicians, rights activists and a slew of Indian celebrities have condemned Ravi’s arrest.

Dozens protested on Monday in cities across India calling for Ravi’s release and a petition started by Saldanha’s Environment Support Group calling for Ravi’s immediate release has received more than 25,000 signatures in less than 48 hours.

The environmentalist says that the government’s attempt to silence youth activists is “not working because there’s so many have decided to speak out.”

Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister of Delhi, called the arrest “an unprecedented attack on democracy.”

Students hold placards as they shout slogans demanding the release of Dalit labour rights activists Nodeep Kaur and Shiv Kumar along with climate activist Disha Ravi during a protest in New Delhi, India on Feb. 15, 2021.

Member of parliament Jairam Ramesh said her arrest shows the “intensifying murder of democracy in India.”

Siddharth, an actor popular in India tweeted his support. “Standing unconditionally in solidarity and support with #DishaRavi,” he wrote.

 

Fuente de la Información: https://time.com/5939627/disha-ravi-india-toolkit-arrest/

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India: The Farmers’ Protests Are a Turning Point for India’s Democracy—and the World Can No Longer Ignore That

The Farmers’ Protests Are a Turning Point for India’s Democracy—and the World Can No Longer Ignore That

 

FEBRUARY 11, 2021 9:00 PM EST
Jeet Singh is a scholar and historian of South Asia. He is an Equality Fellow for the Open Society Foundations, a Council on Foreign Relations term member, and a Truman National Security Project fellow.

For decades, the world has turned a blind eye to India’s abysmal human rights record. This approach draws from a broad perception of India as a strategic ally.

For one, the United States, like much of the global community, sees India as an important counterweight to China. They are the two most populous nations and the fastest growing trillion-dollar economies in the world. Global powers tend to prefer India because of its standing as the world’s largest democracy. At the same time, India’s adversarial relationship with neighboring Pakistan, as well as its increasingly anti-Muslim policies, position it as a bulwark against “Islamic terrorism.”

These two bogeymen—Chinese imperialism and Islamic terrorism—are the specters that have given India a free pass.

Over the past few years, however, the rise of right-wing authoritarianism has brought India’s democratic standing into question. India has plummeted in democracy metrics across the board, including the Press Freedom Index, where it now ranks 142 of 180 countries, four spots behind South Sudan and three behind Myanmar. The Human Freedom Index ranks India at 111 of 162 countries, just four ahead of Russia. This past September human rights group Amnesty International ceased operations in India following sustained assaults from the Indian government.

 

Farmers take part in a rally as they continue to protest against the central government's recent agricultural reforms, in New Delhi on Jan. 26, 2021.
The full force and authoritarian tactics of the Indian government have been showcased as they respond to the largest protest in their history. Since September, tens of thousands of Indian have gathered in New Delhi to protest three new agricultural laws that aim to deregulate India’s agricultural industry and open it up to free-market forces. While the need for reforms is urgent, farmers are concerned that the new legislation privileges corporations and harms the everyday farmer. Finally, on Feb. 2, after months of protests, the world’s eyes started to focus on the Indian government’s undemocratic measures, including press censorshipjournalist detention, internet shutdowns, and violent crackdowns against the non-violent protestors.

Hindu nationalists have used the occasion to call for genocidal violence against protestors. Twitter removed a tweet from Indian actress Kangana Ranaut that advocated ethnic cleansing of the protestors. Twitter also suspended 500 accounts that called for a repeat of the 1984 pogroms, a dark moment in India’s history.

These calls refer to a period of Indian history reminiscent of what’s happening today. In the 1970s and 1980s, Punjabi Sikhs led similar agitations that called for better government support of agriculture. Their sustained protests along with a self-determination movement drew the ire of the Indian government, which painted the efforts as anti-national. Following a disinformation campaign, the government launched a series of attacks that resulted in mass atrocities and egregious human rights abuses: the military assault on Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) of Amritsar in June of 1984, the state-sponsored pogroms in November of 1984 following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by two of her Sikh bodyguards, and, in the decade that followed, a campaign of extra-judicial killings that resulted in tens of thousands of civilian deaths. The government of India has never acknowledged or apologized for this spree of violence, and it remains a visceral memory for many Indians, especially Punjabi Sikhs today.

Understanding the state violence in Punjab during the 1980s helps us see the grievances that Punjabi farmers have with the central government. It also shows how the Indian state deploys and enacts violence against its own citizens, and, perhaps most crucially, anticipates what might happen in India today if the Indian government is not held accountable for its current undemocratic actions.

Senior army officers at the site of a military operation ordered by Then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to remove Sikh separatists in the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, in 1984.

Those who have been paying attention to Indian politics in recent decades will not be surprised at all. The Prime Minister of India—Mr. Narendra Modi—is also the figurehead of right-wing Hindu nationalism. Notoriously, in 2002, Mr. Modi presided over the anti-Muslim pogroms in Gujarat as the state’s Chief Minister. For his role in the genocidal violence foreign nations banned “The Butcher of Gujarat” from entering their countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom. The U.S. ban was in effect for over a decade and only rescinded when it was painfully clear that Modi would be India’s next prime minister.

Since becoming India’s Prime Minister in 2014, Modi’s government has faced a barrage of criticism from human rights groups, foreign nations, Indian civil society, and opposition political parties for its treatment of minority communities. Most recently, India revoked Kashmir’s constitutional autonomy in 2019—a takeover of disputed territory in contravention to United Nations’ agreement—and oversaw extreme human rights abuses in Muslim-majority areas of Kashmir, including illegal detention, abuse, and torture. Add to these internet shutdowns, limitations on freedom of speech and movement, as well as access to information, education, and healthcare.

As with Punjab in the 1970s and 1980s, the government painted any and all dissenters as anti-national—and then persecuted them accordingly. The government took a similar approach of combining disinformation and violence in late 2019 and early 2020 when tens of thousands of Indians took to the streets to protest the Citizenship Amendment Act that critics says discriminates against Muslims who seek Indian citizenship.

Again today, Modi’s right-wing government has responded to the farmers’ protests by lying about and defaming its own citizens. Senior leaders have called the protestors “anti-nationals” and “goons.” International commentators, too, have not been spared. When global icons Rihanna and Greta Thunberg called for greater international scrutiny on Indian authoritarian tactics being used against the protestors, the Ministry of External Affairs described their tweets as “neither accurate nor responsible” and closed its statement press statement with the hashtag #IndiaAgainstPropaganda. The Delhi Police even filed a First Information Report (FIR) and launched an investigation into the toolkit linked to Thunberg’s tweet.

India is coupling government propaganda with the chilling of free speech. Recently they jailed nine journalists who reported that police officers shot and killed a protestor. Their actions, which violated international human rights conventions, prompted the Committee to Protect Journalists to issue a statement. In the words of Ken Roth, Executive Director for Human Rights Watch, “The Indian authorities’ response to protests by farmers has focused on discrediting peaceful protestors, harassing critics of the government, and now prosecuting journalists who are reporting on the protests and recent Delhi violence.”

Farmers gather next to their tractors as police stand guard at a roadblock, to stop them from marching to New Delhi to protest against the central government's agricultural reforms, in Ghazipur, India, on Dec. 1, 2020.

This time, however, Indian masses and global observers are not falling for Modi’s lies. They see that this movement is not about ethno-nationalism; rather it arises in opposition to it. It is a movement rooted in Punjabi Sikh experiences and now supported by people all across India who are tired of seeing their country and their communities ravaged by economic despair and social division. It is a movement that cuts across lines of identity—caste, class, region, political affiliation, and religion. And it is a movement led by a community with a history of being traumatized—first in 1947 during Partition and again in 1984—that knows what might be around the corner if the Indian state is not held accountable.

For those who right-wing extremists have continually disenfranchised and persecuted in India—including farmers, Christians, Dalits, Muslims, Sikhs, Kashmiris, and many others—the fears about where the current roads may lead are not based on conjecture or hypothesis. They are drawing from their lived experience—and they know that this is a fight for survival.

But this is not just India’s fight. In a world grappling with rising authoritarianism, propaganda, human rights abuses, and anti-democratic practices, quashing right-wing nationalism is in everyone’s best interest. Letting it go unchecked, especially in the world’s largest democracy, puts us all at risk. It seems like India as our strategic ally is changing before our eyes. We’re at risk of losing our ally because an authoritarian nation cannot be an ally in the same way as an open democratic society. With more than 1.3 billion people in India, we’re talking about a country that is muzzling and restricting basic freedoms for a full one-sixth of the global population.

 

Fuente de la Información: https://time.com/5938041/india-farmer-protests-democracy/

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Turquía: Tragedy as little girl, 10, dies after spending EIGHT YEARS in a coma following brutal crash with a tanker

Tragedy as little girl, 10, dies after spending EIGHT YEARS in a coma following brutal crash with a tanker

A young girl has died after spending eight years in a coma following a crash with a tanker.

Zisan Can was just two years old her family’s car collided with the truck in the central Turkish city of Konya on September 22, 2013.

Her family had been travelling to a hospital in Konya at the time, where her brother Eren Can was schedule to get treatment.

While they were on the road, Murat’s car collided with a tanker as it carried out an illegal turn on the road without its lights on.

Murat, his wife Serpil, and their children, Eren, 16, Ikbal, 11, and Zisan, two, were injured in the collision.

The little girl named Zisan (pictured) was just two years old her family’s car collided with the truck in the central Turkish city of Konya on September 22, 2013.

The family were rushed to hospital by ambulance. Little Zisan needed to be resuscitated at the scene of the accident twice.

The other family members were discharged after their treatment but little Zisan remained in intensive care for the next eight years before finally dying this month, having never recovered.

The tanker driver was never found after fleeing the accident scene.

Zisan Can (pictured) spent most of her short life in a coma following a crash in Turkey in 2013, she sadly died this month

Murat has vowed to find the tanker driver who caused his daughter’s death.

“There were cameras everywhere on the road. However, this driver has not been found for eight years. I will not allow my daughter to be listed as an unsolved death. I ask in the name of God that somebody can help me.”

Police have confirmed that the investigation is still open and is now considered as causing death by reckless driving.

Fuente de la Información: https://7news.com.au/news/crime/tragedy-as-little-girl-10-dies-after-spending-eight-years-in-a-coma-following-brutal-crash-with-a-tanker-c-2053544

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