License to kill for police in Pakistan is sowing seeds of hatred, dissent

“We live in trying times. Times of fear, of suppression” reads the voice of Chelsea Manning, former army whistleblower now running for the US senate for Maryland. Her recently published campaign ad is made up of glitched footage from the violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville together with flickering images of racial violence and police brutality. “We need to stop expecting that our systems will somehow fix themselves,” Manning’s voice continues as the White House courtyard fountain plays in the background; cascading water vacuumed backwards in slow motion.

After being held in prison for seven years in what the United Nations has denounced as “inhumane” conditions, Manning – a figure who today not only stands for political transparency but for LGBTQI+ rights – has a longstanding Democratic candidate to beat if she’s to become the first transgender woman to ever be elected into the US senate. She will be running against incumbent 74 year old Democratic Sen. Benjamin Cardin who is running for his third senate term, and is the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

#WeGotThis reads Manning’s new campaign hashtag, a call for a complete reshape of the political sphere. Her campaign is anchored in the fight to no longer ask others to accommodate the rights of the underrepresented, the minorities and the LGBTQI+ groups. “We need to stop asking for someone to give us our rights. They won’t support us. [...] We don’t need them anymore. We can do better. We got this.”

If elected, Manning would be the first and only representative voice for the transgender community within the senate, yet she is not alone in her quest diversify the US political sphere. 2017 saw the election of 8 transgender women into city councils, school boards and the staggering win of Democrat Danica Roem into the Virginia House of Delegates.

But with every breakthrough comes the anticipated resistance from a culture not yet willing to let go of the old and in with the revolutionary. Democrats opposing Manning’s running have already painted her candidacy as an espionage tool for the Kremlin, while conservatives are standing against both her court martial sentencing and her transgender identity. Fox news was quick to headline the story as “Sen. Chelsea Manning? To even think about rewarding this criminal with a Senate seat is beyond absurd.”

During her imprisonment, Manning became a monumental force for the rights of LGBTQI+ identifying persons – her work with WikiLeaks proved to be just a glimpse into the fearlessness with which she approaches a political realm congested with conformity, with repression and silencing. Manning is also fighting to become a voice for the previously convicted, something entirely absent from current political representation. It really is time we take matters into our own hands, and with that, #WeGotThis.

At the turn of the millennium Portugal was experiencing the most terrible heroin pandemic in Europe. The country of 10 million people accounted for the worst figures related to drug use: 1% of the population was addicted to heroin, the rate of HIV infection was the highest in the European Union and deaths from overdoses were spiralling out of control.

During the 80s and 90s, hundreds of users used to line up for hours to buy drugs in the impoverished neighbourhood of Casal Ventoso, Lisbon, known as the "drug supermarket". At its height over 6,000 addicts descended daily on the shanty town to buy and consume heroin in the open air until 1999, when the slum was cleared and its residents rehoused.

Today, the country is very different, as heroine use has fallen to a quarter of what it was in 2000. Furthermore, Portugal has seen a dramatic drop in HIV infections (from 104 new cases per million in 2000 to 4.2 in 2015), whilst the number of people dying from overdoses has plummeted by more than 85%.

Despite using different methods as most other countries, Portugal is winning its war on drugs. In 2001, the country undertook an important experiment by becoming the first to decriminalise the possession and consumption of all illicit substances, including those considered "hard drugs", such as heroine and cocaine. Architected by public health expert João Goulão, the policy was introduced while Antonio Guterres, now Secretary-General of the United Nations, was the Portuguese Prime Minister.

Selling and distributing drugs are still criminal offenses. However, purchasing a small quantity is not considered a crime, but an administrative offense. Drug addiction is viewed as a medical disease that should be taken care of in the health system rather than punished by criminal justice.

More importantly, to tackle addiction, Portugal has also launched a strong public health initiative that aims to discourage narcotics use. Every day, vans tour Lisbon's streets to provide users with methadone free of charge.

More than 15 years since the policy’s implementation, the country significantly outperforms those who continue to criminalise drug use, such as the UK, where the rate of overdose deaths is 45 per million, compared to just 3 in Portugal.

This approach has converted Portugal's drug mortality rate to become the lowest in Western Europe. Besides from improving statistics, the country’s radical drug policy has been praised for its humanistic rather than stigmatizing approach. However, even though the international press regularly commends Portugal’s pioneering strategy in tackling its drug problem, few risk following it.

The recent arrest of 10 Cameroon separatists in the Nigerian capital of Abuja is the latest episode of the deadliest internal conflict in the Central Africa nation since independence. Having now lasted fifteen months, the situation is threatened to spill over to West Africa with catastrophic effects.

What started as peaceful protests by lawyers and teachers in the minority Anglophone region – who were opposed to hiring French speaking judges and teachers in their area – has now degenerated into bloodied violence and calls for greater autonomy, federalism and secession, while also birthing armed radical elements alongside it. Already over 100 people have been killed, 1,000 are in detention and more than 40,000 have fled to neighbouring Nigeria, creating a humanitarian crisis on all accounts.

The root cause of the conflict stems from years of marginalisation of the English speaking zones in Cameroon by the French speaking majority and government. Resistance by the minority English speaking communities have the government respond with full force, unleashing the army’s Rapid Intervention Brigade, ordinarily used to tackle Boko Haram while instituting a complete internet shutdown in the Anglophone region. Further still, there is diplomatic tension already in place between Nigeria and Cameroon after the Cameroonian troops crossed into Nigeria in pursuit of rebels without the Nigerian government’s authorisation. The situation is becoming disquietening, particularly as the country is set to hold its election this year.

An unstable Cameroon is dangerous to everyone, and cannot be an option in a region that is battling terror groups, military coups and decades of armed conflicts.

It is crucial that Cameroon President Paul Biya leads the way towards a political solution. Chest thumping and high handedness only serve to agitate protesters and embolden them to further their cause; defeating the pursuit for peace. Regional blocs including Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) must make their voices heard and put pressure on the country’s political class to find amicable and faster solutions – ultimately it is in their region’s best interest. The African Union and the United Nations who have been consistent in warning to the potential danger of the escalating violence must now firmly intervene in word and action if stability is to be achieved.

When cops in American TV shows want to get onlookers away from a crime scene or an accident, they normally say: 'OK, show's over folks, nothing to see here, move along.' The point being, of course, that there is absolutely everything to see here. 

When Donald Trump doesn't want anyone to notice something negative about him, he is incapable of concealing it. Far from being a mercurial magician: a master of misdirection who can make you look at his lapel or his hairline while he masterfully slips your card up his sleeve, he has, throughout his career, told everyone not to look at his sleeves during this next trick. 

This was evident during the early days of the Russia probe when, after firing then FBI-Director James Comey, he announced to the entire world that the next director or special counsel should not go through his finances – strongly indicating that he was guilty of some kind of financial impropriety. 

Last weekend, during a meeting to discuss immigration reform with his lawyers and senators from across party lines, he allegedly referred to Haiti, El Salvador and all African nations as 'shithole countries.' Why, he asked, couldn't the US receive more immigrants from Norway instead of these shithole countries? 

Then, yesterday, to deflect an international backlash in which religious leaders (including some loyal Trump Evangelicals), international leaders, the UN and others, he announced that he is not a racist, and that in fact, he is the least racist person around. Nothing to see here, folks, move along. 

I've read Michael Wolff's book, Fire and Fury, which was released two weeks ago amid international interest. It's fictionalised non-fiction; imagined meetings based on later interviews – so not to be taken as absolute truth, rather an approximation of the truth. In it, however, emerges a portrait of a man of almost pathological incompetence and narcissism. Rather than being an out-and-out extremist of alt right tendencies, it seems Donald Trump simply says what's on his mind, and refuses to acknowledge he is either wrong or misinformed – a pair of traits that inevitably, lead him to say and do idiotic, racist things. It's not that he has a racist ideology; he is simply bigoted and cannot overcome this tendency. It is less political, and more emotional and psychological. 

Maybe. This portrait however would ignore Trump's long history of racism and race-baiting. Here is a definitive list of his racist antics from The New York Times. 

It is a problem which has real impact; the programme to secure the existence of insecure immigrants in America is under threat, as is US relations around the world – all simply because this man cannot control himself. 

As dust settles after days of angry agitations against the gruesome rape and murder of a minor girl in the biggest province of Punjab in Pakistan, the lack of accountability on the part of the government, as well as the society’s overall criminal negligence towards child rights spark fears about recurrence of such tragedies.

The minor girl named Zainab, 6, is believed to have been abducted from the religious tuition centre near her house in the Kasur district of Punjab last Thursday (January 4). Her parents had been in Saudi Arabia performing Umrah (Islamic pilgrimage), according to her family, and she had been living with a maternal aunt. On Tuesday (January 9), a police constable deputed to trace the girl recovered her body from a heap of trash.

Unfortunately, this is not the first incident of this sort. On February 25 last year, a seven-year-old girl was allegedly raped and then strangled to death in the same district. Prior to this, in August 2015, the country's biggest child abuse scandal was unearthed in Ganda Singh Wala area of the same Kasur district, where around 400 objectionable videos were made of 280 victims of abuse by a gang of over 25 criminals.

What is even more alarming, is that the reaction and tolerance to such heinous crimes of abuse are not yet set in place; the society seems to be confused as to how it should proceed in response. Some so-called intellectual figures with a large following are blaming the ‘nudity’ and ‘westernised’ lifestyle in Pakistan for the alarming levels of rape and murder of children. While on the other hand, the government officials in the Punjab province were quick to save their own image rather than taking responsibility and addressing this pressing issue on war footings. Rana Sanaullah, the provincial law minister, expressed anger and elitist attitude when confronted by journalists with pressing questions related to the previous and current incident of rape and murder of minors in his jurisdiction.

Orya Maqbool Jan, one such ‘intellectual’ has publicly said on a private television channel that men obsessed with pornography – for which he does not blame the particular group of men, but everyone else and everything else for enticing such behaviours – would ‘naturally’ lead to these acts under such circumstances. Maqbool Jan labelled the rape and murder of this minor in Kasur as a natural enticement caused by vulgarity in the society.

Perhaps it is the tradition of sending their affluent children to study abroad that has produced a generation of Pakistani elite who are immune to the pain and suffering of their nation's poorest. But it is crucial Pakistan's poorest don't become forgotten, that the country fights for the rights and the protection of its youngest and most vulnerable.

The criminalisation of NGOs, who operate in the Mediterranean assisting migrants who are attempting to reach European soil, has become increasingly frequent in recent months. In 2017, several reports were published concerning clashes between police authorities wishing to reduce the flow of migrants and the humanitarian organisations who are trying to save lives and help those in need.

The latest example of this harassment by authorities is the lawsuit against Spanish activist Helena Maleno, who was called to testify this Wednesday by a Moroccan court. Journalist and researcher specialising in migration, as well as the founder of the organisation Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders), Maleno has been accused of collaborating with the mafia, in a "human trafficking" investigation.

Yet at the centre of the prosecution are the phone calls that the activist regularly made to alert the Spanish and Moroccan authorities when there are migrants in distress at sea in dinghies and at risk of drowning. Thanks to the work of Maleno, hundreds of migrants and refugees have been rescued in the Mediterranean, something that has earned her several awards in the field of Human Rights.

Other organisations such as Proactiva Open Arms or Doctors without Borders have also denounced strong restrictions and pressures from European authorities, which ultimately end up limiting their work of rescuing migrants.

This type of persecution of humanitarian work is seen by such organisations as a way of frightening and discouraging activists from carrying out their jobs. As a resuslt of these actions, saving lives in the Mediterranean Sea is becoming increasingly difficult.

Meanwhile, we will undoubtedly continue to hear news such as this week’s reports on the disappearance of close to 200 people feared dead after boarding overcrowded rubber dinghies that set off from Libya and sank in the Mediterranean. The first days of 2018 have been tragic. Unfortunately, the year has barely begun.

Since giving her speech at the Golden Globe awards on Sunday night, Oprah Winfrey, America’s self-made billionaire-cum-neoliberalist-guru, has been trending across social media platforms with the hashtags #Oprah2020 and #OprahforPresident. In case you missed why the talk show host, Oscar nominated and multiple award winning celebrity is suddenly in the fictitious electoral campaign for the 2020 US elections, alongside Kanye West and many other hopefuls, I’ll catch you up to speed.

Upon receiving the Cecil B. deMille award for “outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment”, Oprah gave what can only be described as a motivational speech of mediocracy – at best. She spoke out against the gender inequality and sexual harassment that is still rife within our world today; present across all professions, ages, demographics and cultures. Indeed such a speech was expected (if not demanded) of a politically and socially engaged woman such as Oprah, of that there is no arguing. She has a role to play: her brand is carried across each of her public appearances and her words are loved as well as appreciated across the country – her words make a difference. What was particularly disturbing, however, was not the speech itself, but the desperation with which a voice of reason is craved – any voice of reason – and tagged worthy of political authority. The separation between celebrity idol, spiritual guru, and politically qualified is no longer present.

The US has the privilege of having its worldwide entertainment moguls shine light on some of the most pressing issues within the country – and that in itself is a powerful tool. Yet I couldn’t stop myself from wondering: where are the powerful, world watched women speaking up for the incessant rape going on in The Congo, or the repression of women in Afghanistan, where restoring the woman's first name back into the family is a daily struggle – #whereismyname. Or the infinite other stories and struggles of the voiceless, nameless women around the world.

Have we become so disillusioned by our political landscape that watching multi millionaires clap to the humming sounds of “equal pay, equal pay, time is up, time is up” sparks inspiration in us? I am aware that equal pay, of course, spans across all ranges of salaries and positions, but have we forgotten about the pay gap between our newly found preachers and the rest of ‘us’? When the President of the United States is worth $3.1 billion, it can become hard to distinguish between business and political leadership; between entrepreneur and politician; between celebrity and preacher. But we really must try.

We have learnt the hard way that media buzz together with political entertainment are a dangerous concussion to digest. We all laughed when Trump announced his running for Presidency, and we continued to do so until he swore oath into office. Let’s be a little wiser this time around.  

Maekelawi detention centre, tucked in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, might not mean much to the world. But to thousands of activists, journalists, opposition figures and government critics in the country, it embodies fear, terror and memories of the painful journey and the ultimate price they have paid in their quest for truth and justice.

That is why the Ethiopian Prime Minister's recent announcement that the centre is set to closed and all political prisoners released, has heralded a new human rights chapter and a fresh start in a country where democracy and human rights are alien.

Voices like that of Atnaf Berhane, a blogger and human rights activist who was once held in the centre for three months have given the world a sense of what goes on behind its walls. Having been charged with terrorism for his daring criticism of the government, he was incarcerated in a dark cell and questioned for up to eight hours daily. 

While the closure is a step in the right direction for national healing and reconciliation, it must be followed by even bolder and honest measures if true national dialogue is to be achieved. Thorough and independent investigations into forced disappearances and torture that have become commonplace since early 90s must be conducted and perpetrators brought to justice.

This should be followed by an overhaul of the repressive laws, among them the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation, a draconian law that has seen the killing, torturing and jailing of thousands of dissenting voices, with many having to flee the country. Ultimately, political and human rights reforms need to be put in place, including a robust free speech regime, curtailing of military power and inclusion of marginalised communities into the national debate, all of which will ensure that the closure of the centre is not just a hollow gesture.

Photo: DigitalGlobe 2013; Source Google Earth

China aims to eradicate extreme poverty by 2020. A noble cause, and one we should all fully support. However, to do so, it will forcibly relocate people from their rural homes, to government-subsidised ones in urban areas, or to slightly less precarious regions in the countryside. 

China defines its poverty line as living on less than (roughly) 80 US Cents per day. There are communities, particularly in the west of the country, and particularly ethnic minorities who live on significantly less than that. 

Therefore, China's moves can only be a good thing to raise the living standard, and therefore life chances of its citizens. However, its brutal methods (which are explicitly part of Xi Xinping's plan) are reminiscent of 20th Century methods to lift people out of poverty: by forcing them to move from the countryside (or in some cases, by forcing them to remain), encouraging them to not have children, and navigating their career choices. It may be in the greater interest for the people, and the country – but it is China's willingness to overlook individualistic concern for holistic benefit that is always surprising. 

We can already imagine how people will react when forced from their homes – even if it is to supposedly be relocated to 'better' accommodation in an urban area. When communities are tied to the land through ancestry and upbringing, then it stands to reason that they will not be so easily persuaded by claims of 'rational advantage' or 'advancement'. 

Furthermore, the entire scheme raises the question of just how China has been able to effectively take people out of poverty, and potentially, it is because it has exploited other nations, and kept millions of citizens in extreme poverty. The share of the global population in extreme poverty with and without China hardly differs (yet China reduced its extreme poverty from the 1980s), so the argument that what benefits China benefits the rest of the world, isn't so clear cut. 

Nevertheless, eradicating poverty is a crucial issue of our future. Let's hope it helps those it is intending to help.