Category Archives: Apartheid

US elections: The end of a dream | In English | EL PAÍS

Electing Hillary Clinton would not only have put a woman in charge of the most important country in the world, along with other great nations like Germany (Angela Merkel), the United Kingdom (Theresa May and before her, Margaret Thatcher) and Brazil (Dilma Rousseff until she was impeached). More importantly it would have allowed the United States to make two symbolic moves in two back-to-back revolutions: racial equality and gender equality. And if it were on a roll, why not imagine a Hispanic man or woman in the White House?Instead, the United States has elected the enemy of minorities, women, immigrants, Muslims and the political correctness that has made coexistence possible in democracies. The dream fades and, in its place, a nightmare begins.

Source: US elections: The end of a dream | In English | EL PAÍS

Netanyahu denies inciting 1995 Rabin assassination | German-Jewish cultural heritage in Israel | DW.COM | 13.11.2016 As good as admitting he has Rabin’s blood on his hands.

The Israeli leader took to Facebook on the 21st anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination to deny any responsibility for the latter’s death. He called the killing of Rabin by Jewish extremist Yigal Amir a “shocking political murder that all of us condemn.”He wrote: “Since the murder there have been continuous attempts to distort the historical truth and blame me for the incitement that preceded the killing.”He also posted video clips showing himself condemning virulent statements against Rabin in the weeks before the prime minister was killed.

Source: Netanyahu denies inciting 1995 Rabin assassination | German-Jewish cultural heritage in Israel | DW.COM | 13.11.2016

Photos: Largest Anti-Trump Protest Yet Swarms In Downtown L.A. For Fifth Day : LAist

An enormous gathering of more than 8,000 people expressing their disapproval of President-Elect Donald Trump have taken to the streets of downtown Los Angeles. The thousands of people began gathering this morning in MacArthur Park at around 10:00 a.m. Soon after, the march began walking east towards downtown Los Angeles on Wilshire Boulevard. By 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, the protest has begun circling through downtown Los Angeles’ streets.Wick reports that the gathering is a largely peaceful assembly of Angelenos from different backgrounds, many of whom have brought their kids along for a taste of their first amendment right to peaceful assembly.The march was organized the group Union del Barrio, a political organizing group that aims to increase political literacy in America’s growing Latinix community.

Source: Photos: Largest Anti-Trump Protest Yet Swarms In Downtown L.A. For Fifth Day : LAist

Hearts Open, Fists Up | Race Files

In the long term, we will need a different kind of politics fueled not by rage but by a deep-seated belief that the future belongs to us. A younger, more progressive, more inclusive, and more diverse generation is already here. The path forward will require a truly and deeply feminist vision that goes beyond simply electing female bodies to office, and instead reaches past the logic of brutal domination and rivalry toward interdependence, humanity, compassion, and respect for the earth. This feminism has its roots in Black feminist traditions and Indigenous world views, and has no meaning without race at the center.We will need to draw on all of our resources – the deep knowledge of survival in queer and trans communities, in Indigenous communities, in criminalized Black and Brown communities – to build the alternative services and systems we will need in this coming period as access to existing services gets dismantled. We will need the humanity of whites who want to live in a different world, one shaped not by the rivalries of race but by the wholeness of justice. We will need to forge a vision for a new economy and society. This will take work, but I know we have the immense talent and fortitude we need in our movements to achieve it.When we do this, we will have arrived not as Asian Americans, not as immigrants, not as people of color, but as a nation that finally acknowledges that society functions best and security can only exist when we all have what we need: home, health, family, education, culture, community, creativity, and spiritual growth. We will have arrived as a people who understands that you are not me and I am not you, and because of this, we need each other. We will understand that our collective survival hinges upon understanding, confronting, and dismantling race.The future is ours. But for now, we must build the unity and genuine capacity we need to declare clearly: No one comes for any of us without going through all of us. Hearts open, fists up.

Source: Hearts Open, Fists Up | Race Files

US elections: A presidency of fear | In English | EL PAÍS

Put simply, one half of the United States has voted against the rights of the other half. The people celebrating Trump’s victory on Tuesday night were celebrating the triumph of boorishness, intolerance, fear, and ignorance. The only sure thing we know about Trump is that he will say one thing one day and another the next, depending on which way the political wind is blowing, or which side of bed he got out of. In a single day he has been for and against abortion rights, same-sex marriage and banning Muslims from entering the country. And when it suits him, he has no problem lying.

Source: US elections: A presidency of fear | In English | EL PAÍS

It’s the End of the World as We Know It, and I Don’t Feel Fine. | Rebelle Society

Here’s the problem, folks…She doesn’t have a penis.Oh, I can feel your eyes rolling. Your brain is screaming about her f*cking emails, and how oily and polished she comes across. Like a typical politician. To you, I say: I don’t give a !@#$ about her emails. I like oily and polished. In this case, it meant the candidate had equilibrium because she knew what she talking about.Say what you want to say about Hillary Clinton’s off-putting demeanor, her lack of charisma, and her distrustful air. There’s no debating that she’s brilliant. Something Donald Trump isn’t.And see, Trump hates everything I am. Despises what I believe in. He has offended me as a woman. A Latina. And as a person who believes in a God by many names. Any time he offends people who lead with their faith, he is offending me.Before now, when I did not see eye to eye with a candidate and he was elected, I did not feel despair, thrown away, or less of an American because none of those men attacked me personally. None of them told me that the way I showed up in the world was intrinsically less-than. They had not assaulted me with their words and their hatred.Inside my body, in my heart, what I carry is rejection by my country. The country that I love. If this nation could elect Donald Trump to be our leader, I am a disposable American. Everything I am is being tossed in the bin.As Van Jones stated on CNN, “This was a White-lash.” The Men and the Whites rallied to elect Trump because they detest the changes that have occurred in America — what I consider progress.Plainly speaking, I’m terrified for my country. What does this election say about our path? Our legacy? What will the world think, and how will it affect international affairs and the economy throughout the next four years?There is a small part of me still clinging to hope that one day a woman will lead the United States. Another part of me wonders, if it does happen while I breathe, whether it will be a nation I recognize. Or if it will recognize me.The faith I have always held sacred, that has carried me through painful moments, wavers. On this day, I pray God sees us through the next four years. I’m too anxious to focus on my chores and my work.I just don’t know if it will ever happen for us.I haven’t got high hopes to see it in my lifetime.But then again, a racist, xenophobic misogynist with the temper of a hangry lab monkey got elected as the President of the United States.I suppose anything is possible.

Source: It’s the End of the World as We Know It, and I Don’t Feel Fine. | Rebelle Society

US presidential elections: Darkness falls in Washington | In English | EL PAÍS

The victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential elections is terrible news for democrats around the world. At the same time it is also a source of satisfaction and opportunity for enemies of democracy.The devastating victory of an unpredictable and dangerous demagogue plunges the world into a state of complete uncertainty, and one with immediate economic and geopolitical repercussions. The shock suffered by democratic voters in the US is the same as that being experienced in the capitals of Europe, which now risk seeing themselves abandoned by Washington at a particularly difficult historic moment because of a conjuncture of external threats and an important internal crisis of identity.

Source: US presidential elections: Darkness falls in Washington | In English | EL PAÍS

A Militia Gets Battle Ready for a ‘Gun-Grabbing’ Clinton Presidency – The New York Times – Self-delusion is stronger than speedballs for those who fear being smaller than Georgia Peanuts.

It was all part of the militia’s efforts to be armed, ready and united for looming threats, especially if Mrs. Clinton is elected, Mr. Hill said. He mentioned his two children. “The security and safety of my kids motivates what I do,” he said.Mr. Hill, who calls his group a “defensive militia,” predicted unrest and violence from extremists on both sides no matter who wins the presidential election. If Mrs. Clinton wins, he said, millions of gun owners will march on Washington at the first attempt to restrict gun ownership.“If the people decide they can no longer suffer the inequities,” he said, “I’d be with the people and I’d take my guns up to Washington, D.C.”

Source: A Militia Gets Battle Ready for a ‘Gun-Grabbing’ Clinton Presidency – The New York Times

North Carolina Republicans Tried to Disenfranchise a 100-Year-Old African-American Woman | The Nation

The challenge list compiled by Republicans also overwhelmingly targeted black and Democratic voters. “Of the 138 challenged, 92 of them were black and registered Democrats. 28 voters were unaffiliated, 17 were Republicans, and 1 was Libertarian,” reported WNCT.Hardison’s challenge was withdrawn after a local outcry, but 14 voters have been purged so far in recent weeks in Beaufort County, which previously had to approve its voting changes with the federal government under the Voting Rights Act because of a history of discrimination.The North Carolina NAACP says the purge violates the National Voter Registration Act, which “prohibits the mass removal of voters from the rolls within the 90 days prior to the election.”“These purges have a long history of being racial and inaccurate,” says Penda Hair, a lawyer for the North Carolina NAACP.

Source: North Carolina Republicans Tried to Disenfranchise a 100-Year-Old African-American Woman | The Nation

Video: Israeli soldiers throw stones at Palestinian children | The Electronic Intifada

This video shows Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank throwing stones at Palestinian schoolchildren in the village of al-Tuwani on 25 October.According to the video’s captions, the Israeli soldiers are supposed to protect the children from attacks by Israeli settlers in the area.

Source: Video: Israeli soldiers throw stones at Palestinian children | The Electronic Intifada