Category Archives: Global Politics

Bangladesh Activist Is Killed After Criticizing Militants – The New York Times

Witnesses said a group of cleanshaven men surrounded Mohammad Nazim Uddin, a law student, around 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday and slashed his head, then shot him when he fell to the ground, said Syed Nurul Islam, the deputy commissioner of police for Wari, the area of Old Dhaka where the killing took place. Mr. Uddin, 26, was an atheist who frequently expressed his views on Facebook, often posting as many as five times a day. His family had asked him to stop, fearful that the posts would make him a target, and for about four months, ending in January, he had complied, said Gulam Rabbi Chowdhury, a childhood friend. “To tell the truth, he was always a little detached from his family; he had trouble with them because of his views on religion,” he said. “He was very outspoken. He didn’t worry about whether you were with him or not.” Mr. Uddin’s killing deepens the sense of dread among those campaigning for secular causes, said Mr. Chowdhury, an official in a regional chapter of the Communist Party of Bangladesh.

Source: Bangladesh Activist Is Killed After Criticizing Militants – The New York Times

Sounding Exactly Like an Onion Article, Sanders Campaign Attacks Clinton’s Ambition

As Rebecca Traister explains at The Cut, Weaver’s comment was a throwaway one, but this narrative — casting Clinton as a Tracy Flick-like character, a “woman who tries too hard, who competes with too much intensity, who applies too much focus to her own advancement” — is one that the Sanders campaign seems to be increasingly turning to in recent weeks. Hopefully they’ll cut that shit out and remain committed to running on the issues, instead of invoking the tired stereotype of the overly ambitious woman and counting on our deep-seated double-standards around power and gender to kick in. As for Weaver’s broader point — that even as the race between the Democratic nominees heats up in the final stretch, we should “not denigrate other people’s supporters” because “we want to have a party at the end of this we can unify” — I personally agree wholeheartedly. A poll out yesterday, however, suggests that there are more people feeling the Bern who could stand to hear that reminder: 25 percent of Sanders’ supporters, compared to 14 percent of Clinton’s, say they wouldn’t vote for the other one if their candidate doesn’t get the nomination.

Source: Sounding Exactly Like an Onion Article, Sanders Campaign Attacks Clinton’s Ambition

Turkey: Proposal to annul citizenship threatens fundamental rights – IFEX

In a speech on April 5, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that Turkey should counter supporters of terrorism by stripping them of Turkish citizenship. Erdoğan in recent months has accused academics, journalists, and lawyers critical of his policies of supporting terrorism and called for the legal definition of terrorism to be widened. Turkey is militarily fighting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which the United States designates as a terrorist organization. Historically, the Turkish state has not distinguished either legally or politically between speech it considers in favor of the PKK or other terrorist organizations and actual membership in a terrorist organization. The Turkish government has also designated the Gülen movement as a terror organization.

Source: Turkey: Proposal to annul citizenship threatens fundamental rights – IFEX

In the War Between Bernie vs. Hillary Supporters, the Only Winner Is the GOP | Dame Magazine

So I beg of you, readers, to please support your candidate and do so respectfully and thoughtfully. And to please not get mired in the battles with friends and fellow Democrats that you lose sight of what’s on the other side.

Source: In the War Between Bernie vs. Hillary Supporters, the Only Winner Is the GOP | Dame Magazine

Who leaked Panama Papers and why? – Times of India

However, the source warned that his or her “life is in danger”, was only willing to communicate via encrypted channels and refused to meet in person. “How much data are we talking about,” Obermayer asked, according to an account in Wired. “More than you have ever seen,” the source responded. The eventual stash added up to 2.6 terabytes, a 100 times bigger than Wikileaks’ Cablegate, and enough to fill 600 DVDs. Obermayer says he communicated with his source over a series of encrypted channels that they frequently changed, each time deleting all history from their prior exchange. In their Suddeutsche Zeitung report, Obermayer and his co-authors write that the source wanted neither financial compensation nor anything else in return, apart from a few security measures. To this day, Obermayer says he does not know the name of the person or the identity of the person who leaked the documents, but feels he knows the person. “For certain periods I talked to (this person) more than to my wife,” he told Wired.

Source: Who leaked Panama Papers and why? – Times of India

The April 5: The Day that shook the South and its legacy – Groundviews {Textbook Ethno-Racism}

On the 5th April 1971 midnight the revolution began in earnest and it was confined to the areas where the Sinhalese lived. The simultaneous attacks on   police stations went in line with the plan that had been drawn up years before as part of the revolutionary strategy. Between 187-89 the JVP’s armed wing murdered left wing leaders and also trade unionists and activists. Built on a foundation of Sinhalese chauvinism it remains hostile to dissenting political opinions and even the existence of human beings within Sri Lanka of other cultures and religions. This exclusionary nationalism is deeply embedded in the JVP’s DNA, marking their political practice even today. It leaves them with the dubious and contradictory position of upholding majoritarian ethnic nationalism while at the same time adhering to a  ‘proletarian internationalism’. Their answer to the great question of post-Independence Sri Lankan politics, the rights of ethnic minorities is simply to wait for the socialist revolution.  Their political vision is untouched by the need to widen their electoral coalition, persuade voters or make any compromises with the real problems and challenges facing Sri Lankan people. Dissecting the JVP’s ideological and political articulation explains why.

Source: The April 5: The Day that shook the South and its legacy – Groundviews

 just call me deportee… no longer human or humane

Legal Nihilism Whereas Berlin and the EU are approaching open conflict with the United Nations, citizens’ initiatives also in Greece are raising strong criticism. A Greek-German appeal, for example, calls for the blockade, imposed on the refugees stranded in Greece, to be lifted. They should be promptly brought to Germany with special trains.[8] The “Train of Commemoration” initiative, in turn, has issued a statement saying that by violating “international humanitarian law” the German government, along with “the principal parliamentary and non-parliamentary supporting parties and circles” are also violating “the German constitution,” “whose historical foundation was the renunciation of the legal nihilism of its predecessor German state and its anti-humanitarian crimes of persecution. Hundreds of thousands, at the time, became refugees, wandering around the continent, in search of protection from Germany.”[9] (Read the entire text here.) Sheer Desperation Over the past few days, the protests by the refugees themselves have continued to intensify. Since the beginning of last week, there have been practically daily outbursts of collective anger. Last Thursday, in Camp Moria on Lesbos, about 50 Afghans chanted “Azandi” (which means freedom in Farsi).[10] On the Greek island of Chios, hundreds of refugees tore down a razor wire fence Friday and fled their detention “hotspot,” and marched together to the harbor. Even on the Greek mainland, protests are escalating. About 1,000 people, including many migrants and refugees, marched to the EU office in Athens Thursday, to protest against Brussels’ deportation deal with Ankara. In the north of the country, roads to Macedonia were blocked. “We expect violence,” warned on the weekend, a government spokesperson in Athens regarding the growing resistance to these illegal deportation measures. The refugees had narrowly escaped the war and are adamant in light of Berlin and the EU’s denial of protection, he admitted. “Desperate people” however “tend to resort to violence.”[11] German Deportation Personnel German personnel are also participating in the mass deportation. Thirty officers of the Federal Police were expected to arrive in Lesbos on the weekend and by Monday eight employees of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF). They are tasked to assist the Expeditious Asylum Procedures in the detention “hotspots,” so that Berlin and Brussels can lend a veneer of rule of law. The BAMF is planning to dispatch 100 officials to Greece to ensure the smoothest possible implementation of the deportation deal with Turkey. For the German government this deal is of strategic importance in view of permanently sealing off the EU against refugees. It is explicitly promoting this deal as a “European solution.”[12]

Source: www.german-foreign-policy.com

President Obama: “How We Can Make Our Vision of a World Without Nuclear Weapons a Reality” | whitehouse.gov

“Achieving the security and peace of a world without nuclear weapons will not happen quickly, perhaps not in my lifetime. But we have begun. As the only nation ever to use nuclear weapons, the United States has a moral obligation to continue to lead the way in eliminating them. Still, no one nation can realize this vision alone. It must be the work of the world. We’re clear-eyed about the high hurdles ahead, but I believe that we must never resign ourselves to the fatalism that the spread of nuclear weapons is inevitable. Even as we deal with the realities of the world as it is, we must continue to strive for our vision of the world as it ought to be.”

Source: President Obama: “How We Can Make Our Vision of a World Without Nuclear Weapons a Reality” | whitehouse.gov

Turkey’s Erdogan openly embraces his naked ambition – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

What would a content analysis of this speech by Erdogan tell us? First of all, in contrast to traditional speeches, this one was more emotional and congenial. Instead of telling the audience about global security and the TSK’s structural transformation, Erdogan wanted to relate the tough conditions he has to work under. By expressing his regret about the legal unfairness TSK personnel were subjected to, he appealed to the hearts of these young officers.It is also possible to interpret his first-ever reference to an “executive [functional] commander in chief” was a message to future commanders that the president is not going to remain as a mere symbol but will be the “real boss.” We have to remember that current Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar was in the audience.

Source: Turkey’s Erdogan openly embraces his naked ambition – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

Security for Turkey′s Erdogan scuffles with journalists in Washington | News | DW.COM | 31.03.2016

The National Press Club condemned the incident. “Turkey’s leader and his security team are guests in the United States,” Thomas Burr, the group’s president, said in statement. “They have no right to lay their hands on reporters or protesters or anyone else for that matter, when the people they were apparently roughing up seemed to be merely doing their jobs or exercising the rights they have in this country.” Turkey is under mounting international criticism over press freedom and free speech. Journalists are regularly physically harassed, arrested, censured and taken to court for reporting. The media landscape is dominated by pro-government mouthpieces as the government takes control of some of the few remaining opposition media outlets.

Source: Security for Turkey′s Erdogan scuffles with journalists in Washington | News | DW.COM | 31.03.2016