China's Government Sanctioned Racism is Hidden in Plain Sight!

 

Racism is a problem throughout the whole world, but in China it seems to be endorsed by the government there!

Taliban firmly in charge of Afghanistan on 9/11 anniversary | DW News

 

On the anniversary of that day that changed the world and led the US to launch its war on terror, the Taliban sent defiant signals from the Afghan capital. They were in power in Afghanistan on Sept 11, 2001 – and are now back running the country. On Saturday, the group raised its flag over the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul - the day the West mourned those lost in the September 11 attacks of 2001..

France 24 in Kabul: Taliban expected to announce new government • FRANCE 24 English

 

#Taliban fighters manned checkpoints around Kabul as work got underway to form a new government. Afghanistan's Taliban rulers said they were planning to unveil their new government in 'coming days' as the #economy teetered on the edge of collapse more than two weeks after the Islamist militia captured #Kabul and brought a chaotic end to 20 years of war

Will there be women in the Taliban's new government? - BBC News

 

A senior Taliban official has been asked if women and ethnic minorities will have a place in the new Afghan government.

What does the Taliban's return to power mean for Afghanistan?

 

Afghanistan is now under the full control of the Taliban. It took the armed group less than ten days to sweep across every province and all the way to the presidential palace in the capital Kabul.

A new era in Cuba?

 After six decades, Cuba will not have a Castro in an official position of command.

For the first time in 60 years, Cuba will not have a Castro in an official position of command.

Raul Castro, 89, is relinquishing his position as head of the Communist Party.

Has trust in journalists, government leaders hit an all-time low?

 New global survey finds most people believe media and politicians are trying to mislead people by spreading misinformation.

Misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories have filled the vacuum left by the mistrust of media and politicians, which makes people doubt all information – both good and bad.

This has led to real-world consequences, such as the belief among some Americans that the results of the 2020 election could and should be overturned, and the hesitancy of at least one-third of the global population to take the coronavirus vaccine.

Lebanon in crisis | DW Documentary

 

The political and economic crisis in Lebanon started long before the devastating explosion on August 4, 2020. But since then, the country has been in freefall. Young people in particular are asking whether they have a future there at all.

How the Beirut explosion was a government failure

 

On August 4, 2020, a massive explosion rocked Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon. The blast occurred when sparks in a warehouse hit a stockpile of ammonium nitrate — a highly explosive material — that was stored in the city's port. It was one of the largest accidental explosions in history and it couldn't have occurred at a worse time for Lebanon.

Lebanon in the stranglehold of Hezbollah

The huge explosion in the port of Beirut this month killed and injured many. It also plunged Lebanon into an even deeper political crisis. Hezbollah, meanwhile, continues to wield extensive power, reaching into almost every area of life in Lebanon.

Boris Johnson admits government “didn’t understand” coronavirus for months

Exposing the Thieves Guild of China

Theft in China is huge. Thieves are rampant. I have been a victim many times, but today I expose the secret language that the thieves in China use to communicate with each other, and how they determine their targets.

China Doesn't Like That I'm a Single Woman, Here's Why | Op-Docs

In this Op-Doc, based on the Independent Lens feature documentary “Leftover Women,” we follow one of those women — Qiu Huamei, contending with the stigma and social pressure forcing her to go on a grueling quest in search of a husband. She grew up in a small village five hours south of Beijing and is the second youngest of five sisters. Ms. Qiu is a successful lawyer, fluent in English and opinionated — but those qualities do not outweigh one key flaw: She is not married.

What happens when women win elections

The 2018 midterms were historic for women candidates. A total of 273 candidates were on the ballot, representing both parties. But even with this influx of women, they’re still way underrepresented in the US government. And that underrepresentation has very real policy consequences.

Yale Historian Timothy Snyder on How the U.S. Can Avoid Sliding into Authoritarianism

Fox News Presenters Are Now Ministers In The Australian Government

Rupert Murdoch and his Fox News Channel know no bounds as is evident by comments made by Peter Dutton Fox News presenter masquerading as Australia's Immigration Minister.  Being a puppet of Roger Ailes can at times, be both rewarding when pandering to racists and nativists and painful when you stupidly forget that you're supposed to be part of government.    Perhaps Mr. Dutton should pay attention to the morning propaganda emails sent to him by his overlords at Fox News  and stop articulating  his inherent ignorance and blatant stupidity.

The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, has blamed refugee advocates for the suicide attempts on Nauru and Manus, alleging they are encouraging detainees to self-harm in the hope of getting to Australia.

A second refugee, Hodan Yasi, self-immolated on Nauru overnight and is in a Brisbane hospital in a critical condition.

Pressed on his allegation, Dutton offered no examples of refugee supporters advocating acts of self-harm, but said his office received “advice” and “intelligence” that it was occurring.

“There is a lot of publicly available information in relation to some of the social media messaging as well,” he said.

When Government Is Afraid Of Art

It's amazing how much governments can fear art.  Can art offend?  Is it provocative? Does change one's view  of the world?  Can it inspire? Art can and does all of that yet people, governments, political parties, social organizations and religious constantly rail against it.  Art does all of that and more.  Without art, how does creativity move beyond its current limits and grow inspiring new forms for all to appreciate? It does unless we  allow and protect artists to pursue that what they imagine.







City’s deputy governor had ordered demolition to be postponed pending assessment of why a section collapsed

Armed police have enforced the partial demolition of one of Egypt’s most respected art galleries, heightening fears about its future after it was closed to the public in December.

Around 30 riot police surrounded the main building of Townhouse gallery in central Cairo on Monday, evicting residents and ordering labourers to start destroying the interior, according to witnesses.

The destruction happened despite an order from the deputy governor of Cairo on Sunday to postpone the demolition of the recently renovated five-storey building, which also houses several families and mechanics’ workshops, pending an assessment of why a section of it collapsed last Wednesday.

Alexandra Stock, a curator who worked at the gallery for five years, said at least 30 police arrived at about 8.30am on Monday and oversaw around a dozen workers, who ripped up the floors with “picks and shovels and their bare hands”.

“They appear to be creating significant damage throughout the whole building. It’s very hard to witness.”

Japan combats rise in hate speech

Japan isn't combating the rise in hate speech or any other form of racism because they refuse to acknowledge that it's even happening.   Go to any public school in Japan everyday for a month and you'll discover that it's not just students but teachers who are complicit in the scourge of racism which is pervasive within Japanese society. While schools are just a microcosm of the larger problem doesn' excuse the fact that these types of behaviours  can be witnessed across a much broader spectrum from the news media to entertainment and within the government itself.   Japan is doing what it does best pretend to confront a difficult social issue then sweep it all under the carpet after the spotlight has been removed and the intense scrutiny ends.

Japan is the only developed country without anti-discrimination laws, and ethnic Koreans are often targeted

  On a chilly February evening in 2013, Shinhae Lee, a journalist and ethnic Korean woman who has lived in Japan her whole life, was at home by herself in Osaka when her computer pinged with a message from a friend. It said the leader of the nationalist group Zaitokukai had just announced on the Internet that he was sending her a spike, known in Japanese lore for its ability to curse someone to death.Sensing she was up against thousands of faceless ultranationalists who wished her the worst, Lee went to the police, who said there was nothing they could do. She had been told the same thing two years earlier, when she reported that she felt threatened by a wave of hateful comments online and in public. A 44-year-old freelance writer who lives with her Japanese husband and teenage son, Lee got on Zaitokukai’s radar in 2011 after criticizing the group, which claims to have about 15,000 members, in a series of articles and TV appearances. Zaitokukai followers retaliated against Lee at rallies and on social media, calling her a “Korean hag” and other ethnically and sexually charged invectives. Once, after a Tokyo protest, a 28-year-old office worker wrote on Twitter, “Let’s expel Koreans, the good ones and bad ones, and let’s kill that woman,” referring to Lee. The police questioned him, and he apologized, but she was deeply shaken by how casually and gleefully strangers could champion her murder.

Like Hong Kong, Singapore needs democracy

Singapore is one of those places that I refer to as a democratic dictatorship. It gives the world the illusion of open and free electoral government.  Don't worry it really is just an illusion.

Hong Kong's democracy movement has raised issues such as income inequality and an increasing cheerless economic outlook, especially for the younger generation. Not coincidentally, these are the same issues that are causing Singaporeans to despair over their future.

Despite the fact that, according to the Economic Intelligence Unit, Singapore lays claim to the dubious honor of being the most expensive city in the world, there is no minimum wage in Singapore. Is it any wonder then, that amongst comparable economies, the island-state has one of the highest levels of income inequality? Singapore has the highest proportion of millionaires in the world but nearly 5% of the workforce have an annual income of less than U.S. $5,000, according to a 2011 report by The Straits Times.

And it's not just the lower-income workers who are getting pounded. The middle-class squeeze is as prevalent as ever. Nearly 50% of Singaporeans subsist from paycheck to paycheck, saving less than 10% of their monthly incomes. An alarming 14% have no savings at all. If and when an economic whirlwind visits, many will be left unable to cope.

Working conditions have also deteriorated. For years, Singaporean workers have worked more hours than in most countries, and, perhaps unsurprisingly it has resulted in an extremely unhappy workforce.

Pakistan To Once Again Hold Peace Talks With The Taliban

Pakistan and the Taliban are to once again hold peace talks yet all previous attempts at a negotiated end to the insurgency have ended in complete failure.  The Taliban is a creation of Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) following the the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan as an attempt to influence the political future of that country.      

According to Pakistani Afghanistan expert Ahmed Rashid, "between 1994 and 1999, an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 Pakistanis trained and fought in Afghanistan" on the side of the Taliban.^[76] Peter Tomsen stated that up until 9/11 Pakistani military and ISI officers along with thousands of regular Pakistani armed forces personnel had been involved in the fighting in Afghanistan.^[77]In 2001 alone, according to several international sources, 28,000-30,000 Pakistani nationals, 14,000-15,000 Afghan Taliban and 2,000-3,000 Al Qaeda militants were fighting against anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan as a roughly 45,000 strong military force.^{[23][24][78][79]} Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf – then as Chief of Army Staff – was responsible for sending thousands of Pakistanis to fight alongside the Taliban and Bin Laden against the forces of Ahmad Shah Massoud.^[24][60][80] Of the estimated 28,000 Pakistani nationals fighting in Afghanistan, 8,000 were militants recruited in madrassas filling regular Taliban ranks.^[23] A 1998 document by the U.S. State Department confirms that "20–40 percent of [regular] Taliban soldiers are Pakistani."^[60] The document further states that the parents of those Pakistani nationals "know nothing regarding their child's military involvement with the Taliban until their bodies are brought back to Pakistan."^[60] According to the U.S. State Department report and reports by Human Rights Watch, the other Pakistani nationals fighting in Afghanistan were regular Pakistani soldiers especially from the Frontier Corps but also from the army providing direct combat support.^[19][60]Human Rights Watch wrote in 2000:

Of all the foreign powers involved in efforts to sustain and manipulate the ongoing fighting [in Afghanistan], Pakistan is distinguished both by the sweep of its objectives and the scale of its efforts, which include soliciting funding for the Taliban, bankrolling Taliban operations, providing diplomatic support as the Taliban's virtual emissaries abroad, arranging training for Taliban fighters, recruiting skilled and unskilled manpower to serve in Taliban armies, planning and directing offensives, providing and facilitating shipments of ammunition and fuel, and ... directly providing combat support.^[19]

In February of 2009 Pakistan and the Taliban reached a ceasefire agreement following a victory by the army.   Under the terms the Sharia law would be allowed with supervision by the Pakistani government.  President Asif Ali Zardari changed the terms of the agreement allowing for appeals of convictions to Pakistan's Supreme Court that change would lead to a second battle in the Swat valley.


Pakistan's government, military and the ISI have only themselves to blame for the Taliban insurgency within their country.

Pakistani government representatives have failed to meet Taliban negotiators in Islamabad as preliminary peace efforts got off to a chaotic start.
The government side said before talks began they wanted clarification from the team named by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Furious TTP negotiators expressed disappointment at the news.
The two sides had been due to start charting a "roadmap" for talks.
The militants have been waging an insurgency inside Pakistan since 2007.
The government's lead negotiator, Irfan Siddiqui, made clear he still expected talks to go ahead, but sought more information on the make-up of the Taliban team and how much authority it had to negotiate.