Alternatives International

Politics of Extremes

Editorial — 2012-10-01T22:04:09Z

“In Any War Between the Civilized Man and the Savage, Support the Civilized Man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad," states one of the ten advertisements that recently appeared in the New York subway system on Monday September 24, the last two clauses of the ad nestled between two stars of David.

Though consisting of only eighteen words, the advertisement has been the source of much dialogue revolving around freedom of speech in the United States, much like another recent anti-Muslim piece: the controversial film that sparked violent protests against United States embassies throughout the Islamic world this month, “The Innocence of Muslims”. No one can condone the violent actions undertaken by the protesters, as no violent action is legitimate action, however, the ad's endorsers are not advocating peace either.

The ad was paid for by the American Freedom Defense Initiative, an umbrella organization of Stop Islamization of America, the Anti-Islamic group run by blogger, Pamela Gellar. Having first been rejected by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the advertisements were finally ruled permissible by a district judge, with the rationale that they were protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution.

It is undeniable that free speech is a universal right in the United States of America: any political party, individual, or religious group in the United States is protected under the First Amendment. However, any discourse that endorses or reinforces hate should be condemned, and Southern Poverty Law Center has officially classified Stop Islamization of America as a hate group.

Proponents of the ad reject the notion of hate speech when the subject is brought up. They claim that they are in the right to assert that anyone who endorses Jihad—a holy war—should be considered a savage. This denomination, though a bit gauche, is not entirely unfitting, but the main issue with the use of the word ‘savage' is not in the fact that they are associating it with Jihad, rather that this advertisement is creating dichotomies that permit associations to Arabs in general. It is pinning the ‘civilized man' against the ‘savage' and ‘Israel' against ‘Jihad', when today, Israel is almost always associated with the Arab. In doing so, the average New Yorker, in a rush, will quickly glimpse at these words and it will become inculcated in their daily routine.

The word ‘savage' designates someone with a sub, or semi-human status and is animal-like: threatening, dangerous and unpredictable. This automatically creates an “us versus them” image of otherness within a Western world already heavily concerned with the Middle East and its actions. Not only does this type of propaganda create generalizations about Muslims, it fortifies a culture of fear already prevalent in the United States, reinforced and in some ways created by the mainstream media. Furthermore, the associations made in the advertisement are closely related to tactics already employed by media outlets. An extreme example of this is Newsweek's recently printed cover featuring angry Muslim film protesters practically foaming at the mouth, with the headline “Muslim Rage.”

Acceptance of this type of cultural portrayal should not be tolerated, as it allows manipulated depictions to become normalized and go unchallenged. Such is the issue with mainstream media's hesitation to call the Oak Creek Wisconsin Sikh temple shooter a domestic ‘terrorist' once they found out he was an American white supremacist—whereas if he were Muslim, they would probably not think twice. Moreover, what Western media fails to show is the statistical evidence of the actual violence that takes place domestically: of all cases of domestic terrorism, about a quarter arise from white supremacists, anti-government extremists, or terrorists against another religion; all of the most worrisome cases—those involving chemical, biological, or radiological materials—arise from right-wing extremists, none from Islamists.

When these types of biases occur in the media, it permits and perpetuates fear of the ‘other', promotes hatred, and ultimately generates extremists in our society, whether they be Muslims, white supremacists or just oppressively intolerant. If there is any reason why the American government lets these actions pass as legitimate under the First Amendment it is because they reinforce its pro-Israeli stance in this ongoing Arab-Israeli war, which in some ways justifies its views and actions.

Gellar spent $6,000 on this one advertisement, demonstrating that those who have the means and the political power today govern our mainstream media and culture. Moreover, to complement the first, Gellar and her group put up another advertisement in New York City stating: “It's not Islamophobia, it's Islamorealism.” If there is a significant way to ostracize the Israeli who wants peace, it is through these posters, if there is a significant way to create antagonism where there was none before, it is through these posters, if there is a way to reduce the chances of a peaceful resolution to an ongoing conflict, it is through these posters. Islamophobia is a reality, and there needs to be dialogue about who the real ‘savages' are.

Towards a Peoples' Social Forum

Raul Burbano, Roger Rashi — 2012-10-01T22:03:00Z

Building Social Movements as Instruments of Transformation

Anger and discontent against the ruling Conservative government is on the rise all across Canada. Human rights groups, women's organizations, cultural associations, environment groups, labour, indigenous peoples, students, generally civil society organizations feel threatened and angered by the government's policies and actions.

Protests for social and environmental justice are erupting all over the country. Casseroles have been organized on the streets of many cities in support of the student movement in Quebec. The youth across Canada are joining hands with those from Quebec in challenging neo-liberal austerity policies.

Indigenous communities are also fighting against the government to preserve their culture and defend their lands from predatory mining and oil corporations. There are many campaigns, gatherings and protests planned for the months to come.

Yet our movements continue to be fragmented and ghettoized. We must work together and create a space for all these voices of dissent and strategize together our progressive agenda to help build links and solidarity across movements and issues.

A grassroots approach to a Canada-Québec-Indigenous Peoples' Social Forum

The grassroots horizontal approach was taken while organizing a People's Social Forum across Canada as a means of stimulating debate, discussion and further our sense of community and collective action. The process of the social forum seeks to reach out to a plurality of social movements, groups and progressive institutions across Canada, Québec and Indigenous communities. The short term goal being to build on existing struggles by building a united and cohesive front against the Conservative agenda of austerity and privatization but long-term to help transform the current political, economic and social paradigm, by employing creative resistance while proposing alternatives solutions

So far several organizations and individuals have come together to form Expansion Commissions in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. Discussions are going on to form similar commissions in Vancouver, Calgary, St. John's, etc. The Expansion Commissions will focus on involving as many other organizations and individuals in the process.

There is a proposal that these Commissions call for a General Assembly later this fall or in early winter to launch the Peoples' Social Forum. This general assembly will take the decisions on the name, final dates and places as well as the process leading to the forum, and its final format.

These are the organizations that have already joined the discussions: Alternatives; Canadian Union of Postal Workers; Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ); Centre d'écologie urbaine de Montréal; Chantier de l'économie sociale; Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid(CAIA),Toronto; Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union; Common Frontiers; Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN); Conseil Central Montréal métropolitain (CCMM-CSN); Conseil québécois des gais et lesbiennes; Council of Canadians; Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec (FTQ); Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ); Fédération nationale des enseignants et enseignantes du Québec (FNEEQ-CSN); Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain; Indigenous Environmental Network; Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement; Institut du nouveau monde; Public Service Alliance of Canada; Quebec Native Women (FAQ-QNW); Latin American and Caribbean Solidarity Network; Occupy Toronto; Toronto Bolivia Solidarity; Toronto Stop the Cuts

What is a social forum?

The first social forum was the World Social Forum held in January 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Simply put, it was a response to the growing onslaught of the neoliberal agenda of the ruling parties in many parts of the world. It challenged the TINA syndrome as well as the right-wing theses of “the end of history” and “clash of civilizations”. It also proposed the slogan “Another World is Possible”.

The World Social Forum was intended as a regular meeting of activists to move experiences from the individual to the collective.

This forum set the trend for organizing such events on an annual basis. Until 2007 there were seven WSF in different cities of the world with an average participation of 100 000 people. From then onwards a WSF is held every two years. The next WSF-2013 will be held in Tunis.

In addition to this global event, there emerged national and regional social forums. For example “Quebec Social Forum”, “European Social Forum”, “Africa Social Forum”, “India Social Forum”. At the same time social forums were organized on thematic basis. For example, “Democracy Social Forum,” “Education Social Forum,” etc.

The WSF charter explains the social forum in the following manner:

“ The World Social Forum is an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and interlinking for effective action, by groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neoliberalism and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building a planetary society directed towards fruitful relationships among Humankind and between it and the Earth.

The alternatives proposed at the World Social Forum stand in opposition to a process of globalization commanded by the large multinational corporations and by the governments and international institutions at the service of those corporations' interests, with the complicity of national governments. They are designed to ensure that globalization in solidarity will prevail as a new stage in world history. This will respect universal human rights, and those of all citizens - men and women - of all nations and the environment and will rest on democratic international systems and institutions at the service of social justice, equality and the sovereignty of peoples.

The World Social Forum is a plural, diversified, non-confessional, non-governmental and non-party context that, in a decentralized fashion, interrelates organizations and movements engaged in concrete action at levels from the local to the international to build another world.”

The World Social Forum Charter of Principles was approved and adopted in São Paulo, on April 9, 2001, by the organizations that make up the World Social Forum Organizing Committee.

Help mobilize for the Peoples' Social Forum !
Contact:
Roger Rashi, roger@alternatives.ca , Tel: 514-982-6606 ext 2244
Raul Burbano, burbano@rogers.com , Tel: 416 522 8615

Unsuccessful protest of the Indian people against the Kudankulam Atomic Power Project

Emilie Katavic — 2012-10-01T22:02:05Z

On September 15 2012, a cry was made from Tamil Nadu during an attention-grabbing protest in opposition to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant project (KNPP). An estimated 8,000 people crowded the Idinthakarai coast, a few hundred meters from the site, and emerged themselves in the sea to form a “human wave”.

Only a few weeks prior, another water-based protest was held in Madhya Prasesh in order to push the government to lower water levels in local dams that had been over-flooding. More than fifty farmers spent seventeen days in neck deep waters as a sign of their frustration. The protestors suffered from severe blisters, rashes, and fish bites on their feet.

These are only two of the many protests that the Indian people have held; as stirring tension is seemingly the only way that they can get the Indian government to listen to their fight against human rights violations.

The Kudankulam Atomic Power Project is a nuclear power station under construction in Koodankulam in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Opposition has grown fervent, over the past month, due to the fearful Tamil Nadu people that it could potentially cause a Fukushima-like disaster. According to S. P. Udayakumar, more than one million people live within the thirty kilometer radius of the KKNPP which exceeds the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board stipulations and it would be impossible to evacuate this many people quickly and efficiently in case of a nuclear disaster at Koodankulam.

An agreement on the project was made back in 1988 between former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi and Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, for the construction of two reactors. The development remained inactive for a decade due to the political and economic upheaval in Russia after 1991. The United States also objected to it on the grounds that the agreement did not meet the 1992 terms of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

During the nonviolent protest on September 15, police were quick to use force—resulting in hundreds of arrests and three deaths. They used tear gas and lathi-charge, a military tactic in which a long heavy wooden stick is used as a weapon to disperse a crowd.

The protest that day expanded from Tamil Nadu to neighboring towns, specifically along the coast. Fishermen closed down the port in Tuticorin, blocking the train tracks and highway. Police opened fire in Tuitron when a police station was set ablaze and the protestors were marching towards the station. G. Antony John, 48-year-old fisherman, was murdered in the shootout as well as a six year-old girl who was reportedly crushed and killed by a crowd retreating from the police attack.

Police did not only use force against demonstrators but also made it difficult for the media to reach the scene to prevent the protest from being broadcasted. The Asian Human Rights Committee told Al Jazeera, “the state's brute use of force, even against the media, is a matter of extreme concern."

The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board came out with a statement on September 17 saying the inspection of the reactor pressure vessel of Unit-1 was completed and no defects therein were found. Srinivasan, the former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission of India, said that one should never compare the Fukushima plant with Kudankulam and added, "the Fukushima plant was built on a beachfront, but the Kudankulam was constructed on a solid terrain. Also, we are not in a tsunami prone area. The plants in Kudankulam have a double containment system, which can withstand high pressure. If we don't operate the plant immediately, it will affect the economic stability of our country"

It is typical of, not only the India government, but also many others to use fear as a weapon to control their citizens. As seen with this situation, the people of Tamil Nadu are completely opposed to the nuclear power plant project yet they have no say in what happens in their backyard because once they show how they feel, they are attacked by the police. Despite the endurance of the peaceful Tamil Nadu protestors, the nuclear plant will continue construction in the next few weeks. Protestors showed up in smaller numbers after the September 15 demonstrations, for fear of their lives.

The Student Movement Kicks Out The Liberal Government

Ronald Cameron — 2012-10-01T22:02:00Z

On September 4, 2012 the Parti Quebecoise (PQ) were elected to a minority government and Pauline Marois became the first woman to be Premier of Quebec. The election marks the first time since 2007 that a minority government will be formed in Quebec; the PQ won fifty-four seats while the Liberals now hold fifty. While this election marks a shift in Quebec's history and a milestone for the province's sovereignties, the real political victory of the year belongs to the student movement, which has gained a large – and arguably a ‘majority – of popular support.

In Montreal on May 22 2012, on the hundredth day of the student strike, more than three hundred thousand people took to the streets to protest the policies of the Jean Charest's Liberal provincial government. The protest was largely a response to Bill 78, an emergency law that sought to restrict protesting or picketing on campus by ‘protecting' the rights of institutions to provide unimpeded education to its enrolled students. The demonstrations fought back against these repressive measures and the call for general election became inevitable.

The student protests began in February in opposition to the seventy-five percent increase of tuition fees by the year 2017. However, the Quebec government argued that Quebec's fees are the lowest of Canada's provinces, therefore justifying the imposition of higher chargers on public services.

The student movement can be held accountable for the resignation of the Minister of Education, Line Beauchamp.

At the peak of the strike movement, three hundred thousand students were affected – nearly two third of the entire post-secondary student population. Since April 22 demonstrations were occurring nearly every night, with violent clashes between the police, demonstrators and ‘black bloc' activists. Nearly 2000 arrests were made since the beginning of the conflict, most of them as a result of Bill 78.

In order to avoid more police confrontations, the student ‘casserole' movement began, and caught onto other Canadian cities as students across the country demonstrated their solidarity to the movement. The pretense was that students and supporters would take the streets peacefully- armed with pots and pans and clanging against Harper's repressive actions and tuition hikes. Social networks helped with the mobilization and the spread of petitions.

The movements demonstrated the sheer force of social networking and student mobilization to counter the repressive measures of the government – while bringing to light unconstitutional threat of Bill 78 to Canadians' democratic liberties.

The Power of the Union: What the CTU Accomplished:

OPINION — 2012-10-01T22:01:00Z

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) ended its standoff against the Chicago Public Schools on Tuesday, September 18 after a week-long strike that raised tensions in the city and nationwide. The negotiations meant 350,000 children were able to return to class, with tentative cooperation reached between the two sides that ended immediate lawsuit and labour issues. While the agreement fails to satisfy the teachers' full demands, the provisions can be read as a symbolic victory for the teachers, serving as a reminder of the assertive power of united labour unions.

The union posted a copy of the agreement on their website, and noted the duration of the teachers' campaign: beginning in November 2011 and concluding with the seven-day strike. On October 2, the agreement will be proposed for ratification, resulting in permanent three-year contracts for the teachers under the new set of agreements. "We feel very positive about moving forward. We feel grateful that we have a united union, and that when a union moves together we have amazing things happen," Karen Lewis CTU's president, said of the agreement, as reported by NBC News.

The most contentious issue of the strike centered around Chicago Mayor, Rahm Emanuel's campaign promise to improve Chicago classrooms, in part through the implementation of standardized student testing to ‘weed out' low-performing teachers. This method would threaten teachers' job security regardless of their placement seniority. The CTU argued against this approach, claiming it does not adequately reflect classroom effectiveness and instead negatively steers lesson plans towards a rigid style of teaching.

These tests function as a part of the Obama administration's Race to the Top reforms. The Democratic Party has extended standardized testing to include all grades and subject areas, in order to evaluate all teachers and improve public education standards.

The opposition to the reforms takes issue with the corporate interests of privatized companies that disregard the economic needs of Chicago's public school system. The use of public money to fund privatized, sectarian education complicates the notion of teacher accountability, while simultaneously creating a socioeconomic divide between the students of Chicago's public and private schools. The transference of public to private wealth is one issue that calls for the financial restructuring and proper funding of public educational institutions in order to ensure that sufficient resources and opportunities are available to all students. The union and its supporters maintain the stance that poor teachers do not necessarily undermine students' educational success as much as these social and economic divides.

Another concern is the notion that ‘learning companies' such as Pearson are benefitting from these stiff approaches to educational reform at the price of jobs and personal economic stability for teachers.

While the terms of the contract granted victories to both sides of the issues, union president Karen Lewis said the deal was seen as good, but imperfect. Teachers gained annual raises and won the right to neutrally appeal poor ratings resulting from the reforms' standardized tests. The contract is overall in the teachers' favor; the CTU will still be subject to standardized testing, the tests will only comprise of thirty percent of the teachers' overall evaluations. These measures also helped teachers retain more autonomy, allowing greater control over their own lesson plan formats. Furthermore, laid-off teachers will get fifty percent of new school job openings.

In spite of longer school days and more working hours for Chicago's teachers, the agreement is in many ways a victory for the CTU as it re-positioned the teachers as crucial participatory voices in the reconfiguration of the public education system. The CTU's first strike in twenty-five years was victorious as a reminder of the power of organized labor in countering national and statewide reform movements. The movement's impact extends far beyond the immediate changes in Chicago's schools, and has spurred a necessary appraisal of educational reform and the power dynamics between the city and its workforce.

Crime and Punishment : Harper's Punitive Approach

Arij Riahi — 2012-10-01T21:59:00Z

Since the conservative party acquired the majority in the House of Commons, five different bills related to the criminal justice system were passed. By itself, the omnibus bill C-10 on « safe streets and communities » targets over 200 criminal provisions. Though the conservatives never hid their intention to get tough on crime, the punitive approach they advocate is relentlessly denounced by criminologists and jurists. It seems also likely to exacerbate the overrepresentation of Indigenous women in Canadian prisons.

In June 2011, during his speech from the Throne opening the new parliamentary session, Prime Minister Stephen Harper assured Canadians that his government will « move quickly to reintroduce comprehensive law-and-order legislation.» Indeed, the crime bills previously introduced by the conservatives almost all died, with each one stumbling on the majority's opposition.

In their political platform, the conservatives deplore that their « reforms » have been obstructed « for the sake of an out-of-touch ideology that makes apologies for criminals.» Once in the majority, they reoffend : C-10 is reintroduced, and it reiterates word for word, the provisions of nine defeated bills. The law was enacted last March, only a hundred days after its initial presentation.

Minimal sentencing

For the most part, Bill C-10 lenghtens some mandatory minimum sentences already prescribed in the Criminal Code. It also creates new ones for drug-related offenses. For example, a person found guilty of cultivating more than six plants of marijuana can be sentenced to a minimum of six months in prison. One for each plant, so to speak.

By imposing the mandatory minimum sentences, the governement curtails the function of the judges at trial. According to the principles set out in the Criminal Code, the judge has to impose a sentence that is « proportionate to the gravity of the offence and the degree of the responsibility of the offender.» After that balancing exercice, the judge can decide that incarceration is not an appropriate sentence for the offender and instead choose an alternative, like for example, a sentence to be served in the community.

Now that the law imposes mandatory minimum sentence in a correctional facility, the judge has both hands tied : there is not enough room to maneuver and adapt the proper sentence to the offense committed. The judge is forced to impose that minimum sentence, regardless of the offender's specific situation or crime.

In its brief on Bill C-10, the Québec Bar was categorical. Written in French, the document describes the changes as « an important step-back », denounces the « unintended consequences» it may have, and deplores this « form of intrusion of the legislative power in what usually belongs to the judicial power.»

The Canadian Criminal Justice Association highlights that the severity of a sentence does not have a deterrent effect : « offenders simply do not consider the length of sentence when deciding whether or not to commit an offense. Rather, their concern lies with whether or not they will be caught and punished for the offense,» they wrote in a position paper published on their website.

A broader punitive shift

Aside from the mandatory minimum sentences, C-10 harshens the rules for conditional sentences, which allow a convicted person to serve time in the community by restricting its availability for certain offenses. The rules governing conditional releases were also hardened.

Other changes affect the actual Youth Criminal Justice Act to facilitate the detention of young offenders. This approach stands against the overall intent of a law concerned with the rehabilitation and the social reinsertion of teenagers from fourteen to seventeen years old, away from the adult criminal system. With the changes brought by C-10, teenagers charged with a crime on property, like theft, could face five years in prison.

The punitive shift can be observed all the way to the application for pardon. This procedure allows a convicted person who completed their sentence to ask for the removal of all information to their conviction in their criminal record. Before C-10, an eligible person had to wait from three to five years, depending on the nature of the crime, before applying for a pardon. Now, the waiting time is from five to ten years. Application fees were also recently increased from $150 to $631.

Overpopulated jails…

For many observers, these changes might increase prison population. Yet, they are introduced at a time where Canadian correctional facilities are overcrowded.

Correctional officers are increasingly worried by the consequences of the overpopulation on their working conditions. In a recent press release, Pierre Mallette, the National President of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers denounced the situation. « The government is locking up more inmates in fewer prisons while giving us less resources to rehabilitate them. This is a recipe for disaster,» he stressed.

In 2010, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives was already reporting the worries of correctional officers working in facilities where they aggregate all types of offenders, be they murderers or shoplifters.

… with a marginalized population

The conservatives « tough-on-crime » approach affects mostly the traditionally marginalized groups. Indeed, in Canada, indigenous women are the fastest-growing demographic in prisons.

According to the Elizabeth Fry Association, a community organisation helping women who have problems with the criminal justice system, the number of women in federal facilities increased by fifty percent in the past decade. As for indigenous women, their number increased by ninety percent during the same period according to Public Safety Canada.

Data from Native Women's Association of Canada indicates that in 2011, Indigenous women represented less than four percent of the Canadian population, but accounted for thirty four percent of the female population in prisons—numbers gathered from the annual report of the Correctional Investigator and Statistics Canada.

The report « Marginalized : The Aboriginal Women's experience in Federal Corrections,» made public on September 27 is just as compelling. Prepared by The Wesley Group and published by Public Safety Canada, it highlights that the « Federal Government's "Tough on Crime Agenda" does nothing to ameliorate the disproportionate rates at which Aboriginal peoples are incarcerated—quite the opposite… the federal government's current plan will only serve to further increase the numbers.»

In this context, it seems unlikely that the punitive strategies put in place by the conservatives in the name of law and order will result in something more positive than an exacerabation of the systemic problems of overpopulation or continued marginalization and overrepresentation of Indigenous women in Canadian prisons.

Arij Riahi is a legally-trained writer based in Montreal

#gayguidelines

Wendy Papakostandini — 2012-10-01T21:58:39Z

A new campaign has emerged in Malaysia targeting predominately children displaying homosexual “symptoms.” The Teachers' Foundation of Malaysia, along with the support of the nation's Department of Education, have planned ten seminars for teachers and parents on spotting potentially homosexual children. In addition to this, so-called “guidelines” have been published to assist the public in spotting the early supposed signs of homosexuality, which include light-colored or tight-fitting clothes, V-necks, and large handbags for boys, and a desire to be around other females for girls.

According to Mashitah Ibrahim, the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, the government is working with NGOs to control the increasing LBGT “social problem” in the country through various mechanisms, such as anti-gay campaigns and volunteer training programs to deal with the LGBT community. As justification for these actions, Ibrahim stated that the LGBT lifestyle leads to an array of “social problems such as prostitution, drugs, the risk of HIV/AIDS, as well as psychological and mental disorders.”

Malaysia's campaign on homosexuality is not a recent phenomenon. Anwar Ibrahim, the Malaysian opposition leader, has battled allegations of sodomy since 1998. He has been convicted of sodomy twice, which led him to spend six years in jail. Despite all the allegations, Ibrahim continues to assert that the charges are baseless and deems them as “political conspiracies.”

Regardless, the country does not have the proper infrastructure to protect members of the LGBT community due in part to the country's constitution and the existence of Sharia law. The Malaysian constitution explicitly states in Article 10 that the rights to freedom of speech and expression, assembly and association are not inalienable. Instead, these rights are subject to restrictions and limitation as the government sees fit. Furthermore, Article 11 of the Malaysian constitution protects freedom of religion and personal belief as long as the religion in question is Islam. This essentially means that religious freedom is in jeopardy for those who do not adhere to a narrow, rather conservative view of Islam. Since traditional Islamic viewpoints are the only ones legally protected by the Malaysian constitution explicitly, it is very difficult for people to speak up and fight for LGBT rights. Another legal document posing an obstacle to LGBT advances is Malaysia's national principles, the Rukun Negara. This document deems “good behavior and morality” as one of the country's guiding principles.

In addition to not having the proper framework to protect LGBT individuals under the country's constitution, the existence of Sharia law makes the likelihood of reform a little more difficult. The religious dimension to this issue intensifies the situation, making it more complex and less amenable to debate, as opposed to if it were strictly a political issue.

This practice propagates stereotypes and promotes discrimination, particularly against the youngest members of society. Even though the Malaysian government has been pursuing an anti-gay agenda, it seems that much of the Malaysian public generally is not whole-heartedly supporting it. It is evident in the backlash of several grassroots campaigns, particularly present in social media. For example, on twitter the hash tag #gayguidelines has gone viral. Numerous posts have used humor and sarcasm to combat the government's persecution and intolerance. Similarly, on Facebook, an event has been set up called National Wear V-neck Day, taking place this October 1 in Kuala Lumpur. The event is intended to show that there are groups of Malaysians that do not “ tolerate bullies and stereotyping” and do not support seeing their fellow Malaysians “being treated like criminals.” The aim of the group, as stated on the Facebook event, is to “show people that we could actually accept each other's differences and not prosecute.”

This opposition is not limited to social media. Steps have been taken to send a message of support to Malaysians targeted by the government's actions. As an example, restaurants that offer free meals to those who defy the “gay guidelines.” One of the owners of this restaurant spoke up about the guidelines: “When [they] came out, we thought it was ridiculous.” He went on asserting: “instead of joining in the fray to condemn it, we thought it would be an interesting concept to give out free biryani meals to the first fifteen men who walk in with a V-neck and a man-bag.” Clearly this is a contentious issue, with the government and a large part of the population at odds. As has been demonstrated, this anti-gay campaign will be fought over in public campaigns and new media platforms.

As a result, what can be seen from the Malaysian example is essentially a case of institutionalized homophobia. This anti-gay campaign fosters a climate of discrimination and intolerance, as well as legitimizes faulty stereotypes. The government of Malaysia, by attempting to persecute a growing part of Malaysian society, now finds itself in a difficult situation. The public is not as committed and enthusiastic as the government is in pursuing an anti-gay agenda. Additionally, this situation demonstrates how governments, by overreaching their bounds, can run up against new technologies and beliefs that challenge their authority and present an added strain on their rule. Social media outlets, like Facebook and Twitter in particular, have enabled populations to have an added leverage over their governments.

Embassy Protests and Middle East Unrest in Context

Stephen Zunes — 2012-10-01T21:58:24Z

It seems bizarre that right-wing pundits would be so desperate to use the recent anti-American protests in the Middle East, which usually number only a few hundred people, apart from peaceful organized rally in Lebanon- Hezbollah, and almost never more than two or three thousand, which is somehow indicative of why the United States should oppose greater democracy in the Middle East. Even more strangely, some media pundits are criticizing Arabs as being “ungrateful” for U.S. support of pro-democracy movements when, in reality, the United States initially opposed the popular movements that deposed Western-backed despots in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen, and remains a preeminent backer of dictatorships in the region today.

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney falsely accused President Obama of “apologizing” for what the Republican presidential nominee referred to as “American values” and of “sympathizing” with those who attacked diplomatic missions rather than promptly condemning them. Apparently, this misleading attack was prompted by a tweet from the U.S. embassy in Cairo prior to the worst attacks reiterating U.S. opposition to "efforts to offend believers of all religions" and "the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.”

Many of the protests were incited by an outrageously offensive anti-Islamic movie produced by Christian extremists in California, but there is a lot more to the protests than this triggering event.

For years, the Christian right and Islamic right have sought to provoke extremism and hatred as part of an effort to seemingly validate the stereotypes of the other. As Hani Shukrallah remarked about the film in the leading Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, “The obvious, outward motive of such attempts is not difficult to discern: to show Muslims as irrational, violent, intolerant and barbaric, all of which are attributes profoundly inscribed into the racist anti-Muslim discourse in the West. And, it's a very safe bet that there will be among us those who will readily oblige.”

The attacks on two U.S. consulate offices in Benghazi which killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Libya are far more significant, though these appear to have been the work of Ansar al-Sharia, an extremist Islamist militia which took advantage of a protest to launch their armed assault avenging the killing of a Libyan-born al-Qaeda leader by a drone strike in Pakistan. Ironically, the United States allied with these extremists in the armed uprising against the Gaddafi regime last year.

Indeed, last week's tragedy in Libya should raise questions about the wisdom of backing such armed uprisings, even against a brutal dictator. In Egypt and Yemen, where dictatorships were overthrown largely through mass nonviolent action not supported by Washington, the worst damage protesters at the U.S. embassies could do was to seize parts of the grounds and burn the American flag. In Libya, where the dictator was overthrown in an armed revolution that was accepted by Washington, two consulate buildings were destroyed and four Americans were killed in a coordinated assault with automatic weapons, mortars, and rocket-propelled grenades. Historically, autocratic regimes overthrown by armed struggle are far more likely to descend into violence, chaos or a new dictatorship than authoritarian regimes toppled through largely nonviolent methods.

In a country of barely 6 million people, more than 200,000 Libyans are armed members of militias outside the control of the Libyan government. Even though the recent Libyan elections appear to have been free and fair, and the winners largely consisted of moderates open to a democratic political system, the legacy of the war and the NATO intervention will likely remain a problem for some time to come.

In the rest of the region, where uprisings against dictatorships came largely in the form of unarmed civil insurrections, radical Islamists have been severely weakened, as the popular revolts demonstrated how U.S.-backed regimes could be toppled without embracing terrorism or extremist ideologies. The need to manipulate a hysterical reaction to an obscure, albeit offensive, film is indicative of just how desperate the far-right-wing Islamists have become in asserting their relevance. These extremists were able to stir up crowds in cities in more than a dozen Islamist countries with false claims that the film was a “major Hollywood production” which must have been subjected to review and approval by government censors before being released to the public.

Ironically, the Prophet Muhammad faced worse defamation in his lifetime but refused to curse his enemies, following the words of the Qur'an to “Repel evil with something that is better, lovelier.”

In short, anti-democratic forces in both the United States and the Arab world want to discredit the pro-democracy struggles in the Middle East: on the one hand, Republicans and others who unconditionally support pro-Western dictatorships, U.S. interventionism, and the Israeli occupation; and, on the other extreme, radical Islamists who want to counter their increasing marginality. Fortunately, the reactions by these chauvinistic forces are more a relic of the past than they are a harbinger of the future.

It is important that the U.S. response will be appropriate to the situation and will not repeat the mistakes of U.S. policy in recent years. It is extremely unlikely that such vitriolic anti-American protests would have taken place were it not for decades of U.S. support, during both Republican and Democratic administrations, of allied dictatorships and the Israeli occupation, not to mention the invasion and occupation of Iraq and the ongoing military strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen. Indeed, interviews with demonstrators in Yemen and elsewhere not surprisingly found grievances towards the United States that went far beyond the film itself.

It is also noteworthy that the apparent producer of the offending film was a Coptic Christian immigrant who presumably developed his extreme hatred toward Muslims as a reaction to the persecution of his fellow Copts in his native Egypt. Much of that persecution was a direct result of the U.S.-backed Mubarak regime's attempts to deliberately foment hatred and division between Egyptian Muslims and Christians. Despite the regime's discrimination and oppression against the Copts—including the infamous 2010 bombing of a Coptic Church in Alexandria by agents from Mubarak's Interior Ministry, which killed dozens—both Republican and Democratic administrations provided the Mubarak dictatorship with tens of billions of dollars' worth of military and financial backing.

It is particularly tragic that the victims of last week's upsurge in violence included Ambassador Christopher Stevens, one of the United States' most knowledgeable and respected diplomats. The outpouring of grief and remorse from Libyans and others indicates that most Arabs, despite their understandable resentment of U.S. policy, recognize that there can still be good individuals representing the United States abroad.
Conclusively, in the memory of Stevens and other victims, the best action to take is to redouble efforts to end U.S. support for Arab dictatorships and Israeli occupation forces. Indeed, the best defense against extremists are political systems that honor people's demands for freedom and justice.

Gastronomic Boom in Peru: Redefining Culture and Identity

Geneviève Lavoie-Mathieu — 2012-10-01T21:58:20Z

From September 9 to 16, the most important International Food Fair in Latin America was held in Lima, la Mistura. Over half a million people, nationals and tourists alike, attended the two-week long event, an illustration of the gastronomic boom undergoing Peru. Along with a rich history observable in Machu Picchu and other archeological ruins, Peruvian food has become one of the strongest symbols of the growing nation and a way to consolidate its cultural identity. The culinary sector is flourishing, with increasing numbers of local food fairs, farmer's markets, innovative micro-enterprises, small scale producers and close to 50,000 students enrolled in cooking school.

Promoting Indigenous Products and Small Scale Farming

La Mistura was an event organised by ‘Sociedad Peruana de Gastronomia' (APEGA), the Peruvian Gastronomic Society. It provides an opportunity to strengthen the links between the public and the different actors in the ‘gastronomic chain', which involves, directly and indirectly, more than five million people. One of the main aims of the event was to reinforce the links between producers and the people from the culinary industry, as part of a strategy of the 'Alliance Chefs-Farmer.' As part of this alliance, there were various agro ecological producers of the National Association of Ecological Producers of Peru (ANPE) participating in more than twenty-one stands. These stands showcased a wide variety of products from all three regions of the country—a demonstration of Peru's biodiversity, one of the richest of the planet.

Agriculturists and ecological producers are the guardians of biodiversity as they manage natural resources and play an important role in ensuring food security in the country. Overall, they are responsible for the production of seven out of ten tonnes of food consumed by Peruvians. Small-scale producers are behind the Peruvian gastronomic boom, and play a key part in Peru's 'gastronomic chain' and food culture. Gaston Acurio, a Peruvian chef and ambassador of Peruvian food, argues that the future and the greatness of Peru depends on these small scale producers.

Food Fueling Economic Development

This surging interest in gastronomy and the food sector represents an enormous potential in terms of employment, revenues, and the potential economic strengthening of Peru. According to the 2009-10 Oxfam report, ‘Poverty, Inequalities and Development in Peru', one out of four jobs in Peru is related to small-scale agriculture. This sector represents the principal source of employment, with thirty six percent of the population economically active.

Peru, a booming economy with a growing rate of 7.21 percent, is a leading exporting country in agricultural products, notably in organic coffee and bananas. According to a study of APEGA, gastronomy in Peru in 2009, the country generated revenues of 40,000 million soles (around $15,000 million USD), which represents around 11.2 percent of the GNP projected for 2009—double the production of the mining sector in 2008.

This surging interest in this sector also translates into the increasing number of culinary institutes and students deciding to pursue a career in gastronomy, simultaneously stimulating the tourist industry. Peru was recently voted ‘best culinary destination' in Latin America, which according to Liz Chuecas of the organization Prom-Peru, is an opportunity for Peru to become recognized internationally and boost tourism. In 2008 alone, more than 95,000 tourists came exclusively for gastronomic purposes, the majority from neighbouring Ecuador and Chile, and generated over $120 million USD in revenues.

This has the potential to boost not only the country's economic development, but also efforts of Peruvian food to reaffirm Peruvian cultural identity, according to Mariano Valderrama Leon, author of an essay on the subject: “Gastronomia, Desarrollo e Identidad Cultural, El Caso Peruano”. Food plays an important part in the national definition. According to a survey from APOYO, a majority of Peruvians declare that their food represents their national identity more than artesania, folkloric music and dances and football.

The promotion of Peruvian gastronomy partly comes as a wider effort from the government to promote the richness of Peru's history, biodiversity and culture at a national and international level. The Comisión de Promoción del Perú para la Exportación y el Turismo campaign ‘Marca Peru' is an effort to reinforce Peru's image as a family destination, and a country full of touristic opportunities, exportations and investments. Through the promotion of their food, Peruvians have the potential to reaffirm their identity, reinforce the value of regional and local products as well as enhance biodiversity.

India: Sedition Law is Against Spirit of Democracy

Binayak Sen — 2012-10-01T21:58:18Z

I was convicted of sedition (section 124 of the IPC) on December 24 (Christmas eve), 2009, and awarded life imprisonment by the additional sessions judge, Raipur. I had already spent two years in jail as an undertrial before the Supreme Court granted me bail. Following my conviction, another four months was spent in a solitary cell before the Supreme Court suspended the sentence and granted bail, remarking in the process that there did not seem to be any evidence against me. A hearing of my appeal in the Chhattisgarh High Court is now awaited.

A few days ago, human rights organizations gathered in Delhi to welcome back from jail Seema Azaad, the general secretary of the UP PUCL. She had also been convicted of sedition and awarded life sentence on the basis of some innocuous documents found in her possession , and then was granted bail by the Allahabad High Court after having spent two-and-a-half years in jail.

I was reminded of all these events when i joined the Mumbai Press Club to greet the young cartoonist, Aseem Trivedi, following his release from jail on September 12. He had spent four days in jail after being charged with sedition , allegedly because of the content of some of his cartoons . These charges were deemed to be so patently absurd that Aseem's incarceration aroused a storm of protest, resulting in his prompt release.

Sedition is said to have occurred when any attempt is made to bring the government of the day into disaffection . Mohandas Gandhi was convicted of sedition by the British Imperial government in 1922. Arguing his own case, Gandhi told the judge that he had no affection for the British government and, moreover, he felt it was his duty to inform his fellow citizens as to why he had no affection for it. While convicting Gandhi, the British judge felt it necessary to apologize to Gandhi for his act, to which he was bound by his duty as a judge.

Such stories are part of the folklore of sedition, and create the impression that sedition is about well-known or relatively resourceful people standing up to a bumbling state power. Nothing could be further from the truth. The most important lesson i learnt in jail was that there are vast numbers of people accused of sedition and incarcerated for this reason. To take just one example, several hundred very ordinary men and women participating in the peaceful anti-nuclear agitation in Kudankulam have been charged with sedition.

The state today stands guarantor, under the doctrine of eminent domain, to a country-wide process of expropriation of common property resources — land, water, forest, minerals and traditional knowledge such as knowledge of biodiversity. Communities, whose survival is dependent on their access to common property resources, find their survival threatened by this process of expropriation. Resisting this process becomes key to the survival of these communities , and the law of sedition is one of the important resources deployed by the state in order to suppress this entirely legitimate resistance. Communities cannot be expected to acquiesce in their own extinction, but the state seems perfectly prepared to deploy its resources, both juridical and military, in order to ensure that its writ should run.

The application of sedition is also contrary to the spirit of a democratic polity. After all, the process of building up political alternatives has to be based on holding — and advocating — views that are contrary to those held by the current holders of power. Sedition serves the power holder very well, because any heterodox opinion can promptly be limited by being safely put away. Human rights workers and their organizations across the country have come together to press for repeal of the sedition law and other similar laws. They are jointly engaged in a signature campaign, and a series of public meetings, to petition Parliament for the prompt repeal of these archaic and antidemocratic legal formulations, which constitute a real danger to the development of a genuinely democratic polity.

See the original posting here: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-09-16/all-that-matters/33879890_1_sedition-law-chhattisgarh-high-court-eminent-domain