Brexit Bill threatens UK Human Rights warns Amnesty International

According to Amnesty International  the current EU withdrawal bill will "substantially reduce human rights in the UK" and members of the British public " don't even know", it has warned in its latest annual report, The State of the World's Human Rights : https://www.amnesty.org.uk/report-world-human-rights-2017
Amnesty's 409 page report on human rights around the world says the decision to convert the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights into domestic law via the withdrawal bill means British citizens  will be stripped of protection.The Charter is important because it protects fundamental  issues that are important to us all, such as dignity, workers rights, equality, fair trials, free speech, children, LGBTI, disabled people and more. It provides a stronger defense of fundamental rights because it overides acts of Parliament when there is a conflict over basic rights, thus making it a much stronger legal defense when combating violations of human rights.
The Government has decided  not to convert  the Charter into UK legislation after Brexit,https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/678333/Factsheet_6_-_Charter_of_fundamental_rights.pdf  claiming that  human rights will not be jeapordised by Brexit, saying that protections in the EU charter will  still be protected by domestic law, contending that the citizens of the UK are protected through the democratic process, assuming that the ability to elect Members of Parliament is an adequate assurance that our representatives will protect their basic rights. It seems foolish, however, to found an entire group's basic protection solely on the goodwill and moral compass of the government. I personally do not trust their word one bit. The end result being that we will all now face a lower protection of our human rights. Lets not forget that we have been warned, after all our human rights are the basic freedoms that all human beings should be guaranteed.
Kate Allen, Amnesty International's UK  director, said :" You don't have to be pro or anti Brexit to see that without reform the EU Withdrawal Bill is set to substantially reduce rights in the UK.
" Under cover of Brexit the Government is planning to strip the British public of protections, - and people don't even know their hard won rights are under threat."
We should all be very concerned. After all the current government has long had a poor relationship with human rights, having previously wanted to abolish the Human Rights Act and now wants to remove the Charter as well. They should not be allowed to continue with their plans unchallenged.
The report also warned that the Governments drive to secure new trade deals has seen UK ministers and officials " soft pedalling" with regimes who have poor human rights records. Also highlighting recent UK trade delegations to Saudi Arabia,  and  USA, that have shown an "unwillingness to speak publicly about human rights overseas."
The UK is set to quit the EU on 29 March 2019, at 11 pm.Theresa May has said previously that her vision of Brexit will be one that focuses on "the good we can do together in the world as a global Britain." However, any Brexit that ends up, prioritising and promoting  arms sale and building ever closer relationships with human rights abusers is one that will only contribute  further to war, conflict and the further erosion of freedom for people across the globe.
Brexit was just one of many topics  mentioned in their annual report, Amnesty's report  also criticized world leaders for promoting "hate and division to further  their own political ends, suggesting that in the 70th year since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, human rights protections are under serious threat, with authoritarian leaders seeking to narrow  or withdraw them"
The group also highlighted the work of activists and protest movements around the world inspired by what it called regressive policies.

Shape Shifting

Music flows like water
Between shadows and light,
As books are read for therapy
And love returns, carried deep inside,
The alphabet of trees, offers comfort
Some sculptured imagination,
Releases language of truth
Memories of everlasting breath,
In the politics of free fall
Magic remains undiminished,
Takes us back to where we had begun
From outside, rearranges,
Shape shifting, through corridors of time
Allows us to keep on pursuing brightness,
Swallows every thought, beyond constant fear
In a world of confusion, revives tongue,
Communicating to the lonely
Shouting rebellion to those who listen.

Why do we keep offering deference to the Royal family in the 21st Century.

For me the Royal family represents inequality and conservatism, a dynasty that has no place in the modern world. Just look at the above photo, it represents everything that's wrong with the monarchy. The sense of entitlement on one side. the unquestioning deference on the other.
Far from uniting the country, the monarchy's role is seen by many people to be illegitimate and offensive, and simply entrenches hereditary pivilege at the heart of public life. While our government patronisisingly preaches democracy to the rest of the world, they still preside over an undemocratic system at home with an unelected head of state .
With their vestiges of privilege, the royal family continues  to  award themselves medals, appoint themselves to top military ranks that they simply they do not deserve. Allow themselves to be nominated as patrons of charities , degrading the real efforts of those who have really made general contributions. At a time when Britain  is going through a time of national economic and social stress due to Brexit , austerity, incoming roll out of Universal Credit and so on. The Conservative Government currently imposing a draconian, financially crippling sanction on jobseekers because they dont want to pay out any money to those who are unfortunately out of work, while the Royals get there houses refurbished  at tax payers espense, while many people cannot afford to heat their homes or put enough nutritional meals on their tables.
While so many far more importanst issues face us everyday, this continuing fawning to members of the Royal family and their hangers on,I simply find embarrassing. At a time of inequality, when public services, public sector jobs, wages, attacks on the most vulnerable among us continues, in the  most savage round of austerity meaures ever seen in modern times,  how the hell can some people still be proud of this patronage ridden monarchy is beyond my imagination. It certainly reinforces my feelings that some people are born better than others. It's the piacle of the class system which has held or socirty back for so long, enforcing the idea of an elite rling class.
Their nauseating displays of riches, power and privilege ,is simply an affront to human decency.I believe in a society, where we can all look into one another's eyes as equals , whatever our purpose or position in life. This continuing deference to them is simply offensive, and it has its consequnces. Since  you and I, and every taxpayer across the land will have to fork out tens, if not hundreds of thosands  of pounds for the Queens son's forthcoming marriage. The Royals  have claimed that they will be paying, but the truth is, that on May 19 it is the taxpayer who who will be lanfed the enormous bill. I don't believe thiw is ok, they need to pick up the bill. So on this note would urge you to join more than ten thosand people in signing the following petition calling on MPs to make sure the royals pay for their own wedding.https://www.republic.org.uk/petition/royal-wedding
Here's to a better, more egalitarian world, yes a brighter monarchy, confine these pointless ornaments to the dustbins of history

The Last Invasion of Britain - Fishguard 1797

Many remember the name of Hastings as the site of the last invasion of mainland Britain by Norman forces in 1066, but many forget the less successful  French attempt at invasion, which took place in Fishguard,West Wales  on this day in 1797 and  was the last time a hostile foreign force landed on British soil, and is therefore often referred to as “the last invasion of Britain”.

Irish revolutionary leader Wolfe Tone had received support from France to help end British rule in Ireland. Part of this plan was to organise French invasions of Britain to divert and weaken the British forces, with the overall aim of sending a much larger force to Ireland to overthrow the British there.

So on February 18th, 1797, a collection of 1400 French mercenaries and bailed convicts, led by an Irish-American named Colonel Tate set sail from Camaret .

Tate’s orders were to raid Bristol. He was ‘to bring as much chaos and confusion to the heart of Britain as was possible; to recommend and facilitate a rising of the British poor against the government; but whenever and wherever possible, to wage war against the castle, not the cottage.’

Once Bristol had been sacked, they were to march on Liverpool and do the same there. The original expectation had been that they would then traverse the country from west to east and link up with the force that was supposed to have taken Newcastle. All the while, it was assumed, their numbers would grow as the rebellious poor flocked to join them.Tate's orders had been to land near Bristol, England's second largest city at the time, and destroy it, then to cross over into Wales and march north into Chester and Liverpool. 

From the outset though things did not go according to plan. Wind conditions made it impossible for the four French warships to land anywhere near Bristol, so Tate decided to set course to here in Cardigan Bay instead, hoping the Welsh would join their revolt against English rule and join their Revolutionary cause.

 The French force was conveyed in four ships: two frigates La Vengeance and La Resistance, a corvette La Constance and a lugger Le Vatour. The commander was Commodore Jean Joseph Castagnier, and his log gives details of the voyage.

 There were several sightings of the fleet as they made their journey. The ships had been seen on their journey off Lundy Island by the master of a sloop, and he reported the sighting to Samuel Hancorne, the collector of the port of Swansea. He duly reported to the Duke of Portland on 22 February that the master of the sloop St Ives had seen the French ships.

On Wednesday February 22nd, the French warships sailed into Fishguard Bay. Upon landing, the French invasion force seem to have run out of enthusiasm,  which could have been a result of having to survive for years on prison rations, and on all accounts were more interested in the rich food and fine wine of the locals, and after a looting spree many were simply too drunk to do anything.Having angered the Welsh locals by seizing their food and wine, they quickly assembled an army of volunteer militia, army reservists, and sailors to fight the invasion, this attempted insurrection. And  after two days  the invasion had collapsed. Tate's forces surrendering to a local militia force led by Lord Cawdor on Febuary 25, 1797, with the French  being disarmed, and being marched of to imprisonment to nearby Haverfordwest .It is said the treaty was signed in the building that is now the Royal Oak pub.

It is interesting to note  that the surrender agreement drawn up by Tate' officers referred to the British coming at them "with troops of the line to the number of several thousand."No such troops were anywhere near Fishguard , at the time, however hundreds of local Welsh women dressed in their traditional scarlet tunics and tall black felts had come too witness  fighting between the French and the local men of the militia, and under the influence of too much wine, these women could easily have been mistaken for British army Redcoats.

One of the women who is said to be the hero of the hour went by the name of "Jemima Fawr" (Jemima the Great) 47 year old Jemima Nicholas,  who was a local cobbler. She single handedly with nothing more than a  pitchfork in hand rounded up twelve Frenchmen, and locked them inside the local St Mary's Church.

 

She would become a Welsh heroine and was awarded a pension of £50 for the rest of her life. After her death a memorial was raised to her, the lady who confronted the French invader armed only with a pitchfork.

 

There is little doubt that French boldness in Wales jolted Whitehall into realising that further attempts to invade Ireland were only a matter of time.

Wolfe Tone eventually got ashore in October 1798, but only after the rebellion had been bloodily crushed, a small French force had been defeated in September at Ballinamuck, and another flotilla had come to grief off Donegal. Tone’s arrival was as a prisoner of the Royal Navy. He was tried, condemned to death, and committed suicide. 

William Tate and several of his officer were eventually imprisoned on the Royal Oak, a prison hulk in Portsmouth harbour.  (They were released in a prisoner exchange in 1797 and returned to France.  The last record of Tate is of his returning to the United States in 1809 – hch)  In the inn of the same name in Fishguard there are several relics of the invasion, including a musket taken from a drunken French soldier, a French officer’s water bottle, and the table – now converted into a settle-type bench – on which the terms of surrender were signed.  There are also several paintings of 1797-style military personnel gathered outside the inn, even though records indicate that Cawdor’s headquarters was a private house at the time.

As the wars against France stretched on, Napoleon himself made his own plans to invade the UK, plans that were only dashed by his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.

For the bicentenary in 1997, the Fishguard Arts Society made a tapestry on the model of the one in Bayeux. With scintillating detail and remarkable wit, the embroidery – thirty metres long and stitched by more than seventy local women – interweaves the stories told by the locals with those of the invaders.

http://www.fishguardartssociety.org.uk/The%20Last%20Invasion%20Tapestry.html  

Also for the bicentenary in 1997, Fishguard held a full-blown reenactment. Yvonne Fox, a local woman, played the role of heroic Jemima and did so until her death in 2010. Fishguard continues to  commemorate the invasion  to this day

Bibliography:

Phil Carradice, The Last Invasion, Village Publishing 1992

Pamela Horn, History of the French Invasion of Fishguard, 1797, Presell Printers, Fishguard 1980

Commander E H Stuart-Jones, The Last Invasion of Britain, University of Wales Press, Cardiff 1947

David Williams, A History of Modern Wales, John Murray, London 1950

 

International Mother Language Day

Click on picture to enlarge

Languages, with their complex implications for identity, communication, social integration, education and development are of great importance for people and planet. Yet due to globaliation, they are increasingly under threat. When languages fade, so does the world's rich tapestry of cultural diversity. Opportunities, traditions, memory, unique modes of thinking and expression, valuable resources, become lost.
Languages,like people are subsequently in a constant battle for survival. It is believed there are about 6000 languages that are spoken in the world of which 3000 are listed as endangered by UNESCO with 10 languages becoming extinct every year. Only a few hundred languages have genuinely been given a place in education systems and the public domain, and less than a hundred are used in the digital world.
Consequently International Mother Language is held every year on February 21 since the year 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism/. The day to celebrate this bond was originally chosen by the United Nations in 1999 to celebrate four students who were shot and killed in 1952 by Pakistani police for protesting the right to use their own language, Bengali.
This bond between individuals and their languages, one that if broken is  forgotten for generations the UN recognises as a human right. Also with the rise of populist nationalism the threat of walls andsuspcion of integration , we should also worry what this means for migrant and Indigenous languages. After all language is a salient index of culture, and so any assault on cultural diversity is also an an assault on linguistic diversity.
Languages serves as powerful instrument of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage. So all moves to promote the dissemation of mother tonques will serve not only to encourage linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world, but alse serves to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialgue.
International Mother Language Day is also a good opportunity to remind ourselves that children of migrants and Indigenous people have an international right to speak, grow up with, and celebrate their own heritage languages, wherever they reside. Languages enriches society, economic mobility and at end of the day is what makes us human.
For further information visit the UNESCO website http://www.unesco.org/new/en/international-mother-language-day/  or visit the UN's International Mother Language Day web pages.http://www.un.org/en/events/motherlanguageday/
Heddwch/peace.

Against Gun Violence

At time of writing, according to the http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/mass-shooting there have been,975 incidents, 1,922 deaths, 3,330 injuries, 71 children killed or injured, 377 teens killed or injured, 32 mass shooting, 41 officers shot or killed, 312 subject or suspect killed, 235 home invasions, 192 defensive use of guns, and 229 intentional shootings in the United States.
I wrote following poem in response.

Against Gun Violence

Sometimes it seems that hope runs out
There seems no end, to waves of violence.
No prayers or thoughts can break the cycle
This endless primal, destructive spiral,
Innocent lives getting lost everyday
Can we not simply destroy the ammunition,
Instead of trigger happiness, stop the madness
So that darkness no longer releases its deadly load,
Is it too late to halt the hate, lament all who've been lost
On blood stained streets, where flowers wither,
Tell the NRA no one has right to bare arms
The second amendment has no moral purpose,
Stop the bullets flying, shots from killing
With Gun control heal a wounded nation.

https://iamnotasilentpoet.wordpress.com/2018/02/19/against-gun-violence-by-dave-rendle/

Remembering the fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War : The 81st anniversary of the Battle of Jarama

Today in history: marks the 81st anniversary of the Battle of Jarama,in the Spanish Civil War, which   was an attempt by General Franco's fascist forces to dislodge the anti-fascist lines along the river Jarama, just east of Madrid. Franco's troops forced back the anti-fascists, including the International Brigades, but after days of fierce fighting no breakthrough was achieved. Anti-fascist counterattacks along the captured ground likewise failed, resulting in heavy casualties to both sides. Many American anti-fascist volunteers from the Abraham Lincoln Brigades fought and died in this battle to stop the spread of fascism. 

 Jarama marked the beginning of a bruising and often dispirited campaign and witnessed one of the bloodiest battles of Spain's Civil War.. By the end of the first day of battle, the British batallion found itself with less than half the number they had set out with.On February 12th the British, deployed in the hills on the east bank of the river Jarama, in a place that became known as 'Suicide Valley",  the fascists were able to virtually surround the British Batallion  but even though they were outnumbered, they still  managed to keep the fascists at bay, but suffered  heavy losses.
The volunteers were a mixture of Communists, Labour Party members, socialists, anarchists, trade unionists and other sympathisers, all bitterly opposed to the idea of fascism. They came primarily from the unemployed areas of Mersyside, Manchester, Scotland, Tyneside and London.On February the 18th the brigadiers launched a counter attack, but this was stopped by the fascists. Despite the poor conditons, the brigadiers managed to stand firm ,  As the men made their way up an outcrop that was later known as " Suicide Hill " they were mown down mercilessly  by machine gun fire. They had little chance.Of the 500 brave men only 140 survived, the memory of this battle haunting them for many years later. But the vital road that Franco needed to have cut remained open.
Today I remember those who throughout this conflict their faith and ideals remained intact,with their bravery, sacrifice and committment to their noble cause. Comrades that stood together and fought for good against  the evils of fascism.Ordinary people who made the extraordinary choice to leave their friends and family and fight in a brutal war far away from home, a common cause bringing them together, shoulder to shoulder with the workers and peasants of Spain fighting for their emancipation..

We should never forget this heroic struggle against the forces of fascism that remains today, the struggle continues, they shall continue to not pass. No pasaron. Remember the Internationale unites the human race.’

" It was in Spain  that my generation learned that one can be right but can be beaten , that force can vanquish spirit, that there are times when courage is not its own recompense. It is this doubtless , which so many, the world over feel the Spanish drama as a personal tragedy" -   Albert Camus

Battle of Jarama - John Lepper.

The sun warmed the valley
But no birds sang
The sky was rent with shrapnel
And metallic clang

Death stalked the olive trees
Picking his men
His leaden finger beckoned
Again and again

Dust rose from the roadside
A stifling cloud
Ambulances tore past
Klaxoning loud

Men torn by shell-shards lay
Still on the ground
The living sought shelter
Not to be found

Holding their hot rifles
Flushed with the fight
Sweat-streaked survivors
Willed for the night

With the coming  of darkness
Deep in the wood
A fox  howled to heaven
Smelling the blood.

Jarama Valley - Woody Guthrie
 

Homeless in the World's largest Prison

These photographs were published on Wednesday by the Shehab News Agency, and  show a homeless palestinian family forced to live in a bus stop in the besiged  Gaza strip.
Ths bus stop at Saraya junction in Gaza city is what the family has from the weather - the world outside offers them none.
According to a recent study, 80% of the 2 million inhabitants of the coastal enclave beseiged by the occupier Egypt and Israel , live in poverty and 65%  in extreme poverty, with little access to the most basic serices.
 As over 80%  population depend on aid , the cuts to aid ( which have already been reduced before because of lack of funds )  by the Unied States will only worsen the situation. The U.S  announced on Jan 16 to cut 67 million Us dollars from 125 million dollars that it had planned to provide to the UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza. The blockade has pushed Gaza's population into frther poverty as unemplyment rates hit 45%. The illegal blockade has been in place for over a decade , devastating Gaza's economy , causing widespread destruction and left most people cut off from the outside world. 
The humanitarian needs are enormouse. People struggle to access clean water, food, medical education and to rebild their homes. The blockade  prevents  most of them  from leaving Gaza or trading with the  outside world and restricts vital  reconstruction material from entering.
Over 60% of Palestinian residents in Gaza are living in food insecurity as  many rely on foreign food aid, according to international organizations and United Nations agencies.The Crisis has delibertely been made in the beseiged Gaza by its beseigers and their enablers in the so called 'international community'.
The UN Security Council held a cosultative session on Wednesday to discuss the deteriorting situation in the Gaza Strip following warnings of a possible collapse of basic  services in the Palestinian war-torn enclave, amid calls for urgent intervention to end the suffering of the Palestinians there.

Photos@ShehabAgency

Source

https://english.palinfo.com/articles/2018/01/29/Gaza-deserves-to-live

After Dresden (13/2/45 - 13/2/18).

From 13 – 15 February 1945, RAF and US Air Force planes dropped around 2,400 tons of explosives and 1,500 tons of incendiary bombs on the German city of Dresden. The 805 British and about 500 American bombers inflicted destruction on an unimaginable scale on the virtually-undefended, refugee-crammed city’s old town and inner suburbs.

The hundreds of thousands of high explosive and incendiary bombs caused a firestorm that trapped and incinerated tens of thousands of German civilians. Some German sources put the human cost at 100,000 lives.

The air strike was designed to bring a conclusive end to the Second World War, but the humanitarian catastrophe that resulted from the attack has continued to bring up ethical  questions that are debated to this day.

The bombing of Dresden is sometimes given as an example of modern ‘total war’, meaning that the normal rules of war were not followed. Targets in total war are not only military, but civilian and the types of weapons used are not restricted.The fact that refugees fleeing the Soviet advance from the east caused the population to swell means that the amount of casualties from the bombing is unknown. Estimates put the number anywhere between 25,000 up to 135,000.

During the war American author Kurt Vonnegut was held in Dresden alongside 159 other US soldiers. The soldiers were kept in a meat locker during the bombing, its thick walls protecting them from the fires and blasts. The horrors Vonnegut witnessed in the aftermath of the bombings inspired him to write the 1969 anti-war novel ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’.

The late historian American Howard Zinn, who was himself a pilot in the Second World War, cited the bombing of Dresden, along with that of Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Hanoi, as an example of questionable ethics in wars which target civilian casualties with aerial bombs. Here's a poem I've written:

After Dresden

Evil falls from all sides
Spits its deadly poison,
In Dresden everyone felt
Horror unimaginable,
No one left alive could escape
As people burned in flames,
Left a mark that forever stained
Releasing years of mental turmoil,
Burning phosphorus still today falls
From, Gaza, Iraq to Syria,
Civilian casualties lost forever
Vanished under cruel clouds of ideology
Skin and bone melting and disintergrating,
Rising today as spectral ghosts.

Poem can also be found here :

https://iamnotasilentpoet.wordpress.com/2018/02/13/after-dresden-13-2-45-13-2-18-by-dave-rendle/

Free Ahed Tamimi

Palestininian  protest icon Ahed Tamimi , who I have written about previously, is back in a military court today today , facing 10 years in prison,  an individual  that for many symbolizes the Palestinians' David vs Goliath struggle against military occupation, high profile  entertainers, scholars, and civil rights icons  have just recently signed a just released letter in support of her and other Palestinian children imprisoned by Israel.On behalf of those  who should be able to live out their childhood without  the unrelenting encroachment of illegal Israeli settlements,  occupation and military courts where they face 99%  prosecution rates.
The signatories include prominent actors Danny Glover, Rosario Dawson, Grey's Anatomy star Jesse Williams and the Practice's LisaGay Hamilton, musicians including  Vic Mensa, Talib Kweli and Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello, civil rights leaders Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza ( xo-founders of Black Lives Matter), Angela Davis, Michelle Alexander, political commenttors Marc Lamont-Hill and Angela Rye, and Seattle Seahawks defensive lineman and super bowl champion Michael Bennett.

http://www.dreamdefenders.org/freeahed

There are also  daily Teitterstorms  organised by the Facebook page Free the Tamimi Women,  https://www.facebook.com/FreeTamimiWomen/ which one could support.  I believe we should all support those who dare to stand up to repression. Take action stand up for Ahed now.
Tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release her without delay.

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/actions/urgent-release-palestinian-teen-activist-ahed-tamimi?utm_source=TWITTER&utm_medium=social&utm_content=20180213080300&utm_campaign=Amnesty&post_ID=1337993916

You can also add your name to this open letter targetting all World leaders

https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/free_ahed/