Beyond the Sadness

Across the world, times of darkness

Unsettling denting and bruising inside, 

Taking away our thoughts and dreams

Hearts breaking, affected by tragedy,

Unbridled tears running like water, in Plymouth

The landscape of my childhood memories,

Where the spirits of pilgrims set sail from

Ancestors went to sea,with hearts full of love,

In times of departure, weathered many a storm 

From a distance in Wales, was inspired,  

By colourful epitaphs and  gentle smiles

A time when hatred was not  fostered,

Upon  salty winds the sails of unison

Not shattered by cold cruel empty wicked eyes,

In this proud city, am currently feeling its hurt 

Yearning for hope to return, heal the hatred,

Beyond the blackness, the evil of terror

With outstretched arms, I weep to remember,

As sorrow rains down, let healing thoughts blossom 

Take the reins, harvest a new direction,

Affections feeling, releasing unfolding empathy

Destroying misogyny, keeping reason alive,

Filling the world with care and compassion

With thoughts and prayers, uproot the pain.

This is a story that everyone in the country should hear

 A video projected on the Houses of Parliament has been making the rounds on social media today and has been dubbed the 'story everyone should hear..The Good Law Project https://goodlawproject.org/  have  joined up with Led By Donkeys https://www.ledbydonkeys.org/ to expose the truth about the Government's secret back-channel which allowed friends of the Conservative Party and other politically connected suppliers to secure billions of pounds of PPE contracts. This was while overworked NHS staff were struggling to stay safe on the frontline. 

Amid court action by the Good Law Project to reveal more about the contracts, the short film raises questions about why the Government is so reluctant to name more of the companies involved in the lucrative PPE schemes.

It raises legal concerns about Downing Street's so called "VIP lane" for select companies and runs through the vast sums awarded to firms owned or linked to associates of top level government officials and helps show  the utter contempt  they have, for the public for all to see.

It has been released as health minister Lord Bethell comes under scrutiny over his use of private communications channels for official government business.

The Good Law Project has highlighted dishonesty, obfuscation, illegality, and cronyism in the awarding of key pandemic contracts and roles, as well as delivery of protective equipment and testing

As our government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires. most of whom reside overseas and all of them with strong political allegiances and financial motivations. It is vital that we keep holding this corrupt government to account.

Transparency is essential  for any credible government. It shouldn’t take inquiries, whistleblowers, legal actions, investigative journalists, and public campaigns to get at truths that should already be in the public domain,

David Cameron ‘made more than £7m’ from Greensill Capital before firm collapsed

 

David Cameron so stinkingly Tory earned about $10 million from finance firm Greensill Capital before the company’s collapse, according to documents leaked to the BBC.

The former British prime minister was due to be paid $4.5 million after tax for a tranche of Greensill shares, according to a letter from the firm to Cameron obtained by the BBC Panorama program.

Cameron also received a salary of $1 million a year as a part-time adviser and was paid a bonus of $700,000 in 2019, the broadcaster reported. In total, the program alleges the documents suggest he made around $10 million before tax for two-and-a-half years’ part-time work.

 The number, reported, is news, not least because Cameron himself had refused to disclose it. Speaking to a Commons committee investigating his failed lobbying for the failed company, the failed former PM would say only that he had been paid a 'generous' sum by Greensill.That one word, 'generous', speaks volumes about Cameron and the Greensill episode. Cameron lets not forget is nothing but a slave owning descendent who has not worked a single day of his life, who with a reported obscene £30 million in inherited wealth, whilst PM imposed austerity on the rest of us.

The former Conservative leader has been at the center of Britain’s biggest lobbying scandal in a generation after it emerged he pressed senior ministers and officials to include Greensill Capital in a coronavirus lending scheme.

Greensill which provided loans to steel magnate Sanjeev Gupta's company - cratered in March after a furious lobbying effort for Covid cash by Mr Cameron fell flat. 

The former premier bombarded ministers including Rishi Sunak and senior officials with 56 texts begging for Government bailout loans.

During a Commons grilling in May Mr Cameron bragged he made "far more" cash at Greensill than he did in No10 but refused to cough an exact figure.

Following Greensill’s collapse in March, which left 3,000 jobs at a steel manufacturer at risk, investigations have been opened into the company’s activities in the U.K., Germany and elsewhere. The former prime minister was cleared of breaking lobbying rules but a cross-party group of MPs found he had demonstrated a “significant lack of judgment.” 

He also faced questions for bringing Australian financier Lex Greensill into the heart of Government as an adviser with a desk in Downing Street.

Senior civil servant Sir Bill Crothers was also found to have parachuted into a plum Greensill job after leaving Whitehall.

In a statement released after the new allegations emerged on Monday evening, Mr Cameron's spokesperson said the former Conservative party leader committed "no wrongdoing".

"David Cameron deeply regrets that Greensill went into administration and is desperately sorry for those who have lost their jobs," the spokesperson said.

"As he was neither a director of the company, nor involved in any lending decisions, he has no special insight into what ultimately happened. 

"He acted in good faith at all times, and there was no wrongdoing in any of the actions he took. He made the representations he did to the UK government not just because he thought it would benefit the company, but because he sincerely believed there would be a material benefit for UK businesses at a challenging time. 

"He had no idea until December 2020 that the company was in danger of failure. 

"We are not commenting on David Cameron's remuneration; this is a private matter. But it is preposterous to suggest that he would work for any company if he was aware that it was behaving improperly, or was in any way seeking to mislead investors. 

"Indeed, Panorama's questions and assertions are attempting to define a role for David Cameron at Greensill that is totally at odds with the facts. He was a part-time adviser to the company - one of several - and had no executive or board responsibilities whatsoever." 

The statement adds that Mr Cameron "had no knowledge" of GFG's financial situation and repeats that "both the Treasury Select Committee and the Boardman Report have since confirmed that he broke no rules".

 Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said it was "ludicrous" that the former Conservative prime minister allegedly earned over £7m from his work with Greensill and accused Mr Cameron of "using his Tory contacts for huge personal gain"."The fact that David Cameron was cleared of any wrongdoing, proves that the rules that are supposed to regulate lobbying are completely unfit for purpose. It's created a wild west where the Conservatives think it's one rule for them and another for everyone else,""The system causes more harm than good by giving a veil of legitimacy to the rampant cronyism, sleaze and dodgy lobbying that is polluting our democracy under Boris Johnson and the Conservatives. This is money most of us cannot even imagine, but for David Cameron it was just a part-time gig using his Tory contacts for huge personal gain." Ms Rayner said.

.Personally I believe  dodgy Dave Cameron to be a smug, conceited, greedy hypocrite of the first order, who arrogantly negligent of the well-being of the country, runs away from his responsibility, protects party  over people, who devoid of any principle, simply grubbed around in the trough to the tune of £10m  ,who along with his friends was always on hand to castigate poor people on benefits, who seem to think they are entitled to far more, whilst lining their own grubby pockets. Cameron and his party clearly believe that society should be founded on inequality, that the poor deserve poverty, whilst the wealthy deserve incentives. Simply rotten to the core, whatever reputation he once had, simply now lies in tatters, and  as for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, well like his predecessor, is made from the same cloth. 

Hiroshima / Nagasaki : Never Again

 

On this day 6th August 1945 the United States dropped  an atomic bomb called ' Little Boy" on Hiroshima, Japan which is estimated to have killed 100,000 to 180,000 people out of a population of 350,000. Then three days later, a second  atomic bomb  called "Fat Man" was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, killing between 50,000 and 100,000 people in an act of unspeakable violence.
.Hiroshima and Nagasaki were largely civilian towns, meaning there wasn't a strong military reason to drop the atomic bombs over those particular cities. No one was excluded from the horrors of the atomic bomb, a "destroyer of worlds" burnt hotter than the sun. Some people were vaporised upon impact, while others suffered burns and radiation poisoning that would kill them days, weeks or even months later. Others were crushed by debris, burned by unimaginable heat or suffocated by the lack of oxygen. Many survivors suffered from leukemia and other cancers like thyroid and lung cancer at higher rates than those not exposed to the bombs. Mothers were more likely to  lose their children during pregnancy or shortly after birth. Children exposed to radiation were more likely to have learning disabilities and impaired growth.
Those that did manage to survive  would be traumatised for the rest of their lives. Hibakusha is a term widely used in Japan, that refers to the victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it translates as 'explosion effected  Survivor of Light. These survivors speak of the deep, unabating grief they felt in the days, months and decades since the attack  They have described the shame of being a survivor , many were unable to marry, find jobs, or live any sort of normal life. They have said that many Hibakusha never speak of the day, instead choosing to suffer in silence. They told what it was like to be suddenly alone in middle age, to lose their parents, spouses, children, and livelihoods in a single instant. In memory of them, we should make sure that the  misery and devastation caused by nuclear weapons is never forgotten.
Even if Japan was not fully innocent, the people of Japan did not deserve to pay the price for their nations wrongdoing, and there was absolutely no moral justification in obliterating these two cities and killing its inhabitants in what was clearly a crime against humanity and murder on an epic scale. Hiroshima and Nagasaki held no strategic importance. Japan were an enemy on the brink of failure an members of the country's top leadership were involved in peace negotiations. Many believe that these two atrocities were a result of  geopolitical posturing at its most barbaric, announcing  in a catastrophic  display of military capability, of inhumane intention showing America's willingness to use doomsday weapons on civilian populations.The bombings serving as warnings and the fist act of the Cold War against its imperialist rival Russia. A message to the Russians of the power of destruction and technological military capability that the US had managed to develop.Three days later U.S president Harry Truman exulted ; "This is the greatest thing in history! " and gloated that " we are now prepared to obliterate more rapidly and completely."
Then the photos began to emerge, haunting images of burned children with their skin hanging off, of bodies charred and there was Sadaki Sasaki and the 1,000 origami peace cranes she folded before her death at 12 from leukemia ten years after the bomb was dropped on her hometown of Hiroshima.The atom bombs dropped by the US on those Japanese cities served no military purpose, as the Japanese were already suing for peace. President Truman, who ordered the bombs to be dropped, lied to the American people when he said that the atom bombs had saved lives and there were few civilian deaths, The  two atomic bombs killed and maimed hundreds and thousands of people.and the effects are still being felt today. The bombs dropped were  of a indiscriminate and cruel character beyond comparison  with weapons and projectiles of the past. Despite all  this Truman never regretted his decision. .

Today as the world commemorates the lives that were lost and the unacceptable devastation caused to people and planet, we still have so much to learn from this picture of indescribable human suffering. As  we mourn the hundreds and thousands of lives lost at Hiroshima and Nagasaki now is the time for us to redouble our efforts to ensure that such an atrocity does not happen again and on this poignant anniversary, we must reaffirm our determination to campaign for a world without nuclear weapons, whilst remembering the resilience of ordinary people in the years after the war and the movements of ordinary people against war, who try to make this world more peaceful and harmonious place for us all.Hiroshima and Nagasaki  reminds us of our mission to end preventable and premature deaths by such senseless atrocities. And this year is special. In January 2021, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons came into force. Nuclear weapons are banned.  

But in the UK, the government refuses to do its moral duty, and now its duty under international law. Instead, it has committed £Billions towards expanding the UK’s stockpile. This comes at a time when over 150,000 people in the UK alone have died of COVID-19, and our NHS is straining from the virus and years of austerity. 

The second year of the pandemic has continued to expose long-running health inequities both in the UK and worldwide. Yet again, UK health workers have had to spread themselves so thin this year. We know we need huge investment in the NHS and wide-ranging measures to reduce health inequity. In this context, the government’s choice to spend billions more of public money on weapons of mass destruction is unbelievable. 

Today, 76 years since the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, it’s time to step back and consider what our society values most. Across the world today for Hiroshima Day and on August 9 Nagasaki Day many will echo the call of the Hibakusha, that such horrors must never happen again, and honour ther wish for the elimination of nuclear weapons..

Wendell E. Berry ( b 5/8/34) - Prophet of responsibility

 

Wendell Erdman Berry the American novelist, essayist, novelist, and poet,  environmentalist, cultural critic, and farmer celebrates his 87th birthday today.Born the first of four children of Virginia Erdman Berry and John Marshall Berry, a lawyer and tobacco farmer.  near Port Royal, in Henry County, Kentucky (1934). His family, on both sides  have farmed tobacco in Henry County for at least five generations.

 A prolific author, he has written many novels, short stories, poems, and essays. I love the meditative quality of his work. A key theme in his  writing is the importance of living in harmony with nature and protecting the earth. Environmental activist Bill McKibben has called Berry " a prophet of responsibility."  

With care and humility, passion and eloquence, he has  lived his life built on convictions and has a love for everything that's wild, everything that's natural, and at the same time for people, particularly simple people who are trying to build a relationship with the natural world. For most of his life, he has lived and worked with his wife, Tanya Berry, on a farm in Port Royal, Kentucky, trying, as he puts it, "to see from there as far as I can."

 Berry considers himself a Christian and criticizes the Christians who fail to take climate change and the environment seriously. He’s an activist for (and against) many other issues, too, including the death penalty, nuclear power plants, the coal industry, the war in Vietnam, sustainable agriculture, and dependence on fossil fuels. In 1973 he began corresponding with poet Gary Snyder.https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2021/05/happy-birthday-gary-snyder-poet.html In many ways they were opposites: Snyder lived in California, Berry in Kentucky; Snyder was a practicing Buddhist, Berry a Christian. They didn’t always agree. Berry worried about fighting evil: “You can struggle, embattle yourself, resist evil until you become evil […] And I see with considerable sorrow that I am not going to get done fighting and live at peace in anything like the simple way I thought I would.” Snyder didn’t believe in the concept of evil the way that Berry envisioned it and told Berry he was fighting “ignorance, stupidity, narrow views [and] simple-minded egotism.” But over more than 40 years they have exchanged almost 250 letters, on subjects ranging from writing to religion, from farming to philosophy. Their letters are collected in Distant Neighbors (2014).

Wendell Berry dares to investigate the systemic malaise of the West. None is more fascinated with the interesting nature of the world than he, but he knows something’s gone wrong and he wants to look deeper. A radical voice who  cannot be pigeonholed politically or religiously, A pacifist and anti-capitalist moralist who has written against all forms of violence and destruction, of land, community and human beings.

 Many of Berry's  basic principles are actually consistent with socialist thought, in particular his strong concern  for the welfare of others and thee way he critcises corporate  power and market-driven behaviour. This combined with his belief in social equality, a thoughtful measured  mind that encompasses  a broad range of issues ranging from the ecological, aesthetic, spiritual, political and cultural. To those of us interested in the evolution of ideas, that is some achievement.

For Wendell Berry, the defense of the Earth is a mission that admits no compromise. This quiet and modest man who lives and works far from the center of power on a farm in Kentucky where his family has lived for 200 years has become an outspoken, even angry advocate for a revolution in our treatment of the land..

For years, Berry,, has advocated personal activism on behalf of the environment. He has written that there should not be a "split between what we think and what we do. Once our personal connection to what is wrong becomes clear, then we have to choose: we can go on as before, recognizing our dishonesty and living with it the best we can, or we can begin the effort to change the way we think and live." 

What Berry believes is reflected in how he conducts his life. As a political activist he has taken taken part in protests against the Vietnam War, nuclear power and a range of other environmental issues, and has written critiques inter alia of George Bush’s post-9/11 policies,  which he wrote about  about in  his 2003 essay titled "A Citizen's Response to the National Security Strategy of the United States",which was  published as a full-page advertisement in The New York Times. In it he asserted that "The new National Security Strategy published by the White House in September 2002, if carried out, would amount to a radical revision of the political character of our nation."  

 The ideas that permeate his essays, novels and poetry focus on the failings of the global economic system that result in environmental destruction, greed, violence and injustice, and the need for sustainable agriculture and appropriate technologies that allow for greater connection to place, respect the nature, and recognise the interconnectedness of life.

 At the 1968 University of Kentucky conference on the War and the Draft, in "A Statement Against the War in Vietnam" Berry said: "I have come to the realization that I can no longer imagine a war that I would believe to be either useful or necessary. I would be against any war." And in  his essay, the "Failure of War" ( 1999) he wrote, "How many deaths of other people's children are we willing to accept in order that we may be free, affluent and (supposedly) at peace? To that question I answer: None . . . Don't kill any children for my benefit." 

In 1979 he participated in non-violent civil disobedience against the construction of a nuclear power plant in Marble Hill, Indiana. And in  2009, Berry, along with Wes Jackson, president of The Land Institute and Fred Kirschenmann of The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture gathered in Washington D.C. to promote the idea of a 50-Year Farm Bill claiming that "We need a 50-year farm bill that addresses forthrightly the problems of soil loss and degradation, toxic pollution, fossil-fuel dependency and the destruction of rural communities." 

Also in 2009, along with 38 other Kentucky writers, Berry wrote in opposition to the death penalty asking the Governor and Attorney General to impose a moratorium on the death penalty in that state. In that same year, he spoke out against the National Animal Identification System, which required that independent farmers pay the cost of registration devices for each animal while large, corporate factory farms pay by the herd. Said Berry, "If you impose this program on the small farmers, who are already overburdened, you're going to have to send the police for me. I'm 75 years old. I've about completed my responsibilities to my family. I'll lose very little in going to jail in opposition to your program – and I'll have to do it." 

Opposing the use of coal as an energy source, in 2009 Berry joined over 2,000 others in non-violently blocking the gates to a coal-fired power plant in Washington, D.C., and later that year combined with several non-profit organizations and rural electric co-op members to petition against and protest the construction of a coal-burning power plant in Clark County, Kentucky. As a result, in 2011 the Kentucky Public Service Commission cancelled the construction of this power plant. On September 28, 2010 Berry participated in a rally in Louisville during an EPA hearing on how to manage coal ash. Berry said, "The EPA knows that coal ash is poison. We ask it only to believe in its own findings on this issue, and do its duty."  Berry, with 14 other protesters, spent the weekend of February 12, 2011 locked in the Kentucky governor's office demanding an end to mountaintop removal coal mining.

Through whatever he is writing, Berry's message is constant: humans must learn to live in harmony with the natural rhythms of the earth or perish. In his opinion, we must acknowledge the impact of agriculture to our society. Berry believes that small-scale farming is essential to healthy local economies, and that strong local economies are essential to the survival of the species and the well-being of the planet,

 Wendell Berry lives up to his own standards, both privately and publicly. He uses horses to work his land and employs organic methods of fertilization and pest control. In 2010 he withdrew personal papers he had donated to the University of Kentucky because he objected to a decision to name a basketball-players' dormitory the Wildcat Coal Lodge. "The University's president and board have solemnized an alliance with the coal industry, in return for a large monetary 'gift,'" he wrote. "That...puts an end to my willingness to be associated in any way officially with the University." He intends to transfer his papers to the Kentucky Historical Society.

The author of more than 50 works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, including the novel Hannah Coulter (2004), the essay collections Citizenship Papers (2005) and The Way of Ignorance (2006), and Given: Poems (2005) Wendell Berry has also  been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, which include  a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (1962), the Vachel Lindsay Prize from Poetry (1962), a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship (1965), a National Institute of Arts and Letters award for writing (1971), the Emily Clark Balch Prize from The Virginia Quarterly Review (1974), the American Academy of Arts and Letters Jean Stein Award (1987), a Lannan Foundation Award for Non-Fiction (1989), Membership in the Fellowship of Southern Writers (1991), the Ingersoll Foundation’s T. S. Eliot Award (1994), the John Hay Award (1997), the Lyndhurst Prize (1997), and the Aitken-Taylor Award for Poetry from The Sewanee Review (1998). In 2010, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by Barack Obama, and in 2016  he was the recipient of the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle. He is also a fellow of the Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Happy birthday Wendell Berry,  we are all living in a time here we could all be well served to imitate this prophet of responsibility's walk, and try  to reflect on our own responsibiliies as custodians of the places we belong to, listen to his words, his clarity and wisdom, find gentleness beyond the unsettleness of day.

The Peace of Wild Things - Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

 

I go among Trees - Wendell Berry

I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
around me like circles on water.

My tasks lie in their places
where I left them, asleep like cattle.
Then what is afraid of me comes
and lives a while in my sight.

What it fears in me leaves me,
and the fear of me leaves it.
It sings, and I hear its song.
Then what I am afraid of comes.

I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear in it leaves it,
and the fear of it leaves me.
It sings, and I hear its song.

After days of labor,
mute in my consternations,
I hear my song at last,
and I sing it. As we sing,
the day turns, the trees move.

 

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front- Wendell Berry

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

What we need is here 

Geese appear high over us,

pass, and the sky closes,

  Abandon

as in love or sleep, holds

them to their way, clear

in the ancient faith: what we need 

is here.

 And we pray,  not

for new earth or heaven, butt to be

quiet in heart, and in eye,

clear,

 what we need is here.

Crossing the Boardwalk

Every day people fighting over ideology

Some things so easily said, already undone,

Life is no charade, no borders necessary

Death forever entwines, surrealist pillows shine,

Between unsettling walls, causes that reek havoc

Sad fountains, a system so broken,

Rebel hearts keep planning where to go

Beyond the brimming swell of unreason,

Breaking the barriers, in soul searching dream

With prophetic endeavour, saving mind and soul,

Find sheltered breaches of sanity

Places of romance instead of trauma,

Where every thought is jewelled with love

The universe releasing inner riots pulsating,

Burning darkness and bitterness lingering

Sprouting forth madly while music roars ,

Bathing in unravelling glossamers of warmth

Spirits timeless hum, whispering beyond the chaos,

The syncopated rhythms of shimmering emotion

Life always ends, amidst the confusion,

Reach out find some satisfaction

Abandon all temples, follow rippling clouds,

Minds no longer occupied with diversion

Carried forever on an ocean of sound, sing.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement is working and winning the global battle for hearts and minds.

I am proud to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions ( BDS) movement, that enables  people around the world to contribute to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli apartheid and for freedom, justice and equality. BDS calls for the international community to put nonviolent pressure on Israel until it complies with international human rights laws, such as the Geneva Conventions and UN Resolution 242.

Founded in 2005, BDS is a global movement which takes inspiration from the campaign that targeted South Africa’s apartheid regime, focusing on non-violent methods to accomplish its goals. Its basic principle is that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity, and it seeks to mount international political and economic pressure on Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

According to the official website “The BDS movement was launched by 170 Palestinian unions, refugee networks, women’s organisations, professional associations, popular resistance committees and other Palestinian civil society bodies.”It is the broadest Palestinian civil society coalition.

It says “BDS is an inclusive, anti-racist human rights movement that is opposed on principle to all forms of discrimination, including anti-semitism and Islamophobia.”

BDS calls for “nonviolent pressure on Israel until it complies with international law by meeting three demands”: The end of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land (West Bank, East Jerusalem, Syrian Golan Heights) and the dismantling of Israel’s illegal separation wall and settlements in the occupied West Bank, full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated  by international laws and regulations.

There is significant support for the Palestinian BDS movement in South Africa. The African National Congress supports BDS, as does the Congress of South African Trade Unions.

BDS stated “Both the South Africa and BDS boycotts were called by those impacted by the state in question, rather than imposed by consumers or civil society abroad.”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu was a leader of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. He supports BDS and stated "I have witnessed the systematic humiliation of Palestinian men, women and children by members of the Israeli security forces. Their humiliation is familiar to all black South Africans who were corralled and harassed and insulted and assaulted by the security forces of the apartheid government."

When Israel is compared with Apartheid South Africa, the comparison sticks regardless of however convincingly the accusation is refuted. Whatever the Zionist answer, the BDS movement essentially wins just by raising the question.

According to the Red Cross the Geneva Conventions “form the core of international humanitarian law, which regulates the conduct of armed conflict and seeks to limit its effects. They protect people not taking part in hostilities”.

A 2017 UN General Assembly Resolution stated that Israel was in breach of several provisions of the Geneva Convention. It called for Israel to “comply strictly with its obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law”. It has adopted several similar resolutions historically, for example in 2015 and 2016.

The UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) states “The United Nations has stated on many occasions that the 53-year-old Israeli occupation is the source of profound human rights violations against the Palestinian people. These violations include land confiscation, settler violence, discriminatory planning laws, the confiscation of natural resources, home demolitions, forcible population transfer, excessive use of force and torture, labour exploitation, extensive infringements of privacy rights, restrictions on the media and freedom of expression, the targeting of women activists and journalists, the detention of children, poisoning by exposure to toxic wastes, forced evictions and displacement, economic deprivation and extreme poverty, arbitrary detention, lack of freedom of movement, food insecurity, discriminatory law enforcement and the imposition of a two-tier system of disparate political, legal, social, cultural and economic rights based on ethnicity and nationality.

Palestinian and Israeli human rights defenders, who peacefully bring public attention to these violations, are slandered, criminalised or labeled as terrorists. Above all, the Israeli occupation has meant the denial of the right of Palestinian self-determination.”

In addition to the violations of international human rights laws posed by settlements and annexation, the Israeli government is accused of violating the right of refugees to return to their homeland and is accused of discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel.

Estimates indicate that nearly 50% of Palestinians live outside of Palestine.

According to the Oxford Human Rights Hub, Palestinian refugees and their descendents “constitute one of the largest and longest-standing unresolved refugee crises in the world, with 7.54 million refugees in addition to 720,000 internally displaced persons”.

UN Resolution 194, which was passed in 1948, states that Palestinian refugees should have the right to return to their homes, but this right has been denied.

Oxford Human Rights Hub continues, “Palestinian refugees, who were forcibly displaced as a result of 1948 and 1967 wars, are stripped of their UN-mandated Right of Return [...] Like never before in the history of the UN, Resolution 194’s consistency with international laws and instruments was reaffirmed by the UN more than 135 times.” 

Ten former presidents, and more than 700 members of parliament, mayors, cultural figures and academics from Latin America, Asia and Africa, called on the UN to recognize Israel as an apartheid State and to impose sanctions on it. 

BDS uses  the following methods: .

Boycotts

The BDS website states “Boycotts involve withdrawing support from Israel's apartheid regime, complicit Israeli sporting, cultural and academic institutions, and from all Israeli and international companies engaged in violations of Palestinian human rights.”

Divestment campaigns

“Divestment campaigns urge banks, local councils, churches, pension funds and universities to withdraw investments from the State of Israel and all Israeli and international companies that sustain Israeli apartheid.”

Calls for sanctions

“Sanctions campaigns pressure governments to fulfil their legal obligations to end Israeli apartheid, and not aid or assist its maintenance, by banning business with illegal Israeli settlements, ending military trade and free-trade agreements, as well as suspending Israel's membership in international forums such as UN bodies and FIFA.”

None of these should be controversial – yet large swathes of the British political establishment seemingly align with Johnson’s disapproval on the matter.  Johnson's government continues to push for anti-BDS legislation. The December 2019 Queen’s speech announced the proposal of a new law essentially criminalising the BDS movement. It stated that (if the law passes) public institutions such as universities and local councils would be prohibited from “imposing their own direct or indirect boycotts, disinvestment or sanctions campaigns against foreign countries”. Eric Pickles, former Conservative Party chairman and House of Lords Parliamentary Chairman of the pro-Israel lobby group Conservative Friends of Israel, has dubbed the campaign a ‘thin disguise for anti-Semitism.

The Labour Party, too, has been consistently weak on the cause, despite a new poll showing that 61 percent of its members support BDS.

In summer 2020, when Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to extend Israel’s annexation to make way for more settlers—an endeavour in flagrant violation of international law—Lisa Nandy called for an import ban on settlement goods, but has since been at pains to say that she has ‘never’ supported BDS. In her view, ‘BDS pushes people away instead of bringing people together.’

Labour leader Keir Starmer apparently subscribes to the same theory. He recently pulled out of a Ramadan virtual fast-breaking event after he was made aware that its organiser supported the boycott of Israeli dates. The move was fiercely criticised, with over 2,000 people signing a petition condemning Starmer’s ‘selective disengagement’ and his discrimination against Muslims.

The challenge for those involved in the BDS movement is that the attempt to neutralise it is a multi-pronged one. Even before the government’s proposed bill, universities across the country had a history of muzzling pro-Palestinian activism on campus.

In cracking down further, Britain is starting to sing from the same repressive hymn sheet as the United States and Israel. The former has seen at least 28 states pass laws that either restrict or ban individuals or companies dealing in state contracts from boycotting Israel, while the latter has form for blacklisting charities and human rights organisations from entering the country because they endorse the BDS movement. In 2017, Israel’s government approved a $72 million plan to combat BDS’s influence.

More than half of US states have passed laws that combat the BDS movement. Donald Trump pursued legislation that would effectively prohibit support for boycotts of the Israeli state on campus. 

There has been proposed anti-BDS legislation at various levels of government from state to councils in Canada, France, Germany, Austria,Czech Republic and the Balearic Islands.

Repression of BDS is hardly surprising, as successful examples of direct democracy and people power fly in the face of efforts to cow and silence activists and movements.

These frantic attempts to gag BDS and its supporters is testament to its growth and prominence. Indeed, the list of success stories in recent years is a considerable one

In 2019, major international companies including Australia’s Macquarie, Canada’s Bombardier, France’s Alstom, and Germany’s Siemens withdrew from bidding to build Israel’s illegal settlement railway on stolen Palestinian land as the movement’s pressure mounted.

The UN has also released a list of 112 companies that are complicit in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise, a move widely considered a robust step towards holding international corporations accountable for facilitating Israel’s oppression. The list includes familiar names like JCB, Motorola, Airbnb, and TripAdvisor.

2021 has seen fantastic momentum for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement from Ben & Jerry's ending sales in Israel's illegal settlements, to the UK-wide Boycott Puma Day of Action. The “friendly” football match between FC Barcelona and racist Israeli club Beitar Jerusalem, known for its fans’ “death to Arabs” chants, was cancelled. Premier league Qatar Sports Club pledge not to renew with PUMA amid local and international calls for boycott due to its compliance with the Israeli occupation.

Lothian Pension Fund, Scotland’s second largest local authority pension fund, with 84,000 members and £8 billion in assets, divested from Israeli Bank Hapoalim.

The Irish government became the first EU country to declare Israel’s building of illegal settlements on Palestinian land a ‘de facto annexation.'

 Over 350 academic departments, centres, unions, and societies, along with 23,000 academics, students, and university staff, signed statements in support of Palestinian rights with many calling for BDS!

Chilean parliament introduces a bill to ban import of Israeli goods from illegal settlements.39 labour organizations, representing hundreds of thousands of workers across Canada, signed an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, urging his government to immediately suspend bilateral military trade with Israel.

The Canadian Labour Congress endorsed a ban on settlement goods, promoting divestment from Israeli military and security companies, and calling on Canada to impose a #MilitaryEmbargo on Israel.

The University of Brasilia and the University of Costa Rica passed historic resolutions declaring they will have no ties with companies complicit in Israel’s regime of military occupation, colonialism, and apartheid. The Student Association of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva became the first student association in Switzerland to endorse BDS and to declare itself an Apartheid Free Zone (AFZ).

The City University of New York (CUNY) staff congress, representing 30,000 members, passed a resolution condemning Israel as a settler-colonial and apartheid state.

More than 130 Mexican civil rights organizations demand CEMEX end complicity with Israeli apartheid. 

East Sussex Pension Fund divested from Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest private arms manufacturer.

In a year marred by Israeli apartheid and massacres, Palestinian hope and unity shine through as do these victories, BDS is working and winning the global battle for hearts and mind, whilst delivering justice to the Palestinian people. 

The most common self-satisfied arguments against BDS highlights how BDS supporters single out Israel while ignoring other notorious human rights violators, such as Turkey, China, or Russia. While supposedly exposing some form of hypocrisy and insincerity, this in fact concedes that Israel is comparably guilty, grouping Israel along with murderous, oppressive, and tyrannical regimes.

If like me you I believe in a world with equal rights for all and not privileges for some and are against all forms of oppression and discrimination and want to stop corporate complicity in human rights violations. If you support the rights of all Indigenous peoples, including Palestinians, over their ancestral lands, cultural heritage and natural resources and support the global struggle against racism in all its forms, and believe that no state, including Israel, should be granted impunity for violating international law and human rights. And if you subscribe to Martin Luther King’s words that ethically-consistent boycotts entail “withdrawing our cooperation from an evil system," supporting BDS is a moral imperative.

 Boycotts work. The power of boycotts past and present is that they refuse to confine the movements they represent to the realm of humanitarian relief, they also demand accountability.

 Ultimately  BDS empowers individuals to do better than their governments, and can be a way to pressure governments to act. While governments fail to take a stand against war crimes committed by the Israeli state, we can condemn these actions through Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions. BDS is a prime example of peoples power in action.

It is used as a key tactic of solidarity with the Palestinian people,creating a pressure that cannot simply be ignored. BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity. 

Thousands of organisations are working on BDS campaigns globally.UK organisations that have expressed support for BDS include NUS, the Scottish Trades Union Congress, National Union of Teachers, Union of Students in Ireland, Unite the Union, War on Want, and 25 student unions, including the University of Manchester, SOAS, Goldsmiths, UCL and Kings College London.

Individuals who have expressed support for BDS include Alice Walker, Angela Davis, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Arundhati Roy, Benjamin Zephaniah, Eduardo Galeano, Gideon Levy, Ilhan Omar, Judith Butler, Ken Loach, Lauryn Hill, Mandla Mandela, Naomi Klein, Roger Waters and Stephen Hawking.

Several governments have spoken out in defense of the right for citizens to support BDS, including the Netherlands, Sweden and Ireland.

A groundbreaking report by Human Rights Watch, titled ‘A Threshold Crossed’, detailed how Israel’s policies against millions of Palestinians amounts to persecution and apartheid and crimes againsst humanity. It’s long past time to hold Israel accountable. BDS is a movement to disempower and defund such crimes — and that is a movement worth supporting.

BDS  exerts economic pressure on powerful companies or governments so they change their ways. Boycotts have seen countless sucesses and played an important role in the ethical consumer movement since it began.From the boycott of South African products during the Apartheid in the 1980s, to the Alabama bus boycotts, it is clear they can contribute to real change.

Author and activist Naomi Klein has stated “The best strategy to end the increasingly bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.”

   

Here are ways to Support BDS

 

Boycott complicit companies

The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) calls for the boycott of several companies operating globally. These are:

Puma who sponsor the Israel Football Association, which includes teams in Israel’s illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land.

Hewlett Packard that help run the ID system that Israel uses to restrict Palestinian movement.

Sabra hummus is a joint venture between PepsiCo and the Strauss Group, an Israeli food company that provides financial support to the Israel Defense Forces.

Caterpillar bulldozers are regularly used in the demolition of Palestinian homes and farms and in Israel’s massacres in Gaza.

SodaStream home drinks machines are one of Israel’s best known exports.

Ahava cosmetics are another of Israel’s best known export companies.

BDS also says that it targets “all Israeli and international companies engaged in violations of Palestinian human rights”. Local BDS groups and campaigns have named many specific companies complicit in Israeli apartheid: BDS members can campaign against any company that meets the above definition, meaning that they can focus on those that suit their local context with autonomy. 

Search online to find a local group and check out their campaigns for boycott calls near you. A list of global BDS groups is available  on the BDS website  (though there are many more that have not egistered on this list). :https://bdsmovement.net/

Amanuel Asrat's 50th Birthday

Today 26 July 2021 is the 50th birthday  of Eritrean Poet, critic and editor-in-chief of the leading newspaper Zemen, Amanuel Asrat.

Amanuel  a graduate of soil science and water conservation of University of Asmara, is greatly credited for Eritrea’s poetry resurgence of 2000s. An award-winning poet and critic, Amanuel along with two friends, also created a literary club called  ቍርሲ ቀዳም ኣብ ጠዓሞት  (Saturday’s Supper) prompting literary clubs to emerge in all major Eritrean towns. While he was editor-in-chief of Zemen, the newspaper was the leading literary newspaper in Eritrea and helped shape the cultural landscape; Asrat himself was a popular art critic.

Amanuel’s paper was one of several that reported on divisions between reformers and conservatives within the ruling Party for Democracy and Justice and advocated for full implementation of the country’s democratic constitutionn 2001, the Eritrean government began a campaign to silence its critics, arresting opposition politicians, students and many journalists. As part of this crackdown, Amanuel was arrested at his home on 23 September 2001, alongside the editors of all privately-owned newspapers for reporting around the G-15 letter, an open letter from prominent Eritrean politicians that condemned the actions of President Isias Afwerki and his regime. 

 The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights ruled in May 2007 that journalists arrested in September 2001 in Eritrea, which includes Amanuel Asrat, were being held in arbitrary and unlawful detention. It called upon the Eritrean government to release the men and compensate them. The Government of Eritrea has ignored the ruling and journalists arrested in September 2001 remain in detention.

.Over the years, Eritrean officials have offered vague and inconsistent explanations for the arrests–accusing the journalists of involvement in anti-state conspiracies  in connection with foreign intelligence, of skirting military service, and of violating press regulations. Officials, at times, even denied that the journalists existed. Meanwhile, shreds of often unverifiable, second- or third-hand information smuggled out of the country by people fleeing into exile suggested as many as seven journalists have died in custody.

 When asked in a June 2016 interview with Radio France International about the status of journalists and politicians arrested in 2001, Eritrean Foreign Affairs Minister Osman Saleh Mohammed said "all of them are alive" and “in good hands,” adding that they would face trial "when the government decides.”

 In June 2019, a group of over 100 prominent African journalists, writers, and activists wrote an open letter to Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki asking to visit the imprisoned journalists and activists, according to a copy of the letter that was published by the South African newspaper Mail & Guardian. In a response published on its website, Eritrea’s Ministry of Information said that only reporters with a “genuine interest in understanding the country” were welcome, and said the imprisoned journalists were arrested for “events of sedition.”

According to English PEN, Asrat and his fellow writers are believed to have been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, including lack of access to medical care, while detained in the purpose-built maximum-security prison Eiraeiro. The free speech organisation, which awards the PEN Pinter prizes  said that it was unknown whether charges have been brought against them or if they have ever been brought to trial. He has not been heard from since. 

Asrat's writings detailed the daily life of the underprivileged, and explored themes of war and peace, notably depicting the negative side of conflict. Amanuel Asrat is one of the few Eritrean writers who are assuming their proper places and due recognitions internationally mainly through PEN Eritrea’s advocacy campaign. He was profiled in August 2015 issue of The Guardian along other five Eritrean journalists; his poem was translated into 14 languages to mark International Translation Day; he held one of the empty chairs at the 81^st PEN Congress in Quebec, Canada; and he was one of the five writers featured in 2015 on the Day of the Imprisoned Writer, an international day that recognizes writers who have suffered persecution as a result of exercising their right to freedom of expression. In October 2020,Asrat was named International Writer of Courage by Linton Kwesi Johnson. the writer and musician  Linton Kweisi Johnson won the PEN Pinter Prize 2020 in memory of playwright Harold Pinter.As part of the win, he could  “share” his prize with another individual,and he chose Amanuel.

Johnson paid tribute to Asrat: "Keeping a citizen incarcerated, incommunicado, without charge or trial for nearly 20 years is the kind of egregious brutality that we associate with totalitarian states and dictatorships. As a gesture of solidarity from a poet of the African diaspora, I have chosen the Eritrean poet, songwriter, critic, and journalist Amanuel Asrat as the Writer of Courage for 2020."

Daniel Mebrahtu, Amanuel Asrat’s brother, commented: "We, the family of Amanuel Asrat, are very pleased, honoured and humbled to accept this award on behalf of our son and brother, Amanuel Asrat. Many thanks to English PEN and Mr Linton Kwesi-Johnson. Amanuel is suffering under the harsh conditions of the Eiraeiro dungeon in Eritrea for 19 years and counting. His whereabouts are not known. We don’t even know whether he is alive or dead. We wish Amanuel was aware of this prize and honour somehow. We ask the international community to intervene in his case and other prisoners of conscience in Eritrea, and demand their immediate release. Thank you for the recognition, for your thoughts and prayers. Thank you for your constant support. We really appreciate it."

For International Translation Day on 30 September 2015, PEN members from around the world translated Amanuel's  ኣበሳ ኲናት (The Scourge of War) into  many different languages. The poem is an unflinching look at the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia that lasted from 1998 to 200 and that reports from the time that left tens of thousands dead,

‘ኣበሳ ኲናት (The Scourge of War)’

Where two brothers pass each other
Where two brothers meet each other
Where two brothers conjoin
In the piazza of life and death
In the gulf of calamity and cultivation
In the valley of fear and peace
Something resounded.
The ugliness of the thing of war
When its spring comes
When its ravaging echoes knock at your door
It is then that the scourge of war brews doom
But…
You serve it willy-nilly
Unwillingly you keep it company
Still, for it to mute how hard you pray!
– Translated by Tedros Abraham

To mark Amanuel Asrat’s 50th birthday, I hope that you will join me  in sending messages of solidarity to his family, to show them that he has not been – and will not be – forgotten. You can do so here:-

https://www.englishpen.org/pen-writes/penwrites-amanuel-asrat/

Support the RNLI : Oppose the Racist Nationality and Borders Bill

 

The British charity Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) received a backlash recently following a news report which described the entry of their vessel into French waters to search for a boat in distress with 20 migrants on board.

RNLI said it received a huge volume of comments on social media after a British tabloid published the article on July 2. Former UKIP and Brexit party leader, and seven-time failed parliamentary candidate, Ngel Farage    said at the time the RNLI had become "a taxi service for illegal immigration".

On July 5  the day before the publication of the highly contentious Nationality and Borders Bill  (July 6), which seeks to further restrict the asylum application process and to clamp down on clandestine Channel crossings by people seeking refuge in the UK, the RNLI responded with a statement clarifying that its mission is to "save lives at sea . . . without judgment of how they came to be in the water." The charity added, "we want to be absolutely clear that we are incredibly proud of the humanitarian work our volunteer lifeboat crews do to rescue vulnerable people in distress."

The RNLI is a voluntary  body that;s sole purpose of existence is to save lives,  they don’t care about the immigration status of the people they pick up.

Furthermore, the service will keep rescuing people under those conditions, no matter what Patel says, because they have a Royal Charter – the Queen supports what they do.

Sadly, the publicity given to our brave lifeboat people has attracted the attention of the nastier elements of society , emboldened from the rhetoric from such as Nigel Farage and Home Secretary Priti Patel we’re starting to see incidents like the following .

On Friday (23 July) evening, some members of the RNLI Tower lifeboat crew were verbally abused while reporting for duty. A volunteer with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution has reported being ‘verbally assaulted’ by members of the public whereas on responsibility. The Tower RNLI station stated on a twitter post :https://twitter.com/TowerRNLI/status/1418703723631624199
"We are shocked and saddened to report some of our volunteer crew were verbally assaulted due to their role when reporting for duty tonight. This behaviour will not be tolerated. Thank you @metpoliceuk for your support."

RNLI Tower reported that the reason for the verbal assault was 'due to their role'.in rescuing people from drowning in UK waters,

Tower lifeboat station operates from lifeboat pier on the River Thames in central London and provides a 24 hour search and rescue service, 7 days a week.

The service covers 16 miles of the Thames, between Barking Creek and Battersea from its station under Waterloo Bridge.

Alongside search and rescue, RNLI Tower conducts patrols on the river at busy times, are on hand to provide first aid treatment for passengers and crew on other boats and assist the recovery of bodies from the river.

It is the RNLI's busiest station, and as with all RNLI crews, is served by volunteers who work long shift patterns to cover the 24/7 service.

 The unit said on a twitter post :https://twitter.com/TowerRNLI/status/1418703723631624199

It's  really hard to comprehend how twisted someones views would have to be to to verbally abuse them.The RNLI represent  the best of us: courageous, selfless, non-judgemental men and women who, seeking no reward, go into danger to save us regardless of the colour of our skin. Hardly any wonder then that such heroes shame the cowards by their actions.

Home secretary Priti Patel’s immigration bill, which will criminalise rescuing drowning migrants at sea, looks to punish asylum seekers attempting to flee to Britain,  I really think it is not not just a material attempt to kill migrants but also to attempt to demonise the very concept of compassion and feed the minds of racist bigots..

Despite this over 250 organizations – including the Refugee Council, the British Red Cross, Freedom from Torture, Refugee Action and Asylum Matters – have formed a coalition called Together with Refugees to call for a more humane approach to people seeking asylum in the UK.

And in response  to the Home Office’s Borders Bill introduced to parliament on 6 July, Steve Valdez-Symonds, Refugee and Migrants Rights Programme Director at Amnesty International UK, said: 

“This shockingly-bad bill will fatally undermine the right to asylum - both in the UK and elsewhere. 

“Instead of introducing this piece of utter legislative vandalism, what the Home Office should be doing is establishing safe routes for the relatively few people escaping persecution who wish to seek asylum here. 

“This reckless and deeply-unjust bill is set to bring shame on Britain’s international reputation. It will open the door to other countries also seeking to dismantle a global refugee system which has saved countless lives. 

“This is a shameful dereliction of duty from the Home Secretary. If the bill goes through, the UK will have reneged on key international commitments - including the Refugee Convention, put in place after the horrors of World War Two.”

 Britain's immigration system, the so called 'hostile environment' is already inhumane and inherently racist.The racist Nationality and Borders Bill  which received its second studying in parliament on Monday, contains provisions for individuals who have fled hazard to search asylum in Britain to be arrested at sea and prosecuted below a new offence for arriving with out a legitimate entry clearance, will only add to this misery. It must be opposed.

As it stands it undermines everyone’s right to claim asylum, protection and safety. It introduces a two-tier system so that regardless of what horrors people are fleeing from they will be first of all judged on the way they arrived in the UK. Anyone arriving by a so-called illegal route would be penalized.  People fleeing for their lives to escape war, rape and other violence, starvation and environmental devastation can’t wait to be invited to travel via a “legal” route – and it is a fallacy as there are virtually no legal routes into the UK, which results in thousands risking their lives crossing the channel in trucks or flimsy dingies.

People could be turned back by border force officials while out at sea – it is estimated that 1,500 people drowned in the Mediterranean in 2020 – how many bodies will wash up on English beaches if this “push back” policy is implemented. People could be put in detention immediately on arrival and their claim fast tracked leaving little time to get legal representation, gather evidence and get a fair hearing.  If they manage to claim asylum they could be at risk of being removed at any time while their claim is being decided and get only “temporary protection status” if it succeeds. It will be harder to appeal a refusal of an asylum claim which means that even rape survivors will be expected to speak about all that has happened to them immediately on arrival.  People will be forced to live in designated accommodation like Napier and Penally barracks, which were exposed as being unfit for human habitation,

Also by removing helping an asylum seeker for 'gain' under the current legislation the Home Secretary would not only be able to  prosecute a charity like the RNLI, but also anybody rescuing drowning asylum seekers at sea, in clear contravention if international law and basic humanity.

We should not forget Britain has a long tradition of giving a warm welcome to a range of different groups seeking sanctuary and protection  maybe it's time in the midst of ongoing crisis to once agin opn its borders to the world;s displaced people. 

In the meantime for all those sickened by the abuse members of the RNLI  recently received ( the last thing the charity’s crews should have to put up with is racists angry that they did their job),  please consider making a small donation to the RNLI  and give them the support they truly deserve and help them keep saving lives. You can donate here :-,https://rnli.org/support-us/give-money/donate

Norway marks the day when Fascist Anders Breivik killed 77 people

 

 Norway marks the day when on July 22 2011 thirty-two year-old Anders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian fascist, drove into the city center of Oslo where he placed a car bomb at the government quarter. The bomb went off at 3:25 pm killing eight people and wounding thirty others severely. The office of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg from the Labor Party was badly damaged, and parts of the governmental quarter are to this day still inaccessible. Thereafter the same terrorist, Anders Behring Breivik, drove to the tiny of Island Utøya, 3 8 kilometers outside Oslo. Here the annual youth camp of the Labor Youth League was taking place, as it had done each year since 1950. Dressed up as a police officer he was allowed to enter the camp where he shortly after killed an unarmed police officer, the one person being in charge of the security on the Island. Hoping to target former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, whose appearance at the island that day was cancelled, he fired indiscriminately at adults and teens alike. The next hour the youth camp was transformed into a nightmare where teenagers in hiding, or on the run, were systematically tracked down and executed. Most of them were shot in the head or in the face at close range. From 17.22 to 6:35 pm sixty-nine people, mostly teenagers were murdered at Utøya. The two youngest victims were fourteen years old. In all 232 were left injured. Leaving the country and the world in shock. Here's a link to a poem I wrote at the time .https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2011/07/after-utoya-norway.html

More than 500 survived, many. by hiding for several hours in the woods. Others swam into the cold water of the Tyrifjord from where they were rescued by locals.

Breivik’s attack was labelled terrorism, joining only two other terrorist attacks in the country since the second world war (the 1977 bombing of a left-wing bookshop, and a bomb thrown into a peaceful demonstration in 1979).

Breivik’s attack differed from the horrors of other headline-making mass shootings in that his shots were not “random carnage”, but targeted at fledgling political figures of the future. His use of the bomb as a distraction to aid his main attack was even more impactful, one in four Norwegians knew someone personally affected by the massacre.

Brevik’s actions led to copycat attacks in the Czech Republic and Poland in 2012 and the  New Zealand Mosque attacks in 2019 which left 51 dead and the massacre at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, which claimed 23 lives.

Other sickening attacks since the Breivik massacre include the 2017 mosque gun attack in Quebec, the 2016 Munich shopping mall attack and the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.

“When you’re looking at terrorism in advanced economies, it’s driven by disenfranchisement from society and alienation from the system,” Killelea told the Times.

Due to the contagious nature of mass shootings and the large amount of global media attention they receive, it is likely that this will continue to happen for years.

Two years ago, Norway was also, once more hit by far-right extremism when an armed far-right activist, after shooting dead his adopted, half-Asian sister, attempted to break into a mosque in Bærum. Worshippers successfully subdued him.

Only then did Norway’s security police changed its assessments and say that right-wing extremists were more likely to carry out domestic terrorism than Islamists. Eight years after Breivik's attack.

"I thought that Norway would positively change forever after the attacks," said Aasmund Aukrust, then-deputy leader of the Labour Youth Wing who helped organise the 2011 camp on Utøya.

"Ten years later, that hasn’t happened. And in many ways, the hate we see online and the threats against people in the Labour movement have increased."

According to the party, one in three Utøya survivors say that they have experienced hate speech or direct threats since the 2011 attacks.

Aukrust, now a national lawmaker for the Labour Party, is one of many who has been campaigning for a nationwide inquiry into the right-wing ideology.

There is hope that a new book, featuring a newfound openness and anger among survivors, will "lift the debate" and shed light on the historical roots of the far-right in Norway.

"What was very positive after the terror attacks was that people saw this as an attack on the whole of Norway. It was a way of showing solidarity,” said Aukrust.

"But that has disappeared. It was an attack on a multicultural society. And though it was the act of one person, we know that his views are shared by more people today than they were 10 years ago."

Memory politics, he organisation of collective memory by political ,by the Norwegian government was also deemed to be a "string of failures" by Jakobsen.

The government decided to tear down a landmark building in the centre of Oslo damaged by the bombing. The building had been adorned with a giant mural of a Picasso painting engraved by Norwegian sculptor Carl Nesjar. Critics said the decision to tear it down and replace it with a sparkling new building would erase the atrocities of July 22, 2011.

A positive element of Breivik’s legacy is that Norway, which already prohibits civilians from owning automatic weapons, announced plans in 2018 to  ban  semi-automatic gun ownership by 2021 (except for hunting and sport). Although the ban is yet to be enacted, there are over 40 different semi-automatic weapons slated to be largely outlawed. The ban would require current owners of semi-automatic weapons to surrender them to the authorities, and would prohibit future sales.

While Breivik believed that direct action was required over democracy, studies have shown that Norwegian youth are now more determined to use democracy than ever, with 67% of Norwegians aged 18-21 casting a ballot in 2013 elections, an increase of 10% from 2009.

Breivik was what researchers have called a “fame-seeking mass shooter” – he chose to be captured, and distributed photos and a manifesto to enhance his notoriety.

Court-ordered psychological assessment ultimately concluded that Breivik’s acts were the result of grandiose, delusional narcissism – his views were “extreme overvalued beliefs,” not delusions.

He wanted his audience to view him as a “freedom figher” acting against an imagined Islamist threat, when in reality he was a hate-filled fantasist who lacked any meaningful social connections or occupation. Like many similar perpetrators, he turned to mass shooting at a difficult and lonely point in his life.

Breivik was sentenced to preventative detention for 21 years in prison, the maximum sentence allowed by Norwegian law. This can be repeatedly extended by five years if needed. He may only be eligible for release if he is deemed rehabilitated. However, reports of his continuously disruprive and litigous behaviour.  Breivik still believes in forming a fascist revolution led by white supremacists. which make it unlikely he will be released anytime soon.

 A psychiatrist's assessment written in December 2016 said that Breivik "is more conspiratorial," wanted contact in jail with other extreme right-wingers and to form a fascist party with radicals on the outside. It also said that he was more convinced his ideas were right and that others' were wrong.

Although he is now behind bars, Norway is still wrestling with the devastating impact of his acts and  the far-right, anti-Islam ideology that inspired them. But ten years after the attacks, Norway’s strict gun laws are set to become more so, with fewer dangerous people accessing firearms. The youth of “generation Utøya” are more committed to political debate and less tolerant of violence, and better public understanding of the facts around mental illness and violence was a consequence of Breivik’s highly publicised trial.

Despite Breivik’s atrocity, he inadvertently made a civilised country even more so. Should he ever be released from prison, he may find himself in a Norway he no longer recognises.

The events of 2011 have been recorded in various book and film projects over the past decade.

On Netflix, 22 July focuses on the story of one survivor struggling to come to terms with the incident. It would have been very easy to focus such a movie on the tragic events on the island. While that's of course featured, the film focuses in much more on the experience of the one teenager after the day itself.

For a more in-depth look, I recommend the book that inspired the movie. One Of Us by Norwegian journalist Åsne Seierstad opens with a harrowing tale of what it was like to be stranded on the island with only the sound of gunshots for company: 

The heavy rain had eased off, but some last drops were still trickling down their necks and sweaty cheeks. They took in as little air as possible, trying to breathe without a sound. A raspberry bush had strayed out onto the cliff. Wild roses, pale pink, almost white, were clinging to the dance. The they heard footsteps approaching.

She then proceeds to explore the history of Anders Beiring Breivik from his troubled childhood to his right-wing activism and online gaming addiction, all through the lens of his lengthy trial in the Oslo courtrooms. You can read more about the book here.

A memorial planned near Utøya remains unfinished. Swedish artist Jonas Dahlberg's 'Memory Wound' project had been the one selected for the memorial after an international competition.

The work planned for the tip of the peninsula facing Utøya to be cut to create a gap but the decision was later reversed following complaints by locals.

The project the government later settled on was of 77 bronze statues, designed by Norwegian architect Manthey Kula.

"I think it’s shameful that Norway, 10 years after the terrorist attack, doesn’t have an official memorial site near Utoya," Tonje Brenna, the former deputy leader of the Youth Wing, and today Labour leader of Viken, the county where Utoya and Oslo stand, said.

"It stands in grave contrast to the fact that the Norwegian Labour Youth have created their own beautiful, respectful and award-winning memorial site on the island,” Brenna said. “The youth have been able to do the task the Norwegian government has been unable to do."

Thursday's rememberance events started with a memorial service outside what was once the Prime Ministr's office, an empty shell since the attack due to disagreements over how to rebuild it..

The service, which was broadcast on television, was attended by Prime Minister Erna Solberg, survivors and relatives  of the victims, political leaders and members of Norway's royal family.. 

Thousands of people gathered in the streets outside to mourn the 77 victims.

Disturbingly ten years after Brievik's lilling spree on social media there are still people motivated by extreme ideological thoughts, based on conspiracy theories and a fascist nazi view of the world.FAR-right terror attacks are rocketing with deaths soaring by 700 per cent in atrocities "inspired" by neo-Nazi Anders Breivik's massacre.

The 2020 Global Terrorism Index (GTI) found that despite a fall in the overall terrorism death toll some extremist factions are deadlier than ever.

In the West, far-right terror attacks soared by 250 per cent between 2014 and 2019 with the number of victims dying rising by 709 per cent.

There have now been more than 35 far-right terrorist incidents in the West every year for the past five years, the report reveals.

The terrifying rise appears to have been sparked by the 2011 massacre at a Norwegian summer camp by hate-fuelled Breivik, say experts.

Far-right propaganda on social media  is used by extremists to  try to exploit a captive audience during lockdown.and have tried to take advantage of the chaos and uncertainty caused by the global pandemic to spread extremist messages. They live on the internet, they live around the dinner table, they live in our communities , they live in  our neighbourhood.We have to  resist them so that what happened at Utøya Island  never happens again.

Over the last few year the media focus has solely been on that pathetic excuse of a human being, Anders Behring Breivik, Today I will try to rebalance this by focusing more on the victims of that fatal day on July 22,2011.

Hanna Endresen, 61, Oslo

Receptionist in the security department of the Government Administration Services. She was described as a “good colleague”.

Tove Ashill Knutsen, 56, Oslo

Secretary with the electricians and information technology workers’ union. On her way to subway station when bomb exploded.

Kai Hauge, 32, Oslo

Owned a bar and restaurant in Oslo. A colleague described his death as “a great loss”.

Jon Vegard Lervag, 32, Oslo

A lawyer who worked in the justice department. He was described as “socially engaged”.

Ida Marie Hill, 34, Oslo

Originally from Grue, Hedmark county, Ida worked as an adviser to the ministry of justice. She was described as “a dear and highly-valued employee”.

Hanne Ekroll Loevlie, 30, Oslo

A senior government worker originally from Tyristrand, Buskerud county. Colleagues said she “represented the best in us”.

Anne Lise Holter, 51, Valer i Oestfold, Oestfold county

Senior consultant to Norway’s PM Jens Stoltenberg’s office. Officials sent their “warmest thoughts and sympathy” to her family and friends.

Kjersti Berg Sand, 26, Nord-Ordal

Worked on international issues in Justice Department. Colleagues said they had lost a “dear and highly valued employee”.

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Utoeya island shooting
Utoeya island victims – photos of some of those who died are not available
Mona Abdinur, 18, Oslo

The committed young politician was described as “a well-loved friend, who was socially engaged and interested in multicultural issues”.

Maria Maageroe Johannesen, 17, Noetteroey, Vestfold county

Student at Greve Forest High School who was interested in music, dance and drama. Described as a wonderful, conscientious girl who was a “ray of sunshine”.

Ismail Haji Ahmed 19 Hamar, Hedmark county

Better known as Isma Brown after appearing on a talent show. The dance instructor was described as a “very bubbly, happy, caring and happy boy. He was very positive with a very big heart.”

Ronja Soettar Johansen, 17, Vefsn, Nordland county

An active blogger, Ronja had a keen interest in music. Friends said she was “a person with courage, commitment and kindness”.

Thomas Margido Antonsen, 16, Oslo

A student council representative. Described by friends as “a boy who spread joy”.

Sondre Kjoeren, 17, Orkdal, Soer-Troendelag county

Described as a gentle but committed person. He was said to have been heavily involved in efforts to get a new sports hall in his village.

Porntip Ardam, 21, Oslo

Known as Pamela. She was described as talented, super-intelligent, politically active and down to earth.

Margrethe Boeyum Kloeven, 16, Baerum, Akershus county

The student council leader was described as an “active and versatile girl”.

Modupe Ellen Awoyemi, 15, Drammen, Buskerud county

Daughter of the city council politician Lola Awoyemi. Described as a kind and open girl, who was active in AUF discussions.

Syvert Knudsen, 17, Lyngdal, Vest-Agder county

The student politician is believed to have been one of the first shot on the island. His family described him as a “bubbly” boy with a keen interest in music.

Lene Maria Bergum, 19, Namsos, Nord-Troendelag

Her head teacher described her as an excellent, beautiful youth, who was sociable, interested in international issues. She had planned to start a summer job as a journalist.

Anders Kristiansen, 18, Bardu, Troms county

An active young politician and leader of the AUF in his area. He was said to be “full of initiative” with “a great desire to work in politics”.

Kevin Daae Berland, 15, Akoey, Hordaland county

Active in Askoey AUF and was involved in local politics as well as being a member of the youth council.

Elisabeth Troennes Lie, 16, Halden, Oestfold county

A board member of the Halden AUF. Described as “the sweetest person in the world”.

Trond Berntsen, 51, Oevre Eiker, Buskerud county

Crown Princess of Norway’s step-brother. The royal court said the off-duty police officer was killed while working as a security guard on the island.

Gunnar Linaker, 23, Bardu, Troms county

Regional secretary of Labour party’s youth wing. Father described him as a “calm, big teddy bear with lots of humour and lots of love”.

Sverre Flate Bjoerkavag, 28, Sula, Soer-Troendelag county

Union official concerned about justice, equality and community thinking. Described as a well-liked young man who fought for pupils and students’ rights. Was training to be a nurse.

Tamta Lipartelliani, 23, Georgia

Secretary of the international committee of the Young Socialists of Georgia.

Torjus Jakobsen Blattmann, 17, Kristiansand,Vest-Agder county

Son of former political adviser. His father said he was a boy “full of humour” who loved playing the guitar.

Eva Kathinka Lutken, 17, Sarpsborg, Oestfold county

She was described as an active politician who was well liked.

Monica Boesei, 45, Hole, Buskerud county

PM Jens Stoltenberg said: “To many of us, she was the embodiment of Utoeya. And now she is dead. Shot and killed whilst taking care of and giving joy to young people.”

Even Flugstad Malmedal, 18, Gjoevik, Oppland county

The student with an interest in politics was described as “a gentle boy who stood up for his friends”.

Carina Borgund, 18, Oslo

Friends and family said she was “kind, caring, gentle and positive. She loved life and spread joy to everyone around her”.

Tarald Kuven Mjelde, 18, Osteroey

Said to be a big fan of Chelsea football team and described as “very warm, friendly and socially engaged”.

Johannes Buoe, 14, Mandal, Vest-Agder county

“An independent boy with a good sense of humour,” his parents told NRK. He was interested in dogs, hunting, snowmobiling and took an active part in the youth community.

Ruth Benedicte Vatndal Nilsen, 15, Toensberg, Vestfold county

Described by friends as “always happy, positive, and without prejudice”.

Asta Sofie Helland Dahl, 16, Sortland, Nordland county

Teachers described her as a wonderful girl who was “open and cheerful”.

Hakon Oedegaard, 17, Trondheim, Soer-Troendelag county

Music student at Heimdal high school and member of Byasen school marching band. Described as a role model for others in the band.

Sondre Furseth Dale, 17, Haugesund, Rogaland county

Had large network of friends through music scene and politics. Described as a dedicated person who put 100% into everything he was interested in.

Emil Okkenhaug, 15, Levanger, Nord-Troendelag county

A sports lover described as modest and liked by all who knew him.

Monica Iselin Didriksen, 18, Sund, Hordaland county

Active in Sund AUF, she was described by friends as a unique and bubbly girl.

Diderik Aamodt Olsen, 19, Nesodden, Akershus county

Vice president of Nesodden AUF. He was the youngest member of editorial staff working on the organisation’s magazine.

Gizem Dogan, 17, Trondheim, Soer-Troendelag county

Described as a clever student who contributed to the cohesion of her class. Elected as central member of local AUF a month before the tragedy.

Henrik Pedersen, 27, Porsanger, Finnmark county

Leader of Porsanger AUF. Described as a “breath of fresh air” in the local community. A Labour colleague said he was very engaged and engaging.

Andreas Edvardsen, 18, Sarpsborg, Oestfold county

Director of Sarpsborg AUF and active in in the Labour youth league regional committee in Oestfold. Described as “a very caring and confident person”.

Rolf Christopher Johansen Perreau, 25, Trondheim, Soer-Troendelag county

Known as Christopher. Long-term member of the AUF and was elected to the board in October. Described as a skilled orator and a charismatic young politician.

Tore Eikeland ,21, Osteroy, Hordaland county

PM Jens Stoltenberg described him as “one of our most talented young politicians”.

Karar Mustafa Qasim, 19, Vestby, Akershus county

Originally from Iraq, Karar was with friends at summer camp when he was killed. The local mayor described his death as “an enormous tragedy”.

Bendik Rosnaes Ellingsen, 18, Rygge, Oestfold county

Had a summer job at the justice ministry before attending camp. He was secretary of Moss Regional Labour Youth, who said they had lost a caring, open and inclusive boy.

Bano Abobakar Rashid, 18, Nesodden, Akershus county

Leader of Nesodden AUF. She was said to have dedicated her life to fighting for democracy and against racism.

Aleksander Aas Eriksen, 16, Meråker, Nord-Troendelag county

Described as socially-engaged as well as “impulsive and passionate”.

Henrik Rasmussen, 18, Hadsel, Nordland county

Treasurer of Hadsel AUF. Said to be a very committed person, both in politics and culture.

Andrine Bakkene Espeland, 16, Fredrikstad, Oestfold county

Described as a politically-engaged girl who was keen to take care of the weakest.

Synne Roeyneland, 18, Oslo

A student described by friends as a “funny girl, who always had something to offer: opinions about politics and love and fun and witty comments”.

Hanne Balch Fjalestad, 43, Lunner, Oppland county

Danish government confirmed the Danish national was killed while working on the island as a first aid assistant. She was with her 20-year-old daughter, who survived the shooting.

Ida Beathe Rogne, 17, Oestre Toten, Oppland county

A keen student described as happy and funny as well as determined.

Silje Merete Fjellbu, 17, Tinn, Telemark county

Student politician described as a “wonderful girl who had much to contribute”.

Simon Saebo, 18, Salangen, Troms county

The student politician was said to be a natural leader. Those who knew him described him as trusting and kind, and a person who showed great concern for others.

Hanne Kristine Fridtun, 19 Stryn, Sogn og Fjordane county

The nursing student was the local AUF county chairman. Described as energetic with great commitment.

Marianne Sandvik, 16, Hundvag, Stavanger

The student was described as a quiet girl who always stood up for those who needed her. Her father said she was concerned with injustice in the world.

Andreas Dalby Groennesby, 17, Stange, Hedmark county

His father had exchanged text messages with him before the shooting. His father told NRK that public support had helped at a painful, terrible time.

Fredrik Lund Schjetne, 18, Eidsvoll, Akershus county

Described by friends as “a great person” whom it was “an honour” to have known.

Snorre Haller, 30, Trondheim, Soer-Troendelag county

Painter and union man. He was a board member of the Joint Association’s Central Youth Committee. Described as a “kind, quiet and generous man”.

Lejla Selaci, 17, Fredrikstad, Oestfold county

Leader of the AUF in Fredrikstad. Described as a “very happy and social girl who committed herself to what she believed in”.

Rune Havdal, 43, Oevre Eiker, Buskerud county

Worked as a security guard on the island of Utoeya.

Birgitte Smetbak, 15, Noetteroey, Vestfold county

Politicians from her local area said hearing news of her death was “a difficult day”.

Guro Vartdal Havoll, 18, Oersta, Moere og Romsdal

An active and determined politician, the young student’s family said she was inspired by Ghandi and wanted to make the world a “better place”.

Isabel Victoria Green Sogn, 17, Oslo

An enthusiastic member of the AUF who saw her future involved in politics.

Ingrid Berg Heggelund, 18, As, Akershus county

A student who said she loved going to school.

Silje Stamneshagen, 18, Askoey, Hordaland county

Active in Askoey AUF and played in school band. Classmates described her as a happy girl who lit up the school day and every day.

Karin Elena Holst, 15, Rana, Nordland county

A member of the Rana AUF, she spoke to her mother during the shooting. She had urged her daughter to hang up and hide.

Victoria Stenberg, 17, Nes, Akershus county

The oldest of three siblings, she was said to be looking forward to the youth camp.

Eivind Hovden, 15, Tokke, Telemark county

Eivind was involved in his local youth centre and was attending his first summer camp. Described as an “amazing guy, always happy, caring and helpful”.

Tina Sukuvara, 18, Vadsoe, Finnmark county

Described as “very talented and engaged” and a person who participated actively in political debates.

Jamil Rafal Mohamad Jamil, 20, Eigersund, Rogaland county

Originally from Iraq, Jamil was described as happy, attentive and curious with a strong desire to contribute.

Sharidyn Svebakk-Boehn, 14, Drammen, Buskerud county

Known as Sissi to friends and family, the schoolgirl was described as a “beautiful, caring and vibrant girl”.

Steinar Jessen, 16 Alta, Finnmark county

A keen member of the AUF. The mayor of Alta described him as “a flower that would have grown big and strong”.

Havard Vederhus, 21, Oslo

Elected leader of Oslo Labour Youth in February. Friends said he was “ambitious and fearless”.

Espen Joergensen, 17, Bodoe, Nordland county

Had recently become head of Bodoe AUF. His best friend said he was someone who could “light up the darkest days”.

77 souls taken

77 dreams stolen

77 ideas destroyed

 Sources

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-14276074

earlier poem

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2011/07/after-utoya-norway.html