tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67866150267170197502024-03-12T18:18:55.248-07:00Drinking with Ghosts: African writer Michael Schmidt's worksMichael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comBlogger255125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-53567235077059828422021-01-25T03:16:00.005-08:002022-08-18T03:56:12.004-07:00The apartheid state's pseudo-operations ecosystem<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MdPaxqk8J4w/YA6j7Yoe0ZI/AAAAAAAADs8/jskW0xVkIForZxeyjz2ccI_HZH1dJyRegCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Notebook%2Bimage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1320" height="758" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MdPaxqk8J4w/YA6j7Yoe0ZI/AAAAAAAADs8/jskW0xVkIForZxeyjz2ccI_HZH1dJyRegCLcBGAsYHQ/w488-h758/Notebook%2Bimage.jpg" width="488" /></a></div><p><span style="font-family: arial;">This is a page from my notebook on my face-to-face interview with Colonel Johan Theron, the Special Forces Headquarters Senior Staff Officer Counter-intelligence, who by his own uncontested account was personally responsible for just about all the hundreds of SADF "disappearances" by death flight over 1979-1987. Theron described the plainclothes Special Forces pseudo-operations unit, D40 (the Delta 40 symbol in my notebook, later renamed Barnacle) explicitly as a "Hit Team" reporting directly to Special Forces HQ ("S" for Speskop).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Theron also confirmed here its supporting ecosystem of Daisy, otherwise known as the Zimbabwe Special Operations Unit (ZSOU), a stay-behind network of double-agent spies, saboteurs and assassins in the Frontline States (run by the Military Intelligence Directorate of Special Tasks' Region 2, "DST2"), and Project Departure ("D" run by the Chief of Staff Intelligence's Special Tasks Team, "CSI STT") which provided D40 with operational intelligence. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Meanwhile, complicating matters, the National Intelligence Service ("NIS") ran several entirely separate hit teams like O16/01 and K31. The asterisk highlights "Neil, me + Loots" as the three men party to the 1979 decision to get rid of "excess" POWs by murdering them and dumping their bodies in the ocean from a light aircraft: D40/Barnacle founding Officer Commanding Major Neil Kriel, Colonel Johan Theron, and Major-General Fritz Loots, founding General Officer Commanding Special Forces. This diagramme helped confirm this pseudo-operations ecosystem - and evolved into the diagramme below which was published in the book.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The other notes on the page refer to D40's right to draw down on the quartermaster (QM) stores at Speskop - despite being disguised as a "civilian" real estate, then security company, to the fact that many of its AK47s used in pseudo-operations were of Romanian origin, that its Rensosterspruit headquarters, consisting of two farmhouses, was 5-10km north of Lanseria Airport from whence most death flights by "civilian" Pier Seneca II originated, and the fact that the unit often used stolen civilian cars which were later dumped. My book, </span><i style="font-family: arial;">Death Flight: Apartheid's Secret Doctrine of Disappearance </i><span style="font-family: arial;">(Tafelberg, Cape Town, 2020),</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> has been very well-received in both legal, journalistic, academic, and ex-military circles and is already well on it's way to bestseller status.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mresm6BIv-0/YA6nrpOtqGI/AAAAAAAADtI/yiGdlcCa_DwKfCsSA0kBLHj1eAoE_UnhQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1364/30.%2BReporting%2Blines%2Bcirca%2B1984.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="765" data-original-width="1364" height="358" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mresm6BIv-0/YA6nrpOtqGI/AAAAAAAADtI/yiGdlcCa_DwKfCsSA0kBLHj1eAoE_UnhQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h358/30.%2BReporting%2Blines%2Bcirca%2B1984.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p>Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-44095376246211952442020-07-30T03:58:00.000-07:002020-07-30T12:26:18.074-07:00Death Flight: Brief for Modern African and Military Historians<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael Schmidt, left, interviews the late Sergeant-Major Trevor Floyd, one of the original "Dirty Dozen" founders of the Recces over 1970-1972, co-founder of D40 in 1979, and the unit's longest-serving member until the CCB was disbanded. Photographed on 20 October 2010 © Byron Kennedy</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>‘They must never return… This was the only answer.’ – Colonel Johan Theron, Delta 40 co-founder</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>‘Those were extremely sensitive operations that must never go in[to] any book…’ – Colonel Charl Naudé, commander of Project Barnacle, Delta 40’s successor</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">From veteran defence correspondent and best-selling non-fiction author Michael Schmidt comes the first-ever detailed military doctrinal study of the shrouded origins – reaching back to its roots in the black ops of the famed Selous Scouts – of one of South African Special Forces’ most controversial projects, the Civil Co-operation Bureau (CCB). Military expert and author Jakkie Cilliers calls the book “Gripping and important… very well researched.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For the student of modern African and military history, <b>Death Flight: Apartheid’s Secret Doctrine of Disappearance</b> (Tafelberg, Cape Town, 2020) is a unique doctrinal study of the origins, formation, and operations of D40 and its successors, Barnacle and the CCB, the civilian-clothed pseudo-operations unit tasked from April 1979 to July 1990 with the clandestine elimination of enemies targeted by the South African Defence Force (SADF) at the height of its Cold War powers. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Under the overarching aegis of “total war” doctrine (André Beaufre, Algerian War), Schmidt’s focus is on the evolution of “pseudo-gang” doctrine (Ian Henderson, Mau Mau Uprising), especially within the Selous Scouts and its assigned Special Branch and chemical/biological warfare details during the Rhodesian Bush War, and their marked influence on South Africa’s Special Forces, colloquially known as the Recces. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Schmidt theorises – in an Academia.edu monograph that will shortly follow the publication of the book – that such small-team pseudo-ops as conducted by the D40/Barnacle/CCB line form the micro-tactical end of the SADF’s military counter-insurgency (COIN) doctrine which had at its other end the macro-tactical doctrine of nuclear deterrence.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The book, which is already provoking heated debate among former Recces and Military Intelligence officers, traces the Rhodesian imprint from early collaborations in the field between the two countries’ security forces from 1967 into the creation of D40 in 1979 and of the short-lived 3 and 6 Reconnaissance Commandos in 1980 until this influence was diluted with the expansion of Barnacle into the CCB over April 1987 to January 1988.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The text is based on rare and exclusive face-to-face interviews with veterans of the unit including its adviser Colonel Johan Theron who was Special Forces HQ Senior Staff Officer Counter-intelligence, Recce founding icon and the unit’s longest-serving member Sergeant-Major Trevor Floyd (who died shortly before the book’s release), and Barnacle’s second Officer Commanding, Colonel Charl Naudé. Also described is the shadowy pseudo-ops ecosystem that supported D40/Barnacle (Military Intelligence's Daisy, and Departure), as well as other pseudo-ops units and sub-unit elements that flanked it, run by the Security Branch (C1, better known as “Vlakplaas”), the Recce regiments, South West Africa Police </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(Koevoet), </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Eastern Cape Command</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the Hammer Unit), </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and the National Intelligence Service. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The core of Schmidt’s work is, however, D40/Barnacle/CCB’s most occluded and notorious function, Operation Dual, under which several hundred prisoners-of-war and other detainees were murdered and dumped in the oceans from a light aircraft over 1979-1987. This is the application by the SADF of what he terms the “secret doctrine” of death flights (Guillaume de Fontanges, Malagassy Insurrection) which was earlier practiced in Vietnam, Algeria, and Latin America. Argentine death flight investigator and author Miriam Lewin says the book is “Outstanding… packed with incredible scenes worthy of a spy novel, absolutely breathtaking.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With interviews ranging from corporals through Recce regimental commanders and up to Deputy Chief of the Army level, plus the detailed reconstruction of pilot’s log-books, court testimony, and numerous other textual sources, the book also examines the varied attempts to deal with the CCB’s legacy into the 2000s and so will be of interest to transitional justice specialists too. Illustrated with organisational diagrams and rare photographs, this is a ground-breaking portrait of the men, mandates, matériel, evolution, and operations of apartheid’s most benighted killing machine.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Death Flight is available now from all quality bookstores in Southern Africa like Exclusive Books, and will be available internationally in both its print and e-book versions from platforms like Amazon from the end of July 2020.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>[ENDS]</b></span><br />
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<br />Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-43697514742981626012020-07-22T04:42:00.002-07:002020-07-30T12:12:16.570-07:00Death Flight: Apartheid's Secret Doctrine of Disappearance<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Death Flight: Apartheid’s Secret Doctrine of Disappearance</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> (Tafelberg, Cape Town, South Africa, 2020). My sixth book to be published is now in many stores like Exclusive Books and will be available for sale both in hard-copy and as an e-book from Amazon and other platforms from 30 July.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">‘They must never return… This was the only answer.’ – Colonel Johan Theron, Delta 40 co-founder</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the late 1970s, as the apartheid government fought a desperate and dirty battle to stay in power, its security forces devised a chilling new tactic. A shadowy, top-secret unit called Delta 40 was established, tasked with the murder of hundreds of ANC, PAC, and SWAPO members. Victims’ bodies were flung from aircraft into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South West Africa. Death Flight provides the first detailed account of these sinister missions. Seasoned investigative journalist Michael Schmidt traces the journey of Neil Kriel, Delta 40’s first commander, from his boyhood in Rhodesia to his dark deeds as an apartheid operative in the 1980s. Schmidt also tracks down Kriel’s partner, Colonel Johan Theron, as well as several other veteran Special Forces operators. Based on the detailed analysis of flight logs, court records, military studies, and numerous interviews, Death Flight sheds shocking new light on one of apartheid’s darkest chapters.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">‘Those were extremely sensitive operations that must never go in[to] any book…’ <b>– Colonel Charl Naudé, commander of Project Barnacle, Delta 40’s successor</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"This book will make your stomach turn. Do not avert your eyes… Death Flight shines a much-needed light on some of the darkest corners of a regime waging a desperate and dirty fight against the inevitable. It is the first detailed exploration of the horrendous practice of flinging murdered prisoners into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. By following the thread of apartheid’s violence into Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Angola, Swaziland, and Zambia, Death Flight elucidates the transnational nature of this crime against humanity. In so doing, it raises fascinating questions about the role of international law in the attainment of hitherto evasive justice… Death Flight is a daring mission to salvage the ghosts of those who were thought to have been eternally dissolved, by apartheid Special Forces, deep in the oceanic waters off our shores. It is destined to become an invaluable tool, connecting the dots in the quest to ensure that no victim of the deadly hand of apartheid is left unaccounted for." <b>– Nkosinathi Biko, son of the murdered Steve Biko, and board member of the Steve Biko Foundation</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"… full of information but also packed with incredible scenes, worthy of a spy novel… absolutely breathtaking. The similarity of illegal repression groups’ practices, organised from the state, between South Africa and Argentina has yet to be analysed. The fact that Rubén Chamorro, the director of the School of Navy Mechanics, site of the main clandestine detention centre, where 4,000 were assassinated in death flights, was appointed Navy Attaché in the Argentine Embassy in Pretoria back in 1979 cannot be a coincidence. At that time, across the Atlantic Ocean, hundreds of anti-apartheid activists were being eliminated using exactly the same method… The lesson seems to be that no peace can be achieved without justice, and no justice can be achieved with oblivion." <b>– Miriam Lewin, Argentine journalist, survivor of two illegal detention centers, and author of two books on the Argentine death flights, Skyvan and Final Destination</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Gripping and important… very well researched." <b>– Jakkie Cilliers, military expert and author </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"An intriguing read that lays bare the inhumanity of Apartheid crimes. It does so despite the best efforts of the criminals to hide their crimes. May we never forget the lives lost in the struggle for our freedom." <b>– Lukhanyo Calata, son of the murdered Fort Calata, journalist and co-author of the book My Father Died for This. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“The work he has done before Death Flight speaks for itself, but with this book he has gone further, challenged not only himself but all of us in his quest for truth and in revealing injustice. What I appreciate about Michael’s work is that it is brave and uncompromising. He has been talking to me about his research and everything he uncovered while writing this book. I have been struck not only by his commitment to telling a part of history that most of us might find too uncomfortable to know, but also by how much of his heart has gone into this book. I hope everyone gets a chance to read Death Flight because we cannot afford not to know the details of this part of our history. We cannot afford to look away from the lives we lost, but most importantly, we cannot afford to go on thinking that history can only be seen as black and white.” <b> – Kagiso Lesego Molope, South African novelist </b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">CONTENTS</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Foreword </b>by Nkosinathi Biko</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Prologue </b>Disappeared men tell no tales </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">PART I: The Rhodesian roots of SA’s dirty war </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. A youth in the shadow of an insurgent war</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. From Pretoria bar to Rhodesian bush</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3. Behold a pale horse: Rhodesia’s biochemical warfare</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4. Horrors and honours</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">5. Neo-Nazis and mercenaries enter the fray</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">6. ‘The doctored bodies are in the back’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>PART II: A secret killing machine takes shape </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">7. Black-ops boon for South Africa</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">8. Recruiting a few hard men</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">9. Rhodesia’s revenge</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">10. Mobilising against the ‘Total Onslaught’ </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">11. The ‘hunter-killers’ of Koevoet </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">12. SA’s small-team recce pioneer </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">13. ‘Ex-Rhodesians became cannon fodder’ </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">14. Delta 40 embraces the ‘Dark Side’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">15. The first death flight</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">16. ‘I never counted the bodies’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">17. A death flight victim fights back</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">18. An old Recce gets blooded</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>PART III: The shackles come off: From Delta 40 to Barnacle</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">19. Mandate to kill</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">20. A war crime at Lanseria</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">21. Two hammers: Barnacle kills its own</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">22. The founding chief’s last flights</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">23. Barnacle in its prime</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">24. ‘Like a James Bond movie’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">25. A changing of the guard</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">26. Barnacle’s role in the Maseru Raid</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">27. Small-teams success</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">28. Trained, betrayed, murdered</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">29. The Wonder Air death flight</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">30. A death flight over the Indian Ocean</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">31. Barnacle’s final small-teams mission</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>PART IV: Dramatic expansion under the CCB</b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">32. ‘The Organisation’ takes shape</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">33. Parallel pseudo-ops teams</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">34. The elimination of Victor de Fonseca </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">35. The CCB’s Inner Circle</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">36. The Cessna Caravan death flight</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">37. Resistance by Speskop’s new Air Ops chief</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">38. The End of Operation Dual</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">PART V: Aftermath: Our Pact of Forgetting</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">39. The end of the Border War</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">40. The CCB shuts down</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">41. Shadow-boxing: The Trial of the Generals</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">42. Half-truths at the Truth Commission</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">43. Dual exposed: the Wouter Basson trial</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">44. (Re)disappearing the disappeared</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">45. Quietus: the founding chief’s exit</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xk8L-gpizW0/XxglO--dTnI/AAAAAAAADn0/OxXmnXukdr4PwJkm74l17x73IH5DF2g7wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/IMG-20200721-WA0008%255B2%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="568" data-original-width="1152" height="314" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xk8L-gpizW0/XxglO--dTnI/AAAAAAAADn0/OxXmnXukdr4PwJkm74l17x73IH5DF2g7wCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG-20200721-WA0008%255B2%255D.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[ENDS]</span></div>
<br />Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-82711472887599845402020-07-11T05:16:00.002-07:002020-07-11T05:16:20.023-07:00This Nothingness<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WqGdpWmfX4Q/XwmtTfy2mtI/AAAAAAAADms/mnDrS7MiqrQeG3mQDNjnDjkFW4YPCY5_wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/20200404_172848.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1153" data-original-width="1600" height="460" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WqGdpWmfX4Q/XwmtTfy2mtI/AAAAAAAADms/mnDrS7MiqrQeG3mQDNjnDjkFW4YPCY5_wCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/20200404_172848.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This Nothingness</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">© Michael Schmidt, 2020</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">now this is something, this nothingness</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">if i suddenly stop, the afterecho of </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the wet suck of my boots is all there is</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">even the rasp of my breath wisps away</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">there's the ruin of a chinese lantern</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">some sort of unseen bird in the hedgerow</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and the far cadence of a siren</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">like the tutored grief of a professional mourner</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in twilit eighteenth-dynasty egypt</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the sky a bruised smear, a beaten dancer</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the television tower off-channel like alexanderplatz</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the cycads silent detonations of rust</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the buildings cavernous, unwelcoming</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">no-one lives here anymore</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">smirks the marlin</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the fishermen have all drowned in their nets</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">they dream like garcía lorca</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the bullet humming in his brain like a bee</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">of vines entangling our skyscrapers</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">of anacondas loving our dreams to death</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">were we beautiful in transit</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">were we something to behold</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">an ectoplasmic comet</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">barely there, and then gone?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[ENDS]</span></div>
Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-41556369625462356902020-06-03T09:48:00.002-07:002020-06-03T09:48:25.489-07:00The Death in Illegal Custody of Shady Habash<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z9wVX61A45I/XtfTnmTX9-I/AAAAAAAADkA/WIfBSeyJa7MpKSiNPy5-vzuWPOHYifqcgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Shady%2BHabash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="391" data-original-width="750" height="331" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z9wVX61A45I/XtfTnmTX9-I/AAAAAAAADkA/WIfBSeyJa7MpKSiNPy5-vzuWPOHYifqcgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Shady%2BHabash.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>22 May 2020</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>To His Excellency Omar Marwan, Egyptian Minister of Justice:</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We, the undersigned, call for an open and transparent investigation into the jailing and death of Shady Habash, a 24-year-old filmmaker who died in custody earlier this month. Furthermore, we call on you to immediately release all artists and writers in pre-trial detention for merely exercising their fundamental right to freedom of expression.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Habash died while being held in the maximum-security Tora Prison on May 2, 2020. Arrested in March 2018, he had been in pre-trial detention for 793 days, despite the fact that Egyptian law only allows a maximum of two years’ pre-trial detention. Such detention is meant to be an exceptional measure of last resort to hold suspected criminals that authorities believe pose an imminent threat if released. All Habash did was direct a music video. His case never went to trial, nor was he charged with a crime.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The public prosecutor issued a statement on May 5 claiming that Habash died from drinking sanitizing alcohol, thinking it was water, and a state autopsy report on May 11 allegedly confirmed the cause of death as alcohol poisoning. Such reports have several apparent inconsistencies, including whether Habash knew he was drinking alcohol and when—or if—doctors decided to transfer him to an external hospital. Even if the reports are taken at face value, Tora Prison officials were apparently medically negligent in their lack of response. Habash’s fellow inmates reportedly yelled and made noise from their cell for hours while Habash was dying, to no avail. Habash’s family deserves the truth about the circumstances surrounding his death––and why he was illegally detained in the first place––which can only be achieved through a thorough and proper investigation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Habash was one of eight people who were detained in March 2018 for their reported involvement in exiled musician Ramy Essam’s song, “Balaha,” which criticized the Egyptian government and was released in February 2018 on YouTube. However, Habash played no role in developing the song’s content and only directed the accompanying music video. We remain seriously concerned about the continued pre-trial detention of Mustafa Gamal, who merely verified Ramy Essam’s Facebook page, and Galal El-Behairy, who penned the lyrics to “Balaha” and remains behind bars, serving a three-year sentence.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is our contention that these arrests were a grave infringement of freedom of expression, contrary to both international and Egyptian law. But these are not the only cases that––we fear––represent deepening repression of free expression and artistic freedom in Egypt. In recent years, we have seen a disturbing trend in the number of artists, journalists, and writers held in pre-trial detention in Egypt for expressing their views, including:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>* Alaa Abdel Fattah</b>, a 38-year-old blogger and activist detained in September 2019––after a number of past arrests––who remains in pre-trial detention today without charge. He is currently on a hunger strike to protest prison conditions, raising serious concerns about his well-being (UPDATE: Fattah recently suspended his 36-day hunger strike).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>* Solafa Magdy</b>, a 33-year-old freelance reporter arrested in November 2019 who remains in pre-trial detention today without charge, alongside her husband, journalist Hossam el-Sayyad.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>* Shady Abouzeid</b>, a 27-year-old satirist, video blogger, and former television personality, who is currently in pre-trial detention without charge.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While we also understand that your office is taking strides to ensure public health in the face of the COVID-19 crisis, the pandemic does not justify the suspension of fair trial guarantees––as both the World Health Organization and Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights have affirmed. In fact, there is a profound public health argument toward releasing pre-trial detainees simply to lower the rate of coronavirus transmission in prison.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Habash’s case has sent a heartbreakingly clear message to artists and writers throughout Egypt: Independent expression may lead to years-long illegal detention, and even death, in custody.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Your Excellency, we strongly urge you to release all artists and writers currently held in pre-trial detention for merely exercising their right to freedom of expression, especially in light of COVID-19, which now ravages prisons around the world. Likewise, we demand a proper investigation into Shady Habash’s death and illegal detention. If he had been set free, he would still be with us today.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sincerely,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Africa Human Rights Network (AHRN)*</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Aid A – Aid for Artist in Exile</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alert-Art-Afrik*</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Arterial Network*</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Artistic Freedom Initiative (AFI)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Artist Protection Fund</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Artists at Risk (AR)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Art Moves Africa</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Avant-Garde Lawyers (AGL)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Belady U.S.: An Island for Humanity</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cartoonists Rights Network International (CRNI)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CIVICUS</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">coculture</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Danish PEN</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Danish Film Directors</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Der Bundesverband Regie (BVR)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Directors Guild of Flanders | Unie van Regisseurs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Directors Guild of Norway</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Documentarist ıstanbul Documentary Days</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dutch Directors Guild</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">English PEN</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">European Film Academy</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">European Music Council</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Festival international Signes de Nuit</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Freemuse*</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hamburger Stiftung für politisch Verfolgte | Hamburg Foundation for Politically Persecuted Persons</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hammerl Arts Rights Transfer (HART)*</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Humanists International</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Human Rights Film Network (HRFN)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Index on Censorship</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">International Arts Rights Advisors (IARA)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">International Documentary Association (IDA)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (IDFA)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">International Theatre Institute: Action committee for Artists Right</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ithaca City of Asylum</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kunstnernettverket</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MENA Rights Group</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Movies that Matter</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">National Association of Film Authors (ANAC)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nhimbe Trust</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the Move (OTM)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PEN America*</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PEN Georgia</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PEN Lebanon</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PEN International</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PEN Nigeria</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PEN Uganda*</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Res Artis</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Safe Havens – the Malmö Meetings*</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SafeMuse</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Société des Réalisateurs de Films (SRF)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Southern Africa Human Rights Defenders Network (SAHRDN)*</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sundance Institute</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Swedish PEN</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Federation of European Film Directors (FERA)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Federation of European Screenwriters (FSE)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Museum of Movements*</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Volksbühne Basel</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which Human Rights? Film Festival</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>* Amani: Africa Creative Defence Network member</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fqk1Sn7WEp0/XtfSEyr3-AI/AAAAAAAADj4/yJ5586J7Zaom6YReuYrkN6rwQjG_amEgwCEwYBhgLKs0DAL1OcqygOakq1GkTTPS3aO8MRM3rDKFrd5sdhITcIPJN7m8veiI_Ms6GTkTuDa8SRsmbfcYcdj3V7xy0mMXs2IDeTviVDEH4KGlOu3bJH87zIU0jTlGuYxiJEtYeVVI57_vAZ_7jJVpLS1rVRroun1K2KYP0x3QW3K0_6cKbbRWTAoFHrE7hFjrWCKdJaHR4raH58iL7cIN2urqyaUhZA-0VS0j7wnYmjnuDrWe9do7rq0aGNH-5C6JE9gBVJ7Hfx7xpfUckpQuIkFUb1Rpe3vejgWviPpuU41d5MBTw6bVnUdmlBfpUEibjzLQfXGauVd1WwGCWe5fW26bRQs9gGbQnJLDpB2tSgRIj2dEv464Fm6hU-kkgPc3AdU5elY281tXkhdOzICc6QF1Rb8ewx3BaTLz1BlPFXuIStz4Rp-y0HHJ8sfr2OVXH3nFYB-KZoZvbYuZo1PGUJ_qP8FSVqiPs5XeV-TCqGES-75XmlGsy0_lfJgN-QHYLViGUKvP9IZk4771P3MfNR0R5sjaIQobgNK35SdODSaDF0MhvsHLEE80reQnUGtSGPLMd6dfFIv5L4Ratg7yrsUMskDuF87XbSGAJ2IdcONjJ6R8w16rf9gU/s1600/AMANI%2BLOGO.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1237" data-original-width="1600" height="247" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fqk1Sn7WEp0/XtfSEyr3-AI/AAAAAAAADj4/yJ5586J7Zaom6YReuYrkN6rwQjG_amEgwCEwYBhgLKs0DAL1OcqygOakq1GkTTPS3aO8MRM3rDKFrd5sdhITcIPJN7m8veiI_Ms6GTkTuDa8SRsmbfcYcdj3V7xy0mMXs2IDeTviVDEH4KGlOu3bJH87zIU0jTlGuYxiJEtYeVVI57_vAZ_7jJVpLS1rVRroun1K2KYP0x3QW3K0_6cKbbRWTAoFHrE7hFjrWCKdJaHR4raH58iL7cIN2urqyaUhZA-0VS0j7wnYmjnuDrWe9do7rq0aGNH-5C6JE9gBVJ7Hfx7xpfUckpQuIkFUb1Rpe3vejgWviPpuU41d5MBTw6bVnUdmlBfpUEibjzLQfXGauVd1WwGCWe5fW26bRQs9gGbQnJLDpB2tSgRIj2dEv464Fm6hU-kkgPc3AdU5elY281tXkhdOzICc6QF1Rb8ewx3BaTLz1BlPFXuIStz4Rp-y0HHJ8sfr2OVXH3nFYB-KZoZvbYuZo1PGUJ_qP8FSVqiPs5XeV-TCqGES-75XmlGsy0_lfJgN-QHYLViGUKvP9IZk4771P3MfNR0R5sjaIQobgNK35SdODSaDF0MhvsHLEE80reQnUGtSGPLMd6dfFIv5L4Ratg7yrsUMskDuF87XbSGAJ2IdcONjJ6R8w16rf9gU/s320/AMANI%2BLOGO.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-90951438344489297832020-06-03T08:59:00.001-07:002020-06-03T08:59:56.748-07:00Amani: Africa Creative Defence Network<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xCmHSWeonIQ/XtfFkJv-fMI/AAAAAAAADjc/NIPUPSm-PRIwy9unYF6BwdfQosEkI8sUQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/AMANI%2BLOGO.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1237" data-original-width="1600" height="308" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xCmHSWeonIQ/XtfFkJv-fMI/AAAAAAAADjc/NIPUPSm-PRIwy9unYF6BwdfQosEkI8sUQCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/AMANI%2BLOGO.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>HART Launches New Rapid Response Network to Support African Creatives</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Amani: Africa Creative Defence Network will support artists and creative professionals who face threats to artistic expression</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1 May 2020</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Johannesburg </b>– Today, in collaboration with nine partner organisations working in or on Africa, the Hammerl Arts Rights Transfer (HART) co-launches Amani: Africa Creative Defence Network. The initiative aims to help defend artistic freedom of expression in the region and ensure that creatives at risk can live and work without fear of reprisal. Through enhanced collaboration between member organisations, the network will provide rapid responses to creatives at risk in Africa, coordinate adequate support when artists and cultural professionals on the continent face danger because of their work, and support regional safe havens.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Amani: Africa Creative Defence Network is a vital project that will ensure that creatives under threat in Africa receive assistance, but will also work to prevent those threats in the future,” said Valsero, a Cameroonian rapper who spent almost nine months in detention under false charges in 2019. “As the director of an organisation that supports artists in Africa, I know we can turn to the network whenever we need further assistance or have gaps in the services we can provide. It gives me hope that no artist will go without help. Now is the time for organisations in Africa to work collaboratively and build solidarity across borders in order to provide a safety net for artists of all disciplines. The network is a vital step toward that cross-country unity in the protection of creative freedom in Africa.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Though many organisations operate nationally, regionally, and internationally with mandates focused on artistic freedom and protecting creatives at risk in Africa, a lack of clear communication among those organisations often causes assistance work to be duplicated and precludes artists from receiving adequate support in time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The network brings together organisations from across Africa and the globe, helping to streamline communication, share expertise and insights, pool resources, monitor threats to artistic freedom and creative professionals, and coordinate more effective responses when assisting creatives at risk. This will be achieved through the creation of a streamlined communication mechanism that will allow like-minded member organisations to work in concert and more easily coordinate joint efforts when assisting artists at risk. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The current organisational members of the Amani* network are: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>•<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Africa Human Rights Network (AHRN)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>•<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Alert-Artist-Afrik</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>•<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Arterial Network</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>•<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Artists at Risk Connection of PEN America</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>•<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Freemuse</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>•<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Hammerl Arts Rights Transfer (HART)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>•<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Museum of Movements</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>•<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>PEN Uganda</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>•<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Safe Havens – the Malmö Meetings</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>•<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Southern Africa Human Rights Defenders Network (SAHRDN)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Michael Schmidt, HART’s Fellowship Co-ordinator, declared: “Artists and cultural and creative workers of all disciplines are often the leading lights of their respective cultures’ attempts to navigate an increasingly complex and challenging world. Across Africa, these are the people who most often challenge repressive regimes and bigoted societies, presenting visions of more harmonious possibilities – and finding themselves in danger as a result. Founded by organisations attending the 6th annual Safe Havens gathering of the global arts rights justice sector, held in Cape Town last year, Amani aims to improve Africa’s continental networks in the sector and sharpen the ability of its protective mechanisms to respond to and assist creatives at risk.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Amani comes at a crucial moment for artistic freedom around the globe and in Africa,” said Julie Trebault, director of the Artists at Risk Connection, a project of PEN America. “As authoritarian regimes in Africa crackdown on dissent, artists and creatives are bearing the brunt of the pressure, finding themselves at risk of threats, harassment, arrest, imprisonment, torture, and even death because of their creative work. Through the network, creatives at risk and the organisations that support them will not be alone. By contacting the network, artists and creative professionals can connect not with one but with numerous organisations across the continent and globe who can work together to more effectively ensure they get the support they need.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Creative professionals at risk can fill out a secure form here, which is available in English and French. They can also contact the network via email at arc@pen.org. They will be asked to provide information about your circumstances, which will be treated in confidence and shared only through end-to-end encrypted platforms. ARC will then facilitate the activation of the network in order to provide the best response based on your needs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">* “Amani” means “peace” in Kiswahili, “strength” in Lhukonzo, and “hope” in Arabic.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">***</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>En français: </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>HART lance un nouveau réseau de réponse rapide pour soutenir les artistes africains</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Amani: Le réseau africain de défense créative soutiendra les artistes et les professionnels de la création confrontés à des menaces pour leur expression artistique.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1 Mai 2020</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Johannesburg </b>– Aujourd'hui, en collaboration avec neuf organisations partenaires travaillant sur l'Afrique ou en Afrique, le Hammerl Arts Rights Transfer (HART) lance Amani : Le réseau africain de défense créative. Cette initiative vise à aider à défendre la liberté d'expression artistique sur le continent et à garantir que les créateurs en danger puissent vivre et travailler sans crainte de représailles. Grâce à une collaboration renforcée entre les organisations membres, le réseau apportera des réponses rapides aux créatifs en danger en Afrique, coordonnera un soutien adéquat lorsque des artistes et des professionnels de la culture africains sont menacés en raison de leur activité artistique, et de soutenir les espaces de refuge régionaux.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Amani : Le réseau africain de défense créative est un projet essentiel qui permettra d'assurer que les créateurs menacés en Afrique reçoivent l’aide dont ils ont besoin, mais qui s'efforcera également d’anticiper de futures violations", a déclaré Valsero, un rappeur camerounais qui a passé près de neuf mois en détention sous de fausses accusations en 2019. "En tant que directeur d'une organisation qui soutient les artistes en Afrique, je sais que nous pouvons nous nous tourner vers ce réseau à chaque fois que nous aurons besoin d’assistance supplémentaire ou que nous ne serons pas en mesure d'offrir ces services nous mêmes. Cela me donne l'espoir qu'aucun artiste ne sera ignoré. Le temps est venu pour les organisations en Afrique de travailler ensemble et de construire une solidarité au-delà des frontières afin d'offrir un système de protection aux artistes de toutes les disciplines. Le réseau est une étape essentielle vers cette unité entre pays dans la sauvegarde de la liberté de création artistique en Afrique".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bien que de nombreuses organisations opèrent aux niveaux national, régional et international avec des mandats centrés sur la liberté artistique et la protection des créateurs en danger en Afrique, un manque de communication claire entre ces organisations entraîne souvent une duplication du travail d'assistance et empêche les artistes de recevoir à temps un soutien approprié.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Le réseau rassemble des organisations d'Afrique et du monde entier, ce qui permet de mieux coordonner la communication, de partager les compétences et les connaissances, de mettre en commun les ressources, de surveiller les menaces qui pèsent sur la liberté artistique et les professionnels de la création, et de répondre plus efficacement aux besoins des créateurs en danger. Pour ce faire, un mécanisme de communication simplifié sera créé, qui permettra aux organisations membres partageant les mêmes idées de travailler de concert et de coordonner plus facilement leurs efforts communs lorsqu'elles viennent en aide à des artistes en danger.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Les organisations membres du réseau Amani sont:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <b> ● Africa Human Rights Network (AHRN)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>● <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Alert-Artist-Afrik</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>● <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Arterial Network</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>● <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Artists at Risk Connection of PEN America</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>● <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Freemuse</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>● <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Hammerl Arts Rights Transfer (HART)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>● <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Museum of Movements</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>● <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>PEN Uganda</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>● <span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Safe Havens – the Malmö Meetings</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Michael Schmidt, coordinateur des bourses HART a déclaré : "Les artistes et créateurs de toutes les disciplines ainsi que les professionnels de la culture sont souvent les figures de proue de leurs cultures respectives pour naviguer dans un monde de plus en plus complexe et stimulant. Dans toute l'Afrique, ce sont eux qui défient le plus souvent les régimes répressifs et les sociétés sectaires, présentant des visions de possibilités plus harmonieuses - et qui se trouvent de ce fait en danger. Fondée par des organisations lors de la 6ème réunion annuelle des Safe Havens sur les droits artistiques dans le monde, qui s'est tenue au Cap l'année dernière, Amani vise à améliorer les réseaux continentaux africains dans le secteur et à renforcer la capacité de ses mécanismes à répondre et à aider les créateurs en danger."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Amani arrive à un moment déterminant pour la liberté artistique dans le monde entier et en Afrique", a déclaré Julie Trébault, directrice d’Artists at Risk Connection, un projet de PEN America. "Alors que les régimes autoritaires en Afrique répriment la dissidence, les artistes et les créateurs sont victimes d'une forte pression, se trouvant harcelés et risquant les menaces, le l'arrestation, l'emprisonnement, la torture et même la mort a cause de leur travail artistique. Grâce à ce réseau, les créateurs en danger et les organisations qui les soutiennent ne seront pas seuls. En contactant le réseau, les artistes et les professionnels de la création se connectent non pas avec une mais avec de nombreuses organisations sur le continent et dans le monde entier. Celles-ci pourront ainsi travailler de concert pour leur offrir le soutien dont ils ont besoin de manière plus efficace”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Les professionnels en danger peuvent remplir ici un formulaire sécurisé, disponible en anglais et en français. Ils peuvent également contacter le réseau par courrier électronique à l'adresse arc@pen.org. Il leur sera demandé de fournir des informations sur les circonstances, qui seront traitées de manière confidentielle et communiquées uniquement par le biais de plateformes cryptées. L'ARC facilitera ensuite l'activation du réseau afin de fournir la meilleure réponse en fonction de leurs besoins.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>[ENDS/FIN]</b></span></div>
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Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-14438927203029602362020-03-08T01:51:00.001-08:002020-03-08T01:51:30.412-08:00The Scarlet Thread<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZEsybIurNLM/XmS_7OWxrlI/AAAAAAAADe4/hOr5zkf5GG4eTfU4CFCGmbAB0VG6LUYcwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/The%2BScarlet%2BThread.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="376" data-original-width="500" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZEsybIurNLM/XmS_7OWxrlI/AAAAAAAADe4/hOr5zkf5GG4eTfU4CFCGmbAB0VG6LUYcwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/The%2BScarlet%2BThread.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Where is the string that Theseus laid?</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Find me out this labyrinth place."</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- Bauhaus, In the Flat Field, 1980</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In mythology, The Scarlet Thread refers primarily to the ball of red twine given to Theseus, the Athenian hero, by the Cretan princess Ariadne to enable him to find his way back out of the Labyrinth after fighting and killing the carnivorous Minotaur who devours both men and women. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What is occluded is that the tale is a portmanteau: on the surface, a heroine helps a hero defeat a monster and escape from a place of disconcerting shadow and dire threat; but the deep maze of the Labyrinth itself provides the necessary disorienting full immersion in the “little death” of initiation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As an ancient initiatory tomb, with which the mystery schools of the Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, Hindus, Mayans, Moche and Incas approximated death, the Labyrinth was also an initiatory womb out of which the seeker was resurrected, mastering their primordial self by reaffirming their ties to it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This vermilion binding to the past also anticipates the future; so the Hindus wear the red Lakshmi string on their wrists to symbolise their connection to divine providence, while for the Chinese, a red thread around the ankles symbolises people who are destined to meet at a significant future juncture.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Scarlet Thread is not a means of escaping one’s fears, but a bloodline maintaining one’s umbilical link to the netherworld, as in Pan's Labyrinth where the red ribbon of blood running from Ofelia's nose as she lies dead – in alternate reality enthroned – connects her to the navel of the Underworld that she entered by initiatory contests, and won by sacrifice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, this multidisciplinary online project, The Scarlet Thread, is a creative near-future conjuncture of significant talents between women and men mastering their antediluvian selves and guiding them through the maze of life, while maintaining their illuminated bonds with the “Western Lands” of a death that is ever-present within us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[ENDS]</span>Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-6833439761410021752020-02-05T23:35:00.000-08:002020-02-06T00:10:21.295-08:00Selby Semela und die Generation des Aufstands<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q3MmTX5JYBA/Xju_bItqSAI/AAAAAAAADdo/V0TMD9M2R2ELWTW9gOSVVAbpCD_3OSdhACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Die%2BGrossen%2BStreiks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="269" data-original-width="187" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q3MmTX5JYBA/Xju_bItqSAI/AAAAAAAADdo/V0TMD9M2R2ELWTW9gOSVVAbpCD_3OSdhACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Die%2BGrossen%2BStreiks.jpg" width="444" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael Schmidt</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Die Klasse von 1976</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Selby Semela und die Generation des Aufstands</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Holger Marcks & Matthias Seiffert (Hg.): Die groRen Streiks, UNRAST-Verlag, Münster, Deutschland, 2008</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Selby Semela, 1958 in eine große »schwarze« Arbeiterfamilie geboren, spielte eine </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">führende Rolle bei dem Aufstand, der am 16 Juni 1976 in Soweto ausbrach </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Innerhalb </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">eines Jahres wurde er vom Apartheid-Staat ins Exil gezwungen Niedergelassen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in den USA, stand er in Verbindung mit der ExilbewegUng und der radikalen Szene</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in Amerika. In dieser Zeit wurde er vom Situationismus beeinflusst. Er kehrte nie</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">wieder nach Südafrika zurück.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1976 war Semela 18 Jahre alt Er war aktiv im African Student Movement (ASM),</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">einem Zusammenschluss, der zu der Bewegung des Black Consciousness (BC) gehörte</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">und der Schüler in den Schulen Sowetos organisierte Das ASM versuchte später seinen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Wirkungskreis auf andere Townships auszudehnen und änderte seinen Namen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in South African Student Movement (SASM). Als die Unzufriedenheit 1976 anwuchs,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">spielte das SASM eine Schlüsselrolle bei der Mobilisierung von Schülern. Semela selbst</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">wurde zum Kassenwart des »Aktionskomitees« gewählt, das von Oberstufenschülern</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">gegründet wurde, um die Massendemonstrationen an jenem schicksalhaften 16. Juni</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">zu organisieren. An diesem Tag kam es zum Zusammenprall zwischen Schülern und</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">der Polizei in Soweto. Bis zum Mittag waren die Townships von Krawallen überzogen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">und die Proteste breiteten sich schnell über das Land aus, sich zu einer Reihe von</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Generalstreiks und Erhebungen in deh Städten auswachsend. Es sollte mehr als ein</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Jahr dauern, bis der Aufstand niedergeschlagen werden konnte.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Semela war unter den Hunderten, womöglich Tausenden von Aktivisten, die während</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">dieses heißen Jahres ins Exil flohen. Wie andere Aktivisten Sowetos war er ein</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ziel von Polizeiaktionen, und tatsächlich wurde er auch von eihem »schwarzen«</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Polizisten angeschossen und verwundet. Er lebte zunächst im Untergrund, floh dann</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">nach Botswana und schließlich nach Großbritannien, von wo aus er in die USA kam.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ein Foto, das 1977 in London gemacht wurde, zeigt ihn mit seinem Freund Teboho</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">»Tsietsi« Mashinini, seinem Weggefahrten und Vorsitzender des Aktionskomitees,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">der eine zentrale Rolle während des Aufstands spielte. Ihre jugendlichen Gesichter</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">sind erfüllt von Hoffnung, im Schulterschluss strecken sie ihre Fäuste in die Luft</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mit 19 Jahren war Mashinini eine Art Dandy, der von Mädchen wegen seiner abgefahrenen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Schlaghosen und seines Afros begehrt wurde, aber auch ein ernsthafter </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Militanter, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">der sich seine Sporen in Straßenkämpfen gegen lokale Gangster und als </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Redner im Debam'erclub der Schule verdiente.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Doch das Band ihrer Freundschaft sollte nur kurz währen. Wie in anderen Gemeinden</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">politisch Emigrierter rieben sich die Exilanten der »Klasse von 1976« in </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">heftigen Debatten und Auseinandersetzungen auf. Viele Exilanten traten schließlich </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">den älteren nationalistischen Gruppen bei, insbesondere dem African National Congress</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(ANC), der in Südafrika verboten war. Andere versuchten, die BC-Bewegung</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">zu reformieren, indem sie 1979 eine BC-Exilorganisation gründeten mit den Zentren</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in Großbritannien und Nigeria.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Semela jedoch zog andere Konsequenzen. Aus den Eifahrungen von 1976 entwickelte</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">er zunehmend Kritik an der BC-Tradition. 1979 lebte er in der Radikalenhochburg </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Berkeley (Kalifornien) und wurde vom Situahonismus inspiriert. In einem Text</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">kritisierte er dann die autoritaren Elemente der Kampfe von 1976-1977. Die Revolte</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">zeigte seines Erachtens die Wichtigkeit von Selbstorganisahon - und dennoch wurde</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">das Aktionskomitee im August 1976 in den Soweto Students' Representative</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Council (SSRC) umgewandelt, dem das Konzept einer »selbsternannten Exekutive</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">zugrunde lag, die diktatorisch kontrolliert wurde von dessen Vorsitzenden«, zu</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">jenem Zeitpunkt Murphy Morobe, der später ein ANC-Führer werden sollte. Die</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">exilierte BC-Bewegung habe diese Lektion nicht gelernt. Der Aufstand machte die</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Kraft der Spontaneität der Arbeiterklasse und des Massenkampfes deutlich, doch</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">die selbsternanntep BC-Führer wendeten sich dem leninistischen Autoritarismus</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">zu und »erhobeh laut Anspruch auf die zweifelhafte Ehre einer Avantgarde-Partei«.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Das ganze Projekt degenerierte zu »isolierten Gruppen radikaler Cheerleaders«,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">hungrig nach Medienberühmtheit und Auslandsanlagen und besessen von Macht.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Zweifelsohne hatte er bereits solche Tendenzen bei seinem einstweiligen Genossen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Mashinini feststellen müssen.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Das Pamphlet wurde in weiten Kreisen der Exil- und Antiapartheidbewegung gelesen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">-weltweit. Doch es wurde gemieden von den Verfechtern sowohl des ANC als</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">auch der BC-Exilorganisation und hatte keine Wirkung in Südafrika. Ab Ende 1970er</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Jahre befand sich die BC-Tradihon in einem steilen Abstieg. Der ANC, der nur eine</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Randerscheinung in den 1970er Jahren war, wurde neu aufgebaut und übernahm</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">die Fackel der nationalen Befreiungsbewegung. Schon relativ früh befürwortete</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">der ANC politische Gewalt gegen die BC-Bewegung: so rief er in einer Rundfunkübertragung </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">aus dem Untergrund von 1978 ausdrücklich dazu auf, dass eine Reihe</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">bestimmter BC-Persönlichkeiten »liquidiert« werden sollte.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Semelas scharfe Kritikan der Bürokratisierung und Verknöcherungdurch Machtstrukturen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in »Volksbewegungen« ist auch heute noch von Wert - wenn auch mehr in</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">dem Licht betrachtet, wie z.B. der ANC an der Macht zunehmend zu einer autoritären</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Partei degenerierte, die eine Mischung aus elitärer Bereicherung, afrikanisch-</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">nationalistischer Demagogie uhd neoliberaler Umstrukturierung hervorbringt.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Semela lebt heute zurückgezogen in New York City. Sein Name ist so gut wie vergessen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in Südafrika: keine umfangreiche Biographie, kein Platz in der nationalen</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Erinnerung. Für den ANC und die BC-Exilanten ist er eine unbequeme Person, die</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[ENDE]</span>Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-82544437087138076702020-01-28T03:23:00.002-08:002020-03-28T12:41:14.535-07:00Apartheid's Bushveld Bomb<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6Oq-cPpVrUA/XmN9s30heaI/AAAAAAAADeI/rc8zxzUUVm4lYQMcI-Hw0BLFYGQhl73tQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/18kt%2Bnuke%2Bairblast%2Bover%2Bthe%2BSABC.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="607" data-original-width="822" height="472" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6Oq-cPpVrUA/XmN9s30heaI/AAAAAAAADeI/rc8zxzUUVm4lYQMcI-Hw0BLFYGQhl73tQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/18kt%2Bnuke%2Bairblast%2Bover%2Bthe%2BSABC.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Simulation of an 18 kiloton air-detonated nuclear blast over the SABC in Auckland Park, Johannesburg. The light grey outer circle </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(more than 80 square kilometres) </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">is moderate blast damage, the inner orange and purple rings are the almost coterminous fireball and thermal radiation radii (anything within this area would be vapourised instantly), while the green circle is the 500 rem radiation radius. </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Image courtesy of Nukemap (c) Alex Wellerstein</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At the macro-strategic end of the apartheid state’s Total Strategy scale on which small-teams reconnaissance operations sat at the micro-tactical end, the ultra-secret Project Chalet of the South African Defence Force (SADF) achieved a major milestone in November 1979 by producing the pariah state’s first operational nuclear weapon. The first demo model, a cumbersome one-ton-plus device 2m long and 60cm in diameter, designed not to go critical but merely demonstrate the precision of its electro-mechanical components, had been produced under Project Kerktoring (Church-tower) in 1977 by Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Atomic Energy Corporation (AEC) scientists. An underground “cold,” non-explosive, test had been scrapped in August that year after the test site at Vastrap in the northern Cape had been spotted by a Soviet spy satellite and US spy plane. On 31 October 1978, Prime Minister P.W. Botha ordered Kerktoring transferred to exclusive military control and renamed Project Chalet. According to former AEC nuclear physicist Nic von Weilligh <b>(1) </b>who had worked on Project Chalet, starting in 1979, a “300 series” eventually developed into five pre-production models – two of which were of such high quality that one, 305, was retained as a training device called Hobo, after its warhead was removed.<b> </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> The famous telltale double-flash of a nuclear detonation over South Africa’s south Atlantic Prince Edward Islands possessions detected by the US Vela satellite at 42 seconds past 4.53am on 22 September 1979 appears by all of the scientific data and coinciding evidence to have been a secret 3-kiloton Israeli nuclear test, with the SADF as a mere facilitating and keenly-observing partner. The scientific evidence includes: the signature double-flash light-intensity reading of the bhangmeters on board Vela 6911 – one of a series of Vela satellites monitoring compliance with the Limited Test Ban Treaty; the detection by the radio-astronomy observatory at Arecibo in Puerto Rico at the same time as the twin flash of an anomalous ionospheric wave consistent with a nuclear detonation, a finding that aligns neatly with seismic data from New Zealand and ocean wave and hydro-acoustic data analysed by the US Naval Research Laboratory; plus the low levels of iodine-131, a short-lived radioactive product of nuclear fission, found shortly afterwards in sheep in the states of Victoria and Tasmania, downwind of the incident site. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Respected investigative journalist Seymour Hersh <b>(2)</b> had claimed that according to Israeli officials, the Vela incident was the third joint Israeli-South African test in the South Atlantic; Hersh wrote that the actual warhead tested was a low-yield artillery shell, in other words, a miniaturised, tactical battlefield nuke; Israel’s initial nuclear tests are believed to have been conducted in the Algerian desert under French cover and supervision: Israel is believed to have first observed French tests in southern Algeria from 1960 and to have conducted its own underground tests in the Negev Desert in 1963 and 1966, producing its first deliverable nuke by December 1966; by 1979, the CIA believed it possessed between 10 to 20 warheads. A French foreign policy shift three days before the Six-Day War in 1967 closed the door of French collaboration to them; as a nuclear-collaborative state that supplied it with uranium, apartheid South Africa was the obvious option. Soviet spy Dieter Gerhardt – who had served as a commander in the SA Navy before being exposed and arrested for high treason – claimed in a 1994 interview: ‘“I learned unofficially that the flash was produced by an Israeli-South African test, code-named Operation Phoenix.” <b>(3) </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> There are two options for how the weapon was tested: either the warhead was fired on an Israeli Jericho II two-stage ballistic missile from the Overberg Test Range in the southern Cape downrange towards an aerial detonation point near the target islands, or, as suggested by Leonard Weiss of the Centre for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University in the USA, <b>(4) </b>it was placed on a heavy barge sited off the Prince Edward Islands. Weiss notes that an SA Navy task force was conducting still-classified secret manoeuvures in the relevant period, which would support either delivery option. Wiess cites H.T. Hawkins, Senior Scientist Global Security at the Los Alamos laboratories in the USA, as recalling having shown Vela 6911’s bhangmeter readout to the instrument’s developer Herman Hoerlin. Without hesitation and without knowing the source of the reading, Hoerlin pronounced: “No doubt about it: an atmospheric nuclear explosion, several kilotons in yield, probably surrounded by lots of mass like a barge or the likes of it.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>The Vela Incident? Comparative simulation of a 3 kiloton surface blast (on a heavy barge) at the Prince Edward Islands in 1979. </b></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Image courtesy of Nukemap (c) Alex Wellerstein.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Von Weilligh states that after the Vela incident, an SADF production series of true, deliverable nuclear weapons started with the completion in November 1979 of Video – later renamed Melba and used as a demo model – plus Cabot, number 306, which was upgraded into an active device. Hobo’s warhead was integrated into the first production model called Cabot in December 1982 – “a Christmas gift for PW Botha.” The naming of the nukes is quirky: Hobo is common military slang for “homing bomb,” while Cabot may have been named after Vienese explorer Zuan Chabotto (John Cabot in its Anglicised form) who discovered the east coast of North America in 1497, which as Botha’s “gift” nuke could indicate a deliberate celebration of European colonialism; on the other hand, Melba may be a crude joke, the device being intended to “toast” its target to a crisp. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Thereafter, the “500 series” of live nukes produced between 1988 and 1989 gave a total of six operational fission weapons with yields of 10 to 18 kilotons. The fissible yield of the nuke that levelled Hiroshima was measured at 12,5 kilotons.<b>(5) </b>The SADF’s nukes were, however, designed as a deterrent and not for actual combat use: the initial strategy was to secretly reveal their existence to key Cold War powers (the USA and Russia especially), and if that failed, to conduct a cold test, then a hot test (live test detonation) in an escalating battle of wills to force USSR-backed forces in Angola to withdraw. This would later change to a more aggressive stance.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> The SADF nukes were soon stored – noses separate to tails as a safety precaution – in heavy-doored vaults at Advena, a nondescript facility tucked away off the road between south of the Hartebeespoort Dam. Five of them were designed to be dropped from a specially modified SAAF Bucaneer bomber, or fired from a mobile artillery platform, while the last was intended to be launched from an SA-manufactured version of the Jericho II that was thinly disguised as the RSA-2 satellite launch rocket, with a range capable of threatening all hostile Frontline State capitals and ANC/MK and SWAPO exile training camps with utter annihilation. <b>(6) </b>The battle for the maintenance of white supremacy at the continent’s southern tip was entering by far its hottest phase.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In November 1986, a new nuclear weapons deterrence strategy was approved by Defence Minister Magnus Malan and President P.W. Botha that called for one demonstration model, three gun-type nuclear weapons (a design with a plutonium projectile fired into a highly enriched uranium 235 core to precipitate the fission chain-reaction) that could be delivered by ballistic missiles, and three versions “boosted” with tritium to attain a yield five times larger that would be delivered by medium-range missiles, plus another seven weapons which could be delivered by aircraft. And a massive new facility was planned to produce weapons-grade plutonium and other heavy metals – aiming at an eventual thermonuclear fusion bomb with a yield of around 100 kilotons that would be delivered by intermediate-range ballistic missile by the mid 1990s. But in the 1986 strategy’s worst-case scenario, of South Africa facing a losing war in Angola, the nukes would have not been used strategically against enemy capitals like Luanda, but rather tactically in support of naval and ground forces. This was nevertheless a ratcheting-up of the tension on the previous strategy which had called for a gradual revelation, then mere test demonstration, of SA’s nuclear weapons capacity in order to force Russian-backed forces including the MPLA, SWAPO, and the ANC to step down. </span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xD6v8xFS8qg/XmOCHX7czSI/AAAAAAAADeo/vgwuBF4FanIYF3kKXmKbyfEOij4RxyzBgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/100kt%2Bairblast%2Bnuke%2Bover%2BLuanda.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="538" data-original-width="853" height="402" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xD6v8xFS8qg/XmOCHX7czSI/AAAAAAAADeo/vgwuBF4FanIYF3kKXmKbyfEOij4RxyzBgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/100kt%2Bairblast%2Bnuke%2Bover%2BLuanda.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Comparative simulation of a 100 kiloton thermonuclear blast over Luanda, Angola. The entire city would be destroyed. Estimated casualties: 426,070 dead, 918,160 wounded. </b></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Image courtesy of Nukemap (c) Alex Wellerstein.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Notes:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>1) </b>Nic von Weilligh and Lydia von Weilligh-Steyn, <i>The Bomb: South Africa’s Nuclear Weapons Programme</i>, Litera Publications, Pretoria, South Africa, 2015.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>2) </b></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Seymour Hirsch, <i>The Samson Option: Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy,</i> Random House, New York City, USA, 1991. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>3) </b></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">David Albright, <i>South Africa and the Affordable Bomb</i>, <i>Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists</i>, Taylor and Francis, Abingdon, UK, July/August 1994.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>4)</b> Leonard Weiss, <i>The Vela Event of 1979 (or the Israeli Nuclear Test of 1979</i>, presentation at a conference entitled The Historical Dimensions of South Africa’s Nuclear Weapons Programme, near Pretoria, South Africa, 10 December 2012, online <a href="https://fsi-live.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/Weiss_vela_presentation_12.10.12.pdf." target="_blank">here</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>5)</b> By far the most superior telling of the developments in nuclear physics leading to the only use of nukes in warfare is Richard Rhodes, <i>The Making of the Atomic Bomb</i>, Penguin Books, London, UK, 1988. The Hiroshima yield is his figure (the bomb being of the same gun-design as that used many decades later in SA); he gave a yield of 22 kilotons for the Nagasaki implosion-design bomb.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>6) </b>The slowly unraveling revelations of Projects Kerktoring and Chalet over a period of years are examined in my book <i>Drinking with Ghosts</i> (2014), and were added to by von Weilligh and von Weilligh-Steyn (2015).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[ENDS]</span>Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-83197694695866507702019-12-31T03:55:00.000-08:002019-12-31T03:55:31.602-08:00If My House Were to Date Your House<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-taAc3nSxT4Y/Xgs2rRk6dXI/AAAAAAAADa4/as4E-puAa4UqdkN3I3HsJmB0TRBSq-_EgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Bookshelf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="564" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-taAc3nSxT4Y/Xgs2rRk6dXI/AAAAAAAADa4/as4E-puAa4UqdkN3I3HsJmB0TRBSq-_EgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Bookshelf.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>© Michael Schmidt 2019</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If my house were to date your house</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There would be hats on the hat-rack</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But old photographs in the spice-rack</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If my house were to date your house</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There would be tiny succulents in pots</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And bunches of forget-me-nots</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If my house were to date your house</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There would be curious boxes everywhere</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books under the stairs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books in the kitchen cupboards</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books under the chairs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books on the bathroom shelf</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books on the garage workbench</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books amongst the Delft</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If my house were to date your house</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There would be Piaf on the turntable</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And Bauhaus on the headphones</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If my house were to date your house</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There would be ballet-shoes and boots</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Side by side under the bed</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If my house were to date your house</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There would be curious boxes everywhere</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books under the stairs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books in the kitchen cupboards</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books under the chairs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books on the bathroom shelf</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books on the garage workbench</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books amongst the Delft</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If my house were to date your house </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There would be stockings in the shower</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And a fruit-bowl in a bower</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If my house were to date your house</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There would be sculptures to the ceiling</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And paintings of exquisite feeling</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If my house were to date your house</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There would be curious boxes everywhere</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books under the stairs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books in the kitchen cupboards</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books under the chairs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books on the bathroom shelf</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books on the garage workbench</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books amongst the Delft</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books in the garden grove</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books in the rowboat in the cove</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books to sweetly smile by</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books to measure miles by</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books to cuddle up with</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books to share a pup with</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books to beat night’s terror</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books for rainy weather</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If my house were to date your house</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hats and heels for space would wrestle</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gods and glass bunnies on shelves would jostle</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If my house were to date your house</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There would be curious boxes everywhere</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books under the stairs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books in the kitchen cupboards</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books under the chairs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books on the bathroom shelf</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books on the garage workbench</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And books amongst the Delft</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[ENDS]</span>Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-36483567568549693952019-09-30T08:23:00.002-07:002019-09-30T08:24:23.060-07:00Elvis' Stillborn Brother<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gPO8bBOvQKA/XZId3q4GUBI/AAAAAAAADZk/VC4whswRrbgZSrmHtl7YwdSr1lzmtuT7QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Elvis_Presley_1958.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="865" data-original-width="1000" height="552" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gPO8bBOvQKA/XZId3q4GUBI/AAAAAAAADZk/VC4whswRrbgZSrmHtl7YwdSr1lzmtuT7QCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Elvis_Presley_1958.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>© Michael Schmidt 2012 </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Elvis’ stillborn brother</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in his cardboard box he sings</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">of their souls’ might</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">two hundred sev’ty nights</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">when they both were kings</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Elvis’ darkling brother</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in his old shoebox he croons</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">of the gods they’d be</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">his brother and he</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">before they broke the strings</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Never wanted to be famous</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">never wanted to be born</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">only wanted to be linked</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">undivided in dark embrace</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Elvis’ changeling brother</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">with his third eye he spies</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a Dravidian maid</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">his heartstrings she plays</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">until he all but cries</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Never wanted segregation</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">never wanted to be scorned</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">only wanted to be twinned</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">whisp’ring like hummingbirds</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Elvis’ monstrous brother</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in the lonesome night he howls</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">for his sweet monster-girl</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">like a Bedouin bereft</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">pain shrouded in a cowl</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Never wanted to be ground</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">winnowing of his seed</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">only wanted to be binary</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">their harmonics on the wind</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Elvis’ lovelorn brother</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">head a nest of wasps he sings</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">of their souls’ might</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">two hundred sev’ty nights</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">when they both were kings</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[ENDS]</span>Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-14127316169166146792019-08-12T07:23:00.000-07:002019-08-12T07:23:26.421-07:00Hammerl Arts Rights Transfer (HART) established<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LmXoCwaS4Bo/XVF132Bsl6I/AAAAAAAADXo/zGa52qKnF3MEIMKn2Lg5Ach4MlMFsypjQCLcBGAs/s1600/HART%2BHat.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="399" data-original-width="500" height="510" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LmXoCwaS4Bo/XVF132Bsl6I/AAAAAAAADXo/zGa52qKnF3MEIMKn2Lg5Ach4MlMFsypjQCLcBGAs/s640/HART%2BHat.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Named after South African freelance photojournalist Anton Hammerl, killed covering the "Arab Spring" in Libya in 2011, the <b>Hammerl Arts Rights Transfer (HART)</b> has now been legally registered as a non-profit organisation with its own bank accounts. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">HART is a fully-funded Fellowship in recognition of excellence in human and creative rights, offering a 6-month or 12-month residency in Johannesburg. Successful applicants for the Fellowship will be able to showcase their work through exhibition / debate / event space kindly provided by AFDA: The School for the Creative Economy. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">HART is currently run by a group of five arts and media specialists, being three black women, one white woman, and one white man: a co-ordinator, a logistics manager and assistant, a curator, and a hostess. We are putting the finishing touches on its selection process before we announce that the Fellowship is open for applications from across the African continent and beyond. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">HART is a project of the Professional Journalists' Association of South Africa (ProJourn), the sole organisation that issues press cards to freelance journalists and media workers. Today it proudly joins the growing arts rights justice ecosystem as one of the first such initiatives on the African continent.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[ENDS]</span>Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-34376537768748549512019-07-31T05:45:00.000-07:002019-07-31T05:45:17.658-07:00Hamba Kahle, Mandla Khoza, Swazi Revolutionary Anarchist!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4UMxmSczItg/XUGMxLm2-aI/AAAAAAAADXM/sp4AyQ-cxAkj8MmFXnrodjMoAmXsRNM8QCLcBGAs/s1600/20190731_144041%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="490" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4UMxmSczItg/XUGMxLm2-aI/AAAAAAAADXM/sp4AyQ-cxAkj8MmFXnrodjMoAmXsRNM8QCLcBGAs/s640/20190731_144041%255B1%255D.jpg" width="526" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- Michael Schmidt, South Africa</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mandla Khoza was a tall, charming, self-deprecating man who nevertheless remained a tough and committed anarchist-communist militant – despite numerous perils – right up until his death on 26 July 2019 last week at the age of 45 in the Sthobelweni Hospital in rural Swaziland.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a warm autumn day with clouds flecking the sky on Wednesday 22 May 1974 when Mandla was born at Kagucuka. The landlocked hilly kingdom of Eswatini (Swaziland), shaped like a full-mouthed bite out of the eastern flank of South Africa, was at the time somnolent under the rod of a man who would turn out to be the world’s longest-ruling monarch, King Sobhuza II. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sobhuza’s father, Dlamini IV, on ascending the throne at only 16 in 1895 had inherited a rural, deeply traditional kingdom that had just become a protectorate of the Boer’s Transvaal Republic; by 1974, Swaziland, though it had become a British protectorate following the defeat of the Boers in 1902 until independence in 1968, had fallen back under the tutelage of its more powerful, white supremacist neighbour. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The monarchy has always self-servingly believed that its “Tinkundla” system of rule via clan chiefs was preferable to modern democracy, and a hide-bound, conservative Manzini suited the war-chiefs in Pretoria: the Royal Swazi Police often collaborated with apartheid death-squads and raiders in combating ANC guerrillas using the country as an exile springboard for operations into Zululand or the Eastern Transvaal. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was into this comprador sugarcane-growing state with its proxy actions on behalf of apartheid that Mandla was born, growing up to become a looming, raw-boned man with a ready smile deeply carving his cheeks – and a burning desire to set his people free from Africa’s last absolute monarchy, that of Sobhuza’s son, Mswati III.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By late 1996 / early 1997, the struggle for democracy in Swaziland had attracted the attention of the first serious anarchist organisation to operate in South Africa since anarchists built the first trade unions for people of colour 80 years previously, the anarcho-syndicalist Workers’ Solidarity Federation (WSF). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a WSF activist, I travelled through the country for its journal Workers’ Solidarity, being deeply impressed by a pro-democracy general strike by 200,000 workers lead by the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU), the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), and its youth wing the Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There, I also met Simon Noge, the Swazi revolutionary who had been involved with the democratic-Marxist Movement for a Democracy of Content (MDC) in South Africa in the 1950s, a living link to our forgotten libertarian communist past – which the WSF was reviving – who had just been released from a Swazi prison. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Founded in 2003, the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation (ZACF) was the direct descendant of the WSF, and very soon made stronger and more direct and consistent links with PUDEMO and SWAYOCO’s exile structures in Johannesburg – the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN) – and its underground in Swaziland. There was a strong sense within the SSN that now that it was in government, the ANC (though not its COSATU union allies) had abandoned its earlier dedication to seeing in the dawn of democracy in Swaziland.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We had also encountered and befriended, via one of the ZACF’s two Soweto branches, Mandla Khoza, who for security reasons we rapidly dubbed “MK” (with tongue in cheek as it is the acronym for the ANC’s former armed wing), and his shorter, muscular sidekick, “MD”. The two friends formed the nucleus of a ZACF branch near the St Phillip’s Mission, south of Manzini in central Swaziland, making the Federation a transnational organisation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By 2005, MD was writing for the ZACF journal Zabalaza (Struggle) on developments in Swaziland, and MK followed the next year, writing about a rather futile, small-scale hand-grenade attack campaign by a SWAYOCO that was increasingly frustrated by the deadlock between royal and democratic forces; it was a risky exercise, as those charged with the “bombings” faced the death penalty for treason.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The two Swazi friends loved the succinct, clear polemics of pint-sized Italian motor mechanic and world-traveling revolutionary anarchist Errico Malatesta, in particular his text Fra Contadini (Between Peasants), a dialogue in which a young firebrand returning from the city explains to an older peasant why anarchism makes sense, and surreptitiously distributed this and other anarchist pamphlets, journals and books throughout the benighted kingdom. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The challenges the little ZACF cell faced started, primarily, with poverty and the HIV/AIDS pandemic that has devastated Swaziland; they were continually trying to develop self-help schemes that would feed themselves and the neighbours in their community – along the lines of what the ZACF’s Phambili Motsoaledi Community Project had done in Soweto.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mandla lived an uncomplaining Spartan life, in a corrugated iron shack with a compacted dirt floor, and vacant windows through which the wind blew across the spindly wires marking out his tiny plot; it was unforgivingly hot in summer and icy in the winter; he was trying to raise funds for a drum that could store rain-water and irrigate a little vegetable patch.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But his little cell also faced the deadly attentions of the Royal Swazi Police. In a country as small as Swaziland, it was impossible for the militants to remain unknown to the political police and intelligence agents. In October 2005, for example, ZACF member “PN” was arrested at the Swazi border on a visit to Mandla’s cell, and had to be bailed out.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By November 2006, things were building towards a head in Swaziland: PUDEMO had produced a new strategic document, the Road Map Towards a New and Democratic Swaziland, that referred to the guerrilla wars fought in Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Chile, and which called for “a new and organised force for liberation that captures the imagination of the oppressed masses and inspires them to action.” </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That force seemed to have emerged clandestinely in the shape of Swaziland Liberation, a nascent guerrilla formation drawn from the ranks of SWAYOCO militants, secretly trained and armed in South Africa allegedly by Young Communist League cadre (and weirdly, former RENAMO guerrillas from Mozambique), and inculcated with an iron discipline aimed at “Rush Hour,” the overthrow of the Mswati III monarchy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The ZACF took a stance against Swaziland Liberation both because its actions were premature, adventurist, and would likely split the liberation movement at the very point it needed to be united, and because its authoritarianism saw it holding members at gunpoint against their will; this ethical stance, however, drove a wedge between the ZACF and the SSN; but in the event, Swaziland Liberation failed to achieve “Rush Hour.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In December 2007, the ZACF, having experienced internal problems of its own because of inconsistent levels of dedication and political-tactical understanding in its members, changed from a federation of semi-autonomous collectives into a more tightly-knit unitary organisation called the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (also ZACF). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because of the pragmatic difficulties of co-ordinating between the parent organisation in Johannesburg and the cell in St Phillips, it was decided to allow the latter to go its own way as an autonomous Swazi entity. They were not isolated in this: the Swazis had developed their own international contacts, for example, guiding visiting German anarchists through Swaziland, and had a long-standing relationship with anarcho-syndicalists of the Solidarity Federation (SolFed) in Britain. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yet in retrospect, I feel that the move towards autonomy – which I had endorsed – amounted to somewhat of an abandonment of support by the ZACF for St Phillips. In 2009, however, the writings of MK and MD contributed towards a ZACF pamphlet, A Bitter Taste to the Sugar-cane: 10 Years of African Anarchist Writings on the Pro-Democracy Struggle in Swaziland (1996-2006), which showed how the anarchist approach to Swazi liberation had evolved and become more sophisticated with time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, Mandla Khoza tended to shuttle between the Atteridgeville township outside Pretoria and the Manzini district of Swaziland, living by his wits and the aid of friends. His uncomplicated charm and firmness of character had often attracted women, but he found relationships to be a distraction from the struggle for democracy, so he stoically avoided them. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mandla made a habit over the past decade or so since his cell’s autonomy of visiting me in Johannesburg at least once a year, and I also met less frequently with MD. They told me how that apart from themselves, the entire militant network they had built up around St Phillips had been implacably and slowly destroyed, the police cunningly opting to poison militants one by one so that they simply died of “mysterious illnesses” that could not be traced back to the authorities.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mandla Khoza himself was increasingly subject to bouts of recurring illness; whether this meant he too had been poisoned by the police is unknown. At times he would be full of towering dynamism; months later, he would be huddled into a blanket, his chest sunken, his voice a whisper, his smile a rictus, battling to eat a thin diet of porridge supplemented by milk and vitamins. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On these occasions he spoke to me about dying and pronounced that he was totally unafraid of death, being satisfied with his life. I believed him as he was always deeply resolute in his commitment to anarchism and his struggle for his country’s liberation. He leaves a sister, Nthombenhlope – and a trans-national pro-democracy movement celebrating his life. </span><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hamba Kahle (Go Well), Comrade MK! </span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[ENDS]</span>Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-88528434133073608532019-06-24T01:45:00.000-07:002019-07-04T08:25:00.520-07:00Untruths at the Truth Commission<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>In 2013, based on my coverage of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in South Africa in the mid-1990s, and my training of commissioners of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in the Solomon Islands in 2010, I was asked to advise the Côte d'Ivoire's Commission Dialogue, Vérité et Reconciliation (CDVR). I am pictured here standing behind CDVR president, </b></span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Maitre Mari-France Goffri, who is </b><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">seated at right next to Marjorie Jobson of the Khulumani Support Group for victims of apartheid.</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A chapter in my new book , scheduled for release next year, bears the title Untruths at the Truth Commission. It is unfortunate, given the TRC researchers' brilliant in-depth, seven-volume, 4,500-page exposition of the complex web that was apartheid, that there is a revisionist notion common among many young people that the TRC was a "sell-out" process - though this is derived from a legitimate concern over the amnesty-for-truth formula that the TRC Amnesty Committee (a separate but linked organ) applied to perpetrators of gross human rights violations. This concern was and remains most forcefully expressed by the families of prominent victims such as Bantu Steven Biko, Matthew Goniwe and Fabian and Florence Ribiero - and I totally understand their reluctance to let apartheid perpetrators off the hook for the price of merely admitting their crimes. In fact, the Amnesty Committee recommended that there be at least 300 prosecutions of perpetrators who had either not applied for amnesty for known crimes against humanity, war crimes and other gross violations, or whose testimony before the TRC was found to be untruthful and so they had forfeited the right to amnesty. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Unfortunately, political interference by the ANC government under President Thabo Mbeki in the subsequent prosecutions process meant that only one of those cases was ever facing prosecution - that against former Law & Order Minister Adriaan Vlok, former Security Branch chief General Johan van der Merwe, and three Security Branch assassins in 2007 for the attempted poisoning of Reverend Frank Chikane, and that was settled without trial in a plea-bargain that gave the men 10 years' suspended for five. Under what in my book Drinking with Ghosts (2014) I call Southern Africa's "Pact of Forgetting," a secret deal between Mbeki's Cabinet and the apartheid generals in about 2004, it was illegally decided that <i>no</i> prosecutions would result from apartheid; this deal was apparently struck because leading ANC figures as well as apartheid figures would have to face justice for grotesque crimes. That over a quarter century of democracy, no-one has ever been tried for the UN-designated crime against humanity that was apartheid, that not one military officer has been successfully prosecuted for the militarist state's murder, torture, disappearances, and other depredations, and that *all* prosecutions were illegally halted by Cabinet interference in the National Prosecuting Authority's constitutional duty to investigate the 300 cases presented to it by the Amnesty Committee is a crime in itself. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A total of 21,748 victims were identified by the TRC based on those who had given evidence before it, among whom are some 1,500 disappeared - but among these were only two SWAPO members - the lawyer Anton Lubowski assassinated by the CCB in 1989 and some poor soul tortured in the Northern Transvaal into confessing he was a SWAPO member. This is a clear impossibility, given the 23-year war the SADF waged against SWAPO, with a death toll put at something like 2,500 South Africans, 12,300 Namibians, and perhaps 5,000 Cubans dead (not to mention many others). The TRC rather mawkishly admitted that most apartheid crimes were committed *outside* the borders of South Africa in its rather hot "Cold War" with the Soviet-aligned Frontline States, while the trial of SADF biochem war-chief Brigadier Wouter Basson signally failed to prosecute him for crimes that the trial judge shadily found fell outside his court's jurisdiction (ie: outside South Africa). This is nonsense as such transnational war crimes fall directly under international common law and are readily prosecutable, though not under the International Criminal Court as the Rome Statute only reaches back to 2002. The dropping of allegedly "extra-jurisdictional" mass-murder charges against Basson was overturned by the Constitutional Court in 2005, opening the way for him to be tried on those and several other charges again - though the NPA was illegally ordered by Cabinet not to dare lift a finger against him. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fortunately, the Pact of Forgetting is now unraveling, with a growing public chorus in the wake of the successful inquest into activist Ahmed Timol's death that determined it was murder at the hands of the police, that <b><i>all</i></b> apartheid crimes be revisited. There were many untruths told at the Truth Commission - especially relating to transnational war crimes - but so much new hard proof of these crimes has since emerged that it should prove irresistible to honest and implacable prosecutors. With so many perpetrators having been allowed to die peacefully in their beds over the past two decades, it is past time that the NPA revisits the 300-odd apartheid gross human rights violations (plus the six charges green-lighted against Basson by the Constitutional Court) with a view to prosecution.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[ENDS]</span></div>
Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-59215226172987677992019-05-24T11:14:00.000-07:002019-05-24T11:14:36.459-07:00Selected Presentations 1998-2019<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Continuity versus Change in Southern Africa’s Transition</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>, official book launch of A Taste of Bitter Almonds</b> </span><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to a capacity crowd in the library, University of Johannesburg, 12 April 2016</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I used to be pretty shy - but over the past 21 years I developed the ability to speak comfortably in public and have delivered scores of lectures and presentations to audiences across the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Antipodes. These engagements have mostly centred on four - in my experience, linked - spheres: the safety and responsibilities of citizen-driven journalists working in transitional societies; the troubled histories of transitions to democracy in Southern Africa and elsewhere; human rights and the protection of vulnerable communities, migrants and persecuted creatives in unstable environments; and the grassroots, directly-democratic politics of anarchism. Here is a selected list of some of my talks, presentations and chairing sessions over the past two decades:</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Class Struggle Without Borders: The Recolonisation of Africa and the Future of the Left</b>, public lecture, at the invitation of the Socialist Caucus, University of Zambia, August 1998</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Democracia Direta nos Movimentos Sociais Sul-Africanos (Direct Democracy in the South African Social Movements)</b>, 1st Encounter of Latin American Popular Autonomous Organisations (ELAOPA), Jornadas Anarquistas / World Social Forum, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 23 January 2003</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Basic Anarchist Principles and How they Apply to the Social Movements (Based on the Brazilian Experience)</b>, BMC Red & Black Forum, Vlakfontein, 16 March 2003</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>What is Anarchist-Communism?</b>, ZACF Red & Black Forum, Wits University, 16 February 2008</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Four Tools for Workers’ Control of the Poor Community</b>, ZACF Red & Black Forum, Meadowlands, Soweto, South Africa, 26 April 2008</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>On the Need for a Socially-Oriented Journalism</b>, seminar with Aubrey Matshiqi & Anton Harber, University of Johannesburg, South Africa, 7 May 2008</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The Anarchist as Journalist</b>, colloquium with professors of international affairs & communications, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Guadalajara, Mexico, 26 November 2009</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Reporting Conflict in Transitional Societies</b>, public lecture with photographs by Michael Schmidt, James Oatway and João Silva, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Guadalajara, Mexico, 27 November 2009</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Two Key Challenges Facing Small Commercial Publications in Rural South Africa</b>, presentation at the Media Development & Diversity Agency’s Learning Forum, Johannesburg, 12 February 2010</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>(De)constructing Counter-power</b>, series of public lectures at the Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, Ontario), Centre for the Study of Theory & Criticism, University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario), McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario), University of Ottawa, University of Toronto, followed each night by a presentation at an activist / community centre, Canada,15-20 March 2010</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Anarchism’s Global Proletarian Praxis</b>, public talk given at the DIRA Bookstore, hosted by Common Cause and Union Comuniste Libertaire, transcribed by Marie-Eve Lamy, Montreal, Canada, 18 March 2010, online <a href="http://www.anarkismo.net/article/22206" target="_blank">here</a> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Conflict in Transitional Societies: a Journalist’s Perspective</b>, presentation to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, with photographs by Michael Schmidt, James Oatway and João Silva, Honiara, Solomon Islands, South Pacific, 20 October 2010</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Covering Elections in the SADC Region: Citizen-driven Journalism versus Political Spin in a Tough Media Environment</b>, lecture at the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism / International Institute for Journalism Summer School for SADC Journalists, Johannesburg, 15 November 2010</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Seismic Shifts: An Overview of Social Unrest in SA from 1994</b>, Social Unrest & Safety Seminar, Institute for the Advancement of Journalism / International Committee of the Red Cross, Johannesburg, 3 May 2011</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The IAJ: Grooming the Emergent Layers of African Journalism Leadership since 1992</b>, presentation to the Networking Partners’ Meeting, International Institute for Journalism, Berlin, Germany, 6 July 2011.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Covering Conflict in Transitional Societies</b>, presentation to journalism students, University of North Carolina, with photographs by Michael Schmidt, James Oatway and João Silva, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA, 6 October 2011.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Conflict-Sensitive Reporting & Journalist Safety</b>, presentation to Power Reporting: the African Investigative Journalism Conference, Wits University, with photographs by Michael Schmidt, James Oatway and João Silva, Johannesburg, 2 November 2011.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Oral Submission to the Press Freedom Commission</b>, presentation to the PFC on behalf of the Professional Journalists’ Association of South Africa, Johannesburg, 30 January 2012.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Outcomes Based Education Training Methodology</b>, presentation to ZACF internal education session, Wits University, Johannesburg, 22 April, 2012.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Critical Mass: Anarchist Revolutionary Models in the Global South</b>, presentation prepared for St Imier International Anarchist Congress, St Imier, Switzerland, August 2012. Unable to attend Congress, so presentation done at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, 11 September 2012.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Conflict-Sensitive Reporting & Journalist Safety</b>, presentation to Summer Academy, Institute for the Advancement of Journalism & International Institute for Journalism, with photographs by Michael Schmidt, James Oatway and João Silva, Johannesburg, 29 November 2012.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Conflict-Sensitive Reporting: Analysis, Context & History</b>, discussion with Union of African Journalists students, Cairo, Egypt, 6 June 2013.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>In the Shadow of a Hurricane: Riding the Storms of Capitalist Crisis</b>, presentation for Cartography of Revolutionary Anarchism book launch, Café Mexicho, Johannesburg, 9 November 2013.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>After Mandela: The Implosion of ANC Alliance Politics?</b>, public talk at the Museum of City and Sea, Wellington, New Zealand, 13 March 2014</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>In the Shadow of a Hurricane: How Anarchists Build Counter-power</b>, presentations on IATH research and publications at the Wellington Anarchist Bookfair, New Zealand, Victoria Trades Hall, Melbourne, & Sydney Anarchist Bookfair, Australia, 16, 19 & 22 March 2014.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>In the Shadow of a Hurricane: How Anarchists Build Counter-power</b>, presentation on IATH research and publications at the Philosophy Faculty, University of Ljubljana, hosted by the Federation of Anarchist Organisations, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 21 May 2014</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Drinking with Ghosts</b>, at Written in Cement: Joburg Authors Telling their Stories, part of the Joburg Festival 2014, in conversation with Rian Malan, il Giardino Decor, Johannesburg, 2 October 2014</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Drinking with Ghosts</b>, official book launch, in conversation with Rian Malan, il Giardino Decor, Johannesburg, 9 December 2014</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>What is Investigative Journalism?</b>, presentation to third-year journalism students, Monash University, Johannesburg, 17 April 2015</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Father Michael Dubrovnik and Brother Leonard</b>, launch of Mzilikazi wa Afrika’s book Nothing Left to Steal, University of Johannesburg, April 2015, online at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHR0wvpNKRo </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Cutting the Distances: City-to-City Inspirations for Building Safe Havens</b>, Safe Havens 2015 conference, Malmö, Sweden, 11 December 2015</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>A Taste of Bitter Almonds</b>, community book launch with former ANC exile SIfiso Ntuli, Roving Bantu Kitchen, Johannesburg, 7 April 2016</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Continuity versus Change in Southern Africa’s Transition</b>, official book launch of A Taste of Bitter Almonds, with Prof Ylva Rodny-Gumede, University of Johannesburg, 12 April 2016, online <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSlO4OdjIpE" target="_blank">here</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The Southern African Cities of Refuge Project</b>, presentation at the Southern African Human Rights Defenders Network (SAHRDN) conference, Johannesburg, 4 July 2016</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Verité and Veracité</b>, talk with Hamilton Wende after the screening of the Beate Arnestad documentary Seeking Truth at Arusha, Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre, 11 July 2016</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>UAVs over Africa</b>, presentation on behalf of ProJourn and the Professional Society of Drone Journalists to the Conference on Emerging Technologies in Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Ekurhuleni, 17 November 2016</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Migration Memory Encounter</b>, chairing a conversation between migrant writers Jude Dibia (Nigeria/Sweden) and Kagiso Lesego Molope (South Africa/Canada), Inkonst, Malmö, Sweden, 3 December 2016</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Shoe-leather & Paper: The Importance of Field Reporting & Archival Research</b>, presentation to World Association of Newspapers’ 25th Conference, Chennai, India, 12 September 2017</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Democracy and Diversity in Light of the Zimbabwean Coup</b>, Radio Freedom (Podcast 1), chair, Cliff Central, Johannesburg, 20 November 2017</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The Liberalisation of the Airwaves in Zimbabwe in the post-Coup Era</b>, Radio Freedom (Podcast 2), chair, Radio Days Africa, Wits University, Johannesburg, 6 July 2018</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Writing Narrative Non-fiction</b>, presentation at the South African Book Fair, Johannesburg, 8 September 2018</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Acting in Time: Intervention and the Rohingya Genocide</b>, chairing a debate with Judge Richard Goldstone, David P. Kramer and Shabnam Mayet, Johannesburg Holocaust and Genocide Centre, 14 November 2018</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>El Sindicalismo Revoluctionario, Comunismo Libertario y Control Territorial</b> (Revolutionary Syndicalism, Libertarian Communism and Territorial Control), talk at Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Puebla City, Mexico, 21 January 2019</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>[ENDS]</b></span></div>
Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-90721661307549214402019-04-26T03:55:00.000-07:002019-04-26T04:01:16.905-07:00We Are Not Women – We Are Human Beings Making Music<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZqjZKn-IFfs/XMLhEx8mUBI/AAAAAAAADRo/KiNhKAkqSbUle7iOKP0hLy-c3UFgV8N3gCLcBGAs/s1600/Forbidden%2BOrchestra.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="591" data-original-width="454" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZqjZKn-IFfs/XMLhEx8mUBI/AAAAAAAADRo/KiNhKAkqSbUle7iOKP0hLy-c3UFgV8N3gCLcBGAs/s640/Forbidden%2BOrchestra.png" width="490" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Michael Schmidt, Safe Havens Rapporteur</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The wistful voice of the voluptuous, polished cello of Veronika Voetmann merges with the mournful tones of Anela Bakraqi’s black and dusty piano and the honeyed ache of Alma Olssen’s violin, and the notes swarm in the cadences of Bahraini composer Ahmed Al Ghanem’s flute like leftover autumn leaves in a winter wind.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Inspired by his mentor, the late Majeed Marhoon, a saxophonist who took the drastic path during Bahrain’s liberation struggle of bombing the car of a British intelligence officer in 1966, spending twenty-two years in jail as a result, Ahmed’s neo-classical compositions present a bridge between Western chromatic-scale and Arabic micro-scale music.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Similarly, the annual Safe Havens summit of the ecosystem of organisations that protect persecuted creatives around the world convened under the orientalist gilt domes of the Moriska Paviljongen in Malmö, Sweden, to build bridges between artists’ needs and the pragmatic realisation of their human, cultural and artistic rights. The following are interviews conducted with some of the summit’s key speakers and artists.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>WE ARE NOT WOMEN – WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS MAKING MUSIC: Emilia Amper (nyckelharpe, Sweden), Nadin Al Khalidi (bass and oued, Iraq) and Liliana Zavala (percussion, Argentina), members of the Forbidden Orchestra, with Farzane Zamen, Iranian singer-songwriter based in Glasgow</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>Fantastic to see you perform, very enervating and moving! A lot of percussion, right? There’s a tradition in West Africa where there are sacred drums that are not played and the idea is that they resonate with the beat of neighbouring drums – but they’re never touched. Women, now, playing instruments, drums in particular, that they are not allowed to play, tell me about refeminising the drum, taking maybe that silent drum that was allowed to resonate in the corner and wasn’t allowed to be touched, and doing what you [Liliana] did, grabbing it and playing it, breaking that taboo.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Liliana:</b> Yeah, I’m breaking a taboo, but actually you can’t play at the ceremony, that you talk about, I don’t know in South Africa, but in Cuba, the woman can’t play on the ceremony, you can’t play batá. There is two kind of batá drums: the holy, with another kind of tension – the mechanics is not metal – and the other batá with metal you can play, but never in the ceremony. The woman can’t, today you can’t play in the ceremony, even now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> But the drum has been masculinised.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Liliana:</b> But we are not using those drums in our band.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> I understand that, but I am just using that as a metaphor.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Emilia</b>: If I would try to answer your question – maybe we don’t really understand – but I guess it’s because we don’t see ourselves as women, we see ourselves as human beings and it’s really human rights to just make music, so for us it’s not like “oh, it’s so special: I’m a woman and I’m making music.” I’m a human being, I’m an artist, I just make music – and then society kind of hits you in the face “ah because you are a woman” and I am like “What?” Oh yeah I have to remember that I am a woman,” and I am stopped, discriminated and treated badly in many ways, again and again and you are kind of surprised every time because we are just human beings just making music because we love it and it comes from our hearts and it’s our life. So we don’t see it as refeminising: we are just human beings making music and then, step by step, being a woman in society today you kind of learn this; it’s really depressing, it really puts you down when you suddenly see more and more of the structures and it’s ugh, and this tired and depressing feeling that it is to be met with sexist feeling and stuff. The tiring feeling is kind of fought with this meeting, this playing in this band; it fills you with energy again and it is so strong for us to just meet here because we know without speaking so much because we immediately know that we share that feeling that we just want to make art, we just want to make music, we just want to be human beings and express ourselves, but we all share the kind of ugh!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> But you were indicating that actually this was a huge loss for humanity – that half of the music, we never hear.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Emilia:</b> Yeah, it’s horrible. We need to do it because it’s human rights and because we lose so much art. It’s not because we have to let this woman because she’s a woman: it’s because we lose so much art and everybody should be free; it’s a human right.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> You have themes that are quite lonesome or plaintive, sad – but the general impression I get from your performance is a recapturing of joy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Emilia:</b> It’s the “re” that I am reacting to, like refeminising or recapturing. We want to make music that is strong for us and also strong for the audience, so it’s really strong-sad, it’s really strong-beautiful, it’s really strong-powerful, joy, percussion, energy, it’s strong in all different ways! It says something, but life is so rich and life has so many different feelings and we have so many different feelings and experiences and we don’t want to do just one thing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Nadin:</b> It’s interesting that we navigate after sadness, it’s interesting that’s how you felt about it because these themes we are singing about and approaching, it’s actually about reality. So when I talk about my music school in the beginning, and [being a] refugee, and I don’t know what, and moving to Egypt and coming back, da-da-da-da, there were great moments too in these journeys even if they were horrible while being a refugee. But there is the beauty of finally finding a refuge which is in Sweden, for myself, eighteen years ago, and the freedom to grab a guitar and just play. My boyfriend when I was eighteen years old, he was arrested on stage because he sang Maggie’s Farm, a Bob Dylan song: I don’t want to work for Maggie’s father, for Maggie’s brother, no more. And there was this secret police and they came and they took away his guitar and the arrested him and I saw that happening and that was, is still the love of my life. I wasn’t sad, I was “oh, my boyfriend is a hero!” Coming here and the surprise that Swedish musicians are interested in Arabic music more than me; I had no interest in Arabic music at all. And then seeing Sousou as well, meanwhile I’m studying the language and trying to integrate into society and seeing her on stage and I was like “oh would I ever stand on stage like her?” And then seeing Emilia after a while and meeting her and you get the prize for best musician of the year in folk music and I was like “would I ever talk to her?” And the year after, I got the prize and we were sitting talking and so it’s more about the journey. It’s not sad stories and science fiction – and many people can relate to these stories regardless if they are sad or happy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> Regardless or the language either, I would say?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Nadin:</b> Of course. And Lili’s meeting with the teacher who didn’t allow her to play – and then eventually they were touring together. I mean there is lots of positive stuff; we can’t just navigate after the drama and the trauma – the story of my mom and the grave – there are no tears in this story because I never cried. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Emilia:</b> I would say they are more realistic, stories from real life and themes. I think it’s beautiful when you have this luggage with you, luggage, package or whatever, why not sing about it, why not play music about it? We are just human beings and we play themes about things that touch us; they are very inclusive, everybody can relate.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Nadin:</b> We are sharing from ourselves.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Emilia:</b> Exactly, so why look for other themes that don’t exist. Hmmm [drums on the table] what is it that this song should be about? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Nadin:</b> We have a lot to sing about, we have a lot to talk about, to compose about, so I would say let’s not navigate after sadness because it is not about sadness – because as you said, we are happy playing even if every time when I hold the bass, I hope something will happen and I will just vanish because it’s not my first instrument, then I’m afraid that I cannot navigate on the instrument; that’s the sad part about my role in this band because I want to develop more on the bass. But I don’t think we should navigate after sadness. And when Emilia is talking about the lost songs, about refugees, or racism, or fascism or everything that’s happening in the world right now, this is not sad, it’s reality – but it’s a sad reality, but that’s our everyday life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Emilia: </b>One thing we could explain about the orchestra is that it is an oasis – and it’s supposed to be an oasis where we can do all the things that we dream about but that we are hindered to do, usually, because of structures or anything, because of ourselves, or people that we meet, society or whatever. This should be the oasis of freedom, musically and artistically, so if we dream about something, this is the place where we should do it, where we throw ourselves out in something and we are here to catch each other in this space.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> I was interested to hear how both Sousou and Lily encountered gatekeepers – but how through their persistence, they managed to convince these gatekeepers to open the gates and actually instruct them and teach them ways that were essentially forbidden originally. You encountered men who were designed to lock you out of learning instruments, both you and Sousou, but through your persistence in both cases you convinced them to teach.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Liliana: </b>I don’t convince, it was [drumming on table] I want to learn, me! But I never think I am a woman who wants to play music, you know? I just want to play music like another person, another man. I never think like this. But I fell in love with the drums with this drum or the conga or another drum – but this drum is forbidden. Sometimes it was very difficult to learn, to find somebody who wanted to do it in Cuba. A lot of the time I had to stay and just a man can play and me I have to just sit and watch – and then they say you can come and you can play. But I never think about what I have here when I am on the stage; I am just a musician. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>You all sing as well, which is really intriguing. Just perhaps could each of you in term tell me what is to you – in any of the languages you know – the most beautiful phrase or word?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Nadin: </b>There are so many beautiful… I cannot have one specific word in Arabic – and it’s definitely not habibi! [baby! All laugh]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Liliana: </b>If I was to have one word in Spanish, it’s libertad, it’s freedom. I love this word.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> حرية [Hurriyah] in Arabic, right?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Farzane:</b> I can say a classic poem, Iranian poem which is نابرده رنج، گنج میسر نمیشود, meaning if you want to reach a goal without pain in the way, you can’t reach that goal. It’s a very famous phrase, very meaningful. I felt it as a woman; I know that we try to say “ok, we are human beings; it doesn’t matter if we are woman or man” but we need to struggle more, we need to fight more. For me just being a musician is not as easy as it is for a man; it’s so much more difficult for me. It’s like climbing a very intense mountain; it wasn’t easy, so this poem for me: نابرده رنج، گنج میسر نمیشود.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Nadin: </b>I would say that what you said while we were outside taking some fresh air is the most beautiful thing I’ve heard in a while: strike while the iron is hot! [Laughs] You get the metaphor? [makes as if ironing clothes – stryka meaning to iron in Swedish – provoking laughter]. There are many beautiful words in many languages. I know when I sing in another band, one of the lyrics that I wrote about my home town, Baghdad, where I was born, you know every time I think Baghdaaaaad, I have to urgh, do like this in order not to cry. So Baghdad is a word that I get a heartbeat from.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[ENDS]</span><br />
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Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-11898397248489887452019-04-25T06:07:00.000-07:002019-04-25T06:07:34.112-07:00Fear of Your Friends and Peers: The Puritan Policing of Liberal Academia and the Arts<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">FEAR OF YOUR FRIENDS AND PEERS: THE PURITAN POLICING OF LIBERAL ACADEMIA AND THE ARTS: Svetlana Mintcheva, Director of Programmes at the National Coalition Against Censorship, USA</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> There’s been a lot of focus on your country and Trump in terms of an indicator of the rise of right-wing populism and neo-fascism etcetera. Could you perhaps give us a perspective on emerging economies that are perhaps in a more dangerous situation, like Brazil and India, in terms of the rise of similar and more unchecked movements in those regions from the perspective of the US, looking outwards?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Svetlana: </b>I really can’t speak about Brazil and India, but I could speak about the US. We take it for granted that we have the rule of law in the US and liberal democracy in general, and I think that rule of law might be under threat. I mean, what happened recently with the Supreme Court with the election of [Brett] Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court justice, in a very politically polarised environment: we have a Supreme Court justice who clearly had a very strong political position and clearly did not like Democrats. So this is coming now to the highest court of the land which should have the credibility of being above and beyond politics, and that credibility is being eroded. So then on the other hand you have the stacking of federal agencies with people who are not critical of the president, so I think we should not be taking too lightly the danger this could present, and also the danger that a populist, right-wing US where the rule of law is eroded, what danger that could present to the rest of the world as a somehow kind of check on human rights abuses in other countries. And my work is within the US, admitting that there are very dire situations in other parts of the world, my purpose has been to raise awareness for what is happening here in the stable, liberal West, and how rights are threatened here, where things are going and how freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of speech to me is not just about saying we are here for individual artists. I don’t think that’s entirely the case and the reason to me is when individual artists matter is when, not so much the human rights of artists though I prioritise that, but more than that, is the health of the public sphere, it’s all of us. So on the other hand, censorship, suppression affects everyone and censorship is the closing off of access to ideas, the stopping of a kind of critical thinking, and this affects society at large. Which is why I question the whole notion of relocation, because it helps the individual but it actually leaves society where the individual was at risk, in a way worse off because critical voices are gone. And what interests me also in the US is the existence of this lively public sphere which is key to any kind of democracy; you cannot have democracy without credibility; you can have a voting process, but people don’t even vote when they know that it does not matter and there’s a lot of disaffection with democratic politics, and it’s complicated. But to me, freedom of expression has to do with the political environment and what kind of political environment we want to have, we need to have, and what’s happening now in the US – which does not jail artists – is a kind of polarisation which has come to the point of fracture; it’s a very fractured public sphere in the sense that I can talk to people that agree with me and I agree with them and we agree with each other, but then there are those other people that live in a completely different reality, they are just, they agree with each other and they say that what I am saying and what my groups is saying is fake news or it is just complete lies.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> So there’s no common grounds for even debating?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Svetlana</b>: There’s no common grounds to even start from a common assumption that “this is true, and this is my opinion and this is our opinion,” no, we have come to the point where we don’t even agree on the basis, we don’t agree on what is true and what is not and that is the basis of this radical doubt of what is true.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Michael: There was this interesting debate that I chaired a little earlier this year on fake news and one of the research elements that was presented by one of the speakers was that in the United States, in terms of media consumption – and this was really counter-intuitive to me, but intriguing – that conservative consumers read far more liberal media than liberal consumers read conservative media. And that was really interesting to me because it suggested a retreat by the Western liberal values into an enclave of their own. In other words, this is not purely a conservative retreat. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Svetlana: </b>No, no, absolutely, and I think that’s where we have liberal and left groups abandoning the whole principle of free speech. What you’re saying is really true and it’s the refusal of the left to listen to some voices on the other side – and a very aggressive refusal. The New Yorker had invited for its festival [former Breitbart head] Steve Bannon to have a discussion with David Remnick, their editor-in-chief; there was so much protest that they cancelled and they disinvited him. So, why? So you disagree with Steve Bannon, you find him to be a dangerously anti-immigrant racist, whatever, but where does the refusal to even listen to debate with him leave you? They were not celebrating him; it was a conversation and many people were interested in listening to the conversation, but there’s this whole notion of deplatforming.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> Which actually has an element of dehumanisation to it, does it not?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Svetlana: </b>Very strongly so, I mean that is the goal of deplatforming, so these people cannot have ideas that are worth listening to at all, they are pure evil. So this is creating somebody who is pure evil who you cannot engage with because if you engage with them you are legitimising them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> Well obviously this is a difficult debate, it’s not straightforward. We obviously understand the principles of don’t give platform to outright hate speech and fascism etcetera, but this whole demonization of essentially half the [US] population or whatever your statistic wants to be is really problematic, because you really are disappearing people, you are creating the grounds for grievance in fact.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Svetlana:</b> Right. And what does “don’t give a platform to pure hate speech” mean? You know under US law there is no definition of hate speech, so direct incitement to violence is criminal, but racist speech is not criminalised. So what we’ve had in universities is conservative student groups inviting speakers, provocateurs like Milo Yiannopoulos or Richard Spencer who is a white supremacist – they’re people with bad ideas, no question about it – but what happens is that every time they invite such a speaker, they know that the larger student body is going to lash out in protest and they are going to look bad because they are going to be “against free speech.” So you have this baiting of the left and the left is taking the bait. What if you invite a racist speaker and nobody shows up, or five conservative students show up, what is going to happen?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>Or they get adequately defeated in debate?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Svetlana:</b> Or if there’s debate, they get adequately defeated. It’s giving them more credibility [to ban them]. It’s really disturbing because I work on free speech, and now you have these “free speech martyrs” that are very obnoxious figures, whereas don’t deplatform them, give them a platform and don’t go and listen, or ask them a question; they are mostly not that smart and the emptiness of their ideas is going to be revealed. But the more you ban them, the more you create them as mythological, Satanic masters of the universe; somehow you give them more of a stature by rising up as a whole student body and wanting them removed – and the same thing with The New Yorker. And that also creates a kind of fear within liberal institutions that you cannot write about certain topics, you cannot ask certain questions; there is a kind of puritan policing of discourse.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>And this is particularly prevalent, weirdly enough, in academia.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Svetlana:</b> In academia, in the art world. It’s funny that in society at large, these institutions are not dominant. What is dominant is big corporations, big money and Donald Trump, right? At the same time, you have these small enclaves of liberal power that are thinking that they have social power and they can police their own little enclaves – but they are powerless in society at large and when they are policing discourse so strictly, they are isolating themselves and becoming more and more little marginal liberal enclaves. So I am very sympathetic to the concept of social justice, I think the tactics that are deployed now by many people that are interested in social justice and achieving social justice through censorship, I think these are very misguided because censorship has never helped the cause of social justice. Historically, you look: censorship has always helped those in power and those in power – not in academia, but in society at large – are not the people that we want to be imposing censorship. So that perspective is somehow lacking, and I find that a lot of times that even asking the questions in the US, you can be unfriended on Facebook. I mean I have spoken to people within the cultural sphere and they are liberal, left people and they are concerned because you get absolutely mob-attacked if you express a dissident thought on social media, you get professionally ostracised, you get personally ostracised.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>It’s a kangaroo-court mentality.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Svetlana:</b> Yeah, and a kind of dogmatic mentality where you have to be very pure, very politically correct otherwise you’re out – and there’s fear. And fear not so much of the political other, who we don’t even talk to, but fear of your friends and peers. So not only is the public sphere fractured because left and right don’t talk to each other, within the left there are many fractures; the right, however [laughs], have consolidated and they’re very different, you have fiscal conservatives, you have the Tea Party, you have the religious right, they’re absolutely different people, but they are creating alliances for power. And I think they should be critical of Trump; a lot of them dislike Trump but Trump is their way to be in power. And they have their interests, they have their financial interests or whatever and he’s responding to some interests of theirs so they consolidate in the name of getting power. The left is fracturing and the more they are gaining power in academia and liberal institutions, the less they have broad social power in society at large because a lot of people live within those institutions – they don’t see beyond them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>OK, you’ve stressed that your bailiwick is the USA, but to what extent do you say that the Trump phenomenon and associated things like the Tea Party have been enablers of these types of phenomena elsewhere in the world, either because of the actual imperialist power of the USA or because of its symbolic significance?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Svetlana:</b> Well I think what’s happening in Europe is very much in parallel, I mean Poland, Hungary, you know, you have right-wing populisms everywhere.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>South Africa too; we’re all part of a broader process.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Svetlana: </b>Exactly, and Trumpism is a symptom as is everything else; the basis of this is economic. You look back into the 21st Century and there’s economic discontent, so you have societies that are extremely economically polarised, you had a 2008 crisis that affected people in the middle class that lost a lot – and then the richest parts of society recovered, the stock market did very well, banks are doing very well. You also have a sort of mobile cultural intelligentsia in the West and young people with education and resources who can move and for whom this kind of new economy, the information economy is good. But you also have people who have been left over, who have lost jobs in manufacturing, who have lost security, in the US have lost their houses (the housing crisis), so these people have been left behind.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>You see photographs out of cities like Detroit that look like post-apocalyptic wastelands.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Svetlana:</b> Right. And artists are moving in there, so the liberal cultural elite could make galleries, but what of people who have lost jobs in manufacturing, how will they recover? So they’re ripe for populists like Bannon who had the ideology – and listening to Steve Bannon, which I find interesting, is that he precisely identifies that, identifies the fact that corporations, with the recent tax cuts that Trump did, they’re tax cuts for corporations. You’ve had the most radical economic polarisation of society that you’ve ever had, it’s more than the early 20th Century, so Bannon identified that and the Trump campaign identified the disaffection, and then provided what to me is the wrong answer, which is “let’s stop those immigrants; they’re taking our jobs,” which is bullshit!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>A diversionary tactic.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Svetlana:</b> But there is this correct identification of people’s discontent and this is happening in Europe, that’s happening everywhere, it happened with Brexit; the people who are left over by new economies who have been hurt by crisis but never recovered and they’re angry and they need to direct that anger and they need someone to tell them “you’re a person of value and we will help you recover – at the expense of some other group,” and this some other group that is being pushed forward in the US is immigrants, and in Europe as well. And the rhetoric of hatred is really taking hold because of the existing social anger, which is exploited by populists. So to me it may be the economic model that the US has; I don’t think Trump can accomplish such a revolution of international politics. It is the logic of neoliberal capitalism and the government handling of the economic crisis in which the government bailed out the banks, gave hand-outs to corporations, and the cost was borne by the middle class which is now not a middle class anymore. So this is the environment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> So what is the role of the arts in all of this? It’s interesting that you talk about gentrification in Detroit because Hassan stressed this quite strongly in his talk and in our interview of how often artists became the thin end of the wedge in pushing marginal people even further into the margins.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Svetlana: </b>We have much activism around gentrification and art galleries in the US. Gentrification is a real phenomenon, but there are two issues and one is first of all it’s not really galleries that are pushing people out, but the big developers, and we have issues in Chinatown where big developers are buying buildings, they’re kicking tenants out and they’re re-renting for a lot more money. The galleries actually provide some value to the community: in LA, there’s a lot of controversy in Boyle Heights which is this area that’s being gentrified; some of the galleries that were kicked out were first-time galleries showing works by Hispanic artists, not the blue-chip galleries that have space everywhere. There are political movements that are sometimes blunt instruments and this is one issue, gentrification, who do you go after? It’s easy to go after the galleries because if you are an arts activist the galleries listen to you – but do you go after the developers? How do you go after the developers? It’s harder to go after the developers, but then what’s the effect you’d have if you just go after the galleries? You remove a gallery; gentrification is still going on. I beg to see the case where kicking out a gallery has stopped gentrification. And the other issue is do we really want to keep the slums? Don’t you want development, don’t you want infrastructure? Do you want people to live in cockroach-filled apartments? There’s this big debate right now on Amazon coming into Queens. So to me, what is your vision, what do you want done? And nobody has stopped gentrification so far. The big problem with gentrification is clearly that artists and people are kicked out after a while. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>This has happened downtown Johannesburg where the city created a Cultural Precinct and the first move was to relocate the homeless people and kick out the artists who actually lived there and now create this vacuous Cultural Precinct that is denuded of its culture [laughs].</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Svetlana: </b>Absolutely, but I think the thing is not to stop development but to create, to advocate to create affordable long-term spaces for artists; make arts organisations or whatever change ownership and create mechanisms where you protect groups that are there and they’re the ones that give life to the neighbourhood. And that’s very doable because you’re otherwise protesting against something that will happen, you’re not going to stop it by your protesting in the street – but you can lobby. And this happens here and there: there’s an area being gentrified and you buy a building from the city and you have a gallery and working spaces for artists, and live/work spaces for artists, so there are all these energies of protest and activism and I think they could be more smartly deployed to not stop a process that will happen but to…</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> Make sure it’s integrated into the actual community.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Svetlana: </b>So don’t kick out the galleries, but push the galleries to have a permanent space for artists, there are any ways to do it. But that is something that you can do that probably cities will be amenable to doing because it raises the value – but you also get something for it and you are employing your activist energy in a positive way. I just did a book about curators negotiating difficult content which is called Smart Tactics; I think you need to employ smart tactics rather than this strategy of just saying “no!” You need to deploy a strategy that has a chance of success.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> So tell me a little about hope.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Svetlana: </b>Oh, hope? I think hope is dependent on having a vision. What do we want? A lot of what we’re thinking is what do we not want, and I think the way Safe Havens is structured this time is good because we are saying “what are our goals; what can we do?” It’s more pragmatic because otherwise we can always have a litany of complaints; we can say this is not working and that is not working and the world is going to hell – fine, the world has always been going to hell – but where do you want to be? There are all these protests against artworks in American museums, so there is an artwork and it bothers you, so what would happen if the museums take down all the artworks that bother you, how much better will society be? I mean, what is your vision? Sometimes left activism is kind of feel-good with a short-term goal, but long-term, where do you want to be and what do you want that pre-gentrification run-down neighbourhood to look like? Do you want it to still look run-down? Probably not; you just want it to be affordable for the people that live there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>And for it to be a viable community.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Svetlana:</b> Yeah. Come here, do development, but do it in a way that preserves the people here – and then you’ll have much more of a chance to be heard than when you are just saying “no, keep development out.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[ENDS]</span></div>
Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-13025024763235589962019-04-24T02:15:00.000-07:002019-04-24T02:15:25.899-07:00Communal Intellectual Property and Fair Working Conditions are at the Heart of Democracy and Human Rights<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>COMMUNAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND FAIR WORKING CONDITIONS ARE AT THE HEART OF DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS: Aruna Chawla, lawyer, Indian operations head of Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights Initiative</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> Perhaps start with telling me a little bit about your Initiative.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Aruna:</b> I graduated this year from law school so I just started out, possibly one of the youngest here. And I am doing a couple of things, one of which is working with Avant Garde Lawyers as an art law expert; what we do at AGL is provide legal expertise and assistance to artists at risk both in terms of immigration, human rights protections etcetera, and also commercial aspects like intellectual property, etcetera, which is more of the socio-economic side mostly not looked at in arts organisations of this kind that we’re seeing. Other than that, I’m also working on the Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights Initiative which focuses on the manner of utilisation of traditional cultural knowledge and property in a way that sustains societies that that traditional knowledge comes from and corporates or the economic organisations that utilise them. An example of this could be, say, design sensitivities of traditional communities being take up by big design houses – say for example Stella McCartney – which would pick up this design, present it on the runway, sell it across the world, but also in a benefit-sharing model, give it back to that community. It is an extremely important aspect of the cultural rights idea that we were talking about yesterday with Karima as well. The intellectual property protection for traditional knowledge does not exist as of now in the form of patents of how traditional knowledge is applied, or in the form of trade-marks for organisations that work in these – but we’re looking at a model where that traditional knowledge itself can be protected and utilised and not just its applications.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>So that’s obviously quite innovative. In South Africa, we’ve got the situation where a lot of indigenous knowledge around, for instance, the use of medicinal plants and this sort of thing is now at the forefront of innovations to protect those rights as well because these are now being commercialised and monetised and used in other ways by people beyond the originating communities. It’s quite a difficult thing, isn’t it, to establish that as a right in the first place?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Aruna:</b> It is. In the arts field you can attribute intellectual property to one person, so when it is violated, that person can step up and at least, even if they can’t afford legal assistance, talk about their rights being violated. With cultural knowledge, it’s a whole society that owns it; you can’t attribute it to a single person; communities are not going to have legal organisations representing them at all times; these are just people who have had a certain way of living for years and have gathered the knowledge. That is what we are trying to do: we are trying to focus on giving it back to these communities where we can’t attribute that intellectual property to a single person, but also enable them to fight for their rights, utilise the knowledge they do have in an economically sustainable way because it’s not just always about fighting for rights – it’s about getting it back.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> I’m imagining that corporates are quite resistant to this sort of idea because they have an instinctive imperialism, essentially, to misappropriate other people’s communal intellectual property.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Aruna:</b> That’s true. I think that what’s interesting about this model is that it’s benefit-sharing, so it’s not that profits are completely taken away from the organisation, it’s that profits are shared among two people or two groups contributing to an economic endeavour. Which is what happens in economic organisations as well: you pay the CEO, you pay the CFO, but that’s people coming together, putting their brain-power together to achieve a common profit – and it’s the same thing that we are focusing on in a benefit-sharing model. One person with the expertise, another person with the money, or the entrepreneurial knowledge, getting together to present this economic or capitalist venture to the world and earning money out of it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> How do you share with a community? Because for one thing you have to define that community and that’s kind of tricky because communities can be very fluid at their edges.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Aruna.</b> Yeah, so a legal intellectual property protection given to traditional knowledge is a geographic indication. So for example, Champagne which is a geographical indication, it’s about traditional knowledge that’s been going on for centuries of people in the Champagne region in France knowing how a particular variety of sparkling wine is supposed to be made. And this is the exact kind of model we are building on. Now, Champagne was able to build on that investment value over a few years. How we started focusing on this was one of Dior’s collections which appropriated the Bihor – Bihor is a Romanian community and they have a particular design form – and Dior’s collection presented this on the runway, got this design trade-mark and started utilising this and exploiting this without giving it back to the community where the design was inspired. Stella McCartney on the other hand works with the Mexican communities that she’s inspired from and creates opportunities for these women who’ve traditionally been making these designs over centuries and pays them to make them instead of paying factories to make copies of the design who have no relevance or relations to the creation of that design.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> So what you’re saying is that in parallel to trying to create a new – because in many respects it is quite new – legal framework, you’re trying to create a new ethic, really, around how creative industries appropriate and use and for want of a better word exploit other cultures’ specific heritage?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Aruna: </b>Exactly, yeah. So the problem is not with appropriation, it’s when that idea is misappropriated and the profits of that are not shared, which is the whole idea of intellectual property, that the person who creates it or the person who has put in the labour is compensated for the work they do – and it’s just that here we are talking about a community.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> Now you’re obviously from a legal background but do you have ethical or aesthetic concerns about distortions of culture?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Aruna:</b> I think that’s always sad – but I think it’s important to look at whose culture is being distorted. I mean, if it’s my culture distorted, I have the right to say anything about it. What I can do is provide support for what that community wishes to do. I think aesthetic innovation is always going to happen and we are always going to be inspired by what is around us and that is how creativity develops; I mean, nature’s already created all the colour combinations for us, all the colour schemes for us, and we’re constantly being inspired by what already exists. So aesthetic innovation is always going to happen and at times it will lead to distortion as well; distortion happens when someone has a particular way of looking at things and decides to do it a little differently. I think that synthesis will continue happening and that thesis-antithesis idea is going to be there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>In this globalised world where images can obviously traverse the Earth in seconds, and there is the emergence of elements of a global monoculture, is it really possible to compartmentalise cultures in that way – bearing in mind that on top of that culture itself, including traditional cultures, are not static as people tend to present them?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Aruna: </b>Personally I don’t think it’s possible. Even as lawyers the first thing we learn in law school is that law is not static either; it’s about what’s happening in society at that time and what needs the most legal protection, or what kind of legal protection is required. As society changes, laws are going to keep changing and they’re interrelated in terms of that change and growth.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> So that’s an interesting dynamic tension: that both culture and the arts and law itself are not static entities, that they are continually evolving – and they’re all interpretive actually. So I think a lot of lay people have this conception of the law that it is unchanging but that’s obviously not so, especially with case law and precedent and how that evolves.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Aruna: </b>There case law, there’s policy changes happening at all times and law is about interpretation. I mean, if we’re looking at the UDHR [Universal Declaration of Human Rights] and we’re talking about human rights, but as lawyers we are also working towards making sure the UDHR stops being relevant any more in our lives; we want to be in a position in society where we don’t have to keep fighting for the application of the UDHR, but human rights are already protected and documents like these, or the UN bodies, become obsolete.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>We’ve just seen the FreeMuse presentation relating to women in the arts. Do you see a particular gendered skewing of rights and access in India in particular and in South Asia?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Aruna:</b> I think definitely yes, and I’m sure across the world this is true; women have the additional threat of personal bodily autonomy; the first way in which women are controlled is by sexually harassing them; they are threatened not just with taking away access or a platform but also personal threats against bodily autonomy. Men face the threat of death too – but that’s not because of their gender; women face it because of their gender. And it’s not true just for the arts community, but it’s true for all communities across the world and for all industries across the world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>How does one apply what you’re doing to the broader human rights framework, because it’s obviously located within that, it isn’t just specific to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Aruna: </b>There’s something I will be talking about tomorrow: when we talk about social rights, cultural rights, artistic rights, the first thing that comes to mind is economic rights because when you’re independent you have the financial assistance – whether it’s by funding, or financial sustainability, or the entrepreneurship of what you do – to be able to exercise all the other rights, your social and political rights, your citizenship, of exercising the right to vote, etcetera. They mean nothing if you don’t have the money to exercise them; you live in a society where you always have to purchase food or pay rent for where you live. And that the kind of work I am personally doing as well, empowering artists, specifically in the industries of arts, fashion, luxury, and culture and I focus on economic empowerment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>So there’s a clear equity aspect in all of this?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Aruna: </b>Absolutely. A big problem in the fashion industry is working conditions of labour, them not being paid fair wages, so if the fashion industry does not pay the labourers fair they’re violating their labour rights, they’re also their human rights because they’re being treated as second-class citizens that don’t deserve to spend money as we do. That impacts the environment because they can’t afford to make environmentally sustainable choices. And this is all a human rights concern.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>Some red flags have been raised during this conference about the misuse of cultural rights to assert false conditions of difference between people, or groups of people, classes of people. Is there maybe some concern in the specificity of your work to try and make sure that at the same time as focusing on very specific cultural rights that you are also doing it within a very universalist ethic? There’s a lot of abuse of culture, particularly religion but not just religion, culture more broadly, as an excuse for prejudicial policies and actions by civil society etcetera. I presume you must keep a weather-eye out for making sure that in strengthening certain communal rights you’re not prejudicing communities external to those communities as well, you’re not trying to create conditions of specificity that are outside of the general human commune if you will?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Aruna:</b> Yeah. I think it’s a very important consideration to have, especially when today and over the years this has always been an issue, when cultural diversity is placed completely at odds with cultural relativism. I mean these two are at odds but it’s not that all of us are different or that we have different practices, it’s that we are still humans at the end of the day who make different choices – even if we were to have the same religion and the same practices, our way of expression might be different. But that does not make us enemies of each other. Say for example the economic independence work that I personally like focusing on: the big fashion houses have the responsibility of paying the labour that they work with a fair wage, even though that labour union might not be strong enough or might not be monetarily as sound as the one person owning a design organisation. And this is about the power dynamics; this is what cultural diversity is about, or democracy for that matter, that people who are in power do not make decisions that the minority has to suffer for.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[ENDS]</span>Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-92015455393044014922019-04-23T04:36:00.001-07:002019-04-23T04:36:27.647-07:00Professionalised, Individualised Art Speaks Only to the Dead: Clear Visions will Come Only from the Periphery<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>PROFESSIONALISED, INDIVIDUALISED ART SPEAKS ONLY TO THE DEAD: CLEAR VISONS WILL ONLY COME FROM THE PERIPHERY: Hassan Mahamdallie, British theatre director, playwright, political and investigative journalist</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>You spoke at one point about the necessity to make visible those that were invisible and then you spoke quite a lot about the actual visionary power that those on the periphery have and can deploy, and that it should in fact be utilised. Could you talk a little bit more about that power of the periphery?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Hassan: </b>Although I don’t usually talk in these terms, but if you talk about common humanity, let’s talk about it in terms of the environment or the Age of the Anthropocene which we are supposed to be going through: there are these big problems which we face as a species. Where do you go to try and find a solution? It seems to me that most of our effort is either divided into ignoring that there is a problem (which is locked into some kind of circular argument), or trying to find a solution, but we always try to find solutions in the wrong place. You and I know that clarity comes from the unexpected sources. Trouble is, that as a society, and this is affecting arts and culture, the unexpected sources are the ones that we usually try to erase from the conversation to begin with. So if we do want to find a path out of the crisis that we are in we have to find a way of placing some value in those unexpected places, in those unexpected people, otherwise the crisis will go on to whatever the consequences are. So you and I know that when actually as a journalist you talk to people who have been through a process, like a mother whose child has been killed by the police, and she decides to campaign about it, usually when you talk to those people, although they are thrust into a situation that is not of their making, often times you find they do have a kind of clarity about them. Maybe it is because they are kind of seeing the world for the first time in its entirety whereas in the rest of their life they didn’t really have to; they’re at a vantage point, or they are forced to being at a vantage point where suddenly they have a clarity on what’s around them, they see all the power relations between people in a completely different way. Those are the people that it seems to me that we need to go to. It’s not because I fetishise them, it’s because I truly believe that that’s where the solutions to some of the problems we face are going to be found – yet we spend vast amounts of time either trying to ignore that there’s a problem in the first place or looking to the wrong people to try and solve the issues. So there has to be some kind of radical shift in focus and power towards those people for us to get out of the impasse that we are in; and that’s my basic understanding, then I try and translate what that might look like on the cultural field. That’s why I developed these different ways of looking at how artistic or cultural values are generated. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>But you’ve also indicated that this is not just a problem about the centre and about the machinery of the arts industry as industry and its dominance and elitism but there are some fatal flaws within the arts and the artistic community itself: perhaps too much self-valorisation, and perhaps not enough reflection that the arts have been and continue to be used in some pretty injurious ways – and not just in terms of creating or manufacturing a dominant culture, but actually promoting prejudicial messages. Can you talk a little bit about, maybe, “evil art”?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Hassan: </b>Well, it’s not so much that. I suppose that artistic expression is expression of the ego or the id or whatever it is, it’s a very self-centred thing, yeah? So, I think artists unless they check themselves continually literally believe that they are the centre of valued human activity and have incredible self-regard. I understand that’s what you need to go on stage, you need a certain amount of self-regard to think that something you have to say is of interest to someone else or can make a difference or whatever it might be, and of course that’s what motivates you. But I think we artists have to hold in check somehow, balance out, that egotism with some kind of awareness of where they sit within a spectrum of change; that’s the first thing. Secondly, I believe that artists can sketch out possibilities and put them before an audience, but they are part of a process and the process starts with social change. So if you look through the history, let’s say from 1968 onwards, you look at Europe and the radical events of 1968, art lagged behind the social processes; it does, it tends to lag behind, so for artists to say “we are the generator or originator of social change” is I think is plain wrong.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>Well that I find very interesting because that would be counter-intuitive to a lot of people who present as artists, particularly those who present as arts activists or as “artivists”, this presumption that they are, because of their intellectual acuity or whatever, they somehow are the vanguard of social change. And you have posited a very different position in saying that they can’t really be that; they need to be enabled by other people and other socially advanced sectors in order to become those provocateurs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Hassan: </b>I believe that, yeah. I mean I have worked in arts for a long time and I value the arts, I love being in the arts, but that’s the conclusion I have come to, you know what I mean? I don’t believe artists are always progressive; I mean the notion of being liberal and progressive I think are both contested terms these days; they’ve kind of turned into their opposite, let’s put it that way. So the liberals and the progressives can be as elitist or intolerant as people that they think they are on the opposite side of the spectrum to. For example, most of the liberal elite in France has turned out to be the Islamophobic vanguard in French society, in terms of hoisting up la cité [the city] as some kind of enduring product of the Enlightenment or the French bourgeois revolution or whatever it is. So, that’s suspect. But also when ordinary people in London look at artists, right, they may look at them in different ways: some will look at them and say “they are very removed from us” as middle class or whatever. But also if you look at the social cleansing of London from what it was, which was mixed working class and bourgeois neighbourhoods living side by side or integrated as it were fifty or a hundred years ago, it’s been socially cleansed completely so that London is becoming a bourgeois playground rather than a place were working class people live out their lives, and certain areas which had been very poor were cleansed by property developers and the poor forced out to the margins, and the shock troops of that process of gentrification have been artists who have gone in first to these poor areas, rented warehouses, produced their art. That has primed those areas for redevelopment, forcing poor people out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> Is there any self-awareness about this? I mean not in any analytical way, but just in terms of maybe a class adherence?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Hassan: </b>No I don’t think there is a self-awareness, and partly because it is buttressed by certain arguments which have confirmed for the artists that they are in this special, wonderful place, right? So the old argument about creative cities, that you regenerate creative cities through artists and culture and stuff like that, that is the ideological underpinning for what these people have done. So what I am saying is that there is no particular reason that artists should think of themselves as being on the side of the angels. Now, I am hyper-critical in one sense because I care about art so much, but the lack of self-awareness is incredible, and partly it’s a reflection of class confidence because the arts particularly in the UK – though I’m sure it’s the same everywhere else – is become more and more the profession of not just middle class at it might have been in the past but of the upper middle class. There is a survey done in the UK about the demographic around artists and it’s clearly becoming a much more rarefied profession than it ever was. I came into the arts for the first time as a professional in 1984, right? I’m one of the very few working class artists that came through that generation, yeah? There’s absolutely no way that an equivalent of me today in 2018 would have got into the arts, into an acting job, into a paid career as an actor and then a director. So it’s becoming more rarefied, it’s becoming more homogenous.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>And that’s because of these gatekeepers?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Hassan: </b>Yeah, partly, and partly it’s to do with as state arts funding has contracted over the years, those people have clung onto their positions of privilege. And in one sense, the more of those arguments around that there should be more diversity and quality in the arts, the more there is a kind of rear-guard action by those guys, not as individuals but as a social class, to actually protect what they think is theirs – and they believe that the arts is theirs. So to be conscious as an artist, you have to be in one sense hyper-critical because there is an immense amount of complacency that I think we have to shake ourselves out of.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>So there is a distinct class of people who view art as their patrimony, their personal patrimony? And I am using the masculine word deliberately here. Could you talk a little about the intersections of gender and class and race within this context?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Hassan:</b> If you look at the patterns of who works in the arts, what positions they have in the arts, how the arts are structured, clearly to me the arts are structured to make it easy for middle class people to exist within the arts. It’s structured generally for men to have the highest positions in the arts and if you look at it clearly that’s what happens, you know what I mean. You think about a lot of professions, for example dance, how it’s probably gendered in terms of women – and a lot of the arts are gendered in terms of women being the majority part of the workforce – but at the top at the managerial level are men. So male choreographers, male curators…</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> Journalism is pretty similar.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Hassan: </b>Yeah, exactly, because in its substance, it’s the same class occupying all those professions. So you do find it gendered, you find it in terms of race, you find it in terms of disability. I mean, it’s incredible really when you think of it that Western visual art is dominated by visions of a version of the human body that probably goes back to ancient Greece, yeah? The visual arts does take on big themes like mortality and what it is to be human, all these kinds of things, but it completely erases, it homogenises the body into this kind of notion of the perfect body, so immediately in dance, who can be a dancer, who can’t be a dancer, who has “a dancer’s body”? There are very few artists who step outside that zone and look at the body in all its forms, so disability is ever-present but not necessarily in a good way in the history of art. So you find that disability has to continually force itself onto the agenda in the arts, whereas really it seems to me that disabled people have a lot to say about the question of humanity, what it is to be human, mortality, to survive as an outsider, whole issues of mental health and all these kinds of things, right? These are really central questions that we need to be addressing but the people who have a good vantage point in terms of addressing those questions are locked out of the arts. One thing I do see is that the arts is incredibly over-professionalised: in the UK for example, in order to be a visual artist you have to have an MA; even administrators have masters’ degrees in the visual arts, so it’s incredibly rarefied, professionalised, because the middle class likes to have a profession. A hundred and twenty years ago, in the middle of London, what’s the most popular form of art? Music-hall. All the other arts were just things that the bourgeois did in their little private clubs and museums. The biggest art-form was music-hall which was the dregs of society hauling itself onto the stage and debasing and making a mockery out of itself and all of society; that was the most popular art form, you know what I mean? That was an outsider art form.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> So art as craftspersonship has deliberately been downgraded and transmuted into this more rarefied creature?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Hassan:</b> Yeah, it’s a profession.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>What about the current, or it’s certainly very current in Africa, neo-colonial debate? To what extent has art, even now – and we’ve just heard the suggestion from Meriam that Picasso wouldn’t be tolerated in this day and age in the conventional halls of art – to what degree has art in the West acknowledged its heritage in Africa, or the East, or elsewhere? Or to what extent has there been any admission of that or access to that or transformation by that, or to what extent is it trying to pretend that it is hermetically sealed?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Hassan:</b> I mean I think if you talk about the history of modernism in art, if you have any ounce of intelligence you will understand that the major ideas around it, the conceptual ideas around it originated in Africa. There is no doubt about that, obviously, if you talk about Picasso.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> And yet you will go to Paris and you will have exhibitions of African art that will be called “arts primitifs.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Hassan: </b>[Laughs] Yeah, the French are good at that, aren’t they? They are crazily, racistly honest. But if you look at sculpture, if you look at the history of modernism, clearly, it borrows or is inspired by symbolic representation in African art particularly. I mean if you talk about the West, you talk about West Africa which is obviously where – and there is a big row on now about the Benin bronzes, of which there are ten thousand or something in the British Museum, locked away in their archives, whether they should be returned to Nigeria as it is now, and of course it should be. But no-one talks about how those bronzes stolen from Benin in army raids many hundred years ago triggered or laid the foundations for European modernism.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> And even before that, if I may, if you look at the Ife sculptures: there was no such thing approaching that level of skill in Europe of the time which was the Mediaeval Era. You could say both Europe and Africa were going through a Mediaeval phase at that point but conceptually Europeans could not sculpt like that; they had these very wooden, formulaic, boxlike figures.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Hassan: </b>Yeah, it’s true. If you talk about European visitors to Benin for example in the 16th Century, one of them gong to Benin City and saying “this is the most advanced city I have ever seen,” because he was Dutch, “comparable to Amsterdam.” If you like, the west of Africa was as developed, probably more than Europe was at the time, and in one sense it’s the irony that those African civilisations had to be destroyed for Europe to progress itself, and that’s the kernel of it. Also, if you look at the Enlightenment, it is quite clear that, the caricature of the Western European Enlightenment being put across at the moment by ideologies bears no comparison to what actually happened in the Enlightenment. And as everyone knows now, if they don’t acknowledge, is that much of the knowledge and understanding of philosophy and medicine that laid the foundations for the European Enlightenment came from the Arab world, which in itself built upon ancient Roman and Greek philosophies and then developed and translated, it found its way into Europe, right? Oxford University is full of Arabic archives, which was the foundation of European learning because the Arabic texts were the salvation of European learning. They even have Europeanised names for Islamic scholars and philosophers. So all this is clear to anyone who has an ounce of understanding about history – but we live in a society that is in complete denial about that, and you have to ask yourself why? Why is it in complete denial about its roots? And partly I think it’s because of the rise of the nation state in the West and what needs to be done to make a nation into a nation. You probably have more sophisticated concepts than what I have in relation to South Africa, but the nation state arises in a state of denial about its past, the foundation of the nation state is always a founding myth, yeah, and in one sense that myth, that falsehood is coming back to bite Europe on its arse.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> So in that particular storm that we are in at the moment and sitting on that cusp with this reversion to these myths, you suggested that there was almost like a functional role for art to perform in service of that broader progressive project in challenging that myth.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Hassan:</b> Everyone knows, it’s a kind of consensus, that if you are in the middle of something you have a distorted perspective of it. We’re in the middle of a storm in the Western world, but all we can feel is the sound and the fury, signifying nothing, to use Shakespeare. But clearly there are other people in the world that do not have this notion that they belong to the greatest civilisation in the world – what Europeans are prone to believe about ourselves – who have a much clearer vision about what’s going on. I mean, I spoke in my speech about this Palestinian guy I know: he has a clear vision about the confusions that the UK are going through at the moment which it seems to me that very few people have. He’s a complete outsider, he’s a very talented guy and he makes a living for himself, but who asks him what he has to think about what’s going on in the UK at the moment? No-one’s going to ask him – but if you did ask him, you are going to find out some extraordinary things. As I say, it’s about looking for these extraordinary people in these extraordinary places that if anything is going to progress us, it is people like that. What you find is, maybe it’s true historically, is that the more society plunges itself into crisis, the more it turns in on itself, so every viewpoint in that society is a very individualised viewpoint. So in theatre for example, there are so many plays about what I would call formations of identity, on all sides, but they are all tiny, tiny stories. If I go and see another one-woman show about “me and my mum” or “me and my grandmum” and slideshow of “my grandmum in World War Two” or black-and-white photo of “the grandmum I didn’t know”…</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>So this is the loss of the social?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Hassan: </b>Yeah, it’s an individualistic outlook that is reflected through theatre and the visual arts, and I don’t know about other art-forms; maybe music is a bit more immune to it because it’s a much more diffuse art-form. But if I hear another individualised story about how important my life is, I’ll throw myself off of a cliff! But what is it reflecting? It’s reflecting this turning in on ourselves. What’s going to be the counter-force that stops us turning in on ourselves? It’s going to have to be what we have labelled as “the other” as a derogatory label. It’s not going to come from within: if it was going to come from within we’d be sorting ourselves out already, but we’re not. The other thing is that if you look at the arts in the West is that they’re talking to society that no longer exists – if it ever did – and it’s the most extraordinary thing if you just sit back and look at what world is the art world, and I’m talking in general terms here, who is it communicating with? It’s communicating with the dead, with the past! And that is the most extraordinary dysfunction in terms of the role of art in human history, to be talking literally to the dead as though they were alive in this kind of post-colonial nostalgia that infects the bricks and mortar of European society, this notion of greatness and such-like, they are literally talking to a society that no longer exists. Now that is really weird for someone who analyses the social function of art in terms of its dialogue with society. It’s the most extraordinary spectacle, but nobody wants to say it; it’s like The Emperor’s New Clothes, it’s bizarre!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[ENDS]</span></div>
Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-27878169516141235112019-04-23T04:06:00.002-07:002019-04-23T04:06:57.917-07:00Women's Cultural Rights are a Prime Site of Attack<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">WOMEN’S CULTURAL RIGHTS ARE A PRIME SITE OF ATTACK: Karima Bennoune, UN Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>I was interested in what you were saying in your opening address around the, you said, I quote here, “embattled humanity has never needed its artists as much.” Speak to us a little bit about that embattled status. Where are we at at the moment? There is this general feeling of despondency amongst progressives.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Karima:</b> I think people who have been working in the field of human rights from whatever political position they may come from are looking around at the world and wondering what is happening to the vision that they have been defending. Chetan Bhatt who teaches human rights at the London School Economics has been talking about how we can no longer take for granted the centrist consensus around human rights in the world; there are not that many actors, there are not that many states anymore that stand up and openly defend basic concepts of human rights and dignity at the UN that we have taken for granted. I think we are seeing greater division, greater polarisation, we are seeing attacks on the concept of the universality of human rights from the far-right, sometimes from the far-left, from governments, from non-governmental actors – even in academia – and we are seeing governments and world leaders including of very powerful countries openly expressing hate, openly giving voice to views that we thought had been consigned to the waste-basket of history at least as far as being acceptable official discourse. The human rights we talk about, one of the main tools being the mobilisation of shame, and of course certain kinds of shame are very negative in terms of shaming around the body and so on that women human rights defenders have worked on. But in the human rights field more generally the mobilisation of shame has meant trying to expose the human rights abuses of governments as a way of holding them to account because they will be embarrassed – but that was presuming that they would be embarrassed if exposed. And I think that in some ways we are in a post-shame universe now when we have world leaders openly either proclaiming that women are inferior to men or openly proclaiming discriminatory views about entire groups of people, about entire continents of people, about entire religious groups and so on. So how do we mobilise shame in a post-shame universe? But there’s also so many reasons to be optimistic and that’s what I try to focus on: the human rights defenders all around the world, the cultural rights defenders in my area who are continuing to come up with creative initiatives, who are continuing to push back. I think about a wonderful Bangladeshi publisher [Ahmedur “Tutul” Chowdhury] I’ve just met who faced an attack on his life for having published the works of the late Avijit Roy, the assassinated writer, and this publisher survived that attack, has had to go into exile, and the amazing part about the story is that – and people may be wondering where is the optimism in that – he has gone back to publishing on the internet [Shuddhashar: <a href="https://shuddhashar.com/" target="_blank">here</a>] with limited means, but he continues, and I think that’s a reminder to all of us that we have no right to give up in the face of the current moment; we have to be inspired by examples like that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>You talk about fragmentation and yet at the same time a lot of these ideologies that are eroding this universality doctrine are themselves monolithic, they have pretentions to undifferentiation. Perhaps talk a little bit about that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Karima:</b> I think that universality is about human dignity, it’s not about homogeneity. In fact my report for the General Assembly was both about universality and cultural diversity and how neither of these concepts is a weapon against the other; they are in fact interlocking concepts. But we have to be very clear that there is a distinction between cultural diversity which is a recognition of the complexity of human reality and the multiple identities and expressions that human beings have in the world and that is a very positive thing, versus cultural relativism which is the attempt to use culture – or the claim of culture – to justify the violation of human rights, or discrimination or hate. And that is never acceptable, that is never the same thing as cultural diversity, so what universality is really countering is the attempt to use arguments of particularism against the basic framework of human dignity, the attempt to use culture not to amplify rights but to diminish them. And so I think that we really have to have this holistic vision, we have to defend a universality that is thoughtful, that is recognising plural and diverse and multiple forms of human existence and expression, but is rigorously committed to human dignity and equal rights for everyone whatever group he or she might fit into.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> I think generally people recognise this drift into pretty outrageous populism right across the world, whether it’s India or Brazil – which I think are much more concerning than the United States for me personally because, given the scale of their populations and the depth of the reaction involved. But speak a little bit about what you’ve red-flagged, how this drift has started to erode progressive traditions within academia, as that’s particularly worrying.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Karima:</b> So let me talk about the academic issue. One of the things that I have been very worried about and I think it’s especially the case in the English-speaking world, though from what I understand it’s also a problem elsewhere, has been a real move away from supporting concepts of universal human rights to finding all sorts of justifications based on particularism for violations of human rights, in particular women’s human rights, and giving into cultural explanations for these rights [violations]. And while it’s certainly useful to question hegemonic impulses – certainly the historical attempts to use certain human rights concepts in a way that involved imposition on people – what has happened is that even human rights defenders on the ground in the global South are questioned by some of these academics primarily in the global North as somehow not being authentic. And I hate this discourse of authenticity, [challenging] authentic representatives of their own society. So for example a very prominent academic in the United States who in the field of Middle Eastern studies challenged a Palestinian rap group [DAM] that had taken on honour violence in Palestine in the name of somehow some form of anti-imperialism or post-colonial critique. And I have to say I find this bizarre, and this is an academic who is very prominent indeed in her field, and this is the kind of thinking that is questioning the right to cultural dissent. Cultures are not monolithic and I always prefer to use cultures with an “s”. And the thing is white people in the West cannot presume that they are the only ones that have the right to dissent in their own society or in their own group; everyone, it is a universal right to cultural dissent, and that’s where I really worry about the direction of some academic argument that we’ve seen, and I have called for in my report, with great respect for academic freedom, for academic institutions and academics themselves to really find creative ways to tackle this problem and to support the concept of universality and the vision of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in their work.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>Again and again in a variety of different reports including the one we’ve just seen from FreeMuse, the state emerges as the primary perpetrator of violations of artistic and associated rights – but the growth of this populism, the vile nature of this beast, has shone quite a light on sub-state actors, particularly those masquerading within the cultural field. Perhaps you could explore that a little?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Karima: </b>So, women human rights defenders have been telling us all for years that a vision of human rights that only looked at the state was a very thin vision; certainly state responsibility is at the heart of the human rights framework but there are many other actors that can violate human rights: non-state actors, individuals, individuals in the family, community actors, religious leaders, and now we have seen increasingly in a range of fields, transnational corporations, and the list goes on. And I think we need to have not a 20th Century vision of human rights but a 21st Century vision of human rights where we recognise the need to hold to account all these actors, and certainly we want to keep coming back to the idea that the state has primary responsibility for respecting and ensuring, for promoting and protecting and fulfilling human rights, but we also have to find creative ways to hold these other actors to account or we will have a very thin narrative of human rights in the world. I am also very concerned about transnational corporations because they are increasingly powerful and sometimes more powerful than states and its very difficult for states to hold them accountable. And I know there are efforts under way to develop a treaty about the human rights obligations of transnational corporations; I think that’s going to be a very long project. But again I think it’s really important in the human rights area to look at this wide range of actors and that’s why in my reports I regularly make recommendations primarily to the state but also to a range of other actors. And indeed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights talks about the responsibility of all actors in society and all individuals for advancing human rights.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>You’ve spoken about the gap between the arts rights justice sector, which is emergent and is perhaps a little bit behind similar developments in journalism protection, and more formal systems such as that which you are engaged in yourself. And you’ve said that obviously these arts rights justice activators need to be more involved in those formal engagements. Certainly we’ve seen many more lawyers and legislators get involved in this type of field, but still there’s a gap. I’m guessing from the arts rights side that there is some suspicion of these global fora, especially because of the glacial speed at which many of them move. How do we close this gap?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Karima: </b>You know that’s a terrific question and I want to be the first to say that this is a two-way street and my hope is that more arts rights, cultural rights organisations, artists and cultural practitioners themselves, cultural institutions, will begin to see the United Nations and the United Nations human rights system in particular as a relevant set of fora for their work but my hope is also is for the United Nations human rights system to recognise more centrally the importance of cultural rights including artistic freedom and the role of artists – including sometimes as human rights defenders – so it’s really a two-way street. And I recognise that many people might not see the UN as relevant – but great harm can be done to artistic freedom and cultural rights at the United Nations if the sectors most directly affected by those rights issues are not there to defend those rights and to speak from their experience. And what I have called for is the creation of something like an NGO coalition or civil society coalition for cultural rights at the UN. And we see such similar coalitions in the areas of freedom of expression, and freedom of religion or belief for example. There is so much that could be done: these organisations could take the floor if they have consultative status at the UN; they could take the floor in interactive dialogues with me and other rapporteurs in the Human Rights Council; they can submit shadow reports so when countries where they have concerns are coming up for review in front of the United Nations treaty bodies they could be submitting alternative information to the information that the state submits; many of these treaty bodies have complaints mechanisms and they could also be sending and working together to sit in a systematic way to send cases to these different bodies. So we could develop a really thorough, rigorous, vibrant jurisprudence in these areas at that level. And I am the first to recognise the limitations of the UN system; I am myself very frustrated with the lack of implementation – but if we don’t get in there and fight for cultural rights at the UN and if we leave the UN human rights system to the enemies of human rights, we can’t expect that there will be much progress. So, just as I want to work more in the artistic and cultural fields, and in the fora where artists and cultural workers are themselves working, I hope that they will come and join me and other actors more frequently in the UN human rights system.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>How does your office interact with other rapporteurs, in particular the one on religion?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Karima: </b>The two rapporteurs that I would say that I most often work with are indeed the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, currently Ahmed Shaheed from the Maldives, and the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, currently David Kaye from the United States. And I think it makes sense because you will see that there are big areas of overlap. I know that Ahmed Shaheed and I have shared many, many concerns about making sure that freedom of religion or belief is not the same thing as freedom of religion: this is about the right to believe or not to believe, to be a religious person or not to be a religious person, to have a different kind of world view, to change your religious belief, to leave a particular religion, to dissent from a particular religion and to express that dissent. And there are so many cultural rights cases affecting artists in particular but also affecting members of minorities, bloggers, women’s human rights defenders, that are coming up in this area of intersection, and so that mandate has been a very important partner for my mandate and I look forward to that work going forward. And I think one of the things we need to be really thinking about and grappling with is the overlap between religion and culture because there are often many cultural practices which are overlaid on religious beliefs and after a while it is hard to know where religion ends and where culture begins. And this really about recognising the human dimension and human agency and responsibility in creating some practices, which means also those practices can be changed by human beings, so I think that’s a really interesting area of intersection.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>And gender, of course.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Karima: </b>And gender absolutely, and I have done a great deal of work with the Working Group on Discrimination Against Women. One of the two areas that were highlighted by the Human Rights Council when my mandate was created: so this mandate is about making sure that everyone enjoys cultural rights without any discrimination, and two particular sectors that the Council highlighted were gender and the cultural rights of persons with disabilities, and so women’s cultural rights are at the heart of what we are doing. There was a dedicated report on women’s cultural rights done back in 2011 by my predecessor, and I did a report on diverse forms of fundamentalism and extremism and the cultural rights of women in 2017. When I go on mission, it’s an issue that I really focus on because what we’ve seen is that women’s cultural rights are a prime site for attack on universal human rights.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> So it’s almost like a mine canary, it’s the first thing to show signs of distress?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Karima:</b> Absolutely! It’s the most likely place to see a cultural relativist argument. Women are most often saddled with being the banners of, or the standard-bearers for what is called culture, which is often a very static vision of culture. And my predecessor Farida Shaheed argued for us to really shift our paradigm from seeing culture as primarily negative for women – unfortunately as she recognised, it has been used that way very often – but shifting from that to women’s equal rights to participate in culture which includes deciding which cultural practices to not to particulate in or to leave behind because they are no longer acceptable under our evolving understanding of human rights. I mean, think about it: in your own country [South Africa], systematic racial discrimination in many countries including in the United States used to be justified on cultural grounds; there was a cultural and even religious justification used for apartheid. We would absolutely reject those today – and appropriately so. And in the same vein, it is completely unacceptable to try to justify discrimination against people, against women, against people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex on the basis of culture; those are also completely unacceptable arguments. We need to recognise today, and this goes to the heart of cultural rights which is not about culture as a static thing which doesn’t change; it’s about cultures as dynamic. Again what my predecessor and I both said is that our cultural rights mandate isn’t about defending a thing called “culture”; it’s about defending people’s right to participate in cultural life which includes participating in the process of how culture should change over time in accordance with…</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>Because it inevitably does…</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Karima:</b> And if it doesn’t, humanity’s in trouble. What was the old thing about sharks dying when they stop moving? Human culture needs to evolve; humanity evolves, that’s simply a reality and it needs to evolve in accordance with our contemporary understanding of human dignity. I think that’s really how we carry forward the vision of the Universal Declaration of Human rights into its next seventy years. And if there is a tendency sometimes in some parts of human rights circles to see cultural rights as somehow peripheral, silly, trivial matters – not at all; it goes to the heart of who we are as human beings, how we live in this world together, how we express ourselves, how we remember what has come to us from the past, and how we go forward and what we pass on to the generations to come.</span><br />
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Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-45319159884151579402019-04-20T04:55:00.000-07:002019-04-24T01:56:13.745-07:00Building an Alternative to the Death of the Social Requires Time, Distance and Disengagement<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Meriam Bousselmi of Tunisia is always fascinating to talk to as she has such a lovely, ingrained philosophical sensibility - and I found myself quoting what she said in this interview at Safe Havens 2018 in Sweden last December frequently over subsequent months. I also like the way she switches between languages when one appears insufficient, though for the reader that requires a little translation,</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>Meriam, you occupy a bit of an unusual space in that you are both a lawyer and a theatre director so you occupy the intersection of the spaces we have been talking about. Talk a little bit about how that evolved, how did you straddle both worlds which are often seen as being quite antagonistic or different worlds.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Meriam:</b> I think first since I was a child my ambition was to write books so I really fell into books and I had this ability to be sensitive to the words and the movement of words and I can’t say why I chose that but it was my destiny in a way. But at the same time I had this strong feeling for justice and injustice and I wanted to become the president of the [Tunisian] republic, to change the world and to make myself more famous – which is not working now. And it was the orientation when I got my baccalaureate to choose to orient myself to enrol in a political science and legal university but before I was at university, I started already my career as a writer and play director in the amateur field but then I was in the professional field because I produced some texts, some books and some plays and I stated also to be in international workshops, atelier, projects. So it was both in parallel because I also got for five years training as a dramaturge and mise en scène in the Centre de Arabo-Africaine de Formation et Recherche in Hamra in Tunisia and I had my career as a lawyer. I wanted first to make my political career, so first year of political science I wanted to build my political party so I went to all the parties to see what are the strategies. And then I failed because I realised politics is about compromise and diplomacy, and I am a radical and I could not get what I want in a very direct way, so I said I will seek this through my art and through my work as an independent, and how can I build these inbetween spaces. Actually, I was very interested in these inbetween spaces; sometimes it can be very difficult with both careers as a lawyer and as an artist, they are freelance careers, lifetime jobs, not just office jobs. But I am working in these in-betweens and I have this ability to make the bridge and to try to be a facilitator in both sides. But we also need more creativity in our work; I think we are really missing (there are good project managers, project leaders, administrators) but there are not a lot of creatives, there are not a lot of people having a vision, the possibility to look at things from another perspective, to challenge the structures.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>So you see yourself as a connector, connecting these disparate blocks and trying to build something?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Meriam:</b> Yes, I have this ability because I have training from both sides to fly or to move freely between both sides, but also to create that which is inbetween. Like for example now I am working in research and I am talking about the staging of injustice , so I see how the concept of justice is not just a state institution, justice is a value and we have legal constructions of justice all over the world but justice is also part of the fictional construction of artists and writers and philosophers – and how both these words are communicating, how we’ve moved from a value of fictional construction, from an artistic construction, a creative construction to the state and visa-versa. So to explore what is inbetween and to explore the potential of this inbetweenness because people tend to be organised in entities and not explore what is inbetween because it is unknown. So I like to be in this un errant – it’s a kind of wandering – but I think it’s a very interesting wandering because it’s challenging to me but it’s also inspiring to others, also because I bring different performative languages in both sides. When I am with lawyers, they say “yes, the artist!” and when I am with the artists they see me as the lawyer [laughs]. So this inbetweenness is really je voi sais qua commune rechesse [I know you]; I see this as something rich and something I need to explore with more time and more tools to do my work.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>You certainly have seen this rise from within progressive academia of the need for a multidisciplinary approach – but we’re up against a reactionary mood globally that is about compartmentalising, trying to roll back this notion of the interconnectivity of disciplines into discrete compartments that can be better managed I guess by this rightist and populist demagoguery. So navigating those inbetween spaces, those grey areas, in an environment in which there is this drive to make everything black-and-white…</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Meriam: </b>Exactly, this binary narrative or binary approach of the world, I think this is a classical way of knowledge, a classical way of education and a classical way of reflecting the matters of the world in terms of le science dures, le science molles [hard science, soft science]. I think today we need another kind of knowledge, another kind of education, another kind of reflecting the world because with the new media and internet and all this facility today to get information, before if you want to learn something, you have to look for the books, you had to travel, information was not accessible to everyone; today you are at your home and you can connect to several bibliothèques [libraries] in the world, you can connect to several articles, you know what is going on, then you have this, le savoir, the knowledge is not anymore that you are specialised in philosophy or you are specialised only in chimie [chemistry]. If we go back to the Greeks, the philosophers were also the scientists, the birth of science, the birth of knowledge was wide…</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> So we went from a situation where knowledge was always a polymath thing, a multiverse, and now we are coming back?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Meriam: </b>Overspecialisation. And now we are coming back. We don’t have another solution because the complexity of the world needs a perspective where you can have different levels of analysing what is going on, a situation or a fact or a change in society. We cannot for example look at what is going on today with the rise of right-wing or popularism or liberal democracy without having notions of what is happening on the economic side, what is happening with the cultural side, what is happening with group psychology: you have to look at it with different eyes and to have this scientific knowledge, you have to look widely, you have to look at the inbetweenness, the intersections, in order to understand. It’s also a very speedy change; we don’t have the time to recognise how our societies are changing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>There are uncomfortable inbetween spaces as well, particularly for those who are stateless or undocumented migrants, that sort of thing. How do you navigate those spaces – because you actually want some sort of solidity, you want some document, you want a home of sorts?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Meriam: </b>I am in a search, and I am observing and I am trying to make an interpretation of what are the changes, to be more reflective of what the changes are and what is behind this changing and where this changing is leading. And I think the main important question today we are neglecting, a lot of artists as well, and this is where I am not happy, is that we are driven all the time to react to the immediate questions, to be more [engaged] in comments like journalists and not visionary, not having the time to think of what will remain, what is the next, what is the alternative? It’s not enough to be critical because it doesn’t add a simple scratch to the system; it’s good…</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>But you need to build an alternative.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Meriam:</b> Exactly. And for that you need time, and you need distance, and you need other tools, and you cannot be immediate. Today if you are an artist you are invited to talk about the release of your new book, you have one hour, we will ask you for fifty minutes about your idea about what is going on with the right wing, what do you think about the situation in Yemen, what do you think about the situation about immigration, did you hear about the new robot who feels more human, and what is your fear about the future – so everything, and then ten minutes about your book! So you have to be the expert of everything and nothing, so you have to collect information and some words work better so you have this performative language as well to give a proximative answer and to give this idea that you know everything. No-one dares to say “I don’t know, I’m sorry I am working, please ask me about my field. I need one year or two years, and I was just concentrating on that” – and it’s not the topic of the day. No-one dares to say that because we have self-censorship, we have this pressure to not forget that artists they are all the time making this self-censorship because they want to succeed and if I make this, will it be good for my career or not? If I have this space, I have to show that I am engaged. I mean for me sometimes today, disengaging seems to be the most clever way to say “no” because when the mainstream narratives instrumentalise the vocabulary or instrumentalise the notions that come up from the left or from the defenders or the opponents to the mainstream narratives, this is a problem. Who is engaged? Everyone is engaged. You ask everyone, he will vote for a right-winger and he will say “yes I paid twenty euros, yesterday I went to see a Syrian group playing music to support Syria,” I mean, it’s crazy. Everything is confused and everything is instrumentalised. Radicalism today is be completely against, to disengage, voila! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>I was very intrigued by that brief conversation we had on email before we came here. We were just playing around, I guess with some ideas around poetry and philosophy and the notion of death. And that’s the ultimate question that confronts us all, but one of the themes that has raised up in this conference is the death of the social, how society, and the notion of solidarity is dying off and how we are really facing that. Can you perhaps reflect a bit on that?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Meriam:</b> Yes, for me we live in times when we think that we are engaged but we are superficially engaged, we are engaged because we – I don’t want to say all of us, but I can say the majority – a lot among us, they are making business out of victimisation, out of playing the role of the hero who is going to save the victims. So this binary way to look at for example artistic freedom: we have people displaying victimhood and people displaying as the saviours, the heroes, the one who will save the world. This is not a balanced situation because in both sides there is an interest. The big difficulty today when I think about poetry and philosophy is to produce beauty and value. We live in a neo-liberalistic society where everything is tout le monetaire, everything is monetised, so nothing is outside of money. I would like with you tomorrow to make a conference in South Africa or in Tunisia but we need for that to get the money, and to get the money what do we need? We need this applications proposal, we need to master the language…</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>Of the donors, to speak in their terms to their interests.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Meriam:</b> Exactly. Already we put for ourselves frames because we have to get the possibility to do it. So pure beauty, this poetry of art for me, I don’t want to politicise art; I think art is political but I am against politicising art; art is important in itself because it’s useless, its way [is] to challenge the structures, the conformists, the orthodoxies, to bring new sight, to bring this pause from everyday life, to bring a moment of release, it’s in itself giving you space to rethink your life. So why should I again politicise art and say we are supporting Syrian artists at risk – because what means artists at risk when everyone is at risk, everyone who is producing in any country is at risk because he is challenging, whatever he is doing. When Paul Klee put feet to the pillars when he was six years old and his teacher said “please you have to draw the aqueduct” and among twenty pupils, one child, Paul Klee, chose to put shoes to the pillars and since then the aqueducts are walking; he opened something in reality that no-one before him saw, no-one drew aqueducts with shoes; it’s completely a new opening in the world. And when you open something like that it is creating for you the ability to see the world in another way, even in your everyday life. So poetry for me is a high form against what we can sell and what we cannot sell, and I think beauty today, the ability to produce beauty, which is not saleable, which is not a product…</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> It’s not prettiness; it’s truth.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Meriam: </b>Absolutely. It’s like Kafka says: it’s like the knife which is scratching my mind in order to make me see the reality of what I am and what the world is, and I think it’s this difficulty of saying we are missing solidarity because solidarity means that I believe in you; I don’t do it because I am waiting for something else, I am not waiting for recognition, I am not making money, I am not doing a network, I am not selling a concept, I am not applying a concept. Solidarity for me means, for example, those people during World War Two they were hiding children and they never say it and after fifty years someone found some documents [but] but they did it because it was their ability to judge.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> So when you say I believe in you, it means I see you, I actually truly see you. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Meriam:</b> Exactly. And I judge that I am in a position to do something in order to allow you a chance, or the ability to get something, but I don’t do it out of an obligation. I do it out of trust.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>You are not a symbol for me, you are not a tool in my design. You are different to me, you are your own, but I see you as your own.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Meriam:</b> Exactly. And it’s me who is taking the risk, it’s not the other who is at risk, and the balance of the relationships are different then and this is beauty. Beauty is to recognise the human in you – and this human is enough, that makes me stand up and say I judge for myself that it is my duty in these circumstances that if I have something to do for you I will do it and I don’t need anyone to tell me or to give me the tools to do it, I will find myself the tools to do it. And this kind of beauty is what is missed because we are in very indifferent societies, and very egoistic, individualistic societies, which is why we also need this balance with a big movement, because if we look at the last five to ten years we have this rise of this movement for artistic freedom. It started with journalists and then moved now to artists and is now moving to female or feminist discourses; these movements which are from civil society they are part of the system. For me everything needs to be explained by economics and one of the most important books I read in my life from a contemporary writer and Nobel Prize winner, the Bengali writer Amartya Sen, wrote a book. He’s a scientist but he was very interested to understand why there is this injustice and inequality in the world and he tried to look at what is going on in the economic structures, and how economics shape values, and I think his book The Concept of Justice, is a very interesting as a vision of how our world is shaped and what the economical system makes wrong. He will open a window for making counter-narratives, but counter-narratives that are based on the money they get from this system so it’s just like performing all the time that we are trying to make the change. But why this change never comes when all of us are willing to change the situation, is because it’s just performative, and what makes things change is solidarity, so out of institutions, out of the big mass movements, what we shape in a collectivity is the exception, and beauty also is an exception. As I said what will remain when we read the texts coming from the Greek era, or I read Lalla [the poet Lalleshwari], or I read Omar Khayyam, the same guys left this world one thousand years ago but I stay connected to their writing, so human beings will always face the same difficulties in another context and with other tools, but we have the same existential questions and we can connect through that. Me or you as artists we are so excited to get recognition, to see that others are interested in our work, but a book is written to go through time, traverse le temps; a book is passion, it has time, it has no problem to stay there for five thousand years and someone will read it later. The writer is in a hurry, the book is not in a hurry, the painting is not in a hurry, we are in a hurry, humans are in a hurry. That is why also this kind of responsibility if we see how we are shaping policies, and how we are doing architecture, how we are treating with nature, with overproduction, with climate change, we are just interested in tomorrow and today but not in the long-term. The programmes we are selling here [at Safe Havens] or trying to do, they are maximum two years, nothing after two years. Ask our colleagues: after two years, what are people supposed to do? They will try to be the heroes of their lives and find a solution to stay and if not, they have go back. Do you think that it is easier to go back and to start from the beginning, how difficult for them to restart again from zero after leaving and coming back with nothing? No-one has an answer. I am for the second time in Malmö; I am so happy to be here and to exchange with colleagues and to have more open-heart conversations and these small tables were a good idea, but since last year I am asking the same question and no-one has an answer. As a student, I don’t want to get a fish every night, I want you to teach me how to hunt my fish. This is the investment we have to do as writers or as architects or whatever, because the word is not only today, it’s also the future like other people before us in humanity made a transmission of knowledge, of architecture, of books that we read and we seek in it consolation, we seek in it wisdom, we seek in it healing to continue.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[ENDS]</span></div>
Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-51584952970377362452019-04-18T10:05:00.000-07:002019-04-20T05:14:49.896-07:00The Lonely, Contemplative Life of the Writer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Pq2K0DYwu9M/XLioF6225TI/AAAAAAAACzk/zpw__trNAWMHTNpv2on6s1177vUmy8kvACLcBGAs/s1600/Kagiso%2BLesego%2BMolope.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="417" data-original-width="318" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Pq2K0DYwu9M/XLioF6225TI/AAAAAAAACzk/zpw__trNAWMHTNpv2on6s1177vUmy8kvACLcBGAs/s640/Kagiso%2BLesego%2BMolope.png" width="488" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>This interview with my lovely, whip-smart friend Kagiso Lesego Molope, recently published online, was conducted at the Safe Havens 2018 conference of the organisations that protect persecuted creatives, held in December in Sweden.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b></span> My obvious first question is: aren’t you tired of talking about your experience of snow? It’s been twenty years [in exile] now, right?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Kagiso:</b> [Laughs] I still can’t get used to it; I don’t know why. Ja, there is something that makes me uneasy about not being able to see the ground, that’s really my big problem with snow; I don’t mind watching snow fall, or even how cold it is anymore, but there is something about not being able to see the ground that makes me really uneasy; I didn’t grow up like that, I always know where the ground is, but it feels very strange. Have I been talking a lot about snow with you?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>It seems to come up every time we meet, but I guess what I was asking is: because you’ve essentially been abroad for so long, aren’t you tired of talking as if you are a new arriviste, someone just fresh off the boat, as if that is going to be your defining experience forever?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Kagiso:</b> Ja [sigh]… I guess what I’m saying when talking about the cold is having been in a country for twenty years and still struggling to feel like it’s mine. I feel lonely. I think that if I had found a community and I’d felt really embraced by the place then I wouldn’t still be feeling like I’m just arriving, but that feeling is still there; I don’t think that’s the same for other people.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>So that’s a metaphor for some kind of social coldness?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Kagiso:</b> Ja, it is actually; it’s funny because I have thought of it that way. I talk about the cold as if it’s the weather, but I’m actually talking about a very introverted people who find it very difficult to include people they didn’t grow up with, people whose paths they don’t understand. I think everywhere you go, people are much more comfortable with you when they know who your people are; they know, ok, you are so-and-so’s child and you grew up in such-and-such a school; people like to make the connections when they meet each other, especially in Canada. It makes them uneasy to not know where you come from and to not be able to relate to a really large part of who you are, so they exclude you; it’s easier than actually taking the time to learn; I think that’s what happens. Anyway, I’m not saying that’s all of Canada, it’s just the part of Canada I live in. A lot of people grow up in the same city and then they go away to university but then they come back; it’s a very big part of Canadian culture; you go back to where you were raised to raise children, and so that means people are always going back home, so I think it’s very odd to them that someone…</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> Would traverse the world and uproot themselves?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Kagiso:</b> Ja. And just not go home, because going home is what everybody does. So I am constantly trying to belong, so in talking about it, I always sound like I am just beginning to enter the country – but in a lot of ways, I am. I mean, in terms of time I’m not because I’ve been there two decades, but socially I feel I am always trying to enter the country, I’m always trying to be a part of it in ways that it won’t let me in. It’s an ongoing struggle for me and I think a big part of the struggle, honestly, is that I’m so very proud to be South African and I talk about being South African, and I talk about myself as a South African person, and I write about South Africa – a really big part of what I do in my work is rediscover South Africa in all its different ways. So it goes both ways: a part of it is I think the country has not embraced me; but I think another part of it is that I also embrace my country so much I don’t talk about it like a place I don’t love because I love my country. But I think northerners – in North America and Europe – don’t understand why you would love Africa because their understanding of Africa is that it’s a very harsh place, you know? People will always ask “but it’s so dangerous in Africa, aren’t you glad you left?” That’s the only thing they seem to know about the country and about Africa, it’s so corrupt and there are these problems and those problems, but people don’t understand that your home is your home and everywhere has problems but you will talk about a place that you love.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>Tell me about those expectations through the lens of hair and dress: because you’ve had that experience of having all these expectations projected on to you that as an African woman you are supposed to look and be a certain way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Kagiso:</b> Absolutely. I think that most of the immigrants of African descent in Canada have been from the Caribbean and people have one picture of what people from the Caribbean look like, so people think, oh Bob Marley, dreadlocks, or they think well, you are African then you should look more African and wear African dress because that’s what we’ve seen in movies and that’s what we expect Africans to look like. There isn’t this understanding in North America that there are cities in Africa, and by that I mean that you are always placed in the past; I think they always place Africa not in the modern age and they still have this idea of all of Africa as being a very primitive place. I mean they have the same idea about First Nations people within Canada, so I think it’s just a matter of this imperialist look on the world: where there are no Europeans there is no civilisation. They don’t know an Africa that has lights, let alone…</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael:</b> Aerospace companies and satellites…</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Kagiso:</b> Ja. Part of also not being embraced is you don’t fit people’s idea of what an African looks like and what an African talks like. People always say: “You don’t sound African.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>So apart from not being them, you are also not the kind of other that they want you to be.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Kagiso:</b> [Laughs] Exactly! So you can’t win, so here’s what you do: you either deny who you are to fit into the image of who they need you to be, to be embraced, or you refuse all of that and be isolated, and those I think have been my choices. And at the very beginning I was very desperate to be included and I was wearing dreadlocks – and I don’t like dreadlocks – but I did a couple of different things like wear head-wraps, because sometimes you just long for a friendly embrace so sometimes it is just helpful when you are trying to not be isolated and lonely to have people say “you look really nice, so come to my house for dinner.” But then you realise it doesn’t work for you and you stall and you go back to who you really are and then you end up alone – and then you end up like me talking about not belonging, twenty years later.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>So tell me about your community, in other words the people that you commune with in Canada. What does your community look like?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Kagiso:</b> Ah, I don’t really have a community, I mean I’m in grad school right now so I suppose that would be my new community, but my community is all over the world. Two of my closest friends live in two different countries in Europe and my other really close friend lives in the US.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Michael:</b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> So your community is not a geographic community, it’s a community of minds?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Kagiso: </b>It’s a community of minds, ja, all three of those people are writers and all of them I met in some writers’ space, so those tend to be my community.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>So what is it about writers? Obviously they work in the same field as yours, but there must be something else to that writing in that you’re continually trying to interpret your environment and they’re on a similar journey?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Kagiso: </b>Absolutely; I mean they lead very contemplative lives and I think it’s nice to be around and talk to people like that you’re always sharing ideas about how you see the world and how you see yourselves, because we have to engage in that work personally to be a writer and to grow as a writer, your spiritual self and how you feed that and how you take care of that part of yourself. Those are conversations I can have with writers, especially fiction writers. Fiction writers have to be involved in the growth of the people they write about so they have to also be very actively engaged, they have to show up in their own personal ways in order to do well in their work. But one writer friend who actually isn’t a fiction writer said something to me recently that really stuck and that was that the writer in society is not traditionally deep in the community; the writer is always a little bit on the outside because you have to be further out to have a clearer view of your society. So I agree with it and think it is true and I think you’re not going to write honestly about the society you live in if you are too steeped in it, so that’s part of the isolation as well. If you look at it that way, then it seems ok, but some days it just seems too difficult because everybody wants people around them [but] I think it becomes too hard to be part of a community as a writer. Most writers I know, their community is composed of other writers and artists or they really just don’t have friends where they live and their friends are all far away.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>So to some degree it is a lonely choice because writing is a solitary task in and of itself and does require some remove from those around one. What are the trends in writing that are exciting you at the moment; are there any? It may even be something old that you discovered, not necessarily something new?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Kagiso:</b> Um, I don’t know if this is new, I don’t think it is. There are two things. There is a large group of black women in South Africa writing memoirs; that’s very exciting for me because we didn’t grow up reading books about black women so for us to say that our stories matter, and I was writing alone in the world. I think that’s very powerful and I think there is going to be a generation of young girls growing up with these books about African women, by African women, for African women and that will be very empowering.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>Karima [Bennoune, UN Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights] indicated that the very first point of ingress against any culture by a hostile force invariably assaulted the cultural rights of its women first, so if this new layer is being developed it’s going to have to be quite tough because it’s at the forefront of whatever gets thrown against that society by people who disapprove of it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Kagiso: </b>Aha, absolutely. It’s funny, you know, when I was growing up under apartheid, my father used to say that the future of South Africa was in black women’s hands and I think it’s because he had four girls and he really needed to say that [laughs]. But I think it’s a very powerful movement that’s happening and I think it’s coming up against a lot of criticism and I think they’re not being embraced by the larger publishing houses – but they just don’t care. So there are a few young black women writers who are building their own publishing houses so there’s one called Impepho which was started a few months ago by a woman called Vangile Gantsho and she is a poet, and then there is BlackBird which is an imprint of Jacana, and then [name unclear] who just started her own publishing house. So that is happening and it looks unstoppable when you look at it from that perspective.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>Presumably what that means is first of all a greater diversity of voices in more vernacular languages, but also I’m presuming very soon we are going to start leaving biography behind and start getting into all sorts of genres, science fiction, philosophy, science, or what have you?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Kagiso: </b>Ja, absolutely. There’s no limit. And it’s already happening. You get Pumla Gqola, she writes a lot on African politics, so that’s really exciting. I haven’t read a lot of science fiction but I know that there are a couple of people who want to write science fiction, but right now part of the trend is really addressing trauma and linking black women’s trauma to apartheid, because there is sort of this tradition in South Africa where everything bad started in 1994 [with the first all-race elections] but then you get these women who survived apartheid and want to talk to how their personal trauma is very much linked to the world they grew up in, to broader societal trauma. And I wholly support that. When I started writing in the early 2000s, I remember a really big publishing house in South Africa coming out and saying “we are not interested in apartheid stories, apartheid was in the past and we are excited only about black writers who are writing about South African politics now and South African society post-‘94” and I thought it was just appalling and obnoxious because they were calling on us to just forget the effects of the past, but also they wanted us to participate in their project of forgetting apartheid – which is not going to happen. So what I do like about what a lot of the black women are doing is they are addressing those issues which come from growing up under the apartheid regime and looking and linking them to how life is now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>Could you critique this prevalent notion, which has become a trope, of the “strong black woman”. There’s a demand that you have to be a strong black woman; you can’t be a contemplative black woman, or a mousy black woman, a shy and retiring black woman, or a black woman riven with self-doubt; you just have to be this uncarved block of solidity. Because on one front, environmentally, you have to be strong, but that denies you the full spectrum of your humanity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Kagiso: </b>Exactly. And part of what I like about the poetry from black women coming out now is them presenting themselves as sad, depressed, traumatised people – and able to handle all kinds of things – but also able to acknowledge the difficulties they face and to acknowledge that we fall apart sometimes. That is dehumanising to say that someone has to be this one thing; it’s taking away your humanity; we’re all complex, we all have feelings, life gets very hard for us – especially hard for us with everything that we have to deal with. I’ll give you an example of This Book Betrays My Brother: I went to Durban to the writers’ festival to promote the book. I got harassed in the session that I was giving about the book and I had to run out because it felt physically unsafe for me to be there. And when I told the organisers about it, they said “ja, but you’re a black woman, you guys are so strong, you can handle it.” But I have a right to be afraid and a right to be protected. But they compared me to another black woman who came there and had been harassed and had not complained and I felt like I was failing at being the black woman at that festival, I was not being the right black woman, I was failing at black womanhood [laughs]. And I think a lot of us are fighting against that image of what a black woman looks like because we shouldn’t be told what a black woman looks like or how she should behave, it should be up to us. But essentially it denies you the right to be human, it denies you the right to seek safety when you need it, to fall apart when you need to.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael: </b>This ties in in my mind to this rising tide of reactionary black populism and its idealised version of black history and particularly pre-colonial history in which black people obviously never fought over anything, in which all wars that they ever waged were obviously on the side of the angels. This to me seems to fundamentally deny black people agency – under the guise of granting them agency. It’s about this projection of this idealised human.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Kagiso: </b>Mm-hmm. It is under the guise of granting them agency.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[ENDS]</span>Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-85531661943453246702019-04-17T04:37:00.000-07:002019-04-17T04:37:05.526-07:00Politics in Flux<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>As we brace ourselves for what is shaping up to be rough and wild national election, I thought it interesting to reflect on where these major sea-changes originated, with the rise of the Chinese-funded, black-chauvinist, right-populist EFF to kingmaker status in several metro municipalities back in the local government elections of October 2016. This was a cover story in the black woman's magazine Destiny,</b></span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> “Inside Our Fiery City Councils,” Johannesburg, December 2016.</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael Schmidt</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the brutalist apartheid architecture of the Joburg Metro’s Council building, its narrow windows looking down like gun-ports, gives way to its replacement, a giant R280-million drum-round lekgotla structure with huge transparent windows emphasising openness, so tight one-party dominance in the country’s heartland has given way to dynamically shifting coalitions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the second sitting of the new Council – still in the old chamber, now filled to bursting as it has expanded dramatically from the apartheid era’s 50 councillor’s seats to 270 seats – proceedings on 13 September were more polite than in the National Assembly the same week, but the country’s new opposition-in-waiting, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) provided most of the expected colour, in their red overalls and doeke or construction helmets, in their stand-up comedy, and in their jiving dances.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The week before the meeting, large-framed Protocol Officer Frans Sheleng, who was a council labourer under apartheid before rising up through the ranks, had told me: “We took advice from Parliament on disciplinary issues and dress code. Those hardhats they [the EFF] have, they throw, and people could get hurt. We have to supply water bottles, but they throw those also. We are considering whether we need a sergeant-at-arms… but we don’t want to go that route.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yet the mercurial nature of the second sitting gave fair warning that politics will hereafter be as unpredictable as Joburg’s formerly regular-as-clockwork weather. This is especially so because the unseated African National Congress (ANC) seemed unable to reconcile to the fact that although it is the largest party with 121 seats, it has no clear majority and is now easily outvoted by the ruling Democratic Alliance (DA) with its 104 seats, its one-seat-each coalition partners, the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), Congress of the People (COPE), United Democratic Movement (UDM), and Freedom Front Plus (FF+), with its separate agreement with the five-seat Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) – but only when given the tactical support of the 30-seat EFF king-makers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Perhaps the locations of the main parties’ Joburg offices are telling: the DA sits on a leafy block of Rissik Street downtown; the ANC is wedged between fast food outlets on Gandhi Square; while the EFF is located on De Korte Street, in the hipster boondocks of Braamfontein. With a whopping 49% of Johannesburg’s residents under the age of 34, this is a distinctly young city and the EFF seems to understand that more than most.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A Fighters song rhyming Mandela with Malema got a few in the DA seats grooving, but left the ANC bloc very unimpressed; while another song, sung after the EFF forced the DA to receive a delegation of its own employees, aggrieved at not having been paid for elections services (including one of whom had allegedly been run over by a DA councillor’s car), had some in the ANC jolling along delightedly. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although the DA and ANC religiously applauded their own speakers, the EFF and minority parties readily shifted their praise to whomsoever seemed most deserving, so the red bloc clapped when DA Speaker Vasco da Gama (freighted with history, as his namesake was the first European to round the Cape in 1497) shut down one of his own party’s councillors who had not properly asked to be recognised.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After his acceptance speech – delayed to the second sitting in respect for ANC councillor Nonhlanhla Mthembu who died during the first sitting – the DA’s new Executive Mayor, bald hair-products king Herman Mashaba, chided the ANC, sitting grumpily in the opposition seats for the first time since democracy came in 1994, for quibbling about not being in power. Veteran municipal journalist Anna Cox of The Star said that previously, the ANC had always jeered at the opposition after it effortlessly steamrollered policies over the DA, so it would be fascinating to see how the parties behaved now the tables were turned.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ANC caucus leader Geoffrey Makhubo, who surrendered his finance seat on the Metro Council after the elections, responded with umbrage to Mashaba’s characterisation of the “World Class City” as one in decay, saying “The ANC built this city into what it is today… It attracts 10,000 people a month looking for opportunities – and the mayor calls this decay.” He then went on to grumble about the ANC being, as he incorrectly put it, the “majority” party. Mashaba drolly riposted that Makhubo “seems to need more time to accept the result of the election. We hope he accepts it by 2021,” he said, meaning the end of his own five-year term. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The EFF’s witty Silumko Mabona jibed the mayor, in reference to his cosmetics empire, asking him, “What is Black Like Me in your programme? We elected you beyond political and racial lines but it seems you are sleeping on the job.” He then claimed that the DA leader’s emphasis on resolving the housing crisis in the city was borrowed directly from the EFF’s election platform – and yet he received DA applause. The EFF’s councillor for Alexandra, Musa Novela, had a go at the ANC, quipping that “we must thank the Son of God for visiting Joburg,” a reference to the frequent pre-election ANC boast that the party would “rule until Jesus returns.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Johannesburg over which the DA coalition now rules is a metropolis with all the hubris and squalour of a frontier town, ranging from the poplar-lined avenues of Houghton, one of the continent’s wealthiest enclaves, to the dregs of an inner city that reeks of urine like an elephant house at a zoo. Yet this powerhouse of the African economy, with a population close to 4,5-million (three quarters of them black), generates 16.5% of the country's wealth and employs 12% of the national workforce.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Its Metro controls a R45,3-billion operational expenditure budget and a R9,5-billion capital expenditure budget over 2016/2017 – and Mashaba has already worked out ways to spend what remains.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The DA played a slick game, with Mashaba spelling out a policy that attempted to balance an anti-graft, clean city, pro-business approach with poverty alleviation. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But a woman leader who knows poverty intimately and looks set to become one of the most strident voices in the chamber is the Patriotic Alliance’s sole councillor, Leanne Williams. Hailing from Eldorado Park, Williams is the child of a father who ran off when she was five, and fell pregnant at 19 – but at 24 she decided to turn her life around; today she has three degrees, and prior to joining the PA was head of risk at a leading bank. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the chamber, she told the councillors that the DA’s economics seemed “more like witchcraft” when they failed to address backyard dwellers, pit toilets and the scourge of drugs. To wild EFF and ANC applause, she said “Some of us are here to represent the marginalised – and not white privilege!”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She told Destiny later: “My ambition is not to become a politician when it is about seat-warming.” Dismissive of the three mainstream parties, which she predicted had already peaked, she said the new coalition politics, far from being indicative of political maturity, was a sign of decay, citing “the DA-EFF Kardashian marriage,” and the lack of focus on empowering the marginalised, especially women who in the Metro were mostly reduced to backbenchers. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One woman who is not a backbencher the DA’s MMC for Community Development Nonhlanhla Sifumba. Born and still living in Orlando West, home of Winnie Mandela, Sifumba described herself to Destiny as liberal-minded and insatiably curious. Although she grew up in a politically-charged environment of regular protests which she participated in as a child, she embarked on a bewildering array of jobs before cutting her teeth in politics proper with the Independent Electoral Commission in 2006, and enlisted as a DA councilor in 2011.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Asked whether she saw her portfolio, which covers sports and recreation, libraries and information services, arts, culture and heritage, city parks, zoos and cemeteries, as a soft portfolio, Sifumba said, “No: this social part is critical to people’s life; it’s the heart of the city. People want to live in a beautiful city, so actually I am the MMC for Happiness.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A half-hour trip by Gautrain to the north, Tshwane may be the country’s executive capital, but despite its population of around 3-million (also three quarters black, but with a larger white percentage than Joburg), and its R28,3-billion opex and R4,5-billion capex budgets, its Metro is altogether more modest than Joburg’s. Its offices are currently situated in the four-storey Sammy Marks shopping mall, which is half a construction site, overlooking two other diggings, that of the chamber’s new home (a prosaic purple-trimmed concrete block), and that of the new Women’s Monument at Lilian Ngoyi Square which commemorates the 1956 women’s march on the Union Buildings. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Metro Executive Mayor “Just call me Solly” Msimanga of the DA scored points with his new electorate by outlawing the hated “blue light” convoys in the capital – except for those of President Zuma and his Cabinet – and courted controversy by instituting forensic audits into what he claimed was capital overspend by the previous ANC administration. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The balance of power in Tshwane – where the security fencing around the Paul Kruger statue gives notice of a divided city – is only slightly in the DA’s favour – with 93 seats to the ANC’s 89 which, while still not a majority, gives the ruling alliance of the DA, ACDP, and FF+ together 98 seats, meaning again, the 25-seater EFF holds the swing vote. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ANC Tshwane caucus leader Mapiti Matsena complained at the first sitting on 30 August – at which unpopular ANC mayoral candidate Thoko Didiza was noticeably absent – that “mayoral council does not represent the demography of the City of Tshwane… it is without women...” But this is patently untrue – and one of the most powerful elected women in the country is now Tshwane Metro Speaker Katlego Rachel Mathebe. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Born in Kimberley but raised in Mabopane in then Bophuthatswana, she was politicised in Shoshanguve as a member of UDF affiliate Young Christian Students, and on graduating in Port Elizabeth, worked for a wide range of entities mostly as a financial officer. When Thabo Mbeki was ousted, she joined COPE, becoming a Tshwane councillor for the party in 2001, then joining the DA.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mathebe told Destiny that her election as speaker came as no surprise because “as a young girl, I had the conviction that I cannot tolerate injustice… and what was happening in Tshwane, this was not what I fought for: I fought for liberation as in the right to vote, but also for a classless society… to reduce the difference between poor and rich… I cannot fold my arms and see the country going the wrong way, especially with the levels of looting.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mathebe was forced to adjourn the chamber at the first sitting after the EFF and ANC scuffled over black hairstyles at the Pretoria School for Girls. She stated that racism in the city was derived from economic inequality, which the DA has sworn to address by reducing unemployment and by tackling the city’s racialised spatial planning – which the ANC had failed to address. While she believed she had the respect and support of all the parties, ANC and EFF backbenchers holding on to past grudges kept provoking each other, so Tshwane was going to bring in EthicsSA to train councillors in civic virtues.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The unelected officials I spoke to seemed comfortable with DA assurances that, bar a little tweaking of priorities, the ANC-set long-term strategies for the cities – Tshwane Vision 2055, and Joburg’s Growth & Development Strategy 2040 – would remain largely unchanged, while their integrated development plans (IDPs) would by law have to take guidance from ward level every year. But Anna Cox told me she’d heard dark mutterings in the hallways of sabotage along the lines of “we don’t work for the DA,” and said there had even been rumours of an attempt to bug Mashaba’s office. Time will tell if the ANC’s assiduous cadre deployment over the past two decades works for or against democracy in future.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[ENDS]</span><br />
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Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-63975629967866416702019-04-17T03:48:00.000-07:002019-04-17T03:48:06.675-07:00Comment l’Afrique se paye la présidence française<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Comment l’Afrique se paye la présidence française</b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Michael Schmidt, Afrique du Sud, 2011 (traduit par Vidal Cuervo, Alternative Libertaire, France)</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Il semblerait que depuis peu, en Afrique, on ne serve plus la soupe exactement dans l’ordre habituel. De curieux renversements s’effectuent en effet, dont le moindre n’est pas celui du Portugal, suppliant son ancienne colonie, l’Angola, de lui venir en aide ; ou encore de voir des citoyens européens se repliant sur leurs colonies de jadis pour fuir la crise dans leurs pays, et accepter des jobs sous-payés dans l’arrière-pays africain <b>(1)</b>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mais il existe une relation bien plus ancienne et plus discrète entre Afrique et Europe qui renverse l’image convenue de leaders africains corrompus par une aide-européenne-sous-conditions. Ce phénomène est celui de la valise (en français dans le texte), système par lequel depuis un demi-siècle les dictatures africaines ont envoyé des millions en France pour corrompre le processus politique européen.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Le premier tour des élections françaises se tiendra le 22 avril prochain. On s’attend que le candidat socialiste François Hollande prenne le dessus sur le président gaulliste sortant Nicolas Sarkozy, sans obtenir toutefois de majorité préparant le décor à une fuite de capitaux en mai.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Toutefois, les électeurs français connaissent le système de la valise, il est donc intéressant d’examiner ce phénomène si bien intégré à la conduite des affaires franco-africaines, et qui semble se répandre encore.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Le 5 octobre 2011, le Centre d’Etudes Françaises et Francophones de la Duke University (Caroline du Nord) organisait un débat intitulé « les colonies rendent la monnaie de la pièce: culture et corruption dans les relations franco-africaines ». Notre article reprend des extraits de ce colloque.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>La France post-coloniale, une république « valisière »</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Philippe Bernard, ancien correspondant du Monde en Afrique, entama le débat en faisant la remarquer que Robert Bourgi, <b>(2)</b> conseiller « non-officiel » de Sarkozy, avait accusé (septembre 2011) son prédécesseur Jacques Chirac et son premier ministre Dominique de Villepin, d’avoir reçu d’énormes pots-de-vin sous la forme de valises remplies d’espèces, pendant la mandature conservatrice de ces derniers (1995-2007) , aux fins de financer la campagne de Chirac.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cinq états d’Afrique de l’Ouest et Centrale étaient concernés - Congo, Burkina Faso, Sénégal, Côte d’Ivoire et Gabon. Dans une interview à Canal+, Bourgi soutenait également que la campagne en 1988 de Jean-Marie le Pen du Front National (extrême-droite) fut en partie financée de la même manière. Chirac, autant que Villepin ont nié les allégations de Bourgi.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Selon la recension par le Telegraph <b>(3)</b> Bourgi, déclarait au Journal du Dimanche qu’il avait personnellement transporté des dizaines de millions de francs chaque année, les montants étant destinés aux courses à la présidence, sous-entendant par-là que le liquide était destiné aux campagnes de Chirac. « J’ai vu Chirac et Villepin compter l’argent devant moi ».</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Le même Bourgi soutient qu’il fit passer des billets de la part de 5 présidents africains: Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal [au pouvoir de 2000-2012]; Blaise Campaoré du Burkina Faso</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[1987 à ce jour]; Laurent Gbagbo de la Côte d’Ivoire [2000-2011]; Denis Sassou Nguesso du Congo </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[1997 à ce jour] et Omar Bongo du Gabon [1967-2009], que M. Bourgi appellait « Papa ».</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ensemble, il prétend qu’ils auraient contribué quelques 6,2 million de livres sterling à la campagne gagnée de Chirac en 2002.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Un sixième leader se serait joint au club des donateurs, le président Obiang N’Guema de Guinée équatoriale [1979 à ce jour] avant qu’un Villepin, rendu nerveux ne mette fin au système en 2005. Toujours selon Bourgi.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ce dernier affirme avoir personnellement fait fonctionner le système pendant 25 ans, en échange duquel les dictateurs africains se voyaient accorder d’immenses réductions de leur dettes envers la France, une fois leur « sponsor » à l’Elysée.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bernard pense que le système est né de concept de « Françafrique », ce mélange des genres entre intérêts français et africains.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Secret public depuis les libérations africaines des années 60, à partir desquelles des accords furent signés stipulant que la France userait de son influence pour defender les régimes africains, tandis que ceux-ci donnerait une exclusive à l’ancienne puissance colonial sur ses matières premières et un droit d’intervention militaire, à l’occasion de menaces contre la sécurité africaine.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dans les années 80, les gaullistes (opposés alors au gouvernement socialiste de François Mitterand) furent pareillement accusés de toucher un pourcentage des revenus du pétrole gabonais pour financer leurs campagnes – mais sans preuves.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Le professeur Stephen Smith, ancien responsable du bureau Afrique de Libération, et prédécesseur de Bernard au Monde, se souvient des rumeurs disant que « l’argent à destination du bureau du premier ministre étaient dissimulé dans des djembe ». Ce bureau ne disposant pas de l’air conditionné, l’imaginer en train de compter son argent en bras de chemise est assez amusant ».</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Plus sérieusement, Smith se souvient qu’en 1971, au tout début d’un règne qui ne devait finir qu’en 1993 Félix Houphouët-Boigny, président de Côte d’Ivoire avait fait don de « sacs d’argent » au gouvernement de Georges Pompidou.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Il y avait, dit Smith “une pratique continue, depuis Charles de Gaulle [au pouvoir de 1959 à 1969] à Giscard d’Estaing [1974-1981], jusqu’aux gouvernements libéraux actuels ». Tous soutenus par le système de la valise. Ce qui revient, de fait, à un Etat postcolonial informel ».</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Il faut se souvenir que cette période – la Vème république – fut créée en 1958 à la suite de la crise qui devait précipiter la France dans la guerre d’Algérie. Nous sommes donc face à un demi-siècle de dictateurs africains, installés et maintenus en poste par la puissance militaire française, qui grâce au pétrole d’Afrique et autres revenus, devait soutenir à son tour, une chaîne de régimes conservateurs en France. Smith note toutefois que le système de la valise à l’oeuvre dans les 6 pays mentionnés, était également relayé au moyen d’entreprises françaises présentes dans les anciennes colonies.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Les unes payaient les conservateurs gaullistes, tandis quels autres s’occupaient des socialistes et communistes. Etant donné la position stratégique de la France en Europe, son influence n’étant égalée que par l’Allemagne et la Grande Bretagne, quiconque est en mesure de se payer la présidence française, s’achète de fait également, une énorme part d’influence en Europe.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Les politiques progressistes des deux continents ont été rendues inopérantes par ces tractations secrètes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Smith raconte son premier scoop concernant les pratiques occultes du ténébreux Bourgi, pour Libération en 1995. Il s’agissait d’un papier expliquant la manière dont le dictateur zaïrois Mobutu se vit acquitter de ses dettes, hors de toute procédure. Mobutu « éleva son sceptre et je craignis qu’il ne me frappe avec! ». Robert Bourgi touchait 600 000 euros de Mobutu, pour éteindre un feu et en gagnait un million supplémentaire pour m’empêcher d’écrire le livre que j’avais en cours. »</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">« La comptabilité de Bourgi est impeccable, il ne fait affaire qu’en liquide, donc il y a peu de preuves disponibles ». L’argent du pot de vin devait être déposé sur des comptes Sud-africains ou libanais, raconte Smith.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">La portée du pouvoir officieux de Bourgi était considérable. Smith raconte que lorsque Sarkozy voulut qu’on le prenne en photo avec Mandela – vieillissant, quasi-reclus et n’accordant que très rarement de photos - il suffit à Bourgi d’appeler « Papa » (Omar Bongo), qui persuada l’ancien président d’Afrique du sud de prendre l’avion pour Paris en 2007.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Elargissement du système de la Valise</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Professeur Achille Membe, spécialiste de l’Afrique postcoloniale ajoute que la valise est un système de « corruption mutuelle » qui a « menotté la France comme l’Afrique depuis des décennies ».</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">« La relation n’est pas seulement corrompue en termes d’argent … il s’agit d’une corruption culturelle qui a émasculé les sociétés civiles africaines en profondeur. Les perspectives sont les suivantes, la France dispose encore de bases militaires sur le continent avec les moyens de dégager un Gbagbo. Mais si elle doit payer le prix fort d’une intervention, elle y réfléchira à deux fois ».</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">La mainmise de la France sur le continent africain, selon Bernard, commence à être éclipsée (notamment par les États-Unis): <b>(4)</b> ce qui impacte la monnaie francophone (le franc CFA) lié à l’euro en crise, ainsi que les entreprises françaises qui perdent leur exclusivité auprès des régimes africains, à mesure que le FMI reprend les rênes dans de nombreux pays, ou que la Chine, le Brésil et l’Inde déversent leurs investissements sur le continent.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sarkozy lui, veut mettre un terme à un « réseau d’intermédiaires », tels que Bourgi « agissant comme une diplomatie parallèle ».</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pour Smith, la France gagne plus financièrement de ses relations avec l’Afrique anglophone – Afrique du Sud et Kenya en particulier - qu’il ne le faisait avec ses anciennes colonies, mais il prévient : « on assiste à une multiplication des modèles d’exception à la française : la relation avec la Chine est tout aussi corrompue ; la chasse gardée, le privilège français est devenu mondialisé ».</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Membe ajoute que selon lui, le palissement de l’étoile française est surtout au fait que la France elle-même est entrée dans un processus de provincialisation, de conservatisme culturel et de retrait des affaires du monde – et ce, bien que sa langue continue d’être dominante en Afrique, et malgré l’existence d’une diaspora de lettrés africains.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Toujours pour Membe les « révélations de Robert Bourgi », n’en sont pas vraiment en Afrique, où « elles n’ont pas été perçues comme un scandale » en raison du cynisme qui domine lorsqu’on évoque les relations franco-africaines dont on connaît depuis longtemps le déclin progressif.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">« La géographie n’est plus centrée sur Paris… les Robert Bourgi sont les derniers spasmes d’un équation morte, à genoux, qui n’est plus historique mais anecdotique. La France va devenir une parenthèse ».</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mais il est n’est pas du tout évident que le système des valises soit terminé, ou qu’il ait perdu sa capacité à influencer l’histoire africaine.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pour Smith la réputation-même de Sarkozy devint douteuse lorsqu’il barra d’un trait 40% des dettes du Congo et du Gabon, là où Chirac l’avait positionné à 8% seulement. Effectuer des paiements à Sarkozy aurait donc constitué un « bon investissement de la part de leaders africains ». Si Sarkozy aussi est impliqué, la fin de partie jouée par Bourgi et consistant à déballer l’affaire des valises après 25 ans, et</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">affirmant qu’elles se sont arrêtées avec Chirac, ne vise donc pas à salir Chirac. L’homme est mourant et politiquement fini. Il s’agit donc plutôt de menacer Sarkozy tant qu’il est encore président, le forçant à permettre à Bourgi de se retirer en toute quiétude, sans craindre de poursuite, à 67 ans, dans sa demeure nouvellement acquise en Corse.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Les racines du système sont à chercher, selon Smith, dans le fait qu’à l’époque où les Européens sont venus en Afrique, ils se sont « déboutonné » enclenchant cette relation fondée sur la corruption. Mais il faut être deux pour danser le Tango, alors que dire du rôle des leaders africains eux-mêmes? « Si j’étais à leur place, reconnaît Smith, je continuerai d’investir dans la France. Car l’ONU, le FMI … continueront de se tourner vers la France quand il leur faut de l’aide, même si son bras de levier n’est plus aussi efficace. Les choix des présidents africains continuent d’avoir de l’importance ».</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Il est clair que le système des valises va perdurer, pour s’élargir sans doute à de nouvelles puissances - USA, Chine, Brésil, Inde et Afrique du Sud – et ironie du sort, le taux de croissance du continent étant de 5,5 %, il est bien possible que la capacité de l’Afrique à influencer et corrompre les affaires du monde… augmente.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>(1)</b> un exemple de ces contes (en anglais) : www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/business/global/14angolabiz.html </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>(2)</b> Né à Dakar, dans une famille libano-française, Il fut admis au barreau de Paris. Ancien conseiller de Chirac et Villepin, Sarkozy lui accordera la Légion d’honneur en 2007. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>(3)</b> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Un exemple de ces contes (en anglais): </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">/news/worldnews/europe/france/8756097/Jacques-Chirac-regularly-received-cash-from-African-leaders.html </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>(4)</b> Dans les années 1960s, il y avait 20 000 soldats français stationnés en Afrique. Ils sont 5000 aujourd’hui, mais avec une capacité technique largement supérieure. Au Mali, toutefois, qui vient de vivre un coup d’Etat, la présence étasunienne est significative, tandis que les Français ont indiqué qu’ils n’interviendraient pas comme ils le faisaient par le passé. Sarkozy a rouvert la base militaire en côte d’ivoire qui sent largement la naphtaline, mais l’intervention française de 2011 se fit sous mandat de l’Onu.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[FIN]</span>Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6786615026717019750.post-8199986863878403342019-04-16T03:21:00.001-07:002019-04-16T07:22:42.162-07:00African Safe Havens Initiatives<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This article appeared last year in the journal Fresh Perspectives, a publication of IETM, Arts Everywhere and Musagetes (cover above). Thanks to diligent editor Sidd Joag.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">05. RELOCATION OF ARTISTS AT </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">RISK</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With respect to relocation of artists </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">in danger, there continues to exist a </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">binary logic of safety and danger being </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">associated with the Global North and </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">South respectively. The tendency to</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">relocate artists from the Global South </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">to Western Europe or North America </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">has overlooked the potential of and need </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">for interregional support networks for </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">persecuted individuals and communities. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In response, some international networks/</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">organizations like ICORN are actively </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">pursuing collaborations to expand safe </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">haven options in the Global South, including </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Michael Schmidt’s work in South Africa (see </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">below), the Arts Rights Justice Academy </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">regional laboratories in Salvador, Brazil and </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Beirut, Lebanon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>African Safe Havens Initiatives</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>Michael Schmidt. Convenor, Southern African Cities of Refuge Project</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">With repeated failures by UN peace-keeping missions to protect refugees, Africa has probably done better by its animals than by its people – so I was intrigued when introduced in 2012 to the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN), which provides refuge for persecuted writers, artists and activists. ICORN wanted to expand its network of cities into the developing world. The desire to do so was partly to prevent ICORN becoming another “West saves the Rest” initiative, as well as to reduce the culture shock experienced by displaced people. For example, when Kenyan poet Philo Ikonya was relocated to Norway by ICORN, her teenage son had to learn Norwegian to complete his schooling; he could have studied in English were they relocated to South Africa.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Back in 2012, ICORN’s sole city outside Western Europe was Mexico City. Since then it has expanded to include – apart from new cities in North America – Oaxaca in Mexico and Belo Horizonte in Brazil, with more being negotiated elsewhere. In Southern Africa, we are targeting the cities of Windhoek in Namibia, plus Cape Town, Johannesburg and the university town of Stellenbosch in South Africa, to bring them on board as ICORN cities. The project was founded under the aegis of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism of which I was then Executive Director. After moving to freelance work in 2015, I relocated project oversight to the Professional Journalists’ Association, and PEN’s South African chapter has since partnered with us.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Progress has been steady but slow, as working with universities and municipalities can be bureaucratic. However, the project held launches in Johannesburg in May and in Cape Town in July 2014 to introduce academics and city officials to the Cities of Refuge concept; films relevant to the exiled creative experience were screened – Beate Arnestad’s Silenced Voices on Sri Lankan journalists and Marion Stalens’ Silence or Exile on ICORN guest writers. Because most exiled creatives – whether choreographers, film directors, poets, journalists or painters – want to continue doing what got them into trouble in their home countries, the project requires the assistance of third parties to give them that platform. So we have engaged the Universities of Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Stellenbosch to explore possibilities – </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and have also established relations with </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the Holocaust and Genocide Centres in </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Johannesburg and Cape Town because of </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">our mutual interest in interrogating issues </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">of migration and prejudice.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So far, the most progress has been made in Cape Town where, initially, the fact that the city is run by the opposition Democratic Alliance assured that its decisions in this regard would not be aligned to national politics and foreign policy concerns (this is why ICORN works at city and not national level). We conducted an ICORN tour of Cape Town in May 2015, bringing guest writers Parvin Ardalan, an Iranian journalist, and Ramy Essam, an Egyptian musician, to meet officials, academics, and activists, and were tentatively offered a defunct museum in a converted suburban house as a possible ICORN residence. A bilateral agreement signed in 2016 between the mayors of Cape Town and Malmö in Sweden, a City of Refuge, will now be used to drive that project to signature and activation – hopefully in 2018.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Stellenbosch has proven slower. The original mayor who we met with in 2015 has been replaced, but the local university’s journalism department is interested in the project. Johannesburg was revived in 2017 by a range of discussions on possible venues that incorporate theatres, dance studios, computer rooms, exhibition spaces, and residential apartments. There, our project coincides with a similar initiative by the Pan-African Human Rights Defenders’ Network (PAHARDN) which aims at establishing Safe Hubs for persecuted human rights defenders in: Johannesburg, because of its cosmopolitanism; Kampala, Uganda, because of it successfully absorbed Somali and Burundian refugees; Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire, because of a new law explicitly providing for such safe haven, and; Tunis in Tunisia, because of its new democratic dispensation; the initiative was launched in October 2017 with ICORN participation: <a href="https://www.defenddefenders.org/2017/10/safe-hubs-for-human-rights-defenders-at-risk-in-africa-launched/" target="_blank">online here</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In June 2016, we relocated a Zimbabwean human rights defender in exile in South Africa to Windhoek, Namibia, who was seriously at risk of assassination by state agents. Two of his colleagues had already been murdered and one narrowly survived a poisoning. Relocation funds were provided by the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). It was an operation fraught with danger that almost failed twice and resulted in the defender eventually returning to South Africa. But it taught us valuable lessons about such relocations which we shared at a conference with PAHRDN in August 2016. We have since, in 2017, successfully relocated a persecuted poet and blogger from Lesotho to South Africa, and are involved in monitoring the status of several other at-risk creatives. Our hope is that 2018 will finally see the project mature with Cape Town and perhaps Johannesburg signing on as ICORN cities.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[In fact, things did consolidate in late 2018 and a safe havens initiative will shortly be launched in Johannesburg. I will post details about that soon]</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">[ENDS]</span><br />
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Michael Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04555321898470964579noreply@blogger.com