BOOK REVIEW : ''SISTERS IN HATE''

SISTERS IN HATE : American Women on the Front Lines of White Nationalism :

SEYWARD Darby is a white Southerner, several of whose ''forebears fought on the wrong side of the Civil War,'' but in examining the subjects, she never confuses empathy with understanding.

While ruthless in her condemnation of racist ideology, she suggests how that ideology becomes inseparable from a persons' sense of herself, and presents a strong case that comprehending this is crucial if we are to battle white supremacy.

Her focus on lives of three very different women makes her book as readable as a good novel; skillfully combined with history and analysis, her subjects' stories provide a better picture of the forces driving white backlash that several of the best sellers attempted to do so in the wake of Trump's elections.

AS many white Americans struggle to better understand  Black lives, it is crucial to understand the people don't think those lives matter - the white nationalists whose support Donald Trump is ever more openly seeking to win a continuation of his presidency.

The term ''neo-nazi'' is euphemistic : There's nothing neo about people who brandish the swastika that are banned in today's Germany.

We know that at least 47 percent of white women voted for Trump in 2016, and that it was more often the daughters than the sons of the Confederacy who organized to build those monuments to Confederate heroes.

 Still, it's hard to wrap our heads around the idea that women, traditionally expected to be gentle and nurturing, could be driving engines of white-supremacist hatred.

The journalist Seyward Darby shows that this is one more sexist assumption we ought to discard. ''Men like Josef Mengele and Madison Grant were the best known purveyors of social science and policy at the height of the eugenics movement's popularity,'' she writes.

''Women, though, were on the real front lines, incorporating eugenics into the fabric of everyday life.''

After Trump's election in 2016, Darby spent several years trying to fathom what moves women to support white supremacy, the belief  that America should remain a predominantly white country governed by white people.

The result is superbly written ''Sisters in Hate,'' which undermines many common assumptions about the far right.

Darby writes that her years spent studying white nationalism have inclined her to pessimism, but her book ends on a hopeful note. 

Corinna, who once supported swastikas as armbands and Tiler tattoos, now worships in a mosque whose members are mostly people of color, having converted to Islam in 2018 and had her tattoos covered up.

The last time we saw her, she is using her bodybuilding skills to teach calisthenics to women at the mosque who said they would like to be healthier, but didn't know where to start.

It's a scene that calls to mind a remark often repeated by the defense attorney Bryan Stevenson,  who  created the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Ala : Each of us more than the worst thing we've ever done.

The World Students Society thanks review author, Susan Neiman.

AFGHANISTAN -A NATION- TRADESMEN : THE WORLD

THOUGH not a key economic power, Afghanistan's geographic location makes it very important.

AFGHANS are one of the best tradesmen in the world. An Afghan trader would carry a bag of numerous goods on his back and move from door to door to sell his ware.

The interesting aspect of this approach is negotiation over prices, which will come down drastically from the rates quoted initially. However, if one were to match those rates with local market prices for the same goods, these would double the prices in the local market.

This was the scenario back in the 1990s. When the Afghans entered into a war with Russia, their markets, skills and tradesmen, talent eroded and they were forced to sell whatsoever goods they got in Pakistani markets.

They settled in every city of Pakistan and sold old clothes sent to them from Europe or America for help.

The poverty-stricken Afghans along with local [Pakistani] Pashtuns also ran other businesses like timber business and lent money at very high rates.

Interestingly, the total Pashtun population is estimated at around 63 million [roughly 60-70 million worldwide]. However, this figure is disputed because of the absence of an official census in Afghanistan since 1979.

Around 42.5 million Pashtuns live in this region. They reside mostly in southern Afghanistan and north western Pakistan.

Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan and constitute around 42-60% [16-24 million] of the population, as per various claims.

Afghanistan's population stood at around 39.9 million in 2019 with gross domestic product [GDP] size of $18.69 billion.

Meanwhile, the country's GDP per capita is $565 per person. Afghanistan exports of around $863 million include lithium, natural gas, gold, silver, petroleum, coal, copper, chromite, talc, iron, edible salt, precious and semi stones.

On the other hand, its imports stand at around $7 billion.

The United Arab Emirates [UAE], India, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, China, Germany, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkey, the US, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Brazil are among its main trading partners.

The Honor And Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on Afghanistan, continues. The  World Students Society thanks author Ahmed Mukhtar.

Headline, September 24 2020/ ''' SLAUGHTER : ''MUSLIM ROHINGYAS'' '''

 

''' SLAUGHTER :

 ''MUSLIM ROHINGYAS'' '''

2 WHO HAVE FLED SAY THEY WERE GIVEN nearly identical orders to ''kill all you see''. ''Kill all you see, whether children or adults.''

THE MASSACRES of Rohingya that culminated in 2017 catalyzed one of the fastest flights of refugees anywhere in the world. Within week, three-quarters of a million stateless group were uprooted from their homes in Myanmar's western Rakhine State, as security forces attacked their villages with rifles, machetes and flamethrowers.

Old men were decapitated and young girls were raped, their head scarves torn off to use as blindfolds, witnesses and survivors said.

Doctors Without Borders estimated that at least 6,700 Rohingya, including 730 children, suffered violent deaths from late August to late September 2017. Roughly 200 Rohingya settlements were completely razed from 2017 to 2019, the United Nations said.

THE TWO SOLDIERS CONFESS THEIR CRIMES in a monotone, a few blinks of the eye their only betrayal of emotion : executions, mass burials, village obliterations and rape.

The August 2017 order from his commanding officer was clear, Pvt. Myo Win Tun said in a video ceremony. ''Shoot all you see and all you hear.''

He said he obeyed, taking part in the massacre of  30 Rohingya Muslims and burying them in a mass grave near a cell tower and a military base.

Around the same time, in a neighboring township, Pvt. Zaw Naiang Tun said he and comrades in another battalion followed a nearly identical directive from his superior :

''Kill all you see, whether children or adults.''

''We wiped out about 20 villages,'' Private Zaw Nainag Tun said, adding that he, too, dumped bodies in a mass grave.

The two soldiers video testimony, recorded by a rebel militia, is the first time that members of Myanmar's military, the Tatmadaw, have openly confessed to taking part in what United Nations officials say was a genocidal campaign against the mainly Buddhist country's Rohingya Muslim minority.

One recent Monday, the two men, who fled Myanmar last month, were transported to The Hague, where the International Criminal Court has opened a case examining whether Tatmadaw leaders committed large-scale crimes against Rohingya.

The atrocities described by the two men echo evidence of serious human rights abuses gathered from among the more than one million Rohingya refugees now sheltering in neighboring Bangladesh. What distinguishes that testimony is that it comes from perpetrators, not victims.

''This is a monumental moment for Rohingya and the people of Myanmar in their ongoing struggle for justice,'' said Matthew Smith, chief executive officer at Fortify Rights, a human rights watchdog.

''These men should be the first perpetrators from Myanmar tried at the I.C.C. and the first insider witnesses in the custody of the court.''

The New York Times cannot independently confirm that the two soldiers committed the crimes to which they confessed. But details in their narratives conform to descriptions by dozens of witnesses and observers, including Rohingya refugees, Rakhine residents, Tatmadaw soldiers and local politicians.

And multiple villagers independently confirmed the whereabouts of mass graves that the soldiers provided in the testimony - evidence that will be sized on in investigations at the International Criminal Court and other legal proceedings. The Myanmar government has repeatedly denied that such sites exist across the region.

The crimes that the soldiers  carried say were carried out by their infantry battalions and other security forces - some 150 civilians killed and of villages destroyed - are just part off Myanmar's long campaign against the Rohingya.

And they portray a concerted, calculated operation to exterminate a single ethnic minority group, the issue at the heart of genocide cases.

In a report published last year, a fact-finding mission for the United Nations Human Rights Council said ''there is a serious risk that genocidal actions may occur or reoccur and that Myanmar is failing in its obligations to prevent genocide, to investigate genocide and to enact effective legislation criminalizing and punishing genocide.''

The Myanmar government has denied any orchestrated campaign against the Rohingyas.

The Sadness in Serving of this Latest Global Operational Research on the Rohingyas, the minorities and the state of sufferings and solutions, continues. The World Students Society thanks authors, Hannah Beech, Saw Nanag and Marlise Simons.

With respectful dedication to the Leaders, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all  prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011:

''' Muslim Ethnic Groups '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless

ENGLAND : COVID-VIOLATERS FINES : [ POUND 10,000 ]

 

LONDON : People in England who refuse to self-isolate to stop the spread of coronavirus could face fines up to Pound 10,000 [$13,000 - Euros 11,000] under tough new regulations announced Saturday to tackle a surge in cases.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said this week that Britain was seeing a second wave of Covid-19, and  introduced new restrictions for millions of people across northwest, northern and central England.

In a further measure announced late Saturday, he said that from September all people will be legally obliged to self-isolate if they test positive or are told to by the National Health Service [NHS] tracing programme.

''The best way we can fight this virus is by everyone following the rules and self-isolating if they are at risk, of passing on coronavirus,'' Johnson said in a statement.

''And so nobody underestimates just how important this is, new regulations will mean you are legally obliged to do so if you have the virus or have been asked to do so by NHS Test and Trace.''

Currently people who have symptoms or test positive are asked to self-isolate for 10 days. Those who live with someone who either has symptoms or tests positive must self-isolate for 14 days.

The new fines will start at Pound 1,000 - in line with breaking quarantine after international travel - and rise to Pound 10,000 for repeat offences and the worst breaches, including businesses that threaten self -isolating staff with redundancy, officials said. [AFP]

Headline, September 23 2020/ NORDIC : ''' TECH SAVVY TRUE '''

 

NORDIC : 

''' TECH SAVVY TRUE '''

TECH-SAVVY STUDENTS AND WORKERS BOOST Nordic Economies. Well-developed infrastructure helps these economies weather pandemic.

THE NORDICS - home to telecoms infrastructure firms Ericsson and Nokia - topped the EU table for home-working even before the pandemic.

HELEN BALFORS - A PROJECT LEADER at Norwegian conglomerate Orkla, has been working from home for longer than most of her colleagues after returning from a skiing trip to Italy in February as the new coronavirus took hold in Europe.

The mother of three said that while the company had always encouraged a good work-life balance, some managers had required their employees to be in the office before the pandemic hit.

''But now they realise it works just as well to be at home,'' she said. ''I just needed an extra screen and an extra keyboard from the office, which I got  in a couple of days.''

Well-developed digital infrastructure has helped the Nordic Nordic economies weather the pandemic better than most of Europe. Britain's economy contracted by around a fifth in the second quarter, Spain registered an 18.5% drop while the eurozone economy as a whole shrank 11.8%.

In contrast Finland's gross domestic product [GDP] fell just 4.5%, although Sweden and Norway saw larger hits of 8.3% and 6.3% respectively.

''Better digital infrastructure means we were quicker at being able to work from home. The infrastructure is there and we are used to using it,'' said Robert Bergqvist, chief economist at Swedish bank SEB. ''That has helped hold up production and consumption.''

Denmark, Sweden Finland and the Netherlands had the most advanced digital economies in the EU in 2018, a research paper from the European Commission showed, based on connectivity, human capital, internet use and extent of e-commerce.

The Nordics - home to telecoms infrastructure firms Ericsson and Nokia - topped the EU table for home-working even before the pandemic.

SWEDEN, in first place had just under a third of workers working from home, at least, in 2009  according to the European Foundation for the improvement of Living and Working Conditions [Eurofound] an EU agency. The EU average was around 10%.

Long term flexible employment practices, such as allowing parents to stay home with sick children, and emphasis on a healthy work-life balance have encouraged remote working.

During the pandemic, around 60% of Finns have been able to work from home, around double the level in Spain, Sweden and Denmark are also well above the EU average of less than 40%, according to Eurofound.

A high proportion of information technology-focused jobs that lend themselves to distance working has helped but businesses and individual have been quick to make the digital leap.

That, along with well-established rules for furloughing employees, means working hours have dropped less than in most of Europe - by 4.2% in Norway in the second quarter against a drop of 10.7% for the euro zone as a whole, Eurostat data shows.

With workers retaining at least-some income, household spending and consumption, have held up well.

Eurofound survey showed around 70% of Swedes, Finns and Danes were optimistic, about their future against just 45% across the EU.

The Honor and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on Tech-Savvy Economies and Future, continues. The World Students Society thanks Reuters.

With respectful dedication to Leaders, Students, Professors and Teachers from Nordic. See Ya all  prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

''' Economies - Enterprises '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless