Bangladesh is a role model of development in the developing world and transforming with fascinating changes in different areas of global indices.
Accessibility, inclusiveness and establishing the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities (PWDs) are being considered as important criteria of sustainable and inclusive development all over the world. It is a legal and rational demand of time and there are obligations locally and globally to establish the accessibility rights of persons with disabilities (PWDs).
Accessibility focuses on enabling access for PWDs and strongly related to universal design which is the process of creating products, devices, services, infrastructure, roads, transport and environment that are usable by people with the widest possible range of abilities, operating within the widest possible range of situations. This is about making things accessible to all people (whether they have a disability or not).
The following legislative obligations have been made in Bangladesh to ensure accessibility for persons with disabilities:
The Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh assures and conveys it in article 15(d) where it says: “The right to social security, that is to say, to public assistance in cases of undeserved want arising from unemployment, illness or disablement, or suffered by widows or orphans or in old age, or in other such cases.”
The “Rights and Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act 2013” was passed with a view to ensuring the 21 rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. The aim of the Act is to guarantee the educational, physical and mental improvement of persons with disabilities and to support their participation in social and state activities by removing all sorts of discrimination and ensuring accessibility in building, roads, transport, educational institutions, hospitals, courts, police stations, rail stations, bus terminals, airports and other ports, shelters, cyclone shelters, cultural centres, tourist spots, service centres, parks, libraries, historical places, public spaces, public toilets, underpasses and over-bridges.
The “Dhaka Mahanagar Building (Construction, Development, Protection and Removal) Rule 2008” in article 64 assures about accessibility for students with disabilities in buildings and infrastructure, including 5 per cent toilets which will be PWD-accessible.
The United Nations “Convention on the Rights of the Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)” articulated in article 9 on accessibility. Bangladesh has signed and committed to following the principles enunciated therein.
The “Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)” with its 17 goals and 169 targets included the issue of persons with disabilities in Goals 4 and 11 and in targets 11.2 and 11.7 where emphasis is given on accessibility for PWDs through special provision.
There are some practices at present but not adequate implementation. The government initiated the draft of “Bangladesh Road Transport Act 2016” having some inconsistencies and misconception on defining ‘invalid carriage’ instead of disabled-friendly or accessible carriage. This has been already pointed out in different seminars and meetings of Women with Disabilities Development Foundation and Physically-challenged Development Foundation and by others.
Accessibility is more or less ensured at Shaheed Minar, National Memorial, Mahasthangarh and Sonargaon, though it is inadequate at Komlapur Railway and Dhaka Cantonment Railway stations.
Among educational institutions, Dhaka University has ensured accessibility but inadequately in 5-6 building although there are more than 100 buildings in the university. The remaining universities in the country are not attentive on the issue of accessibility.
The Prime Minister’s Office is working to ensure accessibility through different websites having a national consultant who is a visually-impaired official.
There are disability related focal persons in the Ministry of Social Welfare and in other ministries. The government of Bangladesh has also allocated 100 crore taka towards facilitating accessibility during the 2016-2017 Financial Year which indicates the progressive attitude of the government.
The implementation of the rights of PWDs assured by the provision in the constitution of Bangladesh, “Rights and Protection of Persons with Disabilities Act 2013” and “Dhaka Mahanagar Building (Construction, Development, Protection and Removal) Rule 2008” are not being followed strictly.
Developer organisations are not conscious and don’t care about providing accessibility facilities for the PWDs and even the government is breaking the rules in building construction. Conventions on the Rights of the Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and SDGs have given emphasis on inclusiveness and accessibility.
Bangladesh has showed fascinating success in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In the era of SDGs, too, Bangladesh should give stress on implementation of the targeted goals and global conventions. Otherwise, it would cause hampering of the success in SDGs for Bangladesh.
The government should be prepared to take the responsibility with more knowledge and skill in a conscious manner along with making the people’s representatives, law-makers, architects and planning authorities aware of this issue.
Overall, the government, civil society, NGOs, disability rights organisations, mass media, academicians and intellectuals have to work together to make Bangladesh accessible, inclusive and a better place for persons with disabilities (PWDs).
*The author is Master of Social Sciences (MSS) student in the Department of Public Administration at University of Dhaka. He is also Manager, Youth Network at Physically-challenged Development Foundation (PDF), Dhaka, Bangladesh. Comments and suggestions on this article can be sent to editor@spsindia.in
This is a well-known fact that a friendly, stable and trustworthy neighbour is always good for growth and prosperity of any nation. Friendly relations with the neighbouring country eases considerable amount of pressure on the exchequer in terms of military spending and also helps in regional growth.
India’s case is no different but the sad part with India is that the neighbour happens to be Pakistan — one of the most dangerous countries in the world in terms of duplicity and aiding terrorism.
There are a few fundamental questions regarding its policies which crosses a commoner’s mind: Why has India, the second largest country in terms of human resource, even after seven decades of independence not been able to claim its rightful place in international politics?
Why after so many years of independence, we have ended up creating a hostile environment not only with Pakistan but the entire neighbourhood? This deficiency can principally be attributed to the lack of vision in our policy makers to identify our national interests, frame a realistic foreign policy to achieve this aim and develop the requisite capabilities to exercise it.
It is an open secret that Pakistan is not only waging a proxy war in the state of Jammu & Kashmir but its terror factory of LeT, HM, Jaish, and many more such groups are spreading terror all across the world. In fact, it will not be an exaggeration to say that in the recent past, terror incidents across the globe have had some direct or indirect link to the Pakistan deep state.
India’s policy towards Pakistan has largely been based on flip-flops, half-hearted efforts and engagement, marked every now and then by outright appeasement. Pakistan, on the other hand, has since its birth adopted a continuous proactive and offensive approach towards India aimed at undermining India’s status on every possible issue.
India’s policy of engagement and soft-pedalling Pakistan has not only failed miserably but, in fact, emboldened it to continue with its anti-India activities.
After all, what is so special in Pakistan and its policies that has kept it in the reckoning on international platforms? Let us examine a few of them.
Pakistan as a nation has got a strategic culture which is almost lacking in India. It is because of this strategic culture and the mindset that a country approximately one-fourth of the size and one-ninth of the economy of India has been successful in dictating the rules of engagement between the two neighbours.
There are numerous examples to substantiate the fact of having a greater strategic bent of mind in Pakistan decision-makers vis-a-vis India.
Realising the importance of Information as a tool of warfare way back in 1949 (when it came up with ISPR) or identifying Gwadar as a port site as far back as 1954 (when Pakistan purchased the Gwadar enclave from Oman for $3 million) or creating the National Defence University in 2007 or forging deep friendship with the US during the Cold War era and establishing close links with China and Russia now are some apt examples of strategic thinking.
Pakistan, located strategically between the Middle East, especially the Persian Gulf region, the former Soviet Union and China, plays upon the strategic advantages which geography has bestowed upon it.
Pakistan also utilises its Islamic heritage to carve a niche in the Islamic world. It is closer to the oil-rich Arab countries and is now inextricably meshed with the strategic map of the Persian Gulf. It also has a unique distinction of being the only Islamic country to have a nuclear bomb which many call as Islamic bomb.
There are other nations also which are endowed with similar advantage in terms of location and religion but none could exploit it the way Pakistan has done.
In bilateral relations how can a smaller country like Pakistan vis-a-vis India dictate the rules of engagement between the two countries which has largely been witnessed till now — be it the wars in 1947, 1965, Kargil or effort to bleed India by a thousand cuts through terrorism in Punjab or Jammu & Kashmir.
What is strikingly common in all these events listed above is that the initiative was always retained by Pakistan. Indian decision-makers by and large only reacted to the situation created by Pakistan. We witness the same playing out in J&K even today. Whether we like it or not, the lever to control and calibrate the level of violence in Kashmir is largely with Pakistan’s deep state.
For more than quarter of a century, ever since terrorism commenced in J&K, except for some rebuttals in the United Nations to Pakistani provocations, India always downplayed the issue and touted it as Pakistan’s propaganda campaign. Instead of taking the offensive on Pakistan’s stance, India generally ignored the Pakistani rants. The flip side was that this policy left the field open for Pakistan to spread misinformation as per their wish.
Pakistan has been extremely good in using information as a tool. The decision-makers in Pakistan could realise the importance of information as a tool to further their national interest way back in 1949 when they raised ISPR (Inter Services Public Relations).
Unarguably, Pakistan’s ISPR is one of the most professional PR and communication machinery in the world which over the years has virtually become the psychological warfare centre not only of the armed forces but for the entire nation.
Pakistan has also been proactive in sending its trained and well-fed delegates with an aim of shaping the opinion of the world powers on various issues like Jammu & Kashmir whereas similar delegates from India are unheard off.
Unfortunately, India has not realised the importance of information as a domain of warfare till date thereby losing the perception battle.
The Pakistan Army, which has projected a false image among the innocent civil populace, believes in creating an illusory notion of victory wherein they feed false information to the populace suiting their requirement. A case in point is the 1965 India-Pakistan war.
There have been several neutral assessments of the losses incurred by both India and Pakistan during the war. Most of these assessments agree that India had the upper hand over Pakistan when ceasefire was declared.
In the book titled ‘Greater game: India’s race with destiny and China’, author David Van Praagh wrote about the 1965 war as follows: “India won the war. It gained 1,840 km of Pakistani territory to include 640 km in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, 460 km of the Sialkot sector; 380 km far to the south of Sindh; and most critical, 360 km on the Lahore front in comparison to Pakistan’s 540 km of Indian territory to include 490 km in Chhamb sector and 50 km around Khem Karan.”
Despite losing the 1965 war, Pakistan celebrating the “victory” is indicative of how the perception of the common Pakistani populace has been exploited by Pakistan armed forces in their favour.
India never bothered to highlight their victory as late as 2015 when, for the first time, it celebrated the Golden Jubilee of the 1965 war.
Indian character as perceived by the world has generally been defensive and reactive. Though we have agreed that Kashmir is a major problem facing us, there does not appear to be any policy or strategy on dealing with this problem.
Till date, all our political leadership without any exception has been wishing that this problem would die its own death. However, when this does not happen and the problem flares up due to a war or terrorism or even a diplomatic initiative by Pakistan, the country starts discussing this issue of J&K afresh resulting in knee-jerk reaction on all fronts, including military. A case in point is India’s reaction in 2010 in the wake of the Amarnath Yatra fiasco or the one after the Burhan Wani episode in 2016.
We have fought three wars after the illegal occupation of part of Kashmir by Pakistan. All these times, there was no will or plan on the part of India to attempt to recapture the lost territory — rather we traded off captured territory for nothing in return.
India’s Pakistan policy has primarily been rooted in idealism. The only exception to this was the temporary shedding of idealism during Kashmir’s accession to India, though it returned very quickly when then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru agreed to the ceasefire and referred the matter to the UN.
India expects that the world powers will raise their voice on her behalf against Pakistan’s naked aggression and support to terrorism. We need to understand that all nations today are constantly striving for their own highly individual vital national interests and they will never fight India’s case against Pakistan. India will have to manage its affairs with Pakistan on its own without getting over-hyped by idealism.
There is almost unity among Pakistan-watchers that decision-making in Pakistan largely rests with the Pakistan Army but Indian policy-makers have not paid much heed to this fact and their policy till date has been to negotiate only with the democratically elected government (which has no say) and not with the army.
They need to look around and learn because the other interested nations like the US or China are directly talking to the Pakistan Army to get their interests fulfilled. In fact, China’s CPEC project is coming up not because it has the blessings of the democratic Nawaz Sharif government but because the Pakistan Army is on board. Any dignitaries visiting Pakistan may not go to Islamabad to meet the Prime Minister but they make a visit to GHQ Rawalpindi if they want to get their work done.
History is replete with instances of powerful empires unravelled by weak leaders and weak states made powerful by visionary rulers. If the home to one-sixth of the human race, India, is still searching for a role in international affairs, it is because of the shortcomings of the decision-makers since independence.
India potentially possesses all the qualities of a world power and, considering its technological base, can well be the ‘strategic dark horse’ of the century — the only thing it needs is proactive policies.
India, like China and the US, needs to base its foreign policy on hard realism, with strong military backing and a long-term vision.
There is a need to impose cost from all possible quarters on Pakistan for indulging in anti-India policy and it must be sustained over the long haul.
India should not hesitate in using both overt and covert means to bring its policies to successful fruition. Indian policy makers must be guided by the dictum that there is no permanent friend or enemy but only permanent interests.
There is also a dire need to launch a drive to educate India’s citizenry to remove their ignorance about India and its policies. We need to have strategy as a subject in schools and colleges so as to enhance strategic thinking among the students. Opening of INDU (Indian National Defence University) is a step in the right direction *Adarsh Singh writes on current issues. Comments and suggestions on this article can be sent to editor@spsindia.in
After the results of the recent assembly elections on March 11, there have been calls for a serious shake up within the Congress party. The grand old party lost two states, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, emerged as the single largest party in two, Goa and Manipur, and achieved an outright win in the border state of Punjab. The party’s inability to form a government in Goa and Manipur, in spite of being the single largest party, has only added salt to its wounds.
It is not just political analysts, but Congress leaders like Sandeep Dixit and Priya Dutt who have also criticised the role of the Congress High Command (current Vice President Rahul Gandhi). Others within the party have spoken about the need for some serious measures, but never gone to the extent of questioning the Congress Vice President’s leadership style.
There has been a clamour for reform ever since the 2014 Parliamentary elections, where the Congress could bag only 44 seats, and the continuous rout of the grand old party in election after election, numerous prescriptions have been given for the party. In May 2016, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee Digvijaya Singh spoke about the need for a ‘surgery’.
One suggestion which has been made by critics, as well as well-wishers of the party has been to strengthen regional leaders. The triumph of the Congress party in Punjab, where it was able to wrest the state after a decade is a strong reiteration of this point. Captain Amarinder Singh, who took over as the Chief Minister of the state on March 16, is popular in both urban and rural areas and the grand old party’s convincing victory in the border state is largely due to Singh’s personal charisma.
Interestingly, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi spent only three days in the state of Punjab. Singh after his victory reiterated the need for the party to empower strong regional leaders who have a good grasp over local issues and understand the psyche.
It would be pertinent to point out that Rahul Gandhi was not initially keen to project Singh as the face of the Congress in Punjab, because the party had faced two successive defeats under his leadership. It would also be pertinent to point out that Singh had defeated Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Amritsar in the Parliamentary election of 2014, amidst a Modi wave all over the country.
In the same election, the then Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief, Partap Singh Bajwa, had lost his own seat. Singh sensed an opportunity following his triumph in the Parliamentary election, though the leadership took over a year-and-half to make him PPCC chief and the face of the campaign.
Analysts like Sanjaya Baru have also suggested that the Congress Party bring back into the fold some of its former leaders like Mamata Banerjee and Sharad Pawar, who have formed their own regional outfits. Some have even suggested that the regional satraps break away from the party. This is highly unlikely. None of the leaders is likely to question the leadership of Rahul Gandhi in the near future.
Sympathisers of the party are more optimistic about the party’s chances and believe a grand alliance like the one stitched in 2004 by Sonia Gandhi, which managed to dislodge the reasonably successful NDA government, would be able to do a repeat.
If one were to examine both these recommendations there is no doubt that regional leaders need to be empowered not just at the state level but their suggestions should be taken for other state elections as well. In fact, Chief Ministers or Ex- Chief Ministers who have achieved electoral successes should be appointed as observers to other states and their inputs should be taken. Those who have ruled a state would also understand the need for the local leadership having autonomy.
Interestingly, the Delhi unit of the Congress has sought the assistance of Punjab Congress for taking on the Aam Aadmi Party in the upcoming civic polls in the national capital. The Punjab CM is also likely to campaign for his party. In the 2015 Assembly elections, AAP trounced both BJP and Congress, but the BJP, while winning three seats, maintained its vote share.
As for alliances, these are helpful, but the recent election in Uttar Pradesh clearly shows that the India of 2019 is not the India of 2004 or 2009.
The BJP of today is no longer a party of Upper Castes or traders. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah have been able to expand the support base of the party by not just weaving new social coalitions but also selling a narrative of ‘development’. This has been successfully balanced with ‘welfare’.
In addition to this, demonetisation along with some of the welfare schemes introduced by the current government have helped in further elevating Modi’s image amongst the poor. The old faithful, some of whom have not been convinced with Modi’s economic policies, too, have been humoured with the right dose of ‘nationalism’, ‘Hindutva’ and development.
Does this mean that the new BJP is infallible?
The fact is that in a number of states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and, to some extent, even Gujarat, the BJP faces anti-incumbency. In Rajasthan, the Congress has the best chance of revival and a good performance could also stand them in good stead for the next national election.
It will have to empower local leadership and young dynamic faces, and rather than banking on nostalgia, it needs to speak about how everyone can benefit from economic development and progress. The party should be less reticent about its role in economic reforms in the early 1990s and not allow the BJP to take all the credit for some of the policies initiated by the Congress.
In conclusion, the policies of the Congress party have for very long been decided in 5-star hotels in New Delhi by those who are totally disconnected with the realities of the changing India. It is time that the party allowed strong leaders to function freely and also stopped living in the hope that it will be able to wrest power from the BJP in a short while.
India is fast changing and the Congress needs to come up with a more aspirational narrative than that of the BJP. The party doesn’t lack talent, but its leadership clearly lacks hunger and enthusiasm required for winning elections.
*The author is a New Delhi-based Policy Analyst associated with The Jindal School of International Affairs, OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana. Comments and suggestions on this article can be sent to editor@spsindia.in
India has a great deal to lose by mistreating and beating up Africans who come to study or live in India. The latest attacks on March 27, 2017 on Nigerian and Kenyan students living in Noida, a suburban city bordering New Delhi and part of what is called the National Capital Region, have made breaking news on all TV news channels and front-page headlines in leading newspapers.
While playing up ad nauseum the sensational news story is supposed to increase the viewership of TV channels and boost dwindling newspaper readership, it inflicts massive harm to India-Africa bilateral relations, Indian investment in Africa, and Indian diaspora in Africa. The medium and long term repercussions and massive damage to India’s goodwill internationally is lost on the angry, racist and violent Indian goons who assault and injure Africans.
The tragedy is that this is not an isolated incident resulting in injuries to Africans inflicted by boorish locals. Such incidents have been happening in major metros for years, especially in and around Delhi. Sure, they are reported in the media but no lasting remedial action is devised or implemented. After some hue and cry, the police hold some meetings, increase patrolling and it then fades away until the next flare-up.
African envoys make strong protests to the Indian government and the response is worded in diplomatic jargon. But no sustained campaign is launched in the media, on the streets or in higher educational institutions to inform, educate and sensitize local Indians about racial discrimination and India-Africa cooperation on many fronts and levels. The media hardly ever reports on African affairs, leave alone African success stories. The newspapers report only when an Indian company secures a major contract, starts an investment project or expands its operations in Africa.
The woes of Africans living in India are compounded by frequent news items when they are apprehended at airports with drugs. Thus, a sustained image of almost all Africans as drug carriers has frozen in the minds of Indians. Or they think that African women make money by selling their bodies. Africans – from 54 countries – are viewed and dealt with on the basis of these media stereotypes.
It’s high time that this stereotyped image was smashed for all time and the fact that thousands of African students are obtaining higher education in India and hundreds of African patients are coming to India for specialized medical treatment is boosted. If these students are treated with concern and understanding when they are away from their home in a complicated society, they will go back as the most effective ambassadors of India. Similarly, if the patients and their relatives are treated with care and sympathy in India, they will go back as the top promoters for India.
But no! In their racist and brutal reaction to any situation with Africans, all this never comes to mind. No thought for the massive Indian investments in Africa, hundreds of joint ventures, and especially the three million Indian diaspora in Africa. More than 1.2 million Indians live in South Africa; another 200,000 live in East Africa and smaller numbers in thousands in many countries. These Indians can be attacked and injured in revenge, their shops and factories can be damaged or destroyed and their goodwill washed away.
At the national level, the Indian government is making special efforts to woo Africa and obtain the cooperation of the 54 African countries for mutual benefit and as a block for votes in the international fora like the United Nations. India has been holding India-Africa Summit with all African countries since 2008 to promote bilateral relations in many spheres. The most recent such meeting in Delhi in 2015 was attended by almost all heads of African states and Prime Minister Narendra Modi made special efforts to welcome and meet each one of them. Cooperation in many fields was proposed and agreed upon. Investment and export credits were top features. Between summit meetings, like the conclave in New Delhi earlier this month, carries the economic agenda further. Indian has mounted a diplomatic outreach to Africa with visits by its president, vice-president, the prime minister and ministers to African states.
However, repeated boorish behaviour and violent assaults wipe out all these goodwill gestures while seriously damaging India reputation and the fate of the Indian diaspora contributing to the development of Africa. So what can be done to retrieve this pathetic situation?
First, the police must crack down on all accused of racial insults and violence to Africans. A thorough investigation, a fool-proof prosecution and tough punishment is the primary response by the authorities. And that’s not enough; the punishment must be reported by the media as a deterrent to all others.
Second, in addition to pacifying diplomatic statements by the External Affairs Ministry, other ministries and organisations must be roped in to launch a strong and aggressive public campaign to promote racial harmony.
Third, the Public Diplomacy division of the MEA should launch a campaign to inform and educate Indian students in high schools, universities and higher institutes of learning about Africa and its importance to India. Africa is still undiscovered by almost all Indians. All they know about Africa are the cricket teams from South Africa and Zimbabwe!
Four, in addition to offering higher education and medical treatment for Africans, India should urgently establish branches of its universities and specialist hospitals, at least in east, west, central and South Africa. These projects have languished for long in the preliminary stages and now the time has come to implement them urgently to reduce the flow of African students and patients to India.
The prejudice and violence against Africans in India is not going away some time soon. Strong, drastic and sustained action is overdue.
*Kul Bhushan can be contacted at kb@kulbhushan.net
The Israeli government’s decisions to establish a new settlement deep inside the West Bank, to issue tenders for almost 2,000 settlement units and to declare further land deep inside the West Bank as “state land” all threaten to further undermine prospects for a viable two-state solution, said Federica Mogherini, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission.
Mogherini said that the two-state solution remains the only realistic way to fulfill the aspirations of both sides and achieve just and lasting peace on the basis of a negotiated agreement between both parties.
“The European Union reiterates that all settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two-state solution impossible,” Mogherini said. “The European Union calls on Israel to end all settlement activity and to dismantle the outposts erected since March 2001 in line with prior obligations.”
Mogherini said that the European Union takes note of reports that Israel intends to restrict significantly future settlement construction in view of advancing Israeli-Palestinian peace.
“Affirmative steps are badly needed in order to reverse the negative trends that are imperiling the two state solution and thereby create a political climate conducive to resuming meaningful and credible negotiations. We expect declarations of intent to be followed by actions on the ground,” Mogherini said.
(EurActiv) — Spain is likely to wield a veto over any Brexit deal for Gibraltar after the EU-27 backed Madrid in its draft negotiating guidelines for forthcoming divorce talks between the UK and the bloc.
Gibraltar is a disputed territory, which Britain has held for centuries. For the UK, any Brexit deal would automatically apply to Gibraltar, since it claims it as British territory.
But Spain argues that any agreement would require its blessing, because the area is not part of the UK, as is the case with Northern Ireland, but a colony with a disputed status.
After decades of not taking any side, the EU threw its weight behind Spain in the dispute.
On Friday (31 March) European Council President Donald Tusk unveiled the set of principles that will guide the divorce talks and the future relationship between Britain and the remaining 27 member states.
These guidelines, which will frame the negotiations between the UK and the EU, support Madrid’s demand to authorise any deal for the disputed territory.
Contrary to what some officials expected, the guidelines included a clear reference to Gibraltar.
Once the islands leave the Union, “no agreement between the EU and the United Kingdom may apply to the territory of Gibraltar without the agreement between the Kingdom of Spain and the United Kingdom”, said the guidelines drafted by Tusk.
This is arguably the most contentious issue between the UK and Spain, and a poisonous topic for the upcoming negotiations with the Union as a whole.
The paragraph “clearly” reflected Spain’s interest, admitted a senior EU official.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy insisted over the last few weeks that when the UK leaves the EU, all relations between the EU and the UK that affect Gibraltar “must take into account Spain’s opinion and have its favourable vote”.
The same official explained that the paragraph recognised that there are two parts in dispute.
But he pointed out that, once the UK leaves the Union, “there is a difference” compared with the previous situation. The EU clearly stated that it would take care of the interests of its 27 members, and Spain would be the only country remaining inside the club.
The draft guidelines will be discussed by the national governments’ envoys over the next four weeks. The leaders are expected to endorse them in an extraordinary summit on 29 April.
A senior EU official said that he had “reasons to believe” that the paragraph on Gibraltar would remain.
It was unclear until the last minute what position the EU would express on the controversial future of the Rock.
A Commission official explained that the issue was not discussed at length during the preparatory meetings. The wording has also been unclear for Spanish diplomats.
But the Spanish government stated that, for Madrid, the starting point is that Gibraltar is not the United Kingdom.
For British politicians the sovereignty of the Rock is non-negotiable.
“It is simply not on the table,” said Conservative MEP Ashley Fox (ECR). “The Chief Minister of Gibraltar has emphasised to me that they will bear any price before they give up their British sovereignty,” he added.
Fox, who represents Gibraltar in the European Parliament, accused the institution’s Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE) of appeasing Spain by excluding references to Gibraltar from the institution’s draft resolution, in contrast with pro-Remain Scotland and Northern Ireland.
More than 95% of the Gibraltar population voted in favour of EU membership in the referendum last June.
Fox said that the Belgian MEP was “frightened of offending Spain”.
Sources close to Verhofstadt declined to comment at this stage, as the Council’s guidelines and any possible amendment to improve the Parliament’s draft resolution would be discussed next week, probably before the vote on Wednesday (5 April).
Verhofstadt’s team did not rule out an agreement on some additional amendments to cover issues not addressed in the draft text, including Gibraltar.
‘Co-sovereignty’
In order to remain a part of the EU, Spain offered last autumn to share the sovereignty over the territory. But the proposal was immediately rejected by Britain and Gibraltar.
“We made a very generous co-sovereignty offer, but it takes two to dance a tango,” said Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alfonso Dastis, in an interview with Spanish daily ABC last weekend.
Although he said that the future of Gibraltar is “not necessarily” limited to this option, he insisted that if the Rock wants to have any ties with the EU, Spain will protect its interests.
William Chislett, an associate analyst at Elcano Royal Institute, noted that the key issue for Gibraltar is not the single market, as 90% of business is done with the UK itself, but the border, as it becomes an external one when the UK leaves the EU.
Any dramatic change in this regard would affect the 12,000 EU workers (7,000 from Spain) that cross the border every day, and are badly needed to maintain the local economy.
“Without them the Gibraltarian economy, largely based on tourism, financial services and online gambling companies, would suffer and in an extreme scenario could be crippled,” Chislett wrote in a paper.
The turmoil would negatively impact the construction boom the Gibraltarian economy is showing. Its GDP is expected to grow this year by 7.5%.
But Dastis, known for his pragmatism, said in an interview last weekend that the country does not intend to take any “drastic measure” such as closing the border, given the strong bonds between Gibraltar and the local economy.
The bone of contention between the UK and Spain is Gibraltar’s airport. For Chislett, this point “poses a threat to a post-Brexit agreement on UK access to the EU’s single aviation market”.
The disagreement on this point already blocked progress on key pieces of legislation to complete the EU’s Single European Sky initiative.
But Madrid has signalled that is ready to fight hard and might block a deal if it includes the airport.
The LHCb experiment being run by researchers at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, also known as ‘the beauty experiment’, is trying to unravel what happened after the Big Bang. While exploring that, researchers have stumbled on five new subatomic particles that could help to explain what holds the centre of atoms together.
The discovery arose from the LHCb detector’s precise recognition of particles and the large dataset accumulated during the first and second runs of the Large Hadron Collider. These two elements have allowed researchers to identify the new particles with what CERN describes as, ‘an overwhelming level of statistical significance – meaning that the discovery cannot be just a statistical fluke of data’.
Dr Grieg Cowan, of the University of Edinburgh, UK, is working on the project. In an article published on the BBC news website he describes the discovery as striking, ‘(it) will shed light on how quarks bind together. It may have implications not only to better understand protons and neutrons, but also more exotic multi-quark states, such as pentaquarks and tetraquarks.’
Past thinking now confirmed
The existence of omega-c baryon particles was confirmed in 1994 and since then physicists have always believed the particles appear in different forms. The newly discovered particles are all baryons – sub atomic particles comprised of three smaller units called quarks. Known as the basic building blocks of matter, there are six types of quark which are known as ‘up’, ‘down, ‘strange’, ‘charm’, top’, and ‘bottom’.
The particles were found to be excited states – a particle state that has a higher energy than the absolute minimum configuration (or ground state) – of omega-c-zero. The research is presented more fully at arXiv.org, on the Cornell University Library website.
The investigation needed close to 250 trillion collisions and in its announcement CERN says the next step is to establish what the quantum numbers of the new particles are.
Isaac Asimov is one of the most celebrated sci-fi writers and arguably his most famous creation is the ‘Three Laws of Robotics.’
In a nutshell, these are: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; a robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law and, a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Applying Asimov today
Prof. Tom Sorell of the University of Warwick, UK, has recently argued that Asimov’s three laws seem a natural response to the idea that robots will one day be commonplace and need internal programming to prevent them from harming people. However, he argues that whilst Asimov’s laws are organised around the moral value of preventing harm to humans, they are not as easy to interpret. Prof Sorell, an expert on robot ethics, worked on the EU-funded ACCOMPANY project that developed a robotic companion to help elderly people live independent lives.
Sorell writes that Asimov’s laws still seem plausible at face value because there are legitimate fears over the harm robots can do to humans, for example recent fatalities in the US from malfunctioning autonomous cars. But we are also living in an age where increasingly-sophisticated robots are being utilised to execute evermore complex tasks designed to protect and care for humans.
These include not only robots designed to care for the elderly, as in ACCOMPANY (see the CORDIS Results Pack on ICT for Independent Living for more on EU-funded projects utilising robots to assist the elderly) but also robots that are designed to provide disaster relief. One example of this is the robot utilised by an EU-funded project to assess damaged heritage buildings in the earthquake-stricken Italian town of Amatrice.
New robots, new paradoxes – new laws?
Asimov’s laws become shakier when considering the development of human-directed military drones designed to kill other humans from afar. Paradoxically, if a robot is being directed by a human controller to save the lives of their co-citizens by killing the humans that are attacking them, it can be said to be both following and violating Asimov’s First Law.
Also, if the drone is directed by a human, it can be argued that it is the human’s fault and not the drone’s for loss of life caused in combat situations. Indeed, armies equipped with drones will vastly reduce the amount of human life lost overall – perhaps it is better to use robots rather than humans as cannon fodder.
At the other end of the scale, Asimov’s laws are appropriate if keeping an elderly person safe is the robot’s main goal. But often robotics fits into a range of ‘assistive’ technologies that help the elderly to be independent, the goal of the ACCOMPANY project. This means allowing them to make their own decisions, including those that could result in their causing injury to themselves, such as through falling. A robot that allowed its human to make independent decisions that could result in their injury through falling would be breaking the First Law through inaction to prevent human injury.
However, Sorell argues that human autonomy must be respected, by both other humans and robots. Elderly people who make choices that will guarantee their continued independent living, but could put them at risk of injury, also need to be respected.
So whilst Asimov’s laws have influenced robotics developers for decades, now is perhaps the time to re-evaluate their effectiveness and begin discussions on a new set of laws that work well with the ongoing, awe-inspiring breakthroughs in robot and AI technology taking place in Europe and across the world.
The United States and Chinese Presidents’ meet in April 2017 at a Trump resort in Florida, USA, is no big deal viewing that this Presidential Meet is not being held in Washington to qualify as a ‘Mega Summit’.
The Chinese President seems to relish one-to-one informal meets with the US President away from attendant Washington officialdom which afford greater visibility to the Chinese President in global optics and be perceived as having attained an equivalent status with the US President.
In fact, despite respective national interests of United States and China for an early Presidential Meet, US President Trump cannot afford to ignore the overwhelming sentiment in Asia Pacific capitals that it is high time that US President Trump reads the “Riot Act’ to the Chinese President on China’s unrestrained aggressive rampage on the Asian landscape and Asian maritime expanses constituting ‘global commons’. Failure of the US President to do so would not only impact President Trump’s personal image of cowering down in face of Chinese President’s arrogance and veiled threats but also impact the standing of the United States in Asian capitals.
President Trump also has to live down the image in Asian capitals that by withdrawing the United States from the Trans Pacific Partnership, much publicised by previous President Obama, the field has been left open to China by President Trump to coercively push through his own version of the TPP.
Any further climb-down by US President Trump at the Florida Meet would only confirm the persisting notion that US President resorting to strong rhetoric against China during his election campaign but soon after election as President down sliding into China-appeasement policies presumably favoured by the US State Department and the US Big Businesses.
The contextual backdrop of the uneasy events and unwarranted reactions of China to US President Trump’s accepting a telephonic congratulatory call from Taiwan’s President and President Trump’s strong condemnation of China’s unfair trade practises and currency manipulation, are indicative of the frailty of US-China relations.
Inevitability of a US-China Summit Meet was a foregone conclusion, but that the Presidential Meet is taking place in a Florida resort suggests that the forthcoming meet of US President Trump and Chinese President Xi cannot be taken as nothing more than a transactional meet between the lone Superpower and China with pretensions of being a superpower.
China with no natural allies to bolster its status and besieged on its peripheries has an impulsive urge to be seen as the ‘strategic equivalent’ of the United States, has played its cards behind the scenes to inveigle an invitation for a US-China presidential Meet. China, as per some media reports, attempted to soften the ground for such a Meet by giving approval to nearly three dozen patents of Trump enterprises and also a multi-billion dollar real estate deal in the offing with the US President’s son-in-law’s family concerns
China is also perturbed with United States deployment of THAAD anti-missile systems in South Korea which are ostensibly aimed at North Korean provocations and existentially degrade the credibility of China’s nuclear arsenal.
China also has signalled that it would be willing to discuss contentious trade issues which bother the United States and have invited strong criticisms from US President Trump. By indicating readiness to discuss trade issues, China seems to be attempting to mute US strong criticisms which also would have a global impact. China is also worried that any strong-arm approaches by the United States on trade matters could result in China losing access to advanced US technologies.
China also has another strong reason to cosy-up to US President Trump and that pertains to the US President’s personal inclinations to reset US-Russia relations and place them on a sound cooperative footing. China seems to have been rattled by that eventuality and would like to forestall that development.
The United States also had an incentive for such a Meet as it hopes that China would be able to restrain North Korea from its nuclear weapons and missiles firings endangering security of United States loyal allies in the region, namely, Japan and South Korea.
The United States should be well aware that for over a decade now when China could have clamped down heavily on North Korea’s nuclear weapons adventurism, China did not do so. China on the contrary further assisted in North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme acquiring more threatening contours.
China cannot be expected to give up the leverages of playing the ‘North Korea Nuclear Card’ not only against the United States but more against Japan. So how does the US policy establishment reasonably expect that China would apply meaningful brakes against North Korea? How can the US policy establishment reasonably expect that a transactional meet between the Chinese President and US President Trump would veer China away from its confirmed strategic pressure points?
The United States has many more strategic pressure points against China but has so far not employed them hoping that China would emerge as a responsible stakeholder in global affairs. This has been a vain hope reinforced by China’s demonstrated performance of destabilising moves against the United States and its allies. Hence any positive initiatives by China cannot be logically expected except for minor transactional concession to USA to tide over a difficult geopolitical patch.
With rising calls within United States official circles that proven reciprocity by China should form the basis of any US-China reset of relations under President Trump and that China should be made accountable to redeem the promises that it makes to the United States, it seems that the scheduled meeting of President Trump with Chinese President Xi would end up as no big deal.
Concluding, one would like to observe, as one has done for nearly two decades that in the 21st Century, China and the United States are destined for an inevitable clash of arms and possibly North Korea may be the fuse that ignites it, the sheer reason being that China would never ever give up the exploitation of the ‘North Korea Nuclear Card’ against the United States and Japan. Additionally, China is under the mistaken notion that the United States would persist with its ‘Risk Aversion’ policy.
*Dr Subhash Kapila is a graduate of the Royal British Army Staff College, Camberley and combines a rich experience of Indian Army, Cabinet Secretariat, and diplomatic assignments in Bhutan, Japan, South Korea and USA. Currently, Consultant International Relations & Strategic Affairs with South Asia Analysis Group. He can be reached at drsubhashkapila.007@gmail.com
The Supreme Court order banning liquor shops within 500 metres of highways has been criticized by liquor producers, merchants and drinkers all over India. Claims are made that such closure swill lead to loss of millions of jobs throughout India and a huge loss of income for the government. These are exaggerated fears and misgivings.
The Supreme Court has ordered the closure of liquor shops within 500 metres of highways, arguing that people who are drunk and driving vehicles cause accidents, leading to injuries to people and loss of innocent lives. The Supreme Court has not ordered the closure of all the liquor shops in the country, but only those that are located within 500 metres of highways.
Supreme Court order make sense
While the reason extended by the Supreme Court order makes sense, there are even more justifiable reasons for applying liquor ban such as lakhs of men belonging to poor families becoming liquor addicts causing untold sufferings for the women in the families, leading to broken homes and uprooting the economic well being and the life of children. The recent trend of women also succumbing to liquor habits is causing alarm.
There are many persons who think that the Supreme Court should have gone a step further and banned all the liquor shops all over India, considering the harm that is being done to the fiber and fabric of the society.
State governments should adopt positive approach
To circumvent the order of the Supreme Court several state governments are now said to be taking steps to de-notify the state highways within cities and towns and turning them into urban roads, so that the Supreme Court order would not be applicable to them. This is a negative approach.
The state governments should react to the Supreme Court judgement positively, considering the enormous social evils that happen due to the rapid spread of liquor habit among people and particularly the youth. State governments should examine as to how they should deal with the matter in a proactive way and implement the Supreme Court order, without causing much loss of income and job opportunities.
There are elegant ways of doing this.
Production of value added products from molasses
Molasses is the mother liquor left after the crystallisation of cane sugar from concentrated sugar in the production process of sugar. Ethyl alcohol( ethanol) is among many products produced from molasses.
Molasses is an important building block from which several value added products can be produced, among which ethanol is one.
There are several molasses and ethanol based products that are not produced in India and are presently being imported in large quantities in the country.
There are a number of value-added derivative products based on molasses and ethanol that are not produced in India or not adequately produced and imported in large volume.
Considering the demand supply scenario and projected growth in demand for such products in view of the high relevance of the products to the Indian and industrial economic growth pattern of the country, there are excellent investment opportunities for setting up downstream products from cane molasses and ethanol.
Investment opportunity in Tamil Nadu – A case study
Tamil Nadu is one of the leading states for number of liquor addicts and sale of liquor, which has happened due to the policy of Tamil Nadu government to sell the liquor through their government owned Tasmac shops and in the process giving legitimacy to this bad trend.
Tamil Nadu had 6672 TASMAC liquor shops in 2016, which was reduced to 5672 shops due to public protests. Now, after the Supreme Court order, 3321 shops are likely to be closed. This would make large quantity of alcohol available for setting up alcohol based downstream products. Several molasses based projects can also be set up.
There are 27 private, 16 cooperative and 3 public sector sugar mills in Tamil Nadu, which produce cane molasses apart from sugar. In Tamil Nadu, there are around 330,000 hectares of area under sugarcane cultivation and production of sugarcane is around 22 million tonne per annum in a normal year when irrigation is adequately available. The production of molasses well exceed 0.9 million tonne per annum and ethanol well exceed 160 million litre per annum in Tamil Nadu.
Potential investment based on several molasses /ethanol based projects in Tamil Nadu could well be over Rs.30000 million. When in operation, such projects can generate substantial income to the state by way of taxes and duties.
Such project would also promote all round growth and generate employment at skilled and unskilled level. Such projects would pave way for setting up many ancillary units.
It will take around one year or so to implement such projects in a planned manner. Construction activity itself will spur considerable industrial and economic activity in the state.
The economic and social advantages setting up such molasses/ ethanol based projects in Tamil Nadu should be appreciated. Then, there would be no need to lose sleep over the Supreme Court decision to ban liquor outlet in highways.
We entered the “Komische Oper” in Berlin on a Friday night late in March, showed our internet tickets in paper print at the door and left our coats in the lobby. We found our places and were seated. The audience population consisted mainly of middle-aged people. More reasonably priced back seats were filled with young people. A digital translation service was provided on the small screens behind the seats. You could follow in English, French, Russian, and Turkish translations as you wish. Light white wine, beer and other alcoholic beverages were served at the lobby bar.
The opera building was completed in 1896. Opera had repertoire with musical performances of German operettas for many years, initially with a total capacity of 1,700 spectators. At the end of World War II, the opera house was bombed and turned into a ruin. Then the house was on the east side of Berlin. It was repaired after the war. There have been many repairs to date. The orchestra venue has been enlarged. Today 1,200 spectators can enjoy the music at the city center. It is a pleasant large comfortable space. The other two operas in Berlin are playing classic works.
The original work was in French, but was played here in German. There was an occasional English-Spanish dialogue. The staging was very different and new. Intermediate cinema projection images were used. The “Beautiful” movie (Javier Bardem) poster was hanging on the left pan which was uploaded with a special message.
The director (Sebastian Baumgarten) had brought the Opera to the East Berlin location of the 1950s. The soldiers in the original were gone, now we had the male macho staff of the “Santander” supermarket. The rear-end looked like mass housing of the East German era. The hot women who work at the supermarket had come to the scene.
Carmen (Karolina Gumos) had stabbed her opponent other woman. She was seducing the small rank corporal Don Jose (Timothy Richards) in the US army.
In the second stage, the with same background, a nightclub emerged. There were Karl Marx, Lenin show puppets around for demonstration on the third stage. The final stage was at the entrance of the arena where the bullfights were held. At the end there was an unpleasant rape and murder scene. There were four stages and one pause.
There was a flamenco show between the curtains with two guitars and a female dancer. Toreador Escamilyo character was performed by a Turkish opera singer (Kartal Karagedik). We watched the opera delightfully in the spacious, high-ceilinged, comfortable armchairs.
While leaving the Opera house, at the exit gate, we got our little chocolate packets as courtesy. Most of the viewers got on their bicycles and pedaled to their homes. We got to Alexander Platz by the T100 bus, then we reached our house by U5 metro. It was a lovely evening.
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the suspected chemical attack in Syria has “crossed a lot of lines.” This article looks at what has been the Trump Administration’s policy with regard to Syria thus far.
The editor-in-chief of Lebanon’s prestigious al-Akhbar newspaper, Ibrahim al-Amin, revealed in his recent editorial [1] that Tulsi Gabbard, the United States Representative for Hawaii, whose trip to Syria in January and meeting with Bashar al-Assad was widely reported in media, had conveyed President Trump’s offer of cooperation to Assad during the meeting.
The editorial in Arabic is full of detailed accounts of Gabbard’s conversations with Assad, her airport handlers, security detail, etc. While the al-Akhbar newspaper generally takes the side of the Assad regime against the Syrian opposition its reporting over the years, particularly on the conflict in Syria, has been fairly balanced, insightful and highly credible.
Moreover, what lends further credence to Ibrahim al-Amin’s account of Tulsi Gabbard’s meeting with Bashar al-Assad is the fact that the views of Gabbard and Donald Trump on the crisis in Syria — until quite recently – are similar. In fact, she is the only unorthodox Democrat whose radical views on most subjects, and particularly on Syria, are widely respected by the new Alt-Right administration.
Although Gabbard has subsequently denied al-Akhbar’s report, it was only a pro-forma denial expressed in a 140 lettered tweet without any real conviction. After posting the tweet, Gabbard went on to discuss healthcare reforms and Hawaii’s weather on her official Twitter and Facebook accounts.
The English translation of a relevant excerpt from the Arabic editorial reads as follows:
Tulsi Gabbard asked Assad: “If President Trump contacted you, would you answer the call?” Assad replied: “Is this a hypothetical question, or a proposal?” Gabbard: “It’s not hypothetical. This is a question to you coming from President Trump which he asked me to convey to you. So let me repeat the question: If President Trump contacted you, would you answer the call?” Assad replied: “Of course. And I’ll give you a number where I can be reached quickly.”
Apart from Tulsi Gabbard, the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, and the Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, have also stated in the past on the record recently that defeating the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq is the first priority of the Trump Administration and that the fate of Bashar al-Assad is of least concern to the new administration.
Moreover, on the campaign trail, in his speeches as well as on TV debates with other presidential contenders, Donald Trump repeatedly mentioned that he has a ‘secret plan’ for defeating the Islamic State without elaborating what the plan is. To the careful observers of the US-led war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, however, the outlines of Trump’s ‘secret plan’ to defeat the Islamic State, particularly in Syria, are now getting obvious.
As far as the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq is concerned, the Trump Administration is continuing with the policy of its predecessor. The Trump Administration’s policy in Syria, however, is markedly different from the regime change policy of the Obama Administration.
Unlike Iraq where the US is providing air and logistical support to Iraq’s armed forces and allied militia in their battle to retake Mosul from the Islamic State militants, the conflict in Syria is much more complex that involves the Syrian government, the Sunni Arab militant groups, the Kurds, Turkey and Russia.
Regarding the recapture of Palmyra from the Islamic State by the Syrian regime, a March 2 article in the Washington Post carried a rather paradoxical headline: “Hezbollah, Russia and the US help Syria retake Palmyra” [2]. The article by Liz Sly offers clues as to how the Syrian conflict might transform under the new Trump Administration.
Under the previous Obama Administration, the unstated but known policy in Syria was regime change, and any collaboration with the Syrian regime against the Islamic State was simply not on the cards. The Trump Administration, however, looks at the crisis in Syria from an entirely different perspective, a fact which is obvious from Donald Trump’s statements on Syria and more recently, from Ibrahim al-Amin’s testimony regarding Tulsi Gabbard’s message of cooperation from President Trump to Bashar al-Assad. Moreover, unlike the Obama Administration which was hostile to Russia’s interference in Syria, the Trump Administration is on friendly terms with Assad’s main backer in Syria, i.e. Russia.
It is stated in the aforementioned article by Liz Sly that the US carried out 45 air strikes in the vicinity of Palmyra against the Islamic State’s targets in the month of February alone, which must have indirectly helped the Syrian government troops and the allied Hezbollah militia to recapture Palmyra along with Russia’s air support.
Although expecting a radical departure from the six years-long Obama Administration’s policy of training and arming the Sunni Arab militants against the Syrian regime by the Trump Administration is unlikely. However, the latter regards jihadists as a much bigger threat to America’s security than the former. Therefore some indirect support and a certain level of collaboration with Russia and the Syrian government against radical Islamists cannot be ruled out.
What would be different in the respective Syria policy of the two markedly different US administrations, however, is that while the Obama Administration did avail itself of the opportunity to strike an alliance with the Kurds against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, but it was simply not possible for it to come up with an out of the box solution and use the Shi’a-dominated regime and allied militias against the Sunni Arab militant groups particularly the Islamic State.
The Trump Administration, however, is not hampered by the botched legacy of the Obama Administration in Syria, and therefore it might align itself with the Kurds as well as the Russians and the Syrian government against the Islamic State’s militants in Syria.
Two obstacles to such a natural alignment of interests, however, are: firstly, Israel’s objections regarding the threat that Hezbollah poses to its regional security; and secondly, Turkey which is a NATO member and has throughout nurtured several Sunni Arab militant groups during the six years-long conflict would have serious reservations against the new American administration’s partnership not only with the Russians and the Syrian government but also with the PYD/YPG Kurds in Syria, which Turkey regards as an offshoot of separatist PKK Kurds in southeast Turkey.
It would be pertinent to mention here that unlike the pro-US, Iraqi Kurds led by Masoud Barzani, the Syrian PYD/YPG Kurds as well as the Syrian government are also ideologically aligned, because both are socialists and have traditionally been in the Russian sphere of influence.
More to the point, for the first three years of the Syrian civil war, from August 2011 to August 2014, an informal pact existed between the Syrian government and the Syrian Kurds against the onslaught of the Sunni Arab militants, until the Kurds broke off that arrangement to become the centerpiece of the Obama Administration’s policy in the region.
According to the aforementioned pact, the Syrian government informally acknowledged Kurdish autonomy; and in return, the Kurdish militia defended the areas in northeastern Syria, particularly al-Hasakah, alongside the Syrian government troops against the advancing Sunni Arab militant groups, particularly the Islamic State.
Additionally, with Russia’s blessings, a new alliance between the Syrian Kurds and the Syrian government against the Sunni Arab militants has already been forged, and it would be a wise move by the Trump Administration to take advantage of the opportunity and to avail itself of a two-pronged strategy to liberate Raqqa from Islamic State: that is, to use the Syrian government troops to put pressure from the south and the Kurds to lead the charge from the north of the Islamic State’s bastion in Syria.
According to a March 22 article [3] by Michael Gordon and Anne Bernard for the New York Times, the US had airlifted hundreds of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces’ fighters and their American military advisers to take control of the Tabqa dam on the Euphrates River near Lake Assad, in order to cut off the western approaches to Raqqa.
Moreover, the Syrian government and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are already collaborating in Manbij where the Kurds have handed over several villages to the Syrian government troops in order to create a buffer zone and to avoid confrontation with the Turkish troops and the allied Sunni Arab militant groups, who have recently liberated al-Bab from the Islamic State.
Furthermore, Karen De Young and Liz Sly mentioned in a March 4 article [4] for the Washington Post that the Russian and the Syrian government’s convoys had already arrived in Manbij and the US government had been informed about the movement by the Russians.
In the same article, the aforementioned reporters have also made another surprising revelation: “Trump has said repeatedly that the US and Russia should cooperate against the Islamic State, and he has indicated that the future of Russia-backed Assad is of less concern to him.” Thus, it appears, that the interests of all the major players in Syria have converged on defeating the Islamic State, and the Obama era policy of regime change has been put on the back burner.
A lot of people agree that the Islamic world today is in urgent need of reformation.i
In the minds of the vast majority of non-Muslims, the word Islam is directly associated with violence, terrorism, oppression of women and violation of human rights.
Bad image
In a reaction to an article entitled, “Isis in Iraq: UN report details ‘staggering’ violence, war crimes and ‘possible genocide‘ in Iraq,” published by the British newspaper The Independent on January 19, 2016ii, a lay reader by the name of Jerome wrote the following highly-opinionated comment:
“It is high time that the civilised world stopped groping in the darkness. Instead of futile attempts to ‘stop radicalisation of youth’ and ‘prevent spreading of terrorism’, the world leaders should admit to the elephant in the living room, the root cause, the terror manual called koran and its 6th century draconian ideology. For that, firstly, we have to accept the reality that there is no moderate or peaceful Islam. Every person who follows this ugly book is a potential terrorist. Until this nasty book and its nauseating ideology are completely wiped out from this planet, the life of civilised people will be at the mercy of this madness, and peaceful world will remain as an elusive idea.”
In principle this means two important things: firstly, the latest terrorist attacks in the Western world have further entrenched the stereotypes about Islam and Muslims in Europe and America and the Muslim world is doing strictly nothing to improve its image by reaching out to the affected people, social and religious organizations to rebuild confidence and to make Islam easy to understand. Alas, only some local organizations are left on their own to undertake this huge task unassisted both morally and financially.
The world is gone global for some time now, this has both positive and negative correlations whether we like it or not. So, if a stereotype is formed about a given culture or religion, it is undoubtedly insured global spread. The truth of the matter is that today Islam is equated with violence, dictatorship and terrorism.
Muslim percent of population in 2014. Source: Pew Research Center, Wikipedia Commons.
Today, the Muslim world spans the whole globe with over 1,6 billion representing ¼ (23,4%) of the world population of which, and according to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation -OIC-,iii it is the religion of 57 states around the globe,iv 47 of these are Muslim and 10 other countries have Muslim minorities. By continents and regions the percentage is as follows: 24.8% in Asia-Oceania, 91.2% in the Middle East-North Africa, 29.6% in Sub-Saharan Africa, around 6.0% in Europe, and 0.6% in the Americas.
ISIS is a dangerous oddity v
ISIS has brought to the third millennium horrible practices of the Middle Ages meant to terrorize enemies and subdue grassroots, such as: public beheading or burning of imprisoned foes alive, as well as parading them in cages in markets and public places. Only two horror practices are duly missing from this horror repertoire, which probably will come later on: sticking the severed head of enemies on spears and putting them at the gates of cities to set an example to incoming visitors or travelers, and public dismembering of enemy prisoners. Not to forget of course the numerous harrowing and horrifying acts around the globe undertaken by groups of terrorists officially affiliated to ISIS or lone wolves sympathizing with this violent state.
The Islamic State, unlike other nascent states is not trying to win the hearts and the minds of the other countries, to be recognized worldwide. From the very beginning, it showed its bellicose nature and belligerent attitude, and this is rather odd. So, from the word go this organization-state has taken a suicide path, beheading Americans, French, English, Japanese and burning a Jordanian pilot who bombed their positions as part of the American coalition to destroy their terrorist entity.
For Slavoj Zizek, a Slovenian philosopher, psychoanalyst and social theorist lecturing at the Birkbeck School of Law, University of London and author of many books, including the “Absolute Recoil,”vi he argues:
“Does this make ISIS premodern? Instead of seeing in ISIS a case of extreme resistance to modernization, one should rather conceive of it as a case of perverted modernization and locate it into the series of conservative modernizations which began with the Meiji restoration in 19th-century Japan (rapid industrial modernization assumed the ideological form of “restoration,” or the return to the full authority of the emperor).”
ISIS has come onto the Middle Eastern scene at a time when the Arab uprisings of 2011 have brought a glimmer of hope to the Arab people, who have endured, over centuries, undemocratic rule, indignant nepotism, horrendous favoritism, horrible corruption, unacceptable abuse of power, terrible human rights violation and unbearable patriarchy.
With the advent of the Arab Spring and its domino effect with dictatorships in the region, ordinary people were rejoicing and hoping for the best in the future, but at the height of this promising revolution came ISIS with a retrograde agenda to take back, supposedly, the Muslim world to its Golden Era or rather to the dark ages, as a matter of fact, given the nature of its violent and inhuman actions and deeds.
Some people went along with this, with the belief that it will end the emasculation to which Muslims are still subjected by the Western world through colonialism, exploitation and subjugation, but that does not justify, in the least, the glorification of ISIS and its medieval beliefs and practices.
There is no doubt that ISIS is a strange oddity of the third millennium and must be fought with no respite because it does truly give Islam a bad name and a terrible reputation.
Urgent need for renewal of Islamic thought
Considerable importance is granted by Muslim scholars to the issues of renewal and ijtihad (jurisprudence),vii particularly the renewal of Islamic intellectual thought and heritage. This renewal is the constructive process which continues the action of ancestors and benefits from the ijtihad of contemporary scholars in rebuilding cultural identity and entrenching its principles and lofty references, as well as, the divine revelation which guides man onto the straight path. This revelation is the referential framework and knowledge regulator in the Islamic civilization’s view of all concepts and matters. It is the factor most likely to propel it towards shedding the manifestations of backwardness which emerged during past historical phases, spread the culture of ijtihad which promotes complementarities and the unity that defies conflict, and repositions the Islamic Ummah (global nation)viii on the scene of cultural action and human contribution.
The Masjid al-Haram and Kaaba, Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Photo by Ariandra 03, Wikipedia Commons.
At this age of globalization, where challenges are growing in size and number, revitalizing Islamic intellectual heritage, renewing it and shedding light on the riches that contributed to the march of human civilization seem to be of utmost importance. The standardization and alienation attempts and centralist cultural tendencies that negate the multiplicity of historical courses in shaping human civilization are to be countered with force.
Islamic thought needs new blood and a reformist boost to be given by the Ummah’s scholars in a wise approach, free from the logic of exclusive bipolarity, where the sources of knowledge are integrated. Thus, can be edified the civilization of the Ummah of the middle way, known in Arabic culture as: wasatiyya (tolerance)ix, which stands witness to all mankind and carries the universal message of Islam: brotherhood of men.
Therefore, the Ummah will have to dedicate a series of new philosophies and lines of thought aiming to promote the Islamic cultural heritage in all its tangible, natural and intangible expressions, and protect it from plundering and looting. Attention will also have to be given to publicizing the achievements of this heritage throughout the intellectual and cultural evolution of the human civilization, such as the cognitive methods and forms it invented, the ethical systems and values it established, the religious and material human concepts and rules it devised, and the bases of political and civil institutions it set up, throughout the centuries. Indeed, these elements have become reference frames for the human thought and, by extension, for the human society, in the sense that they reaffirm the importance of the human being as a free entity and personality, equal in creation, faculties, capacities and dignity, as well as, in accountability, rights and obligations.
Being conscious of the importance of keeping up with international changes, the Ummah is already anticipating globalization’s repercussions in this field, motivated by certain uniform and standardized visions conveyed by this phenomenon, as well as, by the power of sophisticated technologies, put at the disposal of globalization to infiltrate the cultural specificities of peoples and nations, in addition to interfering with legislations, laws and systems which enable it to replace values, standards and concepts, so that they concord with its narrow perception of a single and unique culture.
In this regard, it will have to address these consequences from a positive angle, take benefit from everything positive this world phenomenon can offer for the Islamic cultural heritage, and make use of it in such a way as to become a catalyst for the human thought and civilization in the future. These consequences or repercussions will be dealt with from a distinct cultural position, based on an original cultural specificity and a unique civilizational identity that belongs to a single and same human origin, and lives in a wide world with multiple cultures, civilizations and religions.x
Very serious efforts will have to be dedicated to encouraging research aimed at exploring the means and ways to benefit from the Islamic intellectual heritage and study the methodical approaches to the required renewal-geared reading of religious and secular knowledge. There is a need to explore the opportunities made possible by globalization and the technological revolution and how they can be used to present the Islamic heritage and its contribution to enriching universal heritage. They would serve to demonstrate its ability, once improved and renewed, to play a part in building a universal Islamic thought that embodies the characteristics of the Islamic message, lays the intellectual foundations for a civilizational edifice, and presents an Islamic vision of the universe, man and life that can provide a civilizational alternative to rescue humanity and halt the unbridled progress of materialism.
Cultural diversity and acceptance of the other in his entire “otherness”
The cultural strategy of the Islamic world must underline that no one culture can survive by its own, and that cultural diversity and interaction between civilizations, cultures and peoples are realities that could not be circumvented.
This approach will contribute to promote the level of dialogue, both inside and outside of the Muslim world, and extend the scope of participation and consultation necessary for its implementation, as well as combating all forms of fanaticism and withdrawn attitudes.
Muslim countries will have to focus their action on programs and activities aimed at entrenching the culture of dialogue and the respect of cultural specificities and cultural diversity in consolidating human rights, understanding and concord between cultures; encouraging governments to ratify and publicize UNESCO’s international Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions of 2005;xi xii disseminating its contents as widely as possible, especially among young generations and civil society organizations; and working towards ensuring a democratic governance and the respect for cultural rights of ethnic and linguistic minorities.
These actions must, also, seek to enhance the sense of citizenship and active participation of foreign nationals and immigrants, as well as educating them on the values of tolerance and the rejection of all forms of discrimination, racism and hatred. Similarly, these actions will have to strive to reactivate the concept of international cultural Takaful,xiii in order to firmly establish the culture of human rights and the rights of peoples; consolidate cultural relations and cultural exchange; facilitate cultural mobility and the freedom of movement of people and ideas by encouraging South-South and North-South programs for student exchange visits.
Furthermore, this approach is aimed at setting up consultation mechanisms on labor and immigration to ensure the respect of human dignity of immigrants and foreign nationals; devising tourism’s development policies within the respect of cultural heritage and cultural identities; ensuring social harmony and combating poverty, violence, marginalization and social vulnerability.
In this age of globalization, information explosion and the multiplicity of audio-visual media and channels, the issue of image has acquired more weight and urgency in view of the impediments that may hinder the flow of information and its communication capacity. This has become even more relevant following the international changes to which Islam and Muslims were party, and in the aftermath, the image of the Islamic civilization became the subject of a tremendous amount of premeditated and unpremeditated distortion. There is talk of the phenomenon of Islamophobia which has taken many forms of which the most blatant is the discrimination against Muslim immigrants in employment, housing, education and other fields.
Some Western parties have even gone further and began to flaunt their hostility towards Islam, desecrate and denigrate its sanctities and make racist statements that are punishable by law and condemned by international conventions. Some Muslim institutions were the victim of vandalism and desecration as were some mosques, graves and cultural centers in the West. Faced with the escalation of this phenomenon and its progression from a state of dormancy to one of active notoriety, it is necessary for Muslim intellectuals to take charge of the mission of countering this phenomenon and addressing it following a two-tiered and tightly devised plan.
The first part consists of the emergency measure of monitoring and compiling what is badly written and said about Islam, condemning it and engaging legal action against it in cooperation and coordination with regional and international partners. The second part is presenting the truthful image of Islam on the ruins of the erroneous misconceptions and stereotypes circulating either in the media or school curricula, history books or biased literary works, which action represents a long-winded and strenuous road.
One of the major objectives that Muslim thinkers must seek to fulfill is to modify this erroneous image. Their action, in this regard, consists of many joint programs that they must begin to implement with international partners to cleanse school curricula from these stereotypes, and produce an Islamic encyclopaedia which will present an alternative and a full image on the Islamic world and its civilization, penned by Muslim and fair-minded Western authors.
Universities in the Muslim world must monitor seriously the Islamophobia phenomenon and draw up a database on all the manifestations of animosity towards Muslims and Islam, thus enabling researchers to study them or engage legal action against them, in addition to helping countries build up their cultural policies.
Advocating inter-cultural dialogue and inter-faith understanding and tolerance
Islam was the first civilization and culture ever to balance unity and diversity. It was, indeed, the melting pot of different peoples and cultures who rallied around this monotheist religion that provides for the right to diversity and difference without any discrimination or segregation. It is a religion that calls for mutual acquaintance and concord, as Allah says,
“O mankind! We created you of a male and female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each other, not that you despise each other. Verily the most honored of you in the sight of God is he who is the most righteous” [Al-Hujurat (the Dwellings) 49:13],
and
“And among His Signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the variations in your languages and your colors” [Ar-Rum (the Romans) 30:21].
As a result of new threats and the outbreak of violent inter-ethnic conflicts in many parts of the world in recent years, violent terrorist incidents, international level propaganda against Islam, as well as the introduction of new technologies and certain scientific developments and the process of globalization, an increased surge in social problems has been observed.
Societies and communities have, also, observed an increase in intolerance and hatred among human beings on the basis or fundamentalism, extremism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. To respond to the challenges emerging in modern societies, it is necessary to adopt an integrated approach to combat racism, discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance. Islamic countries will have to take step to combat all forms of racism, xenophobia and discrimination and to promote dialogue among civilizations, in order to resolve all kind of differences and bring conformity in the creation of peaceful social conditions.
The International Conference on Fostering Dialogue among Cultures and Civilizations through Concrete and Sustained Action, which was organized in Rabat in 2005, jointly between ISESCO, the OIC, UNESCO, ALECSO, the Danish Center for Culture and Development, and the Anna Lindh Euro Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures, provided an occasion to examine concrete and sustained initiatives in dialogue among cultures in the areas of education, culture, communication and science.
The conference was crowned with the Rabat Commitments. These commitments constitute a successful outcome of the efforts in reflection about the ways of instilling the values of tolerance, dialogue, and openness onto other cultures, civilizations and religions, into the minds of children and the youth in schools, through integration of concepts serving that purpose into educational programs of formal and non-formal education institutions, to uproot the causes of violence and discrimination that might result of cultural, ethnic and religious differences.
Safeguarding human rights
Recognition of human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the law; and social, cultural and economic rights, including the right to participate in politics and culture, the right to food, the right to work, and the right to education, is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)xiv provided basic foundation to proclaim that ALL human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Islam has always promoted human, civil, economic and social rights; asserting these rights provides firm foundation for peace and justice and allows all human beings to live with each other with dignity and freedom.
Women are equal to men in pursuits of knowledge. The status of women in Islam constitutes no problem. Islam grants equal right to woman to contract, to enterprise, to earn and to posses independently. Efforts will have to be continued to promote gender equality and balance. Acknowledgement of social rights of women is an urgent necessity and has, undeniably, to be followed by projecting women’s role in social development, keeping in view Islamic principles and values.
Conferences, seminars and symposia will have to be organized to examine women progress towards empowerment and gender equality and social, economic, political and cultural obstacles, to increase their capacity. Projects will have to be implemented to strengthen their role in social development through cross-cutting themes especially related to poverty alleviation in poor localities. In order to uplift women especially in rural and urban areas. Formal and non-formal education and training will be utilized in order to alleviate their role and provide equal opportunities in the social development of their societies and to achieve self-fulfilment.
Achieving development through quality education
During the twentieth century, the world has witnessed tremendous changes at various levels. These changes have had diverse impact on human being, on society and on environment, at the same time.
Some of these transmutations were positive such as the incredible leap in scientific and technological fields like medicine, space conquest, communication and computer science. But, others have generated disadvantages and threats that never crossed the mind of the human being. By discovering ways to provide a better and longer life, medicine has also prepared a suitable environment for population growth along which cropped up many other problems that affected the environment and created the need to protect nature from man. Medical advances in genetic engineering and cloning have also become a danger threatening all humanity because of absence of ethical values.
On the other hand, technological leaps and the changes they entailed in workplaces have generated a huge gap between the education dispensed and the requirements of the job market, which led to a loss of credibility in education, especially with the increase of the number of unemployed graduates. This, has resulted from the slow development of educational institutions compared to the fast pace of social changes and the accompanying change in requirements.
In the light of these successive changes, and in an attempt to catch up with progress, the Islamic countries have to aim to achieve scientific development through education, and to achieve continuous and global development based on the teachings of Islam and respectful of the Islamic characteristics and Islamic civilization. They have, also, to set up programs to link education to development under its various forms and make efforts to improve environment, population, and health education at the theoretical and practical levels as an integral part of general education and as guidance for the person in his dealing with the dangers of unbridled and liberal development, where morals have no say and greed for money is the master.
Keeping abreast with changes
Courtyard, Al-Qarawiyyin University, Fes. Morocco, the oldest in the world. Photo by Khonsali, Wikipedia Commons.
Improving educational and teaching systems is a major factor in the development of countries and societies and would enable these to achieve success in today’s world, to prepare generations for the future by arming them with enough resources to adjust to the rapid changes and keep alert for unexpected shifts.
Institutions should aim for a better quality of education, reduce occasions of educational loss and waste and constantly make the necessary improvements required in the educational process in order to keep up with regional and international changes in various fields.
But, though a number of countries are aware of this need, many of them still follow traditional systems in education and fail to give educational research and planning the importance they need. In consequence, the Islamic countries have to endeavor to find more than one means to raise education to a viable level, to ensure a good effectiveness of the educational system and to prepare the Muslims for the demands and the realities of modern times. This requires that the educational process moves from the technique of mere learning by heart to that of understanding, creativity and application.xv
Technological education has to benefit from a generous share of the Muslim countries’ interest, the aim being an alignment of education with the realities of daily modern life and encouraging students to make constant use of it. Another goal would be the training of persons to use increasingly sophisticated technology.
Another factor that is tantamount to the achievement of educational development is the issue of finance. Useful education, as aspired to by most countries, requires huge investments that governments are in no position to bear alone. In the twenty first century, the wealthiest countries in the world will have difficulty covering all the expenses of education from their budgets. Deep reflection is needed to come up with possible formulas for the financing of education, formulas such as cooperative schooling, encouraging private education institutions and approving investments that would generate funds for schooling.
Fighting poverty
The Muslim countries will have, also, to undertake efforts and implement actions to deal with social and human problems and issues which are resulting from poverty or emanating from an extreme form of it. Special projects and awareness campaigns will have to be launched to enhance understanding of this thorny social issue.
Alleviation of poverty, a scourge that is widely spread in the Muslim world has always remained a target under various programs of international, organizations. In view of the significant impact of poverty on sustainable economic development, Islamic States will have to initiate policies, projects and national plans and support the implementation of appropriate strategies and solutions to reduce the plight of poverty.
Activities of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) working in the field of social and human sciences are to be strengthened to tackle issues of vital concern for populations living in poor localities. Initiatives will have also to strengthen the action of the parties engaged in the alleviation of the suffering of impoverished populations. Training programs are to be conducted to foster the capacities of the underprivileged and physically-handicapped people of the society. Creation of economic opportunities for the unemployed and empowerment of women will also remain a targeted area of action.xvi Muslim countries will have to work jointly with the United Nations agencies both in the organization of conferences and seminars and in the implementation of in-field projects to alleviate poverty.
A final word
Today, it is axiomatic that the development of education, science, culture and communication hinges on security and peace, within or between states both at the regional and international levels. No development will be conceivable under a climate filled with ethnic, sectarian and religious tensions. The same is true for the lack of justice and mutual respect, which are key elements for creating international relations that could promote prosperity and human development.
Also, it is internationally recognized that the alliance of civilizations represents the sole means that can restore balance to the world and establish peace, respect for diversity and the acknowledgment of the legitimate cultural rights and civilizational specificities of the different peoples and nations.
A renewal of the Islamic thought is undoubtedly an urgent task that has to be undertaken, at once, by Muslim thinkers and decision makers for the benefit and the well-being of the Muslim ummah, in particular, and the world community, in general. Islamic reformation will, undoubtedly, stifle extremism, reduce hate and promote inter-cultural understanding, social justice and economic well9being.
Endnotes:
i. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/17/islam-reformation-extremism-muslim-martin-luther-europe
ii. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-holds-3500-mainly-women-and-children-in-slavery-in-iraq-alone-un-reports-says-a6820776.html
iii. The OIC is an inter-governmental organization, a kind of collective voice of the Muslim world, which aspires to safeguard the interest and ensure the progress and well-being of their peoples and those of other Muslims in the world over.
iv. http://www.oic-oci.org/oicv2/states/#
v. http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2016/01/177889/an-anomaly-called-isis/
vi. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/03/isis-is-a-disgrace-to-true-fundamentalism/?_r=0
vii. Ijtihad (Arabic: اجتهاد ijtihād, “diligence”) in Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) refers to the a decision-making made through personal effort of “independent reasoning” which is completely independent of any school (madhhab) of jurisprudence. It requires a “thorough knowledge of theology, revealed texts and legal theory (usul al-fiqh); an exceptional capacity for legal reasoning; thorough knowledge of Arabic.” Ijtihad stands opposed to taqlid, the “following” of received expert opinion in jurisprudence. Amujtahid is an Islamic scholar who is competent in interpreting sharia by ijtihad. Cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ijtihad
viii. Ummah (Arabic: أمة) is an Arabic word meaning “community”. It is distinguished from Sha’b (Arabic: شعب) which means a nation with common ancestry or geography. Thus, it can be said to be a supra-national community with a common history. It is a synonym for ummat al-Islamiyah (Arabic: الأمة الإسلامية) (the Islamic Community), and it is commonly used to mean the collective community of Islamic peoples. In the Quran the ummah typically refers to a single group that shares common religious beliefs, specifically those that are the objects of a divine plan of salvation. In the context of Pan-Islamism and politics, the word Ummah can be used to mean the concept of a Commonwealth of the Believers (أمة المؤمنين ummat al-mu’minīn). Cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ummah
ix. Wasat, also called wasatiyyah (وسطية) is the Arabic word for middle, centered, balanced. In the Islamic context, it refers to the “middle way”, a justly balanced way of life, avoiding extremes and experiencing things in moderation. Cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasat_(Islamic_term)
x. This is affirmed in the Islamic Declaration on Cultural Diversity and the Tripoli Commitments on Renewing Cultural Policies in the Islamic World, adopted by the 5th Islamic Conference of Culture Ministers (Tripoli, November 2007.)
xi. http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=31038&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
xii. http://arts.gov.au/sites/default/files/pdfs/149502E.pdf
xiii. Takaful (Arabic: التكافل) is a co-operative system of reimbursement or repayment in case of loss, paid to people and companies concerned about hazards, compensated out of a fund to which they agree to donate small regular contributions managed on behalf by a takaful operator.[1] It is defined as an Islamic insurance concept which is grounded in Islamic muamalat (Islamic banking), observing the rules and regulations of Islamic law. This concept has been practised in various forms since 622 AD.[2]Muslim jurists acknowledge that the basis of shared responsibility (in the system of aquila as practised between Muslims of Mecca and Medina) laid the foundation of mutual insurance. Cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takaful
xiv. http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/
xv. http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2014/04/129177/teacher-of-the-future-challenges-of-self-development-and-stakes-in-academic-knowledge/
xvi. http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2015/03/153271/the-shameful-story-of-moroccan-mule-women-the-disgrace-of-morocco-spain-and-the-eu/
The United States fired Tomahawk missiles into Syria on Thursday in retaliation for the regime of Bashar Assad using nerve agents to attack his own people.
President Donald J. Trump ordered the attack on Al-Shayrat Air Base, the base from which the chemical attack on Syria’s Idlib province was launched. The missiles were launched from U.S. Navy ships in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.
The attack is in retaliation for the Syrian dictator for using banned chemical agents in the April 4 attack.
“Bashar al-Assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians,” Trump said in a statement to the nation. “Using a deadly nerve agent, Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror.”
Vital National Security Interest
Trump ordered the targeted military strike on the airfield that launched the attack. “It is in the vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons,” the president said.
No one disputes that Syria used banned chemical weapons of the people of Idlib, he said, adding that this is a violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention. Syria also ignored United Nations Security Council resolutions.
“Years of previous attempts at changing Assad’s behavior have all failed and failed very dramatically,” Trump said. “As a result, the refugee crisis continues to deepen and the region continues to destabilize, threatening the United States and its allies.”
Trump called on all civilized nations to join the United States in seeking an end to the slaughter in Syria, and to end the threat terrorism poses in the blighted nation.
Details of Strike
Shortly after the president’s address, Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis issued a statement providing details of the strike. It took place at about 8:40 p.m. EDT — 4:40 a.m. April 7 in Syria, he said.
The strike was conducted using Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles, or TLAMs, launched from the destroyers USS Porter and USS Ross in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, Davis said in his statement. A total of 59 TLAMs targeted aircraft, hardened aircraft shelters, petroleum and logistical storage, ammunition supply bunkers, air defense systems, and radars.
“As always,” Davis said, “the U.S. took extraordinary measures to avoid civilian casualties and to comply with the Law of Armed Conflict. Every precaution was taken to execute this strike with minimal risk to personnel at the airfield.”
The strike was “a proportional response to Assad’s heinous act,” the Pentagon spokesman said, noting that Shayrat Airfield was used to store chemical weapons and Syrian air forces. The U.S. intelligence community assesses that aircraft from Shayrat conducted the April 4 chemical weapons attack, he added, and the strike was intended to deter the regime from using chemical weapons again.
Russian forces were notified in advance of the strike using the established deconfliction line, Davis said, and U.S. military planners took precautions to minimize risk to Russian or Syrian personnel at the airfield.
“We are assessing the results of the strike,” Davis said. “Initial indications are that this strike has severely damaged or destroyed Syrian aircraft and support infrastructure and equipment at Shayrat Airfield, reducing the Syrian government’s ability to deliver chemical weapons. The use of chemical weapons against innocent people will not be tolerated.”
The Islamic State (ISIL) forces in the eastern countryside of the Homs Governorate launched a powerful offensive this morning, a local military source informed Al-Masdar.
Capitalizing on the U.S. missile strikes, the Islamic State stormed the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) checkpoints near the strategic town of Al-Furqalas.
According to local sources, the Islamic State has yet to make any gains near Al-Fuqalas, but without necessary air support, the situation could worsen in the coming hours.
The Shayrat Military Airport is one of the Syrian Air Force’s most important installations in the fight against the Islamic State due to its proximity to the Palmyra and Deir Ezzor fronts.
(FPRI) — When leaders of Azerbaijan and Georgia took part in a session titled “The Silk Road Effect” at the 2017 World Economic Forum in Davos, they were predictably eager to promote the importance of the China-led Silk Road Economic Belt to the economic and infrastructure projects in the Caucasus. Two projects of critical importance are Georgia’s Anaklia Deep Water Port on the Black Sea and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway. However, despite the session’s agenda and the attendance of the Mongolian president, no Chinese officials were present on the platform, certainly not Xi Jinping, who made his first visit to Davos this year.
Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway
China remains ambivalent about the Caucasian stretch of the Silk Road, interested in the strategic relevance of the region, but recognizes that commercial engagement remains tentative. Compared to major Chinese-financed infrastructure and energy works completed in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan in the past two years, state-owned Chinese companies have yet to secure any similar scale projects in the Caucasus region. The construction and management of the Anaklia Deep Water Port was awarded to a Georgian-American company in late 2016, following rounds of unsuccessful negotiations with Chinese partners.
On the other hand, Chinese upgrading of key Iranian and Uzbek railway tracks (the electrification of Tehran-Mashhad Line) as well as the expected completion of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Line in 2017 meant that an alternative route of overland transportation that skirts around Russian territory is becoming ever more likely. At the same time, the drive by the Azerbaijani government to diversify its economy dovetailed with Chinese interest in exporting excess capacity in manufacturing and construction. Another factor for the Caucasian republics in attracting commercial Chinese interest has been their accession into preferential custom zones with both the European Union and Russia, as seen in negotiations between the Georgian government and private Chinese companies over the management of the Poti Free Industrial Zone in January 2017.
Chinese Investments in the Region
As a result, Chinese interests in the Caucasus have been limited to facilitating investment by private Chinese companies and establishing a footing for state-owned infrastructure companies through bidding for small to medium-sized projects. This situation is in contrast to Chinese investment in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, where large-scale Chinese infrastructure projects were financed through preferential loans by state-owned Chinese banks. Reports on current projects undertaken by Chinese firms in Azerbaijan and Georgia suggest that their considerations in investment remain firmly profit-based, which is understandable due to their ownership structure. However, with the first phase of port facilities in Baku slated for completion later this year, the medium-term goals of establishing a southern, non-Russian route of transportation might result in greater infrastructure investment by the Chinese. This projection is supported by figures from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, which revealed that the average size of investments in Chinese sectors related to “One Belt, One Road” increased by 14% in 2016—a pattern that is also reflected in the sub-sectors of public utilities and transportation.
Recent Chinese ventures in the Caucasus have been focused on Azerbaijan, where depleting reserves and low prices in petroleum have prompted the Ilham Aliyev regime to embark on a variety of measures to diversify the economy. According to the government’s own estimates, approximately 70% of Azerbaijani GDP in 2016 is now produced through non-oil sectors although this figure might include public investment in utilities and infrastructure paid through oil-related earnings. However, this statistic hardly bothered the Chinese government, which dispatched a steady stream of senior and mid-level officials to Azerbaijan throughout 2016. Of particular note was a visit by politburo member Zhang Gaoli in June, followed by joint-ministerial sessions on commercial cooperation in August.
Chinese officials and Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications equipment company, also participated in Bakutel 2016, an international exhibition on telecommunications and information attended by Aliyev, who visited the Chinese kiosk. Although ministerial meetings often lack the publicity of senior-level visits, they were useful for major Chinese construction and utilities companies. Through these contacts, China Triumph International Engineering Group (CTIEC Group), a state-owned construction firm, became one of the first Chinese companies to complete major construction projects in Azerbaijan when new production capacity was added to the Qızıldaş cement plant in late 2014. Compared to other Central Asian states, Azerbaijan has also been generous in granting major commercial and policy-oriented Chinese banks extensive interest rate tax breaks; however, these tax breaks in themselves have not been effective in enticing commercial Chinese banks to establish branches in Baku.
A similar story lies behind Chinese engagement with Georgia. Since institutional reforms carried out by successive Georgian governments in the mid-2000s, the country has consistently ranked highly in global indicators of business environment; its corruption perceptions and ease of doing business indices were ranked the highest amongst non-Baltic Former Soviet economies in 2016. These institutional advantages are also reflected in the speed of its negotiations with China over free trade in 2016; preliminary talks only began in February, yet by early October, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed by the two countries, with ratification expected in mid-2017. There are indications that the Chinese were comparatively lenient in its opening of market access for Georgian agricultural products, including the burgeoning wine export business (China being the second largest export market for Georgian wine after Russia). Institutional advantages and tax breaks were also dangled in front of private Chinese companies by the Georgians in attracting them to its Free Industrial Zones, where goods manufactured within the country headed for EU markets are waived of all taxes except personal income.
By January 2017, Hualing, a private Chinese conglomerate, began managing the Kutaisi Free Trade Industrial Zone in Georgia and acquired significant stakes in the country’s retail banking sector. The Georgian government recently also signed an MOU with another private Chinese group exploring the transferal of Poti Industrial Zone from inactive Emirati management. It is revealing to see that private Chinese companies, as opposed to those with greater governmental support (the Chinese ambassador to Azerbaijan personally opened Huawei’s new staff canteen in Baku in late 2016), are more tempted by the promises of transparency and ease of access. These were also key selling points when Hualing, one of the largest foreign investors in Georgia, pitched its industrial park to Chinese companies and bank branches based in Dubai in June 2016. Given increasingly stringent measures in Chinese foreign exchange control in 2017, private and semi-public Chinese enterprises have become even more reluctant to repatriate their U.S. dollar earnings, preferring to deposit them in overseas branches of Chinese banks. Those stored in Dubai and Istanbul present a particularly viable source of funding for the Caucasian economies.
Challenges to China-Caucasian Trade Relations
However, against the backdrop of institutional improvements, one must point out that there is not much to trade between China and the Caucasian republics, with the odds very much in China’s favor. Even for Azerbaijan, where petroleum and gas related products formed a steady source of export earnings, China enjoyed a surplus of 216 million USD in 2015, with Azerbaijan only exporting 14.66 million USD worth of materials to China in the first half of 2016 (while importing 258 million USD).
Figures for Georgia in 2016 were generally similar, with a Chinese surplus of 344 million USD. Sino-Armenian trade figures are even lower with total trade volume for 2015 at 454 million USD and a surplus of 267.21 million USD for China although these numbers placed China as Armenia’s second largest foreign trade partner. Thus, the Caucasian republics must look to improved transportation links and expected transit fees to improve their trade positions with China, barring a significant surge in commodity prices (oil and gas for Azerbaijan, copper for Armenia).
However, expectations of gains from the “One Belt, One Road” project is contingent on the inauguration of the long-delayed Kars-Tbilisi-Baku railway as well as the speed of port facility improvements in both Azerbaijan and Georgia. Although politicians from these countries have pledged cooperation in streamlining customs processes along the route, it is difficult to comment on how it will be carried out on the ground.
Furthermore, an increase in trade figures also assumes a degree of political stability in the region, not only concerning Georgia’s fraught relations with Russia, Azerbaijan’s tense relations with Armenia, but also concerning domestic Turkish politics and competing sovereignty claims to the Caspian Sea, a key link in the transportation process. Given these potential gridlocks (and China’s limited sway in this region), it is perhaps just as well that Xi Jinping did not talk up the Silk Road at Davos.
About the author:
*Dong Yan is a doctoral candidate in history at University of California, Los Angeles
During April 2017 Jupiter is in opposition: it is at its closest to Earth and the hemisphere facing Earth is fully illuminated by the Sun. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope used this special configuration to capture an image of what is by far the largest planet in the Solar System. This image adds to many others made in the past, and together they allow astronomers to study changes in the atmosphere of the gas giant.
On 7 April Jupiter will come into opposition, the point at which the planet is located directly opposite the Sun in the sky. This means that the Sun, Earth and Jupiter line up, with Earth sitting in between the Sun and the gas giant.
Opposition also marks the planet’s closest approach to Earth — about 670 million kilometres — so that Jupiter appears brighter in the night sky than at any other time in the year. This event allows astronomers using telescopes in space and on the ground to see more detail in the atmosphere of Jupiter.
On 3 April Hubble took advantage of this favourable alignment and turned its sharp eye towards Jupiter to add to the collection of images of our massive neighbour. Hubble observed Jupiter using its Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), which allows observations in ultraviolet, visible and infrared light. The final image shows a sharp view of Jupiter and reveals a wealth of features in its dense atmosphere. As it is so close, Hubble can resolve features as small as about 130 kilometres across.
The surface of Jupiter is divided into several distinct, colourful bands, running parallel to the equator. These bands are created by differences in the opacity of the clouds which have varying quantities of frozen ammonia in them; the lighter bands have higher concentrations than the darker bands. The differing concentrations are kept separate by fast winds which can reach speeds of up to 650 kilometres per hour.
The most recognisable feature on Jupiter is the huge anticyclonic storm, called the Great Red Spot — this storm is large enough to engulf a whole Earth-sized planet at once. However, as with the last images of Jupiter taken by Hubble and telescopes on the ground, this new image confirms that the huge storm which has raged on Jupiter’s surface for at least 150 years continues to shrink. The reason for this is still unknown. So Hubble will continue to observe Jupiter in the hope that scientists will solve this stormy riddle.
Next to the famous Great Red Spot a much smaller storm can be seen at farther southern latitudes. Because of its similar appearance but much smaller size it was dubbed “Red Spot Junior”.
The observations of Jupiter form part of the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) programme, which allows Hubble to dedicate time each year to observing the outer planets. This way scientists have access to a collection of maps, which helps them to understand not only the atmospheres of the giant planets in the Solar System, but also the atmospheres of our own planet and of the planets that are being discovered around other stars. The programme began in 2014 with Uranus, and has been studying Jupiter and Neptune since 2015. In 2018, it will begin viewing Saturn.
In the search for answers to the complex health problems and colony losses experienced by honey bees in recent years, it may be time for professionals and hobbyists in the beekeeping industry to look in the mirror.
In a research essay to be published this week in the Entomological Society of America’s Journal of Economic Entomology, Robert Owen argues that human activity is a key driver in the spread of pathogens afflicting the European honey bee (Apis mellifera)–the species primarily responsible for pollination and honey production around the world–and recommends a series of collective actions necessary to stem their spread.
While some research seeks a “magic bullet” solution to honeybee maladies such as Colony Collapse Disorder, “many of the problems are caused by human action and can only be mitigated by changes in human behavior,” Owen said.
Owen is author of The Australian Beekeeping Handbook, owner of a beekeeping supply company, and a Ph.D. candidate at the Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis (CEBRA) at the University of Melbourne. In his essay in the Journal of Economic Entomology, he outlines an array of human-driven factors that have enabled the spread of honey bee pathogens:
Regular, large-scale, and loosely regulated movement of bee colonies for commercial pollination. (For instance, in February 2016 alone, of the 2.66 million managed bee colonies in the United States, 1.8 million were transported to California for almond crop pollination.).
Carelessness in the application of integrated pest management principles leading to overuse of pesticides and antibiotics, resulting in increased resistance to them among honey bee parasites and pathogens such as the Varroa destructor mite and the American Foul Brood bacterium (Paenibacillus larvae),
The international trade in honey bees and honey bee products that has enabled the global spread of pathogens such as varroa destructor, tracheal mite (Acarapis woodi), Nosema cerana, Small Hive Beetle (Aethina tumida ), and the fungal disease chalkbrood (Ascosphaera apis).
Lack of skill or dedication among hobbyist beekeepers to adequately inspect and manage colonies for disease.
Owen offers several suggestions for changes in human behavior to improve honey bee health, including:
Stronger regulation both of global transport of honey bees and bee products and of migratory beekeeping practices within countries for commercial pollination.
Greater adherence to integrated pest management practices among both commercial and hobbyist beekeepers.
Increased education of beekeepers on pathogen management (perhaps requiring such education for registration as a beekeeper).
Deeper support networks for hobby beekeepers, aided by scientists, beekeeping associations, and government.
“The problems facing honeybees today are complex and will not be easy to mitigate,” said Owen. “The role of inappropriate human action in the spread of pathogens and the resulting high numbers of colony losses needs to be brought into the fore of management and policy decisions if we are to reduce colony losses to acceptable levels.”
At India’s initiative, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation on Thursday with the Prime Minister of India ,Narendra Modi.
According to the Kremlin, Modi expressed his profound condolences over the terrorist attack in the St. Petersburg metro and said that India resolutely condemns this crime.
The two leaders called for more active efforts on the part of the international community to fight terrorism and extremism.
They also discussed a number of current bilateral cooperation matters in the context of Modi’s upcoming visit to Russia in June 2017.
Around 100 Syrians were gassed last week when President Bashar Assad’s genocidal regime showered chemical weapons on citizens, including children. How will the international community respond?
We have not forgotten the 2013 chemical attacks in Ghouta, when around 1,000 people were killed while then-US President Barack Obama humiliatingly admitted that America’s red lines would not be enforced. The repeated use of these weapons proves that efforts to destroy Assad’s chemical arsenal have achieved nothing.
Power comes with obligation. Negligent officials in civilized nations who fail to protect their citizens should be held accountable. Who will hold UN Security Council members to account for negligence for failing to prevent massacres of hundreds of thousands of Syrians?
Britain and France shrug and say it is all too difficult. Russia is a party to the killing, and shamelessly tells blatant lies to protect its bloodthirsty allies. China hides behind Russia. Security Council sessions are an embarrassing farce played out before the world.
Even if this dysfunctional Council issues condemnation, are we supposed to applaud? Are those Syrians lying in hospital with lungs shredded by chemical burns supposed to feel vindicated? Such a lethargic response is beyond parody.
US President Donald Trump appears unsure how to react. Despite condemning Obama for “weakness,” in 2013 he said military force should not be used. Until recently he was indicating that Assad was a necessary bulwark against Daesh.
An emboldened Assad thus believed he had carte blanche to slaughter the children of Idlib, even striking hospitals full of the dying. Trump says the massacre of Syrian children has caused him to change his mind about Assad. What does this mean?
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing. During the Nuremburg trials after World War II, German officials were condemned for failing to prevent crimes against humanity. How have UN leading members, responsible for guaranteeing global security, done differently? Can there be no accountability for such catastrophic negligence?
Just as we have seen octogenarian former Nazis plucked out of hiding and put on trial for war crimes, Assad will remain a war criminal until he departs this earth. Clinging on to power must not allow him to escape justice. Those who act for the International Criminal Court (ICC) must relentlessly pursue those responsible for Syria’s suffering, including those whose negligence allowed genocide to occur.
It grieves me as a journalist when Syrians ask me why the world shows such indifference and fatigue over their plight. What more can we in the media do to make every right-thinking person demand action?
American leaders wonder why rogue states provoke them. Syria is the reason why power-hungry dictators feel emboldened. Because tens of thousands of children can be slaughtered with impunity and gassed with sarin in Syria, Iran knows that America’s “red lines” are meaningless. Tehran is the de facto power in Syria today, every bit as responsible for the killing as the regime.
Because of Syria, Israel knows it can get away with murder. North Korea knows it can pursue its nuclear and ballistic programs. The global system is too dysfunctional to act. Russian President Vladimir Putin is a nobody with a second-rate army and nostalgia for Soviet-era expansionism. Yet NATO’s inability to challenge him has emboldened him to live out his fantasies of meddling wherever he chooses.
The failure of the Security Council’s permanent members to take their conflict-resolution mandate seriously in Syria, again and again, allows militias, terrorist cells, separatists, warlords, rogue states and jihadists to proliferate with impunity worldwide.
Without Syria, Daesh would not have had the strategic depth in 2014 to overrun half of Iraq. Failure to take a zero-tolerance approach to state collapse in Syria means dozens of states today are in various stages of fragmentation and simmering anarchy. Either we have an effective system of international justice, offering security and accountability, or the world is governed by the Machiavellian logic of “might is right.”
Syria is a perfect storm of crises: Mass displacement; arms proliferation, terrorism, radicalization and humanitarian catastrophe. Instead of acknowledging that greater resources, capacity and multilateral engagement are urgently necessary, the West shrugs its shoulders. Electorates are voting for those who can build bigger walls, not those with the vision to act.
The world looks increasingly scary to people in the West, so they shut their eyes and hope it will go away. Even the Arab world is becoming more inclined to avert its eyes. This will not go away. The regional ramifications of the Syrian crisis escalate year-on-year, and will ultimately engulf us all. The failure to act is ours collectively. Isolationism is the strategy of burying one’s head in the sand. When you do so while the tide is coming in, you will drown.
*Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate, a foreign editor at Al-Hayat, and has interviewed numerous heads of state.
