Inter|national Section Writer
Articles:
(10.08.18) – Islamophobia in the UK – ‘Tommy Robinson’ is a Symptom not the Problem
The sentencing in May this year of Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon (stage name ‘Tommy Robinson’) to 13 months for contempt of court has caused quite a reaction from his fellows on the far right. On Saturday 9th June, an estimated 15,000 people turned out for a mass rally in London in support of Yaxley-Lennon, Trump and ‘free speech’. The sinister focal point of the rally was to link rape and child sexual exploitation with migration and Islam.
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(20.03.18) – The Meaning of Rees-Mogg
The latest official line on Britain’s European exit struck a more considered and conciliatory tone. Early this month at Mansion House the Maybot reassured her detractors: “there have been many different voices and views in the debate on what our new relationship with the EU should look like. I have listened carefully to them all”.
Meanwhile, behind the curtain, Eaton College’s answer to Mr. Twit lurks in the wings with rhetorical flush and imperial vision. Dr Fox preaches the utopia of “free trade” and Rees-Mogg casually offers up a well-thumbed copy of Oliver Twist for inspiration. The three Brexiteers, it appears, are in the driving seat.
A simple question remains: what exactly is it that they want, these Brexiteers?
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(07.02.18) – Against Popular Environmentalism
The earth is facing major – and quite possibly irreversible – environmental catastrophe and ecological breakdown. No need to panic. The Paris climate agreement was a resounding success, was it not?
On the one hand, one set of researchers estimate that at our current trajectory, we have about a 5% chance of remaining below the 2C threshold set out in the Paris agreement in 2015. On the other, a recent audit of the agreement conducted by the United Nations (UN) made it clear that even if the Paris agreement was to be met in full, it won’t be enough of a shift to avoid a total planetary clusterfuck of epic proportions. In his statement on the matter, head of UN Environment Erik Solheim suggested that “if we invest in the right technologies, ensuring that the private sector is involved, we can still meet the promise we made to our children to protect their future”.
What if the “private sector” is the problem? In order to decode the question we need to be clear what the private sector is, what its objectives are, and the kind of power it has over environmental policy.
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(17.01.18) – United We Stand, Ignited We March – New Youth Politics in India
Politically engaged and youthful social movements of India’s marginalised and oppressed are coming together, under one umbrella, to demand social change with one voice. The situation on the ground has rattled India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
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(10.01.18) – Whiteness, Palestine and ‘the Jewish State’
Israel’s population is 74.7% Jewish, 20.8% Arab and 4.5% “other”. According to the latest population statistics, “those of European and American ancestry make up about 2.2 million (36%) of the Jewish population, while Africans fill out another 14.5% and Asians are 11.2%.”
That being said, there are also currently around 50,000 African Migrants in Israel, most of whom are from Eritrea or Sudan. Under the UN Refugee Convention (signed by Israel in 1954) no migrant can be forcibly returned to their country of origin. Israel currently abides by this convention, but systematically refuses to grant asylum to refugees, irrespective of their status and the potential danger and persecution they have fled.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Emmanuel Nahshon, recently spewed out the reason for the impasse: Asylum seekers threaten Israel’s identity. The Israeli cabinet has now approved the morally repugnant Holot migrant detention centre, in Israel’s Negev desert, for closure. As a result, two options were laid on the table: step up deportations or jail those who refuse to leave Israel.
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(27.12.17) – Trump Plays Honest Broker: ‘Facts on the Ground’ & The Recognition of Jerusalem
The latest disaster in US foreign policy since Donald Trump’s notoriously tiny hands grabbed hold of the levers of US power is the uni-lateral decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Trump’s decision and his failure to gain significant backing for the move at the United Nations, have dominated recent international coverage of Israeli politics and current affairs. Conveniently for the Israeli government, it has overshadowed the corruption investigations currently engulfing the Israeli Prime Minister and resident waxwork, Benjamin Netanyahu.
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(13.12.17) – Rahul Gandhi’s Tryst with Destiny?
On the 11th December, as many observers of Indian politics have long expected, Rahul Gandhi was confirmed as president of the Indian National Congress while out campaigning in Gujarat. He will be officially sworn in on the 16th December.
During the 2014 Indian election campaign, the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Narendra Modi, successfully lampooned the Congress Party for its “anti-democratic dynastic culture”, deriding Rahul Gandhi as an “egoist prince”. The Congress, Modi claimed, was an orgy of decadence, corruption and unaccountability, that was out of touch with ‘the people’. This ruse appears to have chimed with the Indian electorate: the BJP stormed to victory with the Congress registering its worst ever performance.
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(30.11.17) – Architectures of Power or Delusions of Grandeur?
Despite being considered one of the “seven wonders of the world”, the Taj Mahal was bizarrely absent from a tourism booklet produced this summer by the state government of Uttar Pradesh (UP). Completed between 1631 and 1648, the Taj Mahal is perhaps the finest existing example of Mughal architecture, considered ‘the jewel of Muslim art in India’, in 1983 it was designated a UNESCO world heritage site.
Its international prestige notwithstanding, a storm has been brewing around the famous monument: it has been the scene of regular protests and the focus of an increasingly prominent political campaign to marginalise its national and cultural significance.
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(15.11.17) – Ethnic Violence in the Mainstream Media: Some Notes on India and Myanmar.
Content warning: ethnic cleansing, genocide, racial violence.
Recent mainstream media coverage of the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar has followed an all too familiar pattern of reporting on ethnic violence. The focus is on ethnic “passions” and unique “cultures”. Ethnic violence is framed as a remote and alien force that belongs to a bygone era.
The Norwich Radical 