THE NORWICH RADICAL IN 2020

Posted on December 31, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Community, Inter|national, Perspectives, Student and tagged arts, asexuality, black lives matter, black rebellion, covid, defund, dictionary, Donald Trump, education, featured, future, glinner, highlights, hope, iraq, LGBTQIA+, mr ripley, mutual aid, Norwich Radical, noughts and crosses, Orban, pandemic, Poland, police, retrospective, review, Roma, transphobia, Yangon, year in review, yir, ZAD du Carnet.

by The Norwich Radical team

At year’s end, many of us feel the pull to try and put a positive spin on the preceding 12 month period – to celebrate its joys, while recognising its difficulties in order to put them behind us as we look to the new year with a hopeful eye. At the end of 2020, it is particularly difficult to find a positive angle from which to look back, or forward. The slow-motion explosion that is Brexit has rolled on, the UK government that came to power just over a year ago has taken every opportunity to demonstrate its incompetence and corruption, and the mainstream media has continued to side with the powerful over the marginalised. And then there’s the elephant in every room – the Covid-19 pandemic, which has pushed many of the institutions we rely on to breaking point, revealing just how little many governments care about the lives of their more vulnerable citizens.

WHY IS THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY NOT PUSHING TO ENTER THE US UNDER THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT?

Posted on July 21, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged anti black, antifa, BAME, barr, black, black lives matter, burundi, CHAZ, Donald Trump, featured, george floyd, iraq, ken cuccinelli, neoliberal, police brutality, police violence, policing, portland, poverty, prison, race, racism, reparations, responsibility to protect, suicide, Syria, system, uk.

by Sarah Edgcumbe

CW: racism, violence, police brutality, suicide

I’ll admit, the title of this article is posed in a slightly tongue-in-cheek manner, but the underlying premise points to two concurring factors: the hypocrisy and northern hemisphere-bias underpinning global governance, and the distinct shift towards authoritarianism that we are currently seeing in Trump’s America; the latter possibly justifying intervention under the Responsibility to Protect doctrine. The Trump administration’s current bent towards authoritarianism is not mere hyperbole, nor the incendiary Twitter-ranting of an orange mad man, but a dark and extremely worrying leap towards the kind of repression that characterizes Assad’s Syria, or the recent kidnappings in Iraq, wherein those protesting against the regime are bundled into unmarked cars and whisked away into the night. Continue Reading

ISIS BRIDE SHAMIMA BEGUM IS BRITISH WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT

Posted on July 16, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged Bangladesh, Boris Johnson, brainwashing, Brexit, british media, citizenship, counterterrorism, daesh, eurocentric, Eurocentrism, featured, grooming, institutional racism, iraq, Iraq War, ISIS, Islam, Islamaphobia, Muslim, prevent, radicalization, sajid david, Saudi Arabia, scaremongering, Shamima Begum, Syria, tabloid, terrorism, theresa may, xenophobia, Yemen.

By Jonathan Lee

Another day, another outrage. This time it’s about one-time ‘ISIS bride’ Shamima Begum, a 20-year-old girl from Bethnal Green who has finally had her right to return home recognised, after leaving the UK in 2014 to join the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.

Begum had her citizenship stripped from her in February 2019 by the Home Office. This was declared legal on account of her being a Bangladeshi dual national, meaning she would not be made stateless. However, when she was asked by the BBC, she said she did not have a Bangladeshi passport and had never been to the country. Regardless of the decision against her, her son was a British citizen and should have been allowed to return. Perhaps if he had been allowed to he might have survived. As it was he died of pneumonia in a refugee camp in Northern Syria, a month after his mother had her citizenship revoked. You have to wonder if this all would have happened had she been white?Continue Reading

WILL IRAQ’S NEW PRIME MINISTER RECOGNISE ROMA RIGHTS?

Posted on June 1, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged Al-Monitor, ba'ath, Baghdad, displacement, featured, GRT, gypsy, idp, iraq, iraq inquiry, Iraq occupation, Iraq War, KRI, media, middle east, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, Roma, Saddam, saddam hussein, shia.

by Sarah Edgcumbe

In early May 2020, Mustafa al-Kadhimi was appointed as Iraq’s new Prime Minister against the context of ongoing protests and popular discontent resulting from widespread government corruption. This corruption has contributed massively towards increasing poverty, reduction in public services and rising unemployment. Since the 2003 U.S. led invasion of Iraq, social cohesion has fractured perhaps (but hopefully not) irrevocably, with politics and society becoming increasingly sectarian.

The effects of the sectarian conflict in Iraq have been widely reported on, but the media has remained largely silent on the dire situation of the Iraqi Roma. This lack of attention by the media is reflective of the neglect of the Roma of Iraq by the government, humanitarian and human rights organizations and largely speaking, civic society in general. The complete lack of information produced by the Iraqi government on the Iraqi Roma is symptomatic of the de facto policies of ostracization and othering which have persisted since the formation of the Iraqi state in the 1920s. The number of Roma residents in Iraq, including the Kurdish Region of Iraq (KRI), is unknown, but best estimates place the figure at nearly 200,000 – translating to roughly 0.5% of the Iraqi population. Continue Reading

COLONIALISM, CORRUPTION & CHAOS: THE DISILLUSIONMENT OF IRAQI YOUTH

Posted on October 15, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi, anti-war, ba'ath, Baghdad, bias, british politics, civilian death, CPA, daesh, displaced, featured, illegal war, iraq, iraq inquiry, Iraq occupation, Iraq War, ISIS, islamophobia, legal action, media, middle east, Mohammed Halbusi, Muslim, Paul Bremer, refugee, Saddam, saddam hussein, shia, soliders, tony blair, weapons of mass destruction, WMD, Zahra Ali.

by Sarah Edgcumbe

During early October 2019, in the space of just nine days, Iraqi state forces killed over one hundred young people and injured thousands more. Thousands. In just nine days. As anti-corruption protests broke out, the state deployed live ammunition almost immediately. In some places, snipers positioned themselves on rooftops, picking off young Iraqi citizens who had nothing left to lose except the hope that they would one day experience a government that provides for their basic needs rather than greedily shovelling oil revenue into its own pockets.

The catalyst for these protests was the sacking of Lieutenant General Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi, who led the fight against ISIS as part of Iraq’s elite counter terrorism unit, and who was widely acknowledged as the liberator of Mosul. As soon as his transfer to an administrative role was made public, speculation arose that ‘his refusal to back a specific political party made him unpopular among officials in Baghdad’, and that he was ‘removed from his post because he broke sectarian barriers in Mosul.’ The sacking of al-Saadi was widely perceived as emblematic of the corruption that has characterized successive post-U.S invasion administrations, resulting in widespread protests against corruption, unemployment and poor public services. Continue Reading

DYING FOR OIL: DEMILITARISATION IS ESSENTIAL FOR CLIMATE TRANSFORMATION

Posted on September 30, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged Afghanistan, arms, arms trade, climate change, climate crisis, climate emergency, climate justice, conflict, ecocide, environment, iraq, militarisation, US, US DOD, US military, war.

by Lotty Clare

The environmental and climatic impacts of war and conflict have long been silent causalities. Environmental implications throughout the timelines of conflict are huge. From deforestation, mining for metals, use of chemical weapons, ‘scorched’ earth tactics, plunder of resources, and collapse of environmental management systems. Natural resources can cause war, fuel war, and be destroyed by war.

THE DEATH OF EUROPE AS IT ONCE WAS

Posted on June 1, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Borderlines, Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged compassion, Egypt, ethnocentrism, Europe, featured, France, iraq, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, marie rose, nationalism, refugees, Syria, turkey, vigilantes, war crimes, xenophobia.

By Sarah Edgcumbe

Since the beginning of the conflict in Syria in 2012, over three million civilians have fled the country. The vast majority are currently living in Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt and Libya. Afghanistan has been subjected to war for four decades resulting in Afghans comprising the second highest refugee population in the world, yet the vast majority of Afghan refugees live in Iran and Pakistan. This resettlement of Syrian and Afghan refugees in neighbouring countries is no anomaly: the majority of refugees around the world reside in countries neighbouring their own. These countries often have poor economies and fragility of peace and governance, yet they often accommodate millions of refugees.

SHAMIMA BEGUM IS A REFLECTION OF SOCIETAL FAILURE: WE MUST BRING HER HOME AND LEARN

Posted on March 19, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged brainwashing, british media, citizenship, counterterrorism, daesh, eurocentric, Eurocentrism, featured, grooming, institutional racism, iraq, Iraq War, ISIS, Islam, Islamaphobia, Muslim, prevent, radicalization, sajid david, Saudi Arabia, scaremongering, Shamima Begum, Syria, terrorism, xenophobia, Yemen.

By Sarah Edgcumbe

The British press has been in a frenzy recently over nineteen-year-old Shamima Begum and her desire to return to the UK from the refugee camp in Syria where she currently resides. There are probably very few people in the UK who are unaware that Shamima travelled from the UK to ISIS territory in Syria at the age of fifteen, where she married an ISIS militant, conceived and lost two children before giving birth to a third (who also passed away) in the refugee camp in Syria she currently calls home.Continue Reading

THE FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE

Posted on October 3, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged Brexit, Catalan, identity, independence, India, iraq, ISIS, KRG, Kurdistan, nationalism, police brutality, politics, referendum, Scotland, South Sudan, spain, Syria, turkey, war.

By Gunnar Eigener

“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.”

Napoleon BonaparteContinue Reading

KARL MARX DEFENDS HENRY KISSINGER BEFORE THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

Posted on January 9, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged capitalist, chief defense counsel, class struggle, Clinton, death, distinguished public service award, drones, east timor, external, gaddafi, henry kissinger, ICC, international criminal court, iraq, karl marx, kissinger, Libya, Madeleine Albright, mass murderers, nobel peace prize, nuremberg, obama, reaper drones, satire, the hague, war hero, West, writing.

by Gary Olson

Content warning: mentions mass murder and drone warfare

Mr. Robert Walpole
Editor-in-Chief
The Onion
1000 Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60611

Dear Mr. Walpole:

I read in The Atlantic that Cole Bolton, The Onion’s editor in 2015, said that his publication is devoted to “calling out bullshit” and has “had an anti-corporate rebellious streak throughout [their] editorial history.”

Taking that mission seriously, I submit to you the satire below.

In the spirit of speaking truth to power,

Gary Olson

In a parallel universe, Henry Kissinger is being prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court at The Hague in the Netherlands. Seated at the table with Kissinger is his cunning choice for Chief Defense Counsel, none other than Karl Marx.

The ICC’s Chief Prosecutor addresses the three-judge Trial Chamber, reminding them that the preamble of the Rome Statute establishing the court states “that the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole must not go unpunished.”

She draws upon a myriad of impeccable sources, including historian Greg Grandin’s new book Kissinger’s Shadow. The judges are stunned by the prosecutor’s searing portrayal of the defendant’s alleged responsibility for so many deaths — six million in Indochina alone. An anguished look crosses the face of Norwegian judge Olaf Ingeborg as he watches some unspeakably macabre visual evidence.Continue Reading

iraq

THE NORWICH RADICAL IN 2020

by The Norwich Radical team

WHY IS THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY NOT PUSHING TO ENTER THE US UNDER THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT?

ISIS BRIDE SHAMIMA BEGUM IS BRITISH WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT

WILL IRAQ’S NEW PRIME MINISTER RECOGNISE ROMA RIGHTS?

COLONIALISM, CORRUPTION & CHAOS: THE DISILLUSIONMENT OF IRAQI YOUTH

DYING FOR OIL: DEMILITARISATION IS ESSENTIAL FOR CLIMATE TRANSFORMATION

THE DEATH OF EUROPE AS IT ONCE WAS

SHAMIMA BEGUM IS A REFLECTION OF SOCIETAL FAILURE: WE MUST BRING HER HOME AND LEARN

THE FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE

KARL MARX DEFENDS HENRY KISSINGER BEFORE THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

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