THE GROWING THREAT OF VIOLENCE

Posted on September 27, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged Abeer al-Janabi, AFD, Arkadiusz Jozwik, Brexit, Christopher Columbus, Colin Kaepernick, Donald Trump, eurosceptic, freedom party, front nationale, global society, hate crime, immigration, iraq, Jim Crow laws, Jo Cox, national anthem, NFL, NPCC, police, police killings, political leverage, prison strike, prisoners, racism, rape, refugee crisis, soldiers, Steven Green, uk, US, violence, Winston Churchill, xenophobia.

by Gunnar Eigener

Content warning: mentions racism, xenophobia, rape, hate crime, racial abuse, Donald Trump.

Statistics reported by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) showed a 46% spike in hate crimes in the week that followed Brexit. A Polish man, Arkadiusz Jozwik, was killed by a gang of teenagers in Harlow in August. Hours after a march in his memory, two more Polish men were attacked. In September, a pregnant woman, of Middle-Eastern appearance, was racially abused and kicked in the stomach causing her to lose her baby. Across the UK, areas that voted for the Leave campaign have seen increase in reported hate crime. Brexit has left racists and xenophobes feeling morally justified in their actions and beliefs.

Yet Brexit is just a small part of the problem, one that is growing fast, forming a pattern across many countries and something that is already deeply entrenched in our global society.Continue Reading

DID BLAIR HAVE A HERO COMPLEX?

Posted on July 11, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged 9/11, Afghanistan, Afghanistan war, Al-Qaeda, albania, army, Chilcot inquiry, democracy, extremism, George Bush, hero complex, humanitarian crisis, I'm with you, identity, iraq inquiry, Iraq War, Jack Straw, Kosovo, Lord Goldsmith, Milosevic, Nato, new labour, Osama bin Laden, peace, refugees, saddam hussein, serbia, soldiers, Taliban, tony blair, UN Security Council, we are many, weapons of mass destruction, WMD, Yugoslavia.

by Natasha Senior

It is difficult to remember a time when Tony Blair was considered a real hero. But that was the mood when he won the 1997 general election in a landslide. ‘New Labour. New Britain’ was his slogan, as he put an end to the old Labour politics that the people distrusted and vowed to carry Britain proudly into the new millennium. People were chanting his name in the streets, the euphoria was palpable. A stark juxtaposition to where we are today, 13 years after the Iraq War began, the world still reeling from Blair’s decisions. A hero is the last thing we would call him now.

Blair has always been regarded as a master tactician who could easily manipulate the situation to his favour and he knew that he possessed this extraordinary power. But it is how he wanted to wield this power that would cause his downfall. He wanted to leave a legacy. A grand ambition that could only be realised through a grand accomplishment: striking down the biggest villains of the world, one after another.Continue Reading

UN PEACEKEEPING’S SEXUAL ABUSE PROBLEM, PART 2

Posted on May 18, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged Babacar Gaye, Ban Ki-Moon, Central African Republic, civilian employees, Egypt, female staff, female troops, Herve Ladsous, military personnel, MINUSCA, operations, peacekeepers, Resolution 2272, sexism, sexual abuse, sexual assault, soldiers, UN, UN force, UN peacekeeping, UN Security Council, united nations, women.

by Zoe Harding

TW: Sexual assault, rape, genocide.

Last week, we looked at the UN’s recent history of sexual assault and corruption on peacekeeping operations around the world. Despite the best efforts of two secretary-generals and nearly 20 years of reported crimes, the UN has yet to eliminate the persistent problems of ‘transactional sex’ and straight-up assault from among its peacekeeper forces. The crimes are committed both by members of various national militaries contributed to UN forces and by civilian employees, all of whom are currently essentially immune to prosecution. But what is the United Nations doing about it? What other action could be taken?

The United Nations isn’t ignoring this problem, and after the forced resignation of Babacar Gaye, (commander of the particularly abusive MINUSCA mission in the Central African Republic) in August 2015 the organisation has actively begun implementing new measures to prevent this kind of peacekeeper abuse. Unfortunately, the action that’s been taken so far hasn’t been particularly heartening.Continue Reading

UN PEACEKEEPING’S SEXUAL ABUSE PROBLEM, PART I

Posted on May 14, 2016 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged #PredatoryPeacekeepers, Al Jazeera, authority, Ban Ki-Moon, blue helmets, Bosnia, CAR, crime, currency, genocide, Graça Machel, international law, KFOR, Kofi Anna, Kosovo, Lebanon, Mogadishu, Mozambique, peacekeeprs, petition, prejudice, rape, Rwanda, sexual assault, soldiers, somalia, UN, united nations, violence.

by Zoe Harding

TW: Sexual assault, rape, genocide.

Founded in 1948, the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations is intended to ‘help countries torn by conflict to create the conditions for lasting peace.’ Their role is not as direct military intervention during conflicts; instead, they observe ongoing peace processes and stop ceasefires and peace treaties from collapsing back into armed conflict, while also working to help refugees and the displaced. Peacekeepers aren’t just soldiers- they also employ aid workers, diplomats, medics, engineers and negotiators. They’re the ‘world’s army’, with their distinctive blue helmets and white-painted vehicles, and in their prime they’ve stood up to global superpowers and stabilised seemingly irredeemable trouble spots.

Despite very public failures like the disastrous Somalia mission and the failed attempts to prevent genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda, the United Nations continues to operate peacekeeping missions around the world. They work to protect and improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world – those living in some of the world’s worst war zones.

Unfortunately, that’s the problem.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF WAR

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged Afghanistan, arms trade, army, Combat Stress, daesh, defense, diplomacy, ESAG, iraq, mental health, military, nationalism, objector, patriotism, service, soldier, soldiers, support, Syria, troops, uk, US, veterans, war, weapons, welfare.

by Gunnar Eigener

When soldiers go to war, they face a grave peril. On the battlefield they face a danger that most of us back at home have no comprehension of. If we follow the logic of the Government regarding their policy of airstrikes in Syria, it is likely that boots on the ground may very well become part of the military intervention to defeat Daesh. Once again, young men and women will be asked to put their lives on the line for their country and for democracy. Irrespective of your view on a particular military venture, such men and women deserve our respect, but should our government really be sending our armed forces into war yet again, if they aren’t able to uphold their promises to look after them and guarantee their welfare when they come home?Continue Reading

EAGLES OF DEATH

Posted on December 3, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Inter|national and tagged #DontBombSyria, #SyriaVote, Aleppo, army, Bataclan, bomb, bombings, creative writing, daesh, Damascus, david cameron, family, jeremy corbyn, poem, poetry, response, soldiers, Stevenage, Syria, terror, war.

by Chris Jarvis

The skies over Damascus are silent tonight
as the Eagles of Death whistle through the air
and the Bataclan looks on, betrayed and manipulated.
A weeping cloud dampens the scarred earth with tears
and little splatterings of embers dance amongst the rubble.Continue Reading

soldiers

THE GROWING THREAT OF VIOLENCE

DID BLAIR HAVE A HERO COMPLEX?

UN PEACEKEEPING’S SEXUAL ABUSE PROBLEM, PART 2

UN PEACEKEEPING’S SEXUAL ABUSE PROBLEM, PART I

THE CONSEQUENCES OF WAR

EAGLES OF DEATH

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