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Visiting Assistant Professor of Film Studies Jeff Bemiss is an Oscar-shortlisted writer/director who has created short films, features, and documentaries. Most recently, Bemiss co-directed Missing in Brooks County, which will premiere on PBSs Independent Lens on January 31 at 10:00 p.m. Eastern (check local listings). The film also will be available to stream on the PBS Video app. The feature documentaryco-directed with Lisa Molomot and executive produced by Abigail Disney/Fork Films and Engel Entertainmentshines a light on the missing migrant crisis in South Texas. It is an ITVS co-production with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

As part of Trinitys Film Studies Program since 2013, Bemiss teaches an introduction to film production, in addition to courses on screenwriting, advanced filmmaking, and editing. Documentary is having a golden period right now, Bemiss said, noting the recent mainstream success of documentary films in theaters and online streaming services. With documentary, students have the best chance to create successful films that an audience will respond to. Documentary presents you with the storyyou just have to recognize it and figure out how to tell it.

Below, Bemiss discusses his filmmaking experiences and how he uses them to teach Trinity students.

I was 8 years old when Star Wars came out and it set my imagination on fire. It sent a generation of students to film school and I was one of them. Theres no one route to becoming a filmmaker; generally, you either work your way up from a production assistant, or you can just direct something, which was the more independent path that I took. I made a 30-minute scripted film a few years out of college, The Book and the Rose, which became one of 10 semi-finalists for the Oscar for best short film. Since then Ive worked on various projects and I started teaching. At some point, I got tired of waiting for permission to do work, in the form of financial backing and investors, so I got interested in documentary. Scripted film takes an enormous amount of money for casting and locations to even start. With documentary, if you have an idea and a camera, you can just begin. I kind of got hooked on it.

I had met my co-director on the film, Lisa Molomot, at Trinitywe were both teaching here and we wanted to work together. A little while after she left for Arizona, I heard a radio documentary about a forensic scientist named Lori Baker at Baylor University, who was doing the work of exhuming anonymous migrants buried in south Texas. She was trying to identify them to bring closure to their families who had no idea what happened to them. I was very moved by it for some reason; I do have some family from Mexico. Lisa and I reached out to Dr. Baker, who invited us to Texas and took us to Brooks County; its not even a border county, but thats where the problem is. It went from what we thought would be a short profile of this forensic scientist to a four-year endeavor to document and film what was going on in Brooks County.

The key to most documentaries is access. Building trust with the participants in the film was slow-going at the beginning. This was not the film we set out to make. When it did pivot, it became a process of finding the story. We made 15 trips in total to Brooks Countyusually for about two to three weeks each trip. It got really complicated; we met volunteers and activists, judges, undertakers, sheriffs, and most of all we met families of the missing. We filmed for about four years. PBS came in as a co-producer on the film, which was like a rescue. When they came on board, it allowed us to finish the film properly, which we were struggling to do at the time.

I think maybe a few thousand people have seen the film on the festival circuit. When PBS broadcasts it and it goes up on the PBS website, it will be seen by millions. Most people dont know whats happening in Brooks County, and when they see it, they may be shocked. Its not an overtly political film. We give everyone their say, and viewers can make up their own mindsthey just need to see whats happening.

It means a great deal to us to be able to reach an audience and we feel PBS is the right platform for this film. Its free, so anyone can see it. Film has an incredible capacity to teach and to educate. One thing it also does very well is deliver an emotional experience. If you can provide learning at the same time, to me thats the ultimate achievement. This film allows people to witness something they dont witness in their everyday life, and I think its message is urgent. People are dying; this was the worst year ever for migrant deaths on our southwest border.

I always try to bring my work back to the classroom. This past semester, in Introduction to Film Studies, we watched two documentaries, one of which was Missing in Brooks County. It made for an interesting discussion because the students were in the room with the filmmaker. It changes the kinds of learning and discussions you can have. It gave students a perspective on not just the study of film, but living the life of a filmmaker.

There is also a special course, FILM 309, where we make one film in one semester together as a class. On day one, we have no idea what were going to do. We pitch ideas, we vote on them, we go out and make the film, we finish it, and we market it. The short film Coaching Colburn was produced by a previous class, and it premiered at the Big Sky Film Festival, then went all around the world. It was also part of the Trinity Film Festival at Cinestudio, both gems of the college.

Teaching is wonderful because it allows me to share my passion for filmmaking every single day. It keeps me fresh and invigorated. If I have a discouraging day with my own film projects, I always have the classroom and my students to lift me up. And of course, watching students go into the film industry and become storytellers in this medium is one of the great joys of teaching.

Not every student in a filmmaking class at Trinity is going to become a filmmaker or media creator. However, they will all go on to become media consumers. I like to balance the classes with liberal arts learning and technical learning. We do things in filmmaking that focus on the idea and the expression of the idea. Its not just cameras and editingits writing, collaborating, and critical thinking, which are all part of the traditional core liberal arts pursuits that will take any student further in life. Liberal arts can teach the value of the idea and the expression of the idea. I think thats valuable in everything, not just in film.

Missing in Brooks County will premiere on PBSs Independent Lens on January 31 at 10:00 p.m. Eastern (check local listings). See the trailer below. The film also will be available to stream on the PBS Video app. For more information on Bemiss and his other projects, visit http://www.unit-of-light.com.

To learn more about film studies at Trinity, click here.

Read more from the original source:
Q&A: Documentary by Visiting Assistant Professor of Film Studies Jeff Bemiss Airing on PBS - Trinity College

Children crowded the LOuverture Cleary School near Port-au-Prince following the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake. (Photo: George M. Martell, The Catholic Foundation, via CNS)

CAMBRIA HEIGHTS Late last summer, tens of thousands of Haitian migrants surged across the Texas-Mexico border, fleeing the ravages of a devastating earthquake back home and seeking refuge in the U.S.

An estimated 30,000 of them huddled in encampments beneath the International Bridge at Del Rio, Texas. But most had not been displaced by the recent 7.2-magnitude quake, Aug. 14, 2021, on the western portion of Haiti.

Their plight began 12 years ago, on Jan. 12, in the aftermath of the slightly smaller, but much deadlier, 7.0-magnitude earthquake, centered near the nations capital, Port-au-Prince.

In the 2021 quake, 2,050 lives were lost in Haitis mostly rural Tiburon Peninsula.

But in 2010, an estimated 300,000 died in and around the densely populated urban capital.

Haitian Catholics in the Diocese of Brooklyn believe that the disaster in 2010 created a leadership void that has given way to widespread political corruption, lawlessness, and violence in the streets and countryside ever since.

What happened to Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010, is a catalyst for everything that has happened since, said Elsie Saint Louis, who leads Haitian Americans United for Progress (HAUP), based in Hollis, Queens.

We lost 300,000-plus people, she said. It weakened all of our institutions. It weakened our government. It weakened our churches. We lost everything.

Lamentations

Saint Louis was among a few dozen Catholics who attended a special evening Mass on Jan. 12 to honor the lives lost in 2010. It was held at Sacred Heart Parish Church in Cambria Heights, Queens, which is her parish.

The celebrant was Father Hilaire Belizaire, the pastor, who is also the director of the dioceses Haitian Apostolate. Concelebrant was Father Daniel O. Kingsley, administrator of St. Clare Parish in Rosedale, Queens.

Father Kingsleys mother is from Haiti, so he has a deep connection to the nations people, their culture, and the plights they endure. Father Kingsley, who was a seminarian in the Diocese of Brooklyn at the time, shared his memories of Jan. 12, 2010, a day of solemnity for Haitians everywhere.

I remember being in the dentists office, he recalled. I was minding my own business, and I saw a woman who just got off the phone. She started screaming and yelling. She probably received the worst news of her life.

It was shocking. What do you do when someone has received the worst news?

Father Belizaire also shared his memories of that day and what he, and other Haitians in the U.S., felt numbness, helplessness, powerlessness, and hopelessness.

I can vividly recall that period of time when I was waiting for a sign, a phone call from my loved ones whom I had not heard from in days, he said. The pain became more agonizing.

Eventually, hope replaced despair as Catholics turned to their faith and channeled their emotions into relief efforts.

Father Belizaire tells a story about how, while performing missionary work in Haiti following the 2010 quake, he was at the ruins of the Sacred Heart Church in Turgeau, where only a large crucifix remained standing. A TV reporter on the scene asked, on camera: Where was God in all this?

An old lady who was close by overheard him and pointed her finger toward the crucifix, Father Belizaire recalled. Here, she said. He is here in the midst of our suffering.

Christian faith does not mean believing in impossible things, Father Belizaire said. Faith is not hoping the worst wont happen. It is knowing that there is no tragedy which cannot be redeemed.

Hope Beset by Crises

Saint Louis said disaster is nothing new to the Caribbean island nation where she was born.

But the ones following 2010 have only made things worse, like Hurricane Matthew in 2016. Last year, Tropical Depression Grace hampered rescue and recovery efforts in the aftermath of the Aug. 14 earthquake. There have been mudslides and floods.

Following all the disasters, sympathetic nations responded with relief supplies and lots of cash, but much of it has been pillaged via political corruption and lawlessness, Saint Louis said.

Roving gangs routinely hijack relief-supply convoys and commit kidnappings for ransom, including the well-publicized recent abduction of a group of U.S.-based missionaries.

Yes, she continued, the world reached out; the world was generous. But all that generosity did not reach Haiti. So it did not help Haiti rebuild. Which brings us again now to this migrant crisis.

COVID Exacerbates Problems

The COVID-19 pandemic provided even more turmoil for Haiti.

Last year, the government led by President Jovenel Mose delayed accepting 130,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine made in India following reports that in rare cases, the vaccine may cause blood clots. When officials in Haiti finally decided to send for the medicine, they were told the doses couldnt be spared because a sudden COVID-19 surge in India had reached alarming levels.

By the end of May, Haiti experienced its own jump in COVID-19 cases. The nations supreme court chief justice, Ren Sylvestre, died of the disease in June. Anxiety grew in early July as Haiti was plunged into more chaos with the assassination of President Mose.

Finally, in late August, just a couple of weeks after the latest earthquake, Haiti started getting shipments of the Moderna vaccine from the U.S., but many people refused them out of distrust of their government, according to reports.

Although deaths have remained low, as of Jan. 14, Haiti is the fourth-least vaccinated country in the world with 0.7% of the population fully vaccinated, reported The Multilateral Leaders Task Force on COVID, which is a group that tracks and monitors specific global and country-level gaps in vaccine distribution.

An 11-Country Journey

Saint Louiss organization, HAUP, helps migrants navigate the process of getting their papers in order to be in the U.S. legally. For many, its a long process, added to the heap of struggles theyve faced over the past 12 years.

They immigrated to South America because they had nowhere to go from Haiti, Saint Louis said. They were fine in Chile, but they had to migrate again because of COVID.

The migrants rushed across Central America and Mexico to the U.S. border because, according to reports, they were led to believe, erroneously, that the U.S. had opened its doors to them.

Theyve been through a lot, Saint Louis said. These people walked through 11 countries to get here.

Immigration officials cleared the camps beneath the International Bridge at Del Rio. Many were deported, some remain in detention centers, but others have been allowed to continue their journeys into the U.S.

A few thousand have already reached Brooklyn and Queens, providing lots of work for HAUP and other groups. Saint Louis urged New Yorkers to learn the stories of these migrants and to share them with elected officials here. She also appealed for financial support for Haitian-led and Haitian-serving community-based organizations.

She recounted how in September, she joined a delegation going to Texas from the diocese to meet the recently arrived Haitian refugees. The goal was to assess their needs to determine how they could be helped in New York.

The group included HAUP, Catholic Charities, and the Haitian Apostolate, represented by Father Belizaire, who was born in Cap-Haitien, Haiti.

Before the delegation was about to board flights back to New York, it made a detour upon learning of two busloads of Haitian migrants that had just arrived at a temporary holding facility in Houston.

They were not told where they were going when they got off the bus, Saint Louis said. They didnt know if they were going to be transferred or if they were going to be taken to the plane. But then they saw a man in a collar Father Hilaire who spoke their language.

And I remember the cries of joy when father told them, Youre here; youre not going to prison, youre not being returned. You are safe.

Go here to read the rest:
Catholics Are Urged to Help Reverse Crippling Legacy of 2010 Haiti Quake - The Tablet Catholic Newspaper

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The European news you deserve to read. Welcome to The Capitals by EURACTIV.

In todays news from the Capitals:

BRUSSELS

Contrary to estimates from other parts of the world that we are facing our last battle with the pandemic with Omicron, Europe takes a more cautious approach. According to EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides, who spoke to a small group of journalists in Brussels, including EURACTIV, current scientific data cannot predict if this is the last pandemic wave.

We have seen many twists and turns throughout this pandemic. So, I will not put predictions on when and whether this is going to be the last wave or not. What we do know is that vaccines have not failed us, she said.

The Cypriot Commissioner also said the option of a new vaccine targeting Omicron or multiple variants could not be ruled out and added that new therapeutics are coming up. Read more.

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EU PRESIDENCY

Macrons EU presidency presentation turns into a settling of scores. President Emmanuel Macron presented the programme of Frances six-month EU Council presidency before very agitated MEPs in Strasbourg on Wednesday, but it quickly turned into a sparring match with the French opposition. Read more.

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BERLIN

German inflation anxiety mounts amid 29-year-high. Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 2021, according to numbers from the Ifo institute in Munich, and German government bonds have returned to positive yields following an inflation anxiety-fueled purchasing spree. Read more.

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PARIS

Montebourg withdraws from French presidential elections. Former economy minister Arnaud Montebourg, who ran as an independent, announced on Wednesday that he would no longer take part in the French presidential elections. He confirmed that he would not support any other candidate. Read more.

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VIENNA

Austria pushes for more restrictive EU border protection. Austria is calling for a more rigid European border control system to reduce the number of migrants arriving in the bloc amid the ongoing migrant crisis at the Belarus border. Together with Greece, Poland and Lithuania, Austria is initiating a border protection conference in Vilnius to give its push more political weight. Read more.

UK AND IRELAND

LONDON

In the name of God, go Prime Minister Boris Johnson survived fresh humiliation on Wednesday as one of his MPs defected to the Labour party citing Johnsons disgraceful conduct and former Brexit Secretary David Davis urged the PM to in the name of God, go during a House of Commons debate. Read more.

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DUBLIN

Frontline healthcare workers to receive 1,000 bonus. Healthcare workers in Ireland who staffed the frontlines throughout the COVID-19 pandemic will receive a 1,000 tax-free bonus, the cabinet agreed on Tuesday. Read more.

NORDICS AND BALTICS

HELSINKI

Demilitarised Aland Islands again centre of security debate. Agressive Russian behaviour in the Baltic Sea has again sparked discussion on the land Islands strategic importance. Read more.

EUROPES SOUTH

ROME

Left-wing bloc opposes Berlusconis presidential candidacy. Italys left-wing bloc has agreed to oppose Silvio Berlusconis presidential candidacy if the right-wing proposed him, a source of Italys 5-Star Movement said on Wednesday. Read more.

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MADRID

Spanish MP slams government for newly agreed labour reform. Gabriel Rufin, MP and spokesman of the left Catalan independentist party (ERC), criticised the government for the labour reform agreed with trade unions and employers, during a press conference on Wednesday, eldiario.es reported. Read more.

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LISBON

Second investigation into Abramovich citizenship launched. Portuguese public prosecutors have opened a formal investigation into granting Portuguese nationality to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich under the Nationality Law for Sephardic Jews, the office of the attorney general said on Wednesday. Read more.

VISEGRAD

BUDAPEST

MEPs call for full-scale election observation in Hungary. Sixty-twoMEPs from various political groups have sent a joint letter to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), asking for a full-scale monitoring mission ahead of Hungarys elections on 3 April. Read more.

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WARSAW

EU Commission takes hard steps to make Poland pay Turw fines. The European Commission will deduct money from Polands allocation in the EU budget in response to the countrys refusal to comply with the EU Court of Justices ruling regarding the Turw mine, TVN24 TV station reported. Read more.

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PRAGUE

Prague considers sending military material to Kiev. The new Czech government wants to help Ukraine amid the escalating situation at the borders with Russia, Defence Minister Jana ernochov (ODS, ECR) said in an interview with daily Hospodsk noviny. Read more.

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BRATISLAVA

Simple defence agreement with US divides Slovakia. The defencecooperation agreement between Slovakia and the US has been major news in Slovakia for over a week now. If passed, the deal would grant the American army the right to use two military airports in exchange for access to funds aimed for investments for the modernisation of Slovakias armed forces. Read more.

NEWS FROM THE BALKANS

LJUBLJANA

Chinise backlash over Slovenian Taiwan plan. China has reacted against Slovenias plan to forge closer ties with Taiwan, labelling Prime Minister Janez Janas recent statements about Slovenia being in talks to open a representative office on the island as dangerous. Read more.

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SOFIA

Bulgarian Prime Minister reported a huge success in Skopje. Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov has described his first visit to North Macedonia which took place on 18 January, as a huge success. Read more.

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BUCHAREST

Romania abandons plan to introduce COVID passes for workers. The idea of introducing a mandatory pass for workers has been dropped after many contradictory discussions in the coalition. Read more.

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ZAGREB

Catholic church in Croatia secures 160 million from EU Solidarity Fund. The Catholic Church is the biggest winner of money from the EU Solidarity Fund. Of 150 contracted projects worth 3.5 billion kuna (466 million) through cultural heritage protection measures, 50 projects worth as much as 1.2 billion kuna (160 million) have been contracted through the Ministry of Culture, EURACTIVs partner Jutarnji list has reported. Read more.

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BELGRADE

Serbia is of no threat to anyone, says defence minister. The Army of Serbia is not a threat to anyone, nor is it intended for offensive use, Serbian Defence Minister Neboja Stefanovi said on Wednesday. Read more.

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SARAJEVO

EU representative calls for October elections to be held regardless of reform. The general elections in BiH will be held in the autumn even if no agreement is reached on amending the Election Law, said Johann Sattler, the head of the EU Delegation in Sarajevo. Read more.

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SKOPJE

Albanian party leader calls for recognition of Bulgarians in Constitution. Ali Ahmeti, leader of the biggest Albanian party DUI, called on North Macedonia to accept the demands put forward by Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, starting with including the Bulgarian nation to the Preamble of the Constitution. Ahmeti, whose power over his coalition with SDSM keeps growing, made the statement after meeting Petkov. Read more.

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PODGORICA

Montenegrin government could face no-confidence vote. The civic movement URA, led by Deputy Prime Minister Dritan Abazovi, sent an initiative for a vote of no confidence for the current government to the parliamentary procedure, the party said. It added that it was a test of whether the concept of a minority government, which they had previously proposed, had a majority in parliament. Read more.

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TIRANA

Citizens clash with police over forced evictions in Tirana. Residents of the 5 Maji neighbourhood in Tirana clashed with the police on Wednesday as the National Inspectorate began its demolition of their homes. Read more.

AGENDA:

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[Edited by Sarantis Michalopoulos, Alexandra Brzozowski, Daniel Eck, Benjamin Fox, Zoran Radosavljevic, Alice Taylor]

View original post here:
EU health chief: We don't know if this is the last COVID wave - EURACTIV

The West cannot ignore a determined Russian President any more as Moscow prepares for its next act on Ukraine

Catherine the Great, the 18th century Empress Regnant of Russia, once famously said, I have no way to defend my borders but to extend them. Under her reign, the empire continued to grow, encompassing New Russia (the region north of the Black Sea, now part of Ukraine), Crimea, the Caucasus, Belarus and the Baltic region. Empress Catherine, like many of her predecessors, saw a Russia, surrounded by ambitious powers, that was vulnerable to external threats. And her axiom continued to be a guiding principle for several of her famed successors, from Joseph Stalin, who defeated the Nazis and expanded the Soviet boundaries, to Vladimir Putin, who annexed Crimea in 2014 and has now mobilised some 100,000 troops on the Ukraine border.

Russia, the worlds largest country by land mass, lacks natural borders except the Arctic Ocean in the north and the Pacific in the far east. Its vast land borders stretch from northern Europe to Central and north east Asia. The countrys heartland that runs from St. Petersburg through Moscow to the Volga region lies on plains and is vulnerable to attacks. There are practically no natural barriers that stop an invading army from its western borders (Europe) reaching the Russian heartland. In the last two centuries, Russia saw two devastating invasions from the west the 1812 attack by Napoleonic France and the 1941 attack by Nazi Germany. Russia defeated them both, but after suffering huge material and human losses. After the Second World War, Russia re-established its control over the rim land in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, which it hoped would protect its heartland. But the disintegration of the Soviet Union threw its security calculations into disarray, deepening its historical insecurity. This insecurity is the source of what historian Stephen Kotkin calls the defensive aggressiveness of Russian President Putin.

Editorial | Talking to Russia: On Putin and NATO

When the Soviet Union collapsed, which Mr. Putin termed the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century, Russia lost over three million square kilometres of sovereign territory. The entire rim land was gone, and the heartland lay vulnerable to future threats. In the last months of the Soviet Union, to calm the nerves of a badly hurt but still breathing Russian bear, the West promised that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) would not expand an inch to the east. The United States and the United Kingdom repeated the pledge after the collapse of the Soviet Union. But despite the promises, NATO continued expansion. In March 1999, in the first enlargement since the end of the Cold War, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland (all were members of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact) joined NATO. Five years later, seven more countries including the three Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, all of which share borders with Russia were taken into the alliance. Russia saw this as a direct challenge to its security. If in the early 1990s, NATOs border with Russia was limited to the northern strip of Norway, now, the distance from NATOs Estonian border to St. Petersburg, the second most populous city in Russia that was the Tsarist capital, is less than 160 kilometres.

Russia felt threatened but was not able to respond. For Mr. Putin, who inherited a weak state with a crumbling economy and a directionless foreign policy in 2000, the first job was to fix the state. But in 2008, when the U.S. promised membership to Georgia and Ukraine in the Bucharest summit, Russia, which was coming out of the post-Soviet retreat, responded forcefully. For the Kremlin, both Ukraine and Georgia are critical for its national security calculations. The distance from the Ukrainian border to Moscow is less than 500 kilometres. NATO has already come close to St. Petersburg. And if Ukraine joins the alliance, the heartland would come further under threat.

Moreover, take a look at the Black Sea, which traditional Russian rulers saw as a Russian lake. Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania, all Black Sea basin countries, are NATO members. Ukraine and Georgia are the other countries that share the Black Sea coast, besides Russia. Russia was already feeling squeezed on the Black Sea front, its gateway to the Mediterranean Sea. If Ukraine and Georgia also join NATO, Russia fears that its dominance over the Black Sea would come to an end. So, in 2008, Mr. Putin sent troops to Georgia over the separatist conflict in South Ossetia and Abkhazia; and in 2014, when the Kremlin-friendly regime of Ukraine was toppled by pro-western protesters, he moved to annex the Crimean peninsula, expanding Russias Black Sea coast, thereby protecting its fleet based in Sevastopol in Crimea. That was the loudest statement from Mr. Putin that Russia was ready to take unconventional measures to stop further NATO expansion into its backyard.

In recent years, Mr. Putin has tried to turn every crisis in the former Soviet region into a geopolitical opportunity for Russia. South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the self-proclaimed republics that broke away from Georgia, are controlled by Russia-backed forces. In Ukraine, the eastern Donbas region is in the hands of pro-Russian rebels. In 2020, when protests erupted in Belarus after a controversial presidential election, Mr. Putin sent assistance to the country to restore order. In the same year, Russia sent thousands of peacekeepers to end the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, re-establishing its strategic dominance in the Caucasus. Earlier this year, Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, with Mr. Putins backing, manufactured a migrant crisis on the Polish border of the European Union. And this month, when violent unrest broke out in Kazakhstan, the largest and wealthiest country in Central Asia, its leader turned to Russia for help and a willing Mr. Putin immediately dispatched troops (under the banner of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, or CSTO) to quell the protests.

The geopolitical realities of the present also favour Russia. The U.S.s ignominious withdrawal from Afghanistan has left the Central Asian republics deeper in the Russian embrace. While Europe is vocal in its rhetorical opposition to Russias aggressive moves, it is very much dependent on Russian gas, which limits its response. Moreover, the Wests inability to inflict any serious damage on Russia over its Crimea annexation appears to have emboldened Mr. Putin further.

For years, the West, the winner of the Cold War, discounted Mr. Putin as a thuggish tactician who does not understand strategy. Mr. Biden called him a killer after taking office last year. But when the Wests response to Russia was lost in what academic Walter Russell Mead called a narcissistic fog of grandiose pomposity, Mr. Putin was steadily rebuilding the lost Russian influence in the rim land. By destabilising Georgia and Ukraine and re-establishing Russias hold in Belarus, Caucasus and Central Asia, Moscow has effectively stalled NATOs further expansion into its backyard. The West cannot ignore him any more. Rather, it faces an urgent question of how to deter him as Russia is preparing for its next act on Ukraine.

Having failed to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan, NATO is unlikely to pick a war with Russia over Ukraine. The Kremlin also knows this. One weapon that is readily available to western policymakers is more economic sanctions. But Mr. Putin, who has already deepened Russias ties with China, a Cold War rival, to balance against the Wests economic coercion, seems to be ready to pay the economic price, whatever little it is, to meet his strategic goals. This sets the stage for a perpetual crisis in the Russian rim land. Unless the West re-establishes its deterrence, Mr. Putins defensive aggression would continue.

stanly.johny@thehindu.co.in

View original post here:
What Vladimir Putin really wants - The Hindu

On January 8, in a speech marking the 110th anniversary of the African National Congress (ANC), South African President and ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa underlined his partys determination to help resolve various political and developmental challenges across Africa.

He not only disclosed plans for the ANC to strengthen its support for parties working to entrench democracy in Sudan, Libya and South Sudan, but also reiterated his partys commitment to finding African solutions to ongoing conflicts in countries ranging from Mozambique and Lesotho to Sudan and Ethiopia.

That the ANC used the occasion of its anniversary to voice its dedication to promoting democracy and economic development generally in Africa, and particularly in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, is undoubtedly commendable.

Nevertheless, the ANCs continuing reluctance to honestly talk about, let alone do something to address, the economic and political crisis in neighbouring Zimbabwe despite it also having consequences for South Africa is raising questions about the sincerity of the partys self-declared resolve to find African solutions to African problems.

South Africas neighbour to the North suffered catastrophic economic policies and relentless oppression under Robert Mugabes rule for 38 years. And the land-locked country, which removed Mugabe from power in 2017, is still suffering from endemic corruption, uncontrolled inflation, stagnant salaries, widespread poverty and routine attacks on those calling for truly democratic governance and accountability under authoritarian President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

This permanent state of crisis has led hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans to seek better futures in other countries, and especially in South Africa, over the years.

The exact number of Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa is not known, but estimates range from a few hundred thousand to more than two million.

About 180,000 Zimbabweans are currently in possession of a Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP) a visa that excludes its holders from requirements of South Africas immigration and refugee acts and allows them to freely work, study or conduct business in the country. But many more Zimbabwean nationals are believed to be residing and working in South Africa without any visa or work permit.

In recent years, as South Africas own economy started to stumble and its unemployment rate reached record levels, some segments of South African society started to blame the large number of Zimbabwean migrants living and working in the country for their economic struggles. As a result, small political parties that employed anti-migrant rhetoric, such as ActionSA and the Patriotic Alliance, performed surprisingly well in the November 2021 municipal election.

In response to this growing anti-migrant, and especially anti-Zimbabwean, sentiment, the ANC sprung into action. Soon after the municipal election, the ANC government announced its intention to end the ZEP visa scheme and told all permit holders that if they do not obtain a different visa or voluntarily leave South Africa by December 31, 2022, they will face deportation. As most ZEP holders do not have the necessary qualifications to switch to work or study visas, this means they will either remain in South Africa as irregular migrants, or return home to try and make a living in an economy in permanent crisis.

The decision to end the ZEP scheme is hardly in line with the ANCs self-declared commitment to help other African peoples overcome political, economic, and democratic challenges. Indeed, the move will only push more Zimbabweans into economic precarity and will do nothing to help resolve the crisis that caused them to migrate to South Africa in the first place.

If the ANC genuinely wants to be the unifying and results-oriented political party that President Ramaphosa purported it to be in his January 8 speech, it needs to abandon its populist anti-migrant policies, and even more crucially, it needs to stop ignoring the devastating political and economic crisis at its doorstep.

Unfortunately, South Africa is not the only country where the government is hellbent on denying the existence of a crisis in Zimbabwe. Indeed, the entire SADC seems willingly blind to the damage the Mnangagwa administration is inflicting on Zimbabwe and the wider region with its ineffective economic policies and oppressive governing methods.

As recently as October 2021 the SADC claimed that Zimbabwes problems are nothing but consequences of the prolonged sanctions imposed on the country by Western nations. The regional body further stated that sanctions are a fundamental constraint and hindrance to the countrys prospects of economic recovery, human security and sustainable growth.

This is an erroneous, and dangerous, take. It is not foreign powers that are keeping the country in a permanent state of crisis, but its own government. If the Mnangagwa government is allowed to blame all of the countrys ills on foreign powers, without taking any responsibility for its many, obvious and damaging mistakes and missteps, Zimbabwe can never get back on its two feet and stop being a challenge for the region.

However, even if Zimbabwes dilemmas and failings were solely the consequences of modern imperialist schemes, it would not be acceptable for the SADC countries to make a few supportive statements and abandon Zimbabwe to its fate. If Zimbabwe is still under an imperialist attack, then SADC countries should step forth and introduce comprehensive measures to help their besieged brothers and sisters in the country.

Indeed, it is time for SADC nations, led by South Africa, to propose African solutions to African problems and establish country-specific migrant quotas and formal procedures to help deal with the demanding Zimbabwean situation. While SADC leaders can preach about mysterious imperial plots and pretend there is no debilitating political crisis in Zimbabwe, they simply cannot do away with the victims of oppression and bad leadership on the ground: the hundreds of thousands of migrants compelled to seek sustainable economic opportunities and jobs in SADC countries, especially in South Africa.

Many are low-skilled migrants who require entry-level jobs in the farming, manufacturing, transport and hospitality industries. Some are skilled migrants who seek jobs in, among other sectors, education and health. Others are informal traders and small business owners who want to establish sustainable enterprises. Without SADCs formal support and interventions, however, many will remain enormously deprived and subject to exploitation.

Hence, in 2022, the SADC has two options. It can either stick with the narrative that Zimbabwes problems are caused solely by foreign plots, and continue to turn a blind eye to Zimbabwes governing party ZANU-PFs tyrannical policies and omnipresent failures. But it should accept that if it chooses this path, its member states, and especially South Africa, will continue to see thousands of irregular migrants rushing to their borders. Or the SADC can choose another path and take the necessary steps to promote democracy and support economic development in Zimbabwe by accepting and exposing the failures of the ZANU-PF.

The former liberation parties that dominate the SADCs ranks have to admit that regional inaction has clearly bolstered the often unruly and violent regime in Harare. African nationalism and historical considerations should not be used to mollify Zanu-PFs leadership and obfuscate its sheer brutality and established incompetence.

One of the SADCs crucial shortcomings is the failure to monitor and help rectify problematic developments in Zimbabwe (and elsewhere) in good time. The SADC, for instance, did not anticipate the November 2017 military takeover that deposed former President Robert Mugabe or the flawed elections that followed the bloodless coup, but it eagerly endorsed both developments.

Today, there are credible fears that the government and the Zimbabwe Election Commission are conspiring to limit new voter registrations for the 2023 general and presidential elections and the SADC, as usual, is silent on such an injustice.

Systematic voter suppression does not bode well for a nation desperate to hold free and fair elections and gather global support for an economic turnaround. In fact, it will certainly lead to more Zimbabwean migrants flocking to the adjacent countries that support Harares dubious modus operandi but are rather displeased by irregular migration.

Going forward, the SADC must pay extraordinary attention to Zimbabwe and steer it towards holding credible elections. After all, the SADC has a responsibility to advance common political values, systems and institutions and safeguard the wellbeing of all its citizens including Zimbabwes distressed migrants. And the ANC, which reinstated its commitment to supporting democracy and economic development in the region on January 8, should lead these efforts.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.

Excerpt from:
Its time for the SADC region to hold Zimbabwe to account - Al Jazeera English