Mediaboss Marketing

In China, Yang Lians poetry has been banned, destroyed and derided as spiritual pollution.

The censorship began in earnest in the early 1980s, after Yang wrote the poem Nuorilang, which deploys Tibetan mythology and was seen as a critique of Han Chinese nationalism. It reached its peak in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre and another poem, 1989, in which he said the violence and suppression were nothing new and they signified no doubt a perfectly ordinary year.

But in Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy and Scandinavia, the dissident is hailed as a literary superstar, a poet praised by Allen Ginsberg before the Beat poets death for his individualism, and even tipped as a future Nobel laureate.

To his mantelpiece of honours, as of yesterday, Yang can add another: the inaugural Sarah Maguire Prize for Poetry in Translation, for his book Anniversary Snow. He shares what will be a biennial award in memory of one of Britains most distinguished champions of international poetry with his long-time Scottish translator, Brian Holton.

Yang describes the process of reinventing his work in English as like growing a second tree but from the same root. But this second tree, I have to say, is a very beautiful tree.

Were sort of like the Morecambe and Wise of our language pair, says Holton, who has worked with Yang since 1993. I dont know of any other translator and poet whove stayed together so long.

The Scotsman is delighted, too, to see some adulation for his own craft. Translators always feel underappreciated, you know. As I have written, the translation may be a cover version, but some cover versions are as good as the original. Some are better, even.

Read more:
China is the worst capitalism plus the worst socialism: poet Yang Lian on the regime he fled - Telegraph.co.uk

The statement but real Socialism has never been tried can be seen on forums across the internet. It really is quite fascinating how convinced many people are by this statement. The underlying implication is that these forum commenters think that they know what real socialism is and that they could make it work. Not only is this incredibly narcissistic, but its a fundamental untruth. Socialism has been tried again and again, and it just hasnt succeeded. I think American economist Thomas Sowell says it best. Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it. Even countries that were once more prosperous than their neighbors have found themselves much poorer than their neighbors after just one generation of socialistic policies.

Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it

Thomas Sowell

This is not for lack of effort on the part of those that have tried to implement a socialist form of government, but because the Father of Socialism, Karl Marxs theory is dependent on a continuous transformation of human nature, these attempts have taken many forms. Whilst cultural norms do slowly shift over time, the basic principles of human nature are static. For thousands of years, subsistence agriculture was the primary source of food for the majority of families. If a family had a little surplus, they didnt hand it off to whoever owned their land for even distribution. They fed their own children a little more or stored it in case next years crop failed. A 21st century American would do the same with a little extra money. Given the choice between handing it over to the government in hopes they disperse it evenly or spending it on loved ones, pretty much everyone would spend it on their loved ones. A person putting their loved ones before strangers is human nature. Being wary of the people who hold power is also human nature. Even if the system in place to collect and distribute resources from each according to his abilities and to each according to his needs, was miraculously one hundred percent free from corruption, human nature makes it unsustainable. It doesnt matter how magnanimous you believe yourself to be.

Consider your grade point average. If its at or near a 4.0, you very likely had to put in a lot of work to earn it. That probably involved missing out on nights with your friends, putting a stop to Netflix binges, and dealing with a chronically high stress level for months on end. Seeing those high marks on your transcript though really makes it worth it. Now imagine that, after getting near perfect scores on every exam, you look at your transcript and realize you ended up with straight Cs. You ask the professor what your final percentage in the class was and are informed it was well within what is usually the A range from that class. So why did you get a C? The professor tells you that new school policy is that grades have to be distributed evenly since some kids struggle in school or have other commitments that eat into their study time. They cant prove that any given student was slacking off or if they truly were having trouble, so to be fair they just spread out all earned percentage points in the class evenly.

Can you honestly say that you would miss out on nights out with your friends the next semester to study for hours before an exam that you will get a C on whether you study or not? A person that would is certainly too rare for a socialist grading system like this to work. Working for no incentive is against human nature, and thus that system would not be sustainable.

Some like to point out things that are government funded like K-12 schools, USPS and the DMV as a form of socialism. Even if someone believes that to be true, thats not a good argument. A 2014 study conducted by the ACT found that homeschooled students had composite scores an average of 2.2 points higher than public school students. A package from the USPS takes an average of 4-5 days to arrive at its destination compared to Amazons average of 2-3 days. As for the DMV, its not uncommon to sit and wait around for 2 hours before its your turn to go up to the counter. People across the country will tell you most government services arent known for being efficient or easy to deal with.

People that call for less government intervention and socialism in the same breath seem to have missed the fact that a big government is necessary to oversee any socialist system. All four countries currently classified as socialist are unitary one-party states. Take that information as you will.

Continued here:
Yes, We Have Tried Real Socialism - Kent Kaiser

Bangladeshs heavy dependence on foreign aid in those early years made us vulnerable to pressure from aid donors. This was particularly uncomfortable for those of us in the Commission who had for many years criticised the hegemonic influence of the USA and the World Bank in the politics and policy agendas of the Pakistan state through the 1960s.

In the immediate aftermath of liberation, we discovered that Tajuddin Ahmad was even more strongly inimical to restoring any form of aid dependence on the USA and the World Bank.

When Bangladesh was liberated on 16 December 1971, the World Bank had every expectation of capitalising on the positive position it assumed during the war and hoped to establish ready access to the political leadership and decision-makers in Bangladesh. In early February 1972, Nurul Islam received a message from Cargill that the Bank president, Robert McNamara, was keen to use his official visit to India to visit Bangladesh. He offered to fly from Kolkata to Dhaka by helicopter to discuss the Banks possible contribution to reconstructing the war-devastated economy.

The political mood at that stage was highly nationalistic and animated by suspicion towards the USA. The Banks president was regarded as a card-carrying member of the Washington power elite even though he was no longer serving the government.

Furthermore, the Bank had as yet not formally recognised the sovereignty of Bangladesh by accepting us as a member. There was some suggestion led by Tajuddin Ahmad, who was then minister of finance and planning and was particularly hostile to any idea of restoring Western influence over Bangladesh, that we have nothing to do with the Bank or the USA. Bangabandhu, however, took the position that this would be a gratuitous discourtesy but that no great event should be made of McNamaras visit.

He, the president of one of the most powerful international institutions in the world, was coming personally to this destitute, war-shattered country as an angel of mercy anxious to put Bangladesh under the Banks bounty. He expected the overwhelmed government to lay down a red carpet for him and his Bank.

In their long-standing relations with Pakistan, Cargill as vice-president of the Bank had always been received on arrival by none other than the deputy chairman of the Commission and was royally feted by him. The Bank, at the least, expected similar treatment by Nurul. Cargill hoped to renew relations with me on as cordial terms as when he had hosted me at the Royal Monceau hotel in Paris in 1971. Sadly for the Bank, we were both advised to avoid any direct contact with the Bank.

Whilst the encounter was a major blow to McNamaras ego and reflected poorly on the public relations skills of the new regime, it certainly conveyed to the Bank the political mood in Bangladesh and the awareness that Bangladesh at that stage was unwilling to open itself up as a pasture to donor influence.

In this world, I found no socialists and my idealistic attempts to invoke notions of socialist fraternity in negotiating terms were contemptuously disregarded. We should have learnt from our experience, as we are learning today in our dealings with the Chinese version of socialism, that socialism as we understood it was largely a product of the romantic imagination of the Third World and Western intellectuals of a Left-wing persuasion.

It was virtually impossible on visits to socialist countries to find anyone, apart from leaders of the Communist Party, who was at all inclined to discuss the issue of socialism as it applied to their country or as a general concept. The disintegration of socialism in Europe did not come as a great surprise to me though the speed and totality of the process were beyond my imagination.

In Dhaka, we had already noted how some officials from the economic sections of the various embassies from the socialist countries were making private business deals with Bangladeshi middlemen, usually with political connections, and accumulating small fortunes before they returned home. We noted that some of the principal suppliers to stores in Gulshan of duty-free canned provisions, stores and under-the-counter alcoholic drinks originated from the staff of these embassies.

In those early days, those on the Left entertained the belief that because the West had colonised us and was the principal hegemonic force in the world, they must be challenged at all points. The corresponding notion that openings to the socialist world would provide us with compensatory benefits was founded on our imperfect reading of literature. It was only when we came to do business with them that we learnt of the gap between the imagined and the real world in these countries.

Excerpted with permission from Untranquil Recollections: Nation-Building in Post Liberation Bangladesh, Rehman Sobhan, Sage India.

More:
How the World Bank tried to muscle into a newly-liberated Bangladesh but failed - Scroll.in

Issued on: 28/03/2021 - 16:48

Kuwait City (AFP)

Kuwait received on Sunday eight tonnes of documents and other items taken during the 1990 Iraq invasion led by Saddam Hussein, officials said.

It is the third shipment that Kuwait has received since 2019, according to officials from both countries.

Kuwait's assistant foreign minister Nasser al-Hain welcomed the move, saying the shipment contained archives from Kuwait University, the information ministry and other institutions.

"We look forward to more cooperation and, God willing, there will soon be additional steps to complete the handover," he said during a ceremony marking the occasion in Kuwait City.

Qahtan al-Janabi, from Iraq's foreign ministry, said that his country had previously received a list of missing items from Kuwait and "based on that, the handover is taking place".

Iraqi forces, under ex-dictator Saddam Hussein, invaded oil-rich Kuwait on August 2, 1990, sparking international condemnation, and occupying the Gulf state for seven months before they were pushed out by a US-led international coalition.

Baghdad has paid around $50 billion in the last three decades in reparations, but faced with its worst fiscal crisis in years amid the coronavirus pandemic and plummeting oil prices, it has asked for an extension for the final $3.8 billion.

While the countries now have civil relations, issues remain over borders and the repatriation of bodies.

Kuwait's maritime patrols regularly detain Iraqi fishermen who stray too far into neighbouring waters. Iraq says the UN-drawn maritime borders are unfair.

2021 AFP

Read the rest here:
Kuwait receives tonnes of national archives from Iraq - FRANCE 24

In a landmark decision this month, Iraq's parliament passed the Yazidi Female Survivors Law, recognizingthe atrocities committed by the extremist group known as "Islamic State," or "IS,"against the ethno-religious group as genocide.

When "IS," an Islamist terrorgroup, took control of swathes of northern Iraq between 2014 and 2017, it killed, kidnapped and enslaved thousands ofYazidis, while tens of thousands more were forced to flee their homes.

"The passage of the law represents a watershed moment," the United Nations' International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement after the law was passed on March 1. It makes Iraq one of the first Arab countries to focus "institutional attention on female survivors of conflict-related sexual violence."

The bill was hailed by Iraqi President Barham Salih as "an important step."

But even while the law aims to "prevent the recurrence of violations," not everyone is convinced it will live up to its promises. Yazidi survivors say the existential threats that fueled "Islamic State's"genocidal campaign against them still persist in Iraq.

The law pledges to provide assistance to victims of "IS," primarily Yazidi female survivors who were kidnappedand later freedbut also members of other minorities who suffered the same fate, including Turkmen, Christian and ShabakIraqis.

Under the new law, Iraq will provide a monthly stipend, residential land or free housing and psychological support to victims. Survivors of "IS" attacks will also be granted hiring priority for2% of all public sector jobs.

A Yazidi survivor holds portraits of IS victims from her village of Kocho located near Sinjar, Iraq

Kidnapped Yazidi children will also receive support and the legal status of children born of survivorswill also be addressed.

Moreover, the legislationmarks August 3 the day ofa major "IS"attack on Yazidicommunities in 2014 as a national day of remembrance and establishes a special government office for Female Yazidi Survivors' Affairs, which will open in northern Iraq's Ninawa province. Ninawa ishome to theSinjar district, where the majority of Yazidis once lived.

Ghazala Jango, a Yazidi woman from Sinjar, said the bill was, "essential for female survivors, given that the majority of them had no one to support them. All their family members were killed."

Jango was 18when the extremist group attacked Sinjar in 2014. Researchers say that some 10,000 Yazidis were killed or kidnapped during the assault and tens of thousands more were forced to flee into the nearby mountains. Jango was among them, having escaped on foot.

In August 2020, Sinjar was still in ruins, never having recovered from an attack by the Islamist terror group Islamic State (IS)

Six years later, she is back in Sinjar, where she works with the Yazidi-run Youth Bridge Organization, helping Yazidi families return to their homes. Even though it has been four years since then Iraqi Prime MinisterHaider al-Abadideclared victory over "IS,"the Yazidi community is still suffering, Jango told DW.

The new law will help improve the financial situation of Yazidis, "who have been living in poverty for almost seven years,"she added. But, she says, it can't help survivors feel safer,"It is only financial support it does not guarantee protection,"Jango argues.

Other Yazidis interviewed by DW echoed this sentiment. They are skeptical that the Iraqi government will deliver on the promises it has made.

"I hope this law will not just be a law on paper butwill be a practical solution to help them," said Ahmed Khudida Burjus, deputy director of Yazda, a multi-national, Yazidi-led organization that aims to assist the community in the aftermath of the genocide.

"In the past six years, many promises have been made and very little has been done. Yazidi villages and towns ravaged by Daesh [IS]still lie in ruins,"he noted, using the colloquial term for the group.

Thousands of Yazidis fleeing the brutality of IS militants sought refuge on Mount Sinjar. Many have since found shelter in a camp in northern Iraq, but around a thousand are still reportedly trapped on the high terrain.

Members of the Yazidi minority have more or less completely deserted areas now under the control of Islamic State militants. Thousands fled to Syria, but some have now returned to Iraq, to places such as Fishkhabour on the Iraqi-Syrian border.

Refugees tell of IS militants stealing their money, valuables and passports, leaving many with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. Children are traumatized by the mass expulsions in which at least 500 people are reported to have lost their lives.

Yazidis in northern Iraq jostle for much needed water supplies. Getting aid to refugees in the autonomous Kurdish region poses a logistical challenge.

Members of the Kurdish Red Crescent are helping refugees as they arrive around Mount Sinjar. Many are wounded or weakened from the long journey, which is often made on foot.

The situation awaiting many refugees in northern Iraq is desperate. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says more than a million people across Iraq have taken flight. Besides the large number of Yazidis, there are also many Christians.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has set up a provisional camp near the city of Irbil in northern Iraq. It's no home-away-from-home, but offers much needed shelter. Some even managed to bring the occasional personal effect.

The US Air Force began dropping food and water to Yazidis trapped on Mount Sinjar a few days ago. The supplies are a lifeline for the refugees, who would otherwise be cut off from the outside world.

The United Nations estimates that around a thousand people are still on Mount Sinjar, where temperatures are scorching and water supplies are low. There are also unconfirmed media reports that Islamic State militants have abducted some 100 Yazidi women and children from the mountain. Those who can, grab hold of helicopters in an attempt to escape.

Members of Europe's Yazidi community are calling on the West to do more to help the minority group in Iraq. Protesters in Hanover are demanding more humanitarian aid and weapons for the Kurds in northern Iraq so they can counter the advance of the IS militants.

Author: Jeanette Seiffert / tw

It's about more than just rebuilding, Burjus argued,"Everything is relatedsecurity, justice and rebuilding and development."

And this is why the new Yazidi Female Survivors Law, while positive, is not enough.Burjus and other advocates for the community explain that the real problem is how the majority of Iraqis feel about the local Yazidi minority.

Thanks to misconceptions about their religion among Iraq's Muslim majority, Yazidis have long been labelled "devil worshippers."

The community has a long history of persecutiondating back to the 16th century, and many groups, from invading Turks to local Kurds, have tried to convert them to Islam. "I am the descendent of 72 genocides,"is still a common phrase among Yazidis.

The Lalish Temple in Iraq's Ninawa province houses the tomb of Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir and is the Yazidis' holiest site

"Yazidis lost everything and they trust neither the Kurdish nor the Iraqi government,"26-year-old Saud, a Yazidi man originallyfrom Sinjar, said. Saud requested DW not use his real name because speaking out against the local Iraqi-Kurdish military could put him in danger.

In 2014, Iraqi-Kurdish forces were supposed to be in charge of security in the Sinjar area which is adjacent to the semi-autonomous northern region of Iraqi Kurdistan but when "IS"attacked, Iraqi-Kurdish soldiers withdrew, leaving civilians to fend for themselves.

"Our neighbors are Sunnis and Kurds. We were betrayed by all these tribes,"said Saud, who lived in Iraqi displacement camps for 18 months before being granted asylum abroad. Saud says he'd like to return home to Iraq but believes there are no guarantees of his safety.

According to German psychologistJan Ilhan Kizilhan, a professor at Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) who has worked with more than a thousand Yazidi survivors in Germany, the medical, financial and psychological support the law promises will not suffice. True change will require "reconciliation between Yazidis and Muslims, who supported the 'IS' group,"Kizilhan told DW.

Yazda's Burjus says negative attitudes towards Yazidis persist and permeate all aspects of society in Iraq.

"The majority of the population of Iraq sees Yazidis as infidels," he explains. "When they work in restaurants, no one eats their food because it's made by a Yazidi."

"That's why we never feel safe," the community advocate concludes. "And because there is no plan to eradicate these threats against Yazidis, whenever the opportunity arises, another extremist group will do it again [attack the Yazidi community]. It's only a matter of time."

Follow this link:
Iraq's Yazidis warn of ongoing threats from extremists - DW (English)