Corduroy Academy

( Mostly) radical thoughts, ideas, and links from late stage colonial capitalism.

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    Gambian ex-minister on trial in Switzerland for crimes against humanity

    A former Gambian minister has become the highest-ranking official to be tried in Europe under the principles of universal jurisdiction after his trial on charges of crimes against humanity opened in Switzerland.

    Ousman Sonko, interior minister under the west African country’s ousted dictator Yahya Jammeh, was arrested in Bern in 2017 after applying for asylum in Switzerland.

    “It has been a long period of waiting, waiting with anger, anxiety,” Madi Ceesay, a 67-year-old plaintiff, told Reuters. “But I am very optimistic now and I feel so happy. I am smelling justice.”

    The office of the attorney general of Switzerland said it had accused Sonko, 54, of supporting and participating in the “repressive policies” of Jammeh, whose 22-year rule was described by the office as being “characterised by the systematic use of torture, rape, extra-judicial executions, arbitrary detention and forced disappearances”.

    It’s worth thinking about who they’ll chose to prosecute, and from where, how much media attention there has been on them, and so on. Great that there may be justice, however colonialism, paternalism and elitism seems to be strongly at play.

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    Palestinians Flee From Gaza’s Main Hospital As Strike Kills Hezbollah Commander In Lebanon

    Medics, patients and displaced people are fleeing from the main hospital in central Gaza as the fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants draws closer, witnesses said Monday. Losing the facility would be another major blow to a health system shattered by three months of war.

    An Israeli airstrike meanwhile killed an elite Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon, according to a Lebanese security official, the latest in a series of escalating strikes between Israel and the militant group that have raised fears of a wider war.

    Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups withdrew from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in recent days, saying it was too dangerous. That spread panic among people sheltering there, causing many to join the hundreds of thousands who have fled to the south of the besieged territory.

    These genocidal zionists are basically just expanding into an all out war – backed of course by our imperialist “friends” in the USA.

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    Premier has no regrets about ramping pledge

    Premier Peter Malinauskas says he doesn’t regret Labor’s 2022 election promise to “fix the ramping crisis”, in the wake of a man’s death after waiting 10 hours for an ambulance – but reminded South Australians that he had also said it would take a full four years.

    Close to home, this rampant neoliberal fascist thinks he can be proud of himself for doing absolutely nothing. What a guy.

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    Sudan paramilitary leader says he’s committed to cease-fire, but no progress on proposed peace talks

    Sudanese paramilitary leader Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo said Thursday he was committed to a cease-fire to end the devastating war that has wrecked his country, even as fighting continues and there has been no progress on proposed peace talks between Dagalo and Sudan military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan.

    Dagalo, leader of the Rapid Support Forces, said in a statement following a meeting in Pretoria with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa that he had briefed Ramaphosa on the “considerable efforts taken to end this war.”

    “I emphasized our unwavering commitment to cease hostilities,” Dagalo said, although he didn’t say if or when he would meet with Burhan. The warring generals agreed last month to a face-to-face meeting and to start talks over a possible cease-fire, according to the East African regional bloc IGAD.

    With something like 7 million displaced during this conflict, and more than 25 million needing support and aid, it would be wonderful to see some kind of end in sight – at least an end to the crimes against humanity.

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    Trump Says Civil War Could Have Been ‘Negotiated’ in Bizarre Iowa Speech

    Donald Trump continued his push on Saturday to win the Republican presidential nomination with a pair of caucus rallies in Iowa, beginning at the DMACC Conference Center in Newton and then culminating in Clinton. His speeches come on the third anniversary of Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and a little more than a week before the Republican Iowa caucus commences on Jan. 15.

    As for commemorating the solemn anniversary of Jan. 6, Trump lauded the insurrectionists, while labeling some immigrants as “terrorists” and prisoners and gang members. “And terrorists are coming in also. What they’re doing to our country is not — it’s it’s, when you talk about insurrection, what they’re doing? That’s the real deal. That the real deal — not patriotically and peacefully, peacefully and patriotically” he said, contrasting those who rioted as “peaceful” and “patriotic” against immigrants, who the four-time indicted former president continually paints as criminals.

    Historical revisionism suits his lackeys just fine. Obviously this is a continued play to drive a racist narrative and stoke ever more coverage of his bullshit which his adherents lap up and redistribute as gospel.

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    China feels the country isn’t patriotic enough. A new law aims to change that

    That “Patriotic Education Law,” aimed at “enhancing national unity,” mandates that love of the country and the ruling Chinese Communist Party be incorporated into work and study for everyone – from the youngest children to workers and professionals across all sectors.

    It is meant to help China “unify thoughts” and “gather the strength of the people for the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation,” a Chinese propaganda official told a news briefing last month.

    The push for a love of country and the Communist Party is far from new in China, where patriotism and propaganda have been an integral part of education, company culture and life since the People’s Republic was founded nearly 75 years ago.

    And Chinese nationalism has thrived under Xi, the country’s most authoritarian leader in decades, who has pledged to “rejuvenate” China to a place of power and prominence globally and encouraged a combative, “wolf warrior” diplomacy amid rising tensions with the West.

    Oh yeah, enforcing nationalism through laws. Who else does that? And surely that’ll work, right?

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    Blinken says Palestinians displaced in Gaza must be able to return home

    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Palestinian civilians must be able to return home and rejected statements by Israeli officials calling for the mass displacement of Gaza residents.

    Speaking at a press conference in Doha on Sunday alongside Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, Blinken said the United Nations can play a crucial role in allowing displaced civilians in Gaza to return home as Israel moves to a “lower-intensity phase” of its military campaign.

    “They [Palestinian civilians] cannot – they must not – be pressed to leave Gaza,” he said.

    The top US diplomat condemned the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Hamza Dahdouh, the son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief and correspondent Wael Dahdouh, and called it an “unimaginable tragedy”.

    It’s interesting to me how a country who is actively imperial, and loudly and vigorously supporting a genocide, is managing to be represented as a “peacekeeper” as it, on the same visit, threatens to drop bombs not even 200km away.

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    Fire leaves nearly 7,000 Rohingya homeless in Bangladesh camp

    A fire swept through a Rohingya refugee camp in southeastern Bangladesh in the early hours of Sunday (Jan 7), destroying about 800 shelters and rendering thousands homeless, officials said.

    Fire service officials and Rohingya volunteers brought the blaze under control around three hours after it hit Camp 5 in Cox’s Bazar, a border district with Myanmar, shortly before 1am (1900 GMT).

    Apart from homes, several other facilities like learning centres were also gutted, Bangladesh’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner in Cox’s Bazar, Mohammed Mizanur Rahman said, adding that there were no casualties.

    UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, said nearly 7,000 have been made homeless by the blaze and around 120 facilities, including mosques and healthcare centres were damaged.

    A terrible situation. I get the uneasy feeling that safety wasn’t exactly the highest priority in this situation. How do you balance desperation with the need to stop things like this happening to already exploited peoples?