therealnews--2020-07-14--Malaysia Still Vastly Undercounting People Living In Poverty

After this interview was filmed , Malaysia announced a revised poverty line measurement that increased their poverty rate from 0.4 % to 5.6 % , still short of the 15 % found by independent analysis .
This is a rush transcript and may contain errors .
It will be updated .
Jaisal Noor : Welcome to The Real News .
I ’ m Jaisal Noor .
Malaysia is Southwest Asia ’ s wealthiest , large country .
It ’ s undergoing rapid economic growth and it ’ s breathtaking city skylines rival its Western counterparts .
And it claims it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ questioned for years .
In 2019 , United Nations , special repertoire and extreme poverty , Philip Alston found that Malaysia was in fact vastly under counting people living in poverty who actually numbered in the millions and include countless migrants , refugees , and stateless people .
Last year , I traveled to the island of Borneo to spend time with villagers who had lived there their entire lives , but because they were stateless and not officially Malaysian citizens , could not access healthcare , education or work legally .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ numbers .
Here ’ s a clip .
Kota Kinabalu is the capital of Sabah , located in the North of the Island of Borneo .
The Eastern most part of Malaysia .
It is a tourist destination known for its coastline , beaches and street markets .
But unknown thousands live in the shadows in villages without running water or electricity .
Some have lived here for generations , but because they lack official documentation , they ’ re denied access to government programs .
Speaker 3 : They don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t have access to public health care .
They basically don ’ t have access to anything .
Jaisal Noor : A lack of access to schools is a major problem for stateless youth .
Speaker 3 : So without having an education , without having a place where they can go to and learn , they are exposed to other things .
And they become easy prey to syndicates .
So we have begging syndicates .
We have , I mean , there ’ s also human trafficking happening here .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s hard for them to advocate for themselves , but a local youth movement has taken up their cause , launching a campaign to halt [ inaudible 00:14:39 ] the village ’ s demolition and building and running schools in the village .
So in light of the 2019 UN report , Malaysia promised to address poverty , a commitment that ’ s now in doubt .
Well now joining us to discuss this is Philip Alston , former UN special rapid tour on extreme poverty and human rights .
Thank you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Noor : So we were both in Malaysia around the same time .
It ’ s an absolutely beautiful country , beautiful cities , beautiful people , beautiful wilderness and wildlife .
But they claim that they have eradicated poverty as part of this tremendous economic growth .
We both sort of discovered a similar thing that that is simply not the case .
And in light of your work , Malaysia had promised to really address poverty and study it .
And then the hope was to actually do something about it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year now .
Talk about what ’ s happened over the last year .
Philip Alston : Well , it was an interesting response to my report .
The immediate reaction was from the Ministry of Economic Affairs that dismissed my report and insisted that there was really no poverty in Malaysia .
But within a few hours , in fact , the then prime minister , Mahathir bin Mohamad intervened along with various of his advisors , as well as Anwar Ibrahim and others .
And all said , “ Look , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ higher than is officially accepted .
And we ’ re going to start work on recognizing that most .
Of the independent , in fact , all of the independent assessments suggest that real poverty levels in Malaysia , somewhere around 15 to 20 % of the population in contrast to the 0.4 % that the government says.
” And that was acknowledged by the government ministers , the figure of 15 to 20 % .
What then happened was the change of government a few months ago .
And that seems to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ old line .
So in their official response to me , they reiterated that they stand by the 0.4 % figure .
That this reflects international best practice and so on .
And then most recently there have been reports from a minister in the prime minister ’ s office that yes , they will be revising the rate upwards .
Yes , it is higher .
And yes , average income has doubled since it was last estimated at 0.4 % .
But my fear is that it ’ s going to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t be based on any detailed statistical analysis .
And it will simply try to diffuse the issue by saying , “ Actually it ’ s not 0.4 % .
It ’ s 2 % or 3 % .
” But we ’ ll see .
I might be surprised .
Jaisal Noor : And can you talk about why it ’ s so important that poverty be counted and acknowledged , especially in a country like Malaysia that has deep inequality ?
Philip Alston : Well , at one level , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bureaucrat or even worse , an academic like me , who cares what the government says about this ?
It ’ s just a matter of having policies in place and so on .
But when I was in Malaysia and I asked government departments , “ So what are you doing about poor people ?
What are you doing about the bottom 20 % ?
” And the answer was , “ Well , there aren ’ t any poor people , so we don ’ t have any specific plans.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re looking at schooling , when you ’ re looking at nutrition , when you ’ re looking at health and so on , you adopt policies which are based on false premises .
That there are not a very significant number of people who are being neglected , whose lives are going to be significantly impaired , unless programs are put in place to pull them out of poverty .
And those programs are simply not being devised because of this sort of myth that , well , we are the only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t have poverty .
What a miracle !
Jaisal Noor : I wanted to play another clip from my reporting in Malaysia , specifically around what you talked about , the impact of a lack of education and things like health care and being able to work illegally , especially for stateless people .
Here ’ s that clip .
Speaker 6 : We have lived here for over 40 years .
We ’ re the ethnic marginal people .
Once sea nomads , now we live by the beach .
We want @ @ @ @ @ @ @ village and keep it strong .
Jaisal Noor : Abdul Riaz Bin is the leader of [ Layan Basar 00:07:06 ] , a village facing threat of demolition .
The 20 families that live here are among the hundreds of thousands of stateless people in the Malaysian state of Sabah .
No country considers them citizens .
Many live in deep poverty .
And their plight is a stark contrast to the majority of residents of the wealthiest large country in Southeast Asia .
So you were able to visit communities across Malaysia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from your trip .
So our viewers can see what you witnessed firsthand as well .
Can you talk about the plight of stateless people today ?
There ’ s an estimated around 10 million stateless people around the world , according to the UN .
And they ’ re not counted in Malaysia , but you know , perhaps hundreds of thousands live in Malaysia .
Philip Alston : Yes .
Malaysia has a curious attachment , if I can put it that way , to protecting its nationality .
In other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many different aspects in terms of providing recognition of citizenship , not just to people who have crossed borders over the last 50 , 60 , or more years , as in Sabah for example , or people in the North of Peninsula , Malaya , but also migrant workers , refugees , and others , all face really significant problems to get any sort of recognition , any sort of documentation that ’ s going to enable them to live a decent life .
But when it comes to statelessness in Sabah @ @ @ @ @ @ @ village for example , that you have featured and saw firsthand exactly what the situation is .
But I ’ ve visited with lots of others as well .
And the government position is that we don ’ t know if there are any stateless people .
But we certainly don ’ t know how many there are , because of course you can ’ t count something that is illegal .
And that ’ s really the most nonsensical position imaginable .
Because if one is dealing with any sort of underground @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or prostitution or whatever , governments always have an idea of the numbers , that ’ s how they plan .
That ’ s how they do their policing and everything else .
And the figures that I saw published by the media in Sabah suggest as many as 500,000 stainless people in Sabah alone .
And that ’ s huge given the relatively small population .
What happens is that those people get no access to formal education .
They get a sort of toy education where they can attend a school @ @ @ @ @ @ @ graduate from it because the certificate is not going to be useful for anything .
And they can ’ t go on then to higher levels of education .
So you ’ re condemning future generations .
And these are families that may well have been in Malaysia for 40 , 50 years , are thoroughly Malaysian in every respect , but just live in no man ’ s land .
Jaisal Noor : And one thing I ’ ve witnessed in Malaysia , which was absolutely inspiring was that you had young @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the village , we both visited , that took it upon themselves to be advocates for the stateless people .
They were building a school and fighting the villages demolition , which was still moving to see that .
So obviously the local people have sort of taken it in their own hands and are doing what they can .
But what role , if any , can the international community play in supporting these types of struggles ?
Philip Alston : Well , I think it ’ s always important for any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of what the shortcomings are in terms of its policies .
I said often enough when I was in Malaysia , that I come from Australia .
Australia has a significant Aboriginal population , which is very badly treated .
It ’ s not a popular issue .
Domestically , people dismiss it .
And so external criticism is really essential to say , “ Listen , you Australians .
You ’ ve got a great standard of living .
You ’ ve got large amounts of money , a thriving economy , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of indigenous citizens who are being totally neglected and living miserable lives .
You ’ ve got to do something.
” And I think the same applies to Malaysia , that Malaysia is thriving economically .
It does very well on a lot of issues .
But it has these gray areas that it pretends don ’ t exist .
And I think certainly stateless people are part of that .
Indigenous peoples are another where there is a huge gap between the official policy and the way in which those indigenous people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the most extraordinarily out of date attitudes where people were simply saying in relation to indigenous , “ Well , those people have to come into the 21st century .
They can ’ t keep living like that.
” When the entire concept of indigeneity is closeness to the land , closeness to traditional cultures , and simply saying , “ Come on new backward person , throw away all that traditional stuff and go and get a job in a local factory , ” is just totally insensitive and unaware of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are these pockets of areas that really need to get more attention in the Malaysian media and that could actually be resolved relatively easily if the government showed goodwill .
And I think the previous government had been showing goodwill .
It remains to be seen if the new one will pick up on any of those areas or whether it will just be a reversion to the old business as usual .
Jaisal Noor : All right , Philip Alston , former UN special repertoire on extreme poverty and human rights .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ share all this valuable information with us .
Thank you .
Philip Alston : Good .
Thanks very much .
Jaisal Noor : And thank you for joining us at the Real News Network .

Malaysia must acknowledge that the country’s rapid economic growth has not benefited all of its residents, says Philip Alston, former UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.
Story Transcript
After this interview was filmed, Malaysia announced a revised poverty line measurement that increased their poverty rate from 0.4% to 5.6%, still short of the 15% found by independent analysis.
This is a rush transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Jaisal Noor: Welcome to The Real News. I’m Jaisal Noor. Malaysia is Southwest Asia’s wealthiest, large country. It’s undergoing rapid economic growth and it’s breathtaking city skylines rival its Western counterparts. And it claims it has eradicated poverty, something activists have questioned for years. In 2019, United Nations, special repertoire and extreme poverty, Philip Alston found that Malaysia was in fact vastly under counting people living in poverty who actually numbered in the millions and include countless migrants, refugees, and stateless people.
Last year, I traveled to the island of Borneo to spend time with villagers who had lived there their entire lives, but because they were stateless and not officially Malaysian citizens, could not access healthcare, education or work legally. And they were not counted in official poverty numbers. Here’s a clip.
Kota Kinabalu is the capital of Sabah, located in the North of the Island of Borneo. The Eastern most part of Malaysia. It is a tourist destination known for its coastline, beaches and street markets. But unknown thousands live in the shadows in villages without running water or electricity. Some have lived here for generations, but because they lack official documentation, they’re denied access to government programs.
Speaker 3: They don’t have access to education. They don’t have access to public health care. They basically don’t have access to anything.
Jaisal Noor: A lack of access to schools is a major problem for stateless youth.
Speaker 3: So without having an education, without having a place where they can go to and learn, they are exposed to other things. And they become easy prey to syndicates. So we have begging syndicates. We have, I mean, there’s also human trafficking happening here.
Jaisal Noor: Being undocumented means it’s hard for them to advocate for themselves, but a local youth movement has taken up their cause, launching a campaign to halt [inaudible 00:14:39] the village’s demolition and building and running schools in the village.
So in light of the 2019 UN report, Malaysia promised to address poverty, a commitment that’s now in doubt. Well now joining us to discuss this is Philip Alston, former UN special rapid tour on extreme poverty and human rights. Thank you so much for joining us.
Philip Alston: Pleasure.
Jaisal Noor: So we were both in Malaysia around the same time. It’s an absolutely beautiful country, beautiful cities, beautiful people, beautiful wilderness and wildlife. But they claim that they have eradicated poverty as part of this tremendous economic growth.
We both sort of discovered a similar thing that that is simply not the case. And in light of your work, Malaysia had promised to really address poverty and study it. And then the hope was to actually do something about it. It’s been almost a year now. Talk about what’s happened over the last year.
Philip Alston: Well, it was an interesting response to my report. The immediate reaction was from the Ministry of Economic Affairs that dismissed my report and insisted that there was really no poverty in Malaysia. But within a few hours, in fact, the then prime minister, Mahathir bin Mohamad intervened along with various of his advisors, as well as Anwar Ibrahim and others. And all said, “Look, we know the poverty rate is much higher than is officially accepted. And we’re going to start work on recognizing that most. Of the independent, in fact, all of the independent assessments suggest that real poverty levels in Malaysia, somewhere around 15 to 20% of the population in contrast to the 0.4% that the government says.”
And that was acknowledged by the government ministers, the figure of 15 to 20%. What then happened was the change of government a few months ago. And that seems to have brought a complete reversion to the old line. So in their official response to me, they reiterated that they stand by the 0.4% figure. That this reflects international best practice and so on.
And then most recently there have been reports from a minister in the prime minister’s office that yes, they will be revising the rate upwards. Yes, it is higher. And yes, average income has doubled since it was last estimated at 0.4%.
But my fear is that it’s going to be another cosmetic change. It won’t be based on any detailed statistical analysis. And it will simply try to diffuse the issue by saying, “Actually it’s not 0.4%. It’s 2% or 3%.” But we’ll see. I might be surprised.
Jaisal Noor: And can you talk about why it’s so important that poverty be counted and acknowledged, especially in a country like Malaysia that has deep inequality?
Philip Alston: Well, at one level, it sounds like the concern of a bureaucrat or even worse, an academic like me, who cares what the government says about this? It’s just a matter of having policies in place and so on.
But when I was in Malaysia and I asked government departments, “So what are you doing about poor people? What are you doing about the bottom 20%?” And the answer was, “Well, there aren’t any poor people, so we don’t have any specific plans.”
And that means that when you’re looking at schooling, when you’re looking at nutrition, when you’re looking at health and so on, you adopt policies which are based on false premises. That there are not a very significant number of people who are being neglected, whose lives are going to be significantly impaired, unless programs are put in place to pull them out of poverty. And those programs are simply not being devised because of this sort of myth that, well, we are the only country in the world that doesn’t have poverty. What a miracle!
Jaisal Noor: I wanted to play another clip from my reporting in Malaysia, specifically around what you talked about, the impact of a lack of education and things like health care and being able to work illegally, especially for stateless people. Here’s that clip.
Speaker 6: We have lived here for over 40 years. We’re the ethnic marginal people. Once sea nomads, now we live by the beach. We want to live here forever to strengthen this village and keep it strong.
Jaisal Noor: Abdul Riaz Bin is the leader of [Layan Basar 00:07:06], a village facing threat of demolition. The 20 families that live here are among the hundreds of thousands of stateless people in the Malaysian state of Sabah. No country considers them citizens. Many live in deep poverty. And their plight is a stark contrast to the majority of residents of the wealthiest large country in Southeast Asia.
So you were able to visit communities across Malaysia during your trip. We have photos from your trip. So our viewers can see what you witnessed firsthand as well.
Can you talk about the plight of stateless people today? There’s an estimated around 10 million stateless people around the world, according to the UN. And they’re not counted in Malaysia, but you know, perhaps hundreds of thousands live in Malaysia.
Philip Alston: Yes. Malaysia has a curious attachment, if I can put it that way, to protecting its nationality. In other words, it’s resistant on many different aspects in terms of providing recognition of citizenship, not just to people who have crossed borders over the last 50, 60, or more years, as in Sabah for example, or people in the North of Peninsula, Malaya, but also migrant workers, refugees, and others, all face really significant problems to get any sort of recognition, any sort of documentation that’s going to enable them to live a decent life.
But when it comes to statelessness in Sabah, for example, I visited the village for example, that you have featured and saw firsthand exactly what the situation is. But I’ve visited with lots of others as well.
And the government position is that we don’t know if there are any stateless people. But we certainly don’t know how many there are, because of course you can’t count something that is illegal. And that’s really the most nonsensical position imaginable. Because if one is dealing with any sort of underground activity, whether it’s drugs or prostitution or whatever, governments always have an idea of the numbers, that’s how they plan. That’s how they do their policing and everything else.
And the figures that I saw published by the media in Sabah suggest as many as 500,000 stainless people in Sabah alone. And that’s huge given the relatively small population. What happens is that those people get no access to formal education. They get a sort of toy education where they can attend a school of sorts, but they can never graduate from it because the certificate is not going to be useful for anything. And they can’t go on then to higher levels of education. So you’re condemning future generations. And these are families that may well have been in Malaysia for 40, 50 years, are thoroughly Malaysian in every respect, but just live in no man’s land.
Jaisal Noor: And one thing I’ve witnessed in Malaysia, which was absolutely inspiring was that you had young college students, for example, in the village, we both visited, that took it upon themselves to be advocates for the stateless people. They were building a school and fighting the villages demolition, which was still moving to see that. So obviously the local people have sort of taken it in their own hands and are doing what they can.
But what role, if any, can the international community play in supporting these types of struggles?
Philip Alston: Well, I think it’s always important for any country to be reminded from the outside of what the shortcomings are in terms of its policies. I said often enough when I was in Malaysia, that I come from Australia. Australia has a significant Aboriginal population, which is very badly treated. It’s not a popular issue. Domestically, people dismiss it. And so external criticism is really essential to say, “Listen, you Australians. You’ve got a great standard of living. You’ve got large amounts of money, a thriving economy, but you have a very significant group of indigenous citizens who are being totally neglected and living miserable lives. You’ve got to do something.”
And I think the same applies to Malaysia, that Malaysia is thriving economically. It does very well on a lot of issues. But it has these gray areas that it pretends don’t exist. And I think certainly stateless people are part of that.
Indigenous peoples are another where there is a huge gap between the official policy and the way in which those indigenous people are really treated. I came across the most extraordinarily out of date attitudes where people were simply saying in relation to indigenous, “Well, those people have to come into the 21st century. They can’t keep living like that.” When the entire concept of indigeneity is closeness to the land, closeness to traditional cultures, and simply saying, “Come on new backward person, throw away all that traditional stuff and go and get a job in a local factory,” is just totally insensitive and unaware of the real challenges.
So I think there are these pockets of areas that really need to get more attention in the Malaysian media and that could actually be resolved relatively easily if the government showed goodwill. And I think the previous government had been showing goodwill. It remains to be seen if the new one will pick up on any of those areas or whether it will just be a reversion to the old business as usual.
Jaisal Noor: All right, Philip Alston, former UN special repertoire on extreme poverty and human rights. Appreciate your work and coming on to share all this valuable information with us. Thank you.
Philip Alston: Good. Thanks very much.
Jaisal Noor: And thank you for joining us at the Real News Network.
Studio: Will Arenas
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therealnews--2020-07-16--Why You Should Give A F*ck | Ep. 6 | Accountability

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therealnews--2020-07-16--The Harper’s Letter Is Really A Case Against Open Debate

Jacqueline Luqman : “ Our cultural institutions are facing a moment of trial .
Powerful protests for racial and social justice are leading to overdue demands for police reform , along with wider calls for greater equality and inclusion across our society , not least in higher education , journalism , philanthropy , and the arts .
But this needed reckoning has also intensified a new set of moral attitudes and political commitments that tend to weaken our norms of open debate and toleration of differences in favor of ideological conformity.
” This is how a short but intellectually and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Harper ’ s Magazine , unironically titled “ A Letter on Justice and Open Debate.
” This letter , published by Harper ’ s Magazine contributor Thomas Chatterton Williams , and signed by a 160 people who I guess we ’ re supposed to be impressed with because of their intellectual and professional credentials , begins with an opening statement that is so dishonest that it undermines the entire argument – the idea that the cultural institutions represented in the letter are “ OURS.
” Whatever cultural institutions these people believe are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the umpteenth time in the history of this country – demands for justice and equality for marginalized people , they are decidedly NOT OURS .
THOSE cultural institutions were not created by us or for us .
We may have been allowed access into those cultural institutions of higher education , journalism , philanthropy , and the arts , but we don ’ t run them , we aren ’ t the decision-makers , our contributions to them are still challenged and whitewashed to suit the sensibilities and opinions of the intellectual elite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ existence of this letter basically proves that point .
Now on to the rest of this mess .
What “ new set of moral attitudes ” in regard to justice for police terrorism and for centuries of perpetual discrimination and exclusion has “ intensified… that tend to weaken our norms of open debate and toleration of differences in favor of ideological conformity ?
” The loose moral attitudes that allowed the continued worship of a bunch of white men who slaughtered Native Americans , enslaved , tortured , and then marginalized African Americans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ status , criminalized gueer and trans people , and act as if the disabled don ’ t exist or deserve to live at all are the moral attitudes and norms we are fighting .
So what is it about the absolute right to equality and justice for every human being is there that still needs an open debate ?
For too long , we who believe in freedom have tried to reason with those enlightened liberals on our demands for justice , only to have our continued oppression intellectualized as something that couldn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so fast , this way , or with the attitude we had .
It was allowing open debate to become the only activism that so many were willing to participate in , while the issues that were debated about that impacted our lives changed not one bit .
But you got your robust debate , though , and you got to go home feeling good about how well you defended your augment , while we got to stay home and suffer and die .
In a particularly offensive turn , this letter includes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inclusion we want can be achieved only if we speak out against the intolerant climate that has set in on all sides.
” The people who crafted , published , and signed onto this letter had the gall to use THEIR vaunted positions in these cultural institutions that are not our ours to look down upon us and tell us that we are just as bad as the people who have worshipped white supremacist idols , gave the police and white vigilantes carte blanche to kill us without real accountability , allowed the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ backbreaking and exploitative work of the working class while allowing the same people to pay politicians to codify their greedy practices into law , all while telling us that it ’ s Black people who are violent and Latinos who are lazy and Asians who are diseased and gays and trans who are amoral and abnormal .
Just whose side are these supposedly super smart and super talented people on ?
It doesn ’ t look like yours or mine .
They further claim that “ The free exchange of information and ideas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” but when has that ever happened in this society ?
OUR HISTORY , the history of the Black and Chicano and Native and Queer and Trans and disabled struggle and working-class and poor in this country was never freely given and the information about it was always ALWAYS false or watered down or just not told .
This is why these monuments are coming down now – because people have finally learned the truth about the people the statues honor , and will not continue to allow monuments to lies , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exploitation to stand .
For example , most people were supportive or at least understanding of monuments to Confederate generals being taken down by the people , but as soon as the statue of Ulysses S. Grant was toppled , some people pointed to this as a result of the ignorance of the protesters and an example of the effort to remove the monuments going too far because Grant was one of the good guys because he fought for the Union !
When president , he signed the 15th Amendment , giving black @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Ku Klux Klan Act to curb anti-Black violence in the South !
But the fact that those same people did not know that Ulysses S. Grant , who claimed to want to pursue peace between Indigenous people and white settlers , also used military force and violence to push Native people onto reservations to clear land for settlement and development points not only to their ignorance , but the danger of these cultural institutions and the false narratives they ’ re indoctrinated us with .
Grant ’ s policies resulted in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ River War in Texas , the Nez Perce conflict in Oregon , the Black Hills campaign by Gen. George Armstrong Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn .
The very institutions these people are defending from being “ attacked ” – higher education , journalism , philanthropy , and the arts – helped perpetuate the lie that Ulysses S. Grant was a “ good guy.
” The worry expressed in the letter of “ an intolerance of opposing views , a vogue for public shaming and ostracism , and the tendency to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ moral certainty ” that is being attributed to those seeking a more just society now , as it has been expected to come from the right , is really the epitome of hypocrisy , considering all of the so-called liberals who offered up academics , intellectuals , artists , and activists for standing in solidarity with Palestine , accusing them of anti-Semitism when they challenged Israel ’ s apartheid policies .
I mean , aside from her beloved books and adapted movie series , JK Rowling is famous not only for her transphobia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of being an anti-semite in a Twitter thread that I suppose she meant to be clever , but was just disgusting .
Another signer , Bari Weiss , also accused Corbyn of not only being an anti-semite , but also waged a campaign against Arab and Muslim academics who criticized Israel to try to get them fired and ruin their careers .
So when the author of this letter bemoans all the professionals who are “ punished ” for expressing unpopular ideas , understand that so-called liberals already did this to LEFTISTS who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hypocrites among signatories of this letter are not limited to staunch supporters of Israel and all of that government ’ s crimes .
There are also defenders of THIS government ’ s crimes on the list , too !
David Frum literally came up with the phrase “ Axis of Evil ” that helped get this country mired into a war in Iraq that was based on complete lies , and he had a hand in the continued disaster that is the US intervention in Libya , but he ’ s mad that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ politicians who make their money off warmongering and maybe say mean things to them on Twitter ?
I ’ m curious to know who among those people concerned about “ cancel culture ” that they are decrying actually lost their livelihoods making other people ’ s lives miserable because people called them out them on Twitter .
And I know that for a lot of people on the left , the fact that venerated intellectual Noam Chomsky signed this letter immediately legitimizes it , and few who see his endorsement as such will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the letter ’ s content .
I will just say that I find it ironic that people who believe that their right to disagree and debate is being trampled on in the current climate , are some of the same people who will refuse to consider that maybe the signature of their favorite intellectual doesn ’ t legitimize bad ideas .
And would even attack YOU for suggesting that maybe this time , Chomsky is wrong .
It wouldn ’ t be the first time .
In truth , the arguments in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supremacy itself , none of them are anything we haven ’ t heard before from so-called well-meaning people who claim they want the same things we do , but they just disagree with the way we go about getting them .
For example , where the letter states , “ This stifling atmosphere will ultimately harm the most vital causes of our time , ” that just sounds to me like another version of “ You ’ re going to turn people off from your cause.
” And noting that “ The restriction @ @ @ @ @ @ @ government or an intolerant society , invariably hurts those who lack power and makes everyone less capable of democratic participation ” is insulting to people who lack power because people who lack power can ’ t stop you from saying whatever you want .
When has that happened in this country ?
And worse , the letter browbeats readers with , “ The way to defeat bad ideas is by exposure , argument , and persuasion , not by trying to silence or wish them away.
” What do these people think we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 500 years ?
People have pointed out the lies told about the history of this country , have challenged the narratives , have peacefully protested and sang and prayed and pleaded and forgave , have testified at hearings and gave speeches and wrote think pieces and protested peacefully some more and asked nicely for justice and equality over and over and over again .
People have debated and argued and tried to make the intellectual case to win others over to “ our cause.
” Only to arrive at this moment once again @ @ @ @ @ @ @ letter to make the argument that it is those of us who are fighting for our very lives who have to continually bear the burden of listening to people argue against what we ’ ve been fighting for in every polite way imaginable .
These people who continue to intellectualize the resistance to justice are really just the white moderates that Martin Luther King Jr. warned us about in his Letter From The Birmingham Jail .
And yes , not every signer of the letter is white .
White supremacy is tricky like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ money and status , and it will have them upholding the very system that uses them to keep the rest of the oppressed in line .
Finally , the author closes with this : “ As writers we need a culture that leaves us room for experimentation , risk taking , and even mistakes .
We need to preserve the possibility of good-faith disagreement without dire professional consequences.
” If this letter were written in good faith , that might be a valid argument .
But I don ’ t believe that it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the arguments in this letter were not framed to be directed at those currently fighting for justice and it were not published in this moment , it might seem less like a smackdown from the liberal elite comparing the unwashed masses yearning to truly be free to the selfish and greedy right-wing who wants only the freedom to exploit the marginalization of others for their own profit .
But when you look at the arguments in it in the context of the uprisings happening around the world right now , the claims that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about justice and equality that people are demanding not only ring hollow , but they are insulting .
And then when you read the list of neoconservative , warmongering , anti-Palestine , ideologues who are among the signatories , the tone and the intention of the letter takes a much more dark and dangerous turn .
So this letter isn ’ t a plea for civility in discourse and a call to cancel “ cancel culture.
” It is a demand to stop criticizing those people who sold us the lies we are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ place .
People have every right in the world to express whatever opinion they have .
But regular folks on social media and in real life have every right to challenge those opinions , especially when those opinions are a threat to their lives .
And honestly , no one has to sit on social media and go back and forth all day with people who want to argue against everyone having equality and justice .
So cancelling someone on Twitter or boycotting or protesting institutions or calling out despicable arguments that are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s speech .
You can still espouse your bad ideas .
We really just don ’ t have to listen to them anymore .
And we ’ re not going to .

Cultural and intellectual elites are trying to save themselves from accountability, not protect your free speech.
Story Transcript
Jacqueline Luqman: “Our cultural institutions are facing a moment of trial. Powerful protests for racial and social justice are leading to overdue demands for police reform, along with wider calls for greater equality and inclusion across our society, not least in higher education, journalism, philanthropy, and the arts. But this needed reckoning has also intensified a new set of moral attitudes and political commitments that tend to weaken our norms of open debate and toleration of differences in favor of ideological conformity.”
This is how a short but intellectually and historically insulting letter begins that is published in Harper’s Magazine, unironically titled “A Letter on Justice and Open Debate.” This letter, published by Harper’s Magazine contributor Thomas Chatterton Williams, and signed by a 160 people who I guess we’re supposed to be impressed with because of their intellectual and professional credentials, begins with an opening statement that is so dishonest that it undermines the entire argument – the idea that the cultural institutions represented in the letter are “OURS.” Whatever cultural institutions these people believe are being threatened by the renewed – for the umpteenth time in the history of this country – demands for justice and equality for marginalized people, they are decidedly NOT OURS. THOSE cultural institutions were not created by us or for us. We may have been allowed access into those cultural institutions of higher education, journalism, philanthropy, and the arts, but we don’t run them, we aren’t the decision-makers, our contributions to them are still challenged and whitewashed to suit the sensibilities and opinions of the intellectual elite who run them, and the very existence of this letter basically proves that point. Now on to the rest of this mess.
What “new set of moral attitudes” in regard to justice for police terrorism and for centuries of perpetual discrimination and exclusion has “intensified… that tend to weaken our norms of open debate and toleration of differences in favor of ideological conformity?” The loose moral attitudes that allowed the continued worship of a bunch of white men who slaughtered Native Americans, enslaved, tortured, and then marginalized African Americans, objectified and relegated women to second-class status, criminalized gueer and trans people, and act as if the disabled don’t exist or deserve to live at all are the moral attitudes and norms we are fighting. So what is it about the absolute right to equality and justice for every human being is there that still needs an open debate? For too long, we who believe in freedom have tried to reason with those enlightened liberals on our demands for justice, only to have our continued oppression intellectualized as something that couldn’t be addressed right now, so fast, this way, or with the attitude we had. It was allowing open debate to become the only activism that so many were willing to participate in, while the issues that were debated about that impacted our lives changed not one bit. But you got your robust debate, though, and you got to go home feeling good about how well you defended your augment, while we got to stay home and suffer and die.
In a particularly offensive turn, this letter includes the dubiously Trumpian admonition “The democratic inclusion we want can be achieved only if we speak out against the intolerant climate that has set in on all sides.” The people who crafted, published, and signed onto this letter had the gall to use THEIR vaunted positions in these cultural institutions that are not our ours to look down upon us and tell us that we are just as bad as the people who have worshipped white supremacist idols, gave the police and white vigilantes carte blanche to kill us without real accountability, allowed the rich to get infinitely richer off the backbreaking and exploitative work of the working class while allowing the same people to pay politicians to codify their greedy practices into law, all while telling us that it’s Black people who are violent and Latinos who are lazy and Asians who are diseased and gays and trans who are amoral and abnormal. Just whose side are these supposedly super smart and super talented people on? It doesn’t look like yours or mine.
They further claim that “The free exchange of information and ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society,” but when has that ever happened in this society? OUR HISTORY, the history of the Black and Chicano and Native and Queer and Trans and disabled struggle and working-class and poor in this country was never freely given and the information about it was always ALWAYS false or watered down or just not told. This is why these monuments are coming down now – because people have finally learned the truth about the people the statues honor, and will not continue to allow monuments to lies, genocide, slavery, imperialism, and exploitation to stand. For example, most people were supportive or at least understanding of monuments to Confederate generals being taken down by the people, but as soon as the statue of Ulysses S. Grant was toppled, some people pointed to this as a result of the ignorance of the protesters and an example of the effort to remove the monuments going too far because Grant was one of the good guys because he fought for the Union! When president, he signed the 15th Amendment, giving black men the right to vote, and the Ku Klux Klan Act to curb anti-Black violence in the South! But the fact that those same people did not know that Ulysses S. Grant, who claimed to want to pursue peace between Indigenous people and white settlers, also used military force and violence to push Native people onto reservations to clear land for settlement and development points not only to their ignorance, but the danger of these cultural institutions and the false narratives they’re indoctrinated us with. Grant’s policies resulted in the Modoc War in California, the Red River War in Texas, the Nez Perce conflict in Oregon, the Black Hills campaign by Gen. George Armstrong Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The very institutions these people are defending from being “attacked” – higher education, journalism, philanthropy, and the arts – helped perpetuate the lie that Ulysses S. Grant was a “good guy.”
The worry expressed in the letter of “an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty” that is being attributed to those seeking a more just society now, as it has been expected to come from the right, is really the epitome of hypocrisy, considering all of the so-called liberals who offered up academics, intellectuals, artists, and activists for standing in solidarity with Palestine, accusing them of anti-Semitism when they challenged Israel’s apartheid policies.
I mean, aside from her beloved books and adapted movie series, JK Rowling is famous not only for her transphobia, but also for accusing Jeremy Corbyn of being an anti-semite in a Twitter thread that I suppose she meant to be clever, but was just disgusting. Another signer, Bari Weiss, also accused Corbyn of not only being an anti-semite, but also waged a campaign against Arab and Muslim academics who criticized Israel to try to get them fired and ruin their careers. So when the author of this letter bemoans all the professionals who are “punished” for expressing unpopular ideas, understand that so-called liberals already did this to LEFTISTS who challenged Israel or zionism.
But the hypocrites among signatories of this letter are not limited to staunch supporters of Israel and all of that government’s crimes. There are also defenders of THIS government’s crimes on the list, too! David Frum literally came up with the phrase “Axis of Evil” that helped get this country mired into a war in Iraq that was based on complete lies, and he had a hand in the continued disaster that is the US intervention in Libya, but he’s mad that people are mean to rich capitalists and politicians who make their money off warmongering and maybe say mean things to them on Twitter? I’m curious to know who among those people concerned about “cancel culture” that they are decrying actually lost their livelihoods making other people’s lives miserable because people called them out them on Twitter.
And I know that for a lot of people on the left, the fact that venerated intellectual Noam Chomsky signed this letter immediately legitimizes it, and few who see his endorsement as such will take the time to examine the weaknesses in the letter’s content. I will just say that I find it ironic that people who believe that their right to disagree and debate is being trampled on in the current climate, are some of the same people who will refuse to consider that maybe the signature of their favorite intellectual doesn’t legitimize bad ideas. And would even attack YOU for suggesting that maybe this time, Chomsky is wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time.
In truth, the arguments in this letter are as old as white supremacy itself, none of them are anything we haven’t heard before from so-called well-meaning people who claim they want the same things we do, but they just disagree with the way we go about getting them. For example, where the letter states, “This stifling atmosphere will ultimately harm the most vital causes of our time,” that just sounds to me like another version of “You’re going to turn people off from your cause.” And noting that “The restriction of debate, whether by a repressive government or an intolerant society, invariably hurts those who lack power and makes everyone less capable of democratic participation” is insulting to people who lack power because people who lack power can’t stop you from saying whatever you want. When has that happened in this country? And worse, the letter browbeats readers with, “The way to defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion, not by trying to silence or wish them away.”
What do these people think we’ve been doing for the past 500 years? People have pointed out the lies told about the history of this country, have challenged the narratives, have peacefully protested and sang and prayed and pleaded and forgave, have testified at hearings and gave speeches and wrote think pieces and protested peacefully some more and asked nicely for justice and equality over and over and over again. People have debated and argued and tried to make the intellectual case to win others over to “our cause.” Only to arrive at this moment once again when the author and signers of this letter to make the argument that it is those of us who are fighting for our very lives who have to continually bear the burden of listening to people argue against what we’ve been fighting for in every polite way imaginable. These people who continue to intellectualize the resistance to justice are really just the white moderates that Martin Luther King Jr. warned us about in his Letter From The Birmingham Jail. And yes, not every signer of the letter is white. White supremacy is tricky like that – give some oppressed folks enough money and status, and it will have them upholding the very system that uses them to keep the rest of the oppressed in line.
Finally, the author closes with this: “As writers we need a culture that leaves us room for experimentation, risk taking, and even mistakes. We need to preserve the possibility of good-faith disagreement without dire professional consequences.” If this letter were written in good faith, that might be a valid argument. But I don’t believe that it was.
It is possible that if the arguments in this letter were not framed to be directed at those currently fighting for justice and it were not published in this moment, it might seem less like a smackdown from the liberal elite comparing the unwashed masses yearning to truly be free to the selfish and greedy right-wing who wants only the freedom to exploit the marginalization of others for their own profit. But when you look at the arguments in it in the context of the uprisings happening around the world right now, the claims that there needs to be any more debate about justice and equality that people are demanding not only ring hollow, but they are insulting. And then when you read the list of neoconservative, warmongering, anti-Palestine, ideologues who are among the signatories, the tone and the intention of the letter takes a much more dark and dangerous turn. So this letter isn’t a plea for civility in discourse and a call to cancel “cancel culture.” It is a demand to stop criticizing those people who sold us the lies we are dismantling in these streets in the first place.
People have every right in the world to express whatever opinion they have. But regular folks on social media and in real life have every right to challenge those opinions, especially when those opinions are a threat to their lives. And honestly, no one has to sit on social media and go back and forth all day with people who want to argue against everyone having equality and justice. So cancelling someone on Twitter or boycotting or protesting institutions or calling out despicable arguments that are harmful to people is not stifling anyone’s speech. You can still espouse your bad ideas. We really just don’t have to listen to them anymore.
And we’re not going to.
Studio: Will Arenas
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therealnews--2020-07-16--DeVos Courts Disaster By Claiming It’s Safe To Reopen Schools

Who could have predicted Trump ’ s education secretary , a fundamentalist billionaire megadonor with zero educational experience , would be absolutely unprepared for a crisis of historical proportions ?
In a disastrous and widely ridiculed appearance on CNN on July 12 , Betsy DeVos struggled to defend her stance that all public schools should be reopened in the fall for in-person teaching , even though federal officials have done little to prepare students or teachers for COVID-19 .
When host Dana Bash asked DeVos why she has failed to provide instructions for schools guidelines to reopen safely and comply @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a nonanswer : “ The CDC guidelines are just that , meant to be flexible and meant to be applied as appropriate for the situation , ” DeVos said .
DeVos falsely claimed on Fox News Sunday that allowing children to attend schools was not endangering them .
“ There ’ s nothing in the data that suggests that kids being in school is in any way dangerous.
” The Boston Globe rated this claim as false : “ Although children are less likely than adults to develop COVID-19 , the Centers for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tens of thousands of infections by the virus in Americans younger than 18 .
It ’ s premature to claim that there are no risks “ in any way ” seen in data .
How significant a risk has not been established.
” Rep. Ayanna Pressley criticized DeVos on Twitter : “ Betsy DeVos you have no plan .
Teachers , kids and parents are fearing for their lives .
You point to a private sector that has put profits over people and claimed the lives of thousands of essential workers .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for a houseplant let alone my child.
” While some studies suggest children infrequently transmit COVID-19 , “ provided they follow appropriate social distancing guidelines and take into account rates of transmission in their community , ” there ’ s growing concern over rising rates of community transmission and schools without the space and resources to socially distance .
Despite Trump administration threats to cut federal funding for school districts that refuse to reopen ( which experts say he doesn ’ t have the power to do ) , a growing number of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with virtual learning only , including Los Angeles and San Diego , California .
On July 13 , California Gov .
Gavin Newsom ordered bars and restaurants closed after the state experienced a new COVID-19 outbreak after reopening too soon .
Florida , which is refusing to mandate mask use , is also experiencing a massive spike in COVID-19 , including in children .
31 % of children tested statewide have tested positive , compared to the overall statewide positivity rate of 11 % , and health officials warn even those with mild @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sun Sentinel reports .
The paper spoke to Dr. Alina Alonso , Palm Beach County ’ s health department director : Schools in underfunded districts will face more challenges when they reopen .
Many have pointed out that even before the pandemic , many schools lacked supplies like soap , necessary for stopping the spread of infectious diseases .
States across the country have proposed cutting school funding by billions of dollars to cope with an estimated $ 665 billion budget shortfall , according to the Center for Policy and Budget Priorities .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ lack functioning HVAC systems , another tool in stopping the spread of the disease .
A Johns Hopkins study released earlier this year notes just 17 % of schools in the city are in “ good or superior condition , ” and students missed significant instructional time because of deteriorating HVAC systems .
“ Problems with heat and cooling accounted for lost school time of more than 1.2 million hours , equivalent to more than 179,000 days , over the last 5 years , representing about 80 % of the time missed , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being sued for violating the constitutional rights of students living in poor districts , who have been denied the right to an adequate education .
While DeVos has no experience working in public schools , she did bankroll efforts to deregulate the spread of privately run charter and voucher schools in her home state of Michigan .
Studies found that schools there are among the worst in the nation when it comes to improving student achievement .
While countries in Europe see declining cases and deaths , COVID-19 continues to spread out of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
While the US has less than 5 % of the world ’ s population , it has a quarter of the world ’ s cases .
On July 10 , the US added 64,771 ( 3.05 million total ) new cases of COVID-19 and 991 new deaths ( 132,056 total ) , according to the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security , which detailed trends : “ Both the South and Southwest regions are reporting increased daily deaths since early-to-mid June .
Additionally , test positivity is increasing nearly nationwide , indicating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ growing testing capacity.
” In a joint letter to state and local officials on July 14 , the Maryland State Education Association , Baltimore Teachers Union , and Maryland Parent Teachers Association urged schools reopen virtually in the fall .
“ If we open our schools too quickly and without adequate safety precautions , the result will be that some educators , students , and their family members will contract the coronavirus .
Some will recover , some will face debilitating health consequences or healthcare bills that they can not pay , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ facts .
And they are costs and consequences that we must refuse to accept .
A perfect solution does not exist .
A safe one does .
”

Who could have predicted Trump’s education secretary, a fundamentalist billionaire megadonor with zero educational experience, would be absolutely unprepared for a crisis of historical proportions?
In a disastrous and widely ridiculed appearance on CNN on July 12, Betsy DeVos struggled to defend her stance that all public schools should be reopened in the fall for in-person teaching, even though federal officials have done little to prepare students or teachers for COVID-19.
When host Dana Bash asked DeVos why she has failed to provide instructions for schools guidelines to reopen safely and comply with CDC guidelines, DeVos fumbled through a nonanswer: “The CDC guidelines are just that, meant to be flexible and meant to be applied as appropriate for the situation,” DeVos said.
DeVos falsely claimed on Fox News Sunday that allowing children to attend schools was not endangering them. “There’s nothing in the data that suggests that kids being in school is in any way dangerous.”
The Boston Globe rated this claim as false: “Although children are less likely than adults to develop COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has nevertheless counted tens of thousands of infections by the virus in Americans younger than 18. It’s premature to claim that there are no risks “in any way” seen in data. How significant a risk has not been established.”
Rep. Ayanna Pressley criticized DeVos on Twitter: “Betsy DeVos you have no plan. Teachers, kids and parents are fearing for their lives. You point to a private sector that has put profits over people and claimed the lives of thousands of essential workers. I wouldn’t trust you to care for a houseplant let alone my child.”
While some studies suggest children infrequently transmit COVID-19, “provided they follow appropriate social distancing guidelines and take into account rates of transmission in their community,” there’s growing concern over rising rates of community transmission and schools without the space and resources to socially distance.
Despite Trump administration threats to cut federal funding for school districts that refuse to reopen (which experts say he doesn’t have the power to do), a growing number of districts have announced they will be reopening with virtual learning only, including Los Angeles and San Diego, California.
On July 13, California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered bars and restaurants closed after the state experienced a new COVID-19 outbreak after reopening too soon.
Florida, which is refusing to mandate mask use, is also experiencing a massive spike in COVID-19, including in children. 31% of children tested statewide have tested positive, compared to the overall statewide positivity rate of 11%, and health officials warn even those with mild symptoms can suffer lifelong consequences, The Sun Sentinel reports. The paper spoke to Dr. Alina Alonso, Palm Beach County’s health department director:
“[T]here is damage to the lungs in these asymptomatic children. … We don’t know how that is going to manifest a year from now or two years from now,” Alonso said. “Is that child going to have chronic pulmonary problems or not?”
Schools in underfunded districts will face more challenges when they reopen. Many have pointed out that even before the pandemic, many schools lacked supplies like soap, necessary for stopping the spread of infectious diseases. States across the country have proposed cutting school funding by billions of dollars to cope with an estimated $665 billion budget shortfall, according to the Center for Policy and Budget Priorities.
Many schools in Baltimore, Maryland, lack functioning HVAC systems, another tool in stopping the spread of the disease. A Johns Hopkins study released earlier this year notes just 17% of schools in the city are in “good or superior condition,” and students missed significant instructional time because of deteriorating HVAC systems.
“Problems with heat and cooling accounted for lost school time of more than 1.2 million hours, equivalent to more than 179,000 days, over the last 5 years, representing about 80% of the time missed,” the report found.
Maryland is being sued for violating the constitutional rights of students living in poor districts, who have been denied the right to an adequate education.
While DeVos has no experience working in public schools, she did bankroll efforts to deregulate the spread of privately run charter and voucher schools in her home state of Michigan. Studies found that schools there are among the worst in the nation when it comes to improving student achievement.
While countries in Europe see declining cases and deaths, COVID-19 continues to spread out of control in several regions of the US. While the US has less than 5% of the world’s population, it has a quarter of the world’s cases. On July 10, the US added 64,771 (3.05 million total) new cases of COVID-19 and 991 new deaths (132,056 total), according to the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, which detailed trends: “Both the South and Southwest regions are reporting increased daily deaths since early-to-mid June. Additionally, test positivity is increasing nearly nationwide, indicating that increased transmission may be outpacing the growing testing capacity.”
In a joint letter to state and local officials on July 14, the Maryland State Education Association, Baltimore Teachers Union, and Maryland Parent Teachers Association urged schools reopen virtually in the fall. “If we open our schools too quickly and without adequate safety precautions, the result will be that some educators, students, and their family members will contract the coronavirus. Some will recover, some will face debilitating health consequences or healthcare bills that they cannot pay, and some will die. These are stubborn facts. And they are costs and consequences that we must refuse to accept. A perfect solution does not exist. A safe one does.”
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therealnews--2020-07-15--Corporate Greed Drives COVID-19 Pandemic Inside Peruvian Amazon

Peru ’ s lawmakers are weighing a vote on crucial legislation , which , if passed , will declare large areas of pristine Amazon rainforest off limits to drilling and mining projects—a clear showdown between Big Oil and corporate mining interests and the rights of Indigenous peoples of the Peruvian Amazon .
Peru ’ s Congress was expected to vote on the draft bill Thursday , July 2 .
But the proposal did not make it into the legislative agenda , prompting questions about whether corporate dollars are pulling the strings behind the scenes .
The proposed amendment has revived @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , where Indigenous populations continue to live without access to basic services and have for decades demanded sovereign rights over native territories .
The draft bill seeks to close loopholes in the existing legal framework ( PIACI law ) which have allowed the oil and gas , logging , and mining industries to extract Amazonian natural resources for decades .
At the heart of these modifications is the protection for Peru ’ s uncontacted Indigenous peoples who live in voluntary isolation .
Under the proposed legislation no new contracts for extraction will be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ live .
Peru ’ s Ministry of Culture estimates around 7000 such uncontacted people live in five Amazonian reserves .
They are considered one of the most vulnerable groups facing the current COVID-19 pandemic .
There ’ s another proposal in the works to establish five additional protected areas in the Peruvian Amazon .
The oil industry , which includes state-owned Petroperú , has publicly expressed its dismay at the move and warned lawmakers against passing the legislation , saying it will jeopardize the existing contracts and may drive up the gas and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ environmental lawyer affiliated with nonprofit group Sociedad Peruana de Derecho Ambiental ( SPDA ) , said the new bill has generated a lot of confrontation because it extends to areas with huge hydrocarbon deposits where there are existing contracts for drilling and extraction .
Explaining the complexity of the issue , Silvana said : “ Peru ’ s economy is historically based on extractive business model .
So , the system is based on the recognition of the pre-existing rights [ to extraction ] and we have to respect that because this is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we start transgressing upon these rights we can be in a big problem down the road.
” She added that a strong campaign is presently causing a lot of confusion about the issue .
“ They say that the gas and electricity rates will spike and that the main activities will be hampered .
But I believe the amendments are quite clear that the pre-existing rights will be honored but with a responsibility to respect the vulnerability of the indigenous communities in isolation .
This is the most critical context.
” But even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and more than 12,000 deaths , the Peruvian government seems bent on jumpstarting the economy .
According to Silvana , the decision to reactivate the economy has already been taken , and many companies have already resumed their extractive activities .
She lamented that despite the lockdown the illegal logging and mining activities continued unabated .
And even though Indigenous communities closed their borders to deny entry to the outsiders who might be carriers of COVID-19 , the pandemic has reached inside the isolated territories , causing death and disease .
Pitched against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ corporations and the pandemic devastating their territories , the Indigenous leaders of Peru ’ s Amazonian tribes have much to worry about .
They are also concerned that the government ’ s push to resume economic activities might derail their efforts to secure legal protections for uncontacted Indigenous people proposed under the new draft law .
To understand the situation in Indigenous territories , TRNN spoke to Lizardo Cauper Pezo , president of the Inter-Ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Amazon ( AIDESEP ) , which represents nine decentralized organizations located @ @ @ @ @ @ @ south of the Peruvian Amazon , 109 federations , and 1,809 native communities .
Appearing in a video interview from the region of Ucayali , Lizardo lamented the lack of assistance in the wake of pandemic .
“ There is an ongoing racial discrimination against the indigenous people .
We are not being helped .
All these international companies and consortiums should have gotten together and said well this is what we have to offer you in terms of services and that has not happened .
And they don ’ t care whether @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this is not something which is just happening now but this is going on for years .
The pandemic has made this more visible.
” Stressing that Indigenous people are not against the development , Lizardo said : “ Here we do not even have medicine to heal our wounds .
We can not even face the pandemic .
And on top of this we are going to have those [ extractive ] activities affecting us ?
So , there is no development for the indigenous communities .
And this is what we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , contaminated soil , barren soil .
And we have no drinking water or any basic services.
” He asserted that the proposed legal amendments are meant to safeguard those Indigenous groups who have no contact with the outside world , and no means to defend themselves .
“ We want the autonomy and the decision of these people [ to be in isolation ] respected .
However , the government and the big economic groups wishing to just use our resources think otherwise .
They believe we are just hindering the development @ @ @ @ @ @ @ money that reaches the big corporations is laced with Indigenous peoples ’ blood “ because all these companies working in the Amazon are killing our people .
And that ’ s something they should think about .
They have to be more humane and think about other means of earning [ money ] without destroying the Amazon.
” TRNN also spoke to the Indigenous leader from the Asháninka people of the Peruvian Amazon , Berlin Diques , who had himself contracted COVID-19 and was recovering when he appeared in this interview .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the Indigenous people are facing , ” he said , adding that “ COVID-19 is just taking over and is wiping out everything in its path .
And it has arrived in some of the most remote parts of the Amazon.
” “ The pandemic has exposed the inefficiency and corruption in the ranks of the government—that we do not exist in policy discussion .
And not just for the present government but also for the previous governments , ” Berlin said .
He added there were very few health facilities found @ @ @ @ @ @ @ existed did not have adequate supplies of medicine or the required medical staff .
“ So , we have been doing our best to try and respond to this by using our traditional knowledge , using different kinds of plants and traditional knowledge we have access to in order to minimize the advance of COVID-19 in our communities.
” Sharing his impressions on the draft law which has prompted confrontation with the corporate interests of the extractive industries , Berlin said : “ The current modification in the [ existing ] law would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people .
These are the people who have been for thousands of years living and protecting the Amazon , but at the same time the Peruvian government does not recognize them as citizens.
” Lizardo agrees .
“ We ’ re not talking about forest .
We are talking about human beings who need to have their rights respected .
They have no contact [ with the outside world ] and no way to protect themselves , and we , the Indigenous organizations , like to emphasize that these people are sovereign.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his thoughts by saying : “ We are the last ones to get help .
But we are the first ones to suffer the consequence of all climate change .
We should not only extract oil and gas and these are not the only activities that generate income .
We have to think beyond that .
We have to be green .
We don ’ t have to do this to the detriment of the lives of the Indigenous people .
”

Peru’s lawmakers are weighing a vote on crucial legislation, which, if passed, will declare large areas of pristine Amazon rainforest off limits to drilling and mining projects—a clear showdown between Big Oil and corporate mining interests and the rights of Indigenous peoples of the Peruvian Amazon.
Peru’s Congress was expected to vote on the draft bill Thursday, July 2. But the proposal did not make it into the legislative agenda, prompting questions about whether corporate dollars are pulling the strings behind the scenes.
The proposed amendment has revived bitter decades-old social divisions in the country, where Indigenous populations continue to live without access to basic services and have for decades demanded sovereign rights over native territories.
The draft bill seeks to close loopholes in the existing legal framework (PIACI law) which have allowed the oil and gas, logging, and mining industries to extract Amazonian natural resources for decades.
At the heart of these modifications is the protection for Peru’s uncontacted Indigenous peoples who live in voluntary isolation. Under the proposed legislation no new contracts for extraction will be awarded in reserves where uncontacted Indigenous people live.
Peru’s Ministry of Culture estimates around 7000 such uncontacted people live in five Amazonian reserves. They are considered one of the most vulnerable groups facing the current COVID-19 pandemic. There’s another proposal in the works to establish five additional protected areas in the Peruvian Amazon.
The oil industry, which includes state-owned Petroperú, has publicly expressed its dismay at the move and warned lawmakers against passing the legislation, saying it will jeopardize the existing contracts and may drive up the gas and electricity prices.
Silvana Baldovino, an environmental lawyer affiliated with nonprofit group Sociedad Peruana de Derecho Ambiental (SPDA), said the new bill has generated a lot of confrontation because it extends to areas with huge hydrocarbon deposits where there are existing contracts for drilling and extraction.
Explaining the complexity of the issue, Silvana said: “Peru’s economy is historically based on extractive business model. So, the system is based on the recognition of the pre-existing rights [to extraction] and we have to respect that because this is what generates legal stability. And if we start transgressing upon these rights we can be in a big problem down the road.”
She added that a strong campaign is presently causing a lot of confusion about the issue. “They say that the gas and electricity rates will spike and that the main activities will be hampered. But I believe the amendments are quite clear that the pre-existing rights will be honored but with a responsibility to respect the vulnerability of the indigenous communities in isolation. This is the most critical context.”
But even with more than 300,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 12,000 deaths, the Peruvian government seems bent on jumpstarting the economy. According to Silvana, the decision to reactivate the economy has already been taken, and many companies have already resumed their extractive activities.
She lamented that despite the lockdown the illegal logging and mining activities continued unabated. And even though Indigenous communities closed their borders to deny entry to the outsiders who might be carriers of COVID-19, the pandemic has reached inside the isolated territories, causing death and disease.
Pitched against the political influence of oil and mining corporations and the pandemic devastating their territories, the Indigenous leaders of Peru’s Amazonian tribes have much to worry about. They are also concerned that the government’s push to resume economic activities might derail their efforts to secure legal protections for uncontacted Indigenous people proposed under the new draft law.
To understand the situation in Indigenous territories, TRNN spoke to Lizardo Cauper Pezo, president of the Inter-Ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Amazon (AIDESEP), which represents nine decentralized organizations located in the north, center, and south of the Peruvian Amazon, 109 federations, and 1,809 native communities.
Appearing in a video interview from the region of Ucayali, Lizardo lamented the lack of assistance in the wake of pandemic. “There is an ongoing racial discrimination against the indigenous people. We are not being helped. All these international companies and consortiums should have gotten together and said well this is what we have to offer you in terms of services and that has not happened. And they don’t care whether we die or fall sick. And this is not something which is just happening now but this is going on for years. The pandemic has made this more visible.”
Stressing that Indigenous people are not against the development, Lizardo said: “Here we do not even have medicine to heal our wounds. We cannot even face the pandemic. And on top of this we are going to have those [extractive] activities affecting us? So, there is no development for the indigenous communities. And this is what we are being left with: polluted water, contaminated soil, barren soil. And we have no drinking water or any basic services.”
He asserted that the proposed legal amendments are meant to safeguard those Indigenous groups who have no contact with the outside world, and no means to defend themselves. “We want the autonomy and the decision of these people [to be in isolation] respected. However, the government and the big economic groups wishing to just use our resources think otherwise. They believe we are just hindering the development of Peru.”
Lizardo added that the money that reaches the big corporations is laced with Indigenous peoples’ blood “because all these companies working in the Amazon are killing our people. And that’s something they should think about. They have to be more humane and think about other means of earning [money] without destroying the Amazon.”
TRNN also spoke to the Indigenous leader from the Asháninka people of the Peruvian Amazon, Berlin Diques, who had himself contracted COVID-19 and was recovering when he appeared in this interview. “It’s a very tragic situation that the Indigenous people are facing,” he said, adding that “COVID-19 is just taking over and is wiping out everything in its path. And it has arrived in some of the most remote parts of the Amazon.”
“The pandemic has exposed the inefficiency and corruption in the ranks of the government—that we do not exist in policy discussion. And not just for the present government but also for the previous governments,” Berlin said. He added there were very few health facilities found around the region, and those that existed did not have adequate supplies of medicine or the required medical staff.
“So, we have been doing our best to try and respond to this by using our traditional knowledge, using different kinds of plants and traditional knowledge we have access to in order to minimize the advance of COVID-19 in our communities.”
Sharing his impressions on the draft law which has prompted confrontation with the corporate interests of the extractive industries, Berlin said: “The current modification in the [existing] law would protect some of the most vulnerable Indigenous people. These are the people who have been for thousands of years living and protecting the Amazon, but at the same time the Peruvian government does not recognize them as citizens.”
Lizardo agrees. “We’re not talking about forest. We are talking about human beings who need to have their rights respected. They have no contact [with the outside world] and no way to protect themselves, and we, the Indigenous organizations, like to emphasize that these people are sovereign.”
Wearing a reflective look, Lizardo finished his thoughts by saying: “We are the last ones to get help. But we are the first ones to suffer the consequence of all climate change. We should not only extract oil and gas and these are not the only activities that generate income. We have to think beyond that. We have to be green. We don’t have to do this to the detriment of the lives of the Indigenous people.”
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therealnews--2020-07-15--New Restorative Justice Spaces Must Be Culturally Competent

Brandi Mack from Designing Justice talks about how their work designing restorative justice spaces centers people who have been directly @ @ @ @ @

Brandi Mack from Designing Justice talks about how their work designing restorative justice spaces centers people who have been directly impacted by the system.
Story Transcript
This is a rush transcript and may contain errors. It will be updated.
Eddie Conway: Welcome to this episode of Rattling the Bars. I’m Eddie Conway coming to you from Baltimore for the Real News Network. We have been watching, and of course the whole world is watching COVID-19 and the impacts this has been having around the world, but we have been watching in particular the impact it has been having on prisons in the United States. And so, one of the things that I need to bring up right now, so I don’t forget it, is that San Quentin currently has the highest number of cases than any of other prisons in the United States of America. We’ll do a story on that in the near future. Right now, we’re concerned with restorative justice and the spaces and the design of prisons in the future. And so recently, Governor Newsom of California has shut down three juvenile prisons.
Other governors in other states are looking at redesigning their police force. There’s been designing spaces for restorative justice in Georgia and Atlanta, et cetera. And so, what we want to do today is look at what might replace those three juvenile prisons and juvenile centers in California. And so, joining me, representing design and justice, and designing spaces, is Brandi Mack. Brandi, thanks for joining me.
Brandi Mack: Thanks for having me.
Eddie Conway: Okay. So Brandy, the first thing that I’m curious about is do you have, does your organization have, plans or ideas of what’s going to replace these three juvenile centers? Are they going to be replaced? And if so, do you all have any input into that?
Brandi Mack: Thank you so much. We’re excited that our governor decided to do that, particularly as we look at San Quentin, and the spike of our healthcare with our people. We are beginning designing for Decarceration Nation. Eddie, we were on your show a few months back talking about the work we’re doing in Atlanta, Georgia, with mayor, Keisha Bottoms, as Women on the Rise, a local organization rallying to close down the jail, and said, “Let’s put this initiative together, and let’s reimagine what the Atlanta City Detention Center could be as a center of equity.”
We spent a year working on the ground with our beloved community, those who were most impacted as the experts, to begin radically re-imagining what does a center of equity look like. Is it this one shop where folks are able to work, live, play, heal from the ills of this mass incarceration system? So, we have began working in communities from Atlanta, Georgia, to Mississippi, with organizations who are already doing the programmatic work, but don’t have the place. What we do know is that our communities have amazing programs, but we don’t have the buildings and the places to activate the healing that’s over-needed for our community.
Eddie Conway: Is this pandemic, COVID-19, is this creating an opportunity, and I hate to say it like that, to rethink how we incarcerate, how we imprison people? Is this an opportunity that may help your organization take advantage of it in relationship to women, juvenile, and other prison systems, camp centers, [inaudible 00:00:03:55], so on? Can you see an opportunity coming out of this pandemic?
Brandi Mack: Absolutely. The fire’s turned on, Eddie. We’ve been working on and designing different restorative justice cities with our community partners who are offering the programs going on six years now. In Oakland, we have the very first restorative justice building where Ella Baker and several other nonprofits are housed along with a Colors restaurant. We’re talking about multiple use and availabilities, that this is a time for our city and lawmakers to go look at all of the documents and articles we’ve published. Look at the pictures. In fact, they can go to the Restore Oakland building and say, “Here’s an example of what it looks like to create a restorative justice city.” Where do people go when they get out? Our reentry program is at fault for creating a reentry back into the system, that if places were designed so that folks didn’t reenter back into the system, meaning there were distributed care models around the city, buildings that are funded by public money, because the public money is building the prison.
So, we’re asking for a divest invest. Divest from building prisons, and invest in building restorative peace centers.
Eddie Conway: Toward that end, and this is something that most people outside don’t really consider. And I understand it, that, oh, your organization is probably doing a better job of this. How much involvement is ex-offenders, or inside prison, or personnel? How much are they involved in this restorative justice design?
Brandi Mack: In our projects, the center of every design are the folks who have been most inflicted by the system, that we are clear that our work is technical assistance using our skills of our community has gone through. So as we work at community, for example, in Atlanta, our community engagement is the crook, or we call the secret sauce of our work in design, because we recognize that architecture and design has been used to weaponize in our community. As a Black woman led organization, we’re very clear to go to our community.
We go to our community to begin the design, which is what we did in Atlanta, Georgia. Our community partners have the work. The programs exist. They are not resourced. If we are resource rich, we can watch the healing wave through the United States for Black and Brown people, because we’re no shortage of nonprofit organization church groups. But, what is missing is the built environment and the investment from the state that has inappropriately taken money to build prisons.
Eddie Conway: One of the things, and I don’t agree with experts seeming to indicate that seriously violent offenders, or rapists, or sex offenders in terms of pedophiles, can’t be rehabilitated. Is there some sort of restorative justice design or plan in mind to deal with that percentage of the population?
Brandi Mack: Well, to really be honest with you, Eddie, again, we’re technical folks. And so, we’re working on the actual infrastructure of the buildings. What feels really good is we have community partners who are tackling this.
When you said sex offenders, I think about an organization, Team Triumph in Stockton, California, that has like a 98% rate of junior sex offenders who never go back into it. Now, they’re operating out of small houses and neighborhoods, unable to really have the space needed to actually amplify their work. So, we don’t hear about the cases of programs that are actually rehabilitating because, well, they don’t have a space. It wasn’t designed that way. Our media, America, was built on the back, as we know, of our ancestors. And so, we’re not hearing the rate of how folks are being healed and rehabilitated. What we hope to do is amplify it by pushing our cities, pushing our government, to say, “Put public money back into public land, into public hands, so that we can do the much needed work that this country has caused us.”
Eddie Conway: Okay. Can you talk a little bit about, and I just heard you say that there’s mobile things that’s popping up, can you talk a little bit about the idea of mobile trailers for women to kind of be reintegrated back into the community?
Brandi Mack: Absolutely. As you may know, Eddie, often when the system lets you out of jail, there is no time. It could be 2:00 in the morning, 1:00 in the morning, and you’re being released to go home. We recognize this ill and worked with community partners who are serving our beloved community. And what was heard again by the women, because we went into the jails and asked, “What do we need you all to make sure that we’re not coming back here?” And what was heard was a mobile refuge room. This is a mobile trailer that was designed to pick up women when being led out of jail, that has all the services they need in this mobile unit.
What we’re saying is access is often the issue in our country. We have more than enough, but who has access? So, this mobile refuge room actually goes directly, picks folks up. On the way back to community, you’re able to get an abundance of services in this mobile refuge van. We use the van also in community with community partners to offer things like acupuncture, pop up right in the community, pregnancy testing, everything needed for our beloved community. So, what we want to do is look at the brick and mortar, but we’re also saying we can build mobile infrastructure and meet people right where they are to make sure that they don’t reenter back into those systems.
Eddie Conway: Okay. But while you’re at it, could you maybe share a little bit about these pop-up villages, and restorative peacemaking centers? Can you talk about that a little bit?
Brandi Mack: Yes. The pop-up village, we have several programs from healthcare to GED programs to entertainment, all targeted to heal us. What we don’t have is the buildings. We have programs that have been operating as spaces as a nonprofit, doing the best they can without the actual space. We saw that, and we designed mobile infrastructure that can house and support our beloved community that are offering HIV testing and GED, but also from this cultural standpoint. See, what we understand is that the master’s tools may not be the same tools that we can use to undo this. So in our design, we’re very clear that the cultural competency in restorative justice is needed. Not just the water downward of restorative justice, but what does it look like to actually have ubuntu, as we would say in our community? And so, the mobile village goes to a blighted parking lot and pops it up and creates a whole design for our community to heal.
People lead everything from a haircut to acupuncture, services, driven by their community. And we’re just providing the infrastructure.
Eddie Conway: Well, give me an idea of what the world would look like if we had more humane, interactive restorative justice kind of programs instead of prisons?
Brandi Mack: Oh gosh, Eddie, that’s a loaded one. You see the butterfly in the back, the transformation, the transformation. It would look like our children living at a right age, is what it would look like. It would look like people working, and dignified home ownership, not just section eight. Cooperation. It would look like … I have three daughters. When you asked this question, I get emotional because this is the reason I do this work in hopes that they can live in a world where as Black women, they don’t have to walk down the street and worry about being shot because of the color of their skin. That a world of restorative justice and peace centers would be outlets for them to go to and heal from the trauma that has decades, hundreds and hundreds of years. They would be able to go to meditation spas instead of juvenile hall. What has been amazing, Eddie, is that our community has the vision. We still dream of a world where freedom is available to us.
Eddie Conway: As a final question, I am going to ask you, what can the public do to support this, or to encourage it coming to their community?
Brandi Mack: Well, one is get with your city representatives and begin to question. I hear the world right now saying, “Defund the police. Divest, invest.” We’re working very, very hard right now to produce an infogram of the restorative justice city. Like, what does it look like? Because often, we get caught in analysis and paralysis, right? We’re talking about it. The police have been defunded. In LA County in particularly, they have actually created a document, Alternatives to Incarceration, where community organizations got together with the city and published a complete document, which I’ll share with you, Eddie. I’ll send it to you if you haven’t seen it. And it literally has mapped through the whole LA County of what would it look like. Now, it’s time for our city officials … The money. Once we stop building the juvenile halls and the prisons, now, where does that money go?
That’s public money. So, we need our folks to go, okay. Yeah. Defund the police. And here, pass that money over here for the built environment. Pass that money to the program where the brother’s mentoring the youth and can barely feed his own children. But, let’s make that happen next. And so, we need our community organizers also to think about the technical piece. See, we often think about a grant and continuing. We’re pushing the admin to say, “More than a grant nonprofit,” because we know that system was designed to keep others away and others not. But, what does it look like for us to have cooperation? We had Black Wall Street. We know how to own businesses. How do we reappropriate that and do it again?
Eddie Conway: Okay. All right. So Brandy, thanks for joining me. Okay.
Brandi Mack: Thanks for having us.
Eddie Conway: And thank you for joining this episode of Rattling the Bars.
Studio: Cameron Granadino
Production: Cameron Granadino, Ericka Blount Danois
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therealnews--2020-07-15--Why The Black Environmental Justice Network Is Relaunching

Steve Horn is a San Diego-based climate reporter and producer. He was also a reporter on a part-time basis for The Coast News—covering Escondido, San Marcos, and the San Diego North County region—from mid-2018 until early 2020.
Also a freelance investigative reporter, his work has appeared in The Guardian, Al Jazeera America, The Intercept, Vice News, Wisconsin Watch, and other publications. He worked from 2011-2018 for the climate news website DeSmog.com, a publication which investigates climate change disinformation and the fossil fuel industry influence campaigns.
His stories and research have received citation in a U.S. Senate report and mention in outlets such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, Bloomberg Businessweek, Mexico’s La Jornada, and The Colbert Report.
In his free time, Steve is a competitive distance runner, with a personal best time in the marathon of 2:43:04 and a 4:43 mile. He also has served on the film screening committee for the Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis and serves on the screening committee for the San Diego International Film Festival.