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THE WORLD’S STRANGEST LANDGRAB?

Wandering Amu Darya River Opens Afghanistan Border Conflict

by Joe Dyke, IRIN

MAZAR-I-SHARIF — Uzbekistan has a perhaps unusual ally in its territorial claims over neighboring Afghanistan: the mighty and ever-wandering Amu Darya river. And no one knows it better than the children of Arigh Ayagh School, just inside Afghanistan.

Built in 2007 about 3 kilometers from the Amu Darya—which runs along the border between the two Central Asian giants—the school was financed through the National Solidarity Programme, a development scheme largely funded by the World Bank.

Yet all that remains of that investment is a solitary wall, dangling tentatively over a precipice. Sitting in its shadow, two teens stare blankly across the vast river that is rapidly swallowing their homeland.

Every year for the past decade the Amu Darya has encroached up to 500 metres further into Afghanistan, taking with it large swathes of territory and leaving hundreds of families homeless. And as the official border between the countries is defined as the middle of the river, Uzbekistan has laid claim to hundreds of kilometres of Afghan territory.

MAURITANIA: CRACKDOWN ON LAND STRUGGLE

from IRIN

NOUAKCHOTT — The latest arrest of a group of prominent anti-slavery activists in Mauritania has once again brought to the fore the country’s struggle with slavery and discrimination based on color. The Global Slavery Index classifies Mauritania as the most egregious offender when it comes to modern slavery, with 155,600 people still living in enslavement or about 4% of the population. The index defines slavery as the status of a person who is owned by another, which could also include practices similar to debt-bondage, forced marriage, and slavery based on descent.

Several veteran activists were arrested on Nov. 11 near the Mauritanian city of Rosso, on the Senegalese border. They were crisscrossing the Senegal River Valley holding public meetings and rallies to raise awareness about the need for land reform to benefit former slaves. People descended from slaves are often the victims of discrimination and have difficulty gaining access to land.

Senegal River Valley is the site of some of Mauritania’s best (and only) agricultural land, since the Sahara desert covers more than three-quarters of the country.

COLOMBIA: TALKS WITH THE OTHER GUERILLAS?

by Robin Llewellyn, Colombia Reports

BOGOTÁ — A week in which Colombia’s peace talks were suspended might not seem the most opportune time to advocate initiating peace negotiations with Colombia’s second largest guerilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN). But a new book, launched Nov. 20 at Bogotá’s Center of Memory, Peace and Reconciliation, argues for exactly this.

Why Negotiate with the ELN? is a compilation of works by various authors, edited by professor Victor Currea-Lugo of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, and was presented with Liberal Party Senator Horacio Serpa Uribe.

Given the FARC’s recent capture of two soldiers, its killing of two indigenous guards, and its capture of General Ruben Dario Alzate, what are the prospects for such a negotiation?

YEMEN: STREET PATROLS AND POLARIZATION

from IRIN

SANAA — Yahia Abu Talib, serious and stoic, is in no doubt about the importance of his role. “We protect homes and mosques,” he says, referring to the so-called popular committees of which he is a member. In a mixed neighborhood of Yemen’s capital Sana’a, Abu Talib calls himself a “social superviser” for the Houthi group known as Ansar Allah, or “Supporters of God.”

In the same area, off Hayal Street, a young man with an AK-47 slung over his shoulder identifies himself as a ninth grader. He is responsible for guarding a government warehouse, attending school in the day and doing shifts through the night. “[I am here] to defend Yemen,” he says.

A THOUSAND SANKARAS COME OF AGE

Burkina Faso’s Martyred Leader Inspires a New Generation of Activists

by Brian Peterson, Think Africa Press

Burkina Faso’s President Blaise Compaoré announced his resignation Oct. 31, after protesters continued to mobilize against his rule. He had ruled since 1987, when Compaoré overthrew leftist leader Thomas Sankara—and quickly moved to reverse his legacy. In this Aug. 15 piece for Think Africa Press, writer Brian Peterson accurately predicted that “Sankara’s ghost may be coming back to return the favor.” —World War 4 Report

Thirty years ago, on August 4, 1984, the former French colony of the Upper Volta was re-baptized as “Burkina Faso” amidst a revolutionary process that proved to be one of the most inspiring, yet ultimately tragic, episodes of modern African history.

In 1983, the young Captain Thomas Sankara had come to power in a popularly-supported coup d’état, and—with broad support from leftist political parties, students, women, and peasants—initiated a range of ambitious projects, including the country’s name-change, that aimed to make Burkina Faso more self-reliant and free of corruption. Sankara also sought to decentralize and democratize power in order to facilitate more participatory forms of governance, though elections for national offices were never attempted.

By many measures, this visionary project was enjoying a number of promising successes, but on October 15, 1987, Sankara’s experiment and life were cut short when a group of fellow soldiers, led by his former close ally Blaise Compaoré and backed by foreign powers, murdered him. Compaoré promptly took the reins of government, effectively ending the revolution.

BLACK VERSUS YELLOW

Class Antagonism and Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement

from ULTRA

NOTE: Thanks to all the friends in Hong Kong who provided first-hand information and photos for this article.

PART 1: The History

Global City
Itinerant shoppers pose for selfies as the skyline of the finance district across the bay bursts into a kaleidoscope of green and yellow lights. Below them, the waters of Victoria Harbor stir quietly, foreboding a typhoon. Despite the churning water, the nearby cruise ship hardly seems to move. It is docked to the pier at Tsim Sha Tsui, its gangplank descending into one of the most luxurious shopping malls in East Asia, a convenience allowing wealthy visitors from all across the world the ability to disembark from one climate-controlled environment to another without ever leaving the safety of AC and well-trained security. Once off the ship, they can spend money tax-free at the city’s most fashionable restaurants and retail outlets, eating Japanese BBQ and then gliding over polished floors to browse retro British outfits at a boutique marketing 20s-style colonial chic.

Outside on the dock, rain starts to splatter down on the selfie-takers’’outstretched iPhones. A young girl sings old Cantonese pop songs, even though everyone listens to K-pop now, accompanied by her boyfriend’s out-of-tune guitar. People drop a few serrated Hong Kong coins into their donation jar. The wind begins to pick up, washing away the Cantonese tones as it sweeps static across the microphone. Behind her, the cruise ship sits white and motionless.

This is the battle that is Hong Kong: Old Cantonese love songs hurled into the growing wind of a typhoon, torn apart before they reach the walls of lifeless cruise ships and shopping malls looming under the lights of the financial district. Here spectacle confronts stubborn humanity in the archetypal “global city,” designed to allow capital to filter through the port, banks and real estate markets, to plunder the Asian mainland without ever having to pass outside the safety of climate control and security cordon.

KURDISTAN’S FEMALE FIGHTERS

Kobanê Style Revolution

by Houzan Mahmoud, Huffington Post

The role of women in war, peace and revolution has long been portrayed in manifold, often contradictory ways. Images of women as victims, pacifist peace-makers, protestors, and home-makers have dominated literature. Opposed to these images we find that the male figure is represented as a fighter, the ones who take part in war and defend the motherland against the enemy. The homeland is thus a female body, a passive and defenseless geography which requires brave men to defend and protect her. It could be argued that history is written by men; therefore they narrate it in a manner that suits the usual gender stereotypes.

The Middle East, North Africa and their female populations in particular have been represented, portrayed and stereotyped in different ways, at different times and in different contexts. Take a look at the media coverage of the recent uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa region. News of the sexual harassment of women in the “Arab uprising,” brutal attacks, imprisonments and virginity tests of female protestors dominated the screens. Yet women played a significant role in these events. For them, the uprising was part of a long history of resistance to suppression and a lack of freedom in their countries. The fact is that women were fighting and have proved their existence despite the counter-revolutionary and anti-women treatment that they were receiving.

Today this portrayal is reversed. We now see photos, video footage, reports, documentaries and writing about the Kurdish female freedom fighters in Kurdistan. Kobanê, a predominantly Kurdish city in Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) on the Syrian-Turkish border, is dominating our thoughts, our understanding and perception of the role of women in society and revolution.

SOUTH AFRICA: NEW STRUGGLE FOR LAND

Traditional Rulers Make Claim in Agrarian Reform

by Kristy Siegfried, IRIN

BABANANGO/JOHANNESBURG — The pace of land reform in South Africa has long been criticized as too slow, but experts and black South Africans still awaiting restitution fear that the recent reopening of the land claims process may not only delay outstanding claims further but could actually reverse the limited progress that has been made in restoring land to those dispossessed by Apartheid-era policies.

An amendment to the 1994 Restitution of Land Rights Act was signed into law by President Jacob Zuma on June 30 in an apparent attempt to give people who missed the original 1998 cut off for lodging land claims another five-year window to do so. According to the Land Claims Commission, nearly 12,500 new claims have already been lodged.

A number of civil society groups made submissions to Parliament prior to the amendment being passed, warning that unless thousands of outstanding land claims were ring-fenced from new ones, their resolution would likely be delayed for many more years, particularly as new claims could overlap with unresolved pre-existing claims made on the same land.

FRACKING FIGHT LOOMS LARGE IN MEXICO

from Frontera NorteSur

Mexico is emerging as the next big battleground in conflicts over hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, as the method of extracting natural gas is commonly known. While Mexican lawmakers consider regulatory legislation to put into practice the 2013 energy reform that opened up their county’s oil and gas reserves to private investors, anti-fracking forces are mobilizing for a moratorium or an outright ban of the controversial practice from the Mexican Congress.

“There are many warning signs around the world about this predatory practice in the environment and on health,” said Mexican Senator Rabindranath Salazar Solorio, a member of the center-left PRD party and secretary of the Senate’s energy commission. “It’s for this reason that Mexico should reflect and not commit the same errors to the detriment of the population.”

Mexican environmentalists cite many reasons to forget fracking: the depletion of scarce water resources; the potential contamination of aquifers; the usage of toxic chemicals, including substances identified as carcinogens, mutagens and endocrine disruption agents; the generation of toxic waste; and a growing body of evidence linking earthquakes to fracking.

CLEAN WATER VERSUS CORPORATE PROFITS

Multinational Mineral Company Strikes Back at El Salvador

by Pete Dolack, Systemic Disorder

An Australian mining company insists its “right” to a guaranteed profit is superior to the right of El Salvador to clean drinking water—and an unappealable World Bank secret tribunal will decide if that is so.

Drinking water is the underdog here. It might be thought that Salvadorans ought to have the right to decide on a question as fundamental as their source of water, but that is not so. It will be up to a secret tribunal controlled by corporate lawyers. And as an added bit of irony, the hearing began on El Salvador’s Independence Day, September 15. Formal independence, and actual independence, alas, are not the same thing.

The case, officially known as Pac Rim Cayman LLC v. Republic of El Salvador, pits the Australian gold-mining company OceanaGold Corporation against the government of El Salvador. OceanaGold is asking for an award of $301 million because the Salvadoran government won’t give it a permit to open a gold mine that would poison a critical source of drinking water on which millions depend.

SEEING THE WOMEN IN REVOLUTIONARY SYRIA

by Razan Ghazzawi, openDemocracy

“They brought us by bus. We were a large group of female and male comrades. I recall that we were shackled, and an increasing sense of fear overwhelmed me about reaching that place, the expected interrogation, from facing Mudar whom I thought was there, and seeing all the comrades. Mixed feelings of fear and anticipation and desire and … But it all began to disappear en route and as I am approaching the city that I loved and still do, I did not feel the length of the road or the time that had passed by…Damascus was looming in front of us.”

—Amira Huweija, member of the Communist Labor Party, from her time in Douma prison between 1987-1991.

This account will try to give an overview of the role of grassroots women in the Syrian uprising in an attempt to highlight angles not widely covered by the mainstream media, in Arabic or internationally. Nor is this well represented in the narratives of the Syrian political opposition abroad. In fact in all these narratives, women are rather systematically excluded from any account of political decision-making regarding this country in such a historic phase. Women and youth have very little representation in the ranks of either the local councils or the Syrian National Coalition. So how is it that women in Syria have played an essential role throughout the phases of the uprising, a role that has shifted over time in response to the increased violence and rapid developments on the ground?

THE NEW PKK

Unleashing Social Revolution in Kurdistan

by Rafael Taylor, ROAR Magazine

As the prospect of Kurdish independence becomes ever more imminent, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party transforms itself into a force for radical democracy.

Excluded from negotiations and betrayed by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne after having been promised a state of their own by the World War I allies during the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, the Kurds are the largest stateless minority in the world. But today, apart from a stubborn Iran, increasingly few obstacles remain to de jure Kurdish independence in northern Iraq. Turkey and Israel have pledged support while Syria and Iraq’s hands are tied by the rapid advances of the Islamic State (formerly ISIS).

With the Kurdish flag flying high over all official buildings and the Peshmerga keeping the Islamists at the gate with the assistance of long overdue US military aid, southern Kurdistan (Iraq) join their comrades in western Kurdistan (Syria) as the second de facto autonomous region of the new Kurdistan. They have already started exporting their own oil and have re-taken oil-rich Kirkuk, they have their own secular, elected parliament and pluralistic society, they have taken their bid for statehood to the UN, and there is nothing the Iraqi government could do—or the US would do without Israeli support—to stop it.

The Kurdish struggle, however, is anything but narrowly nationalistic. In the mountains above Erbil, in the ancient heartland of Kurdistan winding across the borders of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, a social revolution has been born.

CounterVortex

Category: Uncategorized