The economic exploitation of Africa which marked centuries of foreign rule has continued past the time of many of the region’s independence struggles. Though foreign rule politically and officially ended with many nations’ independence, primarily in the decades following World War II, economic colonialism has continued throughout much of the continent – particularly where natural resources are concerned.
There are roughly three million Yanadi indigenous people in India today. What is common among them all is the cycle of utter poverty and deprivation that they have been subjected to. Yet the Yanadis are taking steps to claim their rights. “There are so many odds, but for my people, standing together can be the best way to overcome them all,” said Gandala Sriramalu, a Yanadi community elder.
Source: Mongabay
The Constitutional Court of Ecuador has issued a long-awaited ruling in favor of those affected by the transnational oil company Chevron, which operated through its subsidiary Texaco in Ecuador between 1964 and 1990. The court rejected the protection action that the company filed in 2013.
In the 151-page ruling, the court denied Chevron’s claim of violation of constitutional rights. Chevron will now have to pay $9.5 billion for the repair and remediation of social and environmental damage that – according to audits and expert reports – were a result of oil company operations in the Amazonian provinces of Sucumbíos and Orellana.
Source: The Nation
A new proposal would do little to alleviate the suffering on Europe’s borders.
Faced with a surge in migration across the Mediterranean Sea, European Union officials apparently think the best way to manage migration is simply to keep migrants from reaching the shore. The EU Commission is currently weighing a plan to reform the union’s border policies by finding more elaborate ways to warehouse, filter, and ultimately push away its unwanted human cargo.
While the plan would do little to stem the social forces that drive people onto smuggling routes from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, it would aim to create a number of so-called “controlled centres,” hosted by countries that volunteer to serve as disembarkation points. Processing about 500 people at a time, teams of border agents would screen arrivals for “humanitarian” qualifications, to vet their backgrounds for eligibility for humanitarian protection as refugees, or to brand them mere “economic migrants,” to be forcibly returned. Participating frontline states would gain the EU’s infrastructural support and reimbursement of about 6,000 euros per migrant. But human-rights advocates warn that, like previous policies aimed at “deterrence,” the proposal would simply make the journey more miserable for migrants fleeing crisis in the Global South.
Over the past couple of years, as protest movements in response to Trump and the alt-right have ramped up in intensity in Portland, Oregon, so has the aggressive use of dispersal tactics on leftist demonstrators by police.
The first boats to successfully break the Gaza siege in 2008 were the Free Gaza and the Liberty. They carried 44 people from 17 countries. Their triumphant arrival marked a historic moment for the international solidarity movement. “There were many moving scenes as Palestinians learned how far we had come from to offer solidarity - their Israel overlords had told the Palestinians for years that nobody cared about them, which is a big line,” said solidarity activist Roger Fowler.
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