text:
Video- Outrage over Gallantry Award for Chhattsigarh Police Officer
by kracktivist in Advocacy, Health Care, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights, Political Prisoners, Violence against Women, Women Rights Tags: Ankit Garg, Asia, Central Reserve Police Force, Chhattisgarh, Constitution of India, Dantewada, discrimination, equality, feminism, gender, Government, Human Rights, India, Naxalite, ndtv, New Delhi, Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, Sexual Assault, Sikh, Soni Sori, Superintendent (police), Supreme Court, torture, Tribal rights, Women Rights
Colin Gonsalves- Soni Sori's lawyer says ' If she knows president ahs given award to her tormentor she stopped raising National flag all faith in Constitution of India , democracy she too will also hope ".
Maoists are expert in lying and talking of Torture , says K P S Gill known as "the Butcher of Punjab," because of his gross violations of Human Rights, including the fake-encounter killings of Sikh youth.
ANKIT GARG- says no comments
Outrage over Gallantry Award
Gallantry Award for Sexual Torture (kractivist.wordpress.com)
Soni Sori's letter from Raipur Central Jail- Audio-Hindi and English (kractivist.wordpress.com)
लोकशक्ति अभियान की प्रेस विज्ञप्ति
by kracktivist in Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Press Release
विस्थापन और गैरबराबरी के खिलाफ लड़ाई और तेज करने की घोषणा के साथ बिहार और झारखण्ड का लोकशक्ति अभियान का तीसरा चरण पूरा !
पहले पुराना हिसाब साफ़ करो ! फिर नए की बात करो !
बोकारो, जनवरी २९ : उत्तर प्रदेश, हरियाणा, आँध्रप्रदेश, मध्य प्रदेश, बिहार होते हुए लोक शक्ति अभियान की टीम कल रांची पहुंची और उसके बाद आज सुबह मैथन पहुंची और शाम को बोकारो में दुन्गिबाग बाज़ार में हॉकर्स लोगों के बीच आम सभा की | रांची से १८ किलो. मीटर दूर काके रोड नगली में IIM रांची के लिए आदिवासी किसानो की ली जा रही ज़मीन के खिलाफ और देर शाम रांची में जगन्नाथपुर चौक पर HEC की ज़मीन पर अतिक्रमण के नाम पर तोड़े गए घरों के खिलाफ बड़ी आम सभा की गयी | किसी अध्यादेश के बिना किसानों की जमीन गैर तरीके से शासन की कब्जेदारी के खिलाफ़ एक बड़ी सभा आयोजित की गयी है
मेधा पाटकर ने नांगली में होने वाले विस्थापितों और डी वी सी के ५५ साल से विस्थापित आदिवासियों से कहा की, आदिवासीयों के लिए बिहार से विभाजित होकर नवगठित राज्य झारखण्ड में अगर आदिवासियों को एक आदिवासी मुख्यमंत्री इस तरह से उजाड़ने में लगा हो तो यह लोकतंत्र के लिए खतरनाक है | आई. आई. एम् के लिए जबरन २२७ एकड जमीन पर सेकडों अर्द्सेनिक बलों को तैनात कर जमीन के मालिक किसानों को बेदखल करना और प्रताड़ित करना धिक्कार योग्य है | गोबर बीनने पर प्रतिबन्ध शर्मनाक है | जिस तरह से आदिवासियों के हितार्थ पेशा कानून अनुपालन समिति के संगठनकर्ताओं को १०७ की नोटिस देकर न्यायलय में जबाब तलन करना और उसी दिन उनके धान कटे खेतों पर अर्द्सैनिक बलों को तैनात करना गैरबराबरी एवम आदिवासी द्रोही कदम है |
अर्जुन मुंडा जी आदिवासियों मुख्यमंत्री है तो आपसे आदिवासियों के उद्धार की अपेक्षा थी लेकिन बंदूक और अर्द्सैनिक बलों की ताकत पर आदिवासीयों को खेत से खदेड़ने बाले मुख्यमंत्री को हम सेनापति कहेंगे मुख्यमंत्री नहीं | आज सरकार सबसे बड़ी जमीदार हो गयी है | विश्वविद्यालय, फैक्ट्री, खदान, हर चीज़ के लिए जमीन ली जा रही है | ये सब अंग्रेजों ने भी नहीं किया था | उस समय के राज्यों ने नहीं किया | भूमिअधिग्रहण में उस समयजबरदस्ती नहीं थी | एक तरफ़ा दंगा हो रहा है | अर्जुन मुंडा आदिवासी नहीं रहे राज नेता हो गये है | आज झारखण्ड में करीब तीस लाख से ज्यादा विस्थापित लोग हैं तो अगर उनको सरकार नहीं बसा सकती तो लोगों को उजाड़ने का हक़ और चेहरा कैसे रखती है | किस मुँह से यहाँ के नेता और केंद्र की सरकार लोगों की ज़मीन पर बुलडोजर चलाती है | उन्हें पहले पुराना हिसाब चुकता करना होगा तब जाकर कोई और बात होगी | डी वी सी के विस्थापितों को पहले न्याय देना होगा तब जाकर आगे कोई और बात होगी |
पेसा कानून अनुपालन समिति में शामिल झारखण्ड की सामाजिक कार्यकर्त्ता दयामणि बरला ने कहा की नगड़ी में बंदूक की ताकत से जमीन अधिग्रहण की पूरी तैयारी गैर क़ानूनी है | नगड़ी में जमीन बचाने की लड़ाई पूरे झारखण्ड की लड़ाई हो गयी है और इसे पूरे देश की समर्थन चाहिये | एक किसान को कुछ पैसा देकर १० किसानों की ज़मीन पर कब्ज़ा कर रही है | बोकारो इलेक्ट्रो कम्पनी कर रही है यही जिंदल कंपनी कर रही है माफिया ठेकेदरों को देने के लिए जमीन है गरीबों को देने के लिए नहीं है | दयामनी ने कहा कि यह नगड़ी की ही नहीं, झारखण्ड की ही नहीं पूरे भारत की लड़ाई नहीं है | हम अपने पूर्वजों की एक इंच जमीन नहीं देंगे |
नगड़ी की शांतिदेवी ने कहा, इस जमीन से हमने दो बच्चे पैदा किया है, उनका पालन – पोषण किया और आज सरकार कहती है की १९५७ में इसका अधिग्रहण हो गया, हम गर्कनूनी हैं तो मैं पूछती हूँ की फिर किस मुहँ से सरकार ने अहुमको आज तक मालगुजारी वसूल किया | बताये हमको सरकार | नगड़ी की जमीन १९५७ से १९५८ में ९०० रूपये प्रति एकड के हिसाब से ली जानी थी २२ आदमियों ने मुआवजा लिया था बाकि किसी ने नहीं लिया | आज सरकार उसी पैसे को १०% ब्याय की दर जोड़ कर मुआवजा देने की बात की जा रही है | यह सरासर गलत और गैरकानूनी है | अगर धारा ४, ६, ९, ११, कुछ भी नहीं लगी तो सरकार को कैसे यह हक़ बनता है की वोह कोई भी काम शुरू करे इन ज़मीनों पर |
मैथन बाँध के विस्थापितों की लड़ाई, दिल्ली में अक्टूबर माह में ८ दिन के धरने के बाद, जिसमे मेधा पाटकर, स्वामी अग्निवेश, राजिंदर सच्चर, कुलदीप नय्यर और अन्य गणमान्य लोगों ने हस्तक्षेप किया था, ने एक बार फिर से जोर पकड़ा है. उर्जा मंत्री शुशील कुमार शिंदे से मुलाकात के बाद २८ दिसम्बर को डी वी सी के चेयरमन के साथ स्वामी अग्निवेश की मध्यस्थता में वार्ता हुई | मामले को एक धक्का तो मिला है लेकिन न्याय नहीं मिला है, घटवार आदिवासी महासभा के सलाहकार रामश्रय सिंह ने बी एस के कॉलेज के मैदान में आयोजित मीटिंग में कहा |
स्वामी अग्निवेश ने सभा को संबोधित करते हुए कहा की देश में आज भीषण समस्या है, विकास के नाम पर चरों ओर लूट मची है | इस पूरी विकास प्रक्रिया में आदिवासी, दलित, शोषित और वंचित समाज के लोगों के साथ और भी अन्याय हो रहा है | आज़ादी के बाद की विकास की प्रक्रिया में आदिवासियों ने सबसे बड़ा बलिदान दिया है | डी वी सी परियोजना उनमे से एक है | आज भी ९,००० परिवारों को वायदे के मुताबिक नौकरी और मुआवजा नहीं मिला है | लेकिन प्रबंधन यह दावा करता है की उन्होंने दे दिया | यह तो वक्त ही बताएगा जब आदिवासी महासभा के लोगों के दावे सरकारी आंकड़ों को झूठा करके दिखा देंगे | सरकार को चहिये की इनके साथ ऐतिहासिक अन्याय हुआ है और न्याय करे | इन्हें हर सुख सुविधा मुहया कराये |
पिछले साल २०११ के अप्रैल महीने में रांची उच्च नयायालय के आदेश के मुताबिक पूरे झारखण्ड के शहरों में एक जबरदस्त विस्थापन का दौर चला जिसमे हजारों घर तोड़े गए | रांची में इस्लामनगर और अन्य कई बस्तियों में घर तोड़े गए | सदमे से करीब आठ लोगों के मौत हो गयी, क्योंकि उनके जीवन के कमाई धूल में मिला डी गयी थी | कारण : ये सभी बस्तियां सरकारी ज़मीन या पब्लिक सेक्टर कंपनी जैसे एच ई सी की ज़मीन पर काबिज थे |
सिद्धेश्वर सिंह, बस्ती बचाओ संघर्ष समिति, रांची के अध्यक्ष ने कहा जब एच ई सी ने लोगो को जगह जगह से लाकर मजदूरी के तौर पर काम दिया और इन ज़मीनों पर बसाया था तब सरकार कहाँ थी | आज वही लोग कैसे अतिक्रमणकारी हो गए | इन बस्तियों में रहने वाले ८० % लोग आदिवासी हैं, मजदूर हैं, झारखंडी हैं, उनका हक़ है इस धरती पर वे अपनी जान दे देंगे लेकिन अपनी जीविका और घर नहीं टूटने देंगे |
निजाम अंसारी, राष्ट्रीय हौकर्स फेडरेशन, बोकारो के समन्वयक ने कहा की उस दौरान रांची के साथ साथ बोकारो में बस्तियां तोड़ी गयी, लोगों की जीविका खतम की गयी | मेहनतकश मजदूर वर्ग पूरे शहर को सेवाएं देते हैं और अपने खून पसीने की कमाई से अपना परिवार चलते हैं, क्या इस नयी आर्थिक व्यवस्था में उनके लिए कोई जगह नहीं है | उनका इस आर्थिक व्यवस्था में स्थान तय करना होगा |
पूरे दो दिन के झारखण्ड दौरे के बाद लोकशक्ति अभियान ने यह एलान किया की विस्थापन और बढती गैरबराबरी के खिलाफ आगामी बजट सत्र के दौरान एक विशाल जन संसद का आयोजन १९ से २३ मार्च को किया जाएगा जिसमे देश के विभिन्न जन संगठन अपने अपने झंडे और बन्नेर के नीचे सरकार को एक कड़ी चुनौती देंगे | लोकशक्ति अभियान का यह तीसरा चरण आज समाप्त हुआ |
अभियान का चौथा चरण ६ मार्च को मुंबई में लोक मंच के कार्यक्रम के साथ होगा | ७ मार्च
को बेलगांव, ८ और ९ मार्च को गोवा, १० मार्च को पुणे, ११ मार्च को औरंगाबाद, १२ मार्च को नागपुर में कार्यक्रम होंगे | १३ मार्च को देश के विभिन्न जन संगठनों एक तैयारी बैठक नागपुर में आयोजित की जायेगी जिसमे बजट सत्र के दौरान होने वाले कार्यक्रम की वृहद योजना तैयार की जायेगी |
लोकशक्ति अभियान के लिए
राजेंद्र रवि, नागेश त्रिपाठी, अमिताव मित्र, मधुरेश कुमार
विस्तृत जानकारी के लिए फोन करें 9818905316
Where Is the Anti-Choice Outcry Over North Carolina's Forced Sterilization of Women of Color?
by kracktivist in Advocacy, Disability, Health Care, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights, Violence against Women, Women Rights Tags: Compulsory sterilization, discrimination, equality, feminism, gender, History of Germany, Human Rights, Intelligence quotient, North Carolina, Person of color, Supreme Court of the United States, Task force, United States, Women Rights, YouTube
A task force in North Carolina recently ruled that survivors of that state's eugenics program should be paid $50,000 each in financial compensation. Eugenics is often defined as the science of "improving" a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of "desirable" heritable characteristics. The practice of eugenics was not limited to Nazi Germany nor is it a well kept secret that's been waiting to be discovered by organizations opposed to reproductive justice.
In America, state governments set up eugenics boards that determined the reproductive future of thousands. I grew up listening to my maternal Grandmother, a Mississippi native, warn against trusting doctors and passing along lessons she learned from other poor women of color who went into a hospital to give birth only to later find out that they were given a Mississippi Appendectomy without their consent. The horrific legacy of these state eugenics boards is one of the reasons why I embrace the reproductive justice framework advocating for the right to have children, not have children, and to parent children in safe and healthy environments.
From the early 1900s up until the 1970's, over 30 states had formal eugenics programs. These programs enforced compulsory sterilization of individuals deemed to be "unfit" and "promiscuous." States sterilized people that were disabled, poor, people of color, and immigrants. North Carolina had a particularly aggressive program that was alone in allowing social workers to select people for sterilization based on IQ tests. To date, only seven states have formally apologized for eugenics programs and no state has paid money to survivors. Although a task force appointed by the Governor in North Carolina ruled in favor of payment to survivors, their recommendations are now in the hands of state legislators.
Too often eugenics is looked on as a shameful part of German history and many Americans are unaware of the history of eugenics in this country. I'm reminded of the warning that those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. No, I'm not about to repeat black genocide claims that modern health care centers use contraception as a weapon or the 'easily debunked if folks just used Google Maps'conspiracy theory about abortion clinics being located in predominately black neighborhoods. I'm referring to the history of government taking control over people's reproductive future and how that component of the history of eugenics and is very present today. While those opposed to reproductive justice appropriate the language of Civil Rights to perpetuate bizarre anti-knowledge theories about dangerous black women and how we are the greatest threat to the newly identified species of "black child," states that actually ran eugenics programs and sterilized thousands of people get little to no attention and all too often as not held accountable for those actions.
As for the doomed to repeat it part, many of those same states continue to seek dominion over women through everything from state mandated vaginal penetration of women seeking abortion services to a record number of restrictions hindering access to reproductive health care. States are gaining more control over people's reproductive health care decisions and some organizations have even tried to get states to seize total control.
On the most basic level, the history of state eugenics boards is about the survivors. Their stories tell the tale of the damage wrought when government policy is used as a weapon to control the masses. Clearly that's not a tale anti-choice folks opposed to reproductive justice are interested in making a flashy YouTube video about, because the sound of their silence on the news out of North Carolina has been deafening. With the exception of a few articles that chose to launch into another rant about Planned Parenthood rather than demand support for North Carolina's survivors and a call for justice for victims of the other 30+ state eugenics programs, those who are usually eager to toss the accusation of eugenics out appear to be uninspired by cases of actual eugenics in America.
A film with a difference – Priyanka Borpujari
by kracktivist in Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights, Violence against Women, Women Rights Tags: Ambedkar Jayanti, Anand Patwardhan, B R Ambedkar, Bollywood, Byculla, Dalit, Documentary, Film, Mumbai, Vilas
28, Januray 2012, The Hindu
It took 14 years to make the 200-minute-long documentary "Jai Bhim Comrade" on Dalits. Director Anand Patwardhan explains why.
On January 9, in the bylanes of Byculla's BIT Chawl, a documentary was premiered after sundown. A huge white screen ensured that people from the three-storeyed buildings nearby could also view the film. For over three hours Anand Patwardhan's "Jai Bhim Comrade" took us on a musical-historical journey. Beginning with the rousing voice of Vilas Ghogre, we move quickly to the police killings in Ramabai Nagar in 1997. Suddenly, the camera takes us inside Ghogre's home, where he scribbled his last words before committing suicide on the fifth day after the police firing.
Why did the film take 14 years to make? "I wanted to continue filming till all the false cases against the people in the colony were removed, or until the police officers who had ordered the firing were sent to jail," explains Patwardhan. The Ramabai Nagar case took its own natural course. Another thread was exploring the tension between caste and class. Patwardhan says, "Vilas was a Dalit who became a Marxist, but then chose to reassert his Dalit identity, by tying a blue scarf as he hung himself. I wanted to understand this seeming clash of identities. As Vilas was no more, I began filming others from his musical tradition. A few were Leftists like Vilas, others celebrated Dr. Ambedkar's life and message. I wanted to do justice to this whole spectrum."
The spectrum is broad indeed — from a proud song describing the Dalit who became a barrister, to those that recount the travails of migrant workers to the city; from lullabies based on the teachings of the Buddha, to naughty qawaalis that celebrated sexuality equally by men and women. Almost each song is juxtaposed with evocative visuals — claustrophobic slum-dwelling illustrated by a chicken coop; "My barrister husband is coming home" juxtaposed with visuals of men sweeping the streets. As Patwardhan points out, this is not an ethnographic film. "It is a record of the people and events I encountered. Many were not recognised as singers. Saraswati Bansode was a housewife. Shanta Bai Gadpaile's husband was a poet and she remembers his songs. The tradition is so strong that ordinary people just sang."
Many songs in the film narrate the game politicians have played with Dalits. In one instance, at an Ambedkar Jayanti function, small boys are dancing to the tune of "In the Mumbai… we are the Bhai.." from Bollywood's "Shootout At Lokhandwala". Somehow the lyrics fit — Dalits have been used by the underworld, as well as political parties.
Tracing the aftermath of a Dalit massacre (thehindu.com)
Caste atrocity in Lathor: Over 50 Dalit homes burnt by upper castes (kractivist.wordpress.com)
Brutal Attack and Sexual Abuse on six Dalit women (kractivist.wordpress.com)
Dalit associations condemn violent protest (thehindu.com)
Police beats up Dalit officer for doing his work, No FIR yet! (kractivist.wordpress.com)
'Would they have tortured me the same way had I not been a Dalit?' (kractivist.wordpress.com)
Dalit panchayat chief prevented from hoisting the tricolour
by kracktivist in Advocacy, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights, Violence against Women, Women Rights Tags: Dalit, discrimination, equality, gender, Government, Gram panchayat, Hindu, Kalaimani, Kallar, Panchayati raj, Republic Day, Tribal rights, Vadakadu, Women Rights
A. Kalaimani, Dalit village panchayat president addresses presspersons at Pudukottai.
PUDUKOTTAI, January 29, 2012
M. Balaganessin
A. Kalaimani, a Dalit woman village panchayat president of Karu Vadatheru village panchayat near Vadakadu, was allegedly prevented from hoisting the tricolour on the Republic Day by a group of caste Hindus.
The group belonging to the Kallar community, led by Kumar, son of Rangammal, who is the vice-president of the village panchayat, allegedly pushed aside Ms. Kalaimani when she was about to hoist the national flag on the village panchayat office campus.
The village panchayat president told The Hindu on Saturday that she planned to hoist the tricolour at three places – the village panchayat office campus; Raja Kudiyiruppu, a residential colony; and the panchayat union primary school at Kanniyankollai.
But, in view of the problem at the village panchayat office, she allowed the group to hoist the flag at the school and cancelled her programme at the residential colony.
She has lodged a complaint with the Vadakadu police and submitted petitions to District Collector B. Maheswari and Superintendent of Police R. Tamil Chandran.
MGNREGA Worker Jagu Bhuiyan's Suicide case (kractivist.wordpress.com)
Reservation for Women in Panchayats (equalityindia.wordpress.com)
CAUGHT ON CAMERA – Chhattisgarh police official admits scripting case against tribals
by kracktivist in Disability, Health Care, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights, Violence against Women, Women Rights Tags: Chattisgarh, Chhattisgarh, Dantewada, Delhi, discrimination, gender, Human Rights, India, Kodopi, Maoism, Maoist, Naxalite, New Delhi, Soni Sori, Supreme Court, Tehelka, torture, Tribal rights, Women Rights
The story of the Dantewada-based school teacher Soni Sori and her journalist nephew Lingaram Kodopi in many ways encapsulates the complex conflict that continues in Chattisgarh below the news-radar of the national media. The tribals increasingly get caught between the the security forces of the Indian State and the Maoists.
Lingaram Kodopi is a young boy from Chattisgarh, who was asked by the police to work as an informer against the the Maoists. On refusing he was locked up in a bathroom in the Dantewada police station for close to 40 days. When Himanshu Kumar filed a habeas corpus petition in the Chattisgarh High Court , Kodopi was released on bail. However, the police continued to harass him till the point when he came to Delhi and studied as a journalist for several months under the patronage of Himanshu Kumar. Then there was a terrible massacre and burning of three villages in Chattisgarh. Lingaram Kodopi who was now trained to be a journalist, went back to Chattisgarh and took footage from these three villages,the first hand account of the villagers and the way the huts were burnt down by the SPOs. The fact that Linga Kodopi has this footage appears o have become a source of worry for the state police. Their harassment of Linga and his aunt Soni Sori, who is a teacher in a government ashram in Chattisgarh, has gone up exponentially. A few weeks ago a constable in Dantewada asked Soni and Linga to pose as Maoists and and take a bribe from a Essar contractor B.K Lala. When they refused to do it, the constable forcibly made a call from Sori's phone to Lala. Subsequently they caught Kodopi and Lala from their house, but reported that were caught red handed from the market exchanging 15 lakh rupees. Kodopi now is in jail but Soni Sori was forced to run away and take refuge elsewhere.
Talking from an undisclosed location, she called back this constable, a man called Mankad and asked him what was the truth of thew story. The phone call was recorded by Tehelka. Mankad admitted over the phone that Kodopi was arrested from his house, unlike what the police had earlier stated, and hinted that the arrest was a setup. He also told Sori to stay away and that their is no evidence against her. Sori, meanwhile, is on the run. She has three children in a hostel. One of them is a 5 year old. But the irony is that the maoists think they are informers. Somedays back they attacked Sori's fathers house and shot her father in the leg. Her husband meanwhile has been in jail for close to a year now. This is the ground reality in Chattisgarh. The police of Chhattisgarh clearly doesnt want these stories to reach the people.
Uphold the Indian Constitution! Defend Human Rights Defenders in India! (kractivist.wordpress.com)
Who really killed Baby Mohite?
by kracktivist in Health Care, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights Tags: Activism, DNA, First Information Report, India, India Against Corruption, Maharashtra, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Medha Patkar, Mumbai, Osmanabad, Vikhroli
Published: Sunday, Jan 29, 2012,
By Javed Iqbal | Agency: DNA
The residents of Bhim Chhaya at Vikhroli have been on an indefinite dharna since November 19, 2011. While they have been demanding land rights and a right to a home as per the Rajiv Gandhi Awas Yojna, they have also been demanding justice for the death of 14-month-old Jayesh Mohite who drowned in one of the miasmic ditches dug by civic authorities to prevent further 'encroachment'.
The Vikhroli police, at the behest of angry residents, included the names of Mumbai suburban collector Nirmalkumar Deshmukh and deputy collector Shivajirao Davbhat in the First Information Report (FIR), charging them under Section 299, 304 as well as Section 304A, which states, "whoever causes the death of any person by doing any rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide."
The officials filed for anticipatory bail in the courts and the deputy commissioner of police cleared the officials of the charges and instead submitted a three-page report detailing how the boy's family are encroachers and anti-social elements.
Yet, before they were 'encroachers', in May 2011 the government had relented to a 9-day hunger strike by social activist Medha Patkar that had demanded, besides investigating fraud in the Slum Rehabilitation Scheme, to declare 19 settlements as slums under Section 5 of the Maharashtra Slum Area Act. Bhim Chhaya was one of them.
The right of a settlement to be called a slum would've given them rights and protected them from further demolition drives; the settlement was demolished repeatedly "from 2001, almost every year", according to suburban deputy collector Shivajirao Davbhat. The government, however, relegated on its promise and the settlement was exposed to demolitions once again when on November 16, 2011, bulldozers arrived and ran through the settlement, burning down some homes, while ditches were dug up to make the land uninhabitable.
A little less than a month later, on December 12, Jayesh Mohite drowned in a ditch that wouldn't have existed if the government had kept its word.
Builder lobby involved too
Read article in DNA here
Mumbai and its Post Liberalization Slum (favelissues.com)
'Stop eviction of slum-dwellers' (thehindu.com)
Video of Republic Day protest against Gallantry awards in San Francisco
by kracktivist in Advocacy, Announcements, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights, Poetry, Political Prisoners, Violence against Women, Women Rights Tags: Business and Economy, California, Chhattisgarh, Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, Constitution of India, Dantewada, discrimination, Government, Human Rights, India, Kartam Joga, Maoist, Metro Areas, Naxalite, New Delhi, Prison, Raipur, Rape, Republic Day, San Francisco, San Francisco Bay Area, Soni Sori, Supreme Court, torture, Tribal rights, United Nations Special Rapporteur, United States, Women Rights
Concerned citizens and friends of India organized a peaceful protest in San Francisco outside the venue of the official Republic Day function hosted by the Indian Consulate which was expected to be attended by around 400 invitees – the movers and shakers of the Indian community as well as local politicians. Much to our satisfaction, we were able to engage in one-on-one conversations with many of the attendees outside the venue and distribute flyers. Many of them signed our petition and many more were sympathetic.
The petition is as follows
Every year on the 26th of January, we celebrate the Constitution of India [1]. Every 30th of January, we remember the martyrdom of Mahatma Gandhi, who led India to freedom. However, for the vast majority of the people of India, even the most basic of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution – the right to life and personal liberty and due legal process if these rights are to be abridged – remain unrealized promises. And the ideals of the independence struggle, as articulated by Gandhi, stand indelibly tarnished.
One of the most shocking recent instances of this trampling upon the Indian constitution is the torture and sexual abuse of prisoner Soni Sori [2,3]. An adivasi school teacher from the Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, Sori had exposed evidence of police misconduct in the framing of several cases against her [4]. Police intimidation forced her to flee, and she reached Delhi seeking legal assistance, but was arrested before she could file a petition in the Supreme Court. Fearing for her life in Chhattisgarh, she asked to be held in custody in Delhi, despite which she was handed over to the Chhattisgarh police [5]. In custody, Soni Sori was brutally tortured by the Chhattisgarh police, because of her refusal to corroborate their false statements. A subsequent independent medical examination found sizable stones lodged in her vagina and her rectum and severe damage to her spinal cord [6].
Another instance is the case of Lingaram Kodopi. In 2009, Kodopi was locked up by the police in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh for 40 days, tortured and pressured to join a vigilante force [7]. After the High Court ordered his release, Lingaram went on to complete a course in journalism, and later documented villagers' accounts of arson, murder and rape during a three-day police operation in March 2011. In September 2011, Lingaram was arrested on charges of collecting 'protection' money for the Maoists from Essar, a large business conglomerate. Sori, his aunt, came under pressure from the police to persuade Lingaram to accept the charges. She refused, saying the charges were false and ended up being an accused herself. Amnesty International has pronounced both Sori and Kodopi, Prisoners of Conscience [8].
Sori's and Kodopi's are not isolated cases. Authorities in various parts of India have a record of imprisoning innocent people, including human rights workers, on false charges, the most notable case being that of Dr. Binayak Sen. Dr. Sen was convicted of 'sedition', and sentenced to life imprisonment, but released by the Supreme Court on bail, pending appeal [9]. Many other innocent people, mostly from marginalized sections of the society, continue to languish in India's jails; Adivasi activist Kartam Joga [10] and labor leaders, Bhagwati Sahu [11] and Abhay Sahoo [12], are just some of them. Others like Kopa Kunjam [13] and documentarian Ajay TG [14] were released on bail and are awaiting trial. Arun Ferreira, a social and human rights activist, was acquitted in 11 different cases for lack of evidence, but re-arrested each time on a fresh set of charges, until he was finally released on bail on the 4th January [15].
In custody, Soni Sori was pressured by the police to implicate many prominent human rights activists as Maoists [16]. Though Sori resisted the pressure, other news reports indicate a concerted attempt on the part of the state to stigmatize human rights defenders [17]. This was a serious concern placed on record by Margaret Sekaggya, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, after the completion of a mission to India a year ago [18].
The gross misconduct of the police is enabled by several draconian laws of questionable Constitutional validity, such as the law against sedition in the Indian Penal Code [19], the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act [20], the Armed Forces Special Powers Act [21] and state-specific laws such as the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act (CSPSA) [22]. These laws are intended to help the police to bring charges against anyone on no or the flimsiest of evidence or to arrest and detain people for extended periods without charges or evidence. This process of filing false charges and detention based on them, is being used as a punitive tool in itself.
Where there are credible reports of torture or of other grave misconduct by the police, rarely have the police authorities been investigated, or the democratically elected representatives sanctioning systemic abuses held accountable [23].
Therefore, we demand that:
Torture and other prisoner abuses must stop
Intimidation of Human Rights Defenders must end
The practice of filing false charges, extended detentions without trial, and "arrest, detention and trial" as punishment must end
The law against sedition (Section 124A of Indian Penal Code) be abolished
Laws which give unconditional and unchecked power to the authorities, such as UAPA, AFSPA and CSPSA, be abolished
Soni Sori and Lingaram Kodopi be released immediately and unconditionally
Police and higher level government officials responsible for torturing and pressuring Soni Sori be prosecuted
Pl sign petition here
Below is a short video (3 min) of the Republic Day protest against Gallantry awards in San Francisco
Gallantry Award for Sexual Torture on Republic Day in India
by kracktivist in Advocacy, Announcements, Disability, Health Care, Human Rights, Justice, Kractivism, Law, Minority Rights, Poetry, Political Prisoners, Press Release, Prison, UID, Uncategorized, Violence against Women, Women Rights Tags: Ankit Garg, Asia, Central Reserve Police Force, Chhattisgarh, Dantewada, Dantewada District, discrimination, equality, feminism, gender, Health, Human Rights, Human Rights Commission, India, Kolkata, Maoism, Maoist, Naxalite, New Delhi, Police station, Rape, Soni Sori, SP Dantewada, Superintendent (police), Supreme Court, torture, Tribal rights, Types of rape, Women Rights
IPS OFFCIER CHHATTISGARH ANKIT GARG
The Perpetrator of Sexual Torture
S P Ankit Garg, who holds degree in ( ME Env Bot) B.E.D, is 2004 batch IPS officer who has been secretary of Chhattisgarh State Human Rights Commission though he has been involved in Ponjer massacre in which six tribal who were collecting Mahua were killed by axe, he saw a CRPF jawan who killed a two-year- old child and a lady in Cherpaal Salwa Judum camp, He also tried to save Matwada accused police officers and SPOs. He was the investigating officer in Dantewada in 2007, was promoted to the Rank of Superintendent of Police in 2008, as Bijapur S.P and he was S P intelligence Dantewada in 201oand took over as S.P Dantewada on 30th March 2011, in his tenurehe had initaited many anti naxal operations . On Dec 28 , 2011 a day after cadres of the CPI-Maoist blasted Geedam Police Station in Dantewada District, SP of the District, Ankit Garg, has been removed and attached with the PHQ.
26th Januray, 63rd independence day is the darkest day of the Indian democracy . While Ms. Soni Sori, the victim of this heinous torture languishes in the Raipur Central Jail, with a deteriorating health condition, and waits for her case to be listed in the Supreme Court, women's teams who have been taking up the case of her torture have been refused permission to meet her. She is still under the custody of the same state police has that inflicted this torture on her.
Soni Sori letter from Prison- Hindi
Soni Sori letter from Prison- English Translation
S P Ankit Garg, a 2003 batch IPS Officer, who holds degree in ( ME Env Bot B.E.D, was the investigating officer in Dantewada in 2007 , was promoted to the Rank of Superintendent of Police in 2008, as Bijapur S.P and he was S P intellegence Dantewada in 201oand took over as S.P Dantewada on 30th March 2011, in his tenurehe had initaited many anti naxal operations . On Dec 28 , 2011 a day after cadres of the CPI-Maoist blasted Geedam Police Station in Dantewada District, SP of the…


text:
Howard B. Tate & Son
Funeral Home, Inc.
2237 NY Route 7, Troy, NY 12180
Ph. (518)-663-8210
Older Obits
East Greenbush- Jean (Haight) Lewis, 88, a longtime resident of Brunswick died peacefully, Thursday, February 13, 2020, at the Evergreen Commons Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in East Greenbush, following a long illness.
Born March 5, 1931, in Troy, Mrs. Lewis was the daughter of the late Claude and Pauline (Lucas) Haight and, for over 28 years, the wife of the late Richard Lewis, who predeceased her. Jean and Richard were married on August 14, 1982.
Mrs. Lewis attended Troy High School.
As a young woman, she was employed by the former Normanskill Dairy and later worked as the manager of the Cropseyville Stewart's Shop at the Tamarac Plaza. She retired in 1980. After retiring, she fulfilled a lifelong goal of earning a cosmetology license and owned and operated her own hair salon in North Troy.
She was a wonderful cook who enjoyed spending time with her daughter and her family. Among her favorite pastimes was her love of antiquing, and she especially enjoyed her many trips to the Brimfield, MA, antique festival.
Mrs. Lewis is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Donna and Pete Milks of Eagle Mills, two granddaughters and their husbands, Wendy and Sean Gnat of Ballston Lake and Amy and Mark Coffey of Stillwater, five great-grandchildren, Stephen, Katie, and Jacob Gnat and Alyssa and Ashley Coffey, and several nieces and nephews. In addition to her parents she was predeceased by seven brothers and sisters, Blondford Haight, Mary Milne, Sherwood Haight, Evelyn Scott, Harold Haight, Leona Scott, and Howard Haight.
A funeral service for Mrs. Lewis will be held on Wednesday, February 19, 2020, at 1:30 p.m. at the Howard B. Tate & Son Funeral Home Inc., 2237 NY Route 7, located in Raymertown. Burial will follow in Elmwood Hill Cemetery in Troy. Relatives and friends are invited to call at the funeral home on Wednesday from 11:00 a.m. -1:15 p.m. prior to the funeral service.
Memorial contributions, if desired, may be made to the Eagle Mills Volunteer Fire Company, 627 Brunswick Road, Troy, NY 12180 in memory of Janice "Jean" Lewis.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Why does "the selection cannot be launched and there are no recent launches" notice come out in Eclipse? Why does "the selection cannot be launched and there are no recent launches" notice is coming out in this case?
module try {
    public class module-info {
        public static void main(String args[]) {
            System.out.println("hello");
        }
    }
}

A: Eclipse gave me the same error message for my project. "The selection cannot be launched, and there are no recent launches."
I navigated to Run menu –> Run Configurations... –> Java Application –> Launch Configuration –> Run. This ran my project without the error message.
Please see also the question, "The selection cannot be launches, and there are no recent launches" for Android.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Artemis durable subscription message storage I am trying to understand how durable subscription works in ActiveMQ Artemis. Currently my biggest question is about the storage.
I want to know if the messages are duplicated, which means for each consumer, the message is stored to disk or if the messages are stored in one place and consumers only knows the message at which they were disconnected and need to resume.
From my tests, i can see that : with a fixed message size and number of messages published, the space taken on disk is the same, no matter if I have 1,2 or 3 durable subscription. I took care of disconnecting them so that the messages are stored, don't worry. This would lead me to think that the queues only know about the index of the message that the consumer will need to start to consume when he comes back.
But on the opposite, i checked write Bytes per secondes with iostat cmd, and the more i have durable subscription queues, the more this stat grows. Which would mean messages are duplicated.
Do you guys have more informations, even the source code that is responsible for this.

A: By default ActiveMQ Artemis will store durable messages in a set of local files known as a "journal." In situations where more than one queue has the same message (e.g. in the case of a multiple durable subscriptions on the same JMS topic) the actual message data is only stored once and each queue gets a "reference" to that message. Storing the exact same message data multiple times would be hugely inefficient.
However, it's worth noting that the ActiveMQ Artemis journal files are initialized with zeroes when they are created which means that even an "empty" journal takes up space on the disk. Therefore, when messages are stored in the journal the amount of disk space they take will not change. The existing zeroes will simply be overwritten with the message data.
You can find the source code for ActiveMQ Artemis on GitHub.
If you want to see proof of this behavior you can use the artemis data print command. This command prints the raw records from the journal in a human readable format. If you were to have 2 durable subscriptions using client IDs of durable-client1 and durable-client2 and subscription names of subscriber-1 and subscriber-2 respectively on a JMS topic named exampleTopic and you send one message you would end up with an address, 2 queues, 1 actual message, and 2 references in the journal. You'd see something like this in the data print command output:
********************************************
B I N D I N G S  J O U R N A L
********************************************
...

### Surviving Records Summary ###
...
recordID=2;userRecordType=44;isUpdate=false;compactCount=0;PersistentAddressBindingEncoding [id=2, name=exampleTopic, routingTypes={MULTICAST}, autoCreated=false]
recordID=18;userRecordType=21;isUpdate=false;compactCount=0;PersistentQueueBindingEncoding [id=18, name=durable-client1.subscriber-1, address=exampleTopic, filterString=null, user=null, autoCreated=false, maxConsumers=-1, purgeOnNoConsumers=false, exclusive=false, lastValue=false, lastValueKey=null, nonDestructive=false, consumersBeforeDispatch=0, delayBeforeDispatch=-1, routingType=0, configurationManaged=false, groupRebalance=false, groupBuckets=-1, groupFirstKey=null, autoDelete=false, autoDeleteDelay=0, autoDeleteMessageCount=0]
recordID=23;userRecordType=21;isUpdate=false;compactCount=0;PersistentQueueBindingEncoding [id=23, name=durable-client1.subscriber-2, address=exampleTopic, filterString=null, user=null, autoCreated=false, maxConsumers=-1, purgeOnNoConsumers=false, exclusive=false, lastValue=false, lastValueKey=null, nonDestructive=false, consumersBeforeDispatch=0, delayBeforeDispatch=-1, routingType=0, configurationManaged=false, groupRebalance=false, groupBuckets=-1, groupFirstKey=null, autoDelete=false, autoDeleteDelay=0, autoDeleteMessageCount=0]

...

********************************************
M E S S A G E S   J O U R N A L
********************************************
...

### Surviving Records Summary ###
recordID=27;userRecordType=45;isUpdate=false;compactCount=0;Message(messageID=27;userMessageID=41705395-b2d1-11e9-91f9-a0afbd82eaba;msg=CoreMessage[messageID=27,durable=true,userID=41705395-b2d1-11e9-91f9-a0afbd82eaba,priority=4, timestamp=Tue Jul 30 08:52:22 CDT 2019,expiration=0, durable=true, address=exampleTopic,size=232,properties=TypedProperties[__AMQ_CID=durable-client1,_AMQ_ROUTING_TYPE=0]]@454305524
recordID=27;userRecordType=32;isUpdate=true;compactCount=0;AddRef;QueueEncoding [queueID=18]
recordID=27;userRecordType=32;isUpdate=true;compactCount=0;AddRef;QueueEncoding [queueID=23]
...


text:
Case Closed in Ferguson
In the end, US Attorney General Eric Holder had to pass on Ferguson. Because of the way the law is written, it's almost impossible to convict a cop who can reasonably assert that he feared for his safety. And so long as a victim isnt cuffed, a cop who claims he was afraid is going to get off.
However the public should be aware of the strength of the case against former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. While the Field Guide does not have access to the Department of Justice's records for the investigation, we were able to find the informal testimony of 9 witnesses, one of whom says one thing, and the other 8 say something else. The odd man out, of course, is Wilson himself.
According to Dorian Johnson, Wilson exited the vehicle, and fired several rounds at the fleeing Brown, hitting him once in the back. Brown turned around with his hands raised and said, "I dont have a gun. Stop shooting!" Wilson then shot Brown several more times, killing him.
According to Michael Brady, Brown was "balled up" with his arms under his stomach and he was "halfway down" to the ground. As he was falling, Brown took one or two steps toward Wilson – presumably because he was hit and stumbling forward. Wilson then shot him three or four times.
Piaget Crenshaw said that Wilson chased Brown for about 20 feet before shooting him again. "I saw the police chase him down the street and shoot him down. When Brown then raised his arms, the officer shot him two more times, killing him."
Tiffany Mitchell said that after the first shot was fired, Brown started to run away. "After the shot, the kid just breaks away. The cop follows him, kept shooting, the kid's body jerked as if he was hit. After his body jerked he turns around, puts his hands up, and the cop continues to walk up on him and continues to shoot until he goes all the way down."
James McKnight said that Brown held his hands in the air just after he turned to face Wilson. He stumbled toward the officer, but didnt rush him, and "the officer was about six or seven feet away" from Brown.
Phillip Walker said he saw Brown walking "at a steady pace" toward Wilson with his hands up and that he "did not rush the officer", adding that Wilson's final shot was from a distance of about four feet.
Emanuel Freeman stated that Wilson fired twice at Brown while he was running away, and five more times after he turned around to face Wilson.
A construction worker, whose reaction to the shooting was a youtube sensation, said that Brown began walking toward the officer with his hands up, at which point Wilson began firing at Brown and backing away. After the third shot, Brown's hands started going down, and he moved about 25 feet toward Wilson, who kept backing away and firing. The worker was unable to discern if Brown's movement toward the officer was "a stumble to the ground" or "okay, I'm going to get you, you're already shooting me." The worker disputed the claim that Brown rushed at the officer, "I dont know if he was going after him or if he was falling down to die. It wasnt a bull rush."
There's also a medical examiner's report. While the ME says that her report is consistent with the scenario that Brown reached for Wilson's gun, she added, "I'm not saying that Brown going for the gun is the only explanation." In other words, her report is consistent with Wilson's testimony, but also with that of the 8 witnesses above.
In the end, forensics could not resolve three key issues: (1) the range from which the head shots were fired, (2) whether Brown was approaching fast or slow, or (3) whether Brown had his hands up and extended from his body. Those issues can only be resolved by witness testimony – and not one witness, except Wilson, says that Brown was rushing. Not one says Brown was as close as Wilson claimed when he took the final shots. All say Brown was either approaching slowly, or stumbling. Most say his hands were out. Not one says that Brown reached for the gun.
The law is what it is, and we cannot complain if good laws sometimes produce undesirable results – all laws are imperfect in this way. But while the law has spoken, and the case is closed on Ferguson, let it not be suggested that justice has been done.
Share this post: https://liberalfieldguide.org/2015/03/20/case-closed-in-ferguson/
Written by Carlton Thurman Leave a comment Posted in Law, Public Policy, Race	Tagged with Darren Wilson, Ferguson
Louisiana Conspiracy
The cases of Michael Brown and Eric Garner are about extreme abuses of power, not just in the unnecessary use of deadly force by the police, but in prosecutors sealing the miscarriage of justice by failing to obtain indictments afterward, despite an abundance of damning evidence.
In Louisiana, an even more outrageous case has failed to get the attention it deserves. However it seems that justice has a good chance to prevail.
In front of the local courthouse, Douglas Dendinger served a subpoena on Chad Cassard, a one-time Louisiana police officer. Shortly after arriving home, Dendinger's house was surrounded by police, and he was hauled away on felony charges for assaulting and intimidating Cassard. The charges were backed up by seven eyewitnesses, all policemen and attorneys, including a police chief and two local prosecutors, all of whom asserting in sworn statements that Dendinger violently struck Cassard as he served the subpoena.
A year passed, and District Attorney Walter Reed was set on pressing ahead with the case against Dendinger – when Dendinger produced a video of the entire transaction between him and Cassard. It was taken by his wife and nephew from a car, to document service of process for a civil suit his nephew was pursuing against Cassard for police brutality. The video shows Dendinger harmlessly handing something to Cassard and departing. The video leaves no room for the imagination. The accusations against Dendinger are, quite obviously, utter fabrications.
But when presented with this video evidence, Reed refused to drop the case. Dendinger's attorney got the state Attorney General involved, and forced Reed to recuse his office from the prosecution. The Louisiana AG summarily dismissed all charges. New federal civil rights charges are now pending against Reed and several of Dendinger's false witnesses, who may face felony prosecution as well.
The recitation of this story isnt meant to impugn police and prosecutors generally, but to observe that they are ordinary people, some better and some worse, and that their testimony is not necessarily worth more than anyone else's. In the case of Michael Brown, there were a total of ten witnesses, nine of whom asserted that Brown did not charge Officer Wilson or reach for his weapon. The tenth witness, Wilson himself, told a different story to justify his shooting of Brown several times, including twice in the head.
Civil society requires a dependable police force – but the police have as much potential for bad as they have for good. Our takeaway is to remain ever vigilant about keeping the power of police and prosecutors in check – and to give equal weight to the testimony of our fellow civilian citizens.
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Written by Carlton Thurman Leave a comment Posted in Law, Public Policy	Tagged with Chad Cassard, Douglas Dendinger, Louisiana, Louisiana police officer, Michael Brown, Walter Reed
GHWB's Gallery of Irony
You could fairly ask why the National Constitution Center – a museum devoted to the US Constitution – would name a new gallery for George H.W. Bush. This, after all, is the president who irresponsibly appointed Clarence Thomas, the Supreme Court's least qualified appointee since at least WWII, whose signature contribution during 20 years on the bench is his ongoing effort to legitimize prison beatings. (Really.) VP while the Reagan administration was running roughshod over the Constitution during the Iran-Contra affair, Bush, as president, pardoned everyone implicated, arguably to obstruct investigation into his own law-breaking.
But the salient facts are that GHWB is a former chairman of the Center, and that his son Jeb is the current chair – and so with nauseating irony GHWB is getting his eponymous gallery. According to Center president Jeffrey Rosen, the George H.W. Bush gallery will for the next three years, "be the focal point… of debate and education about the meaning of the Bill of Rights." Barf bags, anyone?
As if to double-down on the grotesque, the task of obfuscating George Bush's antagonistic relationship to the Bill of Rights was given to Justice Samuel Alito, who Bush appointed to the Third Circuit in 1990. Alito, after all, has himself been hard at work eviscerating the Bill of Rights since Bush Duh put him on the Supreme Court in 2006. It's kind of like adding a George Wallace wing to a Black History Museum – with the dedication ceremony conducted by Charles Murray.
Conservatives like Alito cannot sing the praises of the Bill of Rights without irony. Speaking at the dedication ceremony, Alito distinguishes the American Bill of Rights as "having teeth" – as compared to other declarations of human rights that, through history, have not been so readily enforceable. The joke is that Alito has made a career of knocking those teeth out at every opportunity.
Three Constitutional cases were deadlocked 4-4 at the time Alito was seated on the Court, each implicating the Bill of Rights. Solely for Alito's benefit were they reargued, so that he might cast the tie-breaking vote. Alito went 3-for-3: his was the fifth vote to undercut liberties protected by the 1st (speech), 4th (search and seizure) and 8th (cruel and unusual punishment) amendments in those three cases, respectively.
Alito was just warming up. His subsequent decisions have undermined women's right to choose, expanded the police power, and reduced free speech protections; his dissents have often advocated even greater violence toward the Bill of Rights. So perhaps it's unsurprising what his short talk on the history of the Bill of Rights included – and excluded.
Alito began by asserting that the Bill of Rights is a "codification" of those "unalienable rights" alluded to in the Declaration of Independence. He conveniently fails to mention that, as a codification, it is explicitly incomplete. Which is probably why, in his discussion of the views of the late 18th century supporters and opponents of the Bill of Rights, he fails to mention one of the Bill's most important objections: that the absence of a particular right from the Bill might be used as evidence that that right does not exist. This problem was cured by the 9th amendment, which forbids that specific form of reasoning. But go try finding a conservative like Alito who has ever used the 9th amendment to expand the protections of the Bill of Rights.
Alito goes on to discuss the importance of the defeat of fascism in WWII for the spread of human rights worldwide. Ever more ironically, he fails to acknowledge that the Bill of Rights itself was not generally operable against state governments until the 1960s. Before then, the state police could break into your house without a warrant, arrest you and beat you for a confession, and the Constitution had nothing to say about it. That only changed when liberal justices changed the law, over the objection of the Court's conservatives.
If the National Constitutional Center were enhanced by a gallery dedicated to efforts to undermine the Bill of Rights, it could hardly have a more fitting name, nor a more apt individual to introduce it.
Written by Carlton Thurman Leave a comment Posted in History, Law
The Simmering Pot Movement
Seems hardly an election cycle passes without several marijuana initiatives on the ballot. This season's players are Washington, Alaska and the District of Columbia. The states would allow for retail pot shops, like those recently established by law in Colorado. D.C.'s ballot measure would merely legalize possession. And for what it's worth, Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley recently announced he would himself vote for the Oregon ballot measure – to become the first US senator to ever support marijuana legalization.
The tide for pot legalization is rising nearly as fast as that for gay marriage – and, reassuringly, it doesnt depend on the learned liberalism of federal judges; it is rather the consequence of its popularity in an increasingly liberal electorate. Medical marijuana is now legal under state law in nearly half the states, and possession has been decriminalized in about one-third of all states.
Opposition to marijuana legalization is as lovely a dunce cap as a conservative ever wore. People who claim to fear government power, and who eschew a state's paternalism toward its adult citizens, should arrive easily to the policy position of marijuana legalization. Not so for conservatives, whose fear of government power is somehow not triggered by the American gulag system, which has given the US the highest incarceration rate in the world, driven significantly by drug prohibition. Conservative esteem for "personal responsibility" is somehow inapplicable to the idea of letting adults decide what's best for their minds and bodies. One hears conservatives babble about the need to "protect society" from the scourge of individual drug use, and wonders why they dont have a similar desire to protect society from individual decisions to go without health insurance, acquire firearms, or not save for retirement.
Conservatism, after all, is defined by its lack of principles. Compared to real political philosophies, such as liberalism, conservatism is ten pounds of crap crammed into a five-pound bag, thrown together by historical accident, and bound together by the perspicacious philosophical insight that everything was better in the old days. Except for slavery, women's subjugation, Jim Crow, witch burnings, the Japanese internment, the eugenics movement and the McCarthy hearings, America's past is a veritable touchstone of enduring values and right-mindedness – ah, the good ol' days….
One day – hopefully soon – people who come out opposed to slam-dunk liberal policies like gay marriage and marijuana legalization will sound as loony as advocates for slavery and the repeal of women's right to vote – policy positions so extreme that they have become publicly unspeakable, relegated to extremist movements like the Taliban or white supremacists. This is why elements within American conservatism are branded as the "American Taliban": they espouse policies as comparably baseless, venal and backwards. Opposition to science – whether on the subject of evolution, global warming, or the safety and efficacy of medical cannabis – is indistinguishable from opposition to rationality itself. And once untethered from reality, human belief systems are free to wander among the fields and streams of mythology, leaving infinitely every viewpoint as valid as any other.
Written by Carlton Thurman Leave a comment Posted in Law, Public Policy
Stealing Votes from Prisoners
With the midterm elections fast approaching, a little-known and unfortunate quirk in the American electoral system merits attention. It may surprise you to learn that prisoners are counted as residents of whatever town, county, and-or state in which they are imprisoned. And since most states do not permit prisoners to vote, counting prisoners in this way artificially inflates the voting power of people who happen to live close to prisons. Upon incarceration, an American adult isnt merely stripped of the right to vote – his vote is taken from him and given, collectively, to people who share the prison's political subdivision.
This policy reduces the electoral representation of cities and sends it out to rural areas where large prisons are most commonly situated. In some cases, the residents of sparsely populated areas have double the voting power of other voters – courtesy of the incarcerated, who havent even necessarily been found guilty!
This policy is worse than was the three-fifths compromise, itself a high-water mark for cynicism. While slavery was still legal in the US south, southerners wanted to have their pecan pie and eat it too. With respect to civil and political rights, they didnt want to regard blacks as human beings; but in order to gain more representation in Congress and more votes in the electoral college for presidential elections, southern politicians needed to maximize their headcount. And so for purposes of the US Census, if the South had its way, lawsy mercy, yes: blacks are people too!
North and South struck an unseemly compromise, which permanently mars the US Constitution: a slave was to be treated as three-fifths of a human being for purposes of apportionment. Of course slaves werent allowed to vote – the votes their bodies accrued went, perversely, to free white southern voters, who consequentially got 30% more Congressman and 30% more electors in the Electoral College.
Though their absolute numbers are smaller, US electoral practices with respect to prisoners are even more unjust. They are denied the right to vote in 48 of 50 states. (Maine and Vermont are the exceptions.) And yet they are counted as full-fledged residents of their place of incarceration – literally transferring their voting power, intact, to others. Since the federal prison system often shifts inmates across state lines, this practice serves to arbitrarily transfer voting power from states with high crime rates to states with large prison populations.
This practice isnt confined to the usual backward states. In New York City, prisoners incarcerated on Rikers Island are counted as residents of Astoria, inflating the voting power of that neighborhood's residents on the City Council. Similar distortions are seen in municipal governing bodies all across New York State.
It was only recently that college students were finally treated as residents where they attend college, to allow them to participate in the politics of the place they spend most of their time. By a similar logic, prisoners who are allowed to vote should either be counted as residents of their place of incarceration, or of their last place residence. But for the 99% of US prisoners who are not allowed to vote, their voting power should not be arbitrarily bestowed on the people who happen to live near the prison. Instead, it should remain in the community where the prisoner last resided. Even better, if states insist on denying the right to vote to prisoners and felons, their representation should be accordingly diminished for purposes of federal elections.
http://www.acslaw.org/acsblog/counting-on-prisoners-the-use-of-inmates-in-apportionment
http://www.prisonersofthecensus.org/faq.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/07/nyregion/07inmates.html?_r=3&
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Fifths_Compromise
How Jim Crow Holds Florida
In denying the right to vote to criminals, even after they have been released from prison, the US is an outlier with respect to much of the world. Let alone allowing ex-cons to vote, numerous countries permit inmates to vote from prison, including Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Sweden. Among US states, only Maine and Vermont let everyone vote, including prisoners.
With America's skyrocketing prison population, felony disenfranchisement affects an increasing fraction of the US population. While it denied suffrage to about 1 million Americans the in the early 70s, 3 million were disenfranchised by the mid-90s, and nearly 6 million are disenfranchised today. Across much of the south, upwards of 7% of the adult population cannot vote because of past convictions.
Relative to the irrevocable, lifetime disenfranchisement that the Constitution permits (for the moment), states are generally much more liberal about allowing convicted criminals to vote after they've completed their sentences, if not parole or probation. As usual, it's regressive southern states who are the most unforgiving, with a few effectively disenfranchising convicted criminals forever.
Disenfranchisement disproportionately affects blacks. Across the country, about 8% of blacks, and some 13% of black men cannot vote – compared to about 2% of all other adults. Florida is the worst case of all. In 2011, its GOP governor gave the state the most extreme felony disenfranchisement law in the country. With just 6% of the US population, Florida is home to 25% of all of America's disenfranchised. 20% of all blacks in Florida – and about 35% of all black men – cannot vote. One neednt wonder at the GOP's zeal for felony disenfranchisement. In its absence, Florida would not be a swing state – it would be solidly democratic.
US AG Eric Holder has been pressing states to reform these outmoded laws – many of which date back to Reconstruction, a living remnant of the Jim Crow south, whose purpose was, then and now, to suppress the black vote. Felony disenfranchisement is an ugly anachronism, with no place in a modern law or governance.
https://www.aclu.org/maps/map-state-criminal-disfranchisement-laws
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/eric-holder-makes-case-for-felons-to-get-voting-rights-back/2014/02/11/b0556492-932b-11e3-84e1-27626c5ef5fb_story.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felony_disenfranchisement#Other_European_countries
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/02/12/how-felon-voting-policies-restrict-the-black-vote/
http://www.fairvote.org/research-and-analysis/voting-rights/felon-disenfranchisement/
http://www.demos.org/blog/2/13/14/racist-history-behind-felony-disenfranchisement-laws
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/07/black-vote-felon-disenfranchisement-laws-florida
http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/felon-disenfranchisement-the-new-jim-crow/17952-felon-disenfranchisement-the-new-jim-crow
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_Acts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_Amendments
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
The Constitutionality of Felony Disenfranchisement:
In the aftermath of the US Civil War, with southern states excluded from Congress and yet subject to military rule, northern states changed the Constitution to protect its citizens' voting rights – somewhat. The 15th amendment, which became law in 1870, is short and simple:
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
18 months previously, northern states had ratified the 14th amendment. Section 2 is a fine bit of 19th century prose:
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
It sprawlingly ties together many areas of law, including apportionment, the legal status of "Indians", federal and state elections, voting rights and criminal disenfranchisement. That's a good thing, because it mutually binds, one to another, numerous rights, capacities and effects, forcing courts to interpret them with respect to one another. The bad of it is that it implicitly allows for the unfettered disenfranchisement of convicted criminals. The 15th amendment meanwhile only prevents states from denying the right to vote for 3 specific reasons – leaving other bases for disenfranchisement valid, including not just crime, but gender.
There is hope. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richardson_v._Ramirez
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_v._Underwood
n.b. The Reconstruction amendments were drafted, voted up by 2/3 majorities in both houses, and passed on to the states for ratification while southern states had no representation in Congress, were yet subject to military rule, and were effectively territories – not states – governed from Washington, D.C. Their readmission to the Union – and with it, the restoration of their Congressional delegations – was conditioned on their ratification of the these amendments.
Written by Carlton Thurman Leave a comment Posted in History, Law, Politics, Public Policy, Race
Beg, Borrow and Sue
Some beggars wouldnt merely be choosers – they would be plaintiffs. In 2008, AIG was flat on its back, about to take its last breath before going into the corporate afterlife. (The Supreme Court tells us that corporations can hold religious beliefs – so who's to say their souls dont live on beyond Chapter 11….) AIG's liabilities outstripped its assets by tens of billions of dollars. Insolvent, AIG would have had little choice but to be dissolved via bankruptcy, its assets liquidated to pay creditors, who would have received pennies on each dollar of debt. Despite AIG's thousand-dollar share price on the eve of the financial meltdown, its shareholders would have lost their entire investment, their shares zeroed out, without a cent left over.
You'd think those shareholders would be mighty grateful to the US government, which bailed out AIG to the tune of $182 billion. Though AIG's share-price was pummeled, it's still around fifty bucks today, which is fifty bucks more than it'd be without the bailout. But some of those shareholders are not grateful – and they are suing the US government because, in their opinion, the bailout AIG received wasnt generous enough.
It's true that while AIG's creditors got a sweetheart deal, AIG itself did not. But it wasnt left to die, as was Lehman Brothers, which on September 15th, 2008 departed this world for the dark night of Chapter 11, never to return. Lehman had been the nation's 4th largest investment bank, and its destruction was a body blow to an already-teetering US economy. The federal government learned its lesson, and resolved to save AIG – the world's largest insurance company – but it would do so on terms onerous enough to serve as fair warning to other financial firms. The fear was that if AIG's deal was too good, others might be tempted to make similarly risky bets, with the expectation that the government would bail them out if things didnt pan out. Instead of a golden parachute, AIG got a no-frills heimlich maneuver – but it's not like the US government owed it to AIG to do anything at all.
AIG itself is not a party to the lawsuit. As AIG CEO Robert Benmosche said in an interview, "It's not acceptable socially for AIG to have taken this money and think that we could come back and sue the government because [they] made too much money on the deal." But not all AIG shareholders share Benmosche's qualms. The suit is led by former AIG CEO Maurice Greenberg, a one-time billionaire, now scraping by on assets worth a paltry $300 million. For Greenberg and his co-plaintiffs, the $182 billion bailout they received from US taxpayers wasnt charity enough – they have demanded that US taxpayers cough up an additional $50 billion.
To grasp the enormity of AIG's bailout, it helps to compare it to other government spending programs. For example, AIG's bailout is enough to cover all US government expenditures on welfare (TANF) and food stamps (SNAP) – combined – for two years! The $50 billion that AIG shareholders are suing for would by itself nearly cover the annual cost of the EITC program (a subsidy for the working poor).
Beyond the inanity of conservative talking points, these figures reveal America's true takers. While millions of working American families receive a pittance in public support, wealthy AIG investors have had their trough filled by US taxpayers – which wont stop them from suing till that trough overflows.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/26/us-aig-bailout-lawsuit-idUSBRE95P1G120130626
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2011/11/21/224905.htm
The Field Guide is off Monday for Columbus Day – we'll be back with new material on Wednesday, October 15th.
Written by Carlton Thurman 1 Comment Posted in Economics, Law, Public Policy
A Supreme Punt
The US Supreme Court kicked the can down the road on Monday, refusing to hear appeals on overturned gay marriage bans from no fewer than five states. In the short term, that's good news for the people of Virginia, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Indiana and, with delicious irony, Utah (which, through the Mormon Church, has become an exporter of anti-gay bigotry to the country and the world), where gay marriage has resumed. And it's good news for people in 11 other states under the jurisdiction of US Circuit Courts of Appeal that have struck gay marriage bans down. All told, the Court's denial should make gay marriage legal in 30 of 50 US states, plus DC. But one should be careful in interpreting the significance of the Court's (non)move.
Imminently and ominously, a decision on another gay marriage ban is expected from the 6th Circuit. In Cincinnati, a three judge panel comprised by two Republican appointees and one Democrat may be the first to uphold such a ban. It's possible that the Supreme Court's conservatives are waiting on such a decision before taking up the issue.
CJ Roberts has been occasionally cautious in his activism. Though his Court issued extremist decisions on the Second Amendment and campaign finance, its decision upholding the ACA, which Roberts himself penned, suggests an upper limit to his audacity. If every US Circuit Court strikes down bans on gay marriage – and to date, every Circuit Court faced with the issue has done so – a Supreme Court decision going the other way would be conspicuously activist. But if just one Circuit Court upholds a ban, the Supreme Court would be expected to step in, in its traditional role of resolving differences among the Circuits.
Given that it takes four votes for the Supreme Court to take a case, it's reasonable to speculate that at least two of the Court's five conservatives would prefer to postpone their decision for the time being – perhaps until one Circuit Court provides them with a fig leaf for their activism. As for the Court's four liberals, while they might relish the opportunity to strike down gay marriage bans nationwide, once and for all, they may be concerned about securing a fifth vote (which would come most likely from Justice Kennedy), and in the meantime can watch and wait as gay marriage spreads across the US without their assistance.
Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey, the sole Democratic appointee on the the three-judge panel hearing the Cincinnati case, alluded to the women's suffrage movement during oral argument. Responding to the suggestion of Ohio's solicitor general that gay marriage activists should focus their efforts on the political process and state legislatures, instead of on federal courts, Judge Daughtrey noted that nearly a century of politicking failed to secure the right to vote to all women; that in the end, via the 19th amendment, three-fourths of the states forced a recalcitrant one-fourth who remained opposed. Daughtrey might also have pointed out that 45 years elapsed between the Supreme Court's 1875 rejection of a woman's Constitutional right to vote, and the19th amendment's 1920 ratification. To gain some insight on the pace of progress across the nation's backwards belt, consider that Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Louisiana didnt ratify till after 1970; and Mississippi, in Orwellian fashion, only did so in 1984.
Unfortunately, the time for gay marriage in all 50 states may not be now. It may not even be soon. Though a string of recent court victories are cause for hope – and over the long haul its coming seems inexorable – this issue will only be resolved at the highest level. One hopes that this Supreme Court will delay justice no longer, and put an end to these unjust, unconscionable, indefensible bans.
Written by Carlton Thurman Leave a comment Posted in Law
AG Holder
A departure from recent Attorneys General who mindlessly signed on to ever-increasing executive power – whether under the auspices of the Patriot Act, FISA or otherwise – Eric Holder took a stand for civil liberties: voting rights, gay rights, limits on police aggression, and human rights for undocumented immigrants. While previous AGs often sought to increase the power and reach of their office, Holder provided a well-needed retreat from the illiberal policies of his predecessors.
The contrast with Bush Duh's first two AGs, John Ashcroft and Alvaro Gonzalez, is striking. The former was a renowned cipher who only became AG after losing a Senate election to a dead man – a feat never accomplished before or since. As AG, Ashcroft infamously defended the Patriot Act against all comers, championing, among other things, the government's new power to search library records to discover the reading habits of individual Americans. (In fairness, Ashcroft took a stand against Stellar Wind, another surveillance program.)
Next came Alvaro Gonzalez, who only lasted two and a half years, and seemed out of his depth from day one. He spent his time in office defending expanded police search and seizure powers, and looking for legal justifications for torture. His prodigious talents prepared him for his current position, the dean of Belmont College of Law. If you've never heard of Belmont Law, that may be because it was only founded three years ago.
Comparisons with Clinton's AG and Holder's one-time boss, Janet Reno, are no less interesting. Reno was an aggressive, efficient cop in the Rudolph Giuliani and Elliot Ness style. The longest serving US AG in 185 years, Reno gets credit for the capture and conviction of five 1993 World Trade Center bombers, two Oklahoma City bombers, and the Unabomber; and for taking on Microsoft when it was the most valuable corporation in world history. But she is fairly criticized for using excessive force in the Elian Gonzalez matter and the siege at Waco.
Holder, by comparison, has shown leniency – for good and for bad. His "too big to jail" policy with respect to bankers led to zero prosecutions in the wake of the subprime mortgage market collapse. Under him, the DOJ's prosecution of large financial services firms has fallen to its lowest level in 20 years. However his "Smart on Crime" program seeks to avoid harsh sentencing when the facts of a case do not merit such. He's also backed off on enforcing federal marijuana laws in states where the drug was decriminalized under state law.
Serving as AG during the so-called war on terror, Holder has been faced with the constant temptation to expand the police power at the expense of personal liberty. Waging that war abroad, he's been aggressive, penning the legal defense for the operation that assassinated Osama bin Laden, and for the use of drones to assassinate other terrorist leaders abroad, including US citizens. But domestically Holder has been reserved, criticizing Bush Duh's implementation of the Patriot Act and use of electronic surveillance, and condemning torture. His Justice Department has nonetheless prosecuted six government employees for leaks (compared to just three prosecutions in all of US history before), and has electronically surveilled members of the press, denying the right of journalists to protect the identity of their sources.
Holder's respect for civil rights and limits on the police power are a major upgrade over Bush Duh's AGs. His aggressiveness in pursuing politically unpopular liberal causes – fighting Arizona's ill-considered immigration law, and taking on voter ID laws and redistricting in the deep south – has been laudable. Overall, Holder has been a very good AG, and as his tenure draws to a close, it's worth pausing to reflect on how fortunate the country has been to have someone with talent, tenacity and conscience in that office – for a change.
Written by Carlton Thurman 2 Comments Posted in Law, Public Policy
Liberalism v. Democracy, Round 3
The US invaded Iraq ostensibly to bring democracy to the Middle East. But the Middle East was more in need of liberalism than democracy – then and now. Lying at different points along roughly the same developmental track, Jordan and Tunisia together illustrate a better course for political evolution. Jordan is today an autocracy, under the liberal rule of King Abdullah II. Tunisia had for many years also been a relatively liberal autocracy, until the Arab Spring brought democracy. For decades, both countries have had excellent economic growth – but they are at different stages of development: Tunisian per capita GDP is 50% greater. (Egypt and Libya, which also became democracies in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, are also substantially wealthier than Jordan.) History gives us every reason to hope that Jordan will also, eventually, become a liberal democracy, as its citizens grow wealthier, and demand a larger voice in their own governance.
We might be less hopeful that Egypt will blossom into a liberal democracy, because liberalism did not do especially well under Mubarek. Though the economy grew, extreme wealth inequality kept the middle class relatively small, and corruption was ubiquitous. As for Libya, the present state of affairs is as complicated as was Gaddafi's leadership. Americans only know Gaddafi for his role in international terrorism, and his regime's extraordinary repression. Few are aware of his economic reforms – good and bad – which lifted Libyan living standards and life expectancy to among the highest in the region.
Unfortunately, the so-called "rise of the bourgeoisie" that brought democracy to the United States, France and England – and as well to Singapore, Taiwan and Chile – does not occur in countries whose economies are based on mineral wealth, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Brunei and Bahrain. Wealth tends to remain in the hands of the few. Oil gives the state a source of cash, which allows them to keep taxes low and their oligarchs content.
Kuwait – the most liberal and democratic country in the Middle East (including Israel) – is no exception to the rule. Unlike many of its neighbors, Kuwait was a commercial center long before oil was discovered. As in the West, liberalism was born and nurtured in Kuwait among merchants, which yielded a culture that respects rules of trade and property rights. Kuwaitis now enjoy the full gamut of civil and political liberties. Importantly, the example of Kuwait allows us to dispose of the absurd, racist theory that Arabs are somehow ill-suited to democracy.
One cannot fail to mention Hugo Chavez – democratically elected and reelected, and fairly liberal – who in the US was often regarded as illegitimate, or mischaracterized as a dictator. His many policies were a mixed bag and cannot be thoughtfully summed up in the space we have here. But even if you reject them, regimes such as his should be tolerated as hiccups that naturally occur within the framework of the democratic process. (Europeans surely did their best to endure Bush Duh's two terms with the same sentiment.) The US should not have hesitated to condemn the coup that temporarily removed Chavez from power – because in the long term, Americans are safest and most prosperous in a world of liberal democracies. Once a government evolves to that stage, its perpetuation must be a major US policy goal, overriding the short-term advantages that regime-change might offer.
When time and space permit, the Field Guide will compare and contrast the US response to Chavez's short-lived coup with its response to the 2014 Ukraine Revolution. And while we'll revisit the tension between liberalism and democracy in the near future, this coming Friday has been reserved to offer liberals guidance in choosing the best course in the mounting crisis in Iraq.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_spring
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuwait#Politics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Libya_under_Muammar_Gaddafi#Economic_reforms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Egypt_under_Hosni_Mubarak#Economy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Ch%C3%A1vez#Presidency:_1999.E2.80.932013
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Ukrainian_revolution
Written by Carlton Thurman Leave a comment Posted in International, Law, Public Policy


text:
Education, training and skills
Huge expansion of tutoring in next step of education recovery
£1 billion for national tutoring revolution which will see up to 100 million tutoring hours for children and young people across England
Department for Education and The Rt Hon Gavin Williamson CBE MP
Children and young people across England will be offered up to 100 million hours of free tuition to help them catch up on learning lost during the pandemic.
As part of the next step in the government's plans to boost education recovery, a total of £1.4 billion is being invested, including £1 billion to support up to 6 million, 15-hour tutoring courses for disadvantaged school children, as well as an expansion of the 16-19 tuition fund, targeting key subjects such as maths and English.
£400 million will help give early years practitioners and 500,000 school teachers across the country training and support, and schools and colleges will be funded to give some year 13 students the option to repeat their final year.
It builds on the £1.7 billion already announced to help children catch up on what they missed during the pandemic, which includes summer schools and mental health support, bringing total investment to over £3 billion.
The government has committed to an ambitious, long-term education recovery plan and the next stage will include a review of time spent in school and college and the impact this could have on helping children and young people to catch up. The findings of the review will be set out later in the year to inform the spending review.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said:
Young people have sacrificed so much over the last year and as we build back from the pandemic, we must make sure that no child is left behind.
This next step in our long-term catch up plan should give parents confidence that we will do everything we can to support children who have fallen behind and that every child will have the skills and knowledge they need to fulfil their potential.
One course of high-quality tutoring has been proven to boost attainment by three to five months, so tutoring will be vital for young people in recovering the teaching hours lost in the last year.
The government expects the £1 billion investment to transform the availability and approach to tuition in every school and college over the next three years, making sure when teachers identify a disadvantaged child in need of support as a result of the pandemic, extra support is available.
£153 million will provide the opportunity for evidence-based professional development for early years practitioners, including through new programmes focusing on key areas such as speech and language development for the youngest children.
£253 million will expand existing teacher training and development to give 500,000 school teachers the opportunity to access world-leading training appropriate for whatever point they are at in their career, from new teachers to headteachers. This represents a significant overhaul of teacher training in this country, and will ensure children are supported by world-leading teachers.
Schools or colleges will be able to offer students in year 13 the option to repeat the year if they have been particularly badly affected by the pandemic. Schools and colleges will be funded by the Department to help accommodate the additional student numbers.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said:
This is the third major package of catch-up funding in twelve months and demonstrates that we are taking a long-term, evidence-based approach to help children of all ages.
I am incredibly proud it recognises the efforts and dedication of our teachers who are at the forefront of children's recovery – making sure every teacher has the opportunity to access world-leading training, giving them the skills and tools to help every child they work with to fulfil their potential.
The package will not just go a long way to boost children's learning in the wake of the disruption caused by the pandemic but also help bring back down the attainment gap that we've been working to eradicate.
Education Recovery Commissioner Sir Kevan Collins said:
The pandemic has caused a huge disruption to the lives of England's children.
Supporting every child to get back on track will require a sustained and comprehensive programme of support.
The investments in teaching quality and tutoring announced today offer evidence-based support to a significant number of our children and teachers. But more will be needed to meet the scale of the challenge.
All ages from two to 19 are comprehensively covered by the offers of radically expanded tuition, specialist training for early years and for school teachers at every stage of their career, from new teachers to head teachers, as well as the option for some year 13 students to repeat their final year.
Schools will now be able to provide additional tutoring support using locally employed tutors. This will build on the successful National Tutoring Programme, galvanising tuition providers to deliver the one-to-one and small group tutoring for pupils right across the country, to the highest standards and greatest possible impact.
Randstad will be the new supplier of the NTP from September 2021. They will be supported by Teach First to ensure the programme is successfully set up for effective delivery and continuous improvement in academic year 21/22.
Wellbeing for education recovery: grant determination letter
Education recovery support
Academic mentors programme grant: conditions of funding
School staff instructor grant
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Would you like your submitted research to be instantly visible to other researchers?
At Atmospheric Environment, we wanted to develop a feature that would bring research to our readers as early as possible while allowing authors to gain visibility for their work at the point of article submission.
With the Submitted Articles pilot, we promote the newest submissions to the journal by hosting their abstracts on the journal's homepage. The output is produced via an RSS feed based on information exported from the Elsevier Editorial System (EES).
The advantage of this approach is that it gives greater visibility to an author's research and allows the author to be contacted via email should their submitted paper be of interest to readers. It also enables potential authors to better gauge the range and scope of articles submitted to the journal to decide whether this journal is the right place for their article to be published.
The pilot is optional for all authors. Articles rejected after the point of submission or peer review will be removed from the RSS feed, and those accepted will be transferred to appear as Articles in Press.
Co-Editor-in-Chief Dr. Hanwant Singh, who leads a group of atmospheric scientists at the NASA Ames Research Center, said the new feature is "an excellent idea that should help our readers to keep abreast of emerging science and facilitate early interaction among researchers."
Authors of Atmospheric Environment have responded positively. Since March 2013, 50 percent of the 1,715 authors having submitted to Atmospheric Environment chose to opt into the pilot.
Following our marketing campaign in March, the submitted articles page has remained at the top of the usage results for the journal homepage.
In response to a recent survey of authors using the RSS feed, we have added the corresponding author's email address to enable interested researchers to connect as easily as possible with each other.
Vote now and let us know if you would like to see this initiative rolled out to journals in your field!
This article was originally published in ElsevierConnect in October 2013.
Bethan Keall is Director of Earth and Energy Journals at Elsevier and Publisher of Atmospheric Environment. She is based in London.
Also contributing to this report were Sybrand Boer Iwema, Manager of Planning and Reporting for STM Journals, Amsterdam; Steve Haynes, Head of E-Marketing, STM Journals, Oxford; Annabelle Thomas, Journal Manager, Atmospheric Environment, Exeter; and Tobias Wesselius, Marketing Communications Manager, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Amsterdam.


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text:
Henri Matisse - The Snail 1953
The Snail 1953
286x287cm gouache/paper
From the Tate Gallery, London, UK:
After 1948 Matisse was prevented from painting by ill health but, although confined to bed, he produced a number of works known as gouaches découpées. These were made by cutting or tearing shapes from paper which had been painted with gouache. The shapes were placed and pasted down by an assistant working under Matisse's instruction. Some of the later ones, such as The Snail, were of very large dimensions. The technique, explored in his picture book Jazz (published 1947) and other works, opened up new possibilities for him. Matisse said of the technique that it 'allows me to draw in the colour. It is a simplification for me. Instead of drawing the outline and putting the colour inside it - the one modifying the other - I draw straight into the colour' (quoted in Amis de l'art, October 1951).
ArtsCash.com
Paul Gauguin - By the Sea. Fatata te Miti 1892 Like Parau na te Varua ino, Fatata te Miti was painted
during Gauguin's first trip to Tahiti. Its setting, in fact, is quite similar. The two paintings share brilliant pink
sands and vividly colored accents, the brilliant fringed blossoms of the phosphorescing hutu, and on the
left the same unusually shaped tree. These similarities point to Gauguin's use of "documents," the term
he used for sketches and working drawings that he would incorporate into many paintings and prints.
- art-Gauguin.com