Tag: Orwellian reminders

Sergei Savelyev: ‘I was always scared’: inmate who exposed systemic Russian prisoner abuse

The videos from the Russian prison hospital are almost too horrific to describe. In the worst, the victims are tied down while other inmates rape or penetrate them with metal objects, the screams and abuse recorded in bodycam footage that was later used as blackmail. Sergey Savelyev says he spent two of his years as an… Read More Sergei Savelyev: ‘I was always scared’: inmate who exposed systemic Russian prisoner abuse

Dilip

Mark Neocleous: Whatever happened to martial law? Detainees and the logic of emergency

‘Began teaching the detainee lessons such as stay, come, and bark to elevate his social status up to that of a dog. Detainee became very agitated’: Guantánamo guard diary entry, 20 December 2002 What is a detainee? The term has been given a new lease of life as a result of the authoritarianism that has… Read More Mark Neocleous: Whatever happened to martial law? Detainees and the logic of emergency

Dilip

Bhima Koregaon: Kin of jailed activists write to authorities to not discontinue telephone calls / How the ‘anda cell’ is used to discipline prison inmates

NB: After willfully neglecting Fr Stan Swamy‘s bail pleas and subjecting him to unusual punishment without trial, our criminal justice system literally presided over his death in custody. He was 84 years old, weak and ailing; and had suffered enormously in jail. After he died, spokesmen for the government repeated the allegations against him as… Read More Bhima Koregaon: Kin of jailed activists write to authorities to not discontinue telephone calls / How the ‘anda cell’ is used to discipline prison inmates

Dilip

N.S. Lyons: The Triumph and Terror of Wang Huning

NB: A very thought-provoking essay.    “The real cell of society in the United States is the individual…. the family, has disintegrated.’ (In the American system) “everything has a dual nature, and the glamour of high commodification abounds. Human flesh, sex, knowledge, politics, power, and law can all become the target of commodification (which) corrupts… Read More N.S. Lyons: The Triumph and Terror of Wang Huning

Dilip

A Grateful Nation watches a Roman circus

Bharat Bhushan on the birthday gala to refurbish ‘Brand Modi’   The birthday celebrations of Prime Minister Narendra Modi have metamorphosed into a three-week project of “Service and Dedication” from the single week of “Seva saptah” followed until last year. They will showcase a grateful nation thanking the prime minister for his service. The events projected as entirely… Read More A Grateful Nation watches a Roman circus

Dilip

Under Xi Jinping, the private life of Chinese citizens isn't so private anymore

Even for a powerful authoritarian state, the speed and extent to which the Communist Party is expanding its reach into private lives in China has caught many off guard. Since celebrating its centennial with great fanfare in July, the party has imposed a flurry of regulations telling Chinese people, especially the younger generation, how to… Read More Under Xi Jinping, the private life of Chinese citizens isn't so private anymore

Dilip

‘The US should be held accountable’: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure

“Tyrants in the Middle East, they took it as an example of the bad they can do. Now, in China with the Uyghurs, in Saudi Arabia and Yemen and Egypt, [they think they can] take people and just indefinitely detain, torture, kill and beat them simply by saying ‘they are extremists’. They say, if our boss [America] can do it,… Read More ‘The US should be held accountable’: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure

Dilip

Revolution turns sour: Nicaragua continues its brazen crackdown. By Tom Phillips

It has been a fortnight since Georgiana Aguirre-Sacasa last heard from her elderly father: a terse WhatsApp message in which Nicaragua’s former foreign minister said border guards had stopped him leaving the country and seized his passport, and that he was on his way home. “What??” she replied from her home in Denver, Colorado. “Why???”… Read More Revolution turns sour: Nicaragua continues its brazen crackdown. By Tom Phillips

Dilip

Siddhartha Deb: The unravelling of a conspiracy: were the 16 charged with plotting to kill India’s prime minister framed? / Sudhir Chandra: More than a Judicial Murder

In April 2018, a large group of policemen arrived at the Delhi flat of Rona Wilson, a 47-year-old human rights activist. They had travelled from Pune in the western state of Maharashtra, and appeared, accompanied by Delhi police officials, at Wilson’s single-room flat at 6am. For the next eight hours, they scoured the modest premises, searching the… Read More Siddhartha Deb: The unravelling of a conspiracy: were the 16 charged with plotting to kill India’s prime minister framed? / Sudhir Chandra: More than a Judicial Murder

Dilip

Apoorvanand; Gauhar Raza: The bully that is destroying India’s academic culture

The withdrawal of Dr Hari Singh Gour University in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, from an international seminar on “Cultural and Linguistic Hurdles in the Achievement of Scientific Temper” due to bullying by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the local police must not be treated lightly. The university had approved the topic, the collaboration and the speakers,… Read More Apoorvanand; Gauhar Raza: The bully that is destroying India’s academic culture

Dilip