Canon Collins Scholarships for Postgraduate Study in South Africa 2016

Application Deadline: is 15th August 2016 | Offered annually? Yes

Scholarship Name: Canon Collins Trust Scholarships for Masters Study in South Africa

Brief description

Canon Collins Trust invites applications from students from Southern Africa (Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe) for scholarships for Masters study in 2016/2017

Accepted Subject Areas: For the next the Trust will be offering scholarships only to those studying in three areas:

1. Justice, which includes Law, Economics, Politics and the Environment
2. Education: policy and practice
3. Humanities, which includes Literature, History, Anthropology and the Arts

Applications for courses that are not within these areas (for example MBAs, medical sciences, sports sciences, applied sciences) will be rejected.

About Scholarship

Canon Collins Trust Scholarships Programme aim to help build the human resources necessary for economic, social and cultural development in the southern African region and to develop an educated and skilled workforce that can benefit the wider community. Canon Collins Trust scholarship holders are thus expected to use the knowledge, training and skills acquired through their studies to contribute positively to the development of their home country.

Scholarships fall under several different schemes, with some administered in partnership with the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office and UK universities.

Over the past 30 years the Trust has supported over 3,000 inspirational individuals who are now making their contributions through governments, NGOs, business and universities.

Scholarship Offered Since: Not Specified

By what Criteria is Selection Made?

Applicants for all schemes within the 2016/17 UK Scholarship Programme will be assessed on the basis of the information that they supply on their application form in addition to the criteria outlined below:

• Demonstrable leadership qualities
• Demonstrated commitment
• Quality and relevance of work experience, including work reference, and other skills
• Financial Need and the potential to contribute to Southern Africa’s future prosperity
• Academic record and academic reference
• Relevance of proposed course
• Intended career path
• Likely future impact
• Completion of form:
  • Demonstrate a high standard of English with no spelling and language errors
  • Answer all of the questions fully and with attention to detail
  • Provide all the necessary documentation and supporting documents.

Who is qualified to apply?

To apply for a scholarship under this programme you must:

• Be a national of, or have refugee status, in one of the following countries: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
• Be normally resident in southern Africa
• Be in possession of a good first degree (minimum second class, upper division or equivalent) or about to graduate in the year of application
• be studying or applying to study at a South African university

Number of Scholarship: Approximately 20-30 awards

What are the benefits? In 2017 most awards will be valued at R65,000 for each year of study at Masters and PhD level. In exceptional cases we may offer up to R100,000 per year. We support both full and part-time study and will consider applications from those who wish to study by distance learning.

We also organise an annual conference for current scholars, and hold several smaller events throughout the year. Scholarship holders are expected to participate in these activities and to become part of and contribute to our network.

How long will sponsorship last?

All scholarships are for postgraduate masters taught study for one academic year.

Eligible African Countries

Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

How can I Apply?

Applicants can access the application forms and guidelines on the webpage.

Visit the Scholarship Webpage

Sponsors: Canon Collins Trust

Government of Estonia MA/PhD Scholarships for International Students 2016

Brief description: The Estonian Government through the Estonian Institute is offering international master’s students, doctoral students and post-doctorate researchers, scholarships to study at Estonian universities.

Application Deadline: 1st March and 1st October 2016

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: International

To be taken at (country): Estonia

Eligible Field of Study: Candidate’s course of choice

About the Award: The Estophilus Scholarship is offered to finance foreign citizens with foreign higher education master’s, doctorate and post-doctorate researchers in their studies and research.

Type: Postgraduate Taught

Eligibility: Scholarship applicants must submit the following documents in Estonian or English:

• The completed application form (please submit a hardcopy)
• Scholarship Recipients of the Estophilus web-application form
• The research plan

• Curriculum vitae

• Proof that the applicant is the MA / PhD student or doctorate document confirming the

• Estonian research and development institution for confirmation that they are ready to accept the candidate. The recipient must provide written confirmation to the English brief overview of the subject of study and justify the importance of research in Estonia.

• Postgraduate students a recommendation from their research supervisor

Selection Process: The scholarship is determined by the Estonian Language and Culture Programme of Academic Studies of the Council, involving experts when necessary.

Number of Awardees: Several

Value of Scholarship: The scholarship is intended for living expenses, tuition fees and research costs directly connected. The scholarship for a period is five months of 2500 EUR

Duration of Scholarship: The scholarship may be set at a time generally ranging from five to ten months, in exceptional cases, a shorter period.

How to Apply: Visit Scholarship Webpage to apply

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

Award Provider: Estonian Ministry of Education and administered by the Estonian Institute.

In the Time of Unsettled People: Europe’s Refugee Worries

Roland Hsu

We live in an age of unsettled people, displaced by natural resource deprivation, political conflict, poverty and persecution. Undocumented workers, youth and families from Eurasian republics and the greater Middle East are transiting Europe’s eastern borders, held in an expanding constellation of migrant and refugee camps. While media headlines focus on the large numbers of immigrants from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq who are crossing the Aegean, think of the longer-term flow across the Mediterranean, especially from ports in Libya, Tunisia, Mauritania, Algeria and Morocco.

Through European eyes, migration raises a fundamental question: is Europe a necessary force in today’s geopolitics? To the extent that they see Europe as a robust actor in Africa, EU foreign ministers view themselves in a long-term relationship with migration due to European engagement in African sending countries — especially in the Maghreb and sub-Saharan regions of Africa.

Europe — the EU in particular — in spite of its internal tension, continues to be intractably involved in the pressing challenge areas of regional conflict, deficits of democracy, and economic insecurity especially on the African continent. This engagement is making the EU a long-term destination for African migration.

We see a prime example of this engagement in the case of French forces in the Maghreb.  Back in 2012, French president François Hollande and then EU foreign minister Catherine Ashton announced Operation Serval (wild cat) to combat an Islamist insurgency in northern Mali. More recently, France has escalated its military campaign, with a forward operating base in northern Niger near the Libyan border. The expanded operation, dubbed Barkhane (sand dune), demonstrates a European — especially French — understanding that it has no choice but to commit troops on the ground in the region.

In late 2014 France deployed a new contingent of more than 1,000 soldiers to the Malian city of Gao and nearby areas, to reinforce control of the north of Mali that it had taken back from Islamist fighters in 2012-2013. In 2014 and 2015 French armed forces staged attacks in Niger, and along the Niger-Libya-Chad borders, on convoys of what are suspected to be Al-Qaida-backed fighters.

Such raids are the latest sign of the French commitment to invest significant resources and personnel to create a French military forward operating front in the Sahel.

These European supported strikes have resulted in the displacement of tens of thousands of refugees from Nigeria into Cameroon, Cameroonians into Chad, and refugees from all three affected countries north towards the Mediterranean — and human trafficking to Sicily and Lampedusa. If we trace the line of this northern refugee route, we travel from France’s Chadian airbase through the southern Libyan desert to Tripoli during the current period of a continuing political and security vacuum in Libya.

Democracy in the ‘neighborhood’

The question that provokes nervous debate among European policy leaders and analysts is the cost-benefit consequence of European security and economic engagement in African regional crises? Drawing on interviews with the EU foreign minister, we see three aims of a EU foreign policy in Africa. First, Europe assumes primary responsibility for bringing and safeguarding peace in what the EU Office of the High Representative calls Europe’s ‘neighbourhood’ referring to the greater Mediterranean basin. Second, EU foreign policy promotes what is termed ‘Deep Democracy’ in its African ‘neighbourhood’, including transparent judiciary and police, and representative governing institutions that promote the wellbeing and individual emancipation of citizens, and women’s and human rights. Third, in terms of putting troops in harm’s way, in the EU, the decision to commit troops and send them into combat remains the responsibility of the individual sovereign states, and of their democratically elected representatives who are ultimately responsible to their citizens.

In terms of the European missions to enforce deep democracy in Africa, we may ask how — if at all — European foreign policy includes plans for what comes after initial military operations. The evidence of the EU support for France’s sustained intervention in Mali indicates a European view of military engagement against jihadist forces in Mali as part of a larger regional preoccupation with the Sahel Arc. The EU has invested security and logistics resources as well as civil society resources to be the primary western influence in the Arab Spring movements. France, Italy and Spain have contributed the majority of the European resources to respond to the security, political, and civil crises in each country of this region, and to regulate the flow of displaced populations across borders.

European security missions, experiments in ‘deep democracy’, and assuming responsibility for its African ‘neighbourhood,’ indicate a particularly European perspective on the flow of refugees. The EU members states that are most engaged internationally see regional insecurity and deficits of democracy as the underlying causes that are uprooting peoples: and they see North and sub-Saharan African nations as the source and transit routes for the most significant and long-term flows of migration to Europe.

From East Africa, asylum applicants follow migration and human trafficking routes through Morocco to the Mediterranean; and those who set foot on Spanish, French and Italian soil survive without permission to work while the processing of their asylum status often takes longer than the period of their residency permits. Refugees from Gaza, Iraq, Iran, Syria (by 2015 up to four million), central and Southeast Asia (Afghanistan, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia), and the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa regions (Congo, South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Uganda, Chad), are fleeing military conflict, political persecution, and devastated health, housing and education infrastructure, and are overwhelming the capacity of European Mediterranean region holding camps. The scale of the humanitarian crisis, and the politics of pushback from European countries especially with Mediterranean borders are such that the European Commission has established its policy regime for surveillance (EUROSUR) of Europe’s southern maritime borders. Spain, France, Italy and Greece, on behalf of EU member states as far north as Sweden and Denmark as well as the UK and Balkan nations, have pressed North African governments to create holding camps along the southern Mediterranean coast.

Again looking at the world of refugees through European eyes, EU national migration boards set asylum quotas that should be understood as components of Europe’s response to the global refugee communities under UN authority. European asylum courts and arbiters face the pressure of UN global figures that currently list more than 65 million people forcibly displaced. Of these, more than 33 million are internally displaced within their country’s borders — and at risk of needing to flee and hence becoming refugees.  Nearly 17 million are ‘refugees of concern’ registered in UN refugee camps and urban settlements. More than four million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes to take shelter as refugees in countries that themselves are areas of close concern for EU peace-keeping and ‘deep democracy’ programmes; and more than five million Palestinian refugees are registered in 60 UN refugee camps with EU humanitarian and security support in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. We can anticipate much to study in the way Europe’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs responds to pressure to expand its engagement in regional conflict, and especially how it responds to the growing number of these refugees who are fleeing multiple times to new camps across second and third borders.

The ties that bind

Considering Europe’s expanding security and civil society missions in the Sahel, and France’s forward operating bases, we see the urgency of the refugee crisis. Within range of the French reconnaissance drones, there are more than 341,000 refugees within and immediately outside the border of South Sudan. In the East and Horn of Africa — including Kenya and Somalia — UNHCR figures list more than six million people of concern, including more than 4.8 million internally displaced and refugees. Will these populations exert pressure on the migration protocols of the EU and its member states?

In my latest book, Migration and Integration: New Models for Mobility and Coexistence (Vienna University Press, 2016), I put forth for EU policy implementation the insights from a working group of faculty from the social sciences and humanities, law, business and medicine, which I helped put into policy discussion with NGO, US State Department and UN officials. Our goal is to seek to better respond to the refugee experience in Europe and beyond. By the UN’s own analysis, two-thirds of refugees in Europe, or who are seeking to apply for asylum in Europe, live in ‘protracted refugee status’, that is, applying for asylum for five consecutive years or more.

Seen in this light, migration into Europe from the African continent will continue to impact industrial trade, and labour and welfare policy, as well as the debates on national identities, historical consciousness and collective memory. We will also have much material for the study of the history of case law and reforms of the courts, including national courts, and the European Court of Justice. European migrant integration projects (including resettlement, education and private cultural bridge initiatives) invite profound questioning of the roots of response to displaced peoples transiting and seeking resettlement in Europe.

Addressing the Needs of Children with Disabilities

Cesar Chelala

“When we got the diagnosis we felt like they had put a gun to our face,” a friend told me recently. His daughter had been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism characterized by behavioral problems, including difficulties with social interactions. My friend’s reaction to the diagnosis reminded me of similar responses from other parents whose children have some type of physical or mental disability.

Between 500 and 600 million people worldwide are living with a disability. According to statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 10% of children and youth in the world (about 200 million) have a disability.

Eighty percent live in developing countries, although the numbers vary widely across countries. Latin America and the Caribbean have approximately 50 million people with disabilities, 90% unemployed and 82% living in poverty.

Causes of Disability

There are many causes of disabilities in children. These include genetic factors, conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth, and conditions affecting newborns. In addition, there are those related to the different types of violence experienced by children, particularly in times of war.

In young children, the deficiency of certain minerals such as iodine affects their mental development and the same deficiency in the mother during pregnancy can result in varying degrees of intellectual disabilities in infants.

According to WHO, early detection and appropriate primary prevention measures can prevent about 70% of cases of childhood disability.

A wide range of toxins in the environment has a negative effect on the physical and mental development of children. It is the case of lead, pesticides and certain plastics.
Even children toys have been found to contain toxic elements. In a study carried out in six Eastern European and Asian countries researchers found toxic metals in 29 percent of the toys studied.

Children are more vulnerable than adults to the negative effects of environmental toxins. Because children have a higher metabolic rate and key organs are still developing rapidly during childhood and the kidney and liver are not fully developed, they cannot eliminate toxins as well as adult organs.

The United States produces approximately 100,000 synthetic chemicals. About 1,500 of them enter the market every year. In the United States, almost 17% of children (about one in six children) suffer from some form of disability.

Increasingly, the continuous exposure to environmental toxins is considered an important cause of disability. Developing countries also have these problems, because many toxic substances are less regulated than in industrialized countries. In addition, certain disabilities in children are the result of the mother’s exposure to toxic substances such as alcohol, nicotine and mercury during pregnancy.

Consequences of Malnutrition and Poverty

Malnutrition is a common cause of disability and is a direct result of poverty. This is one important reason to address poverty affecting large numbers of children. Malnourished children may develop learning disabilities; in addition, they may be blind or have hearing loss.

Poverty is both a cause and a consequence of disability. The costs of caring for disabled children are very high, particularly for mothers who are unable to work and contribute their income to the family.

Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate in Economics, wrote in the State of the World’s Children 2005 UNICEF, “What causes consternation in the case of child poverty is how little it would cost to do something about it.”

Disabilities in children often affect their educational possibilities. In some developing countries, up to ninety percent of children with disabilities do not attend school, limiting their chances for better education and future employment.

All these situations pose a number of challenges about how to better cope with disabilities in children. Disability experts have concluded that early intervention can demonstrably improve those affected with disabilities.

Many initiatives to address the basic needs of children with disabilities do not require a complicated infrastructure or big expenses. They can be carried out by taking advantage of community resources and existing infrastructure.

Community-Based Rehabilitation

A specific form of local support is programs designed and implemented by local communities. This concept was developed by the World Health Organization in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

It stresses the rehabilitation, equalization of opportunities, poverty reduction and social inclusion for all children and adults. All members of the community benefit and social and community leaders learn to work together.

Thankfully, the de-institutionalization of children with disabilities has become the norm. In order for it to be truly effective, it must be accompanied by the development of suitable community structures for the care and education of children with disabilities.

Inclusive Education for Children with Disabilities

Educational institutions should include children with disabilities in regular education programs and should eliminate their segregation. Inclusive education means responding to the needs of children with physical and mental disabilities.

The “New School” in Colombia or the Child Friendly Schools in Brazil are examples of inclusive educational approaches that expand the opportunities for a wide range of children.

Costa Rica has established a National Resource Center for Inclusive Education that supports schools with an inclusive approach towards children with disabilities while at the same time improving the quality of education for all students.

Government support is crucial for these types of programmatic efforts to be successful.
The Organization of American States, along with Microsoft and the Trust for the Americas Foundation, launched a program called POET to facilitate access to technology for people with disabilities in Colombia.

Effects of Disabilities on Families

It is extremely important to improve the situation not only for disabled children, but also to address the needs of the family environment. Siblings, for example, may resent the extra attention given to children with disabilities. For parents, it poses enormous physical and emotional demands for people already living in very stressful situations.

These considerations underscore the need for a holistic approach to children with disabilities. This involves developing national policies that promote opportunities for disabled children and properly allocating resources to meet their needs. In addition, it is important to develop actions to eliminate stigma, which is one of the most critical barriers to addressing the needs of these children.

Where possible, children with disabilities must participate in the planning of programs and projects that affect them. Nobody knows their needs better than they do.

Addressing the needs of children with disabilities is not only a duty that we as a society must embrace. It is also an expression of the compassion and intelligence with which we are able to help create a better society.

The Violence of Predictable Responses

Richard Jermain

Only a few days after a mass murder (erroneously) coined as the “largest in US history,” Jo Cox, a Labour Party member of British parliament was assassinated. Both of these events have been interrogated in the media along similar lines: ideological motives, connections to international radical groups, and the mental instability of the killers. Not surprisingly, only in the case of Omar Mateen, the Orlando shooter, was the racially codified term and Trojan horse for post-9/11 paranoia “terrorism” applied. It seems political assassination is not extreme enough to merit the designation when a white person is the perpetrator.

These events are not just linked in time; they illuminate the stakes of our increasingly xenophobic political rhetoric. Donald Trump quickly used the Orlando attack as an ad hoc justification of his Islamophobic, anti-immigrant discourse. On the day of Jo Cox’s assassination, Nigel Farage, the leader of United Kingdom Independence Party (or Ukip, a far-right nationalist party) unveiled a poster that depicts a massive line of – mostly non-white – immigrants that reads “BREAKING POINT. The EU has failed us all. We must break free of the EU and take back control.” The all too explicit appeal made in both cases is: “You know what is wrong with the country. It is immigrants!”

The sick irony is that nationalists who take violent attacks as justification of their fear of others do not instead see their rhetoric as a self-fulfilling prophesy (that is to say if they are not simply too complaisant to see its effects). Regarding the hypocrisy of the far-right, Alex Massie recently wrote in a Spectator blog post:

“When you encourage rage you cannot then feign surprise when people become enraged…When You shout BREAKING POINT over and over again, you don’t get to be surprised when someone breaks. When you present politics as a matter of life and death, as a question of national survival, don’t be surprised if someone takes your word. You didn’t make them do it, no, but you didn’t do much to stop it either.”

Language no doubt influences behavior but it is important to remember that you cannot simply persuade something into existence. No rhetoric, no matter how seductive, is potent in itself unless it connects to real needs, and all the better if the satisfaction of these needs appears unachievable in the prevailing system. The effect of years of austerity and economic recession has no doubt contributed to the housing price inflation in London. Over £170bn of UK property (mostly in London) held overseas, as revealed in the Panama Papers, undoubtedly has too. Ukip did not create the current crisis, they merely devised an ideological scapegoat. For the myriad of invading forces of global capital they substituted the fictional cause of invading immigrants.

The trouble with anti-immigrant racism is not just its contribution to violence but the way it ideologically masks the underlying economic forces that drive competition and enmity. However, it is just as problematic for the left to stay at a superficial level of critique and feel that their duty to the victims of these horrific acts is fulfilled by merely calling out racist discourse.

The headline of Glenn Greenwald’s response in The Intercept represents such a knee-jerk reaction of the left: “Why is the Killer of British MP Jo Cox not being called a terrorist?” He contrasts the media’s treatment of the killer, Thomas Mair, to a nearly identical case in 2010 when a Muslim woman nearly fatally stabbed British MP Stephen Timms for his vote in support of the Iraq War. In the latter case, the attacker was immediately described as a ‘terrorist’ in Guardian and Sun headlines. He also compares the case to Mateen, who — like Mair — suffered from mental illness but was immediately labeled a ‘terrorist’ nonetheless. “Does anyone have any doubt at all,” Greenwald asks, “that if Cox’s suspected killer had been Muslim, yelling ‘Allah Akbar’ instead of ‘Britain First,’ then every media outlet on the planet would be describing him forever as a ‘terrorist’? The fact that they are not doing so [with Mair] sheds great light into what this world really is.” All of this is of course accurate, as long as we add the objection that the light on this issue is really not so dim in the first place. Denouncing an attacker as a ‘terrorist’ has a definite political context. For instance backlash of a lone, mentally ill terrorist shouting ‘Britain First’ (aligning them with a clearly racist far-right party) does not include state surveillance of white civilians who have no connection to the killer. On the other hand, a lone attacker yelling ‘Allah Akbar’ consistently invites surveillance of mosques and Muslim communities.

Of course, promoting a critical attitude towards media is important, but without also addressing the concrete forces that make those discourses powerful, criticism reduces to a form of relativism, where simply the most honest (seeming) person is good enough. Is this not, in fact, exactly what Trump appeals to? (Incidentally, Trumps invective tweets about the Orlando attack are intermixed with comments about the dishonesty of the media calling him out for his use of language.) The far-right responses to violence are predictable, but we should not get caught up in drawing predictable conclusions on the terms they set. We should not, simply satisfied with shooting down easy targets, forget that we must also struggle to address the more concrete problems – a struggle the anti-immigrant right is winning. The only way for the left to advance is to break out of the closed rhetorical loop determined by neoliberalism, and this involves no less than a reexamination of some of our basic assumptions of political correctness.

For instance, Slavoj Zizek argued in a recent talk at the Left Forum that in certain cases the politically correct defense of immigrants and refugees produces an unintentional effect of patronizing racism. Zizek claims that, in ignoring or arguing against far-right criticism that there are terrorists and rapists among refugees and immigrants we unwittingly participate in an idea that these groups are like children who need liberal apologists to relieve them of responsibility of such acts. The error of assuming such a position, he argues, is that while maintaining the appearance of empathy, refusal to morally condemn these cases of violence accepts the premise of conservative rhetoric:

“Even if most of our prejudices about them were proven to be true – they are hidden fundamentalist terrorists; they rape and steal – the paranoid talk about the immigrant threat is still an ideological pathology. It tells more about us, Europeans, than about immigrants. The true question is not ‘are immigrants a real threat to Europe?’, but ‘what does this obsession with the immigrant threat tell us about the weakness of Europe?’”

If one wants to prove that not all refugees and immigrants are terrorists – and of course they are not – this is a simple, empirical matter. Rather than feel a need to leap to the defense of so-called ‘Islamic terrorists,’ we must insist that not only would this not legitimize anti-immigrant racism, but we must also treat the notion that this is representative of immigrants and refugees as an obscenity over which there should be no need for public debate. Then we can begin the real work of examining why both sides are obsessed with the problem of mass immigration, and what it tells us about the future of globalized neoliberal capital.

The Takeover of Puerto Rico

JOSÉ L. FLORES

The Island of Puerto Rico is currently in the midst of an economic crisis. It has been reported that Puerto Rico’s government owes over 70 billion dollars in debt, mostly to investors holding state issued bonds, living in the continental United States. Unable to repay such a huge sum of debt Puerto Rico has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court attempting to restructure its financial obligations.  This appeal was quickly denied, thereby provoking the U.S. Congress to step in and attempt to resolve this dilemma.

It was the House Natural Resources Committee, which passed a bipartisan bill resulting in a complete takeover of Puerto Rico’s economy. The bill calls for an oversight-committee of seven people to manage the entire financial economy of the island. Only one of the seven is required to be a resident of Puerto Rico. Four of the remaining six will be chosen directly by the Republican congress. The other three can be selected by President Obama; however, his choice will be from a list provided by the House Republicans. Aside from thiseconomic-junta, further austerity measures are required in the proposal. Undoubtingly, austerity in the face of the current Puerto Rican depression will further disparage the working class and poor of the island.

A possible and reasonable response to this news could be; what is the current territorial/state status of Puerto Rico? The United States often refer to the island as a “commonwealth.” Which brings up another interesting question; what does it mean to be a commonwealth? This legal term derives from English common-law, referring to an independent state, which maintains its sovereignty within an association of similar sovereign states. This definition certainly does not apply to Puerto Rico. Seven people making decision for 3.5 million is appalling. The fact that they are unelected and mostly appointed by a foreign body is infuriating. Certainly, this situation does not constitute a free and equal state in a community of free and equal states. This situation constitutes imperialism, which makes Puerto Rico a formal colony in a frightful empire. With that said, perhaps the relationship between the U.S. and Puerto Rico should be reconsidered prior to settling the debt issue.

In the late 19th century a war was concocted by the murderers in the U.S. War Department, in order to conquer the remaining Spanish Colonies in America and Asia. Immediately following the Spanish American War Puerto Rico found itself under direct U.S. Military rule. At the turn of last century is was the Foraker Act, passed by the U.S. Congress, which ended the military rule. The Foraker Act allowed for the U.S. President to appoint a governor for the Island and appoint an eleven-member executive council, in congruence with Congress. Only five of these members were required to be of Puerto Rican heritage. Sound familiar? However, there are some noticeable differences with the Foraker Act. First the Foraker Act allowed for more Puerto Rican representation. The second difference, in the 19th century United States citizens didn’t shy away from the term imperialism and very often embraced the term. It was the polemics of Mark Twain that begun to change the idiom and vernacular, with respect to opinions on imperialism in the United States. Today the term imperialism is thankfully a bad word, but in Puerto Rico it has led to the disingenuous euphemism “commonwealth.”

Anyone who has taken a single course in political science knows Harold Lasswell’s definition of politics, “who gets what, when and how.” Puerto Rico is being stripped of those political decisions by the proposed economic-junta. What are the Puerto Rican legislature and the governor’s responsibilities, if they are stripped of the most important obligations of a state? Puerto Rico does not have a voice in voting for President of the United States, they do not have a single Senator in Washington and they do not have a Congressman in U.S. House of Representatives. The only representative in Washington is a figurehead Resident Commissioner who cannot vote on bills. As a matter of fact, he cannot even vote on bills that he himself proposes. Now with the economic take-over Puerto Rico doesn’t even have a say in managing its own economic affairs.

As stated before the oversight-committee (economic-junta) is obviously formal colonialism. However, the more insidious 21st century style imperialism, which is economic and political manipulation, has been taking place on the Island for decades as well. For example, when the U.S. wants to control a Latin American country they pass so called “trade deals,” in collusion with the elites of that particular country. If they do not like leaders in Haiti, Honduras, Chile, Venezuela or Brazil the U.S. stages a coup, finances opposition groups and foments protests. If the U.S. wants to maintain military dominance in the hemisphere or maintain agricultural dominance over Mexico and Columbia, the U.S. simply declares a “War on Drugs.” How does Puerto Rico fall into this 21st century empire? The municipal bonds issued by Puerto Rico were triple tax exempt, making them attractive to wealthy non-Puerto Ricans. The money Puerto Rico was borrowing, in the form of bonds, was being used to fund the government. As a results the Puerto Rican government was spending more than it was taking in, which is the whole premise of state issued bonds. Municipal bonds are predicated on people lending money to the government with the expectation of being paid interest at a future date.   It was Puerto Rican Senator Angel Rosa who stated that the Puerto Rican government should just negotiate the pay-back terms directly with investors. Rosa’s proposal makes perfect sense, especially when considering a long term investment like that of municipal bonds. It is apparent that investors became nervous and wanted to profit big before any other credit downgrades occurred, as the President of the Senate Eduardo Bhatia suggested. A much bigger critic, House Minority Whip Jennifer Gonzalez noticed that this forged crisis is just a form of propaganda to pass draconian laws.

Propaganda or not, since the U.S. government is a country of the rich, by the rich and for the rich, the pretense for economic crises was accepted and an economic-junta will be quickly installed. The control of a country’s economy by debt is one of the insidious ways the U.S. maintains its empire. A clear example of this is Argentina’s debt crises, which the Argentine government has been fighting for almost two decades. However, there is one major difference between Argentina and Puerto Rico when considering the debt crisis. Argentina is a country and can appeal to the International Court of Justice claiming that the United States was violating its sovereign immunity. They had a President, Ms. Fernandez de Kirchner who stated that she would not let Argentina become a victim of extortion. Ms. Fernandez decided to default rather than repay the debt on the ridiculous terms of bankstersin New York. Puerto Rico’s colonial status prevents it from Argentina’s legal and executive discourse.

It wasn’t long ago that California was in a huge debt crises and the city of Detroit found itself in bankruptcy. However, they didn’t have to submit to an economic-junta. This is for one simple facts California and Michigan are sovereign states, in an association with other sovereign states. They have Congressional representation and governors who yield actual power. Most importantly if the Californian or the Michigan economies got really bad the federal government would bail them out. No one is even proposing a bailout of Puerto Rico, the so called commonwealth.

Some say Puerto Rico was reckless and must suffer the consequence. However, Puerto Rico has been in a depression for 11 years and they currently raised their sales tax to from 7 to 11 percent, with no plans of implementing programs for the poor and middleclass. In fact, Puerto Rico has been implementing austerity for over a decade at the direction of Washington. When Franklin Roosevelt was president, in the height of the depression, income taxes on the top rate were around 95 percent and the New Deal was simultaneously being implemented. At the start of FDRs presidency there was about 22 billion dollars in debt and when he left there was almost 300 billion in debt. Does anyone doubt that the progress of the 1950s was owed to the most progressive president in U.S. history? Does anyone call FDR reckless? Puerto Rico is cutting services and slightly rising taxes, which is not reckless at all by neo-liberal standards.

It is sad for one to say but Puerto Rico is not a commonwealth, it is not a state or a nation, it is a colony. As a colony they cannot fight against extortion like that of Argentina, they cannot maintain their dignity and manage internal affairs like that of California and they cannot pull out of their depression in the fashion of FDR. Puerto Rico should use this debt crisis as an opportunity to become an independent sovereign nation. Some say that Puerto Rico likes their status and repeatedly votes to remain a colony. However, like a battered wife Puerto Rico must leave this relationship. There are no hopes of this relationship getting better, the United States will continue to abuse the island economically and always promise for better days. The Island will need the help and solidarity of the international community. It will also need all of the curiosity and comradery of those of us that consider ourselves international citizens.  This decision will not be an easy one and at some point there may even be an impulse to go back to the master, which must be ignored. Nothing is more liberating then when someone stands on their own feet after an abusive relationship.

One mustn’t forget the murder of Filiberto Ojeda Rios and numerous other martyrs, the forced sterilizations of Puerto Rican women, the conscription of Puerto Rican men to fight imperialist wars of hate. One must never forget the destruction of Puerto Rican agriculture, the poisoning of the environment by the pharmaceutical companies and the cancer epidemic spread in Vieques by the U.S. Navy. The innumerable laundry list of U.S. crimes against humanity on the island cannot be listed in this article, as it would take years of research and thousands of pages. Additionally, there can be no making right the millions of wrongs, therefore it seems like the right time to sever this unequal relationship and become the Republic of Puerto Rico. It has been proven in history that Puerto Rico is powerful not weak consider all of the revolutionaries, martyrs and free thinkers the island produces. The revolutionary spirit of the Grito de Lares must persist in these tumultuous times.

Nochixtlán massacre witnesses: Mexican police fired automatic weapons at demonstrators

Neil Hardt

Blockades and protests continued in the Mexican state of Oaxaca yesterday, following Sunday’s police massacre of striking teachers and their supporters in the village of Nochixtlán. In Mexico City, students at the country’s largest college—the National Autonomous University of Mexico—announced a student strike in support of teachers and in opposition to state violence. Demonstrations of hundreds of teachers took place across the country, including in Acapulco, Chiapas, Morelos, Hidalgo, Monterrey, Merida, Veracruz, and Baja California Sur.

Family members of those killed on Sunday held funerals Monday, which drew angry crowds in thousands. Those who were killed were all young, ranging from 19 to 33 years old.

The death toll rose to 11 after three more demonstrators died from gunshot wounds in local hospitals. Only one of those killed was a teacher, the rest were parents, peasants, students and others who joined “the fight in defense of education,” according to the National Education Workers Organization (CNTE).

Eyewitnesses in Nochixtlán are testifying as to what happened on Sunday and are exposing the government’s justifications for the massacre as lies. Yesterday, police officials repeated the charge that demonstrators were to blame for sparking the provocation when nearly 1,000 police descended on a road leading into the town that teachers had blockaded for eight days. Oaxacan governor Gabino Cue alleged that protesters fired on police after taking five policemen prisoner.

Santiago Bautista, a teacher who was present at the demonstration, told Regeneracion news that at roughly 7:30 in the morning the police “all got out of buses, they started to walk toward us and about 70 meters from the bridge they started to shoot, to throw teargas bombs. They didn’t warn us or give any ultimatum, nothing. They came very aggressively.”

After the initial attack, teachers appealed to workers in the impoverished town, many of whom rushed to join the protest upon learning of the police presence. Teachers assert that roughly 5,000 people were gathered near the road when the attack began. Elite police units then began appearing, dressed in camouflage.

“Reinforcements came and a helicopter appeared, flying very low,” Bautista explained. “This was between 10:30 and 11:00 in the morning. Even then we continued to retreat when this group started to shoot…they began to open automatic gun fire directly against us.”

Reports from Nochixtlán also show that the police swept through the town, dragging townspeople away, seemingly at random. According to town residents who issued documentary proof, police broke up a funeral that was unrelated to the demonstrations. Police burst in at roughly 8:30 a.m. yelling “hands on the back of your necks!” The detained were then thrown in a pile in the back of a truck and taken away.

The small town of 13,000 is currently under military rule. The headquarters of the municipal government was burned by angry residents, who also draped a banner over the town’s only ATM machine that reads: “Assassins. Peña Nieto—Gabino Cue—Daniel Cuevas,” referencing the president, the governor of Oaxaca, and the town’s mayor. The banner also reads: “The people of Nochixtlán demand justice. Punish those responsible.”

Fearing the possibility of widespread demonstrations, the administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto announced it would meet leaders of the National Education Workers Organization (CNTE) on Wednesday in Mexico City. The secretary of public education, Aurelio Nuno Mayer, made clear that the government would not negotiate the terms of the right-wing education reform program against which teachers are striking. Wednesday’s meeting will be for the purpose of bringing “peace and tranquility to Oaxaca” through “political dialogue where we will not discuss themes relating to education.”

Nuno added immediately afterwards that this is “a moment of openings for compromise and tolerance. This is the moment, particularly in Oaxaca, for all of us to play our part to put an end to the violence.”

The education secretary’s comments come after the government ordered its police to fire automatic weapons into a crowd of demonstrators who gathered to oppose his attempts to privatize education on behalf of Wall Street and the Mexican capitalist class. The Mexican ruling class’s method for establishing “peace and tranquility” in order to ram through its regressive program is demonstrated in places like Nochixtlán and Ayotzinapa, where 43 disappeared student teachers were likely tortured and murdered for protesting against similar education reform measures.

The US corporate press has largely buried reports of the massacre, and for good reason. The bloodbath in Nochixtlán constitutes a damning indictment of the role played by the United States in Mexico and the impact of the diktats of US banks and corporations.

Speaking in the Oval Office after meeting with Peña Nieto in 2015, President Obama said, “I’ve congratulated President Peña Nieto on some of his structural reforms that I think will unleash even further the enormous potential of the Mexican economy.” In 2014, Obama praised Mexico’s “shared commitment to democratic values and human rights.”

In the case of the Nochixtlán massacre, neither the silence of the US press nor the lies of the Mexican government can quell the growth of the class struggle and the massive popular hostility to the blood-soaked regime of Peña Nieto and the capitalist system that it defends.

New Zealand: Family denounces “cold-blooded execution” by police

Chris Ross

On June 10, New Zealand police officers shot and killed Mike Taylor, 57, on a driveway at his home in Karangahake Gorge, near Paeroa, a town of about 3,900 residents.

The killing is the latest in a series of incidents involving the use of fatal force by police, amid the growing social tensions being generated by the country’s worsening economic crisis. Thirty-one people have been fatally shot by police since 1941, including three last year. In every case so far, the officers involved have not been charged.

Taylor’s partner Natalie Avery said they had had an argument in which Taylor threw a hot cup of coffee at her and she “called police, but I wish I hadn’t.” She told Fairfax Media that Taylor threw a machete and sickle at the police car when it arrived. He then turned his back, put his hands in the air as instructed by police and began to kneel.

Avery claims that while preparing to surrender to police, Taylor was shot “through the heart from behind” in front of her and her 14-year-old daughter Amy. Taylor’s stepson Carlin, 21, was indoors showering. Avery has called for an independent inquiry into what the family calls a “cold-blooded execution.”

Carlin had heard “about five or six shots. I looked outside and saw a cop aiming a rifle. It was an execution.” Amy told the media, “They didn’t even need to taser him—he’d surrendered. He had his hands in the air.”

Waikato Police District Commander Bruce Bird immediately dismissed the family’s account of what happened, telling a press conference that officers “were attacked” by Taylor, who had got “very close.” Bird claimed that the officers, who were not injured, “made the right decision.” He told NewstalkZB that a post mortem on June 11 showed that Taylor was shot as he approached police and not in the back.

The Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) announced it would investigate the shooting. The IPCA only has the power to gather evidence and make recommendations for disciplinary action, not to prosecute police officers, and it has a long record of siding with the police.

Police Association president Greg O’Connor said he was “fully supporting the officers involved in [the] fatal shooting in Paeroa.”

O’Connor, who has repeatedly demanded that police carry guns, asserted that “no one should criticise the judgment” of officers who decide it is necessary to kill. He told NewstalkZB that criticism of shootings was an “unreasonable response” and the public should “accept that police officers... will more and more be having to make these decisions.”

The killing of Taylor follows the shooting last year of David Cerven, a 21-year-old Slovakian national, in Myers Park, Auckland. Police announced in March they would not lay charges against two officers who killed Cerven, an apparently suicidal man who was unarmed.

Last September, police shot and killed 25-year-old Pera Smiler on a street in central Upper Hutt. Witnesses described the shooting as unnecessary. Smiler was armed with a rifle but evidently in a distressed and suicidal state.

As in the United States, where two people are killed by police every day, New Zealand police are being increasingly heavily armed. In 2008 the Labour Party government began arming police with Tasers. Last year Police Commissioner Mike Bush announced that all officers would have access to these extremely painful and dangerous 50,000-volt weapons. Following a decision in 2011, all police vehicles now carry pistols and rifles.

The victims of police violence are typically poor, working class, and often mentally ill.

Avery and Taylor reportedly had no electricity at their property, where they raised horses and cattle. Taylor had been in prison when younger and had had numerous encounters with police. He was involved in a lengthy conflict with the Hauraki District Council over his attempt to block access to a public bicycle trail running through his property.

The Waikato region, including Paeroa, has been hit hard by New Zealand’s economic crisis and there is widespread social distress. In 2012 there were reports of children in the region stealing in order to feed and clothe themselves. In 2013, Paeroa’s official unemployment rate was 12.8 percent (more than double the national rate), and the median annual income was just $19,800 (about $10,000 less than the minimum wage for a full-time worker).

The miserable social conditions in Paeroa have fuelled the growth of criminal gangs, with frequent reports of large-scale “drug bust” operations by police. The town is heavily policed and for several years there has been a night-time curfew for teenagers.

In Waihi, not far from Paeroa, life is just as hard. There have been at least 70 job cuts at the town’s Newmont gold mine since 2012. Over the same period, the Waikato region’s Huntly East coal mine, run by the state-owned Solid Energy, has cut its workforce from 193 to 68 as well as eliminating dozens of contractors.

Chief Coroner Deborah Marshall reported last year that Waikato had the fifth highest suicide rate in the country, with 49 people taking their own lives in 2014–2015 and overall 354 since 2007. Last year a record 564 people took their own lives in New Zealand, according to official statistics.

In rural areas, suicides are often attributed to plummeting prices for dairy products, due to the global downturn. The government has done nothing to protect farmers, who are suffering from soaring levels of debt.

The tragic death of Mike Taylor, and the defence of the shooting by the police hierarchy, must be taken as a warning. The government’s response to the worsening social crisis produced by its policies is to boost the prison system and give the police more weapons and powers. These are the methods that will be used in the future to intimidate and suppress the opposition and resistance of workers to the continual attacks on their living standards.

Deadly heatwave hits US Southwest

Genevieve Leigh

The first official day of summer in the Northern hemisphere brought record temperatures to many parts of the southwestern United States as a massive heat wave settled over the region on Saturday.

The National Weather Service has issued excessive heat warnings and heat advisories across Nevada, Utah, Arizona and southern California, affecting over 40 million people. The extreme temperatures have also played a role in ongoing wildfires throughout the region. Additional wildfires broke out near Los Angeles on Monday and Tuesday, causing emergency evacuations of over 1,000 additional LA residents.

At least 17 records were shattered on Sunday, as temperatures reached 120 degrees Fahrenheit in Yuma, Arizona; 118 degrees in Phoenix, Arizona; and 109 degrees in Burbank, California. However, most places reached their peak temperatures on Monday, when many records were also broken: 121 degrees in Palm Springs, California; 112 degrees in Lancaster, California; and 131 degrees in Death Valley, California.

Reports of fatalities from heat related emergencies in Arizona have begun to surface, with five separate deaths over the weekend, including two people hiking in Pima County, along with a 28-year-old female trainer and a 25-year-old male hiking in Pinal County.

There are undoubtedly more unreported deaths among more vulnerable sections of the population such as the homeless, who have limited resources for staying hydrated and out of the sun during the day. A spokesman for Central Arizona Shelter Services (CASS) reported that “in Maricopa County [where Phoenix, the state’s largest city, is located], the homeless population is 10 times more likely to die from a heat-related illness than the population at large.” CASS also reported there were lines out the door of people waiting to find relief within the air-conditioned walls of their building.

Los Angeles County has over 46,000 homeless people, second only to New York City. Many cities have opened “cooling centers” for the public, but these facilities are not equipped to hold or provide for all those who are in threatening situations, particularly as power outages continue to spread.

Late Sunday and into Monday, thousands of homes were without power, many of which still remain disconnected. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power alone reported 6,200 customers without electricity as of 9:30 pm Monday night.

The strain on the power grid, due largely to near-record levels of demand by residents seeking to stay cool, was anticipated due to a recent historic natural gas leak that has limited supplies of the fuel used in many power plants. The effects of that man-made disaster, caused by dilapidated infrastructure and inadequate maintenance and inspection, are now producing potentially deadly consequences for thousands of people who are struggling to stay cool without electricity through the triple-digit temperatures.

The response by the state governments to the extreme weather is characterized by unpreparedness and a lack of funding, with no signs of improvement. The recent budget proposal passed by the state legislature in California offers no increase to emergency services despite the current crises.

The extreme temperatures in the Southwest are the result of a meteorological phenomenon referred to as a “heat dome.” This phenomenon occurs when a high-pressure system is formed in the upper atmosphere, forcing hot air back down. These heat domes are frequently deadly. In August 2015, a heat dome resulted in temperatures of up to 165 degrees Fahrenheit in parts of the Middle East, killing dozens and sparking protests.

Many experts are saying that the current heat wave is being exacerbated by the ongoing effects of climate change. According to National Climatic Data Center meteorologist Jake Crouch, heat domes “are expected to happen more often in the future.” He added that the increase in global temperatures due to man-made global warming is the leading contributing factor.

Deaths due to extreme weather are increasingly common in the United States due to decaying infrastructure, the growth of poverty and the ongoing effects of climate change. Last year, according to statistics compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service, 522 people were killed and 2,143 injured as a result of extreme weather events, which collectively caused more than $4.8 billion in property damage.