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Calling President Biden a Cold War “warrior,” Chinese IR experts, by citing Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last August and the recent US decision to impose new export controls aimed at crippling China’s ability to procure or manufacture advanced semiconductors are claiming that the US is preparing to wage a war on China. With the first anniversary of Europe’s first war since WWII approaching, the US-NATO have extended their unconditional support to Ukraine aimed at prolonging the proxy war against Moscow. And now, the US has opened a new front in its vilification campaign against Iran, by accusing Tehran of becoming an accomplice of Russian “aggression” and “genocide” in Ukraine.
These are dangerous times in US-China relations. Since taking the oath, President Biden has been firmly holding on to the idea of not letting “China surpass the US” as the global leader. China, as Xi Jinping has repeatedly reiterated, in reaction to President Biden relentlessly playing the provocative Taiwan card, is singularly focused on realizing the “China Dream” of reunification with Taiwan. At the same time, Washington’s concerns are only rising as China is doggedly pursuing its goal to wrest global economic, if not military, leadership from the US. Additionally, since winning a third 5-year term, President Xi is advocating an ultra-nationalist party line of leading his country to take up its “due place in the world.”
At another level, the idea that the US is gearing up for a multi-front war against Russia, China, and Iran, is becoming (unbelievingly) acceptable and (disturbingly) normal in the mainstream military and political discourse in the US and in the West. Not long ago, while admitting that sooner than later we will likely see the world convulsed by war from Europe to the Pacific, an op-ed in Bloomberg observed, “the idea isn’t as absurd as you may think.” Expounding on the reason, the write-up further claimed, “Not in decades has the US faced such prospects of near-term military confrontation in several separate theatres.”
Last February, just a week before Russia launched the war on Ukraine, Foreign Policy, an American news publication that was founded over half a century ago to give voice to alternative views about the US foreign policy during the Vietnam War, published an article by Mathew Kroenig, an influential IR professor, appealing to Washington to prepare for war with both Russia and China. “The United States remains the world’s leading power with global interests, Washington and its allies should develop a defense strategy capable of deterring, and if necessary, defeating Russia and China at the same time,” Kroenig wrote.
Furthermore, the visit to Taiwan by the third top leader in the US political hierarchy last August was the first by such a high-ranking US official since 1979 – the year Washington established normal diplomatic relations with China on the written commitment that “one China policy” was the foundational principle for Washington-Beijing bilateral ties. The visit was also the first violation of the “one China policy” principle by such a high-level US official in 43 years. And, the visit no doubt had brought the world on edge and pushed the US and China on the verge of a catastrophic war. Just before her visit, the vibrant Chinese social media was abuzz with questions such as why the US Speaker’s Taiwan visit was drawing more international media attention than the raging US-NATO proxy war against Russia in Europe.
Not surprisingly, the White House had disdainfully dismissed repeated warnings issued by Beijing that the Pelosi visit will be viewed in China as tantamount to the US effectively recognizing Taiwan’s independence, meaning crossing China’s core “redline.” In what is described as an absurd claim, White House spokesperson John Kirby said the trip changed “nothing” about US relations with China. However, Elbridge Colby, who served in the US Department of Defense under Trump and was the principal author of the 2018 National Defense Strategy, the document which laid out the geopolitical motivation for going to war with China, said in a Tweet on the day Pelosi flew into Taipei that a conflict with China “makes sense for Americans’ concrete economic interests.”
True, President Biden took the US out of Afghanistan and put an end to the desultory “forever war.” But viewed in the context of the post-WW2 history of US militarism, many dismiss it as an aberration. Last fall, an influential Washington think tank observed, “having dumped one small war, good Ol’ Uncle Joe appears ready to start three big ones.” Currently, the US-NATO war against Russia is raging on; [the US] war against Iran is now imminent with Tehran claiming it is technically ready to make n-bomb; and, Nancy Pelosi just disappointed the Blob – as the foreign policy establishment in the US is called, by failing to “bait” Beijing into using force against Taiwan.
Let us face the truth. Following the US war on terror strategy since “9.11,” no US president has succeeded in reducing military expenditure. What is also true is no US presidential candidate won the election on the promise that s/he would cut defense spending. Why is that so? “Objectively,” in the words of an analyst, “[Post-‘9.11’] there was a ruling class consensus that increased spending on military and militarism was going to be a central component of US global policies going forward.” Some say, however, that the win of Donald Trump in November 2016 was an exception. Though candidate Trump promised his supporters that he would end the US’s “endless wars” if elected. But when he exited the White House after four years, the US defense budget he submitted for approval in Congress was the highest post-war military budget at $740.5 billion.
John Menadue, the former Australian ambassador to Japan, recently observed that the United States is “our most dangerous ally.” Typically, the US corporate media neither sought an explanation nor asked the ruling establishment why the House Speaker was dispatched to Taipei. As it were, spurred on by Moscow’s “stunning” performance in the Ukraine war, the Pentagon strategy is to somehow goad Beijing into using force against Taiwan. This will enable Biden to realize his two-front war strategy. Add to this a war on cards against Iran and you get a perfect recipe to fulfill the US ruling establishment’s penchant for military activism. American war historian Andrew J. Bacevich reminds us in his recent essay: “Republicans and Democrats disagree today on many issues, but they are united in their resolve that the United States must remain the world’s greatest military power.”
It is pertinent to recall a recent article in the Washington-based news magazine The Hill, invoking what Halford John Mackinder had warned the West a century ago. By emphasizing the importance of the Holy Land to Great Britain for the control of the Suez Canal, Mackinder is believed to have written: “Building railways across Siberia could allow a land power, alone or in alliance, to mobilize resources across Eurasia and challenge the hegemony of maritime power.” In their self-proclaimed role of the savior of the West, the two authors of the above-mentioned article warned: “Two world wars and the Cold War were waged to keep the powers that threatened to dominate what Mackinder termed ‘the Heartland’ from dominating the nation-states of the Eurasian littoral.”
Finally, it is important to remember neither the communist party-ruled China overnight turned into a challenger to the US-led international order nor did Russia nor Iran suddenly become pariah states. In the National Security Strategy 2022 document, the US declared both Russia and China as serious threats to the United States. A similar claim was made in the NSS October 2017 paper which too declared China as a hostile existential threat and a China-Russia-Iran alliance as a geopolitical threat to American interests. Today, Biden is far more determined and committed than all his twenty-first-century predecessors to restore and revive the US primacy. Citing Biden adviser Charles Kupchan’s latest book, Isolationism, which calls for the US to continue to seek primacy in order to reclaim its “exceptionalist mantle,” a security affairs analyst recently observed: “Failure to acknowledge that the world will no longer tolerate one single superpower has led the United States to impose a warlike situation.”
Corruption Kills: Chronicles of a chain tragedies foretold in Mexico
Hemant Adlakha is professor of Chinese, Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. He is also vice chairperson and an Honorary Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS), Delhi.
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Last Saturday 7th of January, two of Mexico City’s underground trains collided between two stations killing one person so far, and injuring at least 59 others. Mexico City’s underground system is among the world’s largest metro networks. It covers 226.5 kms of track, and has 195 stations. It serves an average of 4.6 million people every day.
Unfortunately this has not been the only tragic incident in the past years. In May 2021, an elevated section of the Line 12, dubbed as the Golden Line in 2012, collapsed, leaving 26 people dead, and over 100 others injured. Since it was inaugurated in 2012, Line 12 was involved in multiple scandals. Just a year and four months after opening, it had to close due to serious security and safety issues. A Congressional Investigation in 2014 found out major structural flaws, the use of low quality materials, as well as a dubiously fast process of safety certification required to open the line. Despite this, Line 12 was allowed to provide the service.
Both accidents signal a series of tragedies foretold. Multiple administrations in charge of governing Mexico City, first under the Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), and then under MORENA, have continuously ignored warnings. Recent infrastructure projects are proposed and carried out without contemplating the maintenance they will require in the future. Both incidents also highlight several huge flaws with Mexico City’s government style. It is plagued with institutional weakness, corruption, nepotism and lack of transparency.
The austerity measures adopted by Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) have further worsened this. Most states now ruled by MORENA have cut funding across the most vital sectors: health care, women’s shelters, and public transport. Ironically, although such cuts have been made in the name of fighting endemic corruption, it us a deeply entrenched culture of corruption and opacity that have contributed to recent accidents and losses of human lives.
Savings from AMLO’s austerity plan have not been put to use to improve failing services or carry out improvements in infrastructure. Most of the money has gone to finance the construction of AMLO’s pharaonic projects: the Maya train, the Dos Bocas Refinery, and the Felipe Angeles Airport. Projects engulfed in corruption scandals, nepotism, embezzlement and opacity in their contacts.
The recent tragedies can no longer be blamed on the opposition, the go-to enemy of the incumbent president. Mexico City has been ruled by AMLO’s closest political allies for at least the past 20 years. Under the rule of Claudia Sheinbaum, the maintenance budget for public infrastructure has been severely slashed. It is clear that years of economic mismanagement, embezzlement, corruption and nepotism have all played an important role in these unfortunate accidents.
The last 4 years of the history of the Mexico City’s underground system will be characterised by constant negligence, opacity and flagrant impunity. Those that are guilty remain unpunished. Some can aay, they have even been rewarded generously. Not only are they key members in AMLO’s government, they’re also the two frontrunners leading MORENA’s options as presidential candidates for 2024: Marcelo Ebrard and Claudia Sheinbaum.
The latest accident in Mexico City’s underground system shows that corruption kills. It also shows that those who engage in corruption are betting on going unpunished, due to the enormous rate of impunity in Mexico. AMLO’s closest allies and his own presidential cabinet have a long corruption track:
This list can go on, tracing back to the very beginnings of AMLO’s political career. There is no corruption anymore, says AMLO over and over again. Sometimes, he adds a nuance: “Corruption is not tolerated from those in the federal government.” He hopes that by repeating that statement every time, people will actually believe corruption is. La a thing of the past under his rule. This just confirms another common trait of his ruling style: what is important is the discourse, not the facts; propaganda repetition, not evidence; rhetoric, not reality.
What should be worrying for Mexicans is the fact that AMLO’s favourite candidates to succeed him, Marcelo Ebrard and Claudia Sheinbaum, also have a shameful record of corruption. Sheinbaum, his clear favourite, in Tlalpan, Mexico City, committed proven omissions to civil protection laws that allowed the fast and unsafe construction of the Rebsamen College. On September, 19th 2017, following a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, the Rebsamen College collapsed, killing instantly 19 children and 7 adults. The construction of the building where the school was located, was carried out without meeting the minimum safety requirements. Sheinbaum went even further, and a decision was made arbitrarily to prevent any investigation that would allow information to be made public for four months, under the protection of a court order. The Delegational Transparency Committee, in an extraordinary session on October 27, 2017, reserved the information. This would allow Sheinbaum to participate in the election to become the Mayor of Mexico City without being legally accused of serious violations.
More recently, in December 2022, a protest took place in Xochimilco, Mexico City, following a construction of a hydraulic infrastructure project that would reduce water supply to residents. Sheinbaum authorised the use of force against the protesters and allowed destruction of their private property. She has also participated actively in advanced campaign acts, personalised promotion, illegal political rallies and misuse of public resources to position herself as MORENA’s 2024 presidential candidate. This has already been sanctioned by the National Electoral Institute (INE).
In 2018, over 30 million Mexicans gave AMLO the benefit of the doubt. They believed he would transform Mexico and end rampant criminality, corruption, poverty, impunity. 4 years into his administration, everything remains unchanged. Poverty and violence have even deteriorated under his presidency. A never ending cycle of violence combined with constant scandals of nepotism and mismanagement continue to topple AMLO’s mountain of political miscalculations and repetitive mistakes. Economic resources that could have been used to provide the much needed maintenance to public transport infrastructure are being funnelled to an illegal presidential campaign.
Under previous governments, there was at least the counterbalance of opposition and critics to those in power. Today, AMLO has normalised division and attacks on those who dare to criticise his policies. In doing this, he fragments opposition, marginalises, and ostracises critics, thus preventing unity among dissident voices. Mexico will have its next presidential elections in July 2024, and local state elections in Coahuila and Estado de México this year. MORENA seems to be leading the polls for the next 3 electoral processes despite the party’s inability to produce tangible result in any arena. Perhaps we’re approaching a new kind of epidemic: Disaffection, indifference and the absence of historical memory is now becoming a widespread disease among the Mexican electorate.
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The U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit held in Washington has placed African-American diaspora at the core for strengthening multifaceted relations with Africa. The White House and African leaders have also stressed the importance of Africa’s voices, advocated for incorporating professional Africans distinctively within the institutional structures to deal with various bilateral issues and for making further inroads into Africa.
Over the years, African leaders have been engaging with their diaspora, especially those excelling in sports, academia, business, science, technology, engineering and other significant fields that the continent needs to optimize its diverse potentials and to meet development priorities. These professionals primarily leverage into various sectors, act as bridges between the United States and Africa.
As explicitly reiterated at the mid-December African leaders’ gathering, the overarching message was to focus on “deepening and expanding the long-term U.S.-Africa partnership and advancing shared priorities, amplifying African voices to collaboratively meet this era’s defining challenges.”
Corporate Council on Africa is the leading U.S. business association focused on connecting business interests between the United States and Africa. The United States has helped close more than 800 two-way trade and investment deals across 47 African countries for a total estimated value of over $18 billion, and the American private sector has closed investment deals in the continent valued at $8.6 billion since 2021, the White House said.
The United States is not only the undisputed leader of the free world, but also home to the most dynamic African diaspora. The African diaspora ranks amongst the most educated immigrant group and is found excelling and making invaluable contributions in all sectors of life-business, medicine, healthcare, engineering, transportation and more. The contribution of the African diaspora is not negligible, we see more of them appointed to senior government positions by President Biden like Wally Adeyemo, US Deputy Treasury Secretary, and Dr John Nkengasong Global AIDS Coordinator and Special Representative for Health Diplomacy.
Beyond engagement with Biden administration, African leaders express the vision, dynamism and humility to engage with their diaspora. They are excelling in sports, academia, business, science, technology, engineering and all those other sectors that the continent needs to beef up to optimize its potential and meet development priorities. In addition, it is in Africa’s high interest to embrace them.
Since its inception more than two decades ago, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has offered Africans the opportunity to engage and establish business networks from Africa to the United States and vice versa. It has been one surest way working towards an integrated relations, and in uplifting relations unto a higher appreciable stage.
Speaking at a U.S. Export-Import Bank conference, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai told the gathering there that they needed more investment in addition to market access. The duty-free access for nearly 40 African countries has boosted development, fostered more equitable and sustainable growth in Africa.
The AGOA offered promise as a “stepping stone to address regional and global challenges,” especially with Africa’s young and entrepreneurial population. The future is Africa, and engaging with this continent is the key to prosperity for all of us,” Tai said.
According to World Bank Statistics, remittance inflows to sub-Saharan Africa soared 14.1 percent to $49 billion in 2021 following an 8.1 percent decline in the previous year due coronavirus pandemic. Beyond remittances, Africa stands to benefit largely from the input of its diaspora considered as progressive in the United States.
Welcoming African entrepreneurs, Africa-American and African leaders for a reception, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States was guided by the principle of close overwhelming partnership with Africa.
“We can’t solve any of the really big challenges we face if we don’t work together. So it’s about what we can do with African nations and its people,” Blinken said. “We welcome all other members of the international community, including the United States, to join us in the global efforts to help Africa.”
In featuring prominently integrative aspects and cultural familiarity within the African diaspora, New York Mayor Eric Adams said that the success of African Americans showed the need for Africans to “walk differently.”
On disapora came Greg Meeks, the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The main strategy was rooted in one key word – partnership – and in recognition of shared priorities and working together. There were also many African and American youth leaders, students in the United States and Africa who are tuning in virtually – most spoke vividly on strengthening the bonds between African countries and the United States.
The strategy recognizes the immense role that the African diaspora members and young people will play in shaping and strengthening that partnership. One young leader, who has mobilized climate finance to make the water sector more resilient in South Africa, is now sharing the lessons that she learned at a U.S. government agency. Another, fresh off her experience fighting infectious disease in Malawi, was sharing her insights with nonprofits and businesses in the United States.
Others were expanding educational opportunities for children, conducting environmental research, creating job opportunities for youth in both African countries and the United States, and demonstrating exactly why the diaspora is such an unparalleled asset for people on both continents. It’s these interconnections, the back and forth, and the benefits that flow to Africa and the United States alike that is so incredibly powerful.
The United States practically is committed to ensuring that young people continue to bring their talents and hard work to the tremendous benefit of people across the continent and to the benefit of people in the United States. The Times Higher Education index indicated that approximately 43,000 Africans have currently enrolled into and are studying in American universities.
In addition, Barack Obama started the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) which brings every year a group of young Africans to the White House. Until today, YALI continues to run various educational and training programs including short professional courses, conferences and seminars for Africans. It has a number of other economic development programs, like the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs program. Now, since its inception in 2019, this program has provided more than 5,400 women throughout Africa with the training and networks that they need to start and to scale small businesses.
Late December, additional investments were announced to make it easier for students to participate in exchange programs from African countries, to increase trade opportunities for members of the African diaspora, and to support African entrepreneurs and small businesses. Each of these investments is guided by one overarching goal: to continue building partnership in order to better address the shared challenges facing Africa.
The adopted strategy reflects diversity, its influence, and the ingenuity of its young people. There are also training programs to attract young African talents to research, tech-innovation and development in the United States. Those youth are a growing part of the continent’s population – and also the world’s. Today, more than 60 percent of Africa’s population is under the age of 25.
By 2030, two in every five people on this planet will be African. These rising generations are powering dynamic economic growth in their countries and far beyond. 2016 – just a few years ago – African startups raised $350 million dollars in investment; last year, they raised $5 billion in investment – and that’s a curve that’s going to keep going up and up and up.
An African-American Yvonne Orji once wrote that, “Nigeria made me. America raised me.” It is often said that one of America’s greatest strengths is cultural diversity – there are few greater testaments to that than the immense contributions of the African diaspora community.
The United States is investing in the infrastructure that provides the foundation for African entrepreneurship. That means creating more pathways for the free flow of ideas, of information, of investment, which in the 21st century requires one thing: digital connectivity.
Interesting to note that Africa has around twice as many internet users as the United States, yet the continent has only a fraction of our data center space. What does that mean? Slower, less reliable connectivity. That’s why U.S. Development Finance Corporation is investing $300 million in building data centers across the continent – because there is the need for networks that can keep up with the lightening pace of new ideas.
Second, investing in rising enthusiastic leaders. Since President Barack Obama created the Young African Leaders Initiative, nearly 5,800 trailblazers from every country in sub-Saharan Africa have come to the United States for academic and leadership training – developing skills, career guidance, and education relationships that are going to last for a lifetime and to the benefit of their communities.
Many of the Mandela Washington Fellows are entrepreneurs, and has until today thousands of graduates. For example, Abel Hailegiorgis from Ethiopia has a company building bicycles and wheelchairs from bamboo, which is stronger than steel – sustaining the planet, supporting local farmers and local manufacturers. The forthcoming years will involve frequent exchanges directed at contributing substantially to the network of professionals from African countries.
After the U.S.-Africa leaders summit, the National Basketball Association (NBA) has signed agreements to open branches and further expand American sports across Africa. With its African headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2010, additional offices are planned in Dakar, Lagos, Accra, Nairobi and Cairo in 2023. The league is committed to expanding efforts to make the game of basketball and the NBA more accessible across the continent.
With the dynamic team headed by Amadou Gallo Fall, sports diplomacy and the Basketball Africa League will become a strong contender as a success story for its bridge-building role between the United States and Africa.
The biggest takeaway is to stage a world-class events in Africa, have the talents and certainly the fan interest especially now that the NBA and FIBA coming together to launch the Basketball Africa League. Amadou Gallo Fall, from a business standpoint, noted to continue drawing world-class partners who are interested in supporting the league because what they would be doing is bigger than basketball. The feedback is very tremendous, an indication that the future is extremely bright.
“The African Diaspora continues expressing high interest in engaging with the league. We want to be drivers of this positive social change. For us, basketball has been the catalyst and our work on the continent has been focused on building the capacity and empowering youth. We think by engaging with young people and inspiring young people, we are going to elevate their communities. We have already seen the increasing interest among the youth across Africa,” he underlined.
Sports and brands promotion are indivisible part of the game. The National Basketball Association (NBA) Africa and the Basketball Africa League (BAL) continue to attract world class marketing partners, including the BAL Foundational Partners Rwanda Development Board (RDB), NIKE, Jordan Brand, and Wilson, alongside NBA Africa’s recent collaborations with ESPN Africa, Afrosport, KFC Africa (Pan-Africa), Africell (Angola), Stanbic Bank (South Sudan), and Maven Developments (Egypt).
Perhaps that’s not all. In September, the U.S. African Development Foundation teamed up with the Tony Elumelu Foundation to create a new program to provide financing, technical assistance, and mentorship to emerging young innovators in Africa. He recently launched another initiative to connect up-and-coming climate entrepreneurs with American companies.
Third, there is a program for fostering greater engagement by American companies. The U.S. private sector already invests more than $4 in Africa for every dollar that the government allocates to the region in foreign assistance – and it wants to do more. That’s the objective of the Office of Global Partnerships, which will take a U.S. private sector delegation to Ghana in February. It’s the goal of the Prosper Africa initiative – which is marshalling agencies from across the government to help more U.S. companies and inventors – investors to do business in Africa, and do it in a way that promotes inclusive growth – growth that’s sustainable for the planet.
Prosper Africa’s institutional investor delegation invests more than $85 million in an African fund that will provide financing to small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Through a partnership with Prosper Africa, Pierre’s company – Yolélé – is distributing fonio and other products made by small farmers in the region to markets in the United States. In a region where it’s getting harder to grow crops due to a warming climate, fonio’s deep roots make it virtually drought-resistant. Now, in West Africa, it’s said that “Fonio never embarrasses the cook” which is good news.
Despite some negative criticisms, African leaders continue sourcing different kinds of economic assistance and support provided by the United States. It explicitly shows the United States remains an indispensable power and will, by and large, play its appreciable role in the emerging the new world order. It has the structures, mechanism, experience and confidence to influence the future.
The African diapora leaders are mostly western-oriented, support the global status quo, admire the incomparable never-failing practical soft-power of the United States and in turn, maintain long-term geopolitical interest with the West. Within the context of the geopolitical realities, the United States and its leadership still have strong sustainable political, economic and cultural ties with African countries.
President Joe Biden has signed an executive order for the creation of African Diaspora Advisory Council as part of the presidency. According reports, the post-summit large-scale projects and programs will be coordinated, monitored and implemented jointly by the president administration, the White House, State Dept of African Affairs and the African Diaspora Advisory Council. It will also engage non-government corporate business organizations such Africa House and the Corporate Council on Africa.
With emerging challenges and geopolitical changes in the multipolar world, it is certainly true that U.S.-Africa inter-connectivity has become more important as it opens new opportunities for building relationships, and this requires working closely together to deepen and fortify America’s strategic partnerships with African diaspora – partnership that has shaped the past, is shaping present, and will shape future multi-dimensional relations, in the interests of sustaining a meaningful stability between Africa and the United States.
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The USA is frequently referred to be the “Champion of Democracy and Human Rights.” But over the past two decades, as it transitioned to a multicultural society, the USA has encountered numerous domestic human rights problems, including institutional racism, hate crimes, and extrajudicial murders by law enforcement. Numerous figures demonstrate the worrisome increase in gun-related violence, including extrajudicial executions and hate crimes, as well as the systemic violation of human rights. Hate crimes, extrajudicial killings, and police violence are daily problems for US society. Additionally, the government is failing to start or enact efficient policies. Additionally, there is a widespread culture of impunity when it comes to extrajudicial killings. The champion appears to be struggling lately at home.
This is not the first occasion that armed men have attacked in the US. A young man from a Bangladeshi community living abroad in the US was shot and killed by police in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The Bangladesh Association of New England organized demonstrations against the “brutal killing” of 20-year-old Sayed Faisal, a student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, outside Cambridge City Hall on Thursday.
They labeled Faisal’s death, the family’s lone fatality, as a “racist act by white police officers.” The association posted on Facebook, saying, “This is not acceptable in any sense.”
Members of the association were to meet with Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqi to seek an explanation, according to the statement. For this young brother, justice must be served. Police brutality must end, the message continued.
It stated that organization members would meet with Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqi to inquire about the matter. For this young brother, justice must be served. The abuse by police must cease.
In this unfortunate sequence of events, Cambridge, Massachusetts police shot and killed a young Bangladeshi-American student on Wednesday. This has sparked protests and enraged the state’s Bangladeshi population.
According to media accounts, the victim is University of Massachusetts Amherst student Arif Sayed Faisal, age 20. His uncle Selim Jahangir revealed that although he was born in the US, his parents are from Chittagong’s Fatikchhari upazila.
According to CBS News, who cited the authorities, Faisal was in possession of a huge knife. Jahangir, a Massachusetts resident, vehemently refuted this claim. Media reports state that they were not handed any videos of Faisal brandishing a sharp object.
Jahangir asserted that Faisal had a tranquil demeanor. He inquired, “We don’t understand why police shot at him.” Moreover, he urged that the incident be fairly investigated and that the police officer who fired first be punished.
Recent years have seen a lot of attention focused on police deaths of unarmed civilians, which has sparked widespread protests. In the US, fatal police shootings continue to be a divisive and ongoing subject, sparking protests and repeated demands for significant enforcement reforms.
AK Abdul Momen, Bangladesh’s foreign minister, said on Friday that his country does not support hate crimes anywhere in the globe in reference to the murder. Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen stated on Friday that Bangladesh does not want any hate crimes to occur anywhere in the globe in reference to the assassination of a Bangladeshi in the US.
A Bangladeshi expatriate was killed on Thursday after being shot by US police in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “The Bangladeshi community there (US) are alleging it to be a hate crime,” Momen told reporters. Momen stated that the goal was to bring about world peace and put an end to racism and intergroup conflict.
Blood was spilled once more on the campus of the United States on Tuesday, May 24, 2022. With a gun he received as a gift for his 18th birthday, a young man by the name of Salvador Ramos murdered 19 children and two teachers one by one. Ramos, the shooter, targeted Rob Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, a small community an hour’s drive from the border with Mexico. As they arrived on the scene, Border Patrol agents shot the young man to death. In other words, there was another extrajudicial killing in the country.
Such occurrences were frequent. Ten people were slain in a shooting at a superstore in Buffalo, New York, just days prior to the shooting event on Tuesday, according to the BBC and AFP. Twenty children and six other people were killed in a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012. Last year, there were 26 of these occurrences in the US. In 2020, shootings will outnumber auto accidents as the main cause of death for kids and teenagers.
Shortly after shots were fired at an elementary school in Texas, a shooter was shot and killed by police in the vicinity of a Toronto, Canada, school.
These are an example of extrajudicial executions that have taken place in the United States and Canada, two nations that are known for having advanced human rights laws.
The topic of extrajudicial executions in Bangladesh has received attention from the U.S. Department of Human Rights. It has been asserted, using a number of figures, that Bangladesh’s law enforcement authorities are complicit in these extrajudicial executions.
Let’s examine extrajudicial executions carried out by American law enforcement. Important information concerning the United States leading the world in extrajudicial executions by law enforcement has been provided by the Turkish media channel TRT World. In the seven years between 2013 and 2019, 7,666 persons died in total in police shootings in the United States, according to research released on June 1, 2020. 1,106 of these people were shot by police in 2013, 1,050 in 2014, 1,103 in 2015, 1,071 in 2016, 1,095 in 2017, 1,143 in 2018, and 1,098 in 2019, according to statistics. Of them, 2018 had 1,143 police shooting deaths, which is the most ever. Approximately 1,100 people were killed on average per year between 2013 and 2019. More than 1,200 Black persons were reportedly slain by police shootings in 2015, according to the reports. The deaths in police custody or from other causes are not included in these figures.
In contrast, 13% of Black Americans in the United States—at least three times as many as White Americans—have been killed or injured in police shootings.
According to a story from the Washington Post on February 12, 2019, the number of individuals murdered in police shootings in the US has been close to 1000 for four years running. The study states that 996 persons were killed by police shooting in 2018, 987 in 2017, 963 in 2016, and 995 in 2015.
According to reports from the Associated Press-AP, USA Today, and a team of scholars from North-Eastern University, the United States recorded the most mass murders of any year in 2019.
In the United States in 2020, there were 996 extrajudicial executions. 96% of homicides were the result of police gunfire. Although they make up 13% of the population overall, African-Americans make up 27% of the deaths. In 98.8% of the incidents, no action has been taken against the police, according to the Human Rights Report. However, under the guise of human rights abuses, the United States filed accusations against Bangladesh.
Any extrajudicial execution is wrong. Such extrajudicial killings occur in numerous nations. However, the United States lacks the guts to make such a move there. He said, “The United States does not take such action on its own,” in response to worry.
It is accurate to argue that nations like the United States or Canada should now examine themselves in the light of recent events. It is past time to alter the lenses through which they view Bangladesh’s human rights situation.
Extrajudicial killing is an act of “violations of core human rights,” and it supersedes the “right to justice” and the appropriate legal procedure, in addition to international rules and conventions.
It appears that the U.S. takes questionable national activities that violate human rights and has a propensity to disobey current international laws and standards when it serves its own interests. As a result, the U.S. itself violates human rights, making it ineligible to “lecture” others on the subject. The United States must abandon its infractions, contradictory policies, and “immoral” elements if it wants to be considered the “real” champion of human rights.
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