Eviction must mean more than the sum total of legal processes

August 25, 2023 by Leave a Comment

“The mainstream has never run clean, perhaps never can. Part of mainstream education involves learning to ignore this absolutely, with a sanctioned ignorance.”
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, A Critique of Postcolonial Reason

 Across the United States and around the world, evictions are rising and residential rentals and home sales prices are skyrocketing. Predictably, this is accompanied by rising rates of eviction. While parts of the United Kingdom are experiencing rates of eviction they haven’t faced in almost twenty years, the United States is facing mortgage rates it also  hasn’t faced in over twenty years. But what exactly is an eviction, other than an existential crisis, a crisis that in the United States targets Black and Brown women? In the official discourse on housing, eviction has meant “the action or an instance of expelling a person by legal process from land, property, etc., occupied by him or her.” The key here, and the element of sanctioned ignorance, is “by legal process”. If eviction is only an action based on a legal process, what then do we call all those actions in which people are forced to move, but without any legal process involved?

Consider these stories from the last couple days.

In Sausalito, California, the owners of an apartment complex occupied mostly by elderly residents recently issued eviction notices to all the residents. The all-too-familiar story is a new owner came in a year or so ago, began letting maintenance go, never answered calls for repairs and then, again this week, decided the buildings needs “remodeling”. And so … people on fixed incomes in a hot rental market are out on the streets.

In Bakersfield, California, rents are going up as much as 40%, often in violation of the law. When Bakersfield Tenants Union Founder Wendell “J.R.” Wesley Jr. was issued a $100 rent increase, he knew that was illegal, and so went to the Leadership Counsel, a local advocacy group, got some help, and stopped the rent increase as well as the threat of eviction.

In Tucson, Oklahoma, a recent survey of unhoused people showed that the population of homeless elders is rising precipitously, and that the two leading causes of homelessness are eviction and skyrocketing rents.

These are just three stories from the last couple days, taken from a much longer list. They are stories of eviction, and familiar ones at that, but they hide as much as they show. What about all the elders living in apartments where the writing is on the wall, sometimes in the form of unattended mildew and mold? What about the elders who are harassed, directly or through `passive’ nonresponse and inaction, into `informal eviction’ or, even more ineptly, `self eviction’? Likewise, J.R. Wesley is an organizer who knows more than a thing or two about local and state housing laws. What about all those people who received a $100 increase in their rent, didn’t know it was illegal, didn’t know there are organizations and resources to help them, and moved before they lost everything and incurred today’s version of a Scarlet Letter, ie an eviction filing? Finally, it’s not only evictions leading to homelessness. It’s also rents rising so fast and so much they become unaffordable. People who have lived for years in an area that was affordable, if barely, are now forced to move through no action or fault of their own. What about them?

In Wisconsin, the Supreme Court will hear an argument to reduce the time eviction records are kept from 20 years to one year. In Wisconsin, the 20 years on file is for eviction filings, not evictions, and so the landlord has an extraordinarily menacing tool: “The vast majority of renters in eviction court are not evicted. According to the petition, there were 17,727 eviction filings in Wisconsin in just 2021. Just under ten percent of those eviction filings actually resulted in an eviction”. What about all those people who understand that an eviction filing is as damning as an actual eviction and decide to move?

That more attention is being given to eviction is good, but we need more and better attention. At this stage, there is still no national eviction data base. Last month, Virginia began collecting data on the number and locations of evictions that occur in any given year. That’s a good step. Across the country, many groups follow the model of Princeton’s Eviction Lab and collect data on eviction filings, also an important step in the right direction. But, again, those who are formally filed against, and even more those who go through the tragedy and existential crisis of eviction, are a minority of those who have been forcibly displaced. And we know, from history as well as from contemporary experience, that forcible displacement, while it may be experienced in deeply individual ways, is never a solitary event. Forced displacement is always already mass displacement. We cannot, in our research, advocacy, and organizing, create yet another mainstream moment, in which millions of people and communities are relegating to the status of ghosts, present and yet somehow not sufficiently enough to matter.

(By Dan Moshenberg)

(Photo: Iziko Slave Lodge)

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In South Africa, `return to normal’ drowns domestic workers in debt, danger, despair

August 1, 2023 by Leave a Comment

Have you heard, the pandemic is over, and the world is `returning to normal’. In South Africa, part of this return has involved loadshedding, scheduled (or not) rolling blackouts. Why does a country as rich as South Africa suffer from loadshedding? Don’t ask. This Sunday, SweepSouth, a South African online platform through which people can hire domestic workers and domestic workers can secure reasonably protected work arrangements, released the 2023 Report on Domestic Workers Pay and Work Conditions, its sixth since 2018. The news this year is grim. As Luke Kannemeyer, SweepSouth Managing Director, noted in the Executive Summary, “Our results continue to emphasise the disproportionate burden that domestic workers carry in their households. The majority are women (94%), sole breadwinners (84%), single caregivers (64%), and support an average of four dependents …. Workers continue to sacrifice basic needs as costs outstrip earnings. Food is the largest expenditure item with the greatest increase since last year (+12%). Poor South Africans were hit hardest as food inflation hit a 14-year high in March 2023. Primarily driven by the electricity crisis, vegetables, wheat and corn-based products, and plant-based oils (such as vegetable oil) increased the most. These items make up a disproportionate portion of food in low-income households. With few workers having any savings (2023: 9%, 2022: 10%), many take on debt.” While much of the report is unsurprising, much of it is new, and none of it encouraging. As Kannemeyer concludes the Executive Summary, “This summary is just the tip of the iceberg. We want this report to motivate you to be part of driving change in the domestic work industry.”

As in past years, 94% of domestic workers are women, median age 37. 39% are South African, 56% are Zimbabwean. 58% work in Gauteng, 37% in the Western Cape. 96% are primarily engaged in cleaning. 28% of domestic workers lost their jobs in the past year. Of this group, 25% lost their jobs because their employers could no longer afford them. This is more or less consistent with past years. 40% lost their jobs because their employers moved. Of those employers who moved, 28% moved to another city in South Africa, and 59% moved overseas. Much of the movement from one city to another, semigration, is a consequence of remote working. In both instances, emigration and semigration, those leaving are so-called skilled workers.

Between loss of jobs, relatively stagnant earnings, skyrocketing inflation, it’s not particularly surprising that most domestic workers are in debt and sinking deeper quickly and that very few have any savings.

Loadshedding has also taken its toll. Most domestic workers report that loadshedding has had a negative impact on the number of hours they work, has added extra time on their commutes, and made their commutes more dangerous. Additionally, loadshedding has had the more general impact lack of reliable energy has on low-income communities.

The report ends with recommendations: enforce and expand legal protections; implement multi-pronged solutions for loadshedding; improve access to mental health; increase support for workers facing abuse at home and in their workplace. While these are all reasonable recommendations, they miss the core new element in this year’s report and the core element in every report. The core element in every report is that almost all the domestic workers are women. This is a women’s employment, security, and rights issue. While that may be obvious, it needs to be emphasized and acted upon. Thousands of women are being sent into a situation of structural violence because they are women. The new element is that those who lost their jobs lost their jobs because their employers either emigrated or semigrated. This is new, and the State as well as organized labor must address this situation. What sorts of arrangements must be made before an employer leaves? What sorts of obligations does the employer have? What obligation does the State have? What obligations do the trade unions have? What obligations do the women’s movements have? If nothing is done, the result will be more than thousands of unemployed women, which is bad enough. It will be thousands of women heads of household drowning in rising debt, which will condemn them, their families, their communities to a future without promise or hope. That is unacceptable.

(By Dan Moshenberg)

(Infographic Credit: SweepSouth)

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Hope in a time of choler: Ghana abolishes the death penalty

July 29, 2023 by Leave a Comment

 

It’s been thirty years or so since Ghana executed anyone. Until this week, that was the good news. This week, in a “landmark vote”, Ghana’s Parliament voted to end the death penalty in all cases but high treason. To change that last hurdle, the Parliament will have to amend the Constitution. Nevertheless, this is a major step. There are currently 178 people on death row, six of whom are women. Most were sentenced to death because the law mandated the death sentence for certain offenses. Judges had no choice. As of this week, all of that changes. According to Amnesty International’s West and Central Africa Director Samira Daoud, “Today’s parliamentary vote is a major step by Ghana towards the abolition of the death penalty. It is also a victory for all those who have tirelessly campaigned to consign this cruel punishment to history and strengthen the protection of the right to life. Although a landmark decision, the total abolition of this draconian punishment would not be complete without revising the Constitution, which still provides for high treason to be punishable by death.”

Over the last ten years, the abolition of capital punishment has swept across sub-Saharan Africa. Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Madagascar, Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone and Zambia abolished the death penalty. In the past five years, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Zambia banned the death penalty. Twenty-nine African countries have abolished the death sentence. Since Ghana had not executed anyone for over ten years, the United Nations labelled it a de facto death penalty abolitionist, but Ghanaian politicians, and a majority of Ghanaians in every poll, thought that while that was fine, it wasn’t and isn’t enough.

Six of those on death row are women. Amnesty International Ghana and allies have argued, for years, that [a] the death penalty in and of itself had to be abolished and [b] that the death penalty had particularly catastrophic consequences for women, both for women on death row whose physical surroundings amounted to torture and for women partners of men on death row, who suffered severe deprivation. This week, Ghana’s Parliament heard their call.

Francis-Xavier Kojo Sosu, the Ghanian MP who tabled the bill, said, “On death row, prisoners woke up thinking this could be their last day on earth. They were like the living dead: psychologically, they had ceased to be humans. Abolishing the death penalty shows that we are determined as a society not to be inhumane, uncivil, closed, retrogressive and dark. It opens the way to further realization of a free, open, progressive, inclusive and secure society instead, and reflects our common belief that the sanctity of life is inviolable.” Imagine our common belief that the sanctity of life is inviolable. This week, Ghana has.

 

(By Dan Moshenberg)

(Image Credit: Amnesty International)

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Your money is no good here: On Section 8 housing vouchers

July 21, 2023 by Leave a Comment

Again and again, we hear that the housing crisis in the United States is a result of not enough affordable housing, largely a result of the cessation of housing construction following the 2008 housing market crash and subsequent economic recession. And that is true. We also hear that rising prices, inflation, and stagnant wages are a cause. Also true. We also hear that skyrocketing rents contribute to the crisis. True as well. We also hear that the rental market is being taken over by corporate landlords and hedge funds, and that’s driving rates of eviction up. Right again. But wait, there’s more. Consider the story of Heather Nelson, mother of two, resident of Maine, holder of a Section 8 housing voucher.

In 1937, the U.S. Congress passed the aptly titled United States Housing Act of 1937. Section 8 reads: “For the purpose of aiding lower-income families in obtaining a decent place to live and of promoting economically mixed housing, assistance payments may be made with respect to existing housing in accordance with the provisions of this section.” From the beginning, this nobly worded policy suffered from reliance on local governments and politics. Local governments were given free rein to decide how and where the federal funding would be spent. What could possibly go wrong … often did. Nevertheless, the basic Section 8 voucher that emerged from this legislation and numerous subsequent amendments continues to this day.

Heather Nelson lives in Sanford, Maine. Sanford is a town, self-incorporated, of close to 22,000 people. Heather Nelson is mother to two children with autism spectrum disorder. One of her children was recently hospitalized due to a newly diagnosed autoimmune disorder. Heather Nelson herself lives with disabilities and can’t work. Her landlord recently told her she has to vacate the premises, by June 1. At this point, she has not done so, because there’s nowhere to go. As Heather Benson explains, “If I contact the people, they don’t want to take housing vouchers”. And there it is.

At present, 17 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws that prohibit discrimination against Section 8 voucher holders. Many cities have passed similar legislation. Currently, 2.2 million households rely on Section 8 vouchers. Maine is among the 33 states that has not prohibited discrimination against Section 8 holders. Sanford, Maine, is among the municipalities that have not passed legislation protecting in any way Section 8 holders. But this really isn’t about Maine or Sanford. It’s about the situation nationally.

Across the country, in the midst of rising homelessness and, even more, anxiety and despair, landlords are rejecting applicants who are Section 8 holders, just because they’re Section 8 holders. Their money, assured by the Federal government, is not as good as the money of others. Why? Because it’s money that suggests assistance. The money is secure, actually more secure than that of many relying on their jobs, but that doesn’t matter. If you needed help, for whatever reason, your money is no good here. And so we have a nation of Nowhere To Go, in which those living with disabilities are thrown into the gutter. More laws are needed. More enforcement of those laws is needed as well. More concern about collective responsibility is equally important. Who says to someone who has reliable income, “Your money is no good here?” We all do.

(By Dan Moshenberg)

(Image Credit: Smithsonian National Museum of American History)

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A day or two in the life (and death) of an incarcerating world

July 7, 2023 by Leave a Comment

Estimated tuberculosis incidence in prisons (cases per 100 000 person-years) by country in 2019

We’ve passed the hottest day in recorded history. How’s it going, otherwise? Let’s consider the world of prisons, jails, and other forms of locking people up and away. Here’s how we’ve been, at least how we’ve been recorded over the last couple days. Yesterday, the European Court of Human Rights condemned France for its cruel and usually overcrowded and otherwise degrading prisons. Also this week, France’s Inspector General of Places of Deprivation of Liberty condemned the prison in Perpignan for “undignified conditions”. Ireland has the highest number of prisoners and the greatest levels of overcrowding in its history. Women in the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility are suffering state torture and dying at alarming rates. A teenage Aboriginal girl held in Kurlana Tapa Youth Justice Center tried to kill herself. Authorities refused to notify anyone. Why would they? It’s just another Aboriginal prison statistic. And finally, globally, nearly half of all TB cases in prisons and jails go undetected. Incarcerated people are dying. This is a skim of the past four days.

In 2020, 32 incarcerated people from six prisons sued France for inhumane conditions, especially for intense overcrowding. At the center of this was the Fresnes Prison, the second largest prison in France and one of three prisons `serving’ the Paris region. At the time, France’s prisons were at around 116% capacity. Fresnes Prison was at close to 200% capacity. The European Court of Human Rights convicted and fined France for violating inmates’ rights, specifically “the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment and … the right to an effective remedy”. Fresnes Prison had already been convicted for similar offenses two years earlier. Yesterday, the same European Court of Human Rights again convicted and fined France, again for violation of rights in Fresnes Prison. This time, along with the general conditions, especially the overcrowding, the plaintiffs also protested full body searches. Today, France’s prisons are at 120% capacity. Given the mass arrests of those protesting police violence, that situation is expected to worsen. Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Places of Deprivation of Liberty published her findings concerning the conditions at the Perpignan Prison, in Pyrénées-Orientales Department in southern France. The report begins by noting that a place designed for no more than 132 persons currently houses 315, or 239% capacity. From there the report went downhill: “endemic overcrowding, toxic material accommodation conditions, unsanitary conditions, proliferation of pests, systematic searches, disproportionate use of force and means of restraint”. This is not the first time that the prison in Perpignan has been cited. Plus ça change …

Speaking of the eternal return of the same, the Irish prisons are overcrowded at a historic level. The most overcrowded is the Dóchas Centre, which is at almost 120% of capacity. The Irish government is reported to be “scrambling” now in response, despite this being a longstanding issue. Rather than build more mental health facilities and more support services, the response has been to build more prisons.

Yesterday, a one-on-one companion observer for incarcerated women at the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility (WNMCF) published her observations of the lethal conditions in the institution, where last three years three of her patients died of suicide and many others attempted suicide: “not only did the prison staff fail to save these women’s lives, but the abuse, neglect, disregard, and maliciousness of prison staff pushed them to the point of desperation that made them feel death was the only option.” They didn’t fail, they refused. In 2022, New Mexico paid over $860,000 to settle allegations of rape and sexual abuse at its women’s prisons. Again, staff “failed” to respond to appropriately, “looking the other way”. They didn’t fail; they refused. There’s a humanitarian crisis at Western New Mexico Correctional Facility … and beyond.

There’s a humanitarian crisis at the Kurlana Tapa Youth Justice Centre as well. The Kurlana Tapa Youth Justice Centre is the only juvenile detention center in South Australia. This week, it was reported that an Aboriginal teenage girl tried to commit suicide in early 2023, and the detention center didn’t inform anyone for months. Actually, they never did actually report the incident. They didn’t see the need. The girl, a sexual abuse survivor, was arrested on some minor offences. Bail was recommended, but because of mental health issues, she was remanded for assessment. When she tried to commit suicide, the staff intervened and took her to the hospital. Then, they reported that they took her to the hospital as a precaution. It was only two months later, when her attorney read court-ordered hospital psychiatric reports, only then did she find out that her client had tried to kill herself. The prison staff never informed her of that. They didn’t fail, they refused. Lately, children at Kurlana Tapa have been locked in their cells 23 hours a day, and incidents of self-harm have skyrocketed. Australia finds this “shocking”.

Finally, a study came out, reported on this week, that studied the global situation of tuberculosis in prisons and jails in 2019, that is prior to Covid. The study found the following: “The high incidence rate globally and across regions, low case-detection rates, and consistency over time indicate that this population represents an important, underprioritised group for tuberculosis control. Continued failure to detect, treat, and prevent tuberculosis in prisons will result in unnecessary disease and deaths of many incarcerated individuals.” Nearly half of TB cases among incarcerated people go undetected. Again, not failure, refusal.

From France to Ireland to the United States to Australia to entire world, prisons and jails are dangerous and often lethal. If we know, as we now do, that prisons and jails, especially but not only overcrowded institutions, breed tuberculosis which goes `undetected’ if we know, as we now do, that sending people to those places results in `unnecessary disease and deaths’, and we won’t discuss the concept of necessity here, how can we continue to send people, women, children, anyone, to those places? Just another day or two in the life (and death) of an incarcerating world.

 

(By Dan Moshenberg)

(Infographic Credit: The Lancet Public Health)

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Hope in a time of choler: A South African court shall not shut the mouth of the media

July 4, 2023 by Leave a Comment

 

In 2010, a new South African investigative journalist project, amaBhungane, was founded. In isiZulu, amaBhungane means dung beetle. Their slogan is DIGGING DUNG, FERTILISING DEMOCRACY. This week the High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Division, confirmed not only the work of amaBhungane but also the importance of investigative journalism to the work of democracy. The case involves amaBhungane and its reporting on the Moti Group, a South African conglomerate with extensive international holdings.

The story in a nutshell: amaBhungane received files concerning the Moti Group. In late April and early May, amaBhungane published three articles exposing attempts by the Moti Group and its owner, Zunaid Moti, to cozy up to the leadership in Zimbabwe as well as to surreptitiously influence an employee at Investec who was charged with protecting the bank against the Moti Group’s quickly expanding debt. The Moti Group immediately launched a campaign to silence, and ultimately crush, amaBhungane. On June 1, the Moti Group went to court, on an ex parte and in camera basis, meaning the proceedings were behind closed doors and amaBhungane was not allowed to attend. The judge issued a gag order and told amaBhungane to return all leaked documents, by this time known as the #MotiFile. On June 3, amaBhungane went to court. They were allowed to retain the documents, which, by the way, they did not actually have possession of, but the gag order remained until a further court hearing. That hearing occurred June 27, in the High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Division, with Judge Roland Sutherland. Judge Sutherland issued his ruling yesterday, “a scathing rebuke for the Moti Group and its lawyers” as well as for the lower court.

Judge Sutherland decreed that there was no compelling reason for an ex parte and in camera hearing. He went further and declared that holding such a proceeding was a violation of all juridical procedure as well as an assault on judicial integrity, journalistic freedom, justice and democracy. The decision has been hailed far and wide. Needless to say, the Moti Group continues to spin the results and promises to continue its campaign against amaBhungane.

While many note Judge Sutherland’s step by step evisceration of the Moti Group’s arguments for secrecy, Judge Sutherland was clear to explain that the role of the media is critical to the functioning of democracy: “A South African court shall not shut the mouth of the media unless the fact specific circumstances convincingly demonstrate that the public interest is not served by such publication. This is likely to be rare.”

In 2010, amaBhungane chose as its slogan, DIGGING DUNG, FERTILISING DEMOCRACY. In February 2017, the Washington Post started using that line, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” as its slogan, its first slogan in its then 140-year existence. The Post credited Bob Woodward with the line, and Woodward credited Judge Damon J. Keith, who had presided over a First Amendment case in 2002, Detroit Free Press v. Ashcroft. In 2021, that decision was cited in South Africa, in a decision by the High Court of South Africa, Gauteng Division, in which the Open Secrets and the Unpaid Benefits Campaign sued the government for cancelling pensions and withholding access to information: “In Detroit Free Press v John Ashcroft, the United States Court of Appeal for the Sixth Circuit held that: `Democracies die behind closed doors. The First Amendment, through a free press, protects the people’s right to know that their government acts fairly, lawfully, and accurately …When government begins closing doors, it selectively controls information rightfully belonging to the people. Selective information is misinformation.’ The reason being is that `in darkness of secrecy, sinister interest and evil in every shape have full swing.’  It is for that reason that the Constitutional Court has stated that openness is the default position, and it refuted an approach that proceeded from a position of secrecy. The principle of open justice is an incident of the values of openness, accountability, and the rule of law. Included in this is the notion of a participatory democracy. These are the foundational values upon which our Constitution is based, and which are entrenched therein.” The lessons of democracy, of preserving and strengthening democracy, travel, quickly. This week, the courts of South Africa are teaching the world a thing or two about keeping the lights of democracy on and bright.

(by Dan Moshenberg)

(Image Credit 1: Smithsonian) (Image Credit 2: amaBhungane)

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We do it for the children … prison, solitary, torture, trauma, and beyond

June 26, 2023 by Leave a Comment

“In a democracy, we do not put children in cages. Period. There is no debating it. Nothing you can say to me will justify putting children in cages.”             Patricia Okoumou

Ethan Weinstein, a reporter for the VTDigger, covers southeastern Vermont. Of late, he’s had reason to cover the Vermont Department of Corrections. In a recent interview, speaking of the high and rising number of deaths, and particularly suicides, in Vermont’s prisons and jails, Weinstein noted, “There’s a belief that things are going to be messed up there, that you’re not going to be receiving adequate care. And so it has felt like, in order for something to be a story, someone has to die. You know, it’s not enough to hear that a person has a concussion, and they can’t see a doctor, or a person has been prescribed a medication their whole life and has been refused it once they’ve been incarcerated. It just seems as though our tolerance for issues within our prisons is so high that it can be hard to get people to care about this.” What if that person is a child? Does that matter? Does it matter to you? Recent news reports would suggest the answer is No.

For years, the United States has `struggled’ with an epidemic of seclusion rooms and physical restraints in schools. Time and again, one district or another has been forced to `discover’ its own alarming propensity for torture of children in the name of schooling. This past week, Alabama put a new twist on an old story by … doing absolutely nothing. Last week, Al.com, Alabama’s largest news site, reported that, after six years waiting, the state had still not provided any requested data on school seclusion and restraint incidents. In March 2017, Al.com requested data. Nothing came. In 2020, they tried again, and, again, no response. In June 2022, they tried again, and again received nothing. Public school districts are required to turn over information to the U.S. Department of Education every year. The last year Alabama reported on was 2017 – 2018. As far as Al.com can tell, Alabama’s state department doesn’t seem to care. The Alabama state department is supposed to collect information from every school district every year. It doesn’t, and what it does manage to get doesn’t seem to undergo any review.

In 2017 – 2018, Alabama reported nearly 600 incidents of seclusion, of putting a child in a locked room often for hours, and often for days, on end. The use of seclusion rooms in schools was outlawed by the Alabama legislature in 2011, but it’s not significant enough to warrant enforcement.

In 2021, an Aboriginal youth, Michael, was `referred’ to Cleveland Youth Detention Centre, in Queensland, Australia. Cleveland is almost always described as “troubled.” Michael, who lives with intellectual disability, was charged with a violent assault. He spent 744 days in detention, awaiting trial. On Friday, at trial, it was `discovered’ that Michael had spent 500 days in solitary confinement, “regularly locked in his cell for more than 20 hours a day.” The explanation for this was “staffing issues”. Rodney Dillon, a Palawa man and Indigenous rights advocate, has a better explanation, “This system is not about looking after human beings, this is about torture. It’s a torture chamber, that’s what it is. The effect this will have on this kid’s life is irreparable. That kid will be damaged for the rest of his life; that kid will never, ever move on from what’s happened. That is the worst thing you can do to any human being, is put them in solitary confinement … We need to change this system, the racism that’s in this system, and the hatred.”

What exactly are children meant to learn, the ones thrown into solitary, the ones watching their friends go into solitary? Why are we so invested in seclusion and restraint of children, generally, and of children living with disabilities, particularly? What terrible crime have these children committed that entire systems invest so much in maintaining practices that constitute torture?

What terrible crime have these children committed? Must they die to be a story, for us to care? Remember Alan Kurdi, the two-year child who drowned September 2015 and was famously photographed, dead, on the beach? Remember? In England, in 2018, ten-year-old Muhammad Amin entered and won a youth poetry contest. Rather than throwing children into solitary, rather than torturing them, rather than only hearing (of) them when they’ve died, we should listen to them. Listen to Muhammad Amin listening to Alan Kurdi:

Alan Kurdi
by Muhammad Amin

Alan Kurdi lies on the beach
Like autumn’s fallen leaf
Seagulls soar in the sky
Singing a song of grief

His eyes are bright pools
Swimming in the deep
Are forgotten faces full
Of pain, faces that weep

Alan Kurdi doesn’t breakfast
No sugar puffs or corn flakes
Snap, crackle and pop. Bombs
Fall like little earthquakes

He has never played nintendo
Nor xbox, truth or dare
Only hide-and-seek with IED’s
Landmines and the snipers stare

The water lapping at his feet
His body lies on the sand
Still, silent, frozen, frail
A ragdoll from another land

Alan Kurdi’s voice reaches me
“Amin, Amin listen to me
I was put into the sea
Like Moses. Don’t you see?”

 

(By Dan Moshenberg)

(Image Credit: Anna Vignet)

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Hope in a time of choler: Estonia legalizes same-sex marriage!

June 23, 2023 by Leave a Comment

The news these days is daunting: hundreds migrants, refugees, asylum seekers forced to drown in the Mediterranean and scores in the Atlantic Ocean; women hacked and burned to death in a Honduran prison; the ongoing assault on reproductive justice and women’s autonomy across the United States; the ongoing anti LGBTQI+ pogrom in Uganda; the `discovery’ of the Japanese policy of forced sterilization having been applied to children; the abandonment of asylum seekers living with disabilities in unprepared hotels in England, and the list goes on. A toxic stew of State sponsored cruelty. Legislators in Kenya, Tanzania and South Sudan are pushing for passage of laws modeled on Uganda’s anti-gay laws. But there are glimmers of hope. For example, on Tuesday, June 20, Estonia’s Parliament voted to legalize same-sex marriage. Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas responded to the vote: “Everyone should have the right to marry the person they love and want to commit to. With this decision we are finally stepping among other Nordic countries as well as all the rest of the democratic countries in the world where marriage equality has been granted. This is a decision that does not take anything away from anyone but gives something important to many. It also shows that our society is caring and respectful towards each other. I am proud of Estonia.”

The vote in the 101-seat Parliament was 55 – 34. In May, the Estonian Human Rights Centre released a survey that showed that 53% of Estonian people support marriage equality. In 2012, a survey suggested that 60% of Estonian people were opposed to marriage equality. What a difference a decade of continued organizing makes. 75% of Estonians between the age of 20 and 29 support marriage equality. More than half of the Estonian population believe that a same-sex partner should be able to adopt their partner’s child. With the recent passage of marriage equality legislation, LGBTQI+ couples will have adoption rights and parental recognition, which was previously denied to same-sex civil unions.

Last year, on July 8, Slovenia’s Constitutional Court ruled that bans on same-sex marriage and adoption are unconstitutional. The Court ruled that discrimination is discrimination, and that discrimination against same-sex couples “cannot be justified with the traditional meaning of marriage as a union between a man and a woman, nor with special protection of family”. The Court ordered the Parliament to amend the law within six months. In October, Slovenia’s National Assembly amended the Family Code, and now same-sex marriage is legal. While there are rumbling sounds that a referendum would overturn the law, for now it stands.

On January 1, 2024, the new Family Code in Estonia will go into effect. Since 2005, political parties, government agencies and just plain people have been discussing, debating, and organizing for this day. Organizing teaches and organizing works. Pride is pride. Discrimination is discrimination. Family is family. Love is love. To those in Estonia who made this happen through decades of dedicated struggle, happy new year and thank you!

 

(by Dan Moshenberg)

(Image Credit: DW.com / Twitter)

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Hope in a time of choler: In Canada, provinces end immigrant detention in their jails

June 17, 2023 by Leave a Comment

On Friday, June 16, Ontario announced it would no longer allow the federal government to hold immigrant detainees in local jails. At any given moment, Ontario houses around half of all immigrant detainees in Canada, and it has kept them in maximum-security regional jails. Ontario is the eighth province to end the practice of jailing immigrant detainees. Last summer, British Columbia announced it would suspend its contract. After that, Alberta, Nova Scotia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan followed suit. Two weeks ago, Quebec and New Brunswick announced their intention to cancel the contracts. The actual cancellation of contract takes a year. At this point, only Newfoundland and Labrador, P.E.I. and the territories have not announced an intention to cancel their contract. Taken together, these remaining provinces account for less than 1% of immigrant detentions.

For the past two years, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have campaigned, lobbied and pushed for provinces to act. The campaign is known as #WelcomeToCanada. Two years ago, to the day, they released a report, “I Didn’t Feel Like a Human in There”: Immigration Detention in Canada and its Impact on Mental Health”, which lays out the brutality, cruelty and devastating impact of immigrant detention in Canada. Part of the mental health issue is that Canada allows for indefinite detention of immigrants: “For many detainees, not knowing how long they will be detained causes trauma, distress, and a sense of powerlessness.” Canadian provincial prisons are “notorious for their poor conditions.”   As Hannah Gross, Human Rights Watch researcher, noted, “This is an incredible victory. It’s a monumental win for human rights, for migrant and refugee rights.”

And so now the struggle moves to the federal level. First, the Canada Border Services Agency, CBSA, is largely a law unto itself: “The CBSA has sweeping powers including arrest, detention and search-and-seizure without a warrant. It is the only major law enforcement agency without independent civilian oversight to review policies and investigate misconduct.” Year in year out, CBSA incarcerates greater numbers of immigrants. In violation of international law, CBSA separates children from their parents and, further, keeps no record of how many children. CBSA has been found guilty of racial profiling, especially of Black immigrants. As mentioned, Canadian law allows for indefinite detention of immigrants. Teresa Gratton, for example, died October 30, 2017, in immigrant detention, far from her family who had no idea where she was. There was an uproar, momentarily. Six years later, indefinite detention continues. Glory Anawa, several months pregnant, was placed in indefinite detention. Her son, Alpha, was born behind bars. It is reported that his first words were “radio check”. “I don’t even have words to express how I feel. It makes me speechless. I’ve been robbed of my life,” said Glory Anawa. Glory Anawa was imprisoned in 2013. There was an uproar, momentarily. Ten years later, indefinite detention continues.

On March 24, 2023, the so-called Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the United States came into effect. Under this agreement, “People entering Canada from the US along the land border are still not eligible to make a refugee claim; will be returned to the US.” These terms “make it more dangerous for people to cross and increase the risk of being detained.” On Friday, June 16, the same day Ontario announced its cancellation of contract with the CBSA, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the Safe Third Country Agreement, while sending it back to lower courts for some clarifications. While the cancellation of provincial contracts with the Canada Border Services Agency is indeed an incredible victory, one to be celebrated, it also casts a light into the ongoing darkness of persecution of immigrants in Canada and beyond. The struggle continues.

(By Dan Moshenberg)

(Image Credit: Canadian Council for Refugees) (Photo Credit: The Conversation / Prisoners’ Justice Day Committee Vancouver)

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Hope in a time of choler: Malaysia takes beginning steps away from necropolitics

June 14, 2023 by Leave a Comment

“I have put forward the notion of necropolitics and necropower to account for the various ways in which, in our contemporary world, weapons are deployed in the interest of maximum destruction of persons and the creation of death-worlds, new and unique forms of social existence in which vast populations are subjected to conditions of life conferring upon them the status of living dead … Under conditions of necropower, the lines between resistance and suicide, sacrifice and redemption, martyrdom and freedom are blurred.”

                                                                        Achille Mbembe, “Necropolitics”

Twenty years ago, Achille Mbembe’s seminal article, “Necropolitics”, was published. In the intervening two decades, the world has committed itself to the various ways of destruction of persons and the creation of death-worlds. From environmental devastation to mass eviction to brutal warfare to brutality against vulnerable populations seeking assistance to brutality against those deemed destined for vulnerability and beyond, cruelty, suffering, misery followed intentionally miserable deaths has been the script. But in the past few months, Malaysia, no great bastion of either civil or human rights, decided enough is enough, and it’s time, way past time, to put a pause and perhaps even step away from the necropolitical order.

On April 3, Dewan Rakyat, or lower house, of Malaysia’s Parliament, voted for legal reforms that would abolish the mandatory death sentence for 11 offences. The full reforms called for the suspension of the death penalty for 34 offences, including kidnapping. While Malaysia has had a moratorium on death sentences since 2018, they did not close death row, and so judges have continued to send people convicted of these acts to death row, all in the name of rule of law. Executions would be replaced with whipping and imprisonment for as much as 40 years. This is in direct contrast to Malaysia’s neighbors, especially Singapore and Myanmar, who have returned to executions in recent years. The reforms also do away with imprisonment for a person’s natural life. On April 11, the Dewan Negara, or upper house of parliament, passed the reforms. They’re not perfect and they’re not all-encompassing (the death penalty can still be applied to those convicted of drug trafficking, but it’s no longer mandatory), but they are a step in the right direction.

Then, on May 22, the Dewan Rakyat passed a bill removing Section 309 of the Penal Code, a clause that punished suicide attempts with up to 1 year in jail, a fine, or both. Between 2014 and 2018, 11% of people who attempted suicide were prosecuted, again all in the name of the rule of law. Deputy Minister Ramkarpal Singh explained, “We are taking the approach to do away with punitive action and move towards rehabilitative measures. We hope that more people who are in need of help will come forward and seek treatment, and, at the same time, we will be able to reduce the number of suicide cases in future”. With suicide rates and rates of depression rising generally, and in particular among adolescents and young adults, the campaign to decriminalize suicide began with a youth campaign, launched in 2020.

Malaysia’s prisons are massively overcrowded, with as many as almost 42% of those incarcerated awaiting trial. Malaysia’s immigration detention centers are notoriously opaque, but we do know that 150 detained persons, included children, died in those centers last year alone. The detention centers are overcrowded as well, and those who resist deportation are sentenced to indefinite detention. In March, organizers of a Women’s Day rally were called into the police for questioning because of allegedly pro-LGBTQ+ posters. Malaysia is no bastion of human or civil rights. But it has taken important steps recently that could lead to other positive steps. Another world, one in which redemption and freedom grow, is possible.

(By Dan Moshenberg)

(Photo Credit: New Naratif)

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