Man taken to hospital after falling 30ft from cliff in Portstewart

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Man taken to hospital after falling 30ft from cliff in Portstewart

A man has been taken to hospital after falling 30ft from a cliff at Portstewart.

t is understood the person fell a considerable distance at Portnahapple on the cliff path in the town.

Coastguard teams from Coleraine and Ballycastle, the ambulance service, the PSNI and Portrush RNLI went to the scene at 8.37pm after reports a man had fallen onto rocks.

An RNLI spokesman said: “On arrival on scene it was established that a young male had fallen approximately 30 feet onto rocks near Portnahapple.

“Dr Colm Watters, volunteer lifeboat crew member and consultant at Causeway Hospital Emergency department, was transferred from the all-weather lifeboat to the smaller inshore lifeboat and then ashore to assist the coastguard with the treatment of the casualty and their transferral to ambulance.”

Keith Gilmore, lifeboat operations manager at Portrush RNLI, said: “We had the opportunity to do some training with our Coastguard colleagues last year and this has paid off in terms of our joint working procedures.

“We are fortunate to have a volunteer with Colm’s expertise on crew and this was invaluable in this incident. We wish the casualty well and hope he has a speedy recovery.”

A Coleraine Coastguard spokesperson said: “Coleraine and Ballycastle Coastguard teams were tasked to reports of a person fallen from a cliff at Portstewart.

“Casualty had sustained lower leg injury. With assistance from Portrush RNLI, the casualty was extracted using coastguard water rescue equipment and handed into care of NIAS.

“The PSNI helped to keep back the large crowd of onlookers who were gathering. Great teamwork by all the emergency services.”

Belfast Telegraph

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‘Life-saving’ cancer treatment to be made available at all cancer centres in England

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‘Life-saving’ cancer treatment to be made available at all cancer centres in England

A key cancer treatment which could save lives is going to be made available to all cancer centres in England in the next year.

The NHS announcement is in response to an open letter signed by more than 200 cancer experts warning the treatment was being “rationed”, as reported exclusively by Sky News last month.

The experts had said failure to act would be a “tragic lost opportunity”.

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A 4D scan of a tumour with the radiotherapy dose plan. Pic: James Cook University Hospital/Jim Daniel

The stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) treatment is more precise and uses a higher dose than standard radiotherapy – cutting down the number of hospital visits vulnerable cancer patients will need to make.

NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens says the innovative treatment will be “potentially life-saving”.

The treatment is currently used by around half of cancer centres and was going to be fully rolled out by 2022, but experts warned urgent action needed to be taken to help deal with a backlog of cancer cases as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Thousands of cancer patients have had treatments cancelled or postponed, while fewer cancers are currently being diagnosed.

A study by the University of Birmingham estimates 36,000 cancer procedures have been cancelled in the UK.

Cancer sufferers who face delays to their treatment are more likely to suffer complications and are more at risk of dying.

Dr Clive Peedell, a consultant clinical oncologist who wrote the open letter along with Action Radiotherapy, said he applauded the decision.

Dr Clive Peedell says the treatment can give people another option
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Dr Clive Peedell says the treatment will help with the backlog

“I think it’s really important during this time because we know there’s going to be a really big cancer backlog and anything we can do to increase our capacity to treat cancer patients during this time will help,” he said.

“There will certainly be patients who can have stereotactic radiotherapy instead of surgery because there’s going to be big surgical waiting lists.”

William Robinson, 83, was diagnosed with a tumour on his lung after having a stent put in his heart in March.

The great-grandfather, from Middlesbrough, received one round of the SABR treatment and said: “It was excellent. It went great and I’ve been alright since.”

William Robinson just after his SABR treatment
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William Robinson just after his SABR treatment

He said it was a “big surprise” he had been treated so quickly and praised the staff who looked after him.

SABR will initially be used to treat some tumours in the lungs, lymph nodes and bones, but will later be expanded to treat other cancers.

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It will not be suitable for everyone, but the experts are clear it will save lives – and say they already have the capacity to provide the treatment.

Professor Pat Price, chair of Action Radiotherapy, said she was “delighted” with the decision but warned April is “still an awfully long time away”.

“The trouble is, the backlog is going to start coming in the autumn so April’s going to be too late for some places,” she said.

Professor Pat Price says a backlog of cancer patients could 'overwhelm the service'
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Professor Pat Price says the full roll-out should be done as soon as possible

Professor Price said there are still a number of things which will need to be done to help with the backlog – including updating the IT and machines used to carry out radiotherapy.

“We’re heading for such a problem,” she said.

“Everybody’s quite positive at the moment thinking lockdown is nearly over, but the health problems are just starting.”

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Companies urged to bring staff back to breathe life into Perth CBD ghost town

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Companies urged to bring staff back to breathe life into Perth CBD ghost town

Office workplaces have always been exempt from the heavy non-work gathering restrictions that were ramped up over March and April but governments urged businesses to send staff home if possible.

The pandemic resulted in hundreds of restaurants and cafes shutting their doors and, while many have reopened, it is not uncommon to see the doors of lunchtime favourites firmly closed.

With WA heading towards a full reopening of its domestic economy, Property Council executive director Sandra Brewer said now may be the time for companies to bring their workforces back to help struggling smaller businesses.

Ms Brewer said many members were reporting tenants returning staff in 50/50 arrangements, with half their staff in and half out, with extra spacing, hand hygiene and restrictions on communal areas other measures implemented.

“Given the state government’s health advice that there’s been no community transmission of COVID-19 in WA and that public transport is safe, it may be time for companies to consider safe ways of encouraging more of their workforce to return to their office,” she said.

“In Perth, so far, there do not appear to be any issues with building entry points or lifts.

“Some people may be anxious about returning to work or travelling on public transport, but we’ve been assured it’s safe to travel and we know there are many centrally-based businesses that would benefit from having a greater number of customers.”

“We’ve noticed more people are choosing to return … to reconnect with their colleagues and for meetings and a number of hearings.”

Nick Cooper, Clayton Utz

One of WA’s biggest law firms, Clayton Utz, is one of those companies adopting a cautious approach and is currently in step one of its three-step plan.

Partner-in-charge Nick Cooper said step one allowed 30 per cent of staff on the floor at any one time while step two, expected to be triggered in the next few weeks, would allow 50 per cent of the workforce back in the office and loosened meeting restrictions.

Like many other office-based businesses, Clayton Utz has splurged on hand sanitiser and beefed up its cleaning regime.

Mr Cooper said the process was about being sensible, practical and prepared if restrictions were to be reimposed.

“We’re pretty fortunate that we were already well set up as a firm to work remotely when COVID-19 hit. Around 64 per cent of our people nationally already worked flexibly and, in Perth, most (around 98 per cent) of our 140-plus partners and employees have been working from home these past couple of months without any disruption to client service or matters,” he said.

Mr Cooper said he expected people to mix up their work arrangements post-pandemic but employees also were keen to get back to the office.

“We’ve noticed, however, that more people are choosing to return on their designated days to reconnect with their colleagues and for meetings and a number of hearings,” he said.

“So that sense of connection and being part of the firm – in that sense – is still important.”

ANZ’s Perth office will welcome back about 35 per cent of its workforce from next week and also boost its cleaning and hygiene regime.

Bus and train use is at about 40 per cent of pre-COVID levels, the PTA said.

“ANZ will also work on a minimum of weekly turnarounds so cleaning and any infection can be managed – the health and wellbeing of our staff remains our top priority as we return to offices,” a spokesman said.

Public Transport Authority spokesman David Hynes said several measures had been employed to keep commuters on buses and trains safe, including increased sanitation, contactless payment, encouraging people to exit through the rear door and opening roof vents for fresh air. Front seats on buses have also been taped off.

He said lower patronage also gave passengers more room to socially distance.

“Passengers are encouraged to practise good hygiene and cough etiquette, to observe as much distancing from fellow passengers as possible, and not to travel if they feel sick,” he said.

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Survey Suggests China Influence Over SE Asia Is Rising as America’s Falls

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Survey Suggests China Influence Over SE Asia Is Rising as America’s Falls

The United States is struggling to compete with China’s growing influence in Southeast Asia, according to a new survey of the region’s experts, even though there is strong support among them for democratic values.

China already has far more economic influence than the U.S., and slightly more political power, in Southeast Asia, and the gap is expected to widen in the next decade, the survey by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank found.

The survey by the respected Washington-based think tank targeted “strategic elites” – nongovernmental experts or former officials from six Southeast Asian countries. There were 188 respondents from Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. Another 13 people in Fiji responded to the survey.

The survey was conducted in November and December 2019, so it does not factor in how the COVID-19 pandemic may have shaped perceptions of the two powers. The coronavirus originated in China, which has been accused of initially trying to cover up the outbreak. As the virus has spread across the globe, the U.S. has recorded the most deaths.

“The results of this survey paint a picture of clearly ascendant Chinese influence in Southeast Asia, complex and diverging views of China, and deep concerns over U.S.-China strategic competition and its impact on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),” the report describing the survey’s findings says.

Respondents were asked to select up to three countries that hold the most political influence in Southeast Asia. China came up top with 94.5 percent, followed by the U.S. with 92 percent.

But the margin of difference between the two powers grew significantly when the question shifted to who will be the most influential in 10 years’ time, with 94.5 percent choosing China, and 77 percent the U.S. For both questions, Japan and Indonesia came in a distant third and fourth place respectively.

Pat Buchan, director of the U.S. Alliances Project at CSIS and a co-author of the study, said China’s efforts to gain influence in the region have accelerated significantly in the past five years, and the survey results reflect that trend. He said this should serve as a wake-up call for the U.S. as it seeks to compete with China.

“From a historical perspective, the United States has not focused on Southeast Asia largely since the fall of Saigon,” Buchan said in an interview, referring to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.

“Its efforts in Asia have always been focused on East Asia and Northeast Asia. So that does reflect that there is a sort of lost generation of American influence and American expertise on Southeast Asia,” he said.

When it comes to economic influence, there was virtual unanimity in the survey that China is already the frontrunner by a large measure and will continue to be so in a decade.

Asked which three countries now have the most economic power, some 98 percent named China, 70.6 percent said the U.S. and 66.7 percent said Japan. In 10 years, 96 percent say it will be China, 56.7 percent say the U.S. and 56.2 percent say Japan.

Buchan attributed that outcome to the relative lack of U.S. involvement in multilateral trade deals and institutions like the Trans-Pacific Partnership – which was negotiated by the Obama administration as part of its strategic “pivot” to Asia, but then dropped by President Donald Trump.

Despite the recognition of CCP-governed China’s rising influence, and the authoritarian tendencies of many Southeast Asian governments, respondents voiced near support for democratic values.

Some 85 percent of strategic elites said they were confident democratic values were beneficial to their countries’ stability and prosperity. This was most pronounced from respondents in Thailand and the Philippines – which have seen an erosion of democracy in recent years – and Indonesia, where it has proved more robust.

“That definitely ran through the whole thing, this desire for democratic norms and values,” Buchan said. “If we had ran this poll 30 years ago you would’ve gotten a very, very different answer.”

“The soft power influence of the United States is now showing through two generations later as the accepted norm,” he said.

Some 53 percent of respondents considered China’s role to be beneficial for the region, while 46 percent called it detrimental. The negative views were most pronounced in Vietnam and the Philippines – two nations which also expressed the most concern about the situation in the disputed South China Sea, which China claims in its entirety.

Respondents identified the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as the most important institution for regional order.

Vietnam, however, was an outlier on this, which may be attributed to its frustration over ASEAN’s failure to reach consensus on the South China Sea issue, with pro-China members such as Cambodia foiling attempts at consensus.

Nearly half of respondents identified external pressure from great powers as the biggest threat to ASEAN’s unity, followed by concern that member states were not giving sufficient priority to the 10-nation bloc.



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Women Were Making Historic Strides in the Workforce. Then the Pandemic Hit

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Women Were Making Historic Strides in the Workforce. Then the Pandemic Hit

Yasmine Parrish was at the top of her game. The marketing consultant from Los Angeles, who works with fashion and beauty brands, was successfully placing her clients in conferences, speaking engagements and consumer-driven events around the country.

“I made more money in February than any other month in my whole career,” says Parrish, 32. “I was at a place I had always wanted to be in terms of caliber of clients.”

Then the pandemic hit. Events across the country were canceled, slashing Parrish’s income by about two thirds. She filed for unemployment benefits and mortgage payments nearly depleted her $6,000 in savings. Now, she’s trying to pivot her business to other marketing channels that don’t rely on the kinds of crowded events that have been canceled or postponed because of the coronavirus.

Parrish’s situation is familiar to millions of women across the U.S. Employment figures released June 5 show that the economic downturn triggered by COVID-19 has been devastating for women in particular. When the country first locked down, women dropped from the workforce at a higher rate than men. Now, as the country begins to reopen, women are being re-employed at a slower rate than men—an early sign that the economic pain will last much longer for women.

Women accounted for 55% of the 22 million jobs lost in March and April, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). But they accounted for only 45% of the 2.5 million jobs that came back in May. Just months before the virus appeared in the U.S., women ticked past 50% of the workforce for the first time during a non-recessionary period in American history. (Women briefly held a majority during the Great Recession, mostly because male-heavy industries like manufacturing and construction were getting especially pummeled.) Now, that number has fallen to 49.2%—the lowest since 2008.

“We finally get to this point, and are a majority, and now we are sliding back,” says Jasmine Tucker, director of research at the National Women’s Law Center. “We wiped out all the gains from the last decade in a month.”

Historically, recessions have caused Americans to put the brakes on their discretionary spending, resulting in less production of goods. That typically affected male-dominated industries like manufacturing more so than fields where women have traditionally had a greater presence, like education and food services. “In all postwar-period recessions, men have been hit harder than women,” says Titan Alon, an assistant professor of economics at the University of California San Diego. “This situation is atypical.” That’s largely because this recession was triggered by shutdowns of specific kinds of businesses in the name of public health. In many of these fields—like education, health care, and leisure and hospitality—women are overrepresented, according to the BLS. And not only are these the sectors that have been most affected by social distancing measures, they are the ones that may take the longest to recover.

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Further, in a research paper published in early April, Alon forecasted that stay-at-home measures would result in higher rates of unemployment for women, based on his findings that 28% of male workers in the U.S. have jobs that are easily done from home, compared to only 22% of female workers.

“Women were working in jobs that are just gone,” says Tucker. “People won’t be going on vacation for a long time. Restaurants are opening but there will be less capacity. You are not hiring back your whole workforce.”

Still, these factors only explain part of the disparity. Women have been affected across the board, losing jobs at disproportionate rates in most industries and returning to the workforce slower than their male colleagues—even in sectors where employment levels have been essentially gender neutral. In retail, for instance, women held 50% of pre-COVID jobs. But they suffered 60% of the industry’s losses through April and accounted for only 49% of the gains in May. Similarly, in professional and business services, where women represented 46% of the industry, they endured more than half of the losses through April and accounted for only a third of the gains in May.

Policy experts say this is largely a consequence of women having to juggle employment and caring for family in a country with an inadequate social support system. Regardless of the industry in which they work, women have been impacted by the closures of schools and childcare—which was not a major issue in prior recessions.

“What do you do when stay-at-home orders are lifted but there is no school or camp?” asks Nicole Mason, president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. “If you are in the service sector, where if you don’t show up, you don’t get paid—those are the calculations women are making.”

Parrish, the L.A.-based marketing consultant, has felt these pressures first-hand. As a single mom, she was left with little time to pursue new work opportunities when her son’s preschool closed. “It’s hard to perform at peak level with the clients that I kept,” she says. Rebuilding her business will continue to be a challenge if school doesn’t reopen full-time in the fall. Parrish also knows that, as a black person, she will face additional challenges. In May, after a half-dozen interviews, she was passed over for a position at a company that sells beauty and baby products. She had hoped her decade of experience and breadth of industry contacts would help land her the job, but a friend at the company told her that the position ultimately went to a white woman.

In returning to the workforce, women of color face a double challenge. They make up a significant part of the service sectors that are likely to be slowest to re-employ workers. Additionally, they face racist and sexist discrimination that makes it more difficult to land a job even in strong economic times.

The data verify that women of color are dealing with more economic hardship than their white peers. Overall, less than 14% of women over the age of 20 are currently unemployed. But among Hispanic women the rate is 19%, and among black women it’s 16.5%—an uptick from 16.4% in April, despite improvements for nearly every demographic.

“There will be disparities in hiring back,” says Tucker. “Just think about the opportunities that white men get versus black women get.”

Parrish is hopeful that the protests against institutional racism that have swept the country in recent weeks will make companies be more mindful of inclusive hiring practices. But ultimately, she says, “the best diversity strategy in the world won’t mean anything if employers can’t check biases. This movement has to change people’s minds.”

Contact us at editors@time.com.

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‘Make it stop’: George Floyd brother calls on Congress to act over police violence

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‘Make it stop’: George Floyd brother calls on Congress to act over police violence

Hours after George Floyd was laid to rest in Houston, his younger brother made an impassioned plea to Congress to prevent his death from becoming just “another name” on an ever-growing list of black Americans killed by police.

Philonise Floyd testified before a House hearing in Washington on Wednesday amid a national reckoning over race and policing that has drawn millions to the street in protest and cries for action to be taken in every institution of American life, including government, military, media and entertainment, sports, academia, business, science and tech.

“I’m tired. I’m tired of the pain I’m feeling now, and I’m tired of the pain I feel every time another Black person is killed for no reason,” he said, his voice rising with emotion as he addressed the committee. “I’m here today to ask you to make it stop. Stop the pain.”

The room fell silent as he testified, gripped by the rawness of his grief. Many wore masks while some attended the hearing virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Lawmakers also heard testimony from national civil rights leaders, including the Floyd family lawyer, Benjamin Crump, who advocated for a range of reforms to police practices and accountability. Some witnesses seized on calls by protesters to “defund the police” – an effort to reimagine public safety by cutting budgets for police departments and redirecting the funding toward social services – to warn that lawmakers risked going too far and impeding public safety.

George Floyd died in custody after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes, ignoring his protests of “I can’t breathe.” 

The Memorial Day encounter on 25 May, which began with a call about an alleged attempt to use a counterfeit $20 bill at a local market, touched off demonstrations around the world that have already prompted local leaders to act to curb the powers of police as public support for the Black Lives Matter movement surges. 

“Is that what a Black man’s life is worth? Twenty dollars?” Philonise Floyd said. “This is 2020. Enough is enough.” 

“Be the leaders that this country, this world, needs,” he continued. “Do the right thing.”

Democrats unveiled sweeping legislation this week aimed at combating excessive use of force by police and limiting legal protections for officers accused of misconduct.

Republicans have scrambled to respond to the growing calls for reform. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the lone Black Republican in the chamber, has been tasked with drafting a conservative legislative response. 

But their efforts are complicated by the president, whose incendiary response to the protests – and blunt calls for “LAW AND ORDER” – have only inflamed tensions.

On Wednesday, he tweeted that he would “not even consider” renaming military bases named after Confederate leaders, even though the Pentagon said it would consider the move.

This week, thousands of mourners attended vigils and memorials for George Floyd, which culminated in his funeral in Houston on Tuesday. In his eulogy, the Rev Al Sharpton, the civil rights leader, called George Floyd an “ordinary brother” who had become the “cornerstone of a movement that’s going to change the whole wide world”.

In death, George Floyd became an international symbol of police violence and injustice. But in life he was a father, a brother, a “gentle giant”, Philonise Floyd told lawmakers on Wednesday. 

While the video of Floyd pinned to the street under the knee of a police officer started a distinct new wave in the justice movement, the family is clearly finding it deeply painful to constantly relive his final moments in what seems like an unending loop on TV and online. 

“I just think about that video over and over again,” Philonise Floyd said, wiping tears from his face. “You don’t do that to a human being, you don’t even do that to an animal.”

 “Justice has to be served,” he said. “Those officers have to be convicted.”

The four officers involved in Floyd’s death have been fired from the force and have been charged by the state attorney general. But activists want more – they are demanding systemic changes to policing to prevent future deaths at the hands of police. 

In response to the protests, Minneapolis city council pledged to dismantle and restructure the city’s police department, and other cities are proposing reforms, infuriating some powerful police unions.

In testimony on Wednesday, the Houston police chief, Art Acevedo, said there was “no denying that changes in policing must be made”.



Philonise Floyd with Democratic congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee at Wednesday’s hearing. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Yet the hearing laid bare the political divide that has long stood as a barrier to policing reform in America.

The committee chair and Democrat Jerrold Nadler urged Congress to adopt the Democrats’ Justice in Policing Act of 2020, which he says would create a “guardian – not warrior – model of policing”.

Republican Jim Jordan of Ohio, agreed that it was “time for a real discussion” about police misconduct and discrimination. But he tried to tie Democrats to calls for defunding, which he called “pure insanity”.

Among witnesses called by Republicans was Angela Underwood Jacobs, the sister of Dave Patrick Underwood, an African American security officer contracted by the Federal Protective Service who was fatally shot while guarding a courthouse in California during the unrest after Floyd’s death.

Speaking to Philonise Floyd, Jacobs said she mourned with his family. But despite most protests being peaceful, she said discrimination was no excuse to “loot and burn our communities” and “kill our officers of the law”.

Meanwhile, the congresswoman Lucy McBath of Georgia told Philonise Floyd: “I know your pain.”

McBath’s son, Jordan Davis was murdered at 17 by a white man after refusing to turn down rap music in his car.

Philonise Floyd urged Congress to at least make his brother’s killing a catalyst for reform.

“If his death ends up changing the world for the better – and I think it will, I think it has – then he died as he lived,” he said in closing. “It is on you to make sure his death isn’t in vain.”

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Where’s our George Floyd?

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Where’s our George Floyd?

Written by Suhas Palshikar
| New Delhi |

Published: June 11, 2020 3:39:01 am





For the past two months, all media is abuzz with images of the suffering of migrant workers… There was no public outcry over this human tragedy and the victims themselves chose to mostly suffer in silence.

Will there be a George Floyd moment in India’s public life? Surely, it is not merely about outrage over an act of injustice. It is about comprehending the urgency of aligning with the victim; it is about realising systemic bias against the marginalised; it is about crossing the threshold of “we” and “them”. Above all, it is a moment of citizen initiative. Of late, India seems to have lost that urge to consistently relate to injustice as an assault on democracy.

For the past two months, all media is abuzz with images of the suffering of migrant workers. Two things about this suffering have been striking. There was no public outcry over this human tragedy and the victims themselves chose to mostly suffer in silence. They may have grumbled, or cursed under their breath, but our democracy does not seem to have encouraged them to really assert or demand their rights. Not just migrants, minorities too have been subjected to the untold misery of being excluded from the idea of the public. And more routinely, women, rural poor, Dalits and Adivasis have been objects of humiliation.

This begs the question: How does India’s democracy afford to victimise large sections and manage to ensure that victims will remain docile? This docility of India’s democracy needs to become a subject of introspection and examination. Three sets of answers can be imagined — answers that are generic about democracy; answers that are historical about the nature of the Indian state and answers that take us to the contemporary moment.

The practice of democracy has the notorious tendency to become paradoxical. It begins in the name of the “demos” but goes on to construct the demos rather narrowly; oftentimes, sections of the population manage to ensconce themselves as “the people”, they count as the public, their ideas masquerade as the people’s ideas. This inevitably produces a layered citizenry. Democracy also starts off by investing agency in the individuals but sooner or later divests them of that agency as interference by the ignorant. Democracy inspires ideas of rights but allows the taming of rights for purposes of order. In short, it is these tensions between the elite and the masses, between active citizens and obedient citizens, between rights and order, that mark the life of democracies. This is not merely about the distance between theory and practice, between concept and its concrete life. It is about imagining that the course of democracy is predetermined. Democratic politics needs to be carved out with effort, rather than believing that adopting formal democracy automatically ensures vibrant democratic practice.

The approach of the Indian state to citizen participation has always been based on arrogance. It is also informed by overemphasis on the rhetoric of law and order. The former leads the state to believe that citizens are not, and should not be, active agents. This means that citizens must wait for leaders to mobilise them and guide and supervise their actions. Similarly, citizens must depend on the largesse of the state in deciding what is good for them. This gives rise to the syndrome of government as caretaker/parent and leaders as political chaperons. The Indian state also privileges the idea of law and order. If a parental state negates the idea that people have agency, the emphasis on law and order legitimises that negation. Thus, the discourse of rights and individual dignity becomes permissible only if it is subservient to the statist idea of “order”.

Legislative imagination, judicial interpretation and public perception are all stacked against the idea of the citizen as protestor. In contrast to the legacy of the freedom movement, democracy and popular participation are seen, both theoretically and legally, as inconsistent with, and often even opposed to, an orderly society. Whether it be the AK Gopalan case (1950) or the many legal monuments against individual liberty such as the currently infamous UAPA, the emphasis has been twofold: That the state knows, the state is right, the state must be privileged, and that citizen action is suspect, potentially disruptive and liable to punishment.

It is in the backdrop of this subdued rights discourse and de-legitimised agency of the people that the current moment has unfolded wherein criticism is almost seditious, claiming rights for marginalised sections can be termed as waging war against the state and empathising with victims of social injustice is ridiculed or forbidden. The current regime has converted the penchant for sub-democratic state action into a fearsome art.

Since we are discussing this in the month of June, one cannot but forget the somewhat amateurish takeover of the entire state apparatus by the government in 1975. A much more concerted and systematic mechanism of silencing citizens is underway today. But it is not the repressive aspect of the state apparatus unleashed on protesting citizens that adequately answers why citizens choose to remain quiet in moments of acute injustice to “someone else”.

This might appear ironic, but in spite of a comparatively higher degree of repression, the lack of popular protest is more because of the success of the regime in constructing and popularising a narrative that not just delegitimises but simply denies the existence of suffering, injustice and victimhood. This is the narrative of subverting reality into its opposite.

In this world of alternative reality, the victim is the offender (as in case of Muslims), suffering is sacrifice if not ill-informed exaggeration (as in the case of migrants’ plight) and marginalisation or exclusion are outcomes of past politics (as in the case of Dalits or Adivasis). This narrative posits two contrasting social camps. One is the nation. It represents unity, progress and a possible millennium. All else is fragmentary and divisive. So any voice speaking of a particular group’s suffering becomes a hurdle in the march of the nation; any coalition of the marginalised by definition assumes an anti-national tenor.

Such is the power of the narrative that the facts of suffering, humiliation or injustice lose their evocative potential; they cease to scandalise, they are unable to evoke a moral response. Democracy can thus afford the co-existence of multiple injustices and a quiet citizenry when such narratives are able to reconstruct facts and convince the masses of the validity of that reconstruction. The silence today is a result of the popular acceptance of reconstructed reality and adherence to an alternative morality.

When US president Donald Trump says that George Floyd “is looking down” and saying (decline in unemployment) “is a great thing… happening to our country”, he represents the subversion of the fate of Floyd, he is rewriting the grammar of democracy. Not the killing of Floyd but the small decline of unemployment is the significant fact of the moment; Floyd would not be angry at his murderer, he would be angry at the economy; what needs to be fixed therefore, is not institutional bias against a community but the dishonour caused by the protests.

A careful reading of this response should tell us that India is truly living in its own Floyd moment.

The writer, based in Pune, taught political science and is currently chief editor of Studies in Indian Politics

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Public Opinion On Taking Down Confederate Monuments Hasn’t Budged In The Last Three Years

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Public Opinion On Taking Down Confederate Monuments Hasn’t Budged In The Last Three Years

Americans disapprove of flying the Confederate flag, but remain opposed to removing monuments and changing the names of buildings that honor the Confederacy, a new HuffPost/YouGov poll finds. Views on the issue have remained largely unmoved in recent years, a contrast to shifting opinions recently seen on some issues regarding racism and policing.

The anti-racism protests mounting across the U.S. in past weeks have also spurred a new wave of efforts to uproot tributes to the Confederacy. In Virginia, which houses a lion’s share of such monuments, Gov. Ralph Northam (D) has pledged to take down a statute of Robert E. Lee “as soon as possible,” and the mayor of Richmond has introduced a resolution to remove additional statues. The Marine Corps has barred its troops from displaying the Confederate battle flag, saying the symbol “presents a threat to our core values, unit cohesion, security and good order and discipline”; NASCAR also announced it would ban the flag from events. The Army has signaled an openness to renaming bases named for Confederate generals, which President Donald Trump opposes.

“The symbols help sustain racist policies and racist policies help sustain the symbols … To take down those statues is to make a statement about how a community’s values are changing.” James Grossman, the executive director of the American Historical Association, told HuffPost’s Travis Waldron.  

Americans say, 51% to 34%, that they disapprove of displaying the Confederate flag in public places. 

Just one-third, however, say they favor removing statues and memorials of Confederate leaders, with 49% opposed and the rest unsure. There’s an identical divide on changing the names of streets, schools and public buildings named after Confederate leaders.

A 57% majority of Black Americans, but just 28% of whites, favor removing Confederate statues and memorials. A 52% majority of Black Americans strongly favor such a move, while just 19% of white Americans say the same.

A 54% majority of Democrats favor removal, compared to 17% of Republicans. Republicans are considerably more likely to express strong opposition than Democrats are to register strong support.


Polling on Confederate symbols has proved to be especially sensitive to the way survey questions are framed. In the summer of 2017, support polls placed support for keeping Confederate memorials at anywhere from 62% (when asked as a choice between letting statues “remain as a historical symbol” and removing them “because they are offensive to some people”) to just 26% (when the choice was between keeping monuments on government property or relocating them “to museums or other historic sites where they can be viewed in proper historical context.”) 

But comparing back to a 2017 HuffPost/YouGov poll, which posed the same set of questions, the new survey finds that opinions have not significantly changed in the intervening years. Then, support for taking down Confederate monuments also stood at just 33% in the aftermath of a violent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which opposed efforts to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.



Chart showing the results of a new HuffPost/YouGov survey on Confederate symbols.

By contrast, recent polls have found Americans unusually supportive of the recent wave of protests and growing more favorable to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Opinions on the Confederate flag did shift considerably in 2015, following the murder of nine black churchgoers by a white supremacist in Charleston, South Carolina. Prior to the shooting, Americans said by a 10-point margin that the flag was a “symbol of Southern pride” rather than one of racism; three months later, they said by a 6-point margin that it was a symbol of racism. That wave of condemnation, however, appeared to ebb. In the most recent survey, Americans call the flag a racist symbol by only a 3-point margin.

The HuffPost/YouGov poll consisted of 1,000 completed interviews conducted June 4-6 among U.S. adults, using a sample selected from YouGov’s opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population.

HuffPost has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls. You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov’s nationally representative opinion polling. More details on the polls’ methodology are available here.

Most surveys report a margin of error that represents some but not all potential survey errors. YouGov’s reports include a model-based margin of error, which rests on a specific set of statistical assumptions about the selected sample rather than the standard methodology for random probability sampling. If these assumptions are wrong, the model-based margin of error may also be inaccurate.



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Nurturing South Africa’s future professionals – The Mail & Guardian

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Nurturing South Africa’s future professionals – The Mail & Guardian

SPONSORED

The Professional Provident Society (PPS) Foundation demonstrated the power of nurturing the potential of the next wave of economically empowered young professionals in its 2019 annual report, its second since inception in 2016. In particular, this addressed the National Development Plan (NDP) 2030 goal to improve the quality of education, skills development and innovation that will ultimately enable future professionals to realise their full potential.

The outcomes of the Foundation’s strategic focus were achieved by contributing and improving access to tertiary education through funding of bursaries and refurbishment of learning facilities, but by also addressing the social issues of tertiary students beyond the lecture room. These included tackling food insecurities within the student community, the enhancement of learning and experiences for students, and empowerment of young talent on the cusp of entering the job market after graduation through the LEAP (Learned, Engaged, Accelerated, Professionals) work-readiness programme.

In 2019, the PPS Foundation achieved its target of funding 60 students across various universities and institutes of technology through its bursary programme.

“The selection of candidates who are awarded the bursary was based on their history of academic excellence and merit, with the group comprising students pursuing qualifications from an eclectic mix of faculties and specialised fields. Most of the beneficiaries who receive comprehensive funding were those in STEM-related fields that complement the national agenda and socioeconomic context of South Africa,” says Masenyane Molefe, Executive Trustee of the PPS Foundation.

For the first time, through stringent financial planning, the PPS Foundation was able to wipe out the historical debt of eight beneficiaries who were burdened by outstanding fees that predated their PPS Foundation bursaries, thus allowing them to fully focus on their studies.

During the year, the PPS Foundation also supported public universities and universities of technology with work-study programmes and other development initiatives in a bid to address the challenges that impact teaching and learning experiences.

“The PPS Foundation’s effort to improve access to quality tertiary education has grown from strength to strength over the past three years. Our greatest obligation is to continue creating and maintaining the partnerships that enable our work to be done successfully in educating South Africa’s future professionals. Since the inception of the foundation, over 250 students have benefited from the bursary programme and 12 institutions and organisations have benefited from the university support programme, and we can only hope to do more in years to come,” says Molefe.

Looking beyond the funding initiative, every student needs to be fully prepared to face the reality of work in order to become a South African business leader. In 2019, 25 graduates who were placed in various positions within businesses successfully completed their tenure as part of the 12-month long Graduate Internship Development Programme. The programme was a priceless opportunity for the selected graduates to be embedded in a professional working environment and acclimate to the expectations of the world beyond their university walls.

Preparing for the world of work

More than 1 000 students from various academic institutions have been provided with skills and tools through the LEAP work-readiness programme. The programme is extremely useful for students entering the job market, because it raises awareness about the importance of personal branding through self-reflection. Students who completed the programme were able to master their first job interviews due to skills gained in communication and presentation skills, CV and interview preparation, understanding what their strengths and weaknesses are and, most importantly, what their career motives are. 

Engaging closely with the student community and academic institutions, the PPS Foundation saw the need for more than financial aid for studies and the refurbishment of learning facilities. In partnership with non-profit company Rise Against Hunger Africa, the Foundation spearheaded a food drive to fight food insecurity on campuses across the country. This entailed packaging over 100 000 nutritious meals for thousands of underprivileged students as part of the Employee Volunteerism and University Support Programme.

In 2019, PPS Insurance (PPS) partnered with the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute in an effort to nurture future leaders using the Africanised concept of leadership. About 60 young leaders were part of this insightful programme and were encouraged to continue to solve problems in their communities.

PPS is a significant contributor to the PPS Foundation, which is a public benefit organisation that relies on attracting and broadening its base of donors; it is proud to also be a beneficiary of the MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet Programme.  “We encourage members and beneficiaries of the Foundation’s programme to pass the baton of excellence and empowerment to those who have followed in the trail they blazed,” concludes Molefe.

Commenting on the PPS Foundation’s performance, Izak Smit, Chief Executive Officer of PPS, says: “We are inspired by the achievements of the PPS Foundation over the past three years. As a company that embraces the ethos of mutuality, we do not have shareholders; we have members from across the spectrum of professions and economic sectors.  We care about the professional community. We care about the positive impact that this special community can make on the world around us. We also care about the future of this community, and we’re adding to our ranks new talented members who are beneficiaries of PPS Foundation’s efforts.”

About PPS

PPS boasts in excess of 150 000 members who enjoy access to a comprehensive suite of financial and healthcare products that are specifically tailored to meet the needs of graduate professionals.

PPS is the largest South African company of its kind, exclusively for graduate professionals, that embraces an ethos of mutuality, which means that it exists solely for the benefit of its members. Thus, PPS members with qualifying products from PPS Insurance, PPS Investments and Profmed share in the profits of PPS Insurance, PPS Investments and PPS Healthcare Administrators via annual allocations to the unique PPS Profit-Share Account.

PPS membership provides access to the following tried, tested and trusted products and services: PPS Life Insurance, PPS Short-Term Insurance, PPS Financial Advisory, PPS Investments and Profmed Medical Scheme. PPS is an authorised financial service provider.

Visit www.pps.co.za for more information.



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Rohingya Boat Off Thailand Has Been at Sea Four Months: Malaysian Official

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Rohingya Boat Off Thailand Has Been at Sea Four Months: Malaysian Official

A boat carrying hundreds of Rohingya that has been at sea four months is currently off southern Thailand and has been blocked from entering Malaysia’s waters multiple times, a senior Malaysian maritime official said Wednesday.

The Rohingya on board the boat have been supplied with food and fuel by syndicates from Thailand and Myanmar, the chief of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

“The boat carrying about 300 people is in Koh Adang island (waters). We believe that the vessel departed from Cox’s Bazar in February together with the one that successfully landed,” said Mohd Zubil Mat Som, the MMEA director-general, referring to a boat towed ashore at Langkawi, an island in northern Malaysia, on Monday.

The second vessel “made many attempts to enter Malaysian waters previously but failed because it was detected by our patrols,” he said.

A Thai naval official denied that any Rohingya boats were present in Thai waters in the Andaman Sea off Koh Adang, an island near the border with Malaysia.

“Based on ship and helicopter patrolling, I don’t see any reports that we spotted (Rohingya boats). We saw none,” a Navy officer told BenarNews on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media directly.

Malaysian officials, for their part, have insisted that no unauthorized boats would be allowed to enter Malaysian territory. The boat that reached Langkawi was brought to shore only after dozens of its passengers jumped overboard and began swimming toward the island. Officials later reported that the boat’s engine had been “sabotaged.”

70 percent cannot walk

The Malaysian coast guard chief confirmed that both Rohingya boats had sailed from Cox’s Bazar, a district in southeastern Bangladesh where close to 1 million Rohingya refugees from nearby Rakhine state in Myanmar have been sheltering at sprawling refugee camps.

“The syndicates provided food and gas for the vessels. No vessel can last in the sea for four months without aid,” Mohd Zubil said.

Authorities have begun screening the 269 Rohingya who were on board the boat that landed on June 8, including for the coronavirus, the MMEA head said.

He noted that 70 percent of them could not walk properly because they had been sitting and squatting for months aboard the boat.

On Wednesday, officials with the U.N.’s refugee agency said they were still trying to access the 269 Rohingya who have been held at a detention center on Langkawi since Monday.

“At this early stage, UNHCR has no first-hand information about the group, and is therefore unable to confirm their origin or provide information about their situation,” a spokesperson in Kuala Lumpur for the U.N. agency said in response to questions from BenarNews.

“UNHCR has sought immediate access to this group of arrivals in order to assess their protection needs and has offered to support, together with its partners, the Government of Malaysia by providing immediate humanitarian assistance and protection services in line with international standards,” the official said.

The U.N. also commended Malaysia for its “positive humanitarian action” through allowing the boat to land at Langkawi – the first time in more than two months that Malaysian authorities permitted a boatload of Rohingya refugees to enter territorial waters after the country sealed its borders to guard against the further spread of COVID-19.

“Allowing for the timely and safe disembarkation of refugees and asylum-seekers is a critical and life-saving act, consistent with international norms for the protection of asylum-seekers and persons at risk at sea including the principle of non-refoulement,” UNHCR said.

‘Malaysia should send the Rohingyas to Myanmar’

A day earlier, Malaysian Defense Minister Ismail Sabri Yaacob said that Malaysia would send the boat’s passengers back to Bangladesh if it was determined that their trip began in Cox’s Bazar.

In Dhaka, Bangladeshi Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen said that his government would not take in the Rohingya who came ashore in Malaysia.

“Rohingyas are the citizens of Myanmar and Malaysia should send the Rohingyas to Myanmar instead of Bangladesh. Otherwise, they (Malaysia) can keep Rohingyas in their own country,” the foreign minister told BenarNews. Rohingya are members of a stateless minority group in Myanmar.

Meanwhile in Bangkok, human rights advocacy group Fortify Rights called on Asian countries to allow Rohingya boats to land.

“Countries in the region should urgently allow Rohingya refugees and trafficking survivors to disembark. Rohingya people are genocide survivors and need protection, not to be left to die at sea,” Putthanee Kangkun, a researcher with the group, told BenarNews on Wednesday.

The refugees from the boat should not be detained indefinitely, she said.

“We know there are more boats at sea,” she added, citing information passed on by a colleague in Bangladesh.

“We know from previous interviews from two other recent boats that Rohingya died at sea, and conditions are awful on the boats. For example deprivation of food and water,” she said.

In mid-April hundreds of Rohingya men, women and children were said to be “starving” when they were brought ashore in Cox’s Bazar after a failed attempt to reach Malaysia by sea, with witnesses saying that Malaysian authorities had turned away their boat.

During the sea crossing dozens of passengers died and their bodies were thrown overboard, people who survived the journey said.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.



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