Women in Nepal are Learning

 

Women attend a class at the Ujyalo Community Learning Center in Kathmandu, Nepal, Feb. 6. Photo: AP Photo/Earl B Mickey

South African Farmland

 Adding to an ever-increasing list of executive orders, President Donald Trump signed an order halting all aid to South Africa and offering refugee status to White South Africans.

The February 7, 2025, executive order wrongfully accuses the Republic of South Africa of enacting a law “to enable the government … to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.” Afrikaners are mostly European descendants of early Dutch and French settlers and they own the majority of South African farmland.

The order also says the Trump administration, through the Secretary of State and Secretary of Homeland Security, would “take appropriate steps … to prioritize humanitarian relief, including admission and resettlement through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for Afrikaners in South Africa who are victims of unjust racial discrimination.”

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa wasted little time in responding. According to Sowetanlive.co.za, Ramaphosa threw “down the gauntlet to U.S. President Donald Trump,” declaring that his country will not be bullied and will stand up for its national interests and sovereignty.

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“Delivering his State of the Nation Address in parliament … Ramaphosa began his speech by directly responding to Trump’s claim that SA was confiscating land,” the website reported.

Mr. Ramaphosa said, in part, “Black South Africans were (historically) deprived of land, of capital, of skills, of opportunities. Our economy was starved of the potential of its people. And that is why we need to transform our economy and make it more inclusive.”

He added that South Africa stood for peace and justice, for equality and solidarity. “We stand for non-racialism and democracy, for tolerance and compassion … . We stand for our shared humanity, not for the survival of the fittest.”

He added, that for decades, the economy has been held back by the exclusion of the vast majority of South Africans, reported Sowetanlive.co.za.

The passing of South Africa’s Expropriation Act 13 of 2024, followed a parliamentary process that began back in 2020, This new law governs the expropriation (or compulsory acquisition) of private property by the South African government for public purposes or in the public interest.

According to theconversation.com, “The act repeals the apartheid-era Expropriation Act 63 of 1975 and aims to align expropriation law with the constitution. It sets out the procedures, rules and regulations for expropriation.

Besides setting out in quite a detailed fashion how expropriations are to take place, the act also provides an outline regarding how compensation is to be determined.”

“In South Africa’s colonial and apartheid past, land distribution was grossly unequal on the basis of race. The country is still suffering the effects of this. So, expropriation of property is a potential tool to reduce land inequality.

This has become a matter of increasing urgency. South Africans have expressed impatience with the slow pace of land reform,” the website noted.

In the new book, “Beyond Expropriation Without Compensation: Law, Land Reform and the Future of Redistributive Justice in South Africa,” it states, “Racially skewed land ownership remains both a symbol and a practical expression of deep-seated inequalities in South African society that are rooted in its past.

Because of this, ‘land’ continues to serve as a galvanizing force in national and local politics. Public tensions and, at times, outright conflict over the inequitable land distribution, as well as major disagreements over how to give force to constitutional provisions aimed at redressing the inequities, have not eased.”

In Sol T. Plaatje’s 1916 book, “Native Life In South Africa,” the author chronicles events after the implementation of the 1913 Native Land Act, that gave rise to the displacement of indigenous South Africans.

That act institutionalized the exploitation of South Africa’s native population like the American system of exploitation called sharecropping which grew out of the need for former slave masters to exploit the labor of their recently freed slaves.

“There were two reasons for the introduction of the Natives’ Land Act: Black farmers were proving to be too competitively successful as against White farming and there was a demand for a flow of cheap labor to the gold mines,” Plaatje wrote.

After the African slave trade, the Industrial Revolution needed raw materials and labor to fuel a new economic engine. “The advent of the machine was transforming the (European) continent into the workshop of the world,” according to the documentary “The Scramble For Africa.”

In South Africa not only were Black farmers forced off of the land of their ancestors, but if they stayed they were required to labor exclusively for their new masters.

Before the new law, Blacks paid 50 percent of their harvest for the right to live on the land. Afterward, they could no longer benefit from the cattle they owned since the law said livestock was now under the control of the White landowner.

Plaatje explained that native Black South Africans were expected to give Whites free labor but Whites also wished the natives could in addition “breed slaves for them.”

In post-apartheid South Africa, the majority Black population continues to own a small fraction of farmland nationwide more than 30 years after the end of the racist system that oppressed them. The majority of farmland remains in the hands of the 7% White minority population.

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DNA breakthrough

Dr. Michael L. Blakey, project and scientific director for the African Burial Ground, is doing the breakthrough work at Howard University, an historic Black college in Washington.

Dr. Blakey has opened up the possibility of slave descendants tracing their ancestry to specific areas in Nigeria, Niger, Senegal and Benin. Up until now specific genetic tracing had been difficult and left mostly to guess work.

“I know that it may seem slow and tedious,” said Dr. Blakey, commenting on why it has taken from 1993 to now to make public the work done at Howard University in respect to the anthropological research. “As the biggest, most sophisticated, and most noted bio-archaeological project in the United States, one can expect unusual time, effort, and technological problems. We planned for this and are within a reasonable range of our projected time frame for completing the project.”

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It is now being projected by the office of Memoralization, under the direction of Ms. Peggy King Jorde, that reinternment of the 427 skeletal remains of Colonial-era Black Americans buried in lower Manhattan’s 283 year old “African Burial Ground” will take place in December 2000 or in the spring of 2001.

The African Burial Ground, an 18th century cemetery, was rediscovered by archaeologists in 1991 during the pre-construction surveys for a new federal office building. During the 1700s, when the burial ground was mainly in use, Africans made up from 14.4 percent to 20.9 percent of New York City’s population.

Consistent with the marginal status of Africans in colonial society, the burial ground was described as a desolate piece of unappropriated land and was located outside of the city limits. According to city maps, by the late 1700s the oldest portions of the cemetery were already being covered over by development. As the city expanded, the existence of the African Burial Ground was eventually forgotten.

On the question of origins, the historians have determined that one-third of New York’s 18th century African population was born in Africa and that most of the remaining two-thirds spent some time in the Caribbean prior to sale in New York.

“Shipping data provides information on the ports from which enslaved Africans embarked for New York,” said Dr. Blakey, of the Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Historians connected with the African Burial Ground Project have begun to track the locations of wars in the African interior that would have produced captives who would have been brought to those shipping points from which the slaves were dispatched. If, for instance, ships left Elmina Castle in Ghana with cargo of 400 slaves, these slaves would have come from a variety of ethnic groups, most having been captured in war.

“In this way we have learned that a broad range of West and Central Africans, among others, are possibly among the dead,” said Dr. Blakey.

DNA testing has been done on 40 of the skeletal remains and that is through the mitochondria DNA that is inherited maternally, according to Dr. Blakey.

“Our goal was to pinpoint the actual geographic place of origin,” said Dr. Rick Kittles, a geneticist and biological anthropologist at the Department of Microbiology at Howard University. “The present regions of West and Central Africa have historically been shown to be the origin of many of the Africans who were enslaved here and other countries.”

Of the 427 skeletal remains studied at Howard University there were 26 crania intact , which could be studied. Although Dr. Blakey cautions that the results are far from conclusive, he can safely say that there is a close match with the Ashanti.

“We do not have an Ashanti data base,” the professor said. “We need to study at least 300 of the remains to be totally sure.”

When all of the DNA work is completed there will be data bases established at Howard University; at the University of Maryland, which will be under the care of geneticist Dr. Fatimah Jackson; and at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture where Blacks of the Diaspora can have three samples of DNA taken at a cost of $350 each to trace one’s ancestry.

The success of the DNA research is the good news. The bad news, according to Dr. Blakey, is that funding runs out at the end of the month of December. “We have been funded through a system of extensions which come every two weeks,” Dr. Blakey said. The federal General Service Administration oversees the African Burial Ground Project and according to Dr. Blakey, “GSA tells us they have submitted our proposal for $750,000 to complete the DNA study to the White House Office of Budget and Management. To date $5.4 million has been spent on the Howard research by the GSA. Howard University has also contributed money to the research.

Ms. Ayo Harrington, president of Friends of the African Burial Ground, a group credited with getting movement from GSA on bringing the issue of the African Burial Ground to closure, said it is important for the DNA research to continue.

“Complete research would provide a genetic pool through which African Americans could attempt an ancestral match. In light of the premeditated practice and laws established during slavery, through which this country successfully destroyed most connections to our ancestry, there is no question about the importance of this one time opportunity for African Americans and what the endeavor would signify worldwide.”

Live Exercising

 

Q: Is it okay to exercise during Ramadan?

AM: There is nothing wrong with exercising during Ramadan, as long as you exercise during the earlier morning hours so you have time to drink some water before the sun comes up. Or you may choose to exercise after the sun goes down. I definitely wouldn’t recommend exercising at 8 in the morning and then not drinking water after your workout. You risk dehydration and harm to your body if you do not replenish what is lost after your body has released fluids through sweat. So you can get an early start, turn off the TV and exercise.

Exercising early in the morning may mean you will have to spend from 8-9 p.m. or 9-10 p.m. reading your Qur’an before going to bed. Also utilize times that you would normally drink something during the day and your breaks at work as a time to read the Qur’an–study and reflection, instead of sport and play. Keep in mind that Ramadan is a cleansing time to also give our bodies a mental and spiritual workout. It is a time to discipline ourselves by abstaining from food and drink during the daylight hours. Nevertheless, if we practice Ramadan properly, drinking a couple glasses of water in the morning to help us get through the day, we should have no problem performing our basic daily activities.

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Ramadan also helps us, as followers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, to get back on track (if we have strayed) to our one meal a day and practicing “how to eat to live.” We are exercising and strengthening our will during this time. Let us use it wisely. May Allah bless us all with success in our righteous endeavors.

Please consult a physician before beginning any new workout or dietary plan.

Your Workout

 Q: What can I do to lose weight in my abdominal area? Crunches aren’t working.

AM: Great, keep doing crunches to strengthen your abdominal muscles and help tone them. Make sure you perform exercises for your oblique or side and back muscles to make your torso well developed. One of the best exercises for the abdominals is the “bicycle.” You perform the exercise by lying on your back. With your hands behind your head, you twist your upper body to allow your opposite knee and elbow to meet.

In addition, try some Pilates (puh-la-tez) based exercises. Pilates exercises, most of which involve slow, controlled movements, help to work your core muscles, especially your abs. Check out a current fitness magazine for more details. (My upcoming Fitness Atonement workshops will demonstrate some Pilates exercises.)

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Nevertheless, all the crunches in the world will not do away with the layer of fat that is preventing your “washboard” stomach from showing. Aerobic activity such as jogging, bicycling, aerobic kick-boxing and intense walking along with a diet that limits sweets, pasta and dairy products will help you get the results you want. Also, practice having a good posture.

Get Fit

What will it take to get our body back? This is often a question many ask at the beginning of the New Year. In Study Guide No. 13, titled, “The Price of Redemption,” it states: “To ‘redeem’ means to ‘buy back.’ This suggests that the item being bought back was once owned by the buyer and for some reason he had temporarily lost possession of it. Thus, a price has to be paid for the object to be returned.”

Some of us have lost the young, strong and lean body of our youth and desire it back. Well, there is a price that we have to pay. What is the cost? Hard work (exercise) and sacrifice (giving up certain foods and our time) will be part of the price to pay. Can we afford this? Yes! But, are we willing to spend the “money”?

Let’s review the instructions given to Believers in “The Price of Redemption.” (All quotes are from Study Guide No. 13 unless noted otherwise.) These instructions, if followed and also applied to health, will help us get fit to live.

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The instructions are:

1. Prayer. “It takes 21 days, according to scholars, to break old habits and make new ones. Let the Nation of Islam get into the habit of prayer, five times a day at the prescribed time and in the prescribed manner.” According to the Random House Dictionary, “exercise” is “bodily or mental exertion, esp. for the sake of training or improvement of health É forms of practice or exertion designed to train, develop, condition or the like.” Prayer is an action that takes mental effort. It is the first “exercise” we should do in the morning. (Even some of the positions of prayer are similar to the positions in the yoga.)

“Prayer is the re-affirmation of desire. We endure by re-affirming and re-identifying our desire until we reach the goal.” (Study Guide No. 13)

2. Fasting. Another “exercise” we are encouraged to practice is “fasting.” “In Islam, fasting is an institution of the improvement of the moral and spiritual condition of human beings. Fasting, abstention from food in obedience to Allah (God), helps us build the will to resist the impediments to self-development.” We should all try to participate in the monthly three-day fast. (You should not fast if you are pregnant or nursing.)

3. One meal a day. “Eat one meal a day É it will prolong your life.” However, we need to make sure that the one meal is nutritious and balanced with protein, carbohydrates and fat.

4. Charity and sacrifice. “Charity is a principle of action which is necessary for the spiritual advancement of man. The advancement we make through charity is towards Allah (God).” We should “sacrifice” or give up that cake or soda pop. Giving up soda alone will reduce 150-200 calories a day. Give up the sweets and that is another reduction of about 300 calories. By exercising and reducing our caloric intake by 300-500 calories a day, we can lose 1-2 pounds a week! Now that sacrifice is worth it!

5. Work. “What is ‘work’? It is Force x Distance; the exertion of energy on an object that is not moving on its own, resulting in the movement of that object.” Fat will not move unless we cause it to move. It takes “work” to get rid of fat. Unfortunately, exercise is a type of work we make excuses not to do. In this day and time, we can no longer afford to make excuses for work we should perform.

Faith, Fortitude and Fulfillment

 

Min. Farrakhan with young people in New York. Photo: Earl Byte file

“When I used to come and sit at the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s table, he would mention a song; that, ‘I saw a man walking up a mountain 40 miles high, carrying a heavy load. And he said, ‘Lord, when will my help come?’—and I wondered why he would say that occasionally, and look me in my face. And then he said: ‘When that man reached the top of the mountain, he said, ‘Hosanna! Hosanna! My help is come.’”

—The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, “Divine Warning In The Time of God’s Judgment” from “The Time and What Must Be Done,” Part 10, 2013

Saviours’ Day 2025 marks the 70th anniversary of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan accepting the Life-Giving Teachings of his spiritual father and Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam (N.O.I.), the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. 

The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad prayed for a “little helper,” and Master Fard Muhammad, Allah (God) in Person, answered His prayer. Minister Farrakhan came to Saviours’ Day (then Saviour’s Day) in 1955, at the end of the 400 years of affliction that Black people were prophesied to suffer. 

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That marked a turning point in the life of the talented artist then popularly known as “The Charmer,” Louis Eugene Walcott. He had achieved fame in Boston as a vocalist, calypso singer, dancer, and violinist. 

He came into the N.O.I. as a young man, and today, at 91 years of age, his unwavering and unshakable faith has endured for seven decades. Saviours’ Day 1955 began a profound transformative moment for the N.O.I., Black America, and the world.

Personal reflection and gratitude

Brother Thomas Jehad, a pioneer in the N.O.I., witnessed Minister Farrakhan’s dedication from the early years, recalling his first F.O.I. (Fruit of Islam) class in New York and his elevation to minister in Boston. “It really invigorates all of us. If he can do it for 70 years and still be on his post, we can’t quit,” he stated.

Brother Thomas described Minister Farrakhan’s leadership as a blessing, highlighting how his humility and unwavering faith have guided and inspired so many people.

“As the Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us, he (Minister Farrakhan) would get us across the river on his back. And when he gets us across, he won’t say, ‘look what I have done.’ He will say, ‘look what Allah has done.’”

“So, we’re blessed to be living in this day and time. And I pray to Allah to give him strength and much health, and I will always be beholden to him because it was he who also got me to come back to the Nation by the way he treated me when I came back to the Nation in the early 90s. So I am grateful that Allah allowed me to see the work that he has done,” Brother Thomas stated. 

Minister Farrakhan chose faith over a promising music career, overcame opposition from the press, some pastors, political entities, and his enemies, but has remained steadfast in his mission, observed N.O.I. Eastern Region Student Minister Arthur Muhammad.

He emphasized that Minister Farrakhan brought the most charity, converts, and recognition to the N.O.I. His achievements include filling Madison Square Garden beyond capacity and organizing historic events such as the Million Man March, Million Family March, Millions More Movement, and Justice or Else! (10/10/15).

“It culminates trial and triumph and that’s what life is about. Allah gives us hard trials, and he says that it’s necessary to establish the truth. So, we see the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, as one who not only believes in the truth but stands on the truth, regardless of circumstances,” said Student Min. Arthur.

Leadership with mass appeal

Over 70 years, Minister Farrakhan’s impact extends beyond the N.O.I., as his divine guidance and leadership have shaped the consciousness of Black America, said Student Minister Demetric Muhammad of the N.O.I.’s Research Group. Minister Farrakhan’s 70-year journey should not be seen as just a religious milestone but as a transformative force in the Black liberation struggle, he said.

“When you want to talk about Minister Farrakhan, his congregation has been the masses of Black people, so you can’t look at it that way,” stated Student Min. Demetric. Minister Farrakhan has played a messianic role in the lives of Black people, which helps people see why his joining the Nation of Islam is profoundly significant, he said.

Many people, including students, professionals, and incarcerated individuals, have been awakened by Minister Farrakhan’s message from the Teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

His leadership has emphasized and demonstrated love, unity, and discipline, and setting an example by refraining from public disputes with other Black leaders. His ability to mobilize the masses and inspire social consciousness remains unparalleled, Student Min. Demetric explained.

Minister Farrakhan’s 70 years of unwavering commitment to the Teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad has also shaped both the N.O.I. and the broader Black liberation struggle, explained Brother Abdul Wahid Muhammad.

The N.O.I. pioneer has been a longtime companion and helper to Minister Farrakhan. Saviours’ Day 2025 is monumental on spiritual, historical and statistical levels, Brother Wahid explained.

“It affirms his unique role in continuing and expanding the Teachings in a modern context. This anniversary solidifies Minister Farrakhan’s position as the most enduring and impactful student of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. 

His ability to maintain, expand and defend the Nation of Islam, especially after the departure of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in 1975, underscores his leadership and divine assignment,” stated Brother Wahid, who is 90.

Noting that Minister Farrakhan has emphasized the critical need for separation (not segregation) and establishment of a self-sustaining Black nation, Brother Wahid marked this Saviours’ Day 2025 as a milestone, and he said it is a rallying call for believers and supporters to further that program and position with urgency and clarity.

“This anniversary is a reflective moment for the Nation of Islam and the world, and … the responsibility of the believers to carry on the work,” added Brother Wahid.

The Hon. Elijah Muhammad greets guest at Park Palace in New York in 1960 as with Min. Farrakhan and Min. Malcolm X in the background.

Continuing the mission and work

“It’s just incredible to see what has happened since 1955 to now 2025.  It’s just amazing to see it,” remarked Student Min. Dr. Ridgely Muhammad, manager of Muhammad Farms and a member of N.O.I. Research Group.

In 2015, Student Min. Ridgely explained that Minister Farrakhan protected Black youth and young people outraged over the numbers of Black people killed or abused by police and vigilantes. Many of the high-profile cases sparked nationwide protests calling for justice.

“Youth were ready to go to war,” he said. But Minister Farrakhan invited them to the 20th Anniversary of the Million Man March (10/10/15), called “Justice or Else.”

“In Washington, D.C., he gave them their marching orders, which was to boycott Christmas. Instead of going up against tanks and guns, take away from them (White corporations and retailers) what they love: money. Deprive them of money,” stated Student Min. Dr. Ridgely.

N.O.I. Western Regional Student Minister Abdul Malik Sayyid Muhammad linked Minister Farrakhan’s journey to biblical and Quranic prophecies. He cited the Seventy Weeks prophecy of Daniel, describing how Minister Farrakhan’s work represents the rebuilding of Jerusalem—which means where peace first started.

“Well for us, it didn’t start until that meeting took place,” he stated, referring to Saviours’ Day 1955. “Oftentimes we equate Jerusalem with a geographical location, but Jerusalem is also a people, and this whole mantra of teaching for us has been self-improvement. Clean up. Get yourself right,” he said.

Student Min. Abdul Malik Sayyid highlighted this year’s Saviours’ Day keynote message theme, “Repent: For the Kingdom of God is at Hand,” saying it reflects a call for purification within Black America and the world. He emphasized how Minister Farrakhan has urged members of the Nation of Islam to return to the warning that only our righteousness will sustain us through impending trials.

“We have to repent and get back to the Restrictive Law because we’re now moving into the period of desolation, to where all hell is about to break loose,” stated Min. Abdul Malik Sayyid. 

“He is the anointed Messiah. And he has been begging Allah for mercy on us … .”

Southern Regional M.G.T. and G.C.C. (Muslim Girls’ Training and General Civilization Class) Student Captain Dr. Nusaybah Muhammad aligned Minister Farrakhan’s 70-year labor with the 70th chapter of the Holy Quran, Al-Maarij (The Ways of Ascent).

It highlights that great ends are achieved in a long period of time, and the ways of ascent is how the faithful attains nearness to Allah while establishing that the opponents shall be met with disgrace as a new nation is raised in their place, she noted.

“Right now, we are experiencing such a turbulent time in 2025 in society. These Teachings are the method in which we elevate over the wickedness of Satan,” she stated.

M.G.T. Student Captain Nusaybah referenced the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s 1974 book, “Our Saviour Has Arrived,” in an answer to her question, what need was so severe that it warranted prayer for a helper. He writes in the chapter titled, “The Sure Truth:”

“We are now witnessing the truth being spread all over the continent of America and jumping the borders and spreading around the earth. Allah is backing up His Coming and Presence to defend the horrible plight of the so-called American Negro.  

There is no plainer truth that could ever come to both White and Black than what Allah, in the Person of Master Fard Muhammad, to Whom praises are due forever, has delivered to me, whom He chose to deliver this Message of Truth. The enemy is ever seeking a way to oppose the truth and take you and me to their doom if we are foolish enough to give a lie to the truth.”

“I thought that’s the significance of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, who has crisscrossed this country and the world representing that extension of mercy to his people, directly from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad,” Sister Nusaybah said.

Minister Farrakhan is “the one who continues to sound the trumpet of truth during the turmoil of these times,” she continued. “That’s the blessing and that’s the prayer that we would be able to have an extension, mercy and more grace from Allah,

That we would be able to have another opportunity to spread these Teachings (and) be able to get to as many of our people, help to save ourselves through these Teachings, so that we might find the favor of Almighty God Allah.”

Free trade deal with Palestine

 

Brazil has adopted a free trade agreement with the Palestinian Authority (PA) in a show of support for the Palestinian statehood.

“The agreement is a concrete contribution to an economically viable Palestinian state, which can live peacefully and harmoniously with its neighbors,” Brazil’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Brazil put the deal with the PA into effect now after more than a decade of delay to confirm the nation’s firm support for Palestine’s statehood.

Brazil’s Foreign Ministry, which recognizes a Palestinian state and allowed for its embassy to be built in the Brazilian capital in 2010, ratified the agreement on July 5.

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The trade deal between the Mercosur bloc of South America and the PA had been signed in 2011.

A foreign ministry source said Uruguay also backed the Palestine deal, adding there was little resistance since Mercosur has a similar agreement with the Israeli regime.

Other Mercosur members—namely, Argentina and Paraguay—have yet to announce their decision if they want to follow Brazil’s lead.

Ibrahim Al Zeben, the Palestinian ambassador in Brasilia, said Brazil’s decision to adopt a free trade agreement with the PA was “courageous, supportive and timely.”

He said Brazil’s move is “the effective way to support peace in Palestine.”

The Palestinian ambassador expressed hope that Palestine’s trade with Mercosur, currently $32 million a year, will expand in the future. 

Palestinian pregnant woman

 

Israel has ramped up West Bank violence since October 7, 2023, when it launched its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. Photo: AP Photo/Nabil Mohammed

Israeli forces have fatally shot an eight-month Palestinian pregnant mother and her unborn baby during their raid in the Nur Shams refugee camp northwest of the occupied West Bank.

In a statement carried by the WAFA news agency on Feb. 9, the Palestinian Health Ministry identified the victim as Sundus Jamal Shalabi, 23, saying she lost her fetus during the Israeli gunfire that also critically wounded her husband.

Medical teams were unable to save the life of the fetus as the occupation soldiers prevented the transfer of the injured to the hospital, the ministry added.

The pregnant woman and her unborn baby arrived at the Thabet Thabet hospital in the city of Tulkarm martyred, while her husband was transferred to a hospital in Ramallah due to the severity of his condition.

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Eyewitnesses told WAFA that Israeli snipers, stationed on buildings in Nur Shams, opened fire at Sundus and her husband in the camp’s al-Saleheen area while they were attempting to leave their home and find a safer location.

Early on Feb. 9, Israeli forces deployed heavy machinery and bulldozers to the Nur Shams camp and stormed dozens of homes.

Reports said that the regime’s troops blocked off access points to the Nur Shams refugee camp and converted homes there into military outposts and sniper positions.

Meanwhile, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported that the Israeli soldiers had prevented its medical teams from entering the camp, despite reports of casualties.

The Israeli military launched its offensive against the West Bank’s northern areas on January 21, claiming that it was targeting resistance fighters of the Jenin Battalion.

On Feb. 8, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry called for global action to stop Israel’s ongoing “ethnic cleansing” in the occupied West Bank.

It said the Istraeli forces have been raiding the refugee camps of Tulkarem, Jenin and Far’a and “emptying them of their residents” in a blatant violation of international law and the Geneva Conventions.

Israel has ramped up West Bank violence since October 7, 2023, when it launched its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

Since then, the regime forces have killed more than 900 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Australia Day

 

People gather in front of the Victorian state parliament during an Invasion Day rally on Australia Day in Melbourne, Jan. 26. Photo: Albert Arhó/AAP Image via AP

Tens of thousands of Australians protested over the treatment of Indigenous people on Australia Day, the anniversary of British colonization of the country.

On Jan. 26, demonstrators rallied in Sydney, Melbourne, and other cities to decry the high incarceration rates, poor health, and historic persecution of the Indigenous population of the country.

The national holiday marks the arrival of 11 British ships carrying convicts at Port Jackson in present-day Sydney on January 26, 1788.

For many activists, the day marked the beginning of a sustained period of discrimination and expulsion of Indigenous people from their land without a treaty.

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As many Australians celebrate Australia Day with friends and family, the Indigenous peoples, who trace their ancestry back 60,000 years as the continent’s first inhabitants, for centuries, have faced dispossession of their lands, endured massacres, and suffered the removal of children from their families.

Activists for years have been urging for Australia Day to be moved and for a day of mourning on the holiday some call “Invasion Day.” In Melbourne and Sydney the protesters held placards that read “abolish the date” and “no pride in genocide.”

“It is about changing the date, but it is more about making people aware of our injustices that have been since, and still ongoing since white man came,” said Indigenous woman and rights activist, Tammy Miller.

“We are still here fighting the same things that my grandparents were, but seeing all the people here makes me so proud,” she added.

In the run-up to Australia Day, protesters poured red paint over a statue of British explorer James Cook in Sydney, toppled a monument of 18th-century colonialist John Batman in Melbourne, and daubed a war memorial in the city with the words: “Land Back.”

A Resolve Strategic survey published on Jan. 24, showed that support for the holiday date has grown among Australians over the past two years from 47 percent to 61 percent.

Attitudes towards the holiday have hardened since a constitutional referendum on indigenous rights reforms was heavily defeated on October 14, 2023.

An estimated 3.8% of Australia’s 26 million people are Indigenous, official data shows.

Indigenous people still have a life expectancy of eight years shorter than other Australians, higher rates of incarceration, more youth unemployment, and poorer education. 

Patriotism

 

Major U.S. corporations are profiting far too much from the wave of patriotism that has swept the country since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, say civic, environmental and labor groups.

They are pressing Congress to delay action on a mounting pile of legislation which, if approved, would add to the windfall big business and the wealthy have collected over recent weeks.

Since Sept. 11, “members of Congress have served up a non-stop buffet of corporate pork legislation,” said Ralph Nader, the Green Party’s presidential candidate last year and the founder of a network of U.S. public interest and consumer groups.

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“Under the guise of national security, our federal treasury is being raided and our democratic rights are being taken away while Congress feeds sympathetic campaign contributors at taxpayer expense, sends working people to fight, and leaves the unemployed, the disenfranchised, and American families to suffer,” Mr. Nader adds.

Mr. Nader and others say they are incensed by economic stimulus legislation in Congress that provides more than $200 billion in tax breaks and related benefits to big corporations and upper-income taxpayers.

“Who would have thought that a national emergency would set off a feeding frenzy by corporations and the wealthy?” asks Robert McIntyre, director of Citizens for Tax Justice.

The airline industry has been a special beneficiary of the post-Sept. 11 corporate bonanza. Congress approved a $15 billion bailout of already-troubled airline companies virtually before the dust had settled at the site of the fallen twin towers of Manhattan’s World Trade Center, even while some 150,000 aviation workers were being laid off by many of the same companies.

When asked to provide $2.5 billion in extended unemployment benefits, job training and health care for those workers, Republican senators, backed by President George W. Bush, filibustered the bill to death.

“The bailout doesn’t help the workers and doesn’t help the passengers,” said John Passacantando, director of the U.S. section of Greenpeace.

The outrage over corporate profiteering appears to be growing, both in Congress and the mainstream media. While the airline bailout passed easily in early October, the House of Representatives split along party lines on the tax cut package.

“At a time when the country is being urged to make sacrifices for the common good, the idea of well-to-do Americans lining up for a tax break is appalling,” the New York Times declared Oct. 25, the day after the House approved the stimulus bill in a 216-214 vote.

“The predators of Washington are up to their old tricks in pursuit of private plunder at public expense,” declared Bill Moyers, the country’s most prominent television documentary producer and former President Lyndon Johnson’s press secretary, in a recent speech. “In the wake of this awful tragedy wrought by terrorists, they are cashing in,” he said.

Corporations and their lobbyists appear unfazed by the outrage, however. The mining, energy, pharmaceutical, insurance and defense industries have mobilized hundreds of lobbyists to take advantage of the crisis atmosphere in Congress and elsewhere in the nation by gaining favorable new legislation.

Encouraged by energy companies, Mr. Bush, whose campaign was financed in major part by many of these same industries, has renewed his drive to get Congress to approve his energy plan, which would permit drilling in the environmentally sensitive Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and expand the use of nuclear power.

Environmental groups, which favor conservation and the development of alternative sources of energy, say nuclear power stations are especially vulnerable to terrorist attack, as would be any pipelines built to transfer oil from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

“The administration and many in Congress are pushing energy legislation that will actually weaken national security,” said Brent Blackwelder, president of Friends of the Earth.

Consumer and health groups also are furious with the pharmaceutical industry’s efforts to capitalize on the anthrax scare. They highlight what they call price gouging by the German-owned giant, Bayer, which holds the patent on Cipro, an antibiotic effective against the virus.

“Confronted with the prospect of bio-terrorism on a massive scale,” said Robert Weissman, co-director of the group Essential Action, “the Bush administration and the pharmaceutical industry have colluded to protect patent monopolies rather than the public health.”

The administration has taken credit for forcing Bayer to reduce its normal price for Cipro. Mr. Weissman, however, said the price to which it eventually agreed, 95 cents a pill, is twice what the government currently spends for the same drug in another federal program.

According to the New York Times, the pharmaceutical industry spent more on lobbying and campaign contributions, most of which went to Republicans, than any other industry in the last election cycle–a total of almost $200 million. Drug firms have some 625 registered lobbyists–more than there are members of Congress.

“The nation recognizes that the heroes of the (Sept. 11) tragedy are our nation’s working people, but all Congress and the United States want to do is give more tax breaks to big business and the nation’s wealthier people,” said Mildred Brown, a recent president of ACORN, a grassroots welfare rights organization.

Tech and African Culture

 

The sudden growth of cell phones has outpaced any other new technology in Africa.

But a unique cell phone culture has evolved that combines necessity with traditional community values.

“Most cell phone owners in West Africa, for example, tend to serve as points of presence or communication nodes for their community. Other people pay them or simply borrow their phones to make calls to relatives or friends,” said Francis Nyamnjoh, a sociologist with the University of Botswana.

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Mr. Nyamnjoh cites a study commissioned by the investment banking arm of Merrill Lynch that found Africa is an ideal market for telephones but demand had never been satisfied before cell phones because of the limitations of the older fixed-line phone system.

The Internet is a slow-starter in Africa because of the expense of home computers and dependency on erratic electricity supply and connectivity to the landline phone system. But cell phones are relatively inexpensive and require no waiting period to acquire.

“Traditional African culture with its emphasis on palaver and oral storytelling boosts phone use as a means of social and family contact. In contrast, you find a terse type of communication in the West, because people don’t like to ‘waste time’ on the phone,” said Connie Manuel, a business consultant in Maputo, Mozambique.

“Contrary to popular opinion, sociality, interdependence and conviviality are not always a liability to profitability,” said Mr. Nyamnjoh.

He said the impact of cell phones on African culture can be measured by the proliferation of the devices and how they are used. In Cameroon, for instance, only 87,000 landline users exist, with their number limited by the expense of stringing wires to remote areas. Cell phone users rose from zero when MTN-Cameroon cellular phone provider began its service to 200,000 users 18 months later. Swaziland’s cell phone users surpassed landline users within two years of the introduction of mobile phones.

The more loquacious a people tend to be, the greater the second measurement of cell phone impact: average revenue per user (ARPU). Nigeria has one-sixth of South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, but the average Nigerian cell phone owner uses his or her instrument five times more than his or her South African counterpart. The United States has 1,000 times Nigeria’s GDP per capita, but revenue earned from an average Nigerian cell phone is twice that of an American user.

For a country with a low level of economic activity relative to the developed world, Nigeria has a high level of minutes of use, according to the Merrill Lynch report. On a monthly basis in Nigeria, the average cell phone is used for 200 minutes per week, compared to 154 in France, 149 in Japan, 120 in Britain, and 88 in Germany, said the report.

“This could be explained by Nigerians receiving more calls than they make, and also by the reality of single-owner-multi-user communities,” said Mr. Nyamnjoh. “This suggests that the economic and social value of a cell phone in countries like Nigeria and Cameroon are very high.”

Penangnini Toure, a consultant in Mali with the UN Children’s Fund, said, “People give the number of a friend’s cell phone to other friends, and they leave messages with him. The friend becomes a communications center. This has led to entrepreneurship. People will invest in a cell phone, and they charge people to use it.”

The problem is Mali is not obtaining a cell phone, which can be purchased easily, but obtaining a cell phone number from the country’s single cellular service provider. UN consultant Toure has waited a year thus far to be issued a number. But individuals who become mobile phone boxes with their Nokia or Siemens units can be found literally from Cape Town to Cairo.

“There’s no doubt the cell phone has contributed to economic development and social contact,” said Teresa Atogiyire, senior editor at the Uganda Broadcasting Corporation. “You have people selling phone calls by the unit, which are about 300 to 600 shillings.”

One U.S. dollar is about 1,800 shillings.

More intriguing is the way clever entrepreneurs have handled the Ugandan hills that can cut off cell phones from transmission signals, rendering the instruments inoperative. The answer is “cell phone towers.”

“These guys, they build tall towers out of timber and stones on top of hills, and put a platform on top. Up there, you can pick up a cell phone signal. A user pays 600 shillings to climb a ladder and make a call. It’s much easier than taking a bus to a place which has a signal,” she said.

African nations differ, and Kagire Danson, publisher of Central African Media Agency in Kigali, said, “Rwandans are a very proud people. We don’t share. A cell phone is considered a status symbol.”

However, Mr. Danson admits he usually takes messages for family members and friends not yet connected to the cellular system.

“A person who is at a communications center becomes important,” said Sam Ndwandwe, a communications specialist in Swaziland. “That is why Swaziland’s 300 chiefs want government to give the chiefs’ runners cell phones, because the chief’s runner is traditionally the voice of the community and the chief’s conduit to the people. How can a chief’s runner not have a cell phone?”.