Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had called for Lisbon to find ways to compensate its former colonies, including canceling debt. The government says it has not initiated any process to that effect....
For a country that both established the transatlantic slave trade and was one of the last to continue reaping its profits – it was still using de-facto slave labour in its colonies in the 1960s – Portugal has been slow to reckon with its past.
The national school curriculum, museums and tourism infrastructure all amount to a grandiose rendering of the country’s 15th to 17th-century “discoveries” in Africa, Asia and the Americas, and a selective recollection of its 20th-century colonial exploits in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé & Principe, Goa, Macau and East Timor.
There are monuments and statues up and down the country dedicated to navigators, missionary priests responsible for the conversion of Africans and Indigenous people to Catholicism, or soldiers who fought against African independence in the colonial wars. Meanwhile, it is often said that “Portugal is not a racist country”, despite enormous structural inequalities and decades of documented discrimination. “There has been a silencing here of centuries of violence and trauma,” says Kia Henda.
It’s America’s fault because Bush invaded to “bring freedom” to Iraq and then America stayed there for seven years and this is the result a decade later. And you think America should still be occupying Iraq? Should it be annexed as the 51st state or something?
The sad thing is a significant chunk of Lemmy seems to have either forgotten America’s role in shaping Iraq into the way it is today or aren’t aware of it at all. Satayana would be shaking his head.
Until the 1990s, Iraqi women played an active role in the political and economic development of Iraq.[121] In 1969, the Ba’ath Party established the General Federation of Iraqi Women, which offered many social programs to women, implementing legal reforms advancing women’s status under the law and lobbying for changes to the personal status code.[121] In 1986, Iraq became one of the first countries to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.[121]
During the 1970s and 1980s, Saddam Hussein urged women to fill men’s places in schools, universities, hospitals, factories, the army, and the police. However, women’s employment subsequently decreased as they were encouraged to make way for returning soldiers in the late 1980s and the 1990s.[122] In general in cases of war, as Nadje Sadig Al-Ali, author of Iraqi Women: Untold Stories from 1948 to the Present, argues, "women carried the conflicting double burden of being the main motors of the state bureaucracy and the public sector, the main breadwinners and heads of households but also the mothers of ‘future soldiers.’[123]: 168 In the years following the 1991 Gulf War, many of the positive steps that had been taken to advance women’s and girls’ status in Iraqi society were reversed due to a combination of legal, economic, and political factors.[121] As the economy constricted due to sanctions, women were pushed into more traditional roles.[121] Moreover, Saddam Hussein, in an attempt to maintain legitimacy with conservative Islamic fundamentalists, brought in anti-woman legislation, such as the 1990 presidential decree granting immunity to men who had committed honour crimes.[123]: 202 However, despite Saddam’s appeals to the anti-women elements of Iraqi society, according to local NGOs, they concluded that “women were treated better during the Saddam Hussein era and their rights were more respected than they are now.”[124]
The Criminal Code of 1969, enacted by the Ba’athist party, only criminalized sexual behavior in cases of adultery, incest, rape, prostitution, public acts, or cases involving fraud or someone unable to give consent due to age or mental defect. Homosexuality per se was not a crime, but could be justification for government discrimination and harassment under laws designed to protect national security and public morality.
Homosexuality was legal in Iraq while Saddam was in power.
Edit: re your edit-
You realize that by reducing all political activity in Iraq to the invasion of Iraq, you are posing the Iraqi people as puppets with no will of their own?
No, but I am saying their will isn’t being represented. Because it isn’t.
Think the unthinkable- what if we not only still sold most of our beverages in recyclable glass bottles, what if we also offered money to recycle them?
The women who came forward against Harvey Weinstein reacted with fury after the disgraced media mogul’s rape and sexual assault convictions were overturned by a New York appeals court on Thursday....
I also wrote this, which I have said in reply to you twice now. I will bold the relevant parts to help you comprehend what you’re reading.
We have no idea if there have never been two people with the same fingerprints. It’s never been tested and there’s no way to test it since the majority of people who have existed are now dead.
And since you have decided to lie about it again, this will be my last reply to you. Go ahead and lie about me a third time if you like. Or a fourth time, I suppose, depending on how you count these last two replies.
Portugal says no plans to pay colonial reparations (www.dw.com)
Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had called for Lisbon to find ways to compensate its former colonies, including canceling debt. The government says it has not initiated any process to that effect....
Oil tanker damaged in Houthi missile strike (www.bbc.com)
A crude oil tanker has been damaged in a missile attack off the coast of Yemen - the latest strike to be carried out by the Houthis....
Iraq makes same-sex relations punishable by up to 15 years in jail (www.theguardian.com)
Amendments to anti-prostitution law also enable courts to sentence trans people to three years in prison...
Survey finds that 60 firms are responsible for half of world’s plastic pollution (www.theguardian.com)
Study confirms Altria, Philip Morris International, Danone, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are worst offenders...
What Trump’s war on the ‘Deep State’ could mean: ‘An army of suck-ups’ (www.cnn.com)
White House plans to limit Biden's graduation speeches as campuses erupt in protests (www.nbcnews.com)
Biden's 13th-Quarter Approval Average Lowest Historically, Least Popular President in 70 Years (news.gallup.com)
Iraqi TikTok star Om Fahad shot dead outside Baghdad home (www.theguardian.com)
Officials say unidentified man killed influencer who had previously been imprisoned over dancing videos...
Oh how will they survive (lemmy.world)
Sovcit had an encounter. (lemmy.world)
Happens Too Frequently (infosec.pub)
Time to unionize at Kohl's! (lemmy.world)
Weinstein victims’ fury as rape conviction overturned as Bragg commits to retry case (www.independent.co.uk)
The women who came forward against Harvey Weinstein reacted with fury after the disgraced media mogul’s rape and sexual assault convictions were overturned by a New York appeals court on Thursday....