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Before I get into the topical stuff I have opted for today, In the current mode of attempting to get the group well established and built up.
💯Group Mission For The Day: Post one link to a news / editorial / opinion piece.💯
To Our Theme of the day — Federalism — Separation — One Nation
Federation, Separation, or One Nation? The various systems of government grown out of either necessity or conquest history and sometimes because it was imposed have resulted in many nations with combinations of government. In some places, they grow stronger because of of it while in other places they grow weaker. Unfortunately in some places they grow into civil war. Today, taking a look around various places where debates about forms of federalism are taking place. In some plaes they take place in media, in some places in streets, and in some places along battle fronts.
📚 Over In Spain / Catalonia: Just this week, there were regional elections. With the pro-independence party making a good showing. Catalonia has attempted to secede from Spain for a long time. This time though protests are over “freedom of speech” triggered by arrest of star rapper Pablo Hasel. The arrest was for “glorifyng Terrorism” and insulting the monarchy. Protests, riots, and strokes were running for a week. The parliamentary coalition running central/federal government is split over the issue. How big is the rift is yet to be seen.
A Photo collection over at Al Jazeera In Pictures: Protests over jailing of Spanish rapper turn violent
Protesters threw bottles at police, set fire to containers and damaged shops in Barcelona on Saturday in a fifth night of clashes and protests sparked after a rapper was jailed for “glorifying terrorism” and insulting royalty in his songs.
The nine-month sentence of Pablo Hasel, known for his virulently anti-establishment raps, has triggered a debate over freedom of expression in Spain, as well as protests that have at times turned violent.
📚 Over In Nigeria: Decades long debate that involved civil wars, regionals separations and reassociation, numerous coups. While the federal governments have akways propounded one nation formulae, the debate is yet again in many media how to reorganize.. However The Guardian (The one in Nigeria, not the one in UK) has gone with multiple opinion pieces in favour of talking about and promoting federalism. One even mentioned a meta-style federalism of 5 levels of federalism. However I have opted to include columnist Sunday Onyemaechi Eze writing with title Living in denial of its division as it explores and lays out an overarching arguement.
Nigeria is a country living in denial of its division, challenges and troubled chequered history. Anybody who lays claim to the fact that the country is one is living in illusion or outrightly delusional. Right before and after independence, there was already a misunderstanding and suspicion accompanied by regional power intrigues which characterised that era. People could not see the cold war brewing among the regional trio. The three regional leaders of Azikiwe, Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello did not buy into the same thinking and understanding of what Nigeria should or ought to be. One should have possibly seen that from their dress codes, mannerism, regional policies, and commentaries. While the south-east and west were ready for independence, the North has to be waited for another three years to be ready. The pre and post-independent political events and the unfortunate civil war was a sore reminder of our continuous troubled history.
📚 Still In Nigeria: Contributing to the same debate and firmly on side of federalism as well, editorial at the Punch goes with Averting Nigeria’s catastrophic collapse in all bold lettering for the whole editorial citing the most famous dictator in Nigeria (famous I said, not infamous).
The red flag by a former military head of state, Abdulsalami Abubakar, that the country could disintegrate amid ongoing convulsions should compel immediate interventions by all critical stakeholders. His warning was hinged on an unprecedented level of insecurity featuring daring, spectacular acts of criminality, bitter feuding among ethnic nationalities, a dysfunctional national government, mass poverty and joblessness, restive youth and increasingly voiced loss of confidence in the union by significant segments.
Abubakar, who handed over power to civilians 22 years ago and heads the National Peace Committee, joins the lengthening list of eminent personages voicing alarm at the country’s plunge towards state failure; “Tension has been growing and embers of disunity, anarchy and disintegration are spreading fast and if care is not taken, this might lead us to a point of no return,” he warned.
📚 Popping into UAE (United Arab Emirates): No mention of BBC: The Missing Princess. However Columnist Anamika Chatterjee shares a personal experience of watching the Anthony Hopkins movie The Father in Dubai based Khaleej Times in a column titled Somebody I Used To Know.
The Father just wouldn’t stop hitting the raw nerve.
“Will you be able to handle it?” my partner asked. “Yes,” I said firmly, even though I wasn’t sure if I could. It was his birthday, and we thought of marking the occasion with our favourite pastime — watching movies. I had chosen the new Anthony Hopkins film, The Father. I knew it wasn’t a happy story, and I wasn’t sure if I could stomach its premise — the world seen through the eyes of an old man suffering from dementia. Having a mother suffering from Alzheimer’s and lost an aunt to dementia, the pain of being forgotten is deeply embedded in the psyche of our family. It also did not help that The Guardian’s review of the film warned, “It’s an experience many people will understandably want to avoid, existing just too close to home for a lot of us, easily swapping Hopkins and inserting a family member in his place.”
📙📒 In HongKong based SCMP joint opinion piece by Fan Yang and Robbie Fordyce write How Facebook’s Australia news ban could pave way for WeChat model.
Facebook’s “news ban” in response to Australia’s proposed media bargaining code has been hard to miss if you have spent any time on social networks in the past day or so. The social media platform has effectively halted all posting of links from Australian news pages and stopped people in
Australia from posting or viewing international news as well.
The change happened overnight, and may be undone if either Australia or Facebook backs down. But if the current situation continues, it may leave Facebook operating much more like the Chinese platform
WeChat, where news is ruled by platform-specific content houses cranking out huge volumes of low-quality articles. And that might suit Facebook quite well – if not the public.
Enjoy the day.
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- MOT (Morning Open Thread): Goes live at 03:30 west coast ( 06:30 US east coast). Same time as us.
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Schedule for Hosting Open Thread
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This is an open thread:
Mission for all post one link to an opinion / editorial / analysis / news item.