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Protest in Quetta to mark 3rd abduction anniversary of Rashid Hussain

News Intervention Bureau
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Protest in Quetta to mark 3rd abduction anniversary of Rashid Hussain

On the completion of three years of the extradition and abduction of missing Baloch activist Rashid Hussain to Pakistan, a protest was staged in Quetta, capital of occupied Balochistan.

The demonstration was attended by members of student organisations including political activists and relatives of the missing persons.Rashid Hussain was detained and transferred to an undisclosed location by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies from Sharjah in the UAE on 26 December 2018, where the Baloch activist was later brought to Pakistan on 22 June 2019.According to Rashid Hussain’s family, Rashid has been illegally transferred to Pakistan by the Emirates authorities at the behest of Pakistan while Rashid Hussain’s life is in danger in Pakistan and he was living in exile.It may be recalled that Rashid Hussain’s transfer to Pakistan was confirmed by Abdullah Sheikh, in charge of Counter Terrorism Department (CTD), Karachi, through a TV Interview on 3 July.According to Abdullah Sheikh, Rashid Hussain has been brought to Pakistan through interpol.Addressing the demonstration, Rashid Hussain’s mother said that her son has not been seen since his  abduction in the Emirates.According to Rashid’s mother, her son was missing on a tip off over the ongoing atrocities in Balochistan.Addressing the demonstration, Voice for Baloch Missing Persons Chairman Nasrullah Baloch said that cases of forced disappearances in Balochistan are increasing day by day. People are being subjected to abduction  instead of being rescued. When the Prime Minister came to Blaochistan, he had said that he would talk to the powerful circles to recover the missing persons.Nasrullah Baloch said that the relatives of the missing people record their protest day in and day out so that they can convey their grievances to the authorities but there is no to hear these relatives.

Paki forces fire at innocent women in Chaghi, occupied Balochistan

News Intervention Bureau
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Paki forces fire at innocent women in Chaghi, occupied Balochistan

In Chaghi area of occupied Balochistan, Pakistan security forces frontier corps (FC) opened fire and killed one official.According to reports, a woman was injured when security forces opened fire on a Zambad vehicle at Dhadar near Dalbandin area of Chaghi.The public was outraged with the incident and set fire to the Pakistan army vehicle.While an FC official was killed by the violence by the agitators the injured woman was shifted to Quetta after she was given first aid.

Karachi civil society slams violence against Baloch women

News Intervention Bureau
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Karachi civil society slams violence against Baloch women

Female human rights activists and members of Karachi civil society, Sheema Kirmani, Uzma Noorani, Mehnaz Rehman, Sara Zaman, Sajida Baloch and Naghma Sheikh held a joint press conference at Karachi Press Club on Monday. 

While addressing the press conference, they expressed concerns over the police brutality against the families of Baloch missing persons in front of the Sindh Assembly in the past week. They termed this act as dictatorial and said that Shaheed Benazir Bhutto always gave top priority to women’s rights but today, under the PPP government, such violence against women contradicts Benazir’s political ideology.

During the press conference, the activists said that protest was a democratic right of every citizen. The relentless use of force by the police is an obstacle to fundamental democratic rights. Expressing concern over police misconduct, they said that they believed that Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah could not be absolved of his responsibility just by forming an inquiry committee.

The activists said the inhumane treatment of Baloch women in Sindh was against democratic norms. Every citizen has the right to protest and this is their constitutional and legal right.

They further stated that the problem of missing persons was becoming serious. This[enforced disappearances] is illegal and law enforcement agencies are operating illegally. Activists called for the recovery of missing persons.

Free of Charge: or, Landmarks in Secular Humanism

Scott Douglas Jacobsen
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Free of Charge: or, Landmarks in Secular Humanism

New frameworks for Secular Humanism will be required when pillars of the international community continue to enter a renewed era of besiegement. Not even necessarily directly as a consequent of the comprehension of the philosophical lifestance of Secular Humanism or of the associated philosophies related to them, where many philosophies crosslink with it, including non-theist religious.

It’s a natural outgrowth or organic consequent of neglect from monocultural views of social ideologies and religious frameworks as political tools. Think of a local context news item, you will find attempts at ‘regression’ inasmuch as history as a directionality outside of human affair vis-à-vis human affairs.

Any net vector of human history amounts to an in-practice sum over all human choices in a manner of speaking. Which seems, on first principles, the primary summation of secular humanist, eupraxsophist, philosophy, then every other empirical fact and scientific theory become the inventory of other principles taken into account, naturalistically.

The humanist manifestos and declarations for a century or so have proclaimed issues of their generations with a sense of urgency followed by a restatement – with future adaptations – of the philosophical premises, becoming less parochial, more inclusive, and more refined.

No comprehensive analysis of the humanist manifestos seems to exist, so a conversation or a series of educational conversations seemed apt with regards to Secular Humanism. A recent text with Dr. Herb Silverman was produced with this in mind entitled Free of Charge.

The attempts at aforementioned regression are not new. They represent a continuance of historical inertia with increased fervour based on changes in fundamental demographics, nationally and internationally.

The observation of legislative siege against international secular human rights and scientific frameworks based on the premises of singular transcendentalist moral frameworks comes an observation of functioning on the defensive – an accurate observation.

Individual religious hierarchs observe a retreat of the laity from faiths on most levels of devotion and continue a longstanding work of putting forth a counter-wave in legislation against the desires of the majority of the population in many cases. Nothing new under the Sun, or the Moon, here.

The only novelty is the degree to which anti-dogmatic processes have freed women and the historical underclasses while buttressing notions of equality for all under a common law and representative government.

The “counter-wave” merely reflects a state of fear, not panic, on behalf of hierarchs who, in prior moments, could rely on utter lifetime devotion – from womb to tomb – to a monocultural religious or political lens.

Future adaptations of Secular Humanism and philosophies in the same epistemic and ontic relational net will merely need to envelop these counter-waves with the long view in sight, as the scientific referents and universalist ethics seem to appeal to more of the global population than not. Otherwise, or if there wasn’t, there wouldn’t be such strident international revolt against repression.

Free of Charge was developed with this in mind.

Pakistan continues it’s evil gambit to abduct Baloch women & children

News Intervention Bureau
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Pakistan continues it’s evil gambit to abduct Baloch women & children

Forced abduction of Baloch women by the Pakistan army, intelligence agencies and its local death squad in Balochistan has raised questions. The silence of Balochistan parliamentary parties, including the international community and human rights agencies in public circles has raised questions like can the forced abduction of Baloch women stop the freedom movement? Although this fear or question is true in its place, it is also interesting to analyse as to what has led the state to immediately initiate forced abduction of Baloch women and young children?

On 12 April 22, when Shari Baloch, regardless of her young children, stumbled upon all her luxurious  and prosperous lives, attacking Chinese teachers at Karachi University only for the freedom of the Baloch nation and Baloch land. This incident  has coerced the state of Pakistan  to think that now the Balochs’ struggle for freedom has come a long way and if the Baloch struggle is not stopped now, then they will never be able to stop.

According to insiders in Pakistan’s security agencies, a policy of forced disappearance of Baloch women has been formulated by the state to end the Baloch National Freedom Movement by misleading the international community. The Baloch independence movement will be presented as a sleeper cell against international law and against women and children. Hence on this basis, the Baloch women have been closely monitored and their activities, including their forced abductions, have been initiated. On the other hand, the present Baloch freedom movement has been moving towards its destination without any closure for the last two decades. Although it has fluctuated, it has seen immense growth rather than a decline in popularity and power. The alliance of all armed organizations and the martyr consignment of the Majeed Brigade have hit the interests of the enemy and his disciples, inflicting heavy damage on them and shouting at them to strengthen their strength.

In the meantime, Pakistan’s state policy makers and security agencies tried all their inhuman and illegal tactics to bring the Baloch National Freedom Movement to a halt. Forcibly abducting thousands of Balochs and keeping them in captivity, killing them in custody, extermination of human populations in the name of military operations, evicting people from their areas, eliminating means of livelihood, abduction of women and children through local death squads for ransom and despite the burning of the village after village, including sexual abuse, and the bloody and naked dance of brutality, they failed to push back the freedom movement by even an inch. Now the State of Pakistan is determined to bury the Baloch National Freedom Movement forever by formulating another heinous and new policy of war crimes in the form of forced abduction of Baloch women but on the other hand, the new policy of the state in Balochistan is being seen to be an impression of fear among the people. Although there is a complete crackdown and media blackout on nationalist politics in Balochistan but when the actions of the forced abduction of the people come to light the people protest on national highways sans any party affiliation. It is also leading to forced release of those forcibly missing by state agencies and security forces due to public pressure which is also considered to be a step forward for the success of freedom, including failure of state institutions and public outrage. Terming the impression of the forced abduction of Baloch women in Pakistan’s state institutions as wrong, Baloch freedom fighters leader Dr. Allah Nazar Baloch said that the forced abduction of Baloch women has led the enemy Pakistani army to think that it could harm the Baloch freedom movement but it is wrong.

Today, the way Baloch women, mothers are protesting against the tyrannical army of Pakistan is the period of revolution whose aim is only freedom. Of course,  Pakistan has realized this, so with all its aggression, it has taken the path of collective violence, including the mass genocide of the Baloch people but the courage of the Baloch mothers has tunnelled the occupied state, and this is the call for the independence of Balochistan.

Sri Lankan govt gave away projects to Chinese firms without bidding: Prof. Adluri Subramanyam Raju

Sadiksha Waiba
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Sri Lankan govt gave away projects to Chinese firms without bidding: Prof. Adluri Subramanyam Raju

Sri Lanka has plunged into a deep economic crisis due to decades of economic mismanagement. The island nation is facing severe shortage of basic resources, including food grains that has led to widespread violent protests. Prof. Adluri Subramanyam Raju, Dean-International Relations, Pondicherry University tells Sadiksha Waiba Sub-Editor News Intervention that borrowing money from China at high interest rates and the lack of transparency and corruption in awarding mega projects should have been avoided.

Sadiksha Waiba: Sri Lanka, though having a small economy, has a per capita income which is higher than that of India and the human development index too was apparently better. What then led to such a massive crisis in Sri Lanka?
Adluri Subramanyam Raju: There are several factors that led to crisis in Sri Lanka: impact of Covid-19 pandemic, misgovernance, debt mismanagement, foreign exchange crisis, lack of transparency, family government instead of the Sri Lankan government introduced populist schemes such as tax cuts (that were) implemented in 2019, removal of capital gains tax, external crisis (Russia-Ukraine war), etc. These factors had an impact on the tourism industry, energy and food crisis and reduction of foreign remittance drastically.

Sadiksha Waiba: Sri Lanka has had a history of being run by members of the same family, whether it is President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, ex Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa who is elder brother to the President and other ministers in the government who are all from the same family. They have even been imprisoned on charges of corruption in the past and it is said that the power was concentrated in the hands of a single family which also led to the failure of the government. Why is it then that the people still vote for the Rajapaksa family?
Adluri Subramanyam Raju: In developing countries, people are largely influenced by popular schemes and Sri Lanka is no exception. People were being attracted by the popular schemes, hyper nationalism, etc. Majority people, being Buddhists, are happy with the Rajapakse government’s actions against the Tamils, which led the majority people (Sinhalese) to support the Rajapaksa family

Sadiksha Waiba: What government policies do you think could have been changed to avert such a crisis?Adluri Subramanyam Raju: Policies such as avoiding borrowing money from China with a high interest, anticipating the future challenges; transparency; forcing the farmers to depend on organic cultivation; tax to be collected from the employees, ethnic harmony; an alternative vision for development; accommodating minority groups into mainstream; freedom of expression etc. Further, the Sri Lankan government forgot the fact that the northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka are parts of Sri Lanka only and development of these areas reflects on the country’s growth. Most of these areas are still under the control of security forces and bunkers are yet to be removed.

Police take away an injured man during protests outside the president’s office in Colombo (Photo: AFP)

Sadiksha Waiba: In 2008, Sri Lankan ministers decided to invest in Hambantota for revenue generation by building a port similar to the Colombo business port and that’s when they loaned money from China. However, the project was not successful. Why did the project fail? Did it lead to a debt trap?
Adluri Subramanyam Raju: Construction of Hambantota port was taken as a prestigious project by the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa. However, the government did not look at the cost and benefit before having an agreement with China to construct the port in Hambantota. The port does not generate revenue, like Colombo Port. It is largely used by India while exporting its goods to abroad. It was reported that rampant corruption was involved in the project while obtaining funds from China. Neither the people of Sri Lanka in general nor people of Hambantota were/are benefitted through the Port.

Sadiksha Waiba: It’s being said that China and it’s high interest loans are responsible for the crisis in Sri Lanka. Your views.
Adluri Subramanyam Raju: Sri Lankan government gave various projects to Chinese companies without any bidding, which had given space for rampant corruption. Apart from loans taken from China, other policies are coupled for the present situation.

Sadiksha Waiba: Do you see more economies (Pakistan, Africa, etc) crashing wherever China is involved?Adluri Subramanyam Raju: As long as the aid is given by China without transparency, the respective governments tend to involve in corruption, which leads to mis-governance. Further, as said earlier, most of the aid was taken away by China through salaries of its own people who are employed and for supply of its own material in the projects. This is against the international norms.

Protesters shout slogans after setting a bus on fire during a demonstration outside the Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa Gotabaya’s residence in Colombo. (Photo: AFP)

Sadiksha Waiba: Sri Lanka is a tourism based economy.12.6% of Sri Lanka’s GDP is from tourism. In 2019 there were attacks on the tourism sector, the primary source of income, which led to a fiscal deficit in the country. Does that mean that the Sri Lankan economy was already crumbling before the onset of Covid or is Covid responsible for the current state of affairs as is being projected?
Adluri Subramanyam Raju: One cannot ignore that the Covid pandemic as one of the factors that caused the present crisis in Sri Lanka.

Sadiksha Waiba: How did an agricultural policy cause a food shortage in Sri Lanka?
Adluri Subramanyam Raju: Rajapaksa government banned the import of fertilizers and insisted the farmers to depend on organic farming. This decision was taken to reduce the Sri Lankan foreign debt. However, that decision caused food crisis in Sri Lanka.

Sadiksha Waiba: How long do you think it will take for course correction?
Adluri Subramanyam Raju: Until Sri Lanka looks for an alternative vision, apart from correcting its previous  policies.

Sadiksha Waiba: Do you think the appointment of the new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will be able to change the game and elevate the country from the crisis that they are in?
Adluri Subramanyam Raju: Ranil Wickremesinghe was defeated in the previous elections and he was elected as a Member of Parliament based on the principle of representation in proportion to the total votes his party had received across the country. In other words, people had not accepted him in the previous election but circumstances made him as the Prime Minister. His appointment cannot provide solution that the protestors want. Ranil, seen as a pro-west, he would play a role in reducing the economic crisis. However, as long as sentiments of the people are not honoured, it would be difficult to see the normalcy in the island-state.

Gilgit-Baltistan erupts in protest over price hike of basic commodities

News Intervention Bureau
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Gilgit-Baltistan erupts in protest over price hike of basic commodities

In occupied Gilgit-Baltistan, protests were held against the worst inflation, rising petroleum prices, power load shedding and water scarcity.People of occupied Gilgit-Baltistan once again took to the streets, protesting against the worst inflation, sharp  hike in prices of petroleum products, power load shedding and water scarcity.People from various political and religious parties as well as the Association of Traders’ Trade Union and other schools of thought participated.Protests were organised by civil society Baltistan while there are reports that there was a protest by the Action Committee at the main market in Gilgit as well.

Why enforced disappearances in Pakistan go unpunished

Nilesh Kunwar
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Why enforced disappearances in Pakistan go unpunished

Islamabad High Court [IHC] Chief Justice Athar Minallah’s directions that the Federal Government should serve notices on General Pervez Musharraf and all other “successor Chief Executives” [former Prime Ministers] to explain why legal proceedings should not be initiated against them for alleged “subversion of the Constitution” through “undeclared tacit approval of the policy regarding enforced disappearances,” is indeed praise worthy. Yet, despite Chief Justice [CJ] Minallah’s well-meaning and determined legal crusade against the rampant scourge of enforced disappearances in Pakistan, to expect that this repulsive trend would now become extinct, may well turn out to be a case of gross overoptimism.

In democracies, the ultimate responsibility for actions of the various organs of state rests on the elected government and hence, holding those who served as ‘chief executives’ and prime ministers responsible for their failure to prevent enforced disappearances, is perfectly in order. However, those heading the organ responsible for this horrific crime against humanity too have a constitutional responsibility in ensuring that their respective departments function efficiently and remain within the ambit of law.

Unfortunately, due the legislature being firmly under the army’s control, Pakistan isn’t exactly what a democracy should be. Consequently, prime ministers sitting in Islamabad have just no control over the Generals in Rawalpindi whose officers and soldiers are unabashedly following the barbaric strategy of using enforced disappearances as a tool to terrorise into submission, marginalised and persecuted communities, compelled to pick up guns against the state. So, making prime ministers the sole fall-guys as far as enforced disappearances are concerned may not be fair.

In his court order, IHC CJ Minallah has justified this action by stating that the government’s “undeclared tacit approval” of enforced disappearances is tantamount to “high treason” as it was “putting national security at risk by allowing the involvement of law enforcing agencies, particularly the Armed Forces.” While legal experts may be in a better position to analyse and comment on this issue, but for a layman, this court order seems to have summarily absolved the army’s top brass of any culpability in this case.

It’s no secret that the Pakistan army [alongwith intelligence agencies and paramilitary forces under its command] is brazenly orchestrating enforced disappearances by its own volition and without any reference to, or sanction from, the government. So, isn’t it strange that even when prime ministers have neither any direct/ indirect role, nor the knowledge of such acts, they would still be held responsible for enforced disappearances?

In his court orders, the IHC CJ has accepted the “involvement of law enforcing agencies, particularly the Armed Forces,” in enforced disappearances. Hence, alongwith the prime ministers, who on account of being the functional heads of the government, shouldn’t army chiefs who too are responsible for the unsoldierly-conduct of armed forces, para militaries and intelligence agencies they command also come under the accountability purview?

This is why CJ Minallah’s failure in directing the Federal Government to seek an explanation from Pakistan army chiefs as to why legal proceedings should not be initiated against them for enforced disappearances, is to say the least, inexplicable. Furthermore, doesn’t such a palpably subjective approach further reinforce IHC judge Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui’s admission before the Rawalpindi Bar Association in 2018 that “Today the judiciary and media have come in the control of ‘Bandookwala’ [army] and that “In different cases, the ISI forms benches of its choice to get desired results”? 

The Pakistan army itself doesn’t seem to have any qualms in admitting involvement of its rank and file in enforced disappearances. In 2019, while answering a question on this very issue, the then former Director General [DG] of Pakistan army’s media wing Inter Services Public Relations [ISPR] Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor officially acknowledged the army’s complicity in orchestrating enforced disappearances in Pakistan by saying “We don’t want any person to go missing but where there is a war, you have to do a number of [undesirable] things.”

Infact, airing Pakistan army’s collective view of being above the law, the DGISPR had the gall to justify enforced disappearances by saying, “It is said that everything is fair in love and war. War occurs to be ruthless”! Yet, for reasons unknown, the otherwise proactive judiciary in Pakistan failed to take suo moto cognisance of the army’s official spokesperson’s incriminating admissions regarding enforced disappearances.

Could this be a possible manifestation of Justice Siddiqui’s assertion that Pakistan’s judiciary is being controlled by “bandookwallas”?

Readers may recall that Rawalpindi took umbrage to Justice Siddiqui’s accusations of judicial interference levelled against the Pakistan army [in general] and ISI [in particular].  DGISPR issued a statement criticising the comments made by the IHC Justice and informing everyone that “honourable Supreme Court of Pakistan [SPC] has been requested [ by Pakistan army] to initiate appropriate process to ascertain the veracity of the allegations and take actions accordingly.”

What investigations were carried out by SCP with respect to Justice Siddiqui’s claims, or its findings of whether his allegations are true or false haven’t been made public. However, it would be logical to assume that if found guilty, then SCP should have proceeded against him to “safeguard the sanctity and credibility of the state institutions,” [as requested by the Pakistan army]. However, if Justice Siddiqui’s assertion were credible, then he should have been allowed to continue in office after being privately counselled by the Chief Justice of Pakistan to be more discreet while commenting on any military related issues.

However, neither happened. Instead, in a surprising move, Supreme Judicial Council of Pakistan recommended Justice Siddiqui’s removal from office for “displaying a conduct unbecoming of a judge” [without providing any further details to justify this decision], and the President of Pakistan unquestioningly and promptly accepted the same. So, expressing scepticism on the outcome of IHC CJ Minallah’s initiative to rid Pakistan of the enforced menace, isn’t being pessimistic- it’s being realistic, because at the end of the day, one thing is certain- in Pakistan, it doesn’t pay to mess around with the army.

And if you still don’t believe me, ask former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan Niazi!

Kashmiri Pandits must be armed for self defence

HVG
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Kashmiri Pandits must be armed for self defence

Killings in cold-blood continue unabated in the Kashmir valley. In the last few months a lot of innocent lives have succumbed in Kashmir to the hatred of a few and designs of some state and non-state actors. Vijay Kumar a bank employee in Kulgam, Rahul Bhat a Kashmiri Hindu Pandit Clerk in Budgam, a Hindu lady school teacher, Hindu migrant laborer, the list is growing by the day. What to think of men who would shoot at unsuspecting and unarmed men and women – brazen impotence and sheer madness? Sympathetic Muslims and non-Muslims have become targets of the terrorist attacks.

It is quite evident that the terror acts have been perpetrated to convey a message and the message is pretty much the same (since 1990s) – “Leave Kashmir or die”.

The ability to strike at a time and place of one’s choosing at un-suspecting targets may be easy, but can it be executed with such impunity without the active support of some locals?

Reasons for Increasing Terrorist Attacks

(a)       Proclaim a challenge to a strong central political leadership that revoked Article 370.

(b)       Angst over revocation of Article 370.

(c)       Angst over return of Kashmiri Hindu Pandits back to the Kashmir valley.

(d)       Challenge rehabilitation efforts of Kashmiri Hindu Pandit.

(e)       Make local administration’s job difficult.

(f)        Prevent influx of non-native business and industry.

(g)       Make the destination un-attractive for foreign investment.

(h)       Reset the environment within the Kashmir valley to the times when terror reigned supreme.

(i)        De-stabilise the return of Kashmiri awam to the mainstream.

It is for the political dispensation to conceive of a solution to this prolonged stratagem of terror by our foes. To battle a diabolic design, seemingly draconian solutions may have to be adopted. The use of technology like facial recognition to combat terror is already employed by countries like the USA.

Possible solutions

(a)       Arm the Kashmiri Hindu Pandit both physically and mentally. Train them on the use of fire arms, use of communication systems, etc., for their self-protection.

(b)       Identification of vulnerable persons, communities, pockets of habitation that require protection and arrange for the same as practicable.

(c)       Establish a larger and more effective local spy network.

(d)       Use of technology such as facial recognition (FACE).

(e)       Use of drones for surveillance by day and night.

(f)        Use of armed drones for deterrence.

Response of all stakeholders shall have a bearing to the Kashmir woe. The Government of India and Administrator of Kashmir, majority community, minority communities, security forces, intelligence agencies and media – all need to play their parts diligently to ensure peace and progress.

The government has to communicate to the Kashmiri awam very clearly their objectives and methodologies for achieving those objectives. That must necessarily include their views on taking all communities together, handling dissent, and managing disturbance & terrorism. A clear communication is vital to keep distrust at bay and give a chance for all communities and enterprises to thrive in fairness. The need to balance securing freedom / viewpoints of minority communities against protecting legitimate interests / viewpoints of majority will be a challenge to contend with. The use of pervasive technologies like FACE that are invasive in nature ought to be undertaken with empathy and ethically. The need to dispel concerns of people abundantly before deploying such technology cannot be over-emphasized.

Understanding needs to dawn on the majority community that their progress is tied to the progress of other minority communities in the region. In a spirit of brotherhood, the conscientious ought to be more vocal in their support to the minorities and make genuine efforts to integrate the minorities. Only a people’s movement that propagates shunning of hate and violence can change the tide.

The chorus call of the Kashmiri Hindu Pandit community to the government for protection, or witness another mass exodus of the community from the valley is questionable. The community needs to understand that the meek will be bullied. They have to stand up on their two feet and “face the devil if not take the fight to him”. They have to stop running, become mentally strong and rise up to the occasion. The government, administration and the security forces can only provide protection as much as their bandwidths permit. To expect protection all times of day and night and at every nook and cranny is being unreal. Therefore, the Kashmiri Hindu Pandit community needs to train themselves for self-protection and become self-reliant. Sacrifices will have to be made. The community will have to be prepared for the same. Time demands they be brave and fight for survival and for their homeland. They have the backing of the government, security apparatus and the people of India, this time round. If they choose to get bullied, their survival in Kashmir will be jeopardized permanently. So, it is time for Kashmiri Hindu Pandit to stop threatening the government about mass exodus and face the challenge squarely.  

Winning hearts and minds of the local population while discharging their duties firmly is a “constant” that security forces have to deliver on. Coordination between the administration, army, police, state intelligence bureau and other security forces and their integration over technology platforms like facial recognition and other surveillance grids will require diligence and maturity.

Time appears ripe for highlighting and effectively publicizing the plight of Kashmiris in PoK to the Kashmiri awam and the politico-socio-economic state of Pakistan. Native media has an onerous role to play in showcasing the evolution of a failed state like Pakistan and benefits of a mature democracy like India.Kashmir was and has always been an integral and inalienable part of India. The prosperity of Kashmir rests on the shoulders of all stakeholders and their ability to live with “plurality”.

Prof. Vaknin on Misogyny and Misandry

Scott Douglas Jacobsen
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Prof. Vaknin on Misogyny and Misandry

Prof. Shmuel “Sam” Vaknin (YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Amazon, LinkedIn, Google Scholar) is the author of Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited (Amazon) and After the Rain: How the West Lost the East (Amazon) as well as many other books and ebooks about topics in psychology, relationships, philosophy, economics, international affairs, and award-winning short fiction. He was Senior Business Correspondent for United Press International (February, 2001 – April, 2003), CEO of Narcissus Publications (April, 1997 – April 2013), Editor-in-Chief of Global Politician (January, 2011 -), a columnist for PopMatters, eBookWeb, Bellaonline, and Central Europe Review, an editor for The Open Directory and Suite101 (Categories: Mental Health and Central East Europe), and a contributor to Middle East Times, a contributing writer to The American Chronicle Media Group, Columnist and Analyst for Nova Makedonija, Fokus, and Kapital, Founding Analyst of The Analyst Network, former president of the Israeli chapter of the Unification Church‘s Professors for World Peace Academy, and served in the Israeli Defense Forces (1979-1982). He has been awarded Israel’s Council of Culture and Art Prize for Maiden Prose (1997), The Rotary Club Award for Social Studies (1976), and the Bilateral Relations Studies Award of the American Embassy in Israel (1978), among other awards. He is Visiting Professor of Psychology, Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia (September, 2017 to present), Professor of Finance and Psychology in SIAS-CIAPS (Centre for International Advanced and Professional Studies) (April, 2012 to present), a Senior Correspondent for New York Daily Sun (January, 2015 – Present), and Columnist for Allied Newspapers Group (January, 2015 – Present). He lives in Skopje, North Macedonia with his wife, Lidija Rangelovska. Here we talk about misogyny and misandry.

*Previous interviews listed chronologically after interview.*

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Misogyny and misandry, what defines them?

Prof. Shmuel “Sam” Vaknin: Misogyny and misandry are forms of inverted gender dysphoria, actually. It is hatred, resentment, and revulsion brought on by the opposite sex. It encompasses all aspects and dimensions of the hate figure and in this sense, it is akin to racism.

Jacobsen: Historically, how have misogyny and misandry manifested in partnerships, in individual social settings, and in cultures at large?

Vaknin: Misogyny has been the patriarchal organizing principles of all societies from the agricultural revolution to this very day. It permeated all institutions, from the family to the Church to the state.

Misogyny was mainly intended to restrict the freedoms of women in order to prevent them from procreating extradyadically and thus secure the intergenerational transfer of wealth to the male’s rightful offspring.

Misandry is the reaction of some waves of feminism in the past 150 years or so. It is visceral and bitter, but not nearly as organized and institutionalized as misogyny.

Recently both are on the increase.

Jacobsen: As you note in several productions, there are obvious cases of a ‘rollback’ of women’s rights in the United States through murmurings of repeals of Roe v Wade and in state legislatures, in Russia with the (re-)legalization – in a manner of speaking – of domestic abuse, in Afghanistan with women confined to the home, in Ethiopia with sexual violence (by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces), in Turkey via withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention, and in online hate groups comprised of resentful, bitter, anomic, hopeless, potentially mentally ill, batches of men in MGTOW (Men Going Their Own Way), Black Pillers, Red Pillers, Incels (Involuntary Celibates), generic male supremacists, PUAs (Pick Up Artists), MRM men (Men’s Rights Movement), TFLers (True Forced Loners), and so on. These men, young and old alike, seem composed of anomie, despair, and porcelain, transmogrified into contempt for the Other. Do these seem like a disunified variegated ‘wave’ of anti-women sentiments and acts by men online and offline around the world?

Vaknin: Some men are fighting back against what they perceive to be the ominous usurpation of rights and powers by women. They are also aghast at the way women have appropriated stereotypical male behaviors, such as promiscuity.

The counter-movement started off in disparate groups but now has coalesced into an agenda that is promoted by lawmakers all over the world. The backlash is fierce. Men are still the gatekeepers in most countries in the world. This doesn’t bode well for women. Legal rights and access to services such as healthcare and educations are being rolled back and freedoms are curtailed.

Women are bound to be radicalized by such counter-reform. They are likely to become way more militant and masculinized. They are shunning men in growing numbers and resorting to male substitutes even when it comes to procreation: donor sperm and IVF.

Jacobsen: What seems like the psychology of the men with the authority to impose these ‘rollbacks’ in legislation and socio-cultural life?

Vaknin: This is a state of panic, both moral and operational. Inter-gender morality was imposed by men in order to preserve the “purity” of women and their role as domestic comforters-in-chief. As power shifted from men to women, this ideal has been shattered.

Moreover, women emulate aggressive, ambitious men. In multiple studies, women described themselves in exclusively masculine terms. They have been taking away men’s jobs for well over a hundred years now. They are way more educated than men so men feel absolutely threatened, very much like a species going extinct.

Men who react adversely to the ascendance of women and the emergence of a unigender world via legislation and politics are anxious, sociosexually restricted, narcissistic (but not psychopathic), insecure, and, in some cases, with a conflicted sexual and gender identity.

Jacobsen: What seems like the psychology of the men in these international, disparate online groups, who even create their own lingo, patois?

Vaknin: These are rabid misogynists who have created an ideology around their deep-seated, irrational, and pathological hatred. They have primitive defenses, are highly narcissistic and even psychopathic, and tend to externalize aggression. They tend to hold grudges and grievances, ruminate and fixate, and be vengeful and hypervigilant.

Jacobsen: You agree with First Wave Feminism and Second Wave Feminism, and disagree with Third Wave Feminism and Fourth Wave Feminism. What defines them?

Vaknin: First and second wave feminisms (in plural: there are many schools) were focused on leveling the playing field and fighting abusive and exploitative practices such as prostitution and pornography.

Starting with the suffragettes, they focused on the franchise (the right to vote), equal wages, access (to healthcare, education, the workplace, daycare), revising the dress code (“rational dress”), the right to own and dispose of property, and converting marriage from indentured bondage to an intimate, hopefully lifelong equal partnership.

The third wave was a psychopathic outgrowth. While claiming to be inclusive and permissive, it was a defiant and reckless attempt to “empower” women by eliminating all boundaries, conventions, and mores of any kind in all fields of life.

What women have garnered from the confluence of the three waves is that they should make their careers the pivot of their lives, avoid meaningful, committed relationships with men, and pursue sex as a pastime with any man.

Ironically, the third wave played right into the hands of predatory men (“players”) who took advantage of the newfangled promiscuity while assiduously avoiding any hint of commitment or investment. Third wave feminists internalized the male gaze (“internalized oppression”) and pride themselves on being “sluts”.

The fourth wave of feminism is focused on real problems such as sexual harassment, rape, and body shaming as well as intersectionality (discrimination of women who belong to more than one minority). In many ways, it is an offshoot of second wave feminism.

Jacobsen: Even within these four waves of feminism, what seem like the most laudable portions and the most contemptible parts of each?

Vaknin: First, second, and fourth wave feminisms are legitimate movements which have improved and strengthened societies around the world by integrating women in the social and economic fabrics of their milieus.

The third wave was utterly destructive. It hijacked the feminist message and precipitated the gender wars which are threatening to undo the accomplishments of the first and second waves.

Moreover: corporate interested coopted the messaging of the third wave to encourage women to remain single and promiscuous in order to encourage their participation in the labor force and thus convert them into consumers.

Jacobsen: Since history cannot be rewritten in actuality, though can be erased and rewritten in records, what might Fifth Wave Feminism incorporate as lessons from the previous four to correct course from the clear antipathy between the sexes – maintaining the proper equalitarian victories and jettisoning the improper inegalitarian losses?

Vaknin: Feminism needs to fight the patriarchy and its discriminatory practices – not men. It needs to recognize that men and women are equal, but not identical. It needs to encourage women to adopt boundaried sexuality and the formation of intimate partnerships, cohabitation households, and families with men (or women, if they are so inclined). It needs to expose the way business and the third wave end up disempowering women like never before.

Jacobsen: How can science on sex and gender clarify the fact from the fiction, as the sea floor of these waves – so to speak? Something to set limits on conversation based on reality in contrast to discourses entirely in the realm of fantasy.

Vaknin: I dealt with this at length in the interview I gave you about gender wars https://newsintervention.com/prof-sam-vaknin-on-the-gender-wars/

Jacobsen: How might such a fifth wave grounded in science inform international human rights discourse, national legislation, sociocultural lives, families, and individual self-identification?

Vaknin: Women are not a minority. Numerically, they are a majority. Their situation is reminiscent of apartheid in South Africa and needs to be tackled with the same tools: nonviolent resistance; truth and reconciliation; a peaceful and consensual transfer of power; an integrated society with no discrimination or subterfuge; equal rights and obligations while recognizing the uniqueness of each constituency.

Shoshanim: Thanks much, Prof. Samuel.

Vaknin: You are very welcome. May we both live to see the day men and women love each other the way they should.

Previous Electronic ‘Print’ Interviews (Hyperlinks Active for Titles)

“Prof. Sam Vaknin on Narcissism in General”

(News Intervention: January 28, 2022)

“Prof. Sam Vaknin on Cold Therapy (New Treatment Modality)”

(News Intervention: January 30, 2022)

“Prof. Sam Vaknin on Giftedness and IQ”

(News Intervention: February 2, 2022)

“Prof. Sam Vaknin on Religion”

(News Intervention: February 11, 2022)

“Prof. Sam Vaknin on Science and Reality”

(News Intervention: April 30, 2022)

“Prof. Sam Vaknin on the Gender Wars”

(News Intervention: May 21, 2022)

“Prof. Sam Vaknin on Psychological Growth”

(News Intervention: May 24, 2022)

“Prof. Sam Vaknin on Structure, Function, Society, and Survival”

(News Intervention: May 26, 2022)

“Prof. Vaknin on Chronon Field Theory and Time Asymmetry”

(News Intervention: May 28, 2022)

“Prof. Vaknin on Genius and Insanity”

(News Intervention: June 1, 2022)

“Prof. Vaknin on Freedom of Expression”

(News Intervention: June 10, 2022)

Previous Interviews Read by Prof. Vaknin (Hyperlinks Active for Titles)

“How to Become the REAL YOU (Interview, News Intervention)”

(Prof. Sam Vaknin: January 26, 2022)

“Insider View on Narcissism: What Makes Narcissist Tick (News Intervention)”

(Prof. Sam Vaknin: January 29, 2022)

“Curing Your Narcissist (News Intervention Interview)”

(Prof. Sam Vaknin: January 31, 2022)

“Genius or Gifted? IQ and Beyond (News Intervention Interview)”

(Prof. Sam Vaknin: February 3, 2022)

“Thrive: Your Future Path to Growth and Change (News Intervention Interview)”

(Prof. Sam Vaknin: May 25, 2022)

Previous Interviews Interpreted by Prof. Vaknin (Hyperlinks Active for Titles)

“Your Narcissist: Madman or Genius? (Based on News Intervention Interview)”

(Prof. Sam Vaknin: June 3, 2022)

Image Credit: Sam Vaknin. 

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