JAMAICAN TEACHER BRAIN DRAIN

Despite promises to reduce immigration, the United Kingdom actively recruits foreign teachers due to a severe shortage.

In 2023, the UK hired 486 Jamaican teachers, double the previous year. This has left Jamaica’s education system in crisis, with unfilled vacancies and fewer subjects for Jamaican children to study.

While low wages and economic challenges contribute to teachers leaving, what do you think Jamaica should do to retain its homegrown talent?

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GALLOWAY BLASTS SUNAK OVER ISRAEL-IRAN STANCE

Why can’t Britain admit Israel’s attack on the Iranian embassy compound in Syria was wrong? In this clip you’ll see MP George Galloway call out Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during a parliamentary session.

Sadly, he was a lone voice criticising Tel Aviv’s destruction of the consulate in Damascus on April 1st. An action that’s in clear violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Galloway lambasts other politicians for failing to challenge the government’s position. And he also lays into the media, for remaining silent. A recent interview of the UK’s top diplomat by Sky News’ Kay Burley being a rare exception.

Continued….. It was Israel’s strike that provoked Iran’s retaliatory response that saw hundreds of drones and missiles launched at Israel. The UK government was quick to denounce Tehran, but gives Tel Aviv a free pass. Mind you, have the British ever been worried about right and wrong when it comes to Iran?

Galloway reminds the PM how Britain overthrew Iran’s democratically elected socialist leader, Mohammad Mosaddegh, in 1953. He was targeted by the British and Americans for working to keep oil in Iranian hands for the benefit of his country. Apart from exploiting Iran’s oil wealth for decades through the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, Britain also looted archaeological treasures dating back to the Persian empire, which are kept in British museums. But all that seems to be lost on Rishi Sunak.

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There are fears the UK is about to make the Sudan war a whole lot worse. The Guardian newspaper reports Foreign Office officials are in secret talks with the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group. The aim, says the British government, is to improve access to humanitarian aid.

However, human rights groups fear it will just legitimise the RSF which is accused of war crimes and dent Britain’s moral credibility. A UN report accuses the militia of killing 15,000 in Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state.

Maddy Crowther, co-director of the human rights organisation Waging Peace, told the Guardian: 'I’m shocked. It feels like a terrible move. For the Sudanese, it will be experienced as a real slap in the face.'

Continued…. At least 13,000-15,000 civilians have been killed during the RSF’s one-year conflict with the Sudanese Army. Around 25 million face acute food insecurity, while nine million have been displaced internally and two million have fled the country.

In response to a Freedom of Information request, the Foreign Office said it instigated the talks, although contact has not been made with RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti. The 49-year-old is a former commander of the Janjaweed militias, the RSF’s forerunner accused of gen*cidal violence in Darfur in 2003.

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FRENCH GENERAL: EUROPE MUST INTERVENE IN AFRICA

In the face of an anti-imperialist revolution unfolding across France’s former colonies of the Sahel region, French army general François Gérard Marie Lecointre speaks in this @lefigaro clip about the need for greater European unity to re-engage in military action across Africa.

He makes clear that European action in Africa would be a matter of protecting European interests. Lecointre suggested hardship and population growth in Africa would spill into Europe and that only Europe could solve Africa’s problems.

His emphasis on European unity also sheds light on Europe’s shared supranational foreign policy.

Continued…Meanwhile, after successful military coups in recent years in the Sahel, the unity and shared foreign policy of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger—together known as the Alliance of Sahel States (AES)—have been able to combat terrorist paramilitary groups without French intervention.

It seems as though European military leaders are clear on the need for a Pan-European policy and actions. Are Africans ready to adopt Pan-Africanism?

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AAMER RAHMAN: ‘DEMS VS GOP’ NO CHOICE FOR US

Here we are again. Another US presidential election is coming up in November, and we are back to the same old, same old: Democrats vs Republicans, Joe Biden vs Donald Trump, deadly foreign policy vs deadly foreign policy. But is the ‘lesser of two evils’ a real choice?

In this clip from comedian Aamer Rahman’s comedy standup tour in February in London, he relays to the audience the reality in which our people live. We are stuck in a system that only demands that we choose in the voting booth who will oppress us and kill people like us around the world. We cannot ignore the Biden administration’s role in aiding Israel in killing more than 33,000 Palestinians while it continues to play a covert role in aiding the displacement, hunger and murder of our people in the Sudan and the Congo.

Continued…. Our people’s unwillingness to back Biden is not an endorsement of Trump. With the system as it is, we find ourselves in a lose-lose situation.

But we need not despair. All around the world, people are waking up to reality and coming together to struggle for a better world. Through collective organised efforts, change is possible.

Do you support Joe Biden or Donald Trump, or do you think it’s time for something new?

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Nigeria is taking action over its meningitis crisis - becoming the first country in the world to roll out a new vaccine that’s widely hailed as revolutionary, as it offers protection against five strains of the disease.

It’s among the 26 African nations that have been deemed “meningitis hyper-endemic” by the WHO. In the last six months, seven of Nigeria’s 36 states have registered between them some 1,742 suspected cases, and counting. That includes 153 deaths.

Meningitis can be very deadly, especially in its bacterial form. It targets membranes protecting the brain and spinal cord. In the initial phase of the roll-out in Nigeria, some one-million under-30s will get the jab.

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WHEN GERMANY TURNED AFRICA INTO A LABORATORY

Colonial Germany’s genocide in Namibia is slowly attracting the attention long denied it. But the imperialist power also did despicable things in its East African ‘possessions’ that are even less widely known about.

One of its most revered scientists - Robert Koch, who won a Nobel Prize for his work on tuberculosis - used Africans, kept in concentration-like conditions, as guinea pigs for trials of a dangerous experimental drug for sleeping sickness.

While some might put it all down to the ‘bad old past,’ as African Stream’s Clinton Nzala here explains, some things haven’t really changed.

Would you agree?

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SWAPO’S FIGHT FOR NAMIBIAN INDEPENDENCE

Today marks a significant anniversary in present-day Namibia’s push for independence from apartheid South Africa. Sixty-four years ago, on April 19th, 1960, The South West People’s Organisation was founded. It campaigned to free what was then South West Africa, from oppressive rule.

In the aftermath of the First World War, South Africa was given a League-of-Nations mandate to administer the territory that was previously a German colony. However, citizens of South West Africa were not consulted sparking resistance from the start. Anger grew further when the South African racist regime exported its apartheid policies to the region. In 1966, the UN terminated the mandate given to Pretoria, but the apartheid regime refused to comply, prompting SWAPO to take up arms.

Continued…. For the next two decades, SWAPO waged a long and bloody struggle to free their homeland. They were supported by the armed wing of South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC), as well as Cuban and Angolan military. Eventually, their combined strength on the battlefield secured victory. In 1988, the South African regime was forced to accept a UN-brokered deal to withdraw its troops from Namibia and southern Angola.

The following year, elections were held, and SWAPO’s Sam Nujoma secured a resounding win. On March 21st, 1990, he was sworn in as Namibia’s first post-independence leader.

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TUNISIANS: MORE EU MONEY TO KEEP AFRICANS
OUT? NO THANKS!

Italy’s Georgia Meloni was in Tunisia on Wednesday for talks on curbing cross-Mediterranean migration. It was her fourth visit in less than a year. Among the agreements signed was a promise for 50-million euros in aid. It comes on top of last July’s splurge - 150-million euros for curbing migration and another 150-million euros for budgetary support for the debt-ridden country.

Europe’s externalisation of its borders - which has also included deals with Libya and Morocco - has benefitted corrupt government officials and traffickers, while exposing migrants to exploitation. There have been allegations of endemic police abuse, including extortion, violence and sexual assault.

Arrested migrants have been fined and deported for illegal entry - without regard to whether returning them to their countries would put them at risk of torture or imprisonment, which is a violation of the UN’s Refugee Convention.

Continued….. Tunisia last year forcibly drove more than 1,000 Africans into the desert, with reports numerous abandoned migrants died from heat and thirst.

Ultimately, the root causes of cross-Med migration remain unaddressed. Most make the dangerous journey to Europe in search of opportunities unavailable back home. The reason for poverty back home is European imperialism - from slavery and colonisation, to today’s neo-colonialism.

As Walter Rodney opined, the development of Europe was built on the underdevelopment of Africa. What Africa needs is reparations, not financial carrots to incentivise corrupt governments to do Europe’s policing for them.

Many Tunisians are unhappy about Tunis’s deals with the EU - and came out to protest Meloni’s latest visit. In this clip, one of them speaks his mind.

Do you agree with his sentiment?

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MADURO SHREDS WEST ON IRAN RETALIATION

The world is teetering on the edge of the abyss of a world war because Western powers have been unwilling to rein in Israel, said Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

In this clip from a fiery address given during a 15 April event to commemorate the first anniversary of @nicolasmaduro’s TV programme, ‘With Maduro More’ (@conmaduromas_), he dragged the West for condemning Iran’s 13 April retaliatory attack on Israel.

Continued….. What the West does not mention is Israel bombed the Iranian consulate in Syria on 1 April, killing 16 people, including high-ranking Iranian military figures. The Geneva Conventions lay out the right of countries to host diplomatic buildings abroad as sovereign territory. Further, international law stipulates the right to proportionate responses to attacks. What would a Western country have done if a state attacked its diplomatic buildings?

This is hardly the first time the West has provided Israel with cover as it flagrantly violates international law. After the 7 October escalation in the 75-year Israeli occupation of Palestine, the US vetoed three resolutions calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. In the meantime, the United States has shipped and flown hundreds of containers of arms to Israel, which has killed more than 33,000 people. The UK has conducted 50 spy mission flights over Gaza, and Germany has sent more than 10,000 tank shells to the Israeli occupation. 

However, the West’s days of dictating global affairs look to end soon, and this head-in-the-sand attitude carries a real risk of ending human civilisation.

Please share your thoughts.

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CLARE DALY: E.U. PRESIDENT A COMPLACENT PSYCHOPATH

Clare Daly, Irish member of the European Parliament, has long shown support for the Palestinian people. Since Israel’s bombardments and escalated siege of the Gaza Strip began on 7 October, Daly has criticised the United States and the European Union for their diplomatic, financial and military support for Israel.

A few days after European Union President Ursula von der Leyen condemned Iran for its retaliatory attack on Israel, Daly called von der Leyen a ‘gen*cidal psychopath’ in an 18 April address to the EU Parliament. The EU has provided Israel with aid while it has killed nearly 34,000 Palestinians.

Was @claredalymep right to condemn the EU Commission president? Let us know in the comments.

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TRUMP NOT SORRY FOR WANTING INNOCENT BLACK TEENS DEAD

Five Black and Latino teenagers spent years behind bars for a rape and brutal assault that happened on this day in Central Park, 35 years ago.

They were all innocent.

During their trial, Donald Trump - then a New York businessman - took out full-page ads in a number of newspapers, calling for the death penalty to be applied.

That didn’t happen, but the Central Park Five, as they became known, each served between five and 13 years - before being exonerated in 2002, when the real attacker confessed.

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US VETOES UN RESOLUTION ON PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD

The US has used its Security Council veto to override - singly - the will of Algeria, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and other Security Council members to let the Palestinians have full UN membership. In all, 12 out of 15 voted for what would have amounted to recognising a Palestinian state. (Currently, the Palestinians have observer status.) The UK and Switzerland abstained.

Disappointingly, but not surprisingly, the US used a person of Colour as their envoy to defend White supremacy. It previously used African-American Linda Greenfield-Thomas to veto a ceasefire resolution on Gaza. In the lead-up to the Iraq war, Colin Powell was used to present fabricated evidence to justify war.

Continued…. Many have long questioned the veto right held by the five permanent members of the UNSC (China, France, Russia, UK, US) - pointing out that it can be abused, un-democratically, to oppose the will of the majority (something particularly ironic - or hypocritical - in the case of the self-styled world champion of democracy!).

What are your thoughts on the issue?

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