On November 9th, 2020, the President of Peru, Martín Vizcarra, was ousted from office by the Peruvian Congress. Vizcarra was popular and supported by the majority of constituents due to his pledge to dismantle corruption by government officials. In his place, Congress appointed a little-known politician named Manuel Merino. Both the appointment and his Cabinet […]
Tag: protests
BLM Protests Challenge France’s Colorblindness
Justice Pour Adama As Assa Traoré, a French anti-racism activist of Malian descent, followed the murder of George Floyd in late May 2020 and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests that erupted across the United States, she saw in it the opportunity to seek justice for her brother and awaken a colorblind France to the […]
The Uneasy Stability of Lebanon
On August 4th, 2020, a large fire broke out in a warehouse next to the huge grain silos in the port of Beirut, Lebanon. Later, at 18:00, there was an explosion followed by a series of smaller explosions, akin to fireworks. Approximately thirty seconds later, a massive explosion that resembled a mushroom cloud wreaked havoc […]
Are Protests Powerful? (It Depends)
Black Lives Matters protesters in Missouri stand together along a highway, with locked arms, chanting and holding signs that read “black lives matter” and “say their names.” But they are surrounded. From above, the buzzing of helicopters compete with the cries of the crowd. On the ground, S.W.A.T. officers appear and the police threaten arrest […]
Front Lines: The Weak Defence for ‘Human Shields’
Picture this: a young man, branded with a nondescript sign on his chest, being paraded through villages and neighbourhoods as he only just manages to stay on the jeep that he has been so carelessly tied to. The use of civilians as ‘human shields’ in times of conflict and war is not novel or particular […]
Trump on Immigration – A Preview of the New Administration
Keeping with his campaign promise to restrict immigration from the Arab world, President Trump on January 27th began his program of “extreme vetting” with an executive order barring the acceptance of new refugees and restricting all travel to the United States by citizens of several Middle Eastern countries. The order quickly drew widespread criticism, with […]
To Discuss or to Protest? That is the Question
Berkeley’s campus atmosphere is ripe with tension from protests. Numerous campus events have been interrupted by the likes of By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) and Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists who seek to convey their platforms through upheaval and disruption. While their message is certainly conveyed, it comes at the cost of an educational dialogue, […]
December Berkeley Protests: Where Do We Go From Here?
Traditionally, the start of Dead Week in Berkeley may be known more for competition among students for coveted study spaces in Main Stacks than for large-scale protest, but the weekend of December 6th proved to be an exception. That Saturday night, the first cries of “No justice! No peace! No racist police!” began to ring […]