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It’s Tiring – UK-Based Nigerian Lady Laments Constant ‘Billing’ From Relatives In Nigeria (Video)
Friday, 02 December 2022 02:48 Written by ToriUK Police Detain Man For Throwing Eggs At British Monarch, King Charles III
Thursday, 10 November 2022 01:30 Written by SAHARAREPORTERSAccording to a video footage, several eggs were seen in motion and smashed on the ground; none appeared to hit the royal couple.
Aman has been detained by the British police for allegedly thrown eggs at King Charles III and Camilla, the queen consort, as they walked in the northern England city of York.
According to a video footage, several eggs were seen in motion and smashed on the ground; none appeared to hit the royal couple.
Washington Post reports that the incident happened as the monarch and his wife were entering York through Micklegate Bar, a medieval gateway where monarchs are traditionally welcomed to the city.
Britain’s PA news agency reported that the man shouted “this country was built on the blood of slaves” as several police officers could be seen grappling with the man at a crowd barrier as he was being detained.
Meanwhile; Charles and Camilla also are due to visit the city’s cathedral, York Minster, and unveil a statue of Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September.
SaharaReporters had in September also reported that the an Oxford history lecturer was detained and transported to a police van during the proclamation of King Charles III for yelling "who elected him?”
Symon Hill, 45, who described his ordeal to Oxford Mail, had expressed concern over the British people being forced to accept a Head of State without a democratic election.
Hill said he came across the procession on his way from church, and while bystanders urged him to keep quiet, he responded: “A head of state has been imposed on us without our consent.”
“Two people near me turned to me and told me to shut up, which they have every right to do, and I told them I didn’t think a head of state should be imposed on us,” Hill said.
“I feel very surprised and very shaken, and I feel like my free speech and my dignity as a person has been attacked simply because I expressed an opinion,” he added.
The British constitutional monarchy, according to Hill's protest, will be out of style in 2022, along with other anti-monarchy demonstrators in the UK.
A 22-year-old woman, with a protest sign, was also arrested outside St Giles’ Cathedral, where the Queen’s coffin was due to be held.
Shortly after she held out her sign, police officers appeared behind her and took her away, prompting the crowd to applaud.
While a man in the crowd shouted “Let her go, it’s free speech,” others in the crowd said the lady ought to have some respect for the departed queen.
Popular News
How whiteness was invented and fashioned in Britain’s colonial age of expansion
Thursday, 20 October 2022 02:50 Written by theconversationBeverly Lemire, University of Alberta
Fashion is political — today as in the past. As Britain’s Empire dramatically expanded, people of all ranks lived with clothing and everyday objects in startlingly different ways than generations before.
The years between 1660 and 1820 saw the expansion of the British empire and commercial capitalism. The social politics of Britain’s cotton trade mirrored profound global transformations bound up with technological and industrial revolutions, social modernization, colonialism and slavery.
As history educators and researchers Abdul Mohamud and Robin Whitburn note, the British “monarchy started the large-scale involvement of the English in the slave trade” after 1660.
Vast profits poured in from areas of plantation slavery, particularly from the Caribbean. The mass enslavement of Africans was at the heart of this brutal system, with laws and policing enforcing Black subjugation in the face of repeated resistance from enslaved people.
Western fashion reflected the racialized politics that infused this period. Indian cottons and European linens were now traded in ever-rising volumes, feeding the vogue for lighter and potentially whiter textiles, ever more in demand.
My scholarship explores dimensions of whiteness through material histories — how whiteness was fashioned in labour structures, routines, esthetics and everyday practices.
Whiteness on many scales
Enslaved men and women were never given white clothes, unless as part of livery (servants’ uniforms, which were sometimes very luxurious). Wearing white textiles became a marker of status in urban centres, in colonizing nations and in colonies. Textile whiteness was a transient state demanding constant renewal, shaping ecologies of style. The resulting Black/white dichotomy hardened as profits from enslavement soared, with a striking impact on culture.
Whiteness in clothing, decor and fashion was amplified, becoming a marker of status. Elaborate washing techniques were used to achieve material goals.
British sociologist Vron Ware emphasizes “the importance of thinking about whiteness on many different scales,” including “as an interconnected global system, having different inflections and implications depending on where and when it has been produced.” Accordingly, fabrics, laundry and fashion were entangled in imperial aims.
Pristine whiteness in garments
Laundering was codified in household manuals from the late 1660s, a chore overseen by housewives and housekeepers. Women with fewer options sweated over washtubs, engaged in ubiquitous labour with the aim of pristine whiteness.
In colonial and plantation regions, where lightweight fabrics were key, Black enslaved women were tasked with this never-ending drudgery. Only a few profited personally from their fashioning skills.
This workforce was vast. Yet few museums have invited visitors to consider the processes of soaking, bleaching, washing, blueing, starching and ironing required by historic garments.
A recent exhibit at
.Laundry labour of enslaved women
The skilled labour of enslaved women was a core component of every plantation and an essential colonial urban trade, given the resident population and many thousands of seafarers and sojourners arriving annually in the Caribbean — all wanting clothes refreshed.
Ports throughout the Atlantic were stocked with wash tubs and women labouring over them. Orderly material whiteness was the aim. Mary Prince recorded her thoughts about a demanding mistress in Antigua, who gave the enslaved Prince weekly “two bundles of clothes, as much as a boy could help me lift; but I could give no satisfaction.”
Prince only earned money laundering for ships’ captains during her “owners’” absence. Within port cities, including the Caribbean and imperial centres, this trade allowed some enslaved women mobility and sometimes self-emancipation. But fashioning whiteness was a fraught process, with many historical threads.
Colour scrubbed from recovered statues
From the 1750s, European fashion and artistic style was increasingly inspired by perceptions of the classical past. Countless portraits were painted of wealthy people as Greek gods, the classical past becoming, as cultural theorist Stuart Hall observed, a “myth reservoir.” These became sources for imagining Europe’s origins and destiny.
European scholars and the educated public viewed this cultural lineage as white. Remnants of polychrome colouring was scrubbed from recovered Greek sculptures.
This supposed heritage of a white classical past defined what became known as neoclassical styles further expanding the craze for light, white gowns, a political fashion needing endless care.
In this era, “the term classical was not neutral,” as art historian Charmaine Nelson explains, “but a racialized term …” Nelson states that the category “classical” also defined the marginalization of Blackness as its antithesis.
Today, some scholars are wrestling with the legacy of racism built into classical studies.
Racialized masquerade
Neoclassical gowns reflected this zeitgeist, as ladies disported themselves as Greek goddesses. Ladies’ magazines urged readers to play-act as deities. Simple socializing en vogue would not suffice. Fashion required a wider stage.
Masquerade balls became the venue where whiteness and empire aligned, as goddesses robed in white mingled with guests in blackface or regalia appropriated from colonized peoples.
Masquerades became staple occasions, revels led by royals, nobles and those enriched through trade and slave labour.
Race hierarchies enforced
Seemingly banal routines (and stylish affairs) reveal cultural facets of empire where race hierarchies were reinforced. In this era, everyday dress and celebratory fashions demanded relentless attention.
These routines were enmeshed with empire and race, whether in the colonial Caribbean or a London grand masquerade.
The proliferation of white linens and cottons were purposefully employed to enforce hierarchies. The rise of white clothing and neoclassical style can be better understood by addressing mass enslavement as an economic, political and cultural force shaping styles, determining vogues and promoting the fashions of whiteness.
Beverly Lemire, Professor, Department of History, Classics and Religion, University of Alberta
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Nigerian doctors recruited to work in UK hospitals lament 'exploitation and slave labour’
Tuesday, 11 October 2022 23:37 Written by lindaikejiblog "I knew that working tired puts the patients at risk and puts myself also at risk, as well for litigation. "I felt powerless… helpless, you know, constant stress and thinking something could go wrong." Nuffield Health however claimed that its doctors are offered regular breaks, time off between shifts, and the ability to swap shifts if needed. The company adds that "the health and wellbeing of patients and hospital team members" is its priority. Augustine was hired out to the Nuffield Health Leeds Hospital from a private company - NES Healthcare. It specialises in employing doctors from overseas, many from Nigeria, and using them as Resident Medical Officers, or RMOs - live-in doctors found mainly in the private sector. Augustine says he was so excited to be offered a job that he barely looked at the NES contract. In fact it opted him out of legislation that protects UK workers from excessive working hours, the Working Time Directive, and left him vulnerable to a range of punishing salary deductions. The BMA and the front line lobbying group the Doctors' Association has also given the BBC's File on 4 and Newsnight exclusive access to the findings of a questionnaire put to 188 Resident Medical Officers. Most of the doctors were employed by NES but some were with other employers. It found that 92% had been recruited from Africa and most - 81% - were from Nigeria. The majority complained about excessive working hours and unfair salary deductions. While the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned against the "active recruitment" of doctors and nurses from developing countries (mostly in Africa) with severe shortages of medical personnel, the UK government has also incorporated that list into its own code of practice - calling it the "red list". In effect, it makes Nigeria a no-go destination for British medical recruiters. On how Nigerian doctors are recruited, it was gathered that these doctors take what's called a Professional and Linguistic Assessments Board test - or PLAB 1. The paper is set by the General Medical Council in London and is the first step required by the British medical authorities to secure a licence to work in the UK. The Nigerian doctors who spoke to the news agency, said they were attracted by the potential of higher salaries and better working conditions. The event was being overseen by staff from the British Council - an organisation sponsored by the Foreign Office. The GMC also offers the exams in several other red-list countries - Ghana, Sudan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Both the GMC and British Council deny they are involved in "active recruitment" and say they're simply helping provide a service for doctors wanting to come to the UK independently - something that is allowed under the guidelines. In Augustine's case, he was studying for the second part of those PLAB exams in the UK, when he was approached by NES Healthcare and later offered visa sponsorship and a potential job. While that does appear to have been "active recruitment", NES says it wasn't because it is not a recruitment agency and, as such, only engages with doctors from overseas once they've already committed to practising in the UK. But the Department of Health and Social Care told BBC that the UK code of practice did apply to NES, so the company was in breach of it. We spoke to several African doctors recruited in this way by NES. They all had similar stories about what the terms and conditions of their contracts meant in reality, once they had been hired out to private UK hospitals. Another victim who BBC spoke to is Dr Femi Johnson was sent to a different hospital to Augustine. He said he was also expected to work 14 to 16-hour days and then be on call overnight. "I was burnt out," he says. "I was tired, I needed sleep. It's not humanly possible to do that every day for seven days."
About the Queen, the Crown’s crimes and how to talk about the unmourned — Podcast
Wednesday, 28 September 2022 00:21 Written by theconversationVinita Srivastava, The Conversation
At Don’t Call Me Resilient, we’ve been busy planning season 4 of the podcast, which starts to roll out in November. We’re even starting to think about season 5. But we decided to stop production to talk about something we felt we couldn’t ignore.
We’ve watched this incredible spectacle around the Queen’s death and public outpouring of support and love for the British monarchy.
Here in Canada, Queen Elizabeth was the official head of state and her funeral this week was made a federal holiday. In Ontario, the Minister of Education directed schools to conduct a moment of silence “to recognize the profound impact of Queen Elizabeth II’s lifelong and unwavering devotion to public service.”
And yet next week, those same children will be exploring the history of Indian Residential Schools and the immense ongoing damage of that system — started and long supported by the Crown.
In the middle of this outpouring of love and grief for the Queen — and the monarchy she represented — not everyone is feeling it. Not everyone wants to mourn or honour her or what she represents.
And there are a lot of reasons why.
For example, the head of the Assembly of First Nations, RoseAnne Archibald told CTV News that the Royal Family should apologize for the failures of the Crown …“particularly for the destructiveness of colonization on First Nations people.”
Another example came from Uju Anya, professor at Carnegie Mellon University, who posted a tweet in which she identified the Queen as overseeing a “thieving raping genocidal empire.”
To explore these ideas further, we reached out to two scholars who are regular contributors to Don’t Call Me Resilient. Both say that the Queen’s death could be a uniting moment of dissent for people from current and former colonies.
Veldon Coburn is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Indigenous Research and Studies at the University of Ottawa where he teaches a class called Colonialism, Territory & Treaties. He is Anishinaabe, Algonquin from Pikwàkanagàn First Nation and the co-editor of Capitalism and Dispossession.
Cheryl Thompson is Assistant Professor of media and culture at the School of Performance and the Director of the Laboratory for Black Creativity at Toronto Metropolitan University. She is the author of Uncle: Race, Nostalgia, and the Politics of Loyalty.
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You can listen to or follow Don’t Call Me Resilient on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., including any ideas for future episodes. Join The Conversation on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok and use #DontCallMeResilient.
In the Conversation
Queen Elizabeth II: the politics of national mourning left no space for dissenting voices
Decolonize the Queen’s funeral: Why it shouldn’t be a national holiday in Canada
Colonialism was a disaster and the facts prove it
Cutting ties to the monarchy could loom on the horizon in Canada
Additional Sources
“No, I do not mourn the Queen,” Toronto Star by Shree Paradkar
The series is produced and hosted by me, Vinita Srivastava. Our senior producer is: Lygia Navarro and Jennifer Moroz is consulting producer. Shout out to our newest staff members: Dannielle Piper is a producer. Rukhsar Ali is an assistant producer. Rehmatullah Sheikh is our sound mixer. Ateqah Khaki is helping out with marketing and visual innovation. And Scott White is the CEO of The Conversation Canada.
Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me Resilient | Senior Editor, Culture + Society, The Conversation
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.