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A coolie (alternatively spelled cooli, cooly, quli, koelie, and other such variations), during the 19th and early 20th century, was a term for a locally sourced unskilled labourer hired by a company, mainly from the Indian subcontinent or Southern China.
Today, it is used varyingly as a legal inoffensive word (for example, in India for helpers carrying luggage in railway stations) and also used as a racial slur in Africa for certain people from Asia, particularly in South Africa
ETYMOLOGY
The origins of the word are uncertain but it is thought to have originated from the name of a Gujarati sect (the Kolī, who worked as day labourers) or perhaps from the Tamil word for a payment for work, kuli (கூலி). An alternative etymological explanation is that the word came from the Urdu qulī (क़ुली, قلی), which itself could be from the Turkish word for slave, qul. The word was used in this sense for labourers from India. In 1727, Dr. Engelbert Kämpfer described "coolies" as dock labourers who would unload Dutch merchant ships at Nagasaki in Japan.
The Chinese word 苦力 (pinyin: kǔlì) literally means "bitterly hard (use of) strength", in the Mandarin pronunciation.
HISTORY OF THE COOLIE TRADE
An early trade in Asian labourers is believed to have begun sometime in or around the 16th century. Social and political pressure led to the abolition of the slave trade throughout the British Empire in 1807, with other European nations following suit. Labour-intensive industries, such as cotton and sugar plantations, mines and railway construction, in the colonies were left without a cheap source of manpower. As a consequence, a large scale slavery-like trade in Asian (primarily Indian and Chinese) indentured labourers began in the 1820s to fill this vacuum. Some of these labourers signed contracts based on misleading promises, some were kidnapped and sold into the trade, some were victims of clan violence whose captors sold them to coolie brokers, while others sold themselves to pay off gambling debts. British companies were the first to experiment with this potential new form of cheap labour in 1807, when they imported 200 Chinese men to work in Trinidad.
The coolie trade was often compared to the earlier slave trade and they accomplished very similar things.
Although there are reports of ships for Asian coolies carrying women and children, the great majority of them were men. Finally, regulations were put in place, as early as 1837 by the British authorities in India to safeguard these principles of voluntary, contractual work and safe and sanitary transportation although in practice this rarely occurred especially during examples such as the Pacific Passage or the Guano Pits of Peru. The Chinese government also made efforts to secure the well-being of their nation's workers, with representations being made to relevant governments around the world.
CHINESE COOLIES
Workers from China were mainly transported to work in Peru and Cuba, but they also worked in British colonies such as Jamaica, British Guiana (now Guyana), British Malaya, Trinidad and Tobago, British Honduras (now Belize) and in the Dutch colonies Dutch East Indies and Suriname. The first shipment of Chinese labourers was to the British colony of Trinidad in 1806.
In 1847 two ships from Cuba transported workers to Havana to work in the sugar cane fields from the port of Xiamen, one of the five Chinese treaty ports opened to the British by the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. The trade soon spread to other ports in Guangdong province and demand became particularly strong in Peru for workers in the silver mines and the guano collecting industry. Australia began importing workers in 1848 and the United States began using them in 1865 on the First Transcontinental Railroad construction. These workers were deceived about their terms of employment to a much greater extent than their Indian counterparts, and consequently, there was a much higher level of Chinese emigration during this period.
The trade flourished from 1847 to 1854 without incident, until reports began to surface of the mistreatment of the workers in Cuba and Peru. As the British government had political and legal responsibility for many of the ports involved, including Amoy, the trade was shut down at these places. However, the trade simply shifted to the more accommodating port in the Portuguese enclave of Macau.
Many coolies were first deceived or kidnapped and then kept in barracoons (detention centres) or loading vessels in the ports of departure, as were African slaves. In 1875, British commissioners estimated that approximately eighty percent of the workers had been abducted. Their voyages, which are sometimes called the Pacific Passage, were as inhumane and dangerous as the notorious Middle Passage of the Atlantic slave trade. Mortality was very high. For example, it is estimated that from 1847 to 1859, the average mortality for coolies aboard ships to Cuba was 15.2 percent, and losses among those aboard ships to Peru were 40 percent in the 1850s and 30.44 percent from 1860 to 1863.
They were sold and were taken to work in plantations or mines with very bad living and working conditions. The duration of a contract was typically five to eight years, but many coolies did not live out their term of service because of the hard labour and mistreatment. Those who did live were often forced to remain in servitude beyond the contracted period. The coolies who worked on the sugar plantations in Cuba and in the guano beds of the Chincha Islands (the islands of Hell) of Peru were treated brutally. Seventy-five percent of the Chinese coolies in Cuba died before fulfilling their contracts. More than two-thirds of the Chinese coolies who arrived in Peru between 1849 and 1874 died within the contract period. In 1860 it was calculated that of the 4000 coolies brought to the Chinchas since the trade began, not one had survived.
Because of these unbearable conditions, Chinese coolies often revolted against their Ko-Hung bosses and foreign company bosses at ports of departure, on ships, and in foreign lands. The coolies were put in the same neighbourhoods as Africans and, since most were unable to return to their homeland or have their wives come to the New World, many married African women. The coolies' interracial relationships and marriages with Africans, Europeans and Indigenous peoples, formed some of the modern world's Afro-Asian and Asian Latin American populations.
Chinese immigration to the United States was almost entirely voluntary, but working and social conditions were still harsh. In 1868, the Burlingame Treaty allowed unrestricted Chinese immigration into the country. Within a decade significant levels of anti-Chinese sentiment had built up, stoked by populists such as Denis Kearney with racist slogans - "To an American, death is preferable to life on a par with the Chinese."
Although Chinese workers contributed to the building of the first Transcontinental Railroad in the United States and of the Canadian Pacific Railway in western Canada, Chinese settlement was discouraged after completion of the construction. California's Anti-Coolie Act of 1862 and the federal Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 contributed to the curtailment of Chinese immigration to the United States.
Notwithstanding such attempts to restrict the influx of cheap labour from China, beginning in the 1870s Chinese workers helped construct a vast network of levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. These levees made thousands of acres of fertile marshlands available for agricultural production.
The 1879 Constitution of the State of California declared that "Asiatic coolieism is a form of human slavery, and is forever prohibited in this State, and all contracts for coolie labour shall be void."
Colonos asiáticos is a Spanish term for coolies. The Spanish colony of Cuba feared slavery uprisings such as those that took place in Haiti and used coolies as a transition between slaves and free labor. They were neither free nor slaves. Indentured Chinese servants also labored in the sugarcane fields of Cuba well after the 1884 abolition of slavery in that country. Two scholars of Chinese labor in Cuba, Juan Pastrana and Juan Perez de la Riva, substantiated horrific conditions of Chinese coolies in Cuba and stated that coolies were slaves in all but name. Denise Helly is one researcher who believes that despite their slave-like treatment, the free and legal status of the Asian laborers in Cuba separated them from slaves. The coolies could challenge their superiors, run away, petition government officials, and rebel according to Rodriguez Pastor and Trazegnies Granda. Once they had fulfilled their contracts the colonos asiáticos integrated into the countries of Peru, The Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Cuba. They adopted cultural traditions from the natives and also welcomed in non-Chinese to experience and participate into their own traditions. Before the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Havana had Latin America's largest Chinatown.
In South America, Chinese indentured labourers worked in Peru's silver mines and coastal industries (i.e., guano, sugar, and cotton) from the early 1850s to the mid-1870s; about 100,000 people immigrated as indentured workers. They participated in the War of the Pacific, looting and burning down the haciendas where they worked, after the capture of Lima by the invading Chilean army in January 1880. Some 2000 coolies even joined the Chilean Army in Peru, taking care of the wounded and burying the dead. Others were sent by Chileans to work in the newly conquered nitrate fields.
The Chinese Engineering and Mining Corporation, of which later U.S. president Herbert Hoover was a director, was instrumental in supplying Chinese coolie labour to South African mines from c.1902 to c.1910 at the request of mine owners, who considered such labour cheaper than native African and white labour. The horrendous conditions suffered by the coolie labourers led to questions in the British parliament as recorded in Hansard.
In 1866, the British, French and Chinese governments agreed to mitigate the abuse by requiring all traders to pay for the return of all workers after their contract ended. The employers in the British West Indies declined these conditions, bringing the trade there to an end. Until the trade was finally abolished in 1875, over 150,000 coolies had been sold to Cuba alone, the majority having been shipped from Macau. These labourers endured conditions far worse than those experienced by their Indian counterparts. Even after the 1866 reforms, the scale of abuse and conditions of near slavery did not get any better - if anything they deteriorated. In the early 1870s increased media exposure of the trade led to a public outcry, and the British, as well as the Qing government, put pressure on the Portuguese authorities to bring the trade at Macau to an end; this was ultimately achieved in 1874. By that time, a total of up to half a million Chinese workers had been exported.
The term coolie was also applied to Chinese workers recruited for contracts on cacao plantations in German Samoa. German planters went to great lengths to secure access to their "coolie" labour supply from China. In 1908 a Chinese commissioner, Lin Shu Fen, reported on the cruel treatment of coolie workers on German plantations in the western Samoan Islands. The trade began largely after the establishment of colonial German Samoa in 1900 and lasted until the arrival of New Zealand forces in 1914. More than 2000 Chinese "coolies" were present in the islands in 1914 and most were eventually repatriated by the New Zealand administration.
INDIAN COOLIES
By the 1820s, many Indians were voluntarily enlisting to go abroad for work, in the hopes of a better life. European merchants and businessmen quickly took advantage of this and began recruiting them for work as a cheap source of labour. The British began shipping Indians to colonies around the world, including Mauritius, Fiji, Natal, British East Africa, and British Malaya. The Dutch also shipped workers to labour on the plantations on Suriname and the Dutch East Indies. A system of agents was used to infiltrate the rural villages of India and recruit labourers. They would often deceive the credulous workers about the great opportunities that awaited them for their own material betterment abroad. The Indians primarily came from the Indo-Gangetic Plain, but also from Tamil Nadu and other areas to the south of the country.
Without permission from the British authorities, the French attempted to illegally transport Indian workers to their sugar producing colony, the Reunion Island, from as early as 1826. By 1830, over 3000 labourers had been transported. After this trade was discovered, the French successfully negotiated with the British in 1860 for permission to transport over 6,000 workers annually, on condition that the trade would be suspended if abuses were discovered to be taking place.
The British began to transport Indians to Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, starting in 1829. Slavery had been abolished with the planters receiving two million pounds sterling in compensation for the loss of their slaves. The planters turned to bringing in a large number of indentured labourers from India to work in the sugar cane fields. Between 1834 and 1921, around half a million indentured labourers were present on the island. They worked on sugar estates, factories, in transport and on construction sites.
In 1837, the Raj issued a set of regulations for the trade. The rules provided for each labourer to be personally authorised for transportation by an officer designated by the Government, it limited the length of service to five years subject to voluntary renewal, it made the contractor responsible for returning the worker after the contract elapsed and required the vessels to conform to basic health standards
Despite this, conditions on the ships were often extremely crowded, with rampant disease and malnutrition. The workers were paid a pittance for their labour, and were expected to work in often awful and harsh conditions. Although there were no large scale scandals involving coolie abuse in British colonies, workers often ended up being forced to work, and manipulated in such a way that they became dependent on the plantation owners so that in practice they remained there long after their contracts expired; possibly as little as 10% of the coolies actually returned to their original country of origin. Colonial legislation was also passed to severely limit their freedoms; in Mauritius a compulsory pass system was instituted to enable their movements to be easily tracked. Conditions were much worse in the French colonies of Reunion and Guadeloupe and Martinique, where workers were 'systematically overworked' and abnormally high mortality rates were recorded for those working in the mines.
However, there were also attempts by the British authorities to regulate and mitigate the worst abuses. Workers were regularly checked up on by health inspectors, and they were vetted before transportation to ensure that they were suitably healthy and fit to be able to endure the rigours of labour. Children under the age of 15 were not allowed to be transported from their parents under any circumstances.
The first campaign against the 'coolie' trade in England likened the system of indentured labour to the slavery of the past. In response to this pressure, the labour export was temporarily stopped in 1839 by the authorities when the scale of the abuses became known, but it was soon renewed due to its growing economic importance. A more rigorous regulatory framework was put into place and severe penalties were imposed for infractions in 1842. In that year, almost 35,000 people were shipped to Mauritius.
In 1844, the trade was expanded to the colonies in the West Indies, including Jamaica, Trinidad and Demerara, where the Asian population was soon a major component of the island demographic.
Starting in 1879, many Indians were transported to Fiji to work on the sugar cane plantations. Many of them chose to stay after their term of indenture elapsed and today they number about 40% of the total population. Indian workers were also imported into the Dutch colony of Suriname after the Dutch signed a treaty with the United Kingdom on the recruitment of contract workers in 1870. In Mauritius, the Indian population are now demographically dominant, with Indian festivals being celebrated as national holidays.
This system prevailed until the early twentieth century. Increasing focus on the brutalities and abuses of the trade by the sensationalist media of the time, incited public outrage and lead to the official ending of the coolie trade in 1916 by the British government. By that time tens of thousands of Chinese workers were being used along the Western Front by the allied forces (see Chinese Labour Corps).
SEX RATIOS AND INTERMARRIAGE AMONG COOLIES
A major difference between the Chinese coolie trade and the Indian coolie trade was that the Chinese coolies were all male, while East Indian women (from India) were brought alongside men as coolies. This led to a high rate of Chinese men marrying women of other ethnicities like Indian women and mixed race Creole women. Indian women and children were brought alongside Indian men as coolies while Chinese men made up 99% of Chinese colonies. The contrast with the female to male ratio among Indian and Chinese immigrants has been compared by historians. In Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies just 18,731 Chinese women and 92,985 Chinese men served as coolies on plantations. Chinese women migrated less than Javanese and Indian women as indentured coolies. The number of Chinese women as coolies was "very small" while Chinese men were easily taken into the coolie trade. In Cuba men made up the vast majority of Chinese indentured servants on sugar plantations and in Peru non-Chinese women married the mostly male Chinese coolies.
Chinese women were scarce in every place where Chinese indentured laborers were brought, the migration was dominated by Chinese men. Up to the 1940s men made up the vast majority of the Costa Rican Chinese community. Males made up the majority of the original Chinese community in Mexico and they married Mexican women.
In the early 1900s, the Chinese communities in Manila, Singapore, Mauritius, New Zealand, Victoria in Australia, the United States, and Victoria in British Columbia in Canada were all male dominated.
WIKIPEDIA
Mediterranean river discharge patterns depend on properties of the atmospheric water budget as well as on the geographical characteristics of the Mediterranean catchment. A substantial latitudinal gradient characterizes Mediterranean precipitation year-round, with dry areas along the African coast and significantly wetter ones north of the Mediterranean Sea (Struglia et al. 2004). Winter is the main rainy season for the European land regions, which contribute most of the discharge, while summers south of 40 degrees N are basically dry. Most of the water discharge in the northern region occurs during short floods associated with maximum river flow after heavy rainfall, which generally occurs between February and May. The strong summer-winter rainfall contrast, which increases from north to south and from west to east, is the major characteristic of the Mediterranean climate (UNEP/MAP/MED POL, 2003). In the large and medium-sized river basins in north and central Europe, wide-ranging and continuous precipitation is the most common cause of flooding. Floods also occur in association with snow melt in late spring and early summer. Intense shortlasting rainfall during spring and fall affecting small coastal catchments is the main cause of coastal floods in arid and semiarid parts of the Mediterranean area.
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This photo has been graciously provided to be used in the GRID-Arendal resources library by: GRID-Arendal
The term trace metal is used here for potentially toxic metals that persist in the environment, bioaccumulate in human and animal tissues, and biomagnify in food chains. Metals and organometallic compounds are commonly included in emission inventories and monitoring networks, specially mercury, cadmium and lead. Urban and industrial wastewaters, atmospheric deposition and run-off from metal contaminated sites constitute the major sources of toxic metals. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are organic compounds that are resistant to environmental degradation through chemical, biological, and photolytic processes. POPs persist in the environment, are capable of long-range transport, bioaccumulate in human and animal tissue, biomagnify in food chains, and have potentially significant impacts on human health and the environment. POPs include certain chlorinated pesticides and industrial chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), most of which have already been prohibited in Mediterranean countries. However, POPs can also be unintentionally released, mainly as a result of combustion processes or as by-products in some industrial processes. Some examples are dioxins and furans, hexachlorobenzene (HCB), PCBs, or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
For any form of publication, please include the link to this page:
This photo has been graciously provided to be used in the GRID-Arendal resources library by: GRID-Arendal
I've seen a lot of versions shooting the old port but the skies that day demanded a bit of a straight forward approach for me to compose the scene. This image was shot about 4 months ago. I wanted to show our newly inducted alumni's of the Chasing Light workshop how rewarding it is to be a Landscape photographer and what our place has to offer. Building the right attitude and mindset, We all can be great with what we love to do. I miss shooting with great light. I hope to capture more after the stormy weather. Batch 22 lets do a group shoot this time around! its gonna be an adventure!
Javier Ramírez mostró los beneficios de Spring Framework de código abierto para desarrollo de aplicaciones en la plataforma Java
Foto: @falconantonio
Javier Ramírez mostró los beneficios de Spring Framework de código abierto para desarrollo de aplicaciones en la plataforma Java
Foto: @falconantonio
John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Economy, Scottish Government appeared before the Finance Committee to give evidence on the Scotland’s Fiscal Framework. 02 March 2016. Pic - Andrew Cowan/Scottish Parliament
www.parino.it/antique-painting-oil-canvas-landscape-knigh...
COD: 6394
Antique Italian painting of the 19th century. Work oil on canvas depicting particular "landscape with castle and knight" of excellent painter's hand. Framework signed lower left Amalia Barabino (see photo). Wooden frame not coeval sculpted and re-gilded with some signs of wear. Paintings, for collectors and antique dealers. It has a small color drop at the bottom center, canvas in good state of conservation. Sight size: H 38.5 cm x W 53 cm.
Measure: H 51 x W 64 x D 5 cm
#antiques #antiquities #decor #decoration #painting #art #framework #oiloncanvas #landscape
Most raised-bed garden books use a 4'x4' model. The slope and general arrangement of my backyard wouldn't really allow for that. I mean, it is possible, but not ideal. Boja, being the visual genius that she is, suggested a 2'x8' arrangement. As is usually the case with all of her spoken statements, she was completely right.
I decided on a place to lay the frame down and beat up the area with a mattock.
The frame is plain pine wood from Home Depot. It was difficult to find wood that was actually dry and not split or warped. I couldn't believe how heavy the wood was there. It must have seriously been cut the day before.
I would have preferred Trex or even treated wood, but I couldn't find it in the sizes I wanted. Both were too expensive anyway. Most people think that treated wood can leach chemicals into the soil, but I saw a couple of studies online that showed that this effect is negligible and not a problem at all. The sawdust is a problem during cutting, however. It might also be a bad idea to use treated wood as a cutting board. I also wouldn't use it for a crib. Homemade toothbrushes with the stuff ... yeah, they are also bad. Anyway, if I could find the sizes I wanted, I would make future beds with treated wood - it lasts much longer.
What you see here came from two 10' pieces of ~1.5"x~11.5" wood. We had two 2' pieces cut off of each big plank at Home Depot.
We drilled some holes in the sides and put big screws in there. Making sure the holes and everything lined up while dealing with these very unwieldy boards made me want to try and break them with my head. I highly recommend drinking heavily before assembly. The whole process will take just as long, but at least you will have a good time. Also, being angry and violent while drunk is somewhat acceptable.
After it was all put together, Boja and I took our frame "out back" and put it down in the area I had prepared. I made sure the box was at least somewhat level and filled in the gaps underneath the frame.
When that part was done, I stood around and posed and smiled very smugly. I really should have a stockpile of trophies for moments like those.
When the prospect of anyone besides Boja noticing how magnificent everything looked dwindled, I brought down the giant, redolent bags of soil. I don't remember how many bags we had. Maybe 16 cubic feet? Anyway, I dumped that all in, watered it, and let it sit for a couple of days before planting anything.
Yay!
Javier Ramírez mostró los beneficios de Spring Framework de código abierto para desarrollo de aplicaciones en la plataforma Java
Foto: @falconantonio
The Australian Flexible Framework team will no longer be sharing offices with the Teaching and Learning team at TAFE and are moving into head office in the city.
Lab2014 students presented their final design explorations for Benjamin Bratton's Critical Frameworks section, "2 or 3 Things I Know About The Stack" at The California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) at UCSD. The group visited an immersive 3-D projection "CAVE", a 4K digital theater and the nanotech cleanrooms on campus, as well as The Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
Otra forma de representar visualmente a Scrum.
Esta vez, en Medellín durante un curso oficial de la Scrum Alliance, by Kleer.
www.flickr.com/photos/paulo_direitinho/
www.flickr.com/groups/my_e-p1-minoltainthewww/
www.flickr.com/groups/my_e-p1-a_picture_a_story/
ep1direitinho.olhares.com/
500px.com/E-P1_direitinho
paulodireitinho.wix.com/e-p1direitinho
"Truth is Beauty," a 55-foot tall sculpture by Marco Cochrane
The statue, completed in 2013, was displayed at that year's Burning Man festival in Nevada.
Today it is located in San Leandro, California, within the San Leandro Tech Campus and adjacent to the San Leandro BART station.
The feet of the statue are surrounded by a concrete circle, level with the surrounding grass, in which metal characters spell out the question "What would the world be like if women were safe?" in several languages.
"Truth is Beauty" (Wikipedia):
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_is_Beauty
Marco Cochrane, artist (Wikipedia):
09/25/2019 02:24 PM EDT
SENATOR LIEBERMAN: Thank you. Thank you. It’s a great honor to welcome Secretary Pompeo here. I do want to note there are a lot of honored guests, but I want to pay particular attention and welcome His Excellency Thamer al-Sabhan, the minister of Gulf affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; His Excellency Ambassador Yousef Otaiba from the United Arab Emirates; and His Excellency Ron Dermer, ambassador from the state of Israel. (Applause.) And I believe Brian Hook may be here somewhere, who’s the Secretary’s Special Envoy for Iran. (Applause.) And you don’t know this, don’t believe, but I survived working in the same office with my wife for a couple years in Washington. (Laughter.)
It’s a great honor to welcome Secretary Pompeo. We at UANI have long felt that Mike Pompeo is a kindred spirit. From his days in Congress to his time as director of the CIA to his service as our Secretary of State, he has demonstrated principled leadership, strong leadership on Iran, based on a crystal-clear-eyed understanding of the unique threat Iran represents to the United States, to our allies in the region, and to the world.
This week, however, we at UANI feel a special kinship with Secretary Pompeo. On Sunday, Foreign Minister Zarif of Iran called Secretary Pompeo an economic terrorist and said – right, right – (applause) – so this is the old Roosevelt line: they love you for the enemies you made – (laughter) – and suggested that the Secretary be put on trial at the International Criminal Court in Geneva.
Yesterday, Mr. Secretary, the Iran foreign ministry began proceedings to designate UANI as a terrorist organization. So to be designated as terrorists by the world’s biggest terrorist state and the largest state sponsor of terrorism is truly the world turned upside down. But I will say to you that it makes us proud to stand with you, not in the dock in Geneva, where we will not be, but to continue the fight against this radical, extremist, violent country.
The truth is that these ridiculous actions by high officials in the Islamic Republic of Iran are, in my opinion, the actions of a desperate, failing nation. And for this, as I said in my earlier opening remarks, the credit really goes to President Donald Trump and his administration, which has taken us from the failures of the JCPOA to the successes of their new policy of withdrawing from the JCPOA, applying maximum economic pressure, and the result is that Iran is really on the run. And thank God our European allies two days ago returned to our side, and together now, hopefully we will move forward.
At every step of the way, from the CIA to the Department of State, Secretary Pompeo has been at the heart of the Trump administration’s successful turnaround policy. He knows better than anyone what we know as well, that while the momentum is now on our side, there are very difficult and complicated moments ahead and decisions to be – to make. But we are confident and take comfort from the fact that you, Mr. Secretary, will continue to be in leadership on this and so many other matters of concern to the United States in the days and years ahead.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’m really honored to introduce to you the 70th Secretary of State of the United States, the Honorable Mike Pompeo. (Applause.)
SECRETARY POMPEO: Good morning. Good morning, everyone. Thank you. Good morning. Thank you, Senator Lieberman, for inviting me back to address now for the second year in a row. Mark, it’s great to be with you as well. You guys got the comfy seats here this morning.
I also want to welcome a few special guests. As Senator Lieberman said, Minister al-Sabhan of Saudi Arabia; the ambassadors of Bahrain and Ambassador Dermer; Susan Azizadeh of the Iranian American Jewish Federation. (Applause.) Yeah, thanks. (Laughter.) And Maziar Bahari, a great champion for human rights in Iran. And I want to say Salaam to all the Iranians listening today. I have much that I want to say to the Iranian people this morning.
I want you all to imagine the scene in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia earlier this month. It was a bit before sunrise, missiles and drones rained down on Saudi Arabia’s largest oil processing site. There were many internationals – foreigners, Americans – not too terribly far away. Workers heard the blasts, and so did their children. By the way, my son didn’t think it was as funny as you did that I was going to be at the International Criminal Court. (Laughter.) Although he did say he would like to attend at least the opening. (Laughter.)
Back to the serious. Their children were the – thank God there was no loss of life, but there could easily have been. In that sense, everyone in the region, indeed in the world, got lucky.
I immediately called this an “act of war”, one sovereign state against another, because it was. It was an attack on Saudi Arabia, a sovereign state. It was indeed also an attack on the global economy.
Some said that that was a rush to judgment, that announcement. History – like, six days’ worth of history – has proven we were right, that the United States had it right. We didn’t rush to act. We were patient. We called our partners. We established the facts. We wanted to make sure everybody had the opportunity to see what we knew.
And as Senator Lieberman said this week, Britain, France, and Germany released a statement with their conclusions.
They said, quote, “It is clear to us” – these three nations, “It is clear to us that Iran bears responsibility for this attack. There is no other plausible explanation.”
They went on, “These attacks may have been against Saudi Arabia, but they concern all countries and increase the risk of a major conflict.”
And they declared that, “The time has come for Iran to accept negotiation on a long-term framework for its nuclear program as well as on issues related to regional security.”
Some have said that they’ve joined the United States. I think they have joined reality. I think they’ve joined with the facts as we all see them. And this is progress. Nations are standing for that reality. They’re calling it what it is, something that we all in this room have known for a long time.
This is the beginning of an awakening – to the truth that Iran is the aggressor and not the aggrieved, as they claim as they run around Washington – or, excuse me, run around New York this week.
And that is what American democracy and diplomacy has achieved.
When President Trump exited the JCPOA, the nuclear deal, he didn’t just take a stand for American national securities*. He said at the time the deal only made “Iran’s ambitions…more brazen.”
Indeed, Iran has a long history of unprovoked aggression, 40 years now, against its own people, against its neighbors, and indeed against civilization itself.
The list is long. From murdering and torturing their own people, to killing Americans from Lebanon to Iraq, to harboring al-Qaida even today, Iran has rampaged for four decades, and sadly with too few consequences.
During this nuclear deal – during the nuclear deal negotiations, Iran’s malign activity didn’t abate one bit, although that was the theory of the case. Thanks to Israel, we now know they were also protecting, hiding, and preserving their nuclear knowhow at that very same time.
Indeed, after the deal was signed and the pallets of cash were delivered, they continued backing Hizballah, Hamas, the Houthis, and Shia militias throughout the region. The world too much appeased them, and then underwrote their terrorism.
When President Trump took office, Iran had not joined the community of nations, as was predicted by the previous administration.
What we found: We found a refugee crisis in Syria, thanks to Iran’s support for Assad; a humanitarian quagmire in Yemen, thanks to Iran’s arms transfer to the Houthis; a fragile Iraq, thanks to Iran’s support of Shia militias; an Iranian client state, also known as Lebanon. We saw Iranians jailed and tortured; American citizens, and citizens of many other countries as well, wrongfully detained.
Just yesterday, President Trump drew a distinction between those who think “they are destined to rule over others,” or “those people and nations who want only to rule themselves.” It is abundantly clear into which camp the Islamic Republic of Iran falls.
That’s why last year, after we exited the nuclear deal, we began to execute President Trump’s strategy – shorthand it has been deemed the maximum pressure campaign. But it’s much more than that.
We began to cut off the revenues the regime uses to fund death and destruction, and we’ve seen the benefits of that. We began to pressure the regime to make a real deal, one that ensures the world’s most reckless regime never possesses history’s most destruction weapons systems.
And as the President said yesterday, “It is time for Iran’s leaders to step forward and stop threatening other countries, and focus on building up their own country,” for their own people. “It is time for Iran’s leaders to finally put those people, the Iranian people first.” And I’m confident – I’m confident that the Iranian people will demand that as well. (Applause.) And when they do, you should know this administration will support them. (Applause.)
Look, we’ve implemented unprecedented measures to achieve our goal of peace:
We’ve sanctioned the top-level perpetrators for their blood – for the blood they have on their hands. The supreme leader, Foreign Minister Zarif, and the IRGC are just a few of them.
We’ve hit the Iranian petrochemical sector, the metals sector, the banking sector with sanctions to deprive the regime of billions of dollars, and our enforcement of those sanctions has been and will continue to be relentless.
Thousands of companies around the world are complying with our sanctions because they know their success lies with America and not with the Ayatollah.
And by sanctioning the regime’s petroleum sector, we’ve cut off Iran’s number-one source of revenue. More than 30 nations have brought Iranian oil imports to zero. And going forward, our sanctions on the Iranian oil sector will deprive the regime of as much as $50 billion each and every year. It’s worth noting those sanctions, at their peak, have been in place only since the beginning of May, now some five months. There is much work yet to be done.
And we’re blessed. American power means that no other nation could have brought such staggering pressure to bear. This unprecedented pressure too is forcing the regime into panicked aggression, as we’ve seen public lies.
They’re calling every play in their playbook to goad us into conflict, to create division among nations, and extort them into action*. And you should know their playbook won’t succeed.
This summer, Iran attacked oil tankers in international waterways, it shot down an American UAV, and defied and threatened to defy its nuclear commitments, and it continues to declare death to Israel. And just yesterday, the regime added your organization – as Senator Lieberman said, a peaceful nonprofit ‒ to its list of terror groups, just like it did to our friends at FDD a few weeks before this.
That’s outrageous. It’s outrageous even for this regime, which indeed does mean you are doing something right.
And Iran just flat out lies, and each of us needs to call them on it every time we see it.
I flipped on Fox News last night and saw President Rouhani speaking to Chris Wallace, an odd thing in its own right. (Laughter.)
He claimed that – Rouhani claimed that Iran defeats terrorism wherever it goes. (Laughter).
He claimed, “certainly, undoubtedly” that Israel supports ISIS.
And incredibly, he said – and I must quote this – he said, quote, “Iran is a country that has brought peace in the region,” end of quote. And yet too many people listen to Rouhani and Zarif, and take their words as relevant, or important, or material, or accurate.
Rouhani is desperate to deceive because the world is awakening to the truth. The truth is that Iran responds to strength and not to supplication. President Trump knows that.
More and more nations are beginning to stand up to Iran’s thuggish behavior, and disengaging economically. We will ensure that all of them do. They’re coming to realize, to quote the President, “No responsible government should subsidize Iran’s .”
We’ve made progress. France has now banned Mahan Air from flying in and out of its country.
Germany, too, has banned those planes from landing on their soil.
Argentina recently designated Hizballah as a terrorist group.
And the United Kingdom, said that it would no longer abide the false distinction between Hizballah’s political and military wings.
Greece has refused to let an Iranian supertanker carrying oil to Syria refuel in its ports.
The Netherlands, for the first time, announced that Iran was likely behind the murder of two Dutch citizens who were Iranian dissidents.
Australia, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the UK have all joined our efforts to protect freedom of navigation in the Straits of Hormuz.
I was with the GCC nations yesterday. They know the threat Iran poses to peace and are united around stopping it. It was clear, too, when President Trump met with them yesterday, that they’re prepared to do what it takes to ensure stability in their region.
Now I know, too, that there will be more than a few talking heads explode when I say this, but this is effective multilateralism. It’s what the Trump administration has tried to do, multilateralism based in reality and facts, and with clarity of purpose.
Countries are showing themselves to be what President Trump lauded yesterday, “sovereign and independent nations who protect their citizens, their neighbors, and honor the differences that make each country special and unique” in its own right.
This is what American diplomacy has achieved; there’s more work to be done.
But countries are indeed awakening to the truth that the more Iran lashes out, the greater our pressure will and should be.
And you can count on America to lead; each nation can. As President Trump said yesterday, “As long as Iran’s menacing behavior continues, sanctions will not be lifted, they will be tightened.” That path forward begins now with two new actions:
First, we’re taking new action to disentangle the IRGC from the Iranian economy. The United States will intensify our efforts to educate countries and companies on the risks of doing business with IRGC entities, and we will punish them if they persist in defiance of our warnings.
Second, today we are imposing sanctions on certain Chinese entities for knowingly transporting oil from Iran contrary to United States sanctions. (Applause.) Importantly, we’re also imposing sanctions on the executive officers of those companies as well. And we’re telling China and all nations, know that we will sanction every violation of sanctionable activity.
So as I close this morning, I ask responsible nations: Will you publicly condemn Iran’s malign activity? We need you to; the world does.
Will you work with us to restore deterrents? We need you to; the world does.
Will you help us protect freedom of navigation in global trade? We need you to; the world does.
Most importantly, will you help us get Iran back to the negotiating table? We need your help; the world needs it.
And will you stand with us alongside of Israel? We need you to; the world needs you to join us. (Applause.)
Our goal is very straightforward, although not simple. But we know diplomacy is working, our resolve is strong, and our eyes our open. The awakening, I think, in the world, has begun.
To quote the President one last time – at least one last time this morning – “All nations, every nation has a duty to act.” What will you do?
Thank you.
God bless you.
And may God bless the people of Iran. (Applause.)
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Berry Hill Firetower on Friday Apr 5, 2013.
Copyright (c)2013 Andy Arthur. Creative Commons License.
PRESS RELEASE Nº24/24th AU SUMMIT
24TH ORDINARY SESSION OF THE ASSEMBLY OF AFRICAN UNION HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT BEGINS IN ADDIS ABABA
Addis Ababa Ethiopia, 30 January 2015-The 24th summit of the Heads of State and Government of the African Union, which started in Addis Ababa today has heard from distinguished speakers of the progress and some of the challenges that Africa faces, as well as proposals for the way forward. The opening ceremony of the summit also saw the election of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe as the Union’s Chairperson for the year 2015.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 24th summit of the African Union today, Dr DlaminiZuma said Africa has no choice but to move forward and upwards. The continent, she said, has been climbing, “a step at a time, up the steep cliff towards peace, prosperity and the restoration of the dignity of its people”.
She projected that the present generation is the one that will eradicate poverty, disease and hunger. “We are the generation that shall manage diversity and silence the guns”, she added.
The Chairperson recalled that, at the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Organisation of African Unity in 2013, the continent’s resolve to be in charge of its destiny, informed its decision to develop Agenda 2063 “through a people-driven process for the realization of our vision for an integrated, people-centred, prosperous Africa at peace with itself”. The Agenda 2063 framework document will be presented for adoption by the Heads of State and Government today.
Agenda 2063 outlines the aspirations and the concrete programmes to steer the continent for the next fifty years: to diversify African economies and industrialise; to have a skills and entrepreneurial revolution, unleashing the creativity and energy of young people, and to effect an agricultural and agro-processing transformation, so that Africa can feed itself and contribute to feeding the world.
The summit of African Union Heads of State and Government is being held under the theme “Year of Women’s Empowerment and Development”. Various speakers at the summit’s opening ceremony expressed their commitment to mainstreaming women in all socio- economic activities, with Malawian President Mr PeterMutharika dedicating his entire statement to the topic. He outlined major successes achieved by his country, but also mentioned the challenges they face. However he gave his commitment that his government will continue to strive to achieve gender equality. United Nations Secretary General Mr Ban Ki Moon also expressed strong support for the AU’s annual theme: “Women must be at the center and front of all our lives”, he said.
Issues of peace and security dominated many of the presentations by the African and visiting Heads of State and Government. President of the State of Palestine and Chairperson of the Palestine Liberation Organisation Executive Committee Mr Mahmoud Abbas spoke of his government’s desire and the efforts being exerted to achieve a Palestinian state living side by side with the state of Israel.
Many of the leaders condemned terrorism in very strong terms, with then outgoing Chairperson of the African Union Mr Mohammed Ould Abdelaziz saying, “Terrorism remains a global scourge and fighting it requires cooperation at the international level.”AUC Chairperson Dr Dlamini Zuma also cautioned that Africa should be aware of the new global threats such as terrorism, insecurity and climate change. “Terrorism, in particular the brutality of Boko Haram against our people, the senseless killings, the destruction of property, the enslavement and sale of our people, our girls kidnapped and married, and the terrorization of villages, are a threat to our collective safety, security and development”.
The Ebola virus disease that affected mostly three countries in West Africa attracted a lot of attention at the meeting of the Heads of State and Government. AU Commission Chairperson Dr NkosazanaDlaminiZuma praised the work of the 835 African health workers who were deployed to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone under the banner of the African Union Support to the Ebola Outbreak in West Africa (ASEOWA). She also extended her gratitude to the ASEOWA head of mission Dr Julius Oketta and the African private sector that is raising funds to keep the health workers on the ground until the affected countries are declared Ebola free. There are signs that, due to the work of the ASEOWA health workers among others, the Ebola crisis is now abating, with the incidents of infection and death from the disease vastly decreasing.
Tunisian President Mr Beji Caid Essebsi informed the summit that “the democratic process chosen by Tunisians is irreversible”. Tunisians, he said, had proven that the people of Africa can build the continent with their own hands. He also said Tunisia is proud of being African.
New Zambian President Mr Edgar Lungu thanked the African Union for supporting his country through the death of Mr Michael Satain October 2014 and the subsequent elections that ushered him into power. He thanked the Southern African Development Community, the AU and other organisations that sent in election monitors. Zambia, he said, has demonstrated that it is possible to have peaceful elections, and pledged that Zambia will actively participate in the affairs of the Union.
The late Zambian President meanwhile was honoured by his colleagues and other delegates by a one minute silence in his memory.
Outgoing Namibian President Mr HifikinyePohambawas given a chance to bid farewell to his colleagues at today’s opening ceremony of the Assembly.
New AU Chairperson Mr Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe meanwhile accepted his position by saying "By electing me to preside over this august body, with full knowledge of the onerous responsibility that lies ahead, I humbly accept your collective decision". He urged Africa to take charge of its destiny and pledged to work for Africa’s development particularly through infrastructure development. He then proceeded to launch the theme of the year, i.e. “Women’s Empowerment and Development towards Agenda 2063”.
The meeting of African Heads of State and Government will conclude on Saturday 31st January with the adoption of decisions and declarations to guide the work of the African Union this year.
WZM/
For inquiries, contact:
Wynne Musabayana | Deputy Head of Division | Information and Communication Directorate | African Union Commission | Tel: (251) 11 551 77 00 | Fax: (251) 11 551 78 44 | E-mail: MusabayanaW@africa-union.org
For further information:
Directorate of Information and Communication | African Union Commission I E-mail: DIC@african-union.org I Web Site: www.au.int I Addis Ababa | Ethiopia
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