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The partridge and the hunter.

Saturday, 1 March 2025 8:00

A long time ago, a young woman gave birth to a child armed with strings and arrows, as if fate had predestined him to become a hunter. When he grew up, he showed great skill in archery and in making snares and traps. Everyone admired him, and luck was on his side.

One day a partridge that lived near his hut was caught by the snares the young man had set. As soon as he approached it to break its legs, the poor partridge began to plead with him: “Set me free. Can’t you see I’m your neighbour?” The hunter, recognising her, hastened to set her free, and the partridge, flying away, called out to him: “Be assured that I shall not forget your generosity.”

The following day another bird ran into the snares, but this time the young man did not allow himself to be softened, despite some mysterious voices admonishing him: “Release your prey from the snares or we will punish you!”.

Back home, the hunter invited his friends to share the meat of the game but, despite his invitations to enjoy the tasty food, they all refused, terrified by the bird’s voice that, coming out of the man’s mouth, sang: ‘You wanted to kill me, you will be punished’.

From that day, several years passed during which the hunter took two wives and had two children in the same period of time. As was the custom, the brides, at the time of childbirth, moved to their parents’ house. The time then came for the husband to go and take back
his wife and children.

The father of the first wife, when he saw his son-in-law anxious to be reunited with his family, dictated a condition to him: “You will get my daughter back after you have procured me a gazelle skin from which I want to make braces to carry the newborn”. The hunter agreed, went into the forest, hunted a young gazelle and returned with the skin. Unfortunately, however, he did not realise that the animal was none other than the spirit of an ancestor. What a terrible mistake! Already the vengeance of the spirits was bearing down on him.

After setting off with his wife and child, the hunter was so exhausted that he had to stop at an abandoned hut. The wife, who had cut a piece of fruit, was about to offer her hungry husband a slice when a hamster emerged from a hole and pounced on the food. Enraged, the man grabbed a stick and killed the small rodent, unaware that it too
was the spirit of an ancestor.

Immediately there were other voices in the hut: “Wicked hunter, it was not enough that you killed the bird and the gazelle, now you have killed the hamster too. You must pay for this”. Terrified, the young man sought refuge in a barn to escape the vengeance of the angry spirits. His pursuers, determined to kill him, set fire to it.

He then fled into the forest, clutching a burning cinder in his hands. To stop his enemies’ advance, he set fire to some trees and then climbed to the top of a plant from which his pursuers were unable to seize him.

Back in the village, the young man soon had to set off again to reclaim his second wife and young son. As he neared his destination, a man followed him asking for food. When he arrived, his in-laws greeted him warmly, although they were surprised that their son-in-law had arrived in the company of a stranger.

“Who is this man?” asked his wife’s father. “A hungry traveller I met not far from here. Please give him something to eat.” As soon as the food was offered, the mysterious person threw himself on it and devoured it with such greed that the father of the bride said, “Beware of this greedy man. I am afraid he will kill you”.

The suspicion was soon confirmed. After the bride and groom had said goodbye to their parents and left the village, laden with gifts of all kinds, the stranger revealed his wickedness: “Quickly, give me everything you have, or I will kill your wife and child”.

The young man, angry and determined not to give in to threats, threw himself on his evil companion but a crowd of spirits held him back. Again, the voices chanted: “You killed the gazelle, you killed the bird, you killed the hamster, and you want to kill this man? You will be judged by the court of spirits”.

Taken before the judge, to his surprise, he recognised the partridge, his neighbour, whose life he had spared. The magic bird immediately remembered the young man who had let her live and decided to show her gratitude. But what could she do to appease the wrath of all the spirits who wanted revenge? At last, the cunning partridge decided on a stratagem and summoned the most menacing of the group: “I am very thirsty. Go and fill this jar and do not return until it is full”.

This jar, however, had a thin slit. As soon as water entered it, it immediately leaked to the ground. The first spirit, after a few futile attempts, called his companions for help, but none of them were able to return with the full jar.

So, annoyed and humiliated, all the ghosts decided to disappear forever. Then the partridge, freed from their presence, hurried to the end of the trial and pronounced a verdict of not guilty.

The hunter was thus miraculously saved, and from that moment on, aware of the danger he was in, he never stopped telling his children: “Any bird that lives near our hut could be the spirit of an ancestor. So be careful not to break the legs of your neighbours’ partridges”. Photo:Pixabay

Folktale from the Chewa People. Malawi

Afghan women today: invisible and imperceptible, but they still resist.

Saturday, 1 March 2025 8:00

First, they were forced to cover themselves from head to toe, to see the world through a net. Then, they were banned from studying beyond the fifth grade, from working (even when they were their families’ sole breadwinners), from walking without a male guardian, and from going to gardens and gyms.

They closed shelters for victims of domestic violence and beauty salons, rare points of conviviality. And now they cannot speak in public, sing, laugh or recite poetry – this in a country where “grandparents spoke to their grandchildren using Rumi’s verses and children grew up playing sher- jangi , the game of poetry”.The Taliban, who returned to power four years ago after two decades of war, have hardened rather than moderated (as they promised) the misogynistic policies that were in place from 1994 to 2001, during their first “Islamic emirate”.

A group of Afghan women wearing burqa walks in the street to go to the market. Since 2022, the Taliban have issued at least 70 decrees to strip women of their rights. Shutterstock/Pvince73

Since 2022, they have passed at least 70 decrees to strip half the population of their rights. Forced into marriages, many of them child marriages (parents sell their daughters for food), abandoned and unprotected when sexually abused, flogged, and stoned to death when accused of adultery, women were reduced to ghosts.
“Today in Kabul, a cat has more rights than a woman,” actress Meryl Streep said at an event at the United Nations headquarters in New York in October 2024. “A cat can sit on the porch of her house and feel the only thing on her face. It can chase a squirrel in the park [and] a squirrel has more rights than a girl in Afghanistan because the parks were closed to women and girls by the Taliban. A bird can sing, but a girl cannot sing in public.” The “slow asphyxiation” of Afghan women denounced by Meryl Streep had already been highlighted in a UN Women report published in August 2024: “The hard-won progress of the last two decades to achieve gender equality has been erased by oppressive directives that attack the very existence of Afghan women”, and the effects “are devastating”.

Young girls attend classes in Helmand Province. By April 2023, at least 80% of girls had no access to any kind of education. UNICEF/Mark Naftalin.

The first alarm bells went off when secondary schools were closed in March 2022, followed by universities in December of the same year. By April 2023, at least 80% of girls had no access to any kind of education. While some primary schools remained open, almost 30% of girls never entered them, due to “entrenched socio-cultural norms, prohibitive costs and because it is unsafe to travel”, especially in the most remote provinces. The situation “is even more serious for girls with disabilities: 80% have no access to education”. “The restrictions imposed by the Taliban will affect future generations,” UN Women warned. “By 2026, the impact of leaving 1.1 million children out of school and more than 100,000 women out of university will be linked to a 45% increase in the rate of early pregnancy and a 50% increase in the risk of maternal mortality.” The price of excluding women from the labour market costs Afghanistan about $1 billion a year, according to the United Nations Development Programme. Other projections indicate that “the national economy will lose $9.6 billion, equivalent to 2/3 of the current gross domestic product, by 2026, if women continue to be barred
from higher education.”

The price of excluding women from the labour market costs Afghanistan about $1 billion a year.

What the Taliban advocate as measures to “defend honour,” in a toxic interpretation of Islam that is followed by no other Muslim-majority country and is branded “hypocritical” because Kabul’s leaders are educating their daughters in Turkey or Qatar, “will condemn generations of Afghan women to a life of dependence.”
The oppression of women, in addition to extreme poverty, is fuelling a deep mental health crisis. The British newspaper The Guardian told the story of an 18-year-old girl who saw her dream of becoming a doctor dashed and was forced to marry a heroin-addicted cousin. “Feeling that her future had been stolen from her and she was left with two options – marry a drug addict and be miserable, or end her life – she chose the latter.” It was not an isolated act.Despite the suffering inflicted on them, many Afghan women resist, protesting in the streets or on social networks, risking arrest, rape, torture, or death. This opposition, “increasingly political,” emphasizes Sahar Fetrat, researcher for Human Rights Watch, “is the greatest fear of the Taliban,” who “insisted on reducing women’s voices and bodies to sources of sin.”

Women walking in a blue burqa on a dirt road in Kabul. 123rf

The resistance movement, which includes women from all walks of life, “is peaceful, young and diverse, courageous and optimistic,” says Afghan Fetrat, quoting the words of an activist: “We are not afraid of death. We are an immortal generation. Individual courage inspires hope.”
The current priority for women inside and outside Afghanistan is their campaign, launched in late 2023, for the UN to recognize and characterise as a crime against humanity “gender apartheid”, a term they coined during the first Taliban regime, invoking as a precedent “racial apartheid”, enshrined in international law since 1973.
Last October, there was some good news: the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that “it is sufficient to take into account only nationality and gender” to grant asylum to an Afghan woman. (Open Photo: Two women in burqas making a fist gesture against violence and for human rights. Shutterstock/chomplearn)

Margarida Santos Lopes

Music. The Znous. “That Species”.

Saturday, 1 March 2025 8:00

The Znous are a Tunisian band of the hardcore punk and metal genre with a strong political character. They define themselves as feminists and anti-elitists. We talk to Hamma, the band’s singer and guitarist, about the work of the Znous.

Their production began in 2019 with Juna, the single that opens Znousland 1 and traces the history of Tunisia from the Roman invasion to today. Znousland 2 (2020) and Znousland 3 (2021) will follow, focusing on the story of postcolonial Tunisia and the aftermath of the “Jasmine Revolution” of 2011. The band vindicates its Amazigh origins and believes in music as a practice of resistance.

In Znousland 4, the focus shifts from the national to the global, placing Palestine and the condemnation of the ongoing genocide at the centre. Despite censorship on social media and anonymity, due to the hostility to the government of President Kais Saied, the group gets almost 11 thousand plays on Spotify every month.

Why the name of the group?
“Znous” for the average Tunisian is an insult of colonial heritage. The French used the equivalent expression “espèce de…” to say that others were not as human, or civilised, as they were. We wanted to reclaim the “Z word” to affirm that we are “that species” that our society would
like to get rid of.

Amazigh Flag. File swm

You have also reclaimed your Amazigh origins…
We have searched for our identity. As we explain in Sidi Arbi (“My Master, the Arab”), we are trying to reclaim our roots, even though Habib Bourguiba (first president after independence, remembered as the “father of modern Tunisia”, ed.) also tried to consign them to oblivion. Hence the choice of photos of Algerian Amazigh women as the cover of the EPs: taken by photographer Marc Garanger, they were used by the French army to identify the accomplices of the resistance (in the context of the War of Liberation of Algeria, ed.). We deeply admire those women. Their defiant gaze towards the oppressor inspired us.

Where did Znousland 1, 2 and 3 come from?
The first three albums were the fruit of anger. We felt the need to confront the corrupt system left by Ben Ali, the police state, the terrorist attacks, the Islamist wave of the Ennahda party and its leader Ghannouchi. After 2011, the Tunisian people have experienced all the shades of pain possible. Our revolution was aborted.

Finally, Znousland 4 was released, a change of pace…
October 7, 2023, marked the beginning of an apocalyptic phase. The ongoing genocide is the most documented abomination in human history. Our mental health, our creativity, our perception of the world, our faith in humanity… everything has changed.
Znousland 4 was driven by pain and the desire to give voice to the struggles of the Palestinian people.

Rameem (“Ruins”) is the third track on the album. What does it represent?
When I wrote Rameem, I was suffering from major depression. Even today, I struggle to remember when I wrote it and how I managed to pull myself together to record it. Rameem is the moment of collision, October 7, and it is a hymn to Palestine. Perhaps free one day. It is a call to revolution: we believe in violence to resist oppression. The song is about ruins and resurrection. It is about the resurrected.

In 7 Shaltaat (“7 cuts”) you mention the traditional practices you are against, while with the cover Leklem Lemrassaa (“The noble words”), you pay homage to the Moroccan group Jil Jilala. Which customs and traditions do you oppose? What do you mean by “noble words”?
There is a whole list of what we call “bad traditions”. Like the Tasfih (a ritual to protect the virginity of young Tunisian women, ed.) which to a certain extent still persists today. We are against the concept of honour concerning the sexual sphere of women and men. Circumcision is another bad habit. With Leklem Lemrassaa we wanted to celebrate the Maghreb identity. And then it gives voice to how we have been feeling since October 7: not only have beautiful words lost their “light”, but also the ideas behind those words have lost their weight. Today we live in the era of “inhumanism”. (Open Photo: A mural of ‘Znous’ on a street in Tunis. Facebook)

Nadia Addezio

West Africa. Winds of resource nationalism blow across the Sahel.

Saturday, 1 March 2025 8:00

Following the expulsion of French troops from Mali, Burkina-Faso and Niger, the leaders of these countries are extending their pro-sovereignty policies to the economic sphere. Together with Senegal, they have embarked on a new policy of resource nationalism.

One of the key figures behind these changes is Kemi Seba, whose real name is Stellio Gilles Robert Capo Chichi, a 43-year-old French-Beninois binational who has been advising Niger’s president, General Abdourahmane Tiani, since August 2024, a year after the July 2023 military coup that ousted the pro-French president Mohamed Bazoum. Kemi Seba, who founded the NGO “Urgences panafricanistes”, claims to be a successor to Steve Biko’s Black Consciousness Movement and to have been trained by Louis Farakhan’s Nation of Islam.

Kemi Seba. CC BY-SA 4.0/Boubs Sidibe

He sees himself as the spiritual heir of the late presidents of Ghana, Kwame Krumah, and Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara, although for a time he adopted black supremacist rhetoric. For several years he has been campaigning against the “degenerate neo-liberal global elite” and the CFA franc, which he considers to be a neo-colonial currency. In an interview published last October by the Turkish news agency Anadolu, Kemi Seba, who describes Niger as a “laboratory of the Pan-Africanist revolution”, announced his ambition to liberate the Sahel from the transnational corporations that exploit the region.In addition to the withdrawal of French troops from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger between 2022 and 2024, the three countries of the Alliance of Sahel States, founded in July 2024, have begun to rename streets and monuments that recall the French colonial past. On 18 December 2024, 25 squares, streets and monuments in Bamako changed their names. The streets of Faidherbe, Brière de l’Isle and Archinard now bear the names of local heroes such as Mamadou Lamine Drame, Banzoumana Sissoko and El Hadj Cheick Oumar Tall. Similar decisions were taken in Burkina Faso last April and in Niamey last October. Last December, Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye also called for the renaming of several avenues in Dakar to honour the country’s heroes.

The ruling military leaders, from the left: Capt Ibrahim Traoré (Burkina Faso) Colonel Assimi Goita (Mali) General Abdourahmane Tchiani (Niger). Photo Archive

Since 2023, the members of the Alliance of Sahel States have been pursuing a policy of resource nationalism. The first shot in this nationalist crusade came from Burkina Faso, where in February 2023 the junta seized 200 kilograms of gold mined by a subsidiary of the Canadian group Endeavour Mining on the grounds of “public necessity”.
Then, in 2024, the Burkinabé junta nationalised the Boungou and Wahgnion gold mines, which were owned by Canadian miner Endeavour Mining. The plan is also to increase domestic processing of local ores, as evidenced by the government’s approval in November 2023 of the construction of Burkina Faso’s first gold refinery.
“We are going to get our mining licenses back,” Burkina Faso’s President Ibrahim Traoré stated earlier this year “and we are going to mine it ourselves”, he said. This nationalisation process meant a renegotiation of contracts with foreign firms and the assertion of more control
over the mining operations.
On 2 January 2025, a judge in Mali ordered the seizure of three tonnes of gold from the Canadian mining company Barrick Gold, which owes the government a total of $5.5 billion. The decision follows a dispute with the Malian authorities over a contract based on new mining regulations, during which Mali detained senior executives and issued an arrest warrant for Barrick’s CEO, Mark Bristow.

Loulo-Gounkoto Gold Mine Complex in Mali. Photo: Endeavour Mining

The government then seized the stocks from Barrick’s Loulo and Gounkoto mines in western Mali and transported them by helicopter to the state-owned Banque Malienne de Solidarité in the capital, Bamako.
As a result, Barrick announced on 13 January 2025 that it would have to suspend mining operations in the country and filed a request for arbitration against Mali with the Washington-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment. Two weeks later, the Bamako government and Barrick began negotiations to resolve the dispute over the Canadian mining company’s alleged non-payment of taxes, the seizure of its gold stocks and Barrick’s agreement to the new mining code, which gives the state a greater share of mining revenues and eliminates tax exemptions for mining companies.
In November 2024, the Malian military also arrested the CEO and two employees of Australian company Resolute Mining, before releasing them after the company signed a $160 million deal with the government. Other mining companies, such as Canada’s Allied Gold, B2Gold and Robex, did not face such problems because they had previously agreed to review the terms of their contracts and paid to settle tax and customs disputes.So far, Mali has raised more than $1 billion by negotiating new contracts or renegotiating old ones, according to Economy Minister Alousseni Sanou. Reforms in the mining sector are expected to bring in another billion dollars a year and increase the national budget by 20 per cent. The leader of Mali’s junta, General Assimi Goita, also said in January that these new revenues would make it possible “to pay off part of the internal and external debt and to pay for military equipment”.

Uranium mine in Niger. The Niamey government has announced that Niger will seek to attract Russian investment in the uranium sector. File swm

Meanwhile, in the wake of the July 2023 coup, Niger’s military junta withdrew the licence for the Imamouren uranium mine held by French nuclear giant Orano on 19 June 2024. This is a serious blow to Orano, which is 90 per cent owned by the French state, as Imamouren is one of the world’s largest deposits, with an estimated total of 200,000 tonnes.
Then, in October 2024, Orano announced that its subsidiary Somaïr, 63.4% owned by the French company and 36.6% by the State of Niger, would cease production because, according to management, it could no longer operate in the country. Shortly afterwards, on 8 November, the mining minister, Ousmane Abarchi, announced that Niger was seeking to attract Russian investment in the uranium sector. The Niamey authorities also took operational control of Somaïr at the end of 2024, while Orano retaliated on 20 December by announcing its intention to take Niger to international arbitration.

The new government in Dakar states: “We cannot continue to sign agreements that end up impoverishing the 50,000 local fishermen whose pirogues no longer have access to the resource that is being depleted by foreign fleets”.

The wave of resource nationalism has also reached Senegal. On 17 November last year, the government in Dakar announced the end of the fishing agreement with the European Union, in line with new policies following the election of a nationalist president in March 2024 who promised a fairer distribution of natural resource revenues for the benefit of the Senegalese people. “We cannot continue to sign agreements that end up impoverishing the 50,000 local fishermen whose pirogues no longer have access to the resource that is being depleted by foreign fleets of factory ships, including European ones,” say the new authorities in Dakar.
Some observers warn that the Sahelian states’ new rhetoric, based on sovereignty and rejection of Western partners, risks scaring off foreign investors. But supporters of the juntas counter that new partners looking to expand their influence in the region, including China, Russia and Turkey, are ready to fill the gap. Whether the interests of the local population will be better served remains to be seen. (Open Photo: 123rf)

François Misser

Bolivia. The Art of the Andes.

Saturday, 1 March 2025 8:00

The ancient art of weaving continues to be the heart of life in the Bolivian highlands, where extraordinary fabrics reflect the cultural identity of Andean communities.

The inhabitants of the Bolivian highlands are not nomadic herders but live in permanent settlements on lands where nature is not generous. This has forced them to exploit the resources at their disposal to the maximum. The animals they raise, especially llamas and alpacas, native to the Andes, have long been a source of protein and means of transport. Still, their greatest value lies in the wool with which they make resistant fabrics to protect themselves from the cold at those altitudes.

Llama in a remote area of Bolivia. The greatest value of llamas and alpacas is their wool, which is used to make resistant fabrics to protect against the cold at these altitudes. 123rf

It is a tradition that dates back to pre-conquest times when textiles were considered a first-class art, worth dedicating all the time and effort possible to achieve the desired quality and beauty. This awareness of the artistic potential of fibres is still alive among the Jalq’a, who inhabit a series of communities located northwest of Sucre, and among their Quechua-speaking neighbours, the Tarabucos, who occupy lands to the southeast. Their devotion to these traditions can certainly be attributed to their isolation from the outside world, but it also survive because of their tenacious sense of cultural pride.
Their clothing continues to represent their cultural and personal identity. The ponchos, shawls, skirts, belts, coca bags, and headdresses they wear convey indications of age, gender, social status, origin, and other messages that the stranger cannot decipher.

Family-based work
Virtually all family members, regardless of age and gender, participate in spinning or contribute to the household work, as spinning takes much longer than weaving a particular piece. If beginners produce uneven or too thick yarn, it can be used for blankets, potato sacks, or other utilitarian objects. Young women learn the basics of knitting by making small pieces (sakas).Boys also weave small pieces, especially belts, which are sometimes offered to girls as a marriage proposal. Traditionally, girls express their consent by weaving a coca bag for their future partners. At the time of marriage, young women bring precious fabrics as a dowry, some perhaps woven especially for the occasion, others inherited
from their grandmothers.

A local woman weaves intricate llama garments on a traditional handloom.123rf

The colours of the fabrics also have special meaning. Some shades are associated with celebrations, others with mourning, while still others identify the community of origin. Natural wool produces black, brown, white, and a wide variety of intermediate colours, the properties of which vary greatly depending on the animal species from which the fibre comes (sheep, llama, alpaca, or vicuña). Some camelids have thicker outer fur and finer inner fur; in addition, certain body parts produce higher-quality wool, so a lengthy preliminary classification phase is necessary.
The fleece is usually washed with strong soap to remove dirt and grease. The fleece is then rinsed and left to dry. The colourful fleeces, which have been recently dyed, can be seen from afar, hanging on clotheslines behind the brown huts that help characterize the landscape.
Anilines, readily available in regional markets, produce bright colours, but natural dyes are also used and are coming back into fashion, especially among purists seeking to obtain fabrics with an antique look.
Among other dyes, weavers use walnut shells, wild marigolds, eucalyptus leaves, various lichens, elderberries, and indigo, which they fix with alum or iron oxide mordants and intensify with vinegar or lemon juice baths.

Indigenous woman showing traditional Andean weaving techniques and textile production. 123rf

To interpret the various motifs, present in the pallay, or main design, it can be said that the Tarabuco weavers organize the elements of the design (plants, animals, people, geometric shapes, symbols, etc.) in registers separated by thin strips that they call jarq’achin, a term that suggests containment and that what does not disperse.
A specially decorated dancing half-skirt (taki aqsu) or in soft colours (luto aqsu) may have seven or more ribbons, while those for everyday use have fewer. The wider central band is usually decorated with a zigzag (q’inqu), thought to represent mountains and rivers, and has small plant or bird motifs in the corners.
Often the warp fibres of the central ribbon produce the luminous effect of a rainbow (k’uychis). Symmetrically, within narrow bands on each side, processions of creatures are lined up that appear to be marching or dancing, because there is almost always a sense of movement.
The collection of animals may include partridges, ducks, cats, dogs, chickens, deer, vizcachas, horses with banners, and figures on horseback. Elaborate and stylized representations of palm trees, processional altars (pukaras), and a diamond-shaped motif (ch’aska) representing Venus are also common because the evening star has a special meaning among Quechua-speaking peoples.

Imagination and creativity
When women store their shawls, they fold them into accordion-shaped pleats, which are considered elegant when worn. Other, simpler shawls are woven in two pieces with common techniques, mostly in crimson or dark red, with inner bands in the centre and edges. These pieces can become almost waterproof and, with use, become very soft. The same happens with the striped ponchos worn by men (sometimes they wear two in very inclement weather).
These fabrics are very durable. The predominant colour of the ponchos generally identifies the different communities to which they belong. Currently, the bright tones of these fabrics come from anilines obtained for commercial dyeing, but according to one researcher, the tradition of using reddish tones seems to have begun in the 16th century, when cochineal began to be produced in the area.

A woman at the market. 123rf

Tarabuco’s designs, although immensely vivid and lyrical, appear relatively ordered in the visual chaos and surreal fantasy of many Jalq’a fabrics. Although the latter, especially the older ones, may contain decorative bands, the most spectacular examples in recent decades feature continuous spaces populated by creatures of all sizes and shapes, some within others. Favourite shapes include llamas, deer, horses, bats, owls, condors, monkeys, lions, and rabbits, although weavers tend to describe them as khurus, wild and untameable creatures. Humans are rare.
For many years, Jalq’a weavers have used two colours: a reddish or dark brown tone, or black. This colour scheme, evoking flames and dark shadows, seems inspired by a dark and mysterious realm underground. Despite respect for traditional forms, recent textile production by the Tarabucos and Jalq’a has been influenced by new socioeconomic realities that are difficult to control. Over time, a textile trade has developed, first in specialized shops in La Paz, Cochabamba, and Sucre, then through intermediaries abroad. Inevitably, the quality of the fabrics began to decline in order to be easily sold on the local market. More recently, however, the extraordinary khuru of the Jalq’a have returned to spread more than ever and, in the case of the Tarabuco weavers, a new awareness of their own history has re-emerged in their ancient art. (Open Photo: People contemplating the Andes. 123rf)

Caleb Bach

Book Review. The Drug Kingdom in Myanmar.

Saturday, 1 March 2025 8:00

On the border with China, the Wa people have created a narco-state that generates billions from drug trafficking.

Of the more than 135 ethnic groups that populate Myanmar, only the Wa have managed to create their own autonomous region: effectively a state within a state, with its own laws, schools, roads and a permanent army, known by the acronym UWSA, United Wa State Army.
But the Wa is also a narco-state “at the centre of a drug trafficking ring in Southeast Asia that generates sixty billion dollars a year from methamphetamine alone”, a figure that exceeds the GDP of many internationally recognized countries.
Yet the Wa were originally a tribe of peasant warriors who resided in the mountains bordering the Chinese province of Yunnan and were best known for the brutal practice of collecting the heads of their enemies.

This particular evolution of the Wa – from a head-cutting tribe to an international drug cartel – is well documented in the book “Narcotopia”, by the American journalist Patrick Winn, based in Bangkok, Thailand.
A transformation that took place between the 1960s and 1970s thanks to the support of the CIA, which wanted to counter the expansion of Chinese communism. In exchange for the collaboration of drug lords who cultivated opium, the US intelligence agency turned a blind eye to the export of narcotics to Thailand and from there to the rest of the world. Then, in the 1990s, when the CIA decided that the Wa were becoming a threat to national interests, it began to target the same drug lords it had previously protected. “When a superpower attempts to destroy an entire civilization and brand its people as untouchable on the international stage, it is essential to tell the other side of the story,” Winn writes in the first pages of the book.

Soldiers on patrol. In the civil war that began after the military coup in 2021, the Wa were not officially involved. Shutterstock/Skynavin

The author’s intent was achieved through direct interviews conducted in Myanmar and intelligence documents that confirm the Wa leaders’ versions of events. Even today, the Wa, thanks to a militia of about 25-30,000 members, are considered the most powerful ethnic group in all of former Burma.
Yet they have not officially taken part in the civil conflict that began after the military coup in 2021, probably under pressure from China, with which the Wa maintain close ties today. With the advance of resistance forces towards their territories, the Wa have tried to act as mediators, again in an attempt to protect Beijing’s commercial interests in the region. An epilogue that the CIA probably had not imagined.

Patrick Winn, Narcotopia, Icon Book Ltd, London 2024. (Open Photo: Purple opium poppy field (Papaver somniferum) in Myanmar. Shutterstock/Delpixel)

AdP/MM

Towards the Jubilee of Youth with Pope Francis.

Saturday, 1 March 2025 8:00

From July 28 to August 3, 2025. Young people are invited to meet and live the experience of the Jubilee together. The four paths that lead to the Jubilee of Hope.

In recent months, Pope Francis has spoken out several times, inviting young people to believe in hope. The “hope that does not disappoint” with these words the Pope announced the Jubilee, urging young people not to be influenced by “pessimism” and “scepticism”.

The Pope urges the new generations to be bearers of the “beauty and novelty of life”, converting differences into “the ability to listen” and aspiring to higher ideals than the “quicksand of enmity”. “Evil, pessimism, scepticism will not have the last word”.

Francis does not hide the difficulties that young people will encounter on their journey. “Do not be afraid!”, “Do not be afraid either to go through conflicts”, he adds, asking them to have the patience to see them transformed into “recognition of the other” and “mutual growth”.

Divergences are compared to a labyrinth, to escape from which it is necessary to be “in the company of another who helps us” and always “from above”, “so that life is not a labyrinthine circle, which kills youth”.

The Pope does not even hide the sadness in him aroused by observing young people who “live in superficiality”, avoiding “going
through conflicts”.

“Trying to overcome them is the sign that we have aimed higher, higher than our particular interests, to get out of the quicksand of enmity”.

A feeling that Francis asks to promote through “active participation” in dialogue with institutions, “networking” – “but also by making noise. It is very important” – between the different realities inspired
by “solidarity” and “inclusion”.

“In this task, I invite you to be the voice of all, especially of those who have no voice. And today there are so many people who have no voice, so many who are excluded, not only socially, due to problems of poverty, lack of education, drug dictatorship… but also of those who do not know how to dream. Network to dream, and do not lose this ability. Dream…”

“Dear young people, one of the most important things is to walk…”. These were the opening words of the video message that Pope Francis had recorded for all the young people of the world as part of the work of the second session of the Synod on Synodality.

To encourage young people to move forward, the Pontiff uses the metaphor of water. “When a young person walks, everything is fine, but when a young person stops… it is like water. When the water walks, it is fine, but when the water stops… it ends badly, it is ugly with so many ‘beasts’ (little animals) inside”.

“Tired water is the first to be corrupted. The tired young person is the first to be corrupted,” Pope Francis also affirmed. “Forward, always walk. Look forward with courage and joy.” From here, the usual request: “I greet you. Pray for me.”

In his latest message for World Youth Day, the Pope highlights four paths that lead to the Jubilee of Hope.

The pilgrimage of life and its challenges. The Pope writes: “Our life is a pilgrimage, a journey that pushes us beyond ourselves, a journey in search of happiness; and Christian life, in particular, is a pilgrimage toward God, our salvation and the fullness of every good.

However, it is normal that, even though we begin our journeys with enthusiasm, sooner or later we begin to feel tired… The solution to tiredness, paradoxically, is not to stay still to rest. It is rather to set out and become pilgrims of hope. This is my invitation to you: walk in hope!

Pilgrims in the desert. Francis emphasizes: “In the pilgrimage of life there will inevitably be challenges to face. In ancient times, on longer pilgrimages, one had to face the changing seasons and the changing climate; cross pleasant meadows and cool woods, but also snow-capped mountains and scorching deserts. So, even for those who are believers, the pilgrimage of life and the journey toward a distant destination remain tiring, as was the journey through the desert toward the Promised Land for the people of Israel.”

“Moments of crisis, which make life seem like a difficult journey through the desert. These times of crisis, however, are not lost or useless times, but can reveal themselves as important opportunities for growth. They are moments of purification of hope.”

In these moments, the Lord does not abandon us; he draws near with his fatherhood and always gives us the bread that reinvigorates our strength and sets us back on the path. Let us remember that he gave manna to the people in the desert (see Exodus 16) and that he twice offered a cake and water to the prophet Elijah, tired and discouraged, so that he could walk for “forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb” (see 1 Kings 19:3-8).

From tourists to pilgrims. The Pope invites: “Your walking should not simply be passing through the places of life in a superficial way, without grasping the beauty of what you encounter, without discovering the meaning of the roads travelled, capturing brief moments, fleeting experiences to fix in a selfie. The tourist does this. The pilgrim instead immerses himself with all his being in the places he encounters, makes them speak, and makes them become part of his search for happiness. The Jubilee pilgrimage, then, wants to become the sign of the interior journey that we are all called to undertake, to reach the final destination.

Pilgrims of hope for the mission. The Pope exhorts: “In this upcoming Holy Year of Hope, I invite all of you to experience the embrace of a merciful God, to experience his forgiveness, the remission of all our “interior debts”, as was the tradition in biblical jubilees. And so, welcomed by God and reborn in Him, you too become open arms for many of your friends and peers who need to feel, through your welcome, the love of God the Father. May each of you give “even just a smile, a gesture of friendship, a fraternal look, sincere listening, a free service, knowing that, in the Spirit of Jesus, this can become for those who receive it a fruitful seed of hope” (ibid., 18), and thus become tireless missionaries of joy.” (Open Photo: 123rf)

Francis Mutesa

Mozambique. “Vida Nova”: Together with the people.

Saturday, 1 March 2025 8:00

Vida Nova celebrates its 65th anniversary. It follows the joys, hopes and journeys of Mozambican society and the Church.

“Vida Nova” is a socio-religious magazine owned by the Archdiocese of Nampula, published under the responsibility of the Paul VI Catechetical Centre of Anchilo and the Comboni Missionaries present in Mozambique. It was founded on January 1, 1960 by the Missionaries of the Good News, a Portuguese congregation, with the name “La Boa Nova”. A few years later the magazine was soon administered by the Comboni Missionaries, who changed its name to “Vida Nova”.
Vida Nova is, to date, the only Catholic magazine distributed at a national level. With 14,000 copies printed every month. The magazine has uninterruptedly followed the joys, hopes, and journey of Mozambican society and Church for 65 years.
Its first editorial included: “It is difficult to say what Boa Nova (the magazine’s original name from 1960 to 1972) will become. However, the demands of global pastoral care, a program for better preparation of catechists, attention to the events of daily life and all those who proclaim the Gospel… all this will ensure that BOA NOVA will continue to grow and develop. It will be a bit like what we all are. If it receives everything from us, it will give us a lot!”.

Meeting of the catechists. Vida Nova is published under the responsibility of the Paul VI Catechetical Centre of Anchilo. File swm

The magazine has always accompanied the political, social and religious life of the country. On the eve of independence, it wrote: “Let us be prepared and, with our new government, let us work so that it is not a government that imposes orders, but that helps its people. A disembodied faith is sterile; incarnate faith is strength and life. We must find a way so that our faith is not alienation, but hope and commitment”.
This year also marks the 50th anniversary of independence from Portugal. Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world. Almost 64% of the population lives below the poverty line and the national budget still depends largely on external aid. Around 80% of the population lives from peasant agriculture, which is particularly vulnerable to natural disasters. The repercussions of the 2016 debt crisis, the two cyclones of 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as terrorist attacks in the Cabo del Gado region of northern Mozambique since 2017, have caused more than 4,000 deaths and nearly a million refugees and internally displaced persons. Situations that have created serious suffering for the Mozambican people.

The life of the country
Celebrating the 65th anniversary of the founding of Vida Nova means remembering the events of more than six decades; it is interpreting and updating today’s events in the light of the Word of God and the teaching of the Church to better understand the society in which they live.
The general elections of October 2024 have put the life of the country to the test. Vida Nova writes: “The people have not found a better future in the electoral promises. They have also lost absolute confidence in the electoral process and its organization, a process tainted by alleged fraud and political insensitivity that favours the interests of a few at the expense of the many. It seems that the lack of a long-term political vision has made our leaders visually impaired, incapable of doing good to all strata of the population.”

The only Catholic magazine distributed nationally. Monthly circulation of 14,000.

Vida Nova continues: “To understand better, let us remember what F. Fanon wrote in 1961 in his book “The Wretched of the Earth”, in which he analysed colonial domination, the struggles for national liberation and the prospects of a new governance, because his message is very current for all movements and parties, old and new, in Mozambique. Fanon said: ‘That party that proclaimed itself the servant of the people and worked for their full emancipation, as soon as power was handed over to it, rushed to send the people back to their caves… The party is not an instrument in the hands of the government. The party is an instrument in the hands of the people. It is the party that establishes the policy that the government must apply. The party is not, and must never be, the only political body in which all the members of the government and the great dignitaries of the regime feel completely at ease. We must never lose contact with the people who fought for their independence and for the concrete improvement of their existence.’”

Mozambique flag sign with an arrow. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Mozambique’s independence. 123rf

Vida Nova’s editorial dedicated to the post-election period denounces: “If the gap between those in power and those governed continues to widen, if those in power are deaf to the cries of young people who do not see their dreams come true, and if those in power are unable to ensure that the natural wealth that Mozambique has can benefit everyone, then there will always be those who will demand justice and truth and the seed of discontent will continue to grow until it explodes
in the entire society.”
On January 15, the new president Daniel Chapo of Frelimo, the party that has governed the country since independence from Portugal in 1975, took office in Mozambique. The Constitutional Court awarded Chapo the victory of the presidential elections of October 9, but the results were contested by the opposition in the large protests of recent months, in which almost 300 people were killed. The protests continued during the day of the inauguration, and at least seven more people were killed. Some areas of the capital Maputo had been militarized for the occasion: many streets near the parliament had been closed to traffic and the parliament area was flown over by military planes and helicopters.

The Catholic Bishops of Mozambique. Faced with the situation of violence that has overwhelmed the country, the bishops have called for the restoration of truth and electoral justice, which are the main causes of the protests. (Photo CEM)

Faced with the situation of violence that has overwhelmed the country, the Catholic bishops of Mozambique have called for the restoration of truth and electoral justice, which are the main causes of the protests.
The lack of confidence in the results of the electoral process was the main cause of the demonstrations organized peacefully, but which became violent due to the actions of infiltrated opportunists and the often-exaggerated responses by the police.
Vida Nova quotes the bishops’ document: “The application of the electoral law in the counting of votes at the national level by the competent authorities, in itself, cannot guarantee reliable results if the data is not reliable. Certifying a lie is fraud… We, the Catholic bishops of Mozambique, ask all those directly involved in this electoral process and the conflict generated to make the exercise of recognition of guilt, forgiveness and the courage of truth, the path that allows a return to a normal situation in a country that wants to be alive and active and not silenced by the fear of violence. Mozambique must not return to violence! Our country deserves truth, peace, tranquillity and tolerance! We pray for peace; we are artisans of justice and witnesses of the truth.” (A.B.)

Sudan. The role of Abu Dhabi.

Saturday, 1 March 2025 8:00

The Arab country is among the major supporters of the Rapid
Support Forces (RSF) under the command of General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemeti.
RSF is the main recipient of the gold trafficked by the militia’s leaders, starting with the leader Hemeti and his family. But the rich state of the Emirs is also the cornerstone of a series of connections that end up fuelling the conflict with their weapons.

Peace in Sudan passes through the United Arab Emirates. This is because Abu Dhabi is the magnetic north of a sort of compass of chaos and the conflict in the African country, one of the worst humanitarian crises on the planet, seems to be emblematic of this.

Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi. The Arab country is the backbone of various triangulations that play a role in the conflict. 123rf

From the small country of the Arabian Peninsula, illegal trafficking and opaque connections start and flow together, nourishing interests and fuelling instability in various parts of the world. The Emirates have found a privileged interlocutor in the hostilities that have continued since April 2023: the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under the command of General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo known as Hemeti.
Abu Dhabi is the backbone of various triangulations that play a role in the conflict: identifying them helps shed light on a complex war that is relevant to the interests of many.

From Abu Dhabi to Ndjamena
On 20 October 2024, the RSF shot down a cargo plane in the Malha area, north of Al-Fasher, in the western region of North Darfur. The militia claimed on social media that it had destroyed an Antonov plane used as a bomber by the Sudanese army.
The wreckage of the aircraft turned out to be an Ilyushin-76. One of the crew members was wearing a badge identifying him as an engineer from Airline Transport Incorporation, a company based in the United Arab Emirates. A few hours later, when they realised their mistake, the RSF removed the video of the celebrating soldiers.
This “incident” would confirm the data of a United Nations report which refers to at least 86 flights departing from the United Arab Emirates and landing on the runway in Amdjarass, in eastern Chad, since the beginning of the conflict in Sudan.

President of Chad Mahamat Déby Itno. He received more than a billion dollars in exchange for the guarantee of support for the RSF through the Chadian city of Amdjarass, to be used as a supply centre. Facebook

The war is mainly between the RSF and the regular Sudanese army (Sudan Armed Forces, SAF). The cargo of the flights in question, according to documents examined by Reuters, consisted of weapons hidden among humanitarian aid. The transporters were reportedly the same four companies that the UN had accused of trafficking weapons to the militias of General Khalifa Haftar – a strongman in eastern Libya and a supporter of the RSF in the conflict between 2019 and 2020: ZetAvia and Flysky Airlines from Ukraine and FlySky Kyrgyz and Sapsan Airlines from Kyrgyzstan. According to the reconstruction by The Africa Report, in July 2023, the Emirates offered the Chadian President, Mahmat Déby, more than a billion dollars in exchange for the guarantee of support for the RSF through the Chadian city of Amdjarass,
to be used as a supply centre.

The special relationship with Hemeti
It passes through Chad but is aimed at reaching Hemeti’s men. The relationship between the government of Abu Dhabi and the RSF was strengthened during the war in Yemen, which began in 2014 and has reached a stage of prolonged ceasefire that has now lasted for more than a year. RSF militiamen have fought against the Houthi militias on behalf of the Emirates. The road that connects the Sudanese militia to Abu Dhabi is paved with gold. The Dagalo family’s companies control the exploitation of the precious resource in Darfur, where half of Sudan’s reserves are estimated to be found. 75% of Sudanese gold is trafficked and ends up on the Emirates market.
These figures are not isolated on the continent: according to a report last May by the NGO Swissaid, about 40% of all African gold exports are undeclared and of these 93% are destined for the Emirates.
Reuters reported that Abu Dhabi disclosed $7.4 billion worth of gold imports from 25 African countries that had not declared any
exports to the country.

Gold market in Dubai. About 40% of all African gold exports are undeclared and of these 93% are destined for the Emirates. 123rf

Documents reviewed by Reuters in 2018 and 2019 showed that Algunade, a company owned by the Dagalo family, was already sending about $30 million in gold bars, or about a tonne, to Dubai every three weeks. The Emirates is the world’s third-largest importer of the precious metal, which in turn accounts for 70% of Sudan’s exports. Legal sales of the metal generated $1.5 billion in revenue for Khartoum in the first 10 months of 2024, almost all of it destined for the Arab country. That figure does not include gold that escapes official channels in a volume similar to that legally exported. These Dagalo family businesses have their tax residence in the Emirates and have allowed the RSF leader to finance an army that exceeded 100,000 soldiers at the beginning of the war against the SAF.

Western hypotenuse
The Emirates and several European countries have a long-standing relationship in the defence sector. In 2014, a $200 million deal was signed between the state-owned Serbian arms company Yugoimport and the Emirates holding company Earth.
For example, weapons from the Balkan country have been found in Sudan. The French parliament’s 2024 report on arms exports shows that French companies have supplied €2.6 billion in military equipment to the Emirates between 2014 and 2023. Armoured vehicles manufactured in the Arab country and equipped with French-designed defence systems are part of the RSF’s current arsenal, according to a report by Amnesty International. This would be a violation of the arms embargo that the European Union imposed on Sudan in 1994.

General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemeti, in a video produced by the Rapid Support Forces (Screengrab)

However, the links between the RSF and the EU do not end there. In 2014, a platform to contain illegal migration known as the Khartoum Process was established, which is based on cooperation between EU countries and countries along the migration route from the Horn of Africa. Brussels asked for Khartoum’s help to stem the flow of migrants to Europe at a time when the RSF was largely responsible for patrolling the borders. Meanwhile, according to a report by the Dutch think-tank Clingendael, Hemeti’s militias allegedly organised a system whereby they received money from migrants to smuggle them into Libya in military vehicles. And the US? Last September, former President Joe Biden and his counterpart Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan signed a multi-billion-dollar cooperation agreement that made the Emirates a privileged strategic ally of Washington. A policy with paradoxical implications: last month the US Treasury sanctioned Hemeti and seven companies linked to his militia and based in the Emirates. At the same time as announcing the measure, former Secretary of State Antony Blinken also accused the RSF of being responsible for “genocide” in the ongoing conflict. (Open Photo: Flag of United Arab Emirates on the background of sunset sky. 123rf)

Mohamed Ahmed Al-Kasalawi

The Jubilee Door. A Kairos of Hope.

Saturday, 1 March 2025 8:00

A Jubilee is a holy time of forgiveness and reconciliation, an opportunity to obtain indulgences and to return to the essence of fraternity. The spiritual dimension of the Jubilee must be combined with its social aspect; pilgrims are called to be fraternal to one another and to care for the earth.

The Jubilee opens our inner path, transforming and replenishing our lives. It is a time of transformation of our hearts and the world’s reality, according to God’s plan.
In the Old Testament, the Jubilee was an occasion to establish a right relationship withGod, with others and with creation. It implied forgiveness of debts, restitution of alienated land and the resting of the earth. In the New Testament, Jesus Himself announces the Jubilee year in the synagogue in Nazareth: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; for He has anointed me. He has sent me to evangelise the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord”.

The Jubilee must be a spiritual, ecclesial and social event in the life of the Church. Photo: MC

This text describes Jesus’ mission, which becomes our mission itself: To go on pilgrimage, to make an inner journey which will lead us to pass through the Holy Door – a powerful symbol which means entering into Christ, uniting us to Him, living from Him, with Him and for Him, and becoming like Him. The Church invites the faithful to experience this holy time, whether in Rome or in their Christian communities, so that this year of grace may unite us more closely to the Lord, transform our lives and encourage us to engage with the world.
The Jubilee must be a spiritual, ecclesial and social event in the life of the Church which rekindles our Christian life. It should be a year characterised by the forgiveness of sins and the reception of indulgences which express God’s mercy. Rekindled Hope and Forgiveness, the heart of the Jubilee, is a call to conversion, aimed not at condemnation, but at reconciliation with others, with God and with oneself.
It is an opportunity to live a new reality in which wounds are healed and the dignity of each person is recognised.

Holy Door
The Holy Door was opened on 24 December 2024 at St Peter’s and it will be closed on 6 January 2026 after the Jubilee Year.
The Jubilee is a precious occasion to nourish the faith and consolidate the Christian life of the People of God.
Conversion and forgiveness of sins also entail a social dimension which regards the transformation of our world. As the spiritual dimension of the Jubilee year is linked to its social aspect, pilgrims are called upon to care for each other fraternally and to care for the earth.
The Church in every country in the world will implement a sign of social commitment in this Jubilee year.

The Jubilee is a precious occasion to nourish the faith and consolidate the Christian life of the People of God. 123rf

Indulgences As the Decree granting the indulgence of the Jubilee states: “All the faithful, who are truly repentant and free from any affection for sin, who are moved by a spirit of charity and who, during the Holy Year, purified through the sacrament of penance and refreshed by Holy Communion, pray for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff, will be able to obtain from the treasury of the Church a plenary indulgence, with remission and forgiveness of all their sins, which can be applied in suffrage to the souls in Purgatory.”
Indulgences are achieved through a Pilgrimage to a Jubilee Holy place and by other means which strengthen Christian life, such as works of mercy and penance, participation in popular missions, spiritual exercises or other formation meetings of the Catholic Church. They are also achieved by visiting the sick, the imprisoned, the lonely, the elderly, and people with disabilities; through a spirit of penance: abstaining from superfluous and banal things, giving alms to the poor, supporting social works, and other missionary activities.

The Jubilee and the missions
The very nature of the Church is to be missionary. The Jubilee is intended to bring the Good News to those who do not know Jesus. It is a time for true hope, which will come to the world through missionary activity. Missionaries are agents of hope.
The Jubilee invites us to become instruments of evangelisation, through the universal language of charity works.
In this Holy Year, Pope Francis “exhorts each of us to become pilgrims of hope, offering concrete signs for a better future. Let us not forget to take care of ‘the small details of love” (Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exultate § 145), such as to know how to stop and pay attention to others, to offer a smile, a caress, a word of comfort. These gestures are not improvised; rather, they require daily fidelity, and almost always, remain hidden and silent; they are strengthened by prayer.

Group of pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago, Spain. Indulgences are achieved through a Pilgrimage to a Jubilee Holy place.123rf

At this time, when the song of hope seems to give way to the clang of weapons, the cries of so many wounded innocents and the silence of countless victims of war, let us turn to God and ask him for peace. We need peace; let us raise our hands to welcome it as a precious gift and, at the same time, commit ourselves to restoring it in our daily lives. The Church, living the synodal dimension, rediscovers her pilgrim nature, as people of God on a journey through history, ‘migrant’ towards the Kingdom of Heaven; with an unquestionable certainty: “The Lord your God accompanies you, and He will never leave you nor forsake you” (Dt 31,6). Although hope is threatened by injustices, violence and inequality, all of them present in our world, it has been revealed to us that the poor have a privileged place in the heart of God, so that, in the face of their suffering, God is ‘impatient’ until He has done them justice, “until He has removed the multitude of the arrogant and broken the sceptre of the unjust, until He has rewarded each man according to his deeds, and has recompensed the works of men according to their intentions”
(Sir 35:21-23).

To take care of ‘the small details of love”. 123rf

The Jubilee, in addition to being a pilgrimage, a prayer, an evangelisation and a celebration, leads “each Christian individual and every community to be an instrument of God for the liberation and promotion of the poor, enabling them to be fully a part of society. This demands that we may be docile and attentive to the cry of the poor and to come to their aid.” (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, 187). May your grace transform us, O Lord, into dedicated cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel that ferments humanity and the cosmos, in confident expectation of the new heavens and the new earth, when, with the forces of evil vanquished, your glory will be revealed for ever. May the grace of the Jubilee rekindle in us, Pilgrims of Hope, the longing for heavenly goods and pour out on the whole world the joy and peace of our Redeemer. (Open Photo: 123rf)

Antonio Fernández Rodríguez

Trump and the Tariffs War.

Saturday, 1 March 2025 8:00

Donald Trump’s protectionism, exercised with tariffs, is a piece of an ideology that sees America defending itself from those
who threaten it.

The first moves in trade policy of the new US administration are decidedly convulsive. Donald Trump threatens the BRICS with tariffs of up to 100% if they abandon the dollar. It is clear that the abandonment of the dollar as the currency of international payments has begun. And it is equally evident that Trump’s warning expresses the weakness of those who know they cannot afford those tariffs. And therefore, he shouts aloud to avert the danger.

In other words, Trump cannot increase the tariffs on China precisely because this would create a dollarization crisis. So, he makes the Chinese understand that he will not change the current state of affairs, beyond the mini tariffs of 10%, and the very negative trade balance with China, if there is not a reduction in dollar trade by China. But the Chinese, in this case, have already achieved their goal. That is, continuing to sell without too many hindrances in the United States.

The second indication is very burdensome for Trump and comes from the numbers. The American deficit in the balance of payments exceeded 3 thousand billion in 2024. The net financial position – the debts contracted by the US public and private system towards the rest of the world – is negative by 24 thousand billion dollars.

It is really difficult to understand how it can be reduced without ending essential dollarization. If not by unleashing a trade war against Europe, with devastating consequences, however, since US-EU trade still occupies 42% of the world total. US exports are concentrated in the service sector because in manufacturing the star-spangled economy
is really inefficient.

Then there is a third signal, certainly of less importance, but significant. Speculation on the price of gold has reached 2,700 dollars
an ounce: a record that indicates how little confidence there is in
the new “Golden era”.

In this scenario, President Trump’s decision to transfer illegal immigrants to the super prison of Guantanamo also plays a significant role. The images published with great pride of “repatriations” in chains are the clear expression of a narrative aimed at presenting the United States as a country threatened by a real war.

A country that therefore needs to be governed with many “executive orders” against which the various Courts must not place obstacles. After having conquered Congress, Trump wants to impose a special regime, of war, with which to lead the country. The feeling he intends to cultivate is that of an identity nationalism, based on supremacist hatred and the parallel celebration of America as the land of wealth for all.

In this sense, economic policy will be characterized by the firm will to attract capital and savings from all over the world to within the borders of the United States. Starting with financial ones.
And to increase the value of American exports to reduce dependence on foreign countries, made necessary precisely by the “war” against the US that justifies the duties.

At the same time, the Trump administration will proceed with total deregulation to allow the generation of wealth from every form of financial employment, from “popular” cryptocurrencies worth a few cents, to drilling, to artificial intelligence financed by the federal government, but also to the recovery of traditional sectors such as steel, mechanics and agriculture, attracting foreign producers and defending national production.

This entire system will find its legitimacy precisely in the encirclement that Americans are suffering. And which has been favoured by the Democrats, so guilty as to be the subject of indictment for betrayal of national interests. In this way, Trumpian capitalism demonstrates that it needs a war to legitimize its vision.

This is not a war fought around the world, but built, through a strongly ideological vision and story, within the country. The war of identity nationalism is governed by hatred against the “besiegers”, starting with illegal migrants and diversity. Therefore, a war to be fought in the name of the formula according to which America belongs only to Americans who have the right to enrich themselves by taking over the resources of all those who surround them: populations, states or companies for which they can provide, if available for such a destination towards the United States, a market without regulations.

The duties against Europe certainly fit well into a similar messianic vision where the enemy to be struck is the liberal capitalist democracies, the true architects of the sack of the United States. In short, in the rhetoric of war, putting money into Trump’s United States means financing his war of “civilization”. In the name of a brutal sort of capitalism and a model for right-wing parties around the world.

The president, however, seems to have little regard for a cumbersome actor. China’s reaction to Trump’s mini-tariffs was very clear. After initially showing caution towards the measure announced by the new tenant of the White House, the Chinese leaders responded with extreme harshness, even if they moved the clock hands to February 10.

From this perspective, it is clear that China wants to make the United States, but above all some of its interlocutors, understand its real strength. The measures announced in fact plan to hit the Trump presidency in two strategic sectors, liquefied natural gas and oil with duties between 10 and 15%, and technology with the blocking of exports of some rare minerals. These measures imply an explicit message consisting of the strengthening of China’s ties with Russia on the energy supply side and the intention to make the development of the Artificial Intelligence sector extremely complex.

The immediate objective, then, is to create tension in the American stock markets whose insane speculative financialization makes them sensitive to every movement. Any Chinese duties are capable of immediately triggering waves of cut-price sell-offs which are difficult to manage, while at the same time favouring the rise of the Shenzen price lists. Unlike Europe, China has such strength and “credibility” that it now dictates the trends of financial “markets” where, paradoxically, its own capital is not even present. Trump must be very careful or the bubble could burst in his hands.

Alessandro Volpi/Valori

Afghan Women. Resistance Beyond the Burqa.

Saturday, 1 March 2025 8:00

Afghanistan may be the only country in the world where, over the last century, the struggles to give and take away women’s rights “have made and unmade kings and politicians.” We will retrace this historic path of struggle by Afghan women, who continue to inspire
new generations.

The story begins with Abdur Rahman Khan, who reigned from 1880 to 1901. He, in a sense, started the women’s rights movement in Afghanistan. Coming from the Pashtun ethnic majority, a Sunni Muslim born in Kabul, Abdur Rahman became known as the Iron Emir for his tyrannical methods, which allowed him to unify the country after eliminating his rivals (he was responsible for the genocide of the Shiite Hazara minority in 1888-1893 and other atrocities).

Abdur Rahman Khan, King of Afghanistan from 1880 to 1901. Frank A. Martin/Library of Congress

He adopted reforms to “elevate the status of women in society” as demonstrated by Huma Ahmed-Ghosh, professor emeritus of Women’s Studies at the University of San Diego, California, and Nancy Hatch Dupree, an American historian who has helped preserve Afghanistan’s cultural heritage for more than half a century. “The first spokesperson for women’s rights was Amir Abdur Rahman – Dupree confirms -. Invoking verses from the Koran, he prohibited early and forced marriages [abolishing the tradition of forcing widows to marry the deceased’s closest relative] and recognized women’s right to divorce and inheritance” from their father and/or spouse.
It is true that he imposed the death penalty for adultery and insisted on segregation to ensure “the honour of the nation,” but he also defended “fair treatment” for women.
The thinking of Abdur Rahman, says American historian Dupree, had a great contribution from his wife Bobo Jay: “She was the first queen to appear in public in European clothes, without a veil. She rode horseback and trained maids in military exercises. She was very interested in politics and took part in numerous delicate missions to negotiate
with the warring parties.”

Habibullah Khan was the Emir of Afghanistan from 1901 until his assassination in 1919. Wikimedia Commons.

In 1901, after Abdur Rahman’s death, he was succeeded by his son, Habibullah Khan, who ruled for a decade, continuing his father’s “progressive agenda.” It was he who, in 1903, opened the first university in Afghanistan, for which he recruited professors from India, Turkey, and Germany.
Professor Nancy Dupree acknowledges that Emir Habibullah, “although he did not care much about women, inadvertently took a step that advanced the movement for women’s rights.” That step, described by Professor Ahmed-Ghosh as “his greatest contribution to Afghanistan,” was to obtain an amnesty and encourage the return of families forced into exile by his father. One of these families, living in India, was from the Musahiban dynasty, where the emir went to take his fourth wife, the young and elegant Ulya Jenab, a writer and translator of works from Urdu to Dari. This marriage “created a new phenomenon in the harems of Kabul,” says the American historian Dupree. “Because she was a gentle person without political ambitions, Ulya Jenab did not make much of a stir in society, but she planted the seed of education for women.”

Ladies of the royal harem. “The power of the harem”. CC BY 4.0/Kabul Archives & Manuscripts

His second wife, Ulya Hazrat, from a prominent tribal family in Kandahar, had a strong personality and “represented the power of the harem.”
Ulya Hazrat’s son Amanullah would ascend to the throne, supplanting his elder brother, “thanks to the machinations of his mother,” who “exercised authority throughout the court,” notes Dupree. Nevertheless, “she was confined to the walls of the harem and appeared in public only with a veil and escorted by men of the family.” This was the custom in Kandahar, as Afghan-born Canadian journalist Hamida Ghafour puts it: “The richer the families, the greater the isolation of the women: this signified prestige. Some of the richest women had never walked in the gardens of their homes since the day they were married.” (Open Photo: Closeup of an Afghan woman in Burka. Shutterstock/chomplearn)
M.S.L.

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