Geweld & terrorisme

Unearthing a Fragile Root of Democracy

- by standplaatswereld

By Pia K. R. Beiermann, second-year student of CADS This Saturday I wake up slowly, a bit later than usual. Still in a morning fogginess best described as half-asleep, half-awake, I mindlessly open Instagram. The first thing I see is a story by Amnesty Norway that reads “It’s heart-breaking what happened in Oslo last night (…)”. Still not in a state to comprehend what I just read, I quickly open NRK, the government-owned public broadcasting company of Norway: At least two people dead and 21 hurt in a mass shooting outside the gay bar “London Pub” This year marks the …

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Myanmar anthropologists dismissed

- by standplaatswereld

By Maaike Matelski – In this picture, anthropology students from Yangon University show the ‘three fingers salute’ for democracy. Students and university staff across Myanmar have been protesting against the recent military takeover. Since the coup of 1 February, the military has seized control of dozens of schools and university campuses. It has used lethal force against peaceful protestors, resulting in at least 860 deaths, including many university students. Over 5000 students, teachers, journalists and other dissidents have been arrested, as well as a small number of Westerners. Australian academic (and adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD government) Sean …

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In the meantime on the other side of the world…

- by standplaatswereld

By Marina de Regt     While we were all busy watching the US elections in the first week of November, an armed conflict broke out on the other side of the world, in the already turbulent and instable Horn of Africa. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for his efforts to bring about peace between the almost 20-year stalemate between Ethiopia and Eritrea, ordered a military offensive in response to an attack launched by the TPLF (the Tigray People’s Liberation Front) on the national defence force. It resulted in hundreds of deaths amongst whom …

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Unpicking an (A)moral Anthropological Stance: Ongoing Violence in Myanmar

- by standplaatswereld

Introduction by Maaike Matelski In June 2015 the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology organized a seminar on account of the increasing number of Rohingya refugees in South East Asia. Since 2016 and in particular since August 2017 the violence against Rohingya in Myanmar has intensified. More and more horrific stories about murder and torture have come out, and more than 600.000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh. As the most prominent representative of the Myanmar government, Aung San Suu Kyi receives fierce criticism, because she does not speak out against these criminal acts. In the meantime the Myanmar government even has …

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Conferentie in Marokko over Feminisme, radicalisering en extremisme

- by standplaatswereld

Door Edien Bartels en Lenie Brouwer Feminisme, radicalisering en extremisme zijn grote woorden. Hoe breng je die bijeen en… waarom zou je die bij elkaar brengen? Dat zijn de vragen die behandeld werden op het congres Women’s Voices in the Mediterranean and Africa: Movements, Feminisms, and Resistance to Extremisms dat op 5, 6, en 7 mei werd gehouden in Fez, Marokko. De organisatie was in handen van het Centre ISIS pour Femmes et Développement, Fez, met als drijvende kracht Fatima Sadiqi, bekend van publicaties over gender, migratie en islamitisch feminisme.

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Ramadan Kareem, my beloved Yemen

- by standplaatswereld

By Marina de Regt    Last Saturday the holy Muslim month of Ramadan started. Ramadan, a month of fast-ing and feasting, a month of contemplation, a month that should be full of joy and happiness. In Ramadan Muslims experience what it means to be hungry which will make them cherish what they have and feel compassion for those who are poor and hungry. Who will fast Ramadan in Yemen this year? Are there still people left who are not starving to death? Are there still Yemenis who need Ramadan to know what it is like to be poor and hungry?

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Mijn Griekse vrienden van de Gouden Dageraad

- by standplaatswereld

Mijn onderzoek naar het electoraat van een politieke partij die in zowel de media als in academische kringen omschreven wordt als neonazistisch en fascistisch vindt plaats op het idyllische eiland Corfu, in Griekenland. De ‘Gouden Dageraad’, die streeft naar een ‘nationalistisch ontwaken’, haalde tijdens de verkiezingen van 2015 op dit eiland rond de 6% van de stemmen, iets onder het landelijk gemiddelde. In heel Griekenland stemden er zo’n 400.000 mensen op deze extreemrechtse, ultranationalistische partij, ondanks dat de partij gelinkt wordt aan geweld tegen immigranten en er al vanaf 2013 een rechtszaak tegen een groot deel van haar parlementsleden gaande …

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Terugblik op de Bijeenkomst: 'Jemen, een Vergeten Oorlog – #WatKanIkDoen?'

- by standplaatswereld

Door Handenur Taspinar Maandagavond 14 no-vember is er in samen-werking met het Grote Midden-Oosten Platform en de afdeling Sociale en Culturele Antropologie van de VU een mooie bijeen-komst georganiseerd over de vergeten oor-log in Jemen. De bijeenkomst vormt on-derdeel van drieluik, met als doel  om ach-tergrondinformatie te geven over de gebeurtenissen in Jemen en om antwoord te vinden op de vraag: “wat kan ik doen?” Voor ik binnenkom, stel ik mijzelf dezelfde vraag: hoeveel weet ik eigenlijk van de gebeurtenissen rondom Jemen? Hoe ernstig is het? Af en toe lees of hoor ik over deze indirecte oorlog tussen Saoedi-Arabië en …

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Colombia between hope and fear

- by standplaatswereld

By Lieke Prins        When I initially left my house in Amsterdam to live in Colombia for three months I had planned to go to Chocó and study Afro-Colombian small-scale gold miners and their resistance strategies against large-scale mining companies. However, the first night in my new house with my new roommates in Medellin made me rethink my initial plans and inspired me to change in course of my research. On the first night we were sitting on the floor of our apartment, getting to know each other. One of my roommates, an anthropology student of the Universidad de Antioquia, …

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