Paris gets memorial for gay victims of persecution
The city of Paris on Saturday inaugurated a memorial dedicated to people persecuted for being homosexual during the Second World War but also "throughout history", mayor Anne Hidalgo said.
The three-ton installation was erected near the Bastille in central Paris to mark International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia.
"Recognition means to say 'this happened' and to say 'we don't want this to happen again'," Hidalgo said.
"We must fight against denial and trivialisation," she said, adding: "Today there are powerful and extremely dangerous headwinds that would like to deny this kind of diversity."
The monument, by artist Jean-Luc Verna, consists of an large star-shaped structure made of steel.
Unlike cities like Sydney, Barcelona or Amsterdam, Paris rejected incorporating the yellow star that Nazis made Jews wear in the installation.
This, officials said, was to allow current victims of persecution to be included in the tribute.
"It is important that this memorial be not just a simple symbolic tribute, but a transmission tool, a public act of recognition and a space for questions about past discriminations but also those that continue today," said Jean-Baptiste Trieu, president of the "Les Oublie.es de la mémoire" association that fights against discrimination of LGBTQ+ people.
"Rights are never won forever," he said.
Artist Verna said that downward facing black side of the star represents "the burned bodies, the mourning but also the shadow, warning us that these things can happen again".
The upward side, mirroring the sky, "represents the present, with the colours of passing time and the sky over Paris that changes as quickly as public opinion can turn", he said.
According to historians' estimates, between 5,000 and 15,000 people in Europe were sent to concentration camps during World War II by the Nazi government for being homosexual.
Figures for France alone range from around 60 to around 200.
After decades of near-silence surrounding such persecutions in wartime France, former prime minister Lionel Jospin publicly addressed the issue in 2001, launching a process of recognition that was continued by former president Jacques Chirac.
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eNCA
16 hours ago
- eNCA
What is genocide and is it happening in Gaza?
Rights groups, lawyers and some governments are describing the Gaza war as "genocide" and calling for a ceasefire but Israel, created in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust of Jews, vehemently rejects the explosive term. Israel says it is seeking to wipe out Gaza's Islamist rulers and free its hostages still held in the occupied Palestinian coastal strip since the Hamas militant attack in Israel on October 7, 2023. But Israel's devastating war on Gaza -- largely populated by descendants of Palestinian refugees who were expelled from or fled what became Israeli land in 1948 -- has killed tens of thousands of civilians and sparked growing global outrage. The accusation against Israel of genocide has been made with increasing force from quarters ranging from "Schindler's List" star Ralph Fiennes to Amnesty International and some Israeli historians. What does the legal term really mean and who can decide whether it applies? What is 'genocide'? The word genocide -- derived from the Greek word "genos", for race or tribe, and "cide", from the Latin for "to kill" -- was coined in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin. Lemkin, a Polish Jew who had fled to the United States, used it to describe the crimes committed by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. It was used for the first time within a legal framework by an international military tribunal at Nuremberg to try Nazi leaders for their crimes in 1945. However, those accused were eventually convicted on charges of crimes against humanity. It has been recognised within international law since 1948 and the advent of the UN Genocide Convention. That text defines genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group". These five acts include killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births and forcibly transferring children out of the group. Regardless of the definition, the qualification of "genocide" has been hugely sensitive over the decades. What is happening in Gaza? Israel's military offensive on Gaza since October 2023 has killed 54,677 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the occupied Palestinian territory. The United Nations has said the territory's entire population of more than two million people is at risk of famine, even if Israel said last month it was partially easing the complete blockade on aid it imposed on Gaza on March 2. Despite international calls for an end to the war, a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas remains elusive. The latest war started after Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Of the 251 hostages seized, 55 remain in Gaza, including 32 the Israeli military says are dead. Who speaks of 'genocide' in Gaza? In December 2023, South Africa brought a case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations' highest judicial organ, alleging that Israel's Gaza offensive breached the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Israel denies the accusation. In rulings in January, March and May 2024, the ICJ told Israel to do everything possible to "prevent" acts of genocide during its military operations in Gaza, including by providing urgently needed humanitarian aid to prevent famine. While no court has so far ruled the ongoing conflict is a genocide, human rights groups and international law experts -- including several who are Israeli -- have used the term to describe it. Amnesty International has accused Israel of carrying out a "live-streamed genocide" in Gaza, while Human Rights Watch has alleged it is responsible for "acts of genocide". A UN committee in November found Israel's warfare in Gaza was "consistent with the characteristics of genocide". And a UN investigation concluded in March that Israel carried out "genocidal acts" in Gaza through the destruction of the strip's main IVF clinic and other reproductive healthcare facilities. Omer Bartov, an Israeli scholar of the Holocaust, wrote in August last year that "Israel was engaged in systematic war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocidal actions". Fellow Israeli historians Amos Goldberg and Daniel Blatman in January co-wrote an article in which they said: "Israel is indeed committing genocide in Gaza." Western governments have largely refrained from using the word, with France's President Emmanuel Macron saying it was not up to a "political leader to use to term but up to historians to do so when the time comes". But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has used it, while Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has accused Israel of "premeditated genocide". What does Israel say? Israel alleges it is exercising its right to security and "self defence", an argument echoed by its staunch ally the United States. Israel has dismissed accusations of genocide as "blatant lies" and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the UN Human Rights Council of being "an antisemitic, corrupt, terror-supporting and irrelevant body". He has said UN experts should instead focus on "crimes against humanity and the war crimes committed by the Hamas terrorist organisation in the worst massacre against the Jewish people since the Holocaust", referring to October 7. The International Criminal Court (ICC) in November issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant over alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Israel's war in Gaza -- including starvation as a method of warfare. It also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif over allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the October 7 attack, but the case against him was dropped in February after confirmation Israel had killed him. ICC prosecutor Karim Khan also initially sought warrants against Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh, but dropped those applications after their deaths in Israeli attacks. Who decides and when? Thijs Bouwknegt, a genocide expert, said the Israeli policy in Gaza seemed to be "designed to make a civilian population either perish or leave" but a court would have to decide if it was genocide. "It bears the hallmarks of it but we still have to wait and see whether it actually was," said the historian, who has conducted research for the ICC and observed trials over genocide in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia. In the case of Rwanda, in which the United Nations said extremist Hutus killed some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994, it took a decade for the International Criminal Tribunal to conclude genocide had happened. It was not until 2007 that the ICJ recognised as genocide the murder by Bosnian Serb forces of almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995 during the Bosnian war. "The threshold for genocide is nearly impossible to meet," Bouwknegt explained. "You have to prove that there was an intent and that there was the only possible explanation for what happened." Has there been intent? French-Israeli lawyer Omer Shatz said "there is no doubt that war crimes, crimes against humanity are being committed" in Gaza. But the international law expert agreed intent was more difficult to prove. That is why, after the ICC issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu and Gallant, he filed a report with the court in December arguing they were among eight Israeli officials responsible for "incitement to genocide in Gaza". "If incitement is established, that establishes intent," he told AFP. His 170-page report lists such alleged incitements, including Gallant at the start of the war saying Israel was fighting "human animals" in Gaza and far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urging "total extermination" in the Palestinian territory. It cites President Isaac Herzog failing to differentiate between Palestinian militants and civilians when he spoke of "an entire nation out there that is responsible" for the October 7 attack. Mathilde Philip-Gay, an international law expert, said it was ultimately up to a judge to decide on whether the genocide label applied. But, she warned: "International law cannot stop a war." "The judiciary will intervene after the war. The qualification (of genocide) is very important for victims but it will come later," she said. What now? The 1948 Genocide Convention says signatories can call on UN organs "to take such action... for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide". But while it implies they should act to stop any such crime from occurring, it does not detail how. Activists have called for an arms embargo and sanctions against Israel. The European Union last month ordered a review of its cooperation deal with Israel and Britain halted trade talks with the government. But the United States and Germany, two major weapons suppliers, are not likely to want to review their relationship with Israel.
Mail & Guardian
21 hours ago
- Mail & Guardian
It's the ‘Donald disease' that's making us sick
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But ever since the administration of US President Donald The World Health Organisation says gay and bisexual men like Nkosi's chance of contracting HIV through sex That is what makes sex workers, as well as gay and bisexual men, what researchers call a ' But the Gone, too, are their health workers specially trained in how to work without discrimination. Gone is their tailor-made HIV treatment and testing services; their specialised mental health support and the condoms and lubricants they handed out for protection against HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Gone are Preventive medicines like the daily pill are called 'So, sometimes I don't have PrEP,' says Nkosi. 'A partner can tell me he is on PrEP, but I don't trust that. Because where is he getting PrEP? Where am I going to get it? The black market? 'I don't know if it is even the real thing. Is it a counterfeit? Lube? That's another thing — you use everything, anything, as long as it's got jelly in it. The last time I did that I had an itchy penis for a week.' Nkosi calls the domino effect of the Trump administration's decision to pull funding 'the Donald disease because it is being caused by this guy, one man'. 'It's like crossing the freeway every day the way we're living now. One day, I know I'm gonna die.' What's with key populations? When Health Minister But why is there so much focus on these communities? 'Even the most self-interested people should be heavily invested in treatment and prevention of these populations,' says Francois Venter, who heads up the health research organisation, 'There's no clean, magical division between key populations and general populations. It's a Venn diagram of married men sleeping with sex workers, of drug-using populations interacting with your ostensibly innocent kids, gay men with your straight-presenting son, all needing HIV prevention and treatment programmes.' Although we have medicines like PrEP to prevent people from getting infected with HIV and antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) for HIV-infected people, which, if taken correctly, Studies, for example, show that getting people to use the anti-HIV pill, also called oral PrEP, each day, Moreover, the Some of the 1.1 million choose not to start treatment, but an even larger proportion, who do go on treatment, Pepfar programmes That's why having lost at least half of those workers — The difficulty with state clinics and key populations Government clinics are mostly Stigma and discrimination in public clinics — doled out by security guards, cleaners, health workers and patients in waiting rooms — keep people away from HIV treatment and prevention. Motsoaledi Because funding cuts mean already understaffed government health clinics now have even fewer staff, many people with HIV, or those wanting PrEP, have to travel further for treatment or wait in long queues. Here are some of their stories — we collected them via voice notes with the help of health workers who worked for Pepfar programmes that have now been defunded. Female sex worker: 'My child is going to be infected' 'Yoh, life is very hard. Since all this happened, life has been very, very hard.' 'I have tried to go to the public clinic for my medication. But as sex workers, we are not being helped. We are scared to go to the government clinic to treat sexually transmitted infections because we are seen as dirty people who go and sleep around. 'We even struggle to get condoms. We are now forced to do business without protection because it is only our source of income and it's the way that we put food on the table. My worry now is that I am pregnant and my child is going to be infected because I'm not taking my ARVs, and I have defaulted for two months now.' Transgender woman: 'The future is dark' 'I'm a transgender woman. My pronouns are she.' 'When the clinic closed, I was about to run out of medication so I went to the government clinic in my area. I introduced myself to the receptionist and the lady asked me what kind of treatment I was taking. I told her ARVs and that I'm virally suppressed [when people use their treatment correctly the virus can't replicate, leaving so little virus in their bodies that they can't infect others], so I can't transmit HIV to others. 'The lady told me that they can't help me and I need to bring the transfer letter. I told her that the clinic is closed so I don't have the transfer letter. I asked to speak to the manager and the manager also refused to help me. The manager! How can she let someone who is HIV-positive go home without medication? 'I had to call one of my friends and she gave me one container. If you're not taking your medication consistently, you're going to get sick, you're gonna die. And the future? The future is dark.' Migrant farm worker: 'Lose my job? Or risk my health?' 'When we were told that the clinic was closed, I was actually in another town trying to get a seasonal job on the farms. But when I went to the nearest clinic, I was told that I needed to get a transfer letter. So I ended up sharing medication with friends. But then their medication also ran out. 'Then I got a job on the farm. Before the mobile clinics came to the farms and we had our clinical sessions there. The nurse was there, the social worker was there. Now we went to the clinic and spent the whole day there because we had to follow the queues. 'And because our jobs were not permanent jobs, you know, you just get a job if you apply by the gate. So if you are not there by the gate on that day, then the boss will automatically think that you are no longer interested in the job, so they employ someone else. 'I went to the government clinic and asked to get at least three months' supply. But the clinic said no because it was my first initiation so I had to come back. So I went back to the farm to see if I could still have my job. I found that I was no longer employed because they had to take up someone else. 'What am I going to do? If I go to the clinic, I stand a chance of losing my job. If I stay at my job, I am at risk of getting sick.' Transwoman: 'I'll just stay home and die' 'Accessing treatment is difficult because of the long queues. Even that security guard keeps on telling me to go away when I ask for lubricants and he tells me every time there's no lubricants. 'We need the trans clinic back. I need to speak to somebody, a psychologist. On Tuesdays we had our psychologist come in, and the doctor. But now I don't have the funds to go and see even a psychologist. 'It is bad. It is super bad. I don't know when I last took my meds. Another friend of mine just decided, oh, okay, since the clinic is closed and I no longer have medication, I'll just stay home and die.' *These stories were edited for length and clarity. This story was produced by the . Sign up for the .
IOL News
a day ago
- IOL News
Dangerous times, it's no wonder South Africa is broken, pivoting firms and that outdated sharks board. Readers write in. . .
These are dangerous times that we live in Iran, or the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Core, has never been more vulnerable than right now, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows this. The window to finish Iran off completely is closing rapidly. US President Donald Trump's tactics of trying to secure some sort of diplomatic nuclear deal with Iran, goes against what Netanyahu and his men need to do: Strike at the head of the Iranian snake and deal with their aggression once and for all. Iranian leader Ayatolla Khamenei has succeeded in enriching enough uranium for 16-24 nuclear bombs. Given the extremist nature of this ideology, the world at large, we should be hoping for an Israeli attack on Iranian soil sooner rather than later. Can Israel do this alone, or do they need Trump's help? We will have to see. But one thing is certain to me: The 'free world' and Western civilisation owes Israel huge gratitude for standing up to the Middle Eastern bully. No-one can say for certain how the radical IRGC might react once it successfully enriches enough uranium to blow up all of Israel. As we all should know by now, the Ayatolla's main goal is to eradicate the Jews, and to then go after the US. In his own words, they aim to destroy the 'little Satan' first, then the 'Big Satan'. Do not be fooled people, this is a very dangerous ideology which seeks to destroy and replace Western civilisation. The well-co-ordinated pro-Palestine protests that we see all over the world have been carefully crafted to make a huge statement. Islamo-Marxism is on the rise and if Israel and the US don't act soon, we will see very aggressive behaviour from Iran in an attempt to avoid being completely humiliated. We have already seen the likes of the Sinwar brothers, Ismail Hanniyeh, Mohamed Deif, Ebrahim Raisi, Hassan Nasrallah and other terror Masterminds being eliminated by Israel and the Mossad. Gaza has been flattened and terror-infrastructure has been blown to pieces, including Iran's air defences, leaving them vulnerable. Let's hope that whatever the outcome, peace will Iran is allowed to further their nuclear programme, we risk having a massive war. If Israel attacks swiftly and soon enough, their show of power might just be the key ingredient to reshape the Middle East and free the Iranian people from its evil regime! | L Oosthuizen Durban Cause of the broken state of SA is obvious Political analyst Rob Hersov frequently refers to South Africa as 'our broken country.' While evidence of that is ubiquitous, recent reports amplify just how broken things are.A letter by DA MP Tim Brauteseth on the state of municipal finances reminds us that only 41 of the 257 municipalities have clean bills of health. Service delivery is at 20% in one municipality after exceeding its total budget by 13%; another manages a 32% service delivery after spending 100% of its budget. R220 million was spent on consultants whose 'advice' has been a total waste of time and of eThekwini facing critical staff shortages in infrastructure units is no surprise. It's a situation that has been haemorrhaging for the last 15 years to the point that the critical water and sanitation unit has 58% of its posts vacant. 'Why does a city as large as eThekwini struggle to attract and retain the skills required to maintain its infrastructure?' asks Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke. The answer is because of the elephant in the room. Inflexible labour laws prioritise demographic quotas ahead of skills capacity. Socialist labour unions ring fence their own regardless of skills. Ideology has driven out institutional memory and caused skills to migrate overseas. Unless that elephant in the room is bluntly identified and decisive measures taken to end the obvious cause of the broken state of the infrastructure, the hand-wringing of opposition parties like Action SA is futile and evasive. Of course, abetting the shambles is rampant corruption which flourishes when institutional memory is lost and replaced by politically connected appointees. Another article highlights one more broken aspect of our once functioning country: KZN Education Department is in financial collapse. Again, the cause is just another elephant in the room, namely, the Marxist trade union Sadtu. It is common knowledge that this outfit actually runs the Department. Calls for a summit meeting of stakeholders, like the consultants summoned to 'fix' broken municipalities, means a lot of hot air and further unaffordable expenses which succeed only in applying a bandaid to the broken status quo. The cause of South Africa's broken state is as clear as daylight. It's because of kleptocracy, corruption, ineptitude and blind adherence to a failed totalitarian ideology. | DR DUNCAN DU BOIS Bluff Get rid of outdated sharks board They are here, the sardines. And tons of them. Chased by sharks, dolphins, gannets and other hungry predators, the sea is literally boiling with them. And waiting on the shore with their boats and nets are greedy fishermen. Attacked from the sea, air and land, it's a desperate struggle for the little silvery fish to survive as everyone wants to gorge on the bounty from the sea. The first haul of sardines was at Port Edward. Even though the surf conditions were rough, scene netters hauled in two nets of sardines together with 21 angry sharks. Thankfully the sharks were released back into the water to continue their feeding frenzy. Just on Saturday they were at Port Edward. By Tuesday they had moved up to Warner Beach and Amanzimtoti where several crates were caught. The frantic sardine run has forced the sharks board to remove the shark nets along the coast. How very kind of them to think about the sardines and the sharks. But who are they are deceiving? For 70 years the Sharks Board has been killing sharks with its nets and baited hooks to protect bathers along our coast. It's time we removed the outdated Sharks Board. The sea doesn't belong to us; it belongs to the sharks and other marine life. | T Markandan Kloof Firms must pivot to meet tech challenges Traditional marketing channels such as call centres, SMSes and emails are being put on mute by consumers. This is because customers are tired of being spammed incessantly. Business strategies must be realigned to developments in technology that have changed customer behaviour, and while convenience is expected, it must always be on the customer's terms and time. Businesses need to put the customer at the centre of the organisation and build an ecosystem around AI-powered smartbots have been at the frontline of the wave of innovation that has revolutionised sales into the digital century. Besides demanding more convenience, the digital century customer is also demanding instant gratification. Customers are more likely to abandon their efforts if the call-to-action function on your businesses's Facebook page links them to a call centre or email address. The thought of waiting on the line for 'the next available agent' or not knowing when they will get a response to their email is demoralising. Research shows that 87% of customers are unlikely to move from a Facebook page to a website through the call-to-action function to browse for further answers. The opposite happens when potential customers are linked to a WhatsApp smartbot with the capabilities to provide answers to any of their questions almost immediately, just like one would have a conversation with ChatGPT, and where the customer has control of the pace of the sale process. Embracing new innovations not only meets the customer's expectations for speed and convenience but also redefines sales strategies for higher lead retention and smarter conversions. | Jonathan Elcock Co-founder and CEO at DAILY NEWS
