Latest news with #Kafka-esque
News18
15-05-2025
- Politics
- News18
US Scholar With Alleged Ties To Hamas Says He Was Chained In Detention: 'Missed My Shadow'
Last Updated: Georgetown University researcher Badar Khan Suri, a former student of Delhi's Jamia Millia Islamia, said his whole body was chained during his detention. Georgetown University researcher Badar Khan Suri, who was detained by immigration authorities in the United States over alleged ties to Hamas, narrated his ordeal at the detention centre after his release this week. Speaking to American media outlets, after being freed from detention at Prairieland Detention Center in Texas, he said his 'whole body was chained" and that he 'missed" his 'shadow" during his detention. US District Judge Patricia Giles, sitting in Alexandria, Virginia, on Wednesday ordered his immediate release and allowed him to rejoin his family on personal recognisance. In her ruling, Judge Giles stated that Khan Suri's detention violated the First Amendment, which guarantees the right to free speech. 'There was no charge, there was nothing. They made a sub-human out of me," said Khan Suri who was accused of having ties with Hamas, a Palestinian group designated as a terrorist organisation by the US and detained for two months after being arrested by plainclothes federal agents outside his home in Arlington, Virginia. 'For the first seven, eight days, I even missed my shadow. It was Kafka-esque, where they were taking me, what they were doing to me. I was chained — my ankles, my wrist, my body. Everything was chained," Khan Suri was quoted as saying by broadcaster NBC News. 'I had only worried that, Oh, my kids are suffering because of me. My eldest son is only nine, and my twins are only five. My nine-year-old knows where I am. He was going through very rough times. My wife used to tell me that he was crying. He needs support from mental health," he further added. According to the Georgetown University website, Suri held a PhD in peace and conflict studies from India and was teaching a course titled 'Majoritarianism and Minority Rights in South Asia". First Published: May 15, 2025, 23:46 IST
Irish Times
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
If ‘housing tsar' can bypass Ireland's Kafkaesque bureaucracy, they might solve the crisis
There is a crisis of accountability at the top of the Irish public service. It resembles a Kafka-esque nightmare of rules, processes and committees, where the focus is on ensuring 'strategies' are in place and all the boxes are ticked, rather than actually getting things done. Politicians try to fix things, not by ensuring people do their jobs, but by putting in place workarounds – new bodies, committees and agencies to try to make progress. Housing is the ultimate example. Not only do we have a Minister and a Department of Housing, we will now how a Housing Activation Office which is meant to 'get things done'. Of course, we don't have anyone to take charge of it yet after this week's fiasco , which culminated in Brendan McDonagh withdrawing from consideration for the position of the Government's new housing 'tsar' after Fine Gael blocked his appointment. But wait. There's more. A new unit at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is also being filled with experts from state agencies to ensure proper co-ordination in delivering major projects, including key areas such as water and power. Isn't this one of the things that the activation office is meant to be doing? Then there is the Land Development Agency (LDA), which, according to its chairman, is 'building on state and private lands in the near-term where possible and making sure the State has enough readily available land to be developed in the longer-term'. READ MORE There are going to be a lot of people falling over each other here. And plenty of scope to spread the blame to the other lot when things go wrong. It all comes back to the same simple question of accountability. Who is held responsible for housing delivery – and who has the power to get things done? Ultimately it is the Minister, of course – in this case James Browne . But we have seen under a variety of Ministers how difficult it is to actually get things done. Part of this is because while we call the housing predicament a 'crisis', we don't deal with it that way. In protecting the rights of the individual, those of society – and particularly its younger members – get pushed into second place. Planning is still being turned down because new apartments might 'overlook' a local resident, for example. Massive projects vital for the future face the lottery of going through the planning and courts system, where decisions are made on points of law and not on the basis of the wider national interest. If the tsar is not to face the same fate as his or her last Russian namesake, it would be essential to have the power to actually get things done – acting with the clear mandate of the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minister for Housing Delays are endless – and carry a huge economic and social cost. Metrolink may never happen. The holdups in major new water and wastewater projects for Dublin threaten the ability to build houses in the years to come, particularly in much of North Dublin. There will simply be no connections. You can see the case for a tsar, but also why, as the Commission on Housing pointed out, he or she needs to be an all-powerful institution, and not just be another part of the bureaucracy. The Government now has a choice. It can downgrade the activation office into a unit within the Department of Housing. It can come up with yet another housing plan with pages of recycled spoof. And hope that the numbers start to go in the right direction. Or it can appoint a tsar and a small team with a real mandate to shake things up. If the Coalition wants to rescue something from the mess of this week, its only option is to go for it. If the tsar is not to face the same fate as his or her last Russian namesake, it would be essential to have the power to actually get things done – acting with the clear mandate of the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Minister for Housing. Lines of responsibility need to be carefully drawn up – the office is about activation, as the name suggests, even though it would have a policy input in areas such as implementation of the new planning Bill. There will be crossover with other parts of the public service, along with noses out of joint. But it must be clear that when the tsar rings, the person taking the call listens. Consider what this might look like and the message it could send. A housing tsar with a clear short-term action plan. Urgent meetings with those in charge of planning agencies, the courts and key bodies – all focused on speeding things up and identifying blockages. Calling in the boards of all the State agencies which have been slow to hand over land for development to the LDA – and reading them the riot act. It needs to be an exercise in enforcing accountability across the system and not one of spreading it around and diffusing it. When everyone is responsible for getting something done, then nobody is. It is hard to judge sometimes whether the lack of accountability in the Irish public service is for self-protection, or part of a wider political game – or a bit of both. In a document published this week by the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council – which advises the Government – departments were asked what they had done in response to recommendations the council had made since 2020. In the area of infrastructure – housing, energy, water and so on – the majority were reported to be 'in progress'. This is a classic departmental phrase. It could mean policy is being relentlessly pushed ahead. Or that someone is considering writing a memo. It tells us precisely nothing. It gives no calculation of the cost of delay. But once things are 'in process', all is fine. In the same vein, the Department of Housing responded to the housing commission's report last summer by saying that 70 per cent of its recommendations were either already 'implemented, partially implemented or under way'. This was in response to a report which called for a 'radical reset' of policy. The Government now needs to decide whether it is really 'up' for such a reset and the inevitable noses it would put out of joint, both within the system and more widely. There is political risk here. But the risk of letting things wander on much as they are – throwing money at the problem and hoping that it sticks – may be even greater. As Einstein allegedly said, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
The Star
03-05-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Hong Kong ex-lawmaker calls prison experience surreal
Lawmakers Claudia Mo and Gary Fan give a press conference next to Legislative Council in Hong Kong on July 4, 2019. Four former Hong Kong opposition lawmakers who were jailed in the city's largest national security case were released on April 29, 2025 after completing their prison terms, the first among 45 convicted to regain their freedom. - AFP HONG KONG: A former Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmaker on Friday (May 2) recounted her "surreal" experience being jailed for more than four years under the city's national security law. Claudia Mo, 68, was among the 45 Hong Kong opposition figures imprisoned in the city's largest national security case, after they held an informal election in 2020 that authorities deemed a "conspiracy to subvert the state power". Mo and ex-lawmakers Jeremy Tam, Kwok Ka-ki and Gary Fan were each released on Tuesday after completing a jail term of four years and two months - the first batch of defendants to regain their freedom. "Many thanks for all the concern and care expressed upon my release," Mo wrote on Facebook on Friday. "Prison life was surreal, almost Kafka-esque to start with," she added. "But I didn't suffer the two major incarceration traumas, loneliness and boredom, thanks to the social arrangements inside." Mo posted a photo "taken (a) couple hours after getting home from prison" that showed her in front of a banner reading "Welcome home mum". The ex-lawmaker thanked her family and friends, including Cardinal Joseph Zen, Reporters Without Borders and the now-shuttered minority rights group Hong Kong Unison. "My thoughts are with my co-defendants who remain in custody," she added. Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 following huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in the finance hub. The court last year jailed 45 pro-democracy figures under that law, including some of Hong Kong's best-known activists and figures from across the city's once-diverse political spectrum. Mo and the three other Hong Kong democrats released on Tuesday had pleaded guilty, which led to a reduced sentence. She said in her Friday Facebook post that she had read more than 300 books, mainly novels, and improved her French while behind bars. Mo previously worked as an AFP journalist and cited her experience covering Beijing's bloody 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown as pivotal in her political awakening. On Tuesday, she was taken out of prison just before sunrise in a convoy of vehicles with curtains drawn. Hong Kong authorities said it made "appropriate arrangements" based on factors including prison security and inmates' privacy and safety. Shortly after Mo returned home, her husband Philip Bowring said she was resting and not in a position to speak to media. - AFP
Al Jazeera
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Hong Kong ex-lawmaker describes ‘Kafka-esque' prison experience
A former Hong Kong lawmaker who was jailed as part of a sweeping crackdown on dissent in the Chinese territory has described her prison experience as 'Kafka-esque'. Claudia Mo, a former journalist who co-founded the pro-democracy Civic Party, was released on Tuesday after more than four years behind bars for national security offences. Mo, who was freed together with three other ex-politicians, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to subvert state power in 2022 in a mammoth national security case related to the participation of 47 activists in an unofficial primary election. Another 44 activists pleaded guilty or were convicted in the landmark case, which was condemned by Western governments and rights groups as an example of Beijing trampling freedoms in the former British colony. In her first comments since her release, Mo said on Friday that she had read more than 300 books and brushed up on her French while in detention. 'Many thanks for all the concern and care expressed upon my release. Prison life was surreal, almost Kafka-esque to start with. But I didn't suffer the two major incarceration traumas, loneliness and boredom, thanks to the social arrangements inside,' Mo said in a post on Facebook. Mo thanked her supporters, including the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders and retired Roman Catholic Cardinal Joseph Zen, who was arrested on national security grounds in 2022 without being charged. 'My thoughts are with my co-defendants who remain in custody,' she said. Once home to a vibrant political opposition and freewheeling media scene, Hong Kong was transformed into a polity with little space for dissent by the imposition of a sweeping Beijing-decreed national security law in 2020. Beijing and the Hong Kong government have praised the legislation for restoring peace and order to the city after the eruption of often violent mass antigovernment protests in 2019. On Friday, Hong Kong national security police arrested the father and brother of wanted activist Anna Kwok, the executive director of the Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council, on suspicion of handling her finances, local media reported. Police said in a statement that they had arrested two men, aged 35 and 68, on suspicion of committing 'attempting to deal with, directly or indirectly, any funds or other financial assets or economic resources belonging to, or owned or controlled by, a relevant absconder'.
HKFP
02-05-2025
- Politics
- HKFP
‘Surreal, Kafka-esque': Hong Kong's ex-lawmaker Claudia Mo breaks silence on prison life following release
Former Hong Kong opposition lawmaker Claudia Mo has made her first public comment about her 'prison experience,' days after she was released from jail. 'My prison experience… Prison life was surreal, almost Kafka-esque to start with,' Mo wrote in a Facebook post on Friday. 'But I didn't suffer the two major incarceration traumas, loneliness and boredom, thanks to the social arrangements inside.' She said she had read over 300 books and picked up her French during her custody. Mo also posted a photo of herself on Facebook, saying that it was taken hours after she was released from the Lo Wu Correctional Institution early Tuesday morning. The picture shows her at home standing in front of a banner reading: 'Welcome Home Mum,' appearing more weathered than in her last public appearance. Mo – who was a journalist before she embarked on politics – also thanked her friends and family, naming in particular Cardinal Joseph Zen, press freedom NGO Reporters Without Borders, and the recently disbanded minority rights group Unison. She also said: 'My thoughts are with my co-defendants who remain in custody.' Mo, fellow ex-lawmakers Jeremy Tam, Kwok Ka-ki, and Gary Fan were the first batch of 45 jailed democrats to be released from prison after being sentenced in the city's largest national security trial, which concluded in November. All four were escorted out of prison before sunrise on Tuesday in police vehicles with curtains drawn. The four pro-democracy figures were sentenced to four years and two months in jail after pleading guilty to a subversion charge for their role in an unofficial primary election organised by the city's pro-democracy camp in July 2020. The four had been kept in custody since late February 2021, when their police bail was revoked. Aleksandra Bielakowska, advocacy officer of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), told HKFP on Friday that Mo was a 'press freedom defender' they had advocated for. 'In the past she was one of the biggest defenders of press freedom… we really wanted to support her as she was [a] leading figure to support all reporters in the past,' she said. Hong Kong 47 Hong Kong charged 47 opposition figures, including Mo and some of the city's best-known democrats, with subversion under a Beijing-imposed national security law in 2021. Authorities accused the group of conspiring to subvert state power by organising an unofficial primary that aimed to seize an opposition-controlled majority in the city's legislature, which would allow the pro-democracy camp to veto the government budget for political demands. Three handpicked national security judges ruled last year that the scheme would create a 'constitutional crisis' and convicted 45 out of the 47 democrats, sentencing them to prison terms ranging from four years and two months to 10 years. The majority of the group have been held in custody since February 28, 2021, when they were charged with the offence. Nine more are expected to be released from prison this year, including LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham and ex-district councillor Tiffany Yuen. Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong's mini-constitution in June 2020 following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts – broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure. The move gave police sweeping new powers and led to hundreds of arrests amid new legal precedents, while dozens of civil society groups disappeared. The authorities say it restored stability and peace to the city, rejecting criticism from trade partners, the UN and NGOs.
