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Interim President Rawlings speaks at the Francis Halpern 2017 Lecture at the Rhodes-Rawlings Auditorium on Tuesday.

To Interim President Hunter Rawlings, democracy in the United States is not immune to tyranny.

In his Francis Halpern 2017 Lecture on Tuesday possibly his last lecture at Cornell before handing the reins to President-Elect Martha Pollack Rawlings said digitalization and a decreased interest in the humanities have intertwined U.S. politics with daily life and made political systems more volatile.

Contemporary politics appear more like like the ancient Athenian model of democracy, especially as the internet and social media are politicized, said Rawlings, who has taught several courses and researched Greek historiography at Cornell since ending his first term as president in 2003.

Athenians, Rawlings said, didnt want the elite and highly educated making decisions they wanted everyone engaged. As politics becomes more closely intertwined with the internet, it can radically change the system, as in ancient Athens, where the political system was radical in that it was direct.

While the Founding Fathers preferred the Romans Republican model and based the Constitution on Romes representative democracy, modern technology and communication have drawn the United States closer to the Athenian democracy over time, Rawlings said.

Today, an individual can reach millions with tweets and can be elected president by conducting a populous campaign against both traditional parties, Rawlings said.

Rawlings told the story of the Mytilenian Debate, where the Athenian assembly decided the fate of city-state Mytilini, which had attempted unsuccessfully to revolt against Athens during the Peloponnesian War.

The Athenian assemblys ultimate decision to commit genocide in the city-state serves as a warning of how history can repeat itself.

It will happen again because human nature remains constant, Rawlings said. History wont prevent democracy from doing some bad things. It probably will do those bad things, because we as a species are who we are.

Rawlings spoke about the diminishing emphasis on liberal arts education in the United States and declining public funding from universities.

The instruction of critical thinking and rational decision making has never been as necessary as it is today, he said.

To say that we need more citizens with an education in the arts and sciences is an understatement, Rawlings said, adding that public officials disdain for liberal arts [is] reaching a fever pitch.

Katherine Heaney is a member of the Class of 2020 in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She is a staff writer for the news department and can be reached at kheaney@cornellsun.com.

We are an independent, student newspaper. Help keep us reporting with a tax-deductible donation to the Cornell Sun Alumni Association, a non-profit dedicated to aiding The Sun.

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Rawlings Warns of Radical Shift in US Democracy - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

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Turkey Is a Dictatorship Masquerading as a NATO Democracy Foreign Policy (blog) In the lead-up to Turkey's constitutional referendum on April 16, Selahattin Demirtas, the co-chair of the opposition pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), sits in prison on charges of terrorism. With his voice effectively muzzled, he has taken ... Turkey's Dangerous Path Away From DemocracyNew York Times all 13 news articles »

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Turkey Is a Dictatorship Masquerading as a NATO Democracy - Foreign Policy (blog)

BEIJING China's government confirmed Wednesday it is holding a Taiwanese pro-democracy activist and is investigating him on suspicion of "pursuing activities harmful to national security," the latest detention in an ongoing crackdown on civil society.

Lee Ming-che, 42, cleared immigration in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory of Macau on March 19 and never showed up for a planned meeting later that day with a friend in the mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai.

The Taiwan Affairs Office said Lee was in good health but gave no information about where he was being held or other terms of his detention. "Regarding Lee Ming-che's case, because he is suspected of pursing activities harmful to national security, the investigation into him is being handled in line with legal procedures," spokesman Ma Xiaoguang told reporters at a news briefing.

Amnesty International said Lee's detention raises fears China is broadening its crackdown on legitimate activism, and urged the authorities to provide further details on his detention.

Lee's "detention on vague national security grounds will alarm all those that work with NGOs in China. If his detention is solely connected to his legitimate activism he must be immediately and unconditionally released," Nicholas Bequelin, the group's east Asia director said by email.

A colleague of Lee's said he may have attracted the attention of China's security services after he used the social media platform WeChat to discuss China-Taiwan relations.

Cheng Hsiu-chuan, president of Taipei's Wenshan Community College where Lee has worked for the past year as a program director, said Lee used WeChat to "teach" an unknown number of people about China-Taiwan relations under the government of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen.

"For China, the material he was teaching would be seen as sensitive," Cheng said. WeChat has hundreds of millions of active users and is hugely popular in China, where other social media tools such as Twitter are blocked by the authorities.

Lee had traveled annually to China for the past decade to see friends, Cheng said. He would discuss human rights in private but had never held any public events there, Cheng said.

However, in mid-2016 Chinese authorities shut down Lee's WeChat account and confiscated a box of books published in Taiwan on political and cultural issues, Cheng said.

On his most recent trip, Lee planned to see friends and obtain Chinese medicine for his mother-in-law in Taiwan, his wife, Lee Ching-yu, said. He was expected to stay in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou through March 26, she said.

"I want the government of China to act like a civilized country and tell me what they're doing with my husband on what legal grounds and, like a civilized country, what they plan to do with him," Lee Ching-yu said.

China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, a free-wheeling democracy with personal and political freedoms largely unknown on the authoritarian, Communist-ruled mainland. China insists that the two sides must eventually unify and has raised pressure on Taiwan since the election last year of President Tsai, whose Democratic Progressive Party advocates for Taiwan's formal independence. China and Taiwan split amid civil war in 1949.

National security crimes in China are broadly defined and have a range of penalties. Authorities usually release little or no information on the specific allegations, citing the need to protect state secrets.

Powers of the security services in dealing with foreign groups and their Chinese partners were strongly enhanced under a law that took effect in January, leading to concerns about further prosecutions and restrictions on civil society.

Under President Xi Jinping, China has widely suppressed independent organizations and dissenters, as well as lawyers defending people caught up in its crackdown. Rights groups say activists are increasingly being accused of subversion or other crimes against state security.

Dozens of lawyers have been questioned or detained in an ongoing campaign against dissident lawyers launched in July 2015.

___

Jennings contributed to this report from Taipei, Taiwan.

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China confirms detention of Taiwanese pro-democracy activist - Fox News

Hong Kongs chief executive-elect Carrie Lam has denied knowing about prosecutions of pro-democracy activists. Photograph: Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images

Hong Kong police have started a crackdown on pro-democracy lawmakers and activists, informing at least nine people they will be charged for their involvement in a series of street protests more than two years ago.

The charges come a day after Carrie Lam was elected to be the citys chief executive. Heavily backed by the Chinese government, she has promised to heal divisions in an increasingly polarised political climate; pro-Beijing elites and businesses have repeatedly clashed with grassroots movements demanding more democracy.

For nearly three months in 2014, protesters surrounded the main government offices and blocked roads in the heart of Hong Kongs financial district. While several high-profile cases were brought in the months after, the vast majority of protesters were not charged.

On Monday the government announced it would prosecute two politicians, Tanya Chan and Shiu Ka-chun. The others charged are former student protest leaders Eason Chung and Tommy Cheung, and the founders of the Occupy Central movement, Benny Tai, Rev Chu Yiu-ming and Chan Kin-man. Activist Raphael Wong and former legislator Lee Wing-tat will also be charged.

This isnt just my case being prosecuted, its prosecution against Hong Kongs democracy, Chan said in an interview. Lam said her first job would be to reunite Hong Kong people and this will make that task much more difficult.

All nine surrendered to police on Monday, with activists rallying around them in support.

The current chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, has taken unprecedented steps in recent months to remove pro-democracy politicians from office. Two were barred from taking their seats last year, and the government has launched legal challenges against four other legislators.

I feel very sad, the government hasnt tried to to heal the wounds in society, Shiu said just before turning himself in to police. I respect the law, but the timing is very deliberate.

Supporters from Hong Kongs pro-democracy political parties and organisations rallied around the accused, some holding signs reading the revolt is justified, protesting is not a crime.

Several hundred gathered outside Hong Kong police headquarters and chanted calls for full democracy. Activists said the prosecutions and Lams election had reinvigorated the pro-democracy camp.

If Chan or Shiu are jailed for more than a month, they could lose their seats in the legislative council. The charge of creating a public nuisance carries a maximum penalty of seven years in jail.

Leung is trying to change the result of the legislative election through the courts, Chan said. This is a well planned and well designed action, the timing is very critical.

Shiu echoed concerns that the prosecutions could be an attempt to eject himself and Chan from the legislature.

Lam said she did not know about the arrests in advance.

I made it very clear that I want to unite society and bridge the divide that has been causing us concern, Lam said at a press conference. But all these actions should not compromise the rule of law in Hong Kong.

The protests that led to the charges were sparked by the Chinese governments decision to vet candidates for the chief executive. Beijings reform package was voted down, and only 1,194 or 0.03% of registered voters could cast a ballot in Sundays election.

Lam met student leaders of the pro-democracy protests in 2014, and ended up taking a hard line against concessions on the political reform offered by Beijing.

It is unclear why the government waited more than two years to prosecute the protesters and the police did not respond to multiple requests seeking comment.

Originally posted here:
Hong Kong democracy activists charged hours after election of new city leader - The Guardian

I'm ashamed to say that I can't remember whether or not I met PC Keith Palmer, the policeman murdered by Khalid Masood in Parliament last week. I have been in and out through those gates often enough, greeted in that polite, slightly wry manner that British coppers use. But, like most people, I would generally just grunt "morning," often with minimal eye contact. (As you'll have noticed, this is another British specialty.)

It is easy to take the police for granted, to see them almost as wisecracking gatekeepers. Palmer's death reminded me that these smiling, sardonic men will, when the need arises, place themselves between me and a murder weapon. From now on, I'm going to thank them properly.

Lots of politicians and journalists will be thinking similar thoughts. That's what made the attack on Parliament so effective in propaganda terms. It's not simply that reporters were nearby; it's that many of them, locked inside the Palace of Westminster, were part of the story themselves.

Then there's the history. Although we Brits can be unspeakably rude about our MPs, we still think of Parliament itself as a symbol of national freedom. We have a half-memory, somewhere at the back of our collective mind, of a smoke-wreathed Westminster Hall standing defiantly among the Nazi bombs. A terrorist abomination in the center of a provincial city would not have had the same impact, either psychologically or in news terms.

But please try to keep a sense of perspective. There has been only one casualty of Islamist violence in Britain since the 2005 Tube bombings: Lee Rigby, an off-duty soldier who was mown down by a car as he cycled outside his barracks and then hacked to death. His murderers, like the attacker in Westminster, had no access to bombs or firearms. They, too, used the most basic weapons of all: a car and a knife.

A vehicle can be deadly, of course, as the appalling attacks in Nice and Berlin demonstrated. Still, it is worth pondering the fact that the most serious jihadi attack in Britain since 2005 involved some idiots driving into Glasgow Airport, evidently under the impression that this would set it on fire. They scrambled from their burning car only to be beaten up by a nearby baggage handler.

The scarcity of attacks tells us something of the imbalance of forces. On one side stand some of the world's best counter-terrorism experts, whose successes, in the form of forestalled atrocities, can never be truly counted. On the other stand some numbskulls with cars and knives.

We should treat them as what they are: losers with laughable underwear bombs and a pleasing tendency to blow themselves up in error. But we don't. We write them up as members of a sinister global terrorist network. We describe them as a threat to the state. I heard one supposed terrorism expert preposterously telling Fox News that the attack had "brought London to a standstill." The only sign of a "standstill" I saw was a notice on a bus about "delays around Westminster." Light snow causes more disruption, for Heaven's sake.

But no one has an incentive to downplay terrorism. The academic expert, the police chief, the spook, the journalist: all come together in consciously or subconsciously wanting to magnify the drama. No politician dares point out that you are statistically more likely to be killed by a toddler than by a jihadi. So we carry on taking these losers at something close to their own estimate that is, as soldiers engaged in a civilizational war. It is precisely this illicit glamor that draws lonely and alienated young men to political violence in the first place.

Also from the Washington Examiner

Will attend an international summit on women's issues next month.

03/27/17 1:32 PM

The Chinese don't report terrorist incidents, seeing no reason to give insurgents publicity. In consequence, terrorism is rare in China. Yet when Le Monde, applying the same logic, declined to print the names of the perpetrators of the Paris attacks, wishing to deny them a sense of martyrdom, it was widely criticized.

In the aftermath of the London attack, every commentator including, I'm afraid, this one reached for the same clich. It was, we said, "an attack on democracy." But the real danger to democracy is that we respond in a way that cheapens our values while at the same time attracting the next unbalanced teenager looking for a nihilistic cause. The men who carry out these crimes are not holy warriors. They are ugly, emotionally stunted criminals. We need to remember that.

Dan Hannan is a British Conservative MEP.

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The real danger to democracy - Washington Examiner