Day: June 7, 2024

FBI releases hundreds of pages related to O.J. Simpson  Fox 5 Las Vegas

FBI shares message about safety during Pride Month – Tucson  KOLD

Will there be a new Covid vaccine in the fall?  Yahoo! Voices

New Bern mother and daughter sentenced for defrauding COVID-19 Housing Program  WITN

The FDA tells COVID-19 vaccine makers to update shot to target newest variant  KSLTV

What’s next for Fauci after House hearing in which GOP held him ‘accountable’?  WGME

Key prosecution witness says he bribed New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez  CNN International

Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan Rejects Russian Threats to Armenia  Armenian News by MassisPost

We all know that when;Christopher Columbus;landed in ‘America’ in 1492, he thought it was India. Much less is known about the Portuguese navigator;Vasco Da Gama;who was the first to reach the real India in 1498.

This ‘discovery’ was due to the sponsored expeditions by the Portuguese Prince Henrique/Henry (1394-1460), the third son of John/João I, King of Portugal, and Philippa of Lancaster, the daughter of John of Gaunt of England.

His sister,;Isabella, was the third wife of;Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy and Count of Flanders, consolidating Portuguese interests in the Low Countries. Their son was;Charles the Bold, the last Valois duke of Burgundy. Isabella’s family ties with the English royal family were also useful in ending the Flemish-English trade war (1436-1439). In 1439, the Duchess acted as head of the Burgundian delegation that negotiated the cloth trade, and the colonization of the Azores by a group of Flemish people was also a result of her involvement.

Henrique was the first European to methodically explore Africa and the oceanic route to the Indies as early as the mid-1420s. From his home in the Algarve in southern Portugal, he sought opportunities to participate in the West African trade, especially the trade in gold and enslaved persons, and to establish potentially profitable colonies on under-exploited islands, the most successful of which he helped establish in Madeira.

Nicknamed the Navigator, Henry paved the way for the modern world. He did not undertake sea voyages himself, but he financed and planned these expeditions to expand Portugal’s territory and wealth and to spread Christianity. His actions led to the European Age of Discovery, and also initiated the process of European colonization, capitalism, and ultimately the transatlantic slave trade.

This was partly possible thanks to the collaboration with Flemish carpenters and maritime craftsmanship, which his sister Isabella introduced to him. They helped the Portuguese develop better seaworthy ships for circumnavigating Cape Bojador and the Cape of Good Hope.

That is the essence of the;monograph;by;João Paulo Oliveira e Costa, history professor at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, which I discovered during a recent trip to Portugal. As the title of this monograph indicates, Henry was “the forerunner of globalization.”

The analysis is in the same line as Howard French’s book already discussed;here.

João I

Until 1249, parts of Portugal, and most of what is now Spain, were a caliphate known as;Al-Andalus. Muslim Berbers (Moors) from North Africa invaded much of the Iberian Peninsula in the early eighth century and conquered it from the Christian;Visigoths, a Germanic people.

Islamic rule was not the only obstacle to;Portugal’s independence. In 1095, Portugal seceded from the Kingdom of Galicia. Alfonso Henriques, son of Count Henry of Burgundy, proclaimed himself King of Portugal in 1139. The Algarve was conquered from the Moors in 1249 and Lisbon became the capital in 1255. Portugal’s borders have remained virtually unchanged since then.

During the reign of King João I, Henry’s father, the Portuguese defeated the Castilians in a war for the throne (1385) and entered into a political alliance with England (by the Treaty of Windsor in 1386). To this day, Portugal remains culturally more oriented towards England than neighboring Spain.

John’s long struggle with Castile and the need to form a new aristocracy caused serious financial problems, but he rallied his people around his throne and gained a reputation as a prudent leader and an astute statesman. Thanks in part to Queen Philippa, influenced by English traditions, John’s court also became known as a center of culture.

Ceuta 1415

In 1415, Portugal invaded;Ceuta, a fortified city in Morocco. The justification for the invasion, which was seen as a military and religious crusade, was that the port city was a haven for pirates. João I placed his three sons in charge of the expedition, as a challenge to earn their knighthood.

In addition to pirates, Ceuta was also the place with a vibrant trade. Henry learned of trade between North African Muslims and West Africans and Indians. This new knowledge about Africa and Asia aroused his interest.

As a devout Christian, he wanted to defeat Muslims and spread Christianity in a permanent holy war. But his planned expeditions required a large investment for a relatively poor country. The country’s thriving merchant class, which also included a prominent Jewish community, became the financing power for Henry’s costly projects. The Catholic Church also offered support.

Henry brought together sailors, ship designers, astronomers, mathematicians, navigators and cartographers at Sagres, his base on the southern coast of Portugal. This also included Jews, Muslims and Flemish. Much of their geographical knowledge was based on the work of the ancient geographer Ptolemy and the Arab scholars who continued his work.

Many of the instruments that became essential for navigation on the open sea were adaptations of instruments used, sometimes by people from different cultures, for other tasks, such as the compass, the hourglass, the quadrant and the astrolabe.

The;caravel, a small maneuverable ship that could sail against the wind, was perfected in this way thanks to Flemish craftsmanship.

Past Cape Bojador

After all, one of the major problems that Henry faced in his competition with the Spanish to find a suitable sea route to the Indies was the rough waters off;Cape Bojador. Located in what is now Western Sahara (a disputed territory held by Morocco since 1979), the current in this part of the coast moves south, making sailing to Europe difficult. The bigger obstacle may have been superstition, as the cape’s original name in Arabic is Abu Khaṭar (ابو خطر), meaning ‘father of danger’.

Among the;expeditions;that Henry sponsored, Portugal colonized islands off the coast of West Africa, including the largely inhabited Canary Islands, as well as the uninhabited islands of the Azores and Madeira.

In 1434, a;navigable route;around Cape Bojador was found by the Portuguese sailor Gil Eanes. This was considered a major breakthrough for European explorers and traders heading to Africa and later to India. A first attempt by Eanes in 1433 resulted in failure. But at the command of Prince Henry the Navigator, Eanes tried a second time and proved successful.

But Henry needed money to keep his expeditions going. The prince wanted access to West African gold. West Africans, however, retained control of local gold reserves, only willing to trade mainly gold dust with the Portuguese during Henry’s lifetime.

Slavery

Therefore, the economic impetus shifted to another resource:;enslaved people. The Portuguese began systematically raiding settlements on the island of Arguin to kidnap local residents. These Africans were enslaved and brought to Lisbon. In 1448, the Portuguese built a fort, warehouse and trading station on the island, located off the coast of what is now Mauritania.

In the early 1650s, enslaved Africans were forced to build and farm sugar plantations in Madeira. Plantation economies focused on a single cash crop to make profits. This plantation system was repeated in other;Portuguese colonies. African prisoners were taken from the mainland and the Cape Verde Islands, off the coast of Senegal, where they were forced to work.

Global colonization

By the time of Henry’s death, in 1460, the Portuguese had reached what is now Sierra Leone. However, many of Henry’s ambitions were also shared by his successors. The Portuguese founded colonies along the west and east coasts of Africa.

In the years that followed, the Portuguese created trading ports as far away as Japan. Portuguese navigators also ventured to India, Malacca, Thailand and kingdoms along the Indian Ocean.

Beginning in the 16th century, the Portuguese established sugar plantations in Brazil, using enslaved workers shipped across the Atlantic Ocean from the west coast of Africa. With its large-scale forced transport of captured Africans to the Americas, Portugal, along with rival Spain, created what would become the;transatlantic slave trade. This involved all European colonists, including the British, Belgians, Dutch, French and Spanish. However, the starting point, both historically and geographically, was Portugal.

After all, while Henry opened up trade and connected different peoples and cultures, his colonization efforts led to some of humanity’s greatest atrocities. Historically, colonization has resulted in a loss of resources, land, life, religion, culture and autonomy for the indigenous people who were colonized.

This attitude became evident with the signing of the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1495, which divided colonization claims in the Western Hemisphere between Spain and Portugal without regard or consultation with the indigenous nations and people groups living there.

The blind spot

“The modern world would not exist without slavery,” Howard French already stated in his ‘Born in Blackness‘.

Yet it is striking how absent this history remains in contemporary Portugal. The national school curriculum, museums and tourist infrastructure essentially amount to a grandiose display of the country’s 15th to 17th century ‘discoveries’ in Africa, Asia and the Americas, and a selective memory of its 20th century colonial exploits in Angola , Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Principe, Goa, Macau and East Timor.

In Lagos, the port where the first enslaved Africans disembarked from Portuguese ships in 1444, the only acknowledgment of this history in the city’s popular, touristy center is a hard-to-find little museum called the ‘Slave Market’, which opened in 2016 in collaboration with UNESCO.

Al Jazeera, which focuses extensively on this issue, offers a good overview of the problems that Portugal still struggles with today in terms of culture and racism.

Collecting data on race and ethnicity is still illegal under the current Portuguese Constitution. This clause in the constitution, intended to make up for the explicit racism of the Portuguese colonial dictatorship that was overthrown in 1974, has become a major sticking point for anti-racism movements in Portugal. It means that there is no official information about the population numbers of ethnic minorities. The lack of these data make it difficult for activists to argue for greater investment in public services for Afro-descendant and other racialized communities, or to prove the existence of racial bias and structural inequality.

Portugal’s increasingly assertive and politically engaged black population, now in its second or even third generation, is today at the forefront of a Portuguese society pushing for a more nuanced and complicated version of history to finally be told. This;Movimento Negro;also draws more attention to the ongoing legacy of structural racism – in terms of police brutality, equal access to housing and education, and political representation.

But, says sociologist;Cristina Roldão: “From people in authority and from the man in the street you still hear the idea that Portuguese colonialism was different, benevolent and gentle. That idea is still common, but it is far from reality.”

Reference:

João Paulo Oliveira e Costa, Henry, The forerunner of globalization, Faro, Portugal: Direcção-Geral da Cultura do Algarve, 79pp. (ISBN 978-989-99521-0-2)

The US government-affiliated Ukrainian web publication “Data Journalism Agency” (TEXTY) has just;released a report;attacking hundreds of prominent American individuals and organizations as enemies for not supporting sending more US money and weapons to Ukraine.

The report, titled “Roller Coaster: From Trumpists to Communists. The forces in the U.S. impeding aid to Ukraine and how they do it,” intends to smear American politicians, journalists, and social media influencers as tools of Russia, writing:

“Most of the people in our study do not have direct, proven ties to the Russian government or propagandists. However, the arguments they use to urge authorities to distance themselves from Ukraine echo key messages of Russian propaganda aimed at depriving Ukrainians of the ability to defend themselves with Western weapons and funds. (emphasis added)“

Although the “enemies list” purports to correct disinformation about Ukraine spread by those on its list, the report itself is full of crude disinformation. For example this bit:

“Even long-debunked myths continue to surface, such as claims of Nazi dominance and American Biolabs in Ukraine and the portrayal of the 2014 Revolution of Dignity as a coup.“

The organization’s assertion that these claims are “long-debunked” may be wishful thinking, but back on planet reality even mainstream, pro-Ukraine media sites in the US wring their hands over the disturbing, extremist images coming out of the country. For example, NBC News;wrote;that, “Ukraine’s Nazi problem is real, even if Putin’s ‘denazification’ claim isn’t.” Newsweek;wondered, “Why Have So Many Neo-Nazis Rallied to Ukraine’s Cause?” Even before the current conflict, mainstream pro-Ukraine publications such as Reuters worried in 2918 about “Ukraine’s neo-Nazi problem.”

As to the biolabs, none other than Mother of the Maidan Victoria Nuland;admitted in a US Senate hearing;that there were biolabs in Ukraine. Ah, but one may counter that these were not “American biolabs.” In fact with the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop now absolutely confirmed during his trial, a;report;by the New York Post two years ago based on the laptop also must be considered accurate. According to the article, “Russia’s assertion that President Biden’s son Hunter was ‘financing . . . biological laboratories in Ukraine’ was based in truth, according to e-mails reviewed by The Post.”

And on whether the Maidan events of 2014 were a “Revolution of Dignity” or a coup, we again only need turn to Victoria Nuland’s;infamous phone call;with US Ambassador to Kiev, Geoffrey Pyatt, for all the evidence needed that the US was micromanaging the removal of an elected leader and replacing him with hand-picked US puppets.

The report also includes such prominent American politicians and journalists as Sen. JD Vance, Sen. Rand Paul, Rep. Matt Gaetz, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Rep. Jim Jordan, and Col. Douglas Macgregor.

Even our friends at Antiwar.com…and your own correspondent (!) find ourselves appearing on the Ukrainian “enemies list”:

As the report states:

“There are 391 individuals and 76 organizations in our list. These include politicians, political movements and groups, media and journalists, experts, and think tanks (some individuals appear in multiple categories).“

Perhaps what is most shocking about this attack on American citizens is the fact that the Data Journalism Agency (TEXTY) has a long affiliation with the US Government itself! In fact, the founder of the publication Anatoly Bondarenko appears;prominently on a US Government website;as a participant in the US State Department’s “TechCamp” project.;

The Data Journalism Agency (TEXTY) is listed as an “Implementing Partner” of the US Agency for International Development’s Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services/ TAPAS Project.

The Ukrainians seemingly love to make lists of their “enemies.” One of their most notorious of these is the infamous “kill list” put out by the;Mirotvorets Center;in Kiev. From that list several have already been murdered by Ukraine,;including prominent Russian journalist Daria Dugina.

One wonders how, for example, former US President Donald Trump and dozens of members of the US Congress will react when they hear that US tax dollars are being sent to Ukraine for US-backed Ukrainian organizations to make “hate lists” and “kill lists” of patriotic Americans like themselves.

• This article was published at RonPaul Institute