Polity’s Post

Historical Read: https://lnkd.in/g23dHD-t

This latest book follows a humble emperor who serves his people more than he is served. As such, he would rather declare war on the largest kingdom in the world than let them continue to suffer under their laws, even if it means he'll die defending them. https://lnkd.in/e3JujTPM

Our forefathers created a system that balanced competing interests at the time. It’s not perfect but it has been better than anything else. We should be striving to create a more perfect Union, but instead we have now reached the point where so many people feel such anger towards others that the themes of revenge, retaliation and retribution resonate with a significant plurality of the population. To a large extent, we are being manipulated by powerful interests who seek to benefit by deflecting attention away from the common good to scapegoats of their own creation. In this manipulated reality, facts don’t matter, only feelings do. Think about enraged mobs lynching Black Americans. Feelings were used to do horrible things to keep Black people “in their place.” On this Independence Day, we have to realize that what we share is more important than how we are different from each other. If we can’t get there, the future of our country is in peril.

Today is Tartan Day! It’s a Scottish day of celebration BUT not in Scotland! Its celebrated in North America and started in Canada by its Scottish Diaspora in 1986. Since then it has spread across North America and is celebrated in many cities. The day is significant because it is the anniversary of the Arbroath Declaration of 1320. The Arbroath Declaration is the name usually given to a letter, dated 6 April 1320 at Arbroath, written by Scottish barons and addressed to Pope John XXII. It constituted King Robert I's response to his excommunication for disobeying the pope's demand in 1317 for a truce in the First War of Scottish Independence. The letter asserted the antiquity of the independence of the Kingdom of Scotland, denouncing English attempts to subjugate it. Generally believed to have been written in Arbroath Abbey by Bernard of Kilwinning (or of Linton), then Chancellor of Scotland and Abbot of Arbroath, and sealed by fifty-one magnates and nobles, the letter is the sole survivor of three created at the time. The others were a letter from the King of Scots, Robert I, and a letter from four Scottish bishops which all made similar points. The Declaration was intended to assert Scotland's status as an independent, sovereign state and defend Scotland's right to use military action when unjustly attacked. A US Senate resolution adopted in 1998 set up National Tartan Day to be held annually on the 6th April However, today the focus will be on New York because as in the celebration of Saint Patrick’s Day it will be a day of skirling pipes and bands accompanied by dancers and other Scottish dignitaries marching through the streets of New York in a massive parade Australia has a different date and for a different reason. They celebrate International Tartan Day on 1 July in remembrance of the repeal of the Act of Proscription that banned the wearing of tartan for many years Even if your not Scots take the opportunity of Tartan Day to raise a glass and have a “wee dram”! #netzero #sustainability #founders #businessowners #CEOs

The Queen said it all! "The number one step now is to try to get an immediate ceasefire. The reason why we are not reaching that is that clearly, the Prime Minister of Israel has been buying time. Every time the two sides are close to an agreement, he throws in a new set of conditions or last-minute obstacles. We need to stop the fighting immediately, and that will de-escalate the Lebanon front and every other front. And then, the world community really needs to address the cause of this issue. Past peace talks have failed because we used the same equation. There were never any consequences placed to de-incentivize the occupation. Israel just felt emboldened to built more settlements, to grab more lands. There were never any efforts to uphold the international law. The starting point should be upholding the international law without exception. There can be negotiations and compromises as is the case in any peace deal. But, the departure point, the floor that needs to be set should be the international law. SECOND, human rights are universal. They don't need to be negotiated or earned. All Palestinians and Israelis have the right to peace, security, and self-determination, regardless of which side is more powerful. THIRD, security is not a zero-sum game. For the longest time Israel has been trying to safeguard their own security by denying Palestinians the same. Neither side's insecurity serves the other. It just reinforces the cycle of retaliation and repression. The only way out of that is for both sides to have peace. FOURTH, there can never be justice without accountability. When a nation does something wrong it needs to be faced with repercussions, not exceptions. FIFTH, we cannot be held hostage by the voices on the extremes. There are voices that are applauding starvation and displacement, that are encouraging collective punishment, that defend the indefensible, that justify the unjustifiable. We cannot be led by those forces. If we can agree on those five principles as the starting point, then we can reach a situation where we can find a just peace in our region. More war, more weapons are not the answer. The international community has a decision to make. Either we prove that the law stands above politics and power, or they have to admit that in the so-called rule-based world order, the rules only apply to the weak."

New Post: How Costly Was It for Pakistan to Refuse Lord Mountbatten as Governor-General? https://buff.ly/4elg7Ca How Costly Was It for Pakistan to Refuse Lord Mountbatten as Governor-General? Discover why Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah refused to accept Lord Mountbatten as Pakistan’s Governor-General and the consequences this decision had for Pakistan. A deep dive into key historical events and losses during the 1947 partition.

De regno ad regem Cypri On Kingship to the King of Cyprus by Thomas Aquinas, translated by Gerald B. Phelan, 1949 Chapter 6: That it is a lesser evil when a monarchy turns into tyranny than when an aristocracy becomes corrupt. [36] When a choice is to be made between two things, from both of which danger impends, surely that one should be chosen from which the lesser evil follows. Now, lesser evil follows from the corruption of a monarchy (which is tyranny) than from the corruption of an aristocracy. [37] Group government [polyarchy] most frequently breeds dissension. This dissension runs counter to the good of peace which is the principal social good. A tyrant, on the other hand, does not destroy this good, rather he obstructs one or the other individual interest of his subjects—unless, of course, there be an excess of tyranny and the tyrant rages against the whole community. Monarchy is therefore to be preferred to polyarchy, although either form of government might become dangerous. [38] Further, that from which great dangers may follow more frequently is, it would seem, the more to be avoided. Now, considerable dangers to the multitude follow more frequently from polyarchy than from monarchy. There is a greater chance that, where there are many rulers, one of them will abandon the intention of the common good than that it will be abandoned when there is but one ruler. When any one among several rulers turns aside from the pursuit of the common good, danger of internal strife threatens the group because, when the chiefs quarrel, dissension will follow in the people. When, on the other hand, one man is in command, he more often keeps to governing for the sake of the common good. Should he not do so, it does not immediately follow that he also proceeds to the total oppression of his subjects. This, of course, would be the excess of tyranny and the worst wickedness in government, as has been shown above. The dangers, then, arising from a polyarchy are more to be guarded against than those arising from a monarchy. 

Tunamsifu, S. P. (2022). The Colonial Legacy and Transitional Justice in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. African Journal on Conflict Resolution, 22(2), 85-110. Abstract: The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) experienced a brutal colonial regime and a segregated judicial system with a weak educational system used to support colonial policies and a post-colonial legal framework designed to avoid prosecution for colonial-era crimes. Under such a regime, a broad range of violations were registered including about 10 million people who were killed. In the aftermath of the colonial era, the post-colonial regime did not sufficiently redress the situation through prosecution or meaningful reforms. Consequently, most of those atrocities remained unpunished. This study lists the main reasons why the colonial-era crimes were not investigated which are linked to the gaps in the legal framework, the configuration of the judiciary, and an informal agreement between the DRC and the Belgian governments.