#everydayquiz #The hindu #vocab
Race in America
The sniper attack in Dallas, Texas, leading to the
death of five policemen, has widened a racial wound in the United States that
was being picked at for the past few years. With his choice of targets and
venue, the sniper, Micah Johnson, changed around the message of a Black Lives
Matter march on Thursday in the city, one among many across the country called
to peacefully protest the shocking killing of two black men in police action
earlier in the week in Louisiana and Minnesota. America has been simmering
these past few years over the deaths of blacks at the hands of police
personnel.
These deaths are disproportionately high in number compared to the
percentage of African Americans in the population, and many of them — the 2014
encounter in Ferguson, Missouri, for example — are seen to suggest an
institutionalised tolerance of racism. Each such incident has threatened to
incrementally widen the gulf between the police and black citizens, and
President Barack Obama has strived to play a mediating role between police and
community leaders to bridge the gulf and to make progress on reforms in
policing and the justice delivery system. Johnson, a former U.S. Army reserve,
was black, and from all evidence deliberately targeted white police officers.
His attack has the potential to widen the racial gulf further, and change the
focus of the debate from the need for institutional reform to open
blame-calling.
Mr. Obama, who was on a tour of Europe when the police
deaths happened, said from Warsaw that he would travel to Dallas as soon as
possible. But before that he has wisely drawn a line separating Johnson’s
action from his black identity, and the assassin’s agenda from the protesters’
grief. “By definition, if you shoot people who pose no threat to you —
strangers — you have a troubled mind,” he said. Indeed, reports suggest that
Johnson was battling his own demons ever since he returned from Afghanistan —
but the particulars of Johnson, a “demented individual” as Mr. Obama called him,
may become incidental to the viciously polarising political wars that are
framing the American presidential election. Mr. Obama’s racial and ethnic
identity has been constantly attacked by Republicans, and the far right in
America has kept an unswerving focus on his outreach to black community leaders
as well as his struggle to put checks on the easy availability of guns in the
country. The irresponsible politics of some Republicans was in evidence after
Dallas, too. How Mr. Obama negotiates this ugly aftermath in the days ahead
could come to define his term in the White House.
simmering
>cooking at a
temperature that is slightly below boiling:
a pot of simmering
water
>fig. Something
that is simmering is controlled but may burst out at any time, often violently:
simmering tensions
gulf noun (DIFFERENCE)
> an important
difference between the ideas, opinions, or situations of two groups of people:
There is a widening
gulf between the rich and the poor in our society.
It is hoped that the
peace plan will bridge the gulf (= reduce the very large difference) between
the government and the rebels.
strive
>to try very hard
to do something or to make something happen, especially for a long time or
against difficulties:
[ + to infinitive ] Mr
Roe has kindled expectations that he must now strive to live up to.
In her writing she
strove for a balance between innovation and familiar prose forms.
demented
unable to think or act
clearly because you are extremely worried, angry, or excited by something:
She was nearly
demented with worry when her son didn't come home.
old-fashioned or
informal crazy:
The man is demented -
he's going to wreck the whole operation.
aftermath
the period that
follows an unpleasant event or accident, and the effects that it causes:
Many more people died
in the aftermath of the explosion.
Ending impunity under AFSPA
“Accountability is a facet of the rule of law.” This
established legal principle has acquired fresh significance after the Supreme
Court ruled that the armed forces cannot escape investigation for excesses in
the course of the discharge of their duty even in “disturbed areas”. In such
notified areas, security personnel enjoy statutory protection for their use of
“special powers”. While hearing petitions demanding an inquiry into 1,528
deaths in counter-insurgency operations and related incidents in Manipur, the
court has said the provisions of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and the
purported immunity it offers to the use of force “even to the extent of causing
death” are not invincible. Such legal protection, especially in a State that
has been under AFSPA for nearly 60 years, has to yield to larger principles of
human rights, and no allegation of the use of excessive or retaliatory force
can be ignored without a thorough inquiry. This is a requirement both of
democracy and for the preservation of the rule of law. The court has sought
tabulated details on 62 specific cases in which there is some evidence that the
deaths involved were not genuine operational casualties but extrajudicial
killings or fake encounters. Even though the 85-page ruling draws its broad
principles from an earlier Constitution Bench verdict in Naga People’s Movement
of Human Rights (1997), it has special meaning in the present context, with a
growing body of opinion that AFSPA should be repealed or amended.
The court is not unaware of the circumstances
prevailing in Manipur and its neighbouring States. What has caused
consternation is the near-total absence of any inquiry. In most cases, not even
a first information report has been registered, and in some, the cases are
against the victims. The court has acknowledged that additional powers have
been given to the armed forces to deal with terrorism effectively. However, it
also made clear that this cannot be an excuse for extrajudicial killings —
whenever such allegations surface, they have to be investigated, regardless of
whether the person concerned is a dreaded criminal, terrorist or insurgent. The
court has reminded the authorities of the circumstances in which the use of
force, even to the point of causing death, is immune from prosecution and the
Army’s own list of dos and don’ts while operating in a disturbed area. It has
rejected the notion that every person bearing arms in a disturbed area is ipso
facto an “enemy”. The occasion calls for an investigation into allegations of
enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, especially those already
documented or partially probed. It must give momentum to the demand for the
repeal of AFSPA as a necessary step to end impunity.
impunity
freedom from
punishment or from the unpleasant results of something that has been done:
Criminal gangs are
terrorizing the city with apparent impunity.
facet
one part of a subject,
situation, etc. that has many parts:
She has so many facets
to her personality.
purported
that has been stated
to be true or to have happened, although this may not be the case:
A recent study into
the purported health benefits of the drink was not conclusive
invincible
impossible to defeat
or prevent from doing what is intended:
Last year the company
seemed/looked invincible but in recent weeks has begun to have problems
repeal
If a government
repeals a law, it causes that law no longer to have any legal force.
consternation
a feeling of worry,
shock, or confusion:
The prospect of so
much work filled him with consternation.
To his consternation,
when he got to the airport he found he'd forgotten his passport.
dread
> to feel extremely
worried or frightened about something that is going to happen or that might
happen:
He's dreading the exam
- he's sure he's going to fail.
[ + -ing verb ] I'm
dreading having to meet his parents.
ipso facto
>used to say that
it is reasonable to state or believe something based on facts that are already
known:
You admit you fired
the gun and we now know that the shot killed the victim so you are, ipso facto,
responsible for his death.
#SSC #IBPS #SBI #RBI #NABARD #NICL #NIACL #CAT #NMAT #everydayquiz
No comments:
Post a Comment