Tag: Greta Thunberg

  • India slams Rihanna, Greta Thunberg, Mia Khalifa for supporting farmers protest

    Rihanna on Tuesday created a flutter in India by wading into months-long farmer protests against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s agricultural reforms. Tens of thousands of young and old farmers have blocked roads leading into New Delhi for more than two months, sheltering in tractors from the cold.

    A tractor rally by farmers last week in New Delhi turned violent. Police responded by shutting down the internet, digging ditches, driving nails into roads and topping barricades with razor wire to prevent farmers from entering the capital again.

    “Why aren’t we talking about this?!” Rihanna said in a Twitter post, sharing a CNN article on the demonstrations with her 100.9 million followers on the platform, using the hashtag #FarmersProtest.

    The same article was shared by teen climate activist Greta Thunberg, who also expressed solidarity with the farmers.

    US Vice President Kamala Harris’ niece Meena Harris also extended her support to the protest, writing: “We ALL should be outraged by India’s internet shutdowns and paramilitary violence against farmer protesters.”

    https://twitter.com/meenaharris/status/1356747965713371138?s=20

    Similarly, Mia Khalifa and John Cusack also extended their support to the protesting farmers.

    The international celebrity tweets triggered an online storm in India, where the farmers’ protests have become one of the biggest challenges to Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he took power in 2014. Modi has asserted the laws are necessary to modernise India’s agriculture sector, but farmers fear they would be placed at the mercy of big corporations.

    India’s government has bristled at international remarks on the protests, calling them an “internal matter”.

    In an official statement, the foreign ministry said that the celebrities needed “a proper understanding of the issues”.

    “The temptation of sensationalist social media hashtags and comments, especially when resorted to by celebrities and others, is neither accurate nor responsible,” read the statement, with the hashtags #IndiaTogether and #IndiaAgainstPropaganda.

    “We would like to emphasise that these protests must be seen in the context of India’s democratic ethos and polity, and the efforts of the Government and the concerned farmer groups to resolve the impasse,” it added.

    Meanwhile, Kangana Ranaut, a vocal Modi supporter, responded to Rihanna by calling the protesting farmers “terrorists” and Rihanna a “fool” and an “American porn stars”. She also called Thunberg a “dumb and spoilt brat.”

    Similarly, Akshay Kumar offered traction to MEA’s statement by sharing it and writing: “Let’s support an amicable resolution, rather than paying attention to anyone creating differences.”

    India — the world’s biggest democracy — regularly uses internet shutdowns to limit information sharing during disturbances.

  • All you need to know about Indian farmers’ protests as world shames Modi govt

    With international celebrities, including Rihanna and Greta Thunberg, voicing concerns over the law and order situation in India as farmers continue to give the Narendra Modi-government a tough time while seeking fulfillment of their demands, ‘#FarmersProtest’ has become the top trend on Twitter even beyond Indian borders — in Pakistan.

    But what do the protesters, who have now been on roads for two months, really want?

    The ongoing demonstrations caught most attention when Indian law enforcement resorted to violence against the farmers who had converged on New Delhi on the country’s Republic Day.

    According to Associated Press (AP), farmers hailing from northern Punjab and Haryana states, the two biggest agricultural producers, are demanding the repeal of laws passed by the parliament in September that they say will favor large corporate farms, devastate the earnings of many farmers and leave those who hold small plots behind as big corporations win out.

    Modi has billed the laws as necessary to modernise Indian farming.

    In recent weeks, people who are not farmers have also joined in, and the protests gained momentum in November when the farmers tried to march into New Delhi but were stopped by police. Since then, they have promised to hunker down at the edge of the city until the laws are repealed.

    At the heart of these protests are Indian farmers’ fears that the government’s moves to introduce market reforms to the farming sector will leave them poorer — at a time when they are already frustrated over their declining clout as the government aims to turn India into a hub for global corporations.

    The new legislation is not clear on whether the government will continue to guarantee prices for certain essential crops — a system that was introduced in the 1960s to help India shore up its food reserves and prevent shortages.

    While the government has said it is willing to pledge the guaranteed prices will continue, the farmers are skeptical and want new legislation that says such prices are their legal right.

    Farmers also fear that the legislation signals the government is moving away from a system in which an overwhelming majority of farmers sell only to government-sanctioned marketplaces. They worry this will leave them at the mercy of corporations that will have no legal obligation to pay them the guaranteed price anymore.

    The Modi government argues that this is designed to give farmers more choice in who to sell their produce to. It also says the legislation will benefit farmers by boosting production through private investment.

    The government has offered to amend the laws and suspend their implementation for 18 months — but that has not satisfied farmers who want a full repeal.

    Clauses in the legislation also prevent farmers from taking contract disputes to courts, leaving them with no independent means of redress apart from government-appointed bureaucrats.

    These perceived threats to their income terrify India’s farmers, who are mostly smallholders as around 70% of them own less than 1 hectare of land.

  • US Elections 2020: Jemima, Greta Thunberg troll Trump

    With the results of the US Elections 2020 yet to be announced, people are killing time and anxiety by turning to jokes and memes. Jemima Goldsmith, who has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump and his policies, trolled him by sharing the White House version of ‘Mujhe Kyun Nikala‘ — a phrase coined by Nawaz Sharif.

    In the video shared by Jemima, a man who looks like Trump can be seen sitting on an inflatable exercise ball, surrounded by a group of children. Another man, who resembles vice-president Mike Pence, seems to be pulling Trump off the exercise ball while the Trump impersonator yells that he doesn’t want to go.

    https://twitter.com/Jemima_Khan/status/1324452569566109697?s=20

    Similarly, Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg trolled the president over a tweet of his in which he called for the vote count to be stopped.

    Responding to the latter’s tweet, the teenage climate activist used Trump’s own words against him.

    “So ridiculous, Donald must work on his anger management problem, and then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Donald, Chill!” wrote the 17-year-old.

    Thunberg finally got her revenge against Trump after he criticised Time magazine’s decision to name her ‘Person of the Year’.

    Meanwhile, earlier in 2016, Jemima dressed up as Melania Trump being groped by her husband, Donald Trump, for the UNICEF Halloween Ball in London. Jemima decided to pull over the anti-Trump costume after a video of Trump got leaked in which he was explicitly talking about groping women and making horrifying statements over abuse.

    As counting votes continues in critical swing states in the US, Trump has been spreading misinformation and demanding that vote counting stops.

  • Greta Thunberg calls Malala Yousafzai her ‘role model’

    Greta Thunberg calls Malala Yousafzai her ‘role model’

    Teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg met Malala Yousafzai at the University of Oxford where the Nobel peace prize winner is a student.

    The two shared pictures of themselves hanging out on social media. While Greta called Malala her “role model”, Malala referred to Thunberg as “the only friend I’d skip school for.” It was reportedly their first meeting.

    According to The Guardian, Thunberg, 17, is in the UK to join a school strike in Bristol on Friday.

    Thunberg became a force to reckon with after striking from school in Sweden to protest against the climate emergency. She made headlines in September when she travelled to New York address the UN Climate Conference on a zero-emissions boat in a journey that lasted two weeks.

    On the other hand, Malala was shot in the head by the Taliban in Swat for campaigning for girls education.

    Malala is also the youngest recipient of the Nobel peace prize while Thunberg was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 and 2020.

    Greta and Malala met to discuss their work and future plans at Lady Margaret Hall, Yousafzai’s Oxford college.

    Thunberg also talked to some of the students about the climate crisis and protest. The college’s master, Alan Rusbridger, posted a photo of Thunberg to social media, sharing details of her visit.

  • ‘Greta must work on her anger management problem’, Donald Trump trolls teenager

    ‘Greta must work on her anger management problem’, Donald Trump trolls teenager

    President of the United States Donald Trump, in a recent tweet, trolled 16-year-old environmental activist Greta Thunberg for being named Time magazine’s “Person of The Year.”

    Thunberg responded swiftly, changing her Twitter profile to: “A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend.”

    The two have previously also shaded each other by passing snarky remarks.

    In September, when Trump and Greta, both were in New York for United Nations General Assembly session, Trump had criticised her. Meanwhile, Thunberg had dismissed Trump’s comments, and said she wouldn’t consider meeting with him on the issue of climate change.

    Thunberg has spoken about her diagnosis of Asperger’s, a neurological disorder that creates difficulty with social and communications skills. She calls it her “superpower.”‘

    In naming her Person of the Year, Time magazine said “Thunberg began a global movement by skipping school: starting in August 2018, she spent her days camped out in front of the Swedish Parliament, holding a sign painted in black letters on a white background that read Skolstrejk för klimatet: “School Strike for Climate.”

    “In the 16 months since, she has addressed heads of state at the UN, met with the Pope, sparred with the President of the United States and inspired 4 million people to join the global climate strike on September 20, 2019, in what was the largest climate demonstration in human history,” it added.

  • Did Greta Thunberg time travel?

    A picture that was taken 121 years ago has a Greta Thunberg lookalike. It sparked a new conspiracy theory about the environmentalist being a time traveller.

    Twitterati started claiming that one of the people in the photo from 1898 that shows three children from the Yukon Territory in Canada has a face that’s so identical to Thunberg’s that it couldn’t possibly be anybody else.

    The girl said to be Thunberg also has the same braided hairstyle that the Swedish teen is known for. And although the timeline certainly doesn’t add up, many are saying that it’s proof that Thunberg is from a different time.

    Here are some of the snippets of this conspiracy debate: