Since Russia occupied Crimea and large parts of eastern Ukraine in 2014, evidence has mounted of the forcible indoctrination and militarisation of Ukrainian children in these regions. In March 2023, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was charged by the International Criminal Court with illegally transferring many of the children into Russia itself. Now a report has revealed the extent to which many Ukrainian children are being groomed to serve in the military and
fight for Russia against their own country.
This indoctrination begins in middle school where the curriculum includes propaganda masquerading as
history and PE classes that resemble military boot camp, where children are instructed in the use of small arms and drones and act as “storm troopers”.
South Africa’s land reform programme has done little to transfer land ownership from white to Black farmers. Political scientist Alex Dyzenhaus spent seven years interviewing white commercial farmers and Black land reform beneficiaries to understand why. He found that some white farmers agreed to sell
their land to the government to solve longstanding business problems on the farm and emerge better off financially.
Meanwhile, many Black beneficiaries received small,
under-supported farms with little chance of becoming successful commercial farmers. As a result, land reform has often reinforced, rather than reduced, the racial inequalities from apartheid and colonialism that it was meant to undo.
