Category World News

Iran’s network of Middle Eastern allies has suffered severe blows over the past two years. President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria fell apart. Hezbollah faced mounting pressure to disarm in Lebanon after being forced to lay down its weapons under a ceasefire negotiated by the United States. After US forces massively bombarded infrastructure and civilian areas in Yemen, the Houthis were forced to stop preventing maritime traffic through the Red Sea. Ahmed al-Rahawi, their prime minister, and several other ministers were killed on Thursday in an Israeli attack.

Iran’s once-formidable deterrent has dramatically decreased. And now it appears that its influence in Iraq is waning by the day. The Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), a group of predominately Shia paramilitary units, are under increasing pressure from the US to rein in Iranian allies.

Although it may be difficult and risky to integrate the PMF into the Iraqi army, it could if it were to be done. However, it could help to advance the country’s sovereignty and state.

US pressure’s effectiveness

The PMF’s brief history&nbsp exemplifies Iraq’s wider setbacks of trying to balance pressures from the US and Iran with its wider situation.

In response to the country’s security vacuum, which was directly at the root of the country’s rise of ISIL (ISIS) in 2014, it established its paramilitary organizations. After the US invasion, the Iraqi army was disbanded in 2003, and the reconstituted force lacked the morale and readiness to defend the nation.

The PMF succeeded in halting ISIL’s advance where the regular army had failed, but the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) co-opted many of its members as regional influence tools.

The PMF still has a significant influence in Iraq today. It includes hardline groups that are unwaveringly loyal to Iran and groups that genuinely seek integration with the Iraqi military.

Mohammed al-Sudani, the prime minister of Iraq, is being under increasing US pressure to overthrow his own ruling coalition, which has strong support from the PMF.

The proposed American strategy, which would allow compliant units to join the regular army and remove militia leaders from positions of authority, is nothing less than a complete overhaul of Iraq’s security structure. Some Iraqi lawmakers have pushed the PMF to become a military force for the first time in the process by passing legislation that would permanently enshrine it.

The PMF’s integration bill, which was introduced in March, aims to make it a permanent, independent military body with a budget, a command structure, and a military academy. Additionally, it would give the PMF commander a ministerial rank, institutionalizing what Washington perceives as Iranian influence within the Iraqi government.

The bill was temporarily withdrawn from parliament thanks to US pressure. Marco Rubio, the US’s secretary of state, made a clear warning that a comprehensive analysis of US-Iraqi relations, possibly involving sanctions, would result from passing such legislation. Given Washington’s recent 35 percent tariffs on Iraq, this threat had weight.

The processing of electronic transactions by Iraqi state-owned Al-Rafidain Bank caused a disruption in the payment of PMF fighters’ salaries in June, which was brought on by US pressure.

US lawmakers have been calling on Al-Rafidain Bank to be sanctioned for a 2022 corruption scandal, in which $2.5 billion in state funds were allegedly stolen from it because of allegations that people close to the PMF were involved.

The unavoidable reckoning

No longer is it about whether the PMF should remain in its current form in Baghdad. In Washington, that query has been resolved. Al-Sudani is under a lot of pressure to stop the Iraqi state’s parallel army from aligning with Iran.

Iraq’s course of action is clear. Under constant American pressure, Iran’s political order, which has long been dominated by its allies and endured systemic corruption, isundergoing fundamental change. Washington appears to be determined to not leave the outcome in the hands of Tehran’s final significant regional stronghold.

Because of his lack of other options, Al-Sudani will cling to American pressure. The regular army will include all factions who are willing to distance themselves from Tehran. Refusing to participate will be isolated, destroyed, or their funding will be severed for those who refuse. Not when, but when will determine this outcome.

There are a lot of risks. Iranian-affiliated paramilitary organizations may violently repress dissolution. Despite its weakened regional standing, Tehran can still stoke chaos across Iraqi territory.

Iraq may yet be hurled back into civil conflict as a result of the ghosts of 2006 returning. However, if Iraqi institutions are able to withstand the storm, stronger sovereignty would result in a state that has been sorely lacking since the US invasion of 2003.

As the Global Sumud Flotilla prepares to leave for Gaza from Barcelona, activists addressed the media and urged the region to receive urgent food and supplies. Diffusion of boats and “deliberate denial of basic survival needs” has been reported by Greta Thunberg in her report.

Pierre-Francois Lardet, a French journalist-turned-entrepreneur, traveled to Nicaragua in 1909 with the intention of making a beverage there that he had tasted.

Banania was born in August 1914, five years later.

France was at war when the chocolate-flavored banana powder beverage arrived.

A Black soldier in a red fez-clad mascot from the following year first appeared on an advertising poster.

On the front lines of Europe, Africa, and Anatolia during World War One, 200 000 African soldiers fought for France. They were originally from West and Central Africa’s French colonies. Many people were compelled to recruit.

On the Banania poster, the African soldier wore a signature red fez and resembled Senegalese Tirailleurs (riflemen). Because its initial recruits from Senegal were the first ones to join this military corps, which was established in 1857, it was given the name.

For their bravery, the tirailleurs were renowned. They served in World War One (1914) and later in the colonial wars in West and Central Africa. They served in France, North Africa, and the Middle East during World War II (1939-1945). During the First World War, there were at least 30 000 tirailleurs killed, and an estimated 8 000 died in the Second.

Banania’s tirailleur is smiling, seated by his side, with a bowl of the powdered drink in hand, and a rifle on the grass. His exaggerated smile and facial features resemble racial stereotypes that were prevalent in the time and in shoe polish, soap, and chocolate advertisements.

The poster’s slogan, “Y’a bon,” which means “C’est bon” (this is good) in French, was used to promote the racist caricature of the cheerful but simple African. The Y’a bon friend, or “L’ami Y’a bon,” was used as the company’s mascot.

Lardet’s Mascot tapped into a sense of pride and patriotism in the midst of World War One. According to Sandrine Lemaire, a historian and co-author of several books on French colonization, it also helped to promote public acceptance of African soldiers who were fighting on French soil. Banania was not the only one. Through propaganda, postcards, and news articles, the French government attempted to use images that depict the loyalty and military traits of France’s African soldiers.

During a 2010 discussion about Banania and colonial oppression, Pap Ndiaye, a politician and historian, claimed that “the tirailleur was an opportunistic advertising invention from Lardet… which made the consumption of Banania a quasi-patriotic act.

Banania was promoted through mascot-themed children’s comics. In one, he travels back to France and presents two boxes of Banania to Africans in loinclothes. He travels to the West Indies, the Canary Islands, and French colonial Indochina to establish banana plantations in an illustrated booklet published in 1933.

“In the 20s, 30s, 40s, Banania was everywhere. In a 2014 documentary about Banania, branding expert Jean Watin-Augouard argued that there were touchpoints throughout the industry: “it had touchpoints in every domain, including notebooks, packaging, promotional items, and cinema.”

Production at Banania tripled between the late 1930s and the early 1950s, according to the only book about Banania’s history that was published. Before Nesquik entered the market in the 1960s, these were Banania’s golden years.

According to Etienne Achille, associate professor of French and Francophone studies at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, the mascot, which appeared in advertisements, packaging, and collectible items like toys, was popular throughout the 20th century because it reinforced French people’s pride in their colonial empire and their “subjects'” contribution to the war effort.

Decolonization has left a mark on the continent.

However, Banania was also shattered by decolonization as the French colonies in Africa fought for and gained independence in the 1950s and early 1960s.

With its slogan and stereotypical mascot, Banania has grown to be synonymous with racism and colonialism. The tirailleur embodies the injustice that anti-colonial movements have condemned as being a result of soldiers’ forced engagements in France.

In a 1948 poem dedicated to the tirailleurs, Leopold Sedar Senghor, who became Senegal’s first president in 1960, declared, “I will tear up the Banania smiles from all the walls of France.”

In his 1952 book Black Skin, White Masks, Martinique-born philosopher-psychiatrist Frantz Fanon made a number of references to “Y’a bon Banania” to illustrate how racist tropes are used to depict Black people in France.

The mascot remained, though with updates, despite the criticisms.

A brown triangular face with cartoon eyes and a red rectangular hat on a yellow background was introduced in 1967 as advertising promoted modern, aspirational lifestyles. However, the phrase was withdrawn in 1977.

Some brand-owned products featured a cartoonish child’s face in the 1980s and 1990s, while others retained the mascot.

A new mascot, the “grandson” of the 1915 tirailleur, was unveiled in 2004 after Banania was sold to French company Nutrial under the name Nutrimaine, who, according to Nutrimaine, represented diversity and the successful integration of migrant communities into French society. His ecstatic smile, white teeth, and red fez weren’t all that dissimilar from his predecessor’s, though.

The French brand never relinquished its position of dominance in the final decades of the 20th century, and it kept losing ground to rivals like Nesquik. It struggled financially as millennials lost interest in it.

To save the business, they had to go back to the brand’s golden era. Returning to the emblem was the only option available. Few companies have such a strong brand identity,” Achille remarked. The idea of superposition is effectively explored in this revitalized version. You immediately recall the old tirailleur when you see it.

The website Grioo.com, an online platform for the French-speaking Black community in Europe and Africa, also gained readers and activists’ attention. Can we accept that we are still represented as we were a generation ago, 90 years? Grioo launched an online petition against Banania in response to its readers.

Heritage that is “Horrible”

The “grandson” still smiles on Banania boxes in French supermarkets more than 20 years later.

Banania’s marketing, in the eyes of Achille, epitomizes France’s lack of public discussion of colonialism and postcolonial racism. Only the complete insertion of the colonial into popular culture can explain why Banania can continue to operate impunity, he said. This would not be possible in other nations.

Nutrimaine’s spokesperson declined to comment on this article.

Awatif Bentahar, 37, was a child who occasionally drank Banania and saw it on the shelves of supermarkets. She claims that the business hasn’t understood how a large portion of the population can be harmed by their heritage.

The French “children of immigrants” are aware of the agonizing history of colonization and the struggle we wage today to be respected in a society that cannot help but make references to our status as “different” French.

Bentahar wants to see Banania develop as a French woman of Moroccan descent. She removed the mascot and incorporated playful eyes and a smile as a personal project, and she made alternative decolonized packaging.

“I tried to rebrand Banania because I really like the concept of what it could be, not because I hate it. She wrote on her blog that “brands are a part of our lives, whether or not we like it.”

For a change, I’d like to see this one being on the positive side of history. “This one happened to be from my childhood.

This article is included in the series “Ordinary items, extraordinary stories,” which explores the surprising happenings that surround well-known items. &nbsp,

Read the entire series’ more:

How the bouncy castle’s creator saved lives

How a well-known Peruvian soft drink and Coca-Cola “toe-toe” went.

How a drowning victim turned into a hero for life

How a father’s love and pandemic led to the development of a household name