Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

News and Views from the Global South

Updated: 1 day 6 hours ago

UN Humanitarian Staff in Geneva Experience Anxiety, Job Insecurity & Fear of Tomorrow

Mon, 02/01/2021 - 10:02

UN staff in Geneva protesting proposed pay cuts. Credit: ILO Staff Union

By Isabel Garcia-Gill
GENEVA, Feb 1 2021 (IPS)

For the staff of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 2021 is likely to be even more difficult than 2020, with job cuts, forced departures, transfers to Istanbul or The Hague, restructuring and too many rumours.

In Geneva, the plan to relocate part of the teams to Istanbul has caused turmoil and incomprehension and has been the cause of many sick leaves over the last twelve months. This deep unease is the result of a serious lack of transparency in internal communication on the future of staff and is also due to the stress linked to the Coronavirus.

2021 will not give more respite

The relocation project announced by Mark Lowcock, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, plans to move 23 professional posts (P3 to P5) from Geneva to Istanbul, 5 from New York to The Hague and 8 to other countries (some posts have already been relocated from Geneva to The Hague).

However, no date could be set for the signature of the agreement with the Turkish Government or the move to Istanbul during the year 2020. The OCHA Press Office did not answer many questions about the relocation plan. It merely pointed out that OCHA will gradually resort to offshoring in order to reduce its costs and conduct its headquarters activities more efficiently.

Unfortunately, OCHA staff did not receive any internal information by email or post regarding the date of installation in Istanbul. Yet, on his Twitter account, Mark Lowcock said on January 22, 2021: “It was a pleasure to meet yesterday in Turkey at the United Nations headquarters for the signing of the UNOCHA agreement. Many thanks to Ambassador Sinirlioglu “.

Fear in the gut

“I have dedicated more than 20 years to humanitarian affairs in the field and at headquarters. And the head of human resources in Geneva gave me an ultimatum: either I accept the transfer or she will put my post directly up for competition in Istanbul,” says a staff member who does not want her name to be mentioned. “People are afraid of retaliation from management”.

For many OCHA officials, the current restructuring is not very coherent. They also fear that Geneva’s central role in the humanitarian community will be jeopardized if important coordination functions are relocated.

“We are struggling to make sense of all this restructuring”, says one interviewee. Several OCHA staff members also said that Mr. Lowcock, a former chartered accountant and Director of Finance at the UK Department for International Development (DFID), seems insensitive to the staff human situation.

Opacity of figures

“There is talk of substantial savings, but we don’t know how much money we’re talking about,” regrets a father who is prepared to leave Geneva in 2021 if necessary. He has calculated the salary he would earn in Turkey, 15% less than in Geneva.

On the one hand, there are plans to cut six general service posts (G4 to G7) in order to recruit locally in Turkey, and on the other hand, the plan is to leave a large number of D1 and D2 director posts in Geneva. Where is the logic?

Last October, for example, a D1 was dismissed and received severance pay equivalent to one year’s salary, even though his post had already been filled in Geneva.

Precarious employment

Prisca Chaoui, Executive Secretary of the UNOG Staff Coordinating Board, is concerned about the willingness to relocate administrative posts and transform professional posts in Geneva into temporary jobs under the pretext of making OCHA staff more mobile.

This trend of job insecurity is not new. Another professional woman has had the hard experience of it. She has been working in the UN system, at headquarters and in the field, for about 15 years and was recruited on a fixed-term contract in Geneva.

After a few years at the headquarter, her post was recently abolished and she had to accept a temporary position.

However, Lowcock recently stated: “OCHA will work to strengthen women’s leadership in the humanitarian sector (…) In the face of increasingly demanding and dangerous situations (…) the staffing strategy places particular emphasis on the safety, health and well-being of its employees”.

The union is outraged

On the side of the Staff Coordinating Council, the observation is severe: “It is unfortunate to note that OCHA, in this plan, is totally failing in its duty of care towards its staff. In resettlement decisions, staff do not occupy the central place that they should have for a humanitarian entity such as OCHA”.

Lowcock responded in writing to the union’s remarks, saying that OCHA management, including himself, had held several meetings with OCHA staff representatives and the UN union in New York and Geneva in 2019 and 2020.

“While we understand the need for staff mobility, we believe that decisions must be people-centered first and foremost. Instead, OCHA’s leadership has succeeded in taking the human dimension out of the term ‘humanitarian’,” concludes Prisca Chaoui.

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');

The post UN Humanitarian Staff in Geneva Experience Anxiety, Job Insecurity & Fear of Tomorrow appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Isabel Garcia-Gill is a journalist who has worked for daily newspapers, radio broadcasts and weekly magazines in Geneva (Switzerland) and a correspondent based in Rome and Rabat. She has also worked for UNOCHA as well is for the IPCC as Senior Communication Officer. Isabel has published and travelled extensively on professional assignments. She has a very deep knowledge of Latin America. She holds a Master’s degree in Political Sciences from the University of Geneva and in Journalism from Lausanne.

The post UN Humanitarian Staff in Geneva Experience Anxiety, Job Insecurity & Fear of Tomorrow appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Making Seawater Potable in Mexico Has High Costs and Environmental Impacts

Sun, 01/31/2021 - 18:50

This projected desalination plant in Los Cabos, whose construction received final approval in October 2020, will have a capacity to purify 250 litres of water per second and its cost will exceed 55 million dollars, according to figures from the Baja California Sur state government. CREDIT: Government of Baja California Sur

By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY, Jan 31 2021 (IPS)

Mexico is seeking to mitigate water shortages in part of its extensive territory by resorting to seawater, through the expansion of desalination plants. But this solution has exorbitant costs and significant environmental impacts.

Among the advantages of these water treatment plants, Gabriela Muñoz, a researcher at the public university El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, highlighted the expansion of water sources and the production of water for human consumption.

But in her conversation with IPS, she also underlined the disadvantages of these plants, such as high energy requirements, aggravated if the energy comes from fossil sources; high costs; and the generation of brine and wastewater."Before considering desalination, measures such as water saving, investment in green infrastructure, rainwater harvesting and the reuse of treated water should be a priority. We must also compare the costs of building desalination plants versus alternatives.” -- Gabriela Muñoz

To illustrate the costs: one of the desalination plants authorised in 2014 by the National Water Commission (CONAGUA) in the northern state of Baja California cost some 35 million dollars to process 250 litres per second (l/s). Another plant with the same capacity, given final approval in October 2020 in the neighbouring state of Baja California Sur, will require an investment of more than 55 million dollars.

In Mexico “there are no regulations regarding how to dispose of the brine. The most common thing to do is to dump it on the beach. We have to be careful how we handle the brine because of the toxicity to ecosystems. Nor is there installed capacity to treat all the wastewater. For specific areas, desalination should not be the first option,” said Muñoz from the northern border city of Tijuana.

Between 2012 and 2020, environmental authorities authorised at least 120 desalination facilities, rejected six applications and another five are under evaluation, according to data obtained by IPS through public information requests. Most of the new projects are located in three states with acute water shortages: the northwestern states of Baja California and Baja California Sur, and the southeastern state of Quintana Roo.

However, in Mexico, where more than 400 such plants operate, there has been no research on their ecological effects, as corroborated by IPS, with the exception of the study “Desalination of water”, published in 2000 by the government’s Mexican Water Institute.

One basic desalination technique is thermal distillation, in which seawater is heated until it evaporates, the vapor condenses to form freshwater, and the remaining liquid is discarded as concentrated brine.

Another is reverse osmosis, in which water is filtered and then pumped at high pressure through thin membranes that only allow the liquid to pass through and retain the salt.

Global context

In 2019, the study “The State of Desalination and Brine Production: A Global Outlook”, produced by the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health, based in Ontario, Canada, warned of the growing generation of brine and its serious effects on the environment. The process of extracting brine, it estimated, accumulated a total of 142 million cubic metres (m3) of waste worldwide that year.

There are 18,214 desalination plants around the world, with an installed capacity of 89 million m3 per day, serving more than 300 million people, according to the latest data from the International Desalination Association. For every litre of water desalinated, a litre of brine is produced.

These plants are part of a trend towards the introduction of this technology in areas facing the threat of water stress or scarcity.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (C) visited Los Cabos, on the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula at the northwestern tip of Mexico, in August, where he confirmed the construction of the larger of two new desalination plants in the state of Baja California Sur. Mexico already has 400 seawater treatment plants, but experts warn about the excessive costs and environmental impacts. CREDIT: Government of Baja California Sur

Water availability in Mexico

Mexico, Latin America’s second largest economy, has an area of 1.96 million square kilometres, 67 percent of which is arid and semi-arid land.

According to CONAGUA, water availability varies widely in this country of 129 million people, as it is scarce in the north and abundant in the south.

Of every 100 litres of rainfall, 72 return to the atmosphere through evapotranspiration, 22 run off into rivers and streams, and six feed 653 aquifers, of which 108 were overexploited, 32 had saline soils or brackish water, and 18 had seawater infiltration due to rising sea levels and seepage into the water table.

Although Mexico had a low national water stress level in 2017 – 19.5 percent – its risk of water stress is high, according to the Aqueduct platform, developed by the Aqueduct Alliance, made up of governments, companies and foundations.

In fact, Mexico is the second most water-stressed country in the Americas, after Chile. Water stress could be a problem by 2040 from the centre to the north of the country.

Meanwhile, the extreme northwest presents a medium-high risk of aquifer depletion and practically the entire Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea present a medium-high risk of drought, precisely where most of the desalination plants are located.

Aqueduct takes into account 13 indicators of water stress, such as groundwater availability and depletion.

In the last five months, drought has worsened in Mexico – the third worst record of the century – a consequence of the climate crisis, according to data from the National Meteorological Service.

In Mexico water use is intense, reflected in its water footprint – the impact of human activities on water – of 1,978 m3/person per year, compared to a global average of 1,385.

As a result, national and regional authorities have set their sights on seawater, given that Mexico is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and there are a total of 150 municipalities with a coastline, out of a total of 2,466, according to the National Policy on Mexico’s Seas and Coasts.

This screenshot from a video by the Baja California Sur government in northwestern Mexico shows the site of the new desalination plant to be built in Los Cabos, next to the sea, including details of the different processes used to make the water from the Pacific Ocean fit for human consumption. CREDIT: IPS

Scalable model

This year, Héctor Aviña, an academic at the Engineering Research Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, plans to scale up his prototype geothermal-powered desalination plant in the city of Los Cabos, located in Baja California Sur, some 1,650 kilometres northwest of Mexico City.

“I don’t know if it is the best option because of brine generation and well exploitation, but it is a good alternative. Many areas are already experiencing water stress. In those places, desalination and beach wells can help aquifers recover,” Aviña told IPS from Mexico City.

The 500,000 dollar plan consists of upgrading a pilot plant from the current capacity of four m3 per day to 40 m3 and, if possible, to 400 m3, in an initiative to be developed with the state-owned Mexican Centre for Innovation in Geothermal Energy.

The project will take advantage of nearby hot water wells to obtain water and geothermal energy.

With this technology, the cost per m3 of water ranges from 0.8 to 1.3 dollars, compared to 0.6 to 1.00 dollars using reverse osmosis.

The National Infrastructure Investment Agreement, signed between the federal government and members of the business community in November 2020, includes the foundations for four desalination plants in Baja California, Baja California Sur and Sonora, with an investment of 643 million dollars and a capacity of 650 l/s.

But Muñoz suggested that before turning to desalination, poor irrigation practices, leaks and aging infrastructure should be addressed.

“Before considering desalination, measures such as water saving, investment in green infrastructure, rainwater harvesting and the reuse of treated water should be a priority. We must also compare the costs of building desalination plants versus alternatives,” she said.

In 2014 Aviña designed a reverse osmosis model equipped with solar panels and batteries, which has competitive costs.

“In other areas, the source of energy must be reviewed. Mexico is going to have water problems, it is a situation that we will have to live with. If we study it well, if we manage it well, desalination is a good alternative,” he argued.

Mexico Sticks to Natural Gas, Despite Socioenvironmental Impacts

The post Making Seawater Potable in Mexico Has High Costs and Environmental Impacts appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Internationally COVID-19 Extracted a Heavy Toll on Older People

Fri, 01/29/2021 - 20:25

Delegates at a webinar discuss COVID-19 and its impact on older persons.

By Cecilia Russell
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Jan 29 2021 (IPS)

Internationally COVID-19 extracted a heavy toll on older people – raising concerns in the Asia Pacific region where more than half of the world’s ageing population live.

“Rising inequalities have resulted in the increasing poverty, insufficient access to health and social protection services, which have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Bjorn Andersson, Regional Director of UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Asia Pacific said. He spoke at a webinar to discuss a recently released policy review undertaken on Vietnam, Australia, Thailand, and Kazakhstan.

“Older women, who constitute most of the sector (some are above 80 years old), often bear the brunt of old age and poverty. Older men usually have more financial security as a result of their lifetime of earnings,” Andersson said, noting that older persons were more significantly impacted by the COVID-19 virus which results in mortality and comorbidity. He pointed out that this scenario also disrupted the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action’s achievements and the 2030 Agenda.

The study’s leader, Keizo Takemi, the chair of the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD) said while most low-income Asian countries had not been affected by the crisis on a massive scale, it was an “unfortunate reality that some sovereign nations tend to be exclusive and focus only on their people when it comes to health intervention such as vaccine, immunisation and delivery systems.”

There was a need to develop a global governance structure to create accessible development and allocation system fairly and efficiently given the limited resources, he said.

Each country studied had diverse social issues – and had come up with different solutions for their older population during the pandemic.

Dr Nguyen Van Tien, former Vietnam parliamentarian and AFPPD’s vice-chairperson, said that only a few older persons had pensions in Vietnam. In Hanoi, for example, many needed help with their daily routines, but the human resources to care for them were few.

Many, especially women living in rural areas experienced loneliness and isolation in old age, and abuse and violence were also experienced.

“Critically it was important to ensure that attention is drawn to older people in emergency situations – due to their old age and inability to cope with and fully take care of themselves, coupled with the lack of adequate care from society during disasters, older persons are the most vulnerable to death,” Van Tien said.

Independent consultant Hadley Rose presented data for both Australia and Thailand.

In Australia, about one million older persons received aged care at home or community-based setting. It used technology – a COVID-19 call line to mitigate boredom, loneliness or feeling of isolation during the lockdown periods to managethe pandemic.

Telehealth services, a consultation facility via phone or video chat, were available mainly for older persons (70 years and older). Going to the clinic for medical consultation becomes the last option, and a “COVID Safe” app was set-up for smartphones for contact tracing. Older persons are encouraged to use the app to know if they came in contact with a COVID-19 positive person. When the vaccine becomes available older persons and aged care workers will be prioritised, she said.

In contrast, Thailand’s older persons were mostly living with their relatives or near to them.

“While this is good in terms of limiting the spread of COVID-19, this set-up puts pressure on the families, especially since some breadwinners in the families have lost their jobs as a consequence of the pandemic,” Rose said.

Thailand had adopted its second national plan of action for older persons in 2001 and will be effective until 2021. Because residential health care was not common,the country relied on 50,000 medical health volunteers to assist in older persons’homes.

During March and April 2020, about one million health volunteers managed to do COVID-19 screening for eight million households across the country.

Svetlana Zhassymbekova presented the result of the legislative and policy reviews for the republic of Kazakhstan. According to a UN Policy Brief, Kazakhstan’scommunity-level responses from volunteers’ networks ensured social support of older persons affected by COVID-19 was a best practice worth citing. Kazakhstan has more than 200 volunteer organisations, which the national party was providing funds. These organisations delivered various humanitarian packages.

The packages included providing protection and humanitarian assistance to older persons to restore familyties. Where people lived alone, they were provided with an electronic device to access information and seek help if required.

Professor Keizo Takemi, chair of AFPPD, said the discussions on older persons were crucial. Eighty percent of deaths caused by COVID-19 were people aged 70 and above. He called on parliamentarians to serve as “catalysts for change (working) toward more efficient handling of COVID-19 and continuously protecting people from the infection.”

The research report: Legislative and Policy Reviews on Ageing was undertaken with the support of the Japan Trust Fund and UNFPA, APDA and AFPPD launched the project featuring comprehensive policy review in four countries, namely, Vietnam, Australia, Thailand, and Kazakhstan.

The post Internationally COVID-19 Extracted a Heavy Toll on Older People appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

How COVID-19 Adds to the Challenges of Leprosy-affected People

Fri, 01/29/2021 - 11:40

Participants from organisations focused on assisting Hansen’s disease-affected people from Asia, Latin America and Africa with World Health Organisation (WHO) Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination, Yohei Sasakawa (centre pink shirt) pictured in 2019. Participants were attending the Global Forum of People’s Organisations on Hansen’s disease in Manila, Philippines, which was sponsored by the Sasakawa Health Foundation and The Nippon Foundation. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

By Stella Paul
HYDERABAD, Jan 29 2021 (IPS)

Lilibeth Evarestus of Lagos, Nigeria doesn’t like the concept of handouts — she is against the idea of thinking of leprosy-affected people as weak.

Yet, for several months now, Evarastus – a human rights lawyer and founder of community welfare organisation, Purple Hope Foundation – has been spending a lot of time on the road, distributing food items and hygiene products among the leprosy-affected people in her community.

It’s because the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the challenges that the leprosy-affected community face: deep and widespread stigma, discrimination, misinformation, unfounded fear, besides living with the disease itself.

“If we want to really strengthen them and support them, we have to go to the people of the community where they are, instead of expecting them to come and get the help,” Evarastus tells IPS.

COVID 19 and leprosy-affected people

The economic, social, and health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has so far infected over a billion people and killed more than two million worldwide, have led to a significant increase in the need for humanitarian aid and social protection measures globally. According to experts, people affected by leprosy have been especially impacted by the worst consequences of the pandemic, largely because of pre-existing vulnerabilities and economic insecurities.

According to a report published by Global Partnership for Zero Leprosy (GPZL), 76 percent of leprosy-affected people in 26 countries have been adversely affected by the pandemic. These range from disruptions in their leprosy-elimination programmes to a loss of livelihood.

In Jharkhand, eastern India, the poorest leprosy-affected people, especially those living with disabilities, were forced to beg on the streets when India went into a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus. This is according to Atma Swabhiman – a charity based in the city of Dhanbad, Jharkhand.

“Access of health services during COVID-19 period has become a challenge leading to further deterioration of health of people affected by leprosy specially elderly, with deformities and are on regular medication. Many are not being able to procure medicine in the absence of the money,” Shailendra Prasad, head of the charity, tells IPS.

The big gaps: drugs, medicare

On Jan. 27 and 28, members of leprosy-affected organisations from Asia, Africa and Latin America gathered online to share their experiences of dealing with COVID. It was organised by the Sasakawa Health Foundation of Japan, which has been working to support and strengthen leprosy-affected people’s organisations worldwide.

But in Brazil, where COVID-19 cases have surpassed 9 million and a new study by Sydney’s Lowy Institute ranked the South American nation with the worst response to the pandemic, leprosy-affected people are reporting a shortage of Multi-drug Therapy (MDT) supplies, which is crucial for the treatment of leprosy or Hansen’s Diseases. The reduced supply is due to the disruption in transportation and distribution caused by the pandemic and subsequent lockdown, said Faustino Pinto – a community leader from the Brazilian leprosy-affected people’s organisation, MORHAN.

However, according to the GPZL report, 13 other countries across the world have also experienced delays with in-country supply, distribution, and/or shortages. Some have also experienced challenges in accessing MDT because of travel restrictions and there is also a shortage of drugs for side-affects of the treatment.

Standing together

But the leprosy-affected community and their programme partners are also drawing strength from the fact that the community hasn’t seen a specific spike in the number of COVID-related deaths.

“We are fortunate that till today nobody has died in our community (in Bogra) from COVID-19,” Shahid Sharif, head of Bogra Federation, tells IPS. Sharif credits this to the federation’s early warning and awareness-generation activities. “As soon as we learnt of the pandemic, we started educating our community members about washing hands with precautions like washing with soap and wearing masks as soon as we heard of the pandemic. We also distributed soap and masks, besides dry rations like rice, dal etc,” Sharif says.

However, when it comes to social stigma, the community has remained as vulnerable as ever.

In Tanzania, where the president has ruled out purchasing any coronavirus vaccines, citizens have been rushing to buy health insurance to secure themselves against any possible health challenges.

But people affected by leprosy cannot access this facility as health insurances are not sold to them, Fikira Ally, an activist from Tanzanian Leprosy Association, tells IPS.

“Those affected by leprosy have no access to this. This is important because it is a human right issue. Everyone would need this once in their lifetime and I request the authorities to look into this,” explains Ally.

Community leader Maya Ranavare is from Maharashtra – the worst COVID-affected state in India with nearly 2 million cases and over 150,000 deaths. Ranavare tells IPS that people still continue to look at leprosy as more infectious and scarier than the coronavirus.

“The whole world has been in lockdown, flow of life has been disrupted but still most people follow the social distancing only because there is a government rule. But the same people maintain social distancing from a leprosy-affected person even when there is no scientific reason to do it,” Ranavare says.

Calls to end stigma and discrimination

Some, however, are optimistic of ending the social stigma if the community has better access to education, healthcare and economic sustainability. “We can change the minds of the entire community, but we need a sustained support, until we have become truly empowered,” says Ally.

Yohei Sasakawa, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy and chair of the Sasakawa Health Foundation, has renewed his call for ending the stigma against leprosy-affected people.

“I believe we will achieve a world without leprosy one day. But along the way, we need to realise an inclusive society in which everyone has access to quality treatment and services, and a diagnosis of leprosy no longer comes with a possibility of devastating physical, social, economic or psychological consequences,” Sasakawa said in a pre-recorded speech to mark World Leprosy day on Sunday, Jan. 31.

The post How COVID-19 Adds to the Challenges of Leprosy-affected People appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the challenges the leprosy-affected community face: deep and widespread stigma, discrimination, misinformation, unfounded fear, besides living with the disease itself. IPS senior correspondent STELLA PAUL looks at the challenges they face ahead of World Leprosy Day on Jan. 31

The post How COVID-19 Adds to the Challenges of Leprosy-affected People appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Wilde Side of Life: Readings from “Oscariana”

Fri, 01/29/2021 - 11:16

Oscar Wilde in the 1880s. Photo: wikipedia

By Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury
SINGAPORE, Jan 29 2021 (IPS-Partners)

So, who or what was Oscar Fingal Flahertie Wills Wilde? Was he a poet, a prose-smith, a playwright, a classicist, a raconteur, a poseur, an aphorist, or simply a sensation for his, or may be for all, times? He was all of those, and much else besides. He was a lord of language, known for his bitingly witty dialogue and epigrammatic banter, flamboyant dress and glittering conversation. To London’s Victorian society he was both a bright boy in a man’s body, albeit with an intellect of stupendous heights, as well as a thoughtful prophet wrapping profundity in dazzling verbal giftwrap. To discuss his writings, the Dhaka -based “The Reading Circle” held a Webinar ably moderated by Professor Niaz Zaman. The participants -Syed Badrul Ahsan, Tazeen Murshid, Nusrat Haque, Ameenah Ahmed, Tanveerul Haque, Zakia Rahman, Zobaida Latif, and myself -all of us drawn from such different corners of the globe as London, Brussels, Singapore and Dhaka, made presentations. This article is based on my remarks made on that occasion.

Born Irish in 1856, Oscar Wilde had made England famous in America, where during his lecture tour he took the new world by storm. He regaled the Americans with his wisdom and wit, evoking laughter everywhere he went, with such quips as that there was everything common between England and America, except of course, the language!

From Trinity College in Dublin Wilde went to Magdalene at Oxford. The University was to acknowledge him as among its brightest alumni. He graduated with First Class Honors, and moved to London, first conquering the salons of the West end, and then its theatre. He believed that a man who can dominate a London dinner-table could dominate the world. He mocked the flippancy of the upper classes through his plays, poems stories, and his novel “the Picture of Dorian Gray”. He ridiculed them by noting how the hair of a socialite, after the death of her third husband, turned quite gold with grief! Yet it was to their ranks that he also yearned to belong. To him, if being in society was a bore, to be out of it was a tragedy!

What was to finally destroy him, and spell his doom, was his admiration of one young member of this nobility, Lord Alfred Douglas, whom he endearingly called Bosie. Bosie was breathtakingly beautiful, and to Wilde, the visible perception of absolute perfection. This love that dared not speak its name was unrequited. It pulled Wilde down to abysmal depths of degradation, and eventually to prison, where he spent two years in hard labour as a price for consorting with this younger object of his adoration. His was a life in which he seemed to be unable to reconcile his precocious intellect with his immature emotions.

Wilde baffles us by freely mingling profound wisdom with mere frippery. He often played with words, toyed with ideas, and struck poses. His writings that featured in the Webinar were all part of his efforts to create verbal works of art. Critics were not always kind to him. Particularly his morality or rather the lack of it attracted social opprobrium. Yet he persisted, undeterred. He often said he himself disagreed with much he wrote. He held that in art there was no such thing as universal truth. A truth in art was that whose contradictory was also true.

Frank Harris, whose work on Wilde was the first biography on him that I had read in my mid-teens , said that Oscar Wilde’s greatest play was his own life, a tragedy with Greek implications , of which he himself was the most ardent spectator. Wilde once observed to Andre Gide that ‘’ I put my genius into my life and only my talents into my works”.

His sole novel, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, a dark story of split- self amidst corruption in the heart of the city, belongs to the genre of late Victorian Gothic literature. Some have seen it as a fantasy autobiography of Wilde himself, a moral cautionary tale of the era. It revolves around a Faustian deal that the principal protagonist Dorian Gray makes with the devil by selling his soul for the gift of eternal physical beauty. Names have deep connotations in Wilde; remember “The Importance of Being Earnest”? Dorian Gray’s name is both important and ambiguous. It derives from the combination of the sea-nymph “Doris” in Greek mythology, and the French word “D’or” meaning gold or golden, signifying beauty. Gray means morally he is neither black nor white. As for his fiancée, Sybil Vane, who kills herself upon being rejected by Dorian, ”Sybils” were oracles in Classical Greece through whom the gods spoke. Vane reflects her life with Dorian which was in vain.

Wilde’s “Ballad of Reading Gaol” is a fascinating narration of prison experience. Structurally the poem comprises 109 stanzas, divided into six sections, maintaining the same rhythmic scheme, rendering it consistent and regular. His use of the literary devices included alliteration, enjambment and repetition. In this long and plodding iambic tetrameter, and use of repetitive parallelism , the reader is made to feel the grinding restlessness of prison life. The central theme of the poem was the execution of one Charles Woodridge for the murder of his wife. Around this core, whose genre was Gothic Realism, Wilde built a meditation on the paradoxes of morality. The ballad was also an indictment on the death penalty, and the harsh conditions of the Victorian prison-system.

While in prison, Wilde produced another deeply Gothic construct, “De Profundis”, Latin for “Out of the Depths”. In this, which refers to Psalm 130 (“From the depths I cry to thee, O Lord!”), Wilde’s spiritual awareness is manifested. It is a petulant, sad, and riveting memoir of his life, in the form of a letter to Lord Alfred Douglas, the focus of his largely unrequited affections. The letter also reflects his metaphysical side, for here he looks to find within himself and not outside, some form of self-realization. He was to say of his faith: “I believe that God made a separate world for each separate human being, and it is in that world within us that we should seek to live”. It was in such a world that he lived and died himself, both shocking and dazzling his fellow humans inhabiting their other worlds.

It has been aptly said that talking remained his vocation, writing his evocation. Writing was merely a vehicle propelling him towards his real goal which was the dramatization of Oscar Wilde. In his description of self, it was often difficult to make out whether he was speaking in self -deprecation or self-praise: As when he said “I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word that I am saying”; or , his simple statement to the American Customs official, upon arrival in New York, that : “I have nothing to declare but my genius”. The compilations of the sayings he left behind for posterity are often fondly called “Oscariana.”’

This coruscating kaleidoscope of colors that was the life of Oscar Wilde lasted only 46 years. Oscar was ahead of his time. His disdain for conventional morality and relentless pursuit of new and amoral experiences broke ground, to be later tilled by others. He was an apostle of the Aesthetic Movement- admiring art and beauty for their own sake which stemmed from Keats, Shelley, Whistler and Walter Pater.

Wilde was the advance herald of existentialism, and the intellectual godfather of the flower children of our younger days, in the 1960s. For all his love of Classical Greece, there was a striking simplicity in his spiritualism (he had converted to Catholicism), as when he proclaimed in his inspirational poem, Santa Decca, referring to the Greek god that “Great Pan is dead, and Mary’s Son is King”. His writings will endure in the great pantheon of English literature as the work of an incomparable language-wrangler.

Oscar Wilde, I believe, must have been convinced, that like Christ’s, his life would someday be resurrected, only metaphorically, of course. If he were to be aware of a Webinar on him a century and a quarter down the line by a Group of Bangladeshis, he would be amused, and pleased. But not, I believe, given his ego, surprised.

Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury is the Honorary Fellow at the Institute of South Asia Studies, NUS. He is a former Foreign Advisor (Foreign Minister) of Bangladesh and President & Distinguished Fellow of Cosmos Foundation. The views addressed in the article are his own. He can be reached at: isasiac@nus.edu.sg

The post Wilde Side of Life: Readings from “Oscariana” appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Lebanon: How to Build Back Better after Political and Economic Crisis

Fri, 01/29/2021 - 08:44

A man and a woman in front of the Beirut Port, Lebanon, following the blast. Courtesy: UN Women Arab States/Dar Al Mussawir

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 29 2021 (IPS)

Lebanon must “shield and preserve” the skills, knowledge, and experience of its people in order to move forward with its development, according to Christophe Abi-Nassif, the Lebanon programme director for the Middle East Institute (MEI).

“Shielding and preserving whatever is left of Lebanon’s human capital should be the main policy-making concern at the moment,” Abi-Nassif told IPS. “We are in fire-fighting mode right now and when you’re a fire-fighter, you prioritise saving human lives.”

He spoke with IPS following a panel on COVID-19-integrated recovery policies for the country, organised by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA).

At the panel, experts spoke on a range of issues from the country’s private and public sector partnerships, the health sector and its COVID-19 response, the impact on children, and the challenges faced by Syrian refugees.

The panel took place on Wednesday, Jan. 27, just as the country was embroiled in massive protests in response to COVID-19 restrictions and the worst economic crisis in Lebanon’s history.

“What is the point of any other policy priorities anyway when your people are impoverished, dying at hospital doors, or emigrating?” Abi-Nassif added. “Any serious effort would entail providing immediate financial, logistical and mental health support to families living below the poverty line since extreme poverty breeds unrest and chaos.”

Lebanon is at the intersection of one crisis after the other: the COVID-19 pandemic, the August 2020 explosion — which left an estimated 200,000 people homeless or living in homes without windows or doors — and an extremely high poverty rate. The World Bank estimates the poverty rate in the country could go up to 45 percent, with the rate of extreme poverty nearing 22 percent, and a projected 19.2 percent decline in GDP.

This dire situation is affecting marginalised groups differently: from children to refugees.

Yukie Mokuo, a representative with the UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), pointed to an enormous lack of social protection in the country.

“This is a really unprecedented crisis for children,” she said, citing the country’s poverty rate. “About 1.2 million children are impacted in their access to education, and child labour has increased, including early marriage.”

Dr. Rita Rehayem, a representative for the National Committee for Sustainable Development, shared the different challenges that civil society organisations are experiencing under the current crises. While the number of vulnerable populations increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, so did the costs for CSOs in implementing their work, she said. With added costs, it has affected the work of CSOs.

“Additional budget was needed to purchase PPEs, to protect staff and volunteers but as well as the beneficiaries. Many additional budgets were allocated for this, and development projects were unfortunately put on hold,” she said. “Although we in Lebanon are in desperate need of development projects, the budget or the funds were really allocated for humanitarian assistance.”

While the Lebanese population is being impacted by these different crises, the Syrian refugee population in the country is also suffering immensely, according to Karolina Lindholm, Deputy Representative of UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Lebanon, who was speaking at the panel.

Lebanon’s Syrian refugee community — more than half of whom are under 18 — is facing a number of challenges under the current circumstances: difficulty buying food due to lack of money, inability to pay rent, loss of livelihoods and employments, reduced access to healthcare due to lack of money, and increased morbidity rate among the refugees.

A mental health crisis in the community has also led to a spike in suicide cases, Lindholm added, citing cases of self-immolation among the refugees.

“The erosion of resilience is very, very striking,” Lindholm said.

Abi-Nassif expressed concern that on top of these challenges, the refugee community might be subject to more discrimination.

“As more and more people compete for fewer resources such as food supplies or vaccines, one thing I worry about is an increase in extreme right-wing rhetoric and violence against refugees,” he told IPS.

With demonstrators out on the streets protesting the current economic and political crises, Abi-Nassif warned of against conspiracy theories.

“In Lebanon, even misery and tragedy are politicised. The notion that people are taking to the streets for the pure sake of voicing grievances is foreign to the political class,” he said. “In the latter’s eyes, it is always about conspiracy and foreign interference. Although this possibility may hold sometimes in some places, it cannot hold everywhere all the time.”

The post Lebanon: How to Build Back Better after Political and Economic Crisis appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Elections in Africa go on Amid COVID-19

Fri, 01/29/2021 - 08:20

Despite a fragile security situation, Central Africans overwhelmingly exercised their civic duty by going to polling centers and casting their votes. Credit: UN/MINUSCA

By Franck Kuwonu
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 29 2021 (IPS)

Central African Republic and in Niger held their presidential and parliamentary elections on 27 December 2020 to round up a challenging year where despite fears of disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic, most countries in Africa managed to stick to their scheduled elections.

However, in two of the most keenly watched countries, the polls did not proceed as initially planned. In Ethiopia, parliamentary elections slated for 29 August were pushed to mid-2021, while in Somalia the deadline for December 2020 parliamentary elections was missed, although the scheduled February 2021 date for the presidential polls still remains on the calendar.

Franck Kuwonu

Elections of members of the House of People’s Representatives and of regional State Councils across Ethiopia was to be held in the new political environment ushered in by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s reforms. He won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for ending a two-decade conflict with neighbouring Eritrea.

In Somalia, the 2020 polls were to be the first in 50 years and voters were to elect the president and their representatives through direct ballots. The last universal suffrage polls in the country were held in 1969. Subsequent presidential elections held in 2009, 2012 and 2017 involved a system of thousands of clan delegates voting for parliamentary representatives, who in turn elected the president.

In Chad, legislative elections, originally scheduled for 13 December, are now slated for the last quarter of 2021.

Despite COVID-19

Last February, the Togolese went to the polls to elect their president, just a few weeks before the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Then in March, Cameroon re-ran parliamentary elections in about a dozen constituencies, while on 22 March, Guineans took part in a hotly-contested constitutional referendum and general elections.

A week later, Malians held their general elections. In May, voters in Benin elected their local representatives, while Burundians elected their president.

In June, Malawians were called again to the polls for a re-run of the presidential election after the courts invalidated the results of an earlier poll in 2019.

Despite a fragile security situation, Central Africans overwhelmingly exercised their civic duty by going to polling centers and casting their votes. Credit: United Nations

Egyptians chose their senators in August, while in October, Côte d’Ivoire, Seychelles, and Tanzania held their presidential elections and Cape Verdeans elected their city council representatives.

The month of November started with a constitutional referendum in Algeria held on 1 November, followed by general elections in Burkina Faso on 22 November.

Then 7 December, Ghanaians held their parliamentary and presidential elections, while Liberians were called for a constitutional referendum and for a mid-term Senatorial election.

On 27 December, the Central African Republic and Niger rounded up the year on elections in Africa in 2020. Central Africans cast their ballots despite attempts by some rebel groups to disrupt the polls. In Niger, the process is reported to have been largely peaceful.

In both countries, run-offs are scheduled in the New Year, starting a new 2021 calendar cycle on the continent.

Elections slated for 2021

Source: Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA)

The post Elections in Africa go on Amid COVID-19 appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Franck Kuwonu, Africa Renewal

The post Elections in Africa go on Amid COVID-19 appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Despite Petitions & Mounting Pressure, Namibian Government Proceeds with Sale of 3% of Country’s Last Elephants

Fri, 01/29/2021 - 06:46

Namibian elephants in Etosha. Conservationists estimate that between 73 to 84 percent of the government’s quoted elephant population figure consists of ‘trans-boundary’ elephants, those moving between Namibia, Angola Zambia and Botswana. They put the resident elephant population in Namibia at 5,688. They are worried that with 170 heading to the auction block, Namibia is losing 3 percent of its elephant population. Courtesy: Stephan Scholvin

By Alison Kentish
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 29 2021 (IPS)

Over 100,000 concerned petitioners have urged the Namibian government to scrap its plan to auction off 170 wild elephants — which include rare desert-adapted elephants — but the country’s Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism said this week that today’s Jan. 29 sale will go on as planned.

On the eve of the event, the Ministry’s media posts stated that the country’s elephant population has ‘grown from an estimated 7,500 animals in 1995 to more than 24,000 today,’ with a large percentage living outside of national parks.

Namibia was the only African country with a large savannah elephant population to opt out of the 2016 Great Elephant Census (GEC), the first continent-wide standardised survey of elephants. The researchers concluded that there was a massive decline in the population. They stated that privately funded surveys were conducted in Namibia, but the results were not shared with their team.

The advertisement for the sale of Namibia’s elephants.

Conservationists argue that the government’s numbers are inflated and fail to factor in elephant migration. They estimate that between 73 to 84 percent of the government’s quoted elephant population figure consists of ‘trans-boundary’ elephants, those moving between Namibia, Angola Zambia and Botswana. They put the resident elephant population in Namibia at 5,688. They are worried that with 170 heading to the auction block, Namibia is losing 3 percent of its elephant population.

“For thousands of years matriarch elephants have been leading their herds across multiple countries on huge migrations each year. Although we’ve slaughtered 95 percent of all elephants in 100 years, the last of these great herds still carry out their epic journeys. These international elephants don’t ‘belong’ to anyone and Namibia’s proposal to capture and exploit them is rightly being seen as a crime against nature,” said Mark Hiley of National Park Rescue, a non-governmental organisation that saves African Parks from closure.

The Namibian Government’s defence of the auction is two pronged. The Environment Ministry says apart from having too many of the animals, the sale will curb human-animal conflict. Local conservationists say it is a claim that ignores established protocols for protecting both rural residents and wildlife.

“We have proven solutions to the government’s claimed human-wildlife-conflict – including moving water points away from villages and electric fencing – but the government is ignoring them all. Despite their claims, it’s clear that their plans are about money not wildlife,” said Stephan Scholvin, Namibian professional guide and conservationist.

While the Namibian authorities defend the auction as a way to curb elephant numbers, protect residents and raise money for conservation activities, a 2019 bribery scandal that resulted in the imprisonment of the Ministers of Justice and Fisheries has left many wary of the present plan.

Adding to the uneasiness is the fact that Namibia was among 3 African nations denied permission to sell off its stock of ivory by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Those who vetoed the appeal said they feared the one-off sale would create a sharp increase in the demand for ivory and a spike in poaching.

“It’s important to understand who benefits from the sale of these elephants. I would suggest that creating a mosaic landscape in which humans and elephants can both thrive is a far preferable strategy than selling unwanted elephants to the highest bidder,” said biologist Niall McCann of National Park Rescue.

Namibia’s rare desert-adapted elephants are also up for auction today. Courtesy: Stephan Scholvin

The petition against today’s Jan. 29 auction expresses concern that the authorities are possibly making way for more extensive oil drilling in Namibia’s Okavango Basin, often described as elephants’ last area of refuge. On its website, oil and gas company Recon Africa states that it is engaged in the exploration and development of oil and gas in the Basin – which includes parts of Northeast Namibia and Northwest Botswana.

“We need to stop viewing wildlife through the lens of immediate cash return and learn to understand the value of wildlife that is a living and breathing part of a functioning environment. Wildlife, including elephants, deliver tangible benefits to people in terms of ecosystem services, which will collapse if biodiversity collapses,” said Mary Rice of the Environmental Investigations Agency (EIA).

National Park Rescue’s Hiley said there is no justification for the elephant auction.

“Falsifying elephant population statistics and exaggerating ‘Human Wildlife Conflict’ (HWC) can be used by governments to generate revenue from inflated hunting quotas, justify sales to zoos or hunting farms, and initiate ivory-generating culls. Corruption is now as big a threat to elephants as poaching,” he said.

Questions Remain over Botswana’s Mass Elephant Deaths

The post Despite Petitions & Mounting Pressure, Namibian Government Proceeds with Sale of 3% of Country’s Last Elephants appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

The country’s Environment Ministry is defending the January 29 auction as a conservation strategy, but conservations say the move is based on false population statistics, disputed claims of human-elephant conflict and puts 3% of Namibia’s last elephants up for sale

The post Despite Petitions & Mounting Pressure, Namibian Government Proceeds with Sale of 3% of Country’s Last Elephants appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

French Editor Pays Tribute to Civil Rights Icon Angela Davis

Thu, 01/28/2021 - 20:21

American civil rights icon Dr. Angela Davis. Credit: A.D. McKenzie.

By SWAN
PARIS, Jan 28 2021 (IPS)

Renowned activist and intellectual Angela Davis turned 77 years old on Jan. 26, marking more than five decades of her fight against systemic racism and inequality.

January 2021 also marks fifty years since she appeared before a court in California to declare her innocence after a legendary manhunt and arrest. With sympathisers around the world mobilising to demand her freedom, she was eventually acquitted of the charges of “aggravated kidnapping and first-degree murder” in 1972, following a 16-month incarceration.

Since then, Davis has been an emblem for social justice and has never stopped speaking out. In 2020, her long history of activism saw another chapter when she joined protests across the United States – in the wake of George Floyd’s killing and other acts of police brutality. Magazines such as Vanity Fair wrote articles about her, and she has been profiled in numerous other publications.

Last autumn in Paris, her face blazed from massive posters on newspaper kiosks around the city. The iconic image – huge afro, serious eyes, mouth open in speech – confronted pedestrians, motorists and bus passengers as they travelled through the streets of the French capital.

The cover of Légende.

The posters were announcing a special edition of a new, independent magazine that had devoted its second issue to Davis. Titled Légende, the quarterly magazine is the brainchild of Eric Fottorino, a former editor of the left-wing newspaper Le Monde. At a cost of 20 euros per copy, the publication is not cheap; yet many people bought the Davis issue. According to Fottorino, the magazine had several thousand subscribers by the end of the year.

The figures perhaps indicate the special place Davis holds in the French popular imagination, a place usually reserved for venerable rock stars. In 2018 for instance, when she spoke at a university in Nanterre, just outside Paris, her mere presence elicited deafening applause.

Légende contains contributions from writers such as Dany Laferrière, Gisèle Pineau and Alain Mabanckou, reflecting on what Davis has meant to them, and it recapitulates the events of more than 50 years ago – detailing Davis’ membership of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s, and her activism in the civil rights movement before and after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King in April 1968.

It also recaps the incident in 1970 that pushed her to international attention: guns she had bought were used by high-school student Jonathan Jackson when he took over a courtroom to demand the freeing of black prisoners including his brother (George Jackson), and left the building with hostages, including the judge.

In a subsequent shootout with police, the perpetrator, two defendants he had freed and the judge were killed, and Davis was arrested and charged following a huge manhunt, although she had not been in the courtroom when the hostage-taking occurred.

These events are captured in bold photographs and illustrations throughout the 90 pages of the magazine. There’s the reproduction of the “wanted” poster, for instance, with the public being warned that Davis should be considered “possibly armed and dangerous”; there are pictures of Davis in handcuffs, and later being freed; of her with family and friends, including writer Toni Morrison; of her lecturing at universities and public events.

Légende ends with an image of Davis standing in the back of a convertible, wearing a mask against Covid-19, her right hand raised in a fist – while nearby, a protester holds a sign that reads “NO JUSTICE NO PEACE”.

To learn more about how the magazine issue evolved, SWAN interviewed editor Eric Fottorino. Below is a shortened version of the interview, which took place at Légende’s offices in Paris.

SWAN: Why did you choose Angela Davis for this issue?

Eric Fottorino: Because when we decided to do this second issue of Légende, there had been the death of George Floyd in the United States, and there’d been in France the demonstrations regarding Adama Traoré, and as we wanted to feature a woman, we choose Angela Davis – to remind people of her work and to show that the combat she fought in the Seventies, and later, for civil rights and feminism is still going on. We thought it was important to speak about Angela Davis’ past at the present time, whether that’s in the United States or France. Quite often we think that the present can only be explained by what’s happening now, but it is essential to know the history.

SWAN: She has spoken of how important international and French solidarity was for her when she was arrested and incarcerated. Can you explain why French supporters took up her cause?

E.F.: For the generation of the Seventies, she incarnated a struggle, a dream for justice, and also exactly the opposite – she embodied a female victim of injustice, but one who would fight with all her forces, energy and intelligence. And for France, that was important because she had studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, and so she received a great deal of support in intellectual circles, whether from Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Genet, or Louis Aragon, and also from the Parti communiste français (PCF). She was the subject of a powerful poem by Jacques Prévert as well. So, she had intellectual and political support. There were marches, too, and we have a photo of one of these in which her sister (Fania) marched with Aragon in the streets of Paris, protesting for her freedom.

I think that all these elements made her a popular figure in France, and the famous cry “Free Angela” that could be heard in different countries around the world was taken up in France too. Besides, when she was liberated, she did a tour – to say thanks but also to make it clear that she wasn’t giving up the fight. She appeared on the big literary programs of the time, such as “Apostrophe”, and also in the studio of France Inter and the big public radio broadcasters. She was a huge presence, and then later a popular French singer, Pierre Perret, made a song about an individual who was the victim of racism, and one could see Angela Davis’ story in it, even if he didn’t specifically dedicate the song (Lily) to her.

SWAN: How about the political newspapers of the time? What role did they play?

E.F.: She had the support of the socialist newspapers like L’Humanité, but it must be remembered that the Parti communiste was among the strongest parties in the Seventies, with about 25 percent of the vote. It was even stronger than the Socialist Party. So, the support from people like Aragon (who was a member of the Parti communiste français) sent a huge symbolic signal.

James Baldwin, who supported her as well, was a writer who was very well known in France. He was not a popular author, but, in intellectual and literary circles, Baldwin was someone whose voice carried weight because he had lived for some time in Paris, and the fact that he wrote that Open Letter to his Sister Angela (An Open Letter to My Sister, Miss Angela Davis, 1971) stayed in people’s memory. (The translation by Samuel Légitimus is reproduced in the magazine.)

SWAN: Did you try to speak with Angela Davis for the issue?

E.F.: We tried but she was very busy, and I think she was also quite tired at the time we made the request. But this wasn’t a necessity for us in writing about her life and the past. Of course, if she had been available, we would have interviewed her, but we didn’t think it was indispensable. In a certain way, her actions, and her life, speak for her.

SWAN: Some Black French thinkers say that there is a sort of fascination and veneration in France for African Americans, including Angela Davis. How would you respond to that?

E.F.: In France, social justice fighters aren’t necessarily black, so there hasn’t been emblematic figures like in the United States with Angela Davis, Malcolm X or Martin Luther King and others.

It’s true that in political life in France, Black people have had a limited space, and sometimes people outside France say that there has not been a black minister or anyone prominent, but they don’t know about Christiane Taubira or Kofi Yamgnane. So, it’s not true that people like that haven’t existed. What is true is that there is no huge emblematic political leader like Angela Davis here.

(Ed: Fottorino has helmed another publication that examines the subject of being black in France, titled Être Noir en France.)

The post French Editor Pays Tribute to Civil Rights Icon Angela Davis appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Cuban Farm Explores Sustainability by Hand

Thu, 01/28/2021 - 19:12

Terraces specially designed to prevent surface runoff during the rains have been key for growing vegetables on the sloping terrain of Finca Marta in the municipality of Caimito, Artemisa province, about 20 km from Havana, Cuba. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA, Jan 28 2021 (IPS)

Most beginnings are rocky and sometimes the obstacles seem insurmountable, before they are finally overcome. This was certainly the case for the Finca Marta, a farm in Cuba that had to begin by digging a well in search of water and with the hard-scrabble work of clearing an arid, stony and overgrown plot of land.

“It was an inhospitable environment, everything was totally abandoned,” agroecologist Fernando Funes told IPS. On Dec. 21, 2011, he and his family settled on an eight-hectare plot of land, some 20 km west of Havana, which they planned to farm against all odds.

“With Juan Machado, the local well digger who has become our shaman, we were digging for seven months, using only shovels, until at 14 metres deep we found water, more than we need. For us, this well is a metaphor for how far we are willing to go,” added Funes.

It was the solution to the main problem they faced in their decision to turn a relatively infertile, hilly plot of land without water into a productive farm, in a country whose water supply depends mainly on rainfall and where agriculture consumes about 60 percent of what is extracted from the watersheds.

The farm, which has 20 workers, now has a guaranteed round-the-clock water supply, from groundwater or rainwater that is harvested and stored in ponds and tanks. It is enough to cover the needs of both livestock and wild animals, as well as the crops. A solar pump now draws water from the well.

Farm management and production efficiency soon made it necessary to dedicate time and resources to the construction of greenhouses to produce seedlings, harvesting facilities, a rustic cowshed and a storage facility for beekeeping equipment and supplies, among other infrastructure.

Other efforts focused on the design of a sustainable energy system, incorporating various renewable energy alternatives such as solar panels for pumping water, a biodigester for capturing and distributing methane for cooking food, and solar water heaters.

“We have done all this ourselves by hand, with the resources, conditions and knowhow that we had,” Funes explained, after mentioning that further plans to take advantage of clean sources of energy include the installation of a windmill for pumping water and producing electricity.

It took seven months of digging without machines on the Finca Marta to find enough water in a 14-metre deep well for the farm’s organic crops and small livestock, some 20 km west of Havana. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

And terraces were created to prevent soil erosion when it rains, “on a farm where the only flat part is where the house is,” said Funes.

Each terrace has a stone wall at the bottom to prevent surface runoff during rainfall. The substrate is composed of a mixture of soil and organic matter from vermiculture and compost produced on the farm, with residue from the biodigester and other waste.

The result is the production of a variety of top-quality crops free of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, in harmony with the environment. “This gives us a comparative advantage in the market, because we offer a high diversity that gives us better chances of meeting demand,” Funes said.

Beekeeping soon became an important activity at Finca Marta, which started with one old hive. Today there are more than one hundred hives and about 40 tons of honey have been produced over the last eight years using modern techniques, mainly for export.

Forming part of a Credit and Service Cooperative, Finca Marta, located in the municipality of Caimito in the west-central province of Artemisa, markets vegetables directly to a group of private restaurants, hotels and state-owned companies, while providing certain products free of charge to a local centre that assists at-risk pregnant women.

Agricultural engineer Fernando Funes explains how the biodigester works that uses livestock manure to produce biogas for domestic consumption at Finca Marta, in the municipality of Caimito, in the Cuban province of Artemisa near Havana. This is one of the innovations for the sustainable development of the farm. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

“We are following a concept of production, processing, marketing and consumption. We do the whole chain ourselves,” said the agroecologist, who is determined to demonstrate in practice that it is possible to run an ecologically sustainable and socially just family farm that is also economically sustainable.

The project includes an ecological restaurant that opens once or twice a week to serve visitors interested in life in the Cuban countryside and in eating meals prepared with organic products. Agritourism boosts both knowledge and investment, because the income is reinvested in the production system.

“Coming in, we had a great deal of uncertainty, a lot of challenges ahead of us and it was very risky from every angle,” Funes acknowledged.

After four or five years of intense work, the farm was showing significant progress in terms of marketing and bringing in sufficient income to pay good wages and offer social benefits to the workers.

This is the largest pond dug on the Finca Marta farm for rainwater harvesting, part of the sustainable solutions used to turn a sloping, relatively infertile piece of land without water into a productive farm in the west-central Cuban province of Artemisa, which has now become a model for other farmers. CREDIT: Courtesy of Fernando Funes

“For me from the beginning it was an ethical and social commitment as a scientist for science to have an impact on the lives of people, who have to see an improvement in their income and living conditions in order to commit to a process of change,” said the agronomist.

But not only that. In his opinion, “the projection for the future is not only to continue enriching the farm, generating new jobs, and offering better wages and social benefits, but to begin to have an impact on transforming the area – that is, on local development.”

Funes, who has been dedicated to research and teaching for 20 years and has a master’s degree in Agroecology and Sustainable Rural Development and a PhD in Ecological Production and Conservation, plus 10 years of practical experience on his farm, has been part of a group of experts since October that will manage a government programme for the Development of Logistics and Supply Chains.

His farm also serves as a model for a network of 50 other farms that are adopting the concept of agroecological production, processing, marketing and consumption.

A woman plants vegetables on one of the terraces of Finca Marta, a farm using ecological farming techniques to tame inhospitable terrain with sustainable solutions, in the municipality of Caimito, in the west-central Cuban province of Artemisa. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

The purpose of the government group, as announced when it was created, is to put into practice the modern concept of managing the integration, coordination and synchronisation of interrelationships, including material, informational and financial flows to supply and transform resources and products, all along the chain from suppliers to consumers.

These projects are part of Cuba’s effort to strengthen organic agriculture in domestic food production and thus alleviate the country’s dependence on imports, which cover 70 percent of food needs.

Today, this Caribbean island nation of 11.2 million people produces fresh vegetables and condiments using clean technologies on more than 8,000 hectares, where an average of 1.2 million tons of vegetables are produced annually.

The post Cuban Farm Explores Sustainability by Hand appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

New Multi-Country Survey Finds Overwhelming Majority of Citizens Want Their Governments to Act Now to Accelerate Progress on Gender Equality

Thu, 01/28/2021 - 14:37

PRESS RELEASE

By External Source
NEW YORK/PARIS, Jan 28 2021 (IPS-Partners)

A first-of-its-kind international survey finds that the global public overwhelmingly supports gender equality, and a resounding majority is ready for their governments and business leaders to take action to bridge the gender divide. At the same time, women and girls around the world are suffering the worst impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, which has disproportionately affected their mental and physical health, as well as their economic prospects. The vast majority of respondents—80% on average across the 17 surveyed countries—said gender equality is a priority to them personally, and 65% said their government should do more to promote gender equality in their country.

The global public perception survey, released in a new report by Women Deliver and Focus 2030, includes 17 countries across six continents whose inhabitants represent half the world’s population.

The results come two months before the Generation Equality Forum, a civil society–centered, global gathering for gender equality convened by UN Women and co-hosted by the governments of Mexico and France. There, leaders in government, the private sector, and civil society will have a critical opportunity to commit to bold, specific actions on gender equality issues. The forum will galvanize political action and secure financial commitments for the period of 2021-2026 on measures to advance women’s rights and opportunities around the world. Sixty-one percent of respondents urged their governments to use this forum as an opportunity to increase funding for gender equality initiatives.

“2021 promises to be a milestone year for accelerating global progress on gender equality. The Generation Equality Forum will call on governments, corporation, civil society and people of all ages and backgrounds around the world to step up with bold commitments to make gender equality a reality,” said Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women. “At such a critical moment it is invigorating to see that global public opinion is not only behind us, but pushing us to do more. The world is affirming that gender equality cannot wait. We can and we must achieve it in our generation, and it must be intersectional and intergenerational.”

Despite 25 years of progress since the landmark World Conference on Women in Beijing, no country has fully met its commitments to gender equality. More than half of the world’s girls and women—as many as 2.1 billion people—live in countries that are not on track to reach key gender equality-related targets by 2030.2

“We’ve made a lot of progress on gender equality over the last 25 years, but there’s so much work left to do. Now, with COVID-19, just as women are assuming an outsized role in responding to the pandemic in their communities and at home, they are also experiencing enormous added burden, and we could see the consequences of that strain playing out for years to come,” said Divya Mathew, Senior Manager, Policy and Advocacy at Women Deliver.

“This survey shows us where the world has fallen short, but it also delivers the encouraging news that the vast majority of women and men around the world expect their leaders to take action to advance gender equality.”

Fielded in July and August of 2020, the survey offers a comprehensive picture of public experience and perception across six major gender equality issues, in addition to insights on how the COVID-19 pandemic had affected respondents’ lives, livelihoods, and emotional health. It also asked participants about their personal experiences with gender discrimination, their attitudes about sexist practices, and their beliefs about the causes of gender discrimination.

Key findings on these questions include:

The global public supports the need for women to play a role in all aspects of the pandemic response

COVID-19 has had a significant impact on women

Young people, especially young women, have the highest expectations of their governments to advance gender equality

57% of women on average reported experiencing some form of gender-based discrimination in their lifetimes

Overall, the top priority for improving gender equality is ending gender-based violence

In the United States, self-identified Black or African American respondents are less likely to say that gender equality has improved over the last 25 years

The public’s support for gender equality cuts across generations, political leanings, and socioeconomic groups. While women are stronger supporters of most gender equality issues than men, a great majority of men also support gender equality. Young people under the age of 25, women in particular, are especially likely to hold their governments accountable for advancing gender equality initiatives.

The survey asked respondents for their opinions on six major gender equality issues, all of which the public resoundingly expects governments to address on the occasion of the Generation Equality Forum:

Despite the widespread support for greater gender equality, persistent discriminatory attitudes towards women continue to hinder progress towards ending domestic violence and closing the gender pay gap. At the current rate of progress, it will take another century to achieve professional, political, and economic equality between women and men worldwide.3

Against this backdrop, the survey offers a roadmap for actions that the public most wants to see, spotlighting where leaders’ and decision-makers’ focus and investments can have the most striking impact.

“Our survey shows the extent to which gender equality has become a universal aspiration across all cultures. A majority of citizens support gender equality in the 17countries surveyed and aspire to more commitments from their governments.The alleged lack of public support for these issues is no longer a valid excuse to delay action”said Fabrice Ferrier, Director of Focus 2030. “There is no longer anything preventing decision-makers around the world–if notpolitical will -to addressthe most pressingneeds of girls and women and to take the necessary measures to promote gender equality,” he added.

1 Australia, Argentina, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, China, South Africa, Switzerland, Tunisia, and the United States
2 Equal Measures 2030, Bending the Curve Towards Gender Equality by 2030(Surrey: Equal Measures, 2020), https://data.em2030.org/2020-index-projections/bending-the-curve-towards-gender-equality-by-2030/.

The post New Multi-Country Survey Finds Overwhelming Majority of Citizens Want Their Governments to Act Now to Accelerate Progress on Gender Equality appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

PRESS RELEASE

The post New Multi-Country Survey Finds Overwhelming Majority of Citizens Want Their Governments to Act Now to Accelerate Progress on Gender Equality appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Q&A: What Nigerian Feminists Hope will Come Out of the #EndSARS Movement & Pandemic

Thu, 01/28/2021 - 13:19

Youth in Nigeria protested against the brutalities and extrajudicial killings by the rogue police unit known as SARS. The #EndSARS protests became a global movement as international corporations and celebrities offered their support.Photo by Ayoola Salako on Unsplash

By Samira Sadeque
Jan 28 2021 (IPS)

As Nigeria’s biggest city, Lagos, reportedly experienced a massive shortage of oxygen cylinders last week — with demand increasing fivefold in one of the city’s main hospitals just as the country recorded some of its highest number of coronavirus cases — its youth leaders are concerned about the impact on vulnerable women.

“It is a dire situation across the country, not only in Lagos state,” Kelechukwu (Lucky)Nwachukwu, a Nigerian feminist and activist, told IPS. “Many health facilities are largely underfunded with minimal to zero equipment. What is concerning is what this means for vulnerable women and girls who need regular health services and attention.”

“Our health sector is struggling per usual,” says Obianuju Maria Onwuasor, founder of PeriodRichOrg, an organisation working at the intersection of human rights and reproductive justice, commenting on the country’s low health budget. “The health sector alone ruins all the work of other thriving agencies without trying too hard.”

Both Nwachukwu and Onwuasor are youth ambassadors in Nigeria for Women Deliver, a gender advocacy organisation. Through their work, the ambassadors examine the intersection of sexual and reproductive health with other issues: from COVID-19 to the #EndSARS movement.

In October, massive protests broke across the country, demanding an end to the killing of civilians by the police force and the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) authorities for almost three decades. The #EndSARS protests became a global movement as international corporations and celebrities offered their support.

Onwuasor of PeriodRichOrg told IPS that gender equity plays a crucial role in the end of police brutality, and in turn, the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) in Nigeria.

“Far too many times, women and girls have been indiscriminately arrested and put behind bars for many frivolous reasons such as being outside too late in the night, being ‘prostitutes’, or evening just being women,” added Nwachukwu.

“In the wake of the protests, many states imposed total curfews,” he told IPS. “These curfews limited many people, especially vulnerable groups from accessing health, and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) facilities.”

Excerpts of their interview follow:

Inter Press Service (IPS): What are your thoughts about the government’s response to COVID-19 in Nigeria?

Obianuju Onwuasor (OO): I feel like the government is doing their best in some sectors; we have government ministries like the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) who have set measures in places to tackle the impact of the coronavirus; CBN has funds in place to help/support households and SMEs, and they also reduced interest rates on intervention loans. Nigerian Customs reduced its tariffs on custom duty charges.

Kelechukwu Nwachukwu(KN): There have been concerns about the testing capacity and numbers given the population of Nigeria. I believe given the resources available, Nigeria is doing her best to handle the situation. There has been massive sensitisation and awareness creation.

However, the Nigerian government should make walk-in test facilities available as well as subsidised testing costs for Nigerian citizens. I also think it is a critical time for Nigeria to review and strengthen our health systems and infectious diseases response mechanism. Nigeria must make a statement to be committed to improving the health indices of the country by investing intentionally in health care for all.

IPS: How has the #EndSARS movement impacted the specific issues you work on?

OO: At PeriodRichOrg, our primary goal is to create a platform that’s safe to talk about human rights as it relates to sexuality, sexual health and reproduction. During October’s Lekki massacre that killed 12, we witnessed peaceful protestors trying to save a gunshot victim the wrong way. Through my reach and multiple re-shares, I was able to create infographics that helped provide better understanding on how to better handle situations like this.

KN: As an activist, campaigner and development worker, one cannot anymore carry on normal operations and day to day work of social commentary, community interventions and activism without being labeled as an opposition or being part of the #EndSARS movement. But it is only a matter of time and all Nigerians desirous of lasting peace and respecting human rights will ride on shoulders of giants who are the feminists that championed this cause in addition to thousands of Nigerians who stood up to face the singular enemy.

IPS: The SARS force has been around since 1992. How does it affect gender rights?

OO: The role of gender equality in policing cannot be overemphasised as it’s important in achieving SDGs five and 16 — the elimination of violence against women, and strong and stable judicial institutions. These goals can only be achieved by creating the right composition and culture of our nation’s policing force which isn’t happening at the moment.

KN: Many women, girls and vulnerable groups in Nigeria have long suffered from injustices from SARS. In addition to gender rights, violations have been exacerbated against sexual and gender minorities in Nigeria such as the LGBTQ+ community.

IPS: According to Amaka Anku, head of Africa Practice at Eurasia Group, the movement will likely lead to higher political turnout in 2023 and has “helped define campaign issues”. What policies in your area of work do you think should be prioritised for 2023 elections?

OO: What could be learnt from this #EndSARS movement is the amount of power we have when we all have one voice. All core demands may not have been met but our voices were heard across the world. We clamored and the world responded to our shouts and screams.

As regards to political turnout in 2023, in the past in Nigeria mostly the uneducated came out to vote. But with the #EndSARS peaceful protests, we could see people from all walks of life come together to fight for one cause. If this happens in 2023, we would probably have campaigners who want to address the issues we constantly complain about, younger people who have come out to run for electable positions, more voter turnout and conscious politicians who know that they would be held accountable for their actions. Our biggest issue in Nigeria is bad leadership and governance, and once we can resolve this pending issue we are one step closer to finding solutions to all the numerous issues we face daily.

In the 2023 elections, I am hoping that the government pays attention to policies that relate closely to SRHR and gender equality, including policies addressing female genital mutilation (FGM), easy access to contraceptives, and safer abortions.

KN: It is true that the movement will trigger a lot more conversations and discourses around key issues. On a professional level, I am keen to see the protection of the rights of LGBTQI+ persons in Nigeria – it is of paramount importance that the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act be revisited, repealed and thrown out the door. Sexual and gender minorities in Nigeria must enjoy protection from the law as well as fundamental human rights enshrined in the constitution.

In addition, sexual and reproductive rights of women, girls and vulnerable populations should be at the forefront of policies. We have seen the global pandemic expose the deeper vulnerabilities these groups face. Women and girls should be allowed free and unhindered access to reproductive services such as safe and legal abortion, quality of care and an end to menstrual poverty.

Finally, the government must come out boldly to work towards the end of FGM which has affected over 200 million women and girls globally. Until there is a political will from both government and donors, little progress will be made.

The post Q&A: What Nigerian Feminists Hope will Come Out of the #EndSARS Movement & Pandemic appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Sri Lanka on Alarming Path Towards Recurrence of Grave Human Rights Violations, Says UN

Thu, 01/28/2021 - 12:14

The Sri Lankan Government should end its policy of compulsorily cremating victims of COVID-19, independent UN human rights experts said on Monday. “We deplore the implementation of such public health decisions based on discrimination, aggressive nationalism and ethnocentrism amounting to persecution of Muslims and other minorities in the country” the experts said. Credit: UN News

By External Source
GENEVA, Jan 28 2021 (IPS)

A new UN report published on Wednesday warns that the failure of Sri Lanka to address past violations has significantly heightened the risk of human rights violations being repeated.

It highlights worrying trends over the past year, such as deepening impunity, increasing militarization of governmental functions, ethno-nationalist rhetoric, and intimidation of civil society.

Nearly 12 years after the armed conflict in Sri Lanka ended, impunity for grave human rights violations and abuses by all sides is more entrenched than ever, with the current Government proactively obstructing investigations and trials, and reversing the limited progress that had been previously made, states the report, mandated by UN Human Rights Council resolution 40/1.

The report urges enhanced monitoring and strong preventive action by the international community, warning that “Sri Lanka’s current trajectory sets the scene for the recurrence of the policies and practices that gave rise to grave human rights violations.”

Among the early warning signals the report highlights are: the accelerating militarization of civilian governmental functions, reversal of important constitutional safeguards, political obstruction of accountability, exclusionary rhetoric, intimidation of civil society, and the use of anti-terrorism laws.

Since 2020, the President has appointed at least 28 serving or former military and intelligence personnel to key administrative posts, the report states. Particularly troubling are appointments of senior military officials who were implicated in United Nations reports in alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the final years of the conflict.

These include Shavendra Silva as Army Chief in August 2019 and Kamal Gunaratne as Secretary to the Ministry of Defence in November 2019.

The Government has created parallel military task forces and commissions that encroach on civilian functions, and reversed important institutional checks and balances, threatening democratic gains, the independence of the judiciary and other key institutions, the report says.

The report also documents a pattern of intensified surveillance and harassment of civil society organisations, human rights defenders and victims, and a shrinking space for independent media.

More than 40 civil society organizations have reported such harassment from a range of security services – including the Criminal Investigation Department, Terrorist Investigation Division and State Intelligence officials.

“The High Commissioner urges the authorities to immediately end all forms of surveillance, including intimidating visits by State agents and harassment against human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, social actors and victims of human rights violations and their families, and to refrain from imposing further restrictive legal measures on legitimate civil society activity.”

It warns that despite the Government’s stated commitment to the 2030 Agenda, Tamil and Muslim minorities are being increasingly marginalized and excluded in statements about the national vision and Government policy. Divisive and discriminatory rhetoric from the highest State officials risks generating further polarization and violence.

Sri Lanka’s Muslim community is increasingly scapegoated, both in the context of COVID-19 and in the wake of the Easter Sunday attacks of April 2019.

The report notes that Sri Lanka’s armed conflict emerged against the backdrop of progressively deepening discrimination and marginalization of the country’s minorities, particularly the Tamils.

Grave human rights violations and abuses committed by all parties have been documented in successive UN reports, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, torture and sexual violence affecting Sri Lankans from all communities.

Numerous commissions of inquiry appointed by successive governments have failed to credibly establish truth and ensure accountability for the violations, the report notes.

The Government has now appointed a new commission of inquiry to review the findings of previous commissions, but its membership lacks diversity and independence, and its terms of reference do not inspire confidence it will produce any meaningful result.

A Presidential Commission of Inquiry to investigate alleged “political victimisation” of public officials, security forces and others has undermined police investigations and court proceedings related to several high-profile human rights and corruption cases.

One former chief of the Criminal Investigation Division, who led investigations into several emblematic human rights cases, has been arrested while another inspector from the Division left Sri Lanka, fearing reprisals for his lead investigative role in several emblematic cases, and now faces criminal charges.

“While the criminal justice system in Sri Lanka has long been the subject of interference, the current Government has proactively obstructed or sought to stop ongoing investigations and criminal trials to prevent accountability for past crimes.”

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet stressed that the failure to deal with the past continues to have devastating effects on tens of thousands of family members from all communities who persist in seeking justice, reparations – and the truth about the fate of their loved ones.

“I urge the international community to listen to the determined, courageous, persistent calls of victims and their families for justice, and heed the early warning signs of more violations to come,” Bachelet said, calling for resolute measures by UN Member States.

“Given the demonstrated inability and unwillingness of Government to advance accountability at the national level, it is time for international action to ensure justice for international crimes. States should also pursue investigations and prosecution in their national courts – under accepted principles of extraterritorial or universal jurisdiction – of international crimes committed by all parties in Sri Lanka,” Bachelet added.

“States can consider targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes and travel bans against credibly alleged perpetrators of grave human rights violations and abuses.”

Sri Lanka’s contributions to UN peacekeeping operations must be kept under review, the High Commissioner added. Bachelet also urged the Council to support a dedicated capacity to collect and preserve evidence for future accountability processes.

The High Commissioner stressed that Sri Lanka will only achieve sustainable development and peace if it effectively addresses systemic impunity and ensures civic space.

“The failure to do so carries with it the seeds of repeated patterns of human rights violations and potential conflict in the future,” she said.

In preparing the report, the UN Human Rights Office sent detailed questions to the Government and received written responses, followed by a substantive virtual meeting with Government representatives on 7 January 2021. The Government also commented on the report.

The report will be formally presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on 24 February, followed by an interactive dialogue.

Source: Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Geneva.

The post Sri Lanka on Alarming Path Towards Recurrence of Grave Human Rights Violations, Says UN appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Incitement to Violence Is Rarely Explicit – Here Are Some Techniques People Use to Breed Hate

Thu, 01/28/2021 - 12:01

Dangerous speech is a toxic brew of emotion and age-old tropes.. Photo by Jonathan Farber on Unsplash

By External Source
Jan 28 2021 (IPS)

As senators plan for an impeachment trial in which former President Donald Trump is accused of inciting his supporters to mount a deadly insurrection at the Capitol, global concern is growing about threats of violent unrest in multiple countries, including the U.S. The United Nations reports the proliferation of dangerous speech online represents a “new era” in conflict.

Dangerous speech is defined as communication encouraging an audience to condone or inflict harm. Usually this harm is directed by an “ingroup” (us) against an “outgroup” (them) – though it can also provoke self-harm in suicide cults.

Targets of dangerous speech are often dehumanized, depicted as fundamentally lacking qualities – empathy, intelligence, values, abilities, self-control – at the core of being human

U.S. law reflects the assumption that dangerous speech must contain explicit calls to criminal action. But scholars who study speeches and propaganda that precede acts of violence find direct commands to violence are rare.

Other elements are more common. Here are some of the red flags.

Firing up emotions

Psychologists have analyzed the speeches of rousing leaders like Hitler and Gandhi for their emotional content, assessing how much fear, joy, sadness and so on were present. They then tested whether the levels of emotion could predict whether a certain speech preceded violence or nonviolence.

They discovered the following emotions, particularly combined, could ignite violence:

Anger: The speaker gives the audience reasons to be angry, often pointing out who should be held responsible for that anger.
Contempt: The outgroup is deemed inferior to the ingroup, and thus unworthy of respect.
Disgust: The outgroup is described as so revolting they are undeserving of even basic humane treatment.

Constructing the threat

By studying political speeches and propaganda that have inspired violence, researchers have identified themes that can stir these powerful emotions.

Targets of dangerous speech are often dehumanized, depicted as fundamentally lacking qualities – empathy, intelligence, values, abilities, self-control – at the core of being human. Commonly, outgroups are depicted as evil, due to their alleged lack of morality. Alternatively, they may be portrayed as animalistic or worse. During the Rwandan genocide, Tutsis were referred to as cockroaches in Hutu propaganda.

To build a “story of hate,” a good guy is needed to counter the villain. So whatever dehumanizing quality is present in the outgroup, the opposite is present in the ingroup. If “they” are the Antichrist, “we” are the children of God.

Alleged past wrongdoings of the outgroup against the ingroup are used to position the outgroup as a threat. In cases of ongoing conflict between groups, such as between Israelis and Palestinians, there may well be examples of past wrongs on both sides. Effective dangerous speech omits, minimizes or justifies past wrongs by the ingroup members, while exacerbating past wrongs of the outgroup.

“Competitive victimhood” is used to portray the ingroup as the “real” victim – especially if ingroup “innocents” like women and children have been harmed by the outgroup. Sometimes past acts of the outgroups are fabricated and used as scapegoats for the ingroup’s past misfortunes. For instance, Hitler blamed the Jews for Germany losing World War I.

A particularly dangerous fabrication is when outgroups are accused of plotting against the ingroup the very deeds the ingroup is planning, if not actually committing, against the outgroup. Researchers coined the term “accusations in a mirror” after this strategy was explicitly described in a Hutu propaganda handbook following the Rwandan genocide.

Disengaging one’s moral compass

Effective dangerous speech gets people to overcome internal resistance to inflicting harm.

This can be accomplished by making it seem like no other options remain to defend the ingroup from the threat presented by the outgroup. Less extreme options are dismissed as exhausted or ineffective. The outgroup can’t be “saved.”

Simultaneously, speakers deploy “euphemistic labeling” to provide more palatable terms for violence, like “cleansing” or “defense” instead of “murder.” Or they may use “virtue-talk” to play up honor in fighting – and dishonor in not. After directing his followers to kill their children and themselves, cult leader Jim Jones called it “an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world.”

Sometimes, the ingroup suffers from an illusion of invulnerability and does not even consider the possibility of negative consequences from their actions, because they are so confident in the righteousness of their group and cause. If thought is given to life post-violence, it is portrayed as only good for the ingroup.

By contrast, if the outgroup is allowed to remain, obtain control or enact their alleged devious plans, the future looks grim; it will mean the destruction of everything the ingroup holds dear, if not the end of the ingroup itself.

These are just some of the hallmarks of dangerous speech identified through decades of research by historians and social scientists studying genocide, cults, intergroup conflict and propaganda. It is not an exhaustive list. Nor do all these elements need to be present for a speech to promote harm. There is also no guarantee the presence of these factors definitely leads to harm – just as there is no guarantee that smoking leads to cancer, though it certainly increases the risk.

The persuasiveness of a speech also depends on other variables, like the charisma of the speaker, the receptivity of the audience, the medium by which the message is delivered and the context in which the message is being received.

However, the elements described above are warning signs a speech is intended to promote and justify inflicting harm. People can resist calls to violence by recognizing these themes. Prevention is possible.

H. Colleen Sinclair, Associate Professor of Social Psychology, Mississippi State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The post Incitement to Violence Is Rarely Explicit – Here Are Some Techniques People Use to Breed Hate appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

The Struggle to End Female Genital Mutilation: A Dark Secret No More

Thu, 01/28/2021 - 10:41

Masooma Ranalvi is the founder of WeSpeakOut and has campaigned to end FGM/C.

By Mariya Salim
NEW DELHI, India, Jan 28 2021 (IPS)

Survivors of female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C), are determined to share their stories to end this practice – even though they face ostracisation by their communities.

Masooma Ranalvi, an FGM/C survivor and founder of ‘WeSpeakOut’, an organisation committed to eliminating FGM/C or khafd/khafz/khatna explains that FGM/C is practised by various communities in India but is prominently practised among the Dawoodi Bohras.

However, speaking out against the harmful practice has not been easy for Ranalvi and the many others who have dared to relive their childhood memory of being ‘cut’ and share it with the world to end it some-day.

“There is a culture of fear around this issue, a culture of silence. Many do not speak out as there are social boycotts against who do – unofficially declared but carried out by the community,” says Ranalvi in an exclusive interview with IPS.

“Twenty years ago, even burial rights after death would be denied to those who dared to differ and economic sanctions against families who did not comply and spoke out,” says Ranalvi, who has been a leading voice in pushing for a legal and social end to FGM/C in India and across the globe.

According to a study conducted by ‘WeSpeakOut’, of the two million people who belong to India’s Bohra community and its diaspora, nearly 75%-80% of Bohra women are subject to FGM/C.

Ranalvi is also a petitioner in the legal action initiated in 2017 by lawyer Sunita Tiwari.

Tiwari filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court of India seeking a ban on FGM/C among the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim Community. This practice, which has been the community’s best-kept secret and practised by many others worldwide, is increasingly being spoken about, especially by the survivors.

Mariya Taher is the co-founder of Sahiyo an organisation aimed at ending FGM/C across the globe.

FGM/C involves the partial or total removal of external female genitalia or other injuries to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. Religion, culture, and tradition are often cited as motives for those practising it. There are about 92 countries where FGM/C is practised out of which 51 countries have expressly prohibited it under their national laws in some form or another.

In Asia, however, there is not a single country which has a law enacted to prohibit the harmful practice.

Based in the United States, Mariya Taher has co-founded Sahiyo, a non-profit working to end the practice globally and among the Bohra Community. She is a survivor and has been active passing state-level legislation in Massachusetts against it.

“It took five years to do so, but this past August 2020, we were able to pass a law. I am currently working with a group in Connecticut to pass a state law there. In the U.S., while we have a federal law, we also need state legislation, only 39 states have laws against FGM/C at this point,” Taher told IPS.

Aarefa Johari, journalist and co-founder of Sahiyo, adds that “enacting legislation against FGM/C has to be preceded by, accompanied and after that followed by intense and robust community activism at the grassroots level. It needs education, awareness and dialogue.”

Aarefa Johari is a journalist and co-founder of Sahiyo

A survivor, she believes that though “a law against FGM/C is vital as a deterrent and as a means of making the State’s stance on the practice clear, laws alone cannot bring an end to deep-rooted social norms.” This would require a long-term commitment and legal intervention to change the community’s mindset, Johari says.

Since many within the various communities use religion to justify the practice, it is important to note that there has been extensive research and writing around the issue by Islamic scholars and others, based on Quranic texts and Hadith (a collection of traditions containing sayings and actions of Prophet Muhammad) which discredit the practice as Un-Islamic.

Karamah, Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights, in a study published on FGM/C, concludes that FGM/C is a harmful practice that lacks religious mandate.

“The Qur’an does not provide a single verse or instance in which female khitan (FGM/C) is mentioned as obligatory or desirable. Furthermore, contrary to general belief, there is no single authentic hadith of the Prophet that requires female khitan.”

Ten-year-old Munira’s (name changed) aunt held her hand and took her to the basement of her empty house one Sunday evening promising to play a game with her. Little did Munira know the prize of this game, where she was asked to lie on a table with her underpants down and her lips sealed by her aunt to prevent her screams being heard, would end in her being scarred for life. She was ‘cut’ by a member of her family. This memory resonates with most survivors of the practice.

“It is never easy for anyone who has experienced some form of gender-based violence to share their story … My process took years, and it involved me first learning about it, then writing about it. The first thing I ever wrote was for the imagining equality project,” Taher says.

“It took many years after that project for me to get comfortable to share it on camera or to be interviewed by the media about my experience. But even as I grew comfortable, I experienced multiple forms of backlash.”

The impact on her immediate community meant that some of her relatives stopped speaking to her.

“Our movement (to end FGM/C) itself has faced backlash both publicly and privately from the community – we are trolled a lot online, there are attempts to constantly discredit the stories of survivors and silence those who speak up,” says Johari.

The trolling has not stopped the campaign to end FGM/C.

“It is important to emphasise that this is a sign of the importance of our work, and we get as much (or more) positive support from community members as we get negative brickbats,” Johari adds.

Many women and some community members against FGM/C sadly choose to remain silent in the interest of the ‘larger cause’, given the Islamophobic climate that exists.

Taher says that it is difficult not to see the intersection of oppressions when working on FGM/C, Islamophobia, unfortunately, being one of them.

“Particularly with the false assumption that only Muslims practice FGM/C. FGM/C is global … occurs in every continent in the world except Antarctica. And where FGM/C does occur in Islamic communities, it is a very small minority,” Taher says.

“The truth is FGM/C is a social norm justified in all sorts of ways – religion, health, social status, marriageability, tradition, culture, etc. This social norm was started before the advent of Islam and Christianity – meaning it pre-dates those religions. Yet, in doing this work today, speaking out against Islamophobia as well as xenophobia is vital when working on FGM/C.”

Ranalvi said the decision to turn to legal action only happened when all else had failed.

“We knocked at the doors of the courts when all attempts at dialogue with the clergy and leadership within the community failed. The support of enacted laws and of institutional bodies to give power to our resistance and enable us to take control over our bodies and help end this violation, is imperative,” adds Ranalvi.

As the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation on February 6th nears, it can only be hoped that FGM/C, a widely prevalent but dark secret that violates women’s human rights and practised by various communities across the world, ends.

Mariya Salim is a fellow at IPS UN Bureau

The post The Struggle to End Female Genital Mutilation: A Dark Secret No More appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

“Saving Journalism: A Vision for the Post-Covid World”

Wed, 01/27/2021 - 19:18

By Anya Anya Schiffrin - Hannah Clifford - Allynn McInerney - Kylie Tumiatti and Léa Allirajah
Jan 27 2021 (IPS)

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, journalists everywhere are feeling the consequences; job cuts, layoffs and closures have swept the world.

Philanthropists, journalism organizations, economists and governments have come up with solutions to address this financial devastation, some calling for greater collaboration among these groups. In a new report from Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, “Saving Journalism: A Vision for the Post-Covid World,” we analyzed initiatives around the world that hope to save the industry.
Our research noted renewed interest in government and Big Tech funding news and an emphasis on preserving what exists rather than starting up new outlets that may not survive.

To make sense of the proposed solutions, we broke them up into four categories, established by Luminate foundation’s managing director Nishant Lalwani: getting Big Tech to help pay for news, government subsidies and other kinds of support, new business models and philanthropic funding. A few solutions are outlined below:

1) Getting Big Tech companies to pay for news

Many of the people we spoke with feel strongly that it’s time to get big tech companies to substantially support journalism and to get governments involved in making that happen.

One pathbreaking example is the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission’s new media code that would force Google and Facebook to pay for news. Introduced to parliament in December, the law would require the tech companies to pay for news they use and force them into binding arbitration if they cannot agree on a price.

The law would also require the tech companies to notify news outlets before they change algorithms that affect audience traffic. If passed the law would create a more balanced relationship between news organizations and the platforms. Germany, Spain and France have, in the past, all tried to use copyright laws to get big tech to pay for news.

The difference here is that Australia is using competition law to change the balance of power between big tech and media companies. If it gets passed, then Australia will have accomplished something that the US has not succeeded in doing although there are efforts underway to get the tech companies to pay for news. These include Free Press’s 2019 proposal to tax microtargeted advertising and use the funds to pay for “civic journalism” and the bi-partisan Journalism Competition & Preservation Act which would allow publishers to band together when negotiating payments with Google and Facebook.

2) Public subsidies

We’re also seen renewed interest in government support for news including in Africa and the US which have traditionally been more wary of the dangers of public funding. Now journalists are looking wistfully at the countries that included funding for journalism as part of their broader Covid relief efforts. Norway, Denmark, Canada, Australia and Singapore stepped up with extra government funding and/or tax credits to support quality journalism and journalists during the pandemic. Australia’s government created an A$50 million (US$35.3 million) Public Interest News Gathering Fund in May to help maintain public-interest journalism in regional areas. And Norway (EFJ, 2020a) and Singapore have also provided subsidies to outlets and freelancers during Covid-19, with Norway allocating NK27 million (US$2.9 million) to media organizations that lost advertising income due to the virus. The government dedicated DKK180 million (US$28.3 million) to compensating outlets for lost advertising revenue between March and June in 2020.

All these ideas can and should be replicated in other parts of the world. In the U.S. there are a number of proposals for supporting news, including the Local Journalism Sustainability Act which was introduced in July 2020. The proposed law would provide federal tax credits to local media outlets for subscriptions, journalists’ compensation and advertising. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) has introduced a bill for a commission to study how to help local news. Advocates are hoping that some of these plans will be voted on in 2021.

In Kenya, journalist Mark Kapchanga argues that some endangered news outlets should receive financial assistance from the government but that the funds must be delivered in such a way that the outlets can safely maintain their independence, for instance, through the Media Council of Kenya.

3) New business models

Innovators are also looking to see what kinds of changes can be made to current business models so that quality journalism can be preserved in the future. In Southern Africa, Botswanan journalist Ntibinyane Ntibinyane is seeking funds for The Digital Transitions Project that would safeguard the survival of quality journalism outlets in Southern Africa and help them transition into the long term.

In the U.S., 6,700 local news outlets are owned by hedge funds, which is worrisome for many media professionals because these funds are not interested in supporting news long- term but in making short- term profit. Rather than waiting for them to be asset stripped and killed off, Steve Waldman, the former senior advisor to the chair of the Federal Communications Commission has been thinking about how these newspapers could be transformed and survive. In October 2020, Waldman launched A Replanting Strategy: Saving Local Newspapers Squeezed by Hedge Funds, proposing that these outlets be turned into non-profits or locally owned outlets, which is similar to proposals from Free Press and academic Victor Pickard.

4) Foundation funding
Foundation funding has sustained hundreds, if not thousands, of small start-ups around the world and in 2020 many organizations established emergency funds during the pandemic and were inundated with eager applicants. Google News Initiative funded outlets in Latin America, Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe and the US providing grants ranging from US$5,000 to US$30,000 to 5,300 newsrooms — selected from nearly 12,000 applicants. outlets applied to their Journalism Emergency Relief Fund.

Latin American governments have done little to support journalism so it’s mostly been foundations, Google and Facebook that have stepped in to help. Facebook and the International Center for Journalists provided US$2 million in grants for Latin American outlets to help them cover covid and also to survive. In Ecuador, two universities (Universidad San Francisco de Quito and Universidad UTE) teamed up with two media outlets, El Universo and Codigo Vidrio, to win a grant from the US government to counteract Disinformation and Misinformation in the Age of Covid.

Lessons Learned:

Each of the above categories offers some promise for providing more substantial and sustainable support for journalism in the future. However, none of these can stand on their own, especially as the pandemic worsens an already growing crisis. While philanthropic support has enabled hundreds, if not thousands, of media outlets around the world, more systemic support is needed.

The above examples offer some ideas. In addition, we’d like to see more donor coordination and government support aimed at keeping existing outlets alive and strengthening the local news ecosystem, rather than funding small startups that may wind up competing with each other. Our research suggests there is lots to be learned from countries around the world that provide government support for quality journalism and try to get big tech companies to help pay for news.

Dr. Anya Schiffrin is senior lecturer at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. She wrote the report with her students: Hannah Clifford, Allynn McInerney, Kylie Tumiatti and Léa Allirajah. Further research was done by Chloe Oldham.

This article first appeared in the Columbia Journalism Review on January 13, 2021.

The post “Saving Journalism: A Vision for the Post-Covid World” appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

New Report Maps Ambitious Covid-era Efforts Around the World to Save Journalism

The post “Saving Journalism: A Vision for the Post-Covid World” appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Will vaccine nationalism lead to the exclusion of Rohingya refugees?

Wed, 01/27/2021 - 12:05

By Md Saimum Reza Talukder
Jan 27 2021 (IPS-Partners)

The World Health Organization (WHO) has adopted “leaving no one behind” and “equitable access to vaccines” as the basic principles for Covid-19 vaccination around the world. GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, has also set up “equitable and sustainable use of vaccines” and “leaving no one behind” as the core of their high-level strategy for worldwide immunisation. All these strategies are in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals. However, global vaccination is not just a mere strategy or goal. This relates to the right to healthcare, which is an integral part of the right to life and must be ensured irrespective of nationality, religion, race, creed or culture.

According to a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), around 79.5 million people had been forced worldwide from their homes due to persecution, conflict and human rights violations as of mid-2020. That number includes 29.6 million refugees, 4.2 million asylum seekers and 45.7 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Around 34 million of this 79.5 million are children. Unfortunately, it is not clear who will ensure the Covid-19 vaccination of all these people. According to UNHCR in January 2021, “around 90 countries are currently developing national Covid-19 vaccination strategies and 51—or 57 per cent—have included refugees in their vaccination plans”. This trend reminds us that most of the UN member states are ignoring, if not denying, the responsibility to “respect”, “protect” and “promote” human rights principles as per the UN Charter towards refugees, IDPs and stateless people.

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), “vaccine nationalism” has stood as a massive blow to the global vision for universal and equitable access to an affordable vaccine. Vaccine nationalism is when countries prioritise inoculating their own populations before others. Experts have already warned that this vaccine nationalism would prolong the Covid-19 pandemic by years. From the point of view of public health discourse, it is impossible to break or sustainably slow the transmission of the coronavirus unless a minimum of 70 percent of the population has acquired immunity. That is why the UNHCR believes that the exclusion of refugees, IDPs and stateless people from vaccination plans carries the risk of ongoing transmission in these populations, with spillovers into the global population. HRW also thinks that opaque vaccine deals could undermine a global recovery from the pandemic.

It is to be mentioned that refugees, IDPs and stateless people are more vulnerable to the Covid-19 pandemic than others. According to UNHCR, more than 85 percent of refugees are hosted in low- and middle-income countries, where health systems have often been overwhelmed, with limited capacity to manage persons with severe Covid-19 complications. UNHCR also stated that refugees, forcibly displaced and the stateless are often unable to practice social distancing due to overcrowded living arrangements, and with inadequate access to information and health care services, they remain at a high risk of contracting the virus.

There are currently around 866,457 officially registered Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh (although the Bangladesh government terms them as FDMN or Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals), living in just 26 square kilometres of land in Cox’s Bazar, with poor access to clean water and other hygiene facilities. Other estimates suggest there are close to 1.1 million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. According to the Rohingya Crisis Situation Report 29 by WHO from October 2020, the total number of confirmed Covid-19 patients amongst Rohingya refugees were 310. The report also suggested that nine refugees had died from Covid-19.

While it is good news that the transmission of coronavirus in the refugee camps has been kept under control, we must also remember that it is almost impossible to maintain physical distance in such an extremely overcrowded place like the Rohingya refugee camps. According to HRW, the internet shutdown and mobile phone restrictions in the camps have hindered humanitarian aid groups’ ability to provide emergency health services and rapidly coordinate essential preventive measures for the Covid-19 pandemic. We should not forget that as Myanmar does not recognise Rohingyas as its citizen, it has left them as stateless people and turned them into one of the most vulnerable populations in the world. The Rohingya face persistent public health risks, which are likely to be exacerbated by a pandemic. So far, there is no hope that Rohingya refugees would get Covid-19 vaccines from the Myanmar government. There are also no effective international efforts yet to pressurise Myanmar regarding vaccination of the Rohingyas. Nor we have seen any specific commitment from the international community regarding vaccination of the Rohingyas, although global immunisation should be the shared responsibility of all countries.

Bangladesh also has a responsibility towards Rohingya refugees because it has pledged to respect international law and the principles enunciated in the UN Charter, according to Article 25 of its Constitution. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had outlined the Bangladesh Preparedness and Response Plan for Covid-19 in July 2020. Although this national strategy recognised Rohingya refugees as a vulnerable population at increased risk of the rapid spread of Covid-19, Bangladesh is yet to declare a probable vaccination strategy and allocation for Rohingyas. According to a report in this daily, the COVAX programme led by the WHO and GAVI is supposed to give Bangladesh vaccines for 34 million people within 2021. However, it is not clear whether the GAVI would request the Bangladesh government to include Rohingyas in this vaccination programme or not.

The Covid-19 pandemic is a public health emergency which requires emergency medical supplies, including emergency access to vaccine. In the case of Syed Saifuddin Kamal and BLAST vs Bangladesh and others [Emergency Medical Services Case], the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh opined that failure to provide emergency medical services is a serious violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 27 (equality before law), Article 31 (protection of law) and Article 32 (right to life, liberty and security) of the Constitution. These constitutional safeguards should also be extended to Rohingya refugees by interpreting the “spirit of the law”. Thus, vaccine nationalism must not prevail over equality, human dignity and social justice, which are the founding principles of Bangladesh.

Md Saimum Reza Talukder teaches Cyber Law at BRAC University.

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

The post Will vaccine nationalism lead to the exclusion of Rohingya refugees? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

60 Days on, India’s Biggest Farmers’ Protest Shows No Sign of Weakening

Wed, 01/27/2021 - 11:42

Apple farmers in Kashmir package their crops to send to a mandi or market yard. According to policy, wholesale transactions between farmers and traders must take place in a mandi, yet the market yards have become hubs of widespread corruption where a small group of sale agents have taken control. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

By Stella Paul
HYDERABAD, Jan 27 2021 (IPS)

“This road is my home now and it will decide my future,” Sukhvinder Singh, a 27-year old farmer from the Moga district of Punjab, tells IPS. Last November, weeks after the government of India passed three farm bills he felt were anti-farmer, Singh travelled to Singhu, a village near Delhi, to demand the laws be repealed. Since then, he has been living in a tent he shares with five other fellow farmer-protesters.

On Sunday night the temperature dipped to 7°Celsius but Singh’s voice sounded warm and loud, betraying the cold. “Its like spending another night in the field, guarding my wheat crops,” he says.

There are currently an estimated 300,000 farmers protesting at Singhu, which has now turned into a tent city.

Though mobilised by 32 different groups, the farmers are unified in their demand: a total repeal of all three new laws:

Farmers protests: Outburst of years of anger

The farmers’ protest on the edge of New Delhi started on Nov. 26, but this has been a movement years in the making.

According to food and farm experts, uncertain and erratic pricing, lack of access to the market, low returns, recurring losses and debt burdens have been part of an average farmer’s life across the country, including Punjab, for a very long time.

While a section of the experts think that the state must accept responsibility for the well-being of farmers and compensate them for their losses, the other section believes that the government should just embrace and promote a free market policy with minimal interventions and regulations over the agriculture market.

The government interventions have, till now, included Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) — a system where the states announced MSP for 22 crops before their sowing seasons. This also included the procurement of grains and pulses from farmers by the government to run its subsidised food distribution to the poor (PDS system), the regulation of wholesale trade with farmers, control of stocks with traders, and control of exports and imports.

However, the new farm policies have sided with the free-market policy advocates and adopted exactly the opposite of what farmers want: strict enforcement of the MSP and greater intervention by the government in the procurement and wholesale trade.

“Indian farmers have been protesting for years, but the country failed to take notice. For example, in recent years, we have seen milk farmers pouring pails of milk on the streets and vegetable farmers have crushed their fresh produce under bulldozers – all in a way to protest the volatile and erratic pricing that forced them to suffer huge losses,” Kavitha Kuruganti, a well-known activist and farm expert from Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture or ASHA-Kisan Swaraj network, a national network of organisations working on food, farmers and freedom, tells IPS.

“But every time, the protest ended with a verbal assurance by the government or a piece of paper saying their grievances would be looked into,” says Kuruganti.

Sandhya Mohite, a marginal cotton farmer in Maharashtra state’s suicide-affected Yavatmal region. Cotton is one of the crops where Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) system has worked but now, according to the country’s new farm laws, farmers will be no longer guaranteed a minimum price on produce. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS

What farmers want vs what they are offered

In India, the wholesale purchase of produce from farmers is regulated by the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act 2003. According to the policy, wholesale transactions between farmers and traders must take place in a mandi — a designated market yard.The sale of produce under public scrutiny brought a level of protection from being cheated on weights and measures and price. There are hundreds of such mandis across the country, which are governed by an elected body of APMC authority.

However, over time, the market yards have become hubs of widespread corruption where a small group of sale agents have taken control and influenced APMC officials with their economic power and ties to major political parties. Unable to stand up to these price fixers, the farmers have had no option other than to play along and bear the losses.

The government acknowledges the cartelisation and, as a solution, is allowing alternate channels such as privately-managed market places which can compete with the regulated APMC mandis for the farmer’s produce.

In addition, farmers will be able to sell directly to consumers. Large buyers, such as firms engaged in food processing, large scale retail or exports can also bypass the wholesale markets altogether and buy directly from farmers.

These ideas were first recommended by the Swaminathan Commission – an experts’ committee tasked by the government in 2004 to finding solutions to problems faced by farmers.

However, the Swaminathan Commission also recommended a higher MSP and protective regulations for farmers while doing contract farming for large private traders. But the new laws do not include either of these recommendations.

The farmers now fear that since the MSP is no longer mandatory, they will be forced to accept any price large firms offer. Food crop growers also argue that they cannot even transport their produce to the nearest market yard without incurring losses. And they question how can they reach and sell at markets faraway.

The big player scare

In December 2020, even as their protests gathered steam, farmers across Punjab pulled down hundreds of mobile towers belonging to Reliance Jio Infocomm — India’s largest cellular service network. The protesters targeted the network after it was rumoured that large corporations like Reliance industries, along with Adani group, would be entering the contract farming business, potentially pushing independent farmers out of their livelihoods. After over 1,500 Jio telecom towers were damaged, the company finally approached the court and also clarified in a statement that it had no farm business plans. But the fear lingers.

Harmandeep Singh, a farmer from Tarn Tarn, Punjab tells IPS: “Today they are saying there are no plans. But tomorrow it may change. These companies are so rich, they can buy any amount of land and push us out of the business. Who will stop them?”

However, the entry of big corporations in agriculture happened well before a more corporate-friendly Modi government came in power, Subramaniam Kannaiyan, General Secretary of South Indian Coordination Committee of Farmers Movements (SICCFM), tells IPS.

“In 2011, the then Congress Government had allowed 100 percent foreign investment in several sectors of agriculture, so the corporates have been there for a long time already. In fact, since we joined World Trade Organisation (WTO), opening up of the markets has become inevitable. However, there should be a balance and ways to support and protect the local, small farmers and for that the APMC should play a stronger role, not be done away with,” says Kannaiyan, who is also a member of the global small farmers movement La Via Campesina.

No takers for a 3rd party role

On Jan. 12, the Supreme Court of India formed a 4-member committee to hold talks between the government and the farmers to resolve the protests over the farm laws. But the farmers were quick to reject the committee and refused to be part of it.

“When there is a dialogue underway between the government and the protesting farmers, there is absolutely no need for the Supreme Court to take on a mediatory role given that neither the government nor the union leaders have approached the Supreme Court and said, ‘please resolve this,” says Kuruganti, who is also a member of the 41-member farmers delegation that has been holding the talks with the government.

So far, there have been 11 rounds of dialogues which centre around not just ‘techno-legal’ issues but also on policy directions and policy implications — “areas where the Supreme Court has no role to play,” Kuruganti says, explaining why the farmers do not see any merit in joining the review committee.

“The problem today is, except for Punjab and Haryana, there is no large farmers union anywhere else in this country,” says Kannaiyan of SICCFM.

“This is why a movement of this magnitude can be led only by farmers from those states. But we stand by them strongly in solidarity.”

Digging their heels deeper

Yesterday, Jan. 26, India celebrated its Republic Day – the day the country’s constitution came into effect. The celebration usually includes a token display of the country’s military might by parading its nation’s defence weaponry.

But this week, the nation witnessed a different parade: a 100-km long tractor rally by the protester farmers. The government tried to prevent the rally by getting a court order and some of states also banned sale of fuel to tractors, but this failed to dissuade the farmers who were determined to carry out the rally. Many vowed to only return home after the 3 farm bills have been repealed.

Yesterday, thousands of protesting farmers marched to New Delhi’s historic Red Fort.

There were skirmishes between police and a small number of protesters, but the majority of protesters were peaceful. Police reportedly dispersed the crowd with tear gas and one protester died after a tractor overturned and fell on him.

“The government is trying to show the world that it has done a great job by building weapons. Now we want to tell the world that a country that a country is not made great by making weapons but by respecting its farmers and by restoring its economic lifeline – the agriculture which is not happening right now,” Mandeep Kaur, a woman farmer with small land holding from Punjab’s Ludhiana who has travelled to Singhu several times during the past two months to join the protests, tells IPS.

Indeed, the Food Sustainability Index, developed by the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition and the Economist Intelligence Unit, ranks India 4th overall, behind Colombia and China, in a ranking middle income countries’ sustainability and greatest progress towards meeting environmental, societal and economic key performance indicators for agriculture.

On Jan. 22, after the 11th round of discussions, the government offered to delay the implementation of the farm laws for 12 to 18 months – allowing farmers the additional time to prepare themselves for the future. However, as the farmers refused to settle for anything less than a full repeal of the legislation, the government declined to announce dates for further discussions.

The impasse has failed to move the farmers from their stance, but some are asking the government to not make it a show of ego.

“Accepting the demands of the farmers and repealing the farm laws should not be seen as a victory of the farmers or the loss of the government; it should be seen as a victory of democracy,” Kuruganthi says.

Meanwhile, farmers from several states including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Kerala and Telangana have lent their support to the protest movement.

And today, Jan. 27, a day after the Republic Day protest, Kuruganthi says “the protest movement will continue peacefully”.

The post 60 Days on, India’s Biggest Farmers’ Protest Shows No Sign of Weakening appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Yesterday, Jan. 26, India celebrated its Republic Day. But it was marked by scenes of farmers driving their tractors in convoy and marching to New Delhi's historic Red Fort. IPS senior correspondent STELLA PAUL unpacks the issues behind India's farmers' protests.

The post 60 Days on, India’s Biggest Farmers’ Protest Shows No Sign of Weakening appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

An American Horror story

Wed, 01/27/2021 - 10:52

By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Jan 27 2021 (IPS)

Occasionally some of us might suffer from a feeling of maximal overload, overwhelmed by COVID-19 and the reign of Donald Trump. It can maybe be conceived as far too euro-centric to be concerned about the disastrous situation in the U.S., with media stuffed to the brim by news about Donald Trump while the global environmental crisis is steadily getting worse and war, injustices and famine continue to agonize people in places like Darfur, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Syria.

First Lady Melania Trump decorates Rush Limbaugh with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Nevertheless, what happened in Washington on 6th of January indicates that something has gone outrageously wrong. The ongoing catastrophe which, among other things, was crowned with the triumph of the media product Donald Trump did not disappear with his election loss. People who fell victims to lies spread by irresponsible, shallow and hate mongering media are still among us, not only in the U.S., but all over the planet. Let me, for the sake of simplicity, focus on the situation in the U. S.. How could so many individuals put their trust in a narcissistic, manipulative and blatantly ignorant world leader? A man able to seduce some of his admirers to storm their nation’s popularly elected legislature while claiming they did so in the name of “democracy”.

One starting-point for a search for the roots of the U.S. anti-democratic movement could be the open wounds left by the U.S. Civil War, when the Congress in 1871 adopted the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution, extending civil and legal protection to former slaves, while prohibiting any member of the federation from disenfranchising voters “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” This did not hinder several state legislatures from continuing to deny former slaves their legal rights and terrorize black citizens for exercising their rights to vote, running for public office, and serving on juries. In response, Congress passed a series of Enforcement Acts and empowered the American president to use military force to protect African Americans, something several U.S. citizens perceived as an infringement of their rights and came to consider the Federal Government as a means to introduce “socialism” to control the life of every citizen.

After World War I, opponents to “socialism” rose to prominence, while black veterans demanded equal rights and labour unions became emboldened by European demands for social justice and the Russian revolution. For example, mine workers demand for higher wages and better working conditions culminated in violent and lethal clashes, like the Herrin Massacre in 1922 and the so called Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921, the largest armed uprising since the Civil War.

Lynchings reached their height by the beginning of last century and during the 1920’s, primarily targeting African-Americans and other ethnic minorities. In 1921, mobs of white citizens, several of them provided with weapons by city officials, attacked black residents in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, destroying more than 35 square blocks of the district, known as the wealthiest black community in the U.S.. Afterwards, 6,000 black residents were interned and the official death toll was determined as 36 “dead Negroes”.

The white supremacist hate group Ku Klux Klan grew after 1920 and flourished nationwide. At its peak in the mid-1920s, the organization claimed to include about 15 percent of the nation’s population, approximately 4 to 5 million men.

In the 1930s, the Federal Government of Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt answered to the Great Depression by establishing business regulations, a basic social safety net, and a government-funded infrastructure. Measures that were met with fierce opposition from wealthy business- and industry owners, as well as right-wing politicians. A resistance that may be exemplified by an often quoted paragraph in a letter written by Senator Henry Hatfield when Roosevelt in 1932 had won the elections and introduced his New Deal:

This is despotism, this is tyranny, this is the annihilation of liberty. The ordinary citizen is thus reduced to the status of a robot. The president has not only signed the death warrant of capitalism.

Such opinions are now commonplace in the U.S., and not the least shared by its now former president, claimed author of The Art of the Deal, which actually was entirely ghost-written. This wealthy businessman supports a view that a Government actively supporting well-being for all its citizens undermines American liberty by redistributing tax dollars from hard-working men and women to those eager for handouts, i.e. minority groups who in junction with “crooked” politicians are opposed to “Making America Great Again”. Again? This probably means combatting any government intending to guarantee equal rights, justice and well-being and accuse it of “bringing socialism to America”. The motto of “Making America Great Again”, may with a historic hindsight mean an intention to force any U.S. Government back to the form it had in the 1920s, when unquestioned privileges were enjoyed by a white elite, while social injustice and racism reigned almost unabated.

Such intentions became more feasible after 1987, when the so called Fairness Doctrine ended. This doctrine meant that a Federal Communications Commission policy required public media channels to base their stories on fact and present both sides of an issue. When this doctrine was abolished the scene was set for talk radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh (who last year was awarded with the Presidential Medal of Freedom) and his equivalents at the cable television news network Fox News, to spread a message that their ideal nation now is threatened by “socialism”. A covert, and occasionally quite open, message indicating that hard-working white men who take care of their wives and children are constrained and discriminated by Big Government, which is taxing them to give benefits to lazy people of colour and Feminazis. “Liberals” undermine the nation’ s morals and destroy “family values”, aided and abetted by lawmakers busy with the construction of a ruthless System that sucks tax dollars.

In 1993, federal officers stormed the centre of a religious cult stockpiling weapons in a compound in Waco, Texas. Seventy-six people died. Rush Limbaugh stoked his listeners’ anger with reports of Big Government murdering U.S. citizens, making much of the idea that a group of Christians had been killed on orders from Attorney General Janet Reno, an “unfeminine” Government official.

Talk show host Alex Jones warned that Reno’s “murder” of people at Waco was part of Big Government’s plan to impose martial law and take the guns away from “law-abiding” citizens. An army veteran, Timothy McVeigh, decided that “we have to shed blood to reform the current system.” On April 19, 1995, a date chosen to honour the Waco stand-off, McVeigh set off a bomb in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, including 19 children at a day care centre, and wounding more than 800 people.

For the past four years, Trump and his enablers have insisted that current unrest is caused by Islamist terrorists, anarchists and radicalised immigrants, this in spite of the fact the Department of Homeland Security has declared that the biggest threat to the Nation’s stability and security comes from groups believing that their liberties are being “taken away by the perceived unconstitutional or otherwise illegitimate actions of government officials, or law enforcement.” Anti-government protesters who currently are joined by white supremacists and other affiliated groups. People, who after storming the seat of the United States Congress and legislative branch of the U.S. federal government, were called “patriots” by the then President Donald J. Trump, who furthermore stated “I love you”.

This is what happens when racial hatred, misogyny and chauvinism are not only ignored but even supported by the highest authority of a nation. In the name of global justice we can no longer ignore the hatred that has been brewing in the U.S.. Persons who for their own benefit have added fuel to the fire must be held accountable. Lack of space forbids me to present a long list of places where an unwillingness to address issues such as inequality and increasing violence have caused immense human suffering. I sincerely hope that the Congress, the Senate, the President and the people of the United States will be able to once and for all put a definite halt to this dangerous rise of chauvinism and bring to justice those who with their lies have instigated the rise of home-grown terrorism and lured mentally fragile people to embrace Qanon and similar, deranged conspiracy theories

Sources: Perliger, Arie (2020) American Zealots: Inside Right-Wing Domestic Terrorism. New York: Columbia University Press. Wade, Wyn Craig (1987) The Fiery Cross: The Ku Klux Klan in America. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Jan Lundius holds a PhD. on History of Religion from Lund University and has served as a development expert, researcher and advisor at SIDA, UNESCO, FAO and other international organisations.

The post An American Horror story appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

COVID-19’s Social & Economic Fallout Hits Women Harder

Wed, 01/27/2021 - 10:23

A profound shock to our societies and economies, the COVID-19 pandemic underscores society’s reliance on women both on the front line and at home, while simultaneously exposing structural inequalities across every sphere. Responding to the pandemic is not just about rectifying long-standing inequalities, but also about building a resilient world in the interest of everyone with women at the centre of recovery. Credit: United Nations

By Constanza Tabbush
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 27 2021 (IPS)

With over 90 million confirmed cases and 1.9 million deaths globally, and a second wave sweeping into 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to hold the world hostage.

Less visible and talked about is how its social and economic fallout is hitting women hard – and often harder than men. The latest data shows that the pandemic is poised to push 47 million women and girls into extreme poverty, increasing the total number of women and girls living in extreme poverty to 435 million.

The projections also show that this number will not revert to pre-pandemic levels until 2030. To recover from this crisis, decisive government action is imperative to safeguard the rights and needs of women and girls.

As governments around the world scramble to protect jobs, pass fiscal stimulus packages and social protection measures, how can policymakers ensure that their COVID-19 responses work for women and girls, whose needs, priorities and voices are chronically absent from the data and analysis that shapes policies?

Recently, UN Women and UNDP launched the COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker, a real-time database that includes more than 2,500 policy measures across 206 countries indicating how governments are responding to the pandemic from a gender equality perspective.

This rich repository of policy data – covering measures on violence against women, women’s economic security and unpaid care – is now providing evidence-based guidance to policymakers about gender-sensitive response measures that protect the lives, jobs and wellbeing of both women and men.

Throughout 2021, UN Women and UNDP will deliver periodic updates of the Gender Tracker, as well as incorporate new data on women’s leadership in the COVID-19 response.

Constanza Tabbush, Research Specialist at UN Women. Credit: Felicitas Rossi

Here are five key lessons emerging from the Gender Tracker, with a focus on social protection and labour market policies:

1. Put women’s needs at the centre of the socioeconomic response

The Gender Tracker shows that countries around the world mounted extraordinary social protection and jobs responses to the pandemic in 2020. However, although women are facing higher job and income losses than men, only ten per cent of the 1,310 social protection and job measures taken so far explicitly aim to strengthen women’s economic security.

Cash transfers and food aid that directly target or prioritise women are among the most common measures. Yet this social assistance targeting women is often small-scale, temporary and offers minimal benefits to women in need.

This is especially worrying because the economic uncertainty triggered by the pandemic is far from over and forecasts predict female poverty is likely to increase. In 2021, it is expected there will be 118 women in poverty for every 100 poor men globally.

Curbing the rise of poverty among women needs robust and interconnected social protection measures from the government that safeguards them from risks and vulnerabilities from childhood to old age.

2. Prolong COVID-related emergency measures benefiting women

Policymakers will need to sustain, scale up and replicate existing measures supporting women’s economic security in 2021. So far, most social protection programmes have not lasted through the duration of lockdowns or the longer-term economic downturn, often leaving beneficiaries high and dry after a few months.

Early in 2020, cash transfers and food assistance were key to women’s livelihood security. Most of the schemes were short-lived, lasting an average of 3.3 months.

In Togo, for instance, the innovative three-month emergency coronavirus cash transfer programme (Novissi) targeting informal workers included larger benefits for women, but has now been discontinued.

Togo is not the exception, but the rule. Emerging evidence suggests that out of 429 cash programmes, only 32 were extended for an additional period.

3. Extend assistance to informal workers to prevent more women from falling into poverty

In many developing countries, women work mostly in the informal economy – in areas such as domestic work, market trading or agriculture – and are often vulnerable to poverty and fall through the cracks of existing welfare systems.

Sustaining and scaling up the extension of social protection to informal workers in 2021 is vital in supporting women and their families economically.

Last year, countries including Brazil, Colombia, Kenya, Morocco, the Philippines and South Africa, launched new cash transfer programmes targeting informal workers, some of which provided extra benefits for women.

The emergency cash transfer in Brazil stands out for doubling benefit levels for women heads of households, providing them with approximately USD 215 per month (versus USD 107 for other beneficiaries).

Its positive impacts added political momentum to parliamentary and civil society initiatives for a basic income programme in the country. If improved, these temporary measures can thereby provide a stepping stone to more permanent solutions for women in the informal economy.

4. Improve access to paid leave and childcare services so that women can hold on to their jobs and return to work

Since the onset of the pandemic, women’s share of the unpaid work of cleaning, cooking and childcare has increased, contributing to an exodus of women from the labour force.

Alarmingly, only 60 out of 206 countries have taken steps to address unpaid care demands, by expanding paid family leaves or flexible work arrangements. Support for public childcare services – which are critical for women to hold on to their jobs – has been minimal.

Despite this, a handful of inspiring countries, including Costa Rica, Australia and Canada, declared childcare services essential. For instance, the Government of Canada recently announced major new investments in childcare services as part of its economic recovery plan.

It is not too late for policymakers to promote swift actions to counter the heavy toll the pandemic is having on women’s labour force participation. Failure to do so may leave women with permanent scars from the economic crisis catalysed by the pandemic.

5. Invest in social protection systems now to build resilient societies

The COVID-19 pandemic will not be the last shock our societies endure, and decision-makers are already looking for ways to buffer or prevent future blows. The time to invest in strengthening national social protection systems is now.

Countries that invested in their social protection systems before the pandemic were better prepared to quickly scale up or adapt cash transfers in response to the crisis, with positive ripple-effects for women.

High-income countries in Europe, for instance, relied heavily on their well-developed social insurance systems. Meanwhile, middle-, and some low-income countries (like Argentina, Bolivia, Egypt and South Africa) were also among the 39 countries that quickly rolled out cash transfers with direct benefits to women.

However, in the absence of comprehensive systems, other countries struggled to put in place an adequate response. Every economic crisis further erodes the little resources the most vulnerable have, widening gender and social inequalities.

Only by investing in universal social protection systems now, can we ensure that this or future crises do not deepen women’s disadvantage, and that that disadvantage does not pass on from one generation to the next.

Source: UN Women

The post COVID-19’s Social & Economic Fallout Hits Women Harder appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Constanza Tabbush is a Research Specialist at UN Women. She co-authored the latest edition of UN Women’s flagship report, Progress of the World’s Women, and has published extensively on gender, social movements and social policy. Constanza has a PhD in Sociology from the University of London, and prior to joining UN Women, worked as a Research Associate at the National Research Council in Argentina.

The post COVID-19’s Social & Economic Fallout Hits Women Harder appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Categories: Africa

Pages

THIS IS THE NEW BETA VERSION OF EUROPA VARIETAS NEWS CENTER - under construction
the old site is here
Copy & Drop - Can`t find your favourite site? Send us the RSS or URL to the following address: info(@)europavarietas(dot)org.

You are here

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE

Pages