Uganda: Kampala gears up for e-mobility

Uganda's motorbikes go green

Kampala's boda bodas — motorcycle taxis — are discovering how solar power can make the streets cleaner and their business greener.

Project aim: To help Uganda make the switch to electric mobility and raise awareness of green technology

Budget: The project is part of a $34-million initiative led by the United Nations Environment Program and the International Energy Agency to support the transition of 17 developing and transition countries to electric mobility

Project partners: Implemented by the International Climate Initiative of the German Environment Ministry in partnership with the Ugandan Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development

Electric mobility is still a new phenomenon in Uganda, with fewer than 10% of the vehicles on Kampala's roads electrically powered. But a new project by the German Environment Ministry's International Climate Initiative and the United Nations Development Program aims to change all that. The goal is to bring cleaner air to Uganda's cities and at the same time create new jobs in green technology.

In Kampala, motorcycles are the number one way to get around and local companies Zembo and Bodawerk are leading the charge to make them cleaner. Bodawerk converts conventional motorcycles, while Zembo imports tailor-made e-bikes from China and is building a network of solar-powered charging stations.

For the boda boda drivers who ferry paying passengers around the Ugandan capital on their motorbikes, the switch to e-bikes is proving a good investment.

A film by Wolf Gebhardt and Julius Mugambwa

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Uganda: Kampala gears up for e-mobility

Date 12.05.2020
Homepage Global 3000 - The Globalization Program
Related Subjects Energiewende (Transition to renewable power sources), Solar power, Renewable energy
Keywords Renewables, Uganda, solar, electric mobility, motorbikes
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Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3btGM

CULTURE
Why Hannah Arendt remains inspiring today

The German-American philosopher was one of the great political thinkers of the 20th century. Berlin's German Historical Museum has dedicated an exhibition to Hannah Arendt, who remains more relevant than ever.

FOR HANNAH ARENDT, SMOKING AND THINKING BELONGED TOGETHER
The thinker
A philosopher, writer and professor of political theory: Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) became renowned in the US and worldwide for her works examining revolutions and totalitarian systems, as well as the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, in which she radically questioned traditions and ideologies.
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The poster for the exhibition "Hannah Arendt and the 20th Century" — delayed due to the coronavirus shutdowns but now opening on May 11 — is a black-and-white close-up of the German philosopher, chin in hand, face tilted slightly upward, a thoughtful look on her face and a lit cigarette in her hand. Its thought-provoking caption reads: "No one has the right to obey."
The exhibition examines in 16 chapters the thinker's subjective perspective on historical events — with photos, sound and film documents, objects from Arendt's private estate and international loans. The aim is to present key events in 20th century history in a new way.

Hannah Arendt's work is indeed ideally suited for this purpose. The philosopher published works on anti-Semitism, colonialism and racism, the Nazis and Stalinism in her straightforward style — demonstrating that critical thinking could be both daring and entertaining.

The list of controversies the intellectual philosopher triggered is long, and her 1963 book Eichmann in Jerusalem — a major focus in the exhibition — certainly tops that list.

In 1961, Hannah Arendt witnessed the trial of former SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem as a reporter. Eichmann was responsible for the deportations of millions of Jews to concentration and extermination camps.

Arendt's article on the trial appeared in 1963 in The New Yorker and then as a book with the subtitle, "A Report on the Banality of Evil." She describes Adolf Eichmann as a technocrat without convictions who stylized himself as a mere tool of his superiors.

Model of crematorium II in Auschwitz-Birkenau, by Polish artist Mieczyslaw Stobierski

The banality of evil

The banality of evil, the famous phrase coined by Arendt, is characterized by organized thoughtlessness and irresponsibility, she wrote. The "unconditional" obedience that Eichmann repeatedly referred to was an expression of this thoughtlessness and irresponsibility.

The controversy surrounding Arendt's report was sparked not only by the title and the question of "banality," but also by the fact that she questioned the reaction of the "Judenräte" (Jewish Councils) to developments in Germany at the time. Were the members of these institutions guilty of collaboration?

Read more: The ratlines: What did the Vatican know about Nazi escape routes?


Interrogation records from the Eichmann trial

"We are putting Hannah Arendt's analysis of 20th-century issues up for discussion," says exhibition curator Monika Boll. "Not because we believe that Hannah Arendt is always right, but by transmitting her enthusiasm for analytical thinking to the visitors, we want them to form their own opinions."

Hannah Arendt, who viewed critical thought as an eminently political activity, would most certainly have agreed with that approach. After all, the philosopher felt that National Socialism spelled not only a collapse of all moral values, but also the breakdown of the ability to show judgment, points out Boll. Opinions were synchronized; people learned to talk as "we" and not "I" — and the question of personal responsibility was thus shifted to impersonal authorities, says Boll.

A 20th-century thinker

Born in 1906 as the daughter of secular Jewish parents near Hannover, Hannah Arendt grew up in the educated circles of Königsberg. In 1924, she began to study philosophy and theology, first in Marburg, later in Freiburg and Heidelberg. She received her doctorate in philosophy in 1928 with Karl Jaspers.

She wrote for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper and looked into the writings of Rahel Varnhagen von Ense, an intellectual Jewish woman of the Romantic period whose life was regarded as an example of successful assimilation — unlike Arendt, who was skeptical about the idea of assimilation in the name of the equality of all people. She considered it politically naive, a stance that often offended people.


Visitors need to wear face masks in the exhibition halls

Hannah Arendt anticipated as early as 1931 that the Nazis would come to power. Two years later, and unlike most people living in Germany at the time, it was clear to her that Germans needed to actively fight against the regime.

That same year, the young woman emigrated to France, where she worked for Zionist organizations in Paris alongside her academic work. In 1941, she fled with her husband and her mother to New York via Lisbon. Hannah Arendt was naturalized as a US citizen in 1951.

'Thinking without a banister'

She stayed true to herself throughout her life, never following any particular school, tradition or ideology. Her thinking, says Monika Boll, is difficult to classify and that is why it is so interesting. "You can always find liberal as well as conservative and left-wing elements in her thinking, which makes it very difficult to pinpoint her in any political camp." Hannah Arendt herself called it "thinking without a banister." She was also an excellent writer. All that contributes to her appeal, says Boll: "That's why people like to look into her life and works."

Indeed, Arendt's reports from post-war Germany, her remarks on the refugee question, racism in America or the international student movement always manage to surprise people. Her views encourage visitors to the Berlin exhibition to rethink their own opinions.

Boll also hopes that the exhibition will inspire visitors to realize that it is important to form well-founded opinions of their own. In times of fake news and mass hysteria generated by social media, Hannah Arendt is a wonderful antidote.


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For Hannah Arendt, smoking and thinking belonged together

The philosopher Hannah Arendt has long had cult status. Many items of her professional and private life are now show at the German Historical Museum in Berlin — including the heavy smorker's cigarette case. (11.05.2020)

Date 11.05.2020
Author Silke Bartlick (db)
Related Subjects World War II, Nazis, Hannah Arendt, Holocaust
Keywords exhibition, Hannah Arendt, Holocaust smoking


Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3bwhm

How East Africa is fighting locusts amid coronavirus

DATA ANALYSIS
East Africa is battling its worst locust invasion in decades. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, countries are fighting to stop a new generation of locusts swarms, which could jeopardize food security.




Since 2019, East Africa has been desperately trying to control a devastating desert locust invasion. The long rains that typically fall across the region from March to May this year will probably allow yet another generation of locusts to mature, further threatening crops and livelihoods.

This would be an additional blow to food security in East African countries, which are also facing economic disruption from the coronavirus pandemic response.

Read more: Severe hunger threatens Africa during COVID-19 lockdowns

In the region, swarms of desert locusts covered more than 2,000 square km – an area as big at Ethiopia's Lake Tana – in April alone.

Swarms of this size are made up of billions of insects, which can obliterate vegetation, eating more in a day than the combined population of Kenya and Somalia do.
https://www.dw.com/en/locusts-hit-east-africa-during-coronavirus/a-53357078
Watch video

UN sounds alarm as locusts spread in East Africa

Ethiopia and Kenya are currently the worst hit by the locust infestation.

New waves of locusts are forecast for the coming months in Kenya, southern Ethiopia and Somalia as seasonal rains create favorable breeding conditions.


"The next generation of swarms will be around late June or early part of July," says Keith Cressman, senior locust forecasting officer at the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

The timing is particularly worrying as this would coincide with the start of the harvest season.

Crops wiped out

Desert locust swarms strip almost all green vegetation from crops and trees over immense areas, leaving behind ravaged fields and pasture lands and putting both farmers and pastoralists at risk of severe food shortages.

It's predicted more than 25 million people in East Africa will experience food insecurity in 2020 with the locust infestations compounding the situation.


Some farmers lost 90 percent of their crops in the first wave of locust to hit Ethiopia, says Yimer Seid of Ethiopia's South Wollo agricultural department.

"I visited families who have no food in their house. They sold their animals," he says.

Perfect conditions for desert locusts

A disastrous combination of circumstances fueled the current desert locust plague.

In 2018, two cyclones in succession unleashed rain in the immense sandy desert on the southern Arabian Peninsula known as the Empty Quarter. The moist sand and sprouting vegetation provided favorable conditions for the locusts to thrive.

Solitary desert locusts are usually harmless. If they are packed densely enough, however, the insects change behavior and even appearance, forming large groups that devour everything in their path. Groups of young, wingless locusts form bands, which eventually mature into fast-moving swarms.

In the Empty Quarter, the locusts multiplied unnoticed for three generations, increasing their original number 8,000-fold before swarms migrated up the Arabian Peninsula to Yemen.

https://www.dw.com/en/locusts-hit-east-africa-during-coronavirus/a-53357078

Watch video Locusts threaten food security in East Africa

Locusts are common in Yemen but its ongoing civil war has devastated the country's ability to monitor and fight the insects.

From Yemen, in 2019 the desert locust swarms traveled north to Iran then to Pakistan and India.


They were also carried on the wind across the Red Sea to northeastern Ethiopia, south Eritrea and Somalia, where higher than average rainfalls over the 2019 summer allowed the locusts to proliferate.

Ongoing locust crisis

That's when FAO declared an emergency, increasing and prioritizing equipment and monitoring efforts.

"We started fast tracking everything because we knew the situation was going to be out of control very quickly," says Cressman from the FAO.

But despite FAO and other organizations moving as fast as they could to curb the spread of the locusts, their sheer numbers meant they were already hard to control.

In December 2019, the insects started swarming into Kenya in what has turned into the worst outbreak the country has experienced in 70 years.


To make matters worse, East Africa's short rains, which normally fall from October to December, continued into 2020, allowing this first wave of swarms to mature and start laying eggs.

Now, the region has to fight this new generation as it hatches, before it creates the new swarms predicted for June.

Fighting the locusts

Managing locust swarms is best done before they even form. Regular monitoring is essential, since small numbers of the insects can be controlled relatively easily.

"It's not difficult to kill a locust. You put pesticide on the locust and it dies," says Cressman.

Normally, this is done by teams on the ground spraying pesticides from hand-held tanks, reinforced by planes or helicopters.

Read more: Why locusts are so destructive in East Africa

The problem with the current infestation is its sheer scale, he says.

"It's like a forest fire. If you find it really small as a campfire, you just put it out. But if you miss it, then it becomes a wildfire, and the problem gets much more difficult and expensive to control."

Time of the essence
Countries like Kenya, having little recent experience with locusts, took a few months to set up control operations. With locusts multiplying exponentially, that's valuable time lost.

Authorities in the affected countries have already sprayed pesticides on thousands of hectares of land. But if the weather conditions don't dry up, that might not be enough.

Control operations are falling behind: In April, only a quarter of the area affected by locusts was treated. Locust populations are expected to increase 20- or even 400-fold in the months to come.


Locusts multiply faster than control operations can keep up.

Helping hands

Spraying isn't the only way of weathering the devastation caused by the locusts.

In Ethiopia's South Wollo Zone, the community worked together in 2019 to bring in the harvest before the locusts could devour them.

"We harvested the crops in cooperation with everyone," says Yimer Seid. "There would have been around 100 people in a large field …, all volunteers from the region."

He's also seen more examples of people in the community sharing crops and food with each other to make sure people don't go hungry.

Two crises at once

The coronavirus pandemic makes such community action much harder. Although Ethiopia isn't under a strict lockdown, the movement of people is restricted by a national emergency decree.

Normally, agricultural officers in South Wollo would monitor the locusts in the field, explained Seid. Now farmers send in their reports online or over the phone, making it harder to assess the situation.

Overall, though, monitoring efforts and pesticide spraying operations are continuing in Ethiopia as locust control counts as an essential service.


But with new swarms on their way, Ethiopia desperately needs to scale up its operations, says Fatouma Seid from FAO Ethiopia. This should include "more teams on the ground, more vehicles for the government and more pesticides on the ground in addition to the air control."

However, the current stock of pesticides will only tide over locust control in Ethiopia up to June, she says.

As for neighboring Somalia, the country currently has enough pesticide at hand to spray around 2,000 square km.

That will cover the first phase of controlling hoppers (the juvenile locust, which can't fly) up to July, says Alphonse Owuor, Crop Protection Officer with FAO Somalia.

More pesticide is available if needed, Owuor says.

"We have been in constant contact with the supplier since late 2019. They are aware of our requirements for the rest of the year and are on standby on the event we will need more supplies urgently."

Anticipating future invasions difficult

African countries are much better equipped to tackle the locust threat than they used to be.

In the past, locusts plagues regularly swept across the continent. In the 1950s, the insects ate their way through countries in West and East Africa all the way to India and Pakistan in a plague lasting 13 years.

But in the last few decades, thanks to better monitoring and control, the infestations have tended to last for a shorter time and cover less area. Ethiopia and Somalia, for example, haven't experienced an outbreak of this scale in 25 years


Now though, predicting locust invasions has become harder is harder as weather patterns become more erratic due to climate change change.

"The desert locust is just one long, continuous story," says Cressman. "It's about figuring out the current chapter of that story."

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Pakistan declares national emergency over locust swarms

Prime Minister Imran Khan declared the emergency to protect crops and help farmers. The Pakistani government said it was the worst locust infestation in more than two decades. (01.02.2020) 

WWW LINKS

Data and code behind this analysis

More data-driven journalism by DW

Date 11.05.2020
Author Kira Schacht

Related Subjects Environment, Food security, Coronavirus

Keywords locusts, Coronavirus, East Africa, food security, environment, DDJ

Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3bsc2

How contagious? Conspiracies, lies and the Covid-19 'infodemic'

Issued on: 12/05/2020

THE DEBATE © FRANCE 24

By:François PICARD

Follow| Alessandro XENOS|Melinda CRANE

From anti-science conspiracy theories to state-sponsored disinformation, the United Nations warns that an "infodemic" of half-truths and falsehoods is undermining the effort to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic. How is social media driving anti-lockdown protests and just how much traction are they getting? François Picard and Deutsche Welle's Melinda Crane team up for a special edition of The Debate that asks about the role of fringe groups, social media giants and populist leaders everywhere – from the US and Brazil to China.

>> Conspiracy theories and fake news: Fighting the Covid-19 'infodemic'



OUR GUESTS

Jen SCHRADIE, Assistant Professor at Sciences Po Paris; Author of "The Revolution That Wasn't"
Franziska BRANTNER, Member of the Bundestag (Green Party)
Sandro GOZI, Member of the European Parliament ("Liste Renaissance"); Italy's former Europe minister

Canadian rocker Bryan Adams faces backlash over 'racist' COVID-19 post

The  singer said in posts that his gigs were nixed thanks to "bat eating, wet market animal selling, virus making greedy bastards."

Issued on: 12/05/2020 

Bryan Adams, seen here in Ottawa, Canada in 2017, has been slammed for 'racist' comments about how "bat eating' triggered the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused his London hosws to be canceled Lars Hagberg AFP

Ottawa (AFP)

Canadian rocker Bryan Adams faced a backlash and accusations of anti-Chinese racism Tuesday over his online rant about the pandemic forcing the cancellation of his London shows this week.

The "Cuts Like a Knife" singer said in Twitter and Instagram posts that his gigs at the Royal Albert Hall were nixed thanks to "bat eating, wet market animal selling, virus making greedy bastards."

He went on to say that "the whole world is now on hold, not to mention the thousands that have suffered or died from this virus."

He went on to say that "the whole world is now on hold, not to mention the thousands that have suffered or died from this virus," admonishing the Chinese to "go vegan."

While animal rights groups praised his call to stop eating meat, others interpreted the expletive-laced comments as anti-Chinese.

"This is so irresponsible and so racist," Amy Go of the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice told AFP.

"He's a Canadian idol and he's fanning the flames of anti-Chinese racism, and contributing to an increase in hateful taunts and blatant (physical) attacks on Chinese and Asian people in Canada and around the world," she said.

Others called his remarks "racist garbage."

Wet markets sell fresh food and produce, including farmed animals and wildlife.

One such market is Wuhan, China was identified last week by the World Health Organization as having been a possible source or "amplifying setting" of the outbreak.

The recent rise of anti-Chinese rhetoric and violence linked to the pandemic is only anecdotal but there are a myriad of cases reported online.

Go cited, for example, the recent experience of a 92-year-old man thrown out of a Vancouver convenience store and onto the sidewalk by the shopkeeper simply because he is of Chinese descent.

A Chinese-Canadian woman was also punched in the face in an unprovoked attack while waiting last week at a downtown bus stop in the Pacific coast metropolis.

Adams has since deleted the tweet but his message remained on Instagram.

In it he also said he missed his band or "other family" while in self-isolation with his wife and children.

© 2020 AFP

Coronavirus was in Brazil before carnival: study

Issued on: 12/05/2020

The first night of Rio's 2020 carnival parade, when the coronvirus is now thought to have been already spreading in Brazil CARL DE SOUZA AFP


Rio de Janeiro (AFP)

The new coronavirus was circulating in Brazil in early February, weeks earlier than initially detected, and just before millions of people were partying in the streets for carnival, according to a new study.

Brazil is the Latin American country hardest hit in the pandemic, with more than 11,500 deaths and 168,000 infections so far. Experts say under-testing means the real figures are probably far higher.

The study used statistical analysis to work backwards from the number of reported COVID-19 deaths and establish the probable time-frame of the virus' early spread in Brazil and other countries, said the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), the country's leading public health institute.

"The new coronavirus began spreading in Brazil around the first week of February. That is to say, more than 20 days before the first case was diagnosed in a traveler returning from Italy, on February 26... and more than 40 days before the first official confirmation of communal transmission," the institute said.

That means the local outbreak was already well under way when Brazil celebrated carnival from February 21 to 25, an event that draws millions of tourists and brings throngs of revelers into the streets in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Salvador and other cities.

The study, which also analyzed data from Europe and the United States, found the virus was probably also spreading locally two to four weeks before the first cases were detected in Italy, the Netherlands and the United States.

"This lengthy phase of hidden communal transmission of the new coronavirus... indicates that containment measures should be taken at least as soon as the first imported cases are detected," said the lead researcher on the study, Gonzalo Bello.

© 2020 AFP

Hong Kong: Hundreds arrested as protest movement returns

Police say they have arrested 230 people, some as young as 12, after a weekend of pro-democracy demonstrations. Activists are concerned that pandemic lockdown measures will be used by China to roll back more rights.


Some 230 people were arrested in protests over the weekend in Hong Kong, local authorities said on Monday. Pro-democracy demonstrations have picked back up in the city after weeks of under a coronavirus-related lockdown.

Police said the detainees were between the ages of 12 and 65, and the charges ranged from assaulting an officer to failure to provide proof of identity. Democratic lawmaker Roy Kwong was amongst those arrested, officers said he was being charged with disorderly conduct. Video showed him being surrounded by police and pushed to the ground.

Read more: China: First foreign national prosecuted over Hong Kong protests

On Sunday, protestors had gathered for a sing-along event at a shopping mall when hundreds of riot police were called in to disperse the crowd. According to police, they also blocked roads in the city's Mongkok district and started fires.

Onlookers and journalists also got caught up in the ensuing clashes, with police firing tear gas at reporters and activists alike.


"Some journalists who were sprayed by pepper spray were not allowed to receive immediate treatment, and they were requested to stop filming," said Chris Yeung, chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists' Association.

Several people hospitalized
Footage of the scuffles, which included some people lying on the ground bleeding, were reminiscent of when Hong Kong was brought to a standstill by months of protests last year. At least 18 people had to be brought to local hospitals, the city's Hospital Authority said, including Kwong.

Read more: Lam Wing-Kee: Hong Kong bookseller fights back against China with Taiwan shop

There have been widespread worries amongst democracy advocates in Hong Kong that restrictions put in place to slow the spread of the pandemic will be used by China to further clamp down on rights. For example, a contact-tracing app meant to control who comes into contact with infected people may be used to target anti-Beijing protestors, activists have warned.

Current restrictions only allow public gatherings of a maximum of eight people.

Despite fears across Asia about a possible second wave of the virus, organizers are still planning to hold an annual mass pro-democracy rally on July 1. They say they are expecting two million people to join the even that marks the anniversary of Hong Kong was handed over from British to Chinese rule.

es/mm (AP, Reuters)

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Date 11.05.2020

Related Subjects Hong Kong, Coronavirus

Keywords Hong Kong, protests, arrests, democracy, coronavirus

Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3c1Kj

Coronavirus and the plague: The disease of viral conspiracy theories

As countless coronavirus rumors circulate online, DW takes a look at some of history's biggest conspiracy theories during pandemics.



Contrary to what you might have heard, the novel coronavirus was not developed in a Chinese or US military lab. Albanians are not genetically immune to the virus. And Bulgarian Prime Minster Bojko Borissov does not have a mystical aura that protects him from contracting COVID-19 — even if a fortune teller has claimed so on national television.

Countless unsubstantiated coronavirus claims have been circulating lately, ranging from the entertainingly absurd to the shockingly outlandish. YouTuber Dana Ashlie, for example, recently posted videos online to explain what she claimed was the real reason behind the virus outbreak. Ashlie, who has hundreds of thousands of YouTube and Facebook followers, claimed that COVID-19 emerged because 5G mobile technology was rolled out in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the center of the outbreak.



HOW IS CORONAVIRUS AFFECTING LIFE IN GERMANY?

Food donations drop

Panic-buying has left empty shelves in supermarkets — and food banks. With Germans snapping up canned goods and toilet paper to weather the outbreak, stores have fewer supplies left over to donate to the needy, said Jochen Brühl, head of Tafel Deutschland, which supports more than 1.5 million people with surplus groceries and other donations. Brühl encouraged those who had overreacted to donate.

SEE MORE FOTOS HERE 123456789

With COVID-19, or SARS-CoV-2, dominating the headlines, it is hardly surprising that coronavirus misinformation is on the rise. That's why the World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a dedicated website to dispel unsubstantiated claims about coronavirus cures and how the pathogen spreads.

Long history of conspiracy theories
Historically, the outbreak of pandemics has always been accompanied by the dissemination of rumors and conspiracy theories.

But what, exactly, defines the latter? Professor Michael Butter, who teaches at the University of Tübingen, says conspiracy theories tend to claim that a group is clandestinely plotting to control and destroy an institution, a country or the entire world.

The Black Death

In the 14th century, when the plague ravaged Europe, nobody knew how the illness had originated. Soon after, unfounded rumors surfaced that Jews caused the outbreak by poisoning wells in a bid to control the world. Jewish people were accused of being behind the plague — and were subjected to deadly pogroms and forcefully displaced.

Read more: Opinion: We need to deal with our coronavirus panic


'Spanish flu': Patients in Fort Riley, Kansas (USA), in 1918

1918 influenza pandemic

Between 1918-1920, the so-called Spanish flu killed between 25 and 50 million people — making it more lethal than World War I, which ended the same year the influenza pandemic began. As the origins of the virus outbreak remained a mystery until the 1930s, some people believed the pathogen had been developed by the German army to use as a weapon.

East Germany's beetle infestation

When a Colorado potato beetle infestation in 1950 threatened to wipe out all of East Germany's potato crops, the country's socialist leadership was quick to blame the US. In an attempt to distract from its own failures, East Germany accused the US of having orchestrated the beetle infestation to sabotage its economy.

Operation Detrick

The onset of the AIDS epidemic in the US during the 1980s was accompanied by an elaborate Soviet disinformation campaign. In 1983, the Soviet secret service KGB spread the rumor that the US had developed AIDS at Fort Detrick as a biological weapon and tested it on prison inmates, ethnic minorities and gay people. It also claimed the US was deliberately deflecting blame by saying the disease had originated on the African continent.

In 1985, Russian-born German biology professor Jakob Segal even published a pseudo-scientific study to back up the conspiracy theory. And even though many biologists and medical experts dismissed the unfounded claims as nonsense, the conspiracy theory remains popular today.

Read more: Coronavirus scare: When will 'hamsterkauf' become an English word?


Ticks getting under the skin of conspiracy theorists?

Once again, the US is blamed

By the mid-1990s the Soviet Union had collapsed, and national health agencies had largely gotten the AIDS outbreak under control. At this time, however, Africa experienced a major Ebola outbreak. Many conspiracy theorists who had falsely claimed AIDS was created in US military labs, now claimed the Ebola virus was a bio-weapon developed by the US or Great Britain.

Another conspiracy theory in the US military and ticks. In 2019, Republican Congressman Chris Smith called on the Pentagon to release classified documents about a supposed weaponized ticks program. Smith referred to a recent book that claimed the program, which supposedly ran between 1950 and 1975, had allowed the tick-borne Lyme disease to get out of control.

Digital age amplifies misinformation

A whole host of diseases has been blamed on secret US biological weapons programs. Although some conspiracy theorists have suggested that COVID-19 is an artificially engineered Chinese bioweapon.

These, and other conspiracy theories, however, rely on arguments that are never weighted in evidence. The conspiracies tend to emerge in the early stages of a pandemic — when little is known about a pathogen's origin and spread.

The digital revolution, meanwhile, has amplified the dissemination of rumors and disinformation. Online posts are shared much quicker on social media and through messenger apps than any medical or health authority can refute them. The digital age has allowed conspiracy theories to go viral.

COVID-19 can only be contained by studying it scientifically, practicing good hygiene and ensuring those infected receive adequate medical treatment. Similarly, education and media literacy, as well as good mental health, should be promoted to be in line with how we consume information in the digital age.

Some online trolls have even suggested downing a Corona beer to combat irrational coronavirus-related fears. While this has not been proven to help, it may provide a soothing effect in the meantime.

Date 10.03.2020
Author Christopher Nehring
Related Subjects AIDS, World Health Organization (WHO), Coronavirus
Keywords Coronavirus, AIDS, Pest, WHO, epidemic
Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3Z7lB

Conspiracies are 'always theories of power'
Whether it's Area 51, the moon landing or the 9/11 attacks, it feels like a disproportionate amount of conspiracy theories have something to do with the US. Expert Michael Butter says that's not quite true.




DW: So many conspiracy theories seem to have their origin in the United States. Why?
Michael Butter: To a certain degree, this is a misperception. There are tons of conspiracy theories in eastern Europe, and also in central Europe, that also have their origins [in those locations], even though the US tends to play a big role in them. And this is, I think, because conspiracy theories are always also theories of power. If you look at the period after the Second World War, the US has clearly been the most powerful country in the world. And, therefore, those who are investigating who is really responsible, who is benefiting from that, inevitably end up pointing their finger at the US. No matter if they’re located inside or outside that country.

What’s your favorite German conspiracy theory?

When it comes to Germany, I must admit I don’t really have a favorite conspiracy theory. Because the popular, influential German conspiracy theories all had horrible consequences. Think of the conspiracy theory of a Jewish plot to dominate the world that basically led to the Holocaust. Or think of the Great Replacement theory that is currently so popular. I actually prefer the moon landing conspiracy theory because it’s so extremely convincing at first sight, and second, because nobody, to the best of my knowledge, has ever done any harm to anybody because of it.


Michael Butter is helping coordinate EU conspiracy theory research

And the Great Replacement theory would be the replacement of the current dominant ethnic groups through immigration?

Exactly. In Europe it’s usually about the replacement of the Christian population of Europe through a Muslim population by way of orchestrated migration. But for example, the El Paso shooter a couple of weeks ago also referred to the Great Replacement theory in his manifesto, and for him, it was clearly the replacement of US citizens through Mexicans. So there, you see there are always certain national variations.

What are some conspiracy theories that are unique, or special, to Europe?
It’s very difficult to say if they’re unique or special to Europe. We do of course have certain conspiracy theories in Poland, for example, about the plane crash of the former president in Smolensk. That blames Russia for orchestrating that plane crash. That would be a very specifically national conspiracy theory. What we usually have are conspiracy theories that circulate on a global scale, but nevertheless have certain national variations. So for example, the Great Replacement theory looks different in Hungary than in Poland, Germany, or the United States.


Conspiracy theorists in Berlin warn others of airplane "chemtrails," which they claim contain behavior-changing chemicals

You're one of about 150 people involved in something that’s happening at the EU level called the Comparative Analysis of Conspiracy Theories. Nearly 40 countries are involved, and a dozen disciplines are represented. What are you doing there?
One goal was to actually synchronize the research on that topic, so that people don’t have to reinvent the wheel the whole time. Because, of course, nobody can research in Albanian, Polish, Czech, English, French, German, Italian, et cetera. So you bring these people together so that they talk to teach other in English. We’re currently editing a big handbook of conspiracy theories that will be state of the art. The other aim is to develop new research questions - to come up with comparative and transnational projects that, for example, trace exactly those transformations. So the Great Replacement theory that we talked about. And third, and finally, the goal is also to produce recommendations for stakeholders - for policymakers, for educators, for people concerned with the public communication of science that are more and more faced with conspiracy allegations in their daily work.

Michael Butter is the vice chair of the EU’s Comparative Analysis of Conspiracy Theories action group. He’s also the author of a number of books on conspiracy theories and is a professor of American Literary and Cultural History at the University of Tübingen in Germany.

• Date 20.09.2019
• Author Conor Dillon, Gabriel Borrud
• Related Subjects White House
• Keywords conspiracies, Area 51, 9/11, moon landing, European conspiracy theories, Power, United States
• Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3PnK3

Germany: Catholic chiefs reject cardinals' coronavirus 'conspiracy theories'

Germany's top Catholic body has repudiated a warning by several high-ranking church figures that the coronavirus crisis is a pretext for creating a world government. Such conspiracy theories are rife on social media.


Catholic bishops in Germany have dissociated themselves from a letter in which several prominent Catholic clergy question the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic and the measures taken by governments across the world to stem it.

"The German Bishops' Conference's assessment of the coronavirus pandemic is fundamentally different than the appeal published yesterday," Bishop Georg Bätzing, who heads the influential body, told the Catholic KNA news agency.

Other German Catholic clergy chose harder words in their criticism of the appeal. The vicar general of the city of Essen, Klaus Pfeffer, said on Facebook that he was "simply speechless at what was being published there in the name of the Church and Christianity: crude conspiracy theories without facts or evidence, combined with aggressive right-wing populist rhetoric that sounds alarming."

'Odious technological tyranny'

The letter, signed by such Catholic notables as the German Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano from Italy and Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, the former bishop of Hong Kong, claims that the pandemic is being exploited to restrict basic rights "disproportionately and unjustifiably." It also maintains that the contagiousness of the novel coronavirus has been overstated by authorities, referring to unnamed "authoritative voices in the world of science and medicine" to back its claim.

It strongly criticizes governments around the world for the lockdowns imposed in a bid to stem the spread of the virus, saying that "the imposition of these illiberal measures is a disturbing prelude to the realization of a world government beyond all control."

In one strongly worded sentence, it claims that "centuries of Christian civilization" could be "erased under the pretext of a virus" and an "odious technological tyranny" established in its place. 

The arguments presented in the document strongly resemble those currently making the rounds on social media, particularly in far-right and far-left milieus. They also underpin the recent "Hygiene Demonstrations" taking place across Germany.

The German Bishops' Conference had earlier stated that the restrictions in Germany, which also led to the temporary cancelation of church services, were "sensible and responsible," while urging a "responsible and proportionate" relaxation of the measures when appropriate.


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Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3bzeu