PEOPLE BEFORE PROFITS

J&J vaccine output to drop 85%, White House says issues tied to Baltimore facility

The U.S. will experience an 85% drop in availability in vaccines by Johnson & Johnson next week compared with this week, and is unlikely to see a steady output from the vaccine maker until the company resolves production issues at a facility in Baltimore, Maryland, according to federal officials and data.

TIME 4 PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF BIG PHARMA 

"Is supply drop of Johnson & Johnson vaccine major setback for vaccination plan?"

MORE: Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine: Here's what to know

Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus coordinator, told reporters on Friday that the company is still working to address the issues Emergent Biosolutions, which isn’t certified yet by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

© Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images The Emergent BioSolutions plant, a manufacturing partner for Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine, in Baltimore, Md., on April 9, 2021.

MORE: Pfizer asks regulators to give vaccine to kids as young as 12

But following FDA authorization, Zients said the hope is that the facility will enable to stabilize output to about 8 million doses per week.

J&J said it remains committed to its goal of delivering 100 million doses total by the end of May.

“We do expect week to week lower levels until the plant is approved by the FDA, and those conversations are between J&J and the FDA,” Zients said Friday. “I do think that the company is doing everything they can.”

© Mary Altaffer/AP The Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine sits on a table at a pop up vaccinations site the Albanian Islamic Cultural Center, April 8, 2021, in the Staten Island borough of New York.

The New York Times reported this month that contamination issues resulted in a loss of potentially 15 million Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses. But because the Emergent BioSolutions facility hadn’t been authorized, none of the materials were distributed. There is no connection between the production issues and reports of mild adverse reactions that temporarily halted some vaccine clinics this week.

© Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, FILE

“With FDA authorization, the company also expects a cadence of up to 8 million weekly doses in total across state and federal channels later in April," Zients said.

MORE: What to know about expected but rare 'breakthrough' COVID cases

Zients said the federal government does not plan to change how it allocated vaccine does to favor parts of the country like Michigan that are experiencing surges in cases.

"We don't know where the next increase in cases could occur,” he said. “And you know that we push out all vaccine as soon as it’s available, and we’re not even halfway through our vaccination program. So now is not the time to change course on vaccine allocation."

First-Ever Observations From Under Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday Glacier’ Are Bad News

Glaciers all over Antarctica are in trouble as ice there rapidly melts. There’s no Antarctic glacier whose fate is more consequential for our future than the Thwaites Glacier, and new research shows that things aren’t looking good for it

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© Photo: Filip Stedt (Getty Images) Ran, the unscrewed submarine that the scientists used, heading down into the depths under the Thwaites Glacier

Researchers have known that the Thwaites Glacier is in trouble due to encroaching warm waters, but they’d never actually analyzed data from beneath the glacier’s float ice shelf—until now. A new study published in Science Advances on Friday presents the first-ever direct observations of what’s going under the infamous ice shelf, including the temperature and salinity of the water that’s flowing under it as well as the strength of the current.

What they found is pretty troubling. The authors explain that the supply of warm water to the glacier’s base is larger than scientists previously believed, which means it’s even more unstable than we thought. Given that it’s often called the “doomsday glacier,” that’s particularly ominous.

Thwaites glacier a broad, vast hunk of ice that flows from the West Antarctic ice sheet into Pine Island Bay, a part of the Amundsen Sea. The 119,300-square-mile (192,000-square-kilometer) ice shelf is disappearing faster than any other one in the region in large part because of the waters circulating beneath it and wearing away at its base. If it collapses completely, it could have a devastating effect on global sea level rise.

The new study is based on field observations from 2019 when a team of two dozen scientists sent an autonomous orange submarine named Ran down underneath Thwaites. For 13 hours, the underwater vehicle traveled around two deep troughs beneath the glacier that funnel warm water toward it. As it did, the vehicle captured data showing that warm water—warm for a glacier, at up to 33.89 degrees Fahrenheit (1.05 degrees Celsius)—is swirling around the glacier’s crucial “pinning points,” or the points of contact where the ice shelf meets the bedrock that holds it in place. This warm water is melting away these crucial holds, making room for cracks and troughs in ice that can make the shelf all the more unstable.

“The worry is that this water is coming into direct contact with the underside of the ice shelf at the point where the ice tongue and shallow seafloor meet,” Alastair Graham, associate professor of geological oceanography at the University of Southern Florida and study co-author, who was on the research expedition to the glacier, wrote in an email. “This is the last stronghold for Thwaites and once it unpins from the sea bed at its very front, there is nothing else for the ice shelf to hold onto. That warm water is also likely mixing in and around the grounding line, deep into the cavity, and that means the glacier is also being attacked at its feet where it is resting on solid rock.”

The discovery of warm water confirms previous concerns from a separate project, wherein another group of 100 scientists drilled a hole 2,000 feet into the glacier.

“This study fills in critical gaps in our knowledge in this area and will undoubtedly allow for major advances in the modeling of this system, and thus improved projections,” David Holland, a glaciologist from New York University who worked on the previous study but not the newer one, wrote in an email.

As the submarine moved around one of the troughs, it also captured data showing low-salinity water in the area 3,444 feet (1,050 meters) below the ice shelf. That salinity level it showed matches that of the neighboring Pine Island Bay. Scientists previously thought this part of the glacier was protected from the bay’s currents by a thick underwater ridge. But it seems they were wrong—the findings indicate it’s flowing into the trough freely. That closely links its fate to the bay more than climate models currently account for.

It’s not just Pine Island Bay’s encroaching warm waters we have to worry about, either. Using the submarine’s readings, the authors also mapped out the channels along which warm water is getting transported toward Thwaites Glacier. They found more warm water is also surging in from along the continental shelf.

“Thwaites is really being attacked by the ocean from all sides,” said Graham.

All this has very serious consequences for those living along the coast. Thwaites Glacier’s collapse would raise sea levels by 1.5 to 3 feet (0.5 to 0.9 meters), and could also trigger an even worse chain of events because it could initiate the collapse of another nearby imperiled ice shelf, the Pine Island Glacier. Together, these shelves act as a braking mechanism on land ice that, if released into the open waters, could push seas up to 10 feet (3.1 meters), overwhelming coastal cities around the world.

Over the past four decades, Graham explained, satellite data has shown that the glacier has been flowing into the ocean much more quickly. Sure, it replenishes some of it when fresh snow falls and gets compacted into new ice, but that’s not happening quick enough to make up for its losses.

To learn more about this process, scientists are trying to learn as much as they can about the glacier. Sending a submarine underneath it marks a big, groundbreaking step. But there’s still a lot of uncertainty about how quickly it’s edging toward collapse.

The study illustrates the importance of climate adaptation measures, including weighing the potential benefits of having communities retreat away from coasts. That’s especially true because Graham said that it’s not entirely clear whether or not the Thwaites’ demise is preventable.

“We might (and I stress might) have already reached and passed a point where there is really no turning back for Thwaites, no matter what we as humans do to our climate,” Graham.

Graham knows how scary this is firsthand since he lives on the Florida Gulf Coast. But not all is lost.

“There may be physical mechanisms that we are yet to uncover that could help Thwaites stabilize and ‘doomsday’ may never come,” he said.

MYANMAR INC. 

MILITARY STATE CAPITALISM

Myanmar's army controls huge swathes of the economy through two conglomerates. High-ranking officers operate family-run ventures, including military chief Min Aung Hlaing. DW looks into his children's financial ties.



In Myanmar, resisting the military's coup is a perilous affair. Activists are constantly on the run — moving from one safe house to the next while carrying a burner phone. And, each evening, they delete every image from it.

For it is in the dark of night, when the internet has been disconnected by the junta, that the army swoops in, abducting activists, journalists, and anyone else it suspects of resisting its takeover on February 1, from their homes.

Since then, thousands have taken to the streets across Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Hundreds have been killed in the protests, with many more arrested.
Protesters boycott army's company network

Citizens are also resisting the coup in other ways. Phone apps have begun to crop in Myanmar, such as one called "Way Way Nay," meaning "go away." Protesters use the app to identify which businesses have ties to the military — and boycott them.

The military has sent in counter-insurgency battalions to fight against protesters

For the Tatmadaw, as the army is called, has built a vast business empire. It consists of two major holdings, and a myriad of intertwined subsidiaries, joint ventures and smaller companies that enrich both the army and individual generals.

And the spouses and children of military personnel are also an integral part of this opaque network, according to a DW investigation.
Military business revenues 'dwarf' civilian-owned companies

It's impossible to fathom the extent and depth of the Tatmadaw's economic power without first delving into the army's two holdings: Myanma Economic Holding Limited (MEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC). Both were established in the 1990s when the country was ruled by a previous iron-fisted military junta.

They are run by both active and retired military personnel, operating in the shadows without any independent oversight.

Business interests span gem production and mining, oil and gas extraction, banking, tourism and telecommunications. Dozens of companies across diverse sectors of the economy are owned by the two holdings, many others are affiliated with MEHL and MEC.

A 2019 UN Fact-Finding Mission identified more than 100 businesses fully owned by MEHL or MEC, noting that it was certain that it had not been successful in identifying all subsidiaries. The authors concluded that "MEHL and MEC and their subsidiaries generate revenue that dwarfs that of any civilian-owned company."

The two holdings do not openly declare their revenue, making it impossible to gauge the extent of their revenues.

As the country carefully transitioned to democracy in 2010, the Tatmadaw and high-ranking military officials further built and consolidated vast business empires through the acquisition of capital, land and assets. In numerous cases, analysts say, state assets were sold to favored companies, including those controlled by high-ranking officers and their families.

Commander-in-chief's family empire

The children and spouses of many military leaders own and run numerous personal economic ventures. In some cases, they were awarded lucrative contracts and joint ventures with MEHL, MEC, and their subsidiaries.

Take, for example, the military's commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing, who in late March gravely warned protesters: "You should learn from the tragedy of earlier ugly deaths that you can be in danger of getting shot in the head and back."

He has been targeted for sanctions by the European Union, UK and US for serious human rights abuses committed by Myanmar's military following the coup and the earlier brutal crackdown against the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Myanmar. 

The UK has said Min Aung Hlaing is "responsible for the serious human rights violations committed by the Myanmar security forces"

The US Treasury went a step further and, on March 10 of this year, targeted his son, Aung Pyae Sone, and his daughter, Khin Thiri Thet Mon.

The reason, according to a Treasury statement, is their control of a "variety of business holdings, which have directly benefitted from their father's position and malign influence."

The Treasury listed six businesses run by Min Aung Hlaing's two children, who are both in their 30s.

These include a somewhat eclectic portfolio, including a medical import business, restaurant, art gallery, chain of gyms, and a TV entertainment business.
Companies owned by army chief's daughter involved in internet blackout?

DW has identified three additional companies controlled by the commander-in-chief's son or daughter by trawling through company registration data, namely Pinnacle Asia Company Limited, Photo City Company Limited, and Attractive Myanmar Company Limited.

Pinnacle Asia Company Limited is controlled by the army chief's daughter, the latter two by his son.

So far, none of these companies has been targeted by sanctions. In a statement to DW, a US State Department spokesman did not directly address whether additional companies would be sanctioned, but emphasized it would "continue taking further action to respond to the brutal violence perpetrated or enabled by Burma's military leaders."

The data was scraped from the company registry of DICA, Myanmar's Directorate of Investment and Company Administration, and made publicly available by DDoSecrets, a US-based group that publishes information sourced from whistleblowers and activists.

This data also includes loan agreements and other business documents.

Pinnacle Asia, the data shows, was registered in November 2016 and lists its main business activity as "telecommunications."

In May 2020, another document shows, it was awarded a loan by a Myanmar bank to build 17 cell phone towers across Myanmar for Mytel. According to the loan agreement, Pinnacle Asia had already set up 60 towers in various regions.

Mytel is one of four telecommunications providers in the country and was set up as a joint venture by the militaries of Myanmar and Vietnam.

Hundreds of protesters have been killed since the coup.

Since the coup, all four telecommunications providers in Myanmar have been ordered to severely limit access to the internet.

Right now, the only way to access the internet is through fiber optic cable, meaning Wi-Fi and mobile phone data have been completely cut off for a majority of internet users.

Activists also fear that Mytel may be used to track protesters' phones.

"The army chief's daughter's closed-door dealings not only channel profits to the family of war criminal Senior General Min Aung Hlaing but also support the military's other abuses of Mytel, including to build military communications infrastructure, access international technology and to conduct surveillance," says Yadanar Maung, a spokeswoman for Justice for Myanmar, a group of Myanmar activists who document the Tatmadaw's abuses.

On March 17, a week after the US sanctions were imposed, Khin Thiri Thet Mon was removed as Pinnacle Asia's company director, company registration documents show.

Pinnacle Asia did not respond to DW's requests for comment on its investigation, including why Khin Thiri Thet Mon had been removed as director.

Military staking its economic claim?

In the case of Attractive Myanmar and Photo City, Aung Pyae Sone was not removed as director following his designation by the US.

Photo City Company Limited was registered in January 2021 — but did not list any business activity in its registration documents. DW did not find any online presence for the company.

The exact nature of Attractive Myanmar is equally unclear. Company records show that it was registered in late 2019 as providing services in a wide range of almost 30 distinct activities, including accounting, advertising and travel services.

A website registered to the company shows glossy pictures of tourist destinations in Myanmar but has no information on the company's actual activities.

It is not unusual for military-linked and owned companies to cover such a wide range of business activities, according to rights group Justice for Myanmar.

Security forces use tear gas and live ammunition against demonstrators

CHEMICAL WARFARE AGAINST CIVILIANS JUST LIKE PORTLAND

In doing so, the commander-in-chief and his children may be staking out their claim in emerging sectors and squeezing out any potential competition.

And, given that they are often awarded contracts through contacts rather than fair and transparent bidding procedures, there is no need to advertise their companies or services online.

Recent moves by the now-deposed government of Aung San Suu Kyi to implement an anti-corruption framework were unlikely to have been viewed favorably by the military and its crony companies.

Myanmar's Embassy in Germany did not respond to DW's request for comment on the regime's business ties involving Min Aung Hlaing and his two children.
Foreign companies exiting Myanmar

Foreign companies, too, have established links with military ventures in Myanmar. Activists are rushing to compile lists to pressure them to sever all ties and pull out their investments.

Watch video 26:10 To the point - Myanmar Coup: Death Knell for Democracy?

One such company, Kirin Holdings, a Japanese beverage company, announced it would end its partnership with MEHL shortly after the coup.

Both the UK and US have targeted MEC and MEHL with economic sanctions in recent weeks. This includes a freeze of all assets in both countries.

The European Union may soon move to target the military's business interests, too. A spokeswoman for the European Council told DW that its policy recently changed to also allow for the sanctioning of business entities — but stopped short of saying whether the bloc would target the two Myanmar companies.

Can sanctions harm the junta?

But it is unclear if these moves can dislodge the junta.

While observers note that the ongoing boycotts and walkouts by Myanmar people may have a destabilizing effect, many of the Tatmadaw's business interests are domestic — and so potentially less impacted by any international sanction.

Those that rely on exports, namely the country's natural resources, including oil, gas and gems, are to a great extent traded with its Asian neighbors. And they have, so far, shown little appetite to sever ties with Myanmar.

The turmoil in Myanmar has led to an increase in food and fuel prices

For many protesters in Myanmar, like Htay, the sanctions are toothless, allowing the army to go untethered.

"International sanctions have been imposed on the Burmese military junta for many years," Htay says, adding that such measures have failed to rein in the regime.

This, however, hasn't stopped Htay and other activists from risking it all each night, hurrying from one safe house to the next, armed with only a burner phone to document the junta's crackdown.

"My personal protests will continue until we get democracy and end the military dictatorship," he says.

Editor's note: DW has changed the name of the activist to protect their safety

MYANMAR PROTEST ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW

In Myanmar, military matters are a lucrative family affair
Myanmar: Who is actor Paing Takhon, arrested by the military?
Myanmar: Protests erupt in London after ambassador locked out of embassy
Myanmar anti-coup protesters stage Easter egg demo
Myanmar: Germany's Heiko Maas cautions about threat of civil war
Opinion: Naive optimism threatens Myanmar protest movement
Myanmar protesters hold 'flower protests' to honor dead
Why is Japan not taking a firm stand against Myanmar junta?
Myanmar: US calls on China to hold junta accountable
Myanmar: Germany urges citizens to leave as fears grow over instability
Myanmar protests: Death toll passes 500
Myanmar coup: ASEAN split over the way forward
Myanmar: Thousands take to streets as others flee
Myanmar: US President Biden calls bloodshed "absolutely outrageous"
Myanmar: Over 100 killed in deadliest day since military coup
India pushes ahead with Rohingya deportation amid Myanmar crackdown
Thousands flee military to Thailand-Myanmar border region
Myanmar releases hundreds of post-coup prisoners
Myanmar junta keeps internet curbs in place, blames media
Myanmar coup: Mass protests fail to attract global solidarity
EU to impose sanctions in response to Myanmar coup
From a trickle to a torrent: Myanmar struggles with an information onrush
Myanmar doctors and nurses stage dawn rally against coup
Myanmar: Security forces kill 8 protesters — local reports
Myanmar: 56 dead over weekend, 138 since coup, says UN
Myanmar: Junta imposes martial law in two Yangon districts
Myanmar: More protesters killed in weekend violence
Myanmar protests: UK tells citizens to flee
Myanmar: Court extends AP journalist's detention, agency says
Myanmar: Several protesters reported killed
Myanmar coup: Military cracks down on free speech, press freedom
Opinion: Myanmar coup conflict will escalate without talks
Myanmar police target striking railroad workers in raids
Myanmar: 2 killed after police crack down on protests
Myanmar: Thousands rally after overnight raids
US slaps export sanctions on Myanmar after protest deaths
Myanmar protesters persist following deadliest day
Myanmar: Reporter placed in chokehold as 6 journalists charged
Myanmar protesters determined to defy military with grassroots protest
Myanmar: Demonstrators shot dead in anti-coup protests

Seed monopolies: Who controls the world's food supply?

Seed laws criminalizing farmers for using diverse crops that stand a better chance of adapting to climate change are threatening food security. Seed sovereignty activists want to reclaim the right to plant.


More than half of the global seed market is in the hands of just a few corporations

For thousands of years of human agriculture, the intrinsic nature of a seed — the capacity to reproduce itself — prevented it from being easily commodified. Grown and resown by farmers, seeds were freely exchanged and shared.

All that changed in the 1990s when laws were introduced to protect new bioengineered crops. Today, four corporations — Bayer, Corteva, ChemChina and Limagrain — control more than 50% of the world's seeds. These staggering monopolies dominate the global food supply.

"Seeds are ultimately what feed us and the animals we eat," Jack Kloppenburg, a rural sociologist and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said. "Control over seeds is, in many ways, control over the food supply. The question of who produces new plant varieties is absolutely critical for the future of all of us."

Some worry that heirloom crops, such as these potatoes from Peru, could disappear, meaning less genetic diversity

Not only are the channels through which seeds can be exchanged and distributed narrowing: Seeds themselves are becoming less diverse. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 75% of the world's crop varieties disappeared between 1900 and 2000.

A huge wealth of locally adapted crops is being replaced by standardized varieties. And experts warn that could have grave consequences for food security — especially as the planet heats up.
Regulating plants and outlawing tradition

Major producers of genetically modified and bioengineered seeds, like Bayer and Corteva, strictly limit how farmers can use the varieties they sell. Usually, buyers must sign agreements that prohibit them from saving seeds from their crops to exchange or resow the following year.

Most countries only allow patents — exclusive ownership rights that were not originally created with living organisms in mind — on genetically modified seeds. But other plant varieties can also be strictly controlled by another type of intellectual property legislation called Plant Variety Protection.

Seeds, grown and resown by farmers, were long freely exchanged and shared, but monopolies have upended that

The World Trade Organization requires member states — virtually all the world's nations — to have some form of legislation protecting plant varieties. More and more of them are fulfilling this requirement by signing up to the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), which places limits on the production, sale and exchange of seeds.

UPOV — and agribusinesses such as Bayer — say the restrictions they impose encourage innovation by allowing breeders a temporary monopoly to profit from the new plant varieties they develop without facing competition.

"It means, then, that they're able to control the way in which that variety is commercialized, and they can get a return on the investment they make — because it takes anything up to 10 or 15 years to develop a new variety," said Peter Button, vice secretary general of UPOV.

But to meet UPOV criteria, commercial seeds must be genetically distinct, uniform and stable. Most ordinary seeds are none of these things.

Activists protesting the merger of Germany's pharmaceutical and chemical maker Bayer AG with US seeds and agrochemicals company Monsanto

The varieties that ordinary farmers develop, and those handed down through generations, are genetically diverse and continually evolving. Unable to meet these criteria, farmers not only lack intellectual property rights to the plant varieties they breed themselves: In many countries their varieties can't be certified as seeds at all.

In addition to Plant Variety Protection, seed marketing laws in many countries forbid the sale — and often, even the sharing — of seeds that haven't been certified to meet standards such as a high commercial yield under industrial farming conditions.

Often, the only legal option is to buy seeds from corporate agribusinesses. And that means more and more of the world's food relies on less and less genetic diversity.
Diversity for climate resilience

Karine Peschard, a researcher into biotechnology, food and seed sovereignty at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, says this is problematic in a warming world.

Changing climatic conditions mean farmers' carefully attuned agricultural systems are thrown out of whack. Particular crops need particular conditions, and as temperatures and rainfall shift, so, too, do the areas in which a plant can thrive.

The seed markets of countries in the Global South are in the sights of agribusinesses

By planting a range of different crops, each with its own genetic diversity and potential for change, the plants themselves can adapt, and if one crop fails, farmers don't necessarily lose their whole harvest.

"The more uniform our genetic pool is, the more vulnerable we are to all sorts of environmental stresses, and we know that with climate change there will be more of these stresses," Peschard said.

'Neocolonial agriculture'

There is no legal obligation to join the UPOV. But countries including the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Japan, as well as the member states of the European Union, are among the nations using bilateral and regional trade agreements to pressure countries in the Global South, such as Zimbabwe and India, to join.

The four main agribusinesses make fertilizers and pesticides needed to ensure yields from the seeds they also produce

Critics say imposing uniform rules on a global scale ultimately means forcing the industrial farming that dominates Europe and the US onto parts of the world where food is still largely produced by smaller-scale, more sustainable farms.

"We're looking at this as neocolonialism destroying our livelihoods and our environment," said Mariam Mayet, director of the African Center for Biodiversity in South Africa.

Switching to standardized seeds changes whole agricultural systems. The big four agribusinesses also produce fertilizers and pesticides that farmers must buy to ensure their yield. Adopting these systems dictates the way fields are laid out, what other species can survive and the nutrient composition of the soil.
'Let the people feed themselves'

Mayet is calling for exceptions to seed legislation to allow farmers the autonomy to preserve the Indigenous agriculture that is "the bedrock to ensure ecological integrity, sustainability of nature, biodiversity, landscapes and ecosystems." She's not alone.

In more and more countries, attempts are being made to save and use old seed varieties, as here at the Hoima Community Seed Bank (CSB) in Uganda

Around the world, food sovereignty movements such as the transnational La Via Campesina, the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture in India, the Third World Network in Southeast Asia and Let's Liberate Diversity! in Europe, are advocating for seed networks that allow farmers and communities to bypass the corporate agribusiness giants and manage seeds on their own terms.

For the last six years, rural sociologist Jack Kloppenburg has been packaging seeds and sending them to farmers through the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI).

Drawing inspiration from open-source software — computer code available for anyone to use, distribute, and modify, as long as users allow others the same freedoms — open-source seed varieties are freely available and widely exchanged.
Instead of a license, their use is subject to a pledge.

Each packet of OSSI seeds bears a statement that reads: "By opening this packet, you pledge that you will not restrict others' use of these seeds and their derivatives by patents, licenses, or any other means. You pledge that if you transfer these seeds or their derivatives you will acknowledge the source of these seeds and accompany your transfer with this pledge."

Sharing for the benefit of the community: That is the idea behind the Open Source Seed Initiative

Kloppenburg admits that the OSSI model isn't perfect: Because the seeds it distributes are not legally protected, they're vulnerable to appropriation by commercial interests. But he believes that as a way of sharing for the common good, it's a concept that could be adapted to local needs.

Industrialized agriculture — which maximizes yield at the expense of biodiversity and ecology — is often justified by the argument that we have to feed the world. For Kloppenburg, this is the wrong way to look at things. "People need to feed themselves — they need to be allowed to feed themselves," he says.

SEE  Fields,. Factories, and Workshops or. Industry Combined with Agriculture, and. Brain Work with Manual Work. By PRINCE PEYTOR KROPOTKIN.

https://epilogist.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/fields-factories-and-workshops-by-peter-kropotkin.pdf

THEY ARE RIGHT

China slams US history of 'humanitarian disasters'

A report by a Chinese human rights organization has called out the US for its history of military interventions. The accusation continues an ongoing tit-for-tat between the two major powers.



Beijing has accused the US of causing humanitarian disasters through military intervention and proxy wars around the globe in a report by the Chinese state-backed human rights organization, published by Xinhua on Friday.

The report by the China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS) lambasted US aggression and hegemony and rejected the US claim of "humanitarian intervention" behind its involvement in other countries' affairs.

The report claimed that US foreign action had "not only cost the belligerent parties a large number of military lives but also caused extremely serious civilian casualties and property damage, leading to horrific humanitarian disasters."


Friday's report comes as relations between China and the US remain tense over issues ranging from Taiwan's independence to the Chinese treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority.

China attacks US hegemony

The report cited a list of wars and armed conflicts in which the US has been involved.

"From the end of World War II in 1945 to 2001, among the 248 armed conflicts that occurred in 153 regions of the world, 201 were initiated by the United States, accounting for 81 percent of the total number," the CSHRS explained.

The report made clear that China sees US aggression as the main cause of humanitarian disasters.

"Choosing to use force irrespective of the consequences reveals the hegemonic aspirations of the United States … Only by discarding the hegemonic thinking, which is chiefly motivated by self-interest, can we prevent humanitarian intervention from becoming humanitarian disasters," the report stated.

US-China relations sour

China's criticism over US intervention follows comments by the US that Chinese authorities in Xinjiang have been carrying out what amounts to genocide of the country's minority Muslim population.

The US has also blasted China over its crackdown in Hong Kong and has been shoring up support among China's neighbors to act as a bulwark against Chinese ambitions in the South China sea.

A March meeting between Chinese officials and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was mired by a barbed exchange, in apparent response to US sanctions against Chinese and Hong Kong officials.

Troop of monkeys escape German wildlife park

Twenty-five barbary macaques have broken out of their enclosure in southwestern Germany. Police suspect that their escape was enabled by construction work

Macaques are considered timid; though this one looks aggressive, he's just yawning

Twenty-five Barbary macaques escaped from a zoo in the German town of Löffingen on Thursday for several hours.

The troop of monkeys were first spotted roaming around a local neighborhood. Zoo employees then tried to capture the macaques, but according to police they initially escaped and their handlers then lost sight of the group.

By early evening on Thursday, the runaway primates were located and secured.

Police searched for the escaped monkeys, who were rounded up by Thursday evening

"The animals apparently took advantage of the nice weather and spent the afternoon on the edge of a forest near the zoo," police said.

Construction work near the zoo might have enabled the apes to find an escape route out of the enclosed compound, police said in a statement.

City in Thailand to sterilize hundreds of wild macaques

Native to North Africa, the ginger-furred toddler-size macaques are typically harmless, timid and fearful of humans, according to the Barbary Macaque Awareness & Conservation NGO.

Police in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg had warned passersby not to try to feed or catch the macaques, as that could intimidate them or prompt them to lash out.

CULTURE

Weird tales and hobbits: How fantasy art became popular

Sexy women, winged demons, buff fighters — such characters are widespread in fantasy books, films or comics. A new book explores the genre's history.



Fantasy books and movies such as Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia have been successful for generations already. But why do so many people enjoy being engrossed in fantastical worlds?

This question is addressed in the book Masterpieces of Fantasy Art, recently published by Taschen. The XXL-sized book introduces the history of the genre and includes pictures of the original works.

Fantastical creatures have been featured on canvas for centuries. The Renaissance painter Hieronymus Bosch, for example, is incorrectly considered an early of fantasy art, according to the book's author Dian Hanson. In fact, the reason why the Dutch master painted these particularly creepy religious allegories and biblical themes more than 500 years ago was rather to keep the faithful in check. By depicting devilish monsters or dark forest creatures, he reminded them that it was better to choose God than surrender to sin. Yet, even if it was meant to merely scare one into piety, his fantastic worlds were a source of inspiration.

The same can be said of Renaissance artist Michelangelo or the French Symbolist Gustave Moreau who at times also featured ghoulish figures in their art.

In these artists' lifetimes, fantasy art as we know it today couldn't exist; such imagery rather depicted things that people saw as real threats. "Fantasy art could only exist after we abandoned our belief in dragons, witches, gorgons, griffins and nymphs," writes the book's editor.


A new book published by Taschen explores the history of fantasy art
A genre begins with Lewis Carroll

The origins of fantasy art can be found in England in the middle of the 19th century.

Lewis Carroll's children's book from 1865, Alice in Wonderland, was the first book to have illustrated pages. For the first time, readers could visually experience sophisticated visual worlds filled with talking ducks, grinning cats, smoking caterpillars and lizards working as chimney sweeps.

The illustrations for children's book classics such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit or Pinocchio are also at the heart of the fantasy art genre. Their goal was to create dream worlds to "satisfy childish longings," writes Hanson.

In 1889, H.J. Ford invented dragons, griffins and superheroes that still have a significant influence on the films, games and novels of the fantasy genre today. He also created illustrations around the year 1900 for Peter Pan and Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

The race to see who could create the most fantastic creatures attracted artists from all corners.

Among them was Art Nouveau glass painter Harry Clark who did illustrations based on Jacques Offenbach's dreamlike opera, The Tales of Hoffmann.

British artist Rodney Matthews is known for his exaggerated and often threatening depictions of flora, fauna and animals


A fantasy revival

In 1912, the cartoon book Tarzan of the Apes was a great success. The demand was enormous and its success ensured that more and more artists specialized in this new subject. After all, fantasy art is a commercial product for the masses that had to fight for the favor of as many buyers as possible.

In the early 20th century, even serious authors such as H.P. Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury or Philip K. Dick were involved in the fantasy new genre, as can be seen by the topics in magazines and stories of various literary genres that were popular in the USA from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Another pioneer in the fantasy genre is the US magazine Weird Tales which began to publish fantasy, science fiction and horror stories in the comic style in 1923. Among them were works by horror specialist H.P. Lovecraft who is still praised for his goose bump-inducing reads.

The preference for the macabre in Weird Tales can already be seen on the covers, on which goggle-eyed ghosts, slippery monsters and intrepid fighters of all kinds cavort. New superheroes were introduced; some primitive like Conan the Barbarian, one of the greatest and most important figures of the fantasy genre.

Other characters were more nuanced and took inspiration from Greek mythology, such as H.P. Lovecraft's monster Cthulhu.

Whoever the protagonist was, Weird Tales sold well to the masses.

Muscular, barbaric heroes are a common theme in the fantasy art genre


Fantasy literature leads the way

Readers should not confuse fantasy with science fiction — the genres are worlds apart, points out Hanson. Even the motifs found in both genres prove it.

Spaceships, for example, are unthinkable in the fantasy world. Instead, fantasy worlds should be as unscientific as possible, complete with dragons and monsters and sexy heroes.

In the 1930s, the Great Depression put pressure on the magazine market. As printing costs rose, the need to sell increased. And so, onto the covers went scantily dressed women in wild poses — as the cliché goes, sex sells.

But at the end of the 1930s, another innovation came to the genre: Fantasy authors like J.R.R. Tolkien began to publish longer stories and novels. The Hobbit was published in 1937 and the Lord of the Rings series followed in 1954. Books like The Chronicles of Narnia, published in 1953, underpinned the importance of the fantasy genre in literature, placing emphasis on longer series.

Greg and Tim Hildebrandt created popular illustrations from the books 'Lord of the Rings'

Fantasy in Europe

Fantasy material also became popular in Europe.

In 1974, the comic anthology Métal Hurlant, which translates to "howling metal," was published in Paris, bringing France to the forefront of the fantasy genre. With its science fiction and horror comics, it developed into a fantasy publication popular with adults. In a way, it was the precursor to the graphic novel and was enjoyed by readers of all ages, not just kids. Gustave Flaubert's novel Salammbô was published in comic format by Métal Hurlant.

Philippe Druillet created this mural in France. He is one of the founders of the French publication "Métal Hurlant" HEAVY METAL

But not all readers enjoyed the increasingly sexualized content. For such individuals, there was the fantasy illustration genre that developed along with the Lord of the Rings culture, introduced by the brothers Greg and Tim Hildebrandt. The illustrator brothers from Michigan brought Middle-earth and all its beings to life in the 1970s.

1974 also saw the release of the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, in which players with elf, dragon or dwarf characters embark on new adventures that spring purely from their imaginations.

In Hollywood, Star Wars and the film series Alien were created and enormously successful. The international popularity of the fantasy culture continued to grow — and it continued with digital game and trade fairs.

Meanwhile, fantasy art has made it to the big leagues: Some originals of fantasy books, magazines and paintings are now generating auction proceeds just as high as works by a sought-after painter or sculptor.

TASCHEN Masterpieces of Fantasy Art. Dian Hanson. Hardcover, 532 pages, taschen.com

This article was translated from German by Sarah Hucal.

Soviet-era 'Lord of the Rings' film a YouTube hit

"Khraniteli" was probably broadcast only once on Russian television. Now the 30-year-old film version of "The Lord of the Rings" is a clicks hit on YouTube.


"Khraniteli" is making waves on YouTube


In 1991, Khraniteli (Russian for "guardians"), a television adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic The Lord of the Rings fantasy stories, was broadcast shortly before the USSR collapsed.

It is a low-budget production that aired 10 years before the release of the first part of director Peter Jackson's blockbuster film trilogy, LOTR for short, which starred Elijah Wood as the young hobbit Frodo Baggins. Interestingly, Wood himself tweeted about the Russian film on YouTube.

The Soviet film features simple special effects that make many scenes feel like theater productions rather than a Hollywood-style motion picture. The soundtrack for the film was composed by Andrei Romanov of the Akvarium rock band and seems to be typical of the time.

More than a million clicks

After the film was broadcast on Leningrad Television in 1991, it seems to have disappeared without a trace, according to The Guardian. Leningrad Television's successor, 5TV, posted the film on YouTube last week, where it has garnered more than 1.5 million views in just a few days.

Viewers have been divided in their opinion of the story. Film critic Michael Phillips wrote in The Chicago Tribune that the film was "disorienting" and "should be enough to get your week off to a start from which you may never recover."

Sirisaac Newton wrote on YouTube that "Gandalf's smug entrance into the birthday party is a scene that I will never forget. I never realized that he was almost the size of the hobbits though. A mini-wizard."

One called Fotis D wrote: "I really feel sorry for those who dislike this masterpiece."

Reinis Rudzitis, who clearly spent a lot of time going through the 2,600-odd remarks from other viewers, wrote: "Ok, I don't know what I love more — the movie itself or the comment section."

Fans looking for a fresh approach to the Tolkien classic may be happy to know that a new, multiseason TV adaptation of The Lord of the Rings is filming in New Zealand in cooperation with the Amazon Prime streaming service

THE 1% IN CONTROL

Authoritarian slide taints West Africa’s ‘model democracy’ as Benin heads to polls

Issued on: 09/04/2021 -


A supporter waves a campaign flag for President Patrice Talon and running mate Mariam Talata in the market in Cotonou, Benin's economic hub, on April 8, 2021.
© Pius Utomi Ekpei, AFP


Text by: Grégoire SAUVAGE

The small West African nation of Benin has for the past three decades stood out as a model democracy in a region beset by coups and insurgencies. As he seeks a second term in a presidential election on Sunday, its tycoon leader Patrice Talon faces accusations he has tarnished the country’s reputation as a vibrant multiparty democracy.

Talon, a multi-millionaire known as the “King of Cotton”, looks all but certain to win re-election in a contest critics say is heavily tilted in his favour. He faces two little-known rivals, Alassane Soumanou and Corentin Kohoue, with most opposition leaders either living in exile or disqualified from running.

The lack of a contest signals a stark reversal after three decades of competitive elections in the coastal nation of 11.5 million, a former French colony hemmed in between tiny Togo and Africa’s powerhouse, Nigeria. It follows the introduction of controversial reforms that analysts have described as “a master class in entrenching autocracy”.

The result has been an unusually tense run-up to the vote, with troops deployed in several opposition strongholds this week to disperse violent protests. On Friday, officials said two people were killed in the central city of Save as troops fired tear gas and live rounds in the air to disperse protesters.

“Patrice Talon was meant to finish his term on April 5. But he failed to organise elections in time, as required by the constitution,” said Kamar Ouassagari, a senior member of the opposition party Les Démocrates, in an interview with FRANCE 24.

“So the people of Benin have risen up to tell him his time is up,” Ouassagari added.

Opponents kept off the ballot

A poor country that is heavily reliant on cotton exports and informal trade with neighbouring Nigeria, Benin has a proud record as a beacon of democracy. Following the introduction of a multi-party system in 1991, its longtime leader Mathieu Kérékou became the first West African president to accept defeat at the polls.

Talon’s predecessor, two-term president Thomas Boni Yayi, agreed to step down in 2016 even as neighbouring rulers changed their constitutions to extend their rule. Talon himself appeared willing to go a step further, pledging as a candidate that year to forgo a second term in order to avoid "complacency".

But critics say his deeds once in office have largely undermined the country’s democratic progress.

Opponents are especially critical of a reform of the country’s electoral laws requiring presidential candidates to secure the signatures of at least 16 elected officials in order to run. The rule was ostensibly designed to prevent the proliferation of mini-parties and fanciful candidacies. But in a country where all 83 members of parliament and 71 out of 77 mayors belong to Talon’s camp, securing those precious endorsements has proved largely impossible.

The incumbent’s stranglehold on power results from disputed parliamentary elections held in 2019, in which the principal opposition parties were barred from running. Those polls led to a dismal 27 percent turnout – an unprecedented low in a country that had seen turnout near 75 percent in the 1990s.

The disputed parliamentary elections triggered angry protests and several people were killed when the army opened fire on demonstrators. Many fear a similar outbreak of violence following Sunday’s presidential vote.

“Benin will be at high risk in the coming days,” warns Francis Kpatindé, a French-Beninese journalist and researcher at Sciences-Po Paris, stressing that “such political violence is a novelty” in a once stable country that had grown accustomed to peaceful transfers of power.

“Benin used to score well in global rankings published by the likes of Amnesty International and Reporters Without Border,” he says. “But over the past five years we’ve seen it slide down the tables when it comes to human rights and respecting democratic institutions.”

‘Politicised’ court

Amnesty International has registered at least 12 cases of political opponents being either arrested, sentenced or summoned by the authorities since the start of the year.

“Most of these arrests are based on laws that appear designed to curtail freedom of expression and the ability to voice criticism [of the authorities],” says regional expert Fabien Offner, who works for Amnesty’s Dakar bureau, in Senegal. He points to a digital law, passed in 2019, “which has been used to detain people based on messages posted on WhatsApp”.

Offner adds: “The result is that Benin is heading into an election with most opposition leaders either in exile or in detention based on legal cases that are often very vague.”

Posters supporting Patrice Tallon and his running mate in the streets of Cotonou. 

© Pius Utomi Ekpei, AFP

In recent years, the president’s main opponents have been sidelined one by one.

Sébastien Ajavon, a business leader who backed Talon in the 2016 run-off after coming third in the election, has fled to France before his sentencing on drug-trafficking charges, which he denies. Ganiou Soglo, another prominent opponent, survived an attempted assassination earlier this year, shortly after declaring his candidacy. As for Lionel Zinsou, the runner-up five years ago, he is serving a five-year ban from elected office for exceeding spending limits in the 2016 campaign.

Last month, the authorities jailed another would-be candidate, former justice minister Reckya Madougou, this time on charges of supporting terrorism. According to a judge who fled Benin earlier this month, the charges against Madougou were politically motivated.

“There was nothing in the case that would have justified her arrest,” judge Essowé told FRANCE 24’s sister radio RFI on Monday, speaking from an undisclosed location. “It’s not the first time,” he added. “There have been several such cases where we received instructions from above.”

The government has dismissed the accusations as “political manipulation”, accusing exiled opponents of trying to have the election annulled.

Benin is fast resembling “the prototype of an authoritarian regime that tolerates no contradiction,” says Kpatindé. “Talon wants to develop the country’s economy and overhaul its infrastructure. He believes he’s invested with an almost Messianic mission at the country’s helm – and he accepts no checks on his power.”

Jihadist threat

Five years ago, Benin’s “King of Cotton” banked on his business credentials and his image as a moderniser to secure a convincing win at the polls. He has played up his economic successes during this campaign, with improved road, water and energy supplies.

Economic growth notched up one point to a solid 5.5 percent in the first years of his term. According to the African Development Bank, Benin’s economy continued to grow last year despite the global recession, making it one of the few countries in the world not to post negative figures amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, analysts say the resilient growth has done little to improve the lot of a population still largely reliant on the informal economy.

Some observers have drawn parallels between Talon’s Benin and Rwanda under President Paul Kagame, who has been credited with implementing sweeping structural reforms while also stifling dissent.

Talon’s critics also denounce his grip on the nation’s economy. The 62-year-old magnate is the richest man in a country where cotton accounts for a staggering 80 percent of exports.

The concentration of power in the hands of Benin’s incumbent president is cause for alarm, says Kpatindé, warning that Talon’s clean sweep of parliament could allow him to “prolong his rule indefinitely, without needing a referendum” to bypass constitutional term limits.

The health of Beninese democracy is of particular concern at a time when jihadist insurgencies threaten to spill over into coastal countries south of the restive Sahel region, Kpatindé warns.

“If you don’t have national unity, and a stable and peaceful democratic framework, then the door is open to all sorts of enterprises,” he says.

In May 2019, gunmen kidnapped two French tourists and killed their guide in the Pendjari national park, near the country’s northwestern border with Burkina Faso. Though rare, the incident served as an ominous reminder that Benin is not immune from the jihadist menace wreaking havoc across large swathes of West Africa.

This article was adapted from the original, in French.

GERMANY
Auschwitz survivor Zilli Schmidt: Fearing new Nazis today

The 96-year-old Zilli Schmidt has made it her mission to tell the world what was done to the Romani people by the Nazi regime. She warns of contemporary parallels — and strikes a chord with many of her listeners.


Zilli Schmidt was awarded the Order of Merit by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier this year.

In September, Schmidt walked into the Kulturhaus RomnoKher in the western German city of Mannheim to attend a reading of her book about her memories as a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp. "Your visit is a gift," said many of the people who had turned out to greet her.

The book is titled God Had Plans for Me: To Keep Alive the Memory of the German Sinti. It recounts her happy childhood days — as well as her incarceration and hunger, the guards shooting at small children and mass murder.

Schmidt told DW that it is her mission to tell what the Nazis did to Sinti, a Roma population in Europe. "They were all gassed, my entire family, all my people," she said. She added that the murder of Roma is often left out of stories of the Holocaust: "The Jews were all sent to the gas chambers. And all the Sinti are still alive?" She pauses. "Nobody was still alive," she said.

The first time she spoke in public about her life was August 2, 2018, at a service for murdered Roma at the memorial in Berlin: "I spoke only for my own people." She was pleased to see so many young people there. "Young people were never told," she said. "It wasn't taught at school."

Watch video02:11 Berlin: Anxiety over memorial to murdered Sinti and Roma

'I dream that I am back in Auschwitz'

Remembering is not easy, Schmidt said: "I often have the urge to cry but I don't show it. I swallow my feelings." But the memories torment her. "When I dream," she said, "I dream that I am back in Auschwitz."

Schmidt's daughter, Gretel, would be 80 years old if she were alive today. She could have grandchildren and great-grandchildren. But Gretel, her little girl, "did not grow up." In the camp, the girl saw the chimneys of the crematorium: "Mama, they are burning people over there." Zilli told her daughter that this was not true: "No, they are just baking bread."

Zilli has only one foto of her daughter, Gretel, who was murdered at age 4

Gretel's life ended when she was four years and three months old. Murdered on August 2, 1944, in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau, just like Zilli's parents, her sister Guki and her six children, when the Nazi SS paramilitaries decided to liquidate so-called gypsy families. On this night alone, the SS murdered about 4,300 screaming and crying people. It was one of the darkest episodes in the Romani genocide, known as the Porajmos.

Like other young concentration camp inmates deemed "fit to work," the 20-year-old was moved to a different camp before that night of murder. Her father wanted to protect Gretel and kept the girl close. When her young mother tried to run toward her family, SS doctor Josef Mengele slapped her and forced her back into the wagon. "He saved my life but did me no favor in the process." In the concentration camp at Ravensbrück, she was told what had been done to her family. She collapsed, sreaming.

 

'A happy family'

Schmidt was born Cäcilie Reichmann in 1924 in Thuringia, to a family of traveling performers who entertained people with their mobile cinema and music. "We were a happy family," she says in her book. The caravan that housed the Reichmanns on their summer tours was built by her father: "A real treasure," with the stove decorated with different images of birds and Meissen porcelain in the cupboard. Her brother bought and sold violins, while she and her mother went from door to door selling the finest lace.

She and her little brother Hesso went to school wherever they stopped along the way. In the winter, they went to the same school for months on end, in Thuringia or Bavaria. The teachers would send them to the back of the class. Sometimes fellow pupils would chase and taunt them. "Gypsies, gypsies," chants Schmidt 90 years later, as she recalls the jibes. As a child, she would defend herself with her fists.

Zilli (left) shared a happy childhood with with her cousins Willi and Bluma

When the National Socialists seized power in 1933, her father still felt safe: "They're only arresting criminals." He had done nothing wrong and believed he had nothing to fear. World War II began in 1939. Schmidt's big brother, Stifto, served in the Wehrmacht, in Russia and France. But the Nazi regime had no interest in just rewards. It was focused on its murderous and racist ideology.

With some relatives already deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp, the Reichmann family went on the road, traveling across Germany to France to stay one step ahead of the authorities. But they caught up with them: Zilli and her cousins were arrested in Strasbourg. "Crime: gypsy" read the police file.
'God helped me'

Schmidt was sent from jail to jail but managed to escape from the camp at Lety in the then German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, in what is now the Czech Republic. But she was rearrested shortly afterward.

Schmidt (right) and her cousin Tilla were in Prague together in 1940

In March 1943, she was deported to Auschwitz, where an inmate tattooed the number Z1959 on her forearm. She was the first of the Reichmann family to end up in Auschwitz-Birkenau, in the "Gypsy family camp." Hunger, thirst, disease, violence and death were part of everyday life there. Schmidt said she stole to help keep the children and others alive — potatoes from the kitchen, boots from the clothing stores. Each time, she knew she was risking her life.

Twice, her name was on the list for the gas chamber. Yet twice, she escaped, she said. She survived three days of captivity in a cell with room only to stand. Three days with neither food nor water, nor a toilet. "While I was inside, I thought 'Screw you. When I get out, I'm going to keep stealing.'"

One time, she said, a sentry shot at her and only narrowly missed. Later, she and her cousin Tilla were able to escape again, from a satellite camp. She survived the war against all odds. "God helped me, I would never have managed alone," Schmidt said. "I'm still here for a reason." She is one of the last eyewitnesses.

REMEMBERING NAZI GENOCIDE OF SINTI AND ROMA

Serving the fatherland

Many German Sinti fought for Germany not only in the First World War but also in the Wehrmacht from 1939 on. In 1941 the German high command ordered all "Gypsies and Gypsy half-breeds" to be dismissed from active military service for "racial-political reasons." Alfons Lampert and his wife Elsa were then deported to Auschwitz, where they were killed.  PHOTOS 1234567891011

After the war, she suffered from depression. At first, her medication worked and she built a new life. Then came a sense of guilt for having survived when her loved ones were murdered. She and her husband Toni Schmidt, also a concentration camp survivor, applied in Munich for compensation for the time they were incarcerated in concentration camps.

After years fighting red tape and bureaucratic dead ends, Schmidt received a small amount of money: "But I was glad to get it. We were totally impoverished after the camps." It took until 1982 for the German government to acknowledge the racial persecution of Romani people.

Threat of Neo-Nazism

The Mannheim reading was attended by many young Romani women, who were visibly moved by Schmidt's story.

Lehmann, Gross and Schumacher, Romani women, were moved by Schmidt's story

Christina Schumacher was born in Siberia, Russia. She came to Germany with her parents. Verena Lehmann's grandmother was in Auschwitz. Verena herself spoke at the memorial in Berlin on August 2, 2020: "We children learned at an early age what a concentration camp is and what a Nazi is. I was especially terrified of Hitler." This was years after the war and the death of the dictator — the trauma of persecution will go from generation to generation, she says.

Many members of Romani communities hide their identity for fear of discrimination. Victoria Gross is a nursery school teacher. When an acquaintance took part in protests against the accommodation of a Sinti family in their building, she told her that she, too, belonged to the minority group. "That information is doing the rounds now," she said. Her daughter was no longer invited to birthday parties. "She was in tears." Her 10-year-old daughter asks: "Why did you tell them?"

Gross said hiding was not a solution. Her recipe is to promote networking in the minority community, encouraging mutual support and educating people. That, she said, is the reason why she does youth work.

Schmidt has lived through nearly a century of discrimination and alienation because she belongs to the ethnic minority of the German Sinti. "Dear children, you must stay strong," she urges. "The Hitlers are still agitating; they cannot be silenced."

The 96-year continued: "I want to be informed about what is going on in the world. I see it all on TV — that even the police have been infiltrated by Nazis." Schmidt still experiences fear. She fears the new breed of Nazi. "If they found out where I live," she said, "they would kill me."

This article was translated from German.

It was updated and republished.

Auschwitz survivor Zilli Schmidt: Fearing new Nazis today | Germany| News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond | DW | 08.04.2021