WATER IS LIFE

WATER IS A RIGHT

Autumn Peltier on the fight for clean drinking water in Canada's Indigenous communities

Duration: 05:17 

EARTH DAY 2021

What is our earth without water? Chief Water Commissioner for the Anishinabek Nation, Autumn Peltier, shares her fight for clean drinking water in Canada's Indigenous communities.

Alberta passes bill to give all workers paid leave to get COVID-19 vaccine shot

NDP said the legislation was first proposed by Opposition leader Rachel Notley on Tuesday.

EDMONTON — Alberta has passed legislation that will give all workers three hours of paid, job-protected leave to get a COVID-19 vaccination.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Labour Minister Jason Copping says Bill 71 will reduce barriers for Alberta workers to get vaccinated.

He says the change which goes into effect immediately means no one will have to choose between getting vaccinated and putting food on the table.

The amendment to the Employment Standards Code applies to all employees regardless of their job status or length of employment.

The legislation was passed quickly Wednesday only hours after health officials reported 1,699 new COVID-19 cases in the province and a test positivity rate of 9.5 per cent.

Health officials confirmed another 1,332 variant cases and said variants now make up about 59 per cent of Alberta's 18,873 active cases.

"Effective today, every working Albertan can access up to three hours of paid, job-protected leave for each dose of the COVID-19 vaccine," Copping said in a release.

"This is the right thing to do and we will continue to take bold actions to protect Albertans lives and livelihoods while ensuring our economic recovery."

The NDP said the legislation was first proposed by Opposition leader Rachel Notley on Tuesday.

Notley said the bill passed unanimously.

"We need to do everything we can to get Albertans vaccinated," Notley said in a release. "This is our best weapon against COVID-19 and the best way to keep workers and the people they interact with safe."

Alberta has the highest per-capita case count in Canada.

Notley noted that British Columbia introduced similar legislation earlier this week and Saskatchewan adopted measures to allow for paid leave to get the vaccine in March.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 21, 2021

The Canadian Press

Automakers show off flying cars in Shanghai — but Warren Buffett-backed BYD stays clear

Evelyn Cheng 

CNBC

4/22/2021

At the auto show in Shanghai this week, Chinese electric car start-up Xpeng revealed its second prototype for a flying vehicle the company claims has already undergone eight years of development.

Hangzhou, China-based Geely, which owns Volvo, also showed off an "air taxi" developed by its joint venture partner Volocopter.

BYD, backed by U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett, plans to focus on road transportation right now.

© Provided by CNBC Less than half a year since revealing a flying vehicle prototype, Chinese electric car start-up Xpeng unveiled a second model at the Shanghai auto show in April 2021.

SHANGHAI – Flying cars may have made headlines at this year's Shanghai Auto Show, but China's BYD — which is backed by Warren Buffett — is sticking to ground vehicles for now.

This week, Chinese electric car start-up Xpeng debuted its second prototype for a flying vehicle the company claims has already undergone eight years of development. The new model resembles a flying car more than the initial version revealed in Beijing in September, which looked more like a human-carrying drone.

© Provided by CNBC Geely showed off a Volocopter electric-powered

Xpeng isn't the only one looking to the skies.

Companies including Hyundai, German start-up Lilium, and China-based Ehang are developing flying vehicles that can carry individuals.

Hangzhou, China-based Geely, which owns Volvo, showed off in Shanghai an "air taxi" developed by its joint venture partner Volocopter.
'We're more focused on road transportation'

One of the companies' selling points for flying vehicles is the country's growing urban street traffic. However, while the level of consumer demand remains unclear, regulation has prevented wider use of flying cars.

But there are many ways to fix the problem of street congestion, said Li Yunfei, a spokesperson for BYD, in comments that CNBC translated from Mandarin. "Right now," he said, "we're more focused on road transportation."

Li said the flying models aren't all that different from helicopters.

Backed by investing guru Buffett, BYD sold more than 100,000 cars in the first quarter, more than half of which were new energy vehicles, a category which includes pure electric and hybrid cars.

The company announced at the auto show a new version of its electric car operating system that comes with its internally developed "Blade" battery. BYD plans to sell this battery system to third-party automakers and already counts state-owned high-end Chinese car maker Hongqi as customer for the Blade battery, Li said.

© Provided by CNBC Buyers of BYD's luxury Han electric car can customize the interior, as shown in this model displayed at the auto show in Shanghai in April 2021.

Last summer, BYD's luxury Han sedan became the company's first car to use the Blade battery. The vehicle has become one of the most popular in the new energy category, ranking third in sales nationwide during the first quarter. Only the Hongguang Mini EV and Tesla's Model 3 outsold it, according to the China Passenger Car Association's sales rankings.

Li said 70% of Han vehicles sold are pure-electric battery-powered models. Beginning this month, BYD said it plans to use the "Blade" battery in all of its pure-electric cars.

U.K. apologizes for racism in commemoration of WWI dead

Haley Ott 

CBS NEWS

4/22/2021



The U.K. government apologized Thursday for not properly commemorating thousands of African and Asian troops who died fighting for the British Empire during and after World War I. The reason for the failure, according to a report by the organization that commemorates service members who died in the two World Wars, was "entrenched prejudices, preconceptions and pervasive racism."

© Getty Images BRITAIN-ARMY-RACISM-POLITICS-HISTORY

While White, European casualties were commemorated with individual headstones, up to 404,000 Indian and African casualties who served the British Empire in World War I either had their names recorded in registers, were commemorated collectively or were not commemorated at all, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission found.


The commission initially set out to examine the commemoration of soldiers from the British Empire during both World Wars, but restricted its inquiry due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Contemporary attitudes towards non-European faiths and differing funerary rites, and an individual's or group's perceived 'state of civilisation', influenced their commemorative treatment in death," the report said.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission "should not overlook the mistakes in the organization's early history — many of which have been forgotten or reimagined over the century of its existence," and should search for historic inequalities and act on what is found, the report continued.
"Whilst we can't change the past, we can make amends"

U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace issued an apology in Parliament in response to the report.

"On behalf of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the government both of the time and today, I want to apologise for the failures to live up to their founding principles all those years ago and express deep regret that it has taken so long to rectify the situation," said Wallace. "Whilst we can't change the past, we can make amends and take action."

Wallace said the government would assemble a diverse team of experts to help research and act upon inequalities in commemoration, and that physical or digital commemorative structures would be built.
"Dignity that they deserve"

The inquiry into inequalities in the commemoration of British Empire casualties from the two World Wars came after a 2019 documentary hosted by Member of Parliament David Lammy, who said he found mass graves in Kenya and Tanzania in which African troops who fought for the British Empire had been "dumped with no commemoration whatsoever."

"I'm just really, really pleased that the dignity that these men deserved — who were dragged from their villages and commandeered to work for the British Empire — that dignity that they deserve in death can be granted to them," Lammy told CBS News partner network BBC News.

Historian David Olusoga, who produced the 2019 documentary, told the BBC that if the commission was interested in restorative justice, more than an apology would be necessary.

"If the Commonwealth War Graves Commission had set up a committee and discovered that 100,000 white British soldiers lay in mass graves — unmarked, uncommemorated — and the documentation proved that that had been deliberate, what would they do?" he told the BBC.

Eva Mendes Has Sparked a Major Controversy on Instagram Over Spanking

Mendes made her feelings on spanking children clear. The photo featured a quote that reads, "Spanking does for a child's development what hitting a spouse does for marriage." 

THE MOTHER OF TWO RESPONDED TO PEOPLE ON INSTAGRAM WHO DISAGREED WITH HER.

By ALLIE HOGAN
APRIL 22, 2021




Getty Images/Cindy Ord/WireImage for New York & Company

Celebrities are subject to scrutiny every time they post to social media. Whether it's a simple selfie or a stance on a hot topic, people in the comments always have something to say. Recently, Eva Mendes sparked major controversy in her Instagram comment section when she posted a quote about spanking children. The actor, who shares two daughters with Ryan Gosling, expressed a strong opinion that not everyone agreed with. Read on to find out what got Mendes' followers riled up, and for more social media controversy,

Eva Mendes posted a quote that was against spanking children.
Shutterstock

Earlier this week, Mendes shared an Instagram post that sparked some controversy. The post began with a picture of her on the red carpet in a gorgeous dress. "I'm often asked what my favorite red carpet dress is. This Versace is definitely up there," the star wrote. "I'm not often asked what my favorite parenting quote is, but I'll post it anyway. Please slide if you care."

In the second photo, Mendes made her feelings on spanking children clear. The photo featured a quote that reads, "Spanking does for a child's development what hitting a spouse does for marriage." While some followers praised Mendes, others disagreed. And for more of the actor's online behavior,

There was a split reaction to Mendes' recent Instagram post. Some fans thanked Mendes for sharing her parenting advice. When one fan commented in agreement, Mendes said she was "so happy to be able to talk about alternative discipline now," because when she was a kid it was not an option.

But others disagreed with Mendes' stance. One person commented, "I was spanked, and now I'm a respectful adult. And believe me, I deserved those whoopings. I was a brat." Mendes replied, "Thank you for your comment. So happy to agree to disagree. Want this page to offer that in a loving way. We all parent our own way, and I have no idea what I'm doing most the time. This didn't come with a manual, so when there's something that resonates with me, I pass it on. Lotsa love."

The actor has been open about parenting struggles in the past.

WENN Rights Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo

As Mendes mentioned in the comments, parenting doesn't come with a manual, which means there can be some challenging moments. In Sept. 2019, Mendes told Access Daily that parenting with her husband is "so fun and beautiful and maddening." She added, "It's so hard, of course. But it's like that feeling of like you end your day, you put them to bed, and Ryan and I kind of look at each other like, 'We did it, we did it. We came out relatively unscathed.'"

Mendes hasn't acted recently, because she's been focused on parenting.

If you've noticed Mendes missing from the big screen over the past few years, it's because she's been focused on her daughters, six-year-old Esmeralda and four-year-old Amada Gosling. "I feel like, as far as my ambition, it didn't go away, it just shifted onto the children," Mendes told The Sydney Morning Herald. "I applaud and look up to those women who can do it all, but I'm not one of them, and, thankfully, I have a choice not to work, and I realize how fortunate I am that it's even a choice."

Mendes did hint that she might be heading back to work soon. "I've been so happy to be able to incubate with my babies, but now they are four and six. I'm starting to feel like my ambition is coming back," she added. And for more celebrity parents,

79.5 LBS TOO MUCH
Gender reveal party using 80 pounds of explosives sets off earthquake reports

A GENDER REVEAL PARTY IS A BABY SHOWER THAT INVITED THE GUY'S, SAY NO MORE

Helen Sullivanand

 Associated Press 

A New Hampshire family’s gender reveal party was such a blast that it set off reports of an earthquake, and could be heard from across the state line, police said.

Police in Kingston, a town not far from the Massachusetts border, received reports of a loud explosion Tuesday evening. They responded to Torromeo quarry where they found people who acknowledged holding a gender reveal party with explosives.

The source of the blast was 80 pounds (36 kilograms) of Tannerite, police said. The family thought the quarry would be the safest spot to light the explosive, which is typically sold over the counter as a target for firearms practice, police said.

© Photograph: HO/AFP/Getty Images These still images taken from a video provided by the US Forest Service show the moment a gender-reveal party sparked a wildfire in Green Valley, Arizona, in April 2017. A New Hampshire family have caused reports of earthquakes by setting off 80 pounds of explosives as part of their gender reveal display.

Nearby residents said the blast rocked their homes and some reported property damage, NBC 10 Boston reported.

“We heard this God-awful blast,” Sara Taglieri, who lives in a home that abuts the quarry, told the television station. “It knocked pictures off our walls … I’m all up for silliness and whatnot, but that was extreme.”



Video: New Hampshire gender reveal explosion party explosion rocks towns miles away (FOX News)


Related: I started the 'gender reveal party' trend. And I regret it

Taglieri’s husband, Matt, told the TV station that neighbours reported cracks in the foundation of their homes from the explosion.

No injuries were reported, police said. The person who bought and detonated the explosives has turned himself into police. He was not identified.

Police said an investigation is ongoing and they will make a determination on charges. It is unknown whether the child was revealed to be male or female.

The blast was the latest in a series of dramatic and hazardous gender reveals. The practice, during which expectant parents announce the sex of their soon-to-be-born infants in elaborate ways, became popular about a decade ago.

In March, two pilots were killed when their plane crashed into the waters off Cancun while it was streaming a pink substance as part of a gender reveal, Fox News reported.

In 2020, smoke-generating pyrotechnic device used as part of a California gender reveal party caused a fire that damaged more than 7,000 acres (2,800 hectares) of land. In April 2017, an off-duty US border patrol agent, Dennis Dickey, caused $8m of damage to 19,000 hectares (47,000 acres) of Arizona forest when he shot at a target full of blue-coloured explosive as a means of announcing the gender of his unborn child.

In July 2019, one of the pioneers of the gender-reveal movement – Jenna Karvunidis – said it was time to “re-evaluate” the practice, and that her own daughter, announced to friends via a cake with pink icing inside, had begun to explore her gender and defy gender norms.

MORE DUMB IDEAS FROM WHITE MIDDLE CLASS SUBURBAN AMERICANS

Indigenous women hope to connect their communities with traditional birth practices

Four local First Nation and Métis women are completing a traditional birthwork course that returns Indigenous birth teachings to their communities.


The 13-month course is offered through Indigenous Birth of Alberta. Students learn how to share Indigenous culture throughout the pregnancy and birthing process, run prenatal and postnatal programs, community outreach and postpartum support.

Graduates of the program can also lead community parenting courses reflect their culture. Elders can be included in birth ceremonies and parenting techniques.

Maddie Amyotte, a registered nurse with McMurray Métis and a student in the program, said the Indigenous birthwork program focuses on the individual and pregnancy needs.

“We’re now dealing with a crisis of the last several generations of babies being taken from homes for reasons that are not right,” said Amyotte. “New parents don’t really have anybody to teach them how to be a parent because they weren’t raised by their parents and haven’t witnessed it firsthand.”

Throughout the 20th century, Indigenous languages, culture and ceremony were forbidden by the Canadian government. This included midwifery and birth celebrations practiced in Métis and First Nation communities. Amyotte said tackling many of the cultural traumas in Indigenous communities can begin at birth.

“A lot of Indigenous families have been taught that they don’t know the right way to care for their babies,” she said.

The Indigenous Birth of Alberta website explains how many Indigenous people have reported negative birth experiences, such as travelling long distances for basic care or incidences of racism from hospital staff.

“It can be a very emotional, difficult and scary time for people in hospitals in particular and the best way to go about that is to have a buffer there,” said Amyotte. “Someone to just act as a support person to minimize whatever trauma is potentially going to come.”

Sheena Bradley of McMurray Métis said some ceremonies during and after birth are culturally important for families. Traditional birthworkers can organize smudging ceremonies, for instance.

“When a baby is brought into the world with a song and drum and they’re being spoken to in their language, it can create an immediate attachment to their culture and their people,” said Bradley. “There’s a natural comfort level where they know that we’re here to keep them safe.”

Bradley said another important part of Indigenous birthwork is helping with home births on traditional lands, instead of having families spend money on travel costs to give birth elsewhere.

“There’s been traditional midwives in our culture since the beginning of time,” said Bradley. “Being able to give birth surrounded by community and support can help rebuild our knowledge after the criminalization of our traditional practices and attempted genocide of our nations.”

Shelby Weiss, a member of Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation living in Fort McMurray, is studying to be a psychologist but hopes to apply what she learns from the birthwork course to her career. Weiss also hopes to use this knowledge to support her family and friends through pregnancy and parenting.

“It’s not just one person who can do all these things and know all this information,” said Weiss. “All of us working together to help other people and make connections, that’s how we strengthen our community.”

swilliscraft@postmedia.com

Sarah Williscraft, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Fort McMurray Today

4/21/2021

The Senate strongly condemns anti-Asian hate crimes by passing new bill

In a surprisingly bipartisan vote, lawmakers passed legislation to improve hate crime tracking.

IT WOULD HAVE BEEN UNANIMOUS BUT FOR ONE VOTE AGAINST, SEN (R) JOSH HAWLEY

By Li Zhouli@vox.com Apr 22, 2021, 

Young participants are seen holding a placard near NYC City Hall during Stop Asian Hate demonstration to show support to Asian community in New York City. Ryan Rahman/Pacific Press/LightRocket/Getty Images

The Senate — in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote on Thursday — sent Congress’s strongest message yet condemning anti-Asian hate crimes by passing a bill aimed at improving data collection.

The legislation, while somewhat narrow, intends to bolster hate crime tracking by designating a Justice Department official to specifically review potential hate crime incidents, providing grants for regional law enforcement agencies to set up reporting hotlines, and offering training to police on how to handle hate crime response.

It ultimately passed 94-1 with Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) as the lone vote against it. Hawley has previously said he opposed the measure because it was too “broad” even though the changes it proposed were relatively modest.

Despite its limited scope, the bill is significant in that it marks a notable denouncement of anti-Asian racism, which has surged in the last year as Asian Americans have been scapegoated for the spread of coronavirus and as public officials including former President Donald Trump have used racist terms.

According to a tracker from Stop AAPI Hate, nearly 3,800 incidents involving everything from verbal abuse and shunning to physical assault have been reported. Shootings in Georgia, which killed six women of Asian descent in March, as well as violent attacks on Asian American elders, have also renewed focus on the issue.

The passage of this bill acknowledges this reality and makes some inroads to gathering better information about hate crimes in general: Currently, thousands of hate crimes go unreported each year, and federal data is also lacking since local law enforcement agencies don’t always keep tabs on or communicate their numbers.

As ProPublica’s Ken Schwencke reported in 2017, there are serious gaps in the records that law enforcement agencies keep:

The evidence suggests that many police agencies across the country are not working very hard to count hate crimes. Thousands of them opt not to participate in the FBI’s hate crime program at all. Among the 15,000 that do, some 88 percent reported they had no hate crimes. According to federal records, the Huntsville Police Department has never reported a hate crime.

Local law enforcement agencies reported a total of 6,121 hate crimes in 2016 to the FBI, but estimates from the National Crime Victimization Survey, conducted by the federal government, pin the number of potential hate crimes at almost 250,000 a year — one indication of the inadequacy of the FBI’s data.

“At a time when the AAPI community is under siege, this bill is an important signal that Congress is taking anti-Asian racism and hatred seriously,” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI), a lead sponsor on the bill, said.
What this bill will do

This legislation is primarily focused on making it easier for people to report hate crimes by opening up more channels to do so and supporting better training for law enforcement officers. Additionally, by naming a specific Justice Department official to review anti-Asian hate crimes, it hopes to heighten federal focus on such incidents.

Below are some of the key components of the bill:

Designates a DOJ official to expedite the review of anti-Asian hate crimes, both to improve tracking and help with potential prosecution

Calls on the DOJ to offer guidance to local and state law enforcement agencies about setting up online hate crime reporting platforms and public education campaigns

Urges HHS and the DOJ to remove any discriminatory language in how agencies talk about the pandemic

Provides grants to local and state law enforcement agencies so they can set up hotlines for reporting hate crimes and get training for reporting data about hate crimes to the federal government

Pushes judges involved in sentencing for hate crimes to include community service and education about the group that was affected as part of the penalties they assign

All of these efforts are focused on getting a better understanding of just how expansive the problem with hate crimes is, though as one legal expert told Vox, they likely won’t be effective at fully addressing the root causes of such attacks.

“Enhancing criminal prosecutions of and requiring greater reporting on hate crimes are interventions that take place after bias incidents have taken place,” Columbia University law professor Katherine Franke told Vox. “Education, public messaging — particularly from elected officials — and other community-based programs aimed at reconciliation and repair are more likely to reduce the incidence of hate crimes.”

The legislation presented a unique opportunity for bipartisanship

The bipartisan passage of this legislation was ultimately somewhat surprising, including to Democrats who came in thinking Republicans would block the legislation from being debated. “We passed the first hurdle, which I didn’t think we would pass,” Hirono told HuffPost’s Igor Bobic after a procedural vote.

Given how divided the Senate has been on most measures until now, it is a relatively rare occurrence, and a welcome joint effort, for legislation to endure debate and pass with support from both sides of the aisle on a problem that’s been broadly criticized. A major component of the bill that ended up garnering both Democratic and Republican backing was the Jabara-Heyer No Hate Act — an amendment led by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Jerry Moran (R-KS), which included the grants to regional law enforcement.

In the end, lawmakers in both parties agreed that the issue of racism and hate crimes warranted a collective policy response, even though it’s still a limited one.

Upcoming votes, including one on HR 1, Democrats’ sweeping voting rights reform bill, are unlikely to pass as smoothly.

If a bill is blocked, or filibustered, by even one member, after all, it will need 60 votes to pass, a tough threshold for Democrats to meet given the Senate’s current 50-50 breakdown. If the filibuster stays intact, a number of Democratic priorities — including gun control, police reform, and the $15 minimum wage — probably won’t pass.

Like the hate crimes bill, these coming votes will further test the chamber’s potential for bipartisanship — and likely play a role in whether Democrats end up deciding to blow up the filibuster down the line.

8 in 10 Asian Americans say violence against them is rising—yet support is lacking
Jennifer Liu 

CNBC

4/22/2021

A vast majority of Asian American adults, 81%, say violence against them is rising in the U.S., according to a new survey from Pew Research Center. The findings come after more than a year of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the racial stigma and xenophobia against Asians that's followed.

© Provided by CNBC People participate in a protest to demand an end to anti-Asian violence on April 04, 2021 in New York City.

The Pew survey of 352 Asian adults, conducted in English from April 5 to 11, came shortly after the fatal shootings of eight people, including six Asian women, in the Atlanta area on March 16.

By comparison, 56% of all U.S. adults believe violence against Asian Americans has risen in the last year.

Overall, 45% of Asian adults say they've experienced at least one of five racist incidents, as defined by Pew, since the start of the pandemic, including 32% who said they have feared someone might threaten or physically attack them; 27% who say people acted as if they were uncomfortable around them; 27% who have been subject to racial slurs or jokes; 16% who have been told to go back to their home country; and 14% who were blamed for the coronavirus outbreak.

Stop AAPI Hate, a national coalition started to document anti-Asian discrimination during the pandemic, said it received 3,795 self reports of anti-Asian hate incidents between March 2020 and February 2021.

It's crucial to consider the context of these incidents and resulting public perception, says Manjusha Kulkarni, the executive director of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council and co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate.

Because the group's data is limited to the beginning of 2020, and hate incidents generally go underreported, Kulkarni tells CNBC Make It that it's hard to say if new reports of hate are rising due to increased incidents, improved reporting systems or even just better awareness of the issue that empowers victims to report.

With that said, Kulkarni stresses the importance of collecting this data to begin with, and that any reports are certain to be "the tip of the iceberg."

"It's important to have research and surveys, like the ones by Pew, AAPI Data and others," Kulkarni says. "That helps us to better understand the issue of underreporting and address it. It enables us as Americans, and also policymakers, to better understand frequency and severity of this problem."

Respondents to the Pew survey gave many reasons for why they think there's been an increase in anti-Asian racism and violence in the last year, including former President Trump's racists characterization of the origins of the coronavirus. Others cited ongoing racism, a general rise of violence during the pandemic and a history of scapegoating Asians in the U.S.

Notably, while the number of hate crimes against Asians increased by 150% in 2020, total hate crimes in the U.S. decreased by 7% overall, according to a March analysis released by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.
The limits of bystander intervention trainings

Pew data shows a majority, 71%, of U.S. adults say they've witnessed discrimination against Asian people — a share similar to the public's assessments for Black people and Hispanic people.

Meanwhile, from the April Pew survey, only 32% of Asian adults reported that someone had expressed support for them and their racial or ethnic group since the coronavirus outbreak.

"To me, that means only one in three of us has had someone recognize our personhood or Americanness," Kulkarni says. "One in three is not a lot. Why isn't it three out of three? Why isn't every one of us supported by our neighbors, friends and community members?"

The majority of documented hate incidents occurred at businesses and in public, according to Stop AAPI Hate data. Many advocacy groups have encouraged people to participate in free bystander intervention trainings that teach individuals how to respond to hate incidents in the moment.

But individual actions have their limits.

"Bystander intervention can be one tool," Kulkarni says, "but we need broad-based solutions to what's happening. We need to change the dialogue in our understanding of what it means to be an American, what it means to have civil rights, what it means to have all the protections of a personhood and citizenship in the U.S."
Employers have a responsibility to stop Asian racism

In April, a national coalition of Asian American chief executives and business leaders publicly committed $10 million to justice groups and implored allies in corporate America to do more to support their AAPI workforces, such as by creating and funding AAPI employee resource groups, and ensuring better representation at their companies at all levels of the organization.

Beyond financial commitments, Kulkarni says businesses can go a long way in making sure their employees don't perpetuate any kind of racism, discrimination or bias, and that if it happens, workers know how to stop or report it.

In an office setting, for example, employees should be trained on what kind of behavior is and isn't allowed, and what actions bleed into racist or discriminatory territory; managers should be trained on how to handle concerns when they happen, like if their employee receives a racist email from a coworker. A retail store worker, meanwhile, might be trained on the consequences of refusing service to a customer based on a protected class.

Duration 2:04 This millennial activist is calling out anti-Asian racism

Employers should also provide a way for individuals to report concerns, and a process for addressing them, without fear of retaliation.

Kulkarni says racist and discriminatory behavior at work is "happening all the time," and employers should be thinking "are we doing anything to encourage or discourage reporting? Do we have anything in place that's keeping people from getting promoted, or raising concerns of retaliation? There's a whole host of steps that can be taken in the HR arena that serves to support employees to encourage and enable them to work in a safe environment."

Addressing anti-Asian racism will require systemic change

Though anti-Asian racism has gained national attention in recent months due to increasingly violent and fatal attacks, discrimination against the racial group is not new. About 3 in 4 Asian Americans say they've personally experienced race-based discrimination as of April, according to Pew; the share remains unchanged from June 2020 and February 2019 surveys that asked the same thing.

Addressing anti-Asian racism, and how it's perpetuated through countless policies and institutions, will require systemic change.

At the national level, President Biden signed an executive order on Jan. 26 targeting xenophobia against Asian Americans. During his first national televised remarks, Biden denounced anti-Asian racism, calling hate incidents "un-American," saying that they "must stop."

In March, the White House announced several initiatives to address anti-Asian violence, including reinstating and expanding the White House Initiative on AAPIs, improving data-collection efforts to study national hate crimes statistics and funding training for state and local law enforcement agencies to promote accurate reporting of hate crimes.

Kulkarni says increased policing won't address the root of the problem, given 89% of reported hate incidents are not physically violent (they include verbal harassments, deliberate shunning, civil rights violations and online harassment). But increased law enforcement could impact those disproportionately harmed by police violence, including Black Americans and individuals who are undocumented.

She offers LA vs. Hate as a model for an alternative — a phone line that can be used to report hate incidents, no matter the race of the victim, and connects residents with community organizations with resources for immediate care, mental health support, coalition building, leadership development and more.

"Action must be taken now," Kulkarni says. "We don't want to essentially neglect the opportunities this moment offers, not only to support AAPIs but also Latinx and African American community members. All these groups have experienced varying levels of marginalization and discrimination. We have to be prepared to tackle white supremacy — that's really essentially the foundational issue here."

Check out:

How to support Asian American colleagues amid the recent wave of anti-Asian violence

How millennial Nobel Prize nominee Amanda Nguyen's viral video sparked coverage of anti-Asian racism

'The model minority myth is killing us': Facebook exec calls public to confront anti-Asian racism

Searing Romanian Oscar contender tackles botched response to nightclub fire

By Luiza Ilie 

4/22/2021

© Reuters/INQUAM PHOTOS Narcis Hogea, father of a victim of Colectiv fire, reacts during interview in Sinaia

SINAIA, Romania (Reuters) - For Romanian father Narcis Hogea, who lost his son Alexandru in a Bucharest nightclub fire in 2015, the botched response to the disaster shown in the Oscar-nominated documentary film "Collective" remains an open wound.


Alexandru, a 19-year-old computer science student, was among 65 people who died as a result of the blaze at the Colectiv nightclub, a tragedy that exposed incompetence and corruption in Romania's healthcare system.

The film, which follows a team of investigative journalists as they uncover deeply ingrained problems in hospitals, has resonated with audiences at a time when healthcare or the lack of it have been on everyone's mind because of COVID-19.

Directed by Romanian Alexander Nanau, it is in the running for Oscars in two categories: International Feature Film and Documentary (Feature).

For Hogea, who is seen at his son's grave in the film, the events shown could not be more painful. He remembers Alexandru as an affectionate young man, always ready for a hug with his parents or his sister, and the life and soul of every party.

Hogea says he is still living in fear because of what happened to his son, who was among victims rushed to hospitals that turned out to be unable to care for them adequately.

"We have changed completely," Hogea said. "When you go through a tragedy like this, you start being afraid and it's a feeling that never goes away, coupled with the fact that you cannot be happy."

The documentary focuses on the then editor of the Gazeta Sporturilor newspaper, Catalin Tolontan, and his team, as they reveal shocking failings, such as the use of diluted disinfectants to treat burn victims.

LEGACY OF FEAR, DISTRUST

Potentially life-saving transfers of patients to hospitals in other countries were delayed after the fire because Romanian officials claimed they had everything they needed to handle the situation, which was not true.

Follow-up investigations uncovered corrupt procurement practices involving politically-appointed hospital managers. Most of the court trials that followed resulted in convictions, although appeals are still pending.

"Certainly, justice takes longer, and should, than journalistic investigations. But it is true that after five years not having a final ruling is too much … and this unfortunately fuels people's distrust," Tolontan said.

The bungled response to the fire sparked nationwide protests against corruption in Romania, a European Union member which has one of the least developed healthcare systems in the bloc, and currently one of the highest coronavirus death rates.

Many fear not enough has changed since the Colectiv disaster. Two more recent fires, as well as an oxygen tank malfunction affecting hospitals treating COVID-19 patients, have left dozens dead or injured. Reform-minded health officials face obstruction.

Tolontan said some changes did happen, including double-digit rises in healthcare workers' wages, stemming an exodus of medical staff.

"If we didn't have the intensive care doctors we have today, we would have felt the pandemic much harder than we are already feeling it," he said.

Mihai Grecea, a Colectiv survivor who became an activist for patients' rights and now advises the health ministry, said there had been limited progress, but the state of the nation's hospitals remained concerning.

"I am nervous when I enter Romanian hospitals because the level of control authorities can exercise over what happens there is very low," said Grecea.

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie, editing by Estelle Shirbon)