'Forever young': Poet, Nobel laureate Bob Dylan turns 80

"Blowin' in the Wind," "Mr. Tambourine Man" and many more: Dylan's songs were the soundtrack of DW's Susanne Spröer's youth. A take on the legend's birthday.

    

Then and now: Bob Dylan is still a legend at 80

My favorite Bob Dylan song is a lullaby. Dylan wrote it in 1966 for his son Jesse: "Forever Young" always tugs at my own heartstrings. Perhaps because I sincerely wish the same for my two sons, regardless of what life may bring: "May you always be courageous, stand upright and be strong, may you stay forever young."

Like so many of Dylan's songs, this one has been covered countless times by the most diverse of artists, from Bruce Springsteen to Harry Belafonte, Meat Loaf and the amazing Joan Baez.  There are versions in many different languages, and even one in a mix of English and Kölsch, the dialect spoken in my adopted hometown of Cologne.

But I got to know Bob Dylan's music long before I came to Cologne. I was 13, and Dylan's songs became the soundtrack of my youth.

'A jingle jangle morning' under my school desk

The songs brought the big wide world to my doorstep in a village in southwestern Germany where I grew up in the 1970s. That's where we secretly smoked our first cigarettes on the dirt paths between vineyards, and strummed "Blowin' in the Wind" on the guitar around the campfire at youth camps. And rather than memorizing boring dialogues from textbooks, instead I secretly looked up Dylan's lyrics while sitting in English class. I wasn't always successful: I couldn't, for instance, find a "jingle jangle morning" in the school dictionary. 

But when I heard "Mr. Tambourine Man," the song struck a chord in me: It evoked that morning after a night of partying, when a dreamcatcher wind chime rang softly in the summer breeze on the porch... But now, that is mere reverie.

Those moments, however, were my key to Bob Dylan's music. I understood few of the words at the time, but felt the music intensely. And unlike the English texts in schoolbooks, it wasn't important what Bob Dylan wanted to tell me with his songs. What was important was what they stirred in me.

Growing up in Minnesota

Like me, Bob Dylan grew up in a rural area. He was born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota, into a Jewish middle-class family that moved to the mining town of Hibbing a few years later. Robert learned to play the piano and guitar, and though was otherwise rather reserved, the teenager founded his first rock 'n' roll and jazz bands — feeling right at home on stage.

On the road to New York City: 19-year-old Bob Dylan

After high school, he enrolled at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis to study art and music. But rather than sit in on lectures, he preferred performing songs by his new idol Woody Guthrie, accompanying himself with guitar and harmonica. 

The myth of the vagabond: Riding a freight train to New York

In Minneapolis, Robert Allen Zimmerman renamed himself Bob Dylan — inspired by the poet Dylan Thomas, as he recounts in his memoir Chronicles, published in 2004.

Minneapolis soon became too small for him, and in January 1961, the 19-year-old left for New York City. By freight train, he claimed at the time — cultivating the image of a vagabond that fits his songs so well. (Only much later did he admit that he had actually traveled there quite comfortably by car).

With his folk repertoire, which was increasingly supplemented by his own songs, he played in cafes and clubs in the artists' district Greenwich Village. There, he also met Joan Baez, who was already a star of the folk music world at the time.

From folk vagabond to icon of the protest movement

When Baez took him with her on tour in August 1963, Dylan had already released two albums. But it was only through the joint performances on stage in front of tens of thousands people that his breakthrough came — it marked the beginning of an unprecedented career. 

Icons of protest music: Joan Baez and Bob Dylan in Washington, DC in 1963

In a very short time, the 20-year-old became an icon of the protest movement. Alongside Joan Baez and Martin Luther King, Dylan took part in the March on Washington, where more than 200,000 people demonstrated against the Vietnam War and racial segregation, and Martin Luther King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. The following year, Dylan's third album, The Times They Are a-Changin, was released.

'The Times They Are a-Changin': also in the 1970s

Some 15 years later, the title song also became a protest anthem for me and my group of friends. "Come mothers and fathers throughout the land / and don't criticize / what you can't understand / your sons and daughters / are beyond your command" spoke right to our hearts. We, too, felt the times had to change.

Rebellion in action: DW's Susanne Spröer in her youth

After all, at the end of the 1970s, the world was in the grip of the Cold War. NATO and the Warsaw Pact states were irreconcilably opposed to one other, and it would take another 10 years before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In addition, in January 1979, the first smog alarm was sounded in West Germany. In March of that year, we heard on the Tagesschau news program about the severe Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA, the worst accident in the history of nuclear energy up until that time.

Dylan's lyrics seemed tailor-made for our youthful protests against nuclear power and pollution, and for our adolescent rebellion against parents and teachers.

 

'It Ain't Me, Babe': Not a voice of a generation

An icon of the protest movement, the voice of a generation — that was something he had actually never wanted to be, as he wrote in his autobiography: "All I'd ever done was sing songs that were dead straight and expressed powerful new realities," he wrote in Chronicles, reflecting back over the mid-1960s. "I had very little in common with and knew even less about a generation that I was supposed to be the voice of."

The year 1965 also marked a musical turning point: When Dylan played an electric guitar instead of an acoustic one for the first time at the Newport Folk Festival, the folk purists booed at him. Yet the performance was a historic moment: when folk went rock, and it became legend. 

Dylan increasingly withdrew from the public eye. After a motorcycle accident in 1966, he disappeared for months, and he also did not appear at the Woodstock Festival in 1969.

Dylan as actor and film composer: 'Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid'

In the years that followed, Dylan experimented with different styles of music and tried his hand at acting in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Despite being a Jew, at the end of the 1970s, he turned to Christianity and began composing gospels. Following the collapse of his first marriage in 1977, he remarried in 1986, ultimately becoming the father of six children.

Though the beginning of the 1980s was wrought with crisis, he made a comeback, returning toward the end of the decade with his The Never Ending Tour, which began in June 1988 and continues to this day. He plays approximately 100 concerts a year, and has continued to release albums. However, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020/21 threw a wrench in his tour plan.

Multiple award-winner, including the Nobel Prize

In the past decades, Bob Dylan has garnered massive international accolades, including numerous Grammys, an Oscar for the film song "Things Have Changed" and the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. In 2012, former US President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor in the United States.

Former US president Barack Obama bestowed Dylan with the country's highest honor in 2012

And in 2016, Bob Dylan received the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first musician ever to do so: He had "created new poetic forms of expression within the great American song tradition," the jury stated.

Regarding the Nobel Prize, Dylan reacted in typical fashion — not at all, at first. Then he sent Patti Smith to the award ceremony to perform his song "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall." Eventually, he did pick up the award, in a small, non-public circle. Instead of the usual, required lecture as deemed by the academy, he sent a sound recording, with a nod to musical and literary role models.

Body and soul in harmony: Bob Dylan in 2020

'May you stay forever young'

In 2020, Dylan released his latest album Rough and Rowdy Ways (though it will likely not be his last). To mark the occasion, he gave a rare interview to The New York Times. Asked how he does it, staying fit and balancing mind and body, he said, "I like to think of the mind as spirit and the body as substance. How you integrate those two things, I have no idea. I just try to walk on a straight line and stay on it, stay on the level."

Is it strange to wish someone a "happy birthday" using words from one of their own songs? Not if the words are pitch perfect. In that spirit: "May your heart always be full of joy, your songs never forgotten, and may you stay forever young." Happy 80th Birthday, Bob Dylan!

 

This article was translated from German by Louisa Schaefer.

FALSE FLAG 

Wuhan lab staff had Covid-like symptoms before outbreak disclosed, says report

Issued on: 24/05/2021 -

In this Feb. 2, 2021, file photo, a member of a World Health Organization team is seen wearing protective gear during a field visit to the Hubei Animal Disease Control and Prevention Center for another day of field visit in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province. © Ng Han Guan, AP

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Three researchers from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) sought hospital care in November 2019, months before China disclosed the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing a previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence report.

The newspaper said the report - which provides fresh details on the number of researchers affected, the timing of their illnesses, and their hospital visits - may add weight to calls for a broader probe of whether the COVID-19 virus could have escaped from the laboratory.

The report came on the eve of a meeting of the World Health Organization's decision-making body, which is expected to discuss the next phase of an investigation into the origins of COVID-19.

A National Security Council spokeswoman had no comment on the Journal's report but said the Biden administration continued to have "serious questions about the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, including its origins within the Peoples Republic of China."

She said the U.S. government was working with the WHO and other member states to support an expert-driven evaluation of the pandemic's origins "that is free from interference or politicisation."

"We're not going to make pronouncements that prejudge an ongoing WHO study into the source of SARS-CoV-2, but we've been clear that sound and technically credible theories should be thoroughly evaluated by international experts," she said.

The Journal said current and former officials familiar with the intelligence about the lab researchers expressed a range of views about the strength of the report's supporting evidence, with one unnamed person saying it needed "further investigation and additional corroboration."

The United States, Norway, Canada, Britain and other countries in March expressed concerns about the WHO-led COVID-19 origins study, and called for further investigation and full access to all pertinent human, animal and other data about the early stages of the outbreak.

Washington is keen to ensure greater cooperation and transparency by China, according to a source familiar with the effort.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.

On Sunday, China's foreign ministry noted that a WHO-led team had concluded a lab leak was extremely unlikely after a visit in February to the virology institute. "The U.S. continues to hype the lab leak theory," the ministry said in response to a request for comment by the Journal. "Is it actually concerned about tracing the source or trying to divert attention?"

The Trump administration had said it suspected the virus may have escaped from a Chinese lab, which Beijing denies.

A State Department fact sheet released near the end of the Trump administration had said "the U.S. government has reason to believe that several researchers inside the WIV became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses." It did not say how many researchers.

China refused to give raw data on early COVID-19 cases to the WHO-led team probing the origins of the pandemic, according to one of the team’s investigators, Reuters reported in February, potentially complicating efforts to understand how the outbreak began.

HERE IS WHAT CHINA RELEASED JANUARY 2020 WITHOUT IT NO VACCINES COULD BE MADE 

THE GENETIC CODE FOR SARS CORONA VIRUS 

Claims of a coup in Samoa as prime minister-elect locked out of parliament

 

Issued on: 24/05/2021

FILE PHOTO: A view of the capital Apia, Samoa, July 12, 2019. 

© Jonathan Barrett, Reuters/File photo
Text by: NEWS WIRES


Samoa's prime minister-elect was locked out of the Pacific nation's parliament in extraordinary scenes Monday, as her political rival refused to accept electoral defeat prompting claims of a coup.

Fiame Naomi Mata'afa arrived at parliament ready to be appointed Samoa's first female prime minister, accompanied by judges in formal robes and horsehair wigs whose job was to witness her swearing in.

Instead, they were barred from entering the parliamentary chamber as police looked on while her supporters sang hymns and called for the results of an April 9 general election to be honoured.

"We need brave Samoans right now ... to uphold our election," Mata'afa told the crowd gathered in the parliamentary grounds.

After 22 years in office, incumbent Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi has refused to relinquish power, even though the courts have confirmed Mata'afa secured a narrow one-seat majority in last month's vote.

Mata'afa has accused Malielegaoi of threatening Samoa's democracy.

"This is an illegal takeover of government, that's what coups are," she told New Zealand's Newshub on Sunday.

"We have to fight this because we want to retain this country as a country that is democratically ruled, premised on the rule of law."

Parliament was supposed to convene on Monday morning with a ceremony led by Chief Justice Satiu Simativa Perese.

He led a procession of judges from the Supreme Court to parliament, but when confronted with a locked door they turned around and headed back to the courthouse.

Mata'afa and hundreds of supporters remained in the parliamentary grounds for about an hour, singing and making speeches.

While they were there, the clerk of parliament's legislative assembly arrived and apologised for locking the chamber, saying he could only allow parliament to sit on the orders of head of state Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi.

Sualauvi on Saturday ordered plans to convene parliament on Monday be scrapped, but the Supreme Court overturned his ruling during a rare Sunday sitting and said it should go ahead.

With the constitutional crisis deepening after a six-week standoff, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she hoped "cool, calm heads" would prevail.

"We support Samoa's democracy and we would call on others to do the same," Ardern told TVNZ.

"Obviously now is a really difficult crossroads, this is a big change for Samoa over what's been occurring in the part 20 years in their elections.

"Our call would be to maintain and uphold the rule of law."

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne expressed similar sentiments.

"Australia values our close friendship with Samoa. It is important that all parties respect the rule of law and democratic processes," she tweeted.

"We have faith in Samoa's institutions including the judiciary."

Samoa gained independence in 1962 after nearly 50 years as a New Zealand protectorate and the incumbent Human Rights Protection Party has been in power since 1982, apart from a brief coalition period in 1986-87.

(AFP)

Future sours for Hong Kong's brazen Apple Daily tabloid



Issued on: 24/05/2021 - 

Mainland Chinese authorities make no secret of their desire to see Apple Daily -- and its Next Digital parent group -- shuttered Daniel SUEN AFP


Hong Kong (AFP)

A shadow of fear hangs over Hong Kong's outspoken and staunchly pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, with its billionaire owner Jimmy Lai now jailed and many reporters asking themselves: "Are we next?"

Each day, tomorrow's date is hung up on the walls of the bustling newsroom, a constant reminder of the need to get the next edition out.

But there are growing signs a time may come when the 26-year-old newspaper has no tomorrow in a city that once marketed itself as a regional bastion of the free press.


"I am facing the greatest crisis since I took up the post over three years ago," Apple Daily's chief editor Ryan Law told AFP, just days before authorities used a new national security law to freeze Lai's assets, including his media empire shares.

On a table in Law's office sat five recent resignation letters from staff, a vivid illustration of the worries coursing through the newsroom.#photo1

But Law, an Apple Daily veteran of some two decades, remained defiant -- and devoted to journalism despite the threat.

"Some colleagues asked if Apple will eventually close shop when the CEO or I am arrested," he said.

"I said: Apple is still here even after Mr Lai's arrest."

- Caught in crosshairs -

As China's crackdown gathered pace in the wake of 2019's huge and often violent democracy protests, mainland authorities made no secret of their desire to see Apple Daily -- and its Next Digital parent group -- shuttered.

The raucous tabloid, founded by Lai in 1995, has unapologetically backed Hong Kong's long and fruitless democracy campaign and can be withering in its criticism of both Beijing and Hong Kong's leaders.#photo2

Lai has long been branded a "traitor" and a "black hand" by Chinese state media, and declared guilty by senior communist party leaders.

Hong Kong's police chief has recently taken to calling for a "fake news" law, making clear Apple Daily is in his sights.

Prosecutions have come thick and fast for Lai over the last year.

He is currently serving a 14-month sentence for attending two protests in 2019, and faces two more ongoing prosecutions linked to other rallies.

But the most serious charge is "colluding with foreign forces" -- a new security crime -- for allegedly campaigning for international sanctions.

Lai faces up to life in jail if convicted and it was the security law charge that enabled authorities to seize his assets.

In an interview with AFP last year, Lai was frank that his own chequebook kept Apple Daily going.#photo3

Although it remains the city's most popular media group, like most printed press its circulation has cratered, from around 400,000 at its peak in the 1990s to just 80,000 now.

Any company that relies on the Chinese market has long avoided advertising with the paper.

Since Lai's assets were frozen, Apple Daily has said it may have only 9-10 months of money in the bank.

- 'Something is approaching' -

Zoe, a reporter who has been at Apple Daily for more than five years, described a constant weight pressing down on her.

"The morale is rather bad," she told AFP, asking to use a pseudonym to speak freely.#photo4

"It feels like something is approaching us... I worry that some day soon I may not be able to work in the press."

Hong Kong remains a major regional press headquarters, hosting the offices of many international media companies.

But the city has been sliding down press freedom rankings since its 1997 return to China.

The once raucous local media scene has been steadily tamed to be less critical of Beijing.

Apple Daily, Zoe said, was the exception.

"I have worked in a number of newsrooms and Apple is the freest I have encountered so far," she said.#photo5

She considered quitting, but rejected the idea.

"I still want to work here because such a free space is really precious for a reporter," she said.

"I can't simply leave it behind when it's struggling."

Lai's arrest last year under the security law was a watershed moment for Apple Daily's reporters.

The same day, more than 200 police officers raided the newsroom to search for evidence.

The first thing Law did was to tell his reporters to broadcast the raid live on Facebook.

"I was thinking, first and foremost, we must report this news because only we can do it," he recalled.

In the footage, he could be seen arguing with officers, asking to inspect the search warrant and running between newsdesks to invoke journalistic privilege over evidence -- a right enshrined in Hong Kong law.

At a recent townhall meeting, staff asked Law what they should do if the police came back to arrest him.

He had a simple reply: "Broadcast it live."

Syria's predictable polls: A pledge of 'allegiance' to Assad


Issued on: 24/05/2021 - 

In the capital Damascus, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's portraits line roads and inundate main squares, outnumbering those of his two little-known challengers LOUAI BESHARA AFP

Beirut (AFP)

President Bashar al-Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for over half a century, faces an election Wednesday meant to cement his image as the only hope for recovery in the war-battered country, analysts say.

His campaign slogan, "Hope through Work", evokes the reconstruction of a country ravaged by a decade-long conflict that has claimed more than 388,000 lives and displaced half of Syria's pre-war population.

In the capital Damascus, Assad's portraits line roads and inundate main squares, outnumbering those of his two little-known challengers.


"Syrians will vote to pledge allegiance to Assad and to the system," said analyst Fabrice Balanche.

By holding elections on a regular basis, Assad is attempting to prove "that Syrian institutions are functioning," he said.

The poll, the second since the war started in 2011, is all but certain to deliver a fourth term for a president already in power for 21 years.

Western countries opposed to Assad say the vote is a sham and neither free nor fair -- in part because it will be held exclusively in the two thirds of the country under regime control.

Assad, a 55-year-old ophthalmologist by training, was first elected by referendum in 2000 after the death of his father Hafez, who had ruled Syria for 30 years.

In the May 26 ballot, he will run against two other challengers approved by an Assad-appointed constitutional court, out of a total of 51 applicants.

Electoral law stipulates that candidates need to have lived in Syria continuously for at least the past decade, ruling out all exiled opposition figures.

The two other contenders are former state minister Abdallah Salloum Abdallah and Mahmoud Merhi -- a member of the so-called "tolerated opposition" long described by exiled opposition leaders as an extension of the regime.

- 'Only choice' -

Assad issued a general amnesty for thousands of prisoners earlier this month, on top of a series of decrees that aim to improve economic conditions.

He has refrained from holding campaign media events and interviews, but his team has released a widely shared promotional video ahead of the polls.#photo1

It opens with footage of explosions and people fleeing devastated neighbourhoods, but then shifts to portray scenes of hope: inside a classroom, a schoolteacher repairs a hole blown into the wall by artillery fire. A farmer tends to his land. A timber mill is back in service.

"Bashar's election campaign emphasises his role as the man who won a war (and) has big ideas for Syria's reconstruction," said Nicholas Heras of the Newlines Institute in Washington.

It presents him as "the only person who can manage the resumption of order and reconstruction from the chaos of the Syrian conflict."

With more than 80 percent of Syria's population living in poverty, according to the UN, the country today is a far cry from the vision Assad projected when he was first propelled to the presidency.

According to Heras, Assad's campaign targets international donors more than Syrian voters.

He is "running a long infomercial for potential foreign backers that he is their only choice for stability after Syria's war", Heras said.

- 'Major setback'-

Syria has lost its status as a regional heavyweight under Assad's watch and is now widely seen as heavily dependent on Russia, Iran and an assortment of Tehran-backed militias, including the Lebanese Hezbollah movement.

It remains to be seen whether Western countries led by Washington will shift course on Damascus by lifting sanctions that have crippled Syria's economy.

But they are unlikely to make concessions without an internationally brokered peace settlement, which they accuse Assad of sabotaging.#photo2

According to experts, the May 26 vote undermines a UN-sponsored committee set up in late 2019 to draft a new constitution for Syria ahead of elections.

Representatives from the regime, the opposition and civil society groups failed to clinch an agreement before the vote, derailing any progress.

According to Syria expert Samuel Ramani, the election "will be a major setback for the constitutional process".

It "will reaffirm to the international community, Russia and Iran included, just how difficult a settlement will be."

In a country fragmented by war, Syria's Kurds have carved out a de facto autonomous zone in the northeast, where voting will be extremely limited.

More than three million people live in Syria's rebel-held northwest, where the fighters say the election is illegitimate.

In the last multi-candidate poll in 2014, Assad won with 88 percent of the vote.#photo3

This time around, "Assad is running the risk of being the only certainty in a country in ruins," said a European diplomat following Syrian affairs.

But Assad will have a lot to prove, more so to his closest allies than his foes, according to the diplomat.

"Without reform and without opening up the regime," he has few chances of success, the diplomat said.

Killings in Iraq spark calls for election boycott

A mourner brandished a picture of murdered Iraqi anti-government activist Ihab al-Wazni during his funeral at the Imam Hussein Shrine in the central Shiite shrine city of Karbala in early May Mohammed SAWAF AFP/File


Baghdad (AFP)

A wave of deadly attacks on pro-democracy activists and journalists in Iraq have sparked mounting calls to boycott October parliamentary elections, as perpetrators go unpunished.

Killings, attempted murder and abductions have targeted more than 70 activists since a protest movement erupted against government corruption and incompetence in 2019.

Elections were set in response to a central demand of the protracted protest movement that lasted from October to June 2020, and during which demonstrators also railed against Iran's influence in Iraq.

But as attacks continue with impunity, more voices have joined a call to boycott the vote.

Former lawmaker Faeq al-Sheikh Ali resigned after anti-government campaigner Ihab al-Wazni was shot dead in an ambush in the central holy Shiite shrine city of Karbala on May 9.

"I announce my withdrawal from the legislative elections," he said after Wazni's killing.

He also called for other leaders of the protest movement to pull out of the race.

"Prepare... to continue the revolution in the coming months against Iran and its dirty militias," Sheikh Ali said. "There is no other choice but to topple this criminal regime."

Authorities have consistently failed to publicly identify or charge the perpetrators of the killings, which have not been claimed.

However, activists have repeatedly blamed Iran-linked armed groups that wield considerable influence in Iraq.

Wazni had for many years criticised Iraqi armed groups and Iran's outsized influence in the country.

The day after he was killed, prominent journalist Ahmed Hassan was also shot in southern Iraq. He remains in a coma after undergoing brain surgery.

- 'Who killed me?' -

After Wazni's murder, a movement born out of the anti-government protests called Al-Beit Al-Watani -- the National Bloc -- said it would boycott the October elections.

"We reject elections until the killers of the leaders of the October revolution are behind bars," the bloc's founder Hussein al-Gharabi told AFP, referring to the protest movement.

Since then, 17 groups have joined the call for a boycott.#photo1

They had presented lists for the elections, believing they had strong popular support to change the system through the ballot box.

But all that changed with the murder of Wazni and the attack on Hassan.

"We are firmly against holding elections, as long as weapons are freely available and killings continue," the groups said in a joint statement on May 17.

Pro-democracy activists called for a protest on Tuesday in the capital Baghdad, to demand the government arrest those responsible for the killings.

They are convinced the perpetrators are known by security forces, but have not been arrested because of links with neighbouring Iran.

On Twitter, photos have circulated of prominent activists murdered in the country with the hashtag "Who killed me?".

However, analysts expressed doubt that calls for a boycott would stop the elections, saying traditional parties control political power in the country through pressure, vote buying and intimidation.

- Renewed violence? -

Citing "chaos" in the country, analyst Ali al-Baidar said "it would be better to push back the elections until the security situation improves".

"Money (to buy votes) flows freely, weapons circulate without any control and political parties impose their will on citizens. All this is an obstacle to transparent elections," he said.#photo2

But he remained sceptical over the power of a boycott.

"There will be a media impact, and this will be a message to the international community, but it is the major parties that have the power and influence," he added.

"Moreover, if there are demonstrations, they will not be on the scale of those in the past because the leaders have been killed, injured, fled the country or found refuge in autonomous Kurdistan".

Analyst Ihsan al-Shamari echoed Baidar.

He said groups linked to the protest movement "recognised the error they made in wanting to participate in the elections".

"They realised it was the traditional parties, backed by foreign states, in particular Iran, that control the state, power, money and weapons," he said, adding that "they realise it is very difficult for them to enter the political scene".

But communist leader Raid Fahmi, whose party has suspended its participation in elections, warned the situation could be volatile.

"The people are frustrated," Fahmi said. "If the doors of democracy and free, transparent elections close, this could lead to a new wave of violence."

Eritrea viewpoint: I fought for independence but I'm still waiting for freedom

Published12 hours ago

Samuel Ghebhrehiwet admired the glamorous image of the Eritrean freedom fighters

Eritrea is officially marking 30 years of independence from Ethiopia. Former BBC Tigrinya editor Samuel Ghebhrehiwet was a soldier who fought for independence. He writes about his experiences on the battlefield, and how hopes were dashed as Eritrea became a repressive one-party state.



During our 30-year armed struggle for independence, we lived with war every hour of every day.

We got used to pain and sacrifice. Many of us were wounded two or three times during fighting. We were quickly patched up and marched into more battles.

I still wonder how we managed to cover ground from Qarora - the northern tip of Eritrea - to Dumeira - the southern tip - sleeping in trenches and climbing every mountain and valley. I was among the fortunate ones. About 65,000 of our fighters died in combat.

I joined the liberation army as a 16-year-old in 1982 after hearing tales about Ethiopian aggression and jealous of the glamourous image of the freedom fighters with their long hair, shorts and AK47s.

I received a few months of training in the Arag valley. We learned how to attack and retreat, how to camouflage ourselves, and how to use weapons - including grenades and RPGs.

SAMUEL GHEBHREHIWET, 2008, hoped he was fighting for a better Eritrea

Our training was good. It was backed up by political education, including how we would establish a democratic government.

I was involved in numerous battles, culminating with the liberation of the port city of Massawa in the Fenqel operation of February 1990. That operation was decisive. It put a stranglehold on the Ethiopian military's movements, and ultimately forced them out of Eritrea.

We fought intense battles for 72 hours to capture this strategic city, and we then defended it for more than a year with 100km-long trenches. In these battles, I suffered shrapnel wounds to my head and hand. I was treated in hospital. After I was discharged I returned to the battlefield.

Towards the end of the 1990s I was sent to join the cultural group to boost the morale of our army with revolutionary songs and dramas. In 1991, we were on Dahlak Island, near Massawa, when we heard the biggest news of our lives - we had finally achieved our independence.

Days of celebration

Filled with joy, we travelled by boat to Massawa. We were then loaded on to lorries to go to the capital, Asmara - a journey that took about three hours. We crossed the Ethiopian military's southern checkpoint. It was unmanned, the Ethiopian soldiers had abandoned it.

There was a dreamlike atmosphere in Asmara. People in the city dropped everything to welcome the independence fighters. They broke into impromptu "guayla" (traditional music and dance) on the streets of the capital, as well as other towns and villages.

There were more celebrations in 1993 after a referendum formalised independence

Before that momentous day, the people of Asmara were totally besieged. The airport was constantly being bombed, there was a strict curfew. Then on 24 May everything changed.

Mothers abandoned earthen pots on their "fernello" (coal stoves); forgot the fire in the "mogogo" (ovens) and walked out on their coffee rituals to join the welcome party.

People carrying palm leaves, which are often used in celebrations, invaded the streets - every palm tree was stripped. The young ones climbed onto the tanks that rolled in and waved their palm leaves.

 Reminders of the war remain littered across Eritrea

The celebrations went on for days and nights.

There was much anxiety amid the euphoria as there were many parents out in the streets with picture frames in their hands. They were asking the arriving fighters about the whereabouts of their children.

"Did they make it back? Did they die?"

I remember Seyum Tsehaye, the designated fighter photographer, taking pictures of the momentous occasion as his unit rolled in.

I also remember two members of our unit - Gedle and Abayey - coming face-to-face with their family members while they were still on the back of the lorry. The joy, the screams, the tears.

Gedle's father was so overjoyed he beat his chest with his palm branch.

"I found my son! I found my son!" was all that came out of his mouth as he ran in front of our lorry. Abayey, the female fighter who was in the driver's compartment, recognised her mother-in-law and tried to jump off the lorry, almost injuring herself.

We were accompanied by cheering crowds all the way to Albergo Ciao - a hotel in the city.

Later, we were told by our commanders that we could go out and look for our family members - those of us who had relatives in town. It was not easy to find them in a couple of hours, after years away. But we did.

We all hoped that Eritrea was going to flourish and we would live happily ever after.

Leaders enjoying themselves

Unfortunately, it did not take long for our hopes to be dashed. We gave everything we had - our youth and lives - to achieve independence. We had dreams.

Many of us wanted to go to our families, resume our studies, take up civilian jobs, form a family and do well in our communities. We were very surprised that we were not even allowed to leave the army.




Eritrea - a history of struggle:


A former Italian colony which later formed loose federation with Ethiopia
Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie dissolved Eritrean parliament, seized Eritrea in 1962
Eritrean separatists fought guerrilla war until 1991, when they captured capital Asmara, voting for independence in 1993
May 1998 border dispute with Ethiopia led to two-year war costing 100,000 lives
Ethiopia's new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki end hostilities in July 2018




We were told that the country had nothing. "All we have is the armaments we brought in with us," our commanders-turned-leaders told us.

After such a long and arduous life in the battlefields, we, the ex-fighters, were once again asked to tighten our belts. We were instructed to continue our work unpaid. We were only given food. This lasted for about two years, and then we started getting some money

The fighters who functioned as one family unit during the revolutionary years were dismayed when they became aware of the leaders' behaviour - many were simply having a good time as soon as the country was liberated.

Some top leaders were seen in bars, drinking excessively - enjoying themselves while the regular fighters struggled. The chain of command and the regular meetings were neglected.

The ordinary "tegadelti" (freedom fighters) waited patiently for their conditions to change but nothing happened.

War with the neighbours

In 1993, on the eve of the second anniversary of Eritrea's independence, the ex-fighters protested and asked their leaders to listen to their grievances. They forced their leaders to call a meeting in Asmara's main stadium.

"We understand your problems; it is a common problem; we will resolve the situation together," was the answer given.

As soon as the protest was over, the leaders secretly detained the protest leaders - one by one over a few days. Soon after, they were sentenced to jail terms ranging from one to 15 years.

Many women joined Eritrea's fight for independence

They paid a heavy price for highlighting their plight - they ended up becoming victims. Many said that the regime was following a path to dictatorship; others called for patience, saying the constitution that Eritreans had been promised would be drafted and the country would head towards democracy.

None of this has happened. Eritrea remains a one-party state, having never held an election to choose the president or government.

In the meantime, Eritrea has found itself at war with all its neighbours at some point - Yemen in 1995, Sudan in 1996, Ethiopia from 1998 to 2000 and Djibouti in 2008. The country lost tens of thousands more young lives.




More about Eritrea:

‘I haven’t seen my jailed parents for 17 years’
Behind the smiles of Eritrea's president
In pictures: Eritrea as seen by Mary Harper
A quick guide to Eritrea



Now, Eritrean troops are involved in the fifth conflict since independence. They are in Ethiopia's Tigray region, fighting alongside Ethiopian troops against the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF).

The TPLF was in power in Ethiopia when Eritrea's independence was formalised in a referendum in 1993, and during the 1998-2000 border war between two nations.

In the immediate aftermath of independence, I joined a ruling party-supported cultural troupe, hoping to honour freedom fighters and help build the country. I wrote plays and songs, and took part in performances. One of Eritrea's most famous musicians, Helen Milles, sang one of my songs: Massawa - Where are your Precious Children?

Later, I worked as a journalist for a government-owned newspaper until I went into exile.

Change is inevitable

The little political space that existed came to an end after the Ethiopia-Eritrea border war.

The government became gripped by a siege mentality, as it feared destabilisation from Ethiopia and accountability from its own citizens over a conflict that many believed could have been avoided through dialogue.

In September 2001, the government ordered a crackdown. Eleven top officials and many middle-ranking cadres who supported the idea of reform were arrested. Later they were thrown into prisons, never to be heard of again.

Eleven journalists who were publishing the grievances, letters and calls of the reformist group were also detained; their newspapers banned. Among them was my good friend and colleague Seyum, the photographer who captured the momentous time of independence.

None of them were brought to an independent court and their whereabouts remain unknown.

I

SEYUM TSEHAYE'S FAMILY

Seyum Tsehaye, pictured here with his daughter Abie in 1998,

 has not been seen since his arrest

Eritrea remains a one-party state that has not held a national election since independence. There is no free press or independent civil society groups. All international NGOs and local civic organisations are banned.

Official statistics show that healthcare and education have improved since independence but is it difficult to believe them. With limited job prospects and the prospect of years of compulsory unpaid military service, many young people continue to leave the country, seeking asylum in other African states or Europe.

But many of us have not given up hope. We believe change is inevitable and Eritrea will realise the promises made by its martyrs.

US imposes visa restrictions on Ethiopia over Tigray conflict

The United States has announced restrictions on economic and security assistance provided to Ethiopia over fighting in Tigray. Visas will also not be issued to those thought responsible for the crisis.

Thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands more forced from their homes in the Tigray region

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that the actions by the United States are to press for the resolution of the crisis in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.

US visa restrictions were also placed on Ethiopian and Eritrean officials accused of contributing to the six-month-old war in Tigray.

"The time for action from the international community is now," Blinken added

Watch video 01:43 Tigray conflict: Many children separated from parents

Restrictions targeted "current or former Ethiopian or Eritrean government officials, members of the security forces, or other individuals — to include Amhara regional and irregular forces and members of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) — responsible for, or complicit in, undermining resolution of the crisis in Tigray," Blinken said.

Thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands more forced from their homes in the Tigray region since November.

What is the conflict about?

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali sent troops into the Tigray region, which led to the TPLF launching an attack on the Ethiopian army in November 2020.

The TPLF, which has split from Ethiopia's now-ruling coalition, was once the country's dominant party and carried out an extended war with neighboring Eritrea. Abiy has since been accused of siding with Eritrean forces to pursue the now-fugitive leaders of the TPLF.

ETHIOPIA: TIGRAYANS FLEE AS FRESH CONFLICT ERUPTS

A temporary home

11-year-old Asmara holds her 1-year-old brother Barakat at the doorway to their living space at Tsehaye primary school in the town of Shire, which has been turned into a temporary shelter. Four months after the Ethiopian government declared victory over the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), tens of thousands of Tigrayans are again being forced to flee their homes. PHOTOS: 123456789

Troops from both the Ethiopian and Eritrean military forces have been accused of carrying out abuses against the civilian population in the border region. The international community has called for the restoration of peace, with the UN and US pushing for the withdrawal of troops from the region.

Both the nations have announced the withdrawal of troops, which is yet to take effect.

Changing global order poses fresh challenges for trade deals

Multilateral trade agreements find themselves in increasingly choppy waters. Protectionism has been growing and tensions between the West and China have ratcheted higher. So, will deals to free up trade have a future?



Trade deals are becoming more complex as partners no longer contend with merely cutting tariffs

The history of trade deals is a sea of acronyms…GATT, WTO, CAI, RCEP, TTP, NAFTA. But grand-scale multilateral agreements to promote global trade look set to become increasingly complex. Derek Scissors, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute thinks reaching a deal on trade these days is "more complex than the tariff-cutting of a generation ago."

He told DW that the impact of free trade pacts on particular industries and groups in societies was harder to assess, causing more domestic opposition. "Similarly, greater financial leveraging has made many economies less capable of adjusting to new competitive pressures," he said, adding that the United States widening trade deficit with the rest of the world also changed the global playing field.

"Trade liberalization has been supported by the dollar as global currency and the US providing liquidity through trade deficits. American hostility toward higher trade deficits and questions about the future role of the dollar make expanding trade riskier," he noted.

The rise of China

The single biggest factor behind the changing international trade landscape has been the rise of China. Twenty years ago, China joined the WTO after 15 years of talks and there was a belief in Europe and the US that trade would help open up the economy and bring about a new era of liberalism in China.

Easier trade conditions helped China become the world's second-biggest economy, but didn't bring political reform. Instead, China's communist leadership has tightened its grip and China operates large trade surpluses with the US and Europe. Two decades on, the talk in the West is of systemic competition with China and constant calls for level playing fields.

As a major exporter, China sees trade deals like the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) as means to boost its economic role in Asia. Beijing led the RCEP regional trade deal last year, when China and 14 other countries in the Asia-Pacific region signed the pact in November. It covers 2.2 billion people and 30% of the world's economic output. Now, there are reports that China is even pushing ahead with behind-the-scenes talks to join the CPTPP.


Watch video 01:52 Leaders of 11 countries ink huge trade deal

This is ironic as the CPTPP evolved out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a deal that originally aimed to exclude Beijing and cement US economic power and trade ties in the Asia-Pacific region. However, Donald Trump pulled the US out of the TTP and it fell apart until it was revived as the CPTPP.

Officials from Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand and other nations have held technical talks with Chinese counterparts on details, Bloomberg reported recently.

Ultimately the terms of the CPTPP could prove troublesome for China. The CPTPP has rigorous requirements, particularly its provisions on labor, procurement, state-owned enterprises, state support and subsidies, e-commerce and cross-border data transfer.

China would need the agreement of all 11 CPTPP members, including Australia, Canada and Japan, with whom it is in conflict

Politics trumps trade

Australia's membership of RCEP and its free trade agreement with China didn't stop China imposing tariffs on Australian barley, wheat, coal, wine, lobsters and lumber It also suspended ministerial-level strategic economic dialogue, after Canberra called for an investigation into the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic and criticized China for human rights abuses in Xinjiang province and Hong Kong.

Scissors argues China appears unwilling to "negotiate away" what it sees as state prerogatives. "The obvious example is that China's 'free' trade agreements do not allow foreign competition to harm state-owned enterprises. They are only 'free trade except for the state sector.'"

The tensions that have erupted between China and Australia recently would show, he said, that Beijing was stretching the definition of state interest further than that. "Countries negotiating with Beijing should understand they are negotiating conditional market access only, and China expects them to behave accordingly," said Scissor

Watch video 01:48 Australia-China relationship hits low point

Christina Otte, an expert on East Asia at the GTAI, told DW that concluding free trade agreements doesn't protect against punitive tariffs and other such actions, as the example of Australia shows.

"But they can still be a sensible instrument to encourage trade and set standards between the states that are party to the contract. And the fact that in the form of the RCEP a free trade deal was concluded despite all the political differences in Asia means that the onus to act is now on Europe," Otte said.
European sanctions

Geopolitical concerns also played a role in freezing the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI). The European Parliament voted to shelve the pact, which had been heavily promoted by Germany, after Beijing introduced sanctions on EU lawmakers earlier this year.

The tit-for-tat sanctions were imposed after the 27 EU countries approved sanctions on Chinese officials running internment camps in the western, Muslim-majority Chinese region of Xinjiang.

US Trade Representative Katherine Tai has called for a strategic rethink of global trade policies that had failed to parlay increased trade activity into advances for workers and the environment.

"The use of force labor is probably the crudest example of the race to the bottom in global trade," Tai told reporters in Washington this month, in reference to China's use of forced labor in the Xinjiang provin

Watch video 05:09 Is China a friend or foe?

Jürgen Friedrich, chairman and CEO of German state-run trade promotion group, Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI), stresses, though, that geopolitics are always a factor in trade agreements, calling it "a fact of life." He told DW that it was debatable whether, from the larger historical perspective, these times were even "particularly contentious."

"In any case, the German government, including those of us who work for its economic arms, believes in international, negotiated, win-win solutions in both commerce and politics," he said, adding that the government is convinced "this approach will prevail in the long term."

Opinion: Fair deals, not summits, will solve Africa's post-COVID challenges

France and all the EU have justified fears of being affected by African countries' economic challenges. Fair cooperation will address those fears and benefit both Europe and Africa, writes DW's Harrison Mwilima.



French President Macron, left, and Mali President Bah N Daw were among those at the Paris summit


More than 30 African and European heads of state and the heads of global financial institutions met in Paris for this year's Africa-France summit. Their goal was to find ways to finance African economies hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic and discuss how to handle the continent's billions of dollars in debt.

Although Africa has so far not been badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and has a total of 130,000 deaths across the continent, compared with 3.4 million worldwide, most African economies are highly dependent on countries outside the continent, which have been highly affected by the pandemic.

The IMF warned in late 2020 that Africa faces a financial shortfall of almost $300 billion (€246 billion) by the end of 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A major concern of the summit was, therefore, to figure out how African countries could be supported in financing their economies given the challenges caused by the pandemic.

While initiatives to support African countries in dealing with the pandemic and their debt might show European concern towards the continent, there is a need for fair economic cooperation.

Watch video02:42 France's Macron leads summit on investment plan for Africa

Fair economic cooperation

The COVID-19 crisis led to a fall in commodity prices and increased costs of imports. Additionally, income from tourism, remittances and raw materials also dropped. These are among the legacies of colonialism, of which France has been a major player.

DW editor Harrison Mwilima

The coronavirus pandemic and its economic effect on African countries is another reminder that countries need to diversify their economies and facilitate internal trade.

But there is a need for fair trade deals to be signed between African countries and the rest of the world. French President Emmanuel Macron, who hosted the summit, and his EU counterparts are currently in the process of signing and ratifying the post-Cotonou deal with African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. If France is really concerned about dealing with post-pandemic challenges, it should use its influence to ensure that African countries are getting a fair-trade deal with the entire 27-member EU.
European-African relations in post-pandemic era

As it stands, the coronavirus pandemic has shown, once again, that the world is more connected than we think and that the economy isn't the only place where we all depend on each other. Macron was clear about the future challenges Europe would face if it abandoned Africa: reduced economic opportunity, larger flows of migration toward Europe and a growing terrorism threat.

These points, however, are nothing new. So far, the focus has been on French concerns about African countries and trying to find solutions to help them. That's all fine and good, but it also needs to be made clear that France does this mainly to ensure its own economic, social and security interests.

Both of those aspects should be laid on the table to have a real, mutual exchange of interests between European and African countries. Dealing with COVID-19 challenges in both Europe and Africa will require equal partnership based on fair cooperation.