NOVA SCOTIA   #LGBTQ2

First two-spirit candidate joins provincial election; doubles number of Mi'kmaq running to two

Ardelle Reynolds · Posted: JULY 25,2021

Bryson Syliboy grew up in Sipekne'katik First Nation and has lived in Port Hawkesbury for eight years. He is the first Mi'kmaw two-spirit candidate in Nova Scotia and is running for MLA of Richmond in Cape Breton. CONTRIBUTED

SYDNEY — It's been a whirlwind for Bryson Syliboy since he decided to run for the seat in his riding of Richmond in Cape Breton last week.

"It's been awesome," said the 40-year-old grassroots activist, who is the first Mi'kmaw two-spirit candidate to run in a provincial election. A win would make him the first Mi'kmaw MLA to sit in the House of Assembly in Nova Scotia's history.

"I've been thinking for a couple of years to try politics and try my luck with it. It's something I have a passion for — changing the ways we live here for the better," he said.

Syliboy, a descendant of residential school survivors, said reconciliation, and helping to make that happen, is a priority for him, in addition to health care in rural areas, affordable housing and raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

"A lot of people in rural Nova Scotia live below the poverty line, and being an Indigenous person and a member of the two-spirit LGBTQ community, it's good that I get out there and be representative for our constituents," he said.

"They need to see people like them in places of politics."

Syliboy, who is running for the NDP, said the party's priorities around poverty reduction and diversity align with his own passions and made it a good fit for him. He is running against Matt Haley for the Liberals, Trevor Boudreau for the Progressive Conservative Party, and Alana Paon, who is seeking re-election as an Independent. 

Nadine Bernard is running for the Victoria-The Lakes seat in the provincial election. A win would make her the first Mi'kmaw woman to sit in the legislature. CONTRIBUTED

INCLUDES POTLOTEK

Richmond, one of four exceptional electoral districts re-instated for this election to increase Acadian and African Nova Scotian representation in the Nova Scotia Legislature, is a rural riding that runs along the southeastern coast of Cape Breton from Framboise to Point Tupper, including Potlotek First Nation. In the previous election, it was part of Cape Breton-Richmond, which had just under 11,000 voters and was won by Paon, who ran as a PC but was later kicked out of the party. Her victory unseated Michel Samson of the Liberals, who held that seat for almost 20 years. The riding now has 7,400 electors.

"The voters here are very diverse — we have an Acadian population, we have a Mi'kmaw population — a have a lot of different people, and a lot of the population are aging so healthcare is definitely a big, big issues for them because we only have one little hospital here and sometimes it closes," said Syliboy, who currently works as the aquatics coordinator for the Town of Port Hawkesbury.

FIRST MI'KMAW

Syliboy is the second Mi'kmaw candidate to announce they are running for a seat in the legislature. Nadine Bernard, who grew up in We'koqma'q First Nation and is a band member in Eskasoni First Nation, is running for the Liberals in Victoria-The Lakes, which includes both Eskasoni and Wagmatcook First Nations. If elected, she would replace popular PC incumbent Keith Bain and could be the first Mi'kmaw, and first Mi'kmaw woman, to hold an MLA seat.

"I may be the first but I won't be the last and I'm hoping in the next election we see more Mi'kmaw and more diversty representing this province," she said.

Syliboy also hopes to see more Mi'kmaw people in politics and that his candidacy will help to make that happen.

"It gives people hope. They can say, 'Look, that person is like me, I can look up to them and I can do what they're doing,' because I didn't have that. You've got to be the person to make the change," he said.

Election day in Nova Scotia is Aug. 17.

BRYSON SYLIBOY
Age: 40
Hometown: grew up in Sipekne'katik First Nation, lives in Port Hawkesbury
Party: NDP
Riding: Richmond
Competitors for seat: Alana Peon - Independent (incumbent); Matt Haley - Liberal; Trevor Boudreau - Progressive Conservative
Priorities: health care, affordable housing, living wage, reconciliation, S2LGBTQ+ rights

NADINE BERNARD
Age: 43
Hometown: grew up in We'koqma'q First Nation, is member of Eskasoni First Nation, lives in Truro
Party: Liberals
Riding: Victoria-The Lakes
Competitors for seat: Keith Bain - Progressive Conservative; (incumbent; Adrianna MacKinnon - NDP
Priorities: mental health and addictions services, post-pandemic recovery for the tourism sector, sustainable industries, reconciliation

Ardelle Reynolds is an Indigenous Affairs reporter at the Cape Breton Post.

Argentina first South American country to roll out non-binary ID cards, joining Canada


AGUSTIN GEIST
BUENOS AIRES
REUTERS
PUBLISHED JULY 21, 2021

Argentine President Alberto Fernandez, centre, Interior Minister Eduardo de Pedro, centre right, and Women, Gender and Diversity Minister Elizabeth Gomez Alcorta, centre left, pose for a picture with non-binary people after presenting the new nomenclature for the National Identity Document (DNI) at Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires on July 21, 2021.
MARIA EUGENIA CERUTTI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Argentina rolled out identification cards on Wednesday for non-binary citizens, who neither identify as male nor female‍, allowing them to use “x” in their important national ID document and passports in the field corresponding to gender.

The South American country is the first in the region to enable this via decree, the centre-left government said, adding it was joining countries such as New Zealand, Canada and Australia, which have already carried out the change.

“There are other identities besides that of man and woman, and they must be respected,” said President Alberto Fernández at the presentation of the new document, adding there were “a thousand ways to love and be loved and be happy.”

The use of the “x” has already been accepted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and includes people who identify outside traditional gender definitions.

Fernández together with the Minister of the Interior, Eduardo de Pedro and the Minister of Women, Gender and Diversity, Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta, delivered the first three ID cards using the new “x” format.

The Peronist leader has been an advocate of progressive social reforms, driving legislation through to legalize abortion late last year and publicly championing his son, Estanislao Fernandez, a design student and a well-known drag queen.

“The ideal will be when all of us are just who we are and no one cares about people’s gender,” Fernandez added. “This is a step we are taking and I hope one day we get to the point where IDs don’t say if someone is a man, woman or anything else.”

SPORTS
Fact check: Do trans athletes have an advantage in elite sport?

The Tokyo Games marks the first time openly transgender athletes compete as Olympians, but the eligibility has cast closer scrutiny into whether there is an unfair advantage. The experts behind the studies weigh in.


Brazilian volleyball player Tiffany Abreu, who is trans, is competing in the Tokyo Games

Several trans women are set to compete in the Tokyo Games, marking the first time openly trans athletes participate in the Olympics. New Zealand's Laurel Hubbard will make her Olympics debut when she makes her first attempt in the weightlifting competition.

Hubbard's participation as a trans woman in the Summer Olympics has prompted controversy — and uproar — with critics saying her eligibility is a threat to fairness in sport. Others say the inclusion of trans athletes cannot be overlooked if there are no meaningful advantages.

DW spoke to the scientists behind leading studies on trans people in sport.

All eyes will be on New Zealand's Laurel Hubbard (right)

What does the science tell us about trans athletes in elite sport?

Few studies have been done on trans people's athletic performance — and, to date, there are no published studies on trans athletes participating at the elite level, say experts. But some papers have been published in the lead-up to the Olympic Games.

One study, published in 2020, looked at US military personnel who transitioned while in service and found that trans women maintain an edge after one year of feminizing hormone therapy, which usually includes suppressing testosterone levels and boosting estrogen.

The research was carried out by Dr. Timothy Roberts, a pediatrician and associate professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and his colleagues. They found that trans women who underwent hormone therapy for one year continued to outperform non-transgender women, also known as cisgender women, though the gap largely closed after two years. But even then, trans women still ran 12% faster.

Roberts, however, suggested the difference in running times needs additional perspective. "It was a 12% advantage after two years in run times. But to be in the top 10% of female runners, you have to be 29% faster than the average woman. And to be an elite runner, you've got to be 59% faster than the average cis woman," he told DW.

Another study, carried out by sports scientist Tommy Lundberg, found that trans women who underwent feminizing hormone therapy generally maintained their strength levels after one year.
Do trans women have an advantage when competing in elite sports?

Without hormone therapy — yes. But even with hormone therapy, current research suggests trans women still maintain an edge in strength.

"Pretty much any way you slice it, trans women are going to have strength advantages even after hormone therapy. I just don't see that as anything else but factual," said Joanna Harper, a medical physicist at Britain's Loughborough University.


Strength is one of several key factors — including explosiveness, endurance and lean body mass — that determine whether an athlete has an edge.

But Harper, whose research focused on trans runners like herself, rejects the idea that trans women competing in sport would have an "unfair" advantage, noting that there are many other factors that go into shaping how an athlete performs — including hand-eye coordination and technique, which are necessary for excelling in sports like golf.

One major factor is hemoglobin levels — which is the most important physiological factor when it comes to endurance sport. Hemoglobin in the blood transports oxygen throughout the body, including to the muscles. Since hemoglobin levels follow testosterone levels, non-transgender men tend to have higher hemoglobin levels than cisgender women. But Harper's study found that testosterone suppressants reduced hemoglobin levels in trans women to that of cisgender women, thus eliminating the advantage.

For Tommy Lundberg, whose research at Sweden's Karolinska Institute focuses on skeletal muscle strength of trans people receiving hormone therapy, the advantages for trans women in strength are to the point where fairness cannot be ensured in most sports.

"The big problem right now is that the [hormone] therapy itself doesn't really remove the advantage to an extent that you can claim that fairness has been achieved," Lundberg told DW. "And actually, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) states that the overriding objective is, and remains, the guarantee of fair competition. That's what they say in their guidelines. So that's the problem right now: They don't go hand-in-hand."

In another paper Lundberg co-authored that looked at untrained trans women, Lundberg and his colleague found that "muscular advantage enjoyed by transgender women is only minimally reduced when testosterone is suppressed."

Canadian archer Stephanie Barrett is one of several trans women competing in the Summer Games

The study, like any other — including Roberts and Harper's — has its limitations. Harper, who had also done a review of a similar set of studies to Lundberg's, said both of their studies found a "fairly modest change" in strength in non-athletic trans people. "But their review made it seem more definitive than our review did," she said.

"If you are looking for information on cisgender athletes, you'd never use studies on non-athletic trans people. You just wouldn't do that. It's just that we don't have any data on trans athletes. So I think you have to take the results with a certain grain of salt."
When do differences between sexes in athletic performance emerge?

Young boys and girls, regardless of the gender assigned at birth, have similar muscle mass. It's only once a child experiences puberty that the differences begin to emerge — and they become pronounced once boys experience a surge in testosterone.

"Typically, if you're 8 or 9 years old, there is no biological performance difference between boys and girls. So it starts at around age 11 where you start to see this disparity — and then it really kicks in during puberty. And then you have, basically, this big difference in muscle mass," said Lundberg.

Roberts, who is a pediatrician specializing in adolescent medicine, said: "Younger children before puberty — there is no reason to have divisions of sex between boys and girls. They're physiologically fairly equivalent. It's after puberty that you really see this divergence in athletic performance."

Boys experience a surge in tesosterone during puberty, accelerating their height, strength and hemoglobin levels above healthy girls

There have been no studies carried out on adolescent trans athletes. So there is no data on trans athletes who took puberty blockers or gender-affirming hormone therapy during puberty — and certainly none before puberty. Part of this comes down to following guidelines. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health requires trans adolescents to have begun puberty before undergoing puberty suppressants, the first stage before undergoing hormone therapy.

Trans adolescents in sport have made headlines in recent years, as more than a dozen US states have a policy that allows trans girls to compete competitively at the high school level as long as they self-identify as female. For Blair Hamilton, a Brighton University researcher on trans athletes, this doesn't go far enough to achieve an equal playing field.

"For example, Connecticut was allowing [trans female runners] to race unmedicated," said Hamilton, who is also a transgender footballer. "We don't agree with that."

Hamilton said athletes seeking eligibility to run in competitive races in the female category should first undergo hormone therapy to reduce the advantages.

To do otherwise, said Roberts, would give them an edge. "To compete against the females as soon as you socially transition — before you get any hormone blockers or hormone therapy — it's unfair."

"Tomorrow, if I said: 'I'm a woman and I'm going to go compete in the women's class.' It's unfair. I still have testosterone, I have all the advantages I started with," said Roberts.
What is the recommended testosterone for trans women to compete?

This is a thorny issue that sports scientists disagree on. The "normal" healthy range for cis women is between 0.3 and 2 nmol/L, according to Mayo Clinic estimates — though they vary among labs. Women with polycystic ovarian syndrome tend to have higher testosterone levels, which can reach 5.2 nmol/L. "Healthy" male testosterone ranges from 8.3 mnol/L to 32.9 nmol/L.

The IOC's regulations say trans women can compete if their testosterone levels in serum are at 10 nanomoles per liter for a year for at least 12 months prior to their first competition.

With Roberts and Lundberg's recent papers, however, the IOC has faced renewed criticism following Hubbard's inclusion due to its eligibility criteria. But the IOC said it would not review its guidelines — set in place in 2015 — until after the Tokyo Games.
World Athletics (IAAF) in 2019 changed its rules, requiring testosterone levels to be below 5 nmol/L continuously for at least 12 months. This criterion for trans women is backed by Hamilton as well as Harper, who noted the IOC's current guidelines are based on outdated techniques measuring testosterone levels.

But the IAAF's criteria runs contrary to Roberts' study on trans military personnel, which suggests two years of hormone therapy is needed before competing.

Lundberg, however, said there is no sufficient evidence that two years would be enough to ensure fairness in the female category in most sports. "It would be an easy fix if you could just change regulation to two years, instead of one. But I don't think that's a feasible solution either. Actually, right now, there is nothing to indicate that."
Do trans men have an advantage when competing in elite sport?

"What we've got in our study is, actually, the trans men dominated," said Roberts, referring to his study on trans US military personnel. After one year of masculinizing hormones, there was no difference in pushup or run times — however, the number of situps performed in one minute by trans men exceeded cisgender men, or non-transgender men.

"But nobody's up in arms saying that trans men are going to dominate men's sports," said Roberts, adding that much of the advantage gained for a cisgender man occurs during puberty.

Chris Mosier made history in 2020 when he became the first openly transgender athlete to compete in an Olympic trial


"Having gone through female puberty does not provide you with a baseline skeletal advantage over your average cis man. You're getting testosterone, which levels the playing field in large part because testosterone really produces a lot of differences, but there's not that extra anatomical advantage that a trans woman has over cis women — a trans man isn't going to have that over a cis man," he said.

Sports scientist Lundberg notes that trans men competing is "not as sensitive in sports."

"Even if they get testosterone, it's not a threat to fairness if they switch to the male category," he said. "The problem then is, of course, if they would want to stay in the women's category even when they get testosterone — because then it would become doping."
Is there a way to achieve both fairness and inclusion in sport?

None of the experts interviewed support a blanket ban on trans athletes, which is in line with a recent study. But experts, like Lundberg, say the regulations should be determined on a sport-by-sport basis, especially when safety is a factor, like in rugby.

"We don't have this easy fix or easy regulation that can be applied," said Lundberg. "You basically have to choose or prioritize either inclusion or fairness. They don't go hand-in-hand right now."

"And in most sports, it's going to be problematic to include transgender women and achieve fairness. That's what the current research suggests," he said.

Lundberg's research has seen him come under fire on social media, with many accusing him of being transphobic. But he tells DW that is not the case.

"I think the transgender issue is very important. But protecting the women's category in sport is also very important. They have fought long enough to have fair competition in sport," he said.

In the meantime, sports scientists and researchers will continue to debate and advise on what the best steps forward will be.

"There's not very much information out there and even less that's really specific to trans athletes. But the Olympics are here, international sports are here, and trans people are around. So decisions have to be made," medical physicist Harper said. "So people have to make the best decisions they can with the data that are available now."

"And hopefully, as we get more — and better — data, it will lead to improved policies."

WWW LINKS


Trans athlete policies across US states

Connecticut sports' trans policy

IOC backs Laurel Hubbard

DSDs explained

Oxford JCEM Men's tesosterone ranges

Canadians see NDP's Singh as a better PM than Tories' O'Toole, Leger survey suggests

OTTAWA -- NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh might have reason to smile only weeks before a possible election call as a new survey suggests more Canadians believe he would make a better prime minister than the Conservatives' Erin O'Toole.

While the survey by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies had 25 per cent of respondents picking Justin Trudeau as the best prime minister, Singh wasn't far behind with 19 per cent while only 13 per cent chose O'Toole.

The survey also found a three per cent increase in support for the NDP among decided voters, who otherwise remained largely unchanged in their support for the Liberals and Tories.

Thirty-four per cent of decided voters said they supported the Liberals, while the Conservatives stood at 29 per cent and the NDP at 22 per cent.

The online survey, conducted July 16 to 18, polled 2,069 Canadians. It cannot be assigned a margin of error because internet-based polls are not considered random samples.

The survey could represent bad news for O'Toole and the Conservatives as they continue to bump against what Leger executive vice-president Christian Bourque described as a "30 per cent glass ceiling" under O'Toole's leadership.

Yet it could also signal trouble for Trudeau's chances of winning a majority Liberal government as previous election results have seen the Liberals suffer from strong support for the NDP.

Bourque nonetheless cautioned against overstating how the NDP's apparent uptick in support will play out during an election, saying that the results don't necessarily translate into additional seats for the party.

"The NDP could end up with 20 per cent of the vote and 10 seats, or 20 per cent of the vote and 30 seats," Bourque said.

"A lot will ride on Singh's skills and strategic voting. The more the CPC is a threat, the more the Liberals will eat into NDP support in Ontario, Quebec and, maybe, Manitoba."

Bourque believes the time is now for Trudeau to call an election and try to ride popular support for how the Liberals handled the COVID-19 pandemic if he wants to have any chance of winning a coveted majority government.

The survey found that 55 per cent of respondents believed Trudeau had performed well or very well in managing the pandemic, the area where he had the most such positive reviews.

"For Liberal strategists, this may not be the optimal window to drop the writ, but it likely remains the least worst for the next little while," Bourque said in an email.

"Liberals need to eat support from the NDP and Greens, but also the Bloc Quebecois. That's why running on their COVID-19 record -- and record overall -- needs to work."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 21, 2021.
RELATED IMAGES


NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh rises during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday, June 22, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

The Small Exploration Company That Shocked The Oil Industry

A small Canadian oil explorer may have shocked the industry this year when it published initial results that pointed to the potential of a giant oil discovery in Namibia’s Kavango Basin.


Editor OilPrice.com
July 8, 2021·

Now, as our anticipation builds over the next drill results, this small Canadian driller looks to be attracting attention from around the globe.

In April, Reconnaissance Energy Africa (TSXV:RECO, OTC:RECAF) announced early findings from the first of their initial 3-well drill program in Namibia’s 6.3-million-acre Kavango Basin. It came as a surprise to many of us: Results indicated signs of a working petroleum system after only the first test drill.


On June 3rd, investors got another surprise when RECO announced further indication of a working petroleum system in the shallow section of its second well.

Now, we’re waiting for an announcement about the completion of the second drill to 12,500 feet, which we think should be any day now.

Previous projections have compared the possible numbers with some of the largest oil discoveries in the world in recent years, like the Midland Basin in West Texas.

And Daniel Jarvie, an industry-recognized geochemist and source rock expert, thinks that the play is “pretty much a no-brainer. It will be productive and I’m expecting high-quality oil.”

He’s estimated the basin generated potential billions of barrels of oil—conservatively.

And he’s not the only industry-known scientist involved in this play.

Recognized geologist Bill Cathey was another early bird.

Cathey—whose clients have included supermajors such as ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, and Chevron—performed the entire magnetic survey interpretation of the Kavango Basin for ReconAfrica and was very clear in saying: “Nowhere in the world is there a sedimentary basin this deep that does not produce commercial hydrocarbons.”

What some are considering now is whether there is potential for this to be the last big onshore oil discovery that the world may ever see, as ReconAfrica looks to continue efforts to de-risk Kavango.

How Big Could This Potentially Be?

With the drilling of their first test well in an initial 3-well program, ReconAfrica has had to rely primarily on some encouraging survey data to guide them in their exploration work.

Reco

The results so far, however, are reported to have well exceeded their expectations.

In samples from the first well, ReconAfrica encountered clear evidence that ReconAfrica is sitting on a working petroleum system in the Kavango Basin.

In fact, they showed even more than that:

Sample log results from the first (6-2) stratigraphic test well (6-2) provided over 200 meters of light oil and natural gas indicators over three discrete intervals in a stacked sequence of reservoir and source rock. Oil was then extracted from these samples and the results supported an active petroleum system with multiple source intervals.

The second stratigraphic test well (6-1) has so far encountered 343 meters of oil and gas indicators just at the shallow level, further confirming an active petroleum system in Kavango. The well is now set to reach its full depth (12,500 feet) in the first part of this month, following a short break for maintenance, which has now been concluded, with drilling having resumed last week.

“These wells suggest there is commercial potential in the basin,” Recon Africa director Dr. James Granath, PhD Structural Geology, said in a recent statement. “It took 30 wells in offshore Norway to get to this point, we've been lucky enough to do it in the first two."

We’re also waiting for well analysis from some of the biggest names in the industry, including Schlumberger.

Is This Namibia’s Time to Shine?

Namibia’s never produced a barrel of oil in its history, so ReconAfrica’s (TSXV:RECO, OTC:RECAF) work here could put it on the global oil map for the first time, and in a very big way.

It could also transform the lives of many Namibians, starting with ReconAfrica’s efforts to use its resources to drill community water wells for Kavango residents, nearly half of whom live in generational poverty and are forced to transport water by foot for miles every day.

Kavango

One of ReconAfrica’s first moves as it began trying to prove up Kavango’s commercial potential was to drill water wells for the people of Kavango, and that’s only one part of its reported $10-million ESG commitment to the country and the region, $1 million of which has gone to Namibia’s COVID-19 vaccine program.

The company says the aim of this play isn’t unconventional, either, so the environmental impact questions are far less pressing. ReconAfrica has stated that it does not have any fracking permits and hasn’t applied for any, putting that brief controversy to rest.

Furthermore, the company reports that drilling is taking place more than 50 kilometers south of the ecologically sensitive Okavango River and some 260 kilometers west of the Okavango Delta.

2D seismic, for which ReconAfrica announced government approval this week, is reportedly being conducted by some of the best in the business, with the lightest impact in the world. In addition, ReconAfrica founder Craig Steinke has stated that the company is using 100% organic and biodegradable drilling fluids that are later used as vegetable garden fertilizers.

For Namibia, especially in an era with a strong focus on ESG, and with many eyes trained on efforts to avoid any more “resource curse” scenarios, there may be a lot at stake, and the local and national governments look to be fully on board.

"We are pleased with ReconAfrica's approach to working closely and in constant consultation with our office, the traditional leadership, local authority, and the community. This is only the beginning stages and we have already started to experience the positive economic and social impact of the project in our regions." Kavango East Governor, Bonifasius Wakudumo said.

What Happens Next?

Next, we anticipate lots of potentially exciting news for this small explorer sitting on what could be a supermajor-size exploration play at the final frontier of onshore oil that includes not only the 6.3 million acres of Namibia’s portion of the Kavango basin but also 2.2 million acres in Botswana.

Kavango

In a matter of days, we expect to hear the results of the completed second drill to 12,500 feet.

And now, 2D seismic is reported to be kicking off, with approval just granted by the Government of Namibia.

That will help ReconAfrica determine where to drill to commercialize this basin in the next campaign.

By the end of July, the company reports they plan to have started the seismic acquisition program, which they expect will help them target the most promising areas to drill for their next round.

If those results are positive and the project progresses, ReconAfrica (TSXV:RECO, OTC:RECAF) has a right to a 25-year production sharing contract, and they may seek to enter into potential JV negotiations, and that’s what we think could send this exploration play over the edge.

Other companies looking to capitalize on rising oil prices:

Exxon (NYSE:XOM) is a large multinational corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. Exxon Corporation engages in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas around the world. With its headquarters being located in Dallas, Texas and with operations all over the globe, Exxon has been able to create an empire that has lasted for over 100 years.

Exxon was founded on October 17th, 1999 by John D Rockefeller Jr., who at the time was running Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (which would be later renamed as Exxon Company USA). The company began as a merger between two companies: Standard Oil Company of New Jersey and Humble Oil & Refining Co., which were both subsidiaries of Standard Oil Trust.

While Exxon is one of the world’s top oil producers, it isn’t ignoring the reality of the market. It has made major moves in its commitment to reduce its emissions. It claims to have about one-fifth of the world’s total carbon capture capacity. The company captures about 7 million tons per year of carbon.

Eni (NYSE:E) is a global energy company that was established in 1959. They have grown into one of the top 10 natural gas producers and are ranked #2 for production and reserves. Eni has operations around the world, with their headquarters located in Rome, Italy.

The oil major described 2020 as a “year of war”, regarding the energy crisis experienced in the face of COVID-1. But it may be too soon to see the issues faced last year as a thing of the past. Eni is committing to lower the price of oil at which the company breaks even going into 2021, as a means of tackling the uncertainty of the oil economy in the coming months. Francesco Gattei, CFO at Eni, stated that “Volatility is growing every year.”, highlighting the need to be prepared for the energy demand of the future. In fact, Eni has now set out a plan to lower its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, leveraging natural gas as a major tool in its arsenal.

In addition to its natural gas push, Eni is also jumping on the green hydrogen bandwagon. In fact, in December, the Italian oil major announced a partnership with Entel to produce hydrogen using electrolyzers powered by renewable energy. “Our goal is to accelerate the reduction of our carbon footprint by implementing the best applicable low carbon solution, either green or blue, to reduce our direct emissions as well as switching to bio products to supply our clients,” Eni’s chief executive officer (CEO), Claudio Descalzi, said in a company statement.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) is a company that provides products and services to the energy industry. The company has been in business for more than 100 years, and it employs more than 50,000 people across the globe. Halliburton’s employees are located in over 80 countries around the world. Halliburton operates in four segments: upstream (oil exploration), downstream (manufacturing of oil products), engineering-and- construction, and chemicals. The company offers exploration services, such as drilling wells; production services such as well completion; processing services like natural gas liquefaction and refining.

Halliburton is one of the largest oilfield services companies in the world. The company has secured its place as a giant in the oil and gas industry. But it didn’t happen overnight. The oilfield services sector is highly competitive and ripe with innovation. In order to stay ahead, companies must be on the absolute cutting edge of technology. And that’s exactly what Halliburton has done. And recently, Halliburton increased the heat for its competition. Partnering with Microsoft, Halliburton has become one of the most exciting “tech” plays in the industry.

This partnership is significant. Microsoft, a leader in the tech world, is looking to bring machine learning, augmented reality, and the Industrial Internet of Things to the oil and gas industry, and Halliburton is welcoming the new take on the resource realm with open arms.

Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company with a diversified portfolio of high quality assets in the United States. The company's operations are concentrated primarily in two areas: West Texas, where it has developed one of the most significant unconventional resource plays in North America, the Eagle Ford shale; and Southern California, where it has assembled a large position onshore Los Angeles basin. Pioneer Natural Resources was founded in 1954 by Ross Shaw who had long been involved with land leasing for drilling purposes. With his son James as president, they drilled their first well near Big Lake, Texas.

As a leader in the Permian, Pioneer is also making major waves in its commitment to cut back flaring in the region. In fact, Pioneer consistently flares a smaller percentage of its production than the basin average. The average flaring rate for oil producers in the Permian is 3.7%, according to GaffneyCline, yet Pioneer’s average is just 0.8%.

Despite its commitment to the Permian, however, CEO Scott Sheffield isn’t particularly bullish on the region in the short term. “I never anticipate growing above 5% under any conditions,” Sheffield also said. “Even if oil went to $100 a barrel and the world was short of supply.” The shale major CEO explained this was because the service costs associated with adding more drilling rigs would undermine profit margins.

Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD) is a leading provider of innovative solutions for the global energy industry. We partner with some of the world's most renowned companies and provide them with integrity, expertise, and innovation in all aspects of their business including: exploration, production, refining, transmission & distribution. Enterprise has been around since 1928 when it first started as an oil pipeline company in Tulsa Oklahoma.

Enterprise is the top transporter of natural gas liquids (NGLs) and also owns the most NGL fractionation capacity in the United States, as well as dock space for exports. Enterprise Products is the largest midstream MLP in the country. Enterprise has clearly read the signs of the times and has begun to work with partners to scale back its project backlog. In the past, EP was able to weather the normal industry headwinds thanks to robust cash coverage and manageable leverage. Unfortunately, Covid-19 has been anything but your average downturn, and EP has been forced to seriously cut back on Capex.

After spending $17 billion in capital projects in 2015-19, including new oil pipelines, NGL and LPG pipeline-and-export facilities, and NGL fractionation plants, the giant MLP spent just $2.5-$3 billion last year, down from a prior budget of $3.5-$4 billion as well as a combined $4 billion in 2021-22. However, these dramatic cuts are expected to pay off big time.

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Canadian Natural Resources was one of the few oil producers that kept its dividend intact after swinging to a loss for the first half of 2020. Though Canadian Natural Resources kept its dividend, it withdrew its production guidance for 2020, however. It also said it would curtail some production at high-cost conventional projects in North America and oil sands operations and carry out planned turnaround activities at oil sands projects in the second half of 2020.

Despite the negative stigma surrounding the the oil sands, the sector is starting to clean up its act a bit. And Canadian Natural Resources is leading the charge. And if analysts are right about Canada’s comeback, Canadian Natural Resources could be in for a big year.

Suncor Energy (TSX:SU) is a Canadian multinational energy company, headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. It operates Canada’s largest oil sands project - Suncor's Oil Sands Operations. The company is Canada's most profitable and one of the world's largest integrated energy companies with its operations spanning North America and 20 other countries around the world. With over $120 billion in assets, it has more than 10 million acres of land holdings for exploration and production across six continents.

Suncor has adopted a number of high-tech solutions for finding, pumping, storing, and delivering its resources. Not only is it big in the oil sector, however, it is a leader in renewable energy. Recently, the company invested $300 million in a wind farm located in Alberta.

MEG Energy Corp (TSX:MEG) is a Canadian energy company that provides natural gas and renewable power products and services to customers in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Asia. The company operates in three segments: Pipeline Services; Power Generation Services; Renewable Power Production. MEG has been able to grow their pipeline business by engaging with key stakeholders on regulatory fronts across North America as well as through expansion of their existing pipeline network.
The company’s large proven resources and their cutting-edge technology make MEG a promising company for investors looking to get in to the promising oil sands in Alberta

Gibson Energy (TSX:GEI) is an energy company that specializes in the production, transmission and distribution of natural gas. Gibson Energy has been providing reliable service to their customers for over 100 years. The company currently employs more than 1,400 people across North America.

Gibson has a long history in Canada’s oil and gas game, going back to 1953. The company has a diverse portfolio which includes transportation, storage, processing, marketing and distribution of oil, condensates, oilfield waste, refined products and natural gas. With Gibson’s huge array of assets and its multi-platform sales strategies, it’s hedged a lot of the risk for investors in an inherently high-risk, high-reward industry.

Pembina Pipeline Corp. (TSX:PPL) is a company that has been around for more than 50 years and was the first pipeline company in Canada to offer gas transmission services. They are now one of the largest natural gas transmission companies in North America with an annual throughput capacity of almost 66 billion cubic feet per day. This blog post will discuss Pembina's recent acquisition by Enbridge Inc., their financial performance, and how they view long-term growth opportunities.

Pembina Pipeline Corporation is a Canadian energy infrastructure business that provides products such as natural gas, oil, renewable power, and chemicals to customers primarily located on the eastern coast of North America from its operations in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.

By. Jason Cantle

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Algerians Toppled a President. Now They Are Fighting for Real Democracy.

Two years since millions-strong protests toppled Algeria’s longtime president, June’s regime-organized elections met with a massive popular boycott. For Algerians to really control their lives, the whole regime must go.

Algerians rally in the northern town of Kherrata on February 16, 2021, marking the return of the Hirak protests, two years after the mass movement swept former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika from power. (AFP via Getty Images)

BY MALIA BOUATTIA & SAI ENGLERT
JACOBIN
07.24.2021

Following over a year of demobilization owing to Algeria’s COVID-19 restrictions, this February the Hirak (“movement”) returned to the streets to mark two years since the mass uprising which ended president Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s twenty-year rule. Alongside ongoing weekly demonstrations and strikes, last month the Hirak organized a mass boycott of national elections held by the regime, whose legitimacy it refuses to acknowledge. In the end, turnout was under 23 percent.

The regime has been wrong-footed by both a growing economic crisis — largely caused by the fall in income from oil and gas exports — and an inability to control popular discontent. It is trapped between trying to appeal to the population through gestures of goodwill and continuing to repress activists, journalists, and demonstrators. Yet rather than help the regime to regain control, each such decision fuels the flames. The dismal turnout in June’s vote demonstrated the depth of its crisis, as less than one in four eligible voters cast their ballots.

Illustrating the rising intensity of street contestation, last week mass demonstrations erupted in the two southern wilayas (provinces) of Ouargla and Touggourt. Led by the unemployed, protesters blocked key roads and clashed with police forces following the announcement of new hires in the oil industry, which the demonstrators claim are distributed based on cronyism. More fundamentally, people in the south of Algeria are revolting against a system that continually underfunds their regions even though they sit on top of the oil and gas reserves on which the entire national economy still depends.

The south is not alone, however. In recent months, demonstrators have returned to the streets to demand, in the words of the Hirak’s central slogan, Yitnahawga3 (“They all have to go”). This demand captures the radical nature of the movement. Protesters are not satisfied with a change in the presidency or limited electoral reform but are fighting to disband the entire regime. The latter is made up of the army, whose indirect hold over the country dates from the 1960s; the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN), which has ruled Algeria since independence and has long stopped representing the ideals of freedom and independence it once fought for; and the state officials and private businessmen who have become rich on the backs of the people.People in the south of Algeria are revolting against a system that continually underfunds their regions even though they sit on top of the oil and gas reserves on which the entire national economy still depends.

However, while the mobilization by students and the wider population have sustained the uprising over the last twenty-nine months, a more recent development is pointing to further radicalization, as workers have turned to striking and joining the protests collectively. Firefighters did both — in uniform, visibly as workers in revolt — while teachers, postal workers, and even doctors have also taken action. They are making the connection between the political and economic aspects of the movement in practice.

But faced with this radicalization, the government has stepped up its repressive tendencies — attempting both to behead the movement by depriving it of leadership and to use fear to dissuade others from joining.
Repression

Earlier in 2021, at the same time as demonstrations gathered speed in northern Algeria’s main cities, Ouargla province saw significant riots and clashes with police. This followed the arrest of Ameur Guerrache — a long-standing regional leader and active organizer of the current revolt — for “incitement to terrorism” and “insulting the president.” Guerrache’s mother publicly appealed to the president to release her son, but to no avail.

The state has in recent months increasingly used the specific accusation of “terrorism” to target activists. Ahead of June’s elections, prominent activists and lawyers were arrested for “conspiracy against the state.” With obvious repressive intent, such accusations rely on a boundlessly expansive definition of terrorism, applicable to anyone organizing, demonstrating, or striking against the regime.


This strategy has a double significance in the Algerian context. First, it harks back to the civil war which ravaged the country from the early 1990s to the early 2000s, after the military coup that followed the election of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). The language of anti-terrorism was a key strategy mobilized by the state to justify its repression and violence — which in turn justified more violence from its opponents. For a long time, the fear of the return of the “Dark Decade” (La Décennie Noire), as the civil war years are colloquially known, stopped social movements and confrontations against the state from developing. It is on this fear that the regime is hoping to play today.

Furthermore, by framing its repression of activists as a struggle against terrorism, the Algerian state is attempting to appeal to its allies in Paris and Washington. It is painting its actions in the framework of the so-called War on Terror and thus as a defense of, rather than an assault on, democratic rights. The regime was, indeed, a pioneer of this approach, now reproduced by states across the world, from China and Britain to Syria and the United States. But the truth is that the regime is under pressure, desperate and lashing out against its opponents.The state has in recent months increasingly used the specific accusation of ‘terrorism’ to target activists. Ahead of June’s elections, prominent activists and lawyers were arrested for ‘conspiracy against the state.’

The arrest of journalist Khaled Drareni is striking in this regard. Drareni was already arrested during an earlier roundup of activists, under the cover of “harming the integrity of the national territory.” After serving a year in prison, he was released on bail in February, as the regime attempted to show goodwill before the second anniversary of the Hirak. Now that this strategy has clearly failed and the movement is gaining strength, Drareni has again been detained.

The recent election, snubbed by the vast majority of Algerians, thus took place in an increasingly repressive atmosphere. Leading activists as well as journalists were imprisoned in the run up to the vote, while others were charged with breaking electoral laws and received disproportionate fines and jail sentences. The northern region of Kabyle was particularly targeted.
Crisis at the Top

Astriking aspect of the current conjuncture in Algeria, then, is a sustained and apparently unresolvable crisis at the top of the state. The regime (Le Pouvoir, as it is known by Algerians) is dealing with a profound crisis of legitimacy that it is unable to resolve. Attempts at staging elections, arresting and releasing activists, reforming the constitution, or developing a rhetoric of national renewal have all failed to appeal to the population, let alone divide the movement.

If anything, each of these attempts by the state to reclaim control further demonstrates its failures — strengthening Hirak participants in the conviction that the break with the old order must be complete to be effective. This lesson has no doubt been reinforced by the revolutionary experiences in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region since 2011.

Moreover, the collapse in the authority of the two most important institutions of the postindependence Algerian state — the National Liberation Front (FLN) and the army — is not new; it has been brewing for decades. Already in the 1980s, as the failure of the developmental strategies of the Houari Boumédiène years started to show — with Algeria’s dependence on oil rents prompting economic crisis during the oil slump toward the end of the decade — thousands of Algerians repeatedly took to the streets to demand economic and political reform. That decade thus marked the beginning of a long-term process of resistance against the regime, of which the current movement is the latest iteration.

While the regime was able to buy some time through violent and bloody repression — most strikingly during the civil war — as well as through a minimal reinvestment of the income from the early 2000s oil boom, the absence of an immediate “enemy within” to fight exposed the fragility of the state’s power and its reliance on fear to stabilize the system. Over time, it became increasingly difficult for military and civil leaders to invoke their participation in the anti-colonial struggle against France as a source of legitimacy. This is, certainly, no basis for self-renewal.

Bouteflika’s presidency (1999–2019) well represents this dilemma. Not only is it clear that the narrative of his heroic contribution to the struggle against the French settler state is a myth (much like his supposed long-term opposition to military influence over civilian life), but after he was incapacitated by a stroke in 2013, the regime found it easier to keep him in place as a puppet president rather than go to the trouble of replacing him. His health condition meant that he effectively disappeared from public life and was increasingly replaced by his portrait at official events. This “rule by portrait” has repeatedly been mentioned by activists as a key trigger for the current uprising.Attempts at staging elections, arresting and releasing activists, reforming the constitution, or developing a rhetoric of national renewal have all failed to appeal to the population, let alone divide the movement.

Since Bouteflika’s fall two years ago, the regime has continued to demonstrate its inability to reproduce itself at the top. General Gaïd Salah — the military strongman largely seen as the effective leader of the country in the post-Bouteflika period — suddenly passed away of a heart attack in December 2019, aged seventy-nine. Similarly, the current president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, is seventy-six and owes his presidency primarily to the fact that he was chosen by the regime to be its candidate, rather than to his subsequent election, which was boycotted by the Hirak — a boycott that over 60 percent of Algerian voters heeded.
Where Next?

While thus far the regime has clearly been unable to rebuild its legitimacy or divide the movement through piecemeal and largely cosmetic reforms or repression, it is less clear that the Hirak has the necessary organizational strength to defeat Le Pouvoir head-on and build a new Algeria. The current period has therefore been defined by a lasting stalemate between a state that cannot rule and an uprising that cannot take over.

The challenge so far has been twofold.

First, despite massive popular mobilizations, the Hirak has not yet been able to build up sufficient social pressure to break the back of the regime. Unlike during other recent revolutions in the region — Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Sudan, Iraq, or Yemen — public space has not been occupied continuously to create an organizational base for the revolution, where politics, strategy, and alternative visions for the state can be debated and developed. Occupied universities played that role to some extent in 2019, as have different conferences and gatherings throughout the movement’s twenty-nine months of activity. Overall, however, the uprising has depended on informal and less visible networks and channels of communication. Alternative forms of self-governance, as in the case of Syria’s Local Coordination Committees, have also not seen the day.

Furthermore, the Algerian uprising has not yet translated into sustained industrial action, through which the political contestation in the street could move into an economic contestation in the workplace. It is at the point of unity between these two that the revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia, and Sudan gathered the greatest power and were able to push the regime back the furthest — even if temporarily. There have been small localized developments in this direction at different moments in Algeria. As mentioned above, teachers, postal workers, firefighters, and doctors have struck in recent months. Sections of the judiciary have expressed their support for the Hirak. And, most importantly, early on in the movement, walkouts took place by Sonatrach workers (the state-owned oil company) in the south, after management called on workers not to join the uprising. While these are important examples of collective workers’ action, they have not yet generalized.

Second, the movement has not developed formalized leadership, either in the shape of political parties, coordination committees, or unions and resistance committees as in Sudan. This can largely be understood as a legacy of Algeria’s recent history: on the one hand, the civil war led to the elimination of countless progressive figures and intellectuals — such as Tahar Djaout and Nabila Djahnine, to name but a couple — who were systematically targeted for assassination, effectively beheading the radical left, which could have constituted an alternative amid the civil war.
A Weak and Isolated Left

Long-standing left-wing organizations, with roots in the struggle for independence, were unable to respond to the rapid and deadly escalation of violence between the FIS and the army. The Party of the Socialist Vanguard (PAGS), which brought together former Communist Party activists and their periphery, collapsed under the pressure of the nascent civil war, while others, like the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party (PST), survived but faded into total isolation. The Workers’ Party (PT), formally also of a Trotskyist hue, made its peace with the regime in exchange for a small share of the vote in the post–civil war, state-managed elections. This in turn led to its leadership entering parliament as MPs and enjoying the associated incomes and privileges. For a modicum of (imagined) influence, the party accepted to sustain the illusion of democratic life in Algeria. Louisa Hanoune, its historic leader, was chased out of the Hirak demonstrations as a consequence of this collaboration with the regime.

The Front of Socialist Forces (FFS), which was founded by the historic Amazigh FLN leader Hocine Aït Ahmed as he broke with the nascent regime in 1962 over the issue of military control and centralization of power, is a partial exception. It continues to wield influence in the Kabyle region and has largely avoided being co-opted by the regime, despite its legalization in 1991. It boycotted several — but not all — legislative election in the aftermath of the civil war. It continues to support the struggle against the repressive state machine controlled by the FLN and the army, regardless of previous participation in parliaments after 2012.

Finally, the General Union of Algerian Workers (UGTA) has remained firmly under FLN control, despite some resistance by rank-and-file activists.

However, this absence of a clearly identifiable, formalized leadership to the Hirak should not be understood as an outright lack of leadership. Clearly, local demonstrations, as well as the nascent industrial movement, are organized by well-rooted activists who are not new to political contestation against the state. Ameur Guerrache, mentioned above, is one such example. At the same time, the current movement is throwing up a new generation of organizers and leaders. For example, a string of young Amazigh activists — such as Samira Messouci and Messaoud Leftissi — were arrested around the time of the 2019 elections in an attempt to disorganize the Hirak before Algerians cast their ballots. In this sense, the pattern of state repression points to newly emerging centers of organization.

Two simultaneous realties in the Algerian context continue to push the movement toward increasingly radical action and analysis — something which should hearten the Left, despite the weakness of organized socialist and progressive politics. The first is that the regime continues to be unable to provide any solution to the structural failures against which people are revolting. Historically, the Algerian state has been a one-trick pony, depending on a limited redistribution of its oil revenues in the form of minimal infrastructure or welfare services. This avenue is currently closed to it, as oil income is at an all-time low, leading the state to dig deep into its foreign currency reserves, which have been falling at a dizzying rate, from $200 billion in 2014 to $47 billion in 2020. This situation prevents the regime spending its way out of the impasse — Bouteflika’s strategy in the aftermath of the civil war.

Alongside this material factor, the Hirak’s key slogan — Yitnahawga3 — contains a both radical and radicalizing core message. Having learned from previous rounds of struggle from the early 1980s onward, as well as from the uprisings that have shaken the MENA region since 2011, the Hirak has maintained a steadfast commitment to the demand that “they all have to go.” Even after Bouteflika stepped down, even after former ministers and military leaders were arrested, and even after (carefully stage-managed) elections brought a reshuffle at the top of the state machine, the movement did not relent. These changes were seen as evidence of the Hirak’s effective pressure but never as final victories. The demand for a full clearing out of the old regime opens the door to mass, radical alternatives both economically and politically.

In addition, the fact that the movement appears to be spreading to workplaces creates the possibility of calls for the democratization of the workplace to emerge — a key demand of the revolutionary left, which the historic Greek Trotskyist leader Michel Pablo convinced Ahmed Ben Bella to include (albeit only formally) in the first Algerian constitution. A mass movement which demands the clearing out of the ruling class from both political and economic power and insists on democratic control over all aspects of life is surely the most fertile ground for socialist ideas to develop.

The question, then, for the Algerian uprising and for all progressive forces with an interest in its victory, is how the current stalemate between the state and the Hirak will be resolved. Only time will tell whether the state’s incapacity to either repress or disorganize the movement will last long enough to allow for the further deepening of the revolt and the emergence of a more coherent leadership. But, for now, what is certain is that there is no turning back to the way things were.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Malia Bouattia is an activist, writer, and editor at Red Pepper magazine.

Sai Englert is a socialist activist and a lecturer at Leiden University. He sits on the editorial boards of Historical Materialism and Notes from Below.

Exploring Tunisia's cinematic routes: how the country's pivotal role in film history could attract a new wave of tourism

A new scheme aims to highlight some of the areas made famous by films such as 'Star Wars' and 'Indiana Jones'

The Mos Espa set. Courtesy Simon Speakman Cordall


May 2, 2021

Tunisia's place in film history isn't widely known. However, the North African country can lay a convincing claim to having played a pivotal role in many of cinema's most well-known productions. Over the years, Tunisia has doubled as ancient Rome, 1930s Egypt and even a small planet far, far away.

Now, after many years of neglect, the country's Ministry of Tourism, supported by the German international co-operation agency Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (Giz), will open up many of these locations to a new generation of film lovers, once the pandemic has passed.

Overall, locations from the Star Wars films, Monty Python's Life of Brian, The Lost Legion, The English Patient, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Black Gold are being targeted.

Some, such as those for the The English Patient and Star Wars, partially overlap. Others, such as those in Life of Brian are as unique as their premise. However, all, to varying degrees, have been hit by the economic slide that prompted Tunisia's revolution and the political and financial turmoil that came afterwards.

Sidi Bouhel, better known as the Juntland Wastes in the movies, was dubbed Star Wars Canyon by Lucasfilm. Courtesy Simon Speakman Cordall

While the project, dubbed Cinematic Routes, remains in development, the hope is that private operators will be able to transport visitors to the sites from nearby tourist resorts or take the truly committed on individual tours of them. Many, such as the madinah in Kairouan, remain largely unchanged since Steven Spielberg filmed his 1981 classic Raiders of the Lost Ark there. While that lack of architectural development allowed the location to convincingly double as Cairo, it can be perplexing to visiting film fans that few within the Tunisian city have heard of the film, or are all that likely to understand the passions it inspires.

However, should Cinematic Routes bear fruit, it promises even greater dividends, with extras and backstage engineers from the original films also on hand to talk visitors through production. One extra who I met, Ezzedinemlik (Azziz), worked on Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars, on which he says he was asked to dress as a "sort of cow". People like Azziz, such as other extras, construction professionals and location scouts, are found throughout Tunisia, and all are hungry to tell their stories.

For anyone really hoping to explore Tunisia's rich cinema heritage, Tozeur is the place to visit. It is here that three of the world's most famous films all come together, specifically at Sidi Bouhlel Canyon, not far outside the desert city. It was within these dramatic sandstone walls that several scenes from the original Star Wars were shot, as well as Raiders of the Lost Ark and The English Patient, which were all filmed within the same 500 yards of canyon.

Nearby stands the unique desert formation of Ong Jemel, or the Camel's Neck, a short stub of raised sand that stands above the sprawling salty flats that were in The English Patient and the Star Wars prequels. Farther into the salt flats, or the Chott el Djerid, are the empty Star Wars sets from the first of the prequel films, which have largely been left to the care of trinket hucksters and souvenir hawkers. Elsewhere, practically lost within the endless horizons of the Chott el Djerid, is the small fibreglass igloo that served as the exterior of Luke Skywalker's Tataouine home. Be warned, it can be tricky to find it on your own, but is a guaranteed pit stop on any cinema tour.

The interior of that home lies about three hours south, in Matmata. It was here that the traditional Amazigh troglodyte houses doubled as the interior of the Lars Homestead. The actual set remains largely intact and, before the pandemic, continued to get by as a hotel – the Sidi Driss.

The Lars Homestead has been converted into Hotel Sidi Driss. Courtesy Simon Speakman Cordall

Its manager, Massoud Ben Rached, still maintains the property and its distinctive props that featured in the prequels, which dominate the property's main courtyard. However, the hotel has been largely closed for business since the pandemic hit.

"We were contacted by Giz around a month ago," he tells The National. "They did say they're going to help us, so we hope things will get better. They said they're going to help us repair the broken decor and all. I hope they'll help us change it with a new one. We do want to take care of the hotel, but you know, things aren't that easy ... Money problems and all."

<span>Through the film route, tourists will be attracted to places that they might otherwise never have visited, also in remote areas of Tunisia" </span>

Travelling north along Tunisia's stunning Mediterranean coast takes you to Monastir – unrecognisable now from its appearance in the 1979 film Monty Python's Life of Brian – where the city's distinctive Ribat was transformed into a centre of Roman classicism, and where Brian Cohen, we're told, was a very naughty boy.

Further north lies Nabeul, where part of 2007's The Last Legion was filmed, as was 2011's Black Gold. And not too far away lies the capital, Tunis. Here, if you have a mind to, you can seek out the Roman theatre where Brian found himself selling larks' tongues, wrens' livers and chaffinch brains to the crowds watching the gladiators fight. Nearby, though not directly related to any film (but it would be a shame not to go), stand the Roman ruins of the Antonine Baths, as well as ancient Carthage.

The Cinematic Routes project, which combines funding from several bodies, hopes to provide up to 1,000 new jobs, as well as draw tourism in Tunisia away from the sprawling resort hotels on which it has traditionally relied.

“Through the film route, tourists will be attracted to places that they might otherwise never have visited, also in remote areas of Tunisia,” says Jose Frohling, who works with Giz's Promotion of Sustainable Tourism in Tunisia project. “Giz will support the local population and Tunisian enterprises to create touristic offers.”

Frohling outlines how the routes would connect tourists with the locations and offer advice on how best to reach them. From there, Giz hopes to partner with local communities, municipalities and the private sector to develop ideas on how to best manage and promote the sites.

“Giz will support the site-owners and other partners in preserving and renovating the natural and cultural sites,” Frohling says. “From the beginning, we co-operate with all public and non-governmental stakeholders as well as the private sector, in order to anchor capacities locally. In this way we ensure that the routes create a long-term economic benefit for the local communities in these areas.”

\

The medina of Kairouan starred in 'Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark'. Unsplash

Sadly, since its 2011 revolution and the rise of Morocco as a North African destination for directors looking to capture far-flung Middle Eastern vistas with all the amenities of the 21st century, Tunisia’s star has waned somewhat. While film production continues, many of those who were employed in some of the most famous films have had to find work elsewhere.

For them, and the hotels, restaurants and cafes near the locations slated for development, opening up the sites will provide a much-needed lifeline. And for anyone claiming to be interested in the history of modern cinema, it’s an unmissable opportunity.

Take the trip. The force is strong there.

Tunisian teen wins surprise Olympic swimming gold

By BETH HARRIS

1 of 4


TOKYO (AP) — Nobody was watching Ahmed Hafnaoui in lane eight of the Olympic pool.

All eyes were on the Tunisian teenager at the finish.

Hafnaoui was the stunning winner of the 400-meter freestyle at the Tokyo Games on Sunday, beating a field of faster and older swimmers. The 18-year-old finished in 3 minutes, 43.26 seconds, punctuating his victory with loud yelling that echoed in the mostly empty 15,000-seat arena.

“I believe when I touched the wall and I saw myself first,” he said. “I was so surprised.”

Australia’s Jack McLoughlin earned silver and American Kieran Smith took bronze. The top three were separated by less than a second after the eight-lap race.

“When I hit the water, I was just thinking about the medal, not the time,” Hafnaoui said.

He squeaked into the final by 14-hundredths of a second, landing him in the far outside lane. The fastest qualifiers were in the middle of the pool, without the ability to track Hafnaoui during the race.

Asked what he knew about Hafnaoui, Smith said, “Absolutely nothing.”

Hafnaoui made sure he’ll be remembered with a performance that boosted his resume considerably.

He joined Ous Mellouli as the only Tunisians to win a gold in swimming. Mellouli won the 1,500 freestyle at the 2008 Beijing Games, one of his three career Olympic medals. He reached out with a good-luck message to the teenager before the race.

“I wish to be like him one day,” Hafnaoui said.

The teen who trains in the capital of Tunis is the North Africa country’s fourth Olympic gold medalist. He’s the second-youngest athlete from an African nation to win a swimming gold; Joan Harrison of South Africa was 16 when she won the 100 backstroke at the 1952 Helsinki Games.

Standing on the podium, his coach furiously pumping his arms in triumph in the stands, the moment was overwhelming for Hafnaoui.

“I was in tears because when I see the flag of my country and I hear the anthem in the background, it was great,” he said. “I’m so proud of it. I dedicate it to all the Tunisian people.”

Hafnaoui began swimming at age 6 when his father enrolled him in a swim club. His limited international experience includes an eighth-place finish in the 400 free at the 2018 Youth Olympics.

“The best people are the ones who can come up and swim their best times at the Olympic Games,” McLoughlin said.

Hafnaoui has another chance to pull off a surprise when he competes in the 800 free on Thursday. Next year, he said he plans to attend college in the U.S.

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Tokyo 2020: Shock swimming gold for Japan and Tunisia
Updated / Sunday, 25 Jul 2021

Ahmed Hafnaoui claimed a stunning victory


Tunisia and Japan celebrated unexpected golds on the opening day of swimming medal events before normal service was resumed with the Australian women's 4x100m freestyle relay team smashing their own world record on the way to the title in Tokyo.

Chase Kalisz settled American nerves by delivering the country's first gold of these Games, winning the men's 400m medley as part of a US one-two with Jay Litherland.

On a day of surprises, Tunisian teenager Ahmed Hafnaoui pulled off the biggest shock of all with a stunning victory in the men's 400m freestyle.

The 18-year-old, swimming in the outside lane as the slowest qualifier, produced a blistering finish to pip Australia's Jack McLoughlin to gold with a time of 3:43.36, with American Kieran Smith taking bronze.

Hafnaoui's gold is only the fifth by a Tunisian athlete at the Olympics, but their third in swimming, and he was left stunned by his performance.

"I just can't believe it. It's a dream and it became true. It was great. it was my best race ever," he said.

While Hafnaoui's coach celebrated the victory by leaping around the edge of the pool, it was hard not to wonder what the scenes would have been like had Yui Ohashi's victory in the women's 400m medley come in front of a home crowd.

It was left to her team mates and Japanese officials to roar her home as she delivered gold for the hosts in a time of 4:32.08.

"It doesn't feel real. It is like a dream for me," she said.

"I couldn’t go to the Rio Olympics, so for the past five years this became a big dream for me. This accomplishment is amazing."

Yui Ohashi celebrates gold

American Emma Weyant took the silver medal 0.68 behind and compatriot Hali Flickinger picked up the bronze.

Ohashi pulled away from Flickinger in the breaststroke leg and went into the freestyle with a lead of 1.99 seconds, giving her a comfortable cushion to hold off Weyant's late surge.

Hungarian Katinka Hosszu, who has dominated the event in recent years and was defending champion, could finish only fifth.

The 32-year-old 'Iron Lady' was looking to become the second-oldest women’s swimming gold medallist in history, behind American Dara Torres, and she has three more chances in this Games.

In the men's 400m medley, a confident Kalisz powered to victory as the Americans finally made their presence felt.

The silver medallist from Rio went one better in Tokyo with a time of 4:09.42, Litherland trailing him home 0.86 behind. Australia's Brendon Smith was a further tenth of a second back taking bronze.

Kalisz, 27, grabbed the lead on the first length of the backstroke after France's Leon Marchand had led after the butterfly leg and never looked back.

He battled with New Zealand's Lewis Clareburt through the breaststroke but the Kiwi faded badly in the freestyle and finished seventh.

"It means the world. This is the last thing that I really wanted to accomplish in my swimming career," said Kalisz.

"It was something that was a dream of mine for as long as I could remember. I can't believe it."

Japan's Daiya Seto, the pre-Games favourite for gold, had failed to qualify from Saturday's heats.

While it was a disappointing day for Australia in the men's events, the women set a world record of 3:29.69 in the 4x100m freestyle relay, with Canada taking silver, 3:09 behind the winners, and the United States in bronze position.

The quartet of sisters Bronte and Cate Campbell, Meg Harris and Emma McKeon ensured a third straight gold in the event for Australia, taking 0.36 off their previous record of 3:30.05 set in April 2018.

Cate Campbell has featured in all three of the relay victories

Ireland have two swimmer in action in the pool on Sunday.

Danielle Hill is first out as she goes in her heat in the 100m backstroke at 11:07am, with Mona McSharry taking part in the 100m breaststroke heats at 11:45am.

FENCING & FEMINISM

Ines Boubakri: Tunisian fencer on making history for Arab women

By Katie FalkinghamBBC Sport
Last udated on14 July 2021

Ines Boubakri battled through injury to win Olympic bronze in Rio

Winning Olympic bronze in Rio allowed Ines Boubakri to realise she no longer had to prove herself to anyone.

The Tunisian had had a lifetime of doing that. But in that moment, dropping her mask to the floor and her foil to her side as she became the first African and Arab woman to win a medal in fencing, she knew every hurdle had been worth overcoming.

"You remember all that you sacrificed, how it was hard, because in fencing, we don't have this tradition," she said.

"When I started to be one of the best in the world, people were like 'oh, she's from Tunisia, how can she be one of the best ranked in the world?'.

"When I got this medal, I said 'I don't have to prove anything'. I deserved this medal."

Listen: On the Podium Podcast - How an Olympic fencer made history for Arab women

Boubakri is from a fencing family - her mother, Henda Zaouali, competed at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, while her husband, Erwann Le Pechoux, is a French Olympian. Zaouali couldn't be in Rio to watch her daughter take her place on the podium but Boubakri said she was happy because her mum "wanted that medal".

It hadn't been an easy win, though. Boubakri had battled back and knee pain in the foil bronze medal match, and was forced to fight back from a hefty deficit to defeat Russian Aida Shanayeva.

The now 32-year-old was given a "president's welcome" upon her return home to Tunisia, where she found she had a new following; followers who had realised, through Boubakri's success, that their futures could be limitless.

"It's a responsibility because there are a lot of young girls following me," Boubakri told the BBC World Service podcast On the Podium.

"I have some pressure and some responsibility because I want to show them how to get this medal, not just in sport or in other careers, to show that she can do it.

"It's not because we are Arab or from Africa that we can't, just believe in yourself, be confident and don't let people judge you. Just do what you want and believe in yourself."

Boubakri says the world changed how it viewed her. Now, she wants to help other women from similar backgrounds achieve their true potential.

"For me, it's very important that we have equality between women and men," she said.

"Unfortunately, in the Arab world, they still compare women and men, 'she cannot do this because she is a woman'.

"I want to prove that you cannot compare. Sometimes men cannot do some things that women can do. I want to stop this inequality."

She added: "I've heard a lot of girls say they don't want to do sport, or have muscles like men. When I hear this, I am shocked. I have been fencing now for more than 20 years and it's helped my body to keep fit.

"You can do whatever sport you like and you are not obliged to be at the highest level. Try lots of things and you will see what your body can do."

Ines Boubakri is a three-time Olympian, having competed in Beijing, London and Rio

Tokyo will be Boubakri's fourth Olympics, and could be her last, but regardless of what happens in Japan this summer she already has her future mapped out.

Having moved to France with the support of her family at 18-years-old for better fencing opportunities, Boubakri now wants to bring those opportunities back to the next generation of the sport who need them.

"I don't know when I will stop my career, sometimes I say it will be my last Olympics in Tokyo, sometimes I say why not [carry on]?," she said.

"I have a Masters in sport psychology and I can be a PE teacher, so after my career, I dream about making an international academy.

"I'm thinking of people like me, people who don't have a big structure, big clubs, a lot of fencers to practice [with].

"So my plan, and I hope it can work, is to build an international academy for all the people who don't have big federations, they can join our academy and I can share with them how to improve in fencing, my experiences and go with them to competitions, to be their coach."

REST IN POWER

Bangladesh: Legendary folk musician and freedom fighter Fakir Alamgir passes away



Folk music legend and freedom fighter Fakir Alamgir passed away in Dhaka on Friday night. He was suffering from Coronavirus infection and suffered a heart attack in the evening. He was 71.

Singer, musician and songwriter, Fakir Alamgir was a leading exponent of Gono Sangeet or songs of the masses. He was known as a leading voice for the weaker sections of society.

President M. Hamid in his condolence message said that Fakir Alamgir’s music played an important role in the revival of patriotism and the development of the liberation war consciousness among the younger generation. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that he will be remembered for his great role in popularising the Gono Sangeet among people.

Fakir Alamgir studied Mass Communication and Journalism at Dhaka University. He was a member of the cultural groups Kranti Shilpi Gosthi and Gono Shilpi Gosthi during the mass upsurge of 1969 against the Pakistani government. He also worked with Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra, the radio station which played a significant role during the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971.

Starting his musical journey in 1966, Fakir Alamgir was counted among the most influential artists of modern Bangladeshi music combining the folk music with the western sounds. He was also a writer having published several books in Bangla.

He was awarded the top literary award of Bangladesh Ekushey Padak in 1999 for his contribution to music.

By AIR News
INTERNATIONAL
July 24, 2021