#DECRIMINALIZEDRUGS
Afghanistan is the world's opium king. Can the Taliban afford to kill off their 'un-Islamic' cash cow?

When the khaki-colored landscapes of Afghanistan are transformed by a patchwork of pink, white and purple each spring, farmers rejoice. Their cash crop of poppies is ready for harvesting.

© Emmanuel Duparcq/AFP/Getty Images

 An Afghan soldier walks through a field of poppies during an eradication campaign in Kandahar province's Maiwand district in 2005.

By Kara Fox, CNN 6 hrs ago

Opium cultivation has long been a source of income for rural communities across the country, a land besieged by decades of war. But for the United States, those same colorful scenes symbolized the enemy.

"When I see a poppy field, I see it turning into money and then into IEDs [improvised explosive devices], AKs [assault rifles], and RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades]," said Gen. Dan McNeill, commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

This narrative contributed to how the United States' war on drugs was fought -- and lost. Over 20 years, the US squandered nearly $9 billion on a counternarcotics policy that -- perversely -- helped to fill the Taliban's pockets and, in some regions, fueled support for the insurgents.

Now in power, and with an interim government in place, the Taliban are navigating how to manage Afghanistan's entrenched drug economy -- the country's biggest cash crop -- as the whole nation teeters on economic collapse.

Just two days after the fall of Kabul, Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid pledged "full assurances to the world" that Afghanistan under Taliban rule would not be a narco-state.

"Afghanistan will not be a place of cultivation of narcotics, so the international community should help us and we should have an alternative livelihood" for opium growers.

But how the Taliban will do that remains uncertain.

The opium economy

Afghanistan produced an estimated 85% of the world's opium in 2020, according to the latest United Nations figures. In 2018, the UN estimated that opium economy accounts for up to 11% of Afghanistan's GDP.

But it's unclear how much the Taliban have profited -- and will continue to do so -- from the opium economy, with estimates around these numbers varying widely.

"Clearly drugs are a very important aspect of the Taliban's profits," Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told CNN.

"But just like with many other insurgent groups, there is often way too much ... mystique afforded to the drug economies. What competent, even moderately competent insurgents and, frankly, criminal groups do, is to simply tax anything in the area, where they have enough influence to be able to enforce the collection of informal taxation," Felbab-Brown said, noting this can range from sheep stocks to meth production.

While it's impossible to pinpoint just how profitable the opium economy is to the Taliban, over the last two decades, estimates have ranged from the tens of millions to low hundreds of millions. Beyond those figures it's really just "fantasy," she said.

At the beginning of the US-led invasion in 2001, British coalition forces were tasked with developing a counternarcotics policy, but around 2004, the US muscled its way in, Felbab-Brown said, pushing for a more aggressive eradication effort. That included aerial crop spraying, a campaign from 2005 to 2008 that infuriated some Afghan communities and damaged relations between Kabul and Washington.

The importance of the opium trade in financing the insurgency was "routinely cited as a primary reason" for the US' increased counternarcotics efforts, according to the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) 2018 report. But the data to support that claim was disputed, and American policy flip-flopped throughout administrations and departments during the 20-year war.

Prior to 2004, the US strategy on drugs was viewed as an "uncoordinated effort [that was] ineffective and in need of significant changes," the SIGAR report said.

"Everyone did their own thing, not thinking how it fit in with the larger effort. State was trying to eradicate, USAID was marginally trying to do livelihoods, and DEA was going after bad guys," one senior Department of Defense official was quoted as saying in the report.

In 2004, however, poppy production spiked, leading to some officials calling for a stronger eradication campaign. Robert Charles, the then-assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, testified that spring that there are "no more urgent and fundamental issues than the drug situation, which if left unchecked, will become a cancer that spreads and undermines all we are otherwise achieving in the areas of democracy, stability, anti-terrorism and rule of law."

"Opium is a source of literally billions of dollars to extremist and criminal groups worldwide," Charles said, adding that slashing the opium supply was "central to establishing a secure and stable democracy, as well as winning the global war on terrorism."

The US Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) operating budget in Afghanistan under President George W. Bush's tenure more than quadrupled from $3.7 million in 2004 to $16.8 million in 2005, then reached $40.6 million in 2008, according to figures from a 2012 Congressional Research Service report.

In 2009, however, the late US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke called the US eradication program "the least effective program ever."

That same year, under the Obama administration, the US scaled back poppy eradication attempts. However, they struggled to effectively implement an "alternative livelihoods" approach -- a program that incentivized governors in poppy-free provinces and encouraged farmers to grow other crops, such as saffron.

But in 2017, the US military once again revved up eradication, launching Operation Iron Tempest, a mission that used B-52 bombers, F-22 fighters and other high-precision warplanes to strike a network of drug labs the US claimed was helping to generate around $200 million annually for the Taliban. The mission was unsuccessful, with experts concluding they'd largely targeted empty compounds owned by local traders -- at the cost of numerous civilian casualties.

Ultimately, US policy was dictated by the idea: "Destroy the crop and destroy the insurgency's primary source of funds," according to the SIGAR report. The basis of that claim, however, "was disputed," with "methodological problems with the data on which it was based," it added.

"Drugs have always had a particularly strong political resonance in the United States and has often been seen as sort of the most damaging, lethal, illegal economies," Felbab-Brown said, adding: "Whether that's objectively true is a separate issue."

Meanwhile, US eradication efforts and interdiction raids -- often hitting poor farmers the hardest -- "thrust" local populations into the hands of the Taliban, she said.

Taliban taxation system?

David Mansfield, who has studied the Afghan drug economy for more than 20 years, says that one of the fundamental issues that led to "erroneous statistics" is the idea that the Taliban run a taxation system based on price or value.

The international community widely believes that the Taliban take 10% of the value of drugs, he said. But in practice, he says that's incredibly difficult to administer.

"I don't see a rural insurgency, where people who have issues of literacy ... running a taxation system based on price or value-added tax," he said. But beyond that, he said it doesn't make sense economically.

Mansfield said profit margins on a kilogram of heroin range from $80-120 per kilogram (2.2 pounds) and around $30-$50 for a kilogram of meth. If you start imposing a 10% tax on the final price at the point of export -- around $1,800 a kilogram for heroin in its base form -- considering all other costs, most will have gone out of business, Mansfield explained.

"When people bandy these numbers around and said 10% of gross, they never factored in any of the costs of production or whether this was even economically feasible. And it's not."

The last thing you want to do if you want to earn revenues on commodities is break the value chain, at which point production becomes unprofitable and there is nothing left to tax, Mansfield added. "So these figures don't make sense administratively or economically."



Political poppies

There are few strands of Afghan society that the drugs economy somehow does not touch.

Last year, Afghan farmers grew poppies across approximately 224,000 hectares (the third highest level ever reported in the country), squeezing out the sticky gum from which heroin and other opiates are made from on a land area 37% bigger than in 2019, according to the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Poppy cultivation was estimated to provide up to "590,000 full-time equivalent jobs, more than the number of people employed by the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces," in 2017 according to the SIGAR report.

While it remains an important part of the Taliban's funding, Mansfield says that the Taliban are earning far less on drugs than they are on legal goods. He points to recent research conducted in southern Nimruz province, which borders Iran, that found that the Taliban collected an estimated $5.1 million on the drugs industry compared to $40.9 million levied on fuel and transit goods.

Those poppies, and their production, also hold powerful political and cultural capital.

For generations, Afghan farmers have grown opium and cannabis, an economy that long predates the war. Like other mountain nations, which often provide good climates for poppy growth, opium has been used medicinally and culturally in Afghanistan, according to Jonathan Goodhand, professor in conflict and development studies at SOAS, University of London.

But multiple invasions of the country have fueled opium cultivation and production, he said. This began with the Soviet occupation in the 1980s when large flows of financial and military assistance to the regime and the mujahideen -- from the Soviet Union and the US, respectively -- provided the "start-up capital" for commanders to rev up production, processing and trafficking, according to a 2008 paper by Goodhand.

When the Soviet Union dissolved and the Taliban emerged, taking over Kabul in 1996, opium became a "defacto legal commodity," said Goodhand.

But in 2000, the Taliban changed tack, placing a ban on opium production that reduced production by 90% and virtually eradicated the crop in a year, cutting the world's supply by 65%, according to UN estimates.

The then-Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, said growing opium was "un-Islamic," warning in July 2000 that anyone planting poppy seeds would be severely punished.

Goodhand and other experts hypothesize that the move was likely used as a bargaining chip to gain international recognition -- and funding. But the ban backfired spectacularly, running the country into an unemployment crisis and damaging support from poppy farmers, once perhaps sympathetic to the Taliban, who were now in debt. The ban on poppy production was lifted in 2001, with the collapse of the group.

Since then, poppy production has skyrocketed, with an estimated all-time high recorded in 2017 at roughly 9,900 tons, according to the UNODC, which estimated that its worth was around $1.4 billion at the time, equating to roughly 7% of the country's GDP.

It's unlikely that the Taliban will take similar drastic action as in 2000 again, experts say, despite the Taliban's pledge after their takeover.

While the announcement might signal a return to the previous Taliban eradication plan -- an attempt perhaps, to curry favor with Western donors -- the Taliban are also likely hoping to keep neighboring Iran and Russia at bay. The two nations, who have been warming to the group over the last few years, both want to eliminate the massive opium production at their borders.

The Taliban have another external factor to weigh: The rise of synthetic opioids. If Afghanistan's heroin exports plunged as they did back in 2001, it's very likely that synthetic opioids, like fentanyl -- largely from China and India -- would quickly flood markets in Europe, Africa and Canada in place of Afghan opium and heroin, potentially pushing out Afghan opium for good.

"The reality is that they also just can't do it, because the economy's tanking," Felbab-Brown said.

An enforced ban could also create potential for violence, she added.

Felbab-Brown said there are around 100,000 to 150,000 Afghan National Security Forces soldiers and police who are now unemployed, and for whom poppy production might provide some source of economic stability.

"Take that away, then you have 150,000 men who were your enemies and who have nothing to eat," she said.

AP Interview: Ethiopia crisis 'stain on our conscience'

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The crisis in Ethiopia is a “stain on our conscience,” the United Nations humanitarian chief said, as children and others starve to death in the Tigray region under what the U.N. has called a de facto government blockade of food, medical supplies and fuel.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

In an interview with The Associated Press Tuesday, Martin Griffiths issued one of the most sharply worded criticisms yet of the world’s worst hunger crisis in a decade after nearly a year of war. Memories of the 1980s famine in Ethiopia, which killed some 1 million people and whose images shocked the world, are vivid in his mind, “and we fervently hope is not happening at present," he said.

“That’s what keeps people awake at night," Griffiths said, "is worrying about whether that’s what is in prospect, and in prospect soon.”

He described a landscape of deprivation inside Tigray, where the malnutrition rate is now over 22% — “roughly the same as we saw in Somalia in 2011 at the start of the Somali famine," which killed more than a quarter-million people.

The war in Ethiopia began last November on the brink of harvest in Tigray, and the U.N. has said at least half of the coming harvest will fail. Witnesses have said Ethiopian and allied forces destroyed or looted food sources.

Meanwhile just 10% of needed humanitarian supplies have been reaching Tigray in recent weeks, Griffiths said.

“So people have been eating roots and flowers and plants instead of a normal steady meal,” he said.

“The lack of food will mean that people will start to die.”

Last week the AP, citing witness accounts and internal documents, reported the first starvation deaths since Ethiopia’s government imposed the blockade on the region of 6 million people in an attempt to keep support from reaching Tigray forces.

But the problem is not hunger alone.

The U.N. humanitarian chief, who recently visited Tigray, cited the lack of medical supplies and noted that vulnerable children and pregnant or lactating mothers are often the first to die of disease. Some 200,000 children throughout the region have missed vaccinations since the war began.

And the lack of fuel — “pretty well down to zero now,” Griffiths said — means the U.N. and other humanitarian groups are finding it all but impossible to reach people throughout Tigray or even to know the true scale of need.

Phone, internet and banking services have also been cut off.

Billene Seyoum, the spokeswoman for Ethiopia’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, did not respond to questions. The government has blamed problems with humanitarian aid delivery on the Tigray forces, who long dominated the national government before Abiy sidelined them. Abiy's government also has alarmed U.N. officials and others by accusing humanitarian workers of supporting the Tigray fighters.

Griffiths called such allegations unacceptable and unfair. He said he has told the government to share any evidence of misconduct by humanitarian workers so the U.N. can investigate, but “so far as I’m aware, we haven’t had such cases put to us.”

Humanitarian workers boarding flights to Tigray are told not to bring items including multivitamins, can openers and medicines, even personal ones. The U.N. humanitarian chief said he too was searched when he visited Tigray, with authorities examining everything in his bag and even questioning why he was carrying earphones.

Ethiopia's crisis has led the U.N., the United States and others to urge the warring sides to stop the fighting and take steps toward peace, but Griffiths warned that “the war doesn’t look as if it’s finishing any time soon.”

On the contrary, in recent weeks it spread into the neighboring Amhara region. Griffiths said the active battle lines are making it challenging to get aid to hundreds of thousands more people.

Ethiopia will see the formation of a new government next week with another five years in office for the prime minister. Griffiths, who said he last spoke with Abiy three or four weeks ago, expressed hope for a change of direction.

“We’d all like to see is with that election inauguration, that we would see new leadership leading Ethiopia away from the abyss that it’s peering into at the moment, that the national dialogue process which he discussed with me in the past, and his deputy discussed with me last week, that needs to happen,” Griffiths said.

“It needs to be coherent, it needs to be inclusive and it needs to be soon.”

___

Anna reported from Nairobi, Kenya.

Cara Anna And Edith M. Lederer, The Associated Press

Japan manga artist Takao Saito, 'Golgo 13' creator, dies aged 84

© Screenshot: TMSアニメ公式チャンネル | Takao Saito Golgo 13 is a popular manga and anime. Above is a still from the 1983 animated film Golgo 13: The Professional. It was the first animated movie based on the original publication.

AFP 

Manga artist Takao Saito, who created the most prolific Japanese comic-book series of all time "Golgo 13", has died aged 84, his publisher said Wednesday.© STR Takao Saito, who wrote and illustrated hit manga series 'Golgo 13', died of pancreatic cancer

"Golgo 13", the tale of a legendary professional hitman, was first printed in 1968 and has been adapted into anime series, video games and two live-action films.

The assassin Golgo, also known Duke Togo, is of unknown nationality and carries out his hits around the world, with current affairs often inspiring its plotlines.

Its 201st edition came out in July this year, breaking the Guinness world record for the most volumes ever published of a single manga series.

Saito, who wrote and illustrated the series, died on Friday of pancreatic cancer, according to Shogakukan, the publisher of the anthology magazine "Big Comic" in which "Golgo 13" is serialised.

"We offer our heartfelt respect to Mr Saito's achievement and offer our deep condolences," Shogakukan said.

"We plan to continue Golgo 13 in cooperation with his staff, in accordance with his wishes," it added.

Saito was born in Japan's western Wakayama prefecture in 1936, and made his manga debut in 1955 with the title "Baron Air".

The success of another of his works called "Typhoon Goro" in 1960 led him to move from Osaka to Tokyo to establish his own production company.

He was also one of the founders of "gekiga", a realistic genre of manga aimed at adults which began in the 1950s.

kh/kaf/jfx

Takao Saito, Creator Of Golgo 13, Dies At 84
Brian Ashcraft 

On Wednesday, the editorial department of Big Comic announced that Takao Saito passed away on September 24 from pancreatic cancer. He was 84.

Golgo 13 is the second-biggest selling manga series of all time, straddling One Piece at number one and Dragon Ball at number three. It debuted in Big Comic in 1968 and has been in serialization ever since, making it the oldest manga in publication.

When Saito was coming up in the late 1950s and early 60s, he and his cohorts took a stand against the term manga, which is commonly used to categorize Golgo 13. The word evoked cartoony cute characters—kid stuff. “Manga” was antithetical to Saito’s style.

© Photo: STR/JIJI PRESS/AFP (Getty Images) 

Takao Saito is the creator of the popular manga Golgo 13.
Pictured is Takao Saito in a 2017 file photo.

“My people hated that name, so we decided to call our work gekiga [literally ‘theatre-images’] to show that it was about drama,” Saito told The Financial Times in 2015. “So, no, from the very beginning I have never been a manga artist. What I produce is drama.”

Gekiga was not aimed at children, but at adults with adult themes and situations. The stories were the gritty, sexy, and violent. The characters were hard-nosed, like the assassin that made Saito famous. The audience was ready, and Golgo 13 was a smash hit at home. Exporting it seem like a no-brainer.

Starting in the 1980s, Golgo 13 was translated into English—something that Saito was initially against, because even though the main character, also known as Duke Togo, was a modern, gun-toting hitman, he was deeply influenced by samurai.

“That is why I was against the idea of introducing Golgo to foreign countries,” Saito told The Financial Times. “Just take as an example the timing of when he actually takes his shot. It evokes iaido [the martial art of drawing one’s sword and mimicking a deadly blow]. It is the same movement and the same shape. I love Japanese samurai stories and that is why, unconsciously, Golgo moves like a samurai. That is why I thought foreigners wouldn’t understand the story.”

 Screenshot: TMSアニメ公式チャンネル | Takao Saito

 Golgo 13 is one of the biggest selling manga in history.

Prior to animated feature, there had been two live-action films, including that starred Sonny Chiba.

According to Big Comic’s editors, when Saito was still alive, he reportedly said, “Even without me, I want Golgo 13 to continue.” Originally, he did everything from the drawing to the writing, but his production company Saito Production was restructured so that his creation could continue after he was gone. Golgo 13 will remain in publication in accordance with Saito’s wishes, with his company and the editors of Big Comic working together on each new installment.

Saito pushed the envelope and transformed the medium. His influence will continue to be felt. May he rest in peace.

STATEHOOD OR INDEPENDENCE

Puerto Rico residents aren't getting monthly child tax credit payments. That could change soon

Carmen Reinicke 

CNBC


The enhanced child tax credit has in just a few months lowered child poverty, slashed hunger rates and given millions of families a boost in saving and spending for essentials.

© Provided by CNBC In this Monday, Sept. 10, 2018, photo, Idalis Fernandez walks to her hotel room provided by FEMA with her son Adrian, 2, at the Baymont Inn in Kissimmee, Fla. Vouchers that paid for hotel rooms for Puerto Rican evacuees end Friday, leaving many to find roofs over their heads.

However, residents of Puerto Rico, who are U.S. citizens, haven't seen any of those benefits.

That's because they are not eligible to get the advance monthly payments, which amount to hundreds of dollars per month for families with children. 

There are many programs for which residents of Puerto Rico do not enjoy the same level of federal benefits due to the island's status as a U.S. territory, according to Laura Esquivel, vice president of federal policy and advocacy for the Hispanic Federation.

This includes the child tax credit, earned income tax credit, and programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

"All of these facts and statistics about how many children are already being lifted out of poverty because their families are getting this advance payment does not apply to Puerto Rico," Esquivel said.

The new child tax credit

The American Rescue Plan earlier this year expanded the existing child tax credit, adding advance monthly payments and increasing the benefit to $3,000 from $2,000 for children aged 6 to 17 with a $600 bonus for kids under the age of 6 for the 2021 tax year.

The first half of the credit is being delivered in monthly direct deposits through December, and the second half will come when families file their 2021 tax returns next year. So far, the IRS and Treasury Department have sent out three monthly payments to millions of American families.

Most families in the U.S. that have children are eligible to receive some money from the credit. The full benefit goes to married couples with up to $150,000 in adjusted gross income and single parent families with up to $112,500.

Even though residents of Puerto Rico were left out of the monthly advance payments, the American Rescue Plan still made improvements to the child tax credit for people in Puerto Rico.

Before the legislation passed, those living in Puerto Rico were only able to claim the credit if they had three or more children. Now, they will get the credit even if they have one child. The full refundability of the credit also applies to Puerto Rico, meaning residents can apply for the benefit even if they have no taxable income.

Those families that are eligible will get the entire credit in one lump sum at tax time by filing a form 1040.

Payments would help Puerto Rican children now

Though residents of Puerto Rico will eventually get the credit, it isn't helping them now amid their own recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and ensuing economic crisis. The island is still also recovering from Hurricane Maria, which struck in 2017.

Nearly 57% of Puerto Rican children were living in poverty in 2019, according to the Instituto del Desarrollo de la Juventud, a non-profit organization focused on youth on the island. The level of children in poverty jumped to 65% in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. By comparison, the official child poverty rate in the U.S. increased to about 16% in 2020 from roughly 14% in 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

"[Advance payments] could meet the needs immediately, as opposed to something that can just wait until tax season to get a lump sum payment," said Carmen Isaura Rodríguez, advocacy director for the Instituto del Desarrollo de la Juventud.

The credit, and advanced monthly payments, would be particularly helpful for children living with single mothers. Of those in poverty in Puerto Rico, some 75% live in a female-headed household, for which the median income is about $8,800 annually.

"There's definitely a need, and we could se a big reduction in the rate of child poverty in Puerto Rico," Rodríguez said.

Part of the reason that Puerto Ricans aren't getting the monthly payments is that the U.S. left it up to local government to implement the program, as many residents don't file federal income taxes to the IRS, Esquivel explained.

But there is a non-filer portal for U.S. residents who don't file tax returns to sign up for the payments. And, residents of other U.S. territories including American Samoa, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands and Northern Marina Islands are eligible for the advance payments.

There may be further changes to the child tax credit coming that would specifically help residents of Puerto Rico.

The enhanced child tax credit is only for the 2021 tax year, but Democratic lawmakers plan to extend the credit through 2025 in their $3.5 trillion budget. They are also pushing to keep key changes to the enhanced credit, such as the full refundability and advance monthly payments.

So far, Democrats intend to include making the advance payments available to Puerto Rico residents in the coming years. Of course, legislation is still being written and could change. Democrats plan to pass the budget through reconciliation, a fast-track process that would require all party members to vote in agreement.

SIGN UP: Money 101 is an 8-week learning course to financial freedom, delivered weekly to your inbox.

CHECK OUT: How to make money with creative side hustles, from people who earn thousands on sites like Etsy and Twitch via Grow with Acorns+CNBC.

Disclosure: NBCUniversal and Comcast Ventures are investors in Acorns.

Quebec nurses pan government's bonus offer, say real issue is mandatory overtime

MONTREAL — Sandra Gagnon said she received an excited phone call from her mom last week, after Quebec Premier François Legault said he would give full-time nurses a $15,000 bonus to keep them from quitting the public system.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Gagnon, however, was less excited than her mom. The bonus is bittersweet, she said in a recent interview, and it makes her wonder how much her health is worth.

"It's so great, $15,000, but what do you want me to do with it?" Gagnon said. "I won't have the energy and health to spend it."

On Sept. 23, Legault unveiled what he called a "mini revolution" in the health system, announcing $1 billion to seduce nurses to stay in a network that is missing more than 4,000 of them.

Full-time nurses in the public system would receive one-time bonuses of $15,000, as would part-time nurses who switch to full-time work, Legault said. Nurses who have quit the public health-care network and return full time would get $12,000, while full-time nurses in five regions that are hit particularly hard by shortages would get $18,000, the premier said.

Many nurses and other health-care workers were quick to slam the plan on social media, calling Legault's so-called mini revolution a temporary bandage on an issue that requires serious surgical work. The money is welcome, they said, but it doesn't solve the issue of working conditions, particularly the dreaded mandatory overtime that public-sector nurses are subjected to.

Retired nurse Louise Martel says the money is not enough to bring her back into the system, because it only applies to people who return full time.

"You cannot ask a retired person to come back and work full time — it doesn't make any sense," Martel, 58, who retired in August, said in a recent interview. "We are not going to throw ourselves into the mouth of the wolf!"

Martel, from Baie-Comeau, Que., northeast of Quebec City, said when she heard rumours about the government's announcement, she was tempted. She said she had thought about returning once or twice a week, knowing how desperate hospitals are for staff.

But she said when she heard the official announcement — that the bonuses would only apply to full-time nurses — it felt like a joke.

"I worked as a nurse for 37 years, but really it was more than 45 years if you take into account overtime," Martel said.

Another problem with the bonuses is that they are taxable, she said, adding that close to half the promised amount will go right back to the government. "The bonus should be non-taxable — or give us a car that is worth $15,000."

Even with the taxes, Gagnon said she won't refuse the extra cash.

"Christmas is coming, I'm not going to say, 'no, keep your money,' but it doesn't fix the problem and that's what we've been asking for so long," Gagnon said, adding that she usually ends up working close to 60 hours per week at her Montreal-area hospital because of mandatory overtime.

Gagnon, who has worked as a nurse for 25 years, said it's virtually impossible to refuse overtime, adding that the government should have made solving that issue its priority.

"Nurses should have time to treat patients like if they were their parents, but we can't do it anymore," Gagnon said. "Why didn't the government ask us what we needed? What we are missing?

"There are nurses who know when their shifts start but can never be sure when they are ending," Gagnon said. "It's not rare that I operate for 16 or 17 hours with less than 30 minutes to eat."

Quebec's plan proposes to reduce mandatory overtime, but not eliminate it. Legault said the financial incentives were only one part of the plan, adding that the money is crucial to prevent more nurses from quitting or moving to the private sector.

"Money won't fix all the problems, but we think it will help us to curb the staff shortage in the short term,'' Legault said in a statement. "We have a duty to succeed with everything you do for us. We owe you that.''

Meanwhile, while nurses were getting more money, other health-care workers said they felt left out.

Shortly after learning of Legault's offer to nurses, a major union representing health-care workers such as medical technicians, said it halted the voting process on the government's latest contract offer.

Union interim president Robert Comeau said the premier's announcement angered his members, because they were allegedly told by the government in June there was no money left for the public sector.

"Everything has changed," Comeau said in a recent interview, adding the members he represents also work in sectors facing labour shortages. His member work "in the same rooms" as nurses receiving up to $18,000 in bonuses, he said.

Peter Gleeson, a medical imaging technologist in Montreal, said he and his colleagues are the "eyes of the hospital" and deserve the same level of respect as nurses. Gleeson said he feels like there's a lack of understanding among the public about how intertwined hospital workers are.

"There is hardly a diagnosis made without medical imaging of some sort," Gleeson said in a recent interview, adding that the offer to the nurses has made him feel "invisible."

"There's a variety of needs and realities in the health-care network profession," Gleeson said. "It can be a beautiful and gratifying profession, working as a team, but there’s a lot of frustration that comes with it too."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Sept. 29, 2021.

— With files from Lia Lévesque.

Virginie Ann, The Canadian Press

TEMPLATE FOR TEXAS

Abortion stigma a possible death sentence for Kenyan women

Issued on: 01/10/2021 

Cultural and religious beliefs have created a stigma so strong that even women who procure safe abortions believe they have committed a sin by doing so 

Tony KARUMBA AFP
5 min
Listen to the article
ADVERTISING


Nairobi (AFP)

Victoria Atieno was waiting at a Nairobi bus stop when she felt blood gush from her body, the result of a secret, self-induced abortion -- a method used by thousands of Kenyan women, with potentially fatal consequences.

Kenya's constitution eased access to abortions in 2010 but entrenched stigma about the procedure means that many women resort to traditional practices or backstreet clinics which put their life in jeopardy.

Even a reproductive health counsellor like Atieno -- her mind blanketed with fear -- ended up gulping down a herbal concoction to induce an abortion in secret.

Hours later, as she experienced a public and hugely traumatic termination, she faced a flood of abuse from onlookers, living out the very nightmare she had tried to avoid.

"People will condemn you, criminalise you, try to chase you out of the community," the 35-year-old mother-of-three told AFP.

Every week, 23 women die from botched abortions, according to a 2012 study by Kenya's health ministry 

Tony KARUMBA AFP

Many women will do anything to avoid that fate, from drinking bleach to using knitting needles or clothes hangers to end their pregnancies.

The results are horrific, ranging from ruptured uteruses, cervical tears and vaginal cuts to severe infections, bleeding and death.

Every week, 23 women die from botched abortions, according to a study by Kenya's health ministry in 2012 - the most recent available government data.

Campaigners say the real number is even higher.

A report released last year by the non-profit Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) estimates that seven women and girls die every day in Kenya due to unsafe abortions.

In the Dandora slum in the eastern suburbs of Nairobi, where Atieno works with the Coalition of Grassroots Women Initiative, sanitation workers sometimes find abandoned foetuses in the neighbourhood's huge garbage dump.

When the health ministry stopped training abortion providers in 2013, access to such services took a hit 

Tony KARUMBA AFP

Volunteers tasked with cleaning up the Nairobi River in 2019 retrieved 14 bodies from its trash-clogged waters, most of them babies.

Cultural and religious beliefs in the deeply Christian country have contributed towards creating a stigma so strong that even women who procure safe abortions believe they have committed a sin by doing so.

More than a year after Susan aborted a pregnancy resulting from a gang rape, the churchgoing mother-of-four still battles intense guilt.

"People see you as a murderer... it makes me feel like I did something very bad," the 36-year-old told AFP.

- De facto ban -

Kenya's constitution says abortions are illegal unless "in the opinion of a trained health professional, there is need for emergency treatment, or the life or health of the mother is in danger, or if permitted by any other written law".

No other conditions or terms are spelt out.

The vaguely-worded document puts decision-making power wholly in the hands of health providers.

T

The health ministry was pulled up by the Nairobi high court in 2019 for violating women's and girls' right to physical and mental health 

Tony KARUMBA AFP

So when the health ministry stopped training abortion providers in 2013, access to such services took a hit, and women bore the brunt.

The ministry's move came a year after its own study warned that a "disproportionately high" number of women were dying in Kenya because of unsafe abortions.

"The ministry's decision was not based on scientific evidence, it was made against that evidence, evidence which was gathered by the ministry itself," Martin Onyango, CRR's senior legal adviser for Africa, told AFP.

Ministry officials declined interview requests, with a reproductive health expert in the ministry telling AFP: "We are not permitted to talk about abortion at all. That's the policy."

The ministry was pulled up by the Nairobi high court in 2019 for violating women's and girls' right to physical and mental health by halting training for legal abortion providers.

Yet little has changed on the ground since then, leaving the field open for unscrupulous backstreet clinics to exploit women's need for secrecy.

Ken Ojili Mele's niece died at 26 after a botched abortion.

Long opposed to abortion, the 48-year-old carpenter told AFP he was filled with regret after her untimely death en route to a hospital.

"Maybe she didn't want to tell me because she knew I would have been angry," he said.

"I wish she had shared it with me, I could have maybe helped her find a safer hospital."

- Silence and tears -

Abortions are extremely difficult to access at state hospitals. Some private health providers perform the procedure, for which the fee starts at around 3,000-4,000 Kenyan shillings ($27 / 23.5 euros). Pills are used to curtail shorter-term pregnancies.

For women who turn to these sources, fear of disapproval and shame can run deep. The silence lingers even in doctors' waiting rooms.

"In Kenya, it's not easy to say you want an abortion," said Samson Otiago, a doctor specialising in reproductive health.

Dozens of women visit his Nairobi clinic every month and most have to be coaxed into telling him about their intention to terminate a pregnancy.

Dozens of women visit Samson Otiago's Nairobi clinic every month and most have to be coaxed into telling him about their intention to terminate a pregnancy 

Tony KARUMBA AFP

Some start crying before they have even said a word, he told AFP.

Many can't afford to pay his fees, which start at 4,000 shillings ($36), so occasionally he offers his services for free or on credit.

"Once a woman has decided to do an abortion, she will do it whichever way she can.

"So we would rather do it (for less money) than expose her to quacks and see her again with complications," he said.

In Dandora, as rape survivor Seline awaited the results of a pregnancy test, she had little doubt about what to do next.

Barely surviving on a monthly wage of 5,000 shillings, the 38-year-old domestic worker told AFP she was determined to get an abortion if the test was positive.

"If the hospital refuses, I will do it the traditional way, with herbs," she said, her voice barely rising above a whisper.

"I am ready to do anything, as long as I don't have to have this baby."

© 2021 AFP

US estimates 2 million youth vapers as regulator nears key decision

Issued on: 30/09/2021 -

A sign that states "must be over 21" hangs in the store window of a vape shop in New York City 

STEPHANIE KEITH GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File

Washington (AFP)

More than two million American middle and high schoolers reported they were vapers in 2021, with eight in ten using flavored e-cigarettes, a government report said Thursday as the US regulator neared a key decision on the future of the industry.

The latest figure for youth vapers represents a decline from 3.6 million in 2020, but that could be at least partly driven by socialization restrictions and access to vaping products during the Covid pandemic.

The report's authors also said that because the more than 20,000 surveys they sent out between January and May were filled in online, rather than in the classroom as in previous years, the results are hard to compare.

Nonetheless, despite the fact that many youths were in remote learning environments, an estimated 11.3 percent (1.72 million) of high school students and an estimated 2.8 percent (320,000) of middle school students reported current e-cigarette use.

Middle school is grades 6-8 (generally ages 11 to 14) while high school is grade 9 - 12 (generally ages 14-18). Current usage was defined as at least once in the past 30 days.

"These data highlight the fact that flavored e-cigarettes are still extremely popular with kids," said Mitch Zeller, director of the Center for Tobacco Products at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

In terms of frequency, 44 percent of high school vapers and 17 percent of middle schoolers reported e-cigarette use on 20 or more of the past 30 days.

Disposables were the most frequently used device, followed by prefilled or refillable pods or cartridges, followed by tanks.

Overall, 85 percent used flavored e-cigarettes, with the most common fruit; candy, desserts, or other sweets; mint; and menthol.

To curb youth vaping, the administration of former president Donald Trump announced a ban on most flavored e-cigarette products in January 2020, and a court ordered companies to submit applications to the FDA by September 2020 to stay on the market.

The FDA has ordered millions of products off the shelves, but missed a September 9 deadline to complete its final review, with market leader JUUL notably absent from determinations made so far.

The agency is weighing the potential benefits of vaping to adult smokers trying to give up conventional cigarettes, versus the harms posed to youth. It has said it is working "expeditiously" to complete the process.

This month, 15 past presidents of the respected Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) authored a paper urging the FDA to take a balanced approach to the question.

It cited clinical trials in England and New Zealand where e-cigarettes were successfully used as smoking cessation devices.

© 2021 AFP

Youth at climate talks frustrated yet defiant

Issued on: 30/09/2021 - 18:40

The 400 youth activists were chosen out of nearly 9,000 applicants by the UN

 MIGUEL MEDINA AFP

Milan (AFP)

"Is our voice so scary?"

For representatives of the next generation, who fear being saddled with a lifetime of climate misery, three days of events designed to have their voices heard hardly seem sufficient to address their concern.

Four hundred youth activists were chosen out of nearly 9,000 applicants by the UN to attend the event in Milan meant to give a platform for young people to speak their minds about the climate crisis -- and the lack of action from leaders to address it.

But having been invited from around the world specifically to express their views ahead of the vital COP26 climate summit in October, many participants in Milan did not feel they were being listened to.

On Thursday, when Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi took to the lectern, a small group of protesters held up placards and began chanting: "The people united will not be defeated."

They were promptly escorted from the premises by security.

"I think it's weird that they are scared from a bunch of young people, just because we were protesting and don't agree with the greenwashing," Rikke Nielsen, a 20-year-old activist from Denmark, told AFP.

"It's ridiculous we cannot speak up our mind, we have to stay within the format they created."

Youth activists, including Greta Thunberg, tell Italian PM Mario Draghi of their frustration at inaction on climate change 

Handout Palazzo Chigi press office/AFP

Ahead of the now-weekly youth climate strike on Friday, which Swedish activist Greta Thunberg is expected to lead, the youth were defiant.

- 'They cannot divide us' -

"We won't stop striking until we see change for real, until these things don't happen anymore," said Italian activist Martina Comparelli.

"Until they understand they cannot divide us into delegates and non delegates, as activists who can talk to prime ministers and activists that cannot talk to the prime minister, activists who are stopped because they raised a piece of cardboard."

Comparelli said that the officials gathering for the pre-COP discussions found young people's voices "scary".

"Maybe it is because it is the truth and the truth is always a bit scary."

Asked about what he had heard during the three-day youth gathering, COP26 President Alok Sharma, said:

"There are three feelings I got: it was inspiring, secondly they spoke very, very frankly, and third they spoke the truth, we need to do much more, much faster."

Activists protest in Milan ahead of the vital COP26 climate summit in October

 MIGUEL MEDINA AFP

The youth delegates agreed on several key messages for ministers, including increasing climate finance to developing nations and a green energy transition by 2030.

Above all, "young people are not only asking to be heard, they also want their part as equal partners", said one of UN chief Antonio Guterres' youth envoys, Jayathma Wickramanayake.

"It's clearer and clearer the mistrust between young people and governments is increasing more than ever, there is a lot of frustration among young people around the world, especially about the climate crisis."

- 'Greatest threat' -

Some delegates spoke positively about the opportunity to exchange views with government representatives in Milan, especially after the pandemic curtailed a groundswell in youth climate events.

"Today's event was such a great opportunity for so many people, and so many underrepresented people," said Reem al-Saffar, a delegate from Iraq.

Climate change caused by humans 

Eléonore HUGHES AFP

However the general mood among activists on Thursday was one of frustration at being invited but not really listened to.

"It's not a format designed by young people for young people, but by the UN to suits the UN way of working," said Salina Abraham, 26, from Eritrea.

"Unfortunately it's not perfectly matched with our ideas, and energy and spirit."

Speaking to journalists in a nearby park, where dozens of youths had moved to after the morning's ejections, Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate was undaunted.

"I and other activists will continue speaking, will continue striking, will continue demanding climate justice."

© 2021 AFP

POLITICAL PRISONER OF FASCIST STATE

Italian court hands former mayor famed for aiding migrants 13 years in jail

Issued on: 30/09/2021 -

Domenico "Mimmo" Lucano, the former mayor of Riace, pictured in September 2019. 

© Luigi Salsini/LaPresse via AP

A mayor once held up as a model for migrant integration in Italy was sentenced to 13 years in jail on Thursday for a series of crimes including abetting illegal immigration.

Domenico Lucano, the mayor of Riace in southern Italy until 2018, made headlines around the world for welcoming migrants to the sparsely-populated Calabrian village in a bid to boost jobs and development.

Prosecutors had called for the 63-year old, known as Mimmo, to be sentenced to seven years and 11 months for a series of crimes, including conspiracy, abuse of office, fraud, extortion and embezzlement.

His lawyers said the court found him guilty on nearly every count, and gave him almost double the jail time – 13 years and two months – sparking disbelief and outrage among supporters and the political left.

"It's an exorbitant conviction that totally goes against the evidence... (it is) totally incomprehensible and unjustified," lawyers Giuliano Pisapia and Andrea Daqcua said.


"More than 13 years in prison for a man like Mimmo Lucano, who lives in poverty and has had no pecuniary or non-pecuniary advantages from his actions as mayor of Riace... (is) astonishing," they were quoted as saying by Italian media.

Lucano, who will appeal, "has always been committed to his community and to the reception and integration of children, women and men fleeing war, torture and hunger," they said.

The mayor's arrest in 2018 stunned some in Italy and reverberated around Europe, where the "Riace model" – paid for since the 2000s with Italian and European funds – had been hailed as a simple but effective way to revive depopulated villages and house hundreds of asylum seekers.

The programme saw abandoned houses restored and craft workshops reopened in Riace, attracting tourists, and was lauded by many as a model of integration.

Lucano was even named one of the 100 most influential personalities by Fortune magazine in 2016 and inspired a docu-fiction by Wim Wenders.

The court ordered Lucano to repay 500,000 euros ($580,000) worth of EU funds, media reports said.

"I am outlawed because the state has behaved cowardly towards me," Lucano said as he left court, according to the Repubblica newspaper.

"I have spent my life chasing anti-mafia ideals. I became mayor, I sided with the least fortunate, with the refugees," he said, adding that he thought it "unlikely that mafia crimes receive such sentences".

(AFP)

IN THE WRONG PARTY

Manchin: If You Want to Save the Planet, Elect More Progressives in 2022

'I'M NOT A LIBERAL, I NEVER HAVE BEEN'

The West Virginia senator's suggestion came as he declared a topline figure of $1.5 trillion for Democrats' reconciliation bill.

A flotilla of activists from Center for Popular Democracy, CASA, and Greenpeace USA take to kayaks and electric boats to demonstrate near Sen. Joe Manchin's (D-W.Va.) houseboat in the Washington, D.C. Wharf to demand that he support the Build Back Better Act. (Photo: Sarah Silbiger/Greenpeace)

ANDREA GERMANOS

September 30, 2021

Sen. Joe Manchin said Thursday that securing sweeping climate legislation to safeguard the planet for future generations requires electing more progressives—unlike him—in 2022.

The corporate Democrat's assertion came as he announced to a crowd of reporters that his topline number for the broad reconciliation bill is $1.5 trillion—a fraction of the $3.5 trillion demanded by progressive lawmakers for the 10-year Build Back Better plan that includes investments to strengthen the safety net and tackle the climate emergency.

Manchin (D-W.Va.), the Senate's top recipient of fossil fuel industry cash, has pushed his party to water down the reconciliation bill, and he and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have obstructed the package's passage.

The $550 billion bipartisan infrastructure bill, favored by Manchin and criticized by climate campaigners, is facing a tentative vote in the House on Thursday. But progressives have continued to demand congressional passage of the broader reconcilation bill first, before the bipartisan bill faces a vote.

Although Manchin said that his aim is to "put our children at the front end" with the proposed legislation, he told reporters Thursday that, with regard to progressive priorties included in the reconcilation bill, "the other things they want to do maybe we can do at another time."

To progressives opposed to gutting parts of the reconciliation bill's social and climate investments, Manchin said, "Basically take whatever we aren't able to come to agreement with today and take that on the campaign trail next year and I'm sure that you'll get liberal, progressive Democrats with what they say they want."

"I've never been a liberal in any way," said Manchin, adding that "all we need to do I guess for them to get theirs... is elect more liberals."

Polling has shown the Build Back Better plan is popular nationwide—and both political commentators and progressive activists have warned that not passing the full package could negatively impact Democrats at the ballot box next year.



Activists with Center for Popular Democracy, CASA, and Greenpeace USA targeted Manchin this week over his obstruction of the reconcilation bill, bringing a "flotilla" of kayaks near the senator's yacht in Washington, D.C.

"Congress cannot fall for Big Oil's false choice between a healthy economy and a healthy planet. The truth is with fossil fuels we get neither," said John Noël, a senior climate campaigner at Greenpeace USA.

"Climate-fueled disasters cost the global economy $150 billion in 2019. Fossil fuels killed 8.7 million people globally in 2018," he added, calling the Build Back Better Act "a prime opportunity to kickstart a clean energy future and stop sending billions of our tax dollars to fossil fuel companies."

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Manchin Admits Getting His Bill Passed and Then Tanking Progressive Package Was Always the Plan

"Thank god," said one observer, that the Congressional Progressive Caucus is "holding the line on the original deal otherwise we'd be toast on child care, climate, housing, prescription drugs, and everything else."

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) arrives for a bipartisan meeting on infrastructure legislation at the U.S. Capitol on July 13, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Win McNamee via Getty Images)

KENNY STANCIL

September 30, 2021

Sen. Joe Manchin admitted Thursday, ahead of a scheduled House vote on the Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill, that it had been corporate Democrats' plan all along to first secure passage of their fossil fuel-friendly legislation and then undermine the party's more ambitious reconciliation package that proposes investing up to $3.5 trillion over a decade in clean energy and the social safety net.

The conservative West Virginia Democrat told reporters Thursday that on July 28, he secured a signed agreement (pdf) from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) outlining his conditions for voting on the final reconciliation bill.

A spokesperson for Schumer, meanwhile, told Politico that "Schumer never agreed to any of the conditions Sen. Manchin laid out; he merely acknowledged where Sen. Manchin was on the subject at the time."

In addition to demanding a topline figure no higher than $1.5 trillion, something he reiterated on Thursday, Manchin said in July that he wanted to delay debate on the reconciliation package until October 1.

Meanwhile, a small group of corporate-funded House Democrats—led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (N.J.) and supported by Manchin and fellow right-wing Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.)—in August pressured Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to bring the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework (BIF) to the floor by September 27 in exchange for their votes on the $3.5 trillion budget resolution that enabled lawmakers to draft the Build Back Better Act, as the reconciliation package has since been named.

Critics were quick to point out the significance of Manchin's revelation.

"It sure feeds the idea that their goal is to pass BIF then bail on reconciliation," noted former Senate staffer Adam Jentleson, now executive director of the Battle Born Collective, a progressive messaging firm.

Ezra Levin, co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible, a progressive advocacy group, expressed gratitude for the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which has vowed to secure President Joe Biden's entire domestic policy agenda by voting down the bipartisan physical infrastructure bill until Congress passes the popular Build Back Better Act—a broader social infrastructure package that would fund climate action and anti-poverty measures by raising taxes on corporations and the rich—through the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process.

It remains unclear whether Pelosi still plans to bring the BIF to a vote on Thursday, but progressives' pledge to block the bipartisan bill until it is relinked with the reconciliation package is consistent with the deal that Democratic Party leaders outlined months ago to keep both pieces of legislation connected and advance them together.

In June, Pelosi said that the House would not take up either piece of legislation until the Senate passed both. Last month, she successfully got Gottheimer and the other holdouts to vote for the $3.5 trillion budget blueprint. In order to secure their support, however, Pelosi agreed to hold a late-September vote on the Senate-passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, as the BIF is also known.

Pelosi's decision on Monday to schedule a vote on the bipartisan bill even though the reconciliation package is not yet ready, let alone approved—a reversal of her earlier promise to not decouple the two pieces of legislation—has been sharply rebuked by progressives in the House as well as Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

As Sanders said Tuesday, "If the bipartisan infrastructure bill is passed on its own on Thursday, this will be in violation of an agreement that was reached within the Democratic Caucus in Congress."

"More importantly," Sanders warned, "it will end all leverage that we have to pass a major reconciliation bill."

"That means there will be no serious effort to address the long-neglected crises facing the working families of our country, the children, the elderly, the sick, and the poor," he added. "It also means that Congress will continue to ignore the existential threat to our country and planet with regard to climate change."
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.