Sunday, October 31, 2021

G-20 make mild pledges on climate neutrality, coal financing

By NICOLE WINFIELD, DAVID MCHUGH and KARL RITTER

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From left, Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pose in front of the Trevi Fountain during an event for the G20 summit in Rome, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021. The two-day Group of 20 summit concludes on Sunday, the first in-person gathering of leaders of the world's biggest economies since the COVID-19 pandemic started. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

ROME (AP) — Leaders of the world’s biggest economies made a vague commitment Sunday to seek carbon neutrality “by or around mid-century” as they wrapped up a two-day Rome summit that was laying the groundwork for the U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

According to the final meeting communique, the Group of 20 leaders also agreed to end public financing for coal-fired power generation abroad but set no target for phasing out coal domestically — a clear nod to China, India and other coal-dependent countries.

The G-20 countries represent more than three-quarters of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and summit host Italy and Britain, which is hosting the Glasgow climate conference, had looked for more ambitious targets to come out of Rome.

Without them, momentum could be lost for Glasgow, said the be the world’s “last best hope” for nailing down commitments to keep temperatures under the critical 1.5 degrees Celsius ((2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than the pre-industrial average that scientists say is necessary.

Italian Premier Mario Draghi told the leaders going into the final working session Sunday that they needed to set both long-term goals and make short-term changes to reach them.

“We must accelerate the phasing-out of coal and invest more in renewable energy,” Draghi said. “We also need to make sure that we use available resources wisely, which means that we should become able to adapt our technologies and also our lifestyles to this new world.”

His message was echoed by Britain’s Prince Charles, who warned that “it is quite literally the last-chance saloon.”

“It is impossible not to hear the despairing voices of young people who see you as the stewards of the planet, holding the viability of their future in your hands,” Charles said.

According to the communique, the G-20 reaffirmed past commitments by rich countries to mobilize $100 billion annually to help poorer countries cope with climate change, and committed to scaling up financing for helping them adapt.

A key sticking point remained the deadline for nations to reach carbon neutrality or “net-zero” emissions, meaning a balance between greenhouse gases added to and removed from the atmosphere. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had wanted every G-20 member to commit to net-zero by 2050.

Going into the summit, however, Italy had all-but conceded it would only be able to secure commitments to reach net-zero emissions “by mid-century,” rather than a specific year.

The final communique appeared even weaker, “acknowledging the key relevance of achieving global net-zero greenhouse gas emissions or carbon neutrality by or around mid-century.”


A French official said the non-specific wording reflected the aim to affirm a common goal while providing flexibility to address “the diversity of the G-20 countries” — especially China and India, as well as Indonesia.


The U.S. and the European Union have set 2050 as their deadline for net-zero emissions, while China, Russia and Saudi Arabia are aiming for 2060. The leaders of those three countries didn’t come to Rome.

“Why do you believe 2050 is some magic figure?” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asked at a news conference. “If it is an ambition of the European Union, it is the right of other countries also to have ambitions....No one has proven to us or anybody else that 2050 is something everyone must subscribe to.”

The future of coal, a key source of greenhouse gas emissions, also proved one of the most difficult issues on which to find consensus for the G-20.

At the Rome summit, leaders agreed to “put an end to the provision of international public finance for new unabated coal power generation abroad by the end of 2021.”

That refers to financial support for building coal plants abroad. Western countries have been moving away from such financing and major Asian economies are following suit: Chinese President Xi Jinping announced at the U.N. General Assembly last month that Beijing would stop funding such projects, and Japan and South Korea made similar commitments earlier in the year.

China has not set an end date for building coal plants at home, however. Coal is still China’s main source of power generation, and both China and India have resisted proposals for a G-20 declaration on phasing out domestic coal consumption.

The failure of the G-20 to set a target for phasing out domestic coal use was a disappointment to Britain. Johnson’s spokesperson, Max Blain, said the G-20 communique “was never meant to be the main lever in order to secure commitments on climate change,” noting those would be hammered out at the Glasgow summit.

John Kirton, director of the G-20 Research Group at the University of Toronto, said the leaders “took only baby steps” in the agreement and did almost nothing new.

He pointed to the agreement to “recall and reaffirm” their overdue commitment to provide $100 billion in assistance to poorer countries and to “stress the importance of meeting that goal fully as soon as possible” instead of stating that they were stumping up the full amount.

The agreement to end international coal financing “is the one thing that’s specific and real. That one counts,” Kirton said.

Youth climate activists Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate issued an open letter to the media as the G-20 was wrapping up, stressing three fundamental aspects of the climate crisis that often are downplayed: that time is running out, that any solution must provide justice to the people most affected, and that the biggest polluters often hide behind incomplete statistics about their true emissions.

“The climate crisis is only going to become more urgent. We can still avoid the worst consequences, we can still turn this around. But not if we continue like today,” they wrote, just weeks after Thunberg shamed global leaders for their “blah blah blah” rhetoric during a youth climate summit in Milan.

Greenpeace Executive Director Jennifer Morgan said the G-20 failed to provide the leadership the world needed. “I think it was a betrayal to young people around the world,” she told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Aside from climate issues, the leaders signed off on a landmark agreement for countries to enact a global minimum corporate tax of 15%. The global minimum is aimed at deterring multinational companies from dodging tax by shifting profits to countries with ultra low rates, but where the companies may do little actual business.

The leaders also said they would continue work on a French initiative for wealthier countries to re-channel $100 billion in financial support to needier countries in Africa in the form of special drawing rights, a foreign exchange tool used to help finance imports allocated by the International Monetary Fund and also received by advanced countries. The leaders said they were “working on actionable options” to do that and set the $100 billion figure as a “total global ambition” short of an absolute commitment. Some $45 billion has already been reallocated by individual countries on a voluntary basis.

The commitment reflects concern that the post-pandemic recovery is diverging, with wealthy countries rebounding faster due to extensive vaccination and stimulus spending.

___ Associated Press writers Jill Lawless and Sylvie Corbet contributed to this report.
The New York 'canners' recycling discarded bottles to survive






The New York 'canners' recycling discarded bottles to surviveLaurentino Marin drives his trolley of cans through the streets of Brooklyn in New York on October 27, 2021, before exchanging them for a few dollars at a recycling center (AFP/Ed JONES)More

Andréa BAMBINO
Sat, October 30, 2021

On a Brooklyn street, Laurentino Marin doesn't stop to admire the Halloween decorations. Like every morning, the Mexican is busy filling a shopping cart with used cans and plastic bottles, which he will exchange for a few dollars.

Marin, who is 80, is one of New York's estimated 10,000 "canners," mostly older migrants from Latin America and China who scrape a living sorting and recycling plastics and aluminum.

Frail and stooped over, Marin stops in front of the stairs of a typical brownstone house that dots this neighborhood, lifts the lids of the trash cans and plunges his gloved hands into them.

He also searches through plastic packaging filled with garbage that sit on the sidewalk, awaiting collection from the city's sanitation department.

Large see-through bags hang from his trolley, already full to the brim with a multicolored assortment of soda and beer cans.

"I'm looking for cans to survive," the wrinkled-faced Marin, originally from Oaxaca, says in Spanish.

"I don't receive help, there is no work, so you have to fight," he adds.

Marin does not have an employer. He exchanges his cans and bottles in one of the city's private recycling centers. For each one he gets a five-cent coin.

On an average day, he makes between $30 and $40, enough to supplement his daughter's income from a laundromat so they can make their $1,800 monthly rent.

The five-cent sum was enshrined in a 1982 New York state law known as the "Bottle Bill" that was passed to encourage consumers to recycle. It hasn't changed in almost 40 years.

"It had a really good impact of reducing litter across the state, especially in New York City," said Judith Enck, founder of the anti-pollution movement, Beyond Plastics, which campaigned at the time for the law.

Enck now wants to see the amount doubled to ten cents.

"We didn't realize that this would become a major source of income for many families, as it has," she told AFP.

The state government says the bill facilitated the recycling of 5.5 billion pieces of plastic, glass and aluminum containers throughout New York in 2020 alone, more than half the 8.6 billion items sold.

The canners are a key part of that effort but they are unofficial workers, lacking the benefits and health insurance that would come with a recognized job.

They symbolize New York's massive wealth inequality, which Eric Adams, all but certain to be elected the city's next mayor Tuesday, has pledged to address.

"It's hard. There are people who walk for miles and miles," explains Josefa Marin, also Mexican.

- Pandemic woes -


"And then there are places where people don't like to have their waste collected. They throw us away like little animals and don't understand that we make a living out of it," she adds.

A derogatory term also exists for them: scavengers, which the canners say fails to recognize their contribution to the environment.

"We are helping to keep the city clean," says 52-year-old Marin.

"(Without us) all this plastic would go into the sewers and the sea. We are doing something for our planet, for our ecology," she adds.

Marin regularly takes her collection to Sure We Can, a non-profit recycling center in Brooklyn, which also serves as a community space where canners can come together.

Director Ryan Castalia says the center attracts a diverse crowd.

"We have candidates here who are experiencing homelessness, and who really need every cent that they get here," he explains between mountains of sorted cans and bottles.

"And we have candidates here who are almost like small business entrepreneurs who really use canning to support their whole families or their livelihoods. They'll process thousands of cans every day."

Spring of 2020 was particularly difficult for the canners when the pandemic closed New York City's bars and restaurants.

But with other jobs drying up, the years-old industry keeps attracting new workers and in turn increasing competition.

"I am in construction," says Alvaro, a 60-year-old Mexican. "It pays much better but there is no work, so for a year I have been collecting my cans."

"It doesn't bring in much. There are too many people on the streets."

arb/pdh/dw
Why planting trees is no silver bullet against climate change


Issued on: 31/10/2021 
Mangrove trees in Pongara National Park, Gabon, October 15, 2021. These unique ecosystems act as natural barriers against coastal erosion and flooding.

 © Christophe Van der Perre, Reuters

Text by: Tiffany FILLON

“Nature-based solutions” are gaining traction as a means of fighting climate change while protecting biodiversity. Tree planting, a key part of several countries’ COP26 pledges, is one such proposal – but experts say that reforestation, while essential, is far from a silver bullet 

Two of the world’s biggest fossil-fuel producers, Russia and Saudi Arabia, have promised in recent weeks to go carbon neutral by 2060. Both Moscow and Riyadh plan to offset much of their carbon emissions from fossil fuels by planting millions of trees.

And they are not alone. COP26 host Boris Johnson wants to make tree planting a priority at the UN climate conference along with additional action on “coal, cars and cash”.

“To be net-zero for carbon you must be net-positive for trees, and by 2030 we want to be planting far more trees across the world than we are losing,” the British prime minister said in August.

Tree-planting belongs to a wider set of environmental measures known as “nature-based solutions”, which the UN and many scientists say are critical to averting catastrophic climate change – and which COP26 organisers hope to propel into the mainstream.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which coined the term, defines nature-based solutions as “actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural and modified ecosystems”. Protecting and expanding forests is central to this approach.

“Forests, and in particular tropical forests, absorb about a third of the greenhouse gases emitted every year,” explained Anne Larigauderie, executive secretary of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which works with the UN on protecting biodiversity, in an interview with FRANCE 24. “They could do much more if we stopped deforestation and invested more in forest management and the protection of these ecosystems.”

Mangrove restoration is often cited as a key example, as these unique ecosystems act as natural barriers against coastal erosion and flooding.

Simply planting trees, though, does not cut it.

“Nature-based solutions must have a double benefit,” said Freddy Rey, a specialist in ecological engineering at France’s National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRAE). “At least one must concern nature, and the other, society – for example, the fight against climate change, health, food security or protection from natural hazards.”

In France, INRAE’s researchers have added vegetation along the banks of some waterways to fight erosion and therefore flooding. Rey said this offers a more lasting alternative to traditional dams.

“Over time the vegetation will spread, whereas artificial barriers will wear down,” he told FRANCE 24. According to the IUCN, nature-based solutions are often less costly in the long term than the construction and maintenance of technological infrastructure.

>> Normandy village takes a gamble on letting in the rising sea

‘Buzz’ around nature-based solutions

Of course, planting trees and expanding green spaces are not new ideas. But Rey said that, at least in France, the "nature-based solutions" label has succeeded in “creating a buzz” around ecological practices, especially among elected officials. Lawmakers are working with INRAE to develop solutions to local environmental issues. NGOs are also playing a role, like the group France Nature Environment, which last year published a guide for cities seeking to implement these kinds of solutions.

While practices like reforestation may be “low tech” they still require highly specialised research and innovation.

“Far from simply ornamental greening projects – whose maintenance often involves intensive use of water, energy and fertilisers – nature-based solutions rest on scientific knowledge and technical know-how drawn largely from ecological engineering,” said one recent study.

Larigauderie of IPBES laments that, at major international climate talks, “people often talk about technical and technological solutions … and don’t pay enough attention to nature as a source of solutions”.

>> Costa Rica: A climate success story

For all the promise they hold, nature-based solutions should not be seen as a miracle cure for the climate. The natural world constantly shifts and evolves, and researchers must adapt accordingly. Planting along shores and waterways, for example, has its limits.

“While we’ve mastered the design methods for civil engineering based on mechanical and physical properties, the same isn’t true for plant engineering, which brings into play living materials whose properties are much harder to control,” said INRAE researcher AndrĂ© Evette in a statement.

Mountainous regions, lakes and actively used waterways present particular challenges.

Disguising ‘climate-trashing’

“We shouldn’t think we’re going to change the world with plant stems. We’re not going to stop tidal waves with branches,” said Rey. “You need a balance between these nature-based solutions and the know-how of civil engineering.”

Some NGOs, such as Friends of the Earth, meanwhile fear that nature-based solutions can “disguise climate-trashing business as usual”.

“Under the guise of Nature Based Solutions, big business and governments continue to expand … industrial agriculture and fossil fuel extraction, while claiming to address their climate impacts through investment in activities such as mass tree planting,” Friends of the Earth wrote in a recent statement.

Larigauderie likewise noted that the concept can be slippery, and warns against putting too much stake in it.

“Nature will not be able to absorb a frantic increase in our consumption,” she cautioned. “The number one message is that we must reduce our energy consumption, and rethink our lifestyles and agriculture. Nature can do a lot for us, but we must also correct ourselves.”

The COP26 summit will take stock of the actions taken by governments to meet the targets set by the 2015 Paris Agreement and the stiff challenges that remain if they are to keep global warming below 1.5° or even 2° Celsius. Building on the recent COP15 talks on biodiversity, COP26 has nature-based solutions on the agenda, with one of its 10 working days devoted to the theme of nature.

Many hope it will be just the beginning for what the UN calls “an essential part of the overall global effort to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement”.

This article was adapted from the original in French.
Tunisia film festival opens with 'taboo' abortion movie


Issued on: 31/10/2021 -

Tunis (AFP)

Tunisia's prestigious Carthage Film Festival has opened with a screening of "Lingui" -- a movie from Chad about a teenage girl who seeks an abortion.

The festival showcases 57 diverse films from 45 Arab and African countries, with screenings not only in cinemas, but in prisons and military barracks too.

Social issues are a common thread of the festival, with the opening film Lingui, by Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, telling the story of a 15-year-old seeking an abortion in a country where it is condemned.

Haroun said he was honoured to open the festival Saturday with "a taboo subject".

"It is a... political choice on the part of the festival, because it is a sub-Saharan film, which talks about the rights of women, in Arab countries and around the world," he said.

Under the slogan "Let's dream, Let's live", the festival is taking place across the capital Tunis this week, with screenings and talks until Saturday.

The festival is "intended to be a celebration of art, creativity, cinema and life", organisers say, and hopes to explore "new cinematographic trends in Africa and the Arab world".

Entries from Arab nations include films from Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Yemen, while from sub-Saharan Africa they include movies from Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Somalia and South Africa.

Other films include Egyptian director Ali Al Arabi's 2021 film "Captains of Zaatari", about refugees in Jordan wanting to become professional footballers, and Jessica Beshir's 2021 film from Ethiopia, "Faya Dayi", of young people's dreams under a harsh regime.

The official selection also includes a documentary by Syrian filmmaker Amel Alzakout, "Purple Sea", made from images filmed when she fled Syria and the boat on which she was travelling sank off the Greek coast.

Veteran Italian producer Enzo Porcelli is chair of the jury, alongside others including Angolan actor Hoji Fortuna, Egyptian film critic Tareq Al Shennawy, Iranian director Ahmad Bahrami and Haitian director Gessica Geneus.

© 2021 AFP
Filipino martial arts isn’t as widely known, but that could be changing


Agnes Constante
Sat, October 30, 2021

Gregory Manalo was in the midst of a personal renaissance in the late 1990s when he discovered Filipino martial arts (FMA).

“I didn’t find eskrima,” he told NBC Asian America, referring to a style of Filipino martial arts. “Eskrima found me.”

For Manalo, who has been training in FMA for about 25 years and teaches it in the San Francisco Bay Area, FMA was an entry point into learning more about his identity as a Filipino American that allowed him to tap into his culture and ancestry. He said performing moves makes him feel meditative and empowered.

“By training, we’re evoking and connecting with our ancestry that go back centuries,” Manalo said. “And just knowing that I can be directly tapped in by doing these movements is real meaningful for me.”

Filipino martial arts aren’t as widely known as other Asian martial arts such as karate and kung fu, but they’ve been practiced in the United States for decades. Yet even with less visibility than other martial arts, some practitioners say they see signs of FMA gaining popularity and are hopeful that it will continue to become more widely known.

FMA instructors who spoke with NBC Asian America all pointed out that the martial art can be seen in Hollywood films including the Bourne films, “The Book of Eli,” “Daredevil,” “Dune” and the Star Wars series “The Mandalorian.”

“I think in the last 10 to 20 years, we realized that in order for Filipino martial arts to grow and to proliferate, we all need to work together and learn from each other and share our arts,” said Mel Orpilla, a historian and martial artist who has been practicing FMA for more than two decades.

Joseph Bautista, a Filipino martial arts instructor at Eskabo Daan in San Francisco and practitioner for more than 30 years, said the changes he’s seen in FMA throughout the last 20 years, including more instructors willing to teach it more widely, makes him hopeful about its future. Orpilla said the featuring of FMA in Hollywood, the ability to share it more widely through social media, and the increase of FMA seminars and tournaments in Northern California have also been helpful.

Orpilla said that Filipino American martial artist Dan Inosanto, known for being one of Bruce Lee’s training partners, is a critical figure in FMA. He added that Inosanto taught Lee the FMA used in a dungeon scene of the 1974 film “Enter the Dragon.”

“The teaching methodology of Filipino martial arts is the basis for teaching choreography when it comes to weapons, or stand up punching and kicking,” said Elrik Jundis, who has trained in FMA for more than 30 years and has done extensive research on it. “That’s the bread and butter of all Hollywood action movies.”

There are three main styles of FMA: eskrima, arnis and kali. While there are nuances among the three, they’re often used interchangeably, said Elrik Jundis, who has trained in FMA for more than 30 years and has done extensive research on it. It’s a martial art that’s unique from others because training immediately begins with weapons, whereas others such as karate and taekwondo start out empty handed, Orpilla said.

“[A] Filipino martial artist’s main purpose in a fight is to end it as quickly and efficiently as possible using offensive, defensive and counterattack movements depending on the weapons being used and their fighting distance to each other,” he said.

Despite its presence in Hollywood, FMA isn’t more popularly known for a number of reasons. Orpilla said that practicing the martial art was banned in the Philippines during Spanish colonial rule from 1521 to 1898 because they did not want Filipinos to use it to revolt.

Jundis also noted that more popular Asian martial arts have roots in countries that have had a longstanding national identity.

Meanwhile, the concept of what it means to be Filipino is still forming, he said. The Philippines has been an independent country for less than a century. It gained independence in 1946 after nearly 400 years of colonial rule under Spain and the United States.

Bautista said that the Philippine islands operated separately rather than as a single country prior to Spanish colonization. Orpilla said that the islands were vulnerable to invasion from other countries and had to fight to protect themselves, their tribes and families.


Jundis added that FMA isn’t as big of an organized sport the way martial arts like taekwondo and judo are — both of which are categories at the Olympics.

He also said that specifics about the history and origins of FMA vary depending on who is asked due to a lack of documentation.

The popularity of FMA occurred in the United States rather than in the Philippines, practitioners and historians told NBC Asian America. It’s not clear exactly where or when in the U.S. it started, but they said its presence in the U.S. is linked to the immigration of Filipino plantation workers in the early 20th century. They also said that FMA was first taught publicly in Stockton, a city in California’s Central Valley, which birthed a number of grandmasters of the martial art, including Inosanto.

Orpilla said that another reason knowledge of FMA isn’t so widespread is because it historically has been kept within families, and people did not want to teach it to others.

“I don’t know about Filipino martial arts in the mainstream in my lifetime, but [there’s] been a good push towards Filipino martial arts,” Bautista said.

FMA is also gaining traction beyond the United States. Manalo said one of his instructors has held seminars on it in Europe, where he said it has been well received.

For Manalo, FMA has not only been a way to protect himself, but a fulfilling practice and a source of pride for his culture.

“To know that we have something and say this was ours made me feel proud because a lot of people all over the world at this point valued Filipino martial arts, specifically the knife fighting and sword fighting,” he said. “It was something that people recognize in a world where people don’t even know who Filipinos are. It was a good entry point to really just dive deep into history, culture, arts and practice.”
Gay people who come out later in life face unique obstacles
Coming Out Later in LifeCyndi and Brad Marler sit for a portrait with their 1989 wedding album at Cyndi's apartment Monday, Oct. 18, 2021, in Chicago. A lot can be hidden behind a marriage. For the Marlers, it was that they are both gay. A few years after their wedding, they told each other their secret. Then, for more than three decades, they told no one else. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Brad and Cyndi Marler pose for a portrait at Cyndi's apartment Monday, Oct. 18, 2021, in Chicago. The Marlers lived together until March when, following their retirements and the sale of their home in Southern Illinois, they moved into separate apartments in Chicago to explore life as part of the queer community for the first time. They have no immediate plans to divorce. "We're still best friends," Cyndi said. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)



ASHLEY DUONG
Sat, October 30, 2021, 

CHICAGO (AP) — A lot can be hidden behind a marriage. For Brad and Cyndi Marler, it was that they are both gay.

A few years after their wedding, they told each other their secret. Then, for more than three decades, they told no one else.

“We always said it was us against the world,” Brad said.

After living what they call “the all-American life” in the small Illinois towns of Smithton and Freeburg, the Marlers, now both in their late 50s, decided they need to “live authentically.” They’ve come out to their two adult children — a son and a daughter — and are navigating new lives in Chicago.

While research from the UCLA School of Law Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy shows that people in the U.S. are coming out at a younger age than previous generations, Brad and Cyndi are part of a segment of the LGBTQ community that waits until later in life.

“Society is still inhospitable. That’s not to deny so many amazing shifts in public attitudes, in laws, in policies, but it did not wash away a hundred years of homophobia in society,” said Ilan Meyer, a distinguished senior scholar of public policy with the Williams Institute.

Bob Mueller, 75, who grew up in suburban Chicago and now lives in Iowa, didn’t breathe a word of his sexual orientation to his family until he was 40, when he wanted them to meet his partner. And he still didn’t tell everyone.

“It was common practice to stay in the closet if you wanted to have a job. It wasn’t until 2005 that I officially came out at work,” he said.

Having grown up in religious households in small Illinois communities, coming out wasn’t an option for the Marlers, who marked 32 years of marriage in September.

“Being homosexual, you’re just going to go straight to hell. There’s no two ways to it,” Cyndi said of what she and Brad were taught.

Even as strides were made nationally for gay rights, the Marlers feared being found out. They built homes, raised their kids and never strayed from their marriage. In public, they were sure to maintain traditional gender roles: Cyndi kept her hair long, and they never mentioned that Brad was the one who decorated their house.

“We wanted the house, the dog, the two kids — and we did all of that,” Cyndi said.

“We made a decision to make it work. This was what we were going to do,” she added.

But there came a limit. It was a house of cards that needed to come down, Brad said.

He had become deeply depressed and began working on his internalized homophobia with the help of weekly therapy.

“For such a long time, I hated that part of me. … I didn’t understand why what I had with Cyndi wasn’t enough,” he said.

The couple also says they never would have been able to come out if their parents were still alive. Brad noted that the shame he associated with his sexuality was triggered after his mother confronted him when he was 16 about the possibility of being gay. “She just said, ‘If you are, that’s not OK. You’re not going to do this to the family.’ … We never spoke about it again,” he recalled.

Another big factor was that their daughter came out as a lesbian.

“It was the overwhelming need to protect her,” Brad said.

The Marlers lived together until March when, having retired and sold their home, they moved into separate apartments in Chicago to explore life as part of the LGBTQ community for the first time.

Michael Adams, CEO of SAGE, said the nonprofit helps thousands of older Americans in their coming out journey. He says the unique obstacles they face can include higher levels of fear and anxiety, as well as managing others’ expectations.

Paulette Thomas-Martin, 70, came out after a 20-year marriage and when most of her children were adults.

“It was very painful. … I would call them and they would not call back,” she said.

It took several years before her children started speaking to her again, Thomas-Martin says, but in the end it brought her family closer.

“My son texted me recently telling me how proud he is of me. It came out better for my kids. I’m happier. I have more joy and peace,” said Thomas-Martin, who lives in New York with her wife.

Adams says coming out later in life may also make socializing and dating more complicated.

Brad describes it as going through a second adolescence.

“Everything is new,” he said.

Cyndi is focusing on figuring out herself before pursuing a relationship with a woman.

“It’s like taking this filter off and asking myself, ‘What am I?’” she said.

Even though the Marlers now live separately, they have no immediate plans to divorce and still see each other almost daily.

“We’re still best friends,” Cyndi said.

And despite some struggles, they believe things have improved for them.

“Our whole dynamic is better now,” Brad said.

Their daughter recently wrote her parents each a letter about the experience.

“She wrote that she was happy to see that I’m happy,” Brad said.

 

Toronto charity helps airlift group of LGBTQ people out of Afghanistan

Rainbow Railroad worked with the U.K. to help 29 people

flee the Taliban

LGBTQ Afghans board a plane destined for the U.K., in joint operation by Rainbow Railroad and Stonewall U.K. to help at-risk Afghans escape the country. (Rainbow Railroad)

A Toronto-based charity has played a key role in helping a group of LGBTQ Afghans escape the Taliban after a months-long, cross-continental campaign to get them out of Kabul.

After receiving hundreds of requests for help from Afghans fearing for their safety, Rainbow Railroad, a group that helps LGBTQ people escape persecution, has worked with a British charity called Stonewall to help airlift members of the community to the U.K.

The first group of 29 people boarded a military flight Friday bound for an undisclosed location in the U.K., the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office announced. 

"Rainbow Railroad's hope is that they will be the first of hundreds more arriving in the U.K. through this scheme, and that other governments, notably the American and Canadian governments, will partner with us on similar operations," said Eric Wright, the Canadian charity's communications officer, in a news release on Friday. 

After the group quarantines in a hotel, they will then be resettled in Britain. 

Wright said some of the 29 are students and others are defenders of LGBTQ rights in Afghanistan, making them targets for the Taliban. 

Homosexuality is criminalized under Afghan law, with offenders facing imprisonment or a maximum penalty of death. A 2020 report from the U.S. Department of State on human rights in Afghanistan found that LGBTQ people faced discrimination in employment and health-care, and they are also vulnerable to beatings and sexual assault by security forces.

'Living in fear for their lives'

The campaign involved "months of partnership development, and direct advocacy to the U.K. government at the highest levels", Wright said, including an urgent letter sent to U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Aug. 27, just days before the evacuation efforts from Kabul ended. The last U.S. plane left Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 30.

While they were able to airlift only 29 LGBTQ people out of Afghanistan Friday, charities hope to help many more in the coming months. (Rainbow Railroad)

The letter, jointly signed by Stonewall chief executive Nancy Kelley and Rainbow Railroad executive director Kimahli Powell, requested urgent help to airlift LGBTQ Afghans, who were "at extreme risk of torture and death at the hands of the Taliban and already living in fear for their lives."

The two charities complied a list of 200 people who were in easy distance of Kabul's airport, hoping to airlift "as many people on this list as possible" before the airlift efforts ended. However, the U.K. pulled out of Afghanistan the following day.

Some of the group of Afghans show off their passports and boarding passes as they prepare to leave Kabul for a new life in the U.K. (Rainbow Railroad)

The list of people awaiting evacuation has grown since then, and while the spokesman couldn't give a specific figure, he said "hundreds" were still awaiting evacuation.

Rainbow Railroad says it has received more than 700 requests for help from LGBTQ people in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over. The group says that's more than a quarter of the number of requests for help that come in each year from all over the world. As a result, the group has hired extra staff specifically to triage Afghanistan cases.

Charity calls on Canada to step in

Only 29 people could be airlifted at one time because of the the operation and the extreme security risks that arise with the movement of people across borders, Wright said, as well as the Taliban actively pursuing LGBTQ people, their limited mobility due to fear of violence and the lack of help from other governments, other than the U.K. 

Wright called on the Canadian government to step in to help so LGBTQ people could also be resettled in Canada.

"The former Minister of Immigration has been tweeting about this since the beginning, but we need more than this. We need Canadian moral and humanitarian leadership on this file."  

Kimahli Powell, executive director of Rainbow Railroad, says the charity will continue to work with the U.K. government to help at-risk Afghans. (Supplied)

As the final Canadian evacuation flight left Kabul on Aug. 26, former Minister of Immigration Marco Mendicino tweeted his intention to help grant safe passage to Afghan refugees, such as people from the LGBTQ community, to enter Canada.

"Our evacuation is ending, but our commitment to the people of Afghanistan is as strong as ever. In the next months, we'll welcome thousands of vulnerable Afghan refugees forced to flee to other countries — focusing on women, religious minorities, LGBTQ folks and others," Mendicino's tweet said.

In total, Canada airlifted more than 3,700 people from Afghanistan.

The initial group of 29 will now be supported by Stonewall and other LGBTQ charities to begin their new lives in the U.K.

More LGBTQ Afghans are expected to arrive in the U.K. in the coming months. 

In a statement issued by the U.K. Foreign Office Friday, Rainbow Railroad executive director Kimahli Powell said: "This is just the beginning of our efforts to help hundreds of LGBTQI+  individuals we are supporting in Afghanistan relocate to safety."

Time running out for LGBTQ+ Afghans  hiding
 from Taliban, warn charities

Large numbers linked to previous 
administration are stranded in  Afghanistan, with calls for the UK to broker rapid mass evacuation

Radwin, an Afghan transgender woman, speaking during an interview with AFP at an undisclosed location in Afghanistan, September 2021. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images


Mark Townsend
@townsendmark
Sun 31 Oct 2021 

Calls for the government to speed up the evacuation of gay, lesbian and transgender Afghans intensified on Saturday after the first LGBTQ+ group arrived safely in Britain but left many behind to face an uncertain fate.

The group of 29 is “hoped to be the first of many” in the coming months, the Foreign Office said, hours after the Taliban announced LGBTQ+ rights would not be respected.

The move has left large numbers of LGBTQ+ individuals linked to the previous administration stranded in Afghanistan, with calls growing for the UK to broker a rapid mass evacuation from Kabul.

One of the 29, who did not wish to be named, told the BBC on Saturday that he felt “like a human being” for the first time in his life. “Everything collapsed after the fall of Kabul. I was very depressed. I was counting my days to die.”

He said Britain was now his home. “Everything is new to me here. A new lifestyle, a new language and culture. I am a bit nervous about my future, and I am trying to figure out where to start my new life, but man, I feel safe and free! This is amazing.”

Gianluca Di Caro, chief executive of the British and Irish Boxing Authority (Biba), said the organisation had 250 boxers and their families still trapped in Afghanistan, a significant proportion of them LGBTQ+.

Di Caro told the Observer: “We need to get them out quickly. We’ve already had female boxers who have been assaulted by the Taliban. In some cases Taliban have gone into some of the girls’ houses.”

Biba has been in contact with Home Office officials since the Taliban’s return to power on 15 August, but fears time is running out.

Previously, a Taliban judge said there were only two punishments for homosexuality – stoning or being crushed under a wall. During the Taliban’s last period in power there were reports of gay men being stoned to death in officially sanctioned executions.

The UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said in a statement on Saturday: “We played a key role getting these people out and will continue to do all we can to help at-risk Afghans leave the country.” She added Britain would defend “the right of all people to be themselves and love who they want”.

Among the group are activists who had stood up for LGBTQ+ rights in Afghanistan, Foreign Office officials said. The arrivals will stay in “bridging accommodation”, they added, although their legal status is unclear.

No details were given on how the group were able to leave Afghanistan, with officials stressing the need to safeguard the route. Yet the fact they were allowed to depart suggests a possible diplomatic agreement. Truss’s predecessor, Dominic Raab, previously stated the need to engage with the Taliban.


‘We have more in common than what separates us’: refugee stories, told by refugees


Officials said the foreign secretary, along with British LGBTQ+ group Stonewall and Canadian organisation Rainbow Railroad, had intervened to ensure the Afghan group gained safe passage to the UK.

Nancy Kelley, Stonewall’s chief executive, said her organisation had been campaigning to bring vulnerable Afghans to the UK for a few months. She vowed to continue to push for international support to help those still in the country.

“The situation is likely to remain extremely dangerous for some time,” Kelley said.

LGBTQ+ people have previously described hiding in small rooms and basements for weeks after the Taliban takeover. Others are being hidden by friends, who are helping to keep watch and bringing them food and supplies.

The UK has evacuated more than 8,000 Afghans who worked for the UK and their families, as well as many other highly vulnerable people, since the Taliban seized power.

The government said that the Afghan citizens’ resettlement scheme would remain open to provide protection for people at risk.


U of C students rally against 'egregious' tuition hikes, budget cuts

Author of the article: Jason Herring
Publishing date:Oct 29, 2021 
University of Calgary students rallied against tuition hikes and budget cuts during the Student Day of Action on Friday, October 29, 2021.
 Jason Herring/Postmedia


About 100 University of Calgary students braved a Friday afternoon snowstorm to protest post-secondary tuition hikes and budget cuts.

The rally, part of the provincewide ‘Student Day of Action’ campaign, comes the week after the U of C’s board of governors approved exceptional tuition increases of up to 32 per cent for some domestic students, which will take effect in fall 2022 pending government approval.


First-year international relations student Siraaj Shah was among speakers at the rally, held on the quad outside the MacEwan Student Centre. He said students are bearing the burden of provincial budget cuts through increased tuition rates.

“The reality is education is not a privilege, education is a human right,” Shah said.

“Why is it that I, as a student, have to be worried about my tuition being hiked before I’m even a student at this university? Before I even get an opportunity to stand and walk in these halls?”

Alberta’s United Conservative government has cut funding for advanced education in recent budgets, including by 1.4 per cent in its 2021 budget . That included a six per cent cut to the U of C’s operating budget, which is at its lowest amount since 2011.


Meanwhile, the U of C introduced a seven per cent tuition hike for most programs in 2020-21 and 2021-22 , the provincial maximum, with similar increases expected for the 2022-23 academic year.


The university is also taking a second shot at introducing exceptional tuition increases beyond the seven per cent cap for some domestic students, after the Ministry of Advanced Education previously rejected the hikes this summer, citing inadequate student consultation . The U of C resubmitted the proposed tuition hikes Friday following approval by its Board of Governors last week.

If approved, the hikes would increase tuition starting in fall 2022 for new graduate business administration, medical doctor and undergraduate engineering students, with a 32 per cent increase to the cost of the latter program.

The U of C said in a statement it believes its initial consultations with students were “robust” but was pleased to provide more opportunities for student feedback. A spokesperson for Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides confirmed the government had received the latest proposal for exceptional tuition increases.

Speaking at the campus protest Friday, organizer Mateusz Salmassi called on the province to introduce a tuition freeze and to reverse previous budget cuts. Students in attendance held signs with lines including ‘Stop the hikes’ and ‘Cut pumpkins, not budgets.'

University of Calgary students rallied against tuition hikes and budget cuts during the Student Day of Action on Friday, October 29, 2021. Jason Herring/Postmedia

Third-year physics student Quinn Rupert said post-secondary education is prohibitively expensive for some, particularly those who may have lost jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The amount they’re charging students is insane,” Rupert said. “There’s people who have to choose between buying food and paying rent and paying tuition. There’s incredibly bright students in various departments across the university who have had to consider or who maybe have dropped out already.”

That sentiment was echoed by second-year international relations student Allan Birkett, who argued the province and post-secondary institutions are taking advantage of students.

“These tuition hikes are starting to get egregious,” Birkett said. “We need a lot more investment and a lot more support from the government.”

Also attending the rally was Prachi Mishra, the vice-chair of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees Local 052, which represents support staff at the U of C.

She said the university has shed 600 full-term support staff alone due to recent budget cuts.

“This means people have lost their livelihoods. It means the workload has remained the same with less people to do it,” Mishra said, calling the Friday rally “an amazing start to a much bigger movement.”

In a statement, the U of C said it supports “respectful free speech” and looks forward “to continuing our conversations with our campus community” on tuition.

Laurie Chandler, press secretary to Nicolaides, said in an email the minister is “open to hearing ideas about how we can balance funding to institutions and manage tuition increases, all within the context of limited government resources.”

jherring@postmedia.com


Igjugaarjuk, a shaman and leader of the Paallirmiut. (Photo courtesy of Intellectual Culture of the Caribou Eskimos, Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition 1921-24, Vol. 7, No. 2, facing page 76)

Igjugaarjuk, the shaman

By Kenn Harper

Igjugaarjuk, a powerful shaman of the inland Paallirmiut, met Knud Rasmussen in 1922.

He told him about the spirits that governed the lives of the Inuit of the inland, those whom scientists called the “Caribou Eskimos.”

On the coast, the Inuit feared the spirit Nuliajuq, who governed access to the animals of the sea. But inland Inuit, who depended almost entirely on the caribou, knew nothing of a spirit by that name, fearing instead one called Pinga — the one up in the sky — who was the guardian of all life, both animal and human. They also feared Hila, the spirit of the air.

Rasmussen was interested in how a man became a shaman and asked Igjugaarjuk to describe the training he had undergone. Igjugaarjuk told him that one could only become a shaman through sufferings that are almost enough to kill. Here is his story:

“When I was to be a shaman, I chose suffering through the two things that are most dangerous to us humans, suffering through hunger and suffering through cold. First I hungered five days and was then allowed to drink a mouthful of warm water.… Thereafter I went hungry another fifteen days, and again was given a mouthful of warm water. After that I hungered for ten days, and then could begin to eat, though it only had to be … the sort of food on which there is never any taboo, preferably fleshy meat.… I was to keep to this diet for five moons, and then the next five moons might eat anything. But after that I was again forced to eat the meat diet that is prescribed for all those who must do penance in order to become clean.

Atqaaralaaq, wife of the shaman Igjugaarjuk. (Photo courtesy of Intellectual Culture of the Caribou Eskimos, Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition 1921-24, Vol. 7, No. 2, facing page 32)

“My instructor was my wife’s father, Perqannaaq. When I was to be exhibited to Pinga and Hila, he dragged me on a little sledge that was no bigger than I could just sit on. He dragged me far over on the other side of Hikoligjuaq. It was a very long day’s journey inland to a place we call Kingaarjuit —the high hills.… It was in winter time and took place at night with the new moon.… I was not fetched again until the next moon was of the same size.

“Perqannaaq built a small snow hut at the place where I was to be.… I was given no sleeping skin to protect me against the cold, only a little piece of caribou skin to sit upon. There I was shut in.… When I had sat there for five days, Perqannaaq came with water, tepid, wrapped in caribou skin, a watertight caribou-skin bag. Not until fifteen days afterwards did he come again and hand me the same, just giving himself time to hand it to me, and then he was gone again, for even the old shaman must not interrupt my solitude.…

“Perqannaaq enjoined me to think of one single thing all the time I was to be there, to want only one single thing, and that was to draw Pinga’s attention to the fact that there I sat and wished to be a shaman.

“My novitiate took place in the middle of the coldest winter.… Only towards the end of the thirty days did a helping spirit come to me, a lovely and beautiful helping spirit. It was a white woman. She came to me whilst I had collapsed, exhausted, and was sleeping. But still I saw her lifelike, hovering over me, and from that day I could not close my eyes or dream without seeing her.… I have never seen her while awake, but only in dreams. She came to me from Pinga and was a sign that Pinga had now noticed me and would give me powers that would make me a shaman.”

After Igjugaarjuk had endured his time of privation on the land, his teacher, Perqannaaq, came to fetch him. The older man hauled him home on his sled, for the newly trained shaman was too weak to stand. He had slowly to be nursed back to health.

Igjugaarjuk resumed his story:

“Later, when I had become quite myself again, I understood that I had become the shaman of my village, and it did happen that my neighbours or people from a long distance away called me to heal a sick person, or to inspect a course if they were going to travel. When this happened, the people of my village were called together and I told them what I had been asked to do. Then I left tent or snowhouse and went out into solitude: ahiarmut, away from the dwellings of man.…

“If anything difficult had to be found out, my solitude had to extend over three days and two nights, or three nights and two days. In all that time I had to wander about without rest, and only sit down once in a while on a stone or a snow drift. When I had been out long and had become tired, I could almost doze and dream what I had come out to find and about which I had been thinking all the time. Every morning, however, I could come home and report on what I had so far found, but as soon as I had spoken I had to return again, out into the open, out to places where I could be quite alone.…

“These days of seeking for knowledge are very tiring, for one must walk all the time, no matter what the weather is like and only rest in short snatches.”

Igjugaarjuk did not think much of the shamans on the coast, those he called salt-water angakkut.

“These angakkut never seemed trustworthy to me,” he told Rasmussen.

“A real shaman does not jump about the floor and do tricks, nor does he seek by the aid of darkness, by putting out the lamps, to make the minds of his neighbours uneasy.”

He summed up his beliefs: “True wisdom is only to be found far away from people, out in the great solitude, and it is not found in play but only through suffering. Solitude and suffering open the human mind, and therefore a shaman must seek his wisdom there.”

https://nunatsiaq.com/