African nations mend and make do as China tightens Belt and Road





Workers are seen on site during the construction of the Nairobi Expressway, in Nairobi

Sun, November 21, 2021
By Duncan Miriri

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Deep in Kenya's Great Rift Valley, members of the National Youth Service tirelessly swing machetes to clear dense shrubs obscuring railway tracks more than a century old.

It's a distinctly low-tech phase for China's Belt and Road drive in Africa to create the trade highways of the future.

There's not enough money left to complete the new 1,000-km super-fast rail link from the port of Mombasa to Uganda. It ends abruptly in the countryside, 468 km short of the border, and now Kenya is resorting to finishing the route by revamping the 19th-century colonial British-built tracks that once passed that way.

China has lent African countries hundreds of billions of dollars as part of President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which envisaged Chinese institutions financing the bulk of the infrastructure in mainly developing nations. Yet the credit has dried up in recent years.

On top of the damage wrought to both China and its creditors by COVID-19, analysts and academics attribute the slowdown to factors such as a waning appetite in Beijing for large foreign investments, a commodity price crash that has complicated African debt servicing, plus some borrowers' reluctance to enter lending deals backed by their natural resources.

"We are not in the go-go period anymore," Adam Tooze, a Columbia University historian, said about China's overseas investment projects. "There is definitely a rebalancing from the China side," said Tooze, whose new book Shutdown examines how COVID-19 affected the world economy, adding that Beijing's current account surplus was "dwindling somewhat".

Chinese investments in the 138 countries targeted by BRI slid 54% from 2019 to $47 billion last year, the lowest amount since the BRI was unveiled in 2013, according to Green BRI, a China-based think-tank that focuses on analysing the initiative.

In Africa, home to 40 of those BRI nations, Chinese bank financing for infrastructure projects fell from $11 billion in 2017 to $3.3 billion in 2020, according to a report by international law firm Baker McKenzie.

This is a blow for governments who were anticipating securing Chinese loans to build highways and rail lines linking landlocked countries to sea ports and trade routes to Asia and Europe. The continent is facing an estimated annual infrastructure investment deficit of around $100 billion, according to the African Development Bank.

"The pandemic has actually made things worse. Those numbers will go up," said Akinwumi Adesina, the president of the bank, citing the need for additional infrastructure to support health services.

Hold-ups have hit some other BRI projects across the continent, such as a $3 billion Nigerian rail project and a $450 million highway in Cameroon.

China's ministry of foreign affairs did not respond to a request for comment.

Beijing officials have said that the two sides have a mutually beneficial and cooperative relationship and that lending is done openly and transparently.

"When providing interest-free loans and concessional loans, we fully consider the debt situation and repayment capacity of the recipient countries in Africa, and work in accordance with the law," Zhou Liujun, vice chairman of China International Development Cooperation Agency told reporters in late October.

Another Chinese official, who declined to be named as they are not authorised to speak to the media, said Beijing always intended to implement BRI gradually to manage debt default risks by countries or projects.

Workers are seen on site during the construction of the Nairobi Expressway, in Nairobi

'RAILWAY WILL BE BUILT'

Officials in Kenya said its rail route were long-term projects that would be seen through over time, without giving any specific timeframe. The COVID-19 has presented the world with unforeseen and unprecedented challenges, they added.

"Eventually, this standard gauge railway will still be complete because it is part of what we call the Belt and Road Initiative," said James Macharia, Kenya's transport minister.

The government has already spent about $5 billion on its new rail link, and can't currently afford the additional $3.7 billion needed to finish it. The last station hooked up is only accessible by dirt roads.

Hence engineers in the Rift Valley are no longer building new infrastructure, but rather shoring up colonial-era viaducts and bridges in an operation that the government estimates will cost about 10 billion shillings ($91 million).

There are knock-on effects and, over the border in Uganda, construction on a modern railway line has been delayed because it's supposed to link to the Kenyan one.

That has been one factor in the hold-up in a $2.2 billion loan from the Export-Import Bank of China (Exim Bank), David Mugabe, spokesperson for Uganda's Standard Gauge Railway project, told Reuters.

In Nigeria, the government turned to London-headquartered Standard Chartered Bank this year to finance the $3 billion railway project https://www.reuters.com/article/nigeria-railway-funding-idUKL5N2OE43A initially slated to receive Chinese backing. Standard Chartered declined to comment on the deal, citing confidentiality agreements.

In Cameroon, the $450 million highway linking the capital Yaounde and the economic hub of Douala, whose funding was secured from China's Exim Bank in 2012, stalled in 2019 as the bank stopped disbursing further tranches of the loan.

Exim Bank did not respond to a request for comment on its loans to Uganda and Cameroon.

MALAYSIA TO BOLIVIA

Zhou Yuyuan, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for West Asian and African Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, said the COVID-19 crisis had strained Chinese lending institutions and African finances alike.

In future, he added, Beijing was likely to encourage more corporate Chinese investment in the continent, to fill the role of state-backed financing. "Once the pandemic is over, Africa's economy is likely to recover," he said. "That could drive China's corporate investment."

The pandemic has added to the obstacles facing President Xi's self-described "project of the century". After peaking at $125.25 billion in 2015, Chinese investments into BRI nations have dropped every year, apart from 2018, when they edged up 6.7%, the Green BRI data showed.

In 2018, Pakistan https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-silkroad-railway-insight-idUSKCN1MA028 balked at the cost and the financing terms of building a railway. The previous year, there were signs of growing problems for BRI, after China's push in Sri Lanka https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sri-lanka-china-insight-idUSKBN15G5UT sparked protests.

AidData, a research lab at the College of William and Mary in the United States, said in a study https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-belt-road-plans-losing-momentum-opposition-debt-mount-study-2021-09-29 at the end of September that $11.58 billion in projects in Malaysia had been cancelled over 2013-2021, with nearly $1.5 billion cancelled in Kazakhstan and more than a $1 billion in Bolivia.

"A growing number of policymakers in low and middle-income countries are mothballing high-profile BRI projects because of overpricing, corruption and debt sustainability concerns," said Brad Parks, one of the study's authors.

China's foreign ministry said in response to the AidData report that "not all debts are unsustainable", adding that since its launch the BRI had "consistently upheld principles of shared consultation, shared contributions and shared benefits".

'RESOURCES ARE FINITE'

A key problem is debt sustainability.

Copper producer Zambia became Africa's first pandemic-era sovereign default last year after failing to keep up with payments on more than $12 billion of international debt, for example. A recent study suggested more than half of that burden is owed to Chinese public and private lenders.

In late 2018, Beijing agreed to restructure billions of dollars in debt owed by Ethiopia.

Some African governments are also growing more reluctant to take out loans backed commodities such as oil and metals.

"We can't mortgage our oil," Uganda's works and transport minister Katumba Wamala told Reuters, confirming the country had refused to pledge untapped oil in fields in the west to secure the railway loan.

The finance squeeze means African governments must make more strategic investment decisions in terms of debt sustainability, said Yvette Babb, a Netherlands-based fixed income portfolio manager at William Blair.

"There is no infinite amount of capital," she said.

($1 = 110.2500 Kenyan shillings)

(Additional reporting by Joe Bavier in Johannesburg, Elias Biryabarema in Kampala, Kevin Yao and Ella Cao in Beijing; Editing by Katharine Houreld, Karin Stohecker and Pravin Char)

IMPERIALISM AND STATE CAPITALISM

Jobs lost, middle class Afghans slide into poverty, hunger






An Afghan woman resisters her name to receive cash at a money distribution center, organized by the World Food Program in Kabul, Afghanistan on Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021. With the U.N. warning millions are in near-famine conditions, the WFP has dramatically ramped up direct aid to families. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)More

LEE KEATH
Sun, November 21, 2021, 

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Not long ago, Ferishta Salihi and her family had enough for a decent life. Her husband was working and earned a good salary. She could send several of her daughters to private schools.

But now, after her husband lost his job following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, she was lined up with hundreds of other Afghans, registering with the U.N.’s World Food Program to receive food and cash that her family desperately needs just for survival.

“We have lost everything. We’ve lost our minds,” Salihi said after her registration was complete. With her was her eldest daughter, 17-year-old Fatima, whom she had to take out of school. She can’t afford to pay the fees at a private school, and the Taliban so far are not allowing teenage girls to go to public schools.

“I don’t want anything for myself, I just want my children to get an education,” Salihi said.

In a matter of months as Afghanistan’s economy craters, many stable, middle-class families like Salihi’s have plummeted into desperation, uncertain of how they will pay for their next meal. That is one reason the United Nations is raising alarm over a hunger crisis, with 22% of the population of 38 million already near famine and another 36% facing acute food insecurity - mainly because people can’t afford food.

The economy was already in trouble under the previous, U.S.-backed government, which often could not pay its employees. The situation was worsened by the coronavirus pandemic and by a punishing drought that drove up food prices. Already in 2020, nearly half of Afghanistan’s population was living in poverty.

Then the world’s shutdown of funding to Afghanistan after the Taliban’s Aug. 15 seizure of power pulled the rug out from under the country’s small middle class. International funding once paid for much of the government budget — and without it, the Taliban have largely been unable to pay salaries or provide public services. The international community has not recognized Taliban rule, demanding the militants form a more inclusive government and respect human rights.

International aid also fueled projects around the country that provided jobs, most of which are now on hold. The country’s banks are cut off from the international banking system, further snarling the private sector. The country’s economy is estimated to have contracted 40% in just three months.

Hospitals are seeing increasing numbers of emaciated, malnourished children, mostly from the country’s poorest families who were already barely getting by.

Now families that have seen their once-stable livelihoods wrecked also find themselves with nothing and must scrape for ways to cover costs of food, rent and medical expenses.

Salihi’s husband once made around 24,000 Afghanis ($264) a month working in the logistics department at the World Bank’s office in Kabul. But after the Taliban took power, the World Bank halted its projects. The 39-year-old Salihi said her husband was told not to come to the office and he hasn’t received his salary since.

Now she is the family’s only source of income. One of her neighbors has a business selling nuts, so they give her bags of nuts to shell at home and she then sells the shells to people who use them to burn for fuel.

Her husband, she said, spends his day walking around the district looking for work. “All he can do is measure the streets with his steps,” she said, using an expression for someone with nothing to do.

The U.S. and other international donors are funneling money to Afghanistan for humanitarian aid through U.N. agencies, which ensure the money doesn’t go into the coffers of the Taliban government. The main focus has been on two tracks. The U.N. Development Program, World Health Organization and UNICEF are working to directly pay salaries to doctors and nurses around the country to keep the health sector from collapsing. The WFP, meanwhile, is providing direct cash aid and food to families, trying to keep them above water.

The WFP has had to ramp up its program dramatically. In 2020, it provided aid to 9 million people, up from the year before. So far this year, that number has risen to nearly 14 million, and the rate has risen sharply each month since August. Next year, the agency aims to provide for more than 23 million people, and it says it needs $220 million a month to do so.

It’s not just the poorest of the poor, usually based in rural areas, who need help. “There’s a new urban class of people who up until the summer would have been drawing a salary ... and now are facing hunger for the first time,” said Shelley Thakral, the WFP spokesperson for Afghanistan.

“People are now having to scavenge for food, they’re skipping meals and mothers are forced to reduce portions of food,” she said.

Last week, hundreds of men and women lined up in a gymnasium in a west Kabul neighborhood to receive a cash distribution - 3,500 afghanis a month, about $38.

Nouria Sarvari, a 45-year widow who was waiting in line, used to work at the Higher Education Ministry. After the Taliban came to power, they told most women government employees to stay home. Sarvari said she hasn’t received a salary since and she’s struggling to keep food on the table for her three children still living with her.

Her 14-year-old son, Sajjad, sells plastic bags in the market for a little cash. Sarvari says she depends on help from neighbors. “I buy from shopkeepers on credit. I owe so many shopkeepers, and most of what I receive today will just go to paying what I owe.”

Samim Hassanzwai said his life has been overturned completely over the past year. His father and mother both died of COVID-19, he said. His father was an officer in the intelligence agency and his mother was a translator for an American agency.

Hassanzwai, 29, had been working in the Culture Ministry but hasn’t gotten a salary since the Taliban came to power. Now he’s jobless with his wife and three children as well as his four younger sisters all dependent on him.

“I had a job, my mother had a job, my father had his duties. We were doing fine with money,” he said. “Now everything is finished.”

Activision CEO Tells Execs He Will Consider Leaving If Harassment Issues Aren’t Fixed ‘With Speed’



Jeremy Fuster
Sun, November 21, 2021, 6:50 PM·3 min read

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick told senior managers at the videogame company that he will consider leaving if issues of sexual misconduct and harassment are not resolved “with speed,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

After more than 1,200 employees signed a petition demanding his resignation, Kotick met with executives at Blizzard on Friday, ready to step away if he couldn’t reform the company’s culture. He stopped short of outright leaving, however.

In a separate meeting with Activision executives, Kotick said he was “ashamed of some of the incidents that had happened on his watch and apologized for how he has handled the unfolding problems,” but was told by executives that some employees would only be satisfied by his departure.

In July, the gaming studio behind popular franchises like “Call of Duty” and “World of Warcraft,” was hit with a civil lawsuit from California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing, claiming the company was “akin to working in a frat house.” The alleged sexual harassment included inappropriate comments about women’s bodies, rape jokes and unsolicited touching of female employees.

The company dismissed the claims and said in part in a statement to NPR, “The DFEH includes distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard’s past.”

Activision Blizzard employees later staged a mass walkout at the company’s offices in Irvine, California, a move intended to pressure the company into creating a better work environment for non-male employees as well as equalize pay. And in an open letter to management published via Polygon, nearly 3,100 Activision Blizzard employees urged the company to do better.

On Oct. 27, Kotick announced a “zero-tolerance policy” along with a series of reform policies, including a pledge to increase the number of female and non-binary employees at the company by 50%, waiving arbitration for any employee filing a harassment or discrimination claim, and slashing his pay to the minimum annual salary of $62,500 required by California law.

“I truly wish not a single employee had had an experience at work that resulted in hurt, humiliation, or worse – and to those who were affected, I sincerely apologize,” Kotick said. “You have my commitment that we will do everything possible to honor our values and create the workplace every member of this team deserves.”

But this past week, the heat was turned up on Kotick again after a Wall Street Journal report revealed his direct involvement in the harassment of women at Activision Blizzard, specifically threatening in a 2006 voicemail to have a female employee killed and threatening to “destroy” a private jet flight attendant who sued him for sexual harassment committed by his jet’s pilot.

After the story was published, ABK Workers Alliance, an advocacy group formed after the systemic issues of harassment at Activision Blizzard came to light, staged a walkout to demand that Kotick step down. A group of Activision shareholders led by SOC Investment Group joined in the calls; and Microsoft gaming EVP Phil Spencer, who heads the company’s Xbox division, said in a memo to employees that he is “evaluating all aspects of our relationship with Activision Blizzard.”

Despite the renewed pressure, Activision’s board of directors has said in a statement that it stands by Kotick and ”remains confident that he appropriately addressed workplace issues brought to his attention.“

Mexican 11-year-old tattooist follows in father's footsteps




Mexican schoolboy Brandon Burgos uses a tattoo machine in the city of Puebla

 (AFP/JUAN CARLOS SANCHEZ)

German Campos
Sun, November 21, 2021, 2:09 PM·2 min read

Brandon Burgos carefully tattoos a customer's arm in his father's studio in Mexico. He's only 11 years old, but the schoolboy already has around 30 creations to his name.

He is following in the footsteps of his father, who says his son has a natural talent.

His small hands covered by latex gloves, Brandon uses a tattoo machine under his father's supervision in his small studio in the central city of Puebla.

He inks the image of an Egyptian cat's face before carefully cleansing the skin.

Brandon is in the last year of elementary school, and while he dreams of being a sailor, his second choice is tattoo artist, he says with a smile.

He first put ink to skin just a year ago, drawing a skull on his father.

"I started helping my dad, watching videos, and there's a book that's a tattoo course so I started reading it," he says.

Brandon is in the last year of elementary school and while he dreams of being a sailor, his second choice is tattoo artist (AFP/JUAN CARLOS SANCHEZ)

After his father came uncles and friends who let Brandon hone his skills on them.

"Now more people ask me to tattoo them and, of course, they're giving me confidence and I appreciate it," says Brandon.

He no longer feels as nervous as he did when he first tattooed his father. He has even been invited to participate in his first exhibition, in Tepito, a rough neighborhood in Mexico City.

His father Jose Burgos, who has been a tattoo artist for seven years, says it was Brandon's own choice to learn about his trade.

"He liked drawing from the age of six, but with the pandemic he got more involved. The only condition is that he gets good school grades," he says.

Before tattooing people, Brandon practiced on synthetic silicone skin and fruit.

Now he has no shortage of human canvases.

"He's done about 30 tattoos and everyone's satisfied," his father says.

"I never imagined that my son would tattoo me. He has a good hand, very light," he adds.

str/jla/dr/bbk

France's adopted Black superstar immortalised

Author: AFP|Update: 22.11.2021


Baker's adopted country is honouring her 46 years after her death / © AFP/File

Josephine Baker overcame the racism that she parodied in her famous banana skirt dance to become the world's first Black female superstar.

And later this month she will become the first Black woman to enter the Pantheon in Paris, the mausoleum reserved for France's "great men".

Her adopted country is honouring her 46 years after her death not only as a mould-breaking entertainer but also as a French Resistance hero, civil rights activist and a diversity pioneer who created her own multiracial family.

Openly bisexual, Baker lived free love decades before the sexual revolution of the 1960s, declaring: "I'm not immoral, I am only natural.

"I have married thousands of times because every man I loved has been my husband," she insisted.

Born Freda Josephine McDonald into extreme poverty in Missouri in 1906, Baker left school at 13.

After two failed marriages -- she took the name Baker from her second husband -- she managed to land herself a place in one of the first all-Black musicals on Broadway in 1921.

Like many Black American artists at the time, she moved to France to escape racist discrimination back home.

But she never stopped campaigning for civil rights.

- March on Washington -

She was the only woman to address the March on Washington in 1963, taking the microphone after Martin Luther King had given his iconic "I have a dream" speech.

In a personal bid to prove there is "only one race", Baker adopted 12 children from across the world to live with her in her French chateau, which she later tried to turn into a "Global Village".

"We all have the same heart, the same blood, and the same need for love," she declared.

- Banana skirt -


The singer was born Freda Josephine McDonald into extreme poverty in Missouri in the segregated American South / © AFP

Plucked from the chorus line of "La Revue Negre" -- an attempt to bring "authentic" Black American culture to Europe -- she became its star and caused a sensation. It was the first time most Parisians had ever heard jazz or seen it performed.

The writer Ernest Hemingway -- who was living in the French capital at the time -- said Baker was "the most sensational woman anyone saw".

The artist Pablo Picasso marvelled at her "smile to end all smiles".

When the show moved to the Folies-Bergere, Baker gave the performance in 1927 for which she will always be remembered.

Wearing nothing but a string of pearls and a skirt made of 16 rubber bananas, she danced the Charleston.

- 'I have to be scandalous' -

France, which had many Black African colonies, was dumbstruck by her wild performance, which at the time some saw as a parody of white male sexual fantasies.

"With racist fantasies on the one hand and colonialist fantasies on the other it seems fair to say that Baker's impact on Paris... had as much to do with her colour as her talent," American literary critic Phyllis Rose wrote.

Throughout her life she never stopped campaigning for civil rights / © AFP

Ilana Navaro, who made a documentary about Baker, said she "transformed bananas, the ultimate racist symbols, into phallic trophies".

Baker became a fashion idol, deluged with dresses by designers, and kept control of her image by working with illustrator Paul Colin, who created some of the most enduring images of her.

Her 1931 hit song "Two Loves" made her a diva, a reputation further boosted by her lead role as the Tunisian singer in the 1935 movie "Princess Tam Tam".

Such was her star power that the movie later gave its name to a luxury French lingerie brand.

"If I want to become a star, I have to be scandalous," Baker declared.

The woman known as "Black Venus" would also perform with a snake wrapped around her neck or with her pet cheetah.

And she pushed the boundaries in the bedroom too, having affairs with both men and women -- including the French novelist Colette, the architect Le Corbusier and the crown prince of Sweden -- in a colourful and exuberant private life.

- WWII hero spy -

After her marriage to the French industrialist Jean Lion in 1937 she took French nationality, but the relationship was not to last.

However, she helped him and his Jewish family get to the United States to escape the Nazis.

With her fourth husband Baker adopted 12 children of different ethnic backgrounds and installed what she called her "Rainbow Tribe" in a chateau in the Dordogne / © AFP/File

It was to be one of many wartime exploits in which Baker showed the same mettle that led her to refuse to perform before segregated audiences in the US, an unpopular move at the time.

She became a spy for France's wartime leader-in-exile General Charles de Gaulle and used her people skills and contacts to get information on the plans of Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini.

She was an informant, courier and lover of De Gaulle's counter-intelligence chief in Paris.

She also sent reports to London written in invisible ink in her sheet music, work for which she would later be decorated with the Croix de Guerre and the Legion d'honneur.

"France made me who I am," she later said. "Parisians gave me everything... I am prepared to give them my life," she added.

- 'Rainbow tribe' -

After several miscarriages, she and her fourth husband, orchestra director Jo Bouillon, adopted 12 children of different ethnic backgrounds.

She installed what she called her "Rainbow Tribe" in a chateau in the Dordogne in southwestern France.

Baker later transformed her multiracial utopia into a theme park dedicated to world peace.

But her high ideals and grand ambitions did not pay the bills and she ran into debt.

Ruined, she returned to the stage in a vain bid to save her estate.


Princess Grace of Monaco helped settle Baker on the French Riviera in 1969 and later attended her furneral / © AFP

Her fellow American, Princess Grace of Monaco, came to her aid and helped her settle on the French Riviera in 1969.

But Baker could not stop performing, and she was to have one last hurrah, with a final smash-hit cabaret show in Paris retracing her remarkable career.

She died on April 12, 1975, aged 68, from a brain haemorrhage as she read the reviews of the star-studded gala attended by Mick Jagger and Sophia Loren to celebrate her half-century on the stage.

Imports imperil Jordanian makers of handcrafted shoes


Jamil Kopti, 90, the oldest shoemaker in Amman, at his workshop in Jordan's capital

 (AFP/Khalil MAZRAAWI)

Kamal Taha
Sun, November 21, 2021

He was once dubbed the "King of Shoes", but after decades of fashioning footwear for kings, queens and presidents, 90-year-old Jamil Kopti fears cheap imports are killing off his craft.

"We started losing customers one after another, and we kept losing stores until we closed down three shops," said Kopti, believed to be Jordan's oldest maker of handcrafted shoes.

"In the past five years, our profession began to decline dramatically in face of imported foreign shoes that flooded the market," he sighed, surveying his once prosperous workshop.

Now he has just five workers, a far cry from the 42 staff he used to employ.

And around the workshop in the popular Al-Jofeh district of Amman, hundreds of moulds lie gathering dust.

After entering the trade in 1949 at just 18, Kopti attended shoe fairs every year in Bologna and Paris.

In 1961, at a show at the University of Jordan, he met the late King Hussein and gifted him four pairs of handmade shoes.

Hussein became an instant fan, particularly of black, formal shoes, and "after that, and for 35 years, I made the king's shoes".

"He loved classic shoes," said Kopti, proudly showing off two old photos on his phone of him and the late monarch.

He was awarded Jordan's Independence Medal and was a frequent palace guest on special occasions.

- 'Made in Amman' -

And Kopti's fame spread.

In 1964, the monarch visited France where he met then president Charles de Gaulle.

"All the time during the meeting ... he had his eyes on my shoes and when he asked me where I got them from I told him 'They were made in Amman'," the king told Kopti.

"King Hussein asked me to make two pairs of shoes for de Gaulle," said Kopti, adding "his shoe size was very big".

According to the country's Shoe Manufacturers Association, there used to be over 250 shoe workshops and factories in Jordan, employing about 5,000 people.

Today "we have around 100 workshops and less than 500 workers", said Naser Theyabat, head of the association.

During his long career, Kopti has made shoes for the new King Abdullah II and most of Jordan's princes and princesses, as well as top politicians and military officers.

Using imported leather from France, Italy, and Germany, his workshop once made 200 pairs of shoes a day.

Nowadays it is more like 10 pairs, forcing him to turn to medical shoes and children's footwear.

But Kopti believes his loyal customers will help him survive, pointing to one client he has served for 50 years.

Handmade leather shoemakers had a "golden age" in the 1980s and 1990s, recalls Theyabat.

However with time, imports have increased.

Textile, Readymade Clothes and Footwear Syndicate head Sultan Allan said that before the Covid-19 pandemic Jordan imported about 44 million dinars ($62 million) worth of shoes annually.

These figures are likely to decrease due to the repercussions of the epidemic.

"This craft is on the verge of extinction," said Theyabat, lamenting that Jordanian shoemakers received little support.

"On the contrary, there was a policy to flood the market with Chinese-made shoes."

- 'Profits too low' -

In the Marina workshop in an old building of the Ashrafiyeh district, three shoemakers were sewing on soles, adding heels, and trimming off leather, watched by owner Zouhair Shiah.

"The terrible decline started in 2015 when the market was flooded with Chinese, Vietnamese, Syrian and Egyptian-made shoes," the 71-year-old told AFP.

"I had 20 workers and I am left with three. We used to make 60 to 70 pairs of shoes a day compared to less than 12 today."

Holding up a shoe, he pointed out it was "strong and durable" and said the pair cost 20 dinars ($28). "Our profit is very low."

Shiah is hoping for government support to "reduce taxes ... because we have debts that we cannot pay".

Bent over a machine cutting leather, white-haired Youssef Abu Sarita recalled: "I started doing this 50 years ago. I love this job and know nothing else.

"What is happening to us is sad. Most of the workshops closed and their workers have left," he said.

"I am sure that we will face the same fate, but I do not know when."

Kt/msh/jkb/hc/reb

1. Plunder : Fredy Perlman : Free Download, Borrow, and ...

   https://archive.org/details/Perlman_Plunder

   Plunder: A Play by Fredy Perlman Front cover by John Ricklefs. 1973 reprint of 1962 play. Black & Red Printing Co-op, Detroit. Public domain due to no copyright notice. Addeddate 2014-01-14 06:20:32 Identifier Perlman_Plunder Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t9c562m0k Ocr ABBYY FineReader 9.0 Scanner Internet Archive HTML5 Uploader 1.4.2. plus-circle Add Review. comment. Reviews There are no …

Robot waiters take Iraq's Mosulites back to the future




Robot waiters take Iraq's Mosulites back to the futureA robot waiter carries a bill to patrons of the White Fox restaurant in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul (AFP/Zaid AL-OBEIDI)

Raad al-Jammas
Sun, November 21, 2021

From the rubble of Iraq's war-ravaged city of Mosul arises the sight of androids gliding back and forth in a restaurant to serve their amused clientele.

"Welcome", "We wish you a good time in our restaurant", "We would be happy to have your opinion on the quality of the service", chime the automated attendants, red eyes blinking out of their shiny blue and white exteriors.

"On television, you see robots and touch-screen tables in the United Arab Emirates, Spain and Japan," said Rami Chkib Abdelrahman, proud owner of the White Fox which opened in June.

"I'm trying to bring these ideas here to Mosul."

The futuristic servers are the result of technology developed in the northern city, erstwhile stronghold of the Islamic State jihadist group.

"We saw the concept on social media in more than one restaurant," said Abdelrahman, a dentist by profession.

- Voyage to space -

Occupied by IS between 2014 and 2017, the northern metropolis of Mosul still bears the scars of war.

But at dinnertime, patrons of the restaurant that is packed every night can escape from the city on a voyage through space.

An astronaut floating across the muralled wall sets the scene and views of Earth and other planets as seen from space give customers the sense of peering out through the portholes of a spaceship.

The ceilings are speckled with glowing constellations.

But the star attractions remain the two androids, sporting a scarf and black beret, shuttling back and forth across the restaurant on rails to deliver orders.

As they approach, smartphones come out and children promptly line up next to them for a souvenir snapshot.

The androids are the restaurant's star attraction (AFP/Zaid AL-OBEIDI)

- Time for a selfie -

The robots are imported, Abdelrahman explained without giving the source, adding that everything in the restaurant is digital, including the 15 touch-screen tables with built-in menus.

A team from the University of Mosul's department of mechatronics -- integrating several fields of engineering as well as robotics -- was in charge of programming and connected a network and server to the restaurant.

Humans have not been completely replaced by machines.

Four young waiters are busy picking up the dishes from the robots' trays and placing them on the tables.

Having dinner with his wife, Bashar Mahmud was won over. He took a selfie, smiling broadly.

"I've travelled abroad and I've never seen anything like this, not in Turkey, Jordan or Saudi Arabia," exclaimed the 50-year-old blacksmith with a salt-and-pepper beard.

str-tgg/gde/jsa/hc

Apple tells workers they have right to discuss wages, working conditions

Julia Love
Sat, November 20, 2021,


FILE PHOTO: Apple logo at an Apple store in Paris


By Julia Loe

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple delivered a message to employees on Friday that was striking given its reputation for secrecy: a reminder that workers may discuss wages, hours and working conditions.

The notice came as some employees have been pushing Apple to do more to ensure there are no unfair gaps in pay across the company.

In a post on an internal site, Apple said its policies do not preclude employees from "speaking freely" about working conditions, according to a copy of the message viewed by Reuters.

"We encourage any employee with concerns to raise them in the way they feel most comfortable, internally or externally," the post states.

A spokesperson for Apple declined to comment.

Apple's business conduct policy already included language stating that workers were not restricted in their ability to discuss wages, hours and working conditions, which is generally protected under U.S. law.

But employees who have spoken out in recent months have faced resistance, said former Apple program manager Janneke Parrish.

Parrish, who was fired after playing a leading role in employee activism, said she is hopeful that Apple's message will ease the path for others.

"The first step is making sure people are aware of their rights," she said.

Apple has previously said it does not discuss specific employee matters and is "deeply committed to creating and maintaining a positive and inclusive workplace."

The move comes amid a broader push by Silicon Valley workers to speak out about their working conditions and the impact of technology on society.

Earlier this week, another prominent activist, Apple software engineer Cher Scarlett, wrote on Twitter that she is leaving the company.

Scarlett filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board alleging that Apple halted discussions of pay among employees. Her lawyer, Aleksandr Felstiner, said the matter had been settled and the charge would be withdrawn. Scarlett said she could not comment.


Scarlett and Parrish worked together on "#AppleToo," a group through which current and former employees have been sharing stories of what they call harassment and discrimination.

Apple is known for its secretive culture, intended to keep details of new products under wraps. Employees sometimes are unaware of their right to speak about topics such as pay and working conditions, Parrish said.

Ashley Gjovik, a senior engineering program manager who was fired by Apple in September after raising concerns about harassment and workplace safety, has filed NLRB charges in which she alleges that Apple policies violate the National Labor Relations Act.


(Reporting by Julia Love; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

A Florida school board member filed a police report over a Black and LGBTQ memoir, igniting a debate over banning books



Skyler Swisher, Orlando Sentinel
Sun, November 21, 2021, 6:01 PM·4 min read

ORLANDO, Fla. — A memoir that explores race and sexuality has ignited a contentious debate over book banning with a Flagler County School Board member filing a criminal complaint that accused the district of breaking obscenity laws.

“All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto” is generating national controversy because of its sexual content. The memoir features author George M. Johnson’s reflections on growing up Black and queer.

School Board member Jill Woolbright filed a criminal complaint, telling a deputy that she thought it was “a crime to have the book in the [district’s] media centers” and demanding that the people who put it there be held “accountable.”

The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office dismissed the complaint Friday, but the community remains embroiled in a heated debate over whether the book should be available in school libraries. It has sparked hours of back-and-forth discussion at school board meetings.

Johnson, who uses the pronouns they/them, said the memoir is geared toward 14- to 18-year-olds. While the work includes descriptions of oral sex, anal sex and masturbation, Johnson said they are in the context of consent, sexual abuse, gender identity, toxic masculinity, emotional trauma and other important issues facing teenagers.

Johnson said the book gives teenagers a road map for recognizing and dealing with trauma and abuse, as well as avoiding mistakes the author made growing up.

“My book is 320 pages, and everyone is pigeonholing it based on two excerpts,” Johnson said. “It is important that people realize that this book has a wealth of additional information that young adults will deal with and go through. This is a learning tool introducing heavy topics.”

School libraries should reflect the entire community, including the experiences of LGBTQ and Black youth, Johnson said.

“I am trying to communicate to young adults that I too have been in their shoes,” Johnson said. “I am hoping my book and my words give them the agency to name the things they have been through and prepares them for the things they are going to go through.”

The book was removed from circulation at Flagler-Palm Coast and Matanzas high schools, and a panel is being assembled to review its contents, said Jason Wheeler, a spokesperson for Flagler County Public Schools. The book was also briefly on the shelves at Buddy Taylor Middle School but was pulled following an internal review that predated Woolbright’s complaint filed with law enforcement, he said.

“We do not currently have a specific date as to when the review process will be complete,” Wheeler said. “All I can say is that a review team is in the process of being assembled and then they will begin their work.”

Investigators with the Sheriff’s Office determined that Woolbright’s complaint did not meet the “threshold of a criminal offense,” Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said in a prepared statement. Florida law specifies that materials must “lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value” when taken as a whole to be considered obscene.

“The Sheriff’s Office does not determine what material is appropriate for the students of Flagler County,” Staly said.

“All Boys Aren’t Blue” has been challenged for its descriptions of sex, but it’s also garnered literary praise, landing on best books of the year lists compiled by Amazon, the New York Public Library and the Chicago Public Library.

Instead of harming teenagers, books with heavy topics give them the tools to understand issues they will face in life, Johnson said.

“It is not that young adults won’t experience this,” Johnson said.

Woolbright did not respond to a phone message and email seeking comment on Friday. She told deputies she raised her concerns about the book with the school superintendent on Nov. 2. In a school board workshop on Tuesday, Woolbright said she notified law enforcement because she didn’t think the matter was being adequately handled by school officials and felt “statutorily” responsible to report what she considered to be a crime.

“In my opinion, and I am not an attorney, it qualifies as obscenity, and if it qualifies as obscenity, it is prohibited,” Woolbright said during the meeting.

Earlier this month, Orange County Public Schools yanked another controversial book from its shelves called “Gender Queer: A Memoir” amid concerns over sexual images.

Johnson said efforts to ban books are only drawing more people to read them.

“Once you tell someone this is forbidden, it only tempts them more to want to read it, to taste the forbidden fruit,” Johnson said. “Their attempts to ban it are only tempting more people to want to read the book.”

THE RIGHT ATTACKED RUBY FRUIT JUNGLE FOR THE SAME ISSUES

RITA MAE BROWN WAS AN AFRICAN AMERICAN LESBIAN WRITER

Rubyfruit Jungle - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubyfruit_Jungle

Rubyfruit Jungle is the first novel by Rita Mae Brown. Published in 1973, it was remarkable in its day for its explicit portrayal of lesbianism. The novel is a coming-of-age autobiographical account of Brown's youth and emergence as a lesbian author. The term "rubyfruit jungle" is a term used in the novel for the female genitals.

North Carolina's lieutenant governor said straight people are 'superior' to gay people


North Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson speaks at a Senate Education Committee hearing on July 14, 2021 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

AP Photo/Bryan Anderson.

Sinéad Baker
Sun, November 21, 2021,

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson said straight people are "superior" to gay people.

He made the comment during a church sermon arguing it was because two gay men could not conceive a child.

He previously called homosexuality "filth" and said teaching children LGBTQ facts is "child abuse."

Mark Robinson, lieutenant governor of North Carolina, said straight people are "superior" to gay people as he gave a sermon at a church.

Robinson was speaking at a church in the city of Winston-Salem on November 14 when he made the remarks captured on video, The Charlotte Observer reported.

He said that a gay man once asked him: "So, you think your wife and you — you think your heterosexual relationship is superior to my husband and my homosexual relationship?"

And he told the crowd that he told the man yes.

He said this was because two men could not conceive a child together.

"These people are superior because they can do something these people can't do," he said. "Because that's the way God created it to be. And I'm tired of this society trying to tell me it's not so."

Watch him speak here, in a video recorded from the church:


He also questioned the "purpose" of homosexuality, saying: "If homosexuality is of God, what purpose does it serve? What does it make? What does it create? It creates nothing."

He is rumored to be preparing a bid for governor and was introduced in the church as the state's "next governor."

Footage leaked earlier this year of Robinson calling homosexuality "filth" and calling teaching children LGBTQ facts "child abuse."

He said that "there's no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality -- any of that filth."

"And yes, I called it filth. And if you don't like that I called it filth, come see me and I'll explain it to you," he said.

He was speaking in another church at the time.

He refused to resign after he was criticized for his comments by lawmakers and the White House.