Sierra Clark: Opinion: Seek Indigenous perspectives beyond Native American Heritage Month


Sierra Clark, The Record-Eagle, Traverse City, Mich.
Sat, November 27, 2021

Nov. 27—For nearly three decades, November has been recognized as Native American Heritage Month — a national time for observance, and celebration of the rich and diverse cultures, histories, and contributions of the original peoples.

The month of recognition draws its roots to a number of historical figures and Indigenous communities across the nation that repeatedly petitioned for commemoration that honored the storied legacy of tribes.

Since 1990, a joint resolution passed by Congress and signed by the president designated November as National American Indian Heritage month. Similar proclamations with a variety of titles have been issued over the years from former sitting presidents, including the rebranded, more appropriately named NAHM.

Though NAHM is more of a symbolic gesture by the U.S. government, I do believe that it's a good opportunity for representation on the local level.

But the amount of extraction that comes during this time of year is enough to burn out many Indigenous people, me included.

It is not quite clear why November was chosen to be NAHM, the period between Indigneous Peoples' Day (October 11 this year) and Thanksgiving, is a time when Native American speakers, like me, are called upon to share an "Indigneous perspective."

It's important to point out that the perspective to which I refer is Odawa, because my position in journalism is different from my lived experiences as a Native American in Michigan.

From personal observation and perspective, these requests come as a constant stream of questions and demands for (free) emotional labor to educate others using our resources, that include time and experience, whether professional or personal.

Most of the time the requests are well meaning, but they always come with a colonial pressure to be "extra Anishinaabe" this time of year.

I am Kitchi Wiikwedongsing Odawa every day of the year, and our histories, culture, and traditions are valid everyday of the year as well.

But Anishinaabek identities are more than stories of colonial trauma and pain.

As an Anshinaabe, I am instructed to think of the next seven generations. My decisions to write, or speak on issues come from a deep-cultural drive to improve the world for our children, and future generations.

And more representation, discussions, and education of Anishinaabek histories and contemporary lives are important for our community.

But Indigenous people do not owe substantiation of our contemporary existence by breaking them into digestible pieces about our traumas, and lived experiences.

There is more beauty in being Odawa Anishinaabe than is visible through that colonialist lens.

Native Americans in the U.S. are presently surviving more than 500 years of genocide, and more than 250 years of colonial government policies aimed to annihilate us, and what we hold sacred.

Our past and contemporary lives are intertwined with the complex, and collective histories of what is now the United States. And our existence extends beyond NAHM and more importantly beyond the country that built itself on top of our ancestors and sacred sites.

Our stories and our voices do not need to be amplified only for one month of the year.

They deserve the respect to be commonly known on the lands they come from, and represented in a way that is honest and truthful.

Listening to just me should not make up for any lack of understanding and absence of Anishinaabek culture, traditions, and histories.

Anishinaabek communities are full of doctors, lawyers, philosophers, teachers, farmers, writers, and land and water protectors. We are business owners, students, parents, and come from the land.

Mine is only one voice, and certainly not the only one, you should hear representing Indigenous people throughout the year.

Sierra Clark is an Indigenous affairs reporter for Traverse City Record-Eagle. Her reporting is made possible through a partnership between the Record-Eagle and the journalism service program Report for America. Go to www.record-eagle.com/RFA to support this and other work by RFA reporters in the Record-Eagle newsroom.

A first step

Jennifer Levin, The Santa Fe New Mexican
Fri, November 26, 2021, 

Nov. 26—Sam Brownback wants the United States government to repair its relationship with Native Americans, an act which he believes starts with a formal apology from the president. The former governor of Kansas and U.S. senator spent five years trying to get an official apology passed through legislation and in 2009 succeeded in getting it added as an amendment to an appropriations bill. That the government should and will apologize is the "law of the land," Brownback says, but nothing has actually happened. Neither Barack Obama nor Donald Trump held a ceremony in the Rose Garden with tribal leaders, as he'd hoped.

Now, he says it's up to President Biden to make the apology official. To shine a light on the issue, Brownback is producing a short, three-part documentary called The Apology, the first two installments of which can be viewed at theapologynow.com.

In The Apology, Brownback discusses his deep feelings of guilt and remorse around the government's treatment of Native Americans, which includes broken treaties, stolen land, and massacres. Negiel Bigpond (Yuchi) is the apostle of Morning Star Church of All Nations in Oklahoma. He worked with Brownback on the language of the apology in the appropriations bill and co-produced the documentary. He would like an apology specifically for the horror of Indian boarding schools, where Indigenous children were "separated from their families, made to cut their hair and stop speaking their language, and were dressed in odd clothes," he says. "They were somewhat mistreated, which left ill feelings."

The Apology was directed by Matt Lockett and co-written by Lockett and Ben Stamper. The latter is also credited with the gorgeous cinematography. In the documentary, Brownback explains that his passion for the apology stems to a day when as a young man, he was standing on his farmland and was overcome by a feeling of death, which led him to think about the Trail of Tears and the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Eventually, he came to believe that an apology from the government was the only way to "lance the boil so that the healing can begin."

Brownback makes it clear that the apology isn't about giving land back to tribes or any kind of financial reparations. This is about something deeper, he says. "There's a repentance piece to it. There's a process, and you can't skip steps. That's really what we're talking about for a nation to do, to heal. We've done other things wrong, as a government, but this is a really big one."

Bigpond says that the apology is just a first step. "I'm hoping that it will release spiritual healing to our people. When it comes to land and things of that nature, that's in the treaties. Those still exist, and the United States government will still have to deal with those treaties, as well as the tribes."

How Native students fought back against abuse and assimilation at US boarding schools

Sarah Klotz, Assistant Professor of English, College of the Holy Cross
Fri, November 26, 2021

Native American students at the Carlisle Indian School, circa 1899. Library of Congress/Corbis Historical Collection/VCG via Getty Images

As Indigenous community members and archaeologists continue to discover unmarked graves of Indigenous children at the sites of Canadian residential schools, the United States is reckoning with its own history of off-reservation boarding schools.

In July 2021, nine Sicangu Lakota students who died at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania were disinterred and returned to their homelands at Whetstone Bay in South Dakota.

Black-and-white portrait of young man seated in chair

One of these young people was Ernest Knocks Off. Ernest, who came from the Sicangu Oyate or Burnt Thigh Nation, was among the first group of students to arrive at Carlisle, in 1879. He entered school at age 18 and attempted to run away soon after arriving. He ultimately went on a hunger strike and died of complications of diphtheria on Dec. 14, 1880.

My new book “Writing Their Bodies: Restoring Rhetorical Relations at the Carlisle Indian School” explores how Indigenous children resisted English-only education at Carlisle, which became the prototype for both Indian schools across the U.S. and residential schools in Canada.

While digging into archives of Carlisle students’ writing, I found that young people like Ernest were not passive victims of U.S. colonization. Instead, they fought – in Ernest’s case, to his death – to retain their languages and cultures as the assimilationist experiment in education unfolded.

‘Unspoken traumas’

U.S. Army Gen. Richard Henry Pratt opened the government-funded Carlisle Indian Industrial School in 1879. Following his model, more than 350 government-funded and church-run boarding schools later opened across the U.S. The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition estimates that hundreds of thousands of young Native people attended these schools in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The first students were recruited by Pratt and sent by their nations in hopes that they could learn English to continue fighting against treaty violations by U.S. settlers. In 1891, attendance became compulsory under federal law.

Boarding schools sought to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Western culture by separating them from their communities. The schools forced them to learn English and practice Christianity and trained them to work in a capitalist economy – often as servants and laborers on farms and in the households of white people.

Students experienced physical abuse, sexual violence and hunger, and hundreds died of diseases like tuberculosis that spread rampantly in institutional settings.

Canada’s national Truth and Reconciliation Commission identified 3,201 children who died in Canadian residential schools. No such estimate exists in the U.S., where a formal reckoning has yet to occur. However, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo Nation, has pledged to “address the intergenerational impact of Indian boarding schools to shed light on the unspoken traumas of the past.”

Even as Indigenous students faced teachers and a government trying to replace their cultures, languages and identities, they resisted the assimilationist education. Their strategies were at times blatant, but often covert.

A tombstone of a young Oglala Lakota student buried at the old Carlisle Indian School cemetery. Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis News Collection via Getty Images

Running away

Ernest may have been one of the first boarding school students to run away, but he certainly wasn’t the last. Scholars have found that running away was a tactic used by students in boarding schools across the U.S. and Canada. It became such a significant shared experience that celebrated Native authors such as Louise Erdrich and Leslie Marmon Silko capture this act of resistance in their writings.

Running away was a way for students to communicate their rejection of assimilationist education and to fight their separation from their homeland and community. Runaways sometimes succeeded and got back home. But I believe that even when they were forcibly returned to school, running away represented courage and reminded the other students to keep fighting.
Plains Sign Talk

Plains Sign Talk is a sign language that serves as a lingua franca for trade and diplomacy among the Pawnee, Shoshone, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Crow and Siouan peoples in the Southern Plains. It became a powerful tool at Carlisle, where teachers demanded that students give up their languages for another shared tongue – English. Plains Sign Talk was a way for students to communicate with one another and across tribes that was unintelligible to their teachers.

Carlisle teachers underestimated the importance of Plains Sign Talk, viewing it as a primitive form of communication that students would leave behind as they learned English. When Pratt and his colleagues witnessed students using it, they created a new curriculum based on techniques used to teach deaf students. They did not realize that students were using the sign language to circumvent the English-only policy.

Kamloops Indian Residential School former student Evelyn Camille, 82, at a makeshift memorial to the 215 children whose remains were discovered buried near the facility in British Columbia.

  Cole Burston/AFP via Getty Images

Pictographic writing

Students also drew on Plains pictography to tell their stories. Plains tribes originally painted pictographs – elements of a graphic writing system – on buffalo hides to document victories in battle and record “winter counts,” or annual historical records. After increased contact with settlers, many tribes began to document pictographic histories in ledger books. These texts served as communal histories that would prompt oral retellings of battles and other significant events.

Students at Carlisle regularly used pictographs on slates or chalkboards. On June 25, 1880, for example, a Cheyenne student who was renamed Rutherford B. Hayes at school drew a pictograph of a horse and rider on his slate. He labeled the image John Williams – the Carlisle name of an Arapaho boy who was his classmate and friend.

I argue that these pictographic records show how some students understood their time at school in the context of their developing warrior identities, underscoring their desire to act bravely and return home to recount their stories for their nations’ collective memory.

Speaking Lakota

When students spoke their languages, they faced harsh penalties. This included corporal punishment, incarceration in the campus barracks and public shaming in the school newspaper.

Pratt and his supervisors at the Bureau of Indian Affairs hoped that they could break up tribes by disrupting the transmission of language and culture from one generation to the next. By destroying tribal identities, they hoped to take land in communally held reservations and guaranteed by treaties. For U.S. settlers to gain access, the land would have to shift to a private property system. Boarding schools thus became part of the federal Indian policy later codified as the 1887 Dawes Act.

Although students were supposed to speak only English, they began to learn one another’s languages as well. Lakota, or Sioux, became particularly popular, as it was a majority language in the school’s early years when many students came from the Rosebud and Pine Ridge reservations.

In 1881, Pratt was troubled that students were still speaking their languages two years into their term. When student Stephen K. White Bear was found “talking Indian,” he received a common punishment, which was writing a composition about his discretion. In his essay “Speak Only English” Stephen revealed that “every boy and every girl would like to know how to talk Sioux very much. They do not learn the English language they seem to want to know how to talk Sioux.”

Seeds of pan-Indian resistance

As students met peers across nations as geographically far-flung as the Inuit and the Kiowa, they sowed seeds for the pan-Indian resistance movements of the 20th century. From the founding of the Society of American Indians in 1911 through the American Indian Movement of the 1960s and ‘70s, Native activists unified for advocacy and cultural revitalization. Scholars argue that these movements can trace their roots to intertribal communities of solidarity that were built in the boarding schools.

The outcry against boarding schools that we see today across Canada and the U.S. reflects not only a shared experience of trauma, but a longstanding solidarity among Indigenous peoples working together to maintain land, language, culture and identity in the face of oppression at the hands of Euro-Americans.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Sarah Klotz received funding from CCCC/NCTE Emergent Researcher Award including a grant of ,000 for monograph project, Writing Their Bodies: Restoring Rhetorical Relations at the Carlisle Indian School, 2016

Channel migrant deaths: Smugglers net millions per kilometer
By LORI HINNANT and DANICA KIRKA

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FILE- Migrants wait for food distribution at a camp in Calais, northern France, Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021. The price to cross the English Channel varies according to the network of smugglers, between 3,000 and 7,000 euros. Often, the fee also includes a very short-term tent rental in the windy dunes of northern France and food cooked over fires that sputter in the rain that falls for more than half the month of November in the Calais region. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)


CALAIS, France (AP) — The price to cross the English Channel varies according to the network of smugglers, between 3,000 and 7,000 euros ($3,380 and $8,000) though there are rumors of discounts.

Often, the fee also includes a very short-term tent rental in the windy dunes of northern France and food cooked over fires that sputter in the rain that falls for more than half the month of November in the Calais region. Sometimes, but not always, it includes a life vest and fuel for the outboard motor.

And the people who collect the money — up to 300,000 euros ($432,000) per boat that makes it across the narrows of the Channel — are not the ones arrested in the periodic raids along the coastline. They are just what French police call “the little hands.”

Now, French authorities are hoping to move up the chain of command. The French judicial investigation into Wednesday’s sinking that killed 27 people has been turned over to Paris-based prosecutors who specialize in organized crime.

To cross the 33-kilometer (20-mile) narrow point of the Channel, the rubber dinghies must navigate frigid waters and passing cargo ships. As of Nov. 17, 23,000 people had crossed successfully, according to Britain’s Home Office. France intercepted about 19,000 people.

At a minimum, then, smuggling organizations this year have netted 69 million euros ($77.7 million) for the crossing — that’s 2 million euros per kilometer.

“This has become so profitable for criminals that it’s going to take a phenomenal amount of effort to shift it,” the U.K. Home Office’s Dan O’Mahoney told Parliament on Nov. 17.

Between coronavirus and Brexit, “this is a golden age for the smugglers and organized crime because the countries are in disarray,” said Mimi Vu, an expert on Vietnamese migration who regularly spends time in the camps of northern France.

“Think of it like a shipping and logistics company,” Vu said.

The leg through central Europe can cost around 4,000 euros ($4,500), according to Austrian authorities who on Saturday announced the arrest of 15 people suspected of smuggling Syrian, Lebanese and Egyptian migrants into the country in vanloads of 12 to 15 people. The suspects transported more than 700 people at a total cost of more than 2.5 million euros ($2.8 million), police said. In this network, the migrants were bound for Germany.

The alleged smugglers — from Moldova, Ukraine and Uzbekistan — were recruited in their home countries via ads on social media offering work as drivers for 2,000-3,000 euros ($2,250-3,380) a month.

The men handling the last leg are essentially just making the final delivery. If arrested, they are replaceable, Vu said.

Frontex, the European border agency, echoed that in a 2021 risk report that describes the operational leaders as managers who “are able to orchestrate the criminal business from a distance, while mostly exposing low-level criminals involved in transport and logistics to law enforcement detection.”

The chain starts in the home country, usually with an agreed-upon price, arranged over social media. That fee tends to shift over the journey, but most willingly pay extra as their destination grows closer, she said. That’s precisely when the logistics grow more complicated.

Channel crossings by sea were relatively rare until a few years ago, when French and British authorities locked down the area around the Eurotunnel entrance. The deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants in the back of a container truck may also have contributed to a new reluctance to use that route.

But the first attempts were disorganized, using small inflatables and even kayaks bought at the local Decathlon sports store.

“At the beginning, it’s always the pioneers,” said Nando Sigona, professor of international migration and forced displacement at the University of Birmingham. “But once it started to seem that it was working for a number of people, you could see the bigger players came to be involved.”

One migrant from Sudan, who would only give his name as Yasir, had been trying for three years to get to the U.K.

While shaking his head about the tragedy, he pointed out that other methods of smuggling, such as hiding on a truck, were also dangerous.

“You could break a leg,” he said. “You can die.’’

And as dangerous as the sea voyage might prove, it seemed to many migrants to be safer than other options. The only thing preventing it is the cost, which he had heard was 1,200 euros ($1,350).

“We don’t have any money,” Yasir said. “If I had money, I’d go to the boat.’’

Police cracked down on local boat purchases, and the larger inflatables started to show up, hauled by the dozens inside cars and vans with German and Belgian tags, police said. France’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said a car with German tags was seized in connection with the investigation.

Police raids on the camps to pull down tents and disrupt operations have given smugglers yet another chance to make money, said Nikolai Posner, of the aid group Utopia 56. Now, the fee includes a short-term tent rental and access to basic food, usually cooked over an open fire.

“There is one solution to stop all this, the deaths, the smugglers, the camps. Make a humanitarian corridor,” said Posner. He said asylum requests should be easier on both sides of the Channel.

In part because of Brexit and coronavirus, expulsions from the U.K. this year dropped to just five people, according to the Home Office. Vu said people who are intercepted at sea or land by British border forces end up in migrant centers, but usually just get back in touch with the smuggling networks and end up working black market jobs.

That’s the complaint in France, where the interior minister said British employers appear more than happy to hire under the table, providing yet another financial incentive.

“If they’re in Calais, it’s to get to Britain, and the only people who can guarantee them passage are these networks of smugglers,” said Ludovic Hochart, a Calais-based police officer with the Alliance union. “The motivation to get to England is stronger than the dangers that await.”

On Sunday ministers from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and EU officials will meet to search for solutions. But, with France and Britain at sharp odds over migration, fishing and how to rebuild a working relationship after Brexit, there is one notable absence: a British delegation.

For Vu, that’s a missed opportunity: “This is transnational crime. It spans many borders and it’s not up to only one country to solve it.”

___

Lori Hinnant reported from Paris. Frank Jordans contributed to this report from Berlin.

France excludes UK from migration talks with European ministers

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel's invitation to talks was withdrawn after a row between UK PM Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron over migrant crisis.

Working more closely would have require Paris and London to overcome years of ill-will caused by Britain's departure from the European Union, as well as often frosty ties between their governments. (AP)

France is set to host a meeting of European ministers to discuss ways to stop migrants crossing the Channel in dinghies, but excludes Britain following a row last week.

Ministers from France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium will meet in the northern French port of Calais on Sunday to discuss how to tackle people-smuggling gangs that provide boats to migrants seeking to cross the narrow waterway.

The aim of the meeting is "improving operational cooperation in the fight against people-smuggling because these are international networks which operate in different European countries," an aide to French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

The main focus had been set to be talks between Darmanin and his British counterpart Priti Patel after both countries vowed to cooperate more together.

READ MORE: Channel deaths reflect the moral rot of Britain and France

Invitation withdrawn

The talks were called following the shocking deaths of 27 people last Wednesday as they attempted to cross from France to England in a dinghy that began losing air while at sea in cold winter temperatures.

Within 48 hours of the accident, French President Emmanuel Macron had accused British Prime Minister Boris Johnson of being "not serious" in unusually personal criticism that pushed relations to fresh lows.

France was irked by Johnson's initial reaction, which was seen as deflecting blame onto France, and then by his decision to write a letter to Macron which he published in full on his Twitter account before the French leader had received it.

Patel's invitation to Sunday's talks was promptly withdrawn, with an aide to Darmanin calling Johnson's public letter "unacceptable".

Without the participation of Britain — the destination country for the thousands of migrants massed in northern France — there are limits to what can be achieved.

READ MORE: Most people getting into the UK by boat are refugees, not economic migrants

Cross-border crime

The invitation to France's other northern neighbours reflects concern about how people-smuggling gangs are able to use Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany as bases to organise their operations.

Many migrants are believed to travel to launch sites in northern France from Belgium, while inflatables and life jackets can be bought in other countries such as the Netherlands and Germany without raising suspicion.

One of the five men arrested in connection with the accident last Wednesday was driving a car with German registration, according to French officials.

While France and Britain agree on the need to tackle people-smugglers more effectively, they remain at odds over how to prevent people travelling to northern France to seek passage to the UK.

Investigations into last week's accident continue, with French police giving no details officially about the circumstances or the identities of the victims.

READ MORE: France-Britain tensions soar over record migrant influx

Related

Report accuses police of using excessive force on migrants in Calais

Aid group raises alarm for refugees in France’s Calais

Looming winter poses a threat to migrants stuck in Bosnia

Future of child refugees becomes 'hot potato' for France and UK

First bus carrying refugees leaves the 'Jungle'

PHOTO ESSAY OF MINERS BARGES
Big flotilla of illegal gold miners splits up in Brazil

EDMAR BARROS, SILAS LAURENTINO and DIANE JEANTET

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Dredging barges operated by illegal miners converge on the Madeira river, a tributary of the Amazon river, searching for gold, in Autazes, Amazonas state, Brazil, Thursday, Nov.25, 2021. Hundreds of mining barges have arrived during the past two weeks after rumors of gold spread, with environmentalists sounding the alarm about the unprecedented convergence of boats in the sensitive ecosystem. (AP Photo/Edmar Barros)


ON THE RIO MADEIRA, Brazil (AP) — Hundreds of barges of illegal miners dredging for gold were navigating along the Madeira River in the Brazilian Amazon on Friday, and researchers said they posed a threat of pollution — including toxic mercury — for the broader environment.

The barges were spotted this week by the municipality of Autazes, some 120 kilometers (70 miles) from Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state.

Smaller gatherings of barges are common along rivers in the region, but the latest collection drew international attention this week when Greenpeace and news media published images of several rows of rafts.

Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourão announced an imminent police operation in the area, prompting the miners to depart early Friday and head elsewhere along the river.

Miner Thiago Bitencourt Gomes, wearing just a pair of shorts and some flip flops, told The Associated Press on Friday that about 400 barges – some 3,000 people – congregated in the area after one miner found gold there and alerted the others.

“Here everybody knows each other. We’re all friends, we’re all related,” said the 28-year-old whose father, uncles, aunts and cousins were also part of the contingent.

The wood-walled rafts, some equipped with satellite internet and air conditioning units, were tied together, forming rows of houses on the wide and muddy Madeira River, a large tributary that flows into the vast Amazon downstream from Manaus. Miners and their families live, eat and work on the barges, some accompanied by their dogs and other pets.

“We know that in the law, we’re illegal. But we all need to provide for our families,” Gomes said, adding that the miners had repeatedly called on politicians to legalize their activity — in vain.

Another miner said a barge collected about 60 grams of gold — worth roughly $3,500 if pure — over 40 hours of work. Workers often took turns to work 24 hours a day.

Environmentalists are alarmed by the fact miners use mercury to separate gold from the sediment they suck from the river bottom and the process gives off toxic vapors as well as spilling some into the river.

Once in the river, it falls to the bottom and enters the food chain, contaminating fish, shrimp, turtles and other marine life as far as 500 kilometers (about 300 miles) downstream, said Paulo Basta, a researchers at the government’s Fiocruz science center

Basta said there is strong evidence of mercury contamination linked to cognitive problems, alteration of senses and hypertension, and he noted that the miners themselves have high risks of exposure.

“He takes the mercury in his hand, or puts it inside his bag. It leaks, drops on his leg and he gets contaminated through the skin. But the most serious form of contamination is by inhaling mercury vapor, which gets into the lungs,” Basta said.

Miners told the AP they didn’t release mercury, which is expensive, into the water but try to recover and reuse it.

Federal prosecutors in Amazonas state called Wednesday for federal and state authorities to coordinate a response and dismantle the illegal settlement within 30 days.

Federal police responded with a brief statement saying they were aware of the situation and evaluating options.

Miners told the AP on Friday that no authorities had come into contact with them. But fearing an operation, they left Autazes and continued along the river. The barges, pushed along by powerboats, headed off in different directions.

While local media reported tensions between the miners and residents of Autazes, journalists at the scene saw many locals taking advantage of the arrival of hundreds of visitors by selling food, electronics, diesel, clothes and even perfume.

Mining as a whole has become a sensitive issue, especially since President Jair Bolsonaro assumed office in January 2019 vowing to expand development in the Amazon region and to legalize some types of now-banned mining operations.

It is one of several factors driving deforestation, which began an upward trend in 2014 and has accelerated under Bolsonaro, whose father once worked as a wildcat miner.

___

Diane Jeantet reported from Rio de Janeiro.

Activists block Amazon warehouses in Europe on Black Friday

by KELVIN CHAN

November 26, 2021


Climate activists blockaded Amazon warehouses in three European countries on Friday, part of a global effort to pressure the ecommerce giant on one of its busiest days of the year to improve working conditions and end business practices that hurt the environment.

Members of Extinction Rebellion targeted 13 Amazon fulfilment centers in the United Kingdom with the aim of disrupting 50% of the company’s deliveries on Black Friday, which marks the unofficial start to the holiday shopping season. They staged similar protests in Germany and the Netherlands.

“The action is intended to draw attention to Amazon’s exploitative and environmentally destructive business practices, disregard for workers’ rights in the name of company profits, as well as the wastefulness of Black Friday,” the group said. It vowed to remain at the scene

At least 30 people were arrested at multiple U.K. locations, with some held on suspicion of aggravated trespass or public nuisance, police forces said.

Extinction Rebellion and dozens of other activist groups in the U.S. and around the world are organizing a day of global protests and strikes on Friday against Amazon to demand the company provide better working conditions, commit to operating sustainably, and pay its fair share of tax.

In the U.S., labor activists planned a small protest at Amazon’s fulfilment center on Staten Island, New York.

Activists in the U.K. blocked the entrance to Amazon’s warehouse in Tilbury, just east of London, with an effigy of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sitting on top of a rocket.

At Amazon’s distribution center in Dunfermline, Scotland, about 20 Extinction Rebellion members strung banners across the entrance road that said “Make Amazon Pay” and locked themselves together, stopping trucks from entering and some from leaving.

Amazon did not directly address the protests in response to a request for comment, but said the company takes its responsibilities “very seriously.”

“That includes our commitment to be net zero carbon by 2040 — 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement — providing excellent pay and benefits in a safe and modern work environment, and supporting the tens of thousands of British small businesses who sell on our store,” the company said.

Extinction Rebellion activists also blocked an Amazon logistics center in the central German town of Bad Hersfeld by erecting a makeshift bamboo scaffold that they used to suspend themselves in the air. Authorities later removed them with the help of a fire department ladder truck, according to video posted on the group’s German Facebook page.

The group staged a similar protest at an Amazon facility at Amsterdam’s Schipol airport.

Single dose of HPV vaccine may be enough for protection, trial suggests
By HealthDay News

Researchers say that a single dose of the HPV vaccine may be good enough for protection from the sexually transmitted infection. Photo by marcolohpsoares/Pixabay

Women getting vaccinated against the cancer-causing human papillomavirus -- HPV -- now need two or three shots, but an African clinical trial suggests a single dose is just as effective.

The finding could speed up the immunization process in developing countries with high levels of HPV-related cancers and protect many more women more quickly.

"These findings are a gamechanger that may substantially reduce the incidence of HPV-attributable cervical cancer and positions single-dose HPV vaccination as a high value and high impact public health intervention that is within reach for us," said Sam Kariuki, acting director general of the Kenya Medical Research Institute, in Nairobi.

The trial included 2,275 sexually active women in Kenya between 15 and 20 years of age. The women were randomly assigned a vaccine therapy and were followed from December 2018 to June 2021.

RELATED HPV vaccination lowers cervical cancer risk up to 87%, British study finds

To participate, they needed to have had no more than five lifetime sexual partners, be unvaccinated for HPV, and HIV-negative.

In all, 760 participants received a so-called bivalent vaccine that covered two strains of HPV, 16 and 18.

A similar number received a nonavalent vaccine that covered seven HPV strains: 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52 and 58.

RELATED HPV vaccination rises in states without parental consent, study says

The rest received a vaccine that protects against meningococcal meningitis.

After 18 months, both HPV vaccines were 97.5% effective against HPV 16 and 18. Seven in 10 HPV cases involve these two strains.

The nonavalent vaccine was 89% effective against five other strains, as well. Even if women tested positive for one strain of HPV, the vaccine protected them from other strains of the virus. 

RELATED Study links HPV to higher risk for premature delivery

"The single-dose vaccine was highly effective at 18 months for HPV vaccination," said study co-leader Ruanne Barnabas, a professor of global health at the University of Washington School of Medicine, in Seattle. "The single-dose efficacy was the same as multiple doses."

Her team said more studies need to be done to find out how long the protection lasts.

According to study co-leader Dr. Nelly Mugo, "This trial brings new energy to the elimination of cervical cancer. It brings great hope to the women living in countries like Kenya, who have a high burden of the disease."

Mugo is an associate research professor at the University of Washington and a senior scientist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute.

Worldwide, cervical cancer kills a woman every two minutes, and Africa bears 80% of the burden.

Barnabas said the trial could help the World Health Organization reach its goal to have 90% of 15-year-old girls vaccinated against HPV by 2030.

A single-dose vaccine would simplify logistics and lower costs, she noted, adding that women have been given multiple doses of the vaccine because of gaps in evidence for the effectiveness of a single-dose vaccine.

HPV is a common virus spread by intimate contact. Most sexually active men and women will be infected with HPV during their lives. For most, the infection clears on its own. But for others, the virus can lead to reproductive cancers, most commonly cervical cancer.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first HPV vaccine 15 years ago and two others have since been introduced.

The Gardasil-9 vaccine is recommended for boys and girls at 11 and 12 years of age, though it can be given through age 45.

But use has been low in areas like Kenya with high rates of cervical cancer.

The findings were presented recently at the International Papillomavirus Conference in Toronto. Research presented at meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on human papillomavirus.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

 'NDRANGHETA MAFIA

Dead dolphins, extortion, bullets in Italy's mafia 'maxi-trial'

Author: AFP|Update: 28.11.2021

The court has heard of ambulances moving drugs, water supplies diverted to marijuana crops and drowned migrants buried without coffins after rigged public tenders / © AFP/File

A dead dolphin on a doormat and windows smashed with sledgehammers. Weapons stored in cemetery chapels. Bribes to judges for acquittals, and bogus medical certificates letting convicted killers dodge prison.

These are the stories recounted since January by dozens of 'Ndrangheta members turned state witnesses in Italy's largest anti-mafia trial in three decades, covering everything from intimidation to vote-buying, and drug trafficking to murder.

"They waited for them in Piazza Morelli, invited them to eat ricotta at the farm... and then they killed, burned and melted them," testified one criminal-turned-witness, Andrea Mantella, describing a 1988 revenge killing of two brothers.

The 'Ndrangheta, Italy's most powerful organised crime syndicate, is in the crosshairs of the "maxi-trial" against 355 defendants held in the poor southern region of Calabria, the group's home turf.

Having expanded well beyond its rural roots, the 'Ndrangheta now dominates Europe's cocaine trade and has infiltrated many areas of the legal economy throughout Italy, and even abroad.

It is helped by close contacts with politicians and business figures, and its stranglehold over the local population in Calabria.

Testimony that wrapped up this month from an unprecedented 58 mafia informants -- connected to court by video link -- exposed both the brutality of the 'Ndrangheta, but also the insidious influence of the group at all levels of society.

The trial focuses on one Calabria province, Vibo Valentia, whose family clans are dominated by Luigi "The Supreme" Mancuso, 67, himself on trial after serving a 19-year sentence for drug and mafia crimes until 2012.

"Without the consent of Luigi Mancuso you can't open any business," testified his nephew, Emanuele Mancuso, in March.

- Payoffs and public servants -

With nicknames like "Lamb Thigh", "Sweetie", "Wolf" and "The Wringer", the defendants -- many of whom are related -- are alleged bosses and operatives, as well as their white-collar enablers.

Testimony that wrapped up this month from an unprecedented 58 mafia informants -- connected to court by video link / © AFP/File

They are accused of procuring weapons, gathering votes or delivering messages. Others allegedly collected and distributed cash to prisoners, acted as accountants, or managed relations with mafia in other regions. Still others determined extortion targets and planned ambushes.

The extent of the 'Ndrangheta's reach in the local economy has made it near impossible to eradicate.

The court has heard of ambulances moving drugs, water supplies diverted to marijuana crops and drowned migrants buried without coffins after rigged public tenders.

Informant Mantella, a high-ranking member who confessed to numerous murders, said 70,000 euros ($79,000)were paid to release him from prison to a medical clinic where "I did what I wanted", underscoring the 'Ndrangheta's financial clout.

Mantella and another state witness also testified that the 'Ndrangheta paid 50,000 euros to former senator and lawyer, Giancarlo Pittelli, who protests his innocence, for trial fixing.

The defendants also include police, court workers, mayors and other officials -- some allegedly meeting mafia in illegal Masonic lodges.

Calabrian journalist Consolato Minniti told AFP the maxi-trial is the first to go "above and beyond the 'military' side of the 'Ndrangheta".

"Until today, judges have generally targeted those who shoot," he said.

Cozy ties are nothing new. In the past 30 years, 110 city councils in Calabria have been dissolved over mafia infiltration -- some three times, including Lamezia Terme where the trial is being held.

The Mancuso family's home town, Limbadi, was the first. Its administration was dissolved by Italy's president in 1983 after a fugitive boss, Francesco "Ciccio" Mancuso, was elected mayor in absentia.

- Molotov cocktails -

Allegations in the 351-page indictment show how the 'Ndrangheta will stop at nothing to pursue its aims.

Various tactics are used to coerce protection money, force owners to sell below market value, get businesses to switch to mafia suppliers, or chase loans with extortionate interest, sometimes above 200 percent.

The defendants also include police, court workers, mayors and other officials -- some allegedly meeting mafia in illegal Masonic lodges / © AFP/File

Dead puppies, dolphins and goat heads have been dumped on the doorsteps of resisters, threatening phone calls made, beatings meted out, cars torched, Molotov cocktails thrown and shots fired.

Suspects in five murders, including a 'Ndrangheta member killed in 2002 because of his homosexuality, are in the dock in the maxi-trial.

The gay victim was buried and later covered by tarmac, informant Mantella said.

There were 1,320 mafia-related murders in Calabria from 1983 to 2018, according to the authorities.

In a May 2017 episode captured on wiretap and included in the indictment, a 'Ndrangheta member called the brother of a woman who lost 7,000 euros of marijuana after a police seizure.

"Let's try to get this money back or (you'll) find your sister in a cement pillar," the caller said.

"Because these people don't joke around."

The trial continues.

When Italy's anti-mafia prosecutor listens, testimonies flow

The reason Calabrians do not talk to the authorities is not because of the code of silence, but because "they don't know who to talk to," says Gratteri

 (AFP/Alberto PIZZOLI)More

Alexandria SAGE
Sun, November 28, 2021, 12:05 AM·4 min read

One day a week, Italy's most prominent anti-mafia prosecutor Nicola Gratteri receives people at his office to listen to their grievances.

In Calabria, the poor, southern region home to the feared 'Ndrangheta mafia, issues facing locals include threats, intimidation, extortion, loan sharks and even bloodshed at the hands of organised crime.

Those waiting their turn for 10 minutes with Gratteri are Calabrians who, until recently, had considered the state to be "very far away", the prosecuting magistrate told AFP in an interview.

"All the downtrodden people who have suffered humiliation, who have been threatened, the left-behind of the earth come to talk," said Gratteri, who has himself lived under state protection for over 30 years.

"They cry, they despair... they get emotional because they're talking with the prosecutor. Then they take heart because they see that we're serious."

For decades, the growing influence of the 'Ndrangheta, helped by close ties with the world of politics and business, was underestimated or dismissed by the state -- too weak, inefficient and corrupt to take on the crime syndicate that has spread throughout Italy and abroad.

Since becoming public prosecutor of Catanzaro province in 2016, making him responsible for anti-mafia proceedings in three-quarters of Calabria, Gratteri has been hailed as the region's last hope by many, though criticised by some as overzealous and fame-seeking.

Either way, he has been determined to prove the 'Ndrangheta is not invincible.

- 'Code of silence' -

The latest high-profile example is the ongoing "maxi-trial" against 355 alleged mafia members and associates, held in the nearby city of Lamezia Terme, the biggest such trial in three decades.

While the trial is far from over, the prosecution scored an early win this month in a lower court.

Guilty verdicts were handed to 70 out of 91 defendants in fast-track proceedings, including top mafia operatives who received the maximum sentence of 20 years.

An unprecedented 58 'Ndrangheta members turned state witnesses have taken the stand to divulge the secrets of the organised crime group, considered Italy's most powerful.

But, as in all proceedings against the 'Ndrangheta, most victims prove unwilling to denounce the group.

It is here that Gratteri's weekly ritual comes in.

The reason Calabrians do not talk to the authorities is not because of the code of silence, but because "they don't know who to talk to," said Gratteri.

There has been little to endear Calabrians to their government over the years.

Infrastructure projects go unfinished, the health system is near collapse and one of Europe's highest regional unemployment rates sends the area's best and brightest north to find work.

- 'I like to take charge' -

Since 1991, 110 municipal councils in Calabria have been dissolved after being infiltrated by the mafia, 61 of them twice.

The council in Lamezia Terme, the region's third-largest city and seat of the trial, has been dissolved three times, most recently in 2017.

In recent decades, the 'Ndrangheta quietly expanded as attention shifted to Sicily's Cosa Nostra following the 1992 killings of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

Helped by its white-collar ties, the 'Ndrangheta now penetrates every sector of Calabria's economy, experts say, including construction and public contracts, money-lending, hospitals, agriculture, tourism and more.

Gratteri estimates that nine percent of Calabria's gross domestic product is stripped away by the 'Ndrangheta, whose near-monopoly on cocaine entering Europe and other lucrative activities such as rigging public tenders and fraud reap tens of billions of euros each year.

Its criminal proceeds, along with its infiltration of the legal economy at home and abroad, are worth 50 billion euros ($56 billion) annually, he estimates.

Against this pervasive threat, Gratteri needs the public's cooperation, which he said has been more forthcoming since the trial, with ordinary people sharing useful information.

"Today, people are talking more because they trust us more. People see the results and so they are encouraged, they consider us credible," he said.

"People can't imagine that there is someone who will take charge of their problems. And I like to take charge of their problems."

ams/ar/gw/spm

Living among the mafia blurs lines in Italy's south

1 / 9
Two years after a massive police sweep netted hundreds of alleged mafia members, the future is far from certain for the southern Italian city of Vibo Valentia and province of the same name (AFP/Gianluca CHININEA)More

Alexandria SAGE
Sat, November 27, 2021, 11:42 PM·6 min read

Two years ago, thousands of people in the Calabrian city of Vibo Valentia took to the streets on Christmas Eve morning to celebrate a massive police sweep that netted hundreds of alleged mafia members.

For those living under the shadow of the 'Ndrangheta, it was the first time locals had dared to publicly denounce Italy's most powerful organised crime syndicate that for decades has infiltrated the southern region's institutions, suffocated its economy and terrorised its people.

Unlike in previous instances -- when relatives of seized 'Ndrangheta members showed up at police stations to heckle authorities and applaud those arrested -- this time, the cheering was for the police.

"There was unending applause, it gave me shivers," recalled Giuseppe Borrello, the local representative for anti-mafia association Libera.

"From a symbolic point of view, it was important."

Two years on, however, the future is far from certain for the city and province of the same name -- often referred to just as Vibo -- as 355 arrested bosses, operatives and white-collar helpers of its 'Ndrangheta stand accused of a laundry list of crimes, from extortion and usury to money laundering and murder in an ongoing "maxi-trial".

A shooting last month has revived fears that a period of relative calm following the arrests is coming to an end, while sharp divides remain among the city's 31,000 residents.

Some see Vibo at a turning point, while others insist the 'Ndrangheta is still too powerful to be overcome. There are plenty, too, who accuse the state of overzealousness with its hundreds of arrests.

- 'Go to the boss' -

In late 2017, restaurant owner Filippo La Scala received two anonymous phone calls, ordering him to "bring money to the friends of Vibo".

After a Molotov cocktail was thrown onto the restaurant's patio, he headed to the police.

"It was a tough time," La Scala told AFP. "These things really stress you out."

La Scala, a civil party to the ongoing trial, said he felt "very confident" in authorities' new commitment in confronting the 'Ndrangheta after decades of institutional inertia, inefficiency and corruption.

"We've felt a new atmosphere of freedom in Vibo" after the December 2019 crackdown, La Scala said.

The head of Vibo's provincial carabinieri, Colonel Bruno Capece, agrees, while warning much remains to be done.

"Before, practically every night we got word of cars burned, roll-down gates shot at or damaged, people kneecapped, mafia phenomenon," Capece said.

The last murder in Vibo was in April 2020 and its perpetrator quickly found.

Police similarly solved the approximately 10 murder attempts since the raids within 48 hours, he said.

The close work of police and prosecutors, he said, is a new sign of credibility in a territory where locals have long been accustomed to denunciations that go nowhere and trials that drag on or end in acquittals -- often through collusion between the 'Ndrangheta and those in power.

Until relatively recently, "only the clans ruled here, and the response of the state was practically non-existent," said the public prosecutor of Vibo, Camillo Falvo.

Trust in authorities is earned through results, said Falvo, and until now, the weak state has played directly into the hands of the 'Ndrangheta.

"If you file a civil lawsuit and it's never decided... the second time you've got a problem you go to the boss nearby and tell him, 'Look, this guy has to pay back my money'."

- 'Washed-up' -

Site of the ancient Greek colony of Hipponion, Vibo still boasts a picture-perfect 12th-century castle on a hill where goats graze in the evenings, offering a spectacular view of the distant volcano of Stromboli.

But descend into the city, marred by abandoned storefronts and unsightly, half-finished concrete structures, and there is little to recommend a detour, save for -- ironically -- Vibo's institute of criminology.

Some 47 percent of young people are without jobs in the province, the fifth-highest rate in Italy.

"Vibo is a sad city, washed-up, that makes people ugly and doesn't inspire them to give their best," is how blogger and journalist Argentino Serraino describes his home town.

"That doesn't mean it should continue that way, though," said the 25-year-old.

Decades of 'Ndrangheta interference have contributed to Vibo's economic decline, through public funds siphoned off, businesses that shut rather than pay protection money, or entrepreneurs denied public contracts due to bid rigging. The phenomenon repeats throughout Calabria.

And despite the 'Ndrangheta's near-monopoly on the European cocaine trade and billions laundered through investments in the legal economy across Italy and internationally, the mafia still squeezes the locals.

The trial includes countless allegations of usury, property owners forced to sell below price to the mafia and shopkeepers and others routinely asked for "contributions".

- 'Ruined my life' -

Not everyone in Vibo is convinced the state has their back.

The indictment includes one Vibo merchant as both victim, and accomplice, of the 'Ndrangheta, underscoring the murky grey zone often seen in mafia territory.

"They've ruined my life," Rocco Tavella said, of authorities who kept him behind bars for five days after the 2019 sweep.

Tavella, who prosecutors say was pressured to sell clothing below cost to mafia members, denies being an intermediary in a 2011 money-lending episode, as claimed by one of the many informants turned state's witnesses in the trial.

"We'll see how many people are acquitted," he said sceptically.

One woman, Paola, who did not want to give her last name, said Vibo residents are paranoid, given the close-knit family and social ties with the accused.

"You can't lock someone up for just hearing something, or being seen with someone," she said, complaining that prosecutors had gone over the top in not limiting arrests to senior bosses.

"Am I not supposed to greet these people anymore?"

- Nothing to see here -

The battle against the 'Ndrangheta is made harder by scarce resources, said prosecutor Falvo.

Few veteran magistrates want to move to the area, so cases are fought by young, inexperienced lawyers who move on to other jobs at the first opportunity.

"How can we fight a war on the mafia with bare hands?" he asked.

Violence has not ended in Vibo. Last month, a defendant in the trial was shot, allegedly by the son of a mafia boss.

Security video images showed cars driving past the wounded man, and no witnesses -- not even the victim -- came forward to denounce the crime.

"It felt like we went backwards three years, all our work up in smoke," said the carabinieri's Capece.

Restaurant owner La Scala said that when he was being threatened, he questioned whether he should leave Vibo.

"Calabria is such a beautiful place, and Vibo is the most beautiful of the beautiful -- mountains and a splendid sea," said La Scala.

"If only it weren't tarnished with this cancer of the 'Ndrangheta."

ams/ar/kjm/spm

English cricket launches anti-racism plan after Rafiq 'earthquake'

'Former Yorkshire cricketer Azeem Rafiq addresses British lawmakers over racism in the game (AFP/Handout)

Julian Guyer
Fri, November 26, 2021

English cricket's top administrator announced an anti-racism action plan on Friday in response to the Azeem Rafiq scandal, admitting an "earthquake" had hit the sport in recent weeks.

The 12 measures unveiled by the England and Wales Cricket Board include a review of dressing-room culture, action to help non-white and less privileged players pursue careers in the game and a commitment to increased diversity on county boards.

Pakistan-born former cricketer Rafiq gave harrowing testimony to lawmakers last week in which he said his career had been ended by the racist abuse he received while at leading English county Yorkshire.

"The last few weeks have been very, very tough for cricket," ECB chief executive Tom Harrison told reporters. "It feels like an earthquake has hit us.

"The most damning part of Azeem's testimony is that he didn't want his son to be part of the game. That is, for someone in my job, the most difficult thing you can hear."

Another point in the action plan is a governance review of the ECB, which will consider whether the organisation can be both a promoter and regulator of the sport.

In a week in which a fan-led review recommended an independent regulator for English football, Harrison said cricket should at least be open to the prospect of a similar set-up.

"We had a meeting yesterday (Thursday) with the county chairs... whether we should be the regulator and the national governing body going forward," he said.

"That conversation is one we're going to have with the game as well."

- 'Not going to walk away' -

Harrison, asked why anybody should believe the ECB was going to take concrete action now, given previous accusations of inaction, said change would happen.

"I know we are in the dock for words, words, words, blah, blah, blah, no action, that kind of thing," he said.

"What we are trying to say here is that this is action-orientated. But it's not everything... I don't think this is something cricket has ever got right."

Harrison, personally criticised over the ECB's response to Rafiq's revelations, added he had no intention of resigning.

"I am very motivated to make sure we provide this welcoming environment across our sport, for everybody," he said.

"That is something I've felt passionately about since the moment I walked into this job, and I'm not going to walk away from that now."

The fallout for Yorkshire has been devastating, with sponsors making a mass exodus, senior figures quitting and the Headingley-based club suspended from hosting lucrative international matches.

But the crisis has spread far beyond the club, with other counties and former players also in the spotlight.

Jahid Ahmed this week became the third former Essex player to allege he had experienced racist abuse while playing for the club.

More than 2,000 people have contacted an independent commission looking at racism and other forms of discrimination in cricket since it opened a call for evidence earlier this month.

This week the BBC said former England captain Michael Vaughan had been left out of its commentary team for the upcoming Ashes series in Australia to avoid a "conflict of interest".

Vaughan is alleged to have told the now 30-year-old Rafiq and other Yorkshire players of Asian origin that there were "too many of you lot, we need to do something about it" during a county match in 2009.

The former batsman, an Ashes-winning skipper in 2005, has "categorically denied" the allegation.

jdg/jw/dmc

Online conspiracies fuel Dutch Covid unrest


Some people opposed to the Dutch government's anti-Covid measures support conspiracy theories circulating online (AFP/Jeroen JUMELET)

Romain FONSEGRIVES
Sat, November 27, 2021, 11:24 PM·3 min read

When Covid riots rocked the Netherlands for the second time in a year, Ricardo Pronk was there to livestream it all to his followers on social media.

The 50-year-old anti-vaccination activist administered a Facebook group with 10,000 followers, which had shared a call for a demonstration in the port city of Rotterdam on November 19 that later turned violent.

The group, which was recently removed by Facebook, is part of a network of conspiracy theorists and Covid-deniers on social media reaching as far as the Dutch parliament, whose influence has sparked concern among experts.

For Pronk, vaccines "are weapons made to kill". He also embraces the QAnon conspiracy group's narrative about "satanic child abuse" by a "globalised elite".

But the unemployed former computer technician, who had chosen a banner for the group with a lion against a backdrop of flames, rejects any responsibility for the unrest in the Netherlands.

Five people were shot when police opened fire in Rotterdam, and riots spread around the country for the next three days.

"Violence is not the best way, of course not. The best is to do things peacefully," he told AFP.

- Surge in disinformation -

Both in January, during the Netherlands' worst riots in 40 years over a curfew, and last week's unrest, social media were used not only to organise protests, but also to spread disinformation.

"What is unique about the Netherlands is that we have repeatedly seen Covid protests turn into riots just this year," said Ciaran O'Connor, an analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in London, which specialises in countering radicalism.

While Prime Minister Mark Rutte has branded rioters "scum" and "idiots", O'Connor pointed the finger at the epidemic of conspiracy theories on the internet in the Netherlands.

On Facebook alone, the top 125 groups disseminating false information about Covid-19 saw a 63-percent rise in followers in six months, comprising 789,000 members in this country of 17 million people, an ISD study said.

Telegram groups during last week's riots were filled with plans for demonstrations, calls for riots, along with messages targeting Muslims, Jews and gay people.

The social media groups "usually don't call for violence but they may accept it as part of the solution", said O'Connor.

"The anti-vax and anti-Covid movement is creating a space allowing for other forces to engage and express their frustration in a violent way."

- 'Dutch Trump' -

Dutch authorities blamed the riots on a variety of culprits, ranging from frustrated youths to football hooligans and genuine coronavirus protesters -- but they also underlined the importance of social media in organising them.

In June, Dutch intelligence services said they feared that anti-government demonstrations "are a breeding ground for extremism".

In a country where 85 percent of adults are vaccinated, the anti-vax movement "is a clear minority group", said Claes de Vreese, professor of political communication at the University of Amsterdam.

But unlike in neighbouring countries, "their voice has been strongly amplified by the fact that they have found a political ally in parliament", namely the Forum for Democracy party.

The leader of this far-right group, Thierry Baudet, has largely dropped his anti-immigration rhetoric to adopt a strong anti-vaccination stance and to promote conspiracy theories.

Baudet has been dubbed the Dutch Donald Trump and one of his tweets was labelled misleading by Twitter ahead of elections in March, a first for a Dutch politician.

One of the party's lawmakers was reprimanded recently for threatening a fellow MP in parliament with a "tribunal" if the Forum came to power, because of his support for the government's policies.

O'Connor at ISD said that some material was slipping under the radar of the social media giants because it was in Dutch.

"Compared to the US or the UK, Twitter or Facebook don't have the same focus on gatekeeping their platforms against people who use them irresponsibly," he said.

rfo/dk/jhe/jj/spm