HRW: Western leaders need to 'do better' against autocrats

Western politicians have not adequately stood up for democracy, the Human Rights Watch said in its annual report. Autocrats, however, have been losing their grip on power, the advocacy group said.


Human Rights Watch released its report annual report chronicling the human rights situations in roughly 100 countries where it works

Democratic leaders have failed in addressing serious global challenges, such as climate changeand the COVID-19 pandemic, Human Rights Watch said in a report published Thursday.

HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth said the leaders in Western democracies have often been too mired in partisan battles and short-term preoccupations" to deal with the problems effectively.

"If democracies are to prevail in the global contest with autocracy, their leaders must do more than spotlight the autocrats' inevitable shortcomings," Roth wrote in the report's introductory essay.

"They need to make a stronger, positive case for democratic rule."

'Zombie democracy'

The pandemic also put the spotlight on the self-serving tendencies of autocrats, many of whom spent months downplaying the health crisis, Roth said.

"Autocrats claim to deliver better results than democrats, but they usually deliver mainly for themselves," the HRW chief said.

They have gone from subtly manipulating elections for the preservation of their power to overt electoral charades that guarantee their desired results, he wrote.

"What is left after such blatant undermining of elections is no longer managed democracy but 'zombie democracy'—the walking dead of democracy, a charade that has no pretense of a free and fair contest," the rights activist added.

Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth said he wants to counter the "conventional wisdom'' that autocrats are in the ascendancy

'Weak defense of democracy'

Roth criticized Western politicians for displaying weakness in their defense of democracy, adding that these governments often descend to the compromises of realpolitik.

US President Joe Biden vowed to put human rights at the center of his foreign policy after four years of American embrace of "friendly autocrats" under his predecessor, the head of HRW noted.

"But he (Biden) continued to sell arms to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Israel despite their persistent repression," Roth said.

He also gave the example of Germany's former Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The Merkel government coordinated a global condemnation of Beijing's crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, he wrote, but when holding the European Union presidency, Germany promoted an EU investment deal with China.

The deal was pushed despite human rights abuses of Uyghur Muslims, including mass internment, forced birth control, and labor transfers to other regions.

He accused French President Emmanuel Macron of turning a blind eye to the "abysmal rights situation" in Egypt under President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.

"The defense of human rights requires not only curbing autocratic repression but also improving democratic leadership," Roth noted.

Short shelf lives see poor nations decline millions of Covid jabs: UN


Expired AstraZeneca vaccine doses at a dump in Abuja, Nigeria last month (AFP/Kola Sulaimon)

Thu, January 13, 2022

Poor countries refused to take around 100 million donated Covid-19 vaccine doses in December alone, chiefly due to their short shelf life, the United Nations said Thursday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has slammed the deadly "moral shame" of high-income countries hogging vaccine supplies then offloading near-expiry doses to jab-starved poorer nations.

Stark images last month of Nigeria disposing of more than a million AstraZeneca doses that had gone off highlighted the issue.

UNICEF, the UN Children's Fund, uses its vaccine logistics expertise to handle delivery flights for Covax, the global scheme set up to ensure a flow of doses to poorer nations.

In December, "we had almost more than 100 million doses that have been refused because of countries' capacities", UNICEF's supply division director Etleva Kadilli told a European Parliament committee.

"The majority of refusals are due to product shelf life."

- Short notice -

"The short shelf life is really creating a major bottleneck for countries to plan their vaccination campaigns," Kadilli explained.

"Until we have a better shelf life, this is going to be a pressure point for the countries, specifically when countries want to reach populations in hard-to-reach areas."

European Union donations account for a third of the doses delivered so far via Covax, Kadilli told lawmakers.

In October-November, 15 million EU-donated doses were rejected -- 75 percent of them AstraZeneca shots with a shelf life of less than 10 weeks upon arrival.

Kadilli said that several nations were requesting for deliveries to be put off until after March, when they might be better able to handle the pressure on the cold storage chain.

Many countries "come back and request split shipments -- they want to push doses towards the next quarter", she said.

"And I'm talking here also for large, big countries where naturally you'd think that they do have the capacity."

- 'Shame' -

Covax is co-led by the WHO, the Gavi vaccine alliance, and CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. Via UNICEF, it is about to deliver its billionth vaccine dose.

On December 29, the WHO announced that 92 of its 194 member states had missed its target of vaccinating 40 percent of their population by the end of 2021.

"This is due to a combination of limited supply going to low-income countries for most of the year and then subsequent vaccines arriving close to expiry and without key parts like the syringes," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"It's not only a moral shame; it cost lives."

In a speech on Thursday, he said that while more than 9.4 billion vaccine doses had been administered around the world, more than 85 percent of people in Africa are yet to receive a single dose.

"Some of the supply constraints we faced last year are now starting to ease, but we still have a long way to go to reach our target of vaccinating 70 percent of the population of every country by the middle of this year," Tedros told member states.

bur-rjm/har

Nobel body criticizes Nobel Peace Prize winner Abiy over war

BY JAN M. OLSEN

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize, on Thursday issued a very rare admonition to the 2019 winner, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, over the war and humanitarian crisis in his country’s Tigray region.

“As prime minister and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Abiy Ahmed has a special responsibility to end the conflict and contribute to peace,” the Oslo-based committee said in a statement.

Abiy won the prize, in part, for making peace with neighboring Eritrea after one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts.

The committee said that “it must be emphasized that Abiy Ahmed’s prize was awarded on the basis of his efforts and the justifiable expectations that existed in 2019,” adding that “the historical backdrop included an authoritarian governing system and widespread ethnic conflicts.”

But in November 2020, Abiy’s government allowed Eritrean forces into Tigray as they together pursued the Tigray leaders after political tensions erupted into war. Some tens of thousands of people have been killed, and hundreds of thousands now face famine as Ethiopia’s government has kept almost all food and medical aid from Tigray since late June.

“Nowhere in the world are we witnessing hell like Tigray,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, a former Tigray official, told reporters on Wednesday, saying the WHO had approached Abiy’s office for permission to send medicines into Tigray, in vain.

“The humanitarian situation is very serious, and it is not acceptable that humanitarian aid does not emerge to a sufficient degree,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee statement said.

There was no immediate comment from the prime minister’s office.

Ethiopia’s conflict entered a new phase in late December when Tigray forces retreated into their region amid a new military offensive and Ethiopian forces said they would not advance further there. But aid workers have said airstrikes continue to kill civilians in Tigray, with a weekend strike killing more than 50. Another airstrike killed 17 on Monday, the day President Joe Biden, in a call with Abiy, raised concerns about them.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee also said that its deliberations are confidential. “Furthermore, it is not our role to provide continuing commentary on Ethiopian developments or to assess the position of a Peace Prize laureate after the prize has been received.”

___

Associated Press Writer Cara Anna in Nairobi contributed to this report.

Abiy Ahmed has 'special responsibility' to end Tigray conflict : Nobel Panel

Issued on: 13/01/2022 -

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the Nobel Peace Prize, said Thursday that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who won the honour in 2019, bore special responsibility for ending the bloodshed in Tigray. Awol Allo, senior lecturer at Keele University, gives his analysis.

Sudanese protesters kill police officer as anti-coup rallies turn violent
NEWS WIRES 

Sudanese anti-coup protesters stabbed to death a police general on Thursday, authorities said, as thousands who kept up rallies against an October military coup faced tear gas.

 

© AFP

Brigadier General Ali Bareema Hamad, "fell martyr while doing his duties and securing protests" in the capital Khartoum, a police statement said on Facebook.

Hamad "received deadly stabs by groups of protesters ... in different parts of his body," police spokesman Idris Abdalla Idris told Sudan TV.

Other police personnel "suffered severe wounds," he added.

Hamad's was the first fatality announced among security forces since protests calling for a return to civilian rule began more than two months ago.

A security crackdown has left at least 63 people dead and hundreds wounded, according to medics, who said many of the protesters were killed by live rounds.

Thursday's rallies converged from several parts of Khartoum and came after a United Nations bid to facilitate talks between rival Sudanese factions received tepid support.

The UN push aimed at resolving the crisis since the October 25 military coup led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the resignation of the civilian prime minister Abdalla Hamdok earlier this month.

Sudan has no government, foreign aid has been suspended, and regular demonstrations against the coup -- attended by up to tens of thousands -- are routinely met by a violent response from authorities.

Demonstrators also took to the streets in the capital's twin city of Omdurman as well as in Port Sudan in the country's east, according to witnesses.

Protesters in Khartoum converged on the city centre chanting: "With all our power, we are heading to the palace".

Others hollered: "Burhan is dirty, brought to (power) by the Islamists," who were dominant under the three-decade rule of strongman Omar al-Bashir. He was ousted by his own military in April 2019 after months of mass protests.

Following a repeated pattern, security forces fired volleys of tear gas to disperse the protesters in Khartoum and Omdurman, witnesses said.

Online footage appeared to show demonstrators hurling stones and unexploded canisters of tear gas at security forces near the presidential palace.

The military takeover derailed a fragile transition to civilian rule following Bashir's ouster.

Authorities have repeatedly denied using live ammunition in confronting protesters and insist scores of security forces have been wounded during demonstrations that have often "deviated from peacefulness".
'Not clear'

On Monday, UN special representative Volker Perthes said he was launching "consultations" with political and social actors as well as armed and civil society groups.

The UN push has received a mixed response.

"We don't accept this initiative at all," 62-year-old protester Awad Saleh said.

"It's not clear what points it constitutes and so for us it is deficient."

The Sudanese Professionals Association, an independent trade union confederation instrumental in organising the protests, said it completely rejects the UN initiative.

The mainstream faction of the Forces for Freedom and Change, the leading civilian pro-democracy group, said it will "discuss" the invitation internally before announcing its stand.

But spokesman Wagdy Saleh said the FFC rejected "any partnership" with the military.

The ruling Sovereign Council -- formed by Burhan following the coup with himself as chairman -- has welcomed the proposed talks, as have the United States, Britain, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

On Wednesday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called for stability in Sudan saying it "will not be reached except by consensus among all forces".

Burhan has insisted that the military takeover "was not a coup" but only meant to "rectify the course of the Sudanese transition.

Hamdok resigned as prime minister on January 2, only six weeks after being reinstated following his house arrest in the wake of the coup.

In his resignation speech, Hamdok warned that Sudan was now at a "dangerous crossroads threatening its very survival".

(AFP)

Assassination mars Cameroon's football fiesta, exposes missed political goals

Leela JACINTO 

The killing this week of a prominent senator from Cameroon’s anglophone western region, while the country hosts the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations, has put a spotlight on a conflict the government has tried to paper over. While President Paul Biya hails the tournament as a symbol of unity, his government’s policies have exacerbated deadly divides.

© Mohamed Abd el Ghany, Reuters

On Wednesday night, hours before the coastal city of Limbé hosted its first match of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON, or CAN as it is called in French), Senator Henry Kemende left his house in Bamenda, a city further inland in the troubled English-speaking region in the country's west.

He never returned home.

Hours later, the opposition politician’s body was found in his native Bamenda, capital of Cameroon’s war-torn Northwest Province, his chest riddled with bullets.

Kemende, a lawyer and lawmaker for the Social Democratic Front (SDF) party, one of Cameroon’s main opposition parties, was an outspoken human rights defender. He was also a leading representative of the country’s marignalised anglophone minority, who constitute around 20 percent of the country’s 28 million population.

His killing came as international sports journalists were making their way to Limbé for Thursday’s match between Tunisia and Mali at the Omnisport stadium. The AFCON has seen the usual displays of national pride accompanied by choruses of buzzing vuvuzelas.The tournament kicked off on Sunday with the hosts beating Burkina Faso, setting of a burst of rapturous joy among Cameroonian football fans, many emblazoned in the green, red and yellow colours of the national flag.

But Africa’s premier football tournament this year has been overshadowed by serious security concerns.

Militants from a motley mix of armed groups fighting for a separate state – called “Ambazonia” – in the anglophone west have threatened to disrupt the games. Confronting a separatist insurgency in the west, a jihadist threat in the north and a pandemic across the world, the government nevertheless responded with a confident motto: “Safety will be guaranteed”.

But the Cameroonian state – led by 88-year-old President Paul Biya, who has been in power for four decades – has not been able to guarantee the security of its citizens in the western provinces over the past few years. The anglophone insurgency has claimed more than 3,000 lives and displaced nearly a million people over the past five years, with both sides accused of committing atrocities and abuses.

No one has claimed responsibility for Kemende’s killing so far. The Ambazonian Defence Force (ADF), one of the main anglophone separatist groups, has denied responsibility for the killing.

The group did however claim an attack on Wednesday, which killed a Cameroonian soldier in Buéa, a western city around 20 kilometres north of Limbé, where four Group F national teams – Mali, Gambia, Tunisia and Mauritania – are based.

The slaying of a prominent parliamentarian in the Northwest Region followed by a deadly attack in the Southwest Region has put a spotlight on a conflict the Cameroonian government has attempted to shield from the international community.

The hosting of the AFCON – which was postponed from 2021 due to the pandemic – has also raised questions over the use of major sports events by authoritarian leaders to project national unity while their policies exacerbate divisions – with deadly consequences.

A new killing, an old colonial problem

Kemende’s killing has exposed the intractable nature of a crisis amid fears that the moderate anglophone politician could have been assassinated by extremist Ambazonia militants, locally known as “Amba boys”.

With his legal background defending the rights of his constituents and his ability to speak truth to power, Kemende was a firebrand parliamentarian and a familiar figure on Cameroon’s English language TV stations.

For the many people who knew the SDF senator and worked with him, Kemende killing is both unfathomable and tragic.

“It’s a huge loss,” mourned Christopher Fomunyoh, senior associate for Africa at the Washington DC-based National Democratic Institute (NDI), in an interview with FRANCE 24.

“It’s a huge loss for his family of course. It’s a huge loss for the legal profession, given the role lawyers played in the beginning of this crisis and the role they stand to play in resolving the crisis. Nationally, it’s an enormous loss: A member of the Senate, a constitutional body, has been assassinated. And it’s a huge loss as the conflict continues and the gap between the anglophone population and the state widens.”

The crisis in Cameroon’s anglophone western region was sparked in October 2016, when lawyers took to the streets in Bamenda to protest the exclusive use of French in court and other state institutions.

The roots of the problem date back to the colonial era, when the central African region once colonised by Germany was split between Britain and France after World War I. With the withdrawal of the colonial powers, Cameroon was declared a “decentralised unitary state” under a 1961 constitution, with English and French designated official languages. Buéa became the capital of West Cameroom while Yaounde doubled as the federal capital as well as the capital of francophone East Cameroon.

But English-speaking Cameroonians have long complained of discrimination, noting that the country’s top positions in government, as well as in the oil sector, have always been held by French speakers. Anglophone Cameroonians also complained that government documents were published only in French, enabling their exclusion from top civil service jobs.

The grievances were familiar and the protests peaceful – until a ferocious security crackdown fuelled support for separatism and the emergence of several separatist militias calling for a new state of Ambazonia.

The emergence of militias has plunged the already marginalised western region in a cycle of violence with dismaying familiarity. A militarised state response has seen hundreds of opposition party members and activists jailed and a populace living in fear of arbitrary arrests and crackdowns.

Meanwhile Ambazonia militants routinely target civilians accused of “collaborating” with the government in Yaounde and have enforced a school boycott, depriving hundreds of thousands of children of their education.

“It’s always the civilians, the ordinary people caught in the middle, who suffer,” said Rebecca Tinsley, a London-based activist with The Global Campaign for Peace and Justice in Cameroon. “The violence is just getting worse. In 2021, there were more than 80 IED [improvised explosive device] attacks in the anglophone region alone. Because of the violence, nearly a million children are not able to go to school and there’s very little security, making the lives of ordinary people very difficult.”

'Just five days' for talks

Two years after militants declared an independent Ambazonia in 2017, Swiss negotiators agreed to mediate talks between Cameroonian authorities and separatists in a bid to end the escalating violence.

The Swiss peace proposals however received no follow-up and the Cameroonian government instead launched a National Dialogue from September 30 to October 4, 2019, with much fanfare.

Following the talks in Yaounde, the government announced new measures, including the release of some political prisoners, the creation of regional assemblies and councils, as well as a $163 million special fund for the reconstruction of the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions.

But a year later, the western regions were still ungovernable and the violence had increased. While the special fund had received 10 percent of the promised $163 million, fighting had slowed the first phase of the reconstruction exercise.

“The National Dialogue was a piece of theatre for the benefit of the international community,” dismissed Tinsley. “It had no credibility because most of the anglophones were either not invited or afraid to go [to Yaounde] in case they got arrested.”

Most analysts agree the talks, which brought together representatives from Cameroon’s 10 provinces instead of concentrating on the aggrieved region, were a failure. “The National Dialogue was held for just five days – you can’t deal with grievances of over 50 years, diagnose the problems, find solutions, seek consensus and address implementation in five days,” said Fomunyoh. “They continue to insist this is an internal problem. They think they can just shoot their way out of the conflict or the crisis will burn itself out,” he dismissed.

Tournament will end, but 'problems remain'

The hosting of the Africa Cup of Nations could have provided an opportunity to either reinvigorate a moribund peace process or better, evaluate failures and start afresh.

Football is politics in Cameroon, with the sport playing an important role in public life. Domestically, the sport “serves as a diversionary element in the country’s tightly controlled political system, whilst internationally, successful sports performance compensates for the country’s weak influence on other aspects of continental and global politics,” noted Joanne Clarke and John Sunday Ojo in their report, “Sport Policy in Cameroon”.

The Cameroonian president – with his advanced age, health problems and protracted stays in his Swiss luxury getaway – is the subject of private jokes and speculations about his mental agility. But even at 88, Biya has proved he instinctively understands the power of the game in his football-mad nation when he declared AFCON “a great moment of brotherhood” that would provide Cameroonians an opportunity to display “the rich cultural diversity that has earned our country the nickname, ‘Africa in miniature’”.

But aside from the spectacle of declarations, the Biya administration missed the moment to include all Cameroonians in a brotherhood that enables the inclusion of the country’s diversity in all political and economic sectors.

Fomunyoh lists four conditions for the resumption of an anglophone peace process based on established negotiation norms. These include the declaration of an immediate ceasefire to stop the cycle of violence, the release of political prisoners, the use of non-Cameroonian negotiators to facilitate dialogue between opposing sides, and finally, to “accept that the mediations should be held in another country outside Cameroon”.

None of the proposals were heeded, leaving Fomunyoh to view the current football circus as a metaphor for the country’s leadership style. “I feel this tournament and the debate around it captures how this government tackles issues. They’re so focused on the here and now, they don’t seem to be able to project into the middle or long term,” he noted. “In a few weeks, the tournament will be over, but the problems remain.”

The anglophone crisis, experts agree, requires a political – not military – solution. But for Cameroonians invested in a peaceful resolution to the conflict, Kemende’s killing leaves a deep vacuum. “He was one of the few anglophone elites who spoke out and who could talk to both sides,” mourned Fomunyoh. “Unfortunately, I don’t have any confidence that there will be a thorough investigation, that the perpetrators are found and put to trial, and that justice will be served.”

EU vetoes shipbuilding merger between Hyundai and Daewoo

By Choi Kyong-ae, Yonhap News Agency

The South Korean Navy's 2,800-ton frigate, the Daejeon, was manufactured by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co. 

File Photo by Yonhap/EPA-EFE

SEOUL, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- The European Union antitrust regulator on Thursday vetoed Hyundai Heavy Industries Group's proposed acquisition of its smaller rival Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., citing monopoly issues.

The European Commission announced its decision to block the merger of the South Korean shipbuilders, arguing the tie-up could create a monopoly in the liquefied natural gas carrier market.

"The merger would have created a dominant position by the new merged company and reduced competition in the worldwide market for the construction of large LNG carriers," the commission said in a statement.

Hyundai Heavy did not formally offer remedies to address the commission's concerns that the merger would have led to fewer suppliers and higher prices for LNG ships, the statement said.

If merged, two shipbuilders' combined market share in the LNG ship market would rise to at least 60%, the EU regulator said.

Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings Co. called the commission's conclusion unreasonable and disappointing.

"The commission's use of the market share as evaluation criteria has no probative value as the market share itself is not a proper indicator of market power in the shipbuilding industry," HHIH said in a statement.

LNG ships are the only sector that the EU took issue with in terms of dominant position, HHIH said.

Hyundai Heavy had expected unconditional European Commission clearance for the deal as was the case in Singapore, China and Kazakhstan.

The Singaporean regulator said that the shipbuilding market is heavily reliant on tenders and is essentially a bidding market. In bidding markets, having high market share may not confer market power as market share can be easily lost in the next bidding round, the statement said.

The existence of at least one credible alternative to the merged entity may be enough to constrain their ability to exert market power following the proposed merger. There are close competitors, such as Samsung Heavy Industries Co., Hudong Zhonghua Shipbuilding Co., and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., it said.

After reviewing the EU's final decision, HHIH said it will pursue possible measures, including an appeal to the General Court of the European Union.

Daewoo didn't provide an official statement.

The government and analysts expected no major impact of the deal's collapse in the shipbuilding industry as the shipbuilding business has bottomed out, and orders of high-end LNG carriers and offshore facilities began to rebound from last year.

Daewoo Shipbuilding's creditors will draw up measures to strengthen the shipbuilder's competitiveness and restart the process to find a new owner in the private sector, the finance ministry said in a statement.

Analysts said the collapse of the merger will have no major impact on the two shipbuilders as global shippers will likely place more orders for LNG ships, oil tankers, and offshore plants such as floating production storage and offloading units amid rising energy prices.

"The EU decision won't matter that much for the shipbuilders as the shipbuilding industry is entering an upcycle after a decade-long downcycle. In particular, Hyundai Heavy will be able to utilize the acquisition money for other purposes," Kim Hong-gyun, an analyst at Dongbu Securities Co., said over the phone.

But uncertainties remain for Daewoo as it has a growing financial burden to pay interest on the 1.9 billion debt sale to the state Export-Import Bank of Korea, he said.

Hyundai Heavy announced the deal in 2019, and the EU regulator postponed the review of the acquisition three times in the past two years due to the extended COVID-19 pandemic.

In March 2019, Hyundai Heavy's main creditor Development Bank agreed to provide the 56% stake it holds in Daewoo Shipbuilding to Hyundai Heavy in exchange for a stake worth about $105 million in Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co.

HHIH, the holding company of Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, holds a 36 percent stake in KSOE. KSOE is the group's subholding company and has three affiliates -- Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co. and Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co. -- under its wing.

Under the initial agreement, Hyundai Heavy was planning to raise about $105 million through the sale of Daewoo Shipbuilding shares to pay back Daewoo's debts after acquisition.

An EU veto is the first since the EU regulator blocked the merger between Germany's steelmaker Thyssenkrupp AG and India's Tata Steel Ltd. in 2019 due to the same anti-competition worries.

South Korea has the world's three biggest shipbuilders by orders -- Hyundai Heavy, Samsung Heavy Industries Co. and Daewoo Shipbuilding.

Meanwhile, South Korea's antitrust regulator is expected to end the merger review process if Hyundai withdraws the combination proposal following the EU decision.

Robots hired to fill server positions in Florida

CareerSource Palm Beach County says the leisure and hospitality sectors are still down about 4,

By: WPTV Staff
Jan 12, 2022

BOCA RATON, Fla. (WPTV) — As restaurant operators struggle with staffing, restaurants in Boca Raton, Florida, are turning to robot servers.

"Bella" is a robot at the fast-casual Asian bowl concept called Eat District in Boca Raton, Florida.

"Hello, Your food is here," the robot said to a table.

"It helps greats the customer, it helps run the food," said Louis Grayson, who operates several Asian eateries in Palm Beach County. "It can even seat customers and it even sings happy birthday."

The demand for collaborative robots, known as “COBOTS," is surging.

"Due to, like, the labor shortage, it really does help us with a little bit more, like a helping hand," said Grayson.

Bella's attendance record is perfect.

"Luckily the robot never calls out sick," said Grayson. However, he admitted that the robot may need time off for system updates.

At Eat District, Bella is more of a food runner.

At The Sea Asian Kitchen, also in Boca Raton, Grayson has given that robot more responsibilities.

"Placing all the plates and everything on there and runs it to the dishwasher," he said.

The Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association said operators have told them that robots cut down on costs and "they have proven to be reliable."

The robots cost over $10,000.

"We thought about it and we thought, you know, from that $10,000 to extra helping hand is worth every penny," Grayson said.

POV: The Great Resignation. It’s Not as Great as Screaming Headlines Suggest

Historical data and a deeper analysis show large numbers of US workers have been quitting for years

January 13, 2022
Jay Zagorsky

The so-called “Great Resignation” was one of the top stories of 2021 as “record” numbers of workers reportedly quit their jobs.

The latest figures, which came out on January 4, showed that 4.5 million people voluntarily left their positions in November—an “all-time high,” according to the agency responsible for collecting the data. That’s 3 percent of the nonfarm workforce—which headlines also proclaimed a record level.

But is it?

The “quit rate” interests me, because I wrote my economics doctoral thesis on how people find work. Since then, I have been fascinated by how people leave jobs and then find new ones.

Data on people quitting comes from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Each month, the bureau runs the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, also known as JOLTS. The bureau interviews about 20,000 businesses and government agencies each month, which it uses to estimate several aspects of the workforce, including the number of people who quit, retired, got hired, or got fired.

Since April 2021, the share of nonfarm workers who quit their jobs has been at some of the highest levels recorded by the bureau. In all, nearly 33 million people left their positions over this period, or over a fifth of the total US workforce.

Certainly, that’s a lot of people. But a closer look at all the historical data we have can help put this in some perspective.

One issue is calling the current levels [of quitting] a “record.” The problem is the data only goes back a little over two decades, which means it’s certainly possible that the [quit] rate could have been higher at several points in the past. We just don’t know.

For example, during the dot-com bubble in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the US economy was strong, which created many new jobs and opportunities for workers. These are typical precursors to more people quitting their current jobs in search of better pay and benefits. Given that the rate was 2.4 percent in January 2001—a month after the quits data begins—it’s not a stretch to imagine it may have been higher than the current level at some point in 2000 or earlier.

Or another time when quits may have been higher was after World War II, when the postwar American economy was booming and the economy was in great flux.

In fact, some data pre-2000 does exist that suggests there are times when the quit rate may have been higher. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics tracked the quit rate in the manufacturing sector from 1930 to 1979, when it ended the survey because the industry—which at one time made up as much as 28 percent of the economy—became less important.

Manufacturing workers, who make things like steel, cars, and textiles, were quitting their jobs at a monthly average rate of 6.1 percent in 1945, compared with the 2.3 percent recorded for the sector in November 2021.

Since about a third of the US workforce had manufacturing jobs in the late 1940s, this suggests the overall quit rate was likely higher back then.

A lot of recent stories have also focused on the absolute number of workers who quit their jobs—such as 4.5 million who quit in November—on a seasonally adjusted basis.

If quits for December 2021 are similar to November, I expect about 47 million people will have voluntarily left their jobs in all of 2021. That would mean about 33 percent of the total nonfarm workforce quit jobs last year.

Again, that seems like a lot, but a huge swath of the labor force does this every year. In 2019, for example, about 28 percent of the US workforce quit.

So, is quitting higher than normal? For sure. But off the charts enough to earn the moniker of “Great”? I don’t think so.

Workers also aren’t quitting in droves across all sectors of the economy. While quits are higher than usual in most industries, a few sectors are responsible for most of the turnover, with some lower than their recent peaks.

The highest quit rate is in accommodation and food services. About 6.9 percent of people working in hotels, motels, restaurants and bars gave notice in November. While that’s the highest since 2000, voluntary turnover in this sector is usually on the high side—given the nature of the work—and has been above 5 percent many times over the past two decades.

November’s second-highest quit rate, at 4.4 percent, was retail trade, which includes workers in stores and shops. Combined, these two relatively low-wage industries accounted for one-third of all people who quit that month.

On the other hand, the quit rates for construction, information, finance and insurance, and real estate are relatively low and have been higher in the past 21 years.

We can also see from the data that young people make up the biggest share of people switching jobs. Data from ADP, one of the largest payroll processors, breaks down turnover by age. But unlike the JOLTS data, ADP doesn’t learn why someone is no longer working at a company—whether they quit, got fired, or something else—so it can track only total turnover. ADP’s most recent data shows high turnover is concentrated among 16-to-24-year-olds, with a turnover rate almost three times the national average.

High turnover for young workers is not surprising, in my view, because COVID-19 restrictions have canceled many nonwage benefits like after-work socializing and company parties. For younger workers new to the labor force, these types of activities are important in developing company belonging and loyalty. Without them, there are fewer ties binding these workers to a company.

Nevertheless, just because the quit rate isn’t at a record doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem of too much turnover in the labor market. But that problem appears to predate the pandemic.

High annual quit rates mean many workers are not satisfied with their job’s pay, benefits, or working conditions. And that can be a huge waste of time and money for both companies and workers. Hiring and training workers is expensive. And searching for new jobs and switching jobs is physically and emotionally difficult for workers.

Research shows employers can minimize turnover by many different methods, such as by giving workers a sense of purpose, letting them work in self-directed teams, and providing better benefits.

Individuals thinking about quitting should ideally find another job before quitting. You have a much higher chance of success transitioning from one job to another than trying to jump from unemployment to work.

The next time you hear about the “Great Resignation,” understand it isn’t quite as great as it seems, since large numbers of US workers have been quitting for years.

Jay Zagorsky, Questrom School of Business senior lecturer in markets, public policy, and law, can be reached at zagorsky@bu.edu.

This column originally appeared January 11 on The Conversation.

“POV” is an opinion page that provides timely commentaries from students, faculty, and staff on a variety of issues: on-campus, local, state, national, or international. Anyone interested in submitting a piece, which should be about 700 words long, should contact John O’Rourke at orourkej@bu.edu. BU Today reserves the right to reject or edit submissions. The views expressed are solely those of the author and are not intended to represent the views of Boston University.

The heat stays on: Earth hits 6th warmest year on record

By SETH BORENSTEIN

Vivek Shandas, a professor of climate adaptation at Portland State University, takes a temperature reading of almost 106 degrees in downtown Portland, Ore., on Aug. 12, 2021. On Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released measurements showing 2021 was the sixth hottest year on record globally, part of a long-term warming trend. 

(AP Photo/Nathan Howard, File)

Earth simmered to the sixth hottest year on record in 2021, according to several newly released temperature measurements.

And scientists say the exceptionally hot year is part of a long-term warming trend that shows hints of accelerating.

Two U.S. science agencies — NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — and a private measuring group released their calculations for last year’s global temperature on Thursday, and all said it wasn’t far behind ultra-hot 2016 and 2020.

Six different calculations found 2021 was between the fifth and seventh hottest year since the late 1800s. NASA said 2021 tied with 2018 for sixth warmest, while NOAA puts last year in sixth place by itself.

Scientists say a La Nina — natural cooling of parts of the central Pacific that changes weather patterns globally and brings chilly deep ocean water to the surface — dampened global temperatures just as its flip side, El Nino, boosted them in 2016.

Still, they said 2021 was the hottest La Nina year on record and that the year did not represent a cooling off of human-caused climate change but provided more of the same heat.

“So it’s not quite as headline-dominating as being the warmest on record, but give it another few years and we’ll see another one of those” records, said climate scientist Zeke Hausfather of the Berkeley Earth monitoring group that also ranked 2021 the sixth hottest. “It’s the long-term trend, and it’s an indomitable march upward.”

Gavin Schmidt, the climate scientist who heads NASA’s temperature team, said “the long-term trend is very, very clear. And it’s because of us. And it’s not going to go away until we stop increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”

The last eight years have been the eight hottest on record, NASA and NOAA data agree. Global temperatures, averaged over a 10-year period to take out natural variability, are nearly 2 degrees (1.1 degrees Celsius) warmer than 140 years ago, their data shows.

The other 2021 measurements came from the Japanese Meteorological Agency and satellite measurements by Copernicus Climate Change Service i n Europe and the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

There was such a distinctive jump in temperatures about eight to 10 years ago that scientists have started looking at whether the rise in temperatures is speeding up. Both Schmidt and Hausfather said early signs point to that but it’s hard to know for sure.

“If you just look at the last the last 10 years, how many of them are way above the trend line from the previous 10 years? Almost all of them,” Schmidt said in an interview.

There’s a 99% chance that 2022 will be among the 10 warmest years on record and a 10% chance it will be the hottest on record, said NOAA climate analysis chief Russell Vose in a Thursday press conference.

Vose said chances are 50-50 that at least one year in the 2020s will hit 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warming since pre-industrial times — the level of warming nations agreed to try to avoid in the 2015 Paris climate accord.

While that threshold is important, extreme weather from climate change is hurting people now in their daily lives with about 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) warming, Vose and Schmidt said.

The global average temperature last year was 58.5 degrees (14.7 Celsius), according to NOAA. In 1988, NASA’s then-chief climate scientist James Hansen grabbed headlines when he testified to Congress about global warming in a year that was the hottest on record at the time. Now, the 57.7 degrees (14.3 Celsius) of 1988 ranks as the 28th hottest year on record.

Last year, 1.8 billion people in 25 Asian, African and Middle Eastern nations had their hottest years on record, including China, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Iran, Myanmar and South Korea, according to Berkeley Earth.

The deep ocean, where most heat is stored in the seas, also set a record for warmth in 2021, according to a separate new study.

“Ocean warming, aside from causing coral bleaching and threatening sea life and fish populations, ... is destabilizing Antarctic ice shelves and threatens massive ... sea level rise if we don’t act,” said study co-author Michael Mann, a Pennsylvania State University climate scientist.

The last time Earth had a cooler than normal year by NOAA or NASA calculations was 1976. That means 69% of the people on the planet — more than 5 billion people under age 45 — have never experienced such a year, based on United Nations data.

North Carolina state climatologist Kathie Dello, 39, who wasn’t part of the new reports but said they make sense, said, “I’ve only lived in a warming world and I wish that the younger generations did not have to say the same. It didn’t have to be this way.”


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See more AP climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate.

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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter: @borenbears.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Last nine years all among 10 hottest-ever, says US

With the exception of September and December, each month of 2021 had Arctic sea ice levels in the top-10 lowest levels for those respective months, a US agency said in its annual climate report

January 14, 2022 -

With the exception of September and December, each month of 2021 had Arctic sea ice levels in the top-10 lowest levels for those respective months, a US agency said in its annual climate report

The nine years spanning 2013-2021 all rank among the 10 hottest on record, according to an annual report a US agency released Thursday, the latest data underscoring the global climate crisis.

For 2021, the average temperature across global surfaces was 1.51 degrees Fahrenheit (0.84 degrees Celsius) above the 20th-century average, making the year the sixth-hottest in the overall record, which goes back to 1880.