The Cult of Ideology vs. The Cult of Personality

The most important clashes aren’t between right and left but within right and left

David French

10

(Photo by Octavio Jones/Getty Images.)

Do you ever read an idea and feel enlightened and envious at the same time? You simultaneously think, “Aha! That’s insightful,” and “Dang! I’ve been sniffing around this concept and haven’t quite nailed it like he did.” In this instance, it’s a concept that helps explain both the deep dysfunction of our political system and the deep discomfort that so many people of good will—on both sides of our political spectrum—feel with our political culture. 

It’s summed up in this tweet by a sharp lawyer I follow who tweets under the name “A.G. Hamilton.” 

AG @AGHamilton29

I want to talk about why I disagree with this. Problem w both parties right now is a “cult” issue. Politicians are self-interested weather vanes that pander. Elected R's are trying to pander to a cult of personality while elected D's are trying to pander to a cult of ideology. 1/

January 22nd 2022

93 Retweets411 Likes

If you click on the tweet you can read his entire thread, but his point rests on two key and obvious trends. First, the Democratic Party has moved quite decisively to the left, and the median Democrat has moved far more to the left than the median Republican has moved to the right. This chart, recently made famous in a column by progressive writer Kevin Drum, illustrates the point nicely:

And as millions upon millions of Americans have moved collectively to the left—especially when those Americans are disproportionately clustered in like-minded urban enclaves—they have become increasingly intolerant of dissent. Although there are signs that at least some of the cancel culture fever is breaking, I like what Drum says to those who refute its existence:

And for God’s sake, please don't insult my intelligence by pretending that wokeness and cancel culture are all just figments of the conservative imagination. Sure, they overreact to this stuff, but it really exists, it really is a liberal invention, and it really does make even moderate conservatives feel like their entire lives are being held up to a spotlight and found wanting.

Yup. Exactly. We can disagree about the extent of American cancel culture—or whether any given event qualifies—but to deny its existence is to engage in willful partisan blindness.

Lots of folks on the right forwarded around and commented on Drum’s post last summer (it was provocatively titled, “If you hate the culture wars, blame liberals”). Thoughtful conservatives asked their progressive friends to look at the data and examine whether their movement was becoming unacceptably extreme, fueled by the kind of radicalizing frenzy that we so often see from ideologically homogeneous communities.

In fact, as I wrote in my most recent book, Divided We Fall, this phenomenon was explained and predicted by Cass Sunstein almost a generation ago. In a 1999 paper called “The Law of Group Polarization,” he explains that when like-minded people gather, they tend to grow more extreme. Or, here’s how he put it in more academic language:

In a striking empirical regularity, deliberation tends to move groups, and the individuals who compose them, toward a more extreme point in the direction indicated by their own predeliberation judgments. For example, people who are opposed to the minimum wage are likely, after talking to each other, to be still more opposed; people who tend to support gun control are likely, after discussion, to support gun control with considerable enthusiasm; people who believe that global warming is a serious problem are likely, after discussion, to insist on severe measures to prevent global warming.

“This general phenomenon—group polarization—has many implications for economic, political, and legal institutions,” He wrote. “It helps to explain extremism, ‘radicalization,’ cultural shifts, and the behavior of political parties and religious organizations; it is closely connected to current concerns about the consequences of the Internet.” (Emphasis added.) 

Remember, this was written in 1999, before The Facebook was a gleam in Mark Zuckerberg’s eye.

But Hamilton’s tweet captures something that Drum’s chart doesn’t—the nature of radicalization on the right. Any fair reading of the right’s ideology would include the phrase “deeply confused.” After all, where does disproportionate resistance to vaccines come from? That wasn’t even on the right-wing radar before 2020, and to the extent that conservatives cared, they mainly saw it as a product of the crunchy, green weird left, not the populist right. 

Right-wing ideology is so up for grabs that it’s hard to know “the right’s” position on everything from the size and role of government, the First Amendment (for example, it’s somewhat fashionable now for Republican governors to sign obviously unconstitutional bills regulating corporate speech), and foreign policy. After all, the right’s top cable host is now openly echoing the Kremlin’s line in its looming conflict with Ukraine. 

The right’s cult is different. Hamilton calls it a cult of personality. That can imply “Trump,” but I think it’s deeper (and Hamilton notes that it’s deeper). It’s a cult of a certain type of personality, one that is relentlessly, personally, and often punitively aggressive. The aggression is mandatory. The ideology is malleable.

And don’t think for a moment that this began with Trump. He both channeled and amplified a pre-existing tsunami of outrage and animosity. Years back, well before I entered the world of journalism full-time, I spent considerable time, energy, and effort trying to help Mitt Romney win the presidency. My wife and I formed a group called “Evangelicals for Mitt” designed to help persuade my fellow Evangelicals that the Mormon former governor of Massachusetts was the best man for the world’s most difficult job.

In our conversations we emphasized his integrity, his decency, and his competence. Talk about missing your audience—turns out that each of those virtues turned out to be less important than pugilism or aggression. 

But even then, the message from much of the grassroots was clear. Hit harder. No, hit even harder. Lack of aggression was perceived as lack of effort, a lack of a will to win. Mitt’s primary competitors weren’t necessarily more conservative than him, but they were more aggressive. 

What we now call “Trumpism” is really Trump’s imprint on an impulse that pre-existed Trump and is likely to persist well past his presidency. If you pay little attention to talk radio, you’re likely missing the extent of devotion to the cult of aggression. 

The same thing goes for the top-rated television shows and websites. The same personality characteristics persist. It’s pugilists almost all the way down. Reasoned voices are hard to find. And when I say “pugilists,” there is almost no limit to the rhetoric. In a recent New Yorker profile of Dan Bongino—one of social media’s most prominent right-wing voices—Evan Osnos quotes him as describing “insane leftists” as people who “wish death on me and everyone else from COVID, because they’re legitimately crazy satanic demon people.”

That’s absurd rhetoric. Just absurd. But words like “evil,” “satanic,” and “demonic” are routinely thrown around to describe political opponents. Write something that the Trump right disagrees with (especially on matters of race), and you’re “loathsome,” “despicable,” and “odious.” I oughta know, those words were written about me. 

Hamilton optimistically argues that the right will be less difficult to reform because the cult of personality is driven by the search for a “winner.” Change the identity of the winner, and you change the nature of the cult. I hope he’s right. While I don’t like the cult concept in general, I could at least sip the Kool-Aid in a cult of Sasse, but I’m dumping out the entire glass of Trump. 

Unfortunately, however, there is now evidence that parts of the right might “move on” from Trump by becoming more aggressive than Trump. Alex Jones (don’t laugh, he has a huge following) has threatened to turn on Trump for pushing the COVID vaccine. Candace Owens (again, another person with a huge following) has also sharply disagreed with Trump on vaccines, suggesting Trump is too old to follow the latest “independent research.”

Most notably, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, arguably the leading contender for post-Trump Republican leadership has triggered a feud with Trump by being evasive about his vaccine status and criticizing the president’s early handling of the pandemic as too draconian. And don’t forget he recently signed a bill in Brandon, Florida—an obvious nod to the right-wing “Let’s go Brandon” slur. 

The existence of these two cults does much to explain why so many Americans feel so deeply alienated and conflicted about American politics. They explain why so many of us should feel alienated and conflicted. You can take the most thoughtful and committed Christian socialist or progressive (and I know more than a few), and even those folks who might welcome greater awareness of systemic injustice and profound income inequality are deeply chagrined at the package-deal ethics that come with increasing extremism.

“Do I really have to affirm that a man can get pregnant, or that there are no true biological distinctions between men and women?”

“Do I have to support taxpayer funding of abortions?” 

“Do I have to forsake race consciousness (awareness of the profound and systemic injustice) for a kind of intolerant race essentialism that seems to not just speak profoundly untrue things but also violates the civil rights of American citizens?”

At the same time, you can take the most thoughtful and committed Christian pro-life and religious liberty activist, a person who has spent their entire life seeking uphold and advance values of decency, integrity, and fidelity and face the following questions:

“Do I really have to move on from, minimize, or rationalize a violent effort to overturn a presidential election?”

“Should I keep my thoughts about a lifesaving vaccine to myself to avoid fracturing my political coalition even when people I know and love are dying tragic and needless deaths?”

“Is even the idea that this nation bears responsibility for addressing the continued consequences of centuries of racist oppression too ‘woke’ to speak?”

“Is loving my enemies now naïve? Does exhibiting the fruits of the spirit—even in politics—mark me as weak?”

When mutual animosity escalates—and when that gap between red and blue in the chart above widens—the temptation to overlook these internal fault lines can become overpowering. Indeed, the primary reason why 2019’s “against David-Frenchism” essay (which argued that my classical liberal philosophy and personal manner were uniquely problematic to the new right) went viral wasn’t because of its attack on the classical liberalism of the American founding. That’s still a fringe idea that would shock Republican Americans who revere the founders and the founding documents. 

No, it was the attack on decency and civility as “secondary values.” Here was a Christian rationalizing the sidelining of clear and unequivocal biblical commands—commands written when political enemies were far more deadly and the church far more vulnerable than it is today. 

The most important cultural clashes in America in the present moment aren’t between right and left but rather within right and left. They’re aimed at arresting the present trends that render public life increasingly miserable and our union increasingly fragile. 

And here’s where the hope lies. There is evidence of increasing awareness on the left that the movement has simply gone too far. From London Breed’s crackdown on crime in San Francisco to Eric Adams’s election in New York City, there is increasing evidence that regular voters are starting to reject the dangerous extremes. “Defund the Police” is a dead slogan, relegated back to isolated corners of Twitter and small parts of the academy. 

And what of the right? I keep going back to the spiritually and culturally consequential 2021 Southern Baptist Convention. At a crucial moment when a “conservative” movement that all too often mirrored aggression and pugilism of the political right tried to seize control of the SBC, other conservatives (this was no moderate v. conservative contest) answered that they, in the words of former SBC president J.D. Greear, are “great commission Baptists. We have political leanings. But we are not the party of the elephant or the donkey. We are the people of the lamb.”

They elected as president Ed Litton, a man known as a pastor, not a culture warrior, and who has engaged in faithful and consistent efforts at racial reconciliation. 

We can and should find purpose and meaning in our discontent, in our sense that we don’t truly “fit” with either of America’s most aggressive political and cultural factions. It’s that discontent, given voice and put into practice, that can rescue us from the cults of ideology and personality, the movements that are ripping our families, our communities, and our nation apart. 

One more thing …

I originally envisioned the Good Faith podcast as an extension of the discussions in this newsletter, but the podcast comes out before I write, so that’s not always going to work. This week is no exception. Curtis and I take a hard look at why pastors are leaving churches, what that says about us, what that says about the church, and what we can do about it.

Please listen to the whole thing. Curtis is a former pastor, and his story about why he left the pulpit echoes powerfully with pastors who write to me almost every day. 

One last thing …

I’ve shared this song before, but I think it’s particularly salient this week, mainly because of the first line—“I’m done trusting in what’s sinking. These boats weren’t built for me.” These political movements that command our loyalty and commitment? Those boats weren’t built for us.

Corporate Media Spin in Defence of Transnational Mining Operations in Ecuador

BY BEN DEBNEY
JANUARY 21, 2022

If Australian mining baroness Gina Rinehardt is to believed, the Ecuadorian arm of her transnational mining operations, Hanrine, has been under siege by ‘swarms’ of ‘bandits’ who are backed by ‘organised crime,’ protected by ‘scoundrel layers’ and ‘unscrupulous politicians,’ and are carrying out ‘environmentally destructive’ and illegal mining operations around the concessions granted to Hanrine by the Ecuadorian government in 2017. The Ecuadorian government, Hanrine alleged at the beginning of the year, has been forced to send in the military to restore order.

These claims from Hanrine Holdings come in the face its own operations in the small town of La Merced de Buenos Aires, against which the residents of the area have been organised in ardent opposition for the best part of five years. More than 300 residents spent over a month blockading access roads for Hanrine machinery, trucks and employees when they first arrived, and have now set up a permanent camp around the new copper mine in protest at its destructive effects on their local community and ecology.

Hanrine’s allegations are of particular interest and concern insofar as the actual chronology of events associated with the discovery of copper deposits around Buenos Aires sits conspicuously at adds with the claims published in the mainstream Australian corporate media at the beginning of the year—claims that have neither been upheld with any evidence, nor withdrawn for lack of any. The best lies, as political propagandists have long understood, are those spun from partial truths, not those cut from whole cloth. In this case, the claims from Hanrine are brazen distortions of half-truths.

The half-truth being weaponised by Australian mining operations in Ecuador in this instance is that the discovery of gold deposits in the area in 2017, four years ago, did indeed attract a rush of unlicensed miners from as far away as Peru and Venezuela. According to the Murdoch press article carrying the Hanrine claims, Buenos Aires was ‘plagued by violence, prostitution and drug addiction’ for two years until the Ecuadorian state put the area under a 60-day state of emergency. At the time, neoliberal Ecuadorian president Lenín Moreno tweeted, ‘Illegal mining and its network of associated crimes must be stopped!’

While it is clear then that the first discovery of precious minerals in the area did produce a gold rush, with all of the social ills typically associated with them, no explanation from Hanrine or the Murdoch Press has been forthcoming as to how this constituted either ‘banditry’ or ‘organised crime’—much less to say such activity protected by nebulous ‘scoundrel layers’ or ‘unscrupulous politicians.’ The existence of the oldest profession in the area was hardly proof; for all anyone knows all involved were self-employed. The existence of prostitution in the area certainly does not bear association with the narcotrafficking and official corruption more typically associated with South America. Nor is there any explanation to how a gold rush that failed to bear such descriptions four years ago has any bearing on anti-mining organising around Buenos Aires in 2021.

No less problematically, claims that the 2017 gold rush was ‘environmentally destructive’ because it was illegal are belied by the fact, pointed to as one of the main bones of contention by residents of Buenos Aires, that legal mining operations are just as environmentally destructive—if not more so. The attempt by Hanrine and their enablers in the Murdoch Press to establish a pretence to the contrary is, in this case, telling, in meeting attempts by Buenos Aires residents to hold them accountable with PR spin associating ecological sustainability with legalism. Insofar as Ecuadorian President Moreno colludes in perpetrating this false assumption, this also serves to call into question his impartiality. No enabling ‘scoundrel layers’ or ‘unscrupulous politicians’ to be seen here.

Further clues as to what is actually going on, and what purposes the claims from Hanrine actually serve, are suggested by testimony from Earth defender Natalia Bonilla. As Bonilla points out, when

her organization, Acción Ecológica, took an interest in what was happening in Buenos Aires, and started trying to work with residents to resist the mining operation, she realised that the people clustered around the mine were residents of the area, not participants in a gold rush. ‘It is a community of farmers, ranchers and agricultural people,’ she stated, arguing further that the spin from the mining company had ‘marked them as illegal miners and made them invisible’ (Cardona 2021).

The holes in the story as published by the Murdoch Press here in Australia, along with the direct testimony from Earth defenders on the ground in Ecuador, tends towards the conclusion that the claims from Hanrine, parroted and platformed by the Murdoch Press, have been constructed for the express purpose of invisibilising protest and demonising Earth Defenders. This is consistent with two decades of counterterrorist moral panic operating on the logic of ‘doubting the judgment of the powerful gives aid to the terrorists’—the association of Earth defence with terrorism being as predictable today as it was in 2001.

Indeed, as Rebekah Hayden, a member of the Rainforest Action Group points out,

Villagers say Hanrine is acting illegally in trying to forcibly enter their territories. They do not want any kind of mining in their territories, particularly a foreign-owned mine, and they view the incursion as a violation of their rights. Despite reports in Australian and Ecuadorian press that resistance in the area was by illegal miners, locals insist this is not the case, saying that Hanrine is conducting a smear campaign against them.

If it is a truism that throwing mud at others is a reflection of what we fear most about ourselves, we might conclude from the abovementioned facts that, in contrast to the claims from Hanrine, Ecuador is under siege from legal mining bandits. Backed by organised crime and scoundrel layers in the form of a neoliberal national government, who are enabling them in environmentally destruction, it is transnational mining corporations—in this instance, Hanrine, and in other instances, any number of others—who are culpable for extractivist destruction in what remains of the world’s forests.

Even if the claims published in the corporate media are threadbare, hysterical and bizarre, they nevertheless serve to muddy and disguise these basic facts associated with the global ecological crisis and its root causes—claims that the Earth defenders demonised as a result of media propaganda and demonisation work tirelessly to draw attention to.

References

Cardona, Antonio José Paz (2021). ‘An Ecuadoran town that survived illegal miners now faces a licensed operator,’ Monga Bay, via https://news.mongabay.com/2021/08/an-ecuadoran-town-that-survived-illegal-miners-now-faces-a-licensed-operator/, accessed 20 September 2021

Cockburn, Gerard & Anton Nilsson (2021). ‘Ecuadorean mine owned by Gina Rinehart has been swarmed by illegal gold diggers,’ News.com.au, January 27, via https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/breaking-news/ecuadorean-mine-owned-by-gina-rinehart-has-been-swarmed-by-illegal-gold-diggers/news-story/d06110875a43d4741e72912724832ef2, accessed 20 September 2021

Mining Journal (2019). ‘”Illegal mining and its network of associated crimes must be stopped!” via https://www.mining-journal.com/politics/news/1366551/%E2%80%9Cillegal-mining-and-its-network-of-associated-crimes-must-be-stopped-%E2%80%9D, accessed 20 September 2021

Rainforest Action Group (2021). ‘Gina Rinehart’s Ecuador concession faces new trouble,’ April 26, via https://rainforestactiongroup.org/gina-rineharts-ecuador-concession-faces-new-trouble/, accessed 20 September 2021


Ben Debney is a PhD candidate in history at Western Sydney University, Bankstown. He is the author of The Oldest Trick in the Book: Panic-Driven Scapegoating in History and Recurring Patterns of Persecution (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).

DE-ESCALATION, YES PLEASE
Germany will not supply weapons to Kyiv for now, defence minister says

Fri., January 21, 2022



BERLIN (Reuters) - Berlin is ruling out arms deliveries to Ukraine in the standoff with Russia for now, German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said in an interview published on Saturday, a few days after Britain started supplying Kyiv with anti-tank weapons.

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators also promised weapons to Ukraine, which could include missiles, small arms and boats, to help the country defend itself from a potential invasion amid a Russian military build-up https://www.reuters.com/world/top-diplomats-us-russia-meet-geneva-soaring-ukraine-tensions-2022-01-21 on its borders.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, however, has stressed Berlin's policy of not supplying lethal weapons to conflict zones.

"I can understand the wish to support Ukraine, and that's exactly what we are doing already," Lambrecht told the Welt am Sonntag weekly.

"Ukraine will receive a complete field hospital together with the necessary training in February, all co-financed by Germany for 5.3 million euros ($6.01 million)," she said, noting that Germany has been treating severely injured Ukrainian troops in its military hospitals for years.

But Berlin is not ready to supply Kyiv with weapons for the time being, the minister said.

"We have to do everything to de-escalate. Currently, arms deliveries would not be helpful in this respect, there is agreement on this in the German government," Lambrecht said.

With her remarks, she sided with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock who said Germany would not criticize other countries for being ready to supply weapons to Ukraine.

"But I don't think it is realistic that such deliveries could tip the military balance," Baerbock told Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

"The most powerful weapon...is for NATO allies, EU member states and the G7 to make it clear (to Russia) that every fresh aggression will be answered with massive consequences."

($1 = 0.8818 euros)

(Reporting by Sabine Siebold, Editing by William Maclean)

VERY BRIEF
A brief history of Afghan women's rights

For over a century, Afghanistan's rulers and ethnic groups have been arguing about what women should do and how they should be. Women haven't had much say.

Women queue up for cash at a World Food Program site in Kabul, Afghanistan

"I was working for the Defense Ministry. I know those women are at high risk. They were in a really, really bad situation, struggling to find a hiding place and maybe counting moments to their death," says Zarifa Ghafari, who previously served as the mayor of Maidan Shahr, capital of Wardak province, before joining Afghanistan's Defense Ministry in Kabul.

Ghafari barely managed to flee Afghanistan with her family days after the Taliban took over in September last year. She says her female colleagues at the ministry have completely stopped working now.

Recently, she heard her friends talking about three children abandoned on the streets by their mother, who was unable to look after them anymore.

"Why would anyone do that," Ghafari asks rhetorically, explaining that many women simply have no choice: As single mothers and the sole bread-earners of the family, they have been particularly affected by the Taliban's ban on work for women.

The regime has also banned women from showing their faces on all kinds of media, including advertisements and television; schools have been closed down for girls, and women are not permitted to move outside their homes without a male consort.

Early feminists

Women's rights were an important concern for rulers since the early 1900s, writes Huma Ahmed-Ghosh, professor at the Department of Women's Studies, University of San Diego, in her 2003 study "A History of Women in Afghanistan: Lessons learnt for the Future."

Since the 1920s, the country's leaders have consequently sought to empower women in an attempt to create a sense of nationhood, she adds.

Women's empowerment received a boost after Amanullah Khan succeeded the throne following his father Habibullah's assassination in 1919. That same year, he overthrew the British in the Third Anglo-Afghan War.

He took inspiration from the modernization in Turkey under Kemal Ataturk and implemented changes like advocating monogamy, education and replacing the full-body burqa for women and so on.

King Amanullah implemented laws that would grant women more rights

His wife, Queen Soraya, also appeared without the traditional shroud, wearing a wide-brimmed hat with a diaphanous veil instead.

Amanullah and the Queen also traveled to Europe and returned to their country to implement new laws they thought would benefit women.

Most attempts by Amanullah were however met with strong opposition from tribal leaders and he was forced to scale back many of his laws, including those regarding increasing the age of women's marriage to 21 from 18 and abolishing polygamy. Amanullah was finally forced to abdicate, after considerable pressures from tribal leaders, and fled to Europe.

After the fall of the monarchy and increasing developmental assistance by the USSR, women were in demand in the workforce and joined medical and teaching professions. In the 1970s, more measures to protect girls' rights were adopted, including increasing women's age of marriage and making education compulsory.


However, this too resulted in a massive backlash from religious tribal groups.

The subsequent rise of the Mujahideen, and later the Taliban, led to more emphasis on enforcing traditional Islamist rules and confining women to their homes. Women from conservative communities also perceived western, modern influences as "corrupt," Ahmed-Ghosh writes in her research.
Women in Afghanistan today

Even today, Afghanistan is a patriarchal society, especially in rural areas, says Britta Rude, an economist working on inequality in Afghanistan and researcher at the ifo Center for International Institutional Comparisons and Migration Research in Munich.

Women working outside the home is not considered proper in the view of Afghan conservatives, adds Rude: "There's a very traditional division of labor. Women are the ones doing all the work in the household while the men go outside and work there. Women also take care of children and the elderly."

LIFE IN AFGHANISTAN UNDER THE TALIBAN

New but old dress code

Although it is not yet mandatory for women to wear a burqa, many do so out of fear of reprisals. This Afghan woman is visiting a local market with her children. There is a large supply of second-hand clothes as many refugees have left their clothes behind.

123456789

This division of roles is still widely accepted, and even preferred, by Afghan men.

Only 15% of Afghan men believe women should be allowed to work after marriage and two-thirds complained that Afghan women had "too many rights," according to a 2019 study conducted by UN Women and Promundo, as summarized by Reuters. (Given the current need to protect the identity of Afghan women, the original study has been temporarily removed from the internet at the request of UN Women.)

Furthermore, the idea of "honor" also has an impact on Afghan women, the researcher explains, adding that the sense of community and understanding within the community are of paramount importance for families and individuals.

Economist and researcher Britta Rude

"For example, if a woman does something that is not aligned with the values and norms of this community, it can affect the reputation of the entire family. That's why they pay so much attention to the behavior of women and try to limit them," Rude explains.

"The norms and values are prescribed by men, and women are supposed to follow these norms and rules. As soon as women step out of these, it can affect the honor of the family. That is also why honor killings still take place in Afghanistan," she says.

Ethnic tribes and communities often also have their own formal "rulings'' regarding perceived crimes and misdemeanors. They overrule government laws — like those against honor killings — and implement their own punishments, adds Rude.

Traditional Afghan attire for women is colorful: Historian Bahar Jalali led the 2021 Twitter campaign #DoNotTouchMyClothes

No hope in the near future

For former mayor Zarifa Ghafari, tribal, anti-women laws and current developments under the Taliban go totally against her perception of Afghan culture in the early 20th century.

"Afghan culture was beautiful before the last 60-70 years of war," she says, adding that those were good times for women, "their rights, their education and development."

Ghafari talks about her grandmother, who would have been nearly 100 years old today and who'd often tell her stories from her days of youth, when women were able to go to university and wear any clothes they wished to.


"Afghan culture is the culture of Malala Maiwandi, the culture of Rabia Balkhi," Ghafari says. Maiwandi was a journalist who was killed by gunmen in Jalalabad in 2020; Balkhi was a 10th-century poet who killed herself after being separated from her slave lover, who she was not allowed to marry.

"This is my culture," Ghafari insists.

"In Islamic culture, the hijab is more about your level of comfort while wearing it," she explains — as opposed to the Taliban's strict orders. Press agency AFP reported earlier in January that the Taliban's religious police have put up posters around Kabul ordering women to cover up; even though the posters refer to the obligation to wear the hijab, they include a photo of the face-covering burqa, interpreted as another sign of creeping restrictions.

"Stupid people who make a business out of religion say, 'If you do this, you will go to hell, if you do that, you will go to hell,'" Ghafari adds.

At present, there seems little hope that things will improve considering that the Taliban have not followed up on the promises they initially made on women's rights.

For Ghafari, the only way out is to convince the international community of the urgency of the situation and put the Taliban under diplomatic pressure to act as they have promised.

Syria battle between IS, Kurdish forces kills over 120: monitor





Sun, January 23, 2022

A fierce battle raged in Syria for a fourth day Sunday between US-backed Kurdish forces and Islamic State group fighters who have attacked a prison, killing at least 120 people including seven civilians, a war monitor said.

More than 100 insurgents late Thursday attacked the Kurdish-run Ghwayran jail in Hasakeh city to free fellow jihadists, in the most significant IS operation since its self-declared caliphate was defeated in Syria nearly three years ago.

Intense fighting since then has seen the militants free detainees and seize weapons stored at the jail, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, in what experts see as a bold IS attempt to regroup.

"At least 77 IS members and 39 Kurdish fighters, including internal security forces, prison guards and counter-terrorism forces, have been killed" inside and outside the prison since the start of the attack, the Observatory said.

At least seven civilians are among those who died in the fighting in the northeastern city, said the monitor.

The battles continued for a fourth consecutive day on Sunday as the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), backed by coalition strikes, closed in on jihadist targets inside and outside the facility.

"Fierce clashes broke out overnight Sunday... as part of an ongoing attempt by Kurdish forces to restore control over the prison and neutralise IS fighters deployed in surrounding areas," said the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.

- 'A miracle we made it out' -

An AFP correspondent in the city's Ghwayran neighbourhood reported the sound of heavy clashes in areas immediately surrounding the jail, which houses at least 3,500 suspected IS members.

The SDF deployed heavily in areas around the prison where they carried out combing operations and used loudspeakers to call on civilians to leave the area, the correspondent said.

IS fighters "are entering homes and killing people," said a civilian in his thirties who was fleeing on foot.

"It was a miracle that we made it out," he told AFP, carrying an infant wrapped in a wool blanket.

"The situation is still very bad. After four days, violent clashes are still ongoing."

Hamsha Sweidan, 80, who had been trapped in her neighbourhood near the jail, said civilians were left without bread or water as the battle raged.

"We have been dying of hunger and of thirst," she told AFP as she crossed into SDF-held areas in Hasakeh city. "Now, we don't know where to go."

IS has carried out regular attacks against Kurdish and government targets in Syria since the rump of its once-sprawling proto-state was overrun in March 2019.

Most of their guerrilla attacks have been against military targets and oil installations in remote areas, but the Hasakeh prison break could mark a new phase in the group's resurgence.

- Weapons and captives -

The Observatory said that Kurdish forces had managed to recapture more than 100 IS detainees who had tried to escape, but that many more were still on the run. Their exact numbers remained unclear.

IS, in a statement released on its Amaq news agency overnight, claimed that it took over a weapons storage room in the prison and freed hundreds of fellow jihadists since the operation began with a double suicide bombing.

A video it released on Amaq purported to show IS fighters carrying the group's black flag as they launched the attack on the facility and surrounded what appears to be a group of prison guards.

A second video released Saturday showed nearly 25 men whom IS said it had abducted as part of the attack, including some dressed in military fatigues.

AFP could not independently verify the authenticity of the footage.

Commenting on the video, the SDF said the captives were "kitchen staff" from the jail.

"Our forces lost contact with them during the first attack," it said in a statement, without elaborating.

The Kurdish authorities have long warned they do not have the capacity to hold, let alone put on trial, the thousands of IS fighters captured in years of operations.

According to Kurdish authorities, more than 50 nationalities are represented in a number of Kurdish-run prisons, where over 12,000 IS suspects are now being held.

Many of the IS prisoners' countries of origins have been reluctant to repatriate them, fearing a public backlash at home.

ho/fz

Dozens killed as fighting rages on after IS prison attack in eastern Syria

Fighting raged for a third day Saturday between the Islamic State group and Kurdish forces in Syria after IS attacked a prison housing jihadists, with the violence killing nearly 90 people, a monitor said.

© AFP

The assault on Ghwayran prison in the northeastern city of Hasakeh is one of IS's most significant since its "caliphate" was declared defeated in Syria nearly three years ago.

"At least 28 members of the Kurdish security forces, five civilians and 56 members of IS have been killed" in the violence, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

IS launched the attack on Thursday night against the prison housing at least 3,500 suspected members of the jihadist group, including some of its leaders, the Observatory said.

The jihadists "seized weapons they found" in the detention centre and freed several fellow IS fighters, said the Britain-based monitor, which relies on sources inside war-torn Syria for its information.

Hundreds of jihadist inmates had since been recaptured but dozens were still believed to be on the run, it added.

With air support from the US-led coalition, Kurdish security forces have encircled the prison and are battling to retake full control of surrounding neighbourhoods, which jihadists have used as a launchpad for their attacks.

The Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said "fierce clashes" broke out in neighbourhoods north of Ghwayran, where it carried out raids and killed more than 20 IS fighters.

An AFP correspondent saw Kurdish fighters raiding homes in the flashpoint area near the jail in search of militants while coalition helicopters flew overhead.

In one location, Kurdish fighters gathered around five bloodied corpses of suspected IS fighters that had been placed along the roadside, the correspondent said.

'No one but God'

The battles have triggered a civilian exodus from neighbourhoods around Ghwayran, with families fleeing for a third consecutive day in the harsh winter cold as Kurdish forces closed in on IS targets.

"Thousands have left their homes near the prison, fleeing to nearby areas where their relatives live," Sheikhmous Ahmed, an official in the autonomous Kurdish administration, told AFP.

But not all the displaced had a safe haven.

"We don't know where we are going," said Abu Anas, who was forced out of his home on Saturday.

"We have no one but God," he told AFP as he fled on foot with his wife and four children.

IS has carried out persistent attacks against Kurdish and government targets in Syria since the rump of its once-sprawling proto-state was overrun in March 2019.

Most of them have targeted military outposts and oil installations in remote areas, but the Hasakeh prison break could mark a new phase in the group's resurgence.

IS said in a statement released by its Amaq news agency that the attack on the jail aimed to "free the prisoners".

An IS video released by Amaq on Saturday purported to show armed jihadists infiltrating the prison at the start of the operation.

They raised the group's black flag as they stormed the facility and surrounded what appears to be a group of prison guards.

AFP could not independently verify the authenticity of the footage.

It was not immediately clear whether the prison break was part of a centrally coordinated operation -- timed to coincide with an attack on a military base in neighbouring Iraq -- or the action of a local IS cell.

'Fat target'

Analyst Nicholas Heras of the Newlines Institute in Washington said the jihadist group targeted the prison to bolster its numbers.

The Islamic State group "wants to move beyond being the terrorist and criminal network that it has devolved into, and to do that it needs more fighters," he told AFP.

"Prison breaks represent the best opportunity for ISIS to regain its strength in arms, and Ghwayran prison is a nice fat target for ISIS because it's overcrowded," he said, using another acronym for IS.

The Kurdish authorities have long warned they do not have the capacity to hold, let alone put on trial, the thousands of IS fighters captured in years of operations.

They say more than 50 nationalities are represented in Kurdish-run prisons, where more than 12,000 IS suspects are now held.

Many of the prisoners' countries of origins have been reluctant to repatriate them, fearing a public backlash at home.

The autonomous administration's top foreign policy official, Abdulkarim Omar, blamed the prison attack on the "international community's failure to shoulder its responsibilities".

The war in Syria, which broke out in 2011, has killed close to half a million people and spurred the largest conflict-induced displacement since World War II.

(AFP)

Thich Nhat Hanh, who worked for decades to teach mindfulness, approached death in that same spirit


Brooke Schedneck, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Rhodes College
Fri, January 21, 2022

Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh praying during a three-day requiem for the souls of Vietnam War victims in 2007. Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP via Getty Images

Thich Nhat Hanh, the monk who popularized mindfulness in the West, died in the Tu Hieu Temple in Hue, Vietnam, on Jan. 21, 2022. He was 95.

In 2014, Thich Nhat Hanh suffered a stroke. Since then he was unable to speak or continue his teaching. In October 2018 he expressed his wish, using gestures, to return to the temple in Vietnam where he had been ordained as a young monk. Devotees from many parts of the world had continued to visit him at the temple.

Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh on a wheelchair wearing a purple robe and surrounded by monks in similar robes.

As a scholar of the contemporary practices of Buddhist meditation, I have studied his simple yet profound teachings, which combine mindfulness along with social change, and which I believe will continue to have an impact around the world.

Peace activist

In the 1960s, Thich Nhat Hanh played an active role promoting peace during the years of war in Vietnam. He was in his mid-20s when he became active in efforts to revitalize Vietnamese Buddhism for peace efforts.

Over the next few years, Thich Nhat Hanh set up a number of organizations based on Buddhist principles of nonviolence and compassion. His School of Youth and Social Service, a grassroots relief organization, consisted of 10,000 volunteers and social workers offering aid to war-torn villages, rebuilding schools and establishing medical centers.

He also established the Order of Interbeing, a community of monastics and lay Buddhists who made a commitment to compassionate action and supported war victims. In addition, he founded a Buddhist university, a publishing house and a peace activist magazine as ways to spread the message of compassion.

In 1966, Thich Nhat Hanh traveled to the United States and Europe to appeal for peace in Vietnam.

In lectures delivered across many cities, he compellingly described the war’s devastation, spoke of the Vietnamese people’s wish for peace and appealed to the U.S. to cease its air offensive against Vietnam.

During his years in the U.S. he met Martin Luther King Jr., who nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967.

However, because of his peace work and refusal to choose sides in his country’s civil war, both the communist and noncommunist governments banned him, forcing Thich Nhat Hanh to live in exile for over 40 years.

During these years, the emphasis of his message shifted from the immediacy of the Vietnam War to being present in the moment – an idea that has come to be called “mindfulness.”
Being aware of the present moment

Thich Nhat Hanh first started teaching mindfulness in the mid-1970s. The main vehicle for his early teachings was his books. In “The Miracle of Mindfulness,” for example, Thich Nhat Hanh gave simple instructions on how to apply mindfulness to daily life.

In his book “You Are Here,” he urged people to pay attention to what they were experiencing in their body and mind at any given moment, and not dwell in the past or think of the future. His emphasis was on the awareness of the breath. He taught his readers to say internally, “I’m breathing in; this is an in-breath. I’m breathing out; this is an out-breath.”

Thich Nhat Hanh emphasized that mindfulness could be practiced anywhere. Antonio Guillem/Shutterstock.com

People interested in practicing meditation didn’t need to spend days at a meditation retreat or find a teacher. His teachings emphasized that mindfulness could be practiced anytime, even when doing routine chores.

Even doing the dishes, people could simply focus on the activity and be fully present. Peace, happiness, joy and true love, he said, could be found only in the present moment.

Mindfulness in America

Hanh’s mindfulness practices don’t advocate disengagement with the world. Rather, in his view, the practice of mindfulness could lead one toward “compassionate action,” like practicing openness to others’ viewpoints and sharing material resources with those in need.

Jeff Wilson, a scholar of American Buddhism, argues in his book “Mindful America” that it was Hanh’s combination of daily mindfulness practices with action in the world that contributed to the earliest strands of the mindfulness movement. This movement eventually became what Time magazine in 2014 called the “mindful revolution.” The article argues that the power of mindfulness lies in its universality, as the practice has entered into corporate headquarters, political offices, parenting guides and diet plans.

For Thich Nhat Hanh, however, mindfulness was not a means to a more productive day but a way of understanding “interbeing,” the connection and codependence of everyone and everything. In a documentary “Walk With Me,” he illustrated interbeing in the following way:

A young girl asks him how to deal with the grief of her recently deceased dog. He instructs her to look into the sky and watch a cloud disappear. The cloud has not died but has become the rain and the tea in the teacup. Just as the cloud is alive in a new form, so is the dog. Being aware and mindful of the tea offers a reflection on the nature of reality. He believed this understanding could lead to more peace in the world.

Thich Nhat Hanh’s lasting impact

Thich Nhat Hanh will have a lasting impact through the legacy of his teachings in over 100 books, 11 global practice centers, over 1,000 global lay communities and dozens of online community groups. The disciples closest to him – the 600 monks and nuns ordained in his Plum Village tradition, along with lay teachers – have been planning to continue their teacher’s legacy for some time.

They have been writing books, offering teachings and leading retreats for several decades now. In March 2020, the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation, along with Lion’s Roar, hosted an online summit called “In the Footsteps of Thich Nhat Hanh” to make people aware of his teachings through the disciples he trained.

Although Thich Naht Hanh’s death will change the community, his practices for being aware in the present moment and creating peace will live on.

This is an updated version of a piece first published on March 18, 2019.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Brooke Schedneck, Rhodes College.

Read more:

Rhino horn consumers reveal why a legal trade alone won’t save rhinos


Thich Nhat Hanh, the Buddhist monk who introduced mindfulness to the West, prepares to die

Brooke Schedneck does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Thich Nhat Hanh, influential Zen Buddhist monk, dies at 95


 Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, center, arrives for a great chanting ceremony at Vinh Nghiem Pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on March 16, 2007. Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who helped pioneer the concept of mindfulness in the West and socially engaged Buddhism in the East, has died at age 95 on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022, according to an announcement on his verified Twitter page. (AP Photo, File)More

HAU DINH, ELAINE KURTENBACH and HRVOJE HRANJSKI
Fri, January 21, 2022

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Thich Nhat Hanh, the revered Zen Buddhist monk who helped spread the practice of mindfulness in the West and socially engaged Buddhism in the East, has died. He was 95.

The death was confirmed by a monk at Tu Hieu Pagoda in Hue, Vietnam who said that Nhat Hanh, known as Thay to his followers, died at midnight on Saturday. The monk declined to be named because he is not authorized to speak to media.

A post on Nhat Hanh's verified Twitter page attributed to The International Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism also confirmed the news, saying, “We invite our beloved global spiritual family to take a few moments to be still, to come back to our mindful breathing, as we together hold Thay in our hearts."


Born as Nguyen Xuan Bao in 1926 in Hue and ordained at age 16, Nhat Hanh distilled Buddhist teachings on compassion and suffering into easily grasped guidance over a lifetime dedicated to working for peace. In 1961 he went to the United States to study, teaching comparative religion for a time at Princeton and Columbia universities.

For most of the remainder of his life, he lived in exile at Plum Village, a retreat center he founded in southern France.

There and in talks and retreats around the world, he introduced Zen Buddhism, at its essence, as peace through compassionate listening. Still and steadfast in his brown robes, he exuded an air of watchful, amused calm, sometimes sharing a stage with the somewhat livelier Tibetan Buddhist leader Dalai Lama.

“The peace we seek cannot be our personal possession. We need to find an inner peace which makes it possible for us to become one with those who suffer, and to do something to help our brothers and sisters, which is to say, ourselves,” Nhat Hanh wrote in one of his dozens of books, “The Sun My Heart.”

The Dalai Lama said he was saddened by the death of “his friend and spiritual brother.”

“In his peaceful opposition to the Vietnam War, his support for Martin Luther King and most of all his dedication to sharing with others not only how mindfulness and compassion contribute to inner peace, but also how individuals cultivating peace of mind contribute to genuine world peace, the Venerable lived a truly meaningful life,” he said.

Surviving a stroke in 2014 that left him unable to speak, Nhat Hanh returned from France to Vietnam in October 2018, spending his final years at the Tu Hieu Pagoda, the monastery where he was ordained nearly 80 years earlier.

Nhat Hanh plunged into anti-war activism after his return to his homeland in 1964 as the Vietnam War was escalating. There, he founded the Order of Inter-being, which espouses “engaged Buddhism” dedicated to nonviolence, mindfulness and social service.

In 1966, he met the U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in what was a remarkable encounter for both. Nhat Hanh told King he was a “Bodhisattva,” or enlightened being, for his efforts to promote social justice.

The monk’s efforts to promote reconciliation between the U.S.-backed South and communist North Vietnam so impressed King that a year later he nominated Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize.

In his exchanges with King, Nhat Hanh explained one of the rare controversies in his long life of advocating for peace — over the immolations of some Vietnamese monks and nuns to protest the war.

“I said this was not suicide, because in a difficult situation like Vietnam, to make your voice heard is difficult. So sometimes we have to burn ourselves alive in order for our voice to be heard so that is an act of compassion that you do that, the act of love and not of despair,” he said in an interview with U.S. talk show host Oprah Winfrey. “Jesus Christ died in the same spirit.”

Sulak Sivaraksa, a Thai academic who embraced Nhat Hanh’s idea of socially engaged Buddhism, said the Zen master had “suffered more than most monks and had been involved more for social justice.”

“In Vietnam in the 1950s and 1960s, he was very exposed to young people, and his society was in turmoil, in crisis. He was really in a difficult position, between the devil and the deep blue sea — the Communists on the one hand, the CIA on the other hand. In such a situation, he has been very honest — as an activist, as a contemplative monk, as a poet, and as a clear writer,” Sivaraksa was quoted as saying.

According to Nhat Hanh, “Buddhism means to be awake — mindful of what is happening in one’s body, feelings, mind and in the world. If you are awake, you cannot do otherwise than act compassionately to help relieve suffering you see around you. So Buddhism must be engaged in the world. If it is not engaged, it is not Buddhism.”

Both North and South Vietnam barred Nhat Hanh from returning home after he went abroad in 1966 to campaign against the war, leaving him, he said, “like a bee without a beehive.”

He was only allowed back into the country in 2005, when the communist-ruled government welcomed him back in the first of several visits. Nhat Hanh remained based in southern France.

The dramatic homecoming seemed to signal an easing of controls on religion. Nhat Hanh’s followers were invited by the abbot of Bat Nha to settle at his mountain monastery, where they remained for several years until relations with the authorities began to sour over Nhat Hanh’s calls for an end to government control over religion.

By late 2009 to early 2010, Nhat Hanh’s followers were evicted from the monastery and from another temple where they had taken refuge.

Over nearly eight decades, Nhat Hanh’s teachings were refined into concepts accessible to all.

To weather the storms of life and realize happiness, he counseled always a mindful “return to the breath,” even while doing routine chores like sweeping and washing dishes.

“I try to live every moment like that, relaxed, dwelling peacefully in the present moment and respond to events with compassion,” he told Winfrey.

Nhat Hanh moved to Thailand in late 2016 and then returned to Vietnam in late 2018, where he was receiving traditional medicine treatments for the after-effects of his stroke and enjoyed “strolls” around the temple grounds in his wheelchair, according to the Buddhist online newsletter LionsRoar.com.

It was a quiet, simple end to an extraordinary life, one entirely in keeping with his love for taking joy from the humblest aspects of life. “No mud, no lotus,” says one of his many brief sayings.

___

Kurtenbach and Hranjski reported from Bangkok.

Thousands mourn Buddhist monk who brought mindfulness to the West

Tran Thi Minh Ha
Sat, January 22, 2022

Thousands of mourners packed a pagoda in Vietnam's Buddhist heartland on Sunday to pay tribute to the late Vietnamese monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh, credited with bringing mindfulness to the West.

The Zen master, whose reach within Buddhism was seen as second only to the Dalai Lama, died aged 95 on Saturday at the Tu Hieu Pagoda in the city of Hue.

Widely known as the father of mindfulness, Thich Nhat Hanh spent nearly four decades in exile after he was banished from his homeland for calling for an end to the Vietnam War.

He wrote more than 100 books on mindfulness and meditation and hosted retreats worldwide.

Early on Sunday morning, chanting monks carried his body covered by a yellow sheet along with decorative umbrellas through the throng of mourners.

The smell of incense wafted in the air as they put his body in a wooden coffin and placed it in the meditation hall decorated with yellow daisies.

Buddhist monks in yellow and brown robes recited prayers and followers wearing grey stood in silent contemplation of a remarkable life.

- 'Great teacher' -

Among the mourners was Tran Dinh Huong, 46, who hastily travelled from Hanoi to pay her respects.

"I read many of his books and his words helped me a lot when I was down or going through difficulties," she told AFP.

"I think it will be a very long time until Vietnam and the world has such a great teacher again."

Nguyen Nhat from Ho Chi Minh City said it was deeply moving to see the body.

"I admire him for his simple and modest life," he told AFP.

Thich Nhat Hanh spent 39 years in France and advocated for religious freedom around the world.

Vietnamese authorities permitted him to return to the country in 2018 but plainclothes police kept a vigil outside the pagoda compound closely monitoring his activities.

His messages have not always been welcomed as authorities in one-party Vietnam are wary of organised religion: in 2009 his followers were driven from their temple in southern Lam Dong province by hired mobs.

But Cong An Nhan Dan newspaper -- considered the official mouthpiece of the public security ministry -- published on Sunday a glowing tribute to the writer, poet, scholar, historian and peace activist.

"Monk Thich Nhat Hanh from the Plum Village was a spiritual teacher who had a deep and widespread influence across the world," the obituary said.

Thich Nhat Hanh's coffin is expected to remain in the meditation hall for a week -- as mourners file past to pray -- before a cremation ceremony next Saturday.

Memorial ceremonies will also take place at monasteries in the United States and France and will be broadcast online.

- Legacy lives on -

Tributes flowed to the late monk from all over the world.

The Dalai Lama said his friend and spiritual brother had lived a "truly meaningful life".

"I have no doubt the best way we can pay tribute to him is to continue his work to promote peace in the world," he wrote in a message to the monk's Zen teaching organisation -- the Plum Village Community of Engaged Buddhism.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the monk visited his country three times and praised him as a "living Buddha".

"(He)showed his love for mankind through his actions," he said on Twitter.

Marie C. Damour, charge d'affaires at the US Embassy in Hanoi, said he would be "remembered as arguably one of the most influential and prominent religious leaders in the world".

"His teachings, in particular on bringing mindfulness into daily life, have enriched the lives of innumerable Americans."

US comedian and director Judd Apatow urged people to read the monk's work, characterising it as "life changing" in a Twitter post.

Supporters said Thich Nhat Hanh's legacy will continue.

"I see the master in every single grass, flower, tree branch. He did not pass away, he remains there in another form and status," Le Khanh Linh told AFP at the pagoda.

tmh-lpm/mtp/qan

Dozens of Indian turtles die in suspected poisoning


Indian flapshell turtles are not particularly rare but are a protected species (AFP/-)

Sun, January 23, 2022, 2:55 AM·1 min read

Deliberate poisoning is likely to blame for the death of dozens of turtles at a lake near Mumbai, Indian wildlife experts told AFP Sunday.

Conservation workers were alerted to the incident after a local politician asked them to investigate a foul smell around the body of water in Kalyan, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of India's entertainment capital.

Suhas Pawar of the Wild Animal and Reptile Rescue conservation group said 57 Indian flapshell turtles had been killed while another six were rescued.


He told AFP that locals likely killed the reptiles to stop them from eating fish they were illegally breeding in the lake.

"Everything is being investigated now, a post-mortem and scientific analysis will reveal the exact cause of these deaths," Pawar said.

He added that Covid-19 restrictions over the past two years had likely led to a surge in the local turtle population.

"Restrictions on human activity likely increased the fish stocks at the lake and these turtles were now growing in numbers by feeding on them, which angered some locals," Pawar said.

Indian flapshell turtles are not particularly rare but are a protected species under the Wildlife Protection Act.

bb/gle/je

Stray animals find solace at Iraq animal shelter



A veterinarian volunteering at Baghdad Animal Rescue examines an injured cat at the shelter (AFP/AHMAD AL-RUBAYE)

Salam Faraj
Sat, January 22, 2022

Bella the dog can barely stand after being abused, but she is now receiving care from a Baghdad refuge that hopes to become Iraq's first veterinary clinic for stray animals.

The Baghdad Animal Rescue opened around a week ago, and Bella, a nervous fox-like dog who raises her muzzle for strokes while still shaking in fear, seems in caring hands.

"We are going to care for all kinds of animals and release them when they're well," said Nazik, 37, who is among the volunteers.

Having a pet is unusual in Iraq, and many of the cats and dogs that roam Baghdad's streets are often mistreated.

More than a decade ago, thousands of stray dogs were gunned down with automatic weapons after municipalities including Baghdad decided that their numbers were too high.

For now, the shelter is home to just a handful of animals, including a black cat named Zaatar -- "thyme" in Arabic -- who was blinded in a car accident.

Volunteers do their best to provide care, comfort and solace to the distressed creatures.

"People report injured animals to us after accidents. We bring them here and treat them," said Sally Faysal, 27, another volunteer.

If the animals need more specialised care, they are taken to a veterinarian.

"The team members share the cost of the treatment," Faysal said.

- 'Innocent' -

The refuge, just west of the Iraqi capital, consists of a main room where the animals receive treatment, along with a storage area and cages.

It could eventually hold several hundred animals, and aims to one day become a veterinary clinic for strays.

But for now, it lacks funding.

The team was able to buy the plot of land for 25 million dinars (around $17,000) thanks to donations.

Nazik, who declined to provide her surname, lamented that no public funding had been forthcoming "despite all the promotion we have done on social media".

Iraq is trying to emerge from almost two decades of conflict and has been mired in a political and economic crisis, and animal welfare is far from a priority either for most people or for the authorities.

The United Nations says about one-third of the population lives in poverty, despite the country's oil wealth.

According to the agriculture ministry, there are three reserves for wild species such as deer, but no facilities to care for urban animals.

In a corner of the shelter, Loulou the cat looked around fearfully after losing a paw in an accident.

Volunteers said that before the refuge opened, their family responded with perplexity and even hostility if they brought an injured animal back to their homes.

Once the dogs and cats have recovered, they are put up for adoption -- but will stay on at the refuge if a home can't be found.

"There needs to be an awareness-raising campaign to stop animal abuse," Nazik said. "They are innocent, after all."

Baghdad Cat Rescue - SPCA International

Operation Baghdad Pups: Worldwide - SPCA International

Baghdad Animal Save - Home | Facebook

Peru declares environmental emergency on coastal area hit by oil spill



People take part in a demonstration against the Spanish oil company Repsol in Lima, on January 21, 2022 after the spill of some 6,000 barrels of crude oil on the central coast of Peru

 (AFP/Ernesto BENAVIDES)

Ernesto TOVAR
Sat, January 22, 2022, 2:20 PM·3 min read

Peru declared an environmental emergency Saturday to battle an oil spill caused by freak waves from a volcanic eruption in the South Pacific.

The stunningly powerful eruption last Saturday of an undersea volcano near Tonga unleashed tsunami waves around the Pacific and as far away as the United States.

In Peru, the oil spill near Lima has fouled beaches, killed birds and harmed the fishing and tourism industries.

With its 90-day decree, the government said it plans "sustainable management" of 21 beaches tarred by 6,000 barrels of oil that spilled from a tanker ship unloading at a refinery last Saturday.

One aim of the decree is to better organize the various agencies and teams working in the aftermath of the disaster, said the environment ministry.

Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister Roberto Sanchez estimated Saturday that economic losses total more than $50 million, all sectors combined.

The government is demanding payment of damages from the Spanish energy giant Repsol which owns the refinery.

The environment ministry said 174 hectares -- equivalent to 270 football fields -- of sea, beaches and natural reserves were affected by the spill.

Crews have been working for days to clean up the spill.

But the ministry said it issued the emergency decree because the crude still in the water was still spreading, reaching 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the spot of the original spill.

The environment ministry said "the spill amounts to a sudden event of significant impact on the coastal marine ecosystem, which has major biological diversity."

It said that over the short term, Repsol is responsible for emergency cleanup operations.

The refinery is in the town of Ventanilla near Lima.

- 'Mortally wounded' -

Repsol has said the spill occurred because of the freak waves caused by the eruption.

The company has argued that it is not responsible for the spill, however, because it says the government gave no warning that there might be rough waters from that undersea blast.

On Saturday, Repsol issued a statement outlining the cleanup operation by 1,350 people using big-rig trucks, skimmers, floating containment barriers and other equipment.

Repsol said it is "deploying all efforts to attend to the remediation of the spill."

In addition to the fishing industry, Peru's tourism sector has taken a major blow, including everything from restaurants, to beach umbrella rentals to food and beverage sales by vendors.

"In a normal season, between January and March (during Peru's summer) five million people visit the affected beaches. The economic loss is immense," Sanchez said, adding that thousands of jobs had been affected and the tourism sector "mortally wounded."

On the pier in the town of Ancon north of Lima, only the crew members of larger vessels that fish on the high seas continued to work, while the fish stalls were empty, because there are no longer any customers.

"The fish more than anything comes out with the smell of oil, and people don't buy it, they don't eat it because they are afraid of getting poisoned by it, by the oil spill," said Giovana Rugel, 52, who sells fish at the entrance to the Ancon pier.

Last week, fishermen and other local people who live off the sea and tourism staged protests over the sudden loss of their livelihood.

Oil spill tars Peruvian seaside towns, leaves fishermen jobless

Thousands of barrels of crude oil that were spilled off Peru's central coast have taken a grim toll: dead birds adrift in the sea and irate fishermen stuck on the docks.

© Cris BOURONCLE The boats of fishermen who cannot fish after an oil spill, in the town of Ancon, Peru on January 21, 2022

Some 6,000 barrels poured into the sea as an oil tanker unloaded a week ago at the La Pampilla refinery located some 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Lima. 

According to Spanish oil company Repsol, which owns the refinery, the accident occurred due to freak waves caused by the volcanic eruption in Tonga.

© Carlos REYES Hundreds of traditional fishermen living just outside the Peruvian capital fear their livelihoods are ruined following an oil spill caused by a volcanic eruption thousands of miles away

For fisherman Bernardo Espinoza, the disaster couldn't have come at a worse time.

"Right in the middle of high season they have gone and basically cut off our arms," Espinoza told AFP uneasily, noting that he and his colleagues were unable to work in the middle of the southern hemisphere's summer, when they traditionally sell the most fish.

"We can't work... we already are using up the last of our savings," added Espinoza, a fisherman for 50 years in Ancon Bay, 45 kilometers north of Lima.

The government declared an "environmental emergency" for 90 days on Saturday in the "damaged coastal marine area" affected by the spill, which is drifting north.

Currents spread the oil along the coast more than 40 kilometers from the refinery, tarring 21 beaches, according to the Ministry of Health, which recommended people avoid the areas because they are classified as "unhealthy."

White-suited emergency workers have taken the usual place of weekend beachgoers in Ancon and other nearby coastal towns.

AFP observed enormous oil stains on the ocean surface and dead birds floating in the water on a tour of Ancon Bay aboard the "Rey de Petita" boat, which before the spill took tourists for rides.

"They have attacked the wildlife and our lives, and our jobs -- what the fisherman is," said a distraught Rodney Vasquez, 30, the captain of the small boat, who has lived his entire life near the sea and is the son of a fisherman

At his side, fisherman Alfredo Roque indicated that the difficulties for fishing in the area would last a long time.

© Cris BOURONCLE Emergency crews try to clean beaches polluted by the oil spill in Peru

Baby fish "are already dead; the young, most of them eat on the seashore, and the seashore is full of oil," he told AFP.

In addition to those in the fishing industry, people who work in jobs linked to the beaches were also left without income: from restaurant owners and employees, to people who rent out beach umbrellas and those who sell food and soft drinks along the shore.

© Carlos REYES Cleaning crews working to remove oil from a beach near Ancon, Peru on January 22, 2022 following a spill

- 'Nothing is selling' -

On the Ancon dock, only the crew members of larger vessels that fish on the high seas continued to work, while the fish stalls were empty, because there are no longer any customers.

"Nothing is selling at all... the fish more than anything comes out with the smell of oil, and people don't buy it, they don't eat it because they are afraid of getting poisoned by it, by the oil spill," said Giovana Rugel, 52, who sells fish at the entrance to the Ancon pier.

© Cris BOURONCLE A family of fishermen sells fish on the Ancon pier in Peru after an oil spill

Now the only people along Ancon and other beaches are the emergency crews, made up of soldiers, personnel hired by the oil company and volunteers from non-governmental organizations.

Repsol said it was not responsible for the spill, since the Peruvian maritime authorities did not issue warnings about a possible increase in the waves after the eruption in Tonga.

The emergency crews in white biosafety suits and latex gloves use shovels to remove the oily sand, which is then trucked to toxic waste dumps.

The massive cleanup is being painstakingly carried out by hand; nobody knows when the cleanup will end.

Peru on Wednesday demanded that Repsol "compensate" for the damage caused by the spill.

The company was given a 10-day timeline to complete all cleanup and decontamination actions.

Under the environmental emergency declaration, authorities believe that "sustainable management of the affected territories" can be carried out, with the respective "recovery and remediation work" mitigating environmental contamination.

The spill occurred during the unloading process of the Italian-flagged tanker "Mare Doricum," whose departure has been prohibited by the Peruvian government until bail of some $39 million is presented or until an investigation into the spill is complete.

fj/mdl/bfm