Sudanese Protesters Insist on End to Military MIS-Rule

Sudanese pro-democracy protesters have been more resolute in calling for an unconditional end to military rule than many Western democracies, which have been all too willing to condone a return to the status quo ante.

Protesters march during rally against military rule following last month's coup in Khartoum, Sudan on January 24, 2022.

 Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters

Blog Post by Michelle Gavin
January 26, 2022 

As the fraught standoff in Sudan enters its fourth month, pro-democracy demonstrators persist in resisting the military officers that seized power in October. Their courage and determination deserve the world’s attention and support, as security services continue to use deadly force against demonstrators, arrest human rights activists, and muzzle the press.

At the heart of the impasse are two different ideas about how political legitimacy is derived. For the junta, the use of force is not just a means extinguish opposition: their capacity and willingness to use violent coercion is at the heart of their claim to leadership. Military leaders use paternalistic language about “correcting the track” or being “guardians” of political developments, suggesting that their natural place is to judge developments in Sudan and bring out the guns as they see fit.

But the civilians that began calling for change in 2018 want governing authorities who derive their power from popular consent and are accountable to the demands of citizens. They want democracy, and their patience for proposals that depend on the benevolence and support of the security forces has worn thin. In part because so many foreign countries with interests in Sudan have been reluctant to abandon the notion that civilians and the military should share in political power—despite the flaw in this formula having been made painfully clear by the October coup—their democratic vision is also increasingly nationalist in its tenor. International intervention is viewed with suspicion, because the fundamental idea animating civilian protesters is that the Sudanese people, in all of their diversity and complexity, should be in the driver’s seat of fashioning Sudan’s future. This complicates the United Nations’ already precarious attempts to facilitate dialogue that could end the impasse.

Yet the economic realities that Sudan confronts mean that external actors still matter. Certainly, the security elites clinging to power are working assiduously to shore up international support and tamp down potential regional complications. News that Sudan plans to ramp up gold exports to cover necessary expenditures points to the difficulty the military has in governing without international assistance, which was frozen in the wake of the coup. It is a dubious proposal, not least because it threatens to squeeze the lucrative gold smuggling networks that elites in the security services have long used to enrich themselves. The Biden Administration is right to condition any resumption of financial assistance on an end to the violence and wise to listen to a wide variety of civilian voices in Sudan—voices that should carry greater weight than the wishes of governments in Cairo, Abu Dhabi, or Riyadh. Greater clarity about the impossibility of a “return” to any framework giving the military the capacity to block reforms would also be constructive. There is no discernable value in the United States seeking simply to end the stalemate; it is the “how” that matters. Continued military dominance in Sudan is a bloody road to nowhere.

This publication is part of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Project on the Future of Democracy.

The crypto crash isn't just tulip-trading — it's a result of the toxic entitlement that led to Trump

Vaccine refusal, tech bro libertarianism and Trump: It's all the same white guy refusal to play nice with others

By AMANDA MARCOTTE

SALON
PUBLISHED JANUARY 26, 2022 

It was an outcome that anyone familiar with the terms "tulip trading" or "Beanie Babies" could see coming: Cryptocurrency is crashing. Prices for cryptocurrencies "have cratered since reaching all-time highs in early November, wiping out an astonishing $1.35 trillion in value globally, nearly half of the total market," the Washington Post reports.

The whole thing had an air of a pyramid scheme to it. Media hype and ads featuring Matt Damon lured a bunch of ordinary people into the market, inflating the value of the already questionable currencies. Then, predictably, more professional investors got out, running off with their very real money while the rest of the market collapsed.

But the story of cryptocurrency is about more than just a bunch of gullible people losing their shirts gambling with Monopoly money. Cryptocurrency mania is part of a the same social forces that created libertarianism, rising fascism, and Donald Trump. (Unsurprisingly, the Trumps are trying to cash in, unsuccessfully so far, on crypto.)

RELATED: Meet the Republican congressman cashing in on cryptocurrency
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It's all rooted in the overblown sense of entitlement held by a lot of Americans — especially white Americans, and especially male Americans. It leads them to believe they are above having to live with the same social contract that binds the rest of us. Millions of Americans have decided that they not only can, but should, cheat the system — even to the extent of having separate currency systems. The result is that social structures we all rely on are starting to get shaky and, in some cases, are already on the verge of collapse.

Two bizarre-but-funny stories went viral in recent weeks, which illustrate the absurd levels of entitlement we're dealing with. Last week, an anonymous crypto investment group called Spice DAO spent $3 million on a rare book of concept art for a never-produced version of "Dune" by surrealist filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, apparently believing they could use it to produce and sell an animated series. But all they had bought was a physical book, not the actual copyright. Despite widespread mockery for failing to understand how intellectual property rights work, the crypto bros are still at it, insisting their white elephant of an art book will translate into movie-making power.

Last week, Vice also reported that after Tesla head Elon Musk let loose a dumb tweet about "population collapse," the "obligatory Battle Of Ideas thus commenced" on Twitter, with very rich, influential tech figures speculating about how to generate more of this supposedly scare resource of human babies. (There are approximately 370,000 babies born a day worldwide.) Soon, multiple tech titans with hundreds of thousands — sometimes millions — of followers started hyping the idea of "synthetic wombs" as the solution, ignoring the fact that half the human race grows real wombs in their bodies for absolutely free.

These two dumb stories illustrate the same very real problem: A whole bunch of dudes, some of whom are very rich and powerful, think there's a cheat code to every system.

Want to make a "Dune" movie, but don't want to ask Frank Herbert's son for permission? Want to have a baby, but turned off by the idea of having to persuade a person with a womb into having one with you? Surely, there's got to be a workaround! Having to do things the standard way, which requires playing nice with others, is for the little people.
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RELATED: Cheater in chief: Donald Trump thinks playing by the rules is for losers

Despite the tech utopian spin, this mentality is not about "innovation." It stems from a larger rejection of the social contract that is reaching pandemic levels in American society. This is quite literally illustrated by the actual COVID-19 pandemic, which has spiraled in recent weeks due to so many ordinary conservatives refusing to get vaccinated. This started because GOP leaders and pundits believed it would weaken Joe Biden's presidency to convince their followers to reject vaccines. But the kindling that fueled the fire was the same sense of entitlement that is also fueling the cryptocurrency craze. Millions of people, especially white men and especially Republicans, are ready to hear that they're special snowflakes who don't need to participate in the same boring systems as everyone else — even though systems like vaccination require everyone's participation to work.

It's the Aaron Rodgers/Joe Rogan/Tucker Carlson vortex of vaccine rejection. The three have varying degrees of right-wing ideology, but ultimately, all three tie their anti-vaccine rhetoric to this sense of white guy entitlement and a belief that people like them aren't constrained by the same biology and social obligations as everyone else. It's the same attitude fueling the demand for ivermectin and other "alternative" COVID-19 treatments. These snake oil treatments are the cryptocurrency of health care. It doesn't matter that they're useless. Their appeal lies in flattering the egos of those drawn to them, letting them believe they've found a way to cheat the system and avoid the same boring health care (vaccines) used by the hoi polloi.

The most destructive result of this entitlement is both the election of Trump and his attempted coup, which continues to have widespread support among the Republican Party.

From the very beginning, Trump's appeal to his voters was a promise that he knew how to cheat the system. This was an alluring promise because his base — conservative white voters — is rapidly shrinking in size and cannot hang onto power in a multiracial democracy. Rather than learn to compromise with others and share power fairly, they instead backed a man who claimed he could rig the system in their favor. Now, instead of graciously admitting they lost the election, most Republicans are backing Trump's false claims that the election was stolen. Only 21% of Republicans will now admit that Biden won the 2020 election.

Could it really be that so many millions of Americans are that delusional? It's unlikely. Instead, the conspiracy theory is instrumental. It creates the justification they intend to rely on for the ongoing efforts to steal the next election. Like cryptocurrency or ivermectin, the Big Lie is viewed as a kind of cheat code, a way for Republicans to get their way without having to play by the same rules that constrain everyone else. The insurrection was a violent manifestation of this entitlement, which is why the people who stormed the Capitol seemed genuinely shocked that there were legal consequences for doing so.

Criticizing and tweaking systems so they work better for everyone is a good thing. But that is not what is going on with modern horrors like cryptocurrency, vaccine refusal, and Trumpism. None of those are genuine attempts to fix existing systems. It's about "alternatives" for people who think they are above honoring the basic social contract. Systems don't work, however, unless everyone plays by the rules. As the cryptocurrency crash demonstrates, if you inject too many wannabe cheaters into a system, the whole thing will eventually fall apart.

 

AMANDA MARCOTTE
 is a senior politics writer at Salon and the author of "Troll Nation: How The Right Became Trump-Worshipping Monsters Set On Rat-F*cking Liberals, America, and Truth Itself." Follow her on Twitter @AmandaMarcotte and sign up for her biweekly politics newsletter, Standing Room Only.

BEASTIARY

The Weird Mythological Creatures of Medieval Art

• LORI DORN  
• JANUARY 26, 2022

Hochelaga offers a handy visual and audio field guide to some of the weirdest zoological creatures of medieval art, many of which are completely mythical. This includes griffin claws, basilisks, unicorn horns, barnacled geese, sea monsters, dog-headed Cynocephaly (due to a misunderstanding of the word Canaan), the horribly inaccurate portrayals of Blemmyes, and other grotesque animal combinations.

Medieval zoology is bizarre. Mostly because half of the creatures don’t even exist. And those that do look very, very strange!…we’ll be exploring some of the weirdest and wildest mythical beasts and legendary creatures of the European Middle Ages. From basilisks to blemmyes, and everywhere in between. It’s a world where biology and mythology blend together.

THIRD WORLD USA
One-Third of U.S. Child Care Workers Face Food Insecurity Despite Large Demand for Work

BY EMMA MAYER ON 1/26/22 

A study done by the Center for Early Childhood Innovation and South Side Early Learning showed that about one-third of child care workers in the U.S. experienced food insecurity in 2020.

Food insecurity, or the lack of access to consistent meals, is monitored by the Department of Agriculture, and a report summary for 2020, which came out in September of last year, showed that 10.5 percent of U.S. households were food insecure.

The rate of food insecurity in people who work in child care was 8 to 20 percent higher than the national average, according to study researchers.

In Texas and Washington state, 42 percent of all child care workers experienced food insecurity, and in Arkansas it was 40 percent.

These food insecurity rates coincide with the very low wages in the profession. Child care workers' average pay is roughly $12.24 per hour, according to the News and Tribune.

"Early childhood degrees are the lowest paid professions of all skilled professions," National Child Care Association Director Cindy Lehnhoff told Newsweek.

Teachers and child care workers have to be qualified for the position, but less and less of them are taking jobs in the field because of the low wages and COVID-19. Day cares and child care centers are struggling to fill teaching positions, as some child waiting lists reach into the hundreds.

The First Five Years Fund (FFYF) works to expand support for child care workers at the federal level, pushing for the support that would come if President Joe Biden's Build Back Better Act is passed in Congress.

"The existential flaws of the child care market have set everyone involved up for failure: parents, provider and the communities who rely on them," FFYF's Charlie Joughin told Newsweek. "While COVID has certainly pushed this crisis to the brink, the underlying issues will remain long after the pandemic is over unless Congress passes significant, sustained reforms and investments to build an early learning system that actually works."

The Build Back Better Act has encountered pushback in terms of how it could affect inflation, but over 50 economists have expressed their support. The legislation would reduce the costs of child care and health benefits, which would mean that child care workers could receive higher wages, according to the FFYF.

"Child care is a specialized, labor-intensive service to provide, and dedicated early educators are literally helping support the healthy development of our nation's children while their parents work," Joughin said. "So long as they can earn more money working fewer hours at Target or Starbucks, America's child care market is headed for collapse."

A study found that 1 in 3 child care workers experienced food insecurity in 2020, amid staff shortages across the U.S. Above, first-grade teacher Elizabeth Chavez's English class in Los Angeles.

TED SOQUI/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES

The Economic Costs of Closed Minds

Jan 26, 2022KAUSHIK BASU

While there are exceptions, hyper-nationalism is usually disastrous for an economy in the long run. At a time when policymakers are confronting an ongoing public-health crisis, and in some cases the threat of violent turmoil, the economies that succeed will be those whose leaders keep a clear head.

NEW YORK – This year began amid widespread despondency about the resurgent COVID-19 pandemic and the struggling global economy, as well as premonitions of heightened political conflict in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and even the United States. True, there is now some hope that the Omicron variant may be the pandemic’s last hurrah. But troubling questions remain about the economic and political legacy of the crisis.

A Whiff of Munich
HAROLD JAMES considers the historical parallels between 1938 and the latest conflict between Russia and the West.\

The World Bank’s latest biannual Global Economic Prospects report, released last week, points to some possible answers. Produced by a team of talented economists, the report is one of the best summaries of the current outlook for the world economy. And while the report uses the diplomatic language of multilateral organizations, it nonetheless packs a powerful cautionary punch.

For starters, the World Bank forecasts that global economic growth will slow to 4.1% in 2022, from 5.5% last year. With debt burdens rising, supply-chain bottlenecks impeding the flow of goods and services, and inflation picking up, governments are losing the capacity to provide further fiscal support. The report warns that the surge in debt caused by countries trying to soften the “pandemic-induced global recession” means that several economies are now “at high risk of debt distress.” Some may need relief.

The report also predicts that energy prices, which surged in the second half of 2021, will increase further – and by more than the World Bank was projecting six months ago.

Finally, the report’s tables of summary statistics contain a lot of interesting information – in particular, data on major economies’ recent GDP growth and forecasts for the next two years. The fastest-growing economies in 2021 were Argentina, Turkey, and India, which expanded by 10%, 9.5%, and 8.3%, respectively. But growth after a crash needs to be interpreted carefully. Much of last year’s growth merely reflected the depth of the pandemic-induced downturn of 2020, as economies climbed back toward their earlier GDP level. In 2020, Argentina’s economy contracted by 9.9% and India’s by 7.3% – making them, along with Mexico, the worst-performing major economies that year.

Usually, emerging market and developing economies, helped by their lower base, grow faster than advanced economies. But, according to Global Economic Prospects, the prognosis for EMDEs through the end of 2023 is worse than for advanced economies, because EMDEs have limited policy space to provide additional support and face greater risk of hard landings. Moreover, the pace of recovery is likely to vary significantly between countries. Once the dust settles after the current turmoil, therefore, there will most probably be new winners and losers.


One of the main reasons for the uneven recovery has more to do with politics than economics. From advanced economies such as the United States to EMDEs like Brazil, support for aggressive nationalism has grown sharply in recent years. This is bound to play a major role in determining how these economies perform.

While there are exceptions, hyper-nationalism is usually disastrous for an economy in the long run. This stands to reason, because strident nationalism leads to bloated egos and blurry thinking. Countries in its grip try to become self-sufficient by raising barriers to trade, capital, and ideas from elsewhere.

A striking historical example is Argentina, which was among the world’s fastest-growing economies during the early decades of the twentieth century and was widely expected to overtake the US. That changed in 1930, when a military coup resulted in the installation of the hyper-nationalist Lieutenant General José Félix Uriburu as president. Tariffs subsequently rose, together with barriers to immigration. Argentina’s open economy, now closed to the world, soon stagnated, and the US surged ahead.

The lesson seems even more relevant today. In a globalized world, with new ideas and research emerging everywhere, countries that succumb to nationalist solipsism and pull down their economies’ and societies’ shutters will be anything but great.

One of the remarkable achievements of post-independence India was that its founding fathers and early thinkers, like the first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the author Rabindranath Tagore, were passionate advocates of openness to the world of ideas. They stood out, not just in India but globally, for their commitment to absorbing the best, from wherever it or they came, and to upholding a common human identity.

I remember a friend of my father’s, who visited us regularly and held forth on the need for more strident nationalism. He was critical of Indian thinkers who, while opposing Western colonialism, argued that India must keep its doors open to the best of the West – in science, literature, and philosophy. One day, angry at his failure to persuade us, he thundered, “My motto is: the West does not follow us, so we must not follow the West.”

I was in elementary school, but even then, I could see that his aggressive nationalism had blurred his thinking into adopting a motto that contradicted itself. At a time when policymakers are confronting an ongoing public-health crisis, and in some cases the threat of violent turmoil, countries that succumb to hyper-nationalism lay the foundations of their own failure.




KAUSHIK BASU a former chief economist of the World Bank and chief economic adviser to the Government of India, is Professor of Economics at Cornell University and a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Ending college affirmative action could have ripple effect for Black, Latino students

As affirmative action programs face their biggest threat in decades, experts say Black and Latino students would experience fewer job and financial opportunities.

The campus of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill

.Melissa Sue Gerrits / Getty Images


Jan. 26, 2022, 4:00 AM MST / Updated Jan. 26, 2022
By Tat Bellamy-Walker

Experts say that Black and Latino students would suffer disproportionately if the Supreme Court decides to reverse a long-standing policy on affirmative action programs in the U.S.

On Monday, the Supreme Court said it would hear two cases challenging race-conscious admissions at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.

If the court rules against race-conscious college admissions programs, also known as affirmative action, it could have an outsize effect on Black and Latino college students.

Supreme Court agrees to hear challenges to affirmative action in college admissions

JAN. 24, 202201:01

One of the most comprehensive studies on the issue, published in 2020, found that Black and Latino students suffered after California’s public universities banned affirmative action in a 1996 ballot initiative. Following the ban, more students of color enrolled at less selective institutions and, as a result, were less likely to get college degrees, graduate degrees or jobs in the STEM fields.

“When Black and Hispanic students lost access to California’s more selective universities, they lost access to this public investment,” Zachary Bleemer, the study’s author, told NBC News.

The findings also showed that the ban discouraged thousands of students of color annually from applying to the University of California system, although most still met the qualifications for enrollment.

Bleemer, a postdoctoral fellow with Opportunity Insights, a research group at Harvard University, added that these losses were also felt in the labor market.

“Black and Hispanic young workers ended up with relatively lower-paying jobs in the state over the next, at least, 15 years,” he said.

Cara McClellan, an assistant counsel at the NAACPs Legal and Education Defense Fund, said it would be unusual for the court to go against years of upholding affirmative action.

“Any ruling that calls into question the legality of race-conscious admissions would be a huge reversal of more than 40 years of Supreme Court precedent,” McClellan said. “It would be quite a radical act for that to be the outcome.”

Such an outcome, McClellan said, would dramatically reduce racial diversity at private and public universities.

“The end of holistic admissions would lead to a severe reduction in the number of Black and Latino students at Harvard and, if the ruling is broader, at other universities,” McClellan said. “Race-conscious admissions has been key to providing diversity on campus.”

Natasha Warikoo, a professor of sociology at Tufts University and author of “The Diversity Bargain,” said Black and Latino students who do get into more selective schools would also feel the brunt of a reversal.

“They will have a much smaller community of same-race peers, and are more likely to be the only underrepresented minority in a class and have less access to social networks that we know are important for students of color on their college campuses,” Warikoo said. “I really see it as this two-fold impact on Black and Latino students.”

The lawsuits were lodged on behalf of students by Edward Blum, a conservative legal strategist and long-time opponent of affirmative action. They claim that Harvard’s undergraduate admissions system discriminates against Asian American students and that UNC’s discriminated against both Asian American and white students.

In 2003, the landmark Supreme Court ruling Grutter v. Bollinger upheld the use of affirmative action admissions policies at the University of Michigan Law School. Blum wants the courts to overrule that decision. In 2016, the courts upheld the constitutionality of affirmative action in Fisher v. University of Texas.

While the Supreme Court has rejected similar challenges to affirmative action, the addition of Trump appointees Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett as justices could change that.

Marshall Anthony Jr., an associate director of policy and advocacy for higher education at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, said he is concerned about how the court might rule in light of the justice's conservative leanings. He also expressed concern over the court's willingness to hear cases that could dismantle precedence, such as one case the court is currently weighing regarding abortion access, and the 2013 decision by the court to weaken bans on discriminatory voting practices.

“Unfortunately, with a more conservative-leaning bench, we’re seeing a lot of the policies meant to advance civil and human rights become under attack,” Anthony said. “We need a higher ed system that is accessible to all and affordable to all … and affirmative action is one of those policy vehicles to ensure that actually happens.”

Chemical Plant Explosion Sends Mushroom Cloud Over Louisiana Parish
BY EMMA MAYER ON 1/26/22

An explosion shook Westlake, Louisiana on Wednesday morning and sent a mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke into the sky, eyewitnesses say.

According to BNO News, the explosion happened around 10:45 a.m. at Westlake Chemical South, a chemical manufacturing plant. It is reported that multiple emergency services were responding to the scene.

Schools in the area were put on a precautionary shelter in place, and the Calcasieu Parish School Board said in a statement, "All students, faculty, and staff are safe."

The explosion occurred when a tank of Ethylene Dichloride exploded.

A spokesman from the plant told KPLC-TV that at least 6 people were injured, five of which were taken to hospitals in the area and one treated on-site.

The shelter in place at the schools has now been lifted, and the spokesman said that no vapors are lingering in the air.

Large explosion at Westlake chemical plant in Louisiana
Published January 26, 2022
By BNO News

Credit: KPLC-TV

A large explosion and fire have been reported at Westlake Chemical South near Lake Charles in Louisiana, injuring at least three people, local officials and witnesses say. There is no threat to the surrounding community.

The incident happened at about 10:45 a.m. on Wednesday when a tank of Ethylene Dichloride exploded at Westlake Chemical South, which is a chemical manufacturer on PPG Drive in Westlake, about 4 miles west of Lake Charles.

Large plumes of black smoke were seen billowing from the site, prompting a precautionary lockdown at all Sulphur and Westlake schools. “All students, faculty, and staff are safe,” the Calcasieu Parish School Board said in a statement.

A spokesman for the company said there are no vapors in the air and there’s no need to shelter in place. Three people suffered minor injuries, the spokesman said, according to KPLC-TV.

Other details about Wednesday’s explosion were not immediately known

 

WHAT WILL AMERICA DO?!
Palestinian American died from cardiac arrest after being manhandled by Israeli troops, Palestinians say

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
26 January, 2022
The Palestinian Justice Ministry said a post-mortem examination lead them to deduce that the US citizen's death "happened as a result of sudden cardiac arrest stemming from the stress of external violence".


The 78 year old - who died two weeks ago - reportedly had a history of heart problems [Getty]

An elderly Palestinian-American who was found dead after being detained by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank suffered sudden cardiac arrest caused by the stress of being manhandled, according to a Palestinian autopsy released Wednesday.

A brother of Omar Abdalmajeed As'ad said the report - which also noted that the 78-year-old had a history of heart problems - showed Israel bore responsibility for his death two weeks ago.

Details of As'ad's pre-dawn detention on Jan. 12 in his hometown of Jiljilya, and the post-mortem examination, "lead us to deduce that the death happened as a result of sudden cardiac arrest stemming from the stress of external violence", said the report, issued by the Palestinian Justice Ministry.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it had no immediate comment on the findings.

RELATED
Israel demolishes two families' homes in Jerusalem
MENA
Qassam Muaddi

An Israeli military statement on Jan. 12 said that its forces carried out an overnight operation in the village, and that a Palestinian was "apprehended after resisting a check".

The statement said he was alive when the soldiers released him, but that the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division was reviewing the incident.

As'ad was found with a plastic zip-tie around one wrist. A former Milwaukee, Wisconsin resident, he had lived in the United States for decades and returned to the West Bank 10 years ago, his brother Amer told Reuters.

"I received the autopsy report, I contacted the lawyer to pursue the case and I will contact the American consulate to follow up as well," he said. "Israel bears responsibility for his death."

After As'ad's death, the US State Department said that he was a US citizen and that it had sought clarification on the case from Israel.

10 million in France benefit from free glasses and dental work scheme

The ‘100% Santé’ plans also cover hearing aids and was launched in 2019

26 January 2022

A range of glasses, hearing aids and dental prostheses are available for free in France under the 100% Santé scheme Pic: Terelyuk / Pixel-Shot / Dmitry Kalinovsky / Phovoir / ShutterstockBy Thomas Brent

Ten million people in France have benefitted from free dental work, glasses or hearing aids since 2019, thanks to the scheme 100% Santé, the government has announced.

The measure allows people in the French health system with mutuelle top-up insurance to receive for free a limited range of dental prostheses (implants, crowns, bridges, dentures, etc.), hearing aids and prescription glasses.

The health reform 100% Santé “has surpassed all expectations for access to prostheses and hearing aids”, France’s Health Ministry stated on Tuesday (January 25), following a report by a committee set up to assess the scheme.

In the first 11 months of 2021, 55% patients receiving prostheses got them for free, with 20% more getting them for a reduced rate, Les Echos reports.

Meanwhile, 39% of people received hearing aids for free under the scheme in the same timeframe.

However, the health ministry admitted that progress with prescription glasses was “slower”, with only 17% of sales in 2021 covered by the scheme.

The ministry has said that sanctions will soon be handed down to opticians who were not making the free products obviously presentable to customers.

Read more: Some glasses and tooth crowns are now free in France

Read more: Hearing aids free in France with 'mutuelle' top-up insurance

Health Minister Olivier Véran lauded the measure, which was an election promise by President Emmanuel Macron before he was voted into power in 2017.

“It is a reform that has met its objectives, a reform of purchasing power, access to care, prevention, the fight against loss of autonomy,” Mr Véran said yesterday.

He said that the products that are offered and the price limits set under the scheme would be reviewed for the first time this year, most likely in the summer.

The scheme has gone over budget, the Health Ministry admitted, so far costing more than the planned €1billion. It has put this down to the “effect of people catching up on care” and expects the costs to be more moderate going forward.

Who can benefit from 100% Santé?

Anyone who is in the French healthcare system and has a certain type of top-up insurance policy (mutuelle).

The mutuelle must be considered a “responsible complimentary insurance policy” or a complémentaire santé solidaire (C2S). Around 95% of policies on the market fall into one of these categories – you should check with your insurer to know if your one does.

Read more about it on France’s insurance service website Ameli here.

To benefit from the 100% Santé scheme, you can inquire with your GP or at your dentist or opticien.
What products are offered under 100% Santé?
Hearing aids:

There should be a wide selection of hearing aids available (in-the-ear, behind-the-ear) with a minimum of 12 channels of adjustment or equivalent quality and numerous features (anti-tinnitus, wind noise reducer, feedback suppressor, Bluetooth,etc.)
Glasses:

In the range available at no cost, lenses should cover all general sight problems and be slim, anti-glare and anti-scratch.

There must be 17 adult frames on offer, with a choice of two colours for each, and 10 different frames for children, also with a choice of two colours. Frames, which must respect European standards, will cost a maximum €30.
Dental work:

For dental work you have three different choices, but this will not include treatment from the orthodontist, so braces that many teenagers are advised to wear will not be included.

Total cover under the 100% Santé scheme will be available for crowns, bridges and inlays, and ceramic rather than metal crowns will be on offer for visible front teeth.

The second choice includes items where the client contributes but prices are controlled so as not to be excessive.

The third allows clients to choose whatever appliance they wish at their own cost, which might include new methods not included in the 100% offer.

French EDF workers strike over government efforts to keep prices down

EDF is being required to sell a greater proportion of its supply at cheaper rates, which unions claim is ‘killing’ the company

26 January 2022


EDF workers are going on strike today (January 26) Pic: sylv1rob1 / ShutterstockBy Emma Morgan

Workers at EDF, France’s biggest electricity provider, are striking today (January 26) in protest against government measures designed to prevent consumer tariffs from rising.

In September, the government announced that electricity tariff rises would be capped at 4% in February – as opposed to a natural rise which would amount to around 45% – and to ensure this it has this month increased the amount of electricity which EDF must sell to its competitors at low prices.

Read more: EDF to sell more cheap electricity to competitors to keep prices low

Under the measures, EDF will have to sell up to 40% of the electricity it produces in 2022 at cut prices, estimated to result in a loss of €8billion for the company, which already faces a €42billion debt.

The 40% proportion is 20% more than normal, though the additional cut price supply will be sold at a slightly increased rate, it has been agreed.

With this more plentiful supply of cheaper electricity, alternative suppliers will be able to keep customer tariffs down.
Why are workers angry?

The four unions which represent EDF employees – FO, CFE-CGC, CFDT and FNME-CGT – are concerned that this decision is “organising the destruction of EDF.”

Jean-Bernard Lévy, EDF’s CEO and chairman, is also reported to have spoken of his “real shock” at the government’s actions in an internal message to the company’s management.

“It is not what we had proposed to the government,” he said, adding that the increased proportion of low price electricity will “weigh heavily on our results.

“Many of you have shared their support, and indeed their indignation, and I share this emotion.”

FNME-CGT claims that the government’s decision is “senseless and illusory,” and that it “has made the choice to kill EDF.”

The unions have therefore called for strike action in response to this “scandalous decision to increase the Accès régulé à l’électricité nucléaire historique (Arenh, electricity sold more cheaply to alternative providers), which will ruin the role of EDF.”

“What has outraged EDF employees, with this Arenh increase, is that now they will be working even more for their competition,” Alexandre Grillat, president of CFE-CGC Energies, told Le Monde.

EDF employees are also calling for pay rises, with FNME-CGT saying that: “In 10 years, salary scales have shrunk by 10% against cumulative inflation.”

The unions have not yet released details of the number of employees who are expected to strike today.

Why does EDF sell cheap electricity to its competitors?

EDF’s monopoly on French electricity supply was opened up to competition in the early 2000s, and in 2010, the Arenh initiative was created by the ‘Nome’ law.

This means that alternative suppliers do not have unlimited access to nuclear energy; normally they can buy up to 25% of all nuclear production (100 TWh) from EDF at €42 per MWh.

If EDF’s competitors need more electricity than this quota can provide, they must rely on the constantly shifting state of the wider market.

For EDF, this means that when the global market rate falls below €42, no one buys its electricity, but when they rise above €42, it must maintain this cheaper tariff.

The extra 20% of cut price electricity which EDF must sell will be available at the slightly elevated price of €46.20 per MWh.

On January 20, EDF’s central finance board launched an alert regarding the economic state of the company.

Since the firm is 84% state-owned, it will not be in danger of collapsing, but its financial losses will have a knock on effect on government funds and, in turn, on the public.

Unions have reportedly called for intervention from the Autorité des marchés financiers, France’s stock market regulator.

In order to ease the pressure which the company currently faces, the government may decide to increase the funding it gives to EDF, and part of this cost will be passed on to the taxpayer.