"GREAT REPLACEMENT"
Far-right French candidate makes taboo term his mantra


AP , Thursday 17 Feb 2022

Two words, taboo for many in France because they evoke a conspiracy theory embraced by white supremacists, have been haunting the French presidential campaign.

Far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour delivers a speech at a campaign rally, Feb. 5, 2022 in Lille, northern France. AP

``Great replacement'' rolls off the tongue of presidential candidate Eric Zemmour, an outsider with views to the right of the far-right who has made the term the underpinning of his campaign. But when mainstream conservative presidential candidate Valerie Pecresse pronounced them at her first major rally last weekend, politicians and pundits screamed foul, saying she had crossed a red line.

The ''great replacement'' is the false claim that the native populations of France and other Western countries are being overrun by non-white immigrants _ notably Muslims _ who are allegedly supplanting, and one day will erase, Christian civilization and its values. The claim, popularized by a French author, has inspired deadly attacks in recent years from New Zealand to El Paso, Texas.

Critics said Pecresse was normalizing a dangerous falsehood that immigration figures in France do not corroborate.

Pecresse later denied she was venturing into Zemmour's far-right territory, contending that her brief remark was misconstrued. Still, the flap focused attention on Zemmour's campaign mantra and underscored the threat he represents to mainstream conservatives.

``If I'm a candidate in the presidential election, it is firstly and above all to stop the `great replacement' and to fight immigration,'' Zemmour _ whose upstart party is named Reconquest _ told France 2 TV.

Numerous polls place Zemmour fourth among a bevy of candidates for France's April 10 presidential vote behind poll leader President Emmanuel Macron _ who has yet to formally declare his candidacy _ and slightly behind far-right candidate Marine Le Pen and Pecresse. A presidential runoff will be held among the top two candidates on April 24 if no one wins outright.

Zemmour, 63, a controversial talk show pundit before entering the presidential race, has been convicted multiple times of inciting racist or religious hatred.

He has, for instance, drawn ire for falsely stating that Marshall Philippe Petain, who headed France's collaborationist World War II Vichy government, saved Jews from deportation to Nazi death camps. Under Petain's regime, some 76,000 French Jews were sent to camps; very few survived.

The ``great replacement'' theory was formulated in 2011 by Renaud Camus, a writer and social media fan. But the notion dates back to writers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, according to Jean-Yves Camus, a French expert on the far right who is not related to Renaud.

Both Renaud Camus and Zemmour base their unfounded claims that Muslims are already supplanting native French on visual indicators like Islamic headscarves. Yet less than 10% of France's population is Muslim.

``Every day when I go to work, I say, `Hey, this is France,' said Jean-Yves Camus, the far-right expert. ``When Zemmour goes out from his flat ... he says, `Wow, this is not France anymore.'''

Polls suggest that between Le Pen and Zemmour, the far-right has gained traction in France since the 2017 presidential race, when the centrist Macron beat Le Pen in a landslide in the presidential runoff. Together, the two far-right candidates represent 30% of potential French voters, the polls show, compared to up to 25% for Macron.

One reason for the ground gained by far-right ideology is France's ``difficulty adjusting to a multicultural society,'' Jean-Yves Camus said.

In France, where the melting pot is based on assimilation and officials are banned from counting people by origin, ``we are supposed to be equal but only if we are identical,`` he said.

``There is certainly some kind of mainstreaming of many issues that were only fringe topics, let's say 10 or 15 years ago,'' Jean-Yves Camus said. ``It's not only about the great replacement ... (it's) anything that has to do with immigration, and French identity, and the roots of the French nation.''

He also cites an amorphous fear of Muslims, viewed by some as ``the enemy from within,'' due to several terrorist attacks carried out by French Muslim citizens. That is devastating for the nation's Muslim population, estimated at 5 million, which is overwhelmingly peaceful but often unfairly stigmatized.

The head of the Paris mosque urged Muslim citizens to vote, asking them to ``sanction the apostles of racism and those who look down on French of the Muslim faith.''

Without naming names, mosque head Chems-Eddine Hafiz denounced the far-right in a commentary in the Le Monde newspaper, saying their ``extremist speech'' must be disavowed just like Islamist extremists.

Le Pen, once best known for her anti-immigration portrayals of a France with minarets dotting the countryside where church steeples once stood, has softened her image to broaden her voter base. She has not pronounced the words that are Zemmour's mantra. But she stressed in a TV show Wednesday on LCI that she is not abandoning far-right fundamentals, saying that as president she would ban the headscarf, ``the Islamist uniform,'' in the streets.

Several well known figures in her National Rally party have complained about her softened image, saying that Le Pen has gone off message, and defected to Zemmour's camp. The wait is on to see whether Le Pen's popular niece, Marion Marechal _ who has suggested she won't support her aunt _ joins Zemmour.

Among Zemmour's gets was a phone conversation Monday evening with former U.S. President Donald Trump. Zemmour, who reportedly requested the chat, told reporters the two discussed the ``destiny and perspectives'' of the United States and France, which he claimed are both ``in the torment of a war of civilizations.''

Le Pen was philosophical. She had hoped, but failed, to meet with Trump during her 2017 campaign.

``I hope that Donald Trump is doing well,'' she told reporters in Villers-Cotterets, where she was promoting the French language against an Anglo-Saxon ``invasion.''

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'Afar has been raided': Suffering stalks Ethiopia's forgotten front

AFP , Thursday 17 Feb 2022

The shell crashed through Aicha Nur's flimsy hut just as she was serving a lunch of bread and milk to her nine-year-old son Tahir.

Internally displaced people, members of the Afar militia, seat in a school where they are sheltered in the village of Afdera, 225 kms of Semera, Ethiopia, on February 15, 2022. AFP\\\\LinkedIn

His slim body quickly became engulfed in flames.

Related

 US demands Ethiopia 'immediately' free detainees after lifting emergency

 'Extreme lack of food' for many in Ethiopia's Tigray: UN

She grabbed Tahir and another son before fleeing on foot to safety, dodging an artillery assault allegedly carried out by Tigrayan rebels on her village in northern Ethiopia's Afar region.

They managed to escape, but Aicha's six other children remain unaccounted for.

She worries she has lost them forever to what has quietly emerged as the most active front in Ethiopia's grinding war.

More than 15 months since the first shots rang out, foreign envoys are talking up paths to peace for Ethiopia and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed publicly refers to the conflict in the past tense.

But Afar is enduring its roughest period yet, sparked by a fresh rebel offensive that has yielded massive destruction and displacement, according to officials and residents.

Across the arid, punishingly hot region, shell-shocked survivors await food handouts at schools that have been transformed into makeshift displacement sites.

Afar's only referral hospital is stretched well beyond its bed capacity, with doctors running low on anaesthesia amid a seemingly endless influx of civilians with fractured limbs.

All the while, patients wonder aloud why no one seems to be paying attention, complaining that "their voices haven't been heard", said hospital CEO Hussein Aden.

"We've been dying for a long time now, but nobody has listened to us," Aicha told AFP as she propped Tahir up on his hospital bed, fanning away flies from his burned and blistered face.

Outgunned

The war erupted in Ethiopia's northernmost Tigray region in November 2020, but Afar did not see combat until July 2021 when the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) rebel group expanded its operations.

Late last year, fighting intensified in Afar before Abiy, winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, deployed to the region as part of a counter-offensive that ultimately pushed the rebels back into Tigray.

Those bouts of hostilities pale in comparison to what Afar residents say has unfolded in recent weeks: unremitting attacks involving many more Tigrayan fighters and much heavier weapons, including tanks and automated cannons.

Afar forces, armed with Kalashnikov rifles and lacking military backing, have been thoroughly outgunned.

"You can't defeat mortars with a Kalashnikov," said Ibrahim Abdala, a militia fighter who was shot in the chest in Afar's Kuneba district this month.

'Not even a rug to sleep on'

Afar civilians fleeing the latest attacks describe harrowing, days-long journeys on foot towards towns that are more secure but woefully ill-equipped to feed and shelter them.

Regional government documents seen by AFP indicate 294,000 people were displaced in January, and a regional spokesman said the number is now up to 350,000 since the start of the year.

It's unclear when or even if they will be able to return home, with Afar's western border reportedly occupied by the TPLF.

"All the schools, clinics, hospitals that were constructed in this space of time are now gone on the western border. The whole lot," said Valerie Browning, an aid worker who has lived in Afar for more than three decades.

"Afar has been raided, vandalised, and there is not that much left."

Her claims could not be independently verified.

On a recent afternoon, scores of women and children sat in a sweltering dried-out riverbed, clustered under shade provided by acacia trees and sharing food handouts as boys struggled to play football using a plastic water bottle.

"You see the truth with your own eyes. We have been evicted from our homes and are eating biscuits," said Mohammad Adem Endrisi, a 32-year-old schoolteacher from Kuneba.

"There are pregnant women among us... There is not even a rug to sleep on here."

'Path of destruction'

Aid workers are also worried about sky-high malnutrition rates in Tigray.

The UN says recent fighting has made it impossible for humanitarian convoys to enter Tigray via the Afar capital Semera -- currently the only functioning overland route.

The TPLF has defended its push into Afar, saying it was provoked by attacks on its positions within Tigray and claiming it "does not have a plan to remain in Afar for long."

It also points out that Tigray has been under what the UN terms a "de facto humanitarian blockade" since long before the latest clashes erupted in Afar, while maintaining that its fighters have never prevented aid trucks from passing.

But that argument does not resonate with Afar residents.

"The TPLF has chosen the path of destruction, not the path of peace," said Ahmed Nuro, a local official in the border town of Abala.

"They will never stop firing."

NATO NATION BUILDING
Libyan town awaits justice over family militia's reign of terror

"The state has still done nothing."

For years a brutal family clan that kept caged lions to sow fear killed hundreds of people in the Libyan town of Tarhuna, then dumped their bodies in mass graves - Mahmud Turkia

by Hamza Mekouar

February 17, 2022 — Tarhuna (Libya) (AFP)

For years, a family clan that kept lions to sow terror in the Libyan town of Tarhuna tortured and killed hundreds of people, then dumped their bodies in mass graves.

Now, the six Kani brothers and their militiamen are gone, either dead or in hiding, but the survivors in this western town are still waiting for justice.

Eleven years after the toppling of dictator Moamer Kadhafi plunged the North African country into chaos, they have been left to mourn their loved ones, 260 of whom have been discovered in row upon row of graves.

Today, 60-year-old Ghazla Ali Ounis sits outside her house, surrounded by her orphaned grandchildren whose parents were killed by the Kani family.

"The people who killed my brothers and my sons, I want to catch them alive," said the grieving woman who lost 11 male relatives to the militia.

The Kani brothers and their gunmen first seized the town in 2015 and set about systematically silencing rivals. Lions they kept were rumoured to be fed on the flesh of their enemies.
Image

Libyans point at a poster depicting members of the al-Kani family who commanded a militia that terrorised the people of Tarhuna, during a funeral procession for 12 victims, on March 26, 2021

For a time, the group called the "Kaniyat" sided with militias based in the capital Tripoli, 80 kilometres (50 miles) away.

But when eastern-based military strongman Khalifa Haftar in 2019 launched an assault to seize the capital, the clan switched sides and offered him Tarhuna as a rear base.

When Haftar's forces were routed a year later, the Kani brothers disappeared -- some are believed killed, others to be in hiding.

The town then began the search for the mass graves, desperate to find signs of the many disappeared.

In December 2019, armed men in khaki uniforms had dragged away four of Ounis's sons and seven of her brothers.

"They ambushed them in their sleep and took them away by force," she said. "I never saw them again."

All were tortured to death, she said.

- 'Long-haired criminals' -

Relatives of Tarhuna victims mourn during a January 22, 2020 prayer ceremony in Martyrs' Square in Tripoli before their burial

Her nephew, Walid al-Romani, remembers when his father was abducted by "long-haired criminals".

"They encircled the house, beat him up and took him away," the 15-year-old said.

"I heard one of them say 'mission accomplished' into a walkie-talkie before they disappeared.

"Where's the justice system, the state, punishment?" he asked.

Behind him, old car engines belonging to his father, who was a mechanic, rusted amid piles of scrap metal.

Tarhuna residents say they feel an aching sense of injustice, and pain over being abandoned by a state that has provided no compensation and only arrested very few of the killers.

Three of the brothers, including leader Mohamed Al-Kani, have been killed, but the other three remain at large, residents say.
Image

Mourners pray over the bodies found in Tarhuna mass graves in the once militia-controlled town, in Tripoli on January 22, 2020

They are rumoured to be hiding out in the eastern city of Benghazi or further afield in Egypt or Jordan, people in Tarhuna say.

Despite arrest warrants issued by Tripoli prosecutors, "there have been no arrests, and the killers are on the run," said Ounis.

She said she had tried to meet Libya's unity Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah to discuss the issue, but that "he didn't want to receive me".

- 'Lots of horrors' -

On the edge of Tarhuna, men armed with spades chip away at the hard ochre earth as they search for more bodies in a suspected mass grave.

Residents are still holding funerals for loved ones extracted from newly-discovered graves.
Image

Hundreds of bodies have been recovered in Tarhuna

So far, 260 bodies have been recovered.

Ahmed Ferrara, head of operations at Libya's authority for the disappeared, said his department was "seriously lacking resources".

Libya expert Jalel Harchaoui said civilians in the North African country had experienced "lots of horrors" between 2014 and 2019.

"Most of the perpetrators are still free today, even sometimes taking part in political life as if they were innocent," he said.

Meanwhile Ashraf Jaballah, 35, is impatiently waiting for justice.

In December 2019, he was attending a funeral when Kani fighters attacked him and his relatives.

"We tried to resist but there were so many of them," he said.

A picture from March 26, 2021 shows the damaged and abandoned villa complex used by the Libyan family who commanded the militia that traumatised the town of Tarhuna

Ten of his relatives were taken away to an unknown location.

All would later be identified in mass graves.

He says that when the grave was discovered, the shock put him in hospital.

"They burned down our houses, stole our belongings," said Jaballah.

 

"The state has still done nothing."

ECOCIDE

World funds own destruction with $1.8 tn subsidies: study


A study found that subsidies totalling two percent of global gross domestic product fund the "global destruction of nature" 

(AFP/JOSH EDELSON) 

Thu, February 17, 2022

The world must by 2030 slash $1.8 trillion in annual subsidies that destroy the environment, in order to "finance a net-zero global economy", according to a study Thursday from business groups including one founded by tycoon Richard Branson.

The report, estimating the value of damaging state subsidies, was commissioned by Branson's nonprofit initiative The B Team and global coalition Business for Nature, which comprises academic, corporate and environmental organisations.

The vast subsidies, totalling two percent of global gross domestic product, fund the "global destruction of nature" and governments worldwide must act, the two organisations said in a statement.

The study "finds the fossil fuel, agriculture and water industries receive more than 80 percent of all environmentally harmful subsidies per year", the organisations concluded.

And they called upon governments to "redirect, repurpose or eliminate" those subsidies by 2030 to help "finance a net-zero global economy".

At least 20 nations were subsidising the price of gasoline or petrol, sparking higher emissions of carbon and other dangerous air pollutants, the research suggested.

Beef and soy production were also stimulated by "significant" subsidy flows that are a cause of tropical rainforest loss in Brazil, the report found.

European policies on biofuel blending biofuels with motor fuel meanwhile ramped up pressure for new cropland, often at the expense of tropical biodiversity hotspots, the study added.

And illegal logging, often via corruption and favouritism over lumbering concessions, contributed to climate change, deforestation and ecosystem destruction.

"Nature is declining at an alarming rate, and we have never lived on a planet with so little biodiversity," said Christiana Figueres, head of The B Team's climate group.

"At least $1.8 trillion is funding the destruction of nature and changing our climate, while creating huge risks for the very businesses who are receiving the subsidies."

Governments across the world pay an estimated $640 billion in support to the fossil fuel industry, contributing to climate change, air and water pollution and land subsidence, the study found.

Agriculture receives some $520 billion in subsidies that contribute towards soil erosion, water pollution, deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions and loss of biodiversity and natural habitats, it claimed.

And another $350 billion in subsidies for the water industry is said to help fund water pollution and risk ocean and waterway ecosystems.

Figueres said that "harmful subsidies must be redirected towards protecting the climate and nature, rather than financing our own extinction".

The study was published one month before the next phase of the UN biodiversity summit COP15 in Geneva.

The research was based on data from the International Energy Agency watchdog and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which is a club of industrialised economies that includes wealthy G20 members.

ode-rfj/spm

Provincial fossil fuel subsidies stand in the way of federal phase out goal

Canada’s four main fossil fuel-producing provinces shelled out $4 billion in subsidies for the industry from April 2020 to the end of last year, a new report reveals.

That is nearly nine times more than insured damages caused by flooding in British Columbia last November — the province’s most costly severe weather event to date, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

These provincial subsidies will undermine Canada’s climate goals if they continue to prolong oil and gas production, despite the federal government’s commitment to end fossil fuel subsidies by 2023, the report states.

Historically, combined provincial subsidies are “as high or higher than federal ones,” said Vanessa Corkal, author of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (ISSD) report. The message, she said, is clear: “We need provinces to take action on this issue.”

The report looked at fossil fuel subsidies in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador between April 2020 and December 2021 and found Alberta and B.C. led in subsidies with nearly $2 billion and $1.3 billion, respectively. Saskatchewan shelled out over $600 million and Newfoundland and Labrador clocked $177 million.

“It's difficult to see a way forward without actual collaboration between provinces, and ideally also with the federal government, to figure out how to collectively phase out some of these subsidies,” said Corkal.

Some provinces may think phasing out certain subsidies is a risky economic move if other provinces plan to keep them in place, but these subsidies keep funds from important social and environmental programs and hinder economic diversification, according to the report.

B.C. is one of the only provinces taking action, said Corkal.

For the first time in nearly 30 years, B.C. is reviewing its oil and gas royalty system. The review’s findings will be released this spring, and it presents a “critical opportunity” to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, said the report.

A recent public survey found 77 per cent of respondents think B.C.’s oil and gas royalty program is outdated and needs to be reformed. The highest-ticket item is the Deep-Well Royalty Credit Program, which was designed in 2003 to incentivize fracking and cost the province $421 million in the 2021 fiscal year.

If fossil fuel subsidies aren’t eliminated, “provinces are going to face increasing economic hardship,” said Corkal.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s fossil fuel sector already operates with “unsustainably high costs” and oil production has been in decline since 2007, the report noted. Despite these realities, the provincial government is betting on fossil fuels as a long-term economic plan and aims to more than double oil and gas production by 2030, according to its 2018 action plan.

“It's pretty clear that doubling down on fossil fuels as an economic strategy doesn't make sense for two reasons,” said Corkal. “One, because we know we need to transition and reduce emissions, but also because in the long run, there's a huge risk of stranded assets and of these industries not being successful.”

The International Energy Agency has made clear if we want to limit warming to 1.5 C, there is no room for fossil fuel expansion. The agency recommended a “massive” push for clean electricity and a “relentless” focus on energy efficiency to curb power use — both of which offer opportunities to restructure oil economies.

Despite Canada’s pledge to “build back better” from COVID-19, these four provinces rushed to increase fossil fuel subsidies in 2020 and 2021 instead of pivoting to be competitive in a low-carbon global economy, the report states.

From the start of the pandemic in early 2020 to December 2021, the Energy Policy Tracker found Canadian governments committed over $34 billion to supporting fossil energy. In response to COVID-19, the Alberta provincial government introduced a three-year property tax exemption for new wells and pipelines that will cost already cash-strapped municipalities more than $290 million in 2021 alone, according to estimates by the Rural Municipalities of Alberta.

Corkal said there is a risk governments will continue to double down on fossil fuels. Alberta’s $1.5-billion investment in the now-dead Keystone XL pipeline is a prime example of the poor economic and political choice to bet on fossil fuels when the world’s fate depends on phasing them out.

“It's really going to be incumbent on citizens to hold governments to account to ask them to spend money in ways that will put the long-term economic interests of their citizens up front,” said Corkal.

Alberta is also heavily subsidizing the development of carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) to the tune of $408 million from 2021 to 2024. Corkal says funding CCUS is not an effective use of tax dollars because it is expensive and not yet proven at scale.

It’s also important for provinces to provide clear funding information in their budgets, and the report notes Saskatchewan “has particularly low transparency on fossil fuel production subsidies.”

Since 2018, Saskatchewan has introduced five new royalty programs that incentivize fossil fuel production, but there are no financial estimates for these programs in budget documents, which makes it hard to determine the province’s forgone revenue from the programs.

“Residents of Saskatchewan deserve to know how much government funding is going into that industry and whether or not … it's going to pay back for citizens,” said Corkal.

Along with increased transparency, the report recommends provinces stop creating new fossil fuel subsidies and reform and phase out existing ones by 2023.

The federal government’s goal to phase out fossil fuel subsidies by 2023 is “inherently incomplete” without action from provinces, so provincial governments must align their efforts with federal targets and “align their economies with net-zero ambition,” the report says.

Natasha Bulowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer

The insurgency threat in the Sahel region

2022-02-17 

Belgium gives DR Congo inventory of looted artefacts


DR Congo's prime minister, Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde, receives the inventory of looted artefacts from Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, centre. At right is the Belgian state secretary for scientific policy, Thomas Dermine

 (AFP/JASPER JACOBS) 

Thu, February 17, 2022, 7:21 AM·1 min read

Belgium on Thursday gave the DR Congo an inventory of tens of thousands of art objects from the former Belgian Congo held in its colonial era museum, the latest step in the restitution of looted artefacts.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo handed the catalogue to his Congolese counterpart Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde at a ceremony in the museum on the outskirts of Brussels held on the sidelines of an EU-Africa summit.

From the inventory, Kinshasa will be allowed to lodge, as early as this year, requests for restitution which will be examined by a Belgian-Congolese team of researchers soon to be in place, officials said.

Sama Lukonde hailed "a historic moment".

"It is not only a transfer of objects but also of knowledge and experience necessary for the conservation of these elements," he said.

The Royal Museum for Central Africa, opened in 1898 as a legacy of Belgian King Leopold II who administered the Congo as his personal property from 1885, contains one of the world's largest collections of looted African artefacts.

The inventory covers some 84,000 objects -- including sculptures, masks, utensils and musical instruments -- that arrived in Belgium up to 1960, the year of the country's independence. The stock represents about 70 percent of the museum's collection.

De Croo urged Belgians to "not be afraid to look our past in the face".

He recalled that in 2020 King Philippe had expressed "regret" for acts of violence and cruelty during the colonial period in Congo.

mad/arp/rmb/ri

Period products: How menstruation is managed around the world

In the early 20th century, rags were used to manage periods. Since then, lots of options have been developed to make menstruating far more comfortable. But many across the world are still "on the rag" — literally.

Menstruation cups are expensive, but reusable and better for the environment than disposable pads and tampons

Disposable tampons and pads have become ubiquitous in wealthy countries over the past century, making periods easier to handle.

But although the products are convenient, they are not perfect.

The monthly cost can be unaffordable for people living paycheck-to-paycheck, and the products pile up in landfills, harming the environment — a regular non-organic pad can take 500–800 years to break down, according to UK researchers.

On top of that, improper tampon use can cause toxic shock syndrome, a rare but potentially fatal infection.

Still, for many menstruators across the world, these products are a luxury — if they're even available at all.

Every month, 1.8 billion people menstruate, according to the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF).

But it's easier for some than others. The high prices, stigma and a lack of access to convenient menstrual products and basic sanitation facilities can even result in young women missing school. Studies show that some girls in Bangladesh, India, Uganda and the UK regularly stay home during their period.

Period products continue to pose financial burdens for menstruators across the world
What are the options?

People disenchanted by disposable tampons and pads can now opt for new alternatives: reusable menstrual cups, period underwear, reusable cloth pads and period discs.

Menstrual cups are one of the most well-known alternatives to disposable period products. They are reusable and can last up to 10 years. The popular DivaCup brand can be worn for 12 hours straight, according to its website, and should be washed with soap and water between uses.

However cups can be expensive (around €26) and must be boiled in hot water, which is inconvenient for those without stable access to water and means to boil it. And like tampons, they can still cause toxic shock syndromeif handled incorrectly, research shows.

Period underwear, although good for backup, typically don’t work on their own and are prone to leakage, review websites say. They're also expensive: if a person wants to wear them throughout the course of their period without doing laundry everyday, they'll have to buy at least three or four pairs. This might save money in the long term, but can be a big cost upfront.

Period discs are inserted like menstrual cups, but like tampons, they are disposable. Unlike the cup or tampons, the disc sits near the cervix and catches blood before it enters the vaginal canal, making it possible to have mess-free sex. So far, there haven't been any reported cases linking disc use to toxic shock syndrome.

Watch video 07:11 What your body does when you menstruate

What to avoid

When people have the luxury to choose between multiple options for period management, the "right" method is the one that works best for them — within reason, experts say.

"Sea sponge" tampons — made from either real or synthetic sea sponge — have been lauded by many women's health websites as a natural and sustainable alternative to cotton tampons. But these and other tampon "hacks" shouldn't be used, says Jen Gunter, a Canadian obstetrician-gynecologist who writes a monthly column about women’s health for the New York Times.

Gunter said sponges should be avoided because there is no way to clean them, which means they can introduce foreign bacteria into the vagina. And their rough surface can cause abrasions in the vaginal wall that are too small to notice, but large enough for bacteria to enter through.

The size of the sponge could also cause abrasions, she said, because it expands horizontally rather than vertically, like a tampon. This could become a problem during the removal process, she wrote.

Menstrual sponges examined in 1980 were found to contain sand, grit, bacteria, and various other materials, according to a US Food and Drug Administration guidance paper. One sample was confirmed to contain Staphylococcus aureus, it said.

Most sponges were voluntarily recalled by distributors after the FDA examination. But the sponges are still sold online by companies such as "Jade and Pearl."

Regulators found that toxic shock syndrome was associated more with high-absorbency tampons and tampons from the brand Rely, which were pulled from the market in 1980.

Many people across the world use homemade reusable pads to deal with menstruation.

Barriers and accessibility

While menstruators in the US use pads nearly as often as tampons, in Europe more stick with tampons.

Cotton tampons biodegrade much quicker, in around six months. However the plastic applicators and wrappers that come with most tampons in the US take much longer.

In Europe, tampons are typically sold without applicators or wrappers and come in cardboard packaging, which reduces waste.

In other parts of the world, tampons are rarely used. This is sometimes for cultural reasons — in some places they are seen as impure, damaging a woman's virginity — and more often for economic reasons, studies show.

Many across the world — in Zambia, Sudan, Ethiopia, for example — still use old rags, cotton or cloth to absorb their periods because they can't afford or don't have access to disposable period products.

A 2015 study in South Sudan found just 17% of girls surveyed reported using commercial disposable sanitary pads. The rest used pieces of old cloth, goat skin, or nothing. Around 17% of the girls surveyed said they dig small holes to menstruate, which they later cover with soil, the study said.

In Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania, less than a quarter of girls reported using disposable pads to manage their period. The rest use a combination of cloth, cotton and toilet paper, according to the study.

Some in Nepal "free bleed" in menstruation huts each month. Although this practice, called "chhaupadi", is illegal, many still practice it . A 2019 survey showed that among 400 adolescent girls in villages in midwestern Nepal, 77% practiced chhaupadi even though 60% knew it was against the law.

Menstrual cups and reusable pads like the Afripad have been distributed in places where access to period products is scarce, like Ethiopia, where women use cotton or cloth to absorb their periods. But these options don't address the other period-related problems some of these women face, like lack of access to clean water or a toilet at home.

Editor: Louisa Wright

Watch video 02:44 Zimbabwean girls lobby for free period products

DW RECOMMENDS

Turkish women protest: 'Sanitary products are not a luxury'

For months, the "Campus Witches" of Turkey have protested against the rising cost of sanitary products, which they say should be free. For many of their compatriots, the subject of menstruation remains taboo.

Indian schoolgirls dropping out during puberty

Young girls in India menstruating for the first time are considered impure and are excluded from social life. Tradition dictates they are not allowed into the family home and many are forced to stop going to school.

Virginity and menstruation myths behind Asia's tampon taboo

In a region where many communities chastise unmarried women for not being "virgins," tampons, believed by some to cause hymen breakage, are still rare.

AUDIOS AND VIDEOS ON THE TOPIC

Laura Philipp: Pioneering menstrual training

The female economic factor

Bulgarian lawmaker gives Nazi salute in European Parliament

Angel Dzhambazki of the Bulgarian nationalist VMRO party gave the salute in the chamber shortly after making a rigorous defense of the rule of law in Hungary and Poland.

Angel Dzhambazki spoke during a debate on the rule of law in Poland and Hungary

A Bulgarian nationalist MEP gave a Nazi salute in the chamber of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, after he spoke during a debate on the rule of law in Poland and Hungary.

Angel Dzhambazki of the Bulgarian nationalist VMRO party is seen extending his right arm in front of him before exiting the chamber in a video of the debate. VMRO is in the euroskeptic European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the European Parliament.

What did Dzhambazki say?

"We will never allow you to tell us what to say and do. Long live Orban and Fidesz, long live Kaczynski and PiS, long live Bulgaria and our nation-state," Dzhambazki said during the debate.

"Long live the Europe of nations," he concluded.

On Twitter, he also described as an "abomination" the European Court of Justice's decision to validate a mechanism that allows the blocking of funds to countries where there are violations of the rule of law. Hungary and Poland had contested the law, which was dismissed by the EU's top court.

The state of the rule of law in Hungary and Poland has long been a contentious issue within the European Union. Brussels has criticized judicial reforms in Poland that it claims undermine the independence of judges. The EU has also taken a dim view of Warsaw's refusal to accept the primacy of EU law over Polish law.

In the case of Hungary, the European Commission has voiced concerns over the issuing of public contracts, conflicts of interest and misspent EU funds.

Reactions

The vice-president of the European Parliament, Italy's Pina Picierno, said the institution would "check with the cameras what happened in this hemicycle, to see if there was a fascist salute or not."

"We do not in any way allow fascist gestures and symbols. If this has been done, it is extremely serious and sanctions will be taken," she warned.

In a tweet published after the debate, Picierno decried the salute, saying "in the session I presided over this evening, Bulgarian MEP Dzhambazki gave the Roman salute. I immediately condemned the incident and asked for this shameful and unacceptable gesture to be sanctioned."

"The European Parliament is a living monument of democracy against barbarism and fascism," she added.

Manfred Weber, German MEP of the European People's Party (EPP) and Christian Social Union in Bavaria(CSU), condemned the salute "in the harshest possible terms" in a tweet.

"It is the opposite of what the European Parliament stands for and we call for immediate sanctioning," he added.

AFP contributed to this article.

Edited by: John Silk

Africa groans under the weight of COVID-19 waste

African countries were already swamped by trash before the pandemic hit. Now COVID-19 related waste is making the situation worse.

An explosion of medical waste across Africa strains waste removal system

Discarded masks can be found pretty well everywhere on the planet — littering streets, fluttering from trees, clogging drains and polluting waterways and oceans.

The baby-blue surgical masks have proved essential in helping curb COVID-19 transmissions during the pandemic. 

But now the masks, along with other COVID-19 medical waste, have become a whole new problem.

Sub-Saharan Africa might have experienced more shortages of coronavirus vaccines and protective equipment than other regions, but this hasn't spared the continent from the effects of this new garbage crisis. 

Some 353 million single-use face masks are thrown away every day in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a Ghanaian study. 

Masks, and other medical waste such as gloves and protective gowns, have also altered the quantity and composition of waste on the continent, the study found.

Disposable masks are polluting the planet

 When waste disposal entrepreneur Catherine Wanjoya walks through Kenya's capital of Nairobi, she can hardly contain her anger at the number of masks lying discarded in the street.

Her business, Genesis Care, previously specialized in the disposal of sanitary products, but at the beginning of the pandemic Wanjoya reworked the company's incinerators to also burn protective equipment like masks and gloves.

Environmental and health risks

As well as posing an environmental threat, the discarded masks are also a potential health threat, said Wanjoya, explaining that she knows of cases where discarded single-use masks have been collected, cleaned and re-sold. 

It's not just masks that are discarded carelessly, Wanjoya said, but all kinds of medical waste. 

"If you go to the open landfills, you'll find that they will get even needles, you can get drugs, you're going to get used bandages. People go to scavenge in those areas to try and get useful products, which they can sell," she said. "So you see such people also get infected by those medical waste, which has been thrown into the open landfills."

Low-income countries, 23 of which are in Africa, toss 90% of their waste in unregulated dumps, on fields or through open burning, according to the latest figures by the World Bank.

Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa lack adequate waste disposal systems

This is because many African cities like Nairobi lack functioning waste management systems, said environmental activist Lillian Mulupi from the Kenyan political party, the United Green Movement.

"In many districts [of Nairobi] there are not enough trucks or even bins, some areas will go for more than three days without the trash having been picked," Mulupi told DW.

COVID-19 related waste

The amount of health care waste related to the COVID-19 pandemic is enormous. 

The United Nations alone distributed some 87,000 tons of protective medical clothing, 2,600 tons of non-infectious waste and 731,000 liters of chemical waste to less-developed countries between March 2020 and November 2021, according to a WHO report.

The billions of COVID-19 vaccinations administered worldwide are responsible for another 144,000 tons of waste, which includes syringes, needles and collection containers. 

But the true scale is likely to be far higher, the WHO report acknowledges. 

60% of health care facilities in least developed countries aren't "equipped to handle existing waste loads, let alone the additional COVID-19 load," the report found. 

Landry Kabego, a WHO specialist for infection prevention and control, told DW that correctly disposing of medical waste is an important part of fighting the coronavirus. 

"When a country is dealing with a pandemic like this, they need to put in place all the measures that will allow them to break the chain of transmission of the disease, and waste management is one of them," Kabego said.

Catherin Wanjoya, founder of Genesis Care

Waste disposal entrepreneur Catherine Wanjoya agrees.

Her organization works with small clinics, who can't afford large medical incinerators "because they are too expensive for them," she said.

Her company is the only one in Kenya making smaller incinerators, she said, adding that one solution to the waste problem would be for the Kenyan government to partner up with companies like hers to ensure clinics can burn medical waste so it doesn't end up in landfill. 

Another way of tackling the issue is to make sure communities understand the environmental and health risks potentially posed by poorly disposed medical waste. 

Failure to separate infectious waste

Kenya's National Environmental Management Authority introduced guidelines about the separation and disposal of health care waste at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. 

Under the guidelines, masks for example are defined as infectious waste and shouldn't be thrown away with general rubbish. 

For Kabego, separating medical waste into infectious and non-infectious waste is key.

Masks are abundant, cheap, and easily discarded

"Most of our health care facilities do not segregate waste properly. When you are not segregating well, you have a lot of infectious and non-infectious waste together," he said.

For that reason, special rubbish bins in health care facilities as well as in public spaces are vital, he said.

Protecting your community and the environment

The WHO report also recommends developing reusable or biodegradable protective equipment, as well as reducing the amount of packaging. 

"There is a need to really minimize the quantity of the waste that is being produced, especially during a vaccination campaign," said Kabego. 

"You don't need to use the gloves. You just need to perform hand hygiene appropriately when you touch the patient and after you touch the patient," he said. 

As for Kenyan environmental activist Lillian Mulupi, she believes ordinary people also need to get together to clean up streets, rivers and beaches.

"The same way you clean your house, take an extra step and make sure that your village is clean, your county is clean, your country is clean and even the whole of Africa is clean," she said. 

TURNING FACE MASKS INTO A FASHION STATEMENT IN AFRICA
Masks with personality in Algeria
Mounia Lazali, a designer in Algeria, has sewn and donated hundreds of masks – singer Joe Batoury models one of her designs, above. She told DW people "want to assert their culture and their tastes, so I think that the mask will not escape the fashion effect. If that can encourage people to protect themselves more, art will have succeeded in its mission by entering citizens’ everyday lives."
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This article was original published in German.

What does the future hold for Afghan cinema?

Three award-winning female directors appeal to the international film industry to save Afghan cinema. Supporting women filmmakers is more important than ever.

A shot from the documentary 'Sonita' about an Afghan female rapper, directed by Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami

At an event held in conjunction with the current Berlinale film festival, titled "Imagine Afghanistan: Women filmmakers and their vision," directors Sharhbanoo Sadat, Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami and Zamarin Wahdat discussed how best to support Afghan cinema. They called for female Afghan filmmakers now living in exile, to be included in existing networks and receive financing for projects.

Director Sharhbanoo Sadat further emphasized the importance of being included in networks. Sadat has gained international attention since her feature film "Wolf and Sheep" won the 2016 Art Cinema award in the Cannes Film Festival's Directors' Fortnight selection.

Just a year ago, she was living in Kabul. "I really wanted to believe in Afghanistan, to trust that I had a future there," the 30-year-old filmmaker said during a panel discussion at the International Women's Film Festival — part of the Berlinale. Born in Tehran to Afghan refugees, when she was 11, she and her family returned to Afghanistan, living in a mountain village, before moving to Kabul when she was 18. "I had even bought an apartment there," she said.

Director Sahraa Karimi is one of the most recognized filmmakers from Afghanistan

However, the Taliban's takeover of Kabul in August 2021 put an abrupt end to her dream of having a filmmaking career in Afghanistan. The Taliban ordered the closure of cinemas in the country; thus, the future for the country's filmmakers is uncertain. Sadat fled Afghanistan and was taken in by colleagues from the film industry in Hamburg. This year, she is a member of the Berlinale jury.

Can Afghan cinema come from exile?

While Sadat is hopeful that she will be able to make Afghan films in exile, her Iranian colleague Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami expressed less confidence during the event. In the West, she said, only films that repeatedly spread the same prejudices about Afghanistan and the Middle East are financed. "When I made a film about Iran, I was told not to show any shots of the many modern highways. In Kabul, I was told not to show elevators."

Although her documentary "Sonita," about a young Afghan rapper in exile in Iran, won an award at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in the US, the film almost broke her heart, the filmmaker said. "We have to show the versions of Kabul or Iran that people in the West want to see, and they're not interested in what it's really like there."

Criticizing Western cliches

Positive stories, in particular, are overlooked added Zamarin Wahdat, a German-Afghan director who grew up in Hamburg. The British documentary "Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl)," for which she was an assistant director, was rejected by many film festivals. The reason was that it was not considered to be "dramatic" enough, she said. "In Germany, you can tell a father-daughter story where nothing dramatic happens," Wahdat explained. "But as soon as the story is set in Afghanistan, suddenly that's not enough."

The panel discussion received a lot of support on the web. The three directors are now pinning their hopes on films that can be made in exile.

"It will take us four or five years to learn new languages and make contacts," said Sharhbanoo Sadat. "But in 10 years, we may have Afghan cinema that is created in exile."

It is crucial to include the perspective of women, who are now once again excluded everywhere in Afghanistan, the filmmaker continued, "The best revenge is to keep making films."

This article was translated from German.