China censors article, censures think tank for arguing against zero-Covid policy

World News

Published on Aug 30, 2022 

Beijing has continued to enforce its zero-Covid policy with snap lockdowns, mass tests, contact tracing and hard quarantine for the infected and their contacts to tackle the mostly Omicron-driven clusters

A worker wearing a protective suit swabs a woman’s throat for a Covid-19 test at a coronavirus testing site in Beijing, China on Friday. (AP)

BySutirtho Patranobis

BEIJING: China has swiftly censored a Beijing-based research centre’s report disagreeing with the government’s zero-Covid strategy after it argued that the virus containment policies are disrupting trade and industry and stalling the Chinese economy.

Beijing has continued to enforce its zero-Covid policy with snap lockdowns, mass tests, contact tracing and hard quarantine for the infected and their contacts to tackle the mostly Omicron-driven clusters, which have continued to break out across China despite strict containment strategies.

Covid-19 infection and death numbers have remained low in China compared to other countries but the policies have severely impacted the economy.

Experts say that China’s response is increasingly disproportionate - shutting down a neighbourhood if there’s a single case and continuous mass testing in cities like Beijing, for example - given the rest of the world is learning to coexist with the virus.

Anbound Research Centre, a Beijing-based think-tank, argued against these policies in a report published on its social media handles on Sunday.

In the report titled, “It’s Time for China to Adjust Its Virus Control and Prevention Policies”, the organisation’s macro-economic research head, He Jun, said the current policies are stalling the Chinese economy while post-pandemic economies elsewhere are recovering faster.

“The Anbound Research Center gave no details of possible changes but said President Xi Jinping’s government needs to focus on shoring up sinking growth. It noted the United States, Europe and Japan are recovering economically after easing anti-disease curbs,” the Associated Press said in a report.

The AP report added, quoting the Anbound article that the economic impact of repeated shutdowns of companies and neighbourhoods is more severe than last year.

The report from Anbound, which calls itself an independent think tank focussed on public policy, said that the freezing effect might be even worse than when the outbreak began in 2020 and the whole economy shut down temporarily.

China’s economy is at risk of stalling due to the impact of epidemic prevention and control policies, the article said.

The article was published on Sunday but was removed from every social media handle in less than 24 hours.

The Anbound staff declined to share the original report, telling HT they have been “forbidden” from sharing it.

At least one of the centre’s social media handles had been shut down because of the article, HT learnt. “The piece no longer exists on the Chinese internet,” a staffer told HT.

The censorship of the research report indicates that not only will the Communist Party of China (CPC) continue with the zero-Covid policy - occasionally tweaking rules to show it is ready to adapt to the changing Covid-19 situation - but will also not brook any domestic opposition to the policies.

Major sea-level rise now 'locked in' due to melting of Greenland Ice Sheet

If the area’s record melt year of 2012 becomes routine, the ice cap could deliver almost a 78cm sea-level rise in the future

Greenland's enormous ice sheet has lost 4.7 trillion tonnes in 20 years. AFP

Gillian Duncan
Aug 30, 2022

A major sea-level rise is now locked in as a result of the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet, even if more is done to halt global warming, a new study suggests.

Scientists say damage done to date will cause a minimum sea-level rise of 27cm, as 110 trillion tonnes of ice thaws.

And if the area’s record melt year of 2012 occurs routinely, the ice cap could deliver almost a 78cm sea-level rise in the future, said the scientists behind the study, which was published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Iceland glacier shrinking faster than it can recover

That would serve as “an ominous prognosis for Greenland’s trajectory through a twenty-first century of warming,” wrote the authors.

Professor Jason Box from the National Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (Geus), who led the research, said the 27cm change was “very conservative rock-bottom minimum” and guaranteed, despite all efforts to prevent it.

“Realistically, we will see this figure more than double within this century,” he told The Guardian.

The Greenland Ice Sheet, which is on average 2,600 metres thick, is the world’s second largest after Antarctica.

It contains roughly 8 per cent of the planet’s total supply of fresh water.

Melting of the ice sheet has caused about 25 per cent of global sea level rise over the last few decades, according to estimates.

But if the entire sheet thawed, US space agency Nasa has said the sea level would rise by seven metres, endangering the lives and livelihoods of nearly one-third of the world’s population, who live in or near a coastal zone.

A sea-level rise of only between 60cm and 90cm, which is theoretically possible under one of the study’s scenarios, if record melt years become common, would, according to Nasa, create serious global problems: increased coastal erosion, salt water encroachment, loss of barrier formations like islands, sandbars, and reefs, and increased storm surge damage.

The study used a different methodology compared to previous analyses, which have typically used computer models to predict ice cap behaviour.

For this one, scientists studied satellite measurements of ice loss and the shape of the cap.

That allowed them to calculate how far global heating to date has pushed the sheet from the balance where snowfall matches the amount of ice lost.

Last year, scientists gave warnings that the melting of the Jakobshavn drainage basin in Greenland was nearing the tipping point from where it could not recover.

Data indicated that a critical threshold had been reached after a century of accelerated melting.

And in 2012, the ice sheet in Greenland underwent an unprecedented rate of thawing. For a few days during July, 97 per cent of the entire ice sheet indicated surface melting.

“If [2012] becomes a normal year, then the committed loss grows to 78cm, which is staggering, and the fact that we’re already flickering into that range [of ice loss] is shocking,” Dr William Colgan, who is at Geus, told The Guardian.

“But the difference between 78cm and 27cm highlights the [difference] that can be made through implementing the Paris agreement. There is still a lot of room to minimise the damage.”

However, he said there is growing support about the likelihood of a multi-metre sea level rise in the next 100 to 200 years.

Scientists say there are ominous signs of temperature change in both polar regions.

In February 2020, a research base on the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula recorded a record high temperature of 18.3°C, according to Argentina’s national meteorological service. And the mercury hit 38°C in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk, an Arctic record.

And in the following year, rain fell at the highest point on the Greenland ice sheet in the Arctic for the first time on record.

Earlier this year, scientists were stunned when the temperature in the Antarctic plateau rose 40°C higher than normal.

Concordia Station, located high on the Antarctic Plateau, hit a record temperature of -11.8ºC, more than 40ºC above the annual average for three days in March.

Updated: August 30, 2022, 8:54 AM

Global population skews male, but UN projects parity between sexes by 2050

BY ISABEL WEBB CAREY AND CONRAD HACKETT

 AUGUST 31, 2022

Globally, the number of males has exceeded the number of females since the mid-1960s. But by 2050, the worldwide sex ratio is expected to even out, according to recently released population projections from the United Nations.

As of 2021, there were about 44 million more males than females in the global population. But that difference is expected to disappear as a result of several different demographic trends.

In the coming decades, the world population is expected to age due to a combination of declining fertility (a smaller share of the world’s population will be young) and people living longer (a larger share of the world’s population will be old). Between 1950 and 2021, the median global age rose from 22 to 30. By 2050, the UN projects the median global age will surpass 35.

How we did this

When a large share of a population is young, it tends to skew male because more boys are born than girls. This pattern is exacerbated in countries where sex-selective abortions and female infanticide contribute to imbalanced sex ratios at birth. In 2021, the global sex ratio at birth was 106 male births per 100 female births. Gender inequalities also make girls and women more vulnerable to poor health, often putting them at higher risk of death, including from complications during and following pregnancy and childbirth.

However, in most countries, females have lower mortality rates after birth and live longer than males, on average. Higher male mortality has been associated with behavioral factors and genetic differences. In addition, more males than females have died due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Because of these patterns, females outnumber males at older ages. In 2021, women comprised 56% of the global population ages 65 and older, including 59% in Europe and Northern America. Their share of the global 65-and-older population is projected to be 54% by 2050. As populations age, they are more likely to become majority female.

Not only does the UN project parity between the sexes by 2050, it projects that females will begin to outnumber males in the decades after 2050.

Sex ratios vary widely

The countries with the biggest male-to-female ratios today are Qatar (266 males per 100 females), the United Arab Emirates (228) and Bahrain (164). In several Persian Gulf countries, these wide sex imbalances are primarily due to large immigrant populations of largely male temporary workers. For example, according to UN estimates, 79% of Qatar’s 2019 population was born elsewhere, and among the foreign-born population, 83% were male.

In many former Soviet Union republics, the reverse is true. The former USSR has been predominantly female since at least World War II, when millions of men died in battle. For example, in the territory that is now Russia, there were just 77 males per 100 females in 1950. That number rose steadily in subsequent decades, climbing to 88 by 1995 before starting to decline again. Several other countries from the former Soviet Union have seen similar patterns, and in 2021, they accounted for six of the 10 nations with the highest ratio of females to males.

Even within the same country, sex ratios can differ widely by age. For example, Armenia is the most heavily skewed country toward females (82 males per 100 females), but there are still more newborn boys than girls. In fact, for every 100 girls born in Armenia, 110 are boys – the world’s sixth starkest sex ratio at birth in favor of boys.

Other places with overall sex ratios that skew heavily female include Guadeloupe, Martinique, Hong Kong and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The United States has had more females than males since 1946, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2021, the population sex ratio in the U.S. was 98 males per 100 females. By 2050, it is expected to be 99.

The number of majority-male countries will decline by 2050

In 2021, males outnumbered females in 86 countries. That figure is expected to decline to 67 countries by 2050 as an increasing number of majority-female populations emerge.

Within countries where males are expected to continue outnumbering females in 2050, the UN still projects a more balanced sex ratio in the coming decades.

A recent Pew Research Center report took a closer look at the sex ratio at birth in India, specifically. India’s artificially wide ratio of baby boys to baby girls – which arose in the 1970s from the use of prenatal diagnostic technology to facilitate sex-selective abortions – now appears to be narrowing. This follows years of government efforts to curb sex selection, including a ban on prenatal sex tests and a massive advertising campaign urging parents to “save the girl child,” and coincides with broader social changes such as rising education and wealth.

Projections describe how populations will change if their underlying input data are accurate and their assumptions about future trends (e.g., that fertility will decline in high-fertility countries) are correct. However, unexpected events like war, famine and disease may produce different outcomes and may alter the world’s gender balance by causing a greater number of deaths for males or females and by affecting migration trends of individual countries.

Isabel Webb Carey  is an intern at Pew Research Center.

Conrad Hackett  is a senior demographer and associate director of research at Pew Research Center.

China responsible for ‘serious human rights violations’ in Xinjiang province: UN human rights report

OHCHR
High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet during her visit to China, in Ürümqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China.

31 August 2022
Human Rights

A long-awaited report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) into what China refers to as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) has concluded that “serious human rights violations” against the Uyghur and “other predominantly Muslim communities” have been committed.

The report published on Wednesday in the wake of the visit by UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet in May, said that “allegations of patterns of torture, or ill-treatment, including forced medical treatment and adverse conditions of detention, are credible, as are allegations of individual incidents of sexual and gender-based violence.”

In a strongly-worded assessment at the end of the report, OHCHR said that the extent of arbitrary detentions against Uyghur and others, in context of “restrictions and deprivation more generally of fundamental rights, enjoyed individually and collectively, may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”

‘Rigorous review’

The UN rights office said that Wednesday’s report was “based on a rigorous review of documentary material currently available to the Office, with its credibility assessed in accordance with standard human rights methodology.

“Particular attention was given to the Government’s own laws, policies, data and statements. The Office also requested information and engaged in dialogue and technical exchanges with China throughout the process.”

Published on Ms. Bachelet’s final day of her four-year term in office, the report says that the violations have taken place in the context of the Chinese Government’s assertion that it is targeting terrorists among the Uyghur minority with a counter-extremism strategy that involves the use of so-called Vocational Educational and Training Centres (VETCs), or re-education camps.

'Interlocking patterns'

OHCHR said that the Government policy in recent years in Xinjiang has “led to interlocking patterns of severe and undue restrictions on a wide range of human rights.”

Even if the VETC system has as China says, “been reduced in scope or wound up”, said OHCHR, “the laws and policies that underpin it remain in place”, leading to an increased use of imprisonment.

The systems of arbitrary detention and related patterns of abuse since 2017, said OHCHR, “come against the backdrop of broader discrimination” against Uyghur and other minorities.

Violations of international law

“This has included far-reaching, arbitrary and discriminatory restrictions on human rights and fundamental freedoms, in violation of international laws and standards”, including restrictions on religious freedom and the rights to privacy and movement.

Furthermore, the report said that Chinese Government policies in the region have “transcended borders”, separating families, “severing” contacts, producing “patterns of intimidations and threats” against the wider Uyghur diaspora who have spoken out about conditions at home.

OHCHR said that the Chinese Government “holds the primary duty to ensure that all laws and policies are brought into compliance with international human rights law and to promptly investigate any allegations of human rights violations, to ensure accountability for perpetrators, and to provide redress to victims.”
Report recommendations

Among the recommendations that the UN rights office makes in the report, is for the Government to take “prompt steps” to release all individuals arbitrarily imprisoned in XUAR, whether in camps or any other detention centre.

China should let families know the whereabouts of any individuals who have been detained, providing exact locations, and help to establish “safe channels of communication” and allow families to reunite, said the report.

The report calls on China to undertake a full legal review of its national security and counter-terrorism policies in XUAR, “to ensure their full compliance with binding international human rights law” and repeal any laws that fall short of international standards.

It also calls for a prompt Government investigation into allegations of human rights violations in camps and other detention facilities, “including allegations of torture, sexual violence, ill-treatment, forced medical treatment, as well as forced labour and reports of deaths in custody.”

Chinese rebuttal

In a long and detailed response published along with the hard-hitting report, the Chinese Government said in conclusion, that authorities in the Xinjiang region operate on the principle that everyone is equal before the law, “and the accusation that its policy is ‘based on discrimination’ is groundless.”

China said that its counter-terrorism and “de-radicalization efforts” in the region, had been conducted according to “the rule of law” and by no means add up to “suppression of ethnic minorities.”

On the issue of the camps, Beijing responded that the VETCs are “learning facilities established in accordance with law intended for de-radicalization” and not “concentration camps”.

No ‘massive violation of rights’

“The lawful rights and interests of workers of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are protected and there is no such thing as ‘forced labour’”, China’s statement said, adding that there had been no “massive violation of rights”.

The statement calls on the international community to be “clear-eyed about the truth” of its counter-terrorism campaign in the region, and “see through the clumsy performances and malicious motives of anti-China forces in the US and the West, who attempt to use Xinjiang to contain China.”

It calls instead, for the UN and other international organizations, to investigate “the human rights disasters caused, and numerous crimes committed, by the US and some other Western countries, both at home and abroad.”

Bachelet's May mission

The human rights chief undertook her mission in May, at the invitation of the Chinese Government and visited XUAR to review the situation there.

During her mission, Ms. Bachelet spoke with a range of government officials, several civil society organisations, academics, and community and religious leaders. In addition, she met several organizations online ahead of the visit, on issues relating to Xinjiang province, Tibet, Hong Kong, and other parts of China.

At the end of her visit, while expressing concern over issues relating to Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, human rights defenders and labour rights, she praised China’s “tremendous achievements” in alleviating poverty, and eradicating extreme poverty, 10 years ahead of its target date.

A number of other developments in the country were welcomed by Ms. Bachelet, including legislation that improves protection for women’s rights, and work being done by NGOs to advance the rights of LGBTI people, people with disabilities, and older people.

The UN rights chief underscored the important role that China has to play, at a regional and multilateral level, and noted that everyone she met on her visit, from Government officials, civil society, academics, diplomats and others, demonstrated a sincere willingness to make progress on the promotion and protection of human rights for all.
Guterres underscores independence of human rights office

In response to questions from correspondents at the regular Noon briefing in New York on Thursday, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, said Secretary-General António Guterres had read the OHCHR assessment, which “clearly identifies serious human rights violations in the Xinjiang region of China.”

Mr. Dujarric said the Secretary-General “very much hopes that the Government of China will take on board the recommendations put forward in the assessment”, while also noting that the report “also underscores the importance of the independence” of OHCHR.

In response to a question over what this spelt for future relations, Mr. Dujarric said the Secretary-General “values the system-wide cooperation between China and the United Nations on a whole host of issues. China is a very valuable partner, and we very much hope that that cooperation will continue,” and urged it was “important for everyone to see the Chinese response” to the detailed report.

GOP sees 'financial hole' after Sheldon Adelson's widow stops shoveling big money to their candidates: report

Raw Story - Yesterday 
By Brad Reed


Mitch McConnell (Photo via AFP)© provided by RawStory

Republicans for decades have relied on the late billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson to fund congressional and presidential races -- but now the money spigot he once provided appears to have dried up.

Bloomberg News reports that Adelson's widow, Miriam Adelson, has been hesitant to fork over the massive sums her husband provided prior to his death in early 2021, leaving what the publication describes as a "financial hole" for the GOP.

In fact, the only money Adelson has given this year has been a $5 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC dedicated to electing Republican candidates.

To put this into perspective, Bloomberg notes that the Adelsons gave more than a half a billion dollars to pro-GOP super PACs in the last decade alone.

In fact, the loss of Adelson money for the GOP is so great that the publication writes that "some Republicans worry they could face a cash crunch heading into the midterms" even as "its chances of controlling the Senate have deteriorated due to the fundraising struggles of candidates in battleground states."

Top GOP donor Dan Eberhart openly admitted that having no Adelson cash would be problematic for the party this fall.

"If Adelson is effectively sitting out the cycle, it leaves an awful big hole," he told Bloomberg.

Australian Signals Directorate 50-cent coin code cracked by Tasmanian 14yo in 'just over an hour'

By Dan Smith

I CHECKED THE SITE; ALREADY SOLD OUT!!!

The coin was available for purchase from the Royal Australian Mint.(Supplied: Royal Australian Mint)

A 14-year-old boy has cracked four levels of code imprinted on a commemorative 50-cent coin released by the nation's foreign intelligence cybersecurity agency.

Key points:ASD director-general Rachel Noble said the 14-year-old cracked the encryption in just over an hour

She said the agency hoped to meet him "and recruit him"

She also said there was a secret fifth level of encryption on the coin which no one had broken yet

The limited-edition commemorative coin was released on Thursday to mark the 75th anniversary of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), with only 50,000 minted for the occasion.

The ASD said the coin's four different layers of encryption were each progressively harder to solve, and clues could be found on both sides — but ASD director-general Rachel Noble said in a speech at the Lowy Institute on Friday that the 14-year-old managed it in just over an hour.

"There's a challenge out there to see who can correctly break all the layers, and, would you believe it, yesterday the coin was launched at 8:45am; we put up our web form and said, 'Hey, if you think you've got the answers, fill in the form'," she said.

"And believe it or not, a boy, 14 years old in Tasmania, was the first person in just over an hour to get all four layers right.

"Just unbelievable. Can you imagine being his mum?

"So we're hoping to meet him soon ... to recruit him."

Ms Noble and Royal Australian Mint chief executive Leigh Gordon launched the coin on Thursday.(ABC News: Mark Moore)

A fifth level of encryption

Ms Noble yesterday said the coin celebrated the work of the agency's members and the evolution of code-breaking, and that those who crack the codes could be "pretty well placed" to get a job at the ASD.

"We thought this was a really fun way to engage people in code-breaking with the hope that, if they make it through all four levels of coding on the coin, maybe they'll apply for a job at the Australian Signals Directorate."

Both sides of the coin contain parts of ASD's encrypted puzzle.

(Supplied: Royal Australian Mint)

Ms Noble said that while there were no classified messages on the coin, those who crack the codes could discover "some wonderful, uplifting messages".

"Like the early code breakers in ASD, you can get through some of the layers with but a pencil and paper but, right towards the end, you may need a computer to solve the last level."

She also revealed on Friday that there was a fifth level of encryption on the coin which no one had broken yet.

NASA's lunch box-sized instrument MOXIE successfully makes oxygen on Mars using the Red Planet's resources

Wednesday 31 Aug 2022 

In an extraterrestrial first, NASA's instrument converts Martian materials into oxygen.(NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory )

An experiment from NASA has taken a small step towards making Mars habitable for humans.

NASA's instrument, the Mars Oxygen In Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, or MOXIE, has been successful in generating breathable oxygen on Mars using resources found on the Red Planet — a first for the experiment.

The lunch box-sized instrument has produced oxygen from the carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere seven times since landing on Mars in February 2021.
So what's new about this demonstration?

More on Mars

There are glimpses of ancient Mars on present-day Earth
First high-res images from Mars landing released
The blue sunsets are spectacular but the radiation bites. Welcome to Mars

MOXIE’s oxygen production on Mars represents the first demonstration of “in-situ resource utilisation".

This is the practice of harvesting and using a planet’s materials to make resources that would otherwise have to be transported from Earth.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor of aeronautics and astronautics and principal investigator for MOXIE, Jeffery Hoffman, said this is the first time MOXIE has used resources from the planet itself.

“This is the first demonstration of actually using resources on the surface of another planetary body, and transforming them chemically into something that would be useful for a human mission,” he said in a statement.

“It’s historic in that sense.”

Engineers lowering MOXIE into the belly of NASA's Perseverance rover.

(NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

In each of its seven runs, MOXIE reached its goal of producing 6g of oxygen per hour — similar to the rate of a small tree on Earth, according to findings published in a new paper in the journal Science Advances.

MIT began developing Moxie in 2014.

The experiment rode to Mars along with NASA's Perseverance rover in 2020, landing on Jezero Crater in February 2021.

Researchers suggest a scaled-up version of MOXIE could be sent to Mars to continuously produce oxygen at the rate of several hundred trees, ahead of humans going to the planet.
How does it work? What would a scaled-up version look like?

Think of MOXIE as a similar process to producing oxygen and hydrogen from water in a fuel cell.

The instrument works by sucking in Martian air, filtering it, then using electrolysis to split carbon dioxide into oxygen and carbon monoxide.

After this, it purifies and combines the singular oxygen atoms to produce O2 — breathable oxygen.

Moxie then releases the oxygen and carbon monoxide back into the Martian atmosphere.

Researchers suggest a scaled-up version of MOXIE could be used to produce oxygen on Mars at the rate of several hundred trees.(NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

So far, MOXIE has shown that it can make oxygen at almost any time of the Martian day and year.

Michael Hecht, principal investigator of the MOXIE mission at MIT’s Haystack Observatory, said: “The only thing we have not demonstrated is running at dawn or dusk, when the temperature is changing substantially.

“We do have an ace up our sleeve that will let us do that, and once we test that in the lab, we can reach that last milestone to show we can really run any time," he said.

Researchers say a scaled-up version of MOXIE on a future Mars mission would pump that oxygen into some sort of storage tank for future use.

This means providing breathable O2 for astronauts, or liquid oxygen for the manufacture of rocket fuels.

Take a peek inside the inner workings of the gold-plated MOXIE.

(NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory )

As MOXIE continues to churn out oxygen on Mars, engineers plan to push its capacity by increasing its production, particularly in the Martian spring, when atmospheric density and carbon dioxide levels are high.

“To support a human mission to Mars, we have to bring a lot of stuff from Earth, like computers, spacesuits, and habitats," Mr Hoffman said.


"But dumb old oxygen? If you can make it there, go for it — you’re way ahead of the game."

Posted 31 Aug 2022

Akhtar Baloch

IN MEMORIAM: RECORDER OF THE FORGOTTEN PAST

Dr Naazir Mahmood

Published August 28, 2022

Akhtar Baloch, also known as ‘Karaanchi Wala’, had his own mode of resistance.

He resisted cultural decay by frequently detailing the erosion of our heritage in his blogs for Dawn, which attracted readership both nationally and internationally. He also resisted human rights violations in Pakistan — especially in Sindh — through his work for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).

He fought for the rights of marginalised citizens, ranging from small ethnic and religious groups to the transgender communities and people of diverse sexual orientations. An activist with an academic touch, he had a keen eye for old books, buildings and manuscripts. He frequented old book stalls as a compulsory ritual and rummaged through literature, collecting nuggets of humanism from poetry and prose. His death on July 31 — at the age of 55 — has left us poorer in an already depleted intellectual legacy for he was a fine journalist and a caring friend.

This is not an obituary, rather an attempt to give my readers a glimpse of what Akhtar Baloch stood for. Born in Mirpurkhas in 1967, he spent the first 30 years of his life there. During his college years, he participated in various literary and political activities. This was under the dark time of the Gen Zia regime.

Akhtar Baloch was an eyewitness to the Movement for Restoration of Democracy (MRD). Even as a teenager he could feel the pain and oppression of the brutal crackdown that General Zia and his cronies meted out to all who dared to dissent. Akhtar Baloch’s literary pursuits started when he read extensively in Sindhi and then translated some selected Sindhi writings into Urdu. His love for languages honed his skills as a renowned translator and by the age of 30, he was already making waves as a journalist and a translator of repute.

Activist, journalist and researcher, Akhtar Baloch, who passed away on July 31, will be remembered for the vast and well-documented archive he leaves behind on Karachi’s forgotten streets, history and overlooked communities

Next, he headed to Hyderabad where he emerged as a fearless defender of human rights. The HRCP benefitted from his efforts as he became its provincial coordinator. His name did not go unnoticed by the oppressors as the country was now reeling under another military dictatorship led by Gen Pervez Musharraf. On Pakistan Day 2003, Akhtar Baloch was abducted by “unknown persons” who threatened him and tortured him for days before releasing him.

The last 20 years of his life were spent in Karachi where he established a large following among his friends, fellow journalists, readers and students. His ever-smiling face endeared him to many as he became a source of knowledge for them on commonly ignored issues. He also became a reputable researcher after extensively working with the transgender community in Sindh. In 2010, City Press in Karachi published his book tilted Teesri Jins (The Third Sex). Ilm-o-Adab published its third edition in 2020.

The Third Sex

Teesri Jins, a marvelous work of both primary and secondary research, outlines the travails of transgender persons in Sindh, and deciphers their esoteric language called ‘Farsi Chand’. The transgender community has their own language that other people struggle to understand. Akhtar Baloch spent considerable time with transgenders to document the intricacies of their language — an assorted mix of diverse expressions from different tongues. Some prominent transgender persons’ such as Bindya Rana, Guru Keta, Shahana alias ‘Shaani’ and Yasmeen Faqeer’ trusted Akhtar Baloch and shared with him what they had not disclosed to anyone else.

Akhtar Baloch’s book Teesri Jins

He visited many cities in Sindh where the transgender community had a dera (settlement). Within Hyderabad’s city centre, transgender people have their base in Khadra Gali which Akhtar Baloch frequented. The best feature of Teesri Jins was its focus on the community’s historical background. Through detailed interviews with activists and leaders of the transgender community, Akhtar Baloch gathered invaluable information that hitherto was not available anywhere. Based on nearly two dozen in-depth interviews, the book unfolds a terrifying saga of exploitation and marginalisation the community.

The book became an instant hit; it is still a unique source of academic information. Full of authentic accounts and references that give credence to his narrative, Akhtar Baloch gave voice to a community which is a target of coercion and repression.

Humanism in Urdu Literature

Urdu Adab Mein Insaan Dosti (Humanism in Urdu Literature) became another bestseller by Akhtar Baloch. In this purely academic work, he analyses the humanistic tradition in Urdu literature from the 17th to the 19th century. It is a treasure trove of nuggets from Urdu literature that enlightens readers about its humanistic credentials. In it, Akhtar Baloch defines the concept of humanism and how it is related to literature. The very essence of creative writing appears to be an endeavour of a humanist approach to life, which states that when hatred and love vie for space, love triumphs.

He began his research by going through the writings from the early period of Urdu literature that emerged in the Deccan, the southern part of the Subcontinent, and tracing the elements of humanism in the Deccan milieu where Urdu was taking shape. Then he moves on to the 18th century in which the subject matter of literature and poetry developed a tinge of political disintegration as reflected in the poetry of that period.

Akhtar Baloch discusses the reservations held by Mir Jafar Zatalli and his contemporary poets towards a rapidly transforming society. Chaos and mayhem across India influenced the literature of that time, and authors and poets could not remain aloof to the social and political realities. From poets such as Mir and Sauda to an emerging Urdu prose towards the end of the 18th century, Akhtar offers us vignettes of Urdu literary gems in this book.

His interest was not confined to any one genre of literature; he branched into multiple modes of expressions circulating from the 17th to 19th centruries. He proves that all genres in Urdu literature shared a recurring theme of humanism. By studying the merits and demerits of prominent writers, Akhtar Baloch unveiled the literary trends emerging out of the first century of colonial rule. For instance, Mirza Ghalib, his favourite poet, illustrates his humanism and continues to dominate Urdu poetry to date.

Urdu Adab Mein Insaan Dosti concludes with a discussion on the society that was emerging in the aftermath of the 1857 War of Independence. Akhtar Baloch charts the changing patterns of norms and values in Urdu literature during the second half of the 19th century, especially in light of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s Aligarh Movement.

THE KARAANCHI WALA

In 2013, Akhtar Baloch started writing the ‘Karaanchi Wala’ blogs about old buildings, personalities and the streets of Karachi. His writings appeared on the internet simultaneously in English, Sindhi and Urdu, causing many newspapers such as Intikhab and Azaadi in Balochistan, and Mashriq from Lahore and Peshawar to carry his pieces. His quest for historical accuracy was unmatched as he searched for references from the most unlikely people and places. His unique style made him a credible source even within the highbrow academic community.

Akhtar Baloch’s Karaanchi Wala is a compilation of his blogs

He wrote about karo-kari (honour killings), the Jirga system and issues that the scheduled castes and other marginalised people faced in Sindh. He also taught as a part-time teacher at the Federal Urdu University. Through his popular blogs, his identity as ‘Karaanchi Wala’ received wider acceptance.

These blogs touched upon subjects of history that many people considered taboo or not worth discussing. For example, in 2016, when his first collection of blogs appeared in book form, the episode about the marriage proposal between Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Ruttie sparked the interest of readers. To corroborate this anecdote, our researcher frantically looked for a book by Sharif uddin Pirzada and referenced it properly. His telling of this episode is to the point and lacking sensation.

Scrutiny of facts was his forte and, at times, he spent weeks — even months — searching for material to verify the sources that he used for his blogs. As he was passionate in his quests and dispassionate in his analysis, his writings were impartial and unbiased. At the end of his blogs, he invited his readers to enlighten him with additional information, which portrayed him as being an intellectually flexible person. He often accredited Dr Mubarak Ali, Hussain Naqi, I.A. Rehman, Saba Dashtyari and Tuaseef Ahmed Khan, all of whom he considered his guides and mentors.

In following their footsteps, Akhtar Baloch deviated from the usual track of history that many textbooks in Pakistan promote. His detours facilitated a unconventional approach to history and led him to discover some lost pages from our recent past. His primary interest was highlighting those buildings and people that deserve our appreciation and attention. His blogs focused on researching the cities and towns of Sindh and its people, bridging the gap of representation between them and the mainstream.

Akhtar Baloch’s corpus resists, upends and challenges the official narratives of history that mutilate our past by clarifying misconceptions and debunking misrepresentations of history. He developed a body of work that remains unparalleled. He was a true proponent of people’s history in Sindh and paved an alternate path for fellow researchers and students which was nonconformist.

Over the years, his first collection of 40 blogs, ‘Karaanchi Wala 1’, was developed into three editions, prompting him to compile a second collection in 2020 comprising 30 blogs that were deeply informative. His blog discussing the Lahore Resolution of March 1940 became popular as it challenged the date of its passage and instead proved the correct date to be March 24th rather than 23rd. In another blog, he highlights August 15 as Pakistan’s actual Independence Day.

His blog on Jam Saqi and Nazir Abbasi talks about the difficulties of carrying out left-wing and progressive political activities under both civilian and military governments in the recent history of Pakistan. Being a secular activist, Akhtar Baloch underscored the positive interventions by various religious communities in Sindh. One such personality that piqued his interest was Bhagat Kunwar Ram, a promoter of harmony and love among diverse communities. Bhagat was a Hindu musician, singer and altruist. Akhtar Baloch details that a fanatic follower of Pir Bharchaundi Sharif assassinated Bhagat in 1939.

Akhtar Baloch was an investigative genie par excellence who often became a victim of plagiarism by other so-called journalists and anchorpersons. One notable instance is when an anchorperson plagiarised Baloch’s complete research on the Jewish synagogue in Karachi without acknowledging the source. Even the photos that Akhtar Baloch had taken and used for his blog were downloaded and used without any credit or consent. However, this was not a one-off incident as the same anchor later copied Baloch’s blog on the funeral of Fatima Jinnah — reproduced by many newspapers as some acknowledged Baloch’s efforts while others did not. One person even published a 36-page booklet on Fatima Jinnah’s funeral using Baloch’s blog with no mention of the writer. While Baloch was happy his work was being widely circulated, it was unfortunate that he could not claim credit for his efforts. Adarsh Ayaz Leghari and Arif Anjum translated his Urdu blogs for Dawn in English, while some other Sindhi magazines also translated and published them.

Meanwhile, he always acknowledged even if somebody made a minor contribution to his blog and for this he gave credit to our late friend Musaddiq Sanwal from whom Akhtar Baloch learnt a lot.

His third book of the ‘Karaanchi Wala’ series, which he asked me to review, appeared in 2020. Sadly, I kept postponing it for one reason or another without realising that he might not be here when I finally sat down to write about him. Wusatullah Khan called him Sir John Marshal of Karachi — Marshal had discovered the ruins of Mohenjo Daro. Akhtar Baloch laid bare the bones of old Karachi and encouraged us to appreciate its rich past.

The writer is a columnist and an educator. He can be reached on
Twitter @NaazirMahmood.

Published in Dawn, EOS, August 28th, 2022

PAKISTAN

Compounded losses of cash crop cotton

Mohammad Hussain Khan 

Published August 29, 2022

Peasants struggling to pick the remainder of cotton crop in Matiari district.

—Photo by Umair Ali

Successive spells of torrential rains in Sindh have spelt disaster for the agriculture sector. The economic cost of the disaster would run into billions if the value chain is anything to go by. Among summer crops, cotton is the worst hit, bananas and mango orchards have been damaged and vegetables, particularly onion, have been washed away.

These rains are considered a repeat of 2011 when rains triggered similar flooding in lower Sindh after the 2010 super floods that destroyed seven to eight districts in upper Sindh owing to a breach in the Indus river’s dyke.

One or two pickings of cotton were carried out in the early sowing areas of Sindh. The downpour destroyed almost the entire crop in Sanghar, Naushahro Feroz, Khairpur, Nawabshah, Tando Allahyar, Mirpurkhas, Matiari and Tando Mohammad Khan. The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) says 2.082 million acres of the cropped area have been damaged across Sindh.

“I believe 80 per cent of the cotton crop has been simply washed away and in terms of money, losses to the cotton crop will be no less than Rs70bn,” said Nadeem Shah, Sindh’s member of the Cotton Crop Assessment Committee and Pakistan Central Cotton Committee of the federal food security ministry. He is from the lower Sindh rain-hit Matiari district which has no drainage system to dispose of rainwater.

Earnings of cotton pickers, domestic edible oil production, and livestock feed are all casualties of the deluges, along with the textile industry

“Cotton plants are submerged under massive amounts of water and they are not likely to survive. Once the sun makes its presence felt, it will blacken the plant. In some areas cotton plants are already blackened,” he said.

A visit to the rain-hit lower Sindh districts reveals that rains that continued until August’s third week left the farming community and residents of urban centres high and dry. It forced the Sindh government to declare 23 districts to be calamity hit.

There seems to be no probability of water receding from fields quickly and easily as rainwater stagnates. Irrigation officials and growers are struggling to ensure drainage of rainwater by diverting it from one end to the other as part of ad-hoc arrangements for disposing of it through irrigation channels.

After a period of continuous decline in the cotton crop, it witnessed growth recently in Sindh, leading to the production of 3.5m bales in the 2021-22 season when compared to 1.8m bales in 2020-21. It was grown over 539,000ha against the sowing target of 640,000ha. Losses to the cash cotton crop mean economic losses to farm labour as well as cotton pickers. The pickers, mostly women, will lose an important source of seasonal earnings.

Some picking this season was done before the rains. Sindh agriculture department assesses close to 100pc losses to the remaining cotton crop. Delay in dewatering from farmlands will have serious implications for the sensitive cotton crop. Standing water blackens the crop. Those still having clean picking will be among the luckier ones. They would be getting Rs10,000 plus rate for 40kg.

Widespread damage to the cotton crop will certainly undermine the entire value chain. Seed in phutti will be lost besides the crop. The seed is a source of domestic edible production. Its waste (oilcake) is a source of livestock feed.

Cotton seed or benola is a vital source of edible production domestically. According to the former chairman of Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), Dr Yusuf Zafar, cotton crop seeds provide 70pc of total domestic edible oil production.

“Only 30pc of Pakistan’s edible oil is achieved domestically and the rest is imported. Of domestic production, 70pc is achieved using cotton seeds. This is alarming as the food and edible oil import bill continues to rise,” contends Mr Zafar.

He said estimates showed that the recent damages, inclusive of losses to Balochistan’s organic cotton crop, indicate around 6-7m bales will have to be imported, costing $6-$7 billion.

Devastating rains have undermined the rural community’s economic well-being as well as inflicted mental agony and psychological trauma. Farmers will still be preparing to meet the challenges of the upcoming Rabi sowing season, provided the water recedes from fields. About 89,622 livestock has perished as per the PMDA situation report of Aug 24 in view of rains. Roughly 84,783 of 89,622 livestock has perished in the upper Sindh Kashmore district.

Herds of livestock are mostly managed by the peasantry, who have a 50-50 share in farmlands with the growers. The downpour has rendered this peasantry displaced. They have shifted to roadside improvised tents along with animals including cows, buffaloes, goats and sheep of their own.

Their villages, located on farmlands, have been inundated and their houses made of thatched straw have collapsed. Their livestock is now exposed to diseases. Carcasses of cattle were seen on the Miprukrhas-Jhuddo route which was badly hit by the overflowing canal.

About 310,039 acres in Sanghar — Sindh’s home of cotton production — followed by 247,659 acres in Shaheed Benazirabad and 247,607 acres in Naushahro Feroz districts were damaged. Khairpur district reported damages to agriculture of 214,626 acres, resulting in the loss of its date palm crop in July’s spell of monsoon rainfall.

Among veggies, the onion crop is lost. It was at bulb formation but has fallen prey to rains. Sindh makes up half of the total onion production in the country. The same goes for chilli. Its required acreage was not achieved due to water shortage, said a chilli grower Karamullah Saand from Mirpurkhas.

Irrigation authorities are struggling to cope with the situation triggered by recent rains. All off-taking calls, 14 in all, of Sindh’s three barrages remained closed due to the flood situation in the Indus river. Indus remained at high flood at Guddu and Sukkur barrages since Aug 23 till this piece was written on Friday. Up and downstream flows at the two barrages remained the same.

Farmlands were under water till Aug 27 in lower Sindh. If timely dewatering of farmland is not done it could undermine wheat sowing. The wheat crop is already facing issues. Sindh was not able to meet the procurement target of 1.4m tonnes this year. Sindh food officials were said to have taken away the 2021-22 crop from small- and medium-scale growers to meet the procurement target, leaving them without seeds to be used for cultivation this year. This would put them in quandary.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, August 29th, 2022