Across Africa, Water Conflict Threatens Security, Health, And The Environment – OpEd

 November 22, 2022  Eurasia Review 

By Robin Scher

Water is a finite resource on our planet. We can only rely on what we have, which translates to about 2.5 percent of drinkable fresh water. Of that amount, only 0.4 percent currently exists in lakes, rivers, and moisture in the atmosphere. The strain of this limited supply grows by the day and as this continues, the detrimental impact will continue to be felt in places least equipped to find alternative solutions—in particular, the African continent.

The global population is estimated to reach around 9.6 billion people by 2050. This is triple the number of humans on the planet just a few decades ago, having to exist with the same amount of water, not taking into account the nonhuman animals and plants that also rely on water to survive.

More than a third of the planet’s population living without access to clean, safe water live in sub-Saharan Africa. And nearly two-thirds—some four billion people—live in water-scarce areas. With this number set to steadily rise, the United Nations predicts that around 700 million people across the world might be “displaced by intense water scarcity” by 2030.

Scarcity-Led Conflict and Crisis

Each year, the world is seeing extreme water-related events including heatwaves and droughts. In 2021 on the African continent alone, Madagascar, Kenya, and Somalia experienced severe water shortages. And with scarcity, conflict tends to follow.

A number of African conflicts are being fueled by competition for dwindling natural resources. At a state level, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan have been engaged in a continuing dispute over fresh water in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Similar issues are playing out across every level of society.

Cameroon, for instance, experienced a violent dispute over water between fishermen and herders in a town near the border of Chad in December 2021. The disagreement over rights to water found in a shrinking Lake Chad led to the death of 22 people and a further 100,000 people displaced from their homes as the two groups fought.

“Once conflicts escalate, they are hard to resolve and can have a negative impact on water security, creating vicious cycles of conflict,” said Susanne Schmeier, senior lecturer in water law and diplomacy at IHE Delft.

This negative feedback loop fueled by conflict is further compounded by the effect on water quality, agriculture, and forced migration. “With very rare exceptions, no one dies of literal thirst,” said Peter Gleick, head of the Oakland-based Pacific Institute. “But more and more people are dying from contaminated water or conflicts over access to water.”

This insight speaks to the complex interplay between water shortage and conflict. According to research from the Pacific Institute, the impact of water on agriculture plays an even greater role in contributing to conflict—a view backed up by the fact that agriculture accounts for 70 percent of fresh water use in Africa.

Another conflict-causing factor is the social impact of water shortages. With up to a quarter of the world’s population facing serious water scarcity at least one month of the year, people are being forced to migrate. In 2017, at least 20 million people from Africa and the Middle East left their homes due to food shortages and conflict caused by serious drought.

Food Insecurity Due to Impact on Wildlife and Agriculture

Food insecurity caused by water shortages is being compounded by the loss of wildlife. With a drop in their rainy seasons, Kenya’s sheep, camels, and cattle have been in decline. This has led to a threat of 2.5 million people potentially going without food due to drought, according to the United Nations.

The impact of drought is taking a severe toll on agriculture, particularly in counties where this forms the mainstay of their economy. In South Africa, for instance, agriculture is key to the functioning of the country when it comes to job creation, food security, rural development, and foreign exchange.

Water shortages in the country impact both commercial and subsistence farmers. But it is the subsistence farmers who are hardest hit by the droughts, according to a 2021 paper published by a group of international scientists in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

While commercial farmers are able to offset a lack of rain through alternative water supplies, as well as storage and irrigation technologies, subsistence farmers who are reliant on rain, the scientists write, “are particularly susceptible to drought as they highly depend on climate-sensitive resources.” They also point out that the impact is worsened by the fact that this form of farming is tied to farmers’ own food security.

Adaptation

There is no way to avoid the impacts of water scarcity and drought. The best thing to do is manage and mitigate risk where possible. A tool proposed by the group Water, Peace and Security is an early warning monitor capable of tracking information on rainfall, crop yields, and political, economic, and social factors. According to the group, this tool would “predict water-related conflicts up to a year in advance, which allows for mediation and government intervention.”

Another common de-risking approach to conflict is water-sharing agreements. Since the end of World War II, 200 of these agreements have been signed. Despite this, the UN has consistently failed to introduce a Water Convention that would see over 43 countries sharing transboundary rivers and lakes.

A good example where a water-sharing agreement helped avoid conflict can be found in Southern Africa. In 2000, with tensions rising over shared resources, an agreement was reached between Lesotho, South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia that helped avoid further issues.

Reducing water loss remains the most recommended method countries should adopt to avoid future catastrophes. Agriculture and mining, in particular, are two industries that could do more to limit their water wastage. Another policy, suggested by Iceland, is to increase the price of water in relation to its supply, as a way to help curb water wastage.

Desalination is also a popular method used to free up more water, using seawater to increase supply. Saudi Arabia, for instance, uses desalination to supply the country with at least 50 percent of its water supply. Water recycling, known as “gray” water is another low-cost alternative used by farmers to offset the impact of drought.

As water scarcity continues to become more commonplace, so too will these mitigation and adaptation strategies. The question is, will they be enough?

Robin Scher is a writer based in South Africa. He is a graduate of the Cultural Reporting and Criticism program at New York University. Find him on Twitter @RobScherHimself.

Source: This article was produced by Earth | Food | Life, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

 

How Women Are Targeted In Conflict-Ridden Sri Lanka – Analysis

 November 22, 2022  Eurasia Review  0 Comments

By P. K. Balachandran

Despite enacting progressive national policies and becoming a signatory to numerous international conventions aimed at eliminating gender-based violence, recent reports and official statistics indicate a steady increase in violence against women in Sri Lanka, says Shyamika Jayasundara-Smits, an Assistant Professor at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

In her paper in Extremism and Gender-based violence in South Asia(November 2022) done under the aegis of the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism and the European Union, Jayasundara-Smits says that “the evolving nature of politics around Sri Lanka’s state-building process has generated dialectical relationships with its minorities—Tamils and Muslims. These relationships are partially enacted through gender violence which takes many forms—from physical and sexual violence to a national misogynistic polemic.” 

In other words, the continuing conflict between the majority Sinhala-Buddhists and the minority Tamils and Muslims manifests itself in gender-based violence and discrimination. Her paper spans both the war and post-war situations, but is primarily on the post-war (from 2009 onwards) scenario.   

Here are excerpts from the paper:

It was in 2018 that Sri Lanka conducted its first official survey on women’s well-being. It found that one in four Sri Lankan women (24.9%) had experienced physical and sexual violence by a partner or a non-partner, and that two in every five women (40%) had suffered physical, sexual, emotional and economic violence including controlling behavior by a partner.

The upward trend of violence against women and girls had become more prominent in the estate sector among plantation workers, where one-third of women had experienced physical violence.  

The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2019 played an added role in escalating violence against women. And specific structures, practices and the effect of the 30-year war against the Tamil militants have together resulted in violence against women. She identifies the sources of violence as:  State and societal militarization, majoritarian hegemony, military masculinities and the ways in which female subordination is ensured or patriarchy is reinforced. 

The socialist-era, under Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike and Mrs. Sirima Bandaranaike, which was marked by social welfare and educational equalitarianism, had let to the progress of Sri Lankan women substantially. But President J.R.Jayewardene’s economic liberalization in 1977 gave a boost to patriarchal and masculinist values, leading to an iniquitous division of labor and a worsening of gender relations. 

Subsequently, in the 1980s and 90s, when the country resorted to help from international financial institutions, egalitarian policies were dismantled. This adversely affected marginalized groups like ethnic and religious minorities and women.   

The civil war which broke out in the 1980s led to a stark increase in households led by women in the Tamil and Muslim-dominated North and East Sri Lanka, which bore the brunt of the fighting. These “war widows” were left to fend for themselves. In 2010, there were about 89,000 war widows and 40,000 women managing households in the former war zone. 

Between 2009 and 2013, the number of sexual violence-related police complaints increased by 34%. The Judicial Medical Officer of Jaffna Hospital in the Northern province stated that 56 cases of rape and severe violence against women and minor girls were recorded within the first three months of 2012. This was an alarming increase compared to 102 incidents reported in the whole of 2010 and 182 incidents in the whole of 2011. 

Although the Tamil militant group, LTTE, recruited women into its fighting forces and broke gender taboos, their status after the war was one of subordination to men, just as it was before the war.  

However, the war-affected women did organize themselves to fight for their rights, especially for their physical safety both during and after the war between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan and Indian military. The Northern Mothers Front (1984), Women for Peace (1984), Women’s Action Committee (1982) and Mothers and Daughters of Lanka (1989) played an important role in lobbying for the observance of human rights by the militaries. Later, after the war, they took up issues of legal and policy reform. They also demonstrated for the release of prisoners held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act without any legal justification, and for information about family members who had disappeared.  

But the post-war neglect of the war-devastated North and East in terms of development, led to economic decline, creating joblessness and a lack of economic opportunities. This led to domestic discord and violence against women perpetrated by frustrated husbands. Sexual exploitation was prevalent also during clean-up operations by the army after the war.  

According to some researchers, forcing Tamil women into prostitution— particularly those belonging to the war-ravaged areas of North and East Sri Lanka—was a form of psychological warfare, waged to humiliate the Tamil community.    

A significant number of sexual crimes were reported from Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Kurunegala and Monaragala, districts adjacent to the North-Eastern war zone. The Sri Lankan army was also suspected of carrying out “grease devil attacks” in which semi- naked men smeared in grease sexually assaulted women in the North and East. 

To date, the Sri Lankan army has not been held accountable due to draconian laws such as the Prevention of Terrorism Act, enacted to protect them from legal prosecution. In fact, the military has enjoyed near-total impunity due to support from the ruling Rajapaksa regime and Buddhist extremist monks—in the form of blessings and silent assent—proving claims of an unholy nexus between the two.

In Sri Lanka, violence against women and men (particularly from the Tamil minority) has followed a vicious cycle—empowered by the state, blessed by Buddhist religious extremists and inflicted by the Sri Lankan armed forces.

While on the one hand, the government kept imposing its majoritarian cultural values relating to women, women also came under the pressure of their respective communities to accept their misogynistic diktats.

Months after Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s election as President in 2019, the Public Administration Ministry issued a circular stating that women employees and visitors could only wear saris or osaris (the Kandyan sari), ostensibly to ensure security in office premises. The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka wrote to the Ministry Secretary that this violated fundamental human rights and restricted Muslim women from accessing public services.

Reformation of Muslim laws governing marriage and divorce further polarized the communities. While several South Asian nations managed to usher in progressive changes to Muslim law, hardliner groups such as the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama vehemently opposed any reform. In turn, the issue fueled Buddhist hardliners to campaign against the “burqa” or “hijab”, claiming to be “saviors” of Muslim women from their regressive society.

Kirama Vimalajothy, President of BBS also launched a campaign against the long dress worn by Muslim women, According to Vimalajothy, this dress was a symbol of danger—an opinion shared by law enforcement agencies. Buddhist extremists and the state justified the burqa ban by citing similar policies imposed by countries in the West.

Partly on account of the pressure to change from the majority Buddhists, Muslims began to impose fundamentalism on their community through Islamic schools, madrasas and other financial and social institutions. According to one study, Muslim women returning to the North said that, unlike before, they were pressured by members of their own community to wear head scarves. 

Buddhist extremists went to the extent of strongly urging Sinhalese women to bear more children and dedicate themselves exclusively to childcare to save the “vanishing” Sinhala Buddhist population from becoming a minority. There was propaganda about Muslim polygamy helping the Muslims to overtake the Sinhalese in the population of Sri Lanka eventually.  

In 2013, a minor female childcare provider, Rizana Nafeek was executed in Saudi Arabia for the death of a child in her care. The Rajapaksa government reacted by enacting a law which made it mandatory for women seeking employment abroad to get a signed approval from their spouses. The law also banned women with children below 5 years of age from employment abroad. Women with older children were required to demonstrate adequate plans for their care. But men were allowed to migrate at 18 years, and married men did not require their spouse’s approval before migrating.

Predictably, this law led to a sharp decline in women employed abroad. Women from the war-devastated areas of North and East were particularly affected, as many supported their families with income earned as domestic workers in the Middle-East.

Australian scientists discover Andromeda galaxy grew from 'galactic cannibalism'

By Josh Hohne

Nov 22, 2022

In their quest to uncover the origins of the Milky Way, a team of astrophysicists has made a morbid discovery.

They say our nearest galactic neighbour, the Andromeda galaxy, grew by feeding on other smaller galaxies billions of years ago.

The international team, led by a University of Sydney astrophysicist, uncovered evidence the Andromeda galaxy is a cannibal growing through "colossal intermittent feasts".

READ MORE: NASA capsule in 50-year lunar first on way to record-breaking orbit

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has captured stunning infrared views of the famous Andromeda galaxy to reveal insights that were only hinted at in visible light. Spitzer's 24-micron mosaic (top panel) is the sharpest image ever taken of the dust in another spiral galaxy. This is possible because Andromeda is a close neighbor to the Milky Way at a mere 2.5 million light-years away. The Spitzer multiband imaging photometer's 24-micron detector recorded 11,000 separate snapshots to create this new c (NASA/JPL-Caltech/K. Gordon (Univ)

The team had suspicions for years that the Andromeda galaxy had formed by absorbing other small galaxies.

"A few years ago, we discovered that in the far outskirts of Andromeda, there was a sign in the objects orbiting it that the galaxy hadn't been grazing, but it had eaten large quantities in two distinct epochs," said lead author Professor Geraint Lewis from the University of Sydney.

"What this new result does is provide a clearer picture of how our local universe has come together – it is telling us that at least in one of the large galaxies, that there has been this sporadic feeding of small galaxies."

READ MORE: NASA's mightiest rocket lifts off 50 years after Apollo

Astronomers predict that in about four billion years, the Andromeda galaxy will collide with our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The Andromeda galaxy is our largest and closest neighbor in the universe. (Robert Gendler)

"We've come to realise over the last few decades that galaxies grow by eating smaller systems – so little galaxies fall in, they get eaten – it's galactic cannibalism."

The findings are based on the discovery of a structure of stars, known as globular clusters, in Andromeda that originated outside the galaxy.

Professor Lewis named this the Dulais Structure, drawn from the Welsh for black stream.

An image from the study highlights the leftovers from the Andromeda galaxy's feast (The University of Sydney/Geraint Lewis)

The research was made public last week, and may help to answer questions about how our own galaxy was formed.

"What we want to know is, has the Milky Way done the same, or is it different? Both of those have interesting consequences for the overall picture of how galaxies form," Professor Lewis said.

Galaxies collide in new deep space image


The lead astrophysicist also gave credit to two university students who were working on the project, who, to Professor Lewis' surprise, stumbled upon evidence of leftovers in the galaxy's spiral.

"We got a hint that something was going on from their honours work," he said. "You almost know what's going to come out at the end of it, but when they come to you and say, 'I keep getting this signal, and it's a bit weird,' – that's when it gets very exciting."

"It's opened a new door in terms of our understanding."

HINDUTVA CASTISM

World Toilet Day 2022: Realizing Safe Cities For Sanitation Workers In India – Analysis

 November 22, 2022  Eurasia Review 

By IMPRI

By Sameer Unhale, Dr Simi Mehta, Dr Arjun Kumar and Kushagra Khatri*

World Toilet Day is held every year on November 19. It has been an annual United Nations observance since 2013, which celebrates toilets and raises awareness of the 3.6 billion people living without access to safely managed sanitation. It is about taking action to tackle the global sanitation crisis and achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: Water and Sanitation for All. The SDG 6.2 is the world’s promise to ensure safe toilets for all by 2030. This year, the theme is “Let’s make the invisible visible.” 

India, in its endeavour to achieve health, hygiene, and cleanliness along with universal sanitation coverage, launched the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) (SBM-U) or Clean India Mission in 2014 on the birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation – Mahatma Gandhi (October 2), as a national movement. To ameliorate urban sanitation infrastructure, the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Smart City Mission were also set in motion.

Sanitation Workers in India

According to a study conducted by Dalberg Associates in 2018, there are an estimated 5 million full-time sanitation workers, with 2 million working in high-risk conditions in India. Now, this high-risk or hazardous cleaning is often associated with the work performed by sewer and septic tank cleaners. For example, work includes emptying toilets, pits, and septic tanks; entering manholes and sewers to repair or unclog them; transporting faecal waste; working treatment plants; and cleaning public toilets or defecation around homes and businesses.

One of the pioneering government initiatives for manual scavengers is the ‘Self-Employment Scheme of Liberation & Rehabilitation of Scavengers’ (SRMS). It was put into place more than fifteen years ago by the National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC), but it has not yet achieved its objectives. When SRMS was launched in 2007, its goal was to place manual scavengers and the people who depended on them in alternative occupations by 2009.

Recent Developments – Sanitation Workers Safe City 

On World Toilet Day 2020, the SafariMitra Suraksha Challenge was launched. This major initiative under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is a leap forward towards achieving zero fatalities and putting a mechanised design and practise in place to deal with human waste. The various urban local bodies were challenged to eradicate hazardous cleaning, promoting mechanised cleaning of sewers and septic tanks. Capacity building and empowerment of SafaiMitra have featured as top priorities; thus, this initiative holds immense value.

In August this year, Urban India recommitted itself to ensuring all sanitation workers’ safety, dignity, and security. For the first time, 500 cities across India have declared themselves “SafaiMitra Surakshit Shehar’. In doing so, they have established that the cities can achieve adequacy in terms of institutional capacity, manpower, and equipment norms as stipulated by MoHUA and are providing safe working conditions for SafaiMitras. The ‘SafaiMitra Surakshit Shehar’ declaration by 500 cities aligns with SBM-U’s long standing goal of promoting sustainable sanitation practices and acting as a catalyst for turning every ‘manhole’ into a ‘machine hole’.

It has taken 75 years for us to come to this juncture, but any task started well is bound to achieve its goal. MoHUA is committed to ensuring that all Indian cities declare themselves as ‘SafaiMitra Surkashit Shehar’ by March 2024, along with ensuring ‘Zero Fatalities in Sanitation Work’. 

Namaste: Machinising City Sanitation and Circular Economy

Augmenting the ongoing efforts towards mechanisation and the safety of workers, MoHUA and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE) jointly launched the ‘NAMASTE’ (National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem) Scheme, this year, to enhance occupational safety, improve access to safety gears and machines, provide skilled-wage opportunities, and focus on continuous capacity building while breaking the intergenerationality of sanitation work. In order to ensure enforcement and monitoring of safe sanitation work, strengthened supervisory and monitoring systems at national, state, and ULB levels are envisaged.  

Furthermore, the creation of a training ecosystem of present and prospective workers for core sanitation work that involves training on occupational safety by incorporating interactive pedagogy, both theory and practise, pre- and post-training assessment, and certification. 

Zero Fatalities of SafaiMitras

The intended outcomes of the NAMASTE scheme are to achieve zero fatalities in sanitation work in India. All sanitation work must be done by skilled workers who will have no direct contact with human faeces. Increased awareness among the citizenry to seek services from registered and skilled sanitation workers. The scheme involves institutionalising the workers into Self Help Groups, which are empowered to run enterprises and increase their social benefit coverage. All workers are entitled to pursue alternative livelihoods. The scheme seeks to increase the visibility of sanitation workers, empower them, and inject dignity into the profession. While working on specialised training, capacity building, and ensuring occupational safety.

In addition, for safe and sustainable sanitation, MoHUA has issued the Faecal Sludge and Septage Management (FSSM) Policy, 2017, which emphasises implementation of the legal prohibition of manual scavenging under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and the Rehabilitation Act, 2013, and has also prescribed the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for safe cleaning of sewer and septic tanks in November 2018. 

Sanitation Workers – Manual Scavengers

According to the MoSJE, of the 43,797 identified manual scavengers, over 42,500 of them belong to the Scheduled Castes (2021). The sanitation workforce is largely informal and stuck in a generational cycle; an estimated 75% of the women involved were born into or married into this profession. Regardless of the work being a hazard, the blanket of social security amongst the workers is absent, almost 90% of the workforce is without insurance. 

Significantly lower than the national average of 70 years, the average life expectancy of sanitation workers is 40–45 years. Furthermore, they experience high rates of prolonged illness and mortality because of the work they do. Work-related mortality is high: 375–475 people who work in manual scavenging died on the job over the past five years, primarily due to asphyxiation while cleaning sewers and septic tanks. Several workers turn to alcohol and drugs to placate their suffering.

Every now and then, deaths and plight of working conditions of city sanitation workers, shakes the morale of the nation and warrants immediate actionable solutions. The impact of Climate Change visible in the cities further demand the need for holistic sanitation ecosystem. The workers without safety gear like PPE kits (especially during the COVID-19 pandemic times), hard hats, and other supplies engage in life-threatening conditions. Sanitation infrastructure in most Indian cities is also outdated and difficult to operate with machines, thereby requiring human intervention. Replacing this infrastructure with modern options requires significant budgets and political will. The new sanitation infrastructure being planned across cities should be based on ‘zero human touch‘ design principles.

Embracing Technology and Effective Implementation – Need of Hour

In the past decade, India has made significant strides in cleanliness and sanitation through the success of the SBM-U. But since SBM largely led to the construction of toilets and behavioural change, the next natural step would be to do away with dry latrines and have a robust sewage infrastructure that requires no human touch, which is the focus of the SBM-U 2.0

Well-founded implementation and concerted effort are required to bring about significant changes in sanitation.To address the systemic problem of manual cleaning, a coordinated, united push is needed from the multifarious stakeholders, i.e., ministries, urban local bodies, public works departments, and layers of contractors and subcontractors, civil society and citizens.    

In the Amrit Kaal of New India, decisive steps in the right direction that target augmenting sanitation infrastructure, dignifying safai mitras, and educating the commons are needed. India must align itself to tackle the global sanitation crisis and achieve sanitation and water for all with dignity at the earliest, for which embracing technology and effective implementation is the need of the hour.

Authors:

Mr Sameer Unhale, Mission Director at Maharashtra Urban Development Mission Directorate Swachh Maharashtra Mission (Urban) and Visiting Senior Fellow at IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi, and Dr Simi Mehta, Dr Arjun Kumar and Kushagra Khatri are with IMPRI

 

Logo for UN World Toilet Day. Credit: UN, Wikipedia Commons

RFA blogger Nguyen Tuong Thuy honored with Vietnam human rights award

The co-founder of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam is serving an 11-year prison sentence.

By RFA Vietnamese
2022.11.21

Nguyen Tuong Thuy holds flowers during a peaceful anti-China protest in Hanoi in 2014.

Jailed Radio Free Asia blogger Nguyen Tuong Thuy and six other activists have been awarded the 2022 Human Rights Prize by the U.S.-based Vietnam Human Rights Network (VHRN). The other recipients include poet Tran Duc Thach and members of the Vietnam National Self-Determination Coalition.

All of this year's recipients are serving long prison sentences. Thuy, 72, is serving 11-years for "propaganda against the state." Thach was sentenced to 12 years on the charge of "activities aimed at overthrowing the government."

The Vietnam National Self-Determination Coalition consisted of Luu Van Vinh, Nguyen Van Duc Do, Tu Cong Nghia, Nguyen Quoc Hoan, and Phan Trung. All were convicted of the same charge of "activities aimed at overthrowing the government" in a trial in Ho Chi Minh City in October 2018. They received prison sentences ranging from eight to 15 years.

“They fought with their own lives for human rights and democracy,” Nguyen Ba Tung, Executive Director of VHRN, told RFA.

“Poet Tran Duc Thach and journalist Nguyen Tuong Thuy used their pen to non-violently express their aspirations.

“Mr. Luu Van Vinh and his friends in the Vietnam National Coalition for Self-Determination worked to call on the Communist Party of Vietnam to return the right of national self-determination to the entire [Vietnamese] people so that the people have the full right to choose the political system that they want."

This year's winners were announced on Nov. 20. They were selected from 19 nominations from within Vietnam and abroad.

“The purpose of the Vietnam Human Rights Award is first and foremost to honor the contributions of Vietnamese human rights activists. At the same time, this is also a way to nurture and motivate those who are, and will be, committed to that noble mission,” said Tung.

Nguyen Tuong Thuy co-founded the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam in 2014. He was elected vice president of the organization until his arrest in May 2020. He was also a regular blogger for RFA on democracy, human rights, and social issues.

In early 2021, during a one-day trial, he was found guilty of a ‘propaganda’ charge, along with the group’s Chairman, Pham Chi Dung and Le Huu Minh Tuan, editor of the Vietnam Times website.

Tran Duc Thach, 70, was a North Vietnamese army officer during the Vietnam War. He is the author of the memoir "The Haunting Hole" recounting how North Vietnamese soldiers massacred hundreds of civilians in Dong Nai province during the final campaign of the Vietnam war in 1975. He received the Nguyen Chi Thien Prize 2020 for his work, an award named after a Vietnamese dissident poet who died in 2012.

In 2020, Thach was arrested on charges of “subversion” and sentenced to 11 years in prison plus three years of probation.

Luu Van Vinh, 55, participated in many peaceful protests in Hanoi against China's aggression in the South China Sea in 2011. He was arrested in November 2016. Two years later he was sentenced to 15 years in prison along with four other members of the Vietnam National Coalition for Self-Determination.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) has reported that the arrests and conviction of Thuy, Thach and Vinh violate Vietnamese and international human rights treaties that Hanoi has signed and ratified.

This year's Vietnam Human Rights Award ceremony will be held in Germany on International Human Rights Day, which is marked on December 10.

CHIANG KAI SHEK FASCIST

Taiwan's Kuomintang finds new star in great grandson of Chinese nationalist leader

Chiang Wan-an, Taipei mayoral candidate for the oppositions party Kuomintang (KMT), speaks at a rally ahead of the election in Taoyuan, Taiwan, on Saturday. | REUTERS

BY CINDY WANG
BLOOMBERG
Nov 22, 2022

Chiang Wan-an was a teenager when his father sat him down to tell him about his heritage: he’s the great-grandson of Chiang Kai-shek, the Chinese nationalist leader who fought Mao Zedong’s Communists forces before fleeing to Taiwan and ruling it with an iron fist.

Now the younger Chiang, who was a corporate lawyer in the U.S. before entering Taiwan politics several years ago, is running for Taipei mayor in an election that could help restore the popularity of his famous ancestor’s political party, the Kuomintang (KMT).


The once-dominant party, whose charter still calls for unification with China, has seen support wither.

Invigorated by Chiang’s youthful image and moderate approach on China, a KMT victory in the election Saturday could help the party’s chances at a comeback in national elections. That could also sway cross-strait relations — meaning it’s being watched closely by Xi Jinping, who secured his third term as leader last month.

“If Chiang wins, he could potentially revitalize the KMT by helping the party regain control of Taipei city and giving the party a prominent new political face,” said Russell Hsiao, executive director of the Washington-based Global Taiwan Institute. “The results could produce cascading effects that would have important implications for the 2024 presidential election and, in turn, the situation across the Taiwan Strait.”

The election is being held after a spike in tensions between Taiwan and China this year, with the People’s Liberation Army conducting a barrage of drills around the island. In October, China’s Communist Party enshrined its rejection of Taiwan’s independence into its constitution, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned that Beijing is trying to speed up its seizure of the island.

A meeting by U.S. President Joe Biden and Xi on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit this month appeared to ease escalation, but it’s unclear how long this will last. Biden has said the U.S. would come to the island’s defense should it be attacked — something previous leaders have avoided expressing explicitly for fear of provoking China.
Security concerns

Many voters, particularly older generations with an affinity for the KMT, see Chiang, 43, as the safe choice in these uncertain times. While he may lack the political experience of his main opponent Chen Shih-chung, the 68-year-old former Health Minister and candidate of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, Chiang has gained a steady, if unremarkable, reputation as a lawmaker since winning a seat in 2016.

Although issues in the upcoming ballot are mostly local, voters and political analysts say security concerns are at the top of people’s minds.

“All I care about now is that I don’t want to see war happening in my life,” said Kathy Wang, a retired 70-year-old. She comes from what many Taiwan people describe as a “blue” family of KMT supporters, with connections to China.

“I think the ruling party should help us seek peace with China, not war. There is no prosperity without peace,” she said.Supporters of Chiang Wan-an take part in an election campaign event in Taipei on Nov. 17. | REUTERS

While polls have shown a majority of Taiwanese people are happy to maintain the status quo rather than seek unification or independence, her support for the KMT puts her in the minority. President Tsai Ing-wen of the DPP came to power in 2016 and was re-elected in 2020, her vow to protect Taiwan’s autonomy proving popular amid a crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.

The KMT, also known as the Chinese Nationalist Party, once ruled China by reunifying a country fragmented by the collapse of its monarchy and battling Japanese invaders. Since moving to Taiwan as Mao’s forces advanced, the party has said it aims to retake the mainland and reunite China’s people, a goal now seen by many as out of date.

More voters now see themselves as Taiwanese first and foremost. Fewer stand by the dual, Taiwanese-Chinese identity that was more common a few decades ago, viewing Beijing and the prospect of peaceful unification with skepticism.

“I fear war, but I fear unification even more,” said Sabrina Hong, a 40-year-old local bank worker. “If KMT runs Taiwan’s government, maybe cross-strait ties will be less tense. But it’s concerning that Taiwan may eventually become part of China.”

While many feel a stronger KMT could help avoid military conflict with China, others believe the DPP government’s stance of keeping China at arm’s length, combined with support from Western allies, is the best way to extend the status quo.

Tsai hosted U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a visit in August, prompting China to cut off military and climate talks with the U.S. and fire ballistic missiles over the island. While some saw the trip as provocation, many believe bolstering Taiwan’s ties with the U.S. and others such as Japan is key to preventing a takeover.

Chiang showed he was well aware of such concerns during a two-hour debate in early November, emphasizing Taiwan’s democratic values and brushing off suggestions, including from Elon Musk, that Taiwan become a special administrative zone of China.

“There’s no need to even think about such a proposal. I’ll definitely oppose it to the end, and uphold the dignity of the Republic of China,” Chiang said, using the formal name of Taiwan.

Chiang, whose campaign promises to address the capital’s aging infrastructure and declining population, is also helped by criticism over Chen’s tenure as health minister. Taiwan’s early success at reining in the spread of COVID-19 has been overshadowed by a late spike in cases and criticism over vaccine shortages.

“He is more moderate and willing to listen,” said Dane Wang, a 43-year-old owner of a tech startup, adding that Chiang’s family background doesn’t matter to him. “What we care about more is what he can bring to the city and his personality.”

The KMT has the advantage in Taipei, which has a significant presence of “blue” voters. The party is traditionally favored by the island’s establishment and older voters, while the DPP has been more popular among farmers and working-class Taiwanese.
Complicated legacy

Chiang’s looks appear to be helping offset some concerns that he can sound scripted and less spontaneous than his more seasoned rivals. Chiang — a father of two with another on the way — is often mobbed on the campaign trail by smartphone-wielding female voters demanding selfies

.

Chiang Wan-an takes part in an election campaign in Taipei on Nov. 17. | REUTERS

His most obvious asset may be his name. But Chiang, who declined to comment for this story, has also been careful about brandishing it. The legacy is slightly complicated: his father — John Chiang, former vice premier and foreign minister — was an unrecognized son of Chiang Ching-kuo, son of Chiang Kai-shek.

Wan-an changed his surname from Chang to Chiang in 2005, when he was 27 and around a decade after his father first told him about his great-grandfather. Chiang has explained the delay as respect for Chiang Ching-Kuo’s widow, who died in 2004. Ching-kuo never publicly acknowledged John and his twin brother as his own.

Chiang hadn’t always pursued the role of heir to a political dynasty, and focused on venture capital as a lawyer. In a book, he said he turned to politics after seeing a struggling KMT, determined to “commemorate ancestors and show devotion to the country.” He won a seat in legislature in 2016 and was re-elected in 2020.

He’s likely aware that his name isn’t viewed favorably by all. The KMT’s single-party rule, including leadership by Chiang Kai-shek and his son, is remembered by many as a time of repression.

While the KMT government shifted toward democratization in the 1990s, its early days of rule in Taiwan were marked by the killing of opponents and attacks on civilians considered sympathetic toward communists.

Chen made an oblique reference to this during the televised debate. “I won’t ask him to be responsible for what Chiang family did, simply because he is Chiang’s descendant,” he said.

Huang Shan-shan, Taipei’s former deputy mayor and independent candidate, also took a dig at Chiang, saying she was running on her own merits rather than family connections.

For the DPP, a poor outcome on Saturday could serve as a blow to Tsai, whose term ends in 18 months. She may be forced to resign as party chair, giving her less influence over the party’s 2024 presidential nomination.

And a win by Chiang could bolster the KMT’s fortunes. KMT Chairman Eric Chu, who lost to Tsai in 2016, is widely seen as the party’s candidate for the next presidential race, but many say success as mayor could lead to Chiang’s nomination in the future.

Kharis Templeman, research fellow at the Hoover Institution, said the relatively young Chiang was KMT’s best bet at a comeback, but added that the party still had more work to do to prove its relevance.

“It needs to find ways to reassure Taiwanese voters that it would take security and sovereignty equally as serious as the DPP,” he said.

ANALYSE

'Riffians and Kabylians are merely disposable instruments in a higher-level geopolitical joust'

Algeria and Morocco's paradoxical support for independence movements

YASSIN AKOUH . (TRANSLATION BY KOMPRENO) . 22 NOVEMBER 2022


© Reuters

Are Morocco and Algeria using independence movements in a geopolitical joust for more power in the region? Polisario in Western Sahara has long enjoyed Algerian support, and now the Riffian movement is following suit. Conversely, Morocco supports the Kabylian cause in Algeria. ‘It is paradoxical for a country to support independence movements in a neighbouring country but fight them at home.’

This article was translated by Kompreno, with support from DeepL. Original Source, published in November 2022.

Western Sahara is a highly contested territory that has strongly influenced Moroccan and North African politics for decades. It is located on the north-west coast of Africa, north of Mauritania and south of Morocco. The latter still controls 80% of the area today.

For Morocco, Western Sahara has great symbolic and economic value. ‘The issue is the lens through which Morocco looks at the world’, King Mohammed VI said as recently as August, on the occasion of the 69th anniversary of the Revolution of the King and the People.

The Polisario independence movement has been fighting for the region’s independence since 1973. In 2007, Morocco proposed a plan to grant Western Sahara a far-reaching form of autonomy. But that plan was rejected by the independence movement. The kingdom would still retain control over foreign policy and defence.

Western Sahara was a Spanish colony until 1975. After Spain withdrew, a Polisario guerrilla campaign arose against the Moroccan and Mauritanian presence in the area. Mauritania soon withdrew and signed a peace agreement with the independence movement.Link


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Morocco, on the other hand, maintained that the area was Moroccan. But the Polisario, and its supporters, who did not identify themselves as Moroccan, continued to deny Morocco’s legitimacy over the area.


But Morocco cannot count on support everywhere and certainly not from neighbouring Algeria.

In 1991, a ceasefire agreement was reached between Morocco and the Polisario. The UN wanted to organise a referendum in which residents of Western Sahara could express their views on self-determination, but this still did not take place. Since 2007, Morocco has therefore been focusing on its autonomy plan.

In October, Antwerp mayor and N-VA president Bart De Wever announced that he considers the Moroccan autonomy plan a realistic solution. He did so following a working visit to Morocco where cooperation on the economy and security was discussed.

That same month, Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib also announced during a working visit that Belgium supports the autonomy plan. In doing so, Belgium follows other European countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Spain.
Self-interest

But Morocco cannot count on support everywhere and certainly not from neighbouring Algeria. It is no secret that there have been frustrations between the two countries for years. Algeria also openly supports the Polisario in the process.

‘That support dates back to 1975’, explains Khadija Mohsen-Finan, political scientist and author of the book Sahara occidental: Les enjeux d’un conflit régional (Western Sahara: the stakes of a regional conflict, TN). ‘The motivation for that support is essentially political. It wants to weaken Morocco.’

This is because both countries want to strengthen their grip on the region. Unlike Morocco, Algeria has no access to the Atlantic Ocean, which Western Sahara can offer. There is also a lot of phosphate to mine, one of the main synthetic fertilisers, which is important for agricultural production. A Moroccan state-owned company now mines and exports it.

That Algeria supports the Polisario weakens the Moroccan state’s position, and they know it in Rabat. So Morocco is doing the same by openly supporting an Algerian independence movement.

The Mouvement pour l’autonomie de la Kabylie (MAK, or Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylia, TN) saw the light of day in 2001, and seeks an independent Kabylia in northeastern Algeria. The movement was founded by Ferhat Mehenni, a former singer who made the underrepresentation of the Amazigh Kabylian identity the spearhead of his activism. He saw that the identity, culture and language of the original inhabitants were not given enough space by the Algerian state. And this was compounded by great socio-economic dissatisfaction among this population.
Paradox?

Initially, the MAK sought only autonomy, but meanwhile the movement dreams of independence. Moroccan support for the Kabylian cause began in 2015. Moroccan diplomat Omar Rabi then called at the UN to grant Kabylia self-determination rights.


‘It is paradoxical: supporting independence movements in a neighbouring country, while they are not tolerated at home and are fought by all means.’

That position was reiterated in 2021 by Moroccan UN ambassador Omar Hilale at a meeting of the UN Special Committee on Decolonisation. ‘More than anyone else, the people of Kabylia have the right to self-determination’, he affirmed.

Paolo De Mas calls this a striking paradox. ‘Supporting independence movements in a neighbouring country, while separatist and independence movements are not tolerated at home and are fought by all means.’ De Mas is a Morocco expert and former director of the Netherlands Institute in Morocco (NIMAR).

For Morocco, there is now the added risk that Algeria will support not only the Polisario but also Riffian independence movement. This is already happening in Algerian media and on social media.
Self-determination for Kabylia

Not long after Hilale’s statements at the UN in 2021, the Algerian Supreme Security Council indicated that relations between the two countries were in need of revision, due to ‘Morocco’s hostile actions against Algeria.’ That Security Council is a consultative body between the Algerian president, army and security forces.


‘In the struggle for regional hegemony, Morocco and Algeria are using all means, including propaganda, indoctrination and fake news.’

Algeria also accused Morocco and the MAK of starting fierce forest fires in Kabylia, although without any evidence. It also called the normalisation of relations between Morocco and Israel in 2020 problematic. Economically and militarily, the two countries now cooperate, while Algeria has strong solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

The issue is also heating up tempers this year. ‘You demand self-determination and the decolonisation of Western Sahara, but forget to end the colonisation of Kabylians, who have been living under Algerian occupation since as far back as 1962’, Moroccan UN ambassador Hilale said.

De Mas: ‘In the struggle for regional hegemony, Morocco and Algeria are using all means, including propaganda, indoctrination and fake news. Algerian support for the Polisario is countered by Morocco’s public support for the Kabylian movement in Algeria. Morocco repays Algeria with its own coin.’
Political strategy

Ferhat Mehenni, the MAK leader living in France, welcomes Moroccan support for the Kabylian cause. ‘Morocco can help us by opening a Kabylia diplomatic representation in Rabat’, he indicated in an interview with news site L’observateur.

Mehenni is also interfering on the Western Sahara issue. For instance, he thinks the Moroccan autonomy plan is more sensible than the Algerian stance. ‘That is a political strategy’, says Tashfin Essaguiar, an Amsterdam-based political science student, who closely follows political developments in North Africa related to Amazigh groups, as well as tensions between Morocco and Algeria. ‘Recognising Western Sahara as part of Morocco and thus taking a pro-Moroccan position is a strategic win-win situation for both sides.’

Moroccan support for the MAK, as a response to Algeria’s long-term support for the Polisario, may agitate Algeria psychologically. ‘Because of this Moroccan support, the MAK is high on the Algerian political agenda’, Essaguiar said. ‘And that makes it more difficult for MAK sympathisers in Algeria to promote the MAK in Kabylian regions.’

Support for the Riffian cause is also increasingly emerging. Polisario leader Brahim Ghali, for instance, spoke out clearly in an interview with television station Alhurra. ‘Let the Moroccan regime be generous and grant autonomy to the Rif’, he said.

Algeria classified the MAK as a terrorist organisation in 2021. Morocco did not yet make any official statements on the Riffian movements, such as The National Assembly of the Rif (NAR) or the Stichting Riffijns Republikeinse Congres (RRC, or the Riffian Republican Congress Foundation, TN).

NAR was founded in 2018 with coordinator Moussa Fathi living in Belgium. It aims to defend the human rights of Riffians worldwide, but does not officially seek an independent Riffian republic. However, many members and sympathisers are republican. In 2019, the RRC emerged in the Netherlands; unlike the NAR, the RRC focuses on the foundation of a Riffian republic.

‘Probably the government in Rabat does not yet see Riffian republicanism as a significant danger due to its amateurism, its small following and the movement’s lack of support and lack of growth’, Essaguiar says. But, he also stresses, that does not mean there is free rein for Riffian activists.
Disposable instruments


‘Riffians and Kabylians are merely disposable instruments in a higher-level geopolitical joust.’

De Mas considers it unlikely that support for independence movements could cause an escalation between Algeria and Morocco. ‘Propagandistic lip service’, he now calls it. But, he also nuances, ‘actual financial aid to separatist movements may well cause escalation again.’

Moreover, there is a big difference between Algerian support for the Polisario and Riffian movements. ‘Refugee camps in Tindouf (a town in Algeria, on the border with Western Sahara, ed.) are supported by Algeria. The support to the Rif is rather in words.’

With regards to accepting support from external players, Riffians and Kabylians should think carefully, stresses De Mas. ‘They are merely disposable instruments in a higher-level geopolitical joust.’

He also warns of the problems foreign support can create. ‘Secessionist movements are regarded in both countries as the ultimate high treason against which the government uses all means. Foreign support can be an additional pretext to strike down a movement and sentence leaders to severe punishments.’


This article was translated by Kompreno, with support from DeepL. Original Source, published in November 2022.

In Pictures: Ocean Groups Protest Against Fossil Fuels In London

Extinction Rebellion and other aligned groups protest at 13 sites across Central London on Monday, targeting the offices of companies and organisations that are linked to the fossil fuel industry. The groups sent a universal message that it’s time to ‘cut the ties’ with fossil fuels.


UPDATED: 22 NOV 2022 

Britain Fish Protest | Photo: AP/Alastair Grant

Demonstrators hold fish and wear fish masks as they protest outside the Home Office about the ecology of fishing over in London. The group argues about how damaged marine life is by overfishing.



Demonstrators hold fish and wear fish masks as they protest outside the Home Office about the ecology of fishing over in London.


Demonstrators hold fish and wear fish masks as they protest outside the Home Office about the ecology of fishing over in London.
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Demonstrators hold fish as they protest outside the Home Office about the ecology of fishing over in London.

Demonstrators hold fish and wear fish masks as they protest outside the Home Office about the ecology of fishing over in London.

Demonstrators clear up fake blood and a fish head after their protest outside the Home Office about the ecology of fishing over in London.