Iranian protester left blind in one eye, faces barriers to come to Canada for help

By Negar Mojtahedi 

 Global News
Posted January 2, 2023

WATCH: Saman, an Iranian demonstrator, blinded in the eye with a rubber bullet speaks to Global News about his experience from an undisclosed location outside of Iran.


WARNING: Some readers may find the details in this story disturbing. Discretion is advised.

Saman, a 30-year-old Iranian national, has been left blind in one eye for the rest of his life.

“From a near distance, he shot at my face, and I lose my left eye forever,” he told Global News.

Saman, whose last name Global News is not revealing due to safety concerns, said on Oct. 1, 2022, an Islamic Republic security officer stood just 10 feet away from him, raised his gun and fired a rubber bullet, hitting his left eye.

He said the regime’s officer aimed at his face, recognizing him as one of the activists who had gone night after night to Vali Asr square in Tehran to protest against the Iranian government.

“I have damage from tooth and skull and brain,” he added.

Saman is one of the hundreds of victims to have suffered severe eye injuries by security forces since mid-September according to doctors in Iran.

Saman, who spoke over zoom from an undisclosed location outside Iran, said he drove himself to several hospitals while holding onto his mutilated eye.

He said most hospitals refused to treat him given the risks medics face treating demonstrators.

Finally, one doctor agreed to perform a quick surgery on him. He said a nurse told him authorities were searching for him and in just a few hours – he managed to escape. He left behind his life, family, home, and job.

READ MORE: Canadian doctors raise alarm as Iranian healthcare workers targeted by regime

Saman said he is now in hiding from the regime and his life is still in danger.

“They are tracking me everywhere and I think they want to kill me,” he said.

B.C. residents trying to help Saman

Saman’s story compelled Vancouver registered nurse Mahi Etminan with the BC Cancer Foundation and her brother Dr. Mahyar Etminan, who works at an Eye Care Centre, and UBC’s Deptment of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Department of Medicine, to reach out and help.

Mahi also works with plastic surgeons who are willing to perform surgery for free on Saman.

She has been in contact with Saman daily on the phone and is determined to do anything she can to help him.

Mahi and Mahyar are trying to bring over Saman to Canada on humanitarian grounds but the application process has been difficult.

“For someone like Saman we can clearly see that there’s a lot of obstacles for him to be able to come to a safe place when his life is in danger and he has to change locations every day,” Mahi told Global News.

“I would like to ask our Immigration system what can we do for someone like Saman?”

3:3 2B.C. residents try to help Iranian demonstrator blinded in left eye come to Canada

Immigration challenges

Saman needs five sponsors but he needs to be approved first by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) for sponsorship said Erica Olmstead, a Vancouver-based immigration lawyer at Edelmann & Co Law Offices.

“IF you don’t have that (UNHCR) it’s a full stop to the application no matter how sympathetic the circumstances,” Olmstead said.

Mahi and Saman said the problem, is that he would have to hand over his documents to get that UNHCR approval. Doing so could potentially expose his whereabouts to the Islamic Republic which is reportedly after him.

“If they go forward to the UN or country government it’s possible that information could get shared with the host country of Iran and it could put their life at risk. There are problems in the process where you’re requiring a person as part of this refugee resettlement application to get a document that is impossible for them to get,” Olmstead added.

She said that’s the threshold that must be met to even be considered eligible to be sponsored. The only other pathway, she added, is to link up to a sponsorship agreement holder who can sponsor people who haven’t been approved by the UNHCR, but those groups have caps on the number that be sponsored and require proof of sufficient funds for the first year to support the individual.

2:52  Huge crowds in B.C. rally against Islamic Republic




In October, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined the first Freedom Human Chain in support of demonstrators fighting for their freedoms in Iran. During the rally, Trudeau called the Islamic Republic a “brutal regime that does not represent the beautiful Iranian people, that does not represent the spirit of Iran.”

Mahi said she appreciates all the verbal support the Government of Canada has made toward the revolutionary movement in Iran and Iranian demonstrators, but she said “at this point we need action.”

Dozens of Iranian-Canadians have expressed to Global News that they would appreciate the same policies made for Ukrainian refugees toward Iranians like Saman in need of a safe place.

In an email response, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada wrote: “The Government of Canada is deeply concerned about the people affected by the situation in Iran. We are actively monitoring the situation and engaging with our international partners to determine how Canada can best assist. When responding to international crises, there are often similarities in that people may be fleeing persecution of some sort, but the immigration response may differ.”

Olmstead said what the government did for Ukrainian refugees was exceptional.

“They actually made everyone eligible for a work permit to come here which was a very quick process to get them here on temporary status, two or three years,” she said. “No other refugee-producing country has been given any sort of program like that.”

The option for all other refugees, Olmstead added, is the Overseas Refugee Resettlement process which could take two to three years or more to process for the person to ultimately arrive in Canada. In Saman’s case, she said the federal government could grant a waiver based on the circumstances given the support Saman has in Canada.

Fundraiser for Saman

Time is not on Saman’s side.

His health, he said, is deteriorating with immediate medical care needed for his eye, which is getting smaller and needs an implant. The initial surgery he got in Iran, he said, was quick and only saved the anatomy of his eye.

Mahi said “we have been in contact with him. We’ve been trying to help him, my brother, and (me). My brother looked into ways to raise money for him both for his medical care and his legal fees.”

GoFundMe would not accept Saman’s case due to U.S. sanctions against Iranians, but a fundraiser site, GiveSendGo is accepting donations for Saman’s medical and legal fees.

5:44   Canadian lawyer on political sponsorships of Iranian political prisoners

Saman’s message

Saman said he dreams of going back to Iran but can’t for obvious reasons.

He wants people to know that what is happening in Iran is not a protest over the hijab but “a revolution. This is not a protest. We don’t need to edit the government system.”

Saman said the Islamic Republic is a threat to the world and would like his people to just have a normal life.

“Iranians are kind people. They deserve a real life. This is not a life. This is torture,” Saman said.

Two Iranian teens face death penalty over protests, says rights group

The first hangings caused an international outcry and rights groups are calling for increased pressure on Iran to prevent more executions. — Reuters pic

Tuesday, 03 Jan 2023 7:29 AM MYT

PARIS, Jan 3 — Two Iranian teenagers face the death penalty after being sentenced to be hanged over involvement in protests that have rocked the Islamic republic for months, a rights group said yesterday.

Two men aged 23 have already been executed over the protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini but campaigners fear dozens more risk being hanged as Iran uses capital punishment as an intimidation tactic in a bid to quell the protests.

Mehdi Mohammadifard, an 18-year-old protester, was sentenced to death on charges of setting alight a traffic police kiosk in the western town of Nowshahr in Mazandaran province, the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group said.

The death sentence was issued by a Revolutionary Court in the provincial capital of Sari after convicting him of the capital charges of “corruption on earth” and “enmity against God”, it added.

The double conviction means that he has been given two death sentences.

IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam told AFP that based on available information, Mohammadifard appeared to be the youngest person yet sentenced to death over the protests.

Meanwhile, the judiciary’s Mizan Online news website said that the death sentence of another protester, Mohammad Boroghani, had been upheld in December by the supreme court on charges of “enmity against God”.

Boroghani is accused of “wounding a security personnel with a knife with the intent of killing him and sowing terror among citizens” as well as “setting ablaze the governor’s office in Pakdasht”, a city located 43 kilometres (27 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran.

According to IHR, he is aged 19. Mizan Online’s report came after some reports indicated the execution had been annulled.

“The Islamic republic, which has not been able to control the protests after 109 days, needs intimidation and execution to continue its survival,” said Amiry-Moghaddam.

IHR said last week that at least 100 protesters are at risk of execution after being sentenced to death or being charged with capital crimes.

The first hangings caused an international outcry and rights groups are calling for increased pressure on Iran to prevent more executions.

Majidreza Rahnavard, 23, was hanged in public on December 12 on charges of killing two members of the security forces with a knife.

Four days earlier, Mohsen Shekari, also 23, was executed for wounding a member of the security forces.

The judiciary says it has handed down a total of 11 death sentences in connection with the protests, which Iranian officials describe as “riots”.

The Supreme Court had in recent weeks ordered retrials for three protesters, including a Kurdish rapper, facing the death penalty for their alleged involvement in the demonstrations. — AFP

Iran Comments on Moscow Meeting: Why

Was It Not Present?

Tuesday January 3rd, 2023 by AL-SOURIA NET (Opposition website)

Iran says Russia, Turkey and Syria have recognized its role in the resolution of the conflict, according to Syria TV.

Iran commented on the meeting that took place in Moscow between Turkey, the Syrian regime and Russia, a few days ago, which did not go beyond the scope of officials of the three parties, according to official statements. 

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a press briefing on Monday, in response to why Tehran was absent from the meeting: “Iran has always insisted on a political solution and not a military solution, and it insists on this position regarding Syria.” 

“The countries of Syria, Russia and Turkey have recognized the crucial role of the Islamic Republic of Iran in fighting terrorism in Syria, supporting the government and people of the country, supporting the territorial integrity of this country and the process of resolving the Syrian crisis,” he added. 

“These countries are aware of the importance of this role in completing the Syrian process.” 

Tehran officials were not present at the “Moscow meeting”, which three days ago included the defense ministers of Turkey, Russia and the Syrian regime, and intelligence chiefs from the three countries. 

This is indicated by the official version of Moscow, the Assad regime and Ankara, and according to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. It is scheduled to hold a second meeting in the second half of January, at the level of foreign ministers. 

The meeting, which took place in Moscow, is seen as the second of a series of stations for a roadmap announced by Turkish President Erdogan in recent weeks to open dialogue with the Syrian regime– with Russian mediation. 

The “map”, according to Erdogan’s previous words, is that “our intelligence organizations unite”, then “our defense ministers must meet”, and then “our foreign ministers meet”, culminating in the third station “meeting as leaders”, in reference to the President of the Syrian regime, Bashar al-Assad, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu described the trilateral meeting as a “useful meeting.” Before that, the Turkish defense statement said it was held in a “constructive atmosphere,” as did Assad’s Defense Ministry, which added that it was “positive.” 

Cavusoglu said on Thursday that “communication with the regime is important to reach a political solution for lasting peace and stability, and this participation is important in terms of reconciliation between the regime and the moderate opposition on the roadmap.” 

He added on Saturday after he made contact with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov: “The date of the meeting with the Syrian regime at the foreign level may be in the second half of January and in a third country.” 

Although it was expected and paved the way for many statements, the meeting, which brought together Ankara and Assad regime officials at the level of defense ministers, caused a state of “shock and anger” within the revolutionary street in Syria. It prompted the ignition of popular demonstrations that withdrew throughout the regions of northern Syria. 

Hundreds took part in these demonstrations two days ago, in which protesters carried banners against the Assad regime and the steps and attempts to float it. 

They also chanted slogans in which they stressed the constants of the Syrian revolution, stressing: “We will not reconcile with the regime. We will continue the revolution until it is overthrown.”

 

This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.

 

Pakistan struggles to recover from historic flooding as waters refuse to recede

Jan 2, 2023 
By —Fred de Sam Lazaro
By —Sarah Clune Hartman

NPR

Months after historic flooding that killed more than 1,700 people, Pakistan is still struggling to recover. The UN is warning it might suspend its food support program for flood victims because it is running out of money. Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from Sindh, one of the hardest-hit provinces. This story is part of the series Agents for Change and produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.

Transcript

Amna Nawaz:

Months after Pakistan's historic flooding that killed more than 1,700 people, the South Asian nation is still struggling to recover.

And the United Nations is warning it might soon have to suspend its food support program for flood victims because it's running out of money.

Fred de Sam Lazaro has the latest from one of the hardest-hit provinces of Sindh.

This story is produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center and part of Fred's series Agents for Change.


Fred de Sam Lazaro:

Pakistan is no stranger to flooding. But, this time, the water never left. Huge swathes of land, farms and towns, remain underwater.

Four months after the flood, this school in the Dadu district, like so many others, remains inaccessible to students, its first floor still completely inundated. The building used to be surrounded by rice fields. It's now surrounded by a lake. The school community is now scattered among some of the five million people still living in flimsy shelters like these.


Sumar Machhi, Flood Victim (through translator):

Our house is broken. Our animal livestock has been lost. Our homes have collapsed. My son died. We have nothing. We're just sitting here helpless.


Farzana Machhi, Flood Victim (through translator):

Our house fell down. My brother died in the flood. He fell in the river and died.


Fred de Sam Lazaro:

Scientists blame a cataclysmic combination of glacier melts and monsoon rains, both intensified by climate change. It poured without interruption for days in a row, overwhelming a country that was ill-prepared and under-resourced.


Simi Kamal, Hisaar Foundation:

When we have these climate calamities, everyone's affected, but women and children are affected in particular.


Fred de Sam Lazaro:

Simi Kamal heads a Karachi-based foundation focused on development issues.


Simi Kamal:

In a society where social services are almost completely absent, and a lot of people survive on philanthropy and charity.


Fred de Sam Lazaro:

The school in Dadu is one example, one of 1,800 run by a private charity called The Citizens Foundation. Before the flood, some 700 children attended the school. Now only about half the students have returned to a makeshift, mostly outdoor facility in a community center.


Shabroz Mirani, The Citizens Foundation (through translator):

The children are in extreme trauma. They're suffering from lots of difficulties. They don't have proper homes or food to achieve their goals.


Fred de Sam Lazaro:

Principals Shabroz Mirani and Abrim Babar (ph) no longer have access to the library, school records or electricity, but they persist, trying to bring some stability to the children's lives.

How many children in the school today have eaten lunch?


Shabroz Mirani:

So, we have lots of — a lot of students that don't have — don't eat anything.


Fred de Sam Lazaro:

Malnutrition is made that much worse by living conditions. Standing water has drowned crops and spawned pathogens. Malaria, dengue skin and diarrheal diseases have all soared.

About 500 children are brought into the pediatric emergency room at this hospital every single. That's more than double the number prior to the flood. And they are coming in far sicker.

This E.R. in the town of Larkana is run by the ChildLife Foundation, a separate charity that partners with struggling public hospitals to modernize pediatric emergency care across the country.


Dr. M. Sohail Akbar, ChildLife Foundation:

During flood, we have seen gastroenteritis, pneumonia, and malaria. That was common.


Fred de Sam Lazaro:

Dr. Sohail Akbar works in the labor and delivery and neonatal units.


Dr. M. Sohail Akbar:

But now malaria number is increased, and now also have malnutrition, and also the preterm babies, because preterm…


Fred de Sam Lazaro:

Preterm babies.


Dr. M. Sohail Akbar:

Yes, preterm babies, because the mother, pregnant female, she is not having enough nutrition.


Fred de Sam Lazaro:

On this day, Dr. Akbar was discharging 4-month-old baby Mohammed Bilal (ph), who was rushed here by his parents in severe breathing distress.

A day later, with antibiotics and oxygen therapy, he was stabilized, able to breast-feed and breathe on his own. The care package of nutrition supplements will help a bit, but young Bilal seriously underweight at just 4.5 pounds, was hardly in good health as his family brought him home from the hospital to a tent that sits amid the rubble of the home they lost.

It collapsed on the second day of the rains. Already deep in debt for a motorcycle taxi business, Bilal's father, Izhar Ul Haq, has no idea how they will rebuild.


Izhar Ul Haq, Flood Victim (through translator):

The doctor has said that we have to be very careful of cleanliness. We have to keep the child warm. We have to ensure the child has medication.


Fred de Sam Lazaro:

Doctor's instructions they're not sure they can afford; 2-year-old daughter Tanzila (ph) has also had health problems, including malaria, says grandmother Musrat Khatoon who lives with the young family.


Musrat Khatoon, Flood Victim (through translator):

It's been a very tough time. I'm a mother. My prayers are that my daughter has a good life, but she does not. We now will pray that our grandchildren will have better lives than their mother dies.


Fred de Sam Lazaro:

Whether that generational cycle of hope and despair for millions of families will be broken this time is an open question.

Simi Kamal is skeptical.


Simi Kamal:

We had horrible floods 10 years ago. We never learned anything from it. No, we don't have the political will to actually build the kind of local government we need and government at every tier to be able to tackle these problems.

And they are going to keep happening. But that doesn't mean we don't take action. So, each one of us has to take action by speaking up, by writing, by supporting or lobbying for change.


Fred de Sam Lazaro:

Officials say it may take until the early weeks of this year for the remaining water to disappear, for farmland to be farmed again.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Fred de Sam Lazaro in Sindh Province, Pakistan.


Amna Nawaz:

Tomorrow, Fred's next report will explore some of the reasons why the flooding has been so bad and what could have been done to prevent another disaster.

And a reminder, Fred's reporting is a partnership with the Under-Told Stories Project at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.

 

Unpaid Back Wages In Russia Now Increasing Monthly At A Double Digit Pace – OpEd

 January 3, 2023  Eurasia Review  

By Paul Goble

In order to conceal just how much the Russian economy is hurting and keeping unemployment numbers low, the Russian government is using its leverage to force firms to keep their workers in their positions even when the firms lack the money to pay them their wages and salaries.

A month ago, Rosstat, the state statistical service, reported that wage arrests rose by 16.4 percent in November alone to more than a billion rubles (16 million US dollars), an enormous sum in a country where the average wages are as low as they are in Russia (sibreal.org/a/dolgi-po-zarplatam-v-rossii-prevysili-milliard-rubley/32202090.html).

These wage arrears are greatest in processing industries, in major cities, and among those aged 35 to 44, workers who likely have just started families and fear what may happen if they leave their positions and search for a new one, according to a HeadHunter survey  (rbc.ru/economics/22/12/2022/63a2e5ba9a7947fd8d9dc12c?from=from_main_7).

Maksim Mironov, an economist at the IE Business School, says that market conditions should have led firms to lay off workers they can’t pay; but the government won’t allow theme to do that. As a result, they are holding on to workers but not paying them, a situation that became notorious in the 1990s.

The government is providing some funds to firms to keep them afloat, Mironov says; but how much is unclear given that a veil of secrecy has been thrown over this effort. If this source of money runs out, such firms could collapse even more rapidly because of the uneconomic approach they have been forced to adopt.

Will Kosovo’s war ever end?
The country is doomed to a cycle of crises

BY TIM JUDAH
Tim Judah covers the Balkans for The Economist.

 He is the author of several books on Kosovo and the region.
timjudah1
January 3, 2023
North Mitrovica, Kosovo

There is a strict timetable to crises in Kosovo. It runs like this. First, after a disagreement between Serbia’s leader and Kosovo’s, a deadline is set by the Kosovo side to do this or that, or barricades are erected in Serbian-inhabited north Kosovo. The diplomats go into hyperdrive, harsh words are spoken, and the Serbian Army deploys to the border, making sure that clips of military convoys circulate on social media. Serbian nationalists fantasise that they are actually going to do something and Serbian tabloids froth that Kosovo-Albanians are about to wage war against their people.

At this point, parts of the Western media wake up and journalists, who never seem to clock that Nato has thousands of troops in Kosovo pledged to protect it from Serbia, think that it might invade. Then, deal done, the barricades come down until the next time.

Today, we are at the fag end of the latest cycle. The barricades which stood for 20 days have come down and everyone has gone home — but this time, it was a pretty close-run thing. The barricades were in fact trucks blocking the roads in some 14 places. Just over a week ago, as I visited one in the village of Rudare, a colleague pointed out a petrol tanker. People were not very happy about it, he said. It was full; if there were a violent incident, it could explode.

As we spoke, judges, teachers, doctors — in fact it seemed the entire haute bourgeoisie of Serbian north Kosovo — wandered up and down, chatting to friends and warming their hands on flaming braziers. Some were here because they wanted to be, others because their political appointee bosses had ordered them to be. Leaders of the main Kosovo Serb party were here too. At one point, a car zoomed up and four masked young men jumped out and strode off purposefully. In the nearby divided town of Mitrovica, where Serbs live in the north and Albanians in the south, the north is festooned with Serbian flags and spray-painted with stencilled crests of something called the “Northern Brigade”. They read: “Don’t worry… We are waiting!” But who are they? A Serbian militia in waiting? No one knows for sure.

In hushed tones, residents tell me that, in the last year, 600 men have been sent for military training in Serbia. But there is no way to know, unless you start asking questions of people who would really not appreciate them, what is true and what is a misinformation spread by BIA, Serbia’s intelligence service, which is widely believed to hold the whip hand around here. Meanwhile, locals were queuing at cashpoints. With the barricades having closed the two border posts in the north, they were worried that banks would run out of cash.

A street in North Mitrovic

Ask people in north Mitrovica what they want and, at the end of the day, it is just a normal life — the type that no one here has enjoyed for more than a quarter of a century. But how likely is this? How to cut Kosovo’s Gordian Knot, which has left the fate of Serbs and Kosovo-Albanians (and Kosovo and Serbia) tied to one another? The Kosovo war ended in 1999, but still the diplomats and political leaders have been unable or unwilling to agree on a final framework for peaceful coexistence.

In the wake of Yugoslavia’s disintegration in the Nineties, Kosovo, Serbia’s southern province, remained locked within Serbia — even though its population was overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian, rejected Serbian rule and was repressed by Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia’s then leader who had stripped the province of its autonomy. Following the Kosovo war of 1998-99 between Kosovo-Albanian guerrillas and Serbia, and then Nato’s intervention, Kosovo became a UN protectorate. In 2008, it declared independence. This was recognised by most, but not all, Western countries, and rejected by Serbia, Russia and China among others. Kosovo’s Albanians argued they had the right to self-determination; Serbia argued that its territorial integrity trumped that, even though no one in Serbia actually wanted or wants to reintegrate a region full of hostile Albanians.

Of Kosovo’s population of 1.8 million, some 100,000-120,000 are Serbs. More than half live in central and south Kosovo, while the rest live in the north, a compact area abutting Serbia. Now, say local Serbs in the north, the tables have turned. Marko Jaksic, a lawyer and political activist from north Mitrovica, says that Albin Kurti, Kosovo’s prime minister, “is doing the same things as Milosevic during the Nineties, only we have changed sides.” It is the type of argument that makes Kosovo-Albanians incandescent with rage.

Jaksic and I were talking in the Number One, a hotel café a few hundred metres from the bridge over the Ibar which divides the city in two. He starts the conversation by pointing out that exactly 10 years ago I had asked him what the solution for Kosovo was, and that he had said that the border between Kosovo and Serbia was not “up there”, meaning north of where we were, but “on the bridge”. He believes that Kosovo should be partitioned. It is an idea which comes and goes like the tide. Until he went to The Hague in 2020 to answer charges of war crimes, Hashim Thaci, until then Kosovo’s president, and Serbia’s leader Aleksandar Vucic toyed with the idea, but key Western countries moved to quash it.

Nor was partition popular in Kosovo and Serbia. The problem was not north Kosovo, but rather the precedent. If north Kosovo returned to Serbia, then what about the Albanian-populated Presevo valley in Serbia or the Albanian-inhabited regions of North Macedonia or the Serb and Croat regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina? So, Pandora’s Box remains closed. How, then, can Kosovo-Serbs live normal lives in Kosovo, especially in the north?

The answer to this question is surprisingly simple. With political will there is no issue between Kosovo and Serbia, and between Serbs and Albanians, that cannot be resolved or at least fudged. The two sides have been talking in an EU-sponsored dialogue for more than a decade and plenty of agreements have been struck — even if they have not all been implemented.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has also injected new vigour into negotiations, which are led by the EU’s Miroslav Lajcak, who is supported by Gabriel Escobar, an American diplomat. However, since June, they have been firefighting, tamping down crises over number plates, identity cards and now barricades. But they have a plan, supported by France and Germany, which could be the basis for a long-term settlement. The diplomats talk of the “two Germanies”, by which they mean that Serbia and Kosovo could live side-by-side (like the two Cold War Germanies did), not recognising one another officially but as independent states.

But this is only half of the equation. In return for de facto recognition, which means being treated like a neighbouring state by Serbia, Kosovo is expected to abide by a commitment it signed in 2013 by which Serbian municipalities in Kosovo could form some type of association, giving them effective autonomy in fields such as health and education. Kosovo’s constitutional court has rejected this and Kurti campaigned vigorously against it in opposition, but now the pressure is on from his Western backers to find a way to deliver it in one form or another.

The current crisis has set back the cause of normalisation badly. Serbs have resigned from parliament, from the judiciary and, in the north, from the Kosovo police force. They also resigned from local assemblies, which triggered elections for new ones which have now been postponed until April after electoral offices in the north were attacked. Tatjana Lazarevic, the editor of the KoSSev news site in the north, says that since the Serbs quit the police, Albanian members of the Kosovo police have been sent north and locals see them “100% as an occupation force”. She adds that Serbs in the north “didn’t want to integrate into Kosovo state… and neither do they want that today”. But if there is a normalisation deal between Kosovo and Serbia, she thinks, people will just live with it.

If that were the case, if there were a deal, what choice would Kosovo Serbs have? Kosovo’s north can be a dangerous place. If it is in Serbia’s interest to make a deal, dissent won’t be tolerated. This is a place where politics and organised crime overlap, even more so than everywhere else in the Balkans.

Despite the high-stakes game played with the barricades these last few weeks, it is not all doom and gloom. Lajcak told me: “Tensions have never been higher in 20 years; mistrust has never been deeper.” But Jeff Hovenier, the American ambassador to Kosovo, struck a more optimistic note. He told me that, while the ultimate goal was mutual recognition of Kosovo and Serbia, “which is unfortunately not possible right now, today’s challenges can still be overcome. If you see this agreement, this work as an interim step towards that… there are real possibilities.”

Ivan Vejvoda, a Serbian analyst and head of the Europe’s Futures programme of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna concurs. Despite the current stand-off, “both sides realise they need to do this, but they are still looking for a way in which they turn out to be the winning side, but there is no winner in this. Everyone will lose out on something — or rather, no one will get everything they want. But that’s exactly what compromise is about: to achieve a situation where one goes forward.” He then proceeded to list examples from Northern Ireland to the Faroe Islands to the Basque country to the South Tyrol where all manner of workable solutions for minority rights have been secured.

Beware the Northern Brigade: “We are waiting!”

Kurti himself thinks that Serbia remains uninterested in a compromise and Vucic says Serbia will never recognise Kosovo. Vucic still wants partition, Kurti said to me and talks as if he is “in search of a time machine… sometimes he wants to go back to 1999 and sometimes to 2007 [before Kosovo declared independence], but you know… the train has left the station. We cannot go back there anymore.” Many of the diplomats find Kurti stubborn and that has lost him some Western support, but his policy of playing hardball with Vucic has been delivering results. Vucic is on the backfoot and has had to concede on several issues in the past few months: on 15 December, Kurti applied for EU candidacy and has also finally secured a promise that Kosovo’s citizens will no longer require Schengen visas from 2024.

Yet amid all these technical solutions, a part of the problem — in fact, a very big part of the problem — is personal. A few years ago, I interviewed Hashim Thaci, who had been a leading member of the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army when Vucic had been a minister in Milosevic’s government. When the interview ended, he asked me: “Are you seeing Aleksandar?” At first, I drew a complete blank — then I realised he was talking about Vucic. There are no such first name term niceties nowadays. Vucic and Kurti despise one another. When Vucic was a minister, Kurti was a political prisoner in a Serbian jail; on 1 December, Vucic publicly called Kurti “terrorist scum”. The lack of any personal rapport makes finding a deal that much harder.

After leaving the Number One in north Mitrovica, Jaksic and I walked to the bridge over the Ibar as I was returning south to Pristina, Kosovo’s capital. You can walk across the bridge, though it has been barred to traffic since 1999. Jaksic told me that, as a court administrator for the unified court of Mitrovica, he and his Albanian colleagues had parted company with tears in their eyes but as friends when he, like all the Serbs in the court, had resigned when Serbs quit Kosovo’s institutions. There was no going back now, he thought. But then we laughed about whether I would still be asking him the same questions in 10 years’ time. If I were betting, I would say there was a 60-40 chance that I will be.

USA
Rasmussen Poll: 49 Percent Say COVID Vaccine Likely Linked to Deaths

By Theodore Bunker | Monday, 02 January 2023 

NEWSMAX

Almost half of American adults said they think a significant number of unexplained deaths are linked to COVID-19 vaccine side effects, according to the latest poll from Rasmussen Reports.

Rasmussen found that just under half of respondents said that COVID-19 vaccine side effects have caused a significant number of unexplained deaths.49% said it's somewhat or very likely.
37% said it's not very or at all likely.
14% are unsure.

Less than one-third of respondents said that they personally know someone who they believe died due to side effects of COVID-19 vaccines.

28% said they know someone whose death they think was caused by vaccine side effects.

61% said they don't know anyone whose death they think was caused by vaccine side effects.

10% are unsure.

Almost half also said that "there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines," while just over one-third said that "people who worry about vaccine safety are spreading conspiracy theories."

Rasmussen surveyed 1,000 adults across the country from Dec. 28-30, 2022, with a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.

Drink water, live longer? Study finds link between hydration and aging

By Rich Haridy
January 02, 2023

New research has found a correlation between blood biomarkers of hydration and aging

A fascinating study from researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) suggests people who don't drink enough fluids could be at greater risk of chronic disease and are more likely to die at a younger age.

The new study was inspired by prior research from the same team of NIH scientists who investigated the effects of long-term water restriction on mouse health. That 2019 study found chronically depriving mice of sufficient hydration shortened their lifespan by about six months – the equivalent of 15 years of human life.

So this current research set out to explore whether optimal hydration levels in humans influence health and aging. To do this the team looked at data from an ongoing long-term heart health study that began in the late 1980s. The data comprised more than 15,000 participants, followed for an average of more than 25 years.

As a proxy measure of hydration the researchers looked at serum sodium levels in blood samples. In healthy people this has long been recognized as an effective way to measure how well hydrated a human body is, with normal serum sodium levels sitting between 135 and 146 mmol/l.

Serum sodium levels in the cohort were measured at several time periods over 25 years, alongside the tracking of 15 health markers used to assess biological aging. These markers included blood pressure, immune biomarkers, and blood sugar levels.

Overall, the research found a significant correlation between participants with serum sodium levels above 142 mmol/l and faster biological aging. More specifically, those participants with serum sodium levels above 142 mmol/l were up to 15% more likely to present as biologically older than their chronological age. This rate jumped to 50% in those with serum sodium levels above 144 mmol/l.

Looking at chronic disease, serum sodium levels above 142 mmol/l correlated with a 64% increased risk of chronic disease, including heart failure, diabetes and dementia. Those with the highest serum sodium levels (144.5-146 mmol/l) were 21% more likely to suffer premature death compared to those with the lowest serum sodium levels.

Of course, the big caveat here is correlation doesn't necessarily imply causation. And the researchers are cautious to note these findings cannot directly suggest chronic decreased hydration causes shortened lifespan. It's possible low levels of day-to-day hydration are simply a decent proxy for a healthy lifestyle, and those that stay well hydrated also happen to eat better and exercise more.

But the researchers do point out there is some laboratory evidence to suggest low levels of hydration can trigger signs of aging in animal and human cells. These studies show increased serum sodium can lead to the kinds of pro-inflammatory activity and DNA damage that has been linked with accelerated aging. So it's plausible to at least hypothesize chronic sub-optimal hydration contributes to age-related disease.

Co-author on the new study Natalia Dmitrieva said it's possible people with serum sodium levels above 142 mmol/l would benefit from increasing their fluid intake. Some estimates indicate around 50% of all people are not meeting their daily recommended fluid intake. So, according to Dmitrieva, if further study can validate this association between hydration and general health then this simple intervention could have a significant impact on global health.

“On the global level, this can have a big impact,” Dmitrieva explained. “Decreased body water content is the most common factor that increases serum sodium, which is why the results suggest that staying well hydrated may slow down the aging process and prevent or delay chronic disease.”

The new study was published the journal eBioMedicine.

Source: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Possible naked-eye comet will visit Earth for 1st time since Neanderthals in 2023

By Robert Lea 

SPACE.COM

The comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) could be bright enough to be spotted with the naked eye as it passes the sun and Earth at the end of the first month of 2023.

An image of the Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) taken by astrophotographer Hisayoshi Sato as seen in a still image from a NASA video. (Image credit: Hisayoshi Sato via NASA/JPL-Caltech)

At the start of 2023 Earth will be visited by a newly discovered comet that may just be bright enough to be spotted with the naked eye.

The comet, named C/2022 E3 (ZTF), is currently passing through the inner solar system. It will make its closest approach to the sun, or perihelion, on Jan. 12, and will then whip past Earth making its closest passage of our planet, its perigee, between Feb. 1 and Feb. 2.

If the comet continues to brighten as it currently is, it could be visible in dark skies with the naked eye. This is difficult to predict for comets, but even if C/2022 E3 (ZTF) does fade it should still be visible with binoculars or a telescope for a number of days around its close approach.

According to NASA(opens in new tab), observers in the Northern Hemisphere will be able to find the comet in the morning sky, as it moves in the direction of the northwest during January. C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will become visible for observers in the Southern Hemisphere in early February 2023.

Observers should look for C/2022 E3 (ZTF) when the moon is dim in the sky, with the new moon on Jan. 21 offering such an opportunity, weather permitting. According to the website Starlust(opens in new tab), the comet will be in the Camelopardalis constellation during its close approach.

If you’re hoping to observe C/2022 E3 (ZTF), our guides for the best telescopes and best binoculars are a great place to start. If you’re looking to snap photos of the night sky, check out our guide on how to photograph the moon, as well our best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography.

According to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the comet has a period of around 50,000 years. This means that prior to it coming to within around 100 million miles (160 million kilometers) of the sun on Jan. 12 and 26 million miles (42 million kilometers) of Earth on Feb. 2, the last time it came so close was during the Upper Paleolithic period on Earth.

That means the last humans that could have spotted C/2022 E3 (ZTF) were early homo sapiens alive during the last glacial period or "ice age." So, too, could some say of the last Neanderthals, as that species became extinct around 10,000 years after the last perihelion of C/2022 E3 (ZTF).

Of course, the Neanderthals and early humans wouldn't have known what C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was, and the comet was identified much more recently than the last ice age. The comet was spotted by the wide-field survey camera at the Zwicky Transient Facility in early March 2022.

Initially appearing to be an asteroid, C/2022 E3 (ZTF) which was inside the orbit of Jupiter at the time, soon began to brighten as comets do. At the time of its discovery, C/2022 E3 (ZTF) had a magnitude of 17.3, brightening to a magnitude 10 in November, and expected to eventually reach magnitude 6.

Current images of C/2022 E3 (ZTF) show its coma, a surrounding halo of gas and dust, glowing with a greenish hue and a long but faint cometary tail extending from its main body.

Opinion: 10 Things We Can Learn From the Downfall of Andrew Tate

JEF ROUNER JANUARY 2, 2023 

Pictured: a very silly man who is not a good person Screencap from Twitter

Andrew Tate is a former kickboxer turned raging misogynistic podcaster who built a name for himself as an alpha male guru. His blatant bigotry got him booted from most social media platforms, but he was let back onto Twitter following Elon Musk’s purchase of the company. Last week, Tate decided it would be fun to start publicly harassing teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg by telling her about his many cars. She told him to email her details at smalldickenergy@getalife.com. Her insult is now one of the most popular tweets of all time.

Tate then filmed a ridiculous clapback video. Immediately following that, he and his brother were arrested by Romanian police for human trafficking, though Romanian police deny the two incidences were related. Tate has joked in the past about moving countries to escape rape charges.

Many young men look up to Tate as a model for masculinity. He is, but only in the sense that he is a good example of everything not to do. For those young men, here are ten lessons that you should take away from this.

Harassing Teenage Girls Rarely Has Good Consequences

Tate is 36-year-old man who randomly picked a fight with a teenage girl who probably didn’t even know he existed. No matter how much you hate climate activists, that is just pointless bullying. It only made Tate look like an insecure craven. Not the least because it took him hours to launch a half-hearted rebuttal. Speaking of which…

Learn to Take the L

When the person insulting you gets 2 million likes, you lost. Christ and St. Nicholas combined aren’t going to raise you from the dead after that. Tate could have simply walked away knowing he’d been beaten, but he couldn’t deal with that.

Guys Who Joke About Rape Aren’t Joking

There has been a lot of whining about cancel culture and the alleged censorship of people over jokes. Rape jokes are usually brought up as case in point of what you “can’t say” anymore. To be clear, you can absolutely say rape jokes, but Tate is another example of how the people who do often aren’t really joking. That’s one of the reasons he is going to jail.

Your Car Obsession and Hatred of Climate Change Activism are Both About Your Insecurity

I cannot stress enough how creepy Tate tweeting at Thunberg about his big engines and powerful emissions was. It’s a transparent sexual metaphor, probably related to how green behavior is considered unmanly. Everything about the whole interactions screams “middle aged dude worried about the virility of his semen and insisting a young woman validate it.” On that note…

No Man Who Needs That Many Props is a Badass

Tate is rarely seen without cigars, whiskey, cars, dark sunglasses, or surrounded by women who are obviously paid to be there. He desperately flexes into every camera pointed at him. In short, he is a man barely duct taped together with whatever masculine accessories he can find. If your entire self-image is reliant on more doodads than Batman’s utility belt, it might mean there’s not much at the core

People Who Keep Getting Kicked Off Social Media Probably Aren’t Good

It’s a popular right-wing fantasy that social media companies are run by nanny-state leftists who cruelly silence conservatives at the merest hint of offense. This has never been true. Most of the people who get booted from multiple platforms are harassers, misinformation peddlers, and outright Nazis. Repeatedly violating terms of service and basic human decency is not a badge of honor. It’s indicative of poor impulse control and a venomous mindset.

Saying Women That Beat You Have Dicks is Very Revealing

In his painfully bad clapback video and associated tweet, Tate said Thunberg had admitted to having a small penis in her original response. So, to recap: the master alpha male responded to being humiliated by immediately trying to frame a woman as a man (yes, women can have penises, but not in Tate’s worldview). He soothed his wounded masculinity by trying to make Thunberg more masculine since it’s less embarrassing to get your ass handed to you by a man. It’s the rhetorical equivalent of denying a strike out by claiming innumerable foul tips, and I remain baffled why anyone this weak makes other men feel strong.

Don’t Rape People or Traffic Humans

Seriously. I not-did both of those things today and it was super easy. I plan on not doing them again tomorrow.

Don’t Make Annoying People Your Whole Brand

Tate literally has nothing to contribute if he’s not responding to someone else. He crafts no new thought and has nothing but regurgitated patriarchy to offer his followers. It’s a life entirely defined by how uncomfortable he makes others. This is not a healthy place to be in. It’s a defining characteristic of bad people who no one likes.

Stop Looking For Role Models in Violence

Not every MMA fighter or person who makes their living with performative violence is a bad person. Mick Foley consistently proves you can be both a hardcore legend and an embarrassingly good human being. That said, a lot of these dudes end up in trouble for rape, beating up their girlfriends, or both. Fighting doesn’t make you a monster, but a lot of monsters gravitate to fighting. People like Tate aren’t paragons of masculinity. They’re brutes who are good at forcing people to do what they want. You’re not actually supposed to look up to guys like that.

JEF ROUNER (not cis, he/him) is a contributing writer who covers politics, pop culture, social justice, video games, and online behavior. He is often a professional annoyance to the ignorant and hurtful.

CONTACT: Jef Rouner

China's super rich sweep up Singapore's prime real estate




Source：Pei-Yin Hsieh

Singapore’s subway stations are plastered with advertisements of Chinese businesses, and half of so-called family offices - private wealth management firms - are established by ultra-rich Chinese families. They snap up luxury cars and prime real estate. About 70 percent of the city state’s population get their news from the Chinese messaging app WeChat. How can Singapore contain Chinese influence and, hold on to its own values?

By yi-shan Chen, Peihua Lu
CommonWealth Magazine
2023-01-02
前往中文版 調整字體尺寸


In a stark contrast to Orchid Road with its high-end department stores, the Bugis shopping area offers Singapore’s trademark mix of cultures and religions – there is the Buddhist Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple, Sultan Mosque, Arab Street, and the Malay Heritage Center.

But over the past two years, things have gradually changed. Liang Seah Street, which used to be teeming with street vendors offering Singaporean snacks, is now lined with Chinese hot pot restaurants. And catching the eye at all large subway stations are advertisements by a grilled fish restaurant chain that is headquartered in China’s glitzy border town Shenzhen.

“In former times you only had Chinese restaurants in Chinatown, now they are virtually in every shopping area; even the KTV are all run by Chinese,” notes Linda Chern, executive director and head of residential services at the commercial real estate firm CBRE Singapore.

The Chinese factor has already evolved into an undercurrent with implications beyond Singapore’s cityscape, a development that the government does not dare disregard. This became most obvious from the speech that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong delivered on Singapore’s National Day, August 21.
Forced to explain Singapore’s support for Ukraine

This year, Lee devoted large parts of his address in Chinese to explain to the Chinese community why Singapore blames Russia for the war in Ukraine, and why the city state stands on the same side as the United States. He made it a point to say that Singapore is not opposing Russian aggression because it is pro-U.S. As a small country, Singapore must take a firm stance "to maintain sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

“This was the first time that our leader had to explain his foreign policy to the people,” says political science Professor Joseph Liow, dean of College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Liow believes this should be taken as a warning sign.

He points out that Singapore condemns Russian aggression for other reasons than Washington, although the outcome is the same. The Chinese-speaking community in Singapore obtains news – be it the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sino-U.S. trade war or the war in Ukraine - mainly via the Chinese social media app WeChat. As a result, everything somehow becomes a conspiracy.

WeChat is widely used in the Singapore Chinese community 

(Source: Pei-Yin Hsieh)

Behind all this is the strained relationship between Washington and Beijing. The problem is that the rivalry between these two big powers has begun to affect Singapore.

The public gets news from both sides and has become very sensitive as a result. Therefore, Lee was forced to explain his foreign policy stance, something unheard of under his predecessors Goh Chok Tong and Lee Kuan Yew.

It was also the first time that Lee warned the public to be aware of fake or erroneous news on social media.

Liow, who has been doing research on behalf of the Singaporean military for many years, does not expect the situation to improve in the coming decade.
Who controls the narrative in the realm of Chinese language and culture

Singapore became aware of the aggressive nature of China’s “sharp power” some five years ago.

In 2015, China opened the China Cultural Centre in Singapore. In 2017, Singapore established the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre, eager to retain control over the narrative in the realm of ethnic Chinese culture. This year, Lee emphasized that the ethnic Chinese in Singapore no longer need to return to China but should put down roots in Singapore.

After national day, Lee reassigned his close aide, Chinese-language Press Secretary Chen Hwai Liang to the Singapore Chinese Cultural Center. Chen’s job is to oversee the development of ethnic Chinese culture in Singapore, and to conduct systematic research and introductions to the local Chinese culture

The dramatic changes at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of National University of Singapore in recent years also highlight the Chinese factor in academia.

In 2017, Singapore announced the expulsion of Professor Huang Jing, a China-born United States citizen, and his wife. Huang, who served as director of the Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, had allegedly used his position to “deliberately and covertly advance the agenda of a foreign country at Singapore’s expense.”

Sharp decline in Chinese officials training in Singapore

Yet, the school still displays a photograph commemorating the visit of Li Yuanchao, then head of the Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party, in 2011. Li came to Singapore at the time to celebrate the launch of the Master in Public Administration and Management (MPAM) program, which is taught in Chinese. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, 90 percent of program participants came from China, making the school an important training ground for career track officials from China, alongside the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Things have dramatically changed since. Associate Professor Lu Xi, a MPAM co-chair, points out that the Lee Kuang Yew School of Public Policy is the only graduate school the Chinese government still cooperates with. But over the past two years, high-ranking Chinese officials have not been able to get passports for overseas studies. Prospective Chinese students also worried that their careers would be at stake if they contracted COVID-19 while abroad. As a result, fewer than half of the program participants now come from China, and those who do come to Singapore are usually not from the top echelons of China’s bureaucracy.

Lu is currently working to rebrand the “Chinese Executive Education” program. “This is a program that has its foothold in Singapore, boasts the best connections with the local government and teaches highly efficient handling of government affairs,” says Lu. Starting with the new semester, the public administration course will cover supply chains, geopolitics, innovation in education, population aging, etc. to attract students who need to deal with the new international political and economic situation.

“The Singaporean government has its options when issuing visas,” explains Lee Huay Leng, editor-in-chief of the Chinese Media Group of Singapore Press Holdings. “We welcome family offices that bring investment and jobs, but we do not welcome the jetsetting crowd,” she says in describing public sentiment.
Ostentatious wealth disgusts Singaporeans

Even the poorest Singaporeans can afford to rent a place to live. In fact, Singaporeans are not dismayed because the poor are getting poorer but because the rich are getting richer.

“The first generation of Singaporeans who got rich kept a low profile. If these newcomers flaunt their wealth too much, resentment regarding the wealth gap might grow stronger in society,” warns Lee.

Lately, people in the city state get the signs of outrageous riches rubbed into their faces. “On Orchard Street you see luxury cars every day, Bentleys and Lamborghinis;, there weren’t so many before. Nowadays you won’t be able to buy a Rolex even if you have the money,” says Chern.


At the restaurant, the locals immediately know whether the guests are Chinese or locals from Singapore, as they only need to look at the beverages on the table. The locals prefer to drink red wine, whereas the Chinese like to drink spirits like Maotai or Brandy.

Due to the massive influx of Chinese money, prices for luxury villas have also gone through the roof, reaching historic highs.

Singapore has around 2,800 so-called Good Class Bungalow (GCB) plots, the top category of residential real estate. To qualify for good class bungalow status, the individual houses must not have more than two storeys and cover at most 35 percent of the respective land plot, which must be at least 1,400 square meters and located in selected low-density areas. With their large gardens, lush vegetation, and manicured lawns, these properties offer privacy in an otherwise densely populated city state, and utter exclusivity. For wealthy Chinese, owning one of these sought-after luxury homes is a status symbol.

As Chern explains, Chinese nationals who do not have Singaporean citizenship cannot buy a GCB, but they can rent them. “In the past the rent stood at around 60,000 to 80,000 Singapore dollars [per year] but now it has gotten out of hand, rents have risen to 280,000 Singapore dollars (about NT$6.37 million),” she says.

Singapore street view (Source: Pei-Yin Hsieh)

Property agent Richard Lin of Propnex Realty Pte. Ltd. was busy last year trying to find objects for Chinese newly rich, most barely 30 years old. These Chinese clients are young and have no qualms about flaunting their wealth. “They have obviously already moved into one (luxury villa), but they still tell me to find another one for them,” reveals Lin.

The Chinese typically pay for real estate in cash; they don’t need to borrow a single penny from the bank. Some remit the money from Hong Kong, while others cash out crypto currencies in Indonesia, and then remit the funds to Singapore.
Singapore on par with New York as most expensive city in the world

Over the past year, the housing market in Singapore took off, with both real estate prices and rents rising 20 to 30 percent. In areas that are popular with expats and foreign immigrants such as Central Area, Orchard Road, and Holland Village, the increases have been even higher. The Singaporean government has twice taken measures to cool the overheated property market, but the Chinese billionaires couldn’t care less.

“These people are waiting to obtain citizenship, to get an ID;, then they can buy GCB. In the coming five years, the price of GCB will continue to rise,” predicts Lin.

Last year, Singapore emerged as the most expensive city in the world due to soaring apartment rents and residential property prices, tying with New York City for the top spot, according to the Worldwide Cost of Living survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

Given that Singapore boasts a high home ownership rate of almost 90 percent and only citizens are eligible to buy their government-subsidized rental flats, the average Singaporean is not affected by these developments in the high-end market. But people will notice the subtle changes in the city’s way of life.

This is a challenge Singapore’s fourth- generation leader will have to face.

Tunisia transport workers strike amid economic woes

By AFP
Published January 2, 2023

State-owned public transport firm Transtu said the strike froze 'the majority' of transport services across Tunis - Copyright AFP Daniel LEAL

Tram and bus workers in the Tunisian capital staged a strike over delays in salaries and the lack of an end-of-year bonus Monday, creating traffic jams across Tunis.

The strike is the latest in a string of similar actions as Tunisia grapples with an economic crisis that has led to frequent shortages of basic goods from petrol to cooking oil.

The North African nation is struggling with debts of more than 100 percent of gross domestic product and is in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a nearly $2 billion-dollar bailout.

Staff from state-owned public transport firm Transtu walked out and hundreds demonstrated outside the prime minister’s office, responding to a call by the transport section of the powerful UGTT trade union federation.

The strike froze “the majority” of transport services across the capital of almost three million people, Transtu said.

The transport ministry said the “wildcat strike paralysed transport across Greater Tunis… disrupting the functioning of public services and the interests of the citizen”.

It said Transtu salaries had been paid starting from December 29 and that the “real reason for the strikes is a different set of financial demands, in the form of an annual bonus” to more than 7,000 staff, worth more than $5 million.

It said the bonus was in the process of being paid, and that it was coordinating with “all concerned parties to avoid further disruptions”.

Transtu, which runs around 250 bus routes and 15 tram lines, was also shut by a strike during school holidays in November, a peak time for families using public transport.

The IMF has called for the implementation of a string of politically sensitive measures, including gradually removing subsidies on basic goods and the restructuring of public firms. These include Transtu as well as monopolies in water, energy and cereals.

The birthplace of the Arab Spring has also been mired in political divisions since President Kais Saied staged a dramatic power grab in July 2021.

Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/world/tunisia-transport-workers-strike-amid-economic-woes/article#ixzz7pJjIJ4Wc