Black Eyed Peas anger Polish politicians by wearing rainbow armbands during New Year’s TV concert

One politician condemned the "homopropaganda" while another called it "deviance.” 

However, the band's frontman clapped back with a message of unity.

By Daniel Villarreal 

Monday, January 2, 2023

The Black Eyed Peas wear rainbow armbands during a Polish New Year's Eve broadcastPhoto: Twitter screenshot


All four members of the pop group The Black Eyed Peas angered anti-LGBTQ+ politicians in Poland by wearing rainbow armbands during a live TV New Year’s Eve performance broadcast throughout the country.

While performing on the TVP channel’s “New Year’s of Dreams” show, the group’s frontman Will.i.am spoke against discrimination faced by the LGBTQ+ community and other groups. The band’s performance was seen by an estimated 8.3 million viewers.

“We dedicate this next song to those who have experienced hate throughout this year,” Will.i.am said. “The Jewish community, we love you. People of African descent around the world, we love you. The LGBTQ community, we love you. This song that we’re going to do is called ‘Where’s the Love?’ and it’s dedicated to unity.”

During the broadcast, TVP presenter Tomasz Kammel said onstage that every aspect of the event was pre-planned and approved by broadcasters, “including every element of [performers’] outfits.”

The display angered deputy agriculture minister Janusz Kowalski. He wrote via Twitter, “Homopropaganda on TVP for $1 million,” mentioning the event’s production cost.

Marcin Warchol, a member of Poland’s anti-LGBTQ+ Law and Justice Party (PiS) was also angered.

“LGBT promotion in TVP2. DISGRACE!” Warchol tweeted. “It’s not a New Year’s Eve of Dreams but a New Year’s Eve of Deviance.”

At the start of 2020, PiS began a push to declare regions across the country as “LGBT-free zones” in an attempt to remove LGBTQ+ “propaganda” from the public as a form of “Western decadence” that “threaten[s] our identity, threaten[s] our nation, threaten[s] the Polish state.” Both the U.S. and the European Union condemned the zones as violations of human rights.

Will.i.am responded to Warchol’s tweet, writing, “#WHEREStheLOVE??? Unity, tolerance, understanding, oneness, respect, diversity & inclusion…THATS LOVE…people are people & we should all practice to honor & love all the different types of people on earth & learn from them…I LOVE YOU your country…”

Warchol responded by asking the performer why he didn’t “boycott the Qatar World Cup over [the] country’s treatment of women, migrants, and the LGBTQ+ community?”

“You sold principles for profit,” he wrote. “Hypocrisy.”

Will.i.am responded, “We went to these places to spread LOVE…why boycott when you can go directly to the source that needs to be inspired and try your hardest to inspire them and spread LOVE…it’s called #LOVE.”

Will.i.am simultaneously live-streamed his New Year’s Eve performance through his social media, holding his cameraphone while speaking and singing to the audience, his rainbow armband clearly in view. He even continued speaking to his live-stream viewers after he went backstage.

“We stand for unity, love, tolerance, oneness. Listen to our music,” he said on his live-stream. “And sometimes you gotta go to where people don’t have the same views to inspire them on difference, to inspire them on what tolerance looks like.”

“Poland is an awesome country,” he continued. “Never forget your heart, purpose, and standing together when people need a voice, when people can’t be there to speak for themselves…. Let’s pray for them, send them positivity, uplift them as we get ready to enter into this new year 2023.”

Former Spice Girls star and LGBTQ+ ally Melanie Chisholm had initially planned to perform for Poland’s New Year’s Eve broadcast, but declined, citing “issues that do not align with the communities I support.”

In November 2022, the Supreme Administrative Court of Poland ruled that the country could potentially recognize same-sex marriages of Polish citizens that were performed in other countries, even though the country itself still doesn’t perform marriages between two people of the same sex.

Protect Komodo dragons and punish the slayers

INDONESIA
Sunday, 01 Jan 2023


Tourism and conservation: A plan to charge visitors to Komodo RM1,000 has been scrapped over an outcry by tourism operators. — AFP

RESPONSIBLE, enlightened wildlife tourists, and hefty fines for irresponsible ones – that’s my wish for 2023.

As a huge animal lover, seeing wildlife in their natural habitats is always a treat.

On one of my many treks to national parks, a Sumatran orangutan trotted out its entire family, suckling babies. On another trek, the elusive Javan rhino would show only its footprint.

A Komodo dragon gave me a scare when it crept up behind me, swishing its muscular tail and flicking its forked tongue.



A ranger handed me a long, double-branched stick and told me to raise it in the air. Thinking I was another predator, the reptile retreated.

Earlier this year, the Indonesia government announced a plan to raise Komodo National Park’s entrance fee by 25 times, from 150,000 rupiah (RM42) to 3.75 million rupiah (RM1,060), starting in January 2023.

The aim was to protect against mass tourism, but tour operators went on strike, saying the move would kill their livelihoods. Tourists complained the fee was too high.

On Dec 15, Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno said the plan had been scrapped.

Some years ago, Indonesian authorities busted a smuggling ring that confessed to stealing 41 Komodo dragons and selling them.

During my visits to safari parks and zoos, I have seen tourists throwing trash at animals to get their attention. All for a selfie.

Perhaps, instead of charging responsible tourists expensive fees, the government should fine those who endanger wildlife, and channel the proceeds towards conservation. — The Straits Times/ANN

IMPERIALI$M THE HIGHEST FORM OF CAPITALI$M

Export ban means Chinese firms will have to build plants in Zimbabwe to process lithium

Harare has barred exports of the metal – used in electric-vehicle batteries – in its raw form as part of efforts to have it processed locally.

Harare has barred exports of the metal – used in electric-vehicle batteries – in its raw form as part of efforts to have it processed locally

Observer says facilities will cost hundreds of millions of dollars and it could take two to three years before they can get up and running


Bikita Minerals’ lithium mine in Masvingo province, Zimbabwe. Chinese firm Sinomine Resource Group acquired Bikita Minerals in January. Photo: Handout

2.1.2023
by South China Morning Post

Chinese companies that have made multimillion-dollar acquisitions in Zimbabwe will have to build lithium processing plants after the southern African nation banned the export of the metal in its raw form.

Companies must either set up local processing plants or provide proof of exceptional circumstances – and receive written permission from the government – before lithium can leave the country.

Zimbabwe is estimated to have the largest unexploited reserve of lithium in Africa and is the sixth-largest producer in the world. It imposed the export ban last week, as part of efforts to have lithium – the key raw material in electric-vehicle batteries – processed locally.

The government also wants to stop artisanal miners who reportedly dig up and take the mineral across borders. Harare says it has lost US$1.8 billion in mineral revenues due to smuggling, artisanal mining and externalisation to South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.

Chris Berry, president of commodities advisory firm House Mountain Partners in New York, said the export ban was a textbook example of resource nationalism.

“We saw the same example with Indonesia with nickel and Chile even tried to build a deeper lithium supply chain several years ago, though those circumstances were different and the country didn’t attempt to ban lithium exports, but instead levied huge royalties on lithium producers in the country,” Berry said.

Chinese firms that had made recent lithium investments in Zimbabwe would need to build processing facilities there at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars so they can export higher value lithium chemicals, he said.

“There is a great deal of capital required to build chemical conversion facilities outside of China, not to mention the two- or three-year lead time necessary to actually complete construction and commissioning,” he said.

Berry added that if more countries followed suit, it could have wider implications – such as higher prices for lithium and other raw materials such as cobalt.

Lithium prices have surged by about 1,100 per cent to a record in the past two years, with supply struggling to keep up with high demand. Lithium carbonate spot prices in China – the world’s biggest electric-vehicle market – climbed to a record US$84,000 per tonne in November, according to Benchmark Minerals’ lithium price index.

In the past year, three Chinese companies – Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, Sinomine Resource Group and Chengxin Lithium Group – have acquired lithium projects in Zimbabwe worth a combined US$679 million, amid the worldwide race to go green.

Huayou Cobalt and Chengxin Lithium are already developing processing plants that would mean they are exempt from the export ban.

Huayou Cobalt acquired the Arcadia hard-rock lithium mine outside Harare for US$422 million from Australian company Prospect Resources last year. The battery maker told the South China Morning Post in September that it was investing US$300 million to develop the mine with an aim to expand production for the electric-vehicle market.

When Huayou Cobalt bought Prospect’s stake in the mine, one of the conditions from the Zimbabwean government was that the firm would process the mineral locally to make lithium-ion batteries.

The company said it would process first-line lithium concentrates of spodumene and petalite in the first phase.

“We are not going to export raw ore,” Huayou Cobalt said. “Lithium is one of many inputs needed for the production of batteries – and we do not enjoy access to all others at the same time. In phase two of our work here, we are targeting production of lithium sulphates, and that is as far as we can see feasible under local conditions.”

Meanwhile, Chengxin Lithium spent US$77 million on a deal last year that includes mining rights in the largely unexplored Sabi Star lithium and tantalum mine project in eastern Zimbabwe. A groundbreaking ceremony was held there earlier this month for a US$130 million lithium processing plant.
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa during a groundbreaking ceremony for a lithium plant at the Sabi Star mine in Buhera district, Manicaland province on December 14. Photo: Xinhua

Lauren Johnston, a China-Africa researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs, said that “if African and Chinese interests diverge on minerals, and since Europe wants them [minerals] too, it might be most efficient to do the process at source and then share the fruits across those markets”.

She said this was especially the case if the manufacturing could be done from renewable energy sources in the first instance, like hydrogen.

But she said “if more African countries ban the export of key renewable minerals but are not ready yet to do the processing at home due to governance, infrastructure, energy and labour challenges, then this could impede the development of renewables globally”.

According to Gorden Moyo, director of the Public Policy and Research Institute of Zimbabwe, the export ban was long overdue.

“It makes perfect economic sense for Zimbabwe and all other countries to break the vicious circle of commodity export,” said Moyo, a former Zimbabwean minister for state enterprises.

“Raw materials fetch low prices in the global markets while at the same time exporting commodities is equivalent to exporting jobs.”

He noted that lithium was a key mineral in the clean energy transition. “If well managed, the massive lithium deposits in Zimbabwe may contribute towards public debt settlement, job creation and increased economic activity in the country,” Moyo said.

But he said the export ban would not stop smuggling.

“In reality the ban is meaningless simply because there is no political will to curb illicit mineral trade in Zimbabwe,” Moyo said, adding that it was being carried out by “military businessmen and women, senior government officials and politically exposed persons”.

“The law enforcement agencies have their hands tied by the very fact that the gamekeepers are actually the poachers themselves.”

Post published in: Business

Surviving 20-Hour Daily Power Cuts With An Electric Car In Zimbabwe

2.1.2023

by CleanTechnica

Frank Sinatra, in his iconic song New York, New York, said “If you can make it there, you’ll make it anywhere, it’s up to you, New York, New York.” In October 2009, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys released their smash hit “Empire State of mind” where Jay-Z says he feels like the new Sinatra because “Since I made it here (New York), I can make it anywhere.”

---

 

I have been feeling the same way when it comes to EV ownership in Zimbabwe. There is a popular joke in Zimbabwe that living in Zimbabwe is such an extreme sport that it is a skill in a league of its own that one’s CV should just read “Lived in Zimbabwe” on the experience section. That’s because Zimbabwe has been famous for some unbelievable stuff over the past couple of decades, such as world record inflation at times leading to the infamous One Hundred Trillion Dollar Zimbabwe Dollar note around late 2008/early 2009. Yes, they did actually print a One Hundred Trillion Dollar note this century. There are no more trillion dollar notes in Zimbabwe, but inflation is still very high — triple digit high!

These regular cycles of runaway inflation and foreign currency shortages lead to periodic petrol and diesel shortages. They also lead to periods of insane electricity rationing. That’s because when there is a drought (like now), the country’s largest generation station, the 1,050 MW Kariba hydropower plant, has to throttle generation. Recently, Kariba has had to throttle generation to a maximum of 300 MW due to low water levels. Then there is the aging coal power plants that break down quite often, leaving a large deficit, hence the utility company has to implement load-shedding. 

There is the Southern African Power Pool, where Zimbabwe gets some imports from its neighbors, but that also presents some problems.

1. Some of the member states in the region such as South Africa are also having their own issues and are implementing heavy load-shedding cycles. 2. Zimbabwe’s foreign currency drama and Zimbabwe dollar currency chaos mean that they can’t always import enough from neighbors to help cover some of the deficit. This meant 18-hour daily load-shedding cycles were implemented in 2019, and now in 2022, Zimbabweans are experiencing 20-hour daily load-shedding cycles. Most Zimbabweans are only getting electricity from midnight to 4 am. 

I am one of them and I drive my electric car every day!

Our family driving pattern has not changed much since before the load-shedding started. We still do the school runs, and the ballet and swimming runs. We live in a rented apartment so we can’t really install solar where we stay. So, we just wait for the electricity to come back after 11pm and then the car will charge while we sleep. Sometimes the utility company switches off the power around 4 am, sometimes 5 am, sometime 6 am. Even when the power goes at 4 am, that 4 hours or so is enough to get our 24 kWh Nissan Leaf to more than 80% or to 100%. Around the world, most people when asked if they want to go full EV will be quick to ask about range and charging infrastructure issues. If I can drive an electric car in Zimbabwe, you can drive one anywhere!

Post published in: Featured

Governing a pandemic: biopower 

and the COVID-19 response in 

Zimbabwe

Abstract

Virus vaccine and flu or coronavirus medical fight disease control as a doctor fighting a group of contagious pathogen cells as health care for researching a cure with 3D illustration elements.

  2.1.2023

Introduction The extraordinary explosion of state power towards the COVID-19 response has attracted scholarly and policy attention in relation to pandemic politics. This paper relies on Foucault’s theoretical differentiation of the political management of epidemics to understand how governmental framing of COVID-19 reflects biopolitical powers and how power was mobilised to control the pandemic in Zimbabwe.

Methods We conducted a scoping review of published literature, cabinet resolutions and statutory instruments related to COVID-19 in Zimbabwe.

Results The COVID-19 response in Zimbabwe was shaped by four discursive frames: ignorance, denialism, securitisation and state sovereignty. A slew of COVID-19-related regulations and decrees were promulgated, including use of special presidential powers, typical of the leprosy model (sovereign power), a protracted and heavily policed lockdown was effected, typical of the plague model (disciplinary power) and throughout the pandemic, there was reference to statistical data to justify the response measures whilst vaccination emerged as a flagship strategy to control the pandemic, typical of the smallpox model (biopower). The securitisation frame had a large influence on the overall pandemic response, leading to an overly punitive application of disciplinary power and cases of infidelity to scientific evidence. On the other hand, a securitised, geopolitically oriented sovereignty model positively shaped a strong, generally well execucted, domestically financed vaccination (biopower) programme.

Conclusions The COVID-19 response in Zimbabwe was not just an exercise in biomedical science, rather it invoked wider governmentality aspects shaped by the country’s own history, (geo) politics and various mechanisms of power. The study concludes that whilst epidemic securitisation by norm-setting institutions such as WHO is critical to stimulate international political action, the transnational diffusion of such charged frames needs to be viewed in relation to how policy makers filter the policy and political consequences of securitisation through the lenses of their ideological stances and its potential to hamper rather than bolster political action.

Read the full report on BMJ.

Op-Ed: US finally notices it’s in a space race with China


ByPaul Wallis
Published January 2, 2023

© NASA/AFP/File Handout.

It’s a testimony to the mindless destructiveness of US politics that the Chinese space program has finally become a topic. Years of brattish ignorance and national insanity completely overlooked the obvious. Now, it’s big news. NASA administrator Bill Nelson says the next two years will be critical.

Actually, the last 7 years were critical. The next two years will simply reflect how comatose America’s strategic comprehension was during that time. China’s space program has been ongoing for many years. Nor is it just the Moon. The first Chinese Mars orbiter was established in orbit in 2021, nearly two years ago.

NASA hasn’t had a clearly stated, outlined, and funded exploration program for decades. Since the end of the shuttle program, it hasn’t had instant access to space for basic needs. The supposedly unchallengeable US technological lead has eroded severely, if not completely.

There’s a lot of depth in the Chinese space program in terms of mission types, scope, and range. Unlike some of China’s more bombastic initiatives, the Chinese space program has been patient, consistent, and objective for decades.

China also lacks the disadvantage of nuts who may or may not admit that America ever landed on the Moon, etc. (It’s amazing how much of that side of politics is based on ignoring or denying American achievements. Defunding science is one of its hallmarks.) The Chinese have simply got on with the job, without the maniacal politics.

NASA isn’t quite playing catchup, yet. Whether the Chinese stole or otherwise acquired the technology is by now irrelevant. The point is that they’re now pretty much on a par with the US for actual capability. They’re funded, they’re focused, and they’re launching on a regular basis.

In the early 1960s, there was a book called Advise and Consent by Allen Drury. In that book, America lost the space race to the USSR while obsessing with politics. In the book, the balance of power changed drastically overnight. That’s what can happen in this case. America could be bypassed entirely. The military advantages and the ability to dominate near-Earth space would pass to China. Space commerce would also be by default a Chinese monopoly.

A much worse case is that Chinese facilities will dominate the transit and logistics options for any other nation in space. That could lead to a war on Earth. Long predicted by many space futurists, the likely options for anyone using “Chinese” space are complex at best.

This is an incredibly high-stakes situation. America’s options are clear; lead or lose.

_________________________________________________________

Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.

WRITTEN BY Paul Wallis
Editor-at-Large based in Sydney, Australia.

In 2022; Over 3,000 Yemenis killed, injured by Saudi-led coalition

TEHRAN, Jan. 02 (MNA) – More than 3,000 civilians, including women and children, were killed or injured in the airstrikes launched by the Saudi-led coalition against Yemen in the year 2022, according to a Yemeni rights group.

The Humanity Eye Center for Rights and Development issued a report on Monday and showed that the total number of casualties was 3,083 during last year’s war on Yemen, which included the death of 643 citizens and the wounding of 2,440 others.

The report said 102 children lost their lives and 353 others sustained injuries, in addition to 27 women killed and 97 others wounded.

The Yemeni rights group confirmed that 514 men were killed and 1,990 others injured.

As for the damage to Yemen’s infrastructure in 2022, the report said the Saudi-led coalition warplanes destroyed 14,367 homes, 134 mosques, 5 tourist facilities, 12 hospitals, 64 educational centers, 1987 agricultural fields and seven media facilities.

The aggression also destroyed 22 power stations, 974 roads and bridges, 46 communication towers and stations, 334 tanks and water stations, and 57 government facilities.

The Humanity Eye Center for Rights and Development also reported that the coalition destroyed many business firms, which amount to 229 business facility. In addition, the warplanes targeted 1,022 means of transportation, 29 chicken farms, 37 medicine storehouses, 95 food trucks, 21 fuel stations and 13 fuel tankers.

Saudi Arabia, in collaboration with its Arab allies and with arms and logistics support from the US and other Western states, launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015.

The objective was to crush the Ansarullah resistance movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of a functional government in Yemen, and reinstall the Riyadh-friendly regime of Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.

While the Saudi-led coalition has failed to achieve any of its objectives, the war has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and spawned the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

New York University emergency department prioritizes the wealthy for treatment

Erik Schreiber

WSWS.ORG

New York University’s Ronald O. Perelman Center for Emergency Services prioritizes wealthy donors, politicians and celebrities for treatment at the expense of everyone else, according to an extensive investigation by the New York Times. Dozens of doctors and other health care workers report that administrators pressure them to treat rich and influential patients immediately for minor complaints, thus forcing patients with potentially life-threatening conditions to wait for urgently needed care. 

New York University’s Ronald O. Perelman Center for Emergency Services [Photo by Flickr user Eden, Janine and Jim / CC BY 4.0]

This practice, which is not unique to NYU, violates the principle of medical triage in the operation of emergency departments. Under this principle, the sickest patients receive treatment first, without regard for their ability to pay for care, and patients with less serious presentations wait their turn. More fundamentally, NYU’s discriminatory practice illustrates that the provision of health care is dominated by social inequality and the profit system. 

When Kenneth G. Langone, a billionaire and founder of Home Depot, came to the NYU emergency department with stomach pain in September 2021, he was quickly treated in a room that ostensibly is reserved for patients in critical condition. Langone is chair of the hospital’s board of trustees and has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to NYU’s hospital system. Langone’s symptoms were associated with a bacterial infection. 

In spring 2022, Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York brought his wife to the emergency department when she had a fever and was short of breath. Schumer and his wife were rushed into a room and tested for COVID-19. Meanwhile, sicker patients were being treated in the crowded emergency department’s hallways. 

On one occasion, a well-known actor with a headache and low-grade fever was placed at the front of the line for a CT scan, Dr. Michelle Romeo told the New York Times. When the actor demanded a spinal tap that Romeo thought was unnecessary, a supervisor told her to perform it anyway. The test results were normal. The actor was treated ahead of a patient from a nursing home who had possible sepsis and had been waiting three hours for treatment. 

NYU’s discriminatory treatment begins before the patient even arrives at the facility. The emergency room has a Trustee Access Line that donors can call to notify the hospital that they are on the way. Once alerted, administrators notify doctors through texts and emails that a high-profile patient is coming. The doctors understand implicitly that they are to give the patient priority treatment. Moreover, they fear the professional consequences of not doing so. 

In case the message is somehow missed, electronic medical charts point out that certain patients have donated to the hospital or have a relationship with one of its executives. A screenshot of one record from July 2020 that a doctor shared with the Times read, “Major trustee, please prioritize.” Workers report that they have been pulled from sicker patients to attend to wealthy patients with minor complaints. 

“It didn’t matter how busy it was. A V.I.P. was coming, and we had to drop everything,” Dr. Uché Blackstock told the Times. Blackstock left the NYU emergency room partly because of her objections to this discriminatory practice. 

No matter how serious their presentation is, workers and the poor must endure longer waits for care—if they are admitted to the facility at all. Ambulance workers report that NYU staff discourage them, and sometimes actively prevent them, from bringing homeless patients to the emergency department. They are told to bring these patients to Bellevue, an overtaxed public hospital that mainly treats the poor. “There isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t get an NYU dump,” said Kim Behrens, an experienced nurse at Bellevue, in an interview with the Times.

“As emergency department doctors, we have two important skills: triage and resuscitation,” Dr. Kimbia Arno told the Times. Speaking of NYU’s emergency room, Arno said, “This system is in direct defiance of what we do and what we were trained to do.” 

At least 11 doctors have resigned from the emergency department over their objections to NYU’s favoritism toward wealthy patients. In a wrongful termination lawsuit, Dr. Kristin Carmody, who supervised the education of residents in the department, said that she had been forced to resign in 2020 after a V.I.P. complained that she had not received the level of treatment she expected. 

By giving priority to millionaires and billionaires, executives at NYU and other hospitals are protecting the interests of the social class to which they themselves belong. In 2020, Steven J. Corwin, president and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian hospital, received compensation totaling $10.7 million. Corwin was the highest-paid hospital executive in the New York metropolitan area that year, which was the first year of the pandemic. 

In fact, hospital executives throughout New York state used the pandemic as an opportunity to enrich themselves further, according to a USA Today investigation of federal tax records. In 2020, while they oversaw health systems that received billions of dollars in federal pandemic bailouts, more than 250 of the state’s hospital executives gained about $73 million in total bonuses. The average bonus was approximately $273,000.

During the same year, the average total compensation for about 364 hospital officials was $1 million, including salaries, bonuses and other payments. Ten executives had bonuses of $1 million or more, including the leaders of some of the state’s largest health systems, such as NewYork-Presbyterian, Northwell, Montefiore, Rochester Regional Health and Nuvance Health. The priority of this social layer is to increase its own profits, even at the expense of working people’s health. 

As of December 28, New York state had recorded 6,725,465 COVID-19 infections and 75,089 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. New York City alone has officially had 3,118,742 total cases and 43,834 deaths. Because of the criminally inadequate testing and contact tracing infrastructure, these figures are certainly underestimates. 

New York City neighborhoods at greater socioeconomic disadvantage, which includes lower median income and poor access to health care, have had more COVID-19 infections and deaths, according to a study conducted by scientists at Mount Sinai in 2021. Lack of access to a primary care physician often means that workers in these neighborhoods only seek care in urgent situations by going to emergency rooms. It is precisely these workers whose lives are being jeopardized by health systems that, in their quest for profit, brush them aside as second-class citizens. 

EMPLOYMENT LAW

Couple awarded almost $150,000 after severe anti-gay bullying at the restaurant where they worked

A judge said the evidence of discrimination was so overwhelming that "it would be perverse to find otherwise."

By Molly Sprayregen Monday, January 2, 2023

Photo: Shutterstock

Married couple Tim Jeurninck and Marco Scatena have been awarded almost $150,000 after suing their former employer, a London restaurant, for anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination.

According to a report from the Daily Mail, the couple told the court they had been “bullied for months on end” and endured “constant slurs” from colleagues at the Italian restaurant Piatto.

Scatena was even a part-owner of the business. He said he never received a dividend payment and was constantly harassed and threatened by the other three directors, who also baselessly accused him of stealing from the cash register.

In fact, a series of WhatsApp messages between the other three directors revealed them discussing a way to set up a “nice trap” so they could “speed up the process to kick him out.”

The conversation was sent to Scatena by one of the directors and caused such a severe panic attack that Scatena had to go on sick leave. He was not paid for that time.

A panel reportedly determined there was “more than enough evidence” that they had tried to force Scatena out of the restaurant because he was gay.

“It would be perverse to find otherwise,” said employment Judge Alexander Green.

The couple said the restaurant’s leaders (and one of their friends) referred to Jeruninck as a “waitress” on more than one occasion and also called him a fa**ot, as well as other slurs on a regular basis. When he asked them to stop, they would laugh.

One of the directors also threatened Jeruninck by saying his family is in the mafia and could kill him and hurt his husband’s family.

Jeruninck ultimately quit when he had not been paid in months. A few months later, Scatena resigned as well.

“Mr. Jeurninck and Mr. Scatena have established they suffered from unwanted conduct as a result of their sexual orientation, which had the purpose of violating their dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment for them,” Judge Green said.

‘They were quite clearly deeply offended and threatened by the behavior. They have established that they were harassed because of their sexual orientation.”

Jeurninck was awarded approximately $51,000 and Scatena was awarded almost $102,000.

FIFA World Cup in Qatar 2022

Did LGBTQ rights campaigns in Qatar help or hinder?

Protests by Western activists at the FIFA World Cup may have backfired and sparked a backlash against gay, lesbian and queer communities in Qatar, critics say. By Cathrin Schaerip

Early in December, the US fast food chain Raising Cane's came under attack from conservatives in Kuwait. The fried-chicken specialist from Louisiana has 12 franchises there.

A man filmed the exterior of one of the drive-through restaurants and posted the video on social media, accusing Raising Cane's of promoting same-sex relationships because of its "one love" logo. The same logo was used by the Dutch football team, the man pointed out, referring to the fact that a number of European teams at the Qatar football World Cup wanted their captains to wear armbands from the "One Love" pro-diversity campaign.

The issue was discussed by conservative Kuwaiti politicians and one hard-line Islamist MP, Mohammed Al-Mutairi, later tweeted (see below) that the signs had been removed by municipal authorities. This was even though the restaurant has been using the same logo since the 1990s, when it was founded, and that it refers to the fact their "one love" is fried chicken. This week, a staff member at Raising Cane's who answered DW's call confirmed that the restaurant's "one love" sign had been removed.

This is not the only example of a recent rise in anti-LGBTQ sentiments in the Middle East. Also in Kuwait, there has been a billboard campaign, sponsored by local businesses, opposing same-sex relationships. The writer of an editorial for a local newspaper said the billboards were "a natural response to an unnatural, international campaign" to import "foreign" values to Kuwait. 

In Iraq, in early December, the influential cleric Muqtada al-Sadr asked hundreds of his followers to sign a petition to "stand against homosexuality". In an interview with The Associated Press, one of those followers said his pledge was not a direct response to LGBTQ activism in Qatar, but, he added that "at the World Cup there were attempts to promote this issue by Westerners who came to the [games]."

The "OneLove" armbands were originally launched in 2020 as part of an inclusiveness campaign

 by the Royal Dutch Football Association. Here, Belgian fans wear "OneLove" 

T-shirts at the Belgium v Canada World Cup tie in Qatar 2022

Making things worse?

This is why some are now arguing that actions around LGBTQ rights in Qatar actually backfired. Critics say the protests spotlight a group that prefers to stay in the background in countries where most people still do not accept same-sex relationships.

In terms of law, countries in the Middle East either legislate that same-sex relationships are criminal or immoral and deserve jail time or worse. These policies appear to reflect public sentiment.

Some of the most recent research on attitudes toward same-sex relationships by the Arab Barometer survey found that, in the nine countries surveyed in 2018 and 2019, an average of only 12 per cent of locals were accepting of same-sex relationships. A Pew Research Center survey, also from 2019, came back with similar results.

Local members of the LGBTQ community are only too well aware of all this. So while there may be gay bars in Tunis or private parties in Dubai, they are never advertised as such and always attended with caution. 

"Hangover" from Western activism 

This is why "Western displays of solidarity with LGBTQ+ communities in the Middle East may be well-intentioned, but they are not constructive," Will Todman, a fellow in the Middle East Program at the Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic & International Studies, wrote in a commentary published in mid-December. "They help build solidarity among activists in Western countries, but they are making the very people they claim to be helping in Middle Eastern countries feel more vulnerable."

Nas Mohammed, an asylum-seeker and doctor who lives in the United States and who is often referred to as the first Qatari to come out as gay in public, also told multiple media outlets that it is members of LGBTQ communities in Qatar who will be harassed and persecuted after Western activists leave. 

"I think the Western media played a negative role," Sajjad Sabeeh, a young activist for LGBTQ rights based in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, told DW. "By talking about LGBTQ rights in Qatar so much, it allowed politicians to claim that LGBTQ rights are part of the West's agenda to dominate the region," he said.

"We're going to be suffering from the hangover of [activism at] the World Cup for a while," said Tarek Zeidan, director of one of the region's best known and longest-running LGBTQ rights organizations, Helem, based in Beirut. "It will be a very significant factor in the deterioration of safety, security and dignity of LGBTQ individuals across the region."

Even before the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, German fans publicly showed 

their support for the LGBTQ community at football matches, here at the 

Germany v England match at the European championships, London, 29 June 2021

Other factors besides Qatar

Zeidan thinks there are also other noteworthy factors that have resulted in what he calls a recent, "unprecedented" focus on the LGBTQ community in the Middle East. That includes more freedom of information in formerly closed societies, the globalization of culture and increased use of social media.

Zeidan and other experts also say that authoritarian governments and religious fundamentalists are stoking populist, public sentiment against LGBTQ communities in order to secure their own power and moral authority, and to distract from their failings in governance. It's become a kind of culture war, they say.

The confluence of all these factors both increase the lesbian, gay and queer community's visibility, and the pushback against it, Zeidan explained.

"Depending on who you ask, some activists say it's a good thing [to be more visible]: Queer people are finally on the battlefield, right?" he said. "But others disagree and consider this one of the worst things that could happen because we're not prepared for the onslaught."

In a statement released after England and other European teams at the World Cup 

abandoned plans to wear rainbow-themed armbands in support of LGBTQ rights,

 Veteran British LGBT rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said: "The OneLove 

armband was the tiniest of gestures. It was a weak campaign, but even that 

was too much for FIFA, who have bullied the England team to not wear it." 

He is pictured here protesting in October against Qatar's stance on LGBTQ rights

 outside the National Museum of Qatar

Learning from their mistakes?

In either case, events during the World Cup in Qatar did absolutely nothing to help, Zeidan argued.

"The otherwise valid criticism concerning Qatar's dismal human rights record was politicized and far from nuanced, which allowed for a massive rally-around-the-flag effect, or against the [rainbow] flag in this case," he said. "It helped to reinforce ideas that queer people are a Western import and a political tool for settling scores."

If anything positive was to come out of the Qatar experience, it could be lessons about what to do next time there's a mega-sports event in the Middle East, something that is increasingly likely.

Different tactics are required, argued James M. Dorsey, an expert on the region at Singapore's Rajaratnam School of International Studies and author of a blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer. "One potential tactic may be to build on the positions of credible, albeit often controversial, Muslim scholars," he wrote this week. He referred to several who see homosexuality as a sin that will be punished in the afterlife, but who don't believe that earthly authorities should have any say.

"Theirs is a formula that neither legalizes nor legitimizes homosexuality nor removes the stigma," Dorsey said. "But it does avoid criminalization and significantly enhances the lives of members of the LGBT community." LGBT rights in the Middle East can "only be achieved step by step," Dorsey noted.

"Educate yourself. Check your assumptions," advised Helem's Zeidan. "Elevate the voices of Qatari and Gulf activists and don't obscure them with your own. By doing that, you disprove the myth that LGBTQ people are a Western import and that our cause is illegitimate," he concluded.

Cathrin Schaer

© Deutsche Welle 2022