Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Alberta had a world-renowned research foundation — reviving it would raise Canada’s profile
December 16, 2019

NOT IN KENNEY'S AUSTERITY SLASHING UCP ALBERTA

Forty years ago, the former premier of Alberta, the late Peter Lougheed, instituted the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research. The foundation transformed Alberta scientifically and economically, and attracted scores of talented scholars to the province to establish their careers in discovery research in the life sciences.

The foundation was terminated in 2011, and the consequences have hit discovery research and innovation in the life sciences particularly hard.

Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed fielding questions at a news conference in 1984. THE CANADIAN PRESS

Collip and the discovery of insulin

Alberta’s link to Canada’s most important medical discovery may not be well known. Canada has received only one Nobel Prize in medicine: it was awarded to Banting and Macleod in 1923 for the discovery of insulin. However, the key work was done in large part by James Bertram Collip of the University of Alberta. While on sabbatical in Toronto, Collip was invited by Macleod to join the team studying an extract from the pancreas that would lower blood sugar levels in diabetic dogs.

Collip was the first to isolate the hormone we now know as insulin from the crude pancreatic extract. His experimental rigour and talent established the methodology to enable industrial-scale production of insulin, saving tens of millions of lives globally.

As Canada gears up for a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin, perhaps it should recognize Alberta’s Collip.

A 1994 video from the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame celebrating the career of James Bertram Collip.

The Naylor reports

The demise of Canada’s stature in discovery research — especially in life and health sciences — has been well-documented. Two separate detailed reports were commissioned by two different federal governments. Both reports were put together by medical researcher David Naylor, the former president of the University of Toronto.

The first, “Unleashing Innovation: Excellent Health Care for Canada” was submitted in July 2015 to former federal health minister Rona Ambrose. The report was “dead on arrival” in Ottawa.

In May 2018, Kirsty Duncan, the former federal science minister, commissioned a second Naylor report called “Canada’s Fundamental Science Review: Strengthening the Foundations of Canadian Research.” After some initial enthusiasm expressed by Canada’s scientific community, implementation of the findings of this second report has not been completed.

A key recommendation was to reinvest in open fundamental research. The federal government only funded half of the target amount considered essential to sustain discovery research in Canada by this Naylor report.

Today, there’s no dedicated minister of science. The coincidental elimination of funding programs renders Canada less competitive for discovery research in life sciences.

Research credibility

In the wake of the federal government’s election results in western Canada, a unique opportunity currently exists that may help address the aspirations of the Naylor reports.

One possibility would be to reconsider Lougheed’s vision to make Alberta a global centre for medical research. A federal government initiative to set up a world-class research institute modelled on the United Kingdom’s Francis Crick Institute or the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, would pay enormous dividends for Alberta and Canada.

Several world-famous fundamental life science researchers in Alberta provide the international credibility for such a suggestion.

One that comes to mind is University of Alberta virologist Michael Houghton. Already awarded the American Lasker Prize, Houghton was further recognized with the Canada Gairdner International Award after he was recruited to Edmonton. However, he declined the award.

Also at the University of Alberta, cell biologist Richard Rachubinski has recently been featured by the news magazine of the world’s leading chemistry society: the U.K.-based Royal Society of Chemistry. France’s leading popular science magazine La Recherche independently featured the same Edmonton discovery.

Rachubinski’s research investigates parasites that cause devastating diseases in humans; he discovered that when a protein known as Pex3 was inactivated, the parasite died. As reported in Chemistry World, this research provides new hope for the millions of patients globally that suffer (and the thousands that die) from the diseases caused by parasites known as trypanosomes.

Especially relevant is that these diseases have been neglected in part because they were so difficult to study and partly because they tend to affect citizens of less affluent nations.

Inspiration towards excellence

Canadian hockey legend Wayne Gretzky famously said: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” This quote was cited by Steve Jobs when he created Apple Inc. and can surely be applied to the creation of the Peter Lougheed Institute for Life Science Research.

For Canada to emerge as a world leader, a focus on the abundant talent of emerging women scientists (as proposed previously), would truly be going where the puck is going to be.

John Bergeron gratefully acknowledges Kathleen Dickson as co-author.

SEE MY BLOG POST

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Socialized Medicine Began In Alberta https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2005/11/socialized-medicine-began-in-alberta.html

Evangelical gangs in Rio de Janeiro wage ‘holy war’ on Afro-Brazilian faiths

December 16, 2019 8.42am EST

The expression “evangelical drug trafficker” may sound incongruous, but in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, it’s widespread.

Charismatic Christianity is on the rise across Brazil. Slightly less than a third of all Brazilians identify as evangelical, up from 5% in the 1960s. The 2020 national census is expected to show significantly more growth.

In Rio, where the evangelical population increased 30% in the first decade of this century, even some of the most notorious drug dealers claim to be spreading the gospel.

Brazil’s evangelical turn

I study violence in Latin America, and I’ve observed a sharp increase in reports of religiously motivated crimes in Rio de Janeiro since 2016, in particular attacks on “terreiros” – the temples of the Candomblé and Umbanda faiths.

According to Brazil’s Commission to Combat Religious Intolerance, over 100 Afro-Brazilian religious facilities nationwide were attacked by drug trafficking groups in 2019, an increase on previous years. A national emergency hotline created to report such attacks finds that 60% of incidents reported between 2011 and 2017 occurred in Rio de Janeiro.

Persecution of these Afro-Brazilian religions, whose adherents are largely poor black Brazilians, has been around since at least the 19th century.

But the current wave of religious bigotry is more personal, and more violent, than in the past. As the Washington Post recently reported, Afro-Brazilian priests are being harassed and murdered for their faith. Candomblé and Umbanda practitioners fear leaving their homes. Terreiros have closed due to death threats.

Rio’s Commission to Combat Religious Intolerance, a group created in 2008 by religious minorities, reported about 200 such incidents in the city between January and September 2019 – up from 92 in all last year.

Evangelicalism on the rise

The increase in religious hate crimes coincides with the growing political and cultural clout of evangelicals in Brazil. Evangelical lawmakers currently hold 195 of 513 seats in Brazil’s lower house of Congress, giving them the power to shape the national debate on abortion, religion in schools, gay marriage and other social issues.

Many Brazilian Protestants attend mainstream services, and are horrified by rising discrimination against those who practice other faiths.

But the fastest-growing denominations in Brazil are the harder-line Pentecostals and Neopentecostal churches – including the wildly successful Assembly of God and the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.

Both spread what’s called the prosperity doctrine, promising personal salvation and financial success to people who trust God, work hard and cut out all alcohol, gambling and other vices.

For many poor people in the Rio’s hardscrabble “favela” neighborhoods, this is an appealing offer.

Evangelicals raise their hands in prayer at the Assembly of God Victory in Christ Church in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sept. 2, 2018. AP Photo/Leo Correa

As ever more Brazilians convert to evangelicalism, traditional religions there are losing members. Between 2000 and 2010, when the latest national census was taken, the number of Catholics in Brazil dropped 9%. Followers of the Afro-Brazilian religions Candomblé and Umbanda declined 23%.

Good vs. evil

Some evangelical leaders who preach the prosperity doctrine also see these Afro-Brazilian religions as dangerously un-Christian, even evil.

Edir Macedo, the multi-millionaire bishop of Brazil’s Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, wrote in his 1997 book “Orixás, Caboclos and False Gods or Demons” that Afro-Brazilian religions “seek to keep us from God. They are enemies of Him and the human race.”

“This struggle with Satan is necessary…to eternal salvation,” he added.

The book sold 3 million copies before it was banned by federal authorities in 2005. But Macedo still peddles his message to his estimated 5.2 million followers at 13,000 affiliated churches.

For preachers espousing a binary spiritual worldview, “good” Christians must wage holy war against “evil” practitioners of Candomblé and Umbanda.

Though black commentators point out that this theological interpretation is just thinly veiled religious discrimination, some parishioners are heeding the call to “cleanse” the world of Satan’s work.

That includes a handful of drug kingpins, who prohibit adherents of Afro-Brazilian religions from practicing their faith in gang-controlled neighborhoods. Residents caught wearing the religious garb of Candomblé and Umbanda may be expelled from the community.

In some gang-controlled parts of Rio, just wearing the religious garb of Candomblé or Umbanda could lead to expulsion. Reuters/Ueslei Marcelino

The prison-to-church pipeline

My research suggests that Brazil’s chaotic, overcrowded prisons exacerbate the evangelical-gang connection.

The government is only nominally in control of most public prisons in Brazil. In practice, they are essentially governed by one of two competing Brazilian drug trafficking organizations, which run their trafficking and racketeering businesses there and recruit their rank and file from behind bars.

Faith groups, too, have a long tradition in Brazil’s prisons. Previously, these prison ministries were predominantly Catholic. Today, however, 80 of the 100 faith-based organizations subcontracted to run social programs in prisons are evangelical churches.

As a result, charismatic Christianity has spread quickly through the criminal justice system.

Jailhouse conversions are common. Inmates who adopt evangelicalism are frequently housed in separate prison wings that stand out for their order and cleanliness. Some have even established their own ministries inside jail. Developing positive relationships with local Rio pastors while in jail can tighten a gang’s grip on power once released.

Converted traffickers control many Rio de Janeiro favelas, particularly in Baixada Fluminense, a sprawl of townships in the city’s poor northern outskirts.

Over the past century, the area has seen waves of migration from Brazil’s north and northeast, where Afro-Brazilian religions have traditionally prospered. Baixada Fluminense has at least 253 Candomblé and Umbanda terreiros, more than any other municipality in the state.

Baixada Fluminense is also one of Rio’s most dangerous corners. Murder rates have fallen slightly across most of the city over the past decade, but not in Baixada Fluminense. According to Brazil’s Institute for Public Security, 2,147 of the 6,714 murders reported in Rio state so far this year occurred in Baixada Fluminense.

Described by locals as a “Wild West,” the area is home to famously corrupt public officials who have long worked with militia and mafia groups to intimidate their rivals. This patronage relationship allows drug traffickers, evangelical or otherwise, to operate with impunity.

More than a third of violent attacks on Afro-Brazilian temples this year occurred in the Baixada Fluminese.

Fighting back

The Brazilian government has started taking notice. In November 2019 the federal public prosecutor’s office urged Rio de Janeiro authorities to compensate victims of religious intolerance both “materially and symbolically,” particularly in Baixada Fluminense. But proposals on how, concretely, to support them remain on paper only.

Brazilian faith communities, in contrast, are actively fighting back against rising religious discrimination in Brazil. In September, an estimated 100,000 people joined Rio’s annual walk for religious freedom, one of the largest gatherings since the procession’s inception 12 years ago.

Evangelicals, Catholics, Baha'i, Buddhists, Jews and Hari Krishnas packed Rio’s iconic Copacabana beach. Dressed in white, the traditional color of Candomble and Ubanda religious celebrations, they marched in solidarity with Afro-Brazilians.

There may be conflict in Brazil’s religious diversity, but there is unity, too.

This article is an updated version of a story published Nov. 2, 2017. Dandara Tinoco contributed reporting.

Author

Robert Muggah
Associate Lecturer, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)
Disclosure statement Robert Muggah is co-founder of the Igarapé Institute, a Brazilian public policy think tank. He is also on the faculty of Singularity University.

ALSO SEE

VOODOO

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=voodoo

PENTECOSTAL IMPERIALISM

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=pentecostal

Dubai-Abu Dhabi trip in 12 minutes, UAE gears up for self-driving journey

Pilot tests are on as Gulf cities prepare themselves for ‘smart mobility’ services

Published: December 16, 2019 08:33Manoj Nair, Associate Editor

191114 hyperloop — Hyperloop is vacuum-tube system that can propel passengers at speeds of more than 1,000 kilometres per hour.Image Credit: Gulf News

Dubai: How soon will it take for residents in UAE and other Gulf states to get into a driver-less public transport service? Not that long... if the $50 billion worth of “smart city” projects the UAE and Saudi Arabia will spend in the next five years get the desired results.

A significant portion of these investments will be on next-generation “smart mobility”, which could take the form of self-driving vehicles, and even those of the flying kind.

“The RTA (Roads and Transport Authority) in Dubai has successfully tested driverless shuttles as well as pilotless flying taxis, whose deployment is expected to contribute to making 25 per cent of trips in the city driverless by 2030,” said Mark Haddad, Principal at the consultancy Strategy&, part of the PwC network.

Then there is the “hyperloop” option, which could in future - if all the plans slot into place - could deliver passengers and freight to their destinations in a matter of minutes rather than hours. (A Dubai-Abu Dhabi trip could be done in 12 minutes - at least that’s the promise offered by hyperloop, which essentially uses low pressure air tubes to ferry pods over vast distances at eye-popping speeds.)

“Gulf states are positioning themselves at the forefront of the mass transit revolution through their interest in the hyperloop,” said Haddad. “This is evident from several strategic partnerships between hyperloop companies and Gulf states to encourage research and the rapid commercialization of this technology.

“Virgin Hyperloop has a strategic partnership with the Economic Cities Authority of Saudi Arabia to study and build the longest test and certification hyperloop track (35 kilometres) as well as an R&D centre and manufacturing facility. Hyperloop One has an agreement with RTA to evaluate the feasibility of a link between Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Mindsets need change as well

But putting up the funds on smart mobility is only part of it. How fast will the adoption rates be?

“Many hurdles need to be overcome before the full commercialization of autonomous vehicles in the next few years - three to five years at minimum,” said Haddad. “These include:

* The rapid evolution of the technology, especially the “vision” aspect and maturity of HD (high-definition) maps;

* The governments’ approach in enabling driverless mobility through solid framework/regulations (common standards, liabilities, safety, data privacy, cyber security, etc.):

* Proper infrastructure allowing better connectivity;

* Crafting the right partnerships and incentives with technology and service providers; and (of course)

* End-users’ acceptance of the new technology.”

For now, metros and urban rail networks

But as they seek out next-gen mobility, Gulf states are also making sizable commitments in frill-free rail transportation services. In its new report, Strategy& notes that the “biggest urban transport project currently underway in the region is Riyadh Metro, a $23 billion project featuring six lines and 85 stations. Jeddah, Mecca and Madina have plans for development or the expansion of urban transport and metro projects.

In Kuwait, a $7 billion metro project is “back on track after plans to proceed to the next stage were approved”. The 160 kilometre system, due to be built over five phases, is expected to include 68 stations and four lines.

All of this will be the foundation for the Gulf’s push towards smart cities. But such a transition needs a tight regulatory regime. The Strategy& report notes that “smart mobility requires an appropriate governance framework and regulations. The rapid pace of technological development means that ministries and city authorities have to coordinate governance across disciplines and institutions to ensure that new solutions and business models are fair, accessible, equitable, and sustainable.”

“For instance, many governments will need to revamp the way they license and regulate vehicles to accommodate smart technologies,” said Dr. Ulrich Koegler, Partner with Strategy& Middle East.

Get those details in place and user acceptance will come on their own.