COVID and military coup cripple Myanmar economy

Myanmar — one of the poorest countries in Asia — is nearing economic collapse. The country has been hit hard by a devastating cash shortage since the coup and COVID-19 pandemic.


Myanmar's economy and banking system have been paralyzed since the military's power-grab in February

Zaw Min (name changed to protect his identity) is a construction worker in his 30s from the Yangon suburb of Hlaing TharYar in Myanmar. He recounts how he sold his second-hand motorcycle for 150,000 kyat ($91, €77.50) in September out of financial desperation.

Min was forced to find new ways to feed his family when he couldn't find work in his profession amid Myanmar's battle with COVID-19.

"I did not have a job for quite a while. So, I had to sell my motorcycle. I had no choice," Min told DW.

The pandemic, coupled with Myanmar's military coup in February, hit the economy hard.

Min began to do any odd jobs that were available to make ends meet. He says that since the coup, it's become even more difficult to find work due to new security measures and the worsening political situation.

His regular customers have relocated for security reasons while others are no longer in contact because of COVID-19.

"I cannot find work. My customers have moved to other places. Others do not want to hire me anymore," he told DW.

Like many people in the country, Min does not have a bank account.
Economic down spiral

The World Bank has warned that Myanmar is at risk of economic turmoil. In the Myanmar Economic Monitor released on July 26, the global financial institution stated that the country's economy is expected to contract around 18% in the 2021 fiscal year, meaning Myanmar's economy will be about 30% smaller than it would have been in the absence of COVID and the coup.

A survey on business firms in Myanmar released by the World Bank at the end of August found that the impact of the military coup was more detrimental than that of COVID-19.

Myanmar's military government says it's also facing economic difficulties. Vice Senior General Soe Win, also vice-chair of the country's financial commission, urged ministries in a meeting on Tuesday to spend frugally, state news agencies reported.

The military general cited various economic losses due to COVID-19 and warned that Myanmar might continue to face income losses in the coming months.

On August 10, military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing had warned about trade and budget deficits in a governmental meeting, according to state media reports.

Businessman Aung Myaing (name changed) says Myanmar must now buy essential items such as cooking oil and gasoline "from outside."

"We cannot export much these days. That is why the dollar is in high demand and becoming sky high," he told DW, warning about the weakening Myanmar kyat currency and burgeoning trade deficit. The kyat has dropped approximately 30% in value since the coup.

"It's very difficult to run a business these days," he added.

Khin Maung Naing (name changed), a factory owner in his late 30s, tells DW that "business is slow." His small factory manufactures plastic containers for businesses.

"The exchange rate is changing every day and raw material prices change with it…Our customers are facing economic difficulties. So, we don't know how to price our products," he said, adding that cash shortage is also a problem.
Cash shortages

Since the military takeover, the Southeast Asian country has been crippled by a cash shortage. Banks have placed caps on ATM cash withdrawals and introduced token systems to restrict the number of customers making counter transactions.

The central bank restricted the withdrawal of Myanmar kyat to 20 million for companies and 2 million kyat for individuals. More amounts of cash can be withdrawn for buying COVID-related medicines and medical equipment.

Since the coup, people have been seen queuing outside bank branches. People are desperately trying to find cash through various means.

"I have no idea how we can get out of this mess," lamented factory owner Khin Maung Naing about the economic crisis.

How Nazi-era artists adapted to the postwar period

A new historical exhibition in Berlin explores the postwar career of the artists listed as crucial to Nazi culture.


Sculptor Adolf Wamper didn't change his style for this 1953 memorial to coal miners in Gelsenkirchen


The Nazis used arts and culture as propaganda tools. Their definition of acceptable art was very narrow, and one that promoted their racist ideology. Many artists were banned from working or persecuted; a great number of them fled into exile.

But on the other hand, the work of certain artists was deemed to be of extremely high value to the regime. Even in the final phase of World War II, a select few of artists were declared to be "indispensable" to Nazi culture, exempting them from military duty and work assignments.

Memorial to the victims of war and tyranny: bronze sculpture by Hans Breker alias Hans van Breek (1964)

This list of artists was compiled in 1944 by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels on behalf of Adolf Hitler.

The Deutsches Historisches Museum (German Historical Museum, DHM) in Berlin uses this list of the "Divinely Gifted" as a starting point for its latest exhibition on the artists favored by the Nazi regime.

"Their visual contribution to the Nazi ideology was immense," said DHM President Raphael Gross at a press conference in Berlin, adding that despite their Nazi ties, these artists were actually able to continue their careers after 1945.

As curator and art historian Wolfgang Braun pointed out, the widespread belief that the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany also was a new beginning for cultural policy is a myth that needs to be revised.

Previously sponsored by the Nazis: Richard Scheibe's 1953 memorial for the victims of the 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler
Propaganda as an instrument

The exhibition "'Divinely Gifted': National Socialism's favored artists in the Federal Republic" focuses on the list's 378 visual artists, all of them male. Additionally, as it also included architects, musicians, actors, filmmakers, novelists or playwrights, the list highlighted a total of around 1,000 people.

Hitler's preferred sculptor, Arno Breker, and his 'Athena' of 1957 — a popular Nazi motif

The show explicitly looks into the work of these artists after World War II. In the young Federal Republic of Germany, they kept obtaining commissions from the state, corporations and the Church; they became professors at art academies and took part in competitions.
Some cases particularly flagrant

For example, sculptor Willy Meller, who had not only made different sculptures for the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, but also numerous reliefs of imperial eagles during the Nazi era, was also commissioned in 1952 to make a federal eagle for the Palais Schaumburg in Bonn, the then official residence of the Federal Chancellor. Meller even sculpted a work for the Oberhausen Memorial Hall for the victims of National Socialism, which opened in 1962.

Hans Breker, the brother of Hitler's favorite sculptor, Arno Breker, was commissioned to create a Karl Marx bust in Moscow and a memorial for the victims of the Nazi tyranny in the West German city of Wesel.

Despite criticism, Nuremberg Meistersingerhalle's 'Die Frau Musica' by Hermann Kaspar

The exhibition therefore exposes how these artists adapted to different political systems and how postwar Germany avoided looking into their ties with the Nazis.

Around 300 sculptures, paintings, tapestries, models, drawings, photographs, film and audio documents, as well as posters and media reports show how networks continued to exist after the war, and how the "Divinely Gifted" artists promoted each other until the 1970s, for example through commissions — without facing any public criticism or open debate.

The exhibition "Divinely Gifted': National Socialism's favored artists in the Federal Republic" can be viewed from August 27 through December 5, 2021 at the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin.

INTERVIEW
Afghan activist says Ashraf Ghani and Joe Biden caused misery and chaos

After negotiating with the Taliban in Doha for the past 11 months, prominent Afghan women's rights activist Fatima Gailani says ousted President Ashraf Ghani is a "national traitor."


Fatima Gailani has been involved in Afghan politics for more than 40 years


Few people have such an insight into the politics and conflicts of Afghanistan: Fatima Gailani was one of only four women engaged in peace talks with the Taliban in Qatar's capital Doha for the past 11 months. After Kabul fell to the militant Islamists on August 15, those efforts now seem like a distant past.

The former president of the Afghan Red Crescent Society holds a master's degree in Islamic studies and jurisprudence from The Muslim College in London. She hails from an influential religious family. Her father was one of the Afghan mujahideen leaders who fought against the Soviet occupation of the 1980s.

After the Taliban regime was overthrown by the US-led intervention in late 2001, Fatima Gailani became a constitutional commissioner and helped to write the new constitution of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

But after the Taliban marched into Kabul and assumed power, that Afghanistan and its constitution have effectively ceased to exist.In an exclusive interview with DW from Doha, she was still trying to come to terms with recent events.

The interview was conducted shortly before a massive suicide attack killed more than 100 people outside Kabul airport on August 26.

DW: How are you feeling right now?

Fatima Gailani: I'm still totally shocked because we were so close. We were really so close to having an orderly transfer of power. And then Mr. Ghani ruined everything to rescue his money. His sudden departure caused what you see today.

There are lots of rumors out there. But is there actually any proof that Ashraf Ghani and his close associates, like the former national security adviser, Hamdullah Mohib, really took coffers of dollars with them?

You tell me! It has to be investigated. But why would they leave in such a hurry when they had an assurance that the Taliban would not enter Kabul for two weeks? The only thing I want to get across here is that this traitor should not get away scot-free.

Is it really fair to put all the blame on Ghani alone?

Look, no one can put all the blame on just one person. There are chains of blame for what has happened in Afghanistan during the past four decades of war and violence. But this last chaotic situation, this collapse, was definitely his fault. He betrayed his country. He betrayed people very close to him. He could have waited. He could have left the country in an orderly way — and transfer of power would have happened. What he did was a total disgrace.

The first step was that he put a lot of obstacles in front of these talks right from the start because of his ego and the world that he had created for himself. And then, of course, came this fantastic act of running away. There is only one credit now that I could give to him — for his Oscar-worthy acting that he will stay until the last minute. Everybody around him believed him.

Fatima Gailani calls ousted Afghan president Ashraf Ghani a "national traitor"

You obviously believed him, too.

Yes, I was here in Doha, and step by step we were informed about the list of the delegation coming to Doha for an orderly transition of power with [former High Council for National Reconciliation leader] Dr. Abdullah Abdullah and ex-President Hamid Karzai and all the other leaders. The plan was that security would be guaranteed for this transfer of power and that the international community would witness it.

The most important thing for all of us in the negotiation team at this stage was only one point: The Taliban have taken Afghanistan. This is a fact. So how can we secure a peaceful transfer of power that would also guarantee a lasting peace for the future? We wanted things to move forward smoothly. But then he (Ghani) had run away.

The Doha talks never really achieved anything of substance. Wasn't it all just one gigantic fig leaf in the first place?

That I will never know. But if I'd had only a little doubt that this was not a genuine thing, I would not have lent my name to this Doha process, I wouldn't have. Whatever I tried to do politically for Afghanistan in the past 43 years, I put my honor first. If you honor your own name, you honor your country and you honor your people.

I believed in the Doha talks. And by that I'm not saying the Taliban were not difficult. They were difficult. And now I know that they knew that they were making gains. But on our side, we were very sincere for peace. I have no doubt whatsoever.

Where do you go from here? Will you return to Kabul?

Yes, I will return to Kabul. You know that I am recovering from cancer. I haven't seen my oncologist since January 13. That was the last time. So, now I will just go to London to see my oncologist and maybe rest for a few weeks, because I am terribly exhausted. Just so exhausted. But then I will return back home where my husband is and where my two brothers are.

The Taliban are now in control of Afghanistan but haven't yet established a government

What kind of Afghanistan will you return to?

It is absolutely up to the Taliban first and then it's up to the international community. The Taliban will have to put the people of Afghanistan first to secure peace. And how to secure peace? It is by a genuine, inclusive government.

In order to have an inclusive government, witnessed by the international community, its formation should happen somewhere outside Afghanistan so that everyone could come and witness it and believe it and seal it. Otherwise, if the embassies don't open again, people will starve. If the assurance of the international community is not there, people will starve. And starved people could do anything out of desperation.

I really, really don't want to see the Taliban patrolling in armored cars and Daesh [Arabic word for IS used in Afghanistan] putting bombs in the streets. Because who will be dying? Ordinary, innocent civilians in the streets of Kabul! I don't want to see that. We really need to forget about who is the winner and who is the loser. All we should care about today is the people of Afghanistan.

Thousands had flocked to Kabul airport to try and flee Afghanistan. On August 26, two explosions killed more than a 100 people.

You have had close contact with the elite of the Taliban in Doha for close to 11 months. Can they be trusted? They do speak a lot about inclusiveness and amnesty, but at the same time, we get credible reports about atrocities like targeted killings and executions. Words don't seem to match deeds.

Well, in order to have law and order for Afghanistan we need to have a government that the people of Afghanistan can trust. It is the trust of the Afghan people which will put cold water on the fire which is burning today in Afghanistan.

When the people of Afghanistan genuinely trust something, then changes will come. Then people will calm down and people will give support to the system. We have to accept that the Taliban won militarily. But all of us together will have to bring peace now. One side alone cannot win the peace.

Look, we toppled a regime. The ex-Soviet Union. But did it bring peace for Afghanistan? No, because it was one sided. And then came [the Afghanistan Conference in] Bonn in Germany in December 2001. We all got together. But the Taliban were not included. Did we win peace? Not at all. Why are we going to repeat this once again? We have seen it. So now let's do the right thing.

Will there be space for a vocal woman like you in a future Afghanistan?

Look, women in Afghanistan cannot be ignored. We, the women of Afghanistan, we know that we are Afghan, and that we are Muslims. We know our limits. But we also know our liberties. Afghanistan cannot go forward without its women.

I want to be there for my people, but I have no political ambitions. I've given up on that a long time ago. But I will never give up my fight for the rights of women and minorities. And this is a promise.

Fatima Gailani thinks US President Joe Biden acted recklessly in Afghanistan

What would you say to Taliban deputy leader Mullah Baradar right now?

I will say exactly what I told him face to face in Doha: the future of Afghanistan has to include all of us. Men and women. All languages, all ethnic groups. All the sects in Islam. Our Hindus and our Sikhs. If we want to claim a real Islamic country, then it has to be the country our prophet told us to build, and not one that we are interpreting in our own language.

And what would you say to Joe Biden?

I would say: Mr. President, what you did to Afghanistan was very, very reckless. As much as we blame Ashraf Ghani, and I openly call him a national traitor, I would also tell Biden that this is not the way that a superpower should behave like.

And I want you to please publish this: I didn't want any foreign soldiers to stay in Afghanistan. What I wanted was: peace first. So first secure peace, and then go wherever you want go. When we talked about foreign forces leaving orderly, we didn't mean that we wanted NATO's soldiers to stay for the rest of their lives. No!

You made a contract with the Taliban in Doha, and a political settlement was part of it. But where is this political settlement? Where is it?

Editorial note: The interview was condensed and edited for clarity.

SLAP ON THE WRIST

Austria's former far-right vice chancellor convicted of corruption
Issued on: 27/08/2021 -

The former Austrian vice chancellor was given a 15-month suspended jail sentence. 

© Lisa Leutner, AP

Text by: NEWS WIRES
3 min

A Vienna court convicted the former leader of Austria's far-right Heinz-Christian Strache of a corruption charge on Friday in a case stemming from a 2019 scandal known as "Ibizagate".

Strache, one of Europe's most high-profile former far-right leaders, was given a 15-month suspended jail sentence.

The Ibizagate scandal led to Strache resigning as vice-chancellor and head of the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe).

The affair brought down the coalition between the FPOe and the centre-right People's Party (OeVP) of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and triggered fresh elections in the Alpine EU member.

The scandal broke when video footage emerged of Strache promising public contracts to a woman posing as a Russian oligarch's niece in exchange for support for the FPOe's 2017 election campaign.

The video, which was secretly filmed on the Spanish resort island of Ibiza, led to a sprawling investigation by anti-corruption prosecutors who turned up several other allegations of wrongdoing against Strache and other prominent politicians.

Acquitted on second charge

In the current trial the 52-year-old Strache was found guilty of helping change a law to help an FPOe donor friend of his to secure public funding for his private hospital.

Strache's co-accused Walter Grubmueller, a long-standing friend and owner of a private health clinic, was also found guilty and given a 12-month suspended sentence.

Judge Claudia Moravec-Loidolt said Strache had been acquitted of a second charge of receiving favours in the form of a trip to the Greek island of Corfu at Grubmueller's invitation.

Strache had protested his innocence throughout the trial.

Prosecutor Bernhard Weratschnig said in his closing argument that holders of public office should remain above even the perception of corruption and that the "advantages" Strache received were "indisputable".

"Every euro is one euro too many," he said.

According to an SMS exchange uncovered by prosecutors, Strache had asked Grubmueller which amendments to legislation would be needed in order for Grubmueller's clinic "to finally be treated in a fair manner".

During Strache's time in government, the law was amended to enable clinics like that of Grubmueller to receive money from the public health insurance fund.

Strache has also been accused of embezzling party funds to pay for his luxurious lifestyle during the 14 years he headed the FPOe, though he has not been charged over this.

Kurz returned to the chancellorship after the scandal, this time at the head of a coalition between his OeVP and the Greens, and has thus far managed to avoid any serious political damage from "Ibizagate".

The OeVP was even able to gain many disaffected FPOe voters in 2019 polls.

But in May, prosecutors announced they were investigating the 35-year-old on suspicion of giving false testimony to a committee of lawmakers probing "Ibizagate" and other graft allegations.

Kurz has denied the allegation and has insisted he will not bow to pressure to resign, even if formally charged.

Party infighting

The FPOe's vote share crashed from 26 percent in 2017 to just 16 percent in 2019.

Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morningSubscribe

The party has spent much of the time since the scandal consumed by infighting.

In June, Strache's successor as leader, Norbert Hofer, resigned after weeks of tension with party colleague and former interior minister Herbert Kickl.

Kickl, seen as a party ideologue and mastermind of some of its anti-Islam and anti-migrant campaigns, took over as leader.

Meanwhile, Strache attempted a political comeback last year with a bid to be Vienna's mayor, but his list won just three percent of the vote in municipal elections.

(AFP)

Austria finds former vice chancellor guilty of corruption

Heinz-Christian Strache is also the former chair of the far-right Freedom Party. The court found that a €10,000 donation to his party helped swing the law in favor of a private clinic.



Strache was caught up in the so-called Ibiza affair, a 2019 scandal that brought down the governing coalition that included his far-right party

Austria's former vice chancellor and far-right politician Heinz-Christian Strache was found guilty of corruption and received a suspended 15-month jail sentence on Friday over a donation to his populist Freedom Party (FPÖ).

The trial is the first criminal case against Strache in the "Ibiza affair," where he was secretly filmed offering to help a woman posing as a wealthy Russian donor in return for political favors.

What was the court's ruling?

Strache was found guilty of corruption and given a 15-month suspended sentence.

He faced trial alongside Walter Grubmüller, the owner of a private clinic, who made an illegal €10,000 donation to the party.

Prosecutors argued that the donation was an attempt to buy a change in the law in order to allow the clinic's operator to charge medical treatment costs directly to the Austrian public health insurance fund.

The clinic got access to the funds in 2018.

Strache had testified that he believed the clinic was being treated unfairly by the state and that the party donations had nothing to do with the matter.

The judge ruled that the donation influenced a change in the law, alongside private perks in favor of the clinic.

Grubmüller was also found guilty and received a year's suspended jail sentence.

Both sentences can be appealed.

Also examined were alleged trips made by Strache to the Greek island of Corfu at the invitation of Grubmüller, who is a longtime friend.

Strache has denied traveling to the island after he became vice-chancellor.

The trial was an outgrowth of the sprawling investigation into the FPÖ's financing that was prompted by the Ibiza affair.

Who is Heinz-Christian Strache?

Heinz-Christian Strache is a far-right politician and former head of the populist Freedom Party.

He was also Austrian vice chancellor from December 2017 until May 2019, under a coalition with the conservatives.

The coalition collapsed due to a secret video scandal known as the "Ibiza Affair."
What was the Ibiza affair?

The scandal broke when video footage emerged of Strache promising public contracts to a woman posing as a Russian oligarch's niece in exchange for support for the FPÖ's 2017 election campaign.

The video, which was secretly filmed on the Spanish resort island of Ibiza, brought down the coalition between the FPÖ and the center-right People's Party of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and triggered fresh elections.

It also led to an investigation by anti-corruption prosecutors who turned up several other allegations of wrongdoing against Strache and other prominent politicians.

mm/rt (dpa, Reuters)

POSTMODERN STALINISM REAL CANCEL CULTURE

Actress hit with $46 mn tax fine as China targets celebrity culture

Issued on: 27/08/2021 -

Zheng Shuang became a household name in China after starring in the hit 2009 remake of Taiwanese drama 'Meteor Shower', and a string of successful series and movies AARON TAM AFP/File

Beijing (AFP)

Top Chinese actress Zheng Shuang was hit with a $46 million tax evasion fine Friday while references to film star Zhao Wei were wiped from video streaming sites as Beijing steps up its campaign against celebrity culture.

Beijing is on a mission to rein in what it calls "chaotic fan culture" and celebrity excess, after a spate of scandals in recent months that have taken down China's biggest entertainers including singer Kris Wu, who was arrested on suspicion of rape earlier this month.

Shanghai tax authorities on Friday fined Zheng 299 million yuan ($46.1 million) for tax evasion and undeclared income between 2019 and 2020 while filming a TV series, according to an online statement.

Zheng, 30, became a household name in China after starring in the hit 2009 remake of Taiwanese drama "Meteor Shower", and a string of successful series and movies afterwards.

China's state broadcasting regulator also pulled Zheng's offending TV drama and ordered producers not to hire her for future shows.

The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television added it had "zero tolerance" for tax evasion, "sky-high pay" and "yin-yang contracts", referring to the shady contracts commonly used in Chinese showbiz to obscure actors' real pay.

State media has gone into overdrive urging changes to China's entertainment culture.

"For some time now, artists' moral failures and legal violations, the cultivation of younger idols, and 'chaotic' fandoms have attracted widespread attention in society," state broadcaster CCTV said Tuesday.

References to popular film star Zhao Wei (pictured at her French vineyard) have been censored from major Chinese video streaming sites

 Nicolas TUCAT AFP/File

"We must restore a clean and upright literary and artistic environment to the public."

On Thursday evening, search results for Zhao, an enormously popular actress also known as Vicky Zhao, were censored from major Chinese video streaming sites.

Her name was suddenly removed from the credits of major TV series, while a forum dedicated to the actress on social media platform Weibo was also mysteriously shut down, as the hashtag "Zhao Wei super-topic closed" gained 850 million views.

No official reason was given.

But Zhao and her husband were banned from trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange earlier this year, owing to a failed 2016 takeover bid that authorities ruled had "disrupted market order".

China's cyber regulator released new regulations Friday that ban celebrity ranking lists and tighten control over "chaotic" celebrity fan clubs and management agencies.

Video streaming site iQiyi said it halted all idol talent programmes Thursday, while a Chinese boy band made up of primary school children disbanded earlier this week after performers' ages sparked a public backlash.

© 2021 AFP

Decrepit Ankara theme park tells tale of Turkey's turmoil

Issued on: 27/08/2021 - 

The abandoned Wonderland Eurasia park is a symbol of waste by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party 

Adem LTAN AFP

Ankara (AFP)

The decaying dinosaur toys outside the abandoned theme park tell the tale of grand ambition, waste and troubles facing the long-ruling party of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The problems started early for "Wonderland Eurasia", meant to be Europe's largest amusement venue and billed by Erdogan as "a symbol of pride" at its opening in Ankara in March 2019.

Two days after the inauguration, a rollercoaster broke down, forcing people to scramble down to safety.

Public restrooms were a mess, some rides stood unfinished, and areas remained off-limits despite a reported $801 million spent on building Turkey's version of Disneyland.

The park closed less than a year after it opened when the operator struggled to pay staff wages and electricity bills since there were not enough customers.

For Erdogan's critics, the park is one of the biggest symbols of waste by mayors from his ruling AK Party, in power for two decades and facing a general election no later than 2023.

Such was the level of anger, some of Turkey's biggest cities -- including Ankara and Istanbul -- voted for mayors from opposition parties in 2019.

The theme park closed less than a year after it opened 

Adem ALTAN AFP

"Ankara's urgent need was not a Disneyland. It was transport," said Tezcan Karakus Candan, who heads the Chamber of Architects' Ankara branch, pointing out that the capital already has a large amusement park.

"This was a project of extravagance."

- 'Adolescent whim'-

The city is now suing the operator in an attempt to win back control and try to do something constructive with the land.

An Ankara court will rule on the request on September 13.

The park itself stands eerily quiet, its broken toys and ride parts collecting dust and rotting at a waste site a few kilometres (miles) away.

Yet its problems appear never-ending, with the city reporting at least 21 attempts to steal its cables in the last three months alone.

Erdogan hailed the Wonderland Eurasia theme park as "a symbol of pride" at its opening in March 2019 

Adem ALTAN AFP

Ankara's popular current mayor, Mansur Yavas, seen as a possible presidential challenger to Erdogan, claims the park cost $801 million.

The former mayor, Melih Gokcek, puts the price tag at $500 million.

But Gokcek is also blamed for many other hated Ankara projects he oversaw between 1994 and 2017, when he was ousted by Erdogan.

The park was a bizarre idea even before construction started, planned for a city not known for tourism. Gokcek claimed it would bring in 10 million people a year.

Ankara welcomed 4.9 million domestic and international visitors in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

In stark contrast, Istanbul, famous for its Ottoman mosques, Byzantine-era buildings and sunsets on the Bosphorus, hosted nearly 15 million tourists in 2019.

Guven Arif Sargin, a professor in the architecture department at Ankara's Middle East Technical University, called the idea of trying to make the city attractive to tourists an "adolescent whim".

- Ataturk's legacy -

The deep dislike of Gokcek and his tenure as mayor, despite five electoral victories, led to the opposition easily winning his office in March 2019.

"Melih Gokcek is a symbol of how AKP local administrations betray cities, how they ran a process of plunder and a network of relations," said Candan.

"We shouldn't look at Gokcek alone."

The Chamber of Architects tried to use the courts to stop construction, arguing it unlawfully transformed a natural protected area into a place of business.

The ex-mayor countered with a legal complaint against Candan and four other heads of professional chambers in which he accused them of slander, she told AFP.

The legal wrangles continue to this day.

But for many, Gokcek's gravest crime was not the waste of a failed vanity project, but his destruction of the land it stood on -- the Ataturk Forest Farm.

For many, the gravest crime was the destruction of the land the theme park stood on -- the Ataturk Forest Farm

 Adem ALTAN AFP

Gokcek's fiercest critics view his amusement park as an attempt by Erdogan's Islamic-rooted party to erase the secular legacy of modern Turkey's revered founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Ataturk envisioned the farming area in 1925 as the place where the capital's residents would meet their future agricultural needs.

The area where "Wonderland Eurasia" stands once had a zoo open to the public. Erdogan also built a 1,150-room presidential palace worth more than $600 million on part of the land.

Sargin said the "priority" was to turn the park and its equipment into "public property again".

But Candan wants the area to fulfil Ataturk's legacy, calling for "radical" action.

"Give the (park's) toys away to regions that may need them, seek compensation from Melih Gokcek for the money spent, use that money to reforest the area," Candan said.

Ankara is trying to win back control and try to do something constructive with the land Adem ALTAN AFP

"With such decisions, it can return to its original state."

Lebanon cancer patients face 'humiliating' drug shortages


Issued on: 27/08/2021 - 

Cancer drugs are the latest medication to become scarce in Lebanon, with even painkillers disappearing from many pharmacy shelves 

ANWAR AMRO AFP

Kfar Nabrakh (Lebanon) (AFP)

As if her cancer treatment was not already agonising enough, Rita is now wracked with worry about the medication she needs as Lebanon's crippling economic crisis sparks drug shortages.

"The treatment is like fire shooting through your body," the 53-year-old patient told AFP, asking that her real name not be given. "But now on top of that, we have to go hunting for the drugs."

Lebanon is in the throes of one of the world's worst economic crises since the mid-19th century, which has sparked a flurry of shortages from medicines to fuel as foreign currency reserves run low.

The health ministry has previously provided cancer medication at very low cost to patients without health insurance, but the patients say there are now almost no drugs to be found.

The shortages are threatening the treatment of tens of thousands of people, many of whom have taken to social media in a desperate plea to source the drugs they require.

Since Rita was diagnosed with uterine cancer three years ago, the disease has also spread to her lungs.

"My brother couldn't find the drugs from the ministry," said the single mother of three, her face etched with worry at his home in Kfar Nabakh in the Chouf mountains.

Patricia Nassif, a 29-year-old Lebanese cancer patient, shows a photograph of herself at the hospital

 ANWAR AMRO AFP

For now, she has borrowed money to buy the medicine at a much higher price on the black market. But she says she will not be able to afford to do this for long.

"What am I supposed to do? Sit around waiting for my turn?" she asked. "If you can't find the drugs, you die."

- 'No drugs left' -

The World Health Organization says 28,764 people have been diagnosed with cancer in Lebanon over the past five years, out of a total population of six million.

Rita, a 53-year-old Lebanese woman with cancer, displays her limited supplies of the lifesaving medicine she needs 

ANWAR AMRO AFP

But doctors say the number of patients undergoing treatment is likely to be much higher.

The head of the Lebanese Society of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, Ahmad Ibrahim, said that around 2,500 new cases of leukaemia and lymphoma are recorded each year in the Mediterranean country.

"Very little medication is left for their treatment," he said. "Yet if they don't follow regular treatment, some will die."

Cancer drugs are just the latest medication to become scarce, with even painkillers disappearing from pharmacy shelves in recent months.

"Some have neared the end of their treatment and are about to get better, but now suddenly there are no more drugs left," Ibrahim added.

This summer many Lebanese expats who return home have flown in with suitcases packed to the brim with boxes of medication for their loved ones.

Some drugs are available at a higher price on the black market, but in a country where three quarters of the population live in poverty, many cannot afford them.

Last month, importers said supplies of hundreds of kinds of drugs had run out, as the central bank owed millions of dollars to their suppliers abroad.

The authorities in turn accused importers of hoarding medicines with the aim of selling them later at a higher price, and blamed smuggling abroad for part of the problem.

- 'They don't care' -

Many Lebanese see the lack of medicine as merely the latest outcome of decades of mismanagement of the country by a political class they say is selfish and corrupt.

Protesters campaign against a drug shortage threatening tens of thousands of cancer patients in Lebanon 

ANWAR AMRO AFP

The Barbara Nassar Association for Cancer Patient Support on Thursday staged a protest to demand better access to cancer medication.

"Can you believe it? In Lebanon, cancer patients -- with all their worries -- are forced to go down into the street and protest to demand medicine," said its president, Hani Nassar.

"How is it the patient's fault if the state is incapable of containing the crisis?"

In the Hazmieh suburb of Beirut, Patricia Nassif, 29, said she was afraid she would not be able to finish her breast cancer treatment.

She had been married for only eight months when she discovered in April that she had breast cancer, upending her dream to start a family when all of her friends were becoming pregnant.

"I often lose hope," she said, wearing a black wig with a purple streak to match her outfit of black T-shirt and jeans.

She has finished a round of chemotherapy, but now fears she will have to spend thousands of dollars buying medication abroad for the next stage of her treatment.

"It's humiliating," she said, and accused the ruling class of doing little to help.

"It's as if they were telling us: 'Die slowly'. They don't care about us."

© 2021 AFP

Has Delta killed the herd immunity dream?

Issued on: 27/08/2021 

Herd immunity is achieved when a certain threshold of the global population has either been inoculated against a pathogen or has recovered from infection 

Robyn Beck AFP/File


Paris (AFP)

As the Delta variant continues its global surge, experts are questioning whether the long-held goal of achieving herd immunity from Covid-19 through vaccination is still viable.

Herd immunity is achieved when a certain threshold of the global population has either been inoculated against a pathogen or has recovered from infection.

But whether or not it is achievable with Covid-19, with the regular emergence of more infectious strains, is up for debate.

"If the question is 'will vaccination alone allow us to dampen and control the pandemic?' the answer is: no," epidemiologist Mircea Sofonea told AFP.

He said herd immunity hinged on two basic factors.

"That's the intrinsic infectiousness of the virus and the efficacy of vaccines to protect against infection. And at the moment, that efficacy isn't there."

Delta has shown to be roughly 60 percent more transmissible than the Alpha variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and up to twice as infectious as the original strain that emerged in late 2019.

The more effective the virus becomes at infecting people, the higher the herd immunity threshold becomes.

"Theoretically, it's a very simple calculation to make," said epidemiologist Antoine Flahault.

For the original virus, which had a reproduction rate between zero and three -- meaning each infected person infects up to three others -- herd immunity could have been achieved with around 66 percent of people immunised, Flahault told AFP.

"But if the reproduction rate is eight, as with Delta, that puts us closer to 90 percent," he said.

Were vaccines 100 percent effective at stopping Delta infections, that 90 percent could conceivably be possible. Unfortunately, they aren't.

- Waning immunity? -

According to data published this week by US authorities, the efficacy of the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines at preventing infection has fallen from 91 percent to 66 percent since Delta became the dominant variant.

And studies have shown that the vaccine efficacy against infection with Delta falls over time -- one of the reasons why several countries are now readying for an autumn third shot, or "booster", vaccination campaign.

With all this taken into account, absent other health measures such as mask-wearing or social distancing, Sofonea said it would take more than 100 percent of people to be vaccinated in order to guarantee transmissions end -- an obvious impossibility.

"The Delta variant will still infect people who have been vaccinated and that does mean that anyone who's still unvaccinated, at some point, will meet the virus," Andrew Pollard, director of Britain's Oxford Vaccine Group, told lawmakers this month.

- 'Mythical' -

But even if, as Pollard termed it, the "mythical" aim of herd immunity is no longer in play, experts stressed that getting vaccinated remained paramount.

As with vaccines against other, now-endemic diseases such as measles and influenza, the Covid vaccines offer excellent protection against severe illness.

"What scientists are recommending is to get the maximum number of people protected" through vaccination, said Flahault.

Eventually, of course, all pandemics end.

Sofonea said it would still be possible that Covid would become another endemic disease over time, "just not with vaccines alone".

He envisioned a near future where "masks and social distancing continue in certain regions" in order to limit transmission and, ultimately, severe illness.

"During the AIDS pandemic, when scientists said we needed to wear condoms, lots of people said: 'OK, we'll do it for a while'," said Flahault.

"And in the end they kept on using them. It could well be that we will continue using masks in enclosed spaces and on transport for quite some time."

© 2021 AFP

Germany's workforce in desperate need of skilled immigrants, warns labor agency

Europe's largest economy has an aging population and low birth rates, and the federal labor agency says Germany must attract at least 400,000 skilled immigrants annually to keep up with demand.


Demographic changes will force Germany to attract more skilled immigrants if it wants to remain the EU's top economy

Germany faces massive labor shortages unless it begins recruiting skilled immigrants to replace those retiring from the country's aging workforce, Federal Labor Agency Chairman Detlef Scheele told the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) newspaper Tuesday.

Scheele said demographic changes mean Germany will have roughly 150,000 fewer working age residents this year alone, and warned, "It will be much more dramatic over the coming years."

"The fact is: Germany is running out of workers," he said.

"We need 400,000 immigrants per year, significantly more than in recent years," said Scheele. "From nursing care and climate technicians to logisticians and academics, there will be a shortage of skilled workers everywhere."

Cognizant of immigration issues in light of Germany's upcoming federal elections in late September, Social Democrat Scheele told the SZ: "This is not about asylum but targeted immigration to fill gaps in the labor market."

Watch video 06:51 The pandemic and migrant labor

How can Germany fix the problem of labor shortages?

Last year, the number of foreign nationals living in Germany — a country of 83 million — rose by 204,000, the smallest increase in a decade. The problem has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, which drastically reduced the number of immigrants entering the labor force.

Scheele said that beyond training low-skilled workers, retraining those whose professions have disappeared, or forcing people to work longer, the only way to master the situation will be to significantly increase immigration.

According to Germany's Federal Statistical Office, applications for recognition of foreign professional qualifications fell 3% last year, to 42,000.

Although the federal government reformed that process in March 2020, Johannes Vogel, labor policy spokesman for the neoliberal FDP's parliamentary caucus, criticized the current governing coalition of center-right CDU/CSU and social democratic SPD, saying their "paltry Skilled Immigration Act" has not come close to doing what it promised.

"We must finally become better in the global competition to attract talent — and to do so, we need a modern, points-based immigration system like Canada and New Zealand have long had."

Watch video 03:37 A labor dispute in Germany's meat industry

Anti-immigrant attitudes won't work

The Federation of German Trade Unions (DGB) has also called on lawmakers to create faster and more reliable nationwide standards that will allow those immigrants with the legal status of "Dulding," or tolerated, as well as those in the country on humanitarian grounds, to enter the workforce and attain longterm employment perspectives.

The anti-immigrant, far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) labeled the Labor Agency chairman's calls an "incomprehensible demand," accusing him of serving what it said were the interests of companies using immigration to drive down wages for German laborers.

Asked about political resistance to the idea of increasing the number of immigrants in Germany, Scheele told the SZ, "You can stand up and say, 'We don't want foreigners,' but that doesn't work."

Watch video 05:02 Germany’s exploited eastern European workforce

js/wmr (AP, dpa)

 

Climate change is accelerating, according to comprehensive study

by University of Hawaii at Manoa

Ocean temperature (blue=cold, red=warm) simulated at ultra-high resolution. 

Credit: IBS/ICCP‘s Aleph

Climate change is happening and accelerating. Earth will continue to warm. And these changes are unequivocally caused by human activities. Those are among the conclusions of the report published by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), with University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Assistant Professor of oceanography Malte Stuecker as a contributing author.

"The latest IPCC report shows clearly that if we do not drastically curb our emissions, we will head towards temperatures that Earth has not seen in millions of years," Stuecker summarizes. "Moreover, we can now say with certainty that all of the global warming that occurred since the mid-19th century is due to human activity. While these are sobering facts, we should certainly not despair. In fact, if societies choose a pathway of large reductions in greenhouse gas emissions now, the report also shows that we will avoid the worst possible future outcomes and Earth will experience only moderate additional warming over this century that we can likely adapt to."

In addition to global warming, regional climate in many parts of the world is impacted by the cycling between warm El Niño and cold La Niña conditions in the eastern Pacific Ocean—commonly referred to as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). ENSO—has persisted without major interruptions for thousands to millions of years. This may also change in a future warmer world, though the recent IPCC report highlights uncertainties in potential changes in ENSO.

Two additional studies

Continuing the long tradition of contributing to developing theories and advancing climate models around ENSO, researchers from the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) recently published two additional studies addressing the complexity of this most important climate phenomenon.

SOEST atmospheric scientists, Associate Professor Christina Karamperidou and Professor Fei-Fei Jin, and Stuecker co-authored a review paper published in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment wherein they synthesized recent advancements in research on ENSO.

There is an emerging consensus among simulations of future climate under strong greenhouse gas emissions with the most recent generation of climate models that the variability of future ENSO sea surface temperature may increase as the climate warms.

"There is however still much uncertainty on the degree to which ENSO may change and the time at which these potential changes will emerge from ENSO's natural variability," said Karamperidou. "This is partly due to incomplete understanding of the phenomenon, partly due to known limitations of models in representing and resolving relevant processes, and partly due to the inherent limitations on our understanding imposed by the short length of the instrumental record."

Additionally, led by researchers at the IBS Center for Climate Physics in Korea, Stuecker co-authored another study published in Nature Climate Change that produced a series of global climate model simulations with unprecedented spatial resolution. Boosted by the power of one of South Korea's fastest supercomputers (Aleph), the new ultra-high-resolution simulations realistically represented processes that are usually missing from other models, though they play fundamental roles in the generation and termination of El Niño and La Niña events.

"From this highest resolution future climate model simulation that has been done to date, we conclude that it's possible that ENSO variability could collapse under strong greenhouse warming in the future," said Stuecker.

Further investigation is needed

This apparent contradiction in findings raises many interesting questions and highlights the need for further investigation.

"Regardless of the details of how El Niño changes in the future, rainfall and drought will become more extreme in the future due to the fact that we will be living in a warmer world with a hydrological cycle on steroids," said Stuecker.

"Despite the spread of model projections on how ENSO may change under strong anthropogenic forcing, both the IPCC report and the Nature Reviews article demonstrate that its impacts on rainfall are very likely to be enhanced which has significant implications across the globe and the Pacific, including Hawaiʻi," said Karamperidou.Fewer El Niño and La Niña events in a warmer world

More information: Wenju Cai et al, Changing El Niño–Southern Oscillation in a warming climate, Nature Reviews Earth & Environment (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s43017-021-00199-z

Wengel, C et al. Future high-resolution El Niño/Southern Oscillation dynamics. Nat. Clim. Chang. (2021). doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01132-4

Journal information: Nature Climate Change 

Provided by University of Hawaii at Manoa