Shanghai lockdown: The hard life of a homeless deliveryman

Image caption,

Delivery riders have been essential in ensuring Shanghai residents receive food and other supplies

Weeks into a strict lockdown, most of Shanghai's 25 million population continue to rely on delivery riders to bring them food and supplies. But this largely invisible workforce of 20,000 faces a lack of shelter and safety. Two delivery riders tell the BBC their stories.

I've been so busy. So many people need supplies. I make deliveries all day long, then when it's approaching midnight, I look for a place to sleep.

I left my apartment on 8 April and haven't been back since. The Shanghai government allows delivery riders to leave and enter their residential compounds. But the compounds insist on enforcing their own policies, and most don't allow riders to return to their own homes. There are hotels that are open, but not many are open to us.

There was a tent in front of my compound. You know, those blue ones set up for Covid testing. When I left home, the compound managers asked me to help them buy supplies and in exchange they offered me the blue tent to sleep at night. I left all my stuff in there.

But one day the tent was gone. I couldn't find my stuff. The managers said it wasn't their business. Security guards there said they didn't know where my stuff went.

So I had to look for a new place to sleep. Sleeping under a bridge just comes naturally to us delivery riders - it can block out the wind and rain. I usually fall asleep immediately after lying down - I feel so tired by then!

One day I forgot to pay attention to the weather forecast. It was raining heavily and all the space under the bridge had been taken. I found an ATM room to sleep. It was quite a good place, no-one else was around. My only hope was that the police wouldn't show up and kick me out.

But after two nights there, around 2am, policemen on patrol saw me and chased me away. They said I should go to a homeless shelter. But I've tried and it's not open. Nobody was there, not even security guards.

IMAGE SOURCE,SUPPLIED TO THE BBC

Image caption,

One deliveryman the BBC spoke to sought refuge in this ATM room

In the beginning I survived on dry instant noodles. Later a group of delivery riders found a restaurant that opened secretly and now we go there to buy takeaways. The police usually just ignore it. We do need a place to eat, right? Some shops also have an outdoor space where there are electrical sockets. We sneak over to charge our phones.

There was a story going round that a delivery rider died on the streets after getting into a crash. Of course I worry that will happen to me too. But I've been very careful. I always go very slow. If I get into an accident in a remote area, it would be extremely dangerous. The biggest problem is if your scooter breaks down and there is no place to fix it. You can't work any more.

Many people saw news reports saying delivery riders can earn up to 10,000 yuan per day ($1,500; £1,200). Since then many have asked me how to become one. My advice is usually: "Don't become a rider."

In Shanghai, the pay we earn as riders is quite all right. But most riders only earn a few hundred yuan a day. And I don't think everyone can put up with such hardship, such living and working conditions.

But you know, if we weren't doing this, we wouldn't have any income either while under lockdown. That's stressful.

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

Image caption,

The streets of Shanghai have been mostly empty during the lockdown, apart from delivery riders

I was born in 1999 in Anhui province. When I graduated from high school, I couldn't get into a good university. The tuition fees were too expensive for my family. I was so young and had no idea what I could do. My mum suggested I join my cousin in Shanghai. At least I wouldn't be left with no place to sleep and no food to eat.

So I came to Shanghai and worked with my cousin to sell computers. That lasted about two years. Business went down during Covid so I started to look for a new job. I had no place to live back then. I found a shared rental with another rider. It seemed like he was earning a lot. I said: "Brother, could you help me become a rider, too?" So about half a year ago I became one.

People told me Shanghai is a developed city, better than my hometown. Now even my family is asking me to go home. They've all heard about the situation here. It's unimaginable that people can starve in Shanghai nowadays.

But it's not like I'm starving or anything. I'm from the countryside, I slept in a cowshed when I was a child. I'll be fine.

I used to earn on average 4.5 yuan per order. But I don't take these orders anymore, nobody does, it's too low. These days I take orders privately from my clients, through chat groups. I can earn around 1,000 yuan a day.

I see larger residential compounds doing group buys of food, but smaller compounds with just a dozen residents have nothing. It's so hard to get people to deliver things to them, it's also hard to order supplies in the first place. Many elderly people also don't know how to do group buys.

Orders with small quantities of food won't get delivered now. Fruit shops won't sell individual pieces of fruit any more - you have to buy in bulk now. If someone wants 20 yuan worth of vegetables, I'll end up spending half a day looking for that and get nothing, as only bulk vegetable packages are available and each costs over 100 yuan.

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

Image caption,

Many Shanghai residents have been doing group purchases of food in bulk, which they then split among themselves

Now we have no food and no water, and sleep on the streets. I know at least 40 riders in the same situation as me. There are delivery riders who work for companies which provide hotel rooms for them. But there are those who take online orders from customers, like us, and the local government has done nothing to help us find a place to stay.

My residential compound won't let me back in, they say it's likely I'll bring the virus back. I can't go home even if I test negative for Covid. I've been going to hospitals to get tested every day. I'm afraid of getting Covid - all the riders are afraid of it.

So I just find a place to sleep outside. My feet stink so bad you can smell them from a distance! I'll shower eventually, maybe after the lockdown lifts.

IMAGE SOURCE,SUPPLIED TO THE BBC

Image caption,

A deliveryman sent the BBC this image of the place he was sleeping that night

What's the point of resting at home anyway? The first week of the lockdown, I only got two cabbages. The second week I only received a box of medicine. Who can survive on that? What do I eat? It's better to be outside - at least I can still find some food.

Delivering food is better than working in a factory. I've worked in a few in Shenzhen, earning only 200 yuan per day, working 12 hours a day. Delivery riders have better income and more freedom. How much you earn depends on how much effort you put in.

My family has been asking me to come back. But how can I get out now? People even got chased back into the city after driving out to the highway.

I'm just waiting for the lockdown to be lifted. I'll leave then. I don't know how much longer I can hold on for.

I'm so done with Shanghai. Once I leave, I'll never come back.

Interviews edited by Tessa Wong.

Former Spymaster Pulls the Strings of Turkey's Far-Rght MHP, an Ally of the Erdoğan Government

by Abdullah Bozkurt
Nordic Monitor
May 9, 2022

Former Turkish intelligence spymaster Şenkal Atasagun is the mastermind behind Turkey's anti-Western Nationalist Movement Party.

The mastermind behind Turkey's far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which drives an anti-Western agenda in close cooperation with the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has turned out to be Şenkal Atasagun, a former spymaster who ran Turkish intelligence agency MIT for years.

Atasagun, who retired from MIT in June 2005, has been working as the chief advisor to MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli for over a decade now, helping shape the policies of the racist party and framing the narrative and talking points put forward by party leadership. Working in the shadows and barely seen in public for years, Atasagun has played a key role in the radical shift in the Erdoğan government's policies at home and abroad.

His partners in the government are Mehmet Ağar, a former interior minister who is effectively in charge of the police department, and Süleyman Soylu, the current interior minister. The three have been enriching themselves through cuts and kickbacks they get from various criminal enterprises, ranging from drug cartels to organized crime syndicates.

The former intelligence chief has enlisted the help of notorious mafia figures whom he had used as operatives when he was with MIT in the 1980s and '90s. The most notorious figure Atasagun brought to the team was Alaattin Çakıcı, a far-right-linked gangster and hit man who was used by MIT to conduct clandestine operations in Turkey and abroad. Atasagun secured his release from prison through the MHP's influence with the Erdoğan government despite the fact that he was convicted on multiple charges and had been serving a lengthy prison sentence.

Çakıcı, held accountable for the deaths of 41 people, was put in charge of all mafia groups to maintain a climate of fear against opposition and government-critical groups so that Atasagun and his partners in crime in the government could act with impunity and free of public scrutiny. The mobster has been issuing threatening messages to government critics in support of the government.

On November 17, 2020 Çakıcı threatened Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in a handwritten statement released on Twitter. Insulting the politician as an "ignorant informant who serves traitors like a dog," the mafia leader vowed to punish Kılıçdaroğlu with impalement. He defended MHP Chairman Bahçeli as his respected elder and took offense at Kılıçdaroğlu's criticism of the MHP leader.

The enlisting of Çakıcı as an intelligence asset was first done by Atasagun when he was deputy director of MIT's Istanbul branch. When Atasagun became the chief of the intelligence agency on February 16, 1998, he tasked Çakıcı with carrying out an assassination in Europe and gave him a diplomatic passport, issued by the Foreign Ministry for undercover MIT officials. The operation was foiled when he was captured and his links to MIT were exposed by the French police.

Atasagun's background is murky. He suppressed an investigation into nationalist networks after famous assassin Mehmet Ali Ağca shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 and killed famous Turkish journalist Abdi İpekçi in 1979. When he was asked by Korkut Eken, a former officer in the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) Special Operations Department, if MIT was interested in investigating Ağca's connections, Atasagun, who was then deputy director of MIT's Istanbul office, said the agency had no interest in it.

His recruitment by MIT in 1967 was accomplished with help from his father and former general Şahap Atasagun. He had worked in various departments, run covert operations and intelligence-gathering activities and specialized in counterintelligence. He served on assignment in Brussels and London.

The track record of Atasagun as an intelligence official is covered with trail of blood. He was reportedly an important player in the Turkish Resistance Organization (Türk Mukavemet Teşkilatı, TMT), a paramilitary group set up in Cyprus with support from the Turkish government. The group was involved in extrajudicial killings including false flag murders of Turks to blame Greek Cypriots.

He sanctioned operations that led to the killing of innocent people including Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist who was shot dead by an ultranationalist teenager in broad daylight on January 19, 2007. Atasagun was the man behind an intimidation campaign targeting the journalist that eventually resulted in his death.

Dink published a news story about Sabiha Gökçen — the adopted daughter of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and Turkey's first female pilot — in his newspaper that suggested Gökçen could be one of the thousands of Armenians who were orphaned in 1915 when Armenians faced a forced displacement that led to many deaths. Furious about the article, Atasagun sent his men to scare the journalist.

In a private meeting held on February 24, 2006 in the İstanbul Governor's Office building, under orders from Atasagun, Özel Yılmaz, deputy regional director of MİT in İstanbul, and Handan Selçuk, another MİT agent, threatened Dink. They warned the journalist about "possible danger if [he] continues to make controversial statements." Less than a year later, Dink was assassinated.

After his retirement in 2005, Atasagun worked as an advisor to the Black Hawk Security firm, a US-based company that was established by Turks to provide what company officials claimed was security in Turkey and Iraq, especially in border areas. The company's partners included former Turkish general Köksal Karabay, former governor Cemil Serhatlı, former consul general Mehmet Nuri Ezen, attorney Günay Hakkı Övünç and several Turkish businessman.

Using political cover provided by the government, Atasagun today continues to resort to violence and commit crimes with zero accountability. Attacks on several journalists who criticized the MHP leader were believed to have been orchestrated by Atasagun, who used mafia figures to suppress critical coverage of Bahçeli. The fact that the assailants were let go after each attack with a slap on the wrist confirms that they were protected by the government.

The former spymaster is afraid that he would fall from grace and be held to account if Bahçeli fails and needs to ensure the MHP leader's survival in politics. The partnership with the Erdoğan government is key in this scheme, and he has insured that the MHP stands by the Erdoğan government despite apparent conflicts in some cases between what the MHP preaches and what the Erdoğan government does.

Rumors in Ankara circles suggesting that Bahçeli has in fact been an MIT employee for decades have gained more credence in the face of close collaboration between him and Atasagun. Alpaslan Türkeş, founder of the MHP, knew Bahçeli, an academic and member of the party, was linked to MIT and even wrote a letter from his hospital bed telling his colleagues to keep Bahçeli away from the party because he was working in intelligence.

Yaşar Okuyan, a former government minister and Türkeş's right-hand man, said several times that he has the original letter and claims Bahçeli was assigned by MIT as a "trustee" to control the MHP. He dared Bahçeli to to sue him for defamation so that the letter could be verified by the court. Despite the serious allegations, Bahçeli never sued Okuyan for his claims of connections to MIT.

Alpaslan Türkeş's letter stating that Devlet Bahçeli worked for the intelligence agency:

Putin Referenda In All Russian Speaking Parts Of Ukraine To Create Peoples Republics Loyal To Moscow – OpEd

By Paul Goble

Many are asking what and how Vladimir Putin hopes to achieve in Ukraine, Mikhail Rostovsky says; but the answers are clear from his actions in 2014, his own comments as long ago as 2018, and the statements of some of his political loyalists in recent days, Mikhail Rostovsky says.
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The Kremlin leader wants to create peoples republics as he did in 2014, he sees this as a way of destroying a united Ukrainian state that the West could use against Russia, and he wants to organize referenda as soon as the guns fall silent in particular regions to achieve that end, the Moskovsky komsomolets commentator says (mk.ru/politics/2022/04/21/s-planov-putina-spolzla-zavesa-tayny-ukrainu-pokroshat-referendumami.html).

As a result of this policy, Rostovsky says, “the number of ‘peoples republics’ can be significantly increased,” although there is a limit, he suggests. “No one in Moscow will want to make a second attempt to ‘re-educate’” Ukrainian speakers in the western oblasts of Ukraine who have shown themselves recalcitrant to all such attempts.

Rostovsky says that at present, of course, this is only one possible scenario for Putin’s actions; but a survey of what the Russian military authorities and the other agencies of Russian power following behind them are doing in areas where the Ukrainian army has been forced out at least for the present provides strong support for his contention.

The Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry reports that “the Russian military are preparing a number of pseudo-referenda” to attempt to legitimize their occupation

 (facebook.com/DefenceIntelligenceofUkraine/posts/295027096142051 and graniru.org/Politics/World/Europe/Ukraine/m.285015.html).

According to the ministry, propaganda materials and ballots for such a pseudo-referendum are already being prepared in Kherson. Residents there are convinced that no real voting will occur. The Russian occupiers will limit themselves, they believe, to staged voting in order to make points in Russia and in the international community.

AFRICA
Family of 'Hotel Rwanda' hero sues Rwandan government for kidnapping and torture


DUSTIN JONES

NPR

Paul Rusesabagina, pictured in 2012, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on terrorism charges last September in Rwanda. His family is suing Rwanda for $400 million for kidnapping, torture and unlawful imprisonment.

Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images

Paul Rusesabagina, the man portrayed in the film Hotel Rwanda who saved more than 1,200 people during the nation's 1994 genocide, has been detained in Rwanda for 20 months on terrorism charges that human rights groups call a sham. Now his family is suing the government of Rwanda for $400 million, saying he has been abducted, tortured and illegally imprisoned.

The Rwandan government abducted Rusesabagina, 67, in August 2020 in Dubai. This past September, a Rwandan court sentenced him to 25 years in prison. Rusesabagina is a U.S. permanent resident and holds Belgian citizenship.

"The Rwandan government has openly admitted that it planned an elaborate operation inside the United States to track Paul Rusesabagina and use its agents to trick him into traveling — with false promises of contractual work in Burundi— from his home in the United States to Rwanda," lawyers for the family say in court documents. "He was drugged and taken to Rwanda where President Paul Kagame's security agents forcibly abducted him, tortured him, and forced him into illegal imprisonment."

Rusesabagina has been a harsh critic of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, accusing the president of war crimes and human rights violations. The family says the government targeted him in response.

Rusesabagina is best known for his heroism in 1994 as the manager of the Hôtel des Mille Collines in Kigali, chronicled in the Hollywood film Hotel Rwanda. He gave safe haven to over 1,200 people during extermination efforts that claimed some 800,000 lives.

He received multiple humanitarian awards, including the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush in 2005.

AFRICA

As the war in Ukraine continues, a look back at the 1994 Rwandan genocide

In the late 2000s, Rusesabagina and his wife, Taciana, moved to the United States, settling down as legal residents in San Antonio, Texas. But the Rwandan government spent years trailing, spying on and harassing Rusesabagina and his family, the family's lawyers say.

On Aug. 27, 2020, Rusesabagina was traveling from the U.S. to Burundi for contractual work. But his family said he went missing during a layover in the United Arab Emirates. The Rwanda Investigation Bureau announced four days later that they had captured Rusesabagina, who they accused of being involved in terrorism.

Rusesabagina co-founded the opposition Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change, which has an armed wing called the National Liberation Forces. The NLF has claimed responsibility for multiple deadly attacks in Rwanda's Southern Province in recent years, according to Human Rights Watch.

Rusesabagina was convincted on charges related to those attacks and was sentenced to 25 years in prison in September 2021.

Human Rights Watch called the trial "flawed" and "emblematic of the government's overreach and manipulation of the justice system." The U.S. State Department said it was "concerned" about Rusesabagina's "lack of confidential, unimpeded access to his lawyers and relevant case documents and his initial lack of access to counsel."

Booker blasts Vilsack’s food justice efforts

• Hans Nichols, author of Axios Sneak Peek

Sen. Cory Booker. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) had a tense back-and-forth with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack during a closed-door lunch last Thursday over the Biden administration’s efforts to address nutrition in minority communities, people familiar with the matter tell Axios.

Why it matters: The heated exchange, which left some senators stunned, is an indication Booker — who, like Joe Biden, ran for president in 2020 — isn’t going to be shy about challenging Biden officials on issues about which he feels strongly.

• The confrontation also reflects a level of frustration some Democrats have with the administration's efforts to address food deserts and the prevalence of junk food in inner cities, tribal lands and rural America.
• "Sen. Booker appreciated the opportunity for a robust discussion with Secretary Vilsack and looks forward to continuing his work with the administration on these critical issues,” Maya Krishna-Rogers, Booker's press secretary, told Axios.
• “Sen. Booker believes that access to affordable, nutritious food should not be dictated by your race, income or ZIP Code," she said. "He also knows that corporate agriculture consolidation is driving small farmers and ranchers out of business while pushing prices up for American families."
• A Vilsack spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Driving the news: Vilsack, a close Biden confidant and former Iowa governor, was invited to the weekly Democratic Policy and Communications Committee lunch.

The discussion was largely focused on corporate consolidation in the agriculture industry and how Democrats can improve their appeal in rural communities.

• Booker, a passionate vegan, appeared to catch Vilsack off-guard when he questioned what the department was doing to reform agribusiness and help provide healthier food to poorer Americans.
• Vilsack responded, in part, that consumers sometimes prefer unhealthier foods — triggering an even stronger response from Booker.
• Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who chairs the DPCC, tried to calm the tensions, but the meeting ended without Booker and Vilsack resolving their differences.

Go deeper: Booker, who chairs the Agriculture Subcommittee on Food and Nutrition, Specialty Crops, Organics and Research, has made access to quality food a signature issue.

• “Too many Americans are overfed but undernourished,” he said during a subcommittee hearing last November.
• “Despite being the wealthiest nation in the world, we have created a food system that relentlessly encourages the overeating of empty calories.”
• “The risk of diabetes, for example, is 77% higher for Black people in America,” he said. “And, we are twice as likely to die from diabetes.”