Peter Obi's 'Obidient' movement ignites Nigeria's youth

Young Nigerians, who say they have grown tired of older politicians, are mobilizing behind a candidate they consider more youthful and who promises real solutions to their problems. DW takes a closer look at Peter Obi.



Peter Obi is challenging the long dominance of Nigeria's ruling APC and main opposition PDP

The presidential election campaign in Nigeria has been in full swing since the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) revealed its timetable last month.

Eighteen presidential hopefuls — including one woman — are in the running to lead Africa's most populous nation. Nigeria will head to the polls to pick its next president on February 25, 2023.
Who are the main candidates?

According to some analysts, the three leading contenders to succeed Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari are Ahmed Tinubu (70), a former governor of Lagos state and the candidate of the governing All Progressive Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar (75), a former vice president who is running for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party's (PDP), and the Labour Party's (LP) candidate Peter Obi.

At 61, Peter Obi is the youngest of the three and currently the most popular. Young Nigerians are calling for a new era and seem poised to demonstrate that, with 71% of those who completed their voter registration aged between 18 and 34, according to Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

A recent poll conducted by Bloomberg revealed that 72% of "decided voters'' said they would support Peter Obi in the elections.

 

Obi's supporters who call themselves 'Obidients' say he offers an alternative to the 'old-guard' candidates

Who is Peter Obi?

Obi is a businessman and former governor, who ran for vice president in the last election.

He is known for his frugal spending, transforming the educational and business sectors during his stint as state governor, and his open and accessible leadership style.

However, his Labour Party does not have such a great reach across Nigeria's 36 states — despite the frenzy surrounding his campaign so far.
The 'Obidient' movement

DW spoke with Anthony Abakporo, a street pastor, who has for some time now focused his preaching on Obi out of desperation for a change in Nigeria.

"Things are very bad," he said. "The roads […] schools are not good as we speak right now. Everything that has to do with the welfare of humanity is bad."

Abakporo said he was willing to join other young people in an effort to support Obi. "We are going to put in our resources, we're going to put in our money, we're going to put in our time to ensure that he gets there for the new Nigeria. We can't continue like this," he said.

Peter Obi's support base is now so strong across the country that it has now been termed a movement.

The "Obidient" movement, as it has been termed by many, started with young people who are considered very strong-willed, independent-minded and contemptuous of older politicians who they say have done nothing for them.

"We the youths — we're not moved by the temptation to collect bribes or money in order to forfeit our destiny again for another four years," one young person told DW.

Another young voter told DW that "anybody that can do the job that can take Nigeria forward is what we need right now."

Many analysts believe that the "Obidient" movement is a continuation of the EndSars protests of 2020 — when thousands of young people took to the streets demanding an end to the SARS police unit which was notorious for assaulting, extorting, and killing innocent people.

Just like #EndSars activism, the "Obidient" movement is decentralized, community funded and has no clear leader.

It's organized by multiple small groups who have the common goal of unseating the establishment. Using Obi as a channel to air their hopes and vent their anger, young people have been campaigning online and holding peace walks across Nigeria.

In a report, the civil society group Centre for Democracy and Development said that money would "continue to play a huge role in determining who emerges the winner if the presidential primaries and recent gubernatorial elections offer any lesson."

"Online campaigns will be more fiercely fought than ever, with attacks aimed at boosting candidates, attacking opponents and undermining INEC likely to be accentuated in social media in the run-up to, during and even after voting," the report noted.
A statement from the youth

Around 95 million voters are expected to participate in the February election, according to INEC's projections.

Security and the economy are major issues for the more than 200 million citizens of Nigeria.

The West African nation is also battling an insurgency by Islamic extremists in the northeast, as well as armed violence that is spreading across parts of the northwestern and southeastern regions.

Preacher Anthony Abakporo said he considers the enthusiasm around Peter Obi as a statement from the Nigerian youth that they want real solutions to their problems.

"We are tired. Since we were born, we've never seen anything work. So, we feel like it has been their turn all along, they've done their own, it's Nigeria's turn. It's not Igbo, it's not Yoruba, it's not Hausa ... it's beyond the tribe," he said.

Young people like Abakporo are ditching the two strongest parties in the country and rallying behind Peter Obi but some critics say that Obi's following is only an internet movement that will not translate to votes in 2023.

However, it's clear that his support has already transcended beyond social media. With the "Obidient" movement on the rise many believe the old political guard could be in for a rude awakening.

Edited by: Keith Walker

 

'ART IS A SOFT POWER'
Stella Gaitano
Born in Sudan in 1979, the author writes mainly about war, escape and displacement, but also about great expectations and hopes for her native country. In early 2022, she fled to Germany with the help of the PEN writers' association. Art is a living thing that needs space to be freely expressed, accepted and supported, Gaitano says.
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'The Obidients' call for change in Nigeria

The Escape Diaries: Collins Xavier

Date 12.10.2022

China Communist Party Congress: Here's what to expect

At a key twice-a-decade conclave, President Xi Jinping is set to secure a precedent-busting third term and surround himself with more loyalists as part of a major leadership reshuffle.

There will be a major reshuffle at the upper echelons of the Chinese leadership 

during the conclave

Chinese President Xi Jinping is widely expected to secure a precedent-defying third term at the 20th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which will kick off on Sunday.   

Getting a third term would cement Xi's position as arguably the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong.

Despite a slowing economy and rising geopolitical tensions with the West, there appears no strong discontent over Xi's policies within the party.

At a final meeting of top leaders before the congress — known as the seventh plenum — the party's Central Committee praised the "unusual and extraordinary" accomplishments made over the past five years, reflecting Xi's strong grip over the CCP.

It also approved the policy report Xi will deliver at the start of the conclave, which will set out the party's policy priorities in all key areas for the next five years. 

In a rare display of disapproval, however, earlier this week a banner was unfurled on Sitong Bridge in the Chinese capital's Haidian district, brandishing the words: "We need food, not COVID tests. We want freedom, not lockdowns," in reference to China's strict zero-COVID policy.

"We want dignity, not lies. We need reform, no cultural revolution," the white banner continued in red letters. "We want to vote, not a leader. Don't be slaves, be citizens."

Teng Biao, a Chinese legal scholar based in the United States, described it as "a very brave move."

"On the eve of the Twentieth Party Congress, it was particularly shocking to see slogans against Xi Jinping's dictatorship. Although this will not change the political situation in China, it is a very symbolic move."

A destabilizing effect on the party?

Wu-Ueh Chang, professor at the Graduate Institute of China Studies at Tamkang University in Taiwan, believes Xi will certainly secure a third term.

"The reason why Xi will definitely get his third term is that he removed the presidential term limit in 2018 and he has not designated a successor who fits the criteria as the next general secretary of the CCP," Chang said.

There are, however, concerns that Xi's efforts to extend his term or remain in power indefinitely could have a destabilizing effect on the party.

It could jeopardize the established procedure of transfer of power and aggravate the risk of intraparty power struggles.

"Previously, I argued that if the CCP can have an orderly succession, in which every leader serves two terms and a successor is designated in advance, they could reduce the risk of power struggles," said Andrew Nathan, a professor of political science at Columbia University in the US.

"As Xi is about to take a third term, this destabilizes the succession system. If something happens while he is in office, there is the risk of an irregular succession which would be a power struggle." 

Apart from abolishing longstanding traditions, Xi has also been centralizing power around him over the last decade.

Patricia Thornton, an associate professor of Chinese politics at Oxford University, said that when Xi first came to power in 2012 there was a consensus within the CCP that it needed to be much more assertive to "correct the less disciplined and corruption-ridden party."

"From the very beginning, he embarked on a trajectory with the consensus of the top party leadership," she said.

"But Xi has managed to use a crisis and the framing of the crisis in order to advance a leadership agenda that has really managed to centralize quite a bit of power in his own hands."

Internet censors quickly scrubbed social media posts after reports of

 critical banners being hung from the Sitong Bridge

Overconcentration of power around Xi

Thornton pointed to the anti-corruption campaign Xi launched after taking power in 2012. The yearslong crackdown, which has ensnared more than 4.7 million party officials, allowed the Chinese leader to remake the party leadership and place those loyal to him in key positions.

"Many people who studied the anti-corruption campaign have concluded that half of his targets appear to be politically motivated," she said.

Xi also implemented a series of ideological, institutional and organizational changes that led to the concentration of even more power around him. 

"One of the real dangers that we are beginning to see is the over-centralization of power. By consolidating so much power and control at the top of the Chinese Communist Party, there has been a chilling effect within the party," said Thornton.

Teng, the Chinese legal scholar, echoed this view. "Xi has turned the party from a collective dictatorship to a personalist dictatorship," he said.

What else to expect during the party congress?

There will be a major leadership reshuffle at the congress, with several members of the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee — the CCP's most powerful organ — expected to step down. 

As Premier Li Keqiang is set to retire in March 2023, the decision on who will replace him as the nation's second-highest ranking official will be keenly watched.

Potential successors include current Vice Premier Hu Chunhua and Wang Yang, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, currently the party's fourth-highest ranking official.

Wang Hsin-Hsien, an expert on Chinese politics at the National Chengchi University in Taiwan, believes the final decision will be dictated by Xi, and his preference as well as these individuals' political loyalty will be the key criteria.

"From that perspective, Wang Yang may be more suitable than Hu Chunhua as he has worked well with Xi over the last five years, successfully handling issues related to Taiwan, Xinjiang, Tibet, and the United Front Work Department," he said, referring to the division which works in overseas Chinese communities to promote China's political agenda.

Andrew Nathan from Columbia University said Xi will likely surround himself with more loyalists who don't have an independent power base to challenge him.

Will there be major policy changes?

Even though his hold on political power seems unchallenged, Xi has been facing mounting pressure over other issues, including a rapidly slowing economy, the government's crackdown on tech giants and the economic impact of the strict zero-COVID strategy.

In a report published by the Jamestown Foundation last month, Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for the Asia Pacific at the investment bank Natixis, predicted that China wouldn't be able to achieve the target of 5.5% economic growth for 2022.

As China signals its intention to stick to its contentious zero-COVID strategy, Garcia-Herrero said growth prospects will likely remain underwhelming in 2023.

"Because of a terrible 2022, China doesn't need to do much to grow faster in 2023, but the problems we are seeing will remain and probably get more acute in terms of the economic cost," she told DW.

Nathan said he doesn't expect big changes to China's domestic and foreign policies under Xi's third term. "I think it's pretty much continuing the mission, which is the 'China Dream' and that's what he is trying to do," he said.

"Some people say he will try to attack Taiwan within the next five years, but I don't think so. Will he change his COVID policy? I don't think he will."

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru

Photographer Dayanita Singh wins 2022 Hasselblad Award

She is the first photographer from South Asia to receive the prestigious award for "significant achievement" in photography. Her photos are also exceptional in the way they are presented.

Dayanita Singh's work is typically displayed in teak boxes

Named after Swedish camera developer and manufacturer Victor Hasselblad, the award recognizes photographers for "significant achievement." The 2022 prize was awarded to Indian photographic artist Dayanita Singh on October 14.  Awarded annually since 1982, the prestigious prize is endowed with 2 million Swedish kronor (about €182,000 or $177,000).

Singh has used a Hasselblad camera for decades. In fact, it has long since become a part of her body, the 61-year-old has said. For Singh, photography is a physical act, a dance with the camera.

Book objects and mobile museums

Singh uses mobile structures made of teak wood to present her photographs. The images are constantly rearranged and recombined in the exhibitions, allowing them to be experienced new ways in a given space. Her art always begins and ends with the physical experience.

Dayanita Singh's work is often rearranged in the spaces she exhibits it in

"Exhibitions have to be alive, because that's how I experience my work," she said. The artist is also known for carefully designed "artists' books," which she describes as portable museums.

New Delhi to New York and back

Born in New Delhi in 1961, Singh studied in Ahmedabad in India and at the International Center of Photography in New York City. Her career began in the 1980s. As a young photographer, she accompanied legendary tabla musician Zakir Hussain on concert tours. They remained friends. "I can't let go of the people I've photographed," Singh once said.

Dayanita Singh contributed to the German pavillion at the Venice Bienniale in 2013

She then began working as a photographer for the New York Times and The Times of London, among other publications. Many of her works center on her homeland, India, and portray the Indian middle and upper classes.

Images of life

"Through her extensive photographic oeuvre, Dayanita Singh has paved new ways to interact with photography. From a humanist approach to portraiture to a consistent interest in archive, her wide-spanning photography is innovatively presented in books and installations," the Hasselblad Foundation writes on its website. 

Joshua Chuang, Chair of the Hasselblad Award Jury 2022 mentioned Singh's "intuitive, multivalent approach to photography" as a way to "both record and re-animate the ineffable character of the human experience."

"In an increasingly virtual age, her practice is rooted in worldly physicality. Whether seen in a book, print, or self-contained wooden structures, her pictures engage the past and the present in a manner that is as textured, immediate, and unpredictable as life itself," Chuang added.

The Hasselblad Foundation Museum in Gothenburg will show an exhibition of works by the award winner from October 15, 2022 - January 22, 2023. In Germany, Villa Stuck in Munich presents the exhibition "Dancing with the Camera" from October 20, 2022 - March 19, 2023.

This article was edited by Sarah Hucal.

• Date 14.10.2022

U.S. imperialism targets China in Biden’s new national security strategy

October 13, 2022 BY C.J. ATKINS

President Joe Biden meets virtually from the Situation Room at the White House with China’s Xi Jinping, March 18, 2022, in Washington. In a new national security strategy document released Wednesday, the Biden administration laid out plans for a long Cold War with China.

 | The White House via AP

U.S. imperialism is gearing up for years—potentially decades—of confrontation with China and angling to keep Russia in a weakened position. President Joe Biden on Wednesday told the U.S. military and foreign policy establishment to focus on “outcompeting China and restraining Russia” in a new national security strategy document.

Upon taking office, every U.S. presidential administration issues its own national security strategy—the new commander-in-chief’s take on where the U.S. should aim its economic power and armed might. Biden’s declaration, which runs to 48 pages, was expected last December but was held over apparently to await the results of the anticipated Russian invasion of Ukraine.

With the ongoing war between Moscow and Kiev dominating headlines, Russia comes in for the kind of condemnation one would expect in a document like this one. Russia is relegated, however, to the category of an “acute threat” and not seen as a consequential danger to U.S. global dominance.

Instead, it is China on which Biden clearly paints the biggest target. “Russia and the PRC pose different challenges,” the president wrote in his introductory letter, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China. “The PRC is the only competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it.”

Essentially, the administration bemoans the fact that China has become economically developed, built an internationally competitive technology base, and established cooperative trade relations with many nations in the world, especially through its Belt and Road Initiative.

The return of U.S. troops to the Philippines has been one aspect of the encirclement of China under the ‘pivot to Asia’ strategy. Here, a U.S. Navy ship deploys amphibious assault vehicles with American and Philippine troops on board during a Joint U.S.-Philippine Military Exercise, April 11, 2019, northwest of Manila. | Bullit Marquez / AP

The “international order” China allegedly challenges is the global capitalist economy and military empire that the U.S. has controlled without challenge since the destruction of the Soviet Union over 30 years ago.

The main outlines of contemporary U.S. imperialist strategy have been apparent for some time, especially since the Obama administration’s “pivot to Asia.” It inaugurated the turn of U.S. attention away from the interventions in the Middle East that defined the years leading up to and following 9/11.

The shift toward pinning down China was declared in earnest by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2011, when she foretold the beginning of “America’s Pacific Century” in a seminal Foreign Policy article. “The future of politics,” Clinton wrote, “will be decided in Asia, not Afghanistan or Iraq.”

Tangible results of the pivot included the drawdown of the U.S. military’s wars in the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters, the regular deployment of U.S. warships to the Pacific waters near China, the return of U.S. troops to the Philippines, and the encirclement of China with a chain of air bases and naval ports. Chinese naval operations on and around islands in the South China Sea provided the rationale.

Donald Trump put his own aggressive spin on the turn against China, restricting trade and initiating a tariff war on Chinese-made goods. That was followed during the pandemic with the peddling of COVID conspiracy theories that encouraged anti-Asian racism and distracted from his government’s disastrous handling of the coronavirus.

The Biden Doctrine

Now, it’s Biden’s turn. Though his national security strategy is a direct evolution of earlier iterations, the Biden Doctrine is more calculated and explicit in setting the stage for a long Cold War.

The president asserts that China has “ambitions to create an enhanced sphere of influence” in its region. This is deemed inexcusable because the U.S. already views the Indo-Pacific area—like most areas of the world—as its own sphere of influence.

Biden broadcasts the complaints of a U.S. capitalist class long peeved that China won’t phase out socialism and open its major industries to further foreign control and privatization. The document condemns China for benefitting “from the openness of the international economy while limiting access to its domestic market.”

The next ten years will be the “decisive decade,” the strategy predicts, for blocking China “in the technological, economic, political, military, intelligence, and global governance domains.”

Strengthening NATO to restrain Russia is a supplemental focus of U.S. strategy. Here, U.S. armored military vehicles parade with NATO forces in Estonia a few hundred feet from the Russian border in February 2015. | Estonian Armed Forces

The timing of the new national security strategy’s release appears intended to accentuate the attacks on China already appearing in the mainstream media this week. The announcement of the new national security strategy comes just days before the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) opens in Beijing.

The most important political event in the Chinese political calendar, the congress will draft economic policy for the coming years, assess and possibly recommend changes to the country’s COVID-19 mitigation measures, and elect the party’s leadership.

Most predictions are that the new Central Committee chosen by the delegates will opt to renew party General Secretary Xi Jinping’s mandate for a third term, paving the way for his re-election as China’s president. The move would be a break with the recent convention of top Chinese party and state leaders retiring after two terms.

Biden’s accusation on Wednesday that China is plotting to become “the world’s leading power” on Wednesday adds to an avalanche of Western press coverage portraying Xi as a power-hungry dictator in the mold of Mao Zedong or Joseph Stalin. Joining in that narrative, the strategy document says that the U.S. has “profound differences with the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Government.”

Pitching U.S. policy as a struggle against authoritarianism, China’s (and Russia’s) “behavior” is characterized as “a challenge to international peace and stability.” They are said to be “waging or preparing for wars of aggression, actively undermining the democratic political processes of other countries, leveraging technology and supply chains for coercion and repression, and exporting an illiberal model of international order.”

While the document points to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine as an example, it also paints China with the same brush—a country that hasn’t been involved in armed conflict with another nation in over 40 years. The U.S.’ tolerance of its own autocratic allies, however—such as Saudi Arabia, which is never mentioned in the document—undermines the argument that promotion of democracy is American foreign policy’s overriding principle.

It is much more likely that Xi’s revival of Marxist ideology in China and his apparent determination to keep the country on the path toward socialism are the things earning the ire of the corporate press and the U.S. government—not concern about democracy within the CPC.

As mentioned, the war in Ukraine provides the convenient point for launching a broadside against Russia, and added to the list of offenses are its 2014 annexation of Crimea, military intervention in Syria, and interference in U.S. elections.

By funneling billions of dollars’ worth of weapons into Ukraine—a policy which the document pledges will continue indefinitely—the Biden administration takes credit for having made Russia’s war “a strategic failure.” It celebrates the fact that the U.S.-led NATO military alliance has been strengthened and expanded thanks to the war.

No mention is made of the long chain of events that foreshadowed the conflict, including the breaking of promises made at the end of the Cold War not to expand NATO, U.S. participation in the coup that replaced the Ukrainian government in 2014, the civil war that has raged in that country since then, and the ethnic oppression carried out in its eastern regions.

Also going unsaid is that the war might have ended in March when Ukraine and Russia were engaged in negotiations which Kiev was ordered to scuttle by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, allegedly at the behest of the Biden administration. Similarly, the profits that U.S. and other multinational oil and gas companies—along with weapons makers—have made from the war didn’t make the cut for the document’s final version.

Planning the next Cold War

To guarantee a U.S.-dominated order and contain China, the strategy envisions a number of specific steps. First up are major new investments in the already bloated U.S. war machine.

The 2022 U.S. defense budget broke records, coming in at over $838 billion, even more than Biden had requested from Congress. The U.S. spends more on armaments than the next nine major powers combined, and more than three times China. It maintains approximately 750 foreign military bases in more than 80 countries; China operates just five.

The president’s national security strategy will be followed in the coming weeks by the publication of the Pentagon’s own “national defense strategy,” which will make the case for diverting additional U.S. tax dollars toward military spending. Also expected soon is the U.S.’ “nuclear posture review,” a declaration of the Biden administration’s plans for upgrading the country’s nuclear weapons arsenal.

Second, traditional military alliances like NATO will be strengthened further, “particularly on the eastern flank.” Third, new arrangements along the lines of the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) nuclear submarine pact, which is aimed at keeping China hemmed in in the Pacific, will be promoted and expanded. The same will be true of regional agreements like the Indo-Pacific Quad.

In its essence, the Biden administration’s national security strategy is laser-focused on fortifying the encirclement of China that the U.S. has been working to achieve for the past several years. As a secondary goal, it envisions keeping Russia weak by sustaining the fighting in Ukraine and blockading the fragile Russian economy afterward

.

Regional alliances like the AUKUS nuclear submarine pact will also be enhanced and expanded.

 | U.S. Navy

As aggressive as the administration’s new Cold War tactics might seem, for some warhawks, they’re still not enough. Kori Schake, a director with the American Enterprise Institute—a right-wing think tank populated by capitalist ideologues—was critical of Biden’s strategy on Wednesday. She told the New York Times that the current military spending plan of the government “does not envision modernization” at the needed speed.

In a Times op-ed last month, she wrote that “the deficiency of the Biden administration’s strategy and its lack of foresight” are to blame for supposed Chinese advances. Schake claimed, “The [U.S.] ships, troop numbers, planes, and missile defenses in the Pacific are a poor match for China’s capability.”

So, the debate in Washington is between different shades of pro-Cold War opinion. Other than a handful of progressives in Congress, there are almost no voices urging détente, cooperation, or disarmament. The U.S. midterm elections are an opportunity to block the even more belligerent Republican caucus from controlling the military budget; but even if the Democrats hold on to power in 2022 and then in 2024, the unacceptable foreign policy status quo will carry on.

It all highlights the weakness of the organized peace movement and the urgent need for the democratic coalitions coming together to fight for progressive domestic policies to add a progressive foreign policy to their agendas. Every dollar spent on weapons is a dollar not spent on health care, education, jobs, housing, and infrastructure.


Related Stories:

> Stopping the new Cold War with China, before it’s too late

> Cooperation with China on climate but conflict elsewhere won’t work

> Dangerous seas: War danger escalates in the Pacific


CONTRIBUTOR

C.J. Atkins is the managing editor at People's World. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from York University in Toronto and has a research and teaching background in political economy and the politics and ideas of the American left. In addition to his work at People's World, C.J. currently serves as the Deputy Executive Director of ProudPolitics.

How German prisons have become a debt trap

• POVERTY IN GERMANY
  • How German prisons have become a debt trap
  • Germany's beleaguered middle class and the fear of social decline
  • German pilot project aims to educate children in poverty
  • A German priest in Cologne fights the poverty crisis
  • Germany: What poverty looks like in a rich country

Those who go into prison with debts walk out with even more, they say. The rise in food prices has made life particularly tough for prisoners, making reoffending more likely.

German prisoners have been particularly hard hit by inflation

There are about 45,000 people in correctional facilities in Germany, and they have been particularly hard hit by inflation.

Inmates can't check out special offers at the supermarket to get the latest bargains on bread, margarine, or sunflower oil. Nor can they go to one of the 1,000 food banks in this country, where people in poverty can get free food.

All they can do is tick off a list every week of the products they would like to buy — in addition to the free basic supplies — at prices that are far higher than on the "outside."

One company supplies almost all 160 prisons in Germany and whereas a bottle of mineral water can cost 19 euro cents (18.4 US cents) at a discounter, prisoners pay 34 cents — a markup of almost 80%.

Not on the political agenda

Unsurprisingly, very few people in Germany stand up for the interests of prisoners or warn of the serious consequences of inflation for this virtually forgotten group.

Juliane Nagel, a member of the Left Party in Saxony's state parliament, is one of those who does.

"The far too low rate of pay for working prisoners must finally be increased," she told DW. "Approximately 2,000 of the 3,500 prisoners in Saxony's correctional facilities are engaged in gainful employment, receiving a pittance of no more than €2.15 per hour for it, and yet they are not even included in the state pension insurance system."

Most prisoners work — in fact, they are actually required to do so in 12 of Germany's 16 states. They work in kitchens, in carpentry workshops or screw together components for locksmiths. And they earn between €1 and €3 an hour doing so.

Prisoners have to work in 12 of Germany's 16 states, for a quarter of the minimum wage or less

The value of work

The idea is to teach inmates "the value of regular work for a life free of punishment." That's officialese for rehabilitation, meaning preparation for life outside jail, because working prisoners are not legally considered employees.

Many prisoners, on the other hand, see it as a sign that "honest work" is not worthwhile. The little money they do earn goes on personal hygiene products such as deodorant, shampoo, and razors, or telephone calls. Or they buy extras like fruit, yogurt and mineral water.

In the past, it was almost impossible to save anything in prison. Today, with inflation, it has become virtually hopeless.

Prisoners have now filed a lawsuit demanding adequate pay based on the minimum wage and for fairer food prices. Even before the war in Ukraine, prison prices were higher than in supermarkets, even though facilities are obliged to enable prisoners to buy food at standard market rates.

Rehabilitation or exploitation?

Manuel Matzke spent years ticking the lists to order extra food. He turned over every cent to somehow get to the end of the month and knows the pressures on prisoners like no other.

He served several years in prison in Saxony for financial fraud and is now the federal spokesperson for the Prisoners' Union association.

"We have a very tough exploitation of prisoners when they are in work," he told DW "The pay for the products of daily life in a correctional facility are beyond good and evil. The hashtag #ichbinarmutsbetroffen ["I am affected by poverty"] could definitely be signed by prisoners in Germany."

Matzke is also familiar with the counter-arguments: The costs of the correctional system are high; prisoners do not have to pay for clothing, basic meals and housing; and prisons don't make a profit from the inmates' work.

But Matzke won't let that stand: "Prisoners are even worse off than welfare recipients, even though they are always told that everything is handed to them on a plate," he said. "They want to pay alimony, settle debts, and compensate victims. But none of that is feasible for them. We have price increases in prisons due to inflation, but prisoners' renumeration has not increased. That's an injustice that can't be communicated."

Former prisoner Manuel Matzke is spokesman for the Prisoners' Union association

Plan for pensions

Many people are already in debt when they enter prison, and when they get out they have even more. What's more, prison work does not count toward a pension, so the specter of old-age poverty lurks behind the door to the outside world.

Experts believe that the lack of pension entitlement is one of the main reasons why prisoners who have been released reoffend — almost half of prisoners commit a crime again during their first three years of freedom.

However, a change in the law to include of prisoners in the state pension scheme is part of the current German government's coalition contract. It would be a long overdue step, said Matzke: "The debts of people who are in prison only increase more and more in prison. And even if you are released early, in most cases you have to have a criminal psychology medical assessment done, which costs you another €5,000 to €6,000. The bottom line is that prison is a vicious circle that you can't escape."

This article was originally written in German.

 HATE SPEECH IS NOT RELIGIOUS FREE SPEECH

LGBTQ+ People 'Deserve Death' Says Arkansas Preacher

Tuesday's Conway School Board meeting sounded more like a fundamentalist sermon than a public school board meeting.

BY CHRISTOPHER WIGGINS

OCTOBER 13 2022 10:10 AM EDT

At an Arkansas school board meeting Tuesday, where members passed several anti-LGBTQ+ policies, a man was caught on camera saying LGBTQ+ people “deserve death.”

Hundreds of residents expressed their opinion before a vote on anti-LGBTQ+ policies, which drew a solid but mixed response.

During the Conway school board meeting, Cal Paulson, a local preacher, urged support for the policies, explaining that God loves everyone, but disapproves of the practices and moral standards of LGBTQ+ people, the Log Cabin Democrat, a local newspaper, reports.

A clip of Paulson’s comments has gone viral on TikTok, having racked up thousands of views.

“I would like to say that the LGBT community has suppressed the truth about God. They seek to bring their judgment against everyone who does not agree with their gender values. They do this in order to get you to support their self-centered lifestyles,” Paulson said. “They invent ways of doing evil. But let me remind you that those that do such things deserve death. The LGBTQ community not only continues to do these very things but also approves of those who practice them.”

Republican state Sen. Jason Rapert expressed support for the policies during the public comments portion of the meeting.

“Just because people get loud and demand we support their opinion does not change the truth or the facts. God made males and females, and the Conway school board is doing the right thing here tonight,” Rapert said.

Conway Public Schools, which has about 10,000 students, does not endorse the remarks in the video, which has thousands of views on TikTok, according to Heather Kendrick, a district spokesperson, NBC News reports.

“In an attempt to allow public voices to be heard, the Conway Public Schools Board of Education allows patrons to speak for a specified amount of time to comment on current agenda items,” Kendrick wrote. “While the Conway School Board appreciates the insight and perspectives given in these comments, the personal narratives of individual patrons do not represent the school district or school board’s feelings or stances on issues.” 

During the meeting, the board approved a ban on two LGBTQ-themed books and anti-transgender policies. Under the district’s anti-transgender policy, all schools must assign multiple-occupancy restrooms and changing rooms to students based on their gender at birth.

School policies also require schools to provide “reasonable accommodations,” such as single-occupancy restrooms or changing rooms for those students who request them. According to another board policy, student trip hotel rooms must be assigned exclusively to males or females according to their gender assigned at birth. 

The books that board members decided to remove from school libraries are Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out and Felix Ever After, a love story that features a transgender protagonist. 

A district committee reviewed several books previously challenged by district personnel and recommended they remain on the shelves, according to the Log Cabin Democrat.  However, the board overruled that recommendation and decided to remove the titles entirely.

‘We’re on our own.’ How people with disabilities are left out of climate planning


By —Drew Costley, Associated Press

Nation Oct 13, 2022 

When the inevitable hurricanes threaten New Orleans, it’s hard for India Scott to figure where to go. In the city where she was born and raised, she’s stayed in hotels, relief shelters and, during Hurricane Katrina, in the famously overcrowded Superdome.

But it is always a gamble choosing where to seek refuge. A lot of places that are safe for most people aren’t safe for her because they aren’t accessible to people like her, people living with disabilities.

Scott has used a wheelchair her entire life; she was born with a disability. Even when the weather is calm in New Orleans she is reluctant to leave home to visit friends or go out to shop or eat, because places outside her house can’t guarantee that she’ll be able to maneuver even basic things like using the restroom, passing through an entryway or getting into bed.

“We are still failing people with disabilities, especially multiply-marginalized people, before, during and after disasters.”

Scott’s house in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans is comfortable with features that are required by code yet often missing, like widened entryways for her wheelchair. It has a bed lower to the ground that’s easier to get in and out of it. But because she lives near a levee, she leaves that comfort behind whenever a major hurricane or tropical storm is forecast because rising floodwater that would challenge anyone would surely be fatal for her.

“I try my best to make my home comfortable,” she said, “but if that water ever comes through, I’m in trouble.”

Scott said she can’t rely on the city, state or federal government when storms come, only friends. She said there is inadequate support for disabled people before, during and after disasters, from emergency management agencies at all levels of government.

“We’re on our own,” she said, through tears, to The Associated Press.

Experts and activists echoed her view, telling the AP people with disabilities are left out of emergency and disaster planning, and face hurdles that able-bodied people don’t when disasters strike.

READ MORE: Why it can be more difficult to evacuate older adults in a disaster

As climate-related disasters become more common and more severe, most countries in the world are “neglecting their obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill the rights of persons with disabilities in their responses to the climate crisis,” according to a June report from the Disability Inclusive Climate Action Research Program at McGill University and the International Disability Alliance.

The researchers found that only 32 of the 192 countries that are signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Paris climate accords in 2015 refer to people with disabilities in their official climate plans. Forty-five countries refer to disabled people in their climate adaptation policies and no country mentions disabled people in its climate mitigation plans. Many of the world’s biggest contributors to climate change – the United States, China, Russia, Brazil, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom – don’t figure people with disabilities into any of these plans, according to the report.

That is despite the fact that 185 countries ratified the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, drafted in 2006, which says that countries will take “all necessary measures to ensure the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in …. humanitarian emergencies and the occurrence of natural disasters.” The U.S. was one of eight countries that signed the treaty but haven’t ratified it.

People who are disabled are not a small segment of the population. According to the World Health Organization, there were over a billion people in the world living with a disability in 2011, which was 15% of the global population at the time. The organization plans to release an update on disability prevalence in December.

More recently, researchers with the Disability Data Initiative estimated the percentage of people with disabilities averages 12.6% across 41 countries for which they have data, as of 2021. One of them, Sophie Mitra, said the WHO figure of one billion is likely to have grown since 2011.

“We are still failing people with disabilities, especially multiply-marginalized people, before, during and after disasters,” Marcie Roth, CEO of the World Institute on Disability, told the U.S. Congress during testimony in July. “We need your help to address urgent, immediate, lifesaving steps (government agencies) can take to serve disaster-impacted people and communities being left out and left behind.”

MAP: Tracking the path of Hurricane Ian

A clear example of this failure took place at the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November 2021. Israeli Energy Minister Karine Elharrar, who uses a wheelchair, was prevented from entering a conference event by police officers. A day later, after the incident was publicized, conference organizers and the British government constructed a ramp so she could attend.

“What happened to the minister of energy happens to us all the time,” said Yolanda Muñoz, a professor at McGill University and co-founder of the Disability Inclusive Climate Action Research Program that co-authored the June report. “But, of course, it doesn’t make headlines.”

Another climate activist, Pauline Castres, who previously worked for the United Nations and has a disability, mourned the return to in-person climate talks that came with COP26 in Glasgow. “I’ve always found those meetings to be quite restrictive in terms of who can attend and who can take part,” she said. “We called (virtual events) one of the few good things that came out of the pandemic.”

But the problems people face go beyond access at international conferences and happen on the national, state and local level. When people can’t access climate planning talks, it’s more likely they won’t be figured into emergency management plans.

And the climate crisis isn’t only affecting people with physical disabilities, Grace Krause, policy officer for Learning Disability Wales, said in a 2019 blog post. Krause said it was “alarming” how little information on climate change was presented in an “easy read” format for people with certain cognitive disabilities. That format uses short sentences, active voice and explanation of any complex words and ideas in a separate sentence.

Font choices that make text easier to read for people with dyslexia is another way climate communications can be more accessible.

WATCH: The key issues that remain unresolved at COP26

In 2019, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution calling on governments to take climate action that is inclusive of people with disabilities, but there still isn’t much action from the UN’s official climate policy arm, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

There were two disability-related events at COP26 – one on designing cities that are both climate resilient and accessible and another on mental health and climate action – but they were side events. Disability inclusion in climate action has rarely taken the main stage.

Julia Watts Belser, a Georgetown University professor who uses a wheelchair, said the inclusion of people with disabilities in climate mitigation and adaptation planning “matters deeply” to her. She leads an initiative exploring the intersection of climate change and disability at Georgetown and teaches a class called Disability, Ethics, Ecojustice.

“I think about wanting us as a society to invest in the infrastructure for our communities so that we are better able to adapt and respond,” she said, “so we aren’t leaving people behind, so we aren’t leaving people to die.”

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Left: Flooded front yards seen after Hurricane Ida made landfall in Louisiana in 2021. File photo by REUTERS/Marco Bello

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