George Washington sought honest British workers over 'slovenly' Americans


SLOVENLY; TO BE UNSHAVEN, ILL KEMPT, POOR OF DRESS
FILE PHOTO: A statue of George Washington on a horse is pictured outside the Virginia State Capitol building in Richmond, Virginia, U.S, February 8, 2019. REUTERS/Jay Paul/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) - George Washington, the first president of the United States, praised the honesty of British farmers and sought to entice some to his estates because local tenants were so “slovenly”, according to a handwritten letter he wrote in 1796.

In a three-page letter to the Earl of Buchan, Washington asks the Scottish nobleman if he knew of any “honest and orderly” farmers who would like to emigrate to the United States to work on his land.

“My sole object is, if there are persons on the move, who may incline to associate and become tenants on such a plan as I offer, that being apprised of the measure, they may decide how far their views would be accommodated by it,” Washington wrote.


“Nor would I wish to do it with the slovenly farmers of this country, if I had a well founded hope of obtaining this class of Men from any other (particularly from Great Britain) where husbandry is well understood, and the language similar.”

The letter was unveiled by the University of Edinburgh. It was donated to the university by Scottish polymath and antiquarian David Lang in the 1870s.

Washington, a founding father of the United States who still graces the dollar bill, was a Revolutionary War hero who played a major role in throwing off British imperial rule and then helped unite the newly independent nation as its first leader.


The letter of 1796 shows Washington was planning for life after his presidency which would end the following year. After abandoning tobacco crops in the 1760s, he focused on wheat and gives possible terms for tenants.

“I set it at a bushel and half for every acre contained in the lease,” he wrote.

Washington towered above his generation: he was over six feet tall, a great rider, an elegant dancer and has become an American icon. His death in 1799 prompted mourning for a man who had come to symbolize the strength, morality and legitimacy of the United States.


Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Ros Russell
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

In Mexico's cradle of corn, climate change leaves its mark

Diego Oré

TEHUACAN, Mexico (Reuters) - At least 9,000 years ago, humans began domesticating corn for the first time near Tehuacan, in the central Mexican state of Puebla, laying the foundation for permanent settlements in the Americas.

But in the past few years, more frequent and longer droughts have forced many farmers in the area to give up corn and other cereals in favor of alternatives requiring less water such as pistachio nuts or cactus.

Agricultural experts predict parts of Mexico will feel the effects of climate change more than many countries, not least because its location between two oceans and straddling the Tropic of Cancer expose it to weather volatility.

Sol Ortiz, director of the agriculture ministry’s climate change group noted that 75% of Mexico’s soil is already considered too dry to cultivate crops. In regions such as Tehuacan, temperatures may rise more than the global average.

“We know there are areas where the increase is going to be greater. That will obviously affect rain patterns, and in turn, agriculture and food security,” Ortiz said.

The area under corn cultivation in Tehuacan decreased 18% to about 40,000 hectares between 2015 and last year, a Reuters calculation using statistics by the agriculture ministry shows, outstripping a nationwide decline.

In the five years before that, the area planted with corn had been slowly increasing in Tehuacan.


Nationally, the area under corn cultivation declined 4% from 2015 to 7.4 million hectares last year. While factors leading farmers to switch crops are complex, in Tehuacan farmers and local officials describe fast-changing climate as a leading cause.

Mexico’s rainy season last year was the driest since 2011, which in turn was one of the driest on record, numbers from the country’s national water agency showed.

Climate change is expected to cause substantial declines in yields of corn globally, especially in the tropics, a 2018 study published in the U.S. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science concluded.

There may be exceptions. The corn belt in the U.S. Midwest is so vast that one recent study concluded the expanses of lush fields were actually helping increase rainfall locally and also cut temperatures, thus allowing even more corn to be grown.

Under this model, intensive farming meant more moisture being released into the atmosphere from plants on a scale great enough to create more rainfall. The greater humidity also contributed to summers up to 1 degree Celsius cooler, the study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology concluded.



STUNTED COBS

In Tehuacan, however, conditions are fast changing for the worse. In a field where dried out plants have been lingering in the dust since the last drought, farmer Porfirio Garcia, holding a stunted cob, was struggling to make sense of it all.


Porfirio Garcia looks at his dry corn field in Tepeteopan, state of Puebla, Mexico January 16, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

Corn has for thousands of years been a symbol of Mexican pride, a staple of local and national cuisine from tortillas to tamales and the backbone of civilizations that gave rise to modern Mexico. But climate change has jeopardized that.

Garcia, who has 12 children, half of them working with him on the farm, recalls how one hectare in some years yielded as many as four tonnes (8,800 lbs) of corn In the past five years, he said, with luck it yielded 700 kg (1,543 lbs).

“The corn harvest has shrunk because in the months of June, July, August and September there was no rain,” said Garcia, 59, who uses ancestral farming techniques to grow corn, beans and pumpkin, an ancient system called a “milpa”.

“Our lives center on corn so what do we do without it?”

Eusebio Olmedo, director of rural development, agriculture and livestock in Tehuacan, recalls that it began to get hotter at the turn of the millennium.

Having worked in the department for five years, Olmedo said the area used to be characterized by a “very pleasant, very benevolent” climate.

Last year was the warmest on record in the state of Puebla - where Tehuacan is located - with thermometers reaching an average maximum temperature of 26.8 Celsius (80 F). In 1985, the first year the available state records show, Puebla registered an average maximum temperature of 24.7 Celsius (76 F).

A 2016 study commissioned by the environment ministry and backed by the U.N. Development Program concluded climate change in Mexico will mean less rain, lower yields for basic grains such as corn, beans and wheat, as well as “unexpected effects on food security.”


“When rain patterns change, agriculture becomes risky,” Olmedo said.

Mexican corn farmers have suffered major shocks in the past - most notably the arrival of cheap imports from the United States under the NAFTA free trade agreement in the 1990s.

In the north of Mexico, where large corn fields are irrigated, climate change may initially have little impact, studies show.

But in the south, where the oldest corn strains on earth are grown using traditional methods without irrigation, the changing rain patterns and temperatures are already being felt.

Agricultural consulting group GCMA estimates Mexican corn production will continue to decline in 2020, and that corn imports mainly from the United States will reach a record 18 million tons.
ADAPT

Mexico is now the world’s second-largest corn importer thanks to a reliance on U.S. grain for animal feed. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador calls that “a contradiction” and has implemented programs to boost national production.

Garcia, however, chose to diversify into other crops, planting 300 trees of pistachio, a desert plant that can withstand temperatures between minus 10 and 40 degrees Celsius (14 F and 104 F).











Slideshow (9 Images)

Nearby farmer Natalio De Santiago also abandoned the corn that he, his father and his grandfather used to plant for other crops that require less water. Those include maguey, a raw ingredient for mezcal, a Mexican liquor.

“I stopped sowing (corn) because the weather is changing,” said De Santiago, 56. “Now I plant maguey because it needs less water.”

Wearing a cowboy hat to shield his face from the sun, he said he irrigates 400 maguey plants every month with a liter of water each. When he planted corn, he said, his crops needed four months of rain.

Others in the area gave up agriculture altogether and sold land to real estate developers.

In an attempt to stop this trend, local authorities developed a bank of native corn seeds more resistant to pests and that need less water.

“We have to adapt to climate change, and these are the best varieties to recover food self-sufficiency,” Olmedo said of the seeds.

Other government measures meant to help farmers adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change include agricultural insurance, alternative crops and campaigns to reduce agricultural burning.

“It’s very difficult to reverse the tendency to increase CO2 (carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere,” said the agricultural ministry’s Ortiz. “That’s why we’re prioritizing adaptation.”


“Climate change is here to stay.” he added.

(Story refiles to fix spelling of mezcal)


Reporting by Diego Ore; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Alistair Bell
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

G20 agrees final communique with reference to climate changeEN PASSANT

FILE PHOTO: Journalists sit in the media center during the meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, February 22, 2020. REUTERS/Ahmed Yosri

RIYADH (Reuters) - Finance officials from the world’s 20 biggest economies (G20) meeting in Riyadh on Sunday reached agreement on the wording of a final communique that includes a reference to climate change, a G20 diplomatic source said.

The agreement came after compromise language was found to overcome U.S. objections to an earlier draft that had referred to “macroeconomic risk related to environmental sustainability” and listed work by the Financial Stability Board to examine the financial stability implications of climate change.

G20 finance ministers and central bankers are meeting in the Saudi capital to discuss top global economic challenges, focusing on the growth outlook and new rules to tax global digital companies.


Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Stephen Kalin

Let's come together to tax tech giants, say G20 officials eyeing $100 billion boost



RIYADH (Reuters) - Leading world economies must show unity in dealing with aggressive “tax optimization” by global digital giants like Google (GOOGL.O), Amazon (AMZN.O) and Facebook (FB.O), G20 officials said on Saturday.


The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is developing global rules by to make digital companies pay tax where they do business, rather than where they register subsidiaries. The OECD says this could boost national tax revenues by a total of $100 billion a year.
The call for unity appeared directed mainly at the United States, home to the biggest tech companies, in an attempt to head off any stalling on the rules until after the U.S. presidential election in November.

“There is no time to wait for elections,” German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz told a tax seminar on the sidelines of a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers.

“This needs leadership in certain countries,” Scholz said, looking directly at U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, sitting next to him at the seminar.

The taxing of digital firms and the effect of the coronavirus outbreak on the global economy are among the hot topics being debated by G20 financial leaders, from the world’s 20 largest economies, during their talks in Riyadh this weekend.

The OECD wants to set a minimum effective level at which such companies would be taxed and seeks agreement by the start of July, with an endorsement by the G20 by the end of the year.

“A coordinated answer is not the better way forward, but, given the alternatives, the only way forward,” OECD head Angel Gurria told the seminar.

A draft G20 communique, seen by Reuters, showed financial leaders will endorse the OECD approach to the issue in their final statement on Sunday, backing the need pay tax where business is conducted and the need for a minimum rate.
They will also “reaffirm commitment to reach a consensus based solution by end of 2020”.


The OECD efforts were stalled late last year by last-minute changes demanded by Washington, which many G20 officials view as reluctant to deal with a potentially politically tricky matter before the presidential election.

Mnuchin said OECD countries were close to an agreement on the minimum tax level, which he said would also go a long way to resolving the issue of where tax is paid, although he warned that some aspects of the tax proposal could require approval by the U.S. Congress.

“I think we all want to get this done by the end of the year, and that’s the objective,” Mnuchin told the seminar.

Mnuchin sought to reassure G20 delegates that a U.S. proposal to add a “safe harbor” regime to the tax reform effort - which has drawn criticism from France and other countries - would not let companies simply opt out of paying taxes.

“It’s not an optional tax,” he said. “You pay the safe harbor as opposed to paying something else. People may pay a little bit more in a safe harbor knowing they have tax certainty.”

U.S. officials say their proposal would help address lawmakers concerns and smooth passage of legislation that might be required for U.S. implementation of new global tax rules. In essence, they argue, it would allow a multinational enterprise to elect to pay more foreign tax in exchange for better terms in the event of disputes over taxes, and easier administrative procedures.

But many questions remain.

MORE CLARITY NEEDED

French Finance Minster Bruno Le Maire told reporters it remained unclear exactly what the U.S. proposal would entail.

“We’re still in the process of assessing what it really means,” he said, adding, “It’s not a non-starter for the French government. It’s fair and useful to give all the attention to this new proposal.”

European Union Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni told Reuters there was still hard work ahead.

“It’s good that there is a commitment to find a solution, but ... it’s not there,” he said, adding that he would meet with Mnuchin for bilateral talks later Saturday.

Scholz told reporters Germany remained sceptical. “I think we shouldn’t start with letting companies choose which taxes they want to pay. This is leading to nowhere,” he said.

Several European countries, including France, Spain, Austria, Italy, Britain and Hungary either already have a plan for a digital tax or are working on one, creating the risk of a highly fragmented global system.

“You cannot have in a global economy different national tax systems that conflict with each other,” Mnuchin said.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Feb. 14 he would be ready to pay more tax in Europe and would welcome a global OECD solution that would make the levies uniform.


Additional reporting by Michael Nienaber, Francesco Canepa, Leika Kihara and Jan Strupczewski; Writing by Jan Strupczewski and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Pravin Char and Frances Kerry

 

From fringe candidate to front-runner: Sanders wins Nevada with diverse backers - Edison Research Poll

Chris Kahn

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, often maligned by opponents as a liberal outsider who cannot unify the Democratic Party, won the party’s Nevada caucuses by a comfortable margin thanks to a diverse coalition of supporters, according to polling agency Edison Research.

Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders speaks at a campaign rally in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., February 21, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar

Edison, which compiles voter polls and live election results for media organizations including ABC News, CBS News, CNN, NBC News and Reuters, found Sanders won the largest share of whites and nonwhite caucus-goers.

Hispanics in particular - who account for nearly one-third of Nevada’s population - loomed large in his victory as he claimed support from more than half of the Latinos attending Saturday’s caucuses.

Sanders also won caucus-goers of nearly every age group. He won the largest share of women and men, including white college-educated women - a group that is expected to be especially important for Democrats to win against Republican President Donald Trump in November.

And despite a public feud with Nevada’s 60,000-member Culinary Workers Union over his signature plan to replace private health insurance with a government program, Sanders won the largest share of the union vote. One of every three people who either belonged to a union or had a family member in a union said they would support Sanders.

Edison’s polling also found Sanders won most of those caucus-goers who said they cared more about a candidate’s stance on the issues than their perceived electability.

Here are some other highlights from the Edison poll, which was based on interviews with 2,746 Nevada Democrats, including about 1,780 as they entered early voting sites earlier in the week and another 966 on Saturday at 30 locations around the state:

** Among Hispanics, 53% said they were going to support Sanders ahead of the caucuses.

** Among African Americans, 36% said they supported former Vice President Joe Biden, while 27% favored Sanders and 18% backed billionaire Tom Steyer.


** Among caucus-goers who are members of a labor union or have family members in a union, 34% said they planned to caucus for Sanders. About one in four caucus-goers said they were part of a union family.

** 62% said they support replacing all private health insurance with a single government plan. That initiative, also known as Medicare for All, is a signature issue for Sanders and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren. It was criticized earlier this month by the state’s Culinary Workers Union in what was seen as a boost for more moderate Democrats who are still in the race.

** 43% of Democratic Nevada caucus-goers say healthcare is the issue that mattered most to them when deciding which candidate to support. Another 25% said it was climate change, 18% said it was income inequality and 9% said foreign policy.

** Among white, college-educated women, 22% said they planned to caucus for Sanders, compared with 19% for Klobuchar, 18% for Warren, 17% for Buttigieg and 13% for Biden.

** Sanders had the largest share of support from caucus-goers of all age groups, except those 65 and older. Among the 65-plus group, 28% said in entrance polling that they supported Biden, 20% supported Klobuchar, 14% supported Buttigieg and 12% supported Sanders.

** 52% of those participating in the Democratic caucus were doing so for the first time. A record number of Democrats were expected to have attended the Nevada caucuses, in part because of population growth in the state and also the party’s decision to allow residents to vote early this year for the first time.

** 65% say that when picking a candidate to support, they are thinking mostly about that person’s electability instead of whether the candidate agrees with them on major issues.

** 66% of Democratic caucus-goers said they considered themselves to be liberal. Another 31% said they were moderates and 3% were conservative.

** Among political moderates, support was largely split among Sanders, Biden and Buttigieg, with those three candidates getting a little more than 20% each.


** Most of Nevada’s caucus-goers came with their minds made up. Eighty-three percent of Democratic caucus-goers said they made their pick for the party’s nomination more than a few days before the caucus.

** About half of the poll respondents were college graduates. The other half did not have a college degree.


Reporting by Chris Kahn; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Cynthia Osterman

NOVA SCOTIA 

Showing solidarity with Wet’suwet’en chiefs

Corey LeBlanc (coreyleblanc@thecasket.ca)





There was plenty of drumming and singing during a ‘slow down’ of traffic on Highway 104 in Auld’s Cove Saturday afternoon in support of Wet’suwet’en land defenders. Corey LeBlanc


Many participants in a gathering Saturday afternoon on Highway 104 in Auld’s Cove carried colourful signs of solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en land defenders. Corey LeBlanc


An elder passes an information package to a motorist Saturday afternoon in Auld’s Cove during a gathering of solidarity for Wet’suwet’en land defenders. Corey LeBlanc


A ‘slow down’ of traffic on Highway 104 in Auld’s Cove Saturday afternoon included drumming and singing. Corey LeBlanc


More than 150 people participated in a traffic ‘slow down’ as a show of solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en land defenders Saturday afternoon on Highway 104 in Auld’s Cove. Corey LeBlanc


Messages, such as ‘water is life,’ were prevalent during a gathering of solidarity with Wet’suwet’en land defenders on Highway 104 in Auld’s Cove Saturday afternoon. Corey LeBlanc


The majority of motorists accepted information packages from elders participating in a ‘slow down’ of traffic on Highway 104 in Auld’s Cove Saturday afternoon. Corey LeBlanc


Despite the biting temperatures Saturday afternoon on Highway 104 in Auld’s Cove, more than 150 people gathered in a show of support for Wet’suwet’en land defenders. Corey LeBlanc

More than 150 people gather in Auld’s Cove Saturday afternoon for traffic ‘slow down’

SALTWIRE NETWORK

AULD'S COVE - The hood of Emery Googoo’s coat, one trimmed with warm fur, was fixed snuggly over his head.

It came in handy for the nine-year-old as he stood side-by-side with his father on a biting Saturday afternoon, as chilly wind gusts come off the Strait of Canso.

The father-son duo were among more than 150 protestors who gathered on Highway 104 in Auld’s Cove, approximately a kilometre or so on the mainland side of the Canso Causeway, for what organizers called a ‘slow down’ of traffic as a show of support for the Wet’suwet’en land defenders.


“I am concerned about his future; my family’s future,” Steven Googoo, of We’koqma’q First Nation, said as he gestured towards Emery.

He added concerns being raised are ones that apply across the country; issues that need to be dealt with and discussed.

“We need to bring to light what is happening to the Wet’suwet’en chiefs,” Googoo said.

“It is about showing unity and standing with them.”

The Wet’suwet’en chiefs in British Columbia continue their call for an end to patrols on their territory and the closure of a remote RCMP office, as well as a stop to construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

Signs of support have popped up across Canada, including blockades of railroad tracks, which have brought that mode of transportation, of both people and goods, to a screeching halt.

A day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for the end to those barricades, they continued, along with a variety of solidarity protests, including a gathering of thousands of people at Queen’s Park in Toronto.

While protestors have blocked traffic on some occasions, including during one assembly earlier this month at the entrance to the Fairview Cove Container Terminal in Halifax, Madonna Bernard (noting that is her colonial name) explained why organizers of the Auld’s Cove gathering opted to conduct a “slow down” of traffic.

“We wanted to provide elders with an opportunity to educate,” she said, while in the background participants passed out information packages to motorists.

Participants stood on the painted island in between the two lanes of the highway. Up the roadway, on either side, RCMP members slowed traffic as it approached the group.

Because there was no opportunity to speak to motorists, as they did not have to come to a complete stop, it was difficult to gauge reaction to the protest, other than the majority rolled down their windows and accepted the information packages.

And, of course, there were car horn honks of support, which blended in with the singing and drumming provided by a small group of Indigenous drummers and singers.

Colourful signs and banners, carrying messages such as ‘Respect our Mother Earth,’ ‘Water is Life’ and ‘Solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en,’ dotted the crowd.

While holding one with her friend, Justice Stephney said the protest provided the important opportunity “to show solidarity” with the Wet’suwet’en chiefs and their plight.

The Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. native, who has been working on a Cape Breton organic farm since 2017, added recognition of Indigenous sovereignty is “really important.”

“We stand by them,” Bernard said of the Wet’suwet’en land defenders.

She added it is about showing support “from nation to nation.”

Bernard noted bringing these issues to light is crucial to the future of children and grandchildren - “yours and ours.”

“It is about the future; our land, our water, our air – everything,” she said.

Bernard marvelled at the level of vitriol and racist comments cast towards Indigenous people since the cross-country protests began.

“I know I sound angry because we are angry,” she said.

As for the turnout and show of support for the ‘slow down,’ Bernard said organizers were “very pleased.”

“It is overwhelming,” she added.

Another protest in support of the Wet’suwet’en land defenders is scheduled to take place Sunday in Halifax.



corey.leblanc@thecasket.ca

@Casket_News

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ ENDORSES CRISTINA TZINTZÚN RAMIREZ IN TEXAS SENATE PRIMARY, BUCKING CHUCK SCHUMER

Ryan Grim February 21 2020, 7:39 a.m.

EARLY ON IN the Texas Senate primary, the political arm of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, decided that it would put its weight behind 2018 House candidate M.J. Hegar, a veteran whose viral ad in 2018 powered her to a massive fundraising haul — but not to victory — in the general election.

Despite the efforts of Schumer’s Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to muscle out challengers for GOP Sen. John Cornyn’s seat, a crowded field has formed. Among them is a former chief organizer for the Senate campaign of Beto O’Rourke, Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez. On Friday, Tzintzún Ramirez won the endorsement of Schumer’s fellow New Yorker and potential rival, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

The endorsement was one of seven Ocasio-Cortez announced as part of her new political action committee aimed at supporting progressive candidates like Tzintzún Ramirez who the party discourages from running.

“It’s important for us to create mechanisms of support because so much of what is happening in Washington is driven by fear of loss,” Ocasio-Cortez told the New York Times. “We can really create an ecosystem that makes people more comfortable into making the leap to make politically courageous choices.”

On top of the support from the DSCC, Hegar, an Air Force helicopter pilot, is getting outside help from a super PAC run by the group VoteVets. This week, a group of wealthy progressive donors launched a super PAC to put ads on the air for Tzintzún Ramirez, though it is reported to be spending only in the low six figures between now and March 3, Super Tuesday, when the primary will be held.

If no candidate in the crowded field eclipses 50 percent, a runoff election will take place. Hegar is likely destined for the top spot, with Tzintzún Ramirez battling against a number of rivals to make second. Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement will go a long way to pushing her into the runoff. Also this week, Tzintzún Ramirez picked up the support of Rep. Joaquin Castro, and already had the backing of his mother, Rosie Castro, a civil rights leader in the state.

Tzintzún Ramirez co-founded the Workers Defense Project and founded the organization Jolt, aimed at registering voters in Texas. The low moment of her campaign came last month when she apologized for joking that her name, Tzintzún, is “more Mexican than any Garcia or Lopez.”

Sema Hernandez, who challenged O’Rourke in the 2018 primary, is running again, and has an energetic following on Twitter, though it has yet to translate in the race. Money isn’t everything, but Texas is a big state and as of her most recent filing, Hernandez reported raised a mere $7,551, not enough to hire staff or run an organizing operation.

Four candidates, including Tzintzún Ramirez, have raised at least $800,000.

Ocasio-Cortez’s PAC, Courage to Change, also announced support for Teresa Fernandez in New Mexico, Samelys López in New York, and Georgette Gómez in California, all running for open congressional seats, rather than challenging incumbents. The PAC will also back, she said, Kara Eastman, challenging a Republican incumbent in Omaha, and Marie Newman, taking on incumbent Democrat Rep. Dan Lipinski in Illinois.

Where the Ongoing Mass Protests Against Neoliberalism in Chile Came From


Chile's social explosion started in Santiago on October 18, 2019.

 (Photo by JAVIER TORRES/AFP via Getty Images)

WEB ONLY / VIEWS » FEBRUARY 19, 2020

Chileans are still taking to the streets to protest an unjust economic order. It will take a political movement to change the system.

BY ANNA KOWALCZYK

In recent months, common people in Chile have taken to the streets not to pursue an ideological project or concrete cause—but as the result of the fragility and insecurity of everyday life, and the injustice of the political system. We have seen this with the Occupy Wall Street movement, in the context of the Arab Spring and the Indignados Movement in Spain. Although more than two months of social mobilizations forced the right-wing billionaire Sebastian Piñera government to implement policies it has previously opposed such as the reform of the constitution and the increase in public social spending, none of the major political forces were able to channel the movement giving rise to questions about the durability of these mobilizations in the long term. The political debates have increasingly focused on questions of institutional reforms and transparency, which although important for framing future political struggles, tend to mask more urgent economic reforms such as greater taxation of wealth and universal access to social services. Such policy changes are indispensable for the reduction of Chile’s exorbitant inequalities.

The explosion

The social explosion started in Santiago on October 18 following clashes between the armed police and students who were evading raised metro fares. Mobilizations quickly spread throughout the country demanding justice and change of the highly unequal economic model, bringing together a range of qualms that are typically discussed in isolation: low pensions, highly unequal healthcare, underfinanced education, political corruption and frequent cases of economic collusion between producers to raise consumer prices. The mobilizations boasted unprecedented social support: surveys conducted at the end of October demonstrated that close to 85% of the public supported the protests and after two months of mobilizations, support for them still stood at around 77%.

Pinochet’s legacy

Chile’s current economic model was established during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1989) by a group of Chilean economists educated at the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman. The country’s economy is widely considered to be the first attempt in the world at the introduction of a thorough program of neoliberal restructuring—many of the reforms established by Ronald Reagan in the United States and by Margaret Thatcher in the UK were first “tested” in Chile during the second half of the 1970s. The reforms included unprecedented liberalization of trade, the establishment of a new labor code which practically prohibited collective bargaining, financial liberalization, privatization of public companies, diminished per capita social spending, regressive tax reform and privatization of pensions. When it came to education and healthcare, reforms led to the creation of dual public and private systems, making access to education and healthcare the responsibility of individuals through their participation in the market.

The reforms carried out during the dictatorship (as well as the 1982 economic crisis) contributed to increased inequalities and a ballooning poverty rate (in 1987 close to 45% of the population lived under the poverty line), a greater concentration of wealth, a fall in real wages and an increase in unemployment.

Continuity and change

During much of the post-dictatorship period Chile was governed by center-left coalitions (between 1990 and 2009 and then 2014 and 2017, with the first right-wing Sebastian Piñera government in the interim), which focused on addressing extreme poverty and Chile’s rampant inequalities, but within the framework of the economic model inherited from the dictatorship.

Members of the coalitions have frequently pointed to the 1980 Constitution—written by Pinochet’s advisers and approved in a fraudulent plebiscite—as a structural limitation on any major reforms to the economic model. The constitution limits the state’s absolute ability to provide social services such as health, education and pensions, virtually prohibits strikes of public sector employees, obliges workers to join private pension funds, gives the president substantial control over Congress and makes it extremely difficult to reform the armed forces and the police, as well as the electoral and educational systems, because of extremely high quorum required for the approval of the reforms.

The governments of center-left coalitions did manage to decrease poverty and income inequalities. However, access to quality social services remains highly unequal and the relative poverty rate is very high. Chile’s tax system also features regressive characteristics while public social expenditure is tiny, translating into low quality public social services. In addition, the job market is highly segmented and a high share of the population works with temporary contracts or is self-employed in low skilled jobs, meaning their access to social services is also limited.

What’s next?

The recent mobilizations practically paralyzed the Chilean economy, which helped force the right-wing government of billionaire Sebastian Piñera to make concessions, such as paving the way toward the replacement of the 1980 Constitution (a plebiscite on whether a new constitution should be drafted is scheduled for April), scrapping plans to lower corporate taxes and increasing cash transfers to the poorest including modest cash subsidies to employees earning the minimum wage and those receiving the basic pension. The government also announced projects to increase sentences and fines for corporate collusion and fraud.

Social mobilizations have shaken the political system and demonstrated that the injustice of the neoliberal economic order is felt across Chilean society. But it is so far uncertain how the solutions to this broader issue will be achieved—and who will implement them. After the social explosion, the political Left has emerged highly divided and unable to channel social demands. According to a recent poll, although the president has record low approval rates (only 11%), the most popular political figures are associated with the political right and support has dropped for young left-wing politicians who have won elections by promising to transform Chile’s economic model.

Protesters have continued flowing to the streets but their dissociation from political parties and unions makes their calls increasingly appear as individual demands which can be satisfied through occasional cash transfers and reforms. Without a broader political movement, however, these reforms may simply consecrate the unequal status quo.

SDF avoids fight with Trump over budget cut


Jack Detsch February 20, 2020
DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images
A US armored vehicle drives past a billboard for the Syrian 

Kurdish Women's Protection Units (YPJ) during a patrol, 

Qahtaniyah, Syria, Oct. 31, 2019.

ARTICLE SUMMARY
The Trump administration's proposed 2021 budget would diminish the SDF's ability to effectively fight IS, but the coalition is unlikely to protest the steep cuts out of fear of angering Trump.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are unlikely to protest a steep Pentagon budget cut for fear over angering US President Donald Trump, according to sources familiar with the matter.

This month’s Trump administration request would cut military assistance by $100 million from last year’s Pentagon budget request, a move that experts say could degrade the Kurdish-led unit’s ability to fight the Islamic State (IS) and hold thousands of detainees.

“I don’t think they will say anything publicly because they do not want to anger Trump and have him decide just to withdraw out of spite,” a former senior administration official, speaking not for attribution, told Al-Monitor. “It will impact everything, including their ability to hold prisoners.”


Turkey asks US for missile defense amid Syria standoff

Part of the money will also help the so-called Jaysh Maghawir al-Thawra boost its force levels to 500, standing abreast an Iranian supply line in southwestern Syria at the US-held Al-Tanf garrison.

Two Kurdish sources asked by Al-Monitor about the cut said they hadn’t heard about it. When questioned about the SDF funding at a Pentagon press briefing last week, acting Defense Department Comptroller Elaine McCusker said the US budget to aid Syrian opposition forces was “the same as last year,” though the administration requested $300 million for the Kurdish group to fight IS.

Congress cut $100 million from that figure in an appropriations reduction in December after Trump signed the Defense Department’s annual authorization that requested a higher figure. It wasn’t immediately clear why the Pentagon had decided to trim the military aid, though the agency slashed funding for the SDF by $200 million from the previous year in its budget for fiscal year 2020. “It’s not uncommon for amounts in appropriations bills to differ from authorizing legislation such as the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act),” said Evan Hollander, the communications director for the House Appropriations panel’s Democratic majority. But congressional aides did not make clear the reason for the change in funding.

The Defense Intelligence Agency told the joint inspector general for the US-led fight against IS in Syria that the militant group’s online claims indicated it had picked up its rate of attacks by 20% to 66 attacks per month, following Turkey’s Oct. 9 incursion into Syria.

Yet the Kurdish-led group has been wary of taking on Washington over the cut, with leaders such as Gen. Mazlum Kobane remaining quiet in days following the move. Given the Trump administration’s track record of asking US allies such as Germany, Japan and South Korea to pay more for housing thousands of American forces based in those countries, the Syrian opposition forces may be worried about stronger retribution from the White House.

“Nobody wants to be bullied by Trump,” an SDF-linked source told Al-Monitor. “If I were them and I complained about it, I might be afraid that Trump would say ‘it’s our money, you should be thankful for [it] and do not demand more.'”

The Trump administration’s 2021 budget request would also zero out a $250 million fund under the defeat-IS heading previously given to countries on Syria’s border, according to documents released last week. The move could impact the ability of nations such as Jordan to defend against external terror threats.

Meanwhile, the United States has picked back up the pace of counterterrorism operations against IS in Syria, US Central Command chief Gen. Kenneth McKenzie told The Washington Post in January. But the four-star Marine commander publicly admitted he frankly did not know “how long we’re going to be here.”

But even while the future of the mission in Syria faces uncertainty, the Pentagon is facing scrutiny for improper care of weapons going out into the field. In an audit released today, the Defense Department’s inspector general said the special operations joint task force for the US-led defeat-IS mission failed to properly account for nearly $716 million in American taxpayer-funded weapons for the Syrian opposition.
Found in:SYRIA CONFLICT, ISLAMIC STATE, TRUMP



Jack Detsch is Al-Monitor’s Pentagon correspondent. Based in Washington, Detsch examines US-Middle East relations through the lens of the Defense Department. Detsch previously covered cybersecurity for Passcode, the Christian Science Monitor’s project on security and privacy in the Digital Age. Detsch also served as editorial assistant at The Diplomat Magazine and worked for NPR-affiliated stations in San Francisco. On Twitter: @JackDetsch_ALM, Email: jdetsch@al-monitor.com.



Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/02/sdf-syria-avoid-fight-budget-trump.html#ixzz6ElOPAMLa

Fake news (AKA CONSPIRACY THEORIES) makes disease outbreaks worse, study finds

By Kate Kelland  2/14/2020

© Reuters/Aly Song FILE PHOTO: A woman wearing a mask is seen at a subway station in Shanghai

LONDON (Reuters) - The rise of "fake news" - including misinformation and inaccurate advice on social media - could make disease outbreaks such as the COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic currently spreading in China worse, according to research published on Friday.


In an analysis of how the spread of misinformation affects the spread of disease, scientists at Britain's East Anglia University (UEA) said any successful efforts to stop people sharing fake news could help save lives.

"When it comes to COVID-19, there has been a lot of speculation, misinformation and fake news circulating on the internet – about how the virus originated, what causes it and how it is spread," said Paul Hunter, a UEA professor of medicine who co-led the study.

"Misinformation means that bad advice can circulate very quickly – and it can change human behavior to take greater risks," he added.

In their research, Hunter's team focused on three other infectious diseases - flu, monkeypox and norovirus – but said their findings could also be useful for dealing with the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.

"Fake news is manufactured with no respect for accuracy, and is often based on conspiracy theories," Hunter said.

For the studies - published on Friday in separate peer-reviewed journals - the researchers created theoretical simulations of outbreaks of norovirus, flu and monkeypox.

Their models took into account studies of real behavior, how different diseases are spread, incubation periods and recovery times, and the speed and frequency of social media posting and real-life information sharing.

They also took into account how lower trust in authorities is linked to tendency to believe conspiracies, how people interact in "information bubbles" online, and the fact that "worryingly, people are more likely to share bad advice on social media than good advice from trusted sources," Hunter said.

The researchers found that a 10% reduction in the amount of harmful advice being circulated has a mitigating impact on the severity of an outbreak, while making 20% of a population unable to share harmful advice has the same positive effect.

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Frances Kerry)