How US police avoid scrutiny and keep power

In recent decades, police in the United States have amassed significant power through laws that grant them a high level of immunity, a lack of oversight, big budgets and a focus on reforms that bring little change.

The most recent budget proposal for the city of Los Angeles sparked a flood of social media outrage. Mayor Eric Garcetti wanted to increase the amount of money allocated to the police, raising it to more than $1.85 billion (€1.64 billion), out of a total budget of $5.46 billion — the highest amount allocated to any department. As a comparison, the Housing and Community Investment department would receive less than $82 million if the budget was approved.

Garcetti has since promised to shift some of the funds to community initiatives but the amount allotted to law enforcement is still sizable. And Los Angeles is no exception — big budgets for police departments are common in US cities.

According to Stuart Schrader, a sociologist at Johns Hopkins University, big police budgets are rooted in lobbying efforts that first peaked in the 1990s: "Not only was the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) trying to shape anti-crime legislation, it was trying to make elected officials accountable to police, rather than the other way around," Schrader wrote in a 2019 essay titled "To Protect and Serve Themselves: Police in US Politics since the 1960s."

With decreasing crime rates over the years, Schrader argues that police departments could scale back in many areas of the country. Instead, "rather than allow these capacities to evaporate, police protect them," Schrader writes. "Police have become unwilling to let go of their competitively realized gains, placing their self-interested advocacy at an increasing distance from achieving their nominal mission of crime control."


The movement to defund or abolish the police is gaining steam in the US

The call for abolishing police

Now, the movement calling for defunding and ultimately abolishing police in the US altogether is gaining momentum. Ralikh Hayes, co-founder of Organizing Black, is advocating for funds now being poured into police departments to be used differently. He told DW that cities should fund "the creative process to experiment with other ideas of what safety looks like and invest in the things that we know people need. Because we know crime is typically caused by not having the resources that they need."

"As you can see in communities all across America, when there's not a police officer in sight, those communities are considered perfectly safe," Hayes said. "But why is it that our communities that are full of police are not considered safe?"

Another way the police have leverage over preserving the status quo is keeping evidence and data confidential. Compiling data on interactions between the police for research purposes can be difficult, said Alyasah Sewell, professor of sociology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Researchers and citizen-led initiatives often have to rely on news reports. Sewell noted that statistics released by law enforcement agencies sometimes lack information — such as race or gender — about the persons involved in a particular encounter. "We rely on police to tell us what happened," Sewell told DW.

Police reform can only do so much

The research that has been done often focuses on reform efforts. Many experts have concluded that measures such as anti-bias training or wearing body cameras have little effect on the decisions police officers make. A Yale study from 2017 found that body-worn cameras have "statistically insignificant effects on police use of force and civilian complaints, as well as other policing activities and judicial outcomes."


Experts say body cameras have little effect on police decisionmaking

Police officers who kill unarmed citizens or use violence against citizens often face few or no consequences, said Niesha McCoy, a member of the Baltimore County Justice Coalition. The group is seeking to establish a model of civilian oversight to hold police in their community accountable. "Police officers have so-called qualified immunity and in some cases of misconduct, officers are merely transferred from one department to another," McCoy said. The qualified immunity doctrine protects police officers from liability when they are accused of violating a person's rights.

Is the individual racist, or society?

When a white police officer kills an unarmed black person, this officer is often referred to as a "bad apple" by colleagues, politicians and the public alike. The term implies the officer in question doesn't represent a bigger problem, but is simply a poorly-behaved individual acting in a rare event.

National security advisor Robert O'Brien took this line on CNN this week, when he was interviewed about the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis while a white officer was kneeling on his neck and three of his colleagues watched.

"I don't think there is systemic racism," said O'Brien. "I think 99.9% of our law enforcement officers are great Americans. But you know what, there are some bad apples

Sociologist Alyasah Sewell 

Sociologist Alyasah Sewell disagrees and believes it is not enough to focus on individual police officers. "A bad cop is a bad seed," she said. "It creates a system of networks that support it. If you cut through an apple you don't get to the seed until you are halfway through the apple. But if that seed is rotten everything you cut through is living off of that infection."

History lives on in today's police agencies, according to Sewell, whose research focuses on structural racism. "You reallydisagrees and believes it is not enough to focus on individual police officers. "A bad cop is a bad seed," she said. "It creates a system of networks that support it. If you cut through an apple you don't get to the seed until you are halfway through the apple. But if that seed is rotten everything you cut through is living off of that infection."

History lives on in today's p agencies, according to Sewell, whose research focuses on structural racism. "You really have to go back to slavery," they said. "Slave patrols evolved into what police are today. The police think black and brown people are criminals just by looking at them. And once you call someone a criminal, you have the right to remove them from society."

Violence from federal and state agencies is not only tolerated, some say it is encouraged by the president himself. At the beginning of the week, Donald Trump told governors that their response to the ongoing protests had been weak. "If you don't dominate, you are wasting your time. They are going to run you over. You are going to look like a bunch of jerks. You have to dominate," Trump said.


Date 06.06.2020
Author Julia Mahncke
Keywords USA, police, racism, violence, abuse, power
Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3dLFE

Racism in Brazil: The death of a five-year-old

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Brazil is experiencing its own version of "Black Lives Matter." The death of a five-year-old black boy in Recife has reignited the discussion about racism in the country.








"While the #blacklivesmatter hashtag does the rounds of social media, here in Brazil we've lost another black child because of the deeply rooted racism in our society," writes the historian Larissa Ibúmi. "These are still the same colonial structures that degrade black women to the servants of white mistresses."

Ibúmi was responding to the death of Miguel Otávio Santana da Silva, a tragic incident that occurred on June 3 in Recife, capital of the Brazilian state of Pernambuco. Mirtes Renata Souza, a domestic servant, arrived for work on the fifth floor of a luxurious condominium. Schools were closed due to coronavirus measures, so she brought her five-year-old son Miguel Otávio Santana da Silva with her.

Souza then took the dog out for a walk, as instructed by her employer, Sarí Gaspar Côrte Real, leaving her son behind in the apartment. But the boy wanted to follow his mother, and Côrte Real let him take the elevator by himself.

Read more: Coronavirus: Brazil headed for catastrophe 

Rapper Joyce Fernandes has started a campaign for housemaids to report employers' abuse
Accusation of manslaughter

The condominium's security camera footage shows that the boy got out of the elevator on the ninth floor, and climbed through a window onto a balcony railing. Shortly afterwards, he fell to his death. His mother's employer has been charged with manslaughter by criminal negligence – and is already free on bail of €3,450 ($3,900).

In an interview with Brazilian TV station Globo, Miguel's mother said, "My employer often entrusted her children to me. Unfortunately, in the moment when I entrusted her with my son, she didn't have the patience to look after him and get him out of the elevator."

Miguel was Mirtes Renata Souza's only child. After his death, social networks were flooded with expressions not only of grief and shock but also of hatred and anger. Politicians and activists from all over Brazil posted comments with the hashtag #justicapormiguel (Justice for Miguel). An online petition got more than 680,000 signatures in less than 24 hours.

The pop singer IZA commented on her Twitter account, which has 2.5 million followers: "Unfortunately, the story of Miguel is a real-life tragedy. While Mirtes, his mother, endures the worst possible pain, Sarí, the boss, pays bail and is free to return home. What if it were the other way around?"


'Cursed upper class'

The rapper, writer and activist Joyce Fernandes wrote on Facebook and Instagram: "A young life was ended by this cursed elitist white and decadent upper class that buys everything with money they inherited from the masters who enslaved my ancestors."

Fernandes, who performs in Brazil under the stage name "Preta rara" (Rare Black), is revered by millions of black Brazilian women. Until 2009, she too was a domestic worker. She started the Facebook page "Eu, empregada doméstica" (I, a domestic worker), wrote a book of the same name, and the activist is now a frequent guest on TV shows.

Meanwhile, a statement from the National Federation of Domestic Workers (FENATRAD) emphasized the negligence of the employer, Sarí Gaspar Côrte Real: "It is typical of the contempt for and objectification of the lives of black Brazilians. This says a lot about our country, the legacy of slavery, and the racism that has not been overcome."

Only seven years ago, on June 1, 2013, a law came into force in Brazil that put domestic workers on the same legal footing as other employees for the first time: the so-called "PEC das empregadas." Until then, domestic workers were considered "second-class" employees, who could not, for example, claim overtime or unemployment benefits.

Read more: Opinion: White privilege and the responsibility to enact change

Coronavirus and Brazil's class-based society

Yet despite achieving equality in law, discrimination against domestic workers in Brazil continues in practice. That has become particularly apparent during the coronavirus crisis.

The first victim of COVID-19 in Rio de Janeiro was a domestic worker: The 63-year-old diabetic Cleonice Gonçalves, who caught the virus from her employer, who had become infected on holiday in Italy in March. The employer was tested after her return, but she didn't tell her housekeeper that the test had been positive. Gonçalves died on March 19 in hospital in a suburb of Rio.

Mirtes Renata Souza's employers also caught the coronavirus. Sérgio Hacker, Sarí Gaspar Côrte Real's husband, is the mayor of a town near Recife. In a selfie video recorded on April 22, he explained that he and his wife had tested positive for COVID-19. Yet, despite this, their housekeeper was still required to come in for work.

Many Brazilians doubt that the couple will really be held accountable. "We should be under no illusions," tweeted Túlio Gadêlha, a lawyer and federal deputy for the state of Pernambuco, representing the Democratic Labour Party (PDT) in the national parliament in Brasília. "The Côrte Real/Hacker family have a lot of political power and influence in Pernambuco. It will become clear that Pernambuco is still ruled by oligarchs."

For Marcos García, a reader of the daily newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, the tragedy of Miguel reveals Brazil's latent racism: "If the son of a white employer had died, the domestic worker would already be behind bars and reviled online," he said. "What a brutal country!"DW RECOMMENDS

Brazil: Bolsonaro 'expects' Supreme Court to drop investigation into police meddling

Brazil's president issued a statement saying he did not seek to influence key police appointments, as his former justice minister alleged when resigning, and that he expected the country's top court to absolve him. (26.05.2020)

Brazil: Bolsonaro orders security forces to intervene in pro-democracy protests

Anti-government protesters are "outcasts, delinquents, and addicts," according to the Brazilian president. Jair Bolsonaro has threatened to call on security forces for an upcoming pro-democracy protest over the weekend. (05.06.2020)

Date 06.06.2020
Author Astrid Prange
Related Subjects Brazil, Coronavirus
Keywords coronavirus, Brazil, racism, Black Lives Matter

Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3dMFi

SPLASHING ABOUT IN THE COAL PIT
From mining to tourism
In the days of the former East Germany, more than 65,000 miners were employed in Lausatia's coal mining sector. Thousands lost their jobs when mines shut down in the 1990s. To compensate, the region decided to boost its tourism sector, and the transformation has been ongoing ever since. Almost 37,000 acres of land ravaged by mining will eventually become Europe's biggest water playground. 

SPLASHING ABOUT IN THE COAL PIT

Total transformation

Today, this former open-pit mine is the site of Lake Senftenberg. It is surrounded by 7 kilometers of sandy beaches and lawns for sunbathing. The East German energy sector relied heavily on brown coal. But after reunification in 1990, dozens of coal pits were shut down. This lake actually formed after the mine started flooding in 1967 and the first 'beach section' was commissioned in 1972.

SPLASHING ABOUT IN THE COAL PIT
Water, water, everywhere

Lake Geierswald and Lake Partwitz are just two of the 25 pit lakes in the area of Lausatia that spans the state borders of Brandenburg and Saxony. To keep their levels steady, water from the rivers Spree, Lusatian Neisse and Black Elster flow into the former mines. Without the artificial flooding, it would take 80 to 100 years to fill a pit naturally with rain and groundwater.

SPLASHING ABOUT IN THE COAL PIT

Taste of the mines

Johanniter or Pinotin? Cornelia Wobar grows both grape varieties on the only steep slope in Brandenburg, above the former open-cast mine that is now Lake Grossräschen. Wine experts say Brandenburg's intensely acidic soils have excellent potential for viticulture. The first wine produced from grapes grown on a former strip mine hit the market in 2008.


SPLASHING ABOUT IN THE COAL PIT
Almost like the Caribbean
The glowing turquoise color of Lake Partwitz comes from quicklime added to the waters to neutralize acidity — a legacy of the mines. As a result, there is little plant and animal life, but the lake is safe for swimmers. Lake Partwitz was built on the former lignite mine at Geierswalde, a village in Lower Lusatia, and was fully flooded in 2015.


SPLASHING ABOUT IN THE COAL PIT

Germany's biggest swimming lake

In early 2019, the energy group LEAG began flooding Lake Ostsee near Cottbus. Altogether, a million cubic meters of water will have to be added before the lake opens to the public. That's supposed to happen by 2025. LEAG had to stop its first trial flooding in 2018 after an exceptionally dry summer; the Spree River water levels were too low.

SPLASHING ABOUT IN THE COAL PIT

Preparing the ground

Turning a former coal pit into a lake isn't as simple as just opening the floodgates. First, loose soil needs to be compressed to avoid the risk of landslides. Special vibro-compression technology, like this soil compactor working the former surface mine in Jänschwalde, near the city of Cottbus, are put into action.

SPLASHING ABOUT IN THE COAL PIT

Disaster in Nachterstedt

Without proper precautions, disaster can strike. On July 18, 2009, a massive landslide on the southern shore of Lake Concordia in central Germany carried three houses away, killing three people. An investigation found that high pressure in the aquifer, combined with loose dump material underwater, were to blame for the accident. The area is still being redeveloped.

SPLASHING ABOUT IN THE COAL PIT
A renewable future?
Greenpeace Energy has another vision for the former coalfields. As of 2020, it wants to buy open-cast mines from the RWE Group, shut them down by 2025 and build large-scale renewable energy plants that would generate roughly a quarter of the power RWE currently produces in the Rhineland mining region. To date, RWE has not agreed to sell its land.

Author: Theresa Krinninger

The end of black coal mining in Germany
https://www.dw.com/overlay/media/en/the-end-of-black-coal-mining-in-germany/46824749/53686045
After more than 150 years, the industrial mining of black coal in Germany is coming to an end with the closure of the Prosper-Haniel mine in Bottrop. It marks the sad finish to an era of black gold in the Ruhr Valley. (21.12.2018)

What's the science on deep-sea mining for rare metals?

Some of the most sought-after metals and minerals on Earth lie deep — and largely untouched — in our oceans. Science and industry have been exploring those depths for decades. Here's an overview of what we know.


Relicanthus sp.— a new species from a new order of Cnidaria collected at
4,100 meters in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone

Here's a simple fact to start: The oceans are huge. Oceans make up about 96.5% of all Earth's water. There's fresh water in the planet, in the ground or elsewhere on land in rivers and lakes — more than 70% of the planet is covered in water — and there's more all around us in the atmosphere. But the oceans are simply huge.

Our oceans remain some of the most under-researched parts of the planet. That's one reason why there's so much interest from both non-commercial scientists and those working in industry.

And when it comes to deep-sea research, there are two main areas of interest: conservation and mining.

Grown over millions of years: manganese nodules scattered on the deep seabed of the
Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the Pacific

That's conservation of the many known and unknown species living at depths of up to about 5,500 meters in the Abyssal zone, which is predominantly in darkness.

That makes for some very unusual creatures that scientists would like to study out of pure interest. But because of this lack of knowledge it is also virtually impossible to know how species down there will react or survive once commercial mining begins.

Read more: Gemstones, precious metals hold all this useful beauty

That's mining for metals and minerals, such as nickel, cobalt, manganese and copper, which are found in polymetallic nodules on the same seabed that's home to those unknown creatures.

In fact, some deep-sea creatures live on those very nodules, which some people think are just waiting to be scooped up and turned into phones.

Why are we mining for these rare elements in the deep ocean?

We need (or want) them for a range of things, including the production of rechargeable batteries and touchscreens. And we're running low of these resources on land. That's also why there's an interest in mining asteroids — they hold important metals and minerals, too.

Sticking with the oceans, though, some estimates suggest there are greater deposits of manganese, cobalt and nickel on the deep-seabed than on land. Plus, there's more besides manganese nodules. There are polymetallic sulphides and cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts.

Watch video https://p.dw.com/p/3dGBx
Creatures of the deep

Since when has this been going on?

The International Seabed Authority (ISA) says it all began in 1873, and almost by chance, on an oceanography voyage conducted by a ship called HMS Challenger. The ISA says the ship's dredge hauled up "several peculiar black oval bodies which were composed of almost pure manganese oxide."

Those peculiar objects are now known as polymetallic or manganese nodules. They are often also referred to as potatoes — between 3 and 10 centimeters (1 and 4 inches) in diameter, and black.

It wasn't until the 1960s, however, when an American mining engineer, John L. Mero, brought manganese nodules to a "broader scientific readership" with his book "The Mineral Resources of the Sea."

A manganese nodule — the size of a large potatoes, but far more valuable to industry

That's according to Dr. Ole Sparenberg, a science historian at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Sparenberg says Mero's book "drew the picture of an easy-to-harvest, vast, and virtually unlimited resource, which he even imagined as inexhaustible as the resource was allegedly growing faster than it could be exploited."

Mero may have been wrong about the latter notion, as more recent science suggests that areas that have been harvested for nodules show little sign of recovery even after 30 and 40 years. The nodules grow at a rate of millimeters per million years.

Sorry, what's the International Seabed Authority?

The ISA describes itself as "an autonomous international organization established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the 1994 Agreement relating to the Implementation of Part XI of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea."

Basically, its role is divided between encouraging and supporting both industry and science, mining and conservation.

Where are we mining?

Well, commercial deep-sea mining has yet to really get off the ground. The ISA is still working on a mining code and other regulations, which some hope will be agreed at the body's next annual meeting (which has been postponed until October 2020).

A cobalt crust collected by German researchers from a seemount off the coast of West Africa

But the ISA has entered into a number of 15-year exploration contracts. At time of writing, the ISA says that includes 30 contractors, which are often companies sponsored by their national governments.

There are deposits all around the world. But a lot of the current interest is focused on the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone (CCZ) in the Pacific.

Eighteen of those contracts are for exploration for polymetallic nodules in the CCZ. Other contracts are for exploration in the Central Indian Ocean Basin and Western Pacific Ocean, and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Who are the main players?

Germany, for instance, has an exploration contract for polymetallic sulphides.

Polymetallic sulphides are a source of base metals, including copper, zinc, lead, and tin. They also include precious and special metals like gold, silver bismuth, selenium, tellurium, gallium or indium, which are used to make electronic components, like solar panels, and in telecommunication and other computer industries.

Other players include China, South Korea, Brazil, Russia, Japan — they have exploration contracts for cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts. Cobalt is a vital component in batteries, including car batteries. It is a rare mineral and considered dangerous to mine on land.

Deep-sea mining presents an advantage on that score as the ocean-based resources would be "harvested" by remotely-controlled machines that suck up the nodules or scrape crusts from underwater ridges.

One of many strange and wonderful deep-seabed creatures: Sea Cucumber Amperima sp. on the seabed in the eastern Clarion-Clipperton Zone

Poland, India, France, the UK, Belgian, Singapore, and, significantly, the Pacific islands of Kiribati, Cook Islands, Tonga, and Nauru have interests as well. It's significant because historically, it's been other countries, such as Australia, that have wanted to benefit from resources owned by the Pacific islander states.

Sounds great. What's the catch?

The problem is that the science seems to be lagging behind the more commercial interests in deep-seabed research. But it is catching up. And the concerns — while yet to be fully verified — have long existed.

A now nine-year-old study led by Dmitry M. Miljutin in France suggested that "about 1 square kilometers of sea floor will be mined daily, or about 6,000 square kilometers over the 20-year life of a mine site. […] Thus, the vast deep-sea seafloor will be seriously disturbed during the mining operations."

More recently, a study published this year by James Hein, Andrea Koschinsky and Thomas Kuhn suggests nodule collectors "will crush any organisms that are unable to escape and compact the sediment, reducing its habitability for sediment infauna."

Just waiting to be scooped up? Manganese nodules provide a habitat for many deep-seabed creatures

Additionally, the authors write that nodule mining could alter the geochemical composition of the sediment and water and cause "a short-term release of potentially toxic metals."

It's all "ifs and conditionals" at this point, but that's precisely why scientists want more time research the impact of deep-sea mining.

Watch video https://p.dw.com/p/3dGBx
The big space treasure hunt

For instance, it's unclear how sediment will disperse when it's disturbed by a nodule harvester. The harvester may create so-called plumes — clouds — of sediment that could move unevenly across the seabed. Some creatures in the ocean's Abyssal zone live on the nodules and others, such as single-celled creatures called xenophyophores, use the sediment as covering, a safe habitat.

There are also concerns that ships above the harvesters will dump waste sediment and that that could suffocate plankton.

Read more: World Oceans Day: Beach cleanups held worldwide

The ISA has designated Areas of Particular Environmental Interest (APEIs).

In the US, the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research says that the "APEIs were placed across the CCZ to protect and represent the full range of biodiversity and habitats in the region."

But the APEIs directly border those mining "claim areas." And some research suggests the sediment could resettle up to 10 kilometers away from a harvesting site, with unknown consequences.


Watch video https://p.dw.com/p/3dGBx
Student mission: Saving the sea

One such area of concern is out in the Atlantic: the Lost City Hydrothermal Field.

Engineers are working on harvester technology that may reduce those plumes of sediment, but that's also a work in progress.

What we do know for certain is that areas where harvesting has been tested have so far shown little sign of recovery. There are two examples:

One test was conducted in 1989 — the DISCOL experiment led by Hjalmar Thiel, a scientist based in Hamburg. And the other was done by the Ocean Minerals Company out of the USA in the area of a French mining claim in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone.

Decades later, the tracks of the dredgers could still clearly be seen

Date 05.06.2020
Author Zulfikar Abbany
Related Subjects Conservation, Oceans
Keywords deep-sea mining, DSM, deep-seabed mining, fauna, batteries, metals, minerals, Clarion-Clipperton Zone, exploration, exploitation, conservation, oceans, World Oceans Day

Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3dGBx

Palestinians, Israelis protest against Israel's decision to annex parts of the West Bank

Protesters took to the street against Israeli government plans to annex parts of the West Bank. It's land Palestinians want as part of an independent state.

    

Thousands of Palestinians and Israelis protested in Israel on Saturday against Israel's plan to extend sovereignty over parts of the West Bank. The protesters carried banners "No to annexation, no to occupation, yes to peace and democracy" and Palestinian flags.

The protesters gathered after the police issued a permit on Friday night, on the condition that they maintain a two-meter (6.5-foot) distance between each other. The protests were reportedly organized by left-wing groups.

The leader of Meretz, a left-leaning Israeli party called the annexation decision by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government a "war crime" and a "crime against democracy".

US Senator Bernie Sanders also addressed protesters in a video and expressed his support for the demonstration. "It's up to all of us to stand up to authoritarian leaders and to build a peaceful future for every Palestinian and every Israeli," said Sanders.

The situation in West Bank

The latest Israeli elections, and US President Donald Trump's controversial peace plan, have given Israel more room to exert its control over the West Bank, a contested territory that the Palestinians seek as part of an independent state.

The new Israeli coalition agreement between Netanyahu's Likud party and Defense Minister Benny Gantz's Blue and White party allows for the annexation of the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank and respective Jewish settlements as early as July. 

Read more: Israel plans to annex West Bank territories

Last month, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared an end to all agreements and understandings with Israel and the US in response to Israel's plans to annex settlements and the Jordan Valley.

Earlier this week, Netanyahu said that the annexation of the land would happen independently of Trump's Middle East plan. According to a recent poll by the Israel Democracy Institute, 50.1% Israelis support annexation of the Jordan Valley.

am/sms (AFP, Reuters)

DW sends out a daily selection of the day's news and features. Sign up here.

• Date 06.06.2020
• Related Subjects Israel, Palestine, West Bank, Fatah
• Keywords Israel, Palestine, West Bank, protests, annexation, Middle East peace
• Feedback: Send us your feedback.
• Print Print this page
• Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3dNaZ

DISARM THE COPS

NEW MAYAN FINDS

Oldest and biggest Mayan monument discovered

Archaeologists have discovered a monumental Mayan complex in southern Mexico, using laser scanners. It's hoped the spectacular find will reveal surprising insights into a community that lived there 3,000 years ago.



The impressive pyramid-style cities of the ancient Mayan culture, such as at Tikal in Guatemala, can be found described in any travel book.

But the many of the other monumental buildings, houses, roads and paths, water works and drainage systems, and terraces still lay hidden in dense rain forest.

Since 2017, researchers have been flying over a border region between Mexico and Guatemala with laser scanners to systematically investigate any promising ground structures.

The laser scanners use LiDAR Technology (light detection and ranging), and with that the researchers have made a number of spectacular discoveries over the past few years, and won new insights into the lives of the ancient Mayan people.

Spectacular finds under lush vegetation

Now, using that same technology in the Mexican state of Tabasco, archaeologists have found what appears to be the biggest and oldest known Mayan monumental complex.

Writing in the scientific journal Nature, the researchers led by Takeshi Inomata at the University of Arizona, report they have found 21 ceremonial centers — some smaller and some larger — which all appear to be of a similar structure.

The largest complex is at Aguada Fénix, featuring a rectangular plateau 1400 meters long and 400 meters wide. The plateau runs from north to south, dominating the surrounding flatlands from a height of between 10 and 15 meters.


Even from this aerial perspective, Aguada Fénix's plateaus, reservoirs and dams are hard to see

Based on radiocarbon dating, the researchers say the oldest finds at Aguada Fénix could be as old as 3,200 years old.

That would mean building work on the huge plateau began around 1000 B.C.

Inomata says that makes this not only the largest but also the oldest Mayan discovery.

A society free of hierarchy

The find is different from other Mayan structures, such as pyramid-like structures of the classic and late-classic periods.

By contrast, the monumental plateau and causeways at Aguada Fénix would have provided a lot of communal space for the people. The researchers say that suggests the complex was built by, and for, a society largely free of hierarchy.

They also say it is significant that they have so far found no sculptures of individuals, who may have had a higher status than others, at Aguada Fénix. That indicates, write the authors, that in its earliest phases, Mayan culture was a classless society, where working together as a community gave the people meaning.

"During later periods, there were powerful rulers and administrative systems in which the people were ordered to do the work. But this site is much earlier, and we don't see the evidence of the presence of powerful elites. We think that it's more the result of communal work," Inomata told his university's media outlet, UA News.

Historical context

The first Mayan people are thought to have left the highlands of Guatemala in around 1500 B.C. and moved north to the Yucatan Peninsula. Mayan culture reached its pinnacle between 200 and 800 A.D. and is known to have spread from today's southern Mexico towards Honduras. But the culture collapsed around the 9th and 10th centuries.


What can we learn from ancient stone structures? A wall painting such as this one at Chiapas may be easier to interpret.

Inomata says the new discovery changes our understanding of the early Mayan culture — and that it also connects the Mayans with an even older civilization, the Olmec. The Olmec civilization is considered the oldest, advanced civilization of Central America.

Aguada Fénix suggests the Mayan people lived in cities with monumental complexes earlier than previously thought.

Until now, archaeologists have tended to think that sedentary life in fixed dwellings came before gatherings for rituals or religious activities, says Patricia McAnany, an anthropologist at the University of North Carolina, commenting on the find in Nature.

"But newer evidence is emerging to suggest it was the other way around," writes McAnany. It would appear now that ritual celebrations, including astronomical observances, came before village-like settlements.

Many open questions

It's still unclear, however, whether this new way of thinking about Mayan culture can really be confirmed by the new finds. A number of questions remain unanswered.

One of the central questions for researchers is why exactly the Mayan people went to such an effort to move between 3.2 and 4.3 million cubic meters of earth 3000 years ago.


In Tikal, the Mayans built up towards the sky — but there was only room for a few privileged people at the top

And what function did the central platform at Aguada Fénix perform? It's unlikely to have been used as solar observation point — because the notion that they would have observed the sunrise during the summer and winter solstices from the western mounds to the eastern corners of the platform makes little sense. Inomata says the complex is oriented towards the east, but that it is not precisely aligned.

He does say, however, that rituals associated with the sun calendar were probably conducted on the platform.

Another open question is why the complex at Aguada Fénix was deserted after only a few years in around 750 B.C.

The researchers say it is possible that changes in the environmental climate forced the inhabitants to move, allowing the lush local vegetation to grow again and cover all traces of their having ever been there.



TRAVEL TIPS FOR FANS OF ARCHAEOLOGY
A window into the past

Sometimes the earth reveals them voluntarily, sometimes they are found by chance and often they are searched for - archaeological riches. Excavation sites around the world offer fascinating insights into the origins of our cultures.

12345678910111213

DW RECOMMENDS


Ancient Mayan palace discovered in Mexico

The palace is the length of half a football pitch and would have been used by Mayan elites. Archaeologists say the discovery of the palace is "just the beginning" with many more exciting discoveries yet to come. (27.12.2019)






Date 05.06.2020
Author Alexander Freund
Related Subjects Archaeology, Mexico, Hernandez, Anabel
Keywords Maya, Mayan culture, laser technology, Aguada Fénix, Mexico, LIDAR, archaeology
Feedback: Send us your feedback.
Print Print this page
Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3dJDK

With help from bats, researchers created a coronavirus family tree

Bats can help us understand why and how these viruses sometimes jump to humans.

By Cara Giaimo
May 27, 2020

SARS-CoV2—the virus that causes COVID-19—has wreaked havoc on the human world, sickening millions of people and spurring us to change almost everything about how we live. Like other zoonotic diseases, such as Lyme disease and salmonella, its power comes from its novelty: because it did not evolve with us, we have few defenses against it.

But there is a type of animal that’s quite used to coronaviruses: bats. According to a recent paper in Scientific Reports, bat families and genera harbor their “own” coronavirus strains, which they’ve evolved alongside. Knowing more about these relationships could eventually help us get ahead of, and hopefully avoid, future outbreaks.

It’s been estimated that there could be at least 3,200 different strains of coronavirus present in bats, and hundreds have already been identified. The viruses don’t appear to cause harm to the bats. They also don’t seem to pass directly from bats to humans—a secondary host is generally needed.

For this study, the researchers focused on bats from islands in the Western Indian Ocean, as well as Mozambique. They used swab samples collected from 1,013 bats from 36 different species, including the Seychelles flying fox and the Sundevall’s roundleaf bat, known for its large nose. Overall, 8.7% of the bats tested positive for a coronavirus—although it’s possible that infection rates fluctuate throughout the year as the seasons change, the authors write.

The researchers then genetically sequenced the coronaviruses they found in the bats. Using this analysis—along with information from previous studies of strains found in dolphins, alpacas, humans, and other bats—the researchers built a phylogenetic “family tree” of different coronaviruses, showing how they are related to each other.

They found that, for the most part, each genus or family of bat carried a different strain of coronavirus, which it had likely been evolving alongside for millions of years. “It is clear that there is a deep coexistence between bats . . . and their associated coronaviruses,” Michael Goodman, one of the study’s authors, told the Field Museum. Bats from different families, genera or species rarely exhibited the same strain—although sometimes, when they shared caves and roosted near each other, they did.

There is still a lot we need to know about coronaviruses, from how transmission occurs between bats and secondary hosts to what might trigger a spillover event. But information like that found in this study is a building block, helping researchers start to predict where future outbreaks might come from.

“Before you can actually figure out programs for public health and try to deal with the possible shift of certain diseases to humans, or from humans to animals, you have to know what’s out there,” Goodman said. In a sense, bats harbor a living library of viruses we should keep an eye on: yet another service that they provide.

Source: Joffrin, Léa et. al. “Bat coronavirus phylogeography in the Western Indian Ocean.” Scientific Reports. 2020.

Image: Edgar Bell/WallpaperFlare

COVIDcast: World economy in flux
ROLAND RAJAH ADAM TOOZE



In this episode of COVIDcast, Lowy Institute lead economist Roland Rajah sat down with Adam Tooze to discuss how the Covid-19 economic crisis is evolving and reshaping the world economy. Tooze is Professor of History at Columbia University and the Director of its European Institute. He is also the author of the 2018 book Crashed which is widely acclaimed as one of the best books about the 2008 global financial crisis and its aftermath.

Rajah and Tooze discussed how the story of Covid-19 has rapidly evolved as the crisis has unfolded. Tooze noted how China had gone from facing what many serious people thought could be its Chernobyl moment to getting control of the virus. Similarly, Europe was initially badly hit but has more recently the outlook has improved. Meanwhile, the United States has been on a rollercoaster, with initial fumbles on its health response followed by a massive fiscal and monetary response that has since begun to unravel in partisanship even as social unrest has exploded onto its cities’ streets.

Lowy Institute Audio · COVIDcast: World economy in flux

Lowy Institute Audio · COVIDcast: World economy in flux

The pair also discussed the importance of a proposed €750 billion European Union Covid recovery fund. Rajah noted that the level of fiscal support is perhaps not as large as the headline figure might suggest but that it was still substantial and could be scaled up in future. Tooze agreed, arguing that it was certainly big enough to qualify as a really serious political step, particularly on the part of Germany. However he also noted that serious blockages remained and the new proposal was far from a done deal.


The conversation then returned to China, focused on the contrast between China currently being a pillar of relative strength in the global economy but with relations with the West souring on nearly every front. Tooze noted that China had clearly chosen this time to “push” and that the West is going to face difficult choices. But cooperation with China also remained essential, especially on climate change. He noted that Europe has the most constructive policy of moving towards a green transition and see China as a potential partner. Tooze concluded by arguing there was enough there for cooperation, even though there is little sympathy between the two at a political level.

The Resilience of the Paris Agreement: 

Negotiating and Implementing the Climate Regime

Georgetown Environmental Law Review, Vol. 31.1, pp. 1-64, 2018

Queen Mary School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 284/2018;

64 Pages Posted: 28 Aug 2018 Last revised: 26 Jan 2019

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3236985

Rafael Leal-Arcas

Queen Mary University of London - School of Law

Antonio Morelli

American University - Washington College of Law

Date Written: August 22, 2018

Abstract

The Paris Climate Agreement is undoubtedly one of the greatest diplomatic achievements of the Obama-Kerry administration. Yet under the Trump presidency, it is under threat of being dismantled, just like many other international agreements, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. This article explains that such dismantling will be hard to achieve because the success of the Paris Agreement does not only rest in its negotiation phase, but is supported through a bottom-up approach in the implementation phase and the potential of the international trading system. With an analysis of the climate regime’s negotiation and implementation, this paper aims at demonstrating why dismantling the Paris Climate Agreement will be hard and not favored by the plurality of actors involved in the process.

Keywords: Paris Agreement, climate change, international trade