Ukraine: Thousands march for LGBTQ rights

Kyiv's annual gay Pride parade returned after missing a year in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite recent progress, homophobia and opposition to same-sex partnerships remain high in Ukraine.

    

Around 7,000 people joined the Kyiv Pride parade, including diplomats and Ukrainian soldiers

Some 7,000 people gathered in Ukraine's capital Kyiv on Sunday for the annual March for Equality to support the rights of the country's LGBTQ community.

The Pride parade passed off without incident despite concerns about violence as a group of a few hundred far-right protesters staged a counter-demonstration in a nearby park.

The March for Equality organizers said attendance was down slightly compared to the last march in 2019, which saw the biggest turnout since the event was initiated a decade ago despite opposition from religious and nationalist groups.

Last year's Pride parade was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"This is already the 10th Pride, it was successful, it went off calmly," Leni Emson, director of the KyivPride non-government organization, told journalists.

The march was guarded by police, who sought to prevent clashes with far-right groups that attempt to

 disrupt the event every year

Protesters made several demands

Wearing colorful costumes and rainbow flags, some protesters carried banners that read "Fight for right!" — a reference to eight demands that were made to Ukrainian authorities, including the legalization of civil partnerships for LGBTQ people and the creation of laws against hate crimes.

The government has increased support for LGBTQ rights since Western-backed leaders came to power in 2014. The country's labor laws were amended a year later to ban discrimination against LGBTQ people in the workplace.

However, homophobia remains widespread, according to a survey by the sociological group "Rating" published in August, which said 47% of respondents had a negative view of the LGBTQ community.

Kyiv's Pride parade was a colorful affair with many attendees wearing outlandish costumes

Rights groups say police reforms are needed

LGBTQ rights groups say Ukrainian police often ignore homophobic or transphobic motives of attacks, classifying them as hooliganism.

"We've grown tired of waiting for change and enduring systematic intimidation, pressure, disruption of peaceful events, attacks on activists and the LGBTQ community,'' the marchers said in a statement.

"We demand changes here and now, as we want to live freely in our own country."

Despite the progress, conservative groups in the largely Orthodox Christian country oppose LGBTQ rights and members of far-right organizations regularly attack groups and events linked to the gay community.

Ukraine ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova on Sunday called on radical groups to refrain from violence, writing on Facebook that the constitution recognizes all people "equal in their rights from birth, regardless of any characteristics, including sexual orientation and gender identity."

mm/jlw (AP, Reuters)

 Greece: Major fire breaks out at soon-to-be-closed migrant camp

The Vathy camp was overtaken by a major fire on the eve of migrants being transferred out. Many are headed to a new €43 million ($50 millon) "closed" high-tech secure facility.

Makeshift tents are seen burning at the reception and identification center for migrants and refugees in the town of Vathy, on the island of Samos, on September 19, 2021 LOUISA GOULIAMAKI AFP

    

Firefighters try to extinguish the flames at makeshift tents outside the perimeter of the overcrowded 

refugee camp at the port of Vathy

The Greek Ministry of Migration said Sunday a major fire had overtaken the Vathy migrant camp on the island of Samos before being brought under control.

"There is no danger for those who are still there because the fire broke out in abandoned sheds in the western side of the camp," the ministry said, adding all asylum-seekers had been evacuated to an empty space near the entrance to the camp.

Samos is one of the Aegean islands where migrants traveling through nearby Turkey arrive.

Samos mayor Girgos Stantzos told news agency AFP the entire site had been evacuated.

Several migrants, including crying children, were gathered in a parking lot near the Vathy camp.

Human rights groups has long decried the conditions at the Vathy camp, which is set to close at the end 

of this month

The fire brigade said 13 firefighters and six engines were fighting the blaze and there were no reports of any injuries.

Camp was long criticized for poor conditions

While Vathy is soon to be closed at the end of the month, it is still housing at least 300 people who are awaiting transfer on Monday to one of the new "closed" camps with high-tech security on Samos.

The new facility is the first of five planned. It was opened over the weekend by Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi.

In opening the new facility, he conceded conditions at Vathy had been squalid in the past.

Human rights campaigners had long denounced conditions at Vathy. A facility initially built for 680 people, during the peak of arrivals of refugees and asylum-seekers in 2015 and 2016, the Vathy camp housed 7,000.

The new camps are also opposed by rights groups. They say the new camps are too restrictive, too much like a prison.

The new 12,000 square meter (39,000 square feet) camp is equipped with surveillance cameras, x-ray scanners and magnetic doors as well as a barbed wire fence around it.

The structure also includes a detention center for migrants whose asylum claims have been rejected who will be sent back to Turkey.

ar/rs (AFP, AP)

Greece opens new holding camp to house 3,000 migrants as it prepares for a wave of Afghan refugees

September 19, 2021 

Greece has opened a new migrant camp capable of housing 3,000 people as preparations begin for the Afghan refugee scramble from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

The EU-funded holding camp, which opened on Saturday on the island of Samos, near to Turkey, was the first of five new border control facilities set to open across Greek islands coming months. 

Private security forces will patrol the reception and identification centre’s perimeter – which is also protected by steel fencing topped with barbed wire.

Campaigners have criticised the new Samos asylum seeker camp and compared its barbed wire fencing and heavy security as being akin to a prison facility.

Despite questions over its exterior, thousands of refugees will be housed in rooms featuring six bunk beds and will be able to use amenities including a park with a slide and a basketball court.  

The first 450 asylum-seekers who currently reside at another camp will move into the new facility on Monday, as Greek ministers praised their ‘modern’ and ‘safe’ closed camp. 

More than 42,000 asylum seekers entered Greece in August, roughly half the number recorded at the same time last year.

But recent developments in Afghanistan, which saw Kabul fall to the violent second-coming of the Taliban, have sparked fears of a new humanitarian crisis with upwards of 500,000 Afghanistan refugees expected by the end of 2021.  

Greece has opened a new closed migrant camp on the island of Samos (pictured above) capable of housing 3,000 people

The multi-purpose reception and identification centre will open for the first 450 asylum-seekers on Monday

The EU-funded holding camp, which opened on Saturday on the island of Samos, near to Turkey, was the first of five new border control facilities set to open across Greek islands coming months

‘We have created a modern and safe new closed, controlled access centre… that will give back the lost dignity to people seeking international protection,’ Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said inaugurating the new camp. 

Alongside the new structure, a 25 mile long fence has been erected in the Evros region that borders Turkey to prevent a fresh flood of migrants turning Greece into the ‘gateway to Europe’ again.

Mitarachi said the new Samos camp, which can accommodate 3,000 people, would also hold illegal migrants to be returned or deported. He said two other centres would be ready on the islands of Kos and Leros in a few months.

‘For us it’s a jail,’ Iorgos Karagiannis, head of mission for Doctors Without Borders (MSF), said of the new camp.

‘It’s a declaration of harmful policies that are preferred by EU leaders rather than the care, the induction and ensured asylum.’

The EU has committed £235 million (€276m) for new facilities on Greece’s five Aegean islands – Leros, Lesbos, Kos, Chios and Samos. 

Inside, refugees will be able to use amenities including a basketball court (left) and park with slide (right)

Campaigners have criticised the new Samos asylum seeker camp and compared its barbed wire fencing and heavy security as being akin to a prison facility

A view of a room inside the new multi-purpose reception and identification migrant centre which was constructed near Vathy town, on the eastern Aegean island of Samos, Greece

Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi smiles to one of his associates during the inauguration of a closed-type migrant camp on the island of Samos, Greece

Greece was at the frontline of Europe’s migration crisis in 2015-16, and dubbed the ‘gateway to Europe’ as millions of refugees fled war and poverty in the Middle East

The Mediterranean country was at the frontline of Europe’s migration crisis in 2015 and 2016 when a million refugees fleeing war and poverty from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan arrived, mainly via Turkey.

The number of arrivals has fallen since then, but with tens of thousands of asylum-seekers still stranded in Greece, the conservative government that took power in 2019 has toughened its stance on migration.

Under a 2016 deal, Turkey agreed to stem the tide of refugees to Europe in return for financial aid. It has since protested that the EU has failed to honour the agreement.

Since then, daily clashes between border police and asylum-seekers have broken out at the land border. 

But Greece has still deported, returned and relocated thousands of migrants and refugees who have been stranded for years, mainly on its outlying islands in the Aegean Sea.

The number of asylum-seekers was 42,000 in August, about half the number a year ago, migration ministry data showed.

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has fuelled fears of a new wave of refugees.

 Greece says it will not allow a replay of the 2015 migrant crisis and has demanded a joint European response.

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German election: Annalena Baerbock calls for a 'climate protection government'

After an election campaign with many lows, the Greens are meeting for a small party conference in Berlin to lick their wounds and gain momentum for the last days before the election.



Robert Habeck and Annalena Baerbock rallied party members to give it their all on the final stretch

The Green Party's candidate for chancellor kept the photographers and cameramen waiting for over half an hour on Sunday morning. Then Annalena Baerbock made a grand entrance withparty co-chair Robert Habeck and other party colleagues to kick off a "small party conference" in Berlin, one week before the general election. The 100 delegates wanted to send a "strong signal for the final spurt" in the election campaign.

The Green Party and its 40-year-old candidate have had a difficult few weeks: They made headlines over false information in Baerbock's official CV and plagiarism allegations centering on her most recent book.

It was only late in the campaign that Baerbock managed to get back on track and talk about her central policy issue, climate protection. By then, however, the Greens had already slipped in the polls — from a spectacular 26% in May to currently 15 to 17% percent. In the last general election in 2017, they came in at only 8.9%.

Watch video12:31 Reporter - German election: Rejuvenating politics

Shattered dreams

That Baerbock will win the chancellorship now seems highly unlikely; the environmentalist party is in third place in the polls behind the center-left Social Democrat (SPD) and the center-right bloc made up of Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).

Right at the beginning of her speech on Sunday, Baerbock went on the offensive: "Yes, the last few weeks have been turbulent. But now we feel confidence again," she said. "One in three voters is still undecided, that's 20 million people, that's a lot," she continued, encouraging her audience to use the coming week to fight for every single vote.

The Greens are on edge and feel they have been targeted unfairly. National executive Michael Kellner made that clear in his speech when he said "75% of all the lies spread on the net" had been directed against the Greens during the election campaign.

GERMANY'S GREEN PARTY: HOW IT EVOLVED

1980: Unifying protest movements

The Green party was founded in 1980, unifying a whole array of regional movements made up of people frustrated by mainstream politics. It brought together feminists, environmental, peace and human rights activists. Many felt that those in power were ignoring environmental issues, as well as the dangers of nuclear power.

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Campaigning for climate protection

Now the Greens want to focus once again on the issue of climate protection — and they want to allay voters' fears that this might mean a loss of prosperity and too many restrictions in everyday life. In the six-page draft of the "Social Pact for Climate-Friendly Prosperity," which Sunday's party conference adopted, there is the promise to partly compensate people if gasoline prices continue to rise because of climate protection policies.

Baerbock called out to the delegates, "Now, at this moment, when a large part of the German economy says yes to protecting the climate, then this issue must become a matter for the boss."

Co-party leader Robert Habeck accused the "grand coalition" of CDU/CSU and SPD, which has been in power for the last eight years, of failing to provide answers on how to achieve the climate targets. Instead, he said, the conservatives had been conjuring up a "stupid contrast" between economic growth and climate protection as well as justice and climate protection in the election campaign, he said, whereas these issues were absolutely reconcilable.

The Greens also promise to focus on equality issues — should they be part of the next government, they stressed, one of their first acts would be to raise the minimum wage to twelve euros ($14). Another priority is to introduce a basic child benefit to overcome child poverty. Baerbock again called it unacceptable that Germany is one of the richest countries and yet every fifth child here lives in relative poverty.

GERMAN ELECTION 2021: GOVERNING COALITION OPTIONS

Deciphering the color code

The center-right Christian Democrat CDU and its Bavarian sister party CSU are symbolized by the color black. The center-left Social Democrat SPD is red, as is the communist Left Party. The pro-free market Free Democrats' (FDP) color is yellow. And the Greens are self-explanatory. German media refer to the color combinations and national flags using them as shorthand for political combinations.

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Commitment to an alliance with the SPD

The mood among the delegates was defiantly optimistic. Claudia Roth, a Green Party veteran and vice president of the Bundestag, told DW on the sidelines of the meeting that one reason was that more than 2,000 people had attended an election event with Annalena Baerbock in Augsburg, Bavaria, while only about 400 people had attended the campaign event of CDU candidate for chancellor Armin Laschet.

Although the Green Party is in coalition governments with the CDU and the SPD in several German states, most speakers on Sunday spoke out in favor of joining forces with the SPD. Baerbock herself again indicated this preference in an interview with the "Handelsblatt" before the party conference where she said that the CDU/CSU stood for "standstill in our country."

An alliance with the SPD alone, however, would not have a majority according to current polls. The Greens and the SPD would need a third coalition partner. And for this, both the Free Democrats and the Left Party might be an option.

Only one thing seems clear: The parties will have a difficult time forming a coalition following the vote on September 26.

This article has been translated from German.

While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society, with an eye toward understanding this year's elections and beyond. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing, to stay on top of developments as Germany enters the post-Merkel era.

Social media's love of rare plants has created a black market boom

Kristin Palitza, Denis Duettmann and Andrea Sosa

 Sep 13, 2021

© Janine Stephen/dpa

Succulents and other exotic plants are trending of late, not least for their geometric shapes and popularity on Instagram. However, the high demand has resulted in rare species being poached and traded illegally, leaving some even at risk of going extinct.

Berlin (dpa) -  A photo of a rare, unusual-looking plant is shared more than 10,000 times on social media. Under the entry, the comments rapidly pile up. "I'd love to have one of those!" and "Where can I get one?" A few weeks later, smugglers in South Africa are caught with the endangered plant species, whose trade is illegal.

"We receive a new report of plant poaching almost every day," complains Pieter van Wyk, a botanist who works closely with the South African National Biodiversity Institute.

South Africa is home to almost a third of the world's succulents, many of which are protected by law.

Boosted by social media, the illegal plant trade has taken on proportions comparable to rhino poaching, with international criminal networks now getting involved, van Wyk explains.

It's easy to see what potential for profit there is too; the hashtag #PlantTikTok has 3.5 billion views, while on Instagram there are 12.3 million posts with the hashtag #succulents.

It may all appear to be about plant love, plant care and pretty pictures, but lurking underneath is always the black market trade of some of the world's rarest plants.

The more endangered a plant, the higher its demand and thus its price. A plant that cost the equivalent of 1 euro two years ago now trades for 17,00 euros, says van Wyck. "It's almost like Bitcoin, an artificially created market that has taken on a disproportionate size."

The succulents, which often grow in pretty geometric patterns or unusual shapes, are particularly sought after in Asia, Europe and North America, he says.

Researchers at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England, are now developing AI algorithms to help scour the internet for information about the illegal trade in endangered plants.

The idea is to use a combination of botanical expertise, criminology and communications technology to analyze online behaviour and uncover the locations of poachers and traders.

It's a global race against time. In Chile, the illegal trade in particularly rare cacti has become one of the most lucrative criminal activities in the country. "Between 5 billion and 23 billion dollars are realized every year," explains botanist Pablo Guerrero from Chile's University of Concepcion.

For collectors, it is particularly attractive to own cacti that only exist in a certain region, says the director of the Antofagasta forestry department, Cristian Salas.

A year ago, police officers discovered cacti from Chile's Atacama Desert during a raid in the Italian province of Ancona. "About 1,000 plants were confiscated, some of which were sold for 2,000 to 5,000 dollars each," said Simone Checchini of Italy's Carabinieri.

Most of the confiscated plants were cacti of the genus Copiapoa, which are only found in the extremely dry Atacama.

"This region has been heavily plundered by illegal collectors in recent years, which has contributed to the rapid decline in the populations of these species," said a statement from the World Conservation Union.

Mexico has also been severely affected by cactus smuggling.

According to local environmental authorities, a total of 518 of the 1,400 or so species that exist worldwide are endemic there.

The giant cacti of the Sonora Desert and the nopal (prickly pear) with its red fruit - which can also be found on the country's flag - are probably the best-known species from Mexico. But a variety of other cacti are in demand among collectors. However, the illegal plant trade is a "silent problem" whose importance is often overlooked, the organization InSight Crime wrote in a report.

In South Africa's south-western Cape Floral Region, which is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site, as well as in the Namaqualand district further north, which is famous for its biodiversity, dozens of plant species grow that cannot be found in the wild anywhere else in the world.

Smugglers remain indifferent to the damage they are doing to the region's natural wealth, however, and last year, the authorities confiscated nearly 150 kilos of protected plans, according to Cape Nature. "What we are seeing at the moment is the rapid and complete loss of entire species," van Wyk warns.

In Namaqualand, a police sting operation in mid-2020 caught four poachers red-handed as they attempted to sell protected plants worth the equivalent of 134,000 dollars on the side of a country road.

While the plants were confiscated, once removed from the ground, they can only survive in botanical nurseries, tended by trained staff.

"This is the great tragedy," police captain Karel du Toit, who heads a special unit to combat plant smuggling, told radio station Cape Talk. "For the wild, they are lost forever."

 

India's plans for palm oil spark ecological concerns, controversy

Siddhartha Kumar

 Sep 13, 2021

© Zikri Maulana/via ZUMA Wire/dpa

The Indian government wants to cut its heavy dependence on palm oil imports by growing the water-guzzling crop at home. It's a move that environmental experts and politicians warn will be "disastrous" if the main export countries - Indonesia and Malaysia - are any example.

New Delhi (dpa) – India, the world's largest palm oil importer, has unveiled an ambitious plan to promote the cultivation of the crop at home that has environmentalists and politicians concerned about deforestation, ecological damage and human rights violations.

The government recently allocated 1.5 billion dollars to boost annual palm oil production to 2.8 million tons by 2029-30, from its current 300,000 tons, and cut the country's heavy dependence on imports from Indonesia and Malaysia.

The National Mission on Edible Oils-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) will support farmers in expanding areas under oil palm cultivation to 1 million hectares, from 370,000 hectares, with a "special focus" on the north-eastern states and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean.

Both these regions are among India's main biodiversity hotspots and are ecologically fragile.

Environmental experts and politicians warn that the move to promote cultivation could be "disastrous" given the widespread damage to rainforests and biodiversity caused by oil palm plantations in South-East Asia.

There are concerns that plantations of oil palm, a water-guzzling crop that grows best in tropical areas, will replace forest covers while triggering water scarcity, leading to deforestation and loss of habitat for endangered wildlife, agricultural scientist GV Ramanjaneyulu tells dpa.

"As a monoculture crop which ruins biodiversity, forests and ecosystem, it will have far bigger adverse effects, by impacting monsoon, temperatures, and leading to climate change," says Ramanjaneyulu, who heads the Hyderabad-based Centre for Sustainable Agriculture.

Lawmaker Agatha Sangma, who belongs to north-eastern Meghalaya state, demanded wider consultation on the plan in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

She flagged concerns that commercial plantations would detach tribespeople from their identity linked with community ownership of lands and "wreak havoc on the social fabric."

Former environment minister Jairam Ramesh, from the opposition Indian National Congress party, says proposals for large-scale oil palm cultivation had been studied and rejected in the late 1980s as it was a "recipe for ecological disaster."

The Indian Express daily reported that the government's oil palm mission was launched despite the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education saying that the plantations "should be avoided" in biodiversity-rich areas without further studies of their impact.

Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar has, however, said the government is going ahead with the plan on the basis of scientific analysis, while insisting that no forest land will be diverted for the purpose.

The plan may run into legal hurdles, since it could require clearances from the Supreme Court, which is currently hearing a case regarding oil palm cultivation in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

According to reports, the court had ordered the phasing out of all "exotic" plantations on forest land to conserve the island's ecology in 2002 - with exotic referring to all species of flora and fauna not native to the islands.

Ramanjaneyulu says that over the past 25 years, thanks to cheaper imports, the area that was under edible oil and pulse cultivation in India dropped significantly in favour of paddy and cotton.

"We should opt for oil palm in areas where paddy and cotton are cultivated, as India has crossed self-sufficiency in both and there is often a glut ... That is, we should change cropping pattern instead of going in for new areas and cutting forests."

"Also we should boost production of a wide range of healthier edible oils, like sunflower, sesame and safflower, instead of just palm oil," he adds.

The oil is an ingredient in a wide array of products, from fuels to cosmetics to confectionery.

However environmental case studies in forested belts of Sumatra, Borneo and the Malay Peninsula – which produce 90 per cent of the world's palm oil – found that the levelling of tropical jungles to make way for plantations has pushed out wildlife and endangered species such as the Sumatran tiger and orangutan.

New Delhi's plan comes amid a wider debate over palm oil, with the European Union banning its use in biofuels, citing environmental and human rights violations in the production.

India's southern neighbour, Sri Lanka, in April 2021 banned palm oil imports and ordered existing plantations to be razed, citing adverse environmental and social impacts. 

Exclusive: Investors call for governments to toughen climate accounting - letter

By Simon Jessop 

© Reuters/Mike Hutchings FILE PHOTO: 

Clouds gather but produce no rain as cracks are seen in the dried up municipal dam in drought-stricken Graaff-Reinet

LONDON (Reuters) - Investors managing more than $2.5 trillion have called on governments to compel companies and auditors to file financial accounts aligned with the world's net zero emissions target, a letter seen by Reuters showed.

Writing to UK climate czar Alok Sharma ahead of the next round of global climate talks in Glasgow in November, the group said doing so was crucial to clarify the financial impact of climate change and give an incentive to invest accordingly.

Governments should mandate a requirement for companies to make clear the financial consequences of a net-zero pathway and for auditors to call out where companies have failed to do so, the investor group said in the Sept. 14 letter.

It follows a recent study by Carbon Tracker and the Climate Accounting Project that found more than 70% of the world's heaviest-emitting companies did not disclose the full risks in their 2020 disclosures, with 80% of audits showing no evidence the risk had been assessed.

"Most (companies) continue to use assumptions that presume little or no decarbonisation, and thus report financial results predicated on governments failing to implement their stated commitments and, in some cases, legal targets," the letter said.

Sharma's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The upcoming climate conference, dubbed COP26, is seen as the most important since governments originally struck a deal to limit global warming in Paris in 2015, with all parties now being asked to accelerate their efforts

https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/countries-emissions-pledges-still-fall-short-global-climate-goals-un-says-2021-09-17

Britain's accounting watchdog has already warned companies and auditors to do a better job, while global accounting and auditing standard setters have restated the need to assess material risks, which can include climate risk.

Despite investor bodies representing $100 trillion in assets calling in September for Paris-aligned accounts, the inaction from companies and auditors meant government action was needed, the investor group said.

"If we choose to wait for companies to respond to investor pressure, it could take years to deliver the numbers we require to invest in a way that is aligned with the Paris goals," the investors' letter said.

Signatories to the letter include a body representing British local government pensions, Sweden's AP2 pension scheme and investors including Sarasin & Partners, which coordinated the letter and an accompanying position paper, as well as Candriam and Federated Hermes.

For countries like Britain, which have made reaching net-zero emissions a legal obligation, changing the law around accounting and auditing would be "entirely consistent" with other government efforts, the investor group said.

The stakes are high. Companies such as BP wrote off billions of dollars last year after they lowered long-term oil price assumptions. Without proper accounting, money needed to fund the transition to a low-carbon economy could end up in the wrong place.

"Accounts that leave out material climate impacts misinform executives, shareholders and creditors and, thus, result in misdirected capital," the investor group said.

(Additional reporting by Nina Chestney; editing by Greg Roumeliotis and Philippa Fletcher

TORIES RED BAIT TRUDEAU (WHOSE PARTY COLOUR IS RED)

Trudeaus agreed to father's book being published by Chinese Communist-run company in 2005

FIDEL CASTRO WAS A PALLBERARER AT HIS FUNERAL

Tom Blackwell 4 days ago

It turns out a 2016 edition of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s memoirs was not his family’s first foray into Chinese state-run book publishing.

© Provided by National Post Pierre Trudeau and Jacques Hebert salute a monk in Buddhist fashion in China. From the book Two Innocents in Red China by Pierre Trudeau and Jacques Hebert.

In 2005, a Communist Party-affiliated company won the family’s approval — and a preface from brother Sacha Trudeau — for a Chinese-language edition of a book their father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, co-authored in the 1960s.

China experts differed Wednesday on why a publisher there would be interested in Two Innocents in Red China 50 years after the fact, suggesting it was either out of admiration for Pierre Trudeau — or to curry favour with his prominent sons.

Either way, said one scholar, it was likely subject to significant censorship.

Neither offspring had entered politics by 2005, but speculation had been bubbling since Pierre Trudeau’s death in 2000 that one of them would make the plunge. Justin Trudeau did three years later.

The offer to re-release the Two Innocents book by Pierre Trudeau and journalist-friend Jacques Hébert was likely an attempt to flatter two influential figures in Canadian affairs — an “insurance policy” in case one of them ran for office, says Guy Saint-Jacques, a former ambassador to Beijing.

“The approach is always the same: you make people feel special, you tell them they understand China and you pretend to give them special access,” he said. “Publishing books falls into that category because it gives face to the authors even if they cannot know for sure how many books are really sold.”

But a leading China specialist at the University of British Columbia said it’s doubtful the offer to translate and publish Pierre Trudeau’s 1960s book had anything to do with trying to influence the Trudeau sons.

It was more likely part of a common Chinese practice to issue versions of books on world leaders considered important or “empathetic” to China, said UBC Prof. Paul Evans. He said he’s seen tomes on Western heads of state from Angela Merkel to Margaret Thatcher in Chinese bookstores.

“(Pierre Trudeau) is the second best-known Canadian in China. The first is (doctor) Norman Bethune,” he said. “That they would want to publish his book in Chinese translation would not come to me as a surprise at all.”

In fact, the Canadian business world and many politicians were at that time eager to exploit the burgeoning Chinese market. Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper made repeated, trade-focused trips to China after his election in 2006.

A more pertinent issue, said Evans, is the fact that almost all books published in China, whether by state-owned companies or not, are subject to censorship that has only grown more severe in recent years.

He said he pulled a recent book of his own after censors in China said they would excise any reference to the Tiananmen Square massacre, Mao’s disastrous Great Leap Forward or human rights generally — about a third of the volume.

“It’s a murky and risky prospect,” said the professor.

The Liberal campaign was unable to respond to a request for comment by deadline.

The general issue came to the fore recently with a report that a Chinese version of Justin Trudeau’s memoir had been released in 2016 by a state-controlled publisher. Security advisors to the prime minister at the time told The Globe and Mail they would have discouraged the translation but, regardless, were never informed about it.

A decade earlier, Two Innocents in Red China — which recounted the trip Trudeau senior and Hébert took to the country in 1960 — was published by the Shanghai People’s Publishing House.

An online description of the company, originally set up by the propaganda department of the Shanghai branch of the Communists, says it has been at the forefront of producing “party-building” books.

In a 2016 interview with the Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC), Alexandre (Sacha) Trudeau said he had been approached by Chinese officials about reprinting his father’s book, and asked to write a preface for it.

He said he suggested visiting China before writing the introduction, and later the Chinese publisher encouraged him to pen his own book on his experiences. Sacha’s resulting title — Barbarian Lost — Travels in the new China — was published here in 2016 . A different publisher — not Shanghai People’s — released it in China in 2019.

The translation of Pierre Trudeau’s book was unlikely to have generated much if any income for the publisher after it paid for translation — and any advance fees the sons received, said Charles Burton, a former diplomat in Beijing and fellow with the Macdonald Laurier Institute.

“This kind of book by foreigners based on a short, carefully monitored tour of China do not sell well in the PRC as they are typically ridiculously misinformed and devoid of meaningful insight,” he said. “There are dozens of them gathering dust on state bookstore shelves all over China.”

Rather, the publishing deal would be designed to curry favour and “a sense of reciprocal obligation” with Justin Trudeau, Burton argued.

“This is highly consistent with the strategy and purposes of the Chinese Communist Party’s very well-resourced United Front Work Department.”

The Conservative Party — which has promised a tougher stance toward Beijing if elected — seized on the fact that Pierre Trudeau’s book was published in China 16 years ago as more evidence of a too-cozy relationship between the prime minister and the People’s Republic.

“It is extremely concerning that Justin Trudeau has been caught hiding a second secret book deal with the Chinese Communist Party,” said Tory candidate Michael Barrett. “If Justin Trudeau won’t tell Canadians about this secret relationship with the Chinese communists, how can Canadians trust him to stand up for Canadian interests when dealing with Beijing?”

COMING TO TEXAS SOON

Afghan women outraged by new Taliban restrictions on work

Issued on: 20/09/2021 - 

About a dozen Afghan women protested briefly Sunday outside the old Ministry for Women's Affairs, which has now been replaced by a department that earned notoriety for enforcing strict islamic doctrine 

BULENT KILIC AFP


Kabul (AFP)

The Taliban's effective ban on women working sank in on Monday, sparking rage over the dramatic loss of rights after millions of female teachers and girls were barred from secondary school education.

After pledging a softer version of their brutal and repressive regime of the 1990s, the Islamic fundamentalists are tightening their control of women's freedoms one month after seizing power.

"I may as well be dead," said one woman, who was sacked from her senior role at the ministry of foreign affairs.

"I was in charge of a whole department and there were many women working with me... now we have all lost our jobs," she told AFP, insisting she not be identified for fear of reprisals.

The acting mayor of the capital Kabul has said any municipal jobs currently held by women would be filled by men.

The Taliban on Friday appeared to shut down the former government's ministry of women's affairs and replaced it with one that earned notoriety during their first stint in power for enforcing religious doctrine 

Hoshang Hashimi AFP

That came after the education ministry ordered male teachers and students back to secondary school at the weekend, but made no mention of the country's millions of women educators and girl pupils.

The Taliban on Friday also appeared to shut down the former government's ministry of women's affairs and replaced it with one that earned notoriety during their first stint in power for enforcing religious doctrine.

While the country's new rulers have not issues a formal policy outright banning women from working, directives by individual officials have amounted to their exclusion from the workplace.

Many Afghan women fear they will never find meaningful employment.

- 'When will that be?' -

A new Taliban government announced two weeks ago had no women members.

Although still marginalised, Afghan women have fought for and gained basic rights in the past 20 years, becoming lawmakers, judges, pilots and police officers, though mostly limited to large cities.

Hundreds of thousands have entered the workforce -- a necessity in some cases as many women were widowed or now support invalid husbands as a result of two decades of conflict.

While the country's new rulers have not issues a formal policy outright banning women from working, directives by individual officials have amounted to their exclusion from the workplace

 BULENT KILIC AFP

But since returning to power on August 15, the Taliban have shown no inclination to honour those rights.

When pressed, Taliban officials say women have been told to stay at home for their own security but will be allowed to work once proper segregation can be implemented.

"When will that be?" a woman teacher said Monday.

"This happened last time. They kept saying they would allow us to return to work, but it never happened."

During the Taliban's first rule from 1996 to 2001, women were largely excluded from public life including being banned from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a male relative.

In Kabul on Friday, a sign for the ministry for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice was erected at the building housing the old government's ministry for women's affairs building in the capital.

Vice ministry enforcers were notorious for punishing anyone deemed not to be following the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islam.

During the Taliban's first rule from 1996 to 2001, women were largely excluded from public life including being banned from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a male relative 

Hoshang Hashimi AFP

On Sunday around a dozen women protested briefly outside the building, but dispersed when approached by Taliban officials.

No official from the new regime responded Monday to requests for comment.

In Herat, an education official insisted the issue of girls and women teachers returning to school was a question of time, not policy.

"It is not exactly clear when that will happen: tomorrow, next week, next month, we don't know," Shahabudin Saqib told AFP.

"It's not my decision because we have had a big revolution in Afghanistan."

The United Nations said it was "deeply worried" for the future of girls' schooling in Afghanistan.

"It is critical that all girls, including older girls, are able to resume their education without any further delays," the UN's children's agency UNICEF said.

Afghan women demand their rights under Taliban rule

As female employees in Kabul were reportedly told to stay home, some staged a protest against the latest restrictions on women by the new Taliban government.



Women have repeatedly protested against the Taliban since the Islamist militants returned to power

Several Afghan women gathered in Kabul on Sunday to demand the right to work and study under the new Taliban-run government.

Since the Taliban's return to power after a two-decade war, the fundamentalist militants have issued restrictive rules on girls' education and women's participation in public life.

Over a dozen women protested outside the premises of what used to be the Afghan Women's Affairs Ministry — until the Taliban turned it into the department for the "propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice."

"A society in which women are not active is [a] dead society," one sign read as protesters chanted, "women's rights and human rights."


Women gathered in front of the former Women's Affairs Ministry, two days after the Taliban replaced the ministry's banner
Female employees ordered to stay home

According to the Associated Press news agency, the Taliban's interim Kabul Mayor Hamdullah Namony said on Sunday that female employees have been ordered to stay home, pending a further decision.

Namony said exceptions were made for women who could not be replaced by men. "There are some areas that men can't do it. We have to ask our female staff to fulfill their duties. There is no alternative for it,'' he was quoted as saying by the AP.

Women in several areas across Afghanistan have been told to stay home from both public and private sector jobs. But the Taliban have not yet announced a uniform policy towards women's work.

Watch video 01:35 Taliban impose new rules on women in Afghanistan

What is the Taliban's stance on women's rights?

During the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan in the late 1990s, the Islamist militants enforced hard-line policies toward women, including publicly beating those who dared to venture outside without covering their entire bodies.

After the Taliban seized power last month, they tried to strike a conciliatory tone, vowing to uphold human rights and respect women's rights "within the limits of Islam."

So far, they have forbidden girls from attending secondary school and instructed universities to segregate classes by gender. The Taliban also named a new Afghan Cabinet with no women in ministerial positions.

Hundreds of women have taken to the streets to protest these restrictions over the past month. Their demonstrations have mostly been met by force from Taliban fighters.

About the only job women can do for the Kabul government is clean female bathrooms, acting mayor says

By Hira Humayun and Helen Regan, CNN 

Female employees in the Kabul city government have been told to stay home, and only women whose jobs cannot be done by men are allowed to come to work -- the latest restrictions imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

© BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images Afghan women converse with a Taliban fighter while they hold placards during a demonstration demanding better rights for women in front of the former Ministry of Women Affairs in Kabul on September 19.

The order, announced by Kabul's acting Mayor Hamdullah Nohmani on Sunday, effectively means women are now barred from government work in the Afghan capital. One of the only jobs women can do for the Kabul government is clean female bathrooms, according to the announcement.

The order leaves hundreds of women out of work. Nohmani said there are 2,930 people working for the municipality -- 27% of whom are women.

Fear is mounting for women and girls in Afghanistan after the Taliban seized control of the country last month. Despite repeated assurances to respect women's rights, the order on female government employees is the latest sign the freedoms of the last 20 years are coming to an end.

Since the takeover, women have been ordered to leave their workplaces in some areas, restrictions on girls' and women's education have been introduced, and women have been completely excluded from the country's hardline new government.

When the Taliban were last in power between 1996 and 2001, the militant group banned women and girls from education and work, stopped them from leaving the home unaccompanied, and forced them to cover their entire bodies.

"Initially we allowed all of them to be present at their duties on time, but then the Islamic Emirate decided it was necessary that for some time their work must stop," Nohmani said, using the official name for the Taliban. "Then we only allowed those females whom we needed, I mean for jobs which males couldn't do, or which is not a man's job ... For example, there are public female toilets in bazaars."

He added their work will now be done by men, and "until the situation comes to a normal state, we have asked them to stay at home."

His remarks come the same day women's rights activists demanded education for girls and women's participation in government in protests on Sunday.

The women marched outside a building in Kabul that once hosted the Afghan Ministry of Women's Affairs. That building is now home to the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice under the Taliban, according to a new sign posted outside and seen by a CNN team on the ground on Friday.

The Sunday march was organized by the Movement for Change Party, a women's civil society movement led by Fawzia Koofi, a former Afghan lawmaker, peace negotiator and women rights activist.

"The Taliban during and before the negotiations said in their statements that women have right to work and study according to Islamic law, but today what is going on in Afghanistan is against the promises Taliban made and against Islamic values," Koofi said via web conference from outside Afghanistan. "How you are banning a generation from reading and writing, it is not a social matter that group of humans are banned from study, life and freedom."

The protest came after the Taliban announced further restrictions on women and girls. A week ago, the Afghan Finance Ministry, now under Taliban control, issued a notice ordering its female employees not to return to work "until suitable work environment is arranged."

And on Friday, the Ministry of Education ordered male secondary school students and teachers to report to their schools on Saturday. The announcement did not mention female students, sowing fears that girls would once again be excluded from secondary education.

But the Taliban denied claims Afghan women would be banned from secondary schools, claiming they needed to set up a "secure transportation system" for female students before allowing them back into classrooms.

Speaking to CNN on Saturday, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said women will be allowed to study. "There are certain rules during their class time that must be obeyed that they could be safe and sound," he said.

Mujahid reiterated previous statements from the Taliban saying, "We are committed on women's rights" according to the group's interpretation of Sharia law.

However, the activist Koofi said the Taliban's actions so far indicate it "still does not believe in the rights of women" and pleaded with the international community and UN to pressure the Taliban to back track from its hardline decision.

"Today we hear that girls are not allowed to get education, the offices' doors are shut in their face, there are no woman representative in the political leadership," she said. "They should know that only by the respect and participation of women, they can live in peace and in this world."