OCT 5 INTERNATIONAL TEACHERS DAY

Iran clamps down on teachers demanding fair pay

Iran's teachers are protesting poor salaries and working conditions in the face of runaway inflation. The government, however, is treating them like criminals.

A number of teachers have been arrested for protesting in Iran

Aziz Ghasemzadeh is a spokesman for the teachers' union in Iran's northern province of Gilan. Last week, he was arrested while he was doing an interview on his phone with a Persian-language broadcaster. The phone's camera was still on and captured footage of the arrest at his parents' home; you can hear his mother's voice pleading with the officers not to take her son away. However, Ghasemzadeh's hands were tied, and he was blindfolded before being whisked away.

"Union activists like Aziz Ghasemzadeh are accused of 'endangering national security.' The authorities are cracking down on them," human rights lawyer Saeid Dehghan told DW. "Ghasemzadeh is a teacher and a respected musician and singer. He is an educated and cultured person who is peacefully campaigning for more social justice and better working conditions. That is not forbidden under our constitution."

Aziz Ghasemzadeh was arrested in the middle of an interview

Fear of the regime

Deghan, who is from the capital, Tehran, defends political prisoners in Iran. Deghan is concerned about the arbitrary arrest of activists. He says the intention is to intimidate them before they can organize themselves.

"The general discontent in Iran is very high, and any protest action has the potential to mobilize many people against the political system.  That's why, from the government's point of view, any protest must be nipped in the bud."

The day before his arrest, Aziz Ghasemzadeh had addressed a protest rally just before the start of the new school year in Iran. Similar demonstrations took place in more than 40 cities. The activists were campaigning for better working conditions and higher wages for teachers who are employees of the Ministry of Education.

Teachers in Iran have been campaigning for a long time for better pay

Many of them have not received their salary in months. It was only in March 2021 that the previous government under President Rouhani, after long negotiations, agreed to adjust teachers' salaries in light of the country's deteriorating economic situation.

‘Fair demands'

The teachers' wages were meant to be hiked by between 20% and 27%. However, the inflation rate in Iran in 2020 was 36.5% compared with the previous year. This year, it's expected to skyrocket to nearly 40%.

According to Iran's statistics agency, the average cost of living increased by more than 30% last year alone. "We are asking for our rights," Aziz Ghasemzadeh had stressed in his speech, which quickly circulated on the internet. The activists demanded not only fair pay but also urgent investment in modernizing dilapidated school buildings and hiring more staff.  

"Political leaders believe they can solve the problem by arresting union activists. They are wrong. We will not give up," Ghasemzadeh said in his speech. Now he himself is among at least 15 Iranian teachers who have been put behind bars for their work in the union.

One of the best-known prisoners is math teacher Esmail Abdi. Abdi, an executive board member of the Iranian Teachers' Trade Association, has been in jail since November 2016. He's been slapped with the regime's standard charge of "gathering information with the aim of endangering national security" and "propaganda against the political system."

Esmail Abdi has been behind bars since 2016

Violation of international obligations

The labor union Education International has repeatedly called for the release of Esmail Abdi and campaigned for global solidarity with him and other teachers imprisoned in Iran.

Iran is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The treaties guarantee the right of every person to form and join trade unions of their own free will for the promotion and protection of their economic and social interests.

In other words, those in power in Iran are violating their international human rights obligations.

"That's because they don't have to fear any serious consequences," Raha Bahreini, an Iran expert at Amnesty International, told DW. Bahreini pointed out that the UN had appointed a special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran, who documents human rights violations in the country.

"We're calling for an international mechanism to identify those responsible for human rights violations in Iran and to have the files opened so that those concerned can eventually be brought to justice," Bahreini said.

Making traditional Chinese medicine from lab-grown meat

Could synthetic tiger claw and bear bile counteract the illegal market for animal products and help protect endangered species?

Confiscated skins and skulls from poached tigers — can science help make such images rare in the future?

Each month, Hong Kong school teacher Kala Wan simmers a bundle of herbs, donkey-hide gelatin and velvet deer antler for 75 minutes, until she has a dark murky soup. Pinching her nose, she quickly gulps it down.

"Donkey-hide gelatin and velvet antler can nourish blood and boost my health," the 27-year old said, adding that she tends to dose up during her period.

Wan's doctor, who provides the ingredients for her monthly brew, is one of the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners who prescribe treatments — for everything from common colds to cancer — to many in Hong Kong.

Other TMC remedies like acupuncture are popular around the world although their effectiveness is questioned

TCM includes a wide array of practices, such as acupuncture, diet and physical exercise. These treatments are aimed at rebalancing energy flows, known as "Qi," in the human body. The principles are not recognized by conventional Western science, and there is little evidence-based research into the effectiveness of TCM. Yet global the TCM market was worth $434 billion (€374 billion) in 2020, according to China's state-run newspaper China Daily.

TCM remedies like acupuncture are popular in many parts of the world. And while most skeptics of pressure points and needles would at least agree treatments such treatments are fairly harmless, other aspects of TCM are far more controversial.

Around 12% of medicines prescribed by traditional Chinese practitioners are derived from animals. Those that are, often include the body parts of endangered species — such as pangolin scales, rhino horn, tiger bone and bear bile.

The trade in rhino horn is banned but the demand remains high, and it is still used in TCM

The Chinese and US governments have banned the use of most of these products and their international trade is outlawed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Still demand remains high. The annual trade in rhino horn is worth some $230 million, according to the UN.

So, what if there was a way to supply the market without touching these endangered species?

As lab-grown meat promises to keep the carnivores among us satiated without the cruelty and environmental fallout of the meat industry, so scientists are exploring whether the emerging industry could do the same for TCM.

The first step is to extract tiny samples of tissue from live animals which are used to generate "induced pluripotent stem cells" (iPSC). These in turn are grown in the lab to create synthetic animal tissue. Biomedical scientist Kenneth Lee says it is now possible to generate iPSC which can "be induced to differentiate into muscle cells, bone, cartilage, fat and so on."

Lee is a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. But he is about to retire and move to Scotland to set up his own cultured-meat company. He says it should be possible to use stem cells to produce slaughter-free rhino horn and tiger claw, as well as shark's fin for soup, and dog meat to supply the Chinese dog meat festival. "I think this is a legitimate process that can counteract illegal animal trafficking," Lee said.

Glasses with dried seafood such as sea cucumbers snails and shells in a typical pharmacy for Traditional Chinese Medicine

The entrepreneur admitted it will be several years before these products might be on the market. But he's not the only one working toward that goal. Hong Kong lab-grown meat start-up Avant Meats is developing cultured swim bladders, known as fish maws, as part of the range of lab-grown fish it hopes to launch by 2025.

Could lab-grown TCM be a boon for smugglers?

"We want to address the environmental impact of the consumption of fish maws in the ecosystem that has led to the [near] extinction of several species, including bahaba, totoaba and vaquita," said Avant Meats' CEO Carrie Chan.

Many Chinese believe that fish maws have medicinal value, for example in treating arthritis. Swim bladders from totoaba, which is caught illegally off the coast of Mexico, are worth some $46,000 per kilo ($22,500 per pound) on the Chinese black market, according to the Porpoise Conservation Society.

Totoaba fish maws drying in baskets outside a dried goods shop in Hong Kong

Not only is the totoaba listed as critically endangered, the nets designed to catch it are also a threat to the vaquita, a small porpoise that is the world's most endangered cetacean.

But not everyone believes that TCM using products grown in a lab will do much to protect these rare species.

"There is a high possibility that lab-grown meat imitating exotic and endangered animals would instead stimulate the demand for raw meat and pose a challenge to enforcement," said Zhaomin Zhou, a researcher at the Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation lab at China West Normal University.

Zhou points to the case of synthetic ivory, which was supposed to replace genuine tusks. Her research has shown unscrupulous traders were able to pass off real ivory as its synthetic counterpart to avoid law enforcement.

Hong Kong start-up Avant Meats is growing fish maws in the lab in the hope of decreasing demand for real totoaba

Asked whether cultured fish maws might drive up demand for the real thing, Chan of Avant Meats said, "with or without this invention, these fish species are endangered."

"I don't think the demand for that is driven by a sole factor, and cultured products exist because we want people to switch from conventional meat to a more sustainable version," she added.

Just like the real thing?

Others argue that if lab-grown alternatives could be produced cheaply and plentifully enough, they would drive down the cost of animal-based TCM, taking away the economic incentive for poaching and smuggling.

A survey last year indicated that 70% of Chinese consumers were willing to try lab-grown meat, and nearly 60% were willing to buy it. But will consumers of TCM be equally ready to accept something grown in a petri dish as interchangeable with something caught in the wild?

The scales of the pangolin are highly sought after in traditional Chinese medicine — the pangolin is considered the most traded mammal in the world

TCM doctor Cristine Li says her Hong Kong clinic would consider using products from lab-grown animal tissue if they were available. "If artificial products can reach half of its real counterpart's effectiveness it's good news," she said.

Given the scant scientific evidence of the effectiveness of these treatments, this raises the question of how to compare the two. But Wan, with her deer-antler brew, says she would be happy to rely on her doctor's judgement. "If my TCM practitioner believes its effectiveness, I'll use it," Wan said. "I am against animal killing, so I am willing to try it."

Still, she doubts the older generation would take to cultured TCM so easily: "My mother, for example, doesn't trust such artificial animal drugs. To her, it would be very difficult for them to imitate the function of real animal parts. Her generation will probably stick to real animal drugs."

How Hitchcock Turned Down Directing Bond But Ended Up Influencing the Series Anyway

BY COLIN WESSMAN

PUBLISHED 2 DAYS AGO

https://collider.com/

With the release of 'No Time To Die' upon us, let’s take a look at James Bond’s Hitchcockian roots.


At this point, there are few film franchises that feel as well-established as the James Bond series. So much so that Bond feels like a genre unto itself, which would explain the volume of spy movie imitators that cropped up in the ‘60s as well as more modern action heroes that have tried to invert the spy genre by playing against Bond’s world-famous tropes. However, things were not always that way. When Ian Fleming’s character was first brought to the screen, Fleming was clearly looking for a certain aesthetic to accompany this character’s cool charisma, which is why he reached out to Alfred Hitchcock to helm the first James Bond movie and establish its tone and style. Obviously, this never came to fruition, but you can still see so much of Hitchcock’s influence in those early Bond movies as they worked on developing the series’ own signature style.

By 1959, Ian Fleming had published six James Bond novels and was looking to bring the character to the big screen. He was developing an early screenplay of what would later become the 1965 Bond film, Thunderball, and had Hitchcock in mind to direct what would have been Bond’s first outing at the movies. So Fleming reached out to Hitchcock via telegram, outlining both the plot of the movie while also proposing that The Master of Suspense helm the film in question. It’s unclear whether Hitchcock ever read Fleming’s Thunderball script, but the two men never met in person and the film never materialized. Coming on the heels of North By Northwest, it was clear that Hitchcock wanted to move beyond the spy thriller genre and focus on his next project, a little film you may have heard of called Psycho.

Even though Hitchcock didn’t end up influencing the 007 series directly by taking on this first Bond adaptation, you still see his fingerprints all over the early Bond movies. One reason is that Fleming had clearly seen North By Northwest while thinking about what a movie version of Bond would look like. He reimagined the character in his early Thunderball script to be more similar to Roger Thornhill (played by Cary Grant in North By Northwest) than the “ruthless, sadistic and misogynistic” Bond of his novels. This would also explain why Bond producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli were originally looking to cast Cary Grant as James Bond, but figured they wouldn’t be able to persuade the star to do multiple films (though it would’ve prematurely started the trend of Bond often being way too old to be convincingly sexy). Even though Sean Connery ended up playing the character as a slightly tougher Bond than Grant would’ve been, there’s still plenty of parallels between North By Northwest and early Bond films like Dr. No, From Russia With Love, and Goldfinger.

RELATED:‘No Time To Die’ Takes Its Time Giving Daniel Craig His Bond Sendoff | Review

Released in 1959, North By Northwest was what screenwriter Ernest Lehman intended to be “the ultimate Hitchcock movie”. It centers around a case of mistaken identity, as Cary Grant’s Roger Thornhill, a mild-mannered ad executive, is incorrectly presumed to be a man named Kaplan. He finds out how sought-after Kaplan is when he’s kidnapped and forced to drink his weight in bourbon and drive off a cliff in what would be an assumed car accident. However, Thornhill survives and after trying to prove to his mother and the police that he was kidnapped, ends up at the U.N., trying to find Townsend, the man whose estate he was taken to the night before. When Thornhill finally meets Townsend, he realizes there’s been another mix-up. Though before he can process this, Townsend is killed by an airborne knife thrown by one of the goons present on the night of Thornhill’s kidnapping. Then, seen literally taking the knife out of Townsend’s back, Thornhill is presumed to be a murderer, which sends him on the lam while being further ensnared in a conflict between an unnamed U.S. government agency and a group of enemy spies.

Just on the surface, North By Northwest shares plenty in common with the James Bond films in terms of the intricate plotting that intertwines Cold War politics, lots of double-crossing, and a bit of implied offscreen sex. Much like Bond, Thornhill is a man who is constantly on the move. We’re first introduced to him in New York, then taken by train to Chicago (and the midwest’s rural farmland), before finally ending up at Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. Obviously, the Bond movies would whisk their audiences away to much more exotic locations than these very traditionally American ones, but the fact that North By Northwest includes these much bigger forces like the U.N. and U.S. intelligence gives the sense that he’s part of some grander story. This relates somewhat to how the Bond movies capitalized on the whole “jet-set” mentality that permeated the ‘50s and ‘60s by drawing on the idea that in a time of less pronounced war, the world was yours for the taking.


This also gets at how the James Bond films succeed in making this character aspirational for a lot of people. Not just because he gets to travel the world, get the girl, and kill the bad guys, but also because of how attainable this feels considering the franchise places the character somewhere in between the more ruthless killer of Fleming’s novels and the reluctant spy we see in North By Northwest. Roger Thornhill is relatable because he’s the “beta Bond”, in that he’s built a life on avoiding adventure, runs away from every fight he’s presented with, and seems to actually respect women. Also, unlike Bond, he’s almost never in control of his circumstances, spending half the film confused as to why he’s been ensnared in this international intrigue and the other half trying to figure out how he can get out of it.

Connery’s Bond, on the other hand, can’t help but be in control of every situation he’s in, even when he’s strapped to a table with an absurdly slow laser beam aimed toward the body part he seems to prioritize most. He’s usually one step ahead of the bad guys, and even when he’s not, he is usually armed with some split-second decision that will get him out of any situation that his bravado (or his libido) has gotten him into. A prime example of this contrast is in North By Northwest and the early Bond films’ differing approaches to humor, as nearly every comedic moment in North By Northwest stems from how in-over-his-head Thornhill is. Meanwhile, Bond is always armed with a confident (but goofy) one-liner, whether it’s commenting that a goon getting electrocuted is “shocking” or that another goon who’s been impaled by a spear gun “got the point”. The man simply never breaks a sweat, while all Thornhill seems to do is sweat. There’s perhaps no better example of this difference than the helicopter chase scene in From Russia With Love that serves as a not-so-subtle homage to North By Northwest’s iconic crop-duster scene. While Thornhill gets out of being chased by a plane by pure luck, with the plane accidentally crashing into an oil tanker, Bond blows up the helicopter chasing him by shooting the grenade-brandishing pilot as if he’d somehow planned this all along.

As much as Roger Thornhill laid the groundwork for another well-dressed thrill-seeker, North By Northwest’s most important contribution character-wise may actually be Eve Kendall, who’s played wonderfully by Eva Marie Saint. About halfway into the film, Thornhill meets Eve on a train and instantly falls for her, though it quickly becomes obvious that she’s been playing him the whole time and is working for Vandamm (played by James Mason), the film’s villain. Seeing as she’s cool, intelligent, and has a knack for deception, she’s very much the prototypical Bond girl. She’s also what Bond girls would be in a perfect world, even if the film sells her out a bit by making her a damsel-in-distress in the film’s climax. Her relationship with Thornhill also establishes the dynamic that would exist between Bond and so many of the women he would go to bed with, constantly being on edge about where their allegiances lie but also too interested in getting laid to care.


As much as Eve Kendall was the blueprint for your typical Bond girl, like a lot of elements in North By Northwest that made their way into Bond films, they weren’t exactly new. The concept of “the cool Hitchcock blonde” had already been well-established in earlier Hitch movies like Rear Window and Vertigo. So the inclusion of this type of character must have felt like a no-brainer to writer Ernest Lehman, since he was trying to top every Hitchcock movie by incorporating elements from the director’s previous films, but doing it bigger and bolder. The film’s most obvious ancestor would be Hitchcock’s 1939 film The 39 Steps, which in its broad strokes is more or less the same plot as North By Northwest, as it centers around a guy suffering a case of mistaken identity that gets him entangled in the workings of an international spy ring. Also, while North By Northwest feels bound to its American setting, Hitchcock’s use of exotic locations in thrillers like 1946’s Notorious (set in Brazil), 1955’s To Catch A Thief (set on the French Riviera), and 1956’s The Man Who Knew Too Much (set partially in Morocco) have a globetrotting air of extravagance that no doubt influenced the way the 007 movies acclimated Bond with the rest of the world.

Just as North By Northwest amped up the more over-the-top elements of Hitchcock’s filmography for the sheer sake of entertainment, the Bond movies ended up doing the same with their source material over the course of the ‘60s. By the time of 1964’s Goldfinger and 1965’s Thunderball, the series had solidified a potent formula involving flamboyant villains and an emphasis on gadgets that veered the series outside the realm of more grounded Cold War spy stories and into something resembling our modern blockbuster. While this direction drove the Bond series farther away from its Hitchcock-inspired roots, the two still remained intertwined. When he was at the height of his Bond fame, Sean Connery sought out Hitchcock in the hopes of bringing some legitimacy to his career by acting in Hitchcock’s Marnie. Also, it seems as though Hitchcock couldn’t escape the shadow Bond cast over the spy thriller genre, as his next two releases after Marnie were the Cold War spy movies Torn Curtain and Topaz, both of which ended up being critical and commercial disappointments. Though even if Hitchcock was dismayed by his inability to use these films to replicate the success of the Bond films, it didn’t really matter in the end, since Hitchcock already had such a pivotal role in laying the groundwork for this massively successful series.

Dracula Film 'The Last Voyage of the Demeter' Wraps Filming

BY MATT VILLEI

https://collider.com/

The film is based on a chapter from Bram Stoker's 'Dracula.'

After a long time in development, Amblin Entertainment has announced that the upcoming Dracula-inspired film The Last Voyage of the Demeter has wrapped shooting.

The film has had a long and troubled past, with the original script penned in 2002 by Bragi Schut and Robert Schwentke on board (no pun intended) to direct. The project, however, found itself stranded in development hell for nearly two decades, with a number of different directors being brought in to helm (pun intended this time) the film, including Marcus Nispel, Stefan Ruzowitsky, David Slade, and Neil Marshall. In 2019, it was announced that a new version of the screenplay was written by Zak Olkewicz and that the project was being directed by André Øvredal, director of films such as The Autopsy of Jane Doe and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. The full tweet reads:

Cheers to director André Øvredal and his talented cast and hardy crew on the completion of principal photography for THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER. You are the lifeblood of this creative endeavor, and as we all know, the blood is the life and our gratitude to Berlin and Malta for your hospitality and hosting our production. THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER sets sails, only in theaters, January 27, 2023.

RELATED: Javier Botet Will Haunt The 'Last Voyage Of The Demeter’ As Dracula In Upcoming Amblin Horror Film

The Last Voyage of the Demeter is based on "The Captain's Log," one of the chapters from Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula and tells the story of the titular Demeter, a Russian schooner that was chartered to transport 24 unmarked crates from Carpathia to London. One of these crates is the coffin of the vampire Dracula, who slowly picks apart the now doomed ship's crew one by one.




The film follows the crew as they attempt to survive being stuck at sea with the otherworldly creature as their numbers dwindle night after night. The film will see Javier Botet stepping into the cloak of the world's most famous vampire with the rest of the cast including Corey Hawkins, Liam Cunningham, David Dastmalchian, Aisling Franciosi, Jon Jon Briones, Stefan Kapicic, Nikolai Nikolaeff, Woody Norman, Martin Furulund, and Chris Walley.

Scandal-hit NSO backs international spyware rules

Issued on: 05/10/2021 -

NSO was engulfed in controversy in July over reports that tens of thousands of human rights activists, journalists, politicians and business executives worldwide were listed as potential targets of its Pegasus software

JOEL SAGET AFP/File

Paris (AFP)

The Israeli company at the heart of the Pegasus surveillance scandal on Tuesday said it would support international regulation to prevent repressive governments from abusing powerful spyware like its own.

In a letter to the United Nations, seen by AFP, the NSO Group expressed "strong support for the creation of an international legal framework" to govern technology that allows for highly invasive snooping on people's mobile phones.

NSO was engulfed in controversy in July over reports that tens of thousands of human rights activists, journalists, politicians and business executives worldwide were listed as potential targets of its Pegasus software.

Smartphones infected with Pegasus are essentially turned into pocket spying devices, allowing the user to read the target's messages, look through their photos, track their location and even turn on their camera without them knowing.

NSO said in the letter that it took the allegations made by international media outlets "extremely seriously" and that it had launched an immediate investigation after the scandal blew up in July.

"Any accusation that Pegasus has been misused by a State or State agency to target any journalist, human rights defender or political leader in violation of their human rights is naturally very concerning," the company's chairman Asher Levy wrote.

NSO has faced a torrent of criticism over the use of its software, but it insists Pegasus is intended to help governments fight crime and terrorism -- and that it has been used many times to do so.

"How can governments catch paedophiles and prevent terrorist attacks without these kinds of tools? There is no way," a source close to the company told AFP.

The source said the company vets potential clients over ethical concerns, and had turned down business worth "hundreds of millions of dollars" from 55 countries.

NSO has also "previously terminated customer relationships as a result of our human rights investigations," Levy wrote in the letter.

- Off-the-shelf NSA -

A second source close the company acknowledged, however, that NSO has a limited ability to ensure that its software is not used for nefarious purposes by the governments that have bought it.

"Sitting over the shoulder of a customer and seeing who they're targeting is something that we cannot do," the source said.

The company's letter to the UN, dated September 30, came in response to a call in August from human rights experts at the world body for a moratorium on such digital surveillance technology until regulation is put on place.

NSO suggested the UN would be well-placed to lead the process of setting up international rules to better regulate the off-the-shelf surveillance sector, which has boomed in recent years.

The company would be "a constructive participant if given the opportunity", the letter said.

Critics say the widespread availability of software like Pegasus now allows even cash-strapped authoritarian governments to effectively purchase their own answer to the United States' National Security Agency, with highly invasive surveillance powers.

While companies offering such technology have sprung up around the world, several have been founded in Israel, drawing recruits from the military intelligence elite.

NSO suggested in its letter that companies in the sector should be forced to have human rights compliance systems in place.

The UN could offer guidance on "which states to consider as not having an acceptable track record of respecting international human rights", it added.

NSO continues to reject the media reports that rocked governments around the world in July, saying they were plagued by "serious shortcomings and material inaccuracies".

"The number of purported targets -- or possible targets – is entirely implausible based on the number of licences actually granted by NSO," it said in the letter.

Shockwaves from the scandal continue to reverberate several months on.

In mid-September, Apple users were urged to update their devices after researchers discovered a major software flaw that allowed Pegasus to be installed on iPhones and iPads without the user even needing to click a button.

© 2021 AFP

'We won't eat tonight': hunger plagues Afghans in historic valley

Issued on: 05/10/2021

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has worsened the economic hardship of the community that lives in the mountainside caves of Bamiyan 

Bulent KILIC AFP

Bamiyan (Afghanistan) (AFP)

They have long survived hand to mouth, but since the Taliban conquered the Bamiyan valley, rural Afghans living in its mountainside caves have been left weak from hunger and fear.

Known as one of the most beautiful regions in Afghanistan, the rugged, central valley is home to several hundred families living in caves that were carved into sandstone cliffs by Buddhist monks in the fifth century.

The community is among the poorest in the country and the Taliban takeover in August has only exacerbated their hardship, with international aid cut off, food prices rising and unemployment spiking.

They live a few kilometres from where the valley's famous giant, ancient Buddha statues once stood, before they were dynamited by the Islamist group when they were last in power two decades ago.

Fatima says her cave partially collapsed during heavy rains a year and a half ago, leaving the 55-year-old and three family members crammed into a tiny cavern measuring just six square metres (65 square feet).

Some Bamiyan families are surviving by working on potato farms 

BULENT KILIC AFP

"We won't eat tonight. And winter is almost here. We have nothing to keep warm," she says, her face partially covered by a black veil.

"We live in misery and misfortune."

- 'I come back with nothing' -

Daily wage labourers and porters no longer bring home the little money they once did to settle rumbling stomachs.

Only the harvesting of potatoes has continued -- the single crop that can be grown in the area at an altitude of 2,500 metres (8,200 feet).

The Taliban destroyed two giant Buddha statues in Bamiyan in 2001, using dynamite and artillery 

BULENT KILIC AFP

"I go to the Bamiyan bazaar every morning, but I come back with nothing," says Mahram, a 42-year-old bricklayer.

"When there was work, I made 300 afghanis ($3.75) per day."

Now the family is surviving by sending their children to help harvest potatoes.

"The farmers give them some instead of salaries," Mahram says. "That is all we have, with a bit of bread."

"But in 10 days, the harvest will be over, and we will really be hungry. People will die."

Like most people living in the region, the families are Hazara, a mainly Shiite ethnic minority that has been marginalised and persecuted in Afghanistan for centuries.

Several hundred Bamiyan families live in caves that were carved into sandstone cliffs by Buddhist monks in the fifth century 

Bulent KILIC AFP

The victory of the Taliban, made up of Sunni hardliners who see the community as heretics, has caused panic.

"It is very frightening," says Amena, a 40-year-old mother of five children.

"But they have not come, and will probably not come all the way up to where we are."

- 'Cold coming' -

Amena parts the curtain at the entrance to her cave to reveal a platform carved into the rock topped with two cushions, a threadbare carpet, and a rickety wood-burning stove that has covered the ceiling with a thick layer of soot.

Near the doorway lies a bundle of potato branches, the family's only fuel.

The people who live in the Bamiyan caves are among the poorest in Afghanistan, and the Taliban takeover has only exacerbated their hardship

 Bulent KILIC AFP

"Wood is too expensive," she says.

There has never been electricity in the area, and collecting water requires three long trips down to the river in the valley each day.

The deputy chief of the local council, 25-year-old Saifullah Aria, says the situation is dire.

"Here, people are poor. Very poor," he says.

"They usually make 100-200 afghanis a day, but for the past six weeks, with the Taliban, they've made nothing."

He says most eat just one meal a day of potato and bread.

Aria adds that he has never seen NGOs reach the valley, and that his pleas for help from the local Bamiyan authorities have gone unanswered.

"With the cold coming soon, the weakest here will die, that is for sure."

© 2021 AFP

CRIMINAL CATHOLIC CAPITALI$M
Cardinal on trial as Vatican financial scandal case resumes

Issued on: 05/10/2021 -

Cardinal Angelo Becciu was one of only two defendants who attended a preliminary hearing in July in the temporary courtroom at the Vatican Museums Simone Risoluti VATICAN MEDIA/AFP/File


Vatican City (AFP)

The trial of a once powerful Catholic cardinal and nine others resumes Tuesday at the Vatican over alleged financial fraud and a disastrous London property deal paid for with charity funds.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who served as the equivalent of chief of staff for Pope Francis at the time of the deal and was later fired from another post, is being tried alongside high-rolling London-based financiers and other Church employees.

They are accused of crimes including embezzlement, fraud and corruption relating to the Church's loss-making purchase of a luxury property in London's upscale Chelsea district.

Becciu was at the time number two at the Secretariat of State, the most powerful department in the Vatican's central administration.

The case against the 73-year-old, which carries charges of embezzlement, abuse of office and witness tampering, also includes separate allegations over hundreds of thousands of euros of Church funds paid to his brother's charity.

The trial is unprecedented in going before a Vatican tribunal of three lay magistrates rather than a religious court, after Francis changed the law to strip cardinals and bishops of legal privileges.

Becciu, one of only two defendants who attended a preliminary hearing in July in the temporary courtroom at the Vatican Museums, insists he will prove his innocence "with respect to every charge".

The trial, which is expected to last months, follows a two-year probe into how the Secretariat of State managed its vast asset portfolio and, in particular, who knew what about the disastrous 350-million-euro (now $407-million) London investment.

Since becoming pope in 2013, Francis has vowed to clean up the Church's finances.

The scandal is particularly embarrassing because funds used for risky ventures like the London one came from the Peter's Pence, money donated by churchgoers for the pope's charities.

- Risky investments -

Ahead of the trial, prosecutors painted a picture of risky investments with little or no oversight, and double-dealing by outside consultants and insiders trusted with the financial interests of the Secretariat of State.

The Catholic Church suffered a major loss when it purchased this London property in the upscale neighbourhood of Chelsea

 DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS AFP/File

The primary defendants are "actors in a rotten predatory and lucrative system, sometimes made possible thanks to limited, but very incisive, complicity and internal connivance," they argued.

The current case dates from 2013, when the Secretariat borrowed more than $200 million, mainly from Credit Suisse, to invest in a Luxembourg fund managed by an Italian-Swiss businessman, Raffaele Mincione.

Half was intended for stock market purchases and the rest for part of the building in London's Sloane Avenue.

Prosecutors allege Mincione used the money to invest in high-risk ventures over which the Church had no control. By 2018, the Secretariat had already lost millions and tried to pull out of the deal.

Another London-based financier, Gianluigi Torzi, was brought in to broker the purchase of the rest of the building and cut ties with Mincione. But he is accused of instead joining forces with him.

Torzi allegedly inserted a clause into the sale deal that gave himself control of the building through voting rights. He is accused of demanding 15 million euros to relinquish control.

Mincione and Torzi were helped, prosecutors claim, by Enrico Crasso, a former financial consultant to the Secretariat, and employee Fabrizio Tirabassi, both of whom face charges including fraud.

Also implicated are two former top officials within the Vatican's financial affairs watchdog, including its ex-president, Swiss lawyer Rene Bruelhart, who prosecutors say did not do enough to protect the Secretariat's interests.

burs-ar/aa/gd/spm

© 2021 AFP

OLD MEN COVER UP CELIBACY FAIL

 'They believed me':

 French Catholic Church inquiry finds 216,000 sex abuse victims from 1950

An independent inquiry into alleged sex abuse of minors by French Catholic priests, deacons and other clergy has found some 216,000 victims of paedophilia from 1950 to 2020, a "massive phenomenon" that was covered up for decades by a "veil of silence." Thérèse was sexually abused by a priest at the age of 16. Since then, she has been haunted by the abuse, but testifying has helped her to heal.

Issued on: 05/10/2021 

Commission president Jean-Marc Sauvé attends the publishing of a report by an independent commission into sexual abuse by church officials (Ciase) on October 5, 2021, in Paris.   © Thomas Coex, AFP/Pool

Text by: FRANCE 24

An investigation into sexual abuse in the French Catholic Church has found that an estimated 216,000 children were victims of abuse by clergy since 1950, Jean-March Sauvé, head of the commission that compiled the report, said on Tuesday.

The revelations in France are the latest to rock the Roman Catholic Church, after a series of sexual abuse scandals around the world, often involving children, over the past 20 years.

The abuse was systemic, Sauvé said at a public, online presentation of the report.

The Church not only did not take the necessary measures to prevent abuse but also turned a blind eye, failing to report abuse and sometimes knowingly putting children in touch with predators, he said.

The commission was established by Catholic bishops in France at the end of 2018 to shed light on abuses and restore public confidence in the Church at a time of dwindling congregations. It has worked independently from the Church.


01:09

Sauvé said the problem was still there. He added that the Church had until the 2000s showed complete indifference to victims and that it only started to really change its attitude in 2015-2016.

Sauvé said the commission itself had identified around 2,700 victims, but that a wide-ranging study by research and polling groups had estimated that there had been around 216,000 victims. The number could go up further to 330,000 when including abuse by lay members.

"You are a disgrace to our humanity," François Devaux, who set up victims' association La Parole Libérée, told church representatives at the public presentation of the report, before Sauvé took the floor.

"In this hell there have been abominable mass crimes ... but there has been even worse, betrayal of trust, betrayal of morale, betrayal of children," Devaux said, also accusing the Church of cowardice.

The report, at nearly 2,500 pages, found that the "vast majority" of victims were pre-adolescent boys from a wide variety of social backgrounds.

"The Catholic Church is, after the circle of family and friends, the environment that has the highest prevalence of sexual violence," the report said.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AFP)

French report finds over 300,000 children were victims of sex abuse in the Catholic Church

A French commission has released an exhaustive report uncovering 70 years of child sex abuse in the country's Catholic Church. The 2.5- year probe looked at church, court, press and police files.



Twenty-two of the alleged crimes can still be pursued for legal action — but the statue of limitations has expired for another 40 cases

A major report prepared by an independent commission and published Tuesday on child sex abuse in the French Catholic Church has shed light on thousands of child sex abuse cases over the last 70 years.

The 2,500-page document details how an estimated 3,000 child abusers, two-thirds of whom were priests, worked in the Catholic Church in France over seven decades.

The president of the commission that issued the report, Jean-Marc Sauve, told a news conference that the estimated number of victims is believed to 330,000, when lay members of the Church such as teachers at Catholic schools are included. An estimated 216,000 were victims of French clergy.

On Tuesday, the head of the French conference of bishops, Monsignor Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, expressed shame and asked for forgiveness.

"We are appalled" at the conclusions of the report and the numbers of victims, he said.
Who formed the commission and what are its conclusions?

The commission, requested by the church and headed by former civil servant Jean-Marc Sauve, comprised 22 people including sociologists, magistrates, law professors and theologians and members of different faith groups. Together they studied church, court, press and police files as part of its work.

Investigator Jean-Marc Sauve led the 2.5-year investigation

Sauve told the press Tuesday the problem is "very serious," adding, "About 60% of men and women who were sexually abused encounter major problems in their sentimental or sexual life."

Sauve said until the last twenty years, the attitude of the church towards its victims was "deep, cruel indifference.''

Twenty-two of the alleged crimes, which can still be pursued for legal action, have been forwarded to French prosecutors. Forty cases where the statute of limitations has expired, but the alleged perpetrators are living, have been sent on to church officials.

The report states, "The Catholic Church is, after the circle of family and friends, the environment that has the highest prevalence of sexual violence."

Watch video 26:00 The Catholic Church: Power and abuse of power?

Recommendations for preventing abuse include training for priests and other clerics, revising the legal code the Vatican uses to govern the church known as Canon Law, and creating policies that recognize and offer compensation to victims.
How have victims reacted?

Francois Devaux is one of the victims of Bernard Peynat, a notorious, since-defrocked priest, who was convicted of sexually abusing minors and given a five-year prison sentence.

Peynat acknowledged abusing more than 75 boys over decades in a case that led to the resignation last year of the former archbishop of Lyon, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin.

Cardinal Philippe Barbarin resigned over the case of a notorious pedophile priest, Bernard Peynat, but was later cleared by the highest court in France of covering up the scandal

Devaux is also the head of the victims' group "La Parole Liberee" (The Liberated Word). He believes the number of victims in the report are "a minimum" since "some victims did not dare to speak out or trust the commission."

The church in France still "hasn't understood" or continues to minimize the issue, Devaux told The Associated Press.

He said the church must not only acknowledge the issue but financially compensate the victims of child sex abuse by clergy and others employed by the church.

"It is indispensable that the church redresses the harm caused by all these crimes, and compensation is the first step," Devaux said.
What has the Vatican done to rein in the problem?

In May 2019, Pope Francis issued a new church law that requires Catholic priests and nuns around the world to report sex abuse by members of the clergy, as well as attempts to cover it up by superiors, to church authorities – but not the police.

Watch video 03:53 German Cardinal Reinhard Marx offers resignation to pope

In June of this year, Pope Francis turned down the resignation of Cardinal Reinhard Marx, a papal advisor who also serves as the archbishop of Munich and Freising, over the mishandling of child sex abuse cases.

The pope, however, did conclude a process of reform was necessary and said every bishop bears some responsibility for the "catastrophe" caused by child sex abuse within the church.

ar/wmr (AP, Reuters)

MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M TESCO XBOSSES TAKE OVER

Labour and Lib Dems urge Morrisons owners to protect workers

Politicians say they will ensure the chain is not heaped with debt and stripped of assets after £7.1bn takeover

US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice won an auction on Saturday to take control of the supermarket chain. 

Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images

Kalyeena Makortoff
@kalyeena
Sun 3 Oct 2021 

Opposition parties have urged Morrisons’ incoming private equity owners to protect workers and ensure that the supermarket is not heaped with debt and stripped of assets as a result of the company’s pending takeover.

Politicians from Labour and the Liberal Democrats have signalled that they will be keeping an eye on US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), which over the weekend won a tense auction with a rival suitor to take control of the supermarket chain for £7.1bn.

“Morrisons is a much-loved British firm which has been rooted in communities up and down the country for over 100 years,” Seema Malhotra, Labour MP and shadow minister for business and consumers, said. “The new owners must urgently deliver binding assurances for workers, pension fund holders and local people.”

“We cannot see a repetition of previous cases where businesses have been loaded with debt and asset-stripped. Morrisons is a great British company, which must be safeguarded for the future,” Maholtra added.

Unions and politicians have raised concerns over the wave of private equity takeovers aimed at UK firms, warning companies could be stripped of their property holdings and burdened with borrowed funds to pay off private equity backers, and that working conditions would deteriorate without binding guarantees.

Sarah Olney, Lib Dem MP and the party’s spokesperson for business, said: “It would be a great shame to see local teams lose their stake in the future direction of the business. With uncertain economic times ahead, the new owners must pass the key tests of not loading the business with debt, not cutting jobs, and critically, protecting existing working conditions.”

Labour has already warned it would crack down on the private equity industry if it gains power, saying it would close a loophole on carried interest, which lets private equity executives pay a lower rate of tax on their bonuses, resulting in larger payouts. Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said on Twitter that it would “reduce some of the tax incentives leading to asset-stripping.”

CD&R has tried to ease politicians’ fears by confirming that there were no plans to sell off Morrisons’ attractive store estate to raise cash, and promising that the company’s head office would remain in Bradford. Morrisons – which employs about 120,000 staff in the UK – owns the freehold for 85% of its 497 stores, which has been tipped as an attractive asset for any buyer. It also prides itself on its 19 manufacturing sites including bakeries, abattoirs, fishing fleets and egg farms.

But CD&R has also reached a deal with pension trustees to provide additional security and support for the scheme in a move that helped the private equity firm clinch backing from the Morrisons board even before the takeover went to auction.

The private equity firm, which narrowly beat the 286p offer by a consortium led by Softbank-owned Fortress Investment Group with a 287p bid on Saturday, has also expressed support for Morrisons’ recent pay award of at least £10 an hour for all workers in stores and manufacturing sites.

A CD&R spokesperson said: “CD&R values Morrisons’ distinctive business model and is committed to supporting it, including the successful ESG [environmental, social, and governance] and broader stakeholder engagement strategies of the company that are essential to its continued success.”

But Maholtra said the UK government had a responsibility to hold CD&R to its promises. “It must ensure that the new owners are responsible, long-term investors, seeking to build the business for the future and that decisions taken are also in the public interest.”

CD&R’s offer, which has been backed by the Morrisons board, will go to a shareholder vote on 19 October.

The battle for Morrisons, which has been running since May, is the most high-profile of a raft of bids for British companies this year, reflecting private equity’s appetite for cash-generating UK assets.

CD&R has committed to retain Morrisons’ Bradford headquarters and its existing management team led by CEO David Potts, execute its existing strategy, not sell its freehold store estate and maintain staff pay rates. The commitments are not, however, legally binding.

Leahy was CEO of Tesco for 14 years to 2011 and will now be reunited with Morrisons CEO Potts and Chairman Andrew Higginson, two of his closest lieutenants at Tesco.

Potts, who joined Tesco as a 16-year-old shelf-stacker, will make more than 10 million pounds from selling his Morrisons shares to CD&R. Chief operating officer Trevor Strain will pocket about 4 million pounds.

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2021/10/monopoly-capitalism-cd-wins-10bn.html

ALL THAT IS OLD IS NEW AGAIN

Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, son of former dictator, runs for president of the Philippines

The 64-year-old, who is popularly known as ‘Bongbong’, had long been touted as a candidate. He narrowly lost a bid for the vice-presidency in 2016

He has served as provincial governor, congressman and senator since his return in 1991 from exile following his father’s 1986 overthrow

Reuters in Manila
Published: 5:04pm, 5 Oct, 2021

Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos, son of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, his wife, Louise, left, and his sister Imee, right, pictured in 2018. Photo: Reuters

The son and namesake of the Philippines’ former dictator Ferdinand Marcos announced on Tuesday he will run for president in next year’s elections, ending months of speculation over his political ambitions.

Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, who is popularly known as “Bongbong”, had been touted as a potential candidate for either the presidency or the vice-presidency, having been involved in politics since his return in 1991 from exile following his father’s 1986 overthrow.

“Join me in this noblest of causes and we will succeed. Together, we will rise again,” the 64-year-old said in a speech streamed on social media. “I will bring … unifying leadership back to our country.”

Ferdinand Marcos Jnr at a press conference in 2016, the year of his failed vice-presidential run. Photo: AP

Marcos Jnr has served as provincial governor, congressman and senator and ran unsuccessfully for the vice-presidency in 2016, a defeat he challenged in the courts. His sister Imee is a senator and mother Imelda a former congresswoman.

Marcos Jnr was in second place behind incumbent President Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter, Sara, in a recent PulseAsia Research survey of voter preference, though she has denied plans to run.

As Duterte exits Philippine election, will daughter Sara run for president?
2 Oct 2021

He is the fourth candidate to announce a run for the presidency, joining a growing field of contenders seeking to replace Duterte, who is not permitted to run for a second term under the constitution, and has decided to retire.

Manila City mayor Francisco Domagoso registered on Monday, following newly retired boxing icon

Manny Pacquiao. Senator Panfilo Lacson, a former police chief, also intends to run.

Marcos Jnr on Tuesday took an oath as chairman of a political party that had earlier nominated him as its presidential candidate.

His tilt for the country’s highest office comes even as the 1970s martial rule era of the elder Marcos is fresh in many minds.

The late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, left, and his wife Imelda pictured in 1985.

 Photo: AFP

His family, one of the most famous in the Philippines, has long sought to rebuild its image and has repeatedly denied allegations it plundered billions of dollars of state wealth when in power, which ended in a People’s Power uprising.

Marcos Jnr’s failed bid for the vice presidency in 2016, which he narrowly lost to Leni Robredo, was a blow for the family, which had gone into exile in the
United States after the patriarch’s humiliating downfall in 1986.

He and his wife Imelda were accused of massive corruption while in power.

Marcos Jnr accused Robredo of electoral fraud and spent nearly five years waging a legal battle challenging the vote. The country’s top court  dismissed the protest in February.

Opinion: Why Marcos the dictator still inspires pride in the Philippines
25 Mar 2018


“Let us bring Filipinos back to one another in service of our country, facing the crisis and the challenges of the future together,” Marcos Jnr said on Tuesday.

If Marcos Jnr’s presidential bid succeeds, it would be a remarkable political comeback for the family.

Imelda has said previously she dreams of her son – a senator from 2010 to 2016 – becoming the country’s leader.

Duterte is an ally of the Marcos family, which got a boost from his 2016 election victory. His government gave the ex-dictator’s remains a hero’s burial and publicly floated the idea of winding down the hunt for his hidden wealth.

Analysts predict a possible alliance between Marcos Jnr and the president’s daughter for the 2022 election, which they say would be a formidable combination attracting votes from their respective strongholds in the north, centre and south of the country.

Sara Duterte-Carpio, Davao City Mayor and daughter of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who analysts predict may form an alliance with Marcos Jnr. 

Photo: Reuters

The Philippines’ election season kicked off on Friday as celebrities and political scions flocked to the offices of the elections commission to file their nominations.

The process launches a typically noisy and deadly seven months of campaigning for more than 18,000 positions.

But the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic downturn caused by lockdowns is expected to dampen the atmosphere.

Additional reporting by Agence-France Presse