Volcano evacuees face huge reconstruction challenges

Issued on: 05/10/2021 -

Small boats are moored in the port of Tazacorte as the volcano spews lava, ash and smoke -- but locals don't want to leave 

JORGE GUERRERO AFP

Los Llanos de Aridane (Spain) (AFP)

The lives of thousands may have been devastated by the volcano's eruption on La Palma island, but many are starting to dream of returning home and starting to rebuild.

It has been more than two weeks since La Cumbre Vieja began erupting, forcing more than 6,000 people out of their homes as the lava burnt its way across huge swathes of land on the western side of La Palma in Spain's Canary Islands.

And there is no legislation that prevents them from going back to their homes in the Aridane valley, a fertile agricultural area that is home to 20,000 people that has borne the brunt of the eruption, with the lava destroying more than 1,000 buildings.

Unlike Italy's Mount Etna or Mount Fuji in Japan, which have one central vent, the volcano on La Palma makes a new fissure each time it erupts, meaning it isn't possible to set up a clearly defined exclusion zone.

"It wouldn't be much help, because these type of volcanos erupt wherever they want," said Manuel Perera, an architect and head of urban planning in Los Llanos de Aridane, the worst-hit area on the western side of the island.

During the last two eruptions on La Palma in 1949 and 1971, there was very little damage, largely because the population density was much lower.

What is clear is that nobody wants to leave.

"I'm not going anywhere," insists Pedro Antonio Sanchez, a 60-year-old resident whose banana plantation was damaged in the eruption but who is determined to stay put.

Pensioners Margaretha and Luis wait on their boat in the La Palma port of Tazacorte, where they fled following the eruption

 JORGE GUERRERO AFP

"There are whole populated areas like Todoque and others that have disappeared and many residents, who have roots there, want to stay in the area," Canary Islands' regional leader Angel Victor Torres told local newspaper El Diario de Avisos on Monday.

The only regulation regarding the right to rebuild has to do with the cooled lava, which must be respected as "a protected natural space" -- meaning no-one can build on it, Perera says.

But the authorities appear to be taking a more flexible approach.

"A draft bill is being prepared that will classify this land as suitable for development in order to allow the orderly reconstruction of areas that have been destroyed," Torres said.

- 'Life on Mars' -

The Atlantic archipelago, which is located off the northwestern coast of Africa and counts seven islands, has undergone huge changes as a result of volcanic activity over the past 12,000 years.

"This is just what happens in the Canary Islands and many people from the mainland do not really understand. They are not islands facing a volcanic threat, they are volcanic islands," wrote journalist Alfonso Gonzalez Jerez in Sunday's El Dia newspaper.

"The Canary Islands are not surviving in spite of the volcanoes: it is the volcanoes that have created the Canaries."

Although it is scientifically impossible to predict when the eruption will end, some experts have spoken of several weeks based on previous experience.

Despite the Cumbre Vieja volcano spewing lava, ash and smoke as here in Los Llanos de Aridane on La Palma, life is continuing almost as normal in much of the island 

JORGE GUERRERO AFP

And it could take the lava six to nine months to cool, Borja Perdomo, regional head of infrastructure, said this week, quoting experts.

Some residents have asked the authorities not to impose any restrictions on the area but experts say it would be impossible to build any houses there in the short term.

"It would be like being on Mars," explained Perera.

"It's the worst place on the whole island for reconstruction because it could be months or even years until it cools down."

So far the lava has covered more than 1,000 acres (434 hectares) of land, and when it cools, it will have "an irregular surface with steep drops that is very uneven," he said.

"It's terrain that is very difficult to work with."

- New fertile land? -

Despite the ongoing eruption, life is carrying on as normal in most of the island, except for the disruption caused by damaged and destroyed roads.

The lava has covered less than 8.0 percent of the Aridane valley and this is where the biggest changes will take place, starting with the rehousing of those who have lost their homes.

A petrol station covered with ash at Jedey on La Palma -- which has gained 75 acres of surface area due to the lava pouring off a 500-metre stretch of coastline into the sea, creating a vast delta

 JORGE GUERRERO AFP

The island has also gained another 75 acres of surface area due to the lava pouring off a 500-metre stretch of coastline into the sea, creating a vast delta that will be used at some point in the future.

At that site, which lies just down the coast from the newly-created lava delta, locals went to work levelling the surface using little more than picks and shovels, with the resulting land one of the most fertile areas for growing bananas.

© 2021 AFP

#WATERISLIFE

Five billion could struggle to access water in 2050: UN

Issued on: 05/10/2021 - 

A dried up river bed in the al-Huwaiza Marshes, on the Iraq-Iran border.There has been around a 30 percent increase in the amount and duration of drought since 2000, according to the UN's World Meteorological Organization 

Asaad NIAZI AFP

Geneva (AFP)

More than five billion people could have difficulty accessing water in 2050, the United Nations warned Tuesday, urging leaders to seize the initiative at the COP26 summit.

Already in 2018, 3.6 billion people had inadequate access to water for at least one month per year, said a new report from the UN's World Meteorological Organization.

"We need to wake up to the looming water crisis," said WMO chief Petteri Taalas.

"The State of Climate Services 2021: Water" report comes just weeks before COP26 -- the UN Climate Change Conference being held in Glasgow from October 31 to November 12.

The WMO stressed that over the last 20 years, the levels of water stored on land -- on the surface, in the subsurface, in snow and ice -- had dropped at a rate of one centimetre per year.

The biggest losses are in Antarctica and Greenland, but many highly-populated lower latitude locations are experiencing significant water losses in areas that traditionally provide water supply, said the WMO.

The agency said there were major ramifications for water security, as only 0.5 percent of water on Earth is useable and available fresh water.

"Increasing temperatures are resulting in global and regional precipitation changes, leading to shifts in rainfall patterns and agricultural seasons, with a major impact on food security and human health and well-being," said Taalas.

- 'We cannot wait' -

Meanwhile water-related hazards have increased in frequency over the past 20 years.

Since 2000, flood-related disasters have risen by 134 percent compared with the previous two decades.

"We have seven percent more humidity in the atmosphere because of the current warming and that's also contributing to the flooding," Taalas told a press conference.

Most of the flood-related deaths and economic losses were recorded in Asia, where river flood warning systems require strengthening, said the WMO.

At the same time, there has been around a 30 percent increase in the amount and duration of drought events since 2000, with Africa the worst-affected continent.

Taalas urged countries at COP26 to raise their game.

He said most world leaders were talking about climate change as a major risk to the welfare of mankind, but their actions were not matching their words.

"We cannot wait for decades to start acting," he said.

"That's also a message for countries like China which has said that they would like to become carbon neutral by 2060 but they don't have a concrete plan for the coming decade."

He said the top priority at COP26 was stepping up ambition levels in climate mitigation, but more work was also needed on climate adaptations, as the negative trend in weather patterns will continue for the coming decades -- and the coming centuries when it comes to the melting of glaciers and sea levels rising.

© 2021 AFP

France demonstrations: Unions calling for public sector wages increase • FRANCE 24 English

Employees and the unemployed called for a strike on Tuesday 5 October throughout France to demand "urgent answers", in particular on the question of wages, and put social questions back at the heart of the debate, just over six months before the presidential election. FRANCE 24's Andrew Hilliar reports from Paris.

1921-2021

PEN celebrates 100 years of fighting for freedom of speech

PEN stands for "Poets, Playwrights, Essayists, Editors, Novelists." 

The writer’s association has long championed human rights, whether in Belarus or Nazi Germany. A new publication celebrates its history.

For the last 100 years, PEN has been championing freedom of speech

Suppressing freedom of expression of the written word has been a hallmark of numerous regimes throughout history — whether in countries such as China, Turkey or Iran today, or the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany in the past. Writers often face persecution, imprisonment and even death in such countries.

One organization has notably made it part of its mission to provide support for such freedom fighters. Celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, the international writers's association, or PEN for short, has been providing a safe haven for persecuted authors and championing literary freedom for a century.

"100 years of PEN is an occasion to celebrate as well as to pause, to remember and to mourn," says president of the German PEN Center, Regula Venske.

The fact that writers are still persecuted worldwide means support is needed now more than ever. "The word is the weapon that rulers in authoritarian regimes around the world fear most," Venske told DW. "The first to be arrested are always the writers and journalists." Many brave women and men have supported human rights and paid with their lives, she points out.

President of the German PEN association Regula Venske

In Germany, where the situation is more peaceful, Venske says, literature has slipped somewhat into the entertainment realm where it is an after-work pastime. However, she points out that "the written word is elemental to supporting freedom, truth and human coexistence, in general. That's what it's all about."

This chart shows attacks on writers in 2018, compiled by PEN

Humble beginnings

PEN stands for "Poets, Playwrights, Essayists, Editors, Novelists." It was founded in England in 1921, as a literary circle of friends.

One of the primary organizers was English writer Catherine Amy Dawson Scott, who gathered 40 like-minded people for a founding dinner in a London restaurant on October 5, 1921. During the meal, PEN's first president, John Galsworthy, made a toast in which he said that writers saw themselves as the "trustees of human nature," but that literary culture must stay out of politics. It was the only way, he argued, that PEN could secure its independence.

Within a year, new PEN centers sprang up in Paris, New York, Brussels, Oslo, Barcelona and Stockholm.

By the end of the decade, PEN had more than 40 clubs with over 3,000 members in Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, South and North America. The London club acted as a hub, while international conferences were held in different locations around the world. A monthly newsletter provided information about the latest happenings.

Jewish-German writer Ernst Toller was among those who encouraged PEN to stand up to the Nazis

PEN against the Nazis

By the mid-1930s, PEN had grown far beyond the borders of Europe and included centers in Johannesburg and Cape Town, Tel Aviv, Buenos Aires, Beijing, La Paz, Baghdad and Tokyo, among other locations. A non-territorial Yiddish PEN emerged with centers in New York, Warsaw and Vilnius.

In its "Appeal to All Governments," PEN first called on rulers in 1931 to respect the "rights of authors imprisoned for religious or political reasons." Further appeals followed, and they were increasingly political in nature.

When the National Socialists took power in Germany, PEN took a stand, triggered by the increasingly harsh persecution of writers, and the censorship and burning of books. At the PEN congress in Dubrovnik, Croatia, in May 1933, Jewish author Ernst Toller, by then living in exile, took the floor and spoke about the consequences of Nazi rule.

PEN organized a 2017 protest in Berlin for filmmaker Oleg Sentzov who was imprisoned in Russia

He mentioned the names of 60 writers whose books had been burned in Berlin two weeks earlier. "Millions of people in Germany are not allowed to speak freely and write freely," Toller said. "The gentlemen invoke the great German spirits," he said, referring to famous German authors used by the Nazis for their propaganda purposes. "But how are the intellectual demands of Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, Herder, Wieland and Lessing compatible with the persecution of millions of people?" he continued.

"Let us not deceive ourselves," Toller said. "These politicians only tolerate us, then persecute us when we become inconvenient. The voice of truth has never been comfortable."

The PEN association has a long history in Germany, where writer Erich Kästner was a former PEN Germany president

A global reach

With the Canby Resolution of (1933), PEN condemned "persecution on the grounds of racial prejudice," while the so-called "Raymond Resolution" of 1934 demanded the right to freedom of expression for all exiled authors. In 1948, PEN created a charter with clear goals analogous to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "Literature knows no frontiers" it states, "and must remain common currency among people in spite of political or international upheavals."

The protection of freedom of art and of expression around the word are still the most important demands of the PEN Charter today.

In the meantime, PEN has become the world's largest literary network, with locations in more than 100 countries. It is still considered to be one of the most important human rights organizations working internationally.

Notable writers PEN has championed include Federico Garcia Lorca, Stefan Zweig, Wole Soyinka, Salman Rushdie, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Anna Politkovskaya, Hrant Dink and Svetlana Alexievich.

Belarusian author Svetlana Alexievich is among the authors PEN has assisted

Today, PEN maintains several committees for its work. The Writers in Prison committee, for example, campaigns for the release of persecuted authors, publishers, editors, illustrators and journalists. The Writers in Exile scholarship program supports writers who are persecuted in their home countries.

An informative publication about the eventful history of PEN was published in Germany, as well as in several other countries, just in time for the organisation's 100th anniversary.

Titled "Pen International: An Illustrated History,"the bookcontains previously unpublished material and includes photos, notes and manuscripts.

"The freedom of the word is not something you fight for once to win forever," the book quotes German writer Juli Zeh. "It is an eternal struggle for the foundations of human togetherness. What task could be more honorable for us writers!"

#ENDWOLFHUNTING
Germany: More wolves being illegally killed, say conservationists

A leading German environment group has called for action, with the number of wolves killed without legal permission on the rise. Anyone caught illegally killing a wolf could face jail or a fine, but prosecution is rare.



Wolves were returned to the wild in 2000, and their numbers are growing

A total of 11 illegally killed wolves have been found in Germany so far this year, the highest yearly number since the animal returned to the wild in the country 21 years ago, a leading German conservation association has said.

The German Society for Nature Conservation (NABU) said that peak was reached with the discovery of three shot animals in the northern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania at the end of September.

NABU added that 64 wolves in all had been killed since their reintroduction, with the number of unreported killings likely much higher.

"Each of these killings is a criminal offense and must be prosecuted," said NABU department head Ralf Schulte. He added that Germany was far from having adequate protections for wolves.

NABU said perpetrators of such killings are not usually caught because German states do not have agencies specialized in the protection of animal species. Lynxes and several species of birds of prey also fell victim to illegal killings, it said.
Growing wolf populations

In total, 128 packs, 39 wolf pairs and nine territorial individuals were detected in Germany during the monitoring year 2019-2020, according to data from the Federal Documentation and Consultation Center on Wolves (DBBW).

The same agency registered 942 attacks by wolves on livestock in Germany in 2020, mostly in the states of Lower Saxony and Brandenburg.

In view of the growing number of wolves in the country, the German Hunting Association (DJV) has called for the protection status of wolves to be lowered from "strict" to "conditional."

However, even such a status would not mean a free-for-all for hunters.

Under the current rules, anyone killing a wolf without a permit could face up to five years in prison or a fine.

tj/wmr (epd, dpa)

'Staff wanted' as pandemic forces hospitality workers to rethink

There are huge staff shortages in Berlin’s restaurants, bars and hotels. The post-pandemic phenomenon is being seen across Europe and elsewhere, including in the US, as workers leave the challenging sector for good.


There has been a huge drop in the number of workers in the restaurant sector

Diners who recently returned to Berlin's restaurants are likely to have noticed a plethora of "staff wanted" signs in the windows of the reopened eateries.

As the long emergence from lockdown continues, Germany's gastronomy and hospitality sector is experiencing a serious shortfall in workers, particularly waiting and kitchen staff.

Restaurants have spent large portions of the past 18 months either fully or partially closed, but owners' relief at being able to reopen has been tempered by the lack of workers.

"It has been difficult because during the lockdown we only needed a small staff: one in the kitchen and one out front to serve the customers for takeaway," says Jonathan O'Reilly, proprietor of Crazy Bastard Kitchen in Berlin's Neukölln district. "Going from that to serving 30 or 40 people at tables means we had to double service staff quickly."

Sebastian Werner Knight (left) and Jonathan O'Reilly outside their restaurant Crazy Bastard Kitchen in Berlin's Neukölln district.

Rebecca Lynch, who runs Salt n Bone in the district of Prenzlauer Berg, says she has never experienced such difficulty finding staff. She spent more than €2,000 ($2,300) on job ads alone during the summer months.

"Normally, we would get 20 or 30 applications for a waiting position," she said. "This time it was silent. We got applications from people who weren't even in the country, who would only relocate if we found them an apartment."

Dramatic shortage of workers

"The staff shortage in the hospitality industry is dramatic," Jonas Bohl, spokesman for Germany's Food, Beverages and Catering Union (NGG), told DW. "In the past year alone, around 300,000 employees left the industry. Many will not come back."

The employment picture in the sector has indeed been dramatically upended by the pandemic. According to figures from the German Hotel and Restaurant Association (DEHOGA), a trade body, the number of those employed in German restaurants and hotels fell by around 15% between the start of the pandemic and September 2020.

These figures are backed up by the NGG, the workers' union, which estimates that around one in six workers (300,000) have left. The question now is how many of those will come back.

Over the past few months, proprietors such as O'Reilly and Lynch have been tentatively watching to see if the full reopening of business would encourage more applications.

However, just when more staff were needed, fewer seemed to be available. "During July and August, suddenly people were able to travel again," said O'Reilly. "People wanted to take holidays. Some hadn't seen their families in two years."

The staff shortages have been a feature of post-lockdown life in many countries, including in the US (pictured)

The situation is not unique to Germany. Across Europe, the hospitality sector is experiencing a serious staff shortage. Likewise, in the United States, the post-lockdown environment has seen a major lack of workers in the services sector.

Lockdown lifestyle changes

As well as the issue of people taking long-awaited holidays, both O'Reilly and Lynch have recognized a potentially permanent pivot away from the industry by workers who enjoyed a different way of life during long lockdowns.

"A lot of people realized they hated working nights and weekends and that actually working for Zalando (an E-commerce fashion company) from 9 to 5 wasn't the worst thing," says Lynch. "This sector is very stressful. It isn't very secure because you are relying on tips and not actual recognized taxable money. I can understand why a lot of them are not coming back."

O'Reilly, who expanded his restaurant during the winter lockdown says it's demanding work. "It is late nights and not as well paid as office jobs. People had the time to stop and think if this is what they want to do, and a lot of people shifted careers during the lockdown. That's totally understandable and a great thing. There weren't that many people thinking: 'I can't wait for the lockdown to end so I can get back to work really hard in the kitchen.'"

O'Reilly and Lynch prioritize worker rights and conditions in their restaurants. But they say that is far from common across the sector.

"I have heard horror stories about places that don't pay benefits," says O'Reilly. "They have everyone on 'mini jobs' but they are actually working way more than they are supposed to so benefits don't have to be paid. A lot are paying cash in hand."

Lockdowns may have resulted in permanent changes to the hospitality sector, particularly in terms of the treatment of workers

Bohl, from the workers' union, lays much of the blame for the current crisis on restaurants themselves, as well as on DEHOGA.

"For far too long, employers and their association have done far too little to make the industry more attractive," he told DW. "Wages were and are too low, working hours too long and the quality of training too poor. These past failures are now hurting the industry."

Leopold Schramek, a spokesperson for DEHOGA, said the trade body rejects the accusation.

"Securing the need for workers and skilled workers has been at the top of the DEHOGA agenda for years," he told DW. "Together with the companies in the industry, we are working to position the hospitality industry as an attractive employer and trainer, to attract people to the industry and to keep them in the industry. This is only possible with respect and appreciation, with good communication between entrepreneurs and employees and with a trusting atmosphere."

Slow return to normality

While the "staff wanted" signs are likely to be needed for some time to come, there are some indications that the apparently permanent end of lockdown is bringing workers back.

Lynch says that universities finally returning to in-person classes again is huge for the sector, as hospitality has long relied on students' willingness to take on part-time work. She also sees the gradual return of backpacking holidaymakers, willing to work during short stints of travel abroad, as vital.

"I do see light at the end of the tunnel," she said. "I have had this staff drought for months and months, but since September 1 I have received more job applications in a week than I have in the last six months!

The German-Turkish Recruitment Agreement 60 years on

Facing a labor shortage after World War II, Germany designed a program to bring in so-called guest workers. It was a move that had a lasting impact, said President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in a commemoration on Tuesday.

Turkish workers came to Germany to work in the coal mines and other factories


"In the interest of the systematic recruitment of Turkish workers to the Federal Republic." Those were the opening words of the agreement that — when signed on October 30th, 1961 – established an irreversible bond between Germany and Turkey. West Germany needed workers to boost production in its booming economy. Hundreds of thousands of so-called guest-workers grasped the opportunity and made their way to Germany.

Sixty years on, some three million people with Turkish roots live in Germany. Burak Yilmaz is part of the third generation of the migrant community. In 1963, his grandfather traveled by train from Istanbul to Munich. The final destination of his long journey was the Ruhr valley industrial region in Germany's northwest. He first worked as a miner, before getting a job in the railways. According to the terms of the recruitment agreement, the first "guest-workers" were supposed to return to Turkey after a limited stay. But that changed when the German government decided to allow family members to join the workers and begin a new life in Germany.

'WE ARE FROM HERE': TURKISH-GERMAN LIFE IN PICTURES

Self-portrait

In 1990, Istanbul-based photographer Ergun Cagatay took thousands of photographs of people of Turkish origin in Hamburg, Cologne, Werl, Berlin and Duisburg. These will be on display from June 21 to October 31 at the Ruhr Museum as part of a special exhibition, "We are from here: Turkish-German Life in 1990." Here he's seen in a self-portrait in pit clothes at the Walsum Mine, Duisburg.

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'Why we're here today'

"My grandmother worked in a food processing plant. They took their children to school in the morning, did a full day's work, and after that, they ran small grocery stores," says Yilmaz. Their days were work and little else: "The most important thing was to make sure that their children would have a better life."

Yilmaz is glad that his grandparents can tell him what those early years were like. So, what about the anniversary of the Recruitment Agreement? Is it an important milestone? Or is it just another date in the calendar? "No, for me it's a big deal. And not just for me but for the rest of the family and a lot of other people who have a migrant background. After all, it's the reason why we're here in Germany today."

Burak Yilmaz' grandparents came to Germany from Turkey

Made welcome — or shunned?

Yilmaz himself was born in Duisburg in 1987. When he looks back on his childhood, he remembers feeling cut off from the world around him. "The sense I got was that I was an outsider, a problem. You'd hear people saying: 'Go back to where you came from!' The thing was: no matter how you looked at it, it didn't add up. I mean I was born here. I grew up here." Yilmaz is today an educationalist and a writer. When he talks about "Heimat" — or home — he means multiple homes: German, Turkish and Kurdish.

Fact is, Yilmaz and many others do believe that they have found their place in the society around them. But, says Yilmaz: "Racism is still a part of everyday life. There are always pinpricks and provocations, sometimes several times a month." The latest incident, he says, was on September 26th — the day of the general election for Germany's new parliament. He was subjected to racial abuse from the polling registrar — the person responsible for verifying the names in the electoral register: "There are still people who seem to believe that Germany is only for Germans with blonde hair and blue eyes," Yilmaz concludes.

Schools are the key to integration

Is the abuse that Yilmaz experienced at his polling station an isolated incident? No, says Hacı-Halil Uslucan, head of the Center for Turkish Studies and Migration Research at the University of Essen-Duisburg, who points out that around eight in ten respondents with a Turkish background say they experience exclusion at least once a year. "That is, of course, a very high figure," Uslucan concludes.

One area, he says, where the overall development can be described as positive is education: "The first generation that arrived had only had primary schooling. The generation that followed had at least eight to ten years of schooling. Historically, that's incredible, never before had the amount of formal schooling doubled within just one generation."

Adherence to Islam stable

In the third and fourth generations, there has also been a sustained rise in the number of high-school graduates from the migrant community. However, over the same period, the number of high-school graduates outside migrant communities increased by an even higher margin: "The gap is still there. Even when youngsters with migrant roots improve their performance," Uslucan points out. Still today, many children with Turkish roots struggle to get the recommendation they require from their teachers to win a place at a Gymnasium — the highest level of secondary schooling. Yilmaz himself remembers how skeptical his primary school teachers were.

In the past sixty years, there has in many ways been a closing of the gap between the Turkish-German community and the rest of society, says Uslucan: "But there are still significant differences. Not least, when it comes to religion." While German society as a whole has become more secular, the number of people in migrant communities who are devout Muslims has remained remarkably stable across several generations. "What's more, emotional bonds with Turkey are still very, very intense, even in the third generation," says Uslucan. "This is despite the fact that they were born here and in many instances only really know Turkey from what others have told them or from holiday impressions."

Haci-Halil Uslucan, the head of the Center for Turkish Studies and Migration Research at the University of Essen-Duisburg, says most people with a Turkish background say they experience exclusion

Fourth-generation ready to accept responsibility

Today's generation of young men and women with Turkish roots has a more pluralistic approach to identity than what Burak Yilmaz remembers from the 1980s and 1990s: "The fourth generation is hungry. They want more responsibility. They say: this is our country, too!"

So, what happened to exclusion? And discrimination? What does Yilmaz say? Intriguingly, after being abused on election day, the man who was after all born in Duisburg registered a formal complaint. He was told that the official in question would in the future no longer be asked to work on polling day. "And then," he adds: "I offered to be a volunteer for the next election day." So it looks like in the future Burak Yilmaz will find himself ticking off names in the electoral register.

This article was 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.

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.