Record-breaking heat wave gripping India and Pakistan threatens crops, leaves millions sweltering

David Knowles

·Senior Editor

Tue, April 26, 2022, 

A spring heat wave is scorching parts of India and Pakistan, with record-breaking April temperatures of 120 degrees Fahrenheit forecast along the border of the two countries in the coming days. The extreme heat threatens the health of millions of people as well as the harvest of wheat at a time when climate change and the war in Ukraine have sparked a global food crisis.

The Indian Meteorological Department warned this week that a heat dome, similar to the one that sent temperatures soaring over the Pacific Northwest last year, had formed over the region. Millions of people in the areas of India and Pakistan where temperatures have remained in the triple digits are now at risk of illness and death from the heat.

“It’s become impossible to work after 10 o’clock in the morning,” Sunil Das, who works as a rickshaw puller on the outskirts of Delhi, told Quartz India.

A man riding his bicycle in New Delhi on Tuesday. (Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters)

Following an exceptionally dry month of March, which also set a new temperature record, cities and towns across India’s wheat-growing region have been reporting temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit this week. When April arrived, so did the heat wave, putting the wheat harvest at risk.

“The heat spell occurred very fast and also matured the crop at a faster pace, which shriveled the grain size. This also resulted in a drop in yield,” JDS Gill, the agriculture information officer in the state of Punjab, told India Today.

Meteorologists predicted that the temperature average for April would likely fall across large portions of India and Pakistan. Such severe heat waves aren’t normally registered in the region until May and June, but scientists have long warned that because of climate change they will become more common earlier and later in the coming decades.

Workers at the government grain market in Chandigarh, India. (Ravi Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

On Tuesday, the temperature hit 116°F in the city of Dadu, Pakistan, tying a record for the warmest day in the Northern Hemisphere on that date. Temperatures are expected to keep rising this week.

The formation of a heat dome over India, Nepal and the Himalayas also has potentially worrisome long-term consequences, according to climate researchers. The consensus among scientists is that climate change has sped up the melting of glacier ice in the Himalayas. That's significant because after Antarctica and the Arctic, the region holds the world’s third-largest amount of glacial ice. Its loss would dramatically impact the supply of water to people in the region.

Drought worsened by climate change and Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine have brought the Horn of Africa to the brink of famine. Many African nations import wheat from Ukraine, but the conflict has halted those shipments. Earlier this month, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured President Biden that India was “ready to supply food stock to the world,” but that pronouncement came just as the current heat wave was beginning to take hold.

“[Wheat] prices will be driven up, and if you look at what is happening in Ukraine, with many countries relying on wheat from India to compensate, the impact will be felt well beyond India,” Harjeet Singh, an adviser with Climate Action Network International, told NBC News.

While the overall toll on the wheat harvest remains unclear, the next few days in India and Pakistan will provide a more immediate trial run for how human beings will cope with a hotter future. For now, schools have been closed in several cities in India, workers have been advised to avoid exposure to the sun and the governments of both countries have warned of blackouts as the demand for electricity is expected to surge.

Delta to begin paying flight attendants during boarding


DAVID KOENIG
Tue, April 26, 2022

Delta Air Lines, which is facing another attempt to unionize its flight attendants, will begin paying cabin crews during boarding, a first for a major U.S. airline.

Across the airline industry in the United States, hourly pay for flight attendants starts when all the passengers are seated and the plane’s doors close.

Delta said the change will start June 2 on all flights.

In a memo to flight attendants, Delta’s senior vice president of in-flight service, Kristen Manion Taylor, said the new pay “further recognizes how important your role is on board to ensuring a welcoming, safe and on-time start to each flight.”

The rate of pay during boarding will be 50% of regular wages.

The change comes as Delta plans to increase the boarding time for single-aisle or “narrow-body” planes from 35 minutes to 40 minutes, which the airline expects will increase the percentage of flights that depart on time.

Manion Taylor said that after a test last fall, and getting comments from flight attendants, she promised not to impose the new boarding times without providing additional pay for the cabin crews.

Delta said the new boarding pay would be on top of 4% raises for flight attendants that it announced in March and which take effect later this week.

Atlanta-based Delta has successfully campaigned to defeat several attempts to organize its 20,000 flight attendants. The Association of Flight Attendants — which has been gearing up its latest organizing effort at Delta for more than two years but has not yet amassed enough support to force a vote — took credit for the boarding pay.

“This new policy is the direct result of our organizing,” the union said in a statement posted on its website. “As we get closer to filing for our union vote, management is getting nervous.”

The union represents flight attendants at United, Alaska, Spirit and about a dozen smaller airlines. Delta said none of those airlines pay their cabin crews for boarding time.

Unions represent between 82% and 86% of workers at American, United and Southwest, but only 20% of Delta's 83,000 employees, according to a regulatory filing. Delta's 13,000 pilots are represented by the Air Line Pilots Association. Flight attendants at Delta's Endeavor Air regional-flying subsidiary are unionized.

___

David Koenig can be reached at www.twitter.com/airlinewriter

Credit Suisse Posts Worse-Than-Expected Loss on Legal Woes

Marion Halftermeyer, Bloomberg News

A sign on the roof of the Credit Suisse Group AG headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, on Tuesday, April 19, 2022. Credit Suisses’s chief executive officer at its securities venture in China is stepping aside after less than two years on the job, becoming the second top executive at a major foreign lender in the nation to quit this month. , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse Group AG reported a second-straight quarterly loss, as the lender struggles with a growing burden of legacy litigation costs that continue to batter its reputation. 

The Zurich-based bank had a net loss of 273 million Swiss francs ($284 million), more than the 114.9-million-franc loss estimated by analysts for the January to March period, driven by 703 million francs in total legal expenses as well as a 206-million-franc charge related to Russian exposure. 

In wealth management, the bank posted a before-tax loss of 357 million francs, worse than the estimated 22.7 million francs. The bank said volatile market conditions, client risk aversion and its own reduced risk appetite contributed to the loss along with the litigation costs. The bank saw net new client asset inflows of 7.9 billion francs, according to a statement on Wednesday.  

The sustained losses signal that executives face an uphill battle to make 2022 a period of transition to stability, following last year’s multi-billion dollar hits linked to Archegos Capital Management and Greensill Capital. That’s prompting further blood-letting, with the departure of Chief Financial Officer David Mathers, chief counsel Romeo Cerutti as well as Asia head Helman Sitohang announced on Wednesday.

“I am confident that we are well positioned to build a stronger and client-centric bank that puts risk management at the core to deliver sustainable profit and value for investors, clients and colleagues,” Chief Executive Officer Thomas Gottstein said in a statement. 

Credit Suisse last month warned that it may need set aside more than $500 million for a Bermuda case involving a local insurance unit. The bank also signaled approximately 350 million francs in losses related to a decrease in value of an 8.6% stake in wealth-tech platform Allfunds Group. 

In the investment bank, which houses the business of advising on mergers and acquisitions, Credit Suisse reported $124 million in pretax profit, missing estimates. The bank had already warned that capital markets activity had slowed in the quarter.

Weak Outlook

“This market environment, in combination with the cumulative effect of our newly defined risk appetite as executed during 2021, has led to an adverse impact on client activity in our wealth management division as well as a reduction in the level of capital markets issuances within our investment bank,” Credit Suisse said in the statement. “We would expect these market conditions to persist in the coming months.”

The negative results and outlook come just ahead of the bank’s annual general meeting on Friday, at which some shareholders are set to increase pressure for more transparency into the collapse of a group of supply chain finance funds run with Greensill.

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, one of the largest shareholders in Credit Suisse, seven Swiss pension funds, and the Ethos Foundation, a shareholder advisor, have petitioned the bank to appoint an external auditor to look into the matter.

Investors are also being advised by ISS and Glass Lewis, shareholder proxy advisers, to vote against discharging the board of directors of legal liability for mistakes made in the run-up to the collapse of Archegos.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

Senate report suggests military housing company’s fraud continues

The company, Balfour Beatty, pleaded guilty to fraud in December for falsifying repair records

Paula Cook and Richard C. Taylor, executives at Balfour Beatty Communities, look on as Army Capt. Samuel Choe testifies about health problems his daughter developed while living in a Balfour Beatty home. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)


By John M. Donnelly

Posted April 26, 2022

Senators from both parties asked Tuesday whether a top U.S. military housing contractor that pleaded guilty last year to defrauding the government should keep its job, amid signs the company may be continuing to allow military families to reside in shoddy, even dangerous homes.

The company, Balfour Beatty Communities LLC, pleaded guilty in federal district court in Washington in December to defrauding the armed forces by falsifying housing repair records from 2013 to 2019 in order to receive higher performance awards. The company paid $65 million in fines and restitution.

According to the plea agreement between Balfour Beatty and the Justice Department, the company doctored data in a work order database so as to appear to be promptly and effectively handling repair requests at military homes while, in reality, problems such as mold and rodents had continued to fester. Top executives were not convicted, though two lower-ranking company officials were.

A bipartisan report made public Tuesday by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations suggests Balfour Beatty has been engaged since 2019 in similar and “ongoing mistreatment” of military families. The panel’s probe covered homes at Fort Gordon, an Army base in Georgia, and Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas.

At a hearing of the subcommittee on Tuesday, senators heard stories from military personnel who lived at those bases and who were unable to get the company to remove what the residents said was dangerous mold in their homes.

Sheets covered in blood

Army Capt. Samuel Choe, for one, testified that his young daughter developed a potentially fatal dermatitis only after living in a Balfour Beatty home at Fort Gordon that he said was plagued by mold.

He described his daughter as resembling a burn victim when the dermatitis would flare up, and he said sometimes her sheets would be covered with blood from her scratching.

Choe said he had no support for months from the Army or from Balfour Beatty in his effort to get out of the lease and leave the house.

“It will haunt her as well as us for the rest of our lives,” Choe said.

Rachel Christian, founder and chief legislative officer of Armed Forces Housing Advocates, said the problem of unresponsive housing companies is systemic across the military, not just at Balfour Beatty homes. A legislative overhaul of the military services' housing oversight procedures in the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, including a requirement for a Tenants Bill of Rights, “is not working,” she said.

Richard Taylor, president of the Balfour Beatty division that oversees military housing, said the company has improved its internal controls since the 2013-2019 period of the Justice Department investigation.

“We are not perfect,” he said. “We have taken this very seriously.”

But Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff, the panel’s chairman, asked: “Why should a company convicted of major criminal fraud that engaged in a scheme to defraud the United States remain in a position of trust, responsible for the safe housing of heroes, the servicemembers and their families, on installations across the country?”

New Hampshire Democrat Maggie Hassan said Balfour Beatty manages the homes for sailors and their families at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in her state.

“I am deeply concerned by the testimony we have heard today and the impact that similar misconduct may have on my constituents," Hassan said.

And Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the subcommittee’s top Republican, said: “I would fire these people, but there has to be something to replace them.”

The fiscal 2020 defense law that aimed to protect tenants “didn’t work,” Johnson said. “We better figure out something better to do.”
'Jeopardized health and safety'

U.S. military family on-base housing — which the armed services formerly owned and maintained — was privatized starting in 1996, with the goal of improving housing by outsourcing it to companies that specialize in such work.

Each of 14 housing companies has separate arrangements with local bases. The companies lease the land from the government for 50 years, and then the companies, not the Defense Department, own and operate the homes, according to testimony last month by Elizabeth Field, the Government Accountability Office's director of defense capabilities and management.

As such, the Pentagon’s leverage over the housing companies is not as great as it is with traditional contractors, Field suggested at a House Appropriations Military Construction-Veterans Affairs Subcommittee hearing.

According to the Senate panel’s new report, the product of a bipartisan eight-month investigation, Balfour Beatty “failed to properly respond to both repairs and environmental hazards such as mold” at some of the company’s 1,700 homes at Fort Gordon and Sheppard Air Force Base.

“Balfour’s failures in these instances exposed military service members and their families living on these bases to hazards that jeopardized their health and safety," the report said.

“Despite the company’s pledge to improve its housing services, Balfour continued to provide deficient services to military families at Fort Gordon,” the report said. And the company “failed to ensure the accuracy of its work order data” at the base, “even while under investigation for the same failures at other bases.”
'Inaccurate or incomplete' records

Balfour Beatty is one of the largest of the companies that operate on-base housing for U.S. military personnel and their families. The company runs 43,000 residences for 150,000 U.S. military family members in 26 states, the subcommittee report said.

A Reuters investigation in 2019 revealed the allegations of not only substandard upkeep of the company's homes but also that the company had maintained two separate maintenance records: an accurate one listing leaks, asbestos and the like — and a falsified one for the Pentagon.

Those reports led to multiple investigations culminating in the December 2021 conviction of Balfour Beatty based on its actions through 2019.

But the subcommittee report documents “multiple instances” since 2019 of work order data that was “inaccurate or incomplete.”

Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jack Fe Torres, for example, testified Tuesday that his complaints about mold in his home at Sheppard Air Force Base were referred to as “painting” in the company’s written reports on the work.

A former Balfour Beatty employee told Senate investigators that two successive Balfour Beatty facilities managers at Fort Gordon routinely told maintenance personnel to urge residents not to file requests for repair work online, where they would be part of a formal record, but instead to convey them verbally — and the requests were then ignored in some cases.

The report concluded pointedly that Paula Cook, a vice president at Balfour, “was aware of work order data discrepancies and data integrity concerns in 2020 and 2021, but she did not ensure that the issues were properly investigated or that appropriate corrective actions were taken.”

Asked Tuesday about one internal company email about problems at Fort Gordon, Cook said that she forwarded it to her colleagues.

Taylor, the company president, said he was not aware between 2013 and 2019 of the fraud that was happening at the time, but he said he was now.

Ossoff asked why the Senate should believe that statement "from a company that for six years defrauded the government."

DEMOCRATIC CENTRALISM

China, African Francophone countries hold virtual seminar on democracy

IS DEMOCRACY IN NAME ONLY

(Xinhua) 10:42, April 27, 2022

BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday held a virtual seminar with 22 Francophone countries in Africa under the theme "Exploration and Practice of Democracy in the Legislatures of China and Africa."

Ding Zhongli, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC), attended and addressed the two-day seminar's opening ceremony. He said that the spirit of China-Africa friendship and cooperation has forged an unbreakable brotherhood and built a partnership of full coordination between China and Africa. It will also open up bright prospects for a China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era, he said.

The NPC is willing to uphold the spirit of China-Africa friendship and cooperation, communicate frankly with the African side, learn from each other, build consensus and gather strength, and jointly explore the road of democracy in line with their own national conditions, said Ding.

He added that the NPC is ready to work with African legislatures to contribute to realizing true democracy and good democracy in relevant countries, continuously improving the welfare of people of all countries and promoting the democratization of international relations. 

OPINION | Democracy loses its glow for South Africans amid persistent inequality

27 April 2022 - BY JOLEEN STEYN KOTZE

THE CONVERSATION

After almost three decades of democracy, it is important to ask: What meaning do South Africans attach to the idea of democracy? Stock image

South Africans believed that the introduction of democracy in 1994 would transform their lives for the better through equality of opportunities. This hasn’t happened.

Socioeconomic inequality and job scarcity, as well as unequal opportunity to quality education have created a view that democracy has not delivered a better life for all.

The country celebrates 28 years of democracy at a time when democracy is under threat globally, in the context of growing inequality and mistrust in democratic institutions.

Increasingly, scholars focus on what makes democracy valuable amid its decline. This is important given the global rise in populist and anti-democratic politics and authoritarianism.

The Human Science Research Council’s South African Social Attitudes Survey, conducted annually, shows that South Africans are increasingly dissatisfied with democracy. In 2004, when the country celebrated a decade of democracy, 59% were satisfied with democracy. Now only 32% are satisfied with how democracy is working in SA.

Are South Africans giving up on democracy, as some are asking. And what’s to be made of some political elites who are speaking out against the value of the country’s constitutional democracy?

After almost three decades of democracy, it is important to ask: What meaning do South Africans attach to the idea of democracy? This is important considering that democracies endure when there is an intrinsic commitment to democratic values and principles, even during economic hardship.

Based on my research, as well as the results of recent surveys, it’s clear that there is a sense of disempowerment among South Africans, most notably among young people. This sense of disempowerment is premised on the view that their voice, life choices, and sense of freedom are undermined by a lack of equality of opportunity.

This inequality of opportunity is seen as a form of continued oppression informed by the view that the quality of life has not necessarily improved for most South Africans.

Views of democracy

South Africans attach an instrumentalist value to democracy. This is evident in the views that democracy does not deliver, most notably among the youth. Democracy is valued more because of delivering socioeconomic goods such as social welfare, housing, and income grants. They don’t necessarily view democracy as having intrinsic value as the best political system to achieve a just society based on human rights, dignity, freedom and equality.

In other words, they value democracy based on what it can do for them, not because they believe it is the best form of government. This is evident in the growing levels of institutional mistrust and growing political disengagement from formal democratic processes like voting. This creates a weak foundation for the sustainability of the country’s democracy in that in times of economic hardship, the legitimacy of democracy as a political system declines in the public view. Therefore, democracy becomes ‘illegitimate’ because it cannot deliver social and economic goods to create equality of opportunity.

It is not surprising that citizens place a high value on equality as an essential democratic principle given that SA is still the most unequal society globally.

Why do South Africans hold a strong instrumentalist attachment to democracy? The answer may lie in the expectations of what freedom and democracy meant in 1994, when apartheid came to an end.

Tales of despair

My research shows that the ‘Dream of 1994’ was the restoration of human dignity, something centuries of settler colonialism and apartheid had denied the black majority. Indeed, asked what 1994 meant for them, an interviewee said:

I was very happy. I felt extremely happy because this was the first time that black people gained freedom ... And it made me feel free as a person as well. Even just strolling around I felt free; I didn’t have to be so conscious around white people. There was no longer any fear ... I felt good, really good. What I was thinking. I was thinking that now we are free. That you can talk with everybody, you can walk with everybody. You know, that you can be friends with everyone that you want to be friends with. I thought that now that the party (the ANC) would take over, they’d know what we had gone through then.

Equality of opportunity was an essential characteristic of what the ‘Dream of 1994’ meant for South Africans. An interviewee reflected:

Talking of expectations, because I grew up in that old era, in that old regime. So my intention was, should Nelson Mandela be free, we would be living in a free country ... our expectations were that we would gain free education and that there’d be lots of jobs, that everyone would be employed, things like that. And that everyone would have his or her own house, things like that ... and those were the things that we expected, which I expected.

The sense that freedom and democracy remain an illusion was more palpable among the youth. An interviewee said:

I think, in my own opinion for those who lived before 1994, their aim of freedom was to free Mandela, then after it was to have their own black government. But for me, who was born in 1987, the word freedom for me is still an idea ... the reason I say that is because for me the word freedom is too big for SA. If education was free, then I would say yes, we have freedom.

Historical patterns

South Africans see a continuation of historical patterns of exclusion and marginalisation where equality of opportunity is not a lived reality for many. And, given that South Africans may continue to delegitimise democracy on the basis that it has not delivered on the expectations of the Dream of 1994, stronger populist and anti-democratic rhetoric are likely to take root in the future.

• Joleen Steyn Kotze: Chief Research Specialist in Democracy and Citizenship at the Human Science Research Council and a Research Fellow Centre for African Studies, University of the Free State

This article was first published by The Conversation.

Alwa: the Indigenous Bolivian rapper breaking down barriers




Alwa, Bolivia's first Aymara woman rapper, poses in front of a mural in her home town of El Alto (AFP/Aizar RALDES)

José Arturo CÁRDENAS
Tue, April 26, 2022, 

Alwa stands rigidly in front of a microphone, wearing a traditional puffy "pollera" skirt, a picture of serious concentration as Andean panpipe music starts up in the background.

The scene is set for a typical melancholic traditional Bolivian song but suddenly, the 26-year-old breaks out into a rap, lifting up her arms with jerky hand movements.

Alwa says she is the first Aymara rapper from Bolivia and one day wants to make a living from her voice.

"I don't care if people like my music. Just tell my mother that fear won't stop me. She won't beat me. Tell her also that I'm going to live off rap," she sings in her first song, "Endless Beginning."

Alwa, whose name means "dawn" in the Aymara language, has just performed her second concert in the atrium of La Paz's public university.

Her first album should come out in the middle of this year, she tells AFP.

Born in El Alto, the sprawling satellite town overlooking La Paz, Alwa is the first indigenous woman to dedicate herself to a style of music that has little in common with the melancholic sounds of traditional songs.

"In my lyrics I express my feelings about things, my opinion about the things we're going through right now, we've all suffered injustice," she tells AFP.

Even though indigenous people make up almost half of Bolivia's population, the community's women, or "cholas" still face discrimination and disdain from some parts of society.

"I think rap comes from this, feeling this rebelliousness, rebelling against something you disagree with, but it has to be coherent," says Alwa, who only uses her first name.

- 'Lifting up the name of Bolivia' -

Born into a traditional family, Alwa's mother "does not like rap" and her father wants her to continue studying marketing and advertising at the public university of La Paz.

But, she says, her "dream was always to sing."

During her performance at the university, a group of around 50 people approach the stage, lifting up their arms and applauding.

"She's great, she's an incredible artist, in her being, in the way she dresses," says Jesus Choque, 23, a student who is hearing Alwa for the first time.

"This is the first time I've seen a woman in a pollera singing on a stage, lifting up the name of Bolivia, it's awesome, it's really beautiful," adds Carlos Jonas Sirpa.

Alwa is starting to make a name for herself, and even gets stopped in the street by people wanting to take a selfie with her.

"She's brilliant, I heard her for the first time in Chile, I thought she was Peruvian but it turns out she's Bolivian, I saw her on Tik Tok and she's great," says Kevin Coronel, 22.

Alwa, though, believes she has a long way to go to emulate her rap heroes Warrior from Peru and Argentine Alika.

"I'm in the process of becoming a rapper, I'm not there yet," she says.

But she's adamant that there is no turning back from here.

"What I really want now is to make music."

jac/gbh/rsr/yow/bc/des

FEMICIDE
Healing by helping: Mexico's acid attack victims
 

After her ex-partner sprayed acid in her face, Mexican mother Carmen Sanchez 

set up a foundation to help fellow victims of such attacks

 

Yazmin lost an ear and suffered burns to her eyelids, neck, legs and one arm in 

an acid attack 

Martha Avila suffered burns on nearly half her body in an acid attack by her daughter's ex-husband, but is glad that she was the victim, not her daughter

Sofia Miselem
Tue, April 26, 2022

After Mexican mother Carmen Sanchez left her abusive ex-partner he attacked her with acid, leaving her severely scarred. As part of her healing process, she now helps fellow victims rebuild their lives.

In the eight years since her life was changed forever, the 37-year-old has undergone 61 operations, including skin reconstruction and grafts.

"Every day I endure it but I don't know if I will heal completely at some point," said Sanchez, who wears dark glasses to cover traces of the attack.

"It wasn't an accident. I wasn't born that way. He planned it, went and bought the acid and threw it at me. When I look in the mirror, I see him," she said.

Her Carmen Sanchez Foundation -- launched in 2021 to "put a stop to acid violence" -- believes that companionship and friendship are crucial for victims.

It faces challenges such as dealing with a public health system that guarantees only limited treatment for victims, and a judicial system beset by impunity and ineffectiveness, Sanchez said.

Gender-based violence is a major problem in Mexico, which registered around 3,750 murders of women in 2021, of which about 1,000 were classified as femicides.

The foundation has documented 31 acid attacks against women since 2001, of whom six died.

The crime is on the rise, with seven cases in 2021, compared with two on average in previous years, according to the group, whose goal is for victims to regain some enjoyment of life.

"The moments of leisure, the celebration of important dates, going out to eat or simply talking on the phone is a fundamental part of what can keep them on their feet," said its co-president Ximena Canseco.

- 'Remember forever' -

Sanchez, who has two daughters, reported her abusive ex-partner three times but he escaped punishment and sprayed acid in her face in 2014 after she left him.

"He told me that he was going to do something to me that I would remember forever," she said.

Sanchez spent eight months in a public hospital, after which she relied on private doctors who treat victims free of charge.

At the public hospital, "they told me I could live with my scars" and to "be thankful I survived," she said.

After the police failed to arrest her ex-partner, Sanchez tracked him down herself and he was finally captured in 2021.

"I was the one who did all the work," she said.

Yazmin, 34, is one of eight women whom the Carmen Sanchez Foundation helps to obtain free medical treatment, legal advice and psychological therapy.

A year and a half ago, when she was leaving her work, a woman threw a liquid on her, leaving her in agony.

Yazmin lost an ear and suffered burns to her eyelids, neck, legs and one arm.

She suspects her attacker was sent by her ex-partner.

"Days before, we argued on the telephone and he told me to be careful because he had a little surprise for me," said the woman, who did not want to give her full name.

- 'A global problem' -

Yazmin kept silent about her violent relationship for years before the attack, but now she feels liberated thanks to the foundation.

"We're not judged. They don't say: 'They did it to you for a reason.' You feel protected. I thought I was the only one, but I discovered that it is a global problem," Yazmin said.

Among other affected countries, hundreds of acid attacks are reported in India each year, although -- like in Mexico -- experts fear they are only the tip of the iceberg.

Colombia, where the crime is punishable by 50 years in prison, registered 50 cases in 2021, 28 of them against women, according to official figures.

Britain has one of the world's highest rates of recorded acid attacks per capita -- most apparently gang-related and targeting men, according to the charity Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI).

Martha Avila, 63, calls herself a "collateral victim" of acid violence in Mexico.

In March 2017, she was assaulted by her daughter's Argentine ex-husband.

"He came to attack her, but since he couldn't find her, he came for me. He said he was going to 'destroy what she loved the most,'" she said.

Despite suffering burns on nearly half her body, Avila is glad that she was the victim, not her daughter.

"I couldn't imagine what it's like to have your life destroyed so young, and even more so if he's the father of your children," she said.

sem/dr/sw/dva

Despite unrest, it's business before politics in West Bank town

Violence may rage elsewhere, but it's business before politics in the occupied West Bank town of Nilin where Palestinian merchants do a brisk trade with passing Israelis. Every day, hundreds of people from Israel and nearby West Bank settlements visit the town to take advantage of low prices on everything from groceries to car parts.

Nilin is no stranger to the realities of occupation – a number of the town's residents have been killed in past clashes with Israeli forces. The Jewish state's separation barrier cuts through its western edge, and Israeli settlements, regarded as illegal under international law, dominate the surrounding hilltops.

Yet despite a recent spike in violence elsewhere, in Nilin, about 20 kilometres west of Ramallah, it's business as usual.

"The majority of my clients are Israelis and from nearby Kiryat Sefer," a district of the Modiin Illit settlement, said Hassan Salim, 51, a mechanic for the past 30 years. "I can say that 80 percent of my clients are Israelis."

With a cigarette hanging from his mouth, he threw his arm around Yossi – a loyal customer from a nearby settlement, who asked not to be named in full. "I've known him for 25 years," said Salim.

The Israeli, who wore a yarmulke on his head, confirmed that "I've been coming here for 25 years, because the quality of work is better and it's cheaper.

"During all this time, I've been able to befriend Hassan and his brother Said," he said, as four Palestinian mechanics were busy working on his vehicle.

475,000 settlers

Nilin mayor Yousef al-Khawaja said that on an average day, about 1,000 Israelis visit Nilin for commercial reasons, though on Saturdays – the Jewish day of rest – this can reach 1,500.

The delicate local balance has been put to the test as a wave of attacks in the Jewish state by Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, alongside deadly raids in response, have killed 14 in Israel, and 25 Palestinians including assailants since late March.

Violent clashes have also rocked east Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and its environs, wounding more than 250 – mainly Palestinian demonstrators at the hands of Israeli security forces.

Despite Nilin's generally good relations with Israelis, it still faces the grim reality of occupation.

Israeli forces have recently issued demolition orders for two buildings in the town, much of which sits in the Israeli-controlled Area C where Palestinians often build "illegally" as they find it almost impossible to get permits.

Khawaja adds that much of Nilin's market lies in Area C, beyond his jurisdiction.

Israel captured the West Bank in the Six Day War of 1967 and later started encouraging its citizens to live there, a policy seen as illegal under the fourth Geneva Convention.

Today, around 475,000 settlers live in communities across the West Bank, which often cut off Palestinian towns and villages from each other.

Palestinians argue that the settlements are one of the biggest hurdles to a peace deal giving them their own state.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is the former head of a settler lobbying group, and has unapologetically advocated settlement expansion – as did his predecessor, veteran premier Benjamin Netanyahu.

'Never talk politics'

Nilin residents are divided over the presence of Israelis in the town, even if the settlers are an important source of revenue.

Husni al-Khawaja, 22, told AFP that he didn't like seeing them, but Nilin's reliance on their trade meant there was nothing he could do.

"If we demonstrate and protest against the entry of the Israelis, the shop owners themselves will confront us before the Israelis will," he said. "The economy here depends on the Israelis – no Arabs come shopping here."

Others are less concerned about politics, and happy to do business with whoever comes to their shop. Mohammed Bitlo, 30, runs a car parts outlet and says business is only possible because he and his clients don't talk about politics.

"Settlers and (other) Israelis come here because prices are cheaper than inside Israel," he said. "For example, painting a car here costs about 2,000 shekels ($607), while inside Israel the price may reach 4,000 or 5,000 shekels."

"We never talk about politics."    

27.04.2022

  

(AFP)

Ukraine-Russia war: Greek government and public don't see eye to eye

The Greek government condemns Vladimir Putin's attack on Ukraine — but the Greek people are divided where Moscow is concerned. Leftists revel in Soviet nostalgia, while conservatives embrace the shared Orthodox faith.


Vladimir Putin visited a monastic community in Greece in 2016

Maria still can't believe Russia's President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine. The 29-year-old Muscovite, who wishes to stay anonymous, has been living in the northern Greek metropolis of Thessaloniki for three years. The law student is married to a Greek and officially registered in Greece, just like about 15,000 other Russians.

Ties between the two predominantly Christian Orthodox countries are traditionally close. Maria learned Greek at university in Russia, even if she did not have concrete plans to move to Greece at the time. She is not particularly religious, but as an Orthodox Christian she feels less foreign in Greece than in other parts of Europe. "Religion connects us, also on a cultural level," Maria told DW. "I've traveled a lot, so I know that you have to adapt if you want to live abroad. But here I hardly had to change anything."

For many Greeks, the Orthodox faith is a link with Moscow

Since the war in Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, the economic situation in Russia has worsened, Maria says. "In Moscow, stores are closing," she says, adding there is, among other products, a shortage of medicine in the capital. That is a situation the rest of the country is used to, she says. "Maybe people elsewhere in Russia are even pleased to see the supply situation is becoming problematic in the big cities, too." Many of her relatives and friends have already left the country, her father traveled across the Finnish border, her mother via Belarus to Lithuania.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis met Vladimir Putin in 2016 but has condemned the Ukraine war

Maria does not doubt that when it comes to maintaining power, Putin knows no bounds. That is another reason why her home country no longer holds any promise for her. The propaganda-driven media and the increasingly harsh state measures against dissidents have shattered whatever hopes for a change for the better she may have had, she says. She cannot understand why many people in Greece find it difficult to condemn Moscow for the war against Ukraine. "The other day, a Greek said that everything is good in Russia. I contradicted him and explained how the situation really is. But he didn't believe me."

Russia, a traditional Greek ally

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis adheres to the EU's course of supporting Kyiv in the fight against Moscow. Greece has already supplied weapons to Ukraine. But recent opinion polls show that more than one out of two Greeks do not support the government's policies. While refugees from Ukraine are welcomed with open arms in Greece, many Greeks reject the EU measures against Russia. According to one survey, more than 60%t are decidedly opposed to arms shipments — they see culpability for the war in both Moscow and Kyiv.

One of the reasons for the ambivalent attitude is that Greek conservatives traditionally see Russia as an ally. In 2019, five years after the annexation of Crimea, Mitsotakis, who was opposition leader at the time, traveled to Moscow. Underlining a "relationship of trust" between his Nea Demokratia party and Putin's United Russia party, he promised Russia would always find Greece to be a "trustworthy dialogue partner."
Significance of a shared faith

Many Greeks' sympathize with Russia first and foremost because of their shared Orthodox faith, says Athanasios Grammenos. "The Russians for centuries presented themselves as the protectors of Orthodox Christians during the Ottoman Empire."

There's a myth of the great savior in the east, says Athanasios Grammenos

Moscow never actively helped, but the myth of the great savior in the east is strongly anchored in Greek culture, the political scientist at the University of Thessaloniki told DW. Many people with right-wing convictions, also members of the conservative party, still believe that for some magical reason the Russians are going to take Istanbul, formerly the Orthodox stronghold of Constantinople, liberate it and give it to Greece, fulfilling the dream of a new Byzantine Empire, he says.

The political scientist argues that Russia is trying to gain influence through the Orthodox faith in other Balkan countries, too, particularly in northern Macedonia and Serbia, where people are divided concerning the European Union. That's where Russia is using "the old strategy of the Orthodox Commonwealth."

That hasn't been as easy in Greece, Grammenos notes. The Greek Orthodox Church recognized the autocephalous church of Ukraine in 2019, clearly acting against the wishes of Russian Orthodox Church leaders. "In Greece, church is a reflection of society," he says, adding some priests are into strange conspiracy theories, which "has an impact on many believers."

Waning trust in Russia

Stavros Tzimas knows where his fellow countrymen's sympathies lie. In Greece, the journalist is considered an expert on the Balkans, Russia and the Orthodox Church. When it comes to Moscow, the Greek left still flirts with Soviet nostalgia, as do the conservatives with the Orthodox faith, he says. Such romantic notions, however, only partly explain why the Greek population is so reluctant to condemn Moscow's war in Ukraine, if they do at all.

Greeks fear the repercussions of measures against Russia, says Stavros Tzimas

Many Greeks seem to fear that supporting sanctions against Russia could hurt Greece, Tzimas told DW. Prices for certain products including electricity and gas have risen sharply in Greece, too, he says, adding that people far measures against Moscow will have an impact on their economic situation.

Greece's political ties with Russia have long been on a downward slide. Political disagreements — including on the 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the 2018 Prespa Agreement settling a long-standing dispute with northern Macedonia over the name of the country — played a decisive role, he says. In the case of the accord, he says, diplomatic relations saw a downturn when Athens expelled Russian embassy officials who had tried to lobby against the agreement.

This article has been translated from German.