It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, May 13, 2022
Edmonton recognizes 'Pride Corner' on Whyte Avenue
Author of the article:Hamdi Issawi Publishing date:May 13, 2022
Claire Pearen sets up signs at Pride Corner on Friday, May 13, 2022 in Edmonton. After a year of sustained counter-protesting of religious extremism, the City of Edmonton recognizes the corner of 104 Street and Whyte Ave as Pride Corner.
PHOTO BY GREG SOUTHAM /Postmedia
Local demonstrators received official recognition from the City of Edmonton for a year-long effort that protested against hateful messages.
More than 100 people gathered at the southeast corner of Whyte Avenue and 104 Street Friday night to celebrate a City of Edmonton proclamation that recognized the area as Pride Corner, where protestors have held dance parties to counter street preachers who organizers say have promoted homophobic and transphobic views.
Amid dancing, music, and the occasional honk of support from drivers passing by, Jade Connors joined the celebration by dancing and waving a pair of silk fans.
Over the past year, Connors said, the community supporting the effort has grown, thrived and welcomed queer youth in a space reclaimed to make them feel safe and seen.
“It’s a space of hope and a space where the next generation is going to have way less challenges than the previous one,” Connors said.
In a 2017 update to its plan to prevent and end homelessness, the City of Edmonton recognized that LGBTQ2S+ youth are particularly vulnerable to housing instability and homelessness due to family conflict.
In a Friday news release, Erica Posteraro, one of the Pride Corner organizers, said the team behind the protest saw a need to push back against harmful narratives and create space for unhoused and queer youth to feel welcome and express themselves freely.
“The positive power of having a safe space has allowed beautiful friendships to blossom,” Posteraro said, “and having an official proclamation tells us what every 2SLGBTQIA+ person needs to hear: that we are seen, heard, accepted and supported.”
Connors said that the proclamation serves to recognize the time, energy and effort of advocates and members of the community who’ve consistently worked to counter hate.
“Having the city recognize that is a gift because it does create a queer space and outlines some of our queer history in the city,” Connors said An online petition to officially recognize Pride Corner has collected more than 10,600 signatures and is aiming to reach 15,000.
There was no street preaching observed at the time of the celebration.
Soaring bread prices spark protests and shop fires in Iran - IRNA
(Reuters) - Soaring bread prices have triggered protests in Iran in which some shops were set on fire, prompting police to arrest scores of "provocateurs", the official IRNA news agency said on Friday.
An Iranian man holds stacks of bread as he walks along a street in Tehran
The protests were triggered by a cut in government subsidies for imported wheat that caused price hikes as high as 300 percent for a variety of flour-based staples.
Iran’s official inflation rate is around 40%, and some estimate it is over 50%. Almost half Iran’s 82 million population are now below the poverty line.
The government plans to offer digital coupons in the next couple of months for limited amounts of bread at subsidised prices. The rest will be offered at market rates. Other food items will be added later.
There were scattered protests in a number of cities, according to IRNA, in which crowds chanted slogans against price rises and some shops were set on fire.
In total, 22 people were arrested.
"Despite attempts by provocateurs to incite protesters, the rallies ended with the intervention of security forces,” said IRNA, adding that calm had been restored.
The largest protest was in Dezful in the oil-rich southwestern province of Khuzestan, where IRNA said an estimated 300 people were dispersed by security forces. It said 15 people were arrested for "trying to create chaos" in the city.
About 200 people demonstrated in Shahr-e Kord in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province in western Iran on Thursday, IRNA said.
“The rally ended at the request of law enforcement agents to prevent thugs from exploiting the situation,” IRNA said.
In the first signs of discontent over price rises, Iranian media last week reported disrupted internet services, an apparent attempt to stop the use of social media to organise rallies and disseminate videos.
While Friday's IRNA report was the first acknowledgement of the protests by Iran’s official media, videos uploaded by social media users this week have showed protests in Dezful and other cities chanting slogans against price hikes and the country’s leaders.
Reuters could not independently authenticate the videos.
Wheat prices have drastically increased globally since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, adding to the cost of subsidies in Iran.
Iranian officials have also blamed the price hikes on the smuggling of subsidised bread into neighbouring Iraq and Afghanistan.
Iranians protest over government price hikes President Ebrahim Raisi visits a supermarket in Terhan as protests erupt across Iran against sharp rises in the cost of basic goods - Agence France-Presse
May 13, 2022 — Tehran (AFP)
Hundreds of people have taken to the streets in cities across Iran to protest the government's decision to raise the prices of essential goods, state media reported Friday.
Earlier this week, President Ebrahim Raisi announced a series of measures to tackle the country's economic woes, including changing a subsidy system and increasing the prices of several staples including cooking oil, chicken and eggs.
Iran's economy has suffered under stringent sanctions reimposed by the United States after it unilaterally pulled out of a deal with world powers on Iran's nuclear programme in 2018.
Official figures put inflation at around 40 percent.
Iranians reacted to the move -- which took effect on Friday -- with protests in several cities over the past two days, state news agency IRNA reported.
More than 20 people were arrested in the southwestern cities of Dezful and Yasuj, where protesters called on authorities to reverse their decisions.
Demonstrators in the southern city of Izeh attacked shops and tried to set fire to a mosque, the news agency said.
Protests broke out soon after Raisi's announcement late Monday of changes to the subsidy system introduced by his predecessor Hasan Rouhani in 2018, which covered several basic goods.
But he pledged that the prices of bread, petrol and medicines would remain unchanged.
To mitigate the impact of the price increases, Raisi said monthly payments of between $10 and $13 would be disbursed for each family member of low-income households.
- 'Horrible' -
But for some residents of Tehran, the allowance won't do much.
Azadeh, a 43 year old housewife, said the changes were "horrible".
"The new prices have limited my family's purchasing power for everything (...) prices of food items, fruits and other consumables have risen.", she told AFP in the north of the capital.
The price of cooking oil has almost quadrupled since Raisi's announcement, while the price of eggs and chicken nearly doubled.
Mohammad, a 40 year old private sector employee, said prices were rising "by the hour".
"How can people live like this?" he asked.
Following Raisi's announcement, people rushed to supermarkets to stock up on goods, videos shared on social media and footage broadcast on state television showed.
The president visited one of the main meat and poultry distribution centres in south Tehran and a supermarket in the city centre, his website said.
First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber stressed that rising prices were a global problem not limited to Iran.
"Prices in the world have changed... the situation in the region has created problems in the prices of products and the prices of basic goods were set accordingly," IRNA quoted him as saying.
Iran's economic woes have sparked several waves of protests in recent years, most notably in November 2019 following an unannounced hike in fuel prices.
Iranian authorities said 230 people were killed in protest-related violence but experts working for the United Nations put the death toll at 400.
An Engine Replacement Could Kill Europe’s Huge F-35 Plans
If the decision to replace the engine for the F-35A is implemented, countries flying F-35s will find themselves forced into unforeseen and overly complicated supply chains.
With the war in Ukraine and Europe’s ensuing plans to develop its own unified defense force, we are reminded daily why it’s important for the United States to encourage its European allies to stick with the F-35 acquisition program.
Yet current proposals in America to replace the F-35 Lightning II’s propulsion system with an entirely new engine would require an additional supply and logistics chain for the newer jets. While European countries do not have a unified policy on F-35 purchases, the resulting impact on cost and efficiency caused by an engine replacement may still seriously impede future European sales.
Eight partners have shared costs and take part in F-35 production: the United States, the United Kingdom (U.K.), Italy, the Netherlands, Australia, Norway, Denmark, and Canada. Turkey was ousted from the program a few years ago for buying Russian S-400 surface-to-air missiles. Moreover, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Belgium, and Poland are purchasing F-35s through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program. Finland—currently a non-aligned nation—and Switzerland are pursuing similar purchases. All of this indicates that many European countries are seeking U.S. support.
The F-35 deserves much credit; it’s called the “quarterback of the skies” for its intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance capabilities. The three variants—the F-35A for traditional runways, the short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing F-35Bs used by the U.S. Marine Corps and some European navies, and the F-35C, which is used by the U.S. Navy for carrier arrested landings—are enhanced by their interoperability, in which common parts allow for integrated supply chains.
Unfortunately, the U.S. Air Force-led Adaptive Engine Transition Program seeks to replace Pratt & Whitney’s F-135 engine, which is only technically feasible for the conventional landing “A” variant. This would create dissimilar engine plants for the F-35 fleet. For instance, in Italy and the U.K., this would lead to three separate logistics and maintenance pipelines for the older F-35As, newer F-35As, and F-35Bs.
The F-35 is considered the most advanced fighter in the world. Germany’s historic decision two months ago to acquire thirty-five jets, replacing its aging Tornado fighters, was likely motivated by the F-35’s capability to carry nuclear weapons and its stand-off ability to detect and engage targets at long range. Interoperability with F-35 partner nations is a big plus. For Italy, the Netherlands, Finland, and Switzerland, Germany’s decision will result in streamlined battlefield communications, as F-35 onboard computers can network with other aircraft.
According to the U.S. Defense Department, such "integrated deterrence" will be a key element in future defense strategies and is central to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s plan for the American military. A Pentagon official described it as "integrated across domains,” involving nuclear, cyber, space, informational, and other operating environments—all of which are accessible or visible from the F-35’s cockpit. Most importantly, the Pentagon believes such integration must be inclusive of U.S. “allies and partners, which are the real asymmetric advantage that the United States has over any other competitor or potential adversary."
Forcing two different engine systems for F-35As in the middle of the jet’s lifespan doesn’t fit this U.S. integration theme. Not only do European Union allies appear not to get a vote, but the “adaptive engine” is incompatible with the other variants.
Consider also a key European gap in F-35 enthusiasm. Germany’s choice has angered France—still upset about last year’s canceled submarine deal with Australia—which perceives the F-35 as a symbol of U.S. power within NATO, according to researcher Paul Maurice at the French Institute of International Relations in Paris. More importantly, Germany’s decision sparked fears of an end to the Franco-German-Spanish Future Combat Air System, an entirely new European project designed to replace the French Rafale and the German Eurofighter by 2040.
In practice, if the decision to replace the engine for the F-35A is implemented, countries flying F-35s will find themselves forced into unforeseen and overly complicated supply and logistics chains. This would be an obstacle to foreign military sales.
At a Pentagon briefing last month, U.S. Air Force officials mentioned a nearly $290 million increase in its 2023 defense budget to fund the F-35 alternative engine program. That would translate into significantly more Euros for European taxpayers during the aircraft’s remaining approximately fifteen-year production cycle—a reality that’s flying under the radar so far.
At a time when security threats in Europe are so high, the United States and its European allies should be going out of their way to mutually support defense interoperability and efficiency. Although we’ve seen an overwhelming preference for the F-35 so far, America must not forget the geopolitical sacrifices being made by some to accommodate the aircraft’s operational and economic advantages. If those advantages are whittled away, then F-35 sales—along with the jet’s integrated deterrence potential—may be significantly reduced as European nations pursue other procurement options. Gaja Pellegrini-Bettoli is a Rome-based dual American-Italian citizen, political analyst, independent journalist and published book author. A former United Nations and European Commission press officer, and assistant at the European Parliament, her focus areas are defense, U.S. politics, and the Middle East and Afghanistan. She served as a regular guest analyst on Italy’s national news channel for the 2020 U.S. elections. She holds a Master of Science degree from the London School of Economics, and is fluent in four languages.
The Saab 35 is not a household name or well known in any generalist military or aviation circles. And yet, during the Cold War, it seems clear Sweden once again locked in its reputation as a top designer and operator of fighter jets. And the Saab 35 needed to be: The Saab 35 Draken was one of the first fully supersonic aircraft to have been deployed in Western Europe. It was developed as a replacement for the first generation of Swedish fighter jets including the Saab J29 Tunnan and Saab 32 Lansen. It was a combat aircraft that could intercept bombers at high altitudes, yet still, be able to engage enemy fighters.
It proved to be one of the most capable dogfighters of its era, even if it never actually saw combat. Here are the key facts you need to know and remember: Post War Fighter
Development of the interceptor began soon after the Second World War, and it was actually a radical leap forward in aviation technology. Engineers at Saab had a radical idea for a new all-weather supersonic jet fighter, which was to become the Saab 35 Draken. Slow Development
While designed for speed, the development of the Saab 35 was slow going for the era. Design work began in the late 1940s, but the first flight didn’t occur until 1955, and it wasn’t until 1960 that the aircraft was ready for frontline service with the Swedish Air Force.
The main reason was that it took more than any jet fighter of the era to complete the first prototype for flight. But in the end, good things come to those who wait.
Delta Wing
The Saab 35 proved to be a radical design, and the Draken was the first aircraft to successfully employ a double delta wing design. Recognizable as the large, triangle-shaped wings are widest at the rear and taper inwards closer to the nose of the plane, it offered numerous benefits. The first was that delta wings have more internal volume for fuel than conventional wings, while the wings proved to be structurally stronger.
The tradeoff was higher amounts of drag compared to typical swept-wing aircraft. Big Design Team
Development of the Draken was quite the affair. Led by aircraft engineer Erik Bratt, a team of more than 500 technicians worked on the design, including the unique wing shape after studying different ways of packaging the fuel and equipment.
Bratt and his team worked for three years on the double delta wing concept with the Saab 210, a sub-scale test aircraft. Such scale prototypes were needed in the era before computer-aided design (CAD) and advanced flight simulations.
Dragon or Kite?
The name of the aircraft had a dual meaning. “Draken” translates to “dragon” but was actually meant as “kite” for the shape of the wings. The Saab 210– which had first flown in 1952 to pioneer Saab’s still-unique double-delta wing form – was unofficially nicknamed “Lilldraken” or “little kite.” Rear Landing Gear
Due to the thrusters of the aircraft being placed so far back, engineers opted to add an additional diminutive set of landing wheels along the aft portion of one of the early production models. That new landing gear arrangement helped address the fact that the Draken’s large wings created inherent drag, and allowed for “tail down” landings.
In addition, a chute was also installed, and could be deployed in case the aircraft had to make shorter landings.
Speedy Dragon
In 1955, the Draken was the first European aircraft to have reached the supersonic speed of Mach 1, equal to the speed of sound. The original requirement specified a top speed of Mach 1.4 to 1.5, but it was revised upwards in 1956 to Mach 1.7 to 1.8, and yet again in 1959 to Mach 2.0. Inventing the Cobra Maneuver
The first Saab-35A prototype finally took to the skies on October 25, 1955, and the J35A became the early production model. Because of the then-historically unproven tailless design, the aircraft experienced a number of problems at the start of its service life – including a number of super stalls.
However, pilots were trained to prevent that from happening, and out of the extensive pilot training came what is known as a “cobra maneuver,” where the plane flying at a moderate speed can abruptly raise its nose to a vertical and slightly past vertical attitude, momentarily stalling the plane, before making a full-body air brake and then dropping back to normal position.
It is now considered to be one of the most dramatic and demanding maneuvers and is typically only performed at air shows.
The Saab 35 Was a Defensive Aircraft (Mostly)
As it was designed as a supersonic interceptor, the Draken was always intended to be a defensive aircraft – one that could stop bombers and fighters alike in the case of an invasion. It was equipped with either a single or dual 30mm cannon for close-in action and could be armed with a variety of air-to-air missiles and air-to-ground rockets. While the aircraft never saw actual combat, it would have likely performed well in its interceptor role against an enemy’s bombers and more than held its own against most fighters of the era.
The aircraft was adopted by the Swedish Air Force and was later exported to Finland, Austria, and Denmark. In fact, while all of the Swedish Drakens were interceptors with limited air-to-ground capability, the Danish Drakens could have been deployed as strike aircraft capable of carrying AGM-12 Bullpup missiles, advanced “jammers,” and increased internal and external fuel stores.
Image: Creative Commons.
Image: Creative Commons Saab 35 Long Service History
The Saab 35 went through a series of upgrades, and in total 651 were produced. Even after the Swedish Air Force adopted the Saab 37 Viggen, the Draken remained in active service for almost 40 years after its introduction. The final Saab 35 Draken, in service with the Austrian Air Force, was only retired in 2005 – a testament to its effective design and capabilities.
Now a Senior Editor for 1945, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites. He regularly writes about military hardware, and is the author of several books on military headgear including A Gallery of Military Headdress, which is available on Amazon.com. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes.
For widows in Africa, COVID-19 stole husbands, homes, future
LONG READ
By KRISTA LARSON and CHINEDU ASADU
May 10, 2022
UMUIDA, Nigeria (AP) — As Anayo Mbah went into labor with her sixth child, her husband battled COVID-19 in another hospital across town. Jonas, a young motorcycle taxi driver, had been placed on oxygen after he started coughing up blood.
Jonas would never meet his daughter, Chinaza. Hours after the birth, Mbah’s sister-in-law called to say he was gone. Staff at the hospital in southeastern Nigeria soon asked Mbah and her newborn to leave. No one had come to pay her bill.
Mbah began the rites of widowhood at the home where she lived with her in-laws: Her head was shaved, and she was dressed in white clothing. But just weeks into the mourning period that traditionally lasts six months, her late husband’s relatives stopped providing food, then confronted her directly.
“They told me that it was better for me to find my own way,” Mbah, now 29, said. “They said even if I have to go and remarry, that I should do so. That the earlier I leave the house, the better for me and my children.”
She left on foot for her mother’s home with only a plastic bag of belongings for Chinaza and her other children.
“I decided that I might die if I continue to stay here with my children,” she said.
Across Africa, widowhood has long befallen great numbers of women — particularly in the continent’s least developed countries where medical facilities are scarce. Many widows are young, having married men decades older. And in some countries, men frequently have more than one wife, leaving several widows behind when they die.
Now, the coronavirus pandemic has created an even larger population of widows on the continent, with African men far more likely to die of the virus than women, and it has exacerbated the issues they face. Women such as Mbah say the pandemic has taken more than their husbands: In their widowhood, it’s cost them their extended families, their homes and their futures.
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This story is part of a yearlong series on how the pandemic is impacting women in Africa, most acutely in the least developed countries. The Associated Press series is funded by the European Journalism Centre’s European Development Journalism Grants program, which is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The AP is responsible for all content.
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Once widowed, women are often mistreated and disinherited. Laws prohibit many from acquiring land or give them only a fraction of their spouse’s wealth, and widows in places like southeastern Nigeria face suspicion over their husband’s death during the mourning period. In-laws can claim custody of children; tradition says kids belong to the father. Other in-laws disown the children and refuse to help, even if they’re the family’s only source of money and food. And young widows have no adult children to support them in communities with extreme poverty and few jobs for women with limited education.
In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, some 70 percent of confirmed COVID-19 deaths have been men, according to data tracked by the Sex, Gender and COVID-19 Project. Similarly, more than 70 percent of deaths in Chad, Malawi, Somalia and Congo have been men, according to figures from the project, which is the world’s largest database tracking coronavirus differences between men and women. Other countries likely show similar trends but lack the resources to gather detailed figures.
Experts say some of the widows left behind have nothing while others are pressured to remarry brothers-in-law or be cut off. Widows can start experiencing mistreatment by their in-laws before their husbands are even buried.
“Some are treated as outcasts, accused of being responsible for the death of their husband,” said Egodi Blessing Igwe, spokeswoman for WomenAid Collective, which has aided thousands of widows with free legal services and family mediation.
Some experts say widows face the harshest reality in Nigeria. There, Mbah now raises her children without financial support from her in-laws, who even kept the motorcycle her husband drove as a taxi. She works four jobs, including one as a cleaner at a school where she can no longer afford to send her children.
Her husband had no will, and she hasn’t pursued a legal case against her in-laws. She fears it would only make her situation worse, and finding the time would be nearly impossible.
For some widows who purse legal action, a will saves the day, said Igwe, with the women’s rights organization.
“The will can really help if men can have the courage to prepare it and continue to update it,” she said. “Unfortunately in this part of the world, we don’t like to talk about death.”
Even in widowhood, women are often still under the oversight of men — adult sons or brothers — and may not be able to pursue a case if the family believes it will bring stigma or shame.
In Congo, Vanessa Emedy Kamana had known her husband for a decade before he proposed marriage. She worked for the scholar as a personal assistant. By the time their friendship turned romantic, Godefroid Kamana was in his late 60s; she, a single mother in her late 20s. She said she was drawn to his youthful spirit and intellect: He worked at a think tank and had two doctorates from European universities.
When he first tested positive for COVID-19, there was no hospital bed for him, despite his age and status as a diabetic, in the eastern city of Goma, a humanitarian hub with a large U.N. peacekeeping mission presence. Once a spot was secured, his wife spent most of his final days searching for oxygen and pleading with vendors.
The night of his burial, relatives came to the family home where Kamana had just begun her period of mourning. Generally, widows are required to stay in their homes and can receive visitors. Mourning lengths vary by religion and ethnic group. Kamana, whose family is Muslim, was supposed to stay home for four months and 10 days. But her husband’s relatives didn’t wait that long to force her and her young son out on the street.
“I was stripped of everything, of all my possessions,” she said.
She feared her husband’s family would seek custody of her son, Jamel, whom Kamana had adopted and given his surname. Ultimately the relatives did not, because the boy — now 6 — wasn’t his biological child. They did, however, move swiftly to amass the financial assets.
“I was not aware because I was at the house crying for my husband,” she said. “But they came and said: ’These bank accounts belong to us.”
She, her son and their cat now live in a smaller home her mother kept as a rental property. Kamana sells secondhand clothing at a market while her son is at school. And while she initially received 40% of her late husband’s salary, those funds will soon stop entirely.
Kamana’s marriage was relatively new. He had paid the dowry to her family in 2020, but they had no public ceremony because of COVID-19 restrictions. What mattered most, she said, was that he had accepted her son as his own. Now, the family has taken a bank account set up for the boy.
And it’s painful, Kamana said, when some of her late husband’s relatives insist they’ve lost more than she did.
“No one will be able to replace him,” she said.
In West Africa, widowhood is particularly fraught in the large swaths where many marriages are polygamous. Each wife performs the rituals of grief, but it is the first wife or her children who usually lay claim to the family home and other financial assets.
Saliou Diallo, 35, said she would have been left with nothing after a decade of marriage had her husband not thought to put her home under her name instead of his. Even after his death, she lives in fear that her husband’s older children or relatives will try to take over her small residence on the outskirts of the Guinean capital, Conakry.
Under Guinean law, a man’s multiple wives share a small percentage of his estate, with nearly all of it — 87.5 percent — going to his children, said Yansane Fatou Balde, a women’s rights advocate. Women rarely contest their inheritance, given the stigma and expense.
Diallo’s husband, El Hadj, 74, had been building the home just for her and their 4-year-old daughter when he fell ill with COVID-19. Diallo was infected, too — and terrified. She already knew the burden of losing a spouse: At 13, she became a second wife, only to be widowed in her early 20s.
Her next attempt at marriage unraveled when the man did not take to her three children. Then she was introduced to El Hadj, who already had married multiple women but was willing to raise Diallo’s three kids as his own.
They spent a decade together before the virus hit El Hadj. In his final conversations with his wife, he lamented that her home didn’t have windows yet. That he hadn’t lived long enough to build a well so she wouldn’t have to carry water on her head each day. That other relatives would try to chase her off once he was gone.
During mourning, the first wife refused to provide financially for Diallo — who couldn’t attend the funeral because she tested positive for the virus. Then the first wife’s children came to Diallo’s house and reclaimed the car he’d given her. They took all his documents and checkbooks. Full Coverage: Women Eyes of Africa
“They wanted to chase me away, too,” Diallo said. “I told them: ‘Let me finish my mourning and see my husband’s grave.’”
The children asked for the papers of the house El Hadj had built for her. She provided photocopies but secretly kept the originals.
Her extended family ultimately helped raise money to put windows on her house. Still, she feels her husband’s absence. There is electricity, but no light fixtures. The walls are finished but not painted, and only a few plastic lawn chairs and a mini-fridge furnish the home.
“I am sure God is saving a surprise for me. I surrender to him,” she said. “In the meantime I live on the help of my parents. They support me, and I keep my faith.”
In Diallo’s case, the law has protected her home. But where laws fail to protect widows, the resolution of disinheritance disputes often comes down to family mediation alone.
Back in Nigeria, Roseline Ujah, 49, spent three decades as part of her husband’s extended family. She shared chores and meals with them, even helping to care for her mother- and father-in-law in their later years.
But she said her husband’s brother began scheming to disinherit her and her seven children before her husband, Godwin, had even been buried. Her sister-in-law intervened and managed to save a small portion of land where Ujah now cultivates cocoyam, a root vegetable.
When her husband — who harvested palm wine — first became ill, everyone assumed it was malaria. But medications failed, and his breathing became labored. Hospital doctors diagnosed him with COVID-19, even though no tests were available for confirmation. Without money for a hospital stay, Ujah turned to traditional medicine.
“I kept begging God not to let him die,” she said. “He kept getting weaker and weaker, and we were looking for solutions for him.” He died in their home and was buried in his front yard.
Only her sister-in-law brought food to the family during their six months of mourning. Ujah was forbidden to leave home. Without support from her extended family, she had to send her children to work on neighbors’ farms for income. Some days they ate nothing at all.
“It was only from the door that I could call the attention of passersby to help me get something at the market,” she said.
Godwin’s youngest two children — 13-year-old Chidimma and 11-year-old Chimuanya — have been especially affected by his death, as their relationship with their father’s family has soured.
Ujah is left to scramble for her family’s survival, making brooms to sell at the local market. She knows her husband would have confronted his family over their mistreatment of her. Without him, she turns to her faith.
“I look up to God, telling him I have no one else,” she said. “He is my husband and the father of my children and of the family, and I will not marry another man.”
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Larson also reported from Goma, Congo, and Conakry, Guinea. Associated Press writer Boubacar Diallo in Conakry, Guinea, contributed.
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See the full series on how the pandemic is affecting women in Africa: https://apnews.com/hub/women-the-eyes-of-africa
Health Care Workers Are Moving to Gig Work in Record Numbers
Nearly one-fifth of hospitals in the U.S. have critical staffing shortages, as burned out health care workers leave medicine.
Photo: Unsplash
COVID-19 has battered the health care workforce. Historically known for their resilience, the pandemic has left doctors, nurses and other front-line workers not just exhausted, but bitter, traumatized and questioning their passion and commitment to a calling they once loved. In search of greater work-life balance and mental well-being, many are considering major changes to their work-life, from moving to gig work to leaving the profession altogether, quantified by the overall growth of ~6% per annum of the temporary staffing market.
This burnout has had a severe impact across the health care continuum. In January 2022, nearly one-fifth of hospitals in the U.S. claimed “critical” staffing shortages, while nearly 60% of nursing homes nationwide were forced to limit admissions in December 2021 due to a lack of staff. Health care executives, equally exhausted after spending over two years managing a mounting series of COVID driven crises, are aggressively trying to address workforce burnout with traditional monetary levers (e.g., pay raises and bonuses). These actions have had material downstream affects: a ~16% increase in labor operating expenses has contributed to a median operating margin ~10% lower than pre-pandemic norms, with over one-third of U.S. hospitals operating in the red by late 2021.
Staffing shortages have a significant impact on patient safety, too, including greater reliance on workarounds, which can lead to near misses. In fact, ECRI named staffing shortages as its top patient safety concern for 2022.
Oliver Wyman research suggests that traditional and more transactional levers (such as pay hikes) do not address the root cause of burnout and can be “too little, too late” for affected workers. Nursing staff responding to a recent Oliver Wyman survey ranked attention to their mental health and a focus on work-life balance as their top worries for working in health care rather than adequate pay or benefits. Despite the lucrative financial opportunities available to most health care workers in today’s market, our recent survey of nursing and allied health professionals suggested 20% to 30% have accelerated retirement plans, with 50% to 60% planning to change their career in some way, including a significant portion (15% to 30%) planning to pursue a career outside of health care all together.
Our survey illuminated an alternative path forward for smart and self-reflective leaders who are willing to address the core issues that matter most to this workforce. This requires abandoning the traditional HR-centric approach in favor of shifting an organization’s culture and strategy to reflect the new realities of today’s workforce. Organizations that transform care delivery, build flexibility into formerly rigid jobs, and demonstrate a clear investment into the emotional well-being of their employees will be the ones that successfully build back better. We have to understand what has driven the current staffing crisis, and what can be done to bring back workers who have left, as well as retaining those who have stayed. Front-Line Workers Want More Control Over Their Own Career
A core component of this change (one that Oliver Wyman expects to persist) is the shift to gig labor, with our recent Nursing Survey revealing 1400% growth in the number of nurses moving to gig models — traveler, day-agency and other types of per diem — since the start of the pandemic. Nurses are seeking greater control over their schedules and the greater flexibility that comes with shifting to gig work — a model where nurses can control their work-life balance and prioritize the volume, duration, location, and timing of shifts they take. Beyond greater job flexibility and higher wages, nurses tend to perceive that they are better taken care of by staffing agencies that do not “push” them to work over time. “My employer didn’t have my back during the pandemic. At least my staffing company has my back and I have control over when I work,” one nurse told us.
This trend has resulted in a complex feedback loop, where nurses who have stayed in traditional staff roles can feel frustration and resentment that what they perceive as loyalty to their institutions is rewarded with nothing but lower wages, worse shift schedules, and generally poorer work-lives than their colleagues who have shifted to gig-work. “Every week I would look over at the nurse next to me, making three times as much while doing the exact same job,” said an ICU nurse who made the shift to travel contracts during the pandemic. “Now I can take a month off in between contracts, control where I live and work, and get paid more for the privilege.”
There’s every indication that these trendlines will continue. Few respondents to Oliver Wyman’s nursing study expect their work life, including staffing levels, to stabilize anytime soon. In fact, demand for health care workers rose +105%, +164%, and +60% across nursing care, community care, and home health respectively compared to pre-pandemic levels, with elevated demand projected to persist through at least 2024.
Supervisors and Leaders Need to ‘Have the Back’ of Their Workforce
As mentioned above, mental health, physical health and work-life balance ranked higher than pay when nursing respondents were asked about their greatest concerns about working in health care. They cited work-life balance, emotional demands and flexible scheduling as key drivers in why they would consider leaving their organization.
During interviews with more than 100 nursing professionals, the overwhelming majority noted that their employers have historically shown little regard for these factors. “I left my full-time role because the responsibilities kept piling up and I just wasn’t getting support from the hospital,” said one critical care nurse. The nursing workforce unsurprisingly desires connection and a supervisor who “has their back” and will advocate for them, but the culture of many health care organizations has failed them.
This concern is persistent across generations, with both Baby Boomers and Gen Z ranking work-life balance as their top concern working in health care. While the Millennials and Gen X were more concerned with mental health, these are simply two sides of the same coin: Addressing both requires viewing health care workers as whole people, not just cogs in an uncaring machine of a hospital.
Money Is a Driver, but Workers Need Connection
While pay showed up as a key criteria when considering potential employers across all segments in our survey, it is important to understand that compensation alone is not enough. Health care professionals want “fair compensation.” Unpacking this language, we learned that this means the ability to cover everyday needs, ensure their family is cared for and adequately plan for the next five years. Nursing professionals want to feel that their employers care and are interested in helping them achieve their goals. It’s not just about getting paid at a high rate, but also about being supported — e.g., an employer helping to pay bills or student loans, support continuing education, plan for retirement, and other services that aren’t necessarily conveyed through a number on a paystub.
The health care workforce is in crisis, and with it the health care system overall. Health care executives need to take truly transformative steps to save it. They can continually ask their workforces what matters to them and take action on what employees say is consequential. They can upend traditional approaches to recruitment, use apps to facilitate more flexible scheduling options, invest in more remote work options and strategically use gig workers. Health care organizations can change their cultures at a foundational level and change the relationships they have with their nurses, doctors, and other front-line workers who sacrificed so much throughout this pandemic. What’s at stake is the very health of our communities.
Deirdre Baggot Partner of Health & Life Sciences at Oliver Wyman Bruce Hamory Partner and Chief Medical Officer at Oliver Wyman John Rudoy Healthcare Director at Marsh McLennan Advantage
Austria’s governing far-right FPO compares immigrants to rats
The group, which was founded by former Nazis, published a poem in Hitler’s home town of Braunau, warning of cultural mixing.
The Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), which is part of Austria’s governing-coalition, has published a poem comparing migrants to rats.
The piece, titled “The City Rat” (Die Stadtratte) was published in the northwestern town of Braunau, where Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was born.
Shared by the town’s local chapter, the poem warns against cultural intermingling in Austria and included the lines: "As we live down here, so must the rats, as guests or migrants, even those we did not know yet, share our way of life, or hurry away!"
It continues to warn of the dangers of cultural mixing and of government efforts to assimilate minorities.
The imagery of a rat was also used in Nazi propaganda to describe Jews in the run up to the Holocaust.
Head of the Freedom Party (FPOe) Heinz-Christian Strache (L) and head of the People's Party (OeVP) Sebastian Kurz address a news conference in Vienna, Austria, December 15, 2017. (Reuters) The FPO’s SS founders
Founded in 1956, the FPO originally served as a gathering place for former Nazis and its first two chairmen, Anton Reinthaller (1956-58) and Friedrich Peter (1958-78) were former SS officers.
Until the 1980s, theFPO was a marginal party following a nationalist agenda, but from 1986 onwards, the party framed itself as a far-right, anti-elite, and populist party.
The party became a coalition partner with the Christian Democratic centre-right OVP in 2000, the first time a party with Nazi roots had joined government in Europe since the Second World War.
FPO’s appointment as a coalition partner was opposed by the EU, and the party did not attain enough votes to join the coalition in the next election. However, it rejoined government in 2017, after attaining 26 percent of the vote, riding a wave of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment.
The sign of Braunau am Inn, the city Hitler was born, is pictured on a bridge, Austria, October 22, 2016. (Reuters) Anti-Muslim sentiment
“The party leaders of course declare that they have nothing to do with the Nazis and so on. Even if we were to accept that, nobody can deny that the so-called neo-Nazis find a home under the FPO today,” Mustafa Isık a local Muslim active in civil society and politics in Vienna told TRT World, explaining further that the party was taking incremental steps in its behaviour to test the waters.
An Austrian study analysing the party’s history says: “The social profile of its voters has hardly changed over the years: The FPO’s voting base is predominantly above average among men, younger people, workers, and persons with a lower level of education.”
Muslims have become the targets of increasing Islamophobia in Austria, with 540 anti-Muslim incidents in 2018 compared to 309 in 2017, according to the Anti-Muslim Racism Report.
“Anti-Muslim racism is a daily problem in Austria and there is a risk that this behaviour i is becoming increasingly normalised in the country’s political and social climate”, said writer Elias Feroz.
Mustafa Isık called on Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz to take effective measures against the FPO.
“Such incidents should be sufficient to dissolve the coalition. Otherwise we will hear many more of these kinds of events for the next three and a half years. years.”
Source: TRT World
US Senators Urge Biden To Lift Sanctions Against Venezuela
They pointed out that the harsh policies against Venezuela has only served to deepen this Latin American country's economic crisis and undermine U.S. credibility. Citizens walk down a street, Caracas, Venezuela.
Photo: Twitter/ @SamadhiMD1
Published 13 May 2022
On Wednesday, 18 Democratic Party (DP) senators urged President Joe Biden to continue pursuing dialogue with the Venezuelan government and, in support of that process, to consider lifting the economic sanctions against it.
“We commend Biden for his recent efforts toward constructive engagement with President Nicolas Maduro’s administration, actions thank to which U.S. citizens condemned in Venezuela for corruption, Gustavo Cardenas and Jorge Fernandez, could be brought back home,” the senators stated.
They stressed that the harsh policies prompted by former President Donald Trump against Venezuela has only served to deepen this Latin American country's economic crisis and undermine U.S. credibility.
The U.S. attempts to foment a military uprising, threats of armed intervention, the ending of diplomatic relations, and the imposition of the economic blockade has prompted that Venezuelan living standards fell by 71.8 percent between 2012 and 2020.
The U.S. foreign policy has also harmed Venezuela's international economic activities, causing its national gross domestic product (GDP) to contract by 74.3 percent in the last eight years.
Broad sanctions are widely known to disproportionately harm vulnerable populations, including people with disabilities or chronic diseases, Indigenous communities, and women, the senators remarked, stressing that the easing of sanctions will mark a step forward in the process of engagement and diplomacy.
Among the senators who made the petition are Raul Grijalva, Jesus Garcia, Jan Schakowsky, and Juan Vargas, to whom Republican Party (RP) senator for the Florida state Marco Rubio forcibly opposed.
“The U.S. government has already lifted many sanctions against the Maduro regime. This request only seeks to cover what Biden proposes to announce very soon," alleged Rubio, who is widely known for its aggressive policy against Cuba and Venezuela.
Shipwreck off Puerto Rico Coast Leaves at Least 11 Dead
The U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday, that at least 31 people were rescued. May. 13, 2022. |
Photo: Twitter/@24Happenings
Published 13 May 2022
According to the U.S. Coast Guard's report on Thursday, 31 survivors had been rescued so far.
At least 11 people died off the west coast of Puerto Rico on Thursday after a boat with dozens of migrants on board capsized, the U.S. Coast Guard reported. Local sources, the vessel suspected of transporting migrants from the Dominican Republic overturned about 19 kilometers north of Puerto Rico's Desecheo Islet.
The U.S. coastal force detailed that 31 survivors had been rescued and that, in conjunction with Puerto Rican forces, a large rescue operation was being carried out in the area. Troops are also supporting this massive operation from the Maritime Units of the United Rapid Action Forces (FURA) of the municipalities of Aguadilla and Añasco.
The Puerto Rican Coast Guard received a report from a Customs and Border Protection plane that said it had seen a boat and people around it who did not appear to be wearing life jackets.
The region known as the Mona Channel, located between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, is a busy route for human smugglers and migrants, and almost weekly arrests of vessels occur, including Thursday; authorities had announced the deportation of 44 Dominicans intercepted in this area.
The few security measures and the disrespect of the navigation rules regarding the weight established for each vessel cause the numerous coastal incidents that also occur in this region.
Just three days ago, the Coast Guard reported the rescue of 68 people during a shipwreck and the recovery of the body of a deceased woman.
Puerto Rico boat wreck victims mostly Haitian
Customs and Border Protection and Puerto Rico Police respond to a capsized boat north of Desecheo Island, Puerto Rico on May 12, 2022 AFP
Fri, May 13, 2022
The majority of migrants traveling in a boat that capsized off the coast of Puerto Rico were Haitians, authorities said Friday, adding that of the 11 dead, all were women.
A total of 38 survivors have been found and rescuers continue to search where the accident occurred, about 10 nautical miles (19 kilometers) north of Desecheo Island, an uninhabited US territory between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
The survivors were "36 Haitian and 2 Dominican Republic nationals, of which eight remain hospitalized," the US Coast Guard said on Twitter Friday.
Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry tweeted his condolences to the families of the dead, who he said were Haitians.
"The news of the sinking of a boat off the coast of Puerto Rico which caused the death of 11 of our compatriots deeply upsets me," he said.
Of the dead were all were women, and autopsies will be performed on them, according to the Puerto Rico Forensic Science Institute.
A Customs and Border Patrol helicopter first spotted the boat and people in the water who appeared not to be wearing life jackets around midday on Thursday.
Several days prior, a Haitian woman died in the area after her boat carrying 69 migrants capsized. The other passengers were rescued by the US Coast Guard and the Dominican Navy.
In March, hundreds of Haitian arrived by boat in Florida. And more than 100 were intercepted by the coast guard near the Bahamas.
Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, is facing an acute political, economic and security crisis.
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Peru: Earthquake Higher Than 8.5 Degrees Possible
Peru's Geophysical Institute forecasts earthquake of more than 8.5 in the country's capital Lima. May. 13, 2022.
According to experts, anearthquake with a magnitude greater than 8.5 is likely to hit Peru's capital city.
According to the Geophysical Institute of Peru (IGP), there is a high possibility of an earthquake higher than 8.5 degrees occurring in the capital of Lima.
"We are talking about an earthquake that probably has not been repeated since 1746 and that will probably exceed magnitude 8.5; that is why Indeci (National Institute of Civil Defense) is doing the drills right now for earthquakes of 8.5 and 8.8, which is what could happen in Lima," IGP chief Hernando Tavera told local television America.
The head of the IGP said that Lima is the area of the country where the greatest energy had built up due to the seismic silence that had existed in the capital since the 18th century when the last great movement occurred.
Furthermore, Tavera said that the Seismic Alert System, developed by Indeci, will be operational in early 2023 via mobile telephony to warn the population if a movement occurs.
On May 12, the National Seismological Center of Peru registered an earthquake of magnitude 5.5 with epicenter 30 kilometers from the district of Chilca, located in the department of Lima. The seismic event left one dead and eight injured.
