The centuries-old Oberammergau Passion Play is back

Held every 10 years since the 17th century, the Oberammergau Passion Play is on again, two years later than scheduled due to the pandemic. It comes with unusual rituals.



The pandemic delayed the famous play for two years


"It's got everyone mesmerized again," said director Christian Stückl, just days before the curtain is set to rise on May 14 for this year's premiere. People in the Bavarian town of Oberammergau are excited to be back on stage, Stückl said.

Almost every day, the townspeople will climb onto the huge open-air stage to recount the story of Jesus Christ, his life and death, the resurrection. They will sing, play music and act until the season ends on October 2.


Old and young Oberammergau residents participate in the play

The Passion Play was originally scheduled for 2020. The people of Oberammergau are still fulfilling a vow made in 1633: During the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), 84 people from the small town died of the plague, so the villagers vowed to perform the Passion of Jesus every 10 years should they be spared. All they had were their prayers — and their prayers were answered.
'Intangible Cultural Heritage'

Even today, more than half of the town's residents participate, either as amateur actors, in the choir or in the orchestra.

The five-hour performance begins in the afternoon with the ride into Jerusalem and tells the Passion story through the Last Supper to the Crucifixion. The play ends in the evening hours with the Resurrection.

There are 103 performances, scheduled from May 14 to October 2, with daily shows except on Mondays and Wednesdays.

It's Christian Stückl's fourth stint in a row as director of the play. Stefan Hageneier is responsible for stage design; Markus Zwink for the music.

Some of the rituals and rules seem a bit anachronistic: Adult performers must have lived in Oberammergau for at least 20 years.

Men, with the exception of those who play the Romans, are to let their hair and beards grow from Ash Wednesday of the previous year to give the play a more realistic touch.

Each and every one of the approximately 5,400 inhabitants is allowed to participate. All roles are double cast, so about half of the village is on stage, including almost 500 children.


Impressive open air theater

This year is different in that, for the first time, a Muslim will play the role of Judas, the most coveted of the 21 main roles next to Jesus.

Just 30 years ago, you had to be Catholic to participate. "As a child, I didn't know exactly who Jesus was and who Judas was," Judas actor Cengiz Gorur recently told Der Spiegel news magazine. "It's a role, and I prepared well."

The theater building is 120 years old and seats just shy of 5,000 visitors. It is a listed building, owing mainly to its special construction and technology, but also because of its historical significance for popular and amateur theater.

Since 2014, the World Cultural Organization UNESCO has listed the Passion Play as a German Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Railroad connection made travel easier

The open-air play, which earns the municipality millions of euros every 10 years, became famous beyond the country's borders in the 19th century.

The extension of the railroad line to neighboring Murnau made travel to Oberammergau much easier. Thomas Cook travel agents arranged for international guests. Celebrities including Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner, Max Reinhardt, John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford all came to see the play.

 


Christian Stückl has directed the play four times

Rochus Rückel and Frederik Mayet are the two Jesus actors in Oberammergau this year. "Two years ago, we were getting closer to the premiere when coronavirus hit," said Mayet. With regard to the war in Ukraine, people may take a different view of the play revolving around Jesus and his message, he said. "But the message of the Passion Play is always relevant."

"There is a time of fear in Israel. Cries of war fill the land, poverty and disease ravage you": Those are among the first sentences said by the Jesus character on stage.

The current crisis, Mayet said, shows what poverty and disease mean — and how insignificant human beings are.

Despite medical advances, we are not much further ahead than we were 2,000 years ago, or 400 years ago when the plague broke out in Oberammergau, Mayet said.
Jesus on the cross

The Jesus role requires the actors to stay up on the cross for about 20 minutes, their bodies secured with nails, loops and ropes. "Exposed and half-naked — it's pretty uncomfortable," said Mayet. Jesus speaks a few last words on the cross, convulsed in agony. It can take quite a few minutes, during which he is not allowed to budge, until he is finally taken down from the cross. "It's pretty exhausting sometimes."

The Last Supper on stage at Oberammergau

In 2010, about 500,000 people from all over the world flocked to see the event.

In 2020 and 2021, COVID-19 restrictions forced theaters nationwide to close for many months, which also meant canceling the Oberammergau production.

In 2022, two years later than planned, the Oberammergau Passion Play is finally back. Tickets are still available, according to the organizers.

This article was originally written in German.

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Faith Matters - Oberammergau Passion Play - The Plague and Covid-19

Is India's auto industry ready to go electric?

India has big ambitions to slash crude oil imports and push for an electric vehicle future, but high costs and a lack of infrastructure could hamper the country's green narrative.


Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Minister of Power R.K Singh at the launch of India's first green hydrogen-based advanced fuel cell electric vehicle

India's manufacturing of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) has kicked off with several automakers rolling out electric cars at a rapid pace.

India is among a handful of countries that aim for electric vehicles (EVs) to account for at least 30% of all new automotive sales by 2030.

In March, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, who has been championing alternative fuel, drove to Parliament in his hydrogen-powered Toyota car to make a statement that he would use it himself as a pilot project.

"I have favored a green transition in fuel, and rapid strides in green fuel technology will reduce the cost of electric vehicles, bringing them on a par with petrol-run vehicles in a short time," Gadkari said.

According to NITI Aayog, an Indian public policy think tank, by 2030, 80% of two- and three-wheelers, 40% of buses and 30%-70% of cars in India will be EVs.
Can India achieve its green ambitions?

At the COP26 summit, India pledged to achieve net-zero emissions status by 2070 and to lower its emission intensity by 45% from 2005 levels by 2030. EVs could help realize these goals and play a pivotal role in India's green transition.

"The current trajectory of adding ever more cars running on expensive imported fuel, and cluttering up already overcrowded cities suffering from infrastructure bottlenecks and intense air pollution is unfeasible. India's cities will choke," Heavy Industries Minister Nath Pandey said at a recent meeting.

Watch video 02:37 Coal energy makes India world's third biggest polluter

"A transportation revolution will have many components: better walkability, public transportation, railways, roads and better cars. Many of these better cars will likely be electric," he said.

The transport sector accounts for 18% of total energy consumption in India, which translates to an estimated 94 million tons of oil-equivalent (MTOE) energy.

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency estimates that, if India were to follow the current trends of energy consumption, it would require an estimated 200 MTOE of energy supply annually by 2030 to meet demand.

Challenges to an electric future

Powered by hydrogen and one of the best clean energy alternatives in vehicles, EVs are more efficient than conventional internal combustion engine vehicles, and produce no tailpipe emissions, reducing pollution levels while emitting water vapor and warm air.

Some industry analysts claim that this could potentially allow India to save on crude oil imports worth over $14 billion (€13.5 billion) annually. Rapid adoption of two- and three-wheeler EVs is expected to lead the way to this transition.

India's road to a fully electric ecosystem still has a few hurdles — including high costs, inadequate infrastructure and a lack of high-performing EVs.

Industry experts estimate that India's transition to electric mobility to reach decarbonization goals would require a deployment of 2.9 million public chargers to meet 102 million EVs.

"While the electric vehicle program has begun to receive policy attention at the national and state level, it has not yet been able to catalyze the market to build scale," Anumita Roy Chowdhury, executive director at Centre for Science and Environment, told DW.

She said EVs still made up less than 1% of new vehicle sales and that a regulation target and a zero-emissions mandate at the national level still needed to be developed.

State-level EV policies with time-bound targets could make a difference, she said. For instance, Delhi, which has set a target of 25% electrification by 2024, has already increased its share of EVs to 12.5%.

"Overall, the challenges of inadequate charging networks ... limited EV models in the market, uncertainty around the battery costs and weak consumer awareness are some of the key factors impeding accelerated electrification," Chowdhury said.

Watch video 02:53 Pakistan: Can this e-mobility scheme cut harmful air pollution?

Government incentives for EV manufacturing

The Indian government introduced its Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles in India (FAME) program as well as several supply- and demand-side incentives to facilitate the switch to EVs.

Some states have also set their own ambitious EV targets; 18 out of 28 states already have a draft policy in place or have called for one.

Safa Khan, an energy consultant, told DW that, while FAME is expected to set up 2,877 charging stations in 68 cities across 25 states by 2024, India only has 934 charging stations to cater to all types of vehicle classes as of June last year. In comparison, China has approximately 900,000.

"The planning process needs to strike the right balance between low- and high-power charging points in locations that ensure equitable access to a diversity of EV users," Khan said.

"A switch to EVs represents the opportunity for communities to move towards less localized air pollution, and the onus is on the government to ensure these benefits are accrued equitably," she said.

Edited by: Sou-Jie van Brunnersum

How great power competition is complicating global cooperation

The emerging competition between Western democracies and authoritarian nations led by China poses serious challenges to the existing international system, say experts.

With its recent actions, China is signaling that it views the US-led international order as no longer legitimate, said Sari Arho Havrén

In the past few months, democratic countries, mostly led by the United States, have been trying to form a united front to support Ukraine in its defense against Russia's invasion.

While they are closely coordinating efforts to put pressure on Moscow, Western governments are also keeping an eye on China's diplomatic efforts, especially its attempts to strengthen ties with autocratic countries.

Since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine at the end of February, Western nations have repeatedly warned Beijing against providing military aid to Moscow.

This week, senior US officials told Reuters news agency that they had not observed any "overt" Chinese military and economic support for Russia.

Nevertheless, the Chinese government has so far been unwilling to condemn Russia's actions in Ukraine.

Ideal partners for Beijing

Over the last two months, Beijing has also organized high-level meetings with the military government in Myanmar, pledging cooperation and exchanges in all areas, while hosting a multinational meeting to discuss the humanitarian and economic crisis facing Afghanistan.

Some experts believe ensuring stability in these countries is in Beijing's interest as they all share a land border with China. "There is a natural reason for Beijing to reach out to them," said Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Although China doesn't limit its outreach activities to authoritarian states, they seem more ideal partners for Beijing because deals struck with them tend to receive less scrutiny and oversight.

"What happens is that while Beijing is doing outreach with a variety of countries, the ones where backlash can be more managed in the short term, tend to be ones that are able to keep a lid on opposition or scrutiny to these deals," said Chong. "They can more easily stick to the deals without too much political pressure."
China's challenge to the US-led order

With its recent actions, China is signaling that it views the US-led international order as no longer legitimate, said Sari Arho Havren, a visiting researcher at the University of Helsinki.

"The Chinese Communist Party elite believes that it offers a superior form of governance with stability and economic development, and recently with its handling of COVID," she told DW.

"China's development and its challenging the United States as the most powerful nation in the world resonates especially in the global south. Since China does not accept the current international order, it challenges it where it doesn't hurt itself too much," she added.

Last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed a "global security initiative" that will uphold the principle of "indivisible security" during the annual Boao Asia Forum. According to him, the world should respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, while paying attention to the "legitimate" security concerns of all.

"We should uphold the principle of indivisibility of security, build a balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture, and oppose the building of national security on the basis of insecurity in other countries," Xi said.

While details of the initiative remain vague, Ivana Karaskova, founder and leader of MapInfluenceEU, a project that maps Chinese and Russian influence in Central and Eastern Europe, said that it's targeted at developing countries.

"It is aimed at developing countries with emphasis on shared stage of development or historical experience with colonialism, and stressing principles of sovereignty and non-interference."
A big blow to international organizations

As the United States and China both try to consolidate their relationships with countries that share similar values, fears abound about the emerging competition posing challenges to the existing international system.

"Now we have entered into a phase where various geographies have woken up to their strategic and critical dependencies and have started to, more or less, protect their own open markets from Chinese state-subsidized companies and force reciprocity in their own terms," Havren said.

"These emerging two blocs and their rivalry will radiate into all areas, including defense, trade, investments and technology. The existing international system is therefore challenged by the loose coalition led by China and Russia, while Western democracies are trying to defend it," she underlined.

Havren predicts that this rivalry would deal a big blow to international organizations, which are in danger of becoming "obsolete" and are already showing their incompetence in solving burning problems, including the Ukraine war.
Maintaining a level of cooperation

Despite the growing divide between the two camps, Western democracies are still hoping to maintain some level of cooperation with Beijing on certain issues, such as climate change. However, it hasn't been easy given the growing competition and deepening mistrust.

John Kerry, US special presidential envoy for climate, recently said climate cooperation between Washington and Beijing has become "harder" due to a sharpening of differences of opinion between the two sides. "That makes the diplomacy more complicated," he added.

Chong from the NUS also thinks the efforts to try to get Beijing to come around on climate change have become more difficult.

"Everyone recognizes that every country needs to pitch in on the environment, but the differentials and who does more and who does less, as well as whether countries that have developed earlier are able to tell others what to do seem to create some continuous tensions," he said.

While countries recognize the need to work together, Chong stressed, the more active cooperation may only happen on specific issues: "I think mutual suspicion will get the better of the various capitals."

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru

DW

IT WILL BENEFIT WOMEN

Spain debates if five-day menstrual leave policy will help or hurt

Various menstrual products are seen, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2019, in Kennesaw, Ga.

WHERE MOST PAPER PRODUCTS AND PADS ARE MADE

 (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Ashifa Kassam and Joseph Wilson
The Associated Press
Updated May 13, 2022 

MADRID -

A government proposal that could make Spain the first country in Europe to allow workers to take up to five days of menstrual leave has sparked debate over whether the policy would help or hinder women in the workplace.

A leaked draft of new legislation that the Spanish Cabinet is expected to discuss Tuesday proposed giving workers experiencing period pain three days of optional leave a month, with two additional days permitted in exceptional cases.

It was not clear if the leave would be paid or unpaid, or whether it would be offered as flexible hours that employees would have to make up within a specific time frame.

Jose Luis Escriva, Spain's minister for inclusion, social security and migration, sought Thursday to temper expectations, describing the leaked proposal as a draft that was still “under discussion” within the coalition government.

The Ministry of Equality, one of four ministries led by the hard-left junior partner in the Socialist-led Spanish government, was behind the proposed bill, according to private news radio network Cadena SER, which first reported the measure.

The ministry told The Associated Press it had not leaked the draft and that the version the Cabinet considers could undergo revisions.

Spain's secretary of state for equality, Angela Rodriguez, floated the idea of providing some sort of menstrual leave in March.

“It's important to be clear about what we mean by painful period,” she told El Periodico newspaper. “We're not talking about a slight discomfort, but about serious symptoms such as diarrhea, fever and bad headaches.”

While a handful of private companies across Europe have adopted period policies, enacting a nationwide approach would make Spain a pioneer in Europe. Parts of Asia, ranging from Japan to South Korea, have long had menstrual leave rules, though the extent to which they are used has been debated.

Italy briefly flirted with the idea in 2016, proposing a bill that would have provided three fully paid days off to workers who obtained medical certificates. The proposal failed to progress before the parliamentary term ran out in 2018.

One of Spain's major labor unions panned the draft legislation, saying it could lead to women facing workplace discrimination.

“I'm not sure if we're doing a disservice to us women,” Cristina Antonanzas of the General Union of Workers, or UGT, told Cadena Ser. The idea that women required time off work while menstruating risked “stigmatizing women,” she added.

Others described a monthly leave policy as long overdue.

“If we men had periods, this leave would have come decades ago. That is the problem,” Ínigo Errejon, the leader of the left-wing party Mas Pais, said on Twitter.

A handful of local governments in Spain already have embraced the idea. The Catalan city of Girona said in June 2021 that it would allow its more than 1,300 municipal employees up to eight hours of menstrual leave a month and give them up to three months to make up any time used.

Similar policies were adopted for municipal workers in the Catalan municipalities of Ripoll and Les Borges Blanques, as well as in the eastern city of Castellon de la Plana.

AP reporter Joseph Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain. Frances D'Emilio in Rome contributed to this report.

Blistering heatwave sweeps South Asia as mercury in Pakistan soars to 50C

AFP 13 May 2022

South Asia was in the grip of an extreme heatwave on Friday, with parts of Pakistan reaching a temperature of 50 degrees Celsius as officials warned of acute water shortages and a health threat.

Swathes of Pakistan and neighbouring India have been smothered by high temperatures since April in extreme weather that the World Meteorological Organization has warned is consistent with climate change. On Friday, the city of Jacobabad in Sindh province hit 50C (122 degrees Fahrenheit), the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said, with temperatures forecast to remain high until Sunday.

“It’s like fire burning all around,” said labourer Shafi Mohammad, who is from a village on the outskirts of Jacobabad where residents struggle to find reliable access to drinking water. Nationwide, the PMD alerted temperatures were between 6C and 9C above normal, with the capital Islamabad — as well as provincial hubs Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar – recording temperatures around 40C on Friday.

“This year we have jumped from winter right into summer,” said PMD chief forecaster Zaheer Ahmad Babar. Pakistan has endured heightened eatwaves since 2015, he said, especially in upper Sindh province and southern Punjab province.

“The intensity is increasing, and the duration is increasing, and the frequency is increasing,” he told AFP. Jacobabad nurse Bashir Ahmed says that, for the past six years, heatstroke cases in the city have been diagnosed earlier in the year — starting in May, rather than June or July. “This is just increasing,” he said.

Far worse may be on the horizon for South Asia as climate change continues apace, top climate scientists have said.

‘Take cover’

Punjab province irrigation spokesman Adnan Hassan said the Indus river — Pakistan’s key waterway — had shrunk by 65 per cent “due to a lack of rains and snow” this year. Sheep have reportedly died from heatstroke and dehydration in the Cholistan Desert of Punjab — Pakistan’s most populous province, which also serves as the national breadbasket.

“There is a real danger of a shortfall in food and crop supply this year in the country should the water shortage persist,” Hassan said. Pakistan’s climate minister Sherry Rehman this week warned residents in the megacity of Lahore “to take cover for the hottest hours of the day”.

The heatwave has also ravaged India, with temperatures in parts of Rajasthan hitting 48.1C on Thursday and expected to hit 46C in Delhi anytime from Sunday. Suman Kumari, 19, a student who lives in northwest Delhi, told AFP: “It was so hot today that I felt exhausted and sick while returning from college in a bus. The bus seemed like an oven. With no air conditioning, it was sizzling hot inside,” she said.

Most schools have declared summer holidays from Monday for junior classes. Heatwaves were also predicted in parts of northwest India including areas of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh — collectively home to hundreds of millions of people — over the coming days.

But some respite is expected when the southwest monsoon makes its advance into the Andaman Sea and adjoining Bay of Bengal around May 15, said the India Meteorological Department. As power outages exacerbate heatwaves, India plans to lease abandoned coal pits to private mining companies, a government official said on Friday, in an effort to ramp up production.

Pakistan has also faced severe power outages, with some rural areas getting as few as six hours of electricity a day.

Rapid glacier melt

Home to 220 million — Pakistan says it is responsible for less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. But it ranks as the nation eighth most affected by extreme weather events, according to a 2021 study by environmental group Germanwatch.

Extreme heat can also trigger cascading disasters that could pummel Pakistan’s generally impoverished population. The mountainous portions of the country are home to more than 7,000 glaciers, a number larger than any region outside the poles.

Quickly melting glaciers can swell lakes, which then burst their banks and unleash torrents of ice, rock and water in events known as glacial lake outburst floods. Last weekend a key highway bridge in the Gilgit-Baltistan region was swept away in flash flooding caused by glacier melt.

In April, officials warned there were 33 lakes in Pakistan in danger of unleashing similar dangerous deluges.

(AFP)

Leaked China database identifies thousands of Uighur Muslims detained in Xinjiang

Nursimangul Abdureshid was born in the Kashgar region of China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and moved to Turkey to pursue an academic career. Her family stopped calling her in 2018. But a leaked list of thousands of detained Uyghurs has helped her shed some light on the whereabouts of her missing relatives.

MACHISMO IS FEMICIDE

Mexico president vows justice as report says teen raped and murdered


A protester holds a picture of 18-year-old student Debanhi Escobar whose death in northern Mexico has unleashed public anger (AFP/Julio Cesar AGUILAR) (Julio Cesar AGUILAR)

Fri, May 13, 2022, 12:59 PM·2 min read

Mexico's president on Friday promised justice to the parents of a teenager whose death triggered a public outcry, after an independent forensic report concluded that she was raped and murdered.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador met with the family of 18-year-old Debanhi Escobar, whose body was found last month in a motel water tank 12 days after she disappeared.

"I spoke with them and made a commitment to help clarify what happened and to ensure that there is no impunity," Lopez Obrador said in the northern city of Monterrey, where the incident happened.

They are "very good people, a teacher, his wife, and as parents they are very hurt, broken," he told reporters.

Escobar's death is now being investigated as femicide, after originally being registered as a disappearance, Deputy Security Minister Ricardo Mejia said.

The forensic report commissioned by the family concluded that the law student suffered "a violent homicidal death," and her body showed signs of a sexual violence, according to Spanish newspaper El Pais, which obtained the document.

Escobar's family delivered the document to the state prosecutor's office on May 2, the daily reported.

The official autopsy report, which has not been published, did not mention signs of sexual violence, according to El Pais.

Previously, prosecutors said that Escobar died of a blow to the head and that they were not ruling anything out, including an accident or murder.

An eerie photo taken on the night that Escobar disappeared showing her standing in the dark by the roadside after an altercation with a taxi driver went viral.

She quickly became a symbol for an angry women's rights movement in a country where around 10 women are murdered every day.

The attorney general's office in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, whose capital is Monterrey, dismissed two public prosecutors for "errors" and "omissions" in the case.

Theories about the teenager's fate have spread on social networks and in some media, encouraged by videos released or leaked by prosecutors.

Her father Mario Escobar said in video posted late Thursday that if the prosecutor's office was behind the leak of the forensic report to the media, then its heads should resign.

In 2021 alone, Mexico registered 3,751 murders of women, most of which are still unpunished.

jla-dr-wd

FRIDAY THE 13TH

Jacques DeMolay Thou Art Avenged

King Phillip of France ordered the arrest of the Templars and their leader Jacques DeMolay on Friday, October 13, 1307. The day lives on in infamy as the origin of 'unlucky' Friday the 13th.

The leader of the order, Jacques de Molay, was one of those who confessed to heresy, but later recanted.

He was burned at the stake in Paris in 1314, the same year that the Pope dissolved the order.

Jacques de Molay (est. 1244–5/1249–50 – 18 March 1314), a minor Burgundian noble, served as the 23rd and officially last Grand Master of the Knights Templar.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Jacques DeMolay Thou Art Avenged (plawiuk.blogspot.com)

Colombia elections: the spectre of political assassination

Lina VANEGAS
Fri, 13 May 2022



Conservative candidate Federico Gutierrez has called for his presidential rival Gustavo Petro to be protected, while also denouncing threats against himself

 (AFP/Schneyder MENDOZA)More

Every time Colombian leftist presidential candidate Gustavo Petro, who leads opinion polls, steps out in public the scene is striking: he is surrounded by a wall of nervous-looking bodyguards brandishing bullet-proof shields.

The spectre of assassination is haunting the electoral campaign in which the left has a real chance of taking power for the first time in a country that has a history of political careers ending in a hail of bullets.

In the 20th century, five presidential candidates were assassinated by opponents, drug traffickers or paramilitaries working in complicity with the state.

Three were from the left or far left, and the other two were liberals.

The country was gripped by more than five decades of conflict between the state and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that ended with a 2016 peace deal.

And while the level of violence has dropped since then, Colombia remains wracked by a multi-faceted conflict involving drug traffickers and a multitude of armed groups.

- 'Very high' risk -

"The spectre of death accompanies us," Petro told AFP in February. "It does not stop appearing to me like a flash, when I'm in a crowd, when I'm on a platform and there is a full square, someone could shoot from anywhere."

Earlier this month, the 62-year-old senator, a former left-wing guerrilla, had to call off a public appearance after his team received "first-hand information" about an assassination plot by two paramilitaries.

Two days later he did appear in the northern city of Cucuta behind the bullet-proof shields.

His 60-strong bodyguard has since been beefed up while local security forces have provided extra officers for his numerous trips to provincial areas that have contributed to his successful campaign.

The assassination risk "is very high", according to Felipe Botero, a political science professor at the Andes University.

"They won't just (try to) kill Petro the candidate but it is also highly likely they will try to assassinate him if he wins the presidency," Botero told AFP.

His running mate Francia Marquez, a black environmentalist, has also received threats.

Conservative candidate Federico Gutierrez has spoken of his concern, not just for Petro but also himself, having claimed to have been threatened by the Marxist National Liberation Army (ELN), the last remaining recognized rebel group in the country.

"Take care of Federico Gutierrez," said former president Alvaro Uribe, who escaped a FARC assassination attempt using explosives in 2002.

- Fear of the left -

In the history of modern Colombia a date that stands out is April 9, 1948 when liberal presidential candidate Jorge Eliecer Gaitan was shot dead on a street in Bogota.

His murder inflamed the city and set off a bloody internal conflict that, more than a half century later, has still not been extinguished.

Four decades later, communist Jaime Pardo Leal (1987), liberal Luis Carlos Galan (1989), and leftists Bernardo Jaramillo and Carlos Pizarro (1990), all presidential hopefuls, were assassinated.

Alexander Gamba, a professor at the Saint Thomas University, says there are three reasons for a "possible" attack on Petro.

Firstly, Colombia has "violence professionals" like the almost two dozen mercenaries who took part in the assassination of Haiti's president last year.

Secondly, Petro's opponents have claimed his victory would be "a huge national catastrophe", which has contributed to an atmosphere in which his assassination would almost be presented as a "patriotic act."

Lastly, the country has "never had political change" involving the left wing, which conservatives continue to link to the armed rebellion.

"In a country like Colombia, marked by political violence and with the record for the murder of social leaders, we obviously take all threats against Mr Petro seriously," said Alfonso Prada, one of the candidate's advisors.

"If we hope to run the country, we need to be capable of looking after our own security," he added.

For its part, the outgoing government of President Ivan Duque, has said Petro "is one of the best protected people" in the country.

lv/vel/das/ll/bc/bgs

MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M
Lack of competition fueled US baby formula shortage


Grocery store shelves where baby formula is typically stocked are nearly empty in Washington (AFP/Stefani Reynolds) (Stefani Reynolds)


Delphine TOUITOU
Fri, May 13, 2022

There's no end in sight to America's shortage of baby formula -- and the crisis has highlighted the lack of competition that has spread to all parts of the US economy, even essential ones such as food for infants.

The problem "is not going to solve itself in a day or week," Brian Deese, a top White House economic advisor, told CNN Friday.

He was unable to say how long the crisis would last.

Initially caused by supply chain blockages and a lack of production workers due to the pandemic, the shortage was exacerbated in February when, after the death of two infants, manufacturer Abbott announced a "voluntary recall" for formula made at its factory in Michigan and shut down that location.

The shortage has left many parents frantic and fearful their infants may starve. Formula is a necessity for many families, particularly in low-income households where mothers have to return to work almost immediately after giving birth and cannot breastfeed.

A further issue is that prices for the formula that remains have skyrocketed.

An investigation by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared Abbott's formula but made 483 "observations" about the factory, Abbott said in a statement Friday.

"We immediately began implementing corrective actions and subject to FDA approval, we could restart our Sturgis, Mich., site within two weeks," the company said.

The FDA promised to announce plans next week that would allow, among other things, the import of formula produced overseas.

- 'Matter of weeks' -

The FDA currently bans most foreign infant formula, including products made in Europe, not because of health concerns but due to labeling and packaging standards.

"We believe these and other ongoing efforts will help dramatically improve the supply in the US in a matter of weeks," FDA head Robert Califf said Friday on Twitter.

US President Joe Biden also said it "will be a matter of weeks or less" to start fully refilling shelves.

He said that stock levels in stores had begun to stabilize this week.

According to the data collection agency Datasembly, as of Tuesday, 43 percent of the usual formula supply was out of stock, up 10 percent from the April average.

Deese stressed that safety was key in solving the formula shortage and said that Biden's administration had been running on all cylinders to try and provide enough supply.

Accused of a wait-and-see attitude or even indifference, the White House unveiled some measures Thursday to tackle the issue, but the scope seemed limited.

Biden said Friday that his administration had intervened as soon as it was aware of the problem, but that they had to "move with caution as well as speed."

- Just three manufacturers -

"The White House... is considering all sorts of options for helping parents, which is good," Amanda Starbuck, a research director at the Food & Water Watch group, a food safety NGO, told AFP.

She said the crisis was indicative of the problem with extreme concentration throughout the food production chain.

Three US companies control 95 percent of formula sales, according to Starbuck.

"It matters a little less if... we're talking about soda or chips. But it matters a lot more when we're talking about essential things like milk," she said.

The current situation is the result of a decades-long movement. The concentration has benefited US companies that, in the absence of competition, have been able to agree on prices among themselves, Starbuck explained.

"But the blame is not completely on these companies," she said. "Why has our government allowed for... just three companies to control so much?"

Not to mention that the companies' giant size does not make them more efficient.

"It's not efficient when there's a single recall that affects every single parent across the country who needs to feed their child," she said.

Starbuck said it's time to turn back the clock, even if it means dismantling the huge corporations.

"What we need to do now is pass comprehensive antitrust legislation in order to better scrutinize companies, to break up companies that have gotten so big that they're abusing their market power," she said.

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