What lies ahead for frontline polio workers in a polio-free Pakistan?

A polio-free Pakistan seems to be a possible and soon-to-be reality. With this, let us not forget the workers who have made it possible.

Yasal Munim Published April 25, 2023

Over 350,000 frontline workers in Pakistan are dedicated to ending polio in Pakistan, of whom over 60 per cent are women. Female polio workers have long been considered game changers for polio eradication in the country because of their strong community networks and comfort level with mothers.

This year’s first case in Pakistan wasn’t reported until March 2023, when a three-year-old boy from Bannu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, tested positive for the virus. As polio eradication becomes a closer reality for Pakistan, and with intensive measures being employed to tackle its transmission, it is essential to think about the future of frontline polio workers in the country.

A post-polio world for female polio workers

Since the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988, the number of children affected by polio has reduced by 99pc. Over the years, a large-scale systematic exercise was carried out in Pakistan to involve female workers as valuable contributors by listening to their concerns and applying their recommendations to eradicate the virus. The exercise also encouraged and helped them prepare for a career transition post-polio.

It is crucial to start looking into how the polio workforce, an estimated over 350,000 people, can find other opportunities once the virus is eradicated from the country. “It is very important to me that when we end polio in Pakistan, we don’t just pack up and leave; that we build systems and create opportunities to serve the workforce, a majority of them women, and find some way, however small, to give back to the people who have worked tirelessly to protect the children of our country,” said Dr Shahzad Baig, coordinator at the Emergency Operations Centre — a central command and control facility that is overseeing the polio vaccination campaign in the country.

Twenty-two-year-old Laiba Noor, an area in charge of a union council in Dera Ismail Khan (DI Khan), said she had high hopes for her career once polio was completely eradicated. She has been in the field for the last three years and supervises four mobile teams responsible for door-to-door coverage as well as a centre at a dispensary for maternal and child health in her union council. “This is not my only job experience. I collected data for a survey being conducted by the World Food Programme in my area, and I believe there are plenty of other opportunities for women like me,” she said.

For Noor, working in the field had given her confidence and enabled her to develop various skills along the way. “I know my area quite well, including the people residing here. I am used to managing the day-to-day affairs of workers under my supervision,” she explained, adding that not working is never going to be an option for her even after polio is completely eradicated.

Nabiha Naeem, a community mobiliser in DI Khan echoed Noor’s optimism. She expressed the belief that her current job had taught her a great deal about the area she lived in and its people. She hopes to work with a non-governmental organisation so she can continue to help the people in her community to the best of her ability.

Mehrunnisa from KP’s Tank district, who also works as a supervisor for lady health workers (LHWs) in her area, shared that she hopes to start her own stitching centre. “I want to teach embroidery and stitching to young women,” she said.

A series of 14 two-day workshops were held by the EOC across Pakistan between September 2022 and March 2023 on co-designing solutions with female frontline workers and to take their suggestions on ways to address their challenges. Prior to the workshops, almost 5,000 workers were surveyed, where they were asked about the main challenges they face in the field. The workshops also focused on formulating a roadmap for their career transitions post-polio, and asking them what support they need in aqcuiring new skills and finding other job opportunities.

In one exercise, the women were asked what skills they had acquired over time in their roles as frontline workers against polio. These skills were then linked to possible future opportunities.

The women from Tank shared that they gained confidence, developed patience, gained community knowledge, and acquired data collection skills. Many of them were confident that they possessed the skills to become census enumerators, lady health workers, CSS officers, data collectors, computer operators, entrepreneurs, and teachers, among other professions.

Noor, however, believes that while female polio workers have plenty of opportunities available, most of them miss out on these due to lack of awareness. “I hope there is awareness in our communities about job opportunities. A lot of us miss out on good opportunities because we remain unaware about them,” she said.

During the workshop in Tank, one of the workers suggested that job opportunities be posted at the basic health units in their district.

Rains, refusals and resilience

“Frontline workers are the pillars of the Polio Eradication Initiative and the face of Pakistan’s sincerity, perseverance and hard work,” Dr Baig remarked. “It is a huge task to reach over 40 million children under five in every corner of our diverse country — and that is the work frontline polio workers do. Their commitment and dedication is inspirational,” he added.

Women engaged in immunisation work face an environment that can prove to be harsh, tiresome, distressing, and sometimes even dangerous. Female frontline workers include vaccinators, campaign coordinators, supervisors, and community mobilisers among others. They brave difficult terrains, extreme weather, and threats for the work they do.

Read more: Lady health workers: The unsung heroes of Pakistan’s healthcare system

Meherunnisa shared that her work hours are long and tiring when a drive is under way. She leaves her house at 8am and returns after 12 hours. On her return, she is expected to take care of her children, serve food to her husband and in-laws, and to clean the house. As a ‘dutiful’ wife and mother, she performs all her household chores and once everyone has slept, she prepares for her next day at work.

She has been working as a frontline worker for the last 10 years. “We work tirelessly to ensure that children in our districts are vaccinated on time,” she remarked, adding that even in extreme weather conditions, they are obligated to perform their duties.

“Last March proved to be quite challenging due to the heavy rains,” she said. Along with other frontline workers, she requested the supervisors to provide them time to complete the drive on a different date but no one listened.

Reminiscing her experience, she said: “Whenever I go to the field, I wear a ‘shuttlecock’ burqa (a local term for a veil with a mesh net eyepiece). My burqa and clothes were completely drenched, they were sticking to my body making me uncomfortable. I was exhausted but I continued with the drive because it’s my work.

“During this period, many women even quit because they thought the effort was not worth the meagre compensation. It does affect our motivation levels too. But I focus my energy on serving my community and meeting my targets.”

“The rains last year were quite tough for all of us,” shared Kulsoom Rafique, who has been working as an area incharge in Tank. “The sheet on which we mark which houses have been covered was completely wet … we couldn’t even write on it properly,” she said. “Some areas were flooded but we couldn’t stop. We had to continue and do our job,” she added.

“There have been many times when we have been threatened and verbally abused by parents when we go to their doors,” said Mehrunnisa. “But we have to keep going to them again and again because of our duty.” Many female vaccinators have raised concerns that they are not comfortable with visiting the houses of people who refuse to vaccinate their children. So as a temporary solution, another team is sent to those houses.

The most difficult part of the job is handling refusals, shared Naeem. “People shut their doors on our face; they hurl abuses at us, scream at us, misbehave with us and refuse to cooperate. Families unwilling to vaccinate their children often scream at us for visiting them again and again. I remember a woman once screaming at me for not showing up at her doorstep when she needed medicines and visiting her during the drive. Sometimes families just won’t open the door even though you can tell there are people inside,” she added. “I have to tolerate this and a lot more because it’s my duty.”

For others, the families they approach may not be hostile, but they have different challenges to contend with. Maria Ayub, a vaccinator in Tank, shared that in her experience of two years no family has misbehaved with her. Her biggest concern, however, has been the additional expenditure she has to incur during the drives. “My biggest expenditure is on transport. It sometimes costs me Rs300 or more a day,” she said, adding that she uses her income from the drives to fund her higher education. “When there is a drive, I take off from my college and my teachers are quite supportive in this regard.” She is, however, on the lookout for better work opportunities.

Concerns about transportation were shared by Rafique too: “I am not given any transport allowance and I won’t lie, sometimes, it does become really difficult for me to travel to far flung areas. The team has to arrange for a car and a driver to take us there, other times I ask my brother to take me on his motorcycle.”

“The work we do is burdensome, but you can’t take it lightly either,” remarked Noor. Her career choice has raised concerns among her extended family: “My aunts and uncles told my parents to encourage me to find another job because of the long hours. Once the campaign starts, we are required to work from 8am to 8pm, at least.”

Contrarily, her parents never questioned her decision and always encouraged her. She added that the job comes with its own perks as many people in her community respect her and address her as “madam”.

She shared that misinformation and misconceptions about the virus have been posing a major threat to the immunisation drive. Many people have been making videos, spreading false information about polio vaccinations and workers. Noor shared that there is an urgent need to counter such videos with factual and accurate videos from doctors and officials about the vaccine to raise awareness. “This will prove to be helpful the next time a family shows us a fake video … we will be able to counter it by showing them videos giving out authentic and credible information,” she added.

Polio in Pakistan

Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only two countries where the wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) remains endemic. In Pakistan, seven districts of southern KP — Tank, Bannu, DI Khan, Lakki Marwat, North Waziristan, and Upper and Lower South Waziristan — have been categorised as polio endemic zones.

“We have been very successful so far in containing the virus to the polio endemic districts in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and this year, we hope to eliminate the virus in these areas. If we finish polio in southern KP, a polio-free Pakistan is very much a reality,” Dr Baig said optimistically.

In January 2023, two environment samples collected from Lahore tested positive for WPV1, while the last human case from Lahore was reported in July 2020. After the detection, over 6.37 million children younger than five years were vaccinated against polio in an immunisation drive conducted in 39 districts from Feb 13 to 17. Another drive was held in March in two phases with the aim to vaccinate 21.54 million children.

With years of intensive immunisation, increased monitoring and rapid responses, a polio-free Pakistan seems to be a possible and close-by reality. With this, let us not forget the workers who have made this reality possible.

PAKISTAN
Politics of vengeance

DAWN Editorial 

Published April 30, 2023 

SAME tactics, different faces. Governments may come and go, but a destructive politics of vengeance continues to poison the atmosphere.

On Friday night, a raiding party of Anti-Corruption Establishment and Punjab police officials used an armoured vehicle to break open the main gate of PTI president Chaudhry Parvez Elahi’s residence in Lahore in an effort to arrest him. Upon entering the house, riot police set upon the occupants with batons and later took 12 people into custody.

Despite Mr Elahi’s lawyers saying that a court had granted him pre-arrest bail in a corruption case, the ACE team insisted that the former Punjab chief minister was wanted in a new case and they would not leave without him. The operation, which continued until 2am, was unable to locate Mr Elahi despite a thorough search of his residence. Not content with this unwarranted show of brute force, the police yesterday booked the PTI president on terror charges, claiming that its personnel were “attacked with stones, batons and petrol” during the raid.

No longer is there even a pretence of the rule of law in the government’s conduct vis-à-vis the opposition. Last month, the police used heavy machinery to break into Imran Khan’s residence in Lahore while he was on his way to Islamabad to attend a hearing in the Toshakhana case, and his wife and sister were present in the house.

Arrests of PTI leaders, allied politicians, and critics of the PDM on flimsy pretexts — including ‘spreading hatred’ — have gathered steam. At least two PTI social media activists went ‘missing’ for a time. Such tactics should be familiar to the parties that comprise the incumbent coalition government which were at the receiving end of the PTI government’s high-handedness. Politicians in the opposition at the time were detained for months by NAB without evidence; and anyone critical of Mr Khan’s government, including journalists, was hounded through the courts on various charges, including one as serious as sedition.

But instead of demonstrating maturity and bringing some civility to the political environment, the coalition government has embarked on a wholesale witch-hunt of the opposition without an iota of shame. Last month, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah bluntly cast the tussle in existential terms. “Now either [Mr Khan] will be eliminated from the political arena or us.” This is not the language of leaders that are looking to consolidate the country’s future; this is selfish, bare-knuckle revenge politics.

While Mr Khan may well be responsible for resurrecting a style of politics that in the 1990s had played into the establishment’s hands and contributed to the downfall of several elected governments, the PML-N could have refused the temptation of paying the PTI back in the same coin. Instead, it has chosen a path that will guarantee perpetual instability.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2023

PAKISTAN
Killing the future

Shahab Usto Published April 30, 2023 




RECENTLY, a wave of grief and consternation swept across Sindh. A young scholar Ajmal Sawand, who had earned his PhD degree from France in artificial intelligence, was brutally murdered by some rogue tribal elements in Kandhkot, an area which even the police are wary of treading. Tribal violence has long infested much of the province, largely due to the peculiar sociopolitical environment that contributes to the atomisation of society into castes, clans and tribes. But the gruesome killing has come as a chilling reminder of a host of other ills that are pushing the province, if not the entire country, into the dark recesses of mediaeval times. Here are some of them:

The state: The state as envisaged in the Constitution — sovereign, protective, benevolent and egalitarian — is nowhere to be found in Sindh’s rural society. Instead, the core functions of the state have been outsourced to a clique of powerful tribal-feudal families, who act like ‘satraps’ in their respective areas. They are calling the shots. They determine the amount and object of utilising public funds; the tenure and role of the local bureaucracy; the mode of rendering tribal ‘justice’ through jirgas; the nature of gender relations and the extent of women’s rights; and most importantly, the results of elections, employing both their own muscle and state power. As a result, millions of half-literate and impoverished citizens have become hostage to a ‘captured’ environment. And they are paying a huge ransom to these anachronistic forces in the form of forfeiting their fundamental rights, and even their lives at the altar of never-ending tribal ‘wars’. Sick of this feudal-tribal ‘dyarchy’, many hapless citizens are leaving for the larger towns and cities.

The patronage: At one time, the provincial metropolis of Karachi was also under the draconian hold of various political militias and criminal gangs. For many years, citizens and businessmen lived in a state of constant fear and uncertainty. Hundreds of innocent lives were lost to ethnic, political, sectarian and criminal outfits. At one point, it was rated as one of the most dreaded cities in the world. All of a sudden, the reign of terror receded, barring some street crime and sporadic looting that are not so uncommon in megacities. But the city did not see peace and security for long because the outfits and mafias had a sudden change of heart. It happened mainly because the powerful ‘hidden hand’ that had kept the city hostage to these gangs was withdrawn — of course, in view of ‘national security’ imperatives.

But alas, Sindh’s rural society, which is home to 30 million people, continues to face violence and feudal oppression. A vast network of criminal gangs has evolved over the years under the aegis of bureaucracy’s compromised and corrupt elements and a politically opportunist provincial government. This agitates the mind: is it not in the national interest to stop propping up this obsolete dyarchy in order to save rural society and its vital agro-based economy from the continuing violence and lawlessness?

Sindh’s rural society continues to face violence and feudal oppression.

The loot: Historically, feudalism has rested on three pillars: land, patronage and authoritarianism. India eradicated feudalism in its early years. But here, feudalism — at least in its prevailing sociopolitical form — has stood its ground, rather flourished. For decades, our landed aristocracy has dominated the legislature and governments. It never allowed equitable distribution even in the case of public lands. Later, a new class of powerful ‘landowners’ — generals, bureaucrats, judges, legislators, and large developers such as the DHAs and Bahria Towns — emerged, which further entrenched landed power. But the cost was paid by millions of landless and homeless citizens.

Today, land reforms are already a lost cause. And more so for a ‘socialist’ PPP. Instead of eradicating feudalism, it has followed the military dictator’s path in Sindh — empowering the feudal-tribal ‘electables’ to secure rural constituencies. It has gone even further. It has weaponised these forces to win elections — in fact, has given them a ‘legitimacy’ using the ‘democratic’ and ‘Bhutto’ labels. Funnily, the resulting symbiosis of politics, land and tribalism in Sindh has germinated a ‘romance’ for land, particularly, among wannabe politicians and the bureaucracy; the former, to gain a political foothold; and the latter, to stash its ill-gotten wealth and ‘enjoy’ feudal trappings.

The rights: The people are paying a heavy cost for this political opportunism. During the last five years, more than 3,000 people have been killed in tribal feuds, beside dozens of police officials. Hundreds of embattled families have been displaced. Many of the warring tribals have turned into hardened criminals, some to avenge their kinsmen, and others to provide for their families. The women continue to be ‘property’ or a bargaining chip in tribal jirgas. Thousands of displaced children are out of school, and irreversibly traumatised. Yet, the ruling party and its surrogate bureaucracy are reluctant to rein in the patrons of violent tribalism, the mediaeval dyarchy. No wonder Dr Sawand’s assassins remain at large.

However, the dyarchy has become anathema to society. Dr Sawand is being widely mourned and missed for his scholarship, but more for his resolve, audacity and vision. He had left Paris — where he was gainfully employed — for a Sindh which he knew had turned into a tribal minefield; Shawli — his tiny village — was also in the crosshairs of a violent feud. Still he had dreams. He had a vision of a future that heralded enlightenment, modernity and empowerment. He saw vast potential in the teeming youth that wilted away, untapped. He wanted to train youth to produce the best computer scientists. Therefore, he chose to live and work in the country, moving away from metropolitan conveniences and corporate lure.

Alas! That was not acceptable to the dyarchy. A glorious future is antithetical to mediaeval minds. They targeted him because he was a lodestar for his clan, if not the entire rural society. And also, because they knew it took ages to bear an Ajmal Sawand.

The writer is a lawyer and an academic.
shahabusto@hotmail.com

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2023

The erosion of unions

In Pakistan, unions have been painted black and sidelined through various tactics.

Zeenat Hisam 

Published April 29, 2023 

Unions perform multiple economically valuable functions… — Richard B. Freeman

IN times of erosion of trust in our institutions — parliament, the judiciary, army and the state — it is challenging to talk about labour unions struggling on the fringes for decades and held in low esteem by our elite and in mass opinion.

But it is worthwhile to reiterate that unions are an important component of labour market institutions tasked with functions essential for a just and sustainable economy.

The role of unions in reducing inequality is well documented: research indicates that countries with a high density of unionised labour have lower levels of inequality. Unions increase wages for the poorest 35 per cent while decreasing them for the top 20pc.

A study in the US showed that the absence of unions lowered the wages of middle-wage earners but did not have much impact on high-wage earners, and thus increased wage inequality between the two groups. Another study revealed that unionisation among low-wage jobs in hospitality, healthcare and janitorial services led the workers’ earnings to the level of living wages.

Wage negotiations is just one function: unions act as an intermediary between workers and management to improve work conditions, increase productivity, protect employment and facilitate the creation of new jobs. Evidence suggests that unions contribute to a higher level of job satisfaction, reduce absenteeism and improve workers’ loyalty to the firm.

Sadly, in Pakistan, unions have been painted black and sidelined through various means and tactics. Unions’ positive functions have seldom been highlighted or efforts made to address their internal weaknesses and the external challenges they face. Currently, union density is estimated to be less than 1pc.

In the organised industrial sector, independent plant-level unions are generally found in MNCs. National industrial units and local enterprises discourage genuine representation and tend to bust unions, maintaining ‘pocket’ unions to pretend compliance.

Union workers confront violence, arbitrary dismissals and false criminal cases registered against them by the management. No wonder Pakistan is ranked as one of the worst countries in the world to work in by the Global Rights Index 2022, with a bottom rating of five (‘No Guarantee of Rights’) on a scale of one to five

In a recent research study, based on primary data undertaken by The Knowledge Forum, a local research initiative, and the FES, a non-profit German foundation, trade unions in Pakistan linked the fall of unions to the creation of labour wings of political parties.

According to the unions, political parties exploited trade unions and caused divisions among workers based on political party affiliations, eventually leading to linguistic and sectarian divides. “The ruling political party supports its union … which eventually becomes the CBA [Collective Bargaining Agent]. So, support for general labour has practically ended,” the report said.

The erosion of unions is attributed to a number of factors both external (for example, global transformation of production, structural changes in the economy, government policies, restrictive labour legislation and expansion of the informal sector) and internal (such as ethnic division, and weak, visionless and overaged leadership).

Formal trade unions have lost membership and financial strength and have failed to respond to the changing needs of the country’s workforce — young, informal, contractual, exposed to modern issues and perspectives, though still less equipped in education and skills. In the informal sector, few sectoral labour movements (including Lady Health Workers, power-loom workers, etc) have made an impact and are active.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, a surge in union activities has been noticed across the globe. In Pakistan too, union federations connected with unionised and non-unionised workers, linked up the latter with relief programmes and helped them access entitlements and dues from employers.

According to 2021 global research findings, unions’ facilitating social dialogue between workers and employers led to a 26pc increase in their membership. The pandemic brought inequality and unjust work conditions into sharp focus in many sectors, leading to a rise in mobilisation of knowledge workers (that is, university teachers, doctors, IT personnel, etc) in developed economies. In view of the increasing number of strikes in the US, Canada, the UK, France and elsewhere, employers are gearing up for a rethink on how can they build effective relations with unions to avoid disruptions at work caused by strikes.

For enhanced productivity, management gurus are advising employers to treat unions as key stakeholders in business, understand employees’ interests and develop a working relationship with workers’ representatives. In our milieu, the mindset of local industrialists is parochial and patronising.

Factory owners and management (their offspring and relatives) generally look down upon workers as inferior beings who are lazy and out to cheat them. Workers need to be treated with dignity and as important (if not equal) partners in work/business process.

Unions need to overhaul their structure, devise innovative strategies to expand and extend membership to informal, contractual and young workers, and most importantly, ensure democratic internal governance (ie the setting of rules, holding elections). The education, training and skill development of workers is an area neglected by our unions. Besides organisational training and education in labour laws, unions need to link up with training providers for skill enhancement.

It is good news that recently, local labour federations and resource centres launched a project in Karachi, Faisalabad and Lahore, in collaboration with the international human rights law and development initiative, the Global Rights Comp­liance, to build capacity, and provide legal training and advocacy tools to workers’ organisations seeking accountability for labour rights violations in Pakistan’s garment and textile sector.

The government must acknowledge the role of trade unions as an important labour market institution. It is time the state lifted curbs on the rights of association and collective bargaining, eased the process of registration of unions, treated workers’ representation with respect, overhauled labour departments and gave due priority to labour.

The writer is a researcher in the development sector.
zeenathisam2004@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2023

PAKISTAN

Zoological end

Shahzad Sharjeel 

Published April 30, 2023 

WHEN the output of goods and services is outstripped by the printing of money, you get inflation. One does not need a rocket scientist to explain this. Yet this is exactly what an exploding rocket scientist was found doing during an interview recently. Elon Musk then went on to enumerate all that was wrong with the banking industry all over the world, but that is a subject for another piece. While on the subject of inflation, he asked if the printing of money was the solution; why not make everyone a trillionaire?

We will return to Mr Musk’s rhetorical question later. For now, let us try to see if there are telltale signs of systemic failure that other countries ignored at their peril. For anyone in their 50s, the earliest recollection of a society in disarray and chaos brings back memories of black-and-white television footage of that erstwhile Paris of the East, Beirut. The fighting militias, no-go areas, the colour-coded lines separating Muslim and Christian localities, brides clad in the all-white wedding dresses ducking rockets and gunfire. Occasionally, one would also see emaciated Barbary lions, too weak even to pant in the zoo.

Fast forward half a decade and the scenes started repeating themselves in what we loved to consider as ‘our backyard’; only unlike Lebanon, in Afghanistan, it was not just the proxies but the Russian, and eventually the American, boots that stomped the ground for decades, while the list of Mujahideen guest appearances was longer and more ‘inclusive’. The zoo animals too suffered longer and worse privations than their Lebanese counterparts. Besides neglect and hunger, they also had hand grenades lobbed into their enclosures.

In the land of the pure, while the white elephants survive in the name of national assets or ‘family silver’, the regular pachyderms have not had a good run. First, it was that tragedy involving the Sri Lankan gift to Pakistan, an elephant named Kaavan whose neglect and ill-treatment right under the nose of the federal government in Islamabad Zoo drove the poor animal to insanity. As a sign of things to come, a court of law had to intercede which led to Kaavan’s rescue by an international animal rights group in 2020. The team of vets, who flew into Pakistan to help with Kaavan’s evacuation to Cambodia, took pity on a pair of Himalayan brown bears whose condition was also deteriorating in the same zoo and relocated them to another country. Before disclosing their destination, allow a little digression.

Societies that fail to manage caged animals descend into chaos.

Decades ago, a friend from a Middle Eastern country made the mistake of comparing his ‘tiny-little, strip of a kingdom’ to the only nuclear power in the Muslim world. After a proper dressing-down, the gentleman and his country were put in their place. Who would have thought then that one day the proud owners of the ultimate deterrence would be unable to even take care of animals under their ward? The bears were relocated to Jordan. Sincere apologies and eternal gratitude to Jordanian friends.

A little after the Kaavan episode, during the same fateful year, a lion died of suffocation when its cage was set on fire to move it out in a horrifically ill-conceived plan to transfer it from Islamabad to Lahore Zoo. When the female elephant in Karachi Zoo was named Noor Jehan, who knew that a fate as painful as her namesake’s awaited her? The Mughal empress too died in captivity. Though it is doubtful that Noor Jehan the elephant ever had it easy in zoo, her end has been particularly painful. An animal as majestic as she deserved much better.

One hopes that by now a pattern has been established to prove that societies that fail to manage caged animals properly, soon descend into chaos and anarchy whose first casualties are always the rights and liberties of citizens as the state metamorphoses into a ‘prison of nations’ whose ultimate fate does not differ much from the caged creatures. George Orwell’s Animal Farm does not bear an apt analogy, as those deemed ‘more equal than others’ will not escape their comeuppance this time around.

Going back to Mr Musk’s question, ie, why not make everyone a millionaire? His interviewer interjected with a loud protestation “Oh! No. They did that in Venezuela and ended up eating the zoo animals.”

Sometimes one need not look at the human development indices, year-on comparisons of GDP, debt ceilings, international oil prices, and the impact of pandemics and wars on global supply chains; just pay a visit to the local zoo. If it is in a bad way, its inmates may yet have some hope as the world community has not run out of compassion for the four-legged animals. It is the two-legged variety that faces a zoological end.

The writer is a poet. His latest publication is a collection of satire essays titled Rindana.

shahzadsharjeel1@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2023

‘Vulnerable’ South Asia least prepared to deal with urban heat: World Bank

Amin Ahmed Published April 30, 2023  

ISLAMABAD: South Asia is one of the regions most at risk due to extreme heat but the majority of its urban areas are ill-equipped to deal with the phenomenon, which is increasing in frequency, severity and complexity due to climate change.

This was stated in a new World Bank report which said that the region, home to a quarter of the world’s population, was accustomed to extreme heat, but rapid urbanisation and climate change were pushing the region’s limits of adaptation with lethal consequences.

The impacts of heat in South Asia are already emerging with over 3,600 heat-related deaths in India and Pakistan during the 2015 heat waves. More recently in 2022, at least one billion people in India and Pakistan experienced further record-breaking heat waves with temperatures reaching 51 degrees Celsius in some parts of Pakistan.

The report, ‘Urban Heat in South Asia: Integrating People and Places in Adapting to Rising Temperature’ said high-density living, along with low permeation of green and blue spaces, has created heat management challenges for a large number of communities in South Asia.

New report calls high-density, less green spaces ‘a challenge’; says ‘inclusive planning’ needed to mitigate effects

These environmental factors were important considering that heat adaptive measures, such as mechanical cooling through air conditioning, were rarely afforded in South Asia.

In many South Asian communities, air conditioning use is impractical due to erratic electricity supply or affordability.

The report stated that across Pakistan, electricity demand often exceeded supply resulting in blackouts lasting three to four hours per day. These factors were not limited to low-income communities and extended across many urban communities in the region.

Data limitations

Urban heat is a rising risk across South Asian cities that is often underestimated and underreported. Unlike many other climate hazards, urban heat is a relatively predictable hazard that can be largely measured and protected against.

The report pointed out that the knowledge of urban temperatures in South Asia has been largely limited to satellite data or studies that have not accounted for spatial variability. This has limited the awareness and understanding of intra-urban heat differences in South Asian cities.

According to the report, South Asian cities face unique challenges, competing demands, and resource constraints, unlike anything in developed economies.

Still, lessons could be learnt from outside the region to understand best practices and potential heat management improvements, the report suggested.

Urban heat island

While explaining the complications of urban heat, the report said the heat has uneven spatial and social distributions, with wide variations in temperatures and adaptive capacities across buildings and cities around the world.

Urban areas often experience higher temperatures by absorbing more solar radiation than surrounding rural areas, a phenomenon called the urban heat island (UHI) effect, it stated.

The existing heat risks in cities were amplified by warming temperatures from climate change as the global surface temperatures have risen 1.1C above pre-industrial levels. These global effects of climate change are further amplified at a local level through the UHI effect.

The report said that between 1950-2017, 60 per cent of the world’s urban population experienced warming twice as large as the global average, and by 2100, 25pc of the world’s largest cities could warm by 7C

The report emphasised that future heat management efforts should be designed to address both social and spatial vulnerabilities.

Inclusive planning

The cities need to map out overall heat vulnerability, including both heat risk factors, such as building density, materials and access to green/blue spaces, and demographic and socioeconomic determinants, such as income, age, education, gender, health, and social isolation.

There should be inclusive heat planning and policymaking processes to address thermal inequities, particularly in the most vulnerable communities and population groups, the report stated.

The report urged policymakers in the region to ensure urban planning and development was adapted to higher temperatures in the face of climate change and the UHI effect.

The cities in the region should integrate people and place in managing the acute and chronic impacts of urban heat by better understanding the heat risks; garnering the necessary human, technical, and financial resources; and embedding urban heat resilience into planning and development processes, the report suggested.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2023

Concerns raised after 'blatantly transphobic' book labelled as staff pick at Whitehorse library

CBC
Sat, April 29, 2023 

The Whitehorse Public Library in downtown Whitehorse. (Sarah Xenos/Radio-Canada - image credit)

A book one Yukoner describes as "blatantly transphobic" was recently featured as a staff pick at the Whitehorse Public Library, triggering concern amongst some members of the LGBTQ community and prompting the territorial public libraries branch to launch a review.

Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters was among the books included in a staff-picks display at the library earlier this month with a sticker on it, an image of which began circulating on social media last week.

Lane Tredger, the Yukon's first openly-non-binary MLA, said they learned about the situation on Twitter and that it was a "hard tweet to see."

"I love the library so much — I think it's such an important space that's so welcoming, so it was pretty blindsiding to see that really hateful book be promoted there," Tredger, who represents the Whitehorse Centre riding for the Yukon NDP, said in an interview Thursday.

Irreversible Damage has courted controversy and outrage even prior to its publication in 2020. In the text, American author Abigail Shrier, who did not immediately respond to requests for comment, repeatedly refers to a "transgender craze" and "social contagion" affecting teenagers in particular, blaming internet content for "enlisting" young girls into "a lifetime of hormone dependency and disfiguring surgeries."

Shrier has previously defended her work and accused critics of misconstruing the book's contents.

Tredger, however, described the book as "very blatantly transphobic" and "transmisogynistic," adding they've seen lots of reactions on social media from people who are "pretty concerned" and "pretty upset."

"My personal opinion is that I don't think we should ban books but I do think for me, the line is when we start promoting them," they said.

"That's when we need to think about, what values are we promoting?"

'All voices' welcome in library reconsideration-of-materials process

In an interview, Yukon public libraries director Melissa Yu Schott said the branch had heard the concerns about Irreversible Damage and has launched a reconsideration-of-materials process.

People can submit their views via forms available at the Whitehorse library, she said, after which a committee which will include herself, the Whitehorse public librarian and a member of the Whitehorse library board will "make a determination."

"I would welcome all voices to this so that it can help inform us and make the right decision," Yu Schott said, adding that the book had been removed from circulation while the review is underway.

Yu Schott added that generally, library collections include materials meant to represent "the broadest range of ideas and points-of-views possible," and that having a particular item in a collection "doesn't mean that the library endorses the content."

"Rather, libraries generally endorse the freedom to access that item, the freedom to access that information," she said.

However, Yu Schott acknowledged that the staff-pick sticker "complicated" the situation, and the review would include how the book came to be labelled as a staff pick.

'I'm really hopeful that this will be a learning moment'

Queer Yukon executive director Mona Luxion told CBC News that while they wished the situation had never happened, the library appeared to be taking steps to "make things right," including "immediately" reaching out to Queer Yukon and being receptive to conversations and feedback.

"I'm really hopeful that this will be a learning moment and an opportunity to rebuild trust," Luxion said.

They added that Queer Yukon was already in discussions with the library about possibly offering inclusivity training for staff, and the situation underlined the importance of that kind of training.

Tredger, for their part, said they thought the "most important" things for the library to do would be publicly responding to concerns and developing a policy ensuring "whatever books are promoted are in line with the values of the library" so that "this sort of thing doesn't happen again."

"I think it can be made right, but I do think that was a really big mistake that has made a lot of people question this institution that we really love," Tredger said.

"I think one piece is that, we're not talking about an issue where people just have different opinions and it's fine to disagree," they added.

"We're talking about a movement that gets people killed, we're talking about a movement that bans people from public spaces, that denies them health care… That's what we're talking about when we talk about transphobia and transphobic books, and I think that's something that the library and all of us have a responsibility to stand against."

Hollywood's film and TV writers could go on strike this week. Here's what you need to know


CBC
Sat, April 29, 2023 

The Writers Guild of America West offices are shown in Los Angeles on April 25. Hollywood film and TV writers voted overwhelmingly earlier this month to authorize a strike if their union fails to reach a deal by May 1. The WGA is in talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (Mike Blake/Reuters - image credit)

Hollywood film and television writers could strike on Tuesday if their demands aren't met during contract negotiations with the industry's largest production companies.

The Writers Guild of America (WGA), a labour union representing film and TV writers, is renegotiating a three-year contract for 11,500 members that is set to expire this week. It's in talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), an association that represents America's studios, streaming services and production houses.

The WGA received overwhelming support from its members earlier this month to authorize a strike, if a deal isn't reached by a looming May 1 deadline.

Here's what you need to know about a potential writers' strike.

What are the issues?

Andrea Verdelli/Getty Images

Film and television writers are seeking pay increases from large studios and production companies such as Netflix and Disney. The WGA says that working conditions have declined during the streaming era and that writer compensation has suffered due to shortened seasons, smaller residuals and the rise of writers' "mini-rooms."

Mini-rooms are pre-production groups, usually made up of a showrunner-creator and a few writers, who work ahead on several scripts of a potential show's first season to offer to streaming executives. Rather than the traditional pipeline of ordering a TV series from a pilot episode, some companies are now opting for script-to-series orders.

The practice of mini-rooms is meant to give executives a sense of the series' direction as well as its budget. But critics say they offer less pay. Many TV and film writers are based in New York and Los Angeles, industry centres with a high cost of living.

The WGA is also pushing studios to regulate the use of artificial intelligence in scriptwriting. While it says it's open to the use of the technology (so long as writers maintain sole credit of the work), the guild has also said that AI can't be used to undermine screenwriters and their work by impacting their compensation.

What would a strike entail?

A walkout could begin as early as Tuesday morning. If it does, union members have to abide by a strict set of rules that the WGA has released in advance.

As soon as a strike begins, writers can't meet, negotiate with or work for a struck company. That includes selling or optioning material, according to the WGA's negotiations website.

Writers must also send a formal statement to their agents and professional representatives forbidding them from doing any business on their behalf.

Any union members who violate the strike rules and cross picket line can be disciplined by the guild for jeopardizing the strike process.

What do the studios say?

Dado Ruvic/Reuters

The AMPTP, which represents Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, Comcast and other corporations in the contract negotiations, says its goal is to reach "a fair and reasonable agreement" with the guild.

Sources close to the studios have said that budgets are tight and companies are focused on profiting from expensive streaming investments that haven't been as fruitful as expected, according to Reuters.

How will a strike affect my favourite TV shows?

That the strike will most likely start at the beginning of May, when many TV series are at the tail-end of their seasons, means that viewers probably won't notice changes to their favourite scripted programs.

Comedies and dramas, many of which are filmed months in advance of their air dates, would be impacted only if there are outstanding episodes that have yet to be written once the strike begins.

But a strike would be immediately felt on U.S. late-night talk and variety shows such as Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show, which depend on topical subjects and are written on a much tighter timeline than other scripted programs.

Daytime soap operas would also be impacted relatively quickly.

Given that movies are written years in advance, near-future releases won't be affected by the strike, though it could stall films currently in the writing stage of development.

Will this be like the 2007-08 strike?

Damian Dovarganes/The Associated Press

The last writers' guild strike began in November 2007 and ended in February 2008 after 100 days. Because the action began mid-season and lasted for a long time, its impacts were very much noticeable to viewers. TV networks replaced their usual programming with reruns and reality shows.

Scripts were rushed in order to be finished by the strike deadline. Series including Breaking Bad and 30 Rock were forced to finish their seasons early, and many others were cancelled. Meanwhile, nearly 40,000 jobs were cut and California's economy lost $2 billion US.

Nowadays, production companies like Netflix have a backlog of content that they would release in case of a strike. Streamers have also upped their roster of international series during the last few years — shows that would be unaffected by an American writers strike.

During the 2007-08 strike, a flood of Canadian series like Orphan Black, Flashpoint and The Listener were picked up by U.S. networks, including BBC America, NBC and CBS.

A potential writers' strike was averted in 2017 when both parties reached an agreement by their deadline.

Pipeline restores gas flow after lightning-sparked inferno

The Canadian Press
Sat, April 29, 2023 

CORINTH, Miss. (AP) — Natural gas is flowing again in a Mississippi pipeline after a towering blaze Friday that officials believe was caused by a lightning strike.

The pipeline's owner, TC Energy Corp. of Calgary, Alberta, said Saturday that it had “completed operational adjustments.” The Canadian company notified its customers through an electronic system that it was lifting the force majeure it had declared on Friday. The contract term allows the pipeline to curtail deliveries because of forces outside the owner’s control.

Tina Faraca, president of TC Energy’s U.S. Natural Gas unit, told investors on a conference call Friday that the blaze caused “very minimal impact to facilities.”

Alcorn County Emergency Management Director Ricky Gibens told local news outlets that firefighters were called to the compressor station of the Columbia Gulf Transmission Pipeline northeast of Corinth around 1 a.m. Friday. He said it appears that lightning sheared off a piece of pipe and set the natural gas ablaze.

Firefighters and workers with TC Energy closed valves, which Gibens said may have prevented an explosion. The fire burned for more than four hours until firefighters could put it out.

Nearby resident Philip Trest told WTVA-TV that the flames glowed over treetops and sounded like a jet engine.

No one was injured.

The compressor station helps push natural gas through the Columbia Gulf Transmission Pipeline, which runs between Kentucky and Louisiana. The pipeline carries natural gas from southern Appalachia to liquefied natural gas terminals in Louisiana, where it's frozen into a liquid and loaded onto giant ships for export.

The Associated Press

Big budgets, population growth will delay economic downturn: Desjardins

Infrastructure spending climbing, with Ont., B.C., Alta. and Sask. slated to spend more in 2024 than in 2023

Alicja Siekierska
Tue, April 25, 2023

Strong population and employment growth and fiscal stimulus will delay an economic downturn in Canada until later this year, a new Desjardins report says. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette)

Strong population and employment growth and fiscal stimulus will delay an economic downturn in Canada until later this year, a new Desjardins report says, with Ontario and B.C. feeling the pain of higher interest rates more than other provinces.

Desjardins principal economists Marc Desormeaux and Hélène Bégin updated their provincial outlook on Tuesday, pushing their recession call to later in 2023 amid stronger growth rates in many Canadian provinces. While they expect inflation will continue "to dominate the economic outlook for Canada's provinces," the previously expected economic slowdown will be delayed.

"We expect all regions to increasingly feel the dampening impacts of easing but still-elevated price pressures and still‑high interest rates as 2023 progresses, particularly in construction activity and interest-sensitive industries," the economists wrote in their report.

"But early 2023 surges in employment and population, plus stimulative infrastructure spending and affordability relief measures laid out in this year's budgets, will delay the downturn until later this year."

The economists say that government support has increased since their last quarterly provincial outlook. Infrastructure spending is on the rise, with provinces such as Ontario, B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan slated to spend more in 2024 than in 2023. While affordability measures have been scaled back, the Desjardins report notes that "the latest fiscal blueprints did introduce new measures that could very well stimulate consumer spending (and possibly inflation)."

While the report focuses only on provincial budget spending, federal spending is also on the rise. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government unveiled a spend-heavy budget in March despite calls for fiscal restraint. The 2023 federal budget features larger deficits and elevated spending, with net new spending up by $46 billion over six years, and no timeline for a return to a balanced budget.

Surprisingly strong employment rates are also helping provinces fend off an economic slowdown.

"With some exceptions, provincial employment has also started the year stronger than we anticipated," the report said.

"While we think this trend will reverse as the full effects of interest rate increases make their way through the economy, it nonetheless improves the (first-quarter) growth handoff in many jurisdictions."

Population growth has also helped provinces through economic uncertainty, with the Prairie provinces and Atlantic Canada experiencing the strongest gains, helping fill high numbers of job vacancies.

Ontario, B.C. to see biggest slowdown

But the pending economic downturn will not play out equally across the country. The economists say housing-exposed provinces like Ontario and B.C. will see the biggest economic slowdowns this year, while commodity-producing provinces – Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador – will have the best economic prospects. The report says Quebec will also see a downturn, as global economic headwinds weaken exports and investments in the province in 2023 and the labour market softens.

"We still expect the late-2023 recession to impact Ontario disproportionately. Sharply higher interest rates, stretched affordability, high household debt levels and moribund housing market activity have significantly impacted the economy," the report said.

"More challenging conditions in the financial services sector could also contribute to the slowdown ahead."

Alberta, on the other hand, "appears to be firing on all cylinders," the report says.

"Provincial crude output should also continue to rise—albeit at a diminished pace. Yet completion of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion later this year may support further increases down the road (and reduce the gap between Alberta and U.S. oil prices)," the report said.

"And while household debt is higher in Alberta than in most of the country, the housing market is still much more affordable than in other parts of the country. That continues to spur net interprovincial migration to Alberta — particularly from higher-priced Ontario — amid surging international immigration and net non-permanent resident admissions."

Alicja Siekierska is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow her on Twitter @alicjawithaj.