“Squid Game” Works Because Capitalism Is A Global Scourge

Capitalism is the shared villain in Netflix’s global successes. (Light spoilers ahead.)

Elamin Abdelmahmoud BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on October 1, 2021, 

Netflix



At this point, we are deep in the Squid Game hype cycle, and for good reason: the Korean drama is not only the top show on Netflix in 90 countries, but this week Ted Sarandos, the streaming platform’s CEO, hypothesized that “it might be our biggest show ever.” That’s nuts. It’s difficult enough for new shows to break through the noise with so much TV content, but Squid Game’s success is an astonishing feat for a show that was released on the platform less than two weeks ago, to little fanfare. More shocking still: It boasts no Hollywood megastars and it’s not based on any existing intellectual property that comes with a preloaded fanbase. And yet it’s a megahit, with 95% of its audience outside Korea. The internet is awash in Squid Game memes, games, and TikTok challenges. In two short weeks, it has become a bonafide phenomenon.


If the success of Squid Game is a surprise, it’s not exactly without precedent. For one, the popularity of K-dramas has grown by 200% among Netflix subscribers in just the last two years. But zoom out more, and the picture becomes clearer. Earlier this week, Netflix released some of its viewing data. Out of its top ten most viewed series, two of them are also not in English and boast no Hollywood megastars: the French Lupin sits in second place while the Spanish-language hit Money Heist occupies the sixth position.

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The dizzying success of Squid Game and the triumph of other non-English shows may finally kill the unfounded idea that North American viewers — the largest share of Netflix’s audience — are not interested in watching foreign shows. That is significant by itself. But these shows also share a common throughline: They all deal with inequality, capture the despair of poverty, and dissect class anxiety. Regardless of the country or language, capitalism is the shared villain in Netflix’s global successes. It’s a villain viewers everywhere can identify.


Youngkyu Park
Lee Jung-jae in Squid Game

In case you’re among the eight people who have yet to watch Squid Game, the premise is simple: Hundreds of people living with oppressive debt are approached to take part in a series of games — all variations of childhood favorites like Red Light, Green Light, but with, uh, deadly modifications — with the promise of a cash prize that might change their lives. It’s like if the playground games you played as a kid suddenly turned into the Hunger Games.

Squid Game is effective at pulling you in. By the middle of the first episode, viewers are plunged into a world that’s as repulsive as it is gripping, complete with masked villains and hapless antiheroes who do not know what’s in store for them. The “game” sequences are breathtaking — in creator Hwang Dong-hyuk’s hands, a game as familiar as tug of war is transformed into an exhilarating, high-stakes contest.

Regardless of the country or language, capitalism is the shared villain in Netflix’s global successes. It’s a villain viewers everywhere can identify.


At the center of it all is Seong Gi-hun, a chauffeur addicted to gambling and self-sabotage, played brilliantly by Lee Jung-jae. In Lee’s performance, we see all the big and small humiliations of capitalism: the feeling of your worth being tethered to your productivity; the magical thinking that once you’re rich, you’ll be a different person; the embarrassments we are willing to endure to afford what we think we deserve. As we become invested in Gi-hun, we watch him as he lets us down over and over again. He steals from his mother and forgets his daughter’s birthday. When he is handed a financial lifeline, he gambles it away.

The first episode sets up the tension by slowly luring you into its shocking climax, when players discover the true cost of playing. No matter how much you read about it, you will not be ready for the rules of the game. But Squid Game is at its most effective in the second episode, where the contestants briefly find themselves back in their regular lives. Here, the show cycles through the horrors they all exist in: the pickpocket desperate to secure enough money to rescue her little brother; the business graduate who can’t confront the ways he has let down his mother; the young migrant worker who cannot provide for his wife and his newborn. And in the case of Gi-hun, the reality that his debt has not only driven his daughter away, but also put him in a position where he is unable to help his sick mother.

Through the course of the episode — aptly entitled “Hell” — we learn of the various chokeholds these characters are in, which are cruel enough that they might even prefer to go back to wagering with their lives. Their debts — and circumstances — are treated with tenderness and compassion. These are desperate people, willing to do anything to get out of their own personal hells. Their desperation may be familiar to viewers in Korea, where household debts are snowballing, but it is universal, too: in the US, Americans have more debt than ever before. In Canada, household debts are at worrying levels.

Beyond the indignities of working only to keep your head above water, debt has devastating health consequences like depression and anxiety. Forty percent of Americans would struggle to handle an unexpected $400 expense because of debt. Meanwhile, even though inequality was already high, the pandemic made it even worse. Hell, that cuts both ways, and inequality made the pandemic worse, too. That growing wealth gap is not an accidental outcome of capitalism — it is rather predictable. The games are made up, the pot of money is fictional, and Squid Game is a drama, but its honest exploration of the weight of debt and inequality could not be more timely. Squid Game fully understands the crushing consequences of being in debt, and it’s easy for viewers to see themselves in it. “We are simply here to give you a chance,” the masked villains say, and you understand their meaning to be more sinister than that.

Squid Game deals with these themes explicitly, but it is hardly the only Netflix property to dive into the horrors of capitalism. In Lupin, Assane Diop, the noble thief, is struggling to pay the bills and is forced to rely on loan sharks in order to pull off an elaborate heist. We see Tokyo, the protagonist of Money Heist, begin from a place of desperation too as she is left shattered after a botched robbery before she’s taken in by the mysterious Professor. Even the Spanish-language hit Elite takes on class anxiety, as three lower-income students begin life at a wealthy school and struggle to fit in with their new classmates. In all of these shows, the poverty and precariousness of the protagonists are the entry points for viewers, the vectors of relatability. We cheer for them because we understand that they are up against the same forces as the rest of us.

All of these shows are thrilling and well paced, with impeccable writing. But more to the point, the fact that it is these shows that Netflix viewers have gravitated to suggests a universal center of gravity. No matter the language or location, capitalism makes us all desperate. ●


Elamin Abdelmahmoud is a curation editor for BuzzFeed News and is based in Toronto
Contact Elamin Abdelmahmoud at elamin.abdelmahmoud@buzzfeed.com.
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Woman finds 4-carat diamond in U.S. state park — and she gets to keep it

Sometimes it's worth it to take a little detour.

© Arkansas State Parks/Instagram 

The 4.38-carat diamond found in Crater of Diamonds state park in Arkansas.

That's exactly what a California woman did when she and her husband went on a trip to Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas — and it definitely paid off.

Noreen Wredberg, of Granite Bay, Calif., was visiting the park with her husband, Michael, when she decided to swing by Crater of Diamonds State Park, which was close by.

"I first saw the park featured on a TV show several years ago," Wredberg said to the Parks Department. "When I realized we weren't too far away, I knew we had to come!"

Read more: Shine bright: Botswana unveils ‘third-largest’ diamond ever found

The Arkansas state park contains the only public diamond field in the country, and visitors are allowed to keep whatever gems they find. This allure of finding a literal diamond in the rough was too strong for Wredberg, who insisted on going hunting for the valuable stones.

After about an hour of searching on Sept. 23, Wredberg stumbled upon a big, shiny gem: a yellow diamond that weighed in at 4.38 carats.

It turns out that the couple went to the park under the best possible conditions: it had rained a few days earlier, which often brings the stones up from the dirt below.

"The soil had dried a little, and the sun was out when Mrs. Wredberg visited two days later," said park interpreter Waymon Cox in a press release. "She was in just the right place to see her diamond sparkle in the morning sunlight."

"I didn't know it was a diamond then, but it was clean and shiny, so I picked it up!" said Wredberg of her jellybean-sized gem.

She took it to the park's Diamond Discovery Center — where all people who find a stone go to verify their discoveries — and it was confirmed that Wredberg's rock was a diamond. As of this writing, she's unsure what she's going to do with it.

Read more: 706-carat diamond found in Sierra Leone is one of the world’s biggest

In terms of estimated value, a four-carat raw diamond is worth between $7,500 and $69,000, depending on clarity, cut and colour. Wredberg's specific diamond does not yet have a certified value.

According to the park, it's the largest diamond found there in the past year. (An Arkansas man found a 9.07-carat diamond relatively recently, in September 2020.)

More than 33,100 diamonds have been found by park visitors since the Crater of Diamonds became an Arkansas state park in 1972.

Notable diamonds found at the crater include a 40.23-carat known as "Uncle Sam," the largest diamond ever unearthed in the U.S., the 16.37-carat "Amarillo Starlight," the 15.33-carat "Star of Arkansas" and the 8.52-carat "Esperanza," according to the park's website.

TOOK HIM LONG ENOUGH

Yang says he has left Democratic Party

Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang announced his departure from the Democratic Party today, describing the experience as "strangely emotional."

© Getty Images Yang says he has left Democratic Party

Yang announced in a statement on his website that he was opting to change his registration to become an independent voter.

"Breaking up with the Democratic Party feels like the right thing to do because I believe I can have a greater impact this way," Yang said.

Yang also acknowledged his experiences with thousands of Democrats during his previous presidential and mayoral bids.

"At first, many didn't know what to make of the odd Asian candidate talking about giving everyone money. But over time I established deep relationships with some of the local leaders who have worked in party politics for years," he said of the experience.

Yang added that he was "confident that no longer being a Democrat is the right thing."

"Now that I'm not a member of one party or another, I feel like I can be even more honest about both the system and the people in it," he said.

Prior to his announcement today, Yang had been a Democrat since 1995.

"It was a no-brainer for me. I went to a college that was very liberal. I lived in New York City. Everyone around me was a Democrat," he said of his initial voter registration decision.

Yang's upcoming book, "Forward: Notes on the Future of Our Democracy," is scheduled for release on Tuesday. In previously released excerpts of the book, Yang said that his presidential campaign "messed with my head."

Today, Yang tweeted that his "political homelessness" would be short-lived.

His book also announced Yang's plans for his new third party, which would be called "The Forward Party." Yang said this party would be governed by principles like "fact-based governance" and "human-centered capitalism" in addition to promoting "universal basic income," an idea that garnered support and attention for Yang during his presidential bid.

Italy's center-left claim mayoral wins; populists slump

ROME (AP) — Italy’s center-left forces, spearheaded by the Democrats, were sweeping to victory Monday in Milan and other big city mayoral races while clinching a runoff berth in Rome, where the populist 5-Star Movement's incumbent Mayor Virginia Raggi faced a stinging defeat, according to partial vote counts and projections.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The 5-Stars, currently Parliament's largest party, also failed to clinch a mayoral runoff slot in Turin, where one of their own had been mayor since 2016, with nearly 40% of the ballots counted.

In both Rome and Turin, 5-Star leaders had rebuffed Democrat Party overtures to join in an election alliance to battle right-wing forces and chose to run solo. Instead, where the two forces did team up, the candidates backed by Democrats and the 5-Stars appeared headed to resounding victories.

"You win where you broaden the coalition,'' said Democratic Party leader Enrico Letta, citing the joint ticket's first-round outright victories in Naples and Bologna.

Letta has been trying to convince the populist 5-Stars to embrace campaign alliances with an eye to national voting for Parliament in early 2023. He is determined to shut out of Italy’s next government the right-wing forces that in past years have been gaining in popularity, especially in gubernatorial races and especially the anti-migrant League party led by Matteo Salvini.

Separately, Letta, a former premier, won a seat in the lower Chamber of Deputies in a by-election in Siena to fill a vacancy in Parliament.

Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala, a center-left leader as well as a Europe Greens party proponent, claimed a decisive win for a second term based on partial returns indicating he would take 56% of the vote in Italy's financial and fashion industry capital. Trailing badly, with 33.4% was Luca Bernardo, a Milan pediatrician who was Salvini's candidate.

Salvini has ambitions to win the premiership of a center-right government he hopes will be formed after Italy's parliamentary election.

But with wins in Milan, Naples and Bologna and spots in mayoral runoffs in Rome and Turin, “we showed that the center-right is beatable,” Letta told supporters.

If projections hold, Rome's mayoral runoff will pit Democrat Roberto Gualtieri, a former finance minister, against Enrico Michetti, a radio commentator selected by Giorgia Meloni, who leads the far-right Brothers of Italy party. Meloni and Salvini are rivals for the next premiership.

Premier Mario Draghi, an economist who formerly headed the European Central Bank, is currently heading a pandemic-unity government that includes both Letta's Democratic Party, Salvini's League as well as the 5-Stars and smaller parties.

Key to winning the Rome mayoral runoff will be wooing support from Raggi's disappointed backers. The 5-Star Movement has been squabbling for months, including among left-leaning and right-leaning factions.

In Rome, Michetti appeared headed to take 30.6% of the first-round votes, compared to 26.9% for Gualtieri, and 19.6% apiece for Raggi and Carlo Calenda, a centrist former minister, according to projections for state TV on Monday night, five hours after the polls had closed.

“Rome can be reborn” and well-governed, Gualtieri told supporters Monday night.

Michetti didn't immediately comment.

In all, 12 million of Italy's 60 million population were eligible to vote in 1,000 cities and towns nationwide, but turnout, at just under 55%, was down 7% compared to the last mayoral elections in 2016.

When Raggi won that year, she inherited Rome's entrenched problems — unreliable trash collection, mass transit woes and streets in dire need of repair. Those woes largely persisted during her tenure. The 5-Star Movement's new leader, former Premier Giuseppe Conte, campaigned heavily for her.

How Salvini's League fares in races in Italy's south was being closely watched as a litmus test of whether he can convincingly expand his north-based political power into a nationwide force.

His candidate in Naples, the south's largest city, polled about 20%, badly trailing the winning candidate who was backed by the Democrats and 5-Stars and who was taking 65.5% of the vote, according to partial returns.

Frances D'emilio, The Associated Press

Bolivian coca leaf growers storm market after week-long dispute

Issued on: 04/10/2021 -

Riot police throw tear gas towards coca leaf producers during clashes outside the coca market in La Paz

 LUIS GANDARILLAS AFP

La Paz (AFP)

Thousands of Bolivian coca leaf growers on Monday stormed the country's main coca market in La Paz following violent clashes with security forces.

The Adepcoca market has been the center of a dispute between two groups of coca growers -- one loyal to the government, the other opponents -- since last week.

Some 90 percent of Bolivia's legal coca leaf business worth $173 million a year passes through the Adepcoca market, according to UN figures.

The dispute centers around who should control the market.

Last week, the group loyal to and supported by the government ousted an opposition figure to take control of the premises.

Several thousand anti-government coca growers from Bolivia's Yungas region seized control of the market 

LUIS GANDARILLAS AFP

Armin Lluta claimed he was held hostage for hours and beaten up by the government-backed group before they took control of the market.

Clashes between coca leaf growers and security forces began at midday on Monday, AFP reporters said.

Dozens of riot police were stationed in front of the market but despite firing off numerous rounds of tear gas, they were forced to retreat by protesters, who threw stones, posts and fireworks at officers.

Two protesters and two members of the security forces were injured in the clashes.

"Yungas together, we'll never be defeated," chanted the coca leaf growers as they took control of the market.

The Las Yungas region has been a major coca leaf producer since before the region was ruled by the Inca Empire in the 15th century.

It's people have a long-standing gripe with the governing Movement for Socialism (MAS) party that commands much of its support amongst other indigenous people.

Las Yungas enjoyed a monopoly on legal coca leaf growing until 2017 when then-president Evo Morales of MAS legalized coca production in his home Cochabamba region.

Dozens of police were stationed in front of the market but, despite firing off numerous rounds of tear gas, were forced to retreat

 LUIS GANDARILLAS AFP

Coca leaf is the main ingredient used to produce cocaine but it has been used for other purposes -- such as in religious practices, to make a herbal infusion, or to chew -- for hundreds of years.

© 2021 AFP

Afghan resistance has sanctuary in Tajikistan, but fighting Taliban a ‘non-viable prospect’

Issued on: 04/10/2021 -

Anti-Taliban forces stand guard on a hilltop in the Astana area of Bazarak, in Panjshir province, on August 27, 2021. © Ahmad Sahel Arman, AFP

YOU CAN'T FIGHT IN HERE THIS IS THE WAR ROOM

Text by: Tom WHEELDON

The Financial Times reported last week that numerous Afghan opposition leaders such as the famous Panjshir Valley commander Ahmad Massoud have fled to neighbouring Tajikistan and that they hope to use this safe haven as a base to fight the Taliban. But experts caution that the prospects are poor for any such attempt to continue the anti-Taliban resistance.

According to a Financial Times report last Wednesday, a number of prominent Afghan opponents of the Taliban are currently in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe, where the Tajik government is giving them sanctuary. They include Ahmad Massoud, the celebrated leader of the National Resistance Front in the Panjshir Valley; Amrullah Saleh, the ex-VP and self-proclaimed acting president of Afghanistan; and Abdul Latif Pedram, the leader of the Afghan National Congress Party.

Experts say this report is credible. “I have no doubt that it’s absolutely true,” said Christine Fair, a professor in the Securities Studies Program at Georgetown University and a former political officer with the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. The reports “seem credible”, said Weeda Mehran, a professor of politics and an Afghanistan expert at Exeter University. One can “assume” that those Afghan opposition figures are in Tajikistan because there has been “no denial” of the Financial Times report, added Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, an expert on the region and an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

Anti-Taliban stance ‘popular in Tajikistan’

Whereas other countries in the region – notably neighbouring Uzbekistan, Russia and China – have been keen to establish decent diplomatic relations with the Taliban, Tajikistan has remained a fierce critic of Afghanistan’s new rulers.

In a major symbolic gesture, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon conferred last month Tajistan’s highest honour on Ahmad Massoud’s father – Ahmad Shah Massoud, the “lion of Panjshir” revered for holding out against the Taliban in the mountain valley region, who was assassinated on September 9, 2001. After Kabul fell on August 15 amid the precipitous US withdrawal, Rahmon warned that Taliban-controlled Afghanistan threatens to act as a breeding ground for terrorism once again: “If we leave the situation without attention, there is a risk of the 2001 situation repeating,” he said.

20 years on, the enduring legacy of Afghanistan's 'lion of Panjshir'

07:16

In power since 1992, Rahmon is the only regional leader whose tenure stretches back through the Taliban’s previous rule over Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. Tajikistan supported the Northern Alliance’s resistance to the Taliban during this period – while hundreds of thousands of ethnic Tajiks from Afghanistan fled there to escape the Islamist militants’ rule.

This prior experience makes Tajikistan well-placed to back the Afghan opposition once again, Mehran said: “Tajikistan has ties with the Afghan opposition from the last time around – the networks are there – so the Tajik government knows those Afghan characters and that historical precedent is there.”

A further reason for Dushanbe’s sharp anti-Taliban stance is that it is very worried about Islamist militants who have found sanctuary in Afghanistan, said Brick Murtazashvili. Tajikistan is worried about potential threats from such Tajik nationals who have “fled into northern Afghanistan”, she added. There is a “real fear that the Taliban are playing host to those militants and that they will detabilise Tajikistan.”

What is more, Rahmon is keen to present himself as a defender of Afghanistan’s ethnic Tajiks, the second largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, many of whom are opposed to the Taliban. This plays well for him domestically: his unabashed anti-Taliban stance is “popular in Tajikistan”, said Paul Stronski, a Central Asia specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The government doesn’t need to worry about elections but they do need to worry about their popular credibility. And the largest minority in Afghanistan is Tajik. And you win points at home by being seen as the defender of Tajiks in Afghanistan.”

The Tajik president’s position on the Taliban has also attracted international attention, including from French President Emmanuel Macron, who invited him to visit Paris for talks on October 13. Rahmon is using his position on the Taliban to try to burnish his credentials as a wise elder statesman, Stronski said: “Being seen as a regional leader in pushing back against the Taliban really helps President Rahmon enhance his global clout. Leaders of Central Asia have a tough time engaging with senior global counterparts. So meeting big international leaders like Macron, […] someone from the West, is a boost to his credibility. It seems like he’s preparing for his son to take over, with him in a kind of ‘father of the nation’ position. This certainly seems to be setting him to look like an elder statesman. So it’s improving his credibility around the globe but also at home.”

‘Resistance in Panjshir has failed’

Afghan National Congress Party leader Pedram told the Financial Times that “we plan to announce formal resistance to the Taliban within a month” and that “we want good relations with all the countries in the region”, of which “Russia has the most power”.

But experts say there are limits to the support Tajikstan is likely to provide – never mind Russia, the historic hegemonic power in Central Asia – and that this is a key reason why any armed opposition to the Taliban across the border is highly unlikely to succeed.

“It’s one thing for Tajikistan to provide safe haven to the resistance. It’s quite another to allow its soil to be used for cross-border military activities,” said Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the Wilson Center. “Is Dushanbe willing to take on the risk of being dragged into the Afghanistan conflict? Is its military prepared to play a role in fending off cross-border Taliban attacks? The answer is likely no.”

“The problem that Tajikistan is going to run into – that it didn’t have prior to 9/11 – is that prior to 9/11, Russia, India, Iran and Tajikistan were all on the same page: they were helping the Northern Alliance,” added Georgetown University's Fair. “In this current configuration, Russia is very conciliatory to the Taliban. So there is going to be a limit to what Tajikistan is going to be willing to do, due to its relationship with Russia and the coercive pressure that Russia can put on. I don’t think we’re going to see the full-scale sanctuary that Tajikistan was for the Northern Alliance last time around.”

By contrast, the Taliban’s international support has strengthened the Islamist militants, Fair continued: “What the Taliban have now is unstinting support from the Chinese, fairly unstinting support from the Russians – and of course they have unstinting support from the Pakistanis. They also have in their possession all the war matériel that the Americans could not destroy, and that was substantial. So the Taliban are in possession of one of the world’s largest fleets of Black Hawk helicopters. The Taliban are not terribly technologically sophisticated but their handlers in [Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency] the ISI are. They also have Chinese drones and they’re getting assistance in operating them from the ISI.

“This Taliban is a lot better armed, they are much more capable, they are much more lethal, they have better international ties than the Taliban before 9/11, and in contrast the Panjshiris have less support,” Fair concluded. “I do not think that the Panjshiris are going to be as successful in holding back the Taliban – and we’ve already seen that. Essentially the resistance in Panjshir has failed and they’ve retreated to Tajikistan. And I don’t see a way in which they’ll be able to retake that territory.”

Parts of Panjshir Valley lie abandoned after Taliban move in
01:28

“Any military opposition to the Taliban is a non-viable prospect,” added Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Security, Strategy and Technology. Not only is the Taliban far stronger and boosted by far greater international support, she continued, the Afghan resistance is simply too weak and divided: “They have very limited internal organisational capacity. There is no unity between Massoud and Saleh; they are barely on speaking terms. They would have to invest in the real hard work of building up cadres from almost zero, and they relied in the September holdout in Panjshir on local militia. But the Taliban flipped those militias very quickly through military pressure and bargaining and negotiations. So Massoud’s and Salah’s forces are basically nonexistent. […] They were relying on Panjshiri militias that went away very quickly.”

At present, Felbab-Brown concluded, “if they have another battle against the Taliban, they would be using what little remains of their forces as cannon-fodder.”

More than 100 Afghans from music school flown out of country

BEIRUT (AP) — More than 100 students, alumni and faculty members of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music have been flown out of Kabul on their way to Portugal, where the government has agreed to grant them asylum, the institute's director said Monday.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

They were on board a flight carrying 235 people out of Kabul’s international airport to Qatar on Sunday. It was the largest airlift of Afghan nationals since Taliban fighters seized Afghanistan in mid-August, two weeks before the U.S. and NATO withdrew their forces from the country after a 20-year military presence.

“You cannot imagine how happy I am. Yesterday I was crying for hours,” the school’s founder and director, Ahmad Sarmast, said from his home in Melbourne, Australia.

The musicians join tens of thousands of Afghans, including many from the country's sports and arts scene, who have fled since August. Among the recent evacuees are Afghanistan’s female robotics team, known as the “Afghan Dreamers,” and a girls soccer team who resettled in Mexico and Portugal, respectively.

The last time the Taliban ruled the country, in the late 1990s, they outright banned music. So far, the new Taliban government hasn't taken that step officially. But musicians are afraid a formal ban will come. Some Taliban fighters have started enforcing rules on their own, harassing musicians and music venues.

Afghanistan has a strong musical tradition, influenced by Iranian and Indian classical music, and a thriving pop music scene flourished in the past 20 years.

The Afghanistan National Institute of Music, founded by Sarmast in 2010, was once famous for its inclusiveness and emerged as the face of a new Afghanistan, performing to packed audiences in the U.S. and Europe.

Now its classrooms are empty, its campus guarded by fighters from the Haqqani network, an ally of the Taliban considered a terrorist group by the United States. The teachers and 350 students haven't come back to the school since the Taliban takeover.

Around 50 students were on the flight out Sunday, including most members of the all-female Zohra orchestra, in addition to former students, faculty and relatives. The group of 101 is about one-third of the ANIM community.

Sarmast is now planning to recreate the school in Portugal, so that the students can continue their education with minimal interruption, and is already looking for ways to secure musical instruments for them as soon as possible. He hopes remaining students and faculty members will be leaving on another flight out later this month.

“We want to preserve the musical tradition of Afghanistan outside of Afghanistan, so that we can be sure that one day when there are better conditions in the country, hundreds of professional musicians would be ready to return and relight the music,” he said.

“The mission is not complete, it just began."

Zeina Karam, The Associated Press

Exxon exodus turns floating 'cube' into Internet meme

By Gary McWilliams

© Reuters/Ernest Scheyder FILE PHOTO:

 Exxon Mobil's futuristic campus is seen in Spring

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil's trophy U.S. campus is becoming an Internet meme.

The visually stunning complex, sometimes compared to Apple's ring and Alphabet's Googleplex campuses, opened in 2014 as Exxon stood atop of the global oil market. Its centerpiece is a giant cube that appears to float above the office and research facility.

The cube has become the emblem for a wrenching staff exodus and Exxon's financial fall. Hundreds of departing employees this year have posted images on social media of them standing in front of it on their last day of work, and versions have spread among Exxon facilities worldwide.

A historic, $22.4 billion loss last year fueled the departures of thousands of employees. Cost-cutting will pare 14,000 jobs by year-end, and this year's job review has led to voluntary and forced departures - accompanied by the social media postings of the cube.

"You should scan social media and find all the people who are excited to be joining ExxonMobil," Exxon spokeperson Casey Norton told Reuters. Restructuring cuts finished last December and any positions opened this year due to performance-related dismissals may be refilled, he said.

Auld Lang Syne

"That picture will always remind me of the positive experiences I had," said former Exxon finance supervisor Jason Crawford, who posted his own three weeks ago. He resigned after concluding that top management was ill-prepared for challenges ahead and Exxon's "days of being a global leader are long behind them."

The cube was designed to showcase Exxon's engineering and technology prowess. A feat of engineering, it looms over the 385-acre campus, floating over an open courtyard and reflecting pools.

Officially called Exxon Energy Center, it opened in 2014 at a time the firm was atop the global oil and gas market. Oil was selling for $100 a barrel and Exxon's market value, now about $258 billion, approached half a trillion dollars.

The building initially provided a symbol of Exxon's high-tech ambitions for itself and a lure for talented engineers then flocking to high-tech companies. The campus has walking paths that wend through the area, restaurants, a gym with trainers, and physical science laboratories.

HIGH-TECH LURE

Avery Smith, who posted his photo in front of the cube earlier this year, was one of those drawn to the complex. The 26-year-old data scientist worked at Exxon Mobil Research & Engineering and left last January to start Snow Data Science.

Exxon's "rigid culture" limited the projects he wanted to pursue and its pandemic work-from-home restrictions grated on him. "I was a little trapped in my position and wanted to do bigger projects," Smith said, choosing to launch his own enterprise.

The cube represents the company at its best, said Smith and others who posted their cube portraits.

"I was challenged to work with people all over the world," wrote engineer Margaret Webb, with assignments "tackling some of the largest problems in the world today."

Although she left Exxon in February "before this trend became popular," Webb recently felt compelled to add hers after seeing hundreds materialize from colleagues.

"The biggest thing I take away is this - something needs to be done about how engineers consider the ethical, social and environmental impacts of their daily work," she wrote.

A LEGO REPLICA

Cube references now appear in goodbyes far from Texas. An Exxon scientist in Calgary, Alberta, built a Cube replica from Legos for his goodbye image. A Buenos Aires, Argentina, finance supervisor drew on a photo from a prior visit for his.

"I don't have the customary energy cube picture," lamented Krishnan Kumaran, 55, who last month took early retirement after 18 years at the company. His goodbye included "a picture of the (Exxon) building located in pastoral Clinton, New Jersey," where he worked as a computational scientist.

(Reporting by Gary McWilliams; Editing by Dan Grebler)

After causing chaos in the UK, truck driver shortages could soon hit the rest of Europe

The truck driver shortages plaguing the U.K. are not just a British problem, experts say, with the wider Continent also facing a shortfall and potential supply chain problems.

Research suggests there could be a shortfall of 400,000 truck drivers in Europe.

The average salary for a truck driver in the U.K. is around £30,000 ($40,600), while in Germany, pay is around 41,000 euros ($47,500), according to Salary Expert.

British government deploys military to alleviate fuel shortages

Holly Ellyatt CNBC 9 hrs ago

LONDON -- The truck driver shortage plaguing the U.K. is not just a British problem, experts say, with the wider Continent also facing a shortfall and potential supply chain problems.

There was more than a whiff of "schadenfreude" (or enjoyment from the woes of others) in mainland Europe last week as the U.K. faced a petrol crisis. There were long lines of cars outside British gasoline stations and even fights on forecourts as panic buying spread across the country amid a shortage of truck drivers able to deliver fuel.

Brexit was named as one of the key reasons for the shortage of heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers, although problems in the industry go deeper and are found across Europe, industry experts noted. A survey of 616 industry figures in June by the Road Haulage Association in the U.K. found that retirement, changing working rules, the Covid pandemic, low pay and drivers leaving the industry were among the reasons for the lack of operators

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© Provided by CNBC 

Trucks and automobiles approach the Dartford tunnel in the U.K. on Sept. 3, 2021.

The association, which has been warning of a driver shortage for months, says the U.K.'s HGV driver shortfall stands at 100,000 currently; pre-pandemic, there was an estimated shortage in excess of 60,000 drivers.

Elsewhere, supply chain issues came to the fore in Britain during the pandemic, with truckers unable to enter or exit the country easily, causing long queues at ports and borders and leading to some shortages of food and medicines.

Such problems have continued as the pandemic has eased, however, revealing the challenges of Brexit and the U.K.'s new trading relationship with the EU. Experts and industry leaders say they had warned the government of the consequences of Brexit's impact on the country's workforce, with several key industries reliant on European workers, such as agriculture, health care and haulage. Not being able to attract seasonal staff is a particular concern for farmers who say they are facing situations where crops cannot be harvested or livestock processed due to a lack of experienced workers.

The rest of Europe is watching the U.K.'s supply chain issues and workforce shortfalls with interest, particularly given the recent bitter divorce between the U.K. and EU following Brexit.

French journal Liberation headlined its late September issue with a reflection on the consequences of Brexit, ranging from the departure of much-needed European workers (which is not just being felt in the HGV industry, but also in in sectors such as agriculture) to its supply chain crisis.

Meanwhile, the opportunity was not lost on Olaf Scholz, who could be Germany's next chancellor, to remind Brits that they had voted for Brexit and so could not expect the benefits of belonging to the EU.

"The free movement of labor is part of the European Union and we worked very hard to convince the British not to leave the union. They decided different and I hope they will manage the problems coming from that," Scholz said, adding that pay and working conditions could also be exacerbating Britain's problems.

The average salary for a truck driver in the U.K. is around £30,000 ($40,600), while in Germany, pay is around 41,000 euros (around $47,500), according to Salary Expert, although it can be much higher (or lower) depending on experience and can also vary by region, transport experts note.

Shortages across Europe

The U.K. is not alone when it comes to driver shortages, however, and experts warn that parts of Continental Europe could also face their own trucker shortfalls soon enough.

"We're not in as dramatic and desperate situation yet, but it might come," Frank Huster, director general at the Federal Association for Freight Forwarding and Logistics Germany, told CNBC on Thursday.

He noted that while Brexit has "certainly had an impact" on the U.K., the wider European haulage sector faced a long-standing problem with a lack of workers.

"The logistics sector lacks qualified personnel such as lorry drivers but also trained locomotive drivers, inland navigation workers, terminal workers, as well as management people. ... We have less and less people to work in Western markets," he added.

 "'Dramatic' truck driver shortage in Europe could come, German body says"

Analysis company Transport Intelligence published research in August looking at "European Driver Shortages" in which it assessed the severity of the shortfalls in various European countries, a problem it said had been growing over recent years. It estimated that across Europe the total shortfall of drivers now surpasses 400,000, with the most heavily impacted European countries being Poland, the U.K. and Germany.

© Provided by CNBC

Transport Intelligence's research looked at driver shortages across Europe

John Manners-Bell, CEO of Transport Intelligence and an expert on global supply chains and logistics, said that the industry has been warning governments of shortages for many years.

In an editorial last week he said that "disruption to supply, rising prices, reports of empty shelves and – most recently – the fuel crisis, have shone a spotlight on the industry. Long-term structural problems have been laid bare by a perfect storm of post-Covid demand volatility, infrastructure failings, bureaucracy, Brexit and dismal pay and conditions."

"Factors such as delays to HGV testing; inefficiency in processing licenses; an ageing workforce and insufficient numbers of new recruits, due to working conditions and image issues of the profession, have been plaguing the industry for many years," he added.

Manners-Bell said he hoped the current crisis would bring about positive changes in the industry, noting that "it is time that all stakeholders in the sector – industry associations, the government, operators and shippers – throw their support behind plans to make road freight transport fit for purpose as a driver for sustainable economic growth."

'Warning sign'

The U.K.'s experience in recent weeks shows that it does not take long for the public to start panic buying at the first sign of a potential shortage — and the British government's appeal to Brits not to panic buy petrol appeared to have the opposite effect.

At the weekend, shortages were reported to have eased in most parts of the U.K. except in London and the southeast.

Members of the British army are delivering fuel to garages from Monday to alleviate the shortage of drivers. Government officials have also announced a set of measures to try to strengthen the industry in the busy run-up to Christmas, including the relaxation of visa rules to allow overseas fuel tanker drivers to be able to work in the U.K. immediately and an increase in HGV license testing. The government also said last week in a statement that almost 1 million drivers who currently hold an HGV driving license would be contacted to encourage them back into the industry.

Kallum Pickering, senior economist at Berenberg Bank, said the U.K.'s "fuel crisis is a warning sign" and is not just a British problem.

"The fuel crisis seems to be caused not by a lack of petrol or diesel but by a shortfall of heavy goods vehicle drivers relative to the very high demand for transporting goods. Daily data on heavy goods vehicle usage shows that recent activity is broadly in line with the pre-pandemic level. Nevertheless, it did not take long for panic buying to start once a few petrol stations reported low stocks due delayed fuel deliveries," he said in a note Monday.

"The shortage of drivers is not just a U.K. problem - the U.S. and other major European economies also face structural shortages, albeit on a smaller scale as they do not suffer from the U.K.'s unique Brexit disruptions."

European politicians call for Facebook investigation after whistleblower revelation


BRUSSELS/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Two members of the European parliament have called for an investigation into allegations by a whistleblower that Facebook prioritised profits above the public good

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© Reuters/Dado Ruvic FILE PHOTO: Facebook logo in front of the EU flag

The whistleblower, Frances Haugen, who had worked as a product manager on the civic misinformation team at Facebook, shared internal documents with newspapers and attorneys general from several U.S. states.

A statement from European Parliament lawmakers said they were requesting further investigations into the revelations.

"The Facebook Files – and the revelations that the whistleblower has presented to us – underscores just how important it is that we do not let the large tech companies regulate themselves," said Danish lawmaker Christel Schaldemose.

Schaldemose is the lead rapporteur for the Digital Services Act, announced by the European Commission in December last year that requires tech companies to do more to tackle illegal content.

"The documents finally put all the facts on the table to allow us to adopt a stronger Digital Services Act," Alexandra Geese, a German lawmaker at the European parliament, said.

"We need to regulate the whole system and the business model that favours disinformation and violence over factual content – and enables its rapid dissemination," she said.

Both Geese and Schaldemose said they are in touch with Haugen.

A Facebook spokesperson said: "Every day, we make difficult decisions on where to draw lines between free expression and harmful speech, privacy, security, and other issues."

"But we should not be making these decisions on our own ... we've been advocating for updated regulations where democratic governments set industry standards to which we can all adhere."

European Union regulators have been considering whether all online platforms, or only larger ones or those at particular risk of exposure to illegal activities by their users, should be subjected to take-down notices, and how prescriptive these should be.

"Our position is clear: the power of major platforms over public debate and social life must be subject to democratically validated rules, in particular on transparency and accountability," an European Commission spokesperson said when asked about the allegations against Facebook.

Tech companies have said https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-tech-regulations-idUSKBN22W2Q7 it was unfair and not technically feasible for them to police the internet. The current EU e-commerce directive says intermediary service providers play a technical, automatic and passive role.

Haugen will testify before an U.S. Senate subcommittee on Tuesday, and is expected to speak at the Web Summit conference in Portugal in early November.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee in Bussels, Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm and Catarina Demony in Lisbon. Editing by Jane Merriman)

UPDATE
Blue Origin whistleblower says she lost faith in Jeff Bezos fixing the company's toxic culture
insider@insider.com (Isobel Asher Hamilton) 

 Amazon founder Jeff Bezos with Blue Origin's "Blue Moon" lunar lander in 2019. Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post via Getty Images

A former Blue Origin employee told Quartz the company wanted to put arbitration clauses in staff contracts.

She pushed back on these clauses, which preclude employees from taking companies to court, she said.

The company's general counsel told her arbitration was important to founder Jeff Bezos, she said.


The former Blue Origin employee who cosigned an open letter about the space firm's "toxic" work culture says she lost hope that billionaire founder Jeff Bezos could fix the problems at the company.

Alexandra Abrams was head of employee communications at Blue Origin, and put her name on an open letter - cosigned by 20 anonymous current and former employees - that said the company sacrificed safety and fostered a sexist work environment.

Speaking to Quartz, Abrams recalled that senior management at the company wanted to add binding arbitration agreements to employee contracts. These agreements preclude employees from taking companies to court, instead forcing them to resolve complaints privately.

Blue Origin's general counsel told her the arbitration clause was important to Bezos, Abrams said in the interview with Quartz.

"The fact that I knew Jeff Bezos did this personally broke any hope I had of Jeff being the solution," Abrams said.

Abrams told Quartz she pushed back against these clauses, and that she was able to carve out an exception for sexual harassment cases.

Other companies including Uber, Google, and Airbnb have dropped some binding arbitration clauses from employee and customer contracts.

Abrams also told Quartz she signed off on contract language that included a non-disparagement clause. These clauses are designed to stop employees saying negative things about a company. The clause said that employees would have to pay for Blue Origin's legal fees if it ever chose to enforce it, Abrams said.

Blue Origin did not immediately responded when contacted by Insider for comment on Abrams' comments to Quartz. Blue Origin declined to comment on Abrams' specific allegations when contacted by Quartz.

In response to Abrams' open letter, which also said that leadership at Blue Origin ignored multiple reports of sexual harassment, Blue Origin said: "Ms. Abrams was dismissed for cause two years ago after repeated warnings for issues involving federal export control regulations. Blue Origin has no tolerance for discrimination or harassment of any kind. We provide numerous avenues for employees, including a 24/7 anonymous hotline, and will promptly investigate any new claims of misconduct."

Abrams denied to Quartz that she had received warnings, saying she was fired following a dispute over the use of binding arbitration for cases including sexual harassment.

Abrams said the "issues involving federal export control regulations" Blue Origin mentioned could relate to an app the company tried to build that inadvertently left data on foreign servers. Abrams said she helped report and resolve the problem.

Blue Origin has lost at least 17 top staffers this year, and multiple sources told CNBC on Friday this was the result of CEO Bob Smith's management style - in particular his insistence on employees returning to the office.

Read the original article on Business Insider

AUSTERITY IS ALL TORIES KNOW

Ontario nurses wage cap ‘a real slap in the face’ amid COVID-19 pandemic says Waterloo Region RN

Health-care workers on the front lines have been bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic for the past 18 months, but despite being lauded as heroes, nurses are still fighting for increased compensation. In August, nurses and other health-care workers gathered at Cambridge Memorial Hospital to rally for wage negotiation and to protest the province's Bill 124.

Bill 124 limits wage increases for nurses to a maximum of one per cent of compensation for three years, something that Kathy Moreland, a registered nurse from Kitchener, called demoralizing.

“This is one of the many factors that affect the morale and mental health of nurses,” said Moreland. “Out of one side of the government’s mouth they’re saying that we’re the heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic, and that they appreciate what we’re doing, but there’s no monetary compensation for that so it’s insulting.”

Ontario nurses also warn that Bill 124 could lead to a large-scale health-care crisis. Sara Clemens, a professor, health services researcher and registered nurse in Cambridge, says that before the pandemic started, the average career timeline of a nurse — 14 years — was already going down, and that with wage suppression, it could go down even further.

“I don’t think it’s cost-effective to reduce wages because the public will lose on their return on investment,” said Clemens. “We spend a lot of money on highly trained staff who are leaving the workforce, and Bill 124 will simply move that along faster.”

Clemens also notes that the cost of implementing technology such as robotics to alleviate nurse shortages around recruiting and training new nurse graduates will cost the public a lot more. Not having a high enough nurse to patient ratio will also end up costing the public in ways that are unaffordable, Clemens added.

Although applications to nursing school have increased 17.5 per cent during the pandemic, according to the Ontario Universities’ Application Centre, a limited number of spots in nursing school and a shortage of clinical placements available is still contributing to a shortage, said Moreland.

She cited the lack of PhD trained educator nurses as a factor, especially when there’s a limited difference in monetary compensation between a nurse with a bachelor’s degree and a nurse with a PhD. Nearly one in three nurses have considered quitting during the pandemic, according to a survey conducted by the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario. SEIU Healthcare Union is currently reporting a 18% to 20% vacancy rates for nursing positions in Ontario hospitals.

Christina Hughes, a registered nurse from Kitchener, said nurses were already struggling before the pandemic.

“What I’m seeing now is because nurses aren’t able to participate in collective bargaining, and they are not getting a wage increase while working more hours with less staff available, they’re feeling really frustrated and left behind,” said Hughes. “They’re deciding it’s just not worth the stress when they can’t provide the level of care and competency expected of themselves.”

The government show no signs of addressing Bill 124, as Doug Ford remains steadfast in this bill that he proposed at the provincial level. At the federal level, the Liberals have proposed giving $10 billion to provinces to help clear their pandemic backlogs and wait-lists as well as hire 7,500 nurses, nurse practitioners and doctors. The party has not mentioned whether they will consult with Premier Doug Ford on negotiating Bill 124.

“I think that there’s this expectation of nurses to be rather altruistic and incredibly nurturing in the work that we do,” said Hughes. “And, of course, we would like to be all of those things. But to have that expectation and then to not be fiscally rewarded for the work that’s being done, and the work that’s being asked of us in this pandemic, is a real slap in the face, quite honestly.”

Genelle Levy, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Cambridge Times

Federal judge rejects comparisons between Capitol insurrection and racial justice unrest

By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN 

A federal judge rejected comparisons between the January 6 Capitol insurrection and civil unrest that at times accompanied racial-equity protests during a sentencing for a Capitol rioter on Monday, just days after a judge in the same court had questioned the difference.

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 06: Pro-Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol following a rally with President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021 in Washington, DC. Trump supporters gathered in the nation's capital today to protest the ratification of President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over President Trump in the 2020 election. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

"To compare the actions of people around the country protesting, mostly peacefully, for civil rights, to a violent mob seeking to overthrow the lawfully elected government is a false equivalency and downplays the very real danger that the crowd on January 6 posed to our democracy," DC District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan said.

Chutkan added that the rioters "soiled and defaced the halls of the Capitol and showed their contempt for the rule of law." She said: "The country is watching to see what the consequences are for something that has not ever happened in the country before."

Her comments came during a sentencing hearing for Matthew Mazzocco of Texas, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of illegally demonstrating in the Capitol building -- a typical plea deal that the Justice Department has offered to nonviolent rioters charged with a number of lower-level offenses.

On Friday, Judge Trevor McFadden, also of the DC District Court, said during another Capitol rioter's sentencing that he believes the Justice Department should have been more "even-handed" in their prosecution of the Capitol rioters, suggesting that they've been treated more harshly than the rioters in last year's racial unrest.

The Justice Department has argued the violent breach of the Capitol -- in which members of Congress and the vice president had to be evacuated for their safety, halting the vote confirming the presidential election -- was far worse than other riots, in both the scale of the attack on the federal building and its disruption of the congressional session.

Some riot defendants have argued in court that they shouldn't face felony-level charges for obstructing the congressional proceeding, but judges have not yet ruled on those arguments.

Chutkan, without directly commenting on the case McFadden handled, said that the riot was "no mere protest" and that defendants, including Mazzocco, were facing lenient treatment "despite his deliberate, premediated decision to come to the District and try to disrupt the peaceful transition of power."

"Mr. Mazzocco did not go to the United States Capitol out of any love for our country," Chutkan said. "He went for one man."

So far, more than 90 Capitol riot defendants have pleaded guilty to federal charges. Twelve have been sentenced. Mazzocco is the sixth Capitol riot defendant who has received jail time.

World's longest under-sea electricity cable begins operation

Britain's National Grid dubs the 1.6 billion euro North Sea Link "the world's longest subsea electricity interconnector."

The idea behind the NSL is for it to harness Norway's hydropower and the U.K's wind energy resources.

© Provided by CNBC Wind turbines in waters off the coast of the U.K.


Anmar Frangoul CNBC

A 450-mile subsea cable which connects the U.K. and Norway, enabling them to share renewable energy, has started operations.

In a statement at the end of last week, Britain's National Grid dubbed the 1.6 billion euro ($1.86 billion) North Sea Link "the world's longest subsea electricity interconnector." The North Sea Link is a joint venture with Norway's Statnett, the owner and operator of the country's power transmission network.

The idea behind the NSL is for it to harness Norway's hydropower and the U.K's wind energy resources. According to National Grid, when Britain's wind production is high and demand for electricity is low, the system will facilitate exports to Norway. This will in turn help to conserve water in the latter's reservoirs.

"When demand is high in Britain and there is low wind generation, hydro power can be imported from Norway," it added.

While Norway has a long history of oil and gas production, authorities there say 98% of its electricity production stems from renewables, with hydropower accounting for the vast majority.

National Grid has previously described interconnectors as "high voltage cables that are used to connect the electricity systems of neighbouring countries," facilitating the trade of surplus power.

The project links the English town of Blyth to Kvilldal in Norway and will have an initial maximum capacity of 700 megawatts. This will increase to a "full capacity" of 1,400 MW across a three-month timeframe.

In its own announcement, Statnett referred to the three months as a "trial period." In comments published by National Grid, Statnett's CEO Hilde Tonne said: "As North Sea Link goes into trial operations, I am proud of the engineering feat produced by our joint team."

The North Sea Link is National Grid's fifth interconnector — others link to the Netherlands, France and Belgium. Looking ahead, National Grid said 90% of the electricity imported through its interconnectors would come from zero-carbon sources by the year 2030.

Last November, plans were announced for a multi-billion pound "underwater energy superhighway" which would allow electricity produced in Scotland to be sent to the northeast of England.

The Eastern Link project, as it's known, is to focus on the development of a pair of high-voltage direct current cables that will have a total capacity of up to 4 gigawatts.

If fully realized the project, which is currently in the early stages of development, would connect two points in Scotland — Peterhead and Torness — to Selby and Hawthorn Point in England.

'The river is hungry:' When North America's largest inland delta withers

On a wet day in August, Gary Carriere sets out on the waters that Cumberland House Cree speakers call Kitaskīnaw.

The Saskatchewan River Delta, its English name, is the largest freshwater river delta in North America. It stretches from the area around Cumberland House Cree Nation to Cedar Lake in Manitoba and is home to generations of Cree and Métis families.

As his son pilots the airboat down its banks, Carriere sees decay.

Walls of phragmites — an invasive tall grass — choke native species on the banks. The river cuts narrower and deeper than it did when he was a child 50 years ago. Its small tributaries are starving. Fewer animals dart along the wetland.

He was a boy during the construction of the E.B. Campbell and Gardiner dams along the South Saskatchewan River in the 1960s. Now 62, he sees how water flows in the Delta have changed amid a transformation that may threaten its ecological and cultural significance.

The dams reduce water flow to the Delta and block silt, transforming it from an expansive wetland to a potentially deep, unproductive channel. And the Saskatchewan government’s $4-billion irrigation project at Lake Diefenbaker announced last year might further affect its health.

The need for a solution is mounting as the Saskatchewan River Delta undergoes a decades-long deterioration impacting local culture and language and vital species of wildlife ranging from moose and black bears to millions of waterfowl and migratory birds. The 10,000 square kilometre Delta's peatland and boreal forests similarly store billions of tonnes of carbon.

Image: stockaerialphotos.com

The South Saskatchewan River is a major river in Canada that flows through the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. For the first half of the 20th century, the South Saskatchewan would completely freeze over during winter, creating spectacular ice breaks and dangerous conditions in Saskatoon, Medicine Hat and elsewhere.

Basin size: 146,100 km² (56,400 sq mi)

It's all concerning for Carriere, who was in Saskatoon for cancer treatment earlier this past summer. When he looked at the South Saskatchewan River winding its way north from a hospital parking lot, he saw a warning for his home. He wondered if the Delta would lose its vitality, coming to resemble Saskatoon's river.

"The province and the country definitely don't know what's going on. The local people have a better idea. We see it every day. As the water shrinks, everything else will shrink with it," Carriere said.

Carriere grew up on the trapline. He received a dozen traps when he turned 12 and became a commercial fisherman shortly after he finished school by Grade 9. But childhood memories of muskrat and other animals teeming the banks are growing more distant.

In one case, the average moose population in the Delta from 1985 to 2015 was 3,678. That number was as low as 2,553 in 2015, according to a 2019 study published in the scientific journal Alces. Researchers attributed this to "hydroelectric development altering delta ecology and allowing increased human and predator access, and vegetation succession."

Each year since the dams went up, Carriere has seen fewer animals and fish.

When power demand in Saskatchewan is high during the winter, the dams release unnaturally high amounts of water to generate it. Water flow is much lower in the spring and summer, explains University of Saskatchewan Professor Tim Jardine.

With less water in the summer, less goes into wetlands. Those pulsing releases lead fish into shallows where they are trapped when the water falls back, he said.

Dams also trap sediment-like silt. Without the sediment, "the river is hungry," University of Saskatchewan socio-hydrologist Graham Strickert said. It pulls sediment from the banks and the riverbed to replace what's trapped. As it does, the river gets deeper and can't flow into the channels branching off it. The wetlands bordering the water stagnate.

If nothing changes, Strickert predicts the Delta will eventually look like the South Saskatchewan River cutting through Saskatoon: a long, deep single unproductive channel that rarely floods. Whether that comes to pass is vital because the health of the culture and language dialect referred to as Swampy Cree is entwined with the Delta.

“It’s saddening, of course. There’s a lot of wildlife that depends on this place and until two years ago, nobody on the government level seemed to care,” Strickert said, referring to when SaskPower began communicating directly and regularly with downstream stakeholders.

He also pointed to a recent Delta visit by cabinet ministers and agency heads and collaborative efforts to understand the situation to pursue active stewardship and restoration activities.

Joel Cherry, a spokesman for SaskPower, wrote in a prepared statement that the Crown corporation “recognizes that issues, concerns and challenges in the Saskatchewan River Delta are complex and that E.B. Campbell is only one aspect among many that influence environmental conditions in the Delta region.”

The Crown service’s overall vision is to proactively manage environmental risk, limit the impact and push for a net-neutral impact, backed by transparency and collaboration and both traditional knowledge use and scientific data collection, he said.

Water Security Agency spokesman Patrick Boyle said work on the provincial irrigation project at Lake Diefenbaker has involved consultation with Friends of the Delta and Cumberland House leadership.

Flows are consistently monitored from Gardiner Dam and adjustments are made to maintain minimum flows, he said.

"We know that there's water available for irrigation, and that was the original intent of Lake Diefenbaker, more work will be done as the project is still in the very early stages,” he said.

Gary Carriere hopes bridging traditional knowledge and western science can educate the government of the Delta's peril and slow its demise.

A recent push for Indigenous-led conservation of the Delta may be a step toward this. In June, Cumberland House Cree Nation Chief Rene Chaboyer affirmed its sovereignty over the Delta, pushing for greater environmental and economic controls of the region.

Solomon Carrière was born and raised in that territory. He and his partner Renée have lived about 50 kilometres north of Cumberland House for the 40 years of their marriage. Their camp is filled with mementos of Solomon's time as a champion paddler, dotted with guest cabins and running dogs.

Renée worries as she watches the water ebb to reveal several yards of sandy beach that was never there before.

“Yes, (the river's) hungry. But not naturally. The dam is making it hungry,” said Solomon.

“There’s other ways of seeing the world,” Renée said, adding that Indigenous knowledge must become accommodated on a policy level.

"We need it put into action with the creation and implementation of a downstream plan."

Both Indigenous knowledge systems and western science are confident the Delta has changed, noted Razak Abu, a researcher who published a 2019 study about bridging Indigenous knowledge and western science in the Delta.

But science fails to document the processes of social change Cumberland House Cree land users experience, he said.

That's particularly concerning for access to traditional food sources. He thinks governance of the region has to include equally balancing Indigenous and western knowledge.

Abu adds there is no scientific instrument or measurement to determine if the fish or meat in the area is different from previous generations.

"What it shows is that no one knowledge system is able to tell us everything about an event. ... So, then the question is what can one knowledge system tell us that the other knowledge system couldn't tell us."





Despite changes at the E.B. Campbell Dam in 2018, low water releases in spring and summer continue, and scientists like Strickert point out that the river remains starved of sediment.

With substantial spending on the way for the Lake Diefenbaker irrigation project, it is possible to restore some sediment to the river, so that it ceases to eat into its bed and banks, he said.

Despite an unclear cost, he thinks that needs to be part of the conservation.

But it may very well be prohibitively expensive to move massive amounts of silt and sediment to the Delta, according to Norman Smith, a University of Nebraska geologist who's made the Delta his life's work and is a longtime friend of Gary Carriere.

He doubts saving the landmark is possible and adds the impacts of the Diefenbaker Lake irrigation project are difficult to measure.

Smith is clear: any water pulled from the system is a one-way process. Any drop taken from Lake Diefenbaker won't go to the Delta. That drying of his life's subject will continue; there's nothing more he can say.

"At what point can we say it will only have so many years of life? It'll be very gradual. It'll affect different parts of the Delta at different rates," he said, noting the lower parts may have a longer lifespan.

"It's painful seeing it dry up. It's only going to get worse and worse."

There are some solutions worth investigating to reduce water loss at Lake Diefenbaker, noted Jared Suchan, a Ph.D. candidate for environmental systems engineering at the University of Regina.

Estimates show evaporation is one of the biggest consumers of water at Lake Diefenbaker.

With optimized water application and climate-crop modelling, reduced water use is possible, he said.

Alternatively, pipes and enclosed canals could cut back on evaporating water.

SaskPower participates in Delta Dialogue, a forum coordinated by the University of Saskatchewan that shares information and water and environmental concerns.

Those ties extend to local land users. SaskPower provides annual funding to local fishermen to enable lake sturgeon index fishing, which currently shows a positive trend in the fish population, a spokesman said.

It also funds research projects and recently spent $40,000 and $70,000 in 2020 and 2021, respectively, to clear wood debris in the Delta and open boat and fish passage through side channels.

Those funds have found their way to a small camp in the River Delta, where in late August, a handful of local fishermen armed with overalls and chainsaws hacked at the wood jamming Delta channels and trapping local fish.

Gary Carriere's son, Gary Jr., works with them for days at a time. It's a difficult task. The water can be as high as his chest when he cuts logs, and the soaked wood quickly dulls any saw.

The men he works with have known his father for decades and when the senior Carriere visits, the buzz of the camp rests and the fishermen crack jokes, speaking in Cree and sharing a laugh on the front line of a battle for the Delta's future.

One of those men cracking jokes is Durwin McKenzie.

There was a time when McKenzie would be out moose hunting in the late summer. Now clearing the channel has taken centre stage.

The willows framing the channel were never there when he fished with his father and uncle there 25 years ago, he said. Now, waterways like it are jammed.

“It's impacting our culture because the water levels and log jams are plugging up everything. You can't do what we used to do,” he said.

Cumberland House Cree Nation band councillor Angus McKenzie, who is a trapper and fisherman, thinks the thousands of dollars going toward channel clearing may be too little too late.

“Sure, come down, meet with us. Help us. But like I said, it will never be the same."

"How do you replenish a Delta this big? Where do you start?"

These challenges aren't new — McKenzie thinks farmers suffering from drought could easily relate to what he’s experiencing on the Delta.

“Our (environment) is being destroyed. And if it ever happened to you, you would feel it,” he said. “If this Delta was further south, would they have protected it right away?”

Another band councillor, Julius Crane, is optimistic, despite the challenges. He's hopeful that restoration can happen, and he thinks partnerships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups can help secure it.

Crane pictures future generations of band members living among flourishing wildlife and fish.

“That’s still possible. It’s never too late,” he said. “This has been our home for time immemorial. It’s going to continue to be our home.”

Chasing revitalization is not just for the Delta, but for an entire province bound together by the thread of water flowing through cities, farmers' fields and First Nations.

That sentiment is written on a sign welcoming visitors to Treaty 5 at E.B. Campbell Dam — reflecting a document that intended to last as long as the rivers flow.

That's not lost on Chief Rene Chaboyer, as he sets his sights on the Delta's survival and the hope of its revitalization.

"We have to find a way, a better flow of water to our Delta," he recently told reporters.

Downstream, Gary Carriere's son pilots the Everglades-style airboat that draws the eyes of visiting tourists and scientists who befriend Carriere when they visit. Those relationships are a case of study of Indigenous knowledge bridging itself with scientific study.

Today, Gary Carriere is spending many of his days in a Saskatoon hospital room battling cancer. Among his health woes, he still presses for the future of the Delta’s drying banks while remaining hopeful.

It's natural to wonder if future generations will share his memories of flocks of birds singing overhead or schools of fish splashing out of the Delta's waters.

The decline is clear to the eye; there are fewer members of those species each year, but Carriere never grows tired of watching the animals that burst with life from the Delta's banks.

"It's probably on its way to die," Carriere says. "My hope would be to prolong the life of it."

Nick Pearce, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The StarPhoenix