"I
think that Breivik was a turning point, because he was sort of a proof
of concept as to how much an individual actor could accomplish." "He killed so many people at one time operating by himself, it really set a new bar for what one person can do." "This
is a particularly strong 'wave', and I think it's being fueled by a lot
of political developments and also by the sort of connective tissue
that you get from the Internet that wasn't there before that's really
making it easier for groups to be influenced and to coordinate, or not
necessarily oordinate but synchronize over large geographical
distances." J.M. Berger, research fellow, VOX-Pol
"There's a common framing of far-right terrorism or domestic terrorism as being 'terrorism lite' and not as serious." "It's an interesting question given that far-right attacks can be quite devastating." Erin Miller, Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, University of Maryland
"We conceive of this problem as being a domestic one. But that's not the case." "They
[ideological violent actors] don't see themselves as Americans or
Canadians, very much like the Christchurch killer didn't see himself as
an Australian; he saw himself as part of a white collective." "It
has never been the case that these people didn't think a global way.
They may have acted in ways that looked domestic but the thinking was
always about building an international white movement." Heidi Veirich, director, Intelligence Project, Southern Poverty Law Center, United States
A woman mourns at a memorial outside the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.
People who subscribe to violent ideologies are readily inspired by
others who share their view of supremacy and superiority linked to race
or religion. When an atrocity occurs and attracts world attention
because of its death toll, while most people are horrified, those
sharing the same ideology as the murderer whose rampage caused the death
of people, feel fascinated and enjoy the thought that they too can
embark on such a slaughter to gain attention to their 'cause' and be
admired by others like themselves.
White extremist terrorist attacks in Norway, the United States, Italy,
Sweden and the United Kingdom spurred the attacker who killed 50 people
at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March. He made
references to those successful assaults on humanity whom his like
considered inferior and unfit to live, chosen for their unwanted
presence as 'outsiders' and a purported link to religious terrorism. The
New Zealand terrorist's killing spree linked him to a global network of
extremists steadily gaining traction.
Thanks to the Internet and mass communication technologies there is no
geographic distance now between people with like agendas of hatred,
racism and terrorism. Social media readily facilitates the spread of
bigotry and extremism which leads inevitably to violence. Psychopaths
seek an outlet for their inner rage and misanthropy, and to feel oneself
as endowed with 'white privilege' as a crowning glory with the urge to
impress one's beliefs on the world at large, find the perfect solution
in deadly violence.
The far-right ideologue Anders Behring Breivik who killed 77 people in
Norway in 2001 may live in civilized infamy, but he is famous among
those who share his distorted sense of privilege for being a heroic
leader in their shared battle against those they deem of lesser
privilege, enemies of their ideological stance, and whom they target for
removal from the gene pool.
Breivik's manifesto raging against immigration and his deadly solution
strikes a resonating bell in the minds of other psychopaths looking for
an avenue to express their grievances. Breivik -- wrote an American
white supremacist on a white supremacist forum -- had "inspired young Aryan men to action".
That same man who posted that sentiment, Frazier Glenn Miller, killed
three people a few years later when he opened fire on a Jewish
retirement home and community centre in Kansas.
The Christchurch killer paid tribute not only to Breivik but to the
Canadian man who had fired at worshipers inside a Quebec City mosque
in2017, going so far as to write his name on the stock of his weapon.
The Quebec City killer had also admired Dylann Roof, the American who
attacked a black church in South Carolina in 2015, killing nine
congregants at prayer.
This kind of xenophobic, supremacist ideology targets immigrants,
minority groups and religious communities. The Global Terrorism Database
produced data identifying close to 350 white extremist terrorism
attacks that occurred in Europe, North America and Australia from the
years 2011 through to 2017. The definition of terrorism is the use of
violence by a non-state actor to attain a political or social goal.
White extremism is taken to embrace under its canopy, white nationalist,
white supremacist, neo-Nazi, xenophobic, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim
ideologies, accounting for eight percent of all attacks in these areas;
roughly a third of those committed in the United States. Deadly attacks
are occurring more frequently, paralleling a rise in hate crimes and
bias episodes in the west. Five white extremist attacks took place from
2011 to 2017 in Australia, most on mosques and Islamic centers.
According to experts, similar motives are involved, irrespective of
whether the target is a mosque in Perth, an asylum seekers' shelter in
Dresden, Germany, or a synagogue in Pittsburgh. Attackers feel justified
in hitting back against the perceived strains from immigrants and
religious and racial authorities, threatening their white privileged
positions.
"The ball becomes a relic, a symbol of victory, respect. That is why we do our best." "I wish we were not in a situation where my brother needed a ball." Vakhtang Torotadze, Shukhuti, Georgia
After the match, the ball is brought to the grave of the person who died
most recently in the village. And that’s it – at least for another year
• All photographs by Giorgi Gogua for RFE/RL
In Shukhuti western Georgia each spring, a black leather ball is sewn together so that residents can play a folk game called Lelo Burti. The game is brutal. It is a blend of large-scale rugby linked to a resulting larger street brawl; once popular all about the region of Guria, now only played in Shukhuti, once a year, Orthodox Easter.
The only equipment required for the game to proceed is the ball which will become a trophy. A trophy that is claimed by the winning team. And as a trophy it is destined to end up at the grave of their choice. The choice being to honour an individual's memory. The game itself had been granted status as a "nonmaterial monument" of culture by the government of Georgia, five years ago.
The village of Shukhuti is split into Upper and Lower Shukhuti on game day. Men representing each of the halves compete to carry the ball to their side of town. With success, the game ends. And usually the struggle to succeed in bringing the ball to one side or the other of the town, takes a big effort and a long time.
With no boundaries, no limit to the participation number and extemporaneous rules other than that women rarely play though they are not prohibited from doing so, the game can last a few hours, although on occasion it continues on into the night hours. Balls from games going back decades are scattered around the Shukhuti cemetery honouring various individuals.
Vakhtang Chkhatarashvili, 54, in mourning for his son Mishiko, treasures the ball at his son's gravesite. Mishiko was killed in a car accident in 2014, just as he turned 18. Soon afterward, the Lower Shukhuti team played the Lelo Burti game in his honour, winning it with the help of his friends. And at his gravesite sits the ball on a metal stand. "Taking care of the ball means taking care of my boy", said his father.
Over a dozen men representing both sides of the village gathered for a Georgian feast, a supra, the night before this year's game. Large quantities of meat were consumed, wine and chacha, a Georgian grape liquor as well. The memories of Vitaly Torotadze, being honoured by Upper Shukhuti this year and Aleko Dolidze of Lower Shukhuti, were toasted, each of whose gravesites were candidates for the game's ball.
Once the ball is ready, it’s brought to the local church.
Two teams play: the
objective is to push the ball into the opposing team’s end of the village. Whoever does it first, wins
The ball would be filled with dirt to the weight of 15 kilograms the following morning, blessed with wine by the local priest, Father Saba, and at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, Father Saba left the church with the ball, took a running start and heaved it into the air. From all sides, bodies crashed together to take possession of the ball as it disappeared under flesh and swirling dirt.
At times the heaving scrum consisted of a hundred people. They crashed against the front of one of the village's few stores, cracking the glass, careened down the hill from the main road into a thicket of trees with men scrambling in and out of the action, gasping for breath, shirts torn, shoes kicked away. An ambulance drove off with one of the players.
Upper Shukhuti established an advantage just past 6 p.m. In the final stretch, the players broke free and brought the ball across the creek representing the goal line. This time it took but an hour and 40 minutes for the game to conclude. And when it did, the men of Upper Shukhuti marched toward the cemetery with their ball.
At Vitaly Torotadze's grave the ball was placed beneath his headstone as his widow hugged her late husband's gravestone, before she rose to set out a feast it had taken her three days to prepare.
Dating back 300 years, the sport was once played all across the country.
Now held just once a year in one village, it still attracts large
crowds and plenty of injuries The Guardian
"The early morning light had revealed the gateway to the summit of Everest and in parallel a human being who had lost his life. Here we all were, chasing a dream and beneath our very feet there was a lifeless soul. Is this what Everest has become?" "This poor human being perched 7000ft. above the Western Cwm for everyone to observe was a reminder of each of our own mortality. Was this the 'Dream of Everest' we all imagined?" "My heart bled for the family and loved ones and at the same time I was conscious of the necessity to continue to move. At nearly 9000m above sea level, there is no choice but to carry on." "Who is responsible here? The individuals? the companies? The Government? Is it time to enforce new rules? Will things ever change? What's the solution here?" "With great sadness, as the queues pushed onwards and upwards, so did we, as did over 200 people that day." "Death. Carnage. Chaos." Elia Saikaly, Ottawa film maker, climber, Facebook posting
"The idea isn't to push yourself to the ultimate maximum to reach the summit." "Then there's no steam or energy left in your body to get down." Gordon Janow, director of programs, Alpine Ascents International
"She had to wait for a long time to reach the summit and descend." "She couldn't move down on her own and died as Sherpa guides brought her down." Thupden Sherpa, tour organizer
"If you are setting out on an Everest expedition, it is no less than heading for a war." "[Climbing Everest is like] attaining the highest pilgrimage. It is just like waiting for your turn outside a temple." Mingma Sherpa, Seven Summit Treks
Climbers wait to reach the summit of Everest in this image taken May 22.This handout photo taken on May 22, 2019 and released by @nimsdai
Project Possible shows heavy traffic of mountain climbers lining up to
stand at the summit of Mount Everest. (@nimsdai, Project Possible/AFP)
Ascending the highest point of Earth's crust in the Himalayas was once considered the ultimate challenge to nature in the most hostile-to-life atmosphere on Earth. Once Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay accomplished the feat by helping one another achieve the summit of Mount Everest, it became a lifetime challenge for other accomplished alpinists, climbers from all over the world who felt it their destiny to experience the rigours of the climb, the dangers of avalanches, of dizzying heights and exhaustion, threats of falling over a precipice, and waiting out high winds and snowstorm conditions.
Some realized their aspirations, some did not. Most returned, some failed to. Subsequent climbers saw the frozen corpses and disregarded their presence. The mountain became increasingly littered with discarded climbing equipment, with exhausted oxygen tanks, with the organic detritus of climbers relieving themselves. This, on the mountain sacred to the indigenous populations living on the Himalayas' lower flanks. Buddhist monks bless the travellers who enter their temples in hopes that they would be shielded from disaster.
Disaster entered on the heels of transforming the peerless mountain from its aloof serenity as a marvel of nature, to a too-well-travelled route by well-heeled people who hadn't the physical stamina, the energy and the strength, much less the absolute skills and experience to make the climb, and who depended on the expertise of Sherpas to guide them and to haul their equipment from base camp to the higher camps as they acclimated to thinner air in their gradual assault on the mountain.
The most popular route through Nepal was over-subscribed, too many permits sold, and too many aspirants crowding the route, clogging the way and resulting in long delays in an atmosphere of misery and anxiety, with hellish temperatures and the threat of injury, falls, accidents, and the dreaded hypobaric hypoxia all of which mean a possibly aborted mission, and an emergency return to base camp where a helicopter could be dispatched to take the sufferer to hospital.
Robin Hayes, who wrote at length about Everest’s crowded queues just a
week ago, completed his summit on Saturday, but died of what is assumed
to be altitude sickness upon his descent. Mike Wehner, BGR
"It was chaos coming down for sure", said Mark Ballard, a climber from Newfoundland who arrived at the final portion of the climb on May 22 to witness a chaotic lineup, but whose Sherpa guide led him to navigate through the crowds to reach the Hillary Step, avoiding slower groups to reduce waiting time in the thin atmosphere of frigid air. The chaos he spoke of was the one and a half hours he waited to make his way down from the summit. A summit that is the size of two gaming tables, where a dozen people can squeeze themselves together to take selfies as proof of their conquest. The idea is not to linger at the top of the world, but to begin to descend at a time in the afternoon that will ensure arrival at the last camp before the summit before nightfall. "I've seen traffic, but not this crazy", said Nirmal Purja, an accomplished climber attempting to summit 14 peaks around the world in a seven month period, on his descent from the Everest summit who stopped to photograph the scene of hundreds of climbers lining up behind him in the unusual cold and crowded area. The traffic on Everest has changed much about the original quest of climbers to experience the ultimate ascent. It is now given over to people for whom summiting Everest has become a goal synonymous with boastful egotistical celebrity. Inexperienced people, people hoping to feel thrilling fear, people who think nothing of leaving garbage behind them as though to proclaim "I was here!" Peter Beaumont write in the Guardian of the "anxiety-inducing conga line in the death zone"; just before the summit where it is deathly cold, where oxygen is threateningly thin and worrisome if one's tank becomes depleted, and where extreme exhaustion can mean a careless step and death. It is, he wrote, "not only dread you sense, but hubris too", of the world's peak that "has become a trophy experience". When too many people set out at once in a brief window of good weather to make a break for the fabled summit. Come what may.
Karma Tenzing@karma10zing
#Everest unfairly trashed via viral image of “traffic jam” on May 22 2019. Below are REAL photos of my climb to #Summit on May 15. Devoid of jams & I spent an HOUR at summit.
With only a 3-4 day weather window & ~300 #EverestSummiteer annually, jams will exist. Spread the truth!
"The only option I had was life or death." "I heard this voice that said, 'If you want to live, keep going'. And as soon as I would doubt my intuition and try to go another way than where it was telling me, something would stop me, a branch would fall on me, I'd stub my toe, or I'd trip." "So I was like, 'OK, there is only one way to go'." "I wanted to go back the way I'd come, but my gut was leading me another way -- and I have a very strong gut instinct. So, I said, my car is this way and I'm just going to keep going until I reach it." "I was getting so skinny that I was really starting to doubt if I could survive." "I looked up [after two weeks in the bush] and they [search helicopter] were right on top of me. I was like, 'Oh my God', and I just broke down and started bawling." Amanda Eller, 35, physical therapist, yoga instructor, Wailuku, Hawaii
"I just felt that she was alive. I was pretty
much telling myself or telling everybody if we haven’t found her, if we
haven’t smelled her, then that’s because she’s on the move and she’s
moving out. She’s just way farther out than we think she is." "I think a lot of her survival has to do with who she is. Her experience in the forest itself, her knowledge of the vegetation,
but in reality her physical therapy, her expertise in the human anatomy."
"I think that her injuries, she was able to treat them and treat herself
and pretty much be able to assess her situation out in the field and be
able to move forward with those injuries." "We went way past cloud nine. And then getting there
and actually hugging her and being a part of it, you know, actually Troy
and Chris, they had never met Amanda before." "That was actually the first
time they had ever been with her ... so wrapping my arms around her was
the greatest moment I can say about my life." Javier Cantellops, one of three searcher/rescuers
For 17 days the lost young woman survived by remaining close to a water source, even as she travelled at speed in desperation to find her way out of the dense, thick vegetation she was surrounded with, eating wild raspberries and strawberry guavas to stay alive. She now also knows what moths taste like; anything she could grab and devour that wouldn't kill her but might prolong her life was fair game.
The Hawaiian woman found it a struggle not to just give up trying to extricate herself from the impossible situation she found herself in; desolate, lost, losing hope. Injured but alive, she was found on Friday in the Makawao Forest Reserve. From the Maui town of Haiku, Amanda Eller decided on May 8 to drive her white Toyota RAV4 to a forest, the Makawao Forest Reserve. There, she left her vehicle in the parking lot. Inside was her phone and her wallet. She had decided she would go for a short hike.
Why anyone would leave their phone and wallet behind, not take them with her is a mystery only she can answer to. But the vehicle, sitting unclaimed in the parking lot was evidence that someone was lost. Identification was easy enough, and in response hundreds of volunteers took part in a massive search for the whereabouts of the young woman. Her parents put together a $10,000 reward hoping that might serve as an incentive for people to look for and find their daughter.
The short trail walk that Amanda Eller had envisaged turned out to be anything but, once she left the path to rest. When she decided to resume hiking, she lost the trail. A bit of disorientation that could happen to anyone, and she was the candidate this time. Her immediate goal was to return to the forest parking lot to retrieve her car. Instead, as it happened, listening with confidence to her instinct, she kept delving deeper into the forest.
At one juncture she fell from a cliff, fracturing her leg, tearing the meniscus in her knee. When 17 days had passed of endless wandering, she heard a helicopter overhead and understood that what she was looking at was her rescue. Three men, Javier Cantellops, Chris Herquist and Troy Helmers spotted the young woman at 3:45 p.m. on Friday, close to the Kailua reservoir, in an area of thick vegetation. "That vegetation is so thick, it's a miracle that we saw her", said Cantellope.
"We made just enough to cover the cost of getting there and getting back." "Plus our living expenses. We returned with nothing [from a summer's work harvesting hazelnuts." "I couldn't believe the mountains. It seemed like if you fell, they'd never find you." Shakar Rudani, Syrian refugee, Akcakale, Turkey
"To form a working group, you need 15 to 20 people, and if someone is indebted to you, they are unlikely to leave for a different job." "But we have seen so many people in the field who have collected a bunch of business cards and the middleman has just disappeared." Saniye Dedeoglu, professor of labor economics, Mugla University, Turkey
"I've been doing this for ten years." "Usually I bring between 100 and 150 workers north with me. Most middlemen take money and don't give rights to their workers." Ibrahim Ergun, 71, middleman, Akcakale
Tech2.Org
Mr. Rudani, 57, along with his six sons between the ages of 18 and 24, set out to work in the Black Sea region of Turkey at the largest concentration of hazelnut farms in the world. Mr. Rudani estimated that between them, seven people working diligently to earn a daily rate of $10, the family would end up with a few thousand dollars. After working the season in a terrain of steep inclines where his sons were attached by ropes to rocks to harvest the nuts, and coming away with no savings whatever, he knows they won't return for another season.
Nothing was gained but the experience of realizing that the promised $10 daily pay never materialized.There are about 600,000 tiny farms along the northern coast of Turkey which produce about 70 percent of all hazelnuts in the world. Most of the nuts harvested will be used in producing products like Nutella spread made by Ferrero, candy bars by Nestle and Godiva chocolates produced by Yildiz, a Turkish company. Gathering hazelnuts for market and export has always been known as a hardship and hazardous occupation.
Since the Syrian civil war and the exodus of millions of Sunni Syrians to neighbouring countries, the work has mostly been done by Syrian refugees, few of whom have work permits, and thus have no legal protection. Agricultural businesses employing fewer than fifty people are not covered under Turkey's Labor Code. Instead, the end-user of the products, the confectionery companies, are relied upon to police the crop and the workers' working conditions.
Ferrero, as a corporation whose reputation and products are built on hazelnuts, buys one-third of Turkey's harvest, and claims to oversee the prohibition of child labour and to set wage and safety standards. But the farms are independent and too numerous to be regulated, and the country's minimum wage is insufficient to keep a family from poverty. Workers don't even receive the minimum wage, since those who connect workers to farms as middlemen, pocket more than a ten percent cut,
"In six years of monitoring, we have never found a single hazelnut farm in Turkey in which all decent work principle standards are met", explained Richa Mittall, director of innovation and research for the Fair Labor Association.
With the ideal loamy soil in the region of the Black Sea, sunlight and rain, farmers were encouraged to plant hazelnut trees both to aid the ecology in a reduced risk of landslides, and to give a boost to the local economy. The region's workforce reflects a one-fifth agricultural component, bringing in seasonal laborers in various regions to reap the harvests. Of those laborers, about 200,000 are Syrian refugees.
Mr. Rudani and his family, along with the 3.4 million other Syrian refugees who sought haven from Syria's relentless civil war since 2011, have the status of "people under temporary protection", and as such, few work permits are granted, leaving agriculture one of the few sectors where work permits are not required, holding out hope for work and a wage for these people.
A farmer in Syria before he was forced to flee with his family, Mr. Rudani on his first trip to the Black Sea area, a 1,300 kilometer-trip from his haven across the border from Syria in Turkey was appalled when he realized how dangerous the work was, deciding the money he and his sons could earn not worth the risk, and returned. By the following year, they were desperate for work and earnings and returned with the resolve to work that summer harvesting hazelnuts.
"He [a middleman] told my father that this year the farmers are paying around 80 to 100 Turkish lira a day", Muhammad Rudani, Mr. rudani's eldest son explained. "But when my father got there, he realized that all the supervisors were cheating people. One of them told my father, 'We'll give you 45 lira a day, and that is it'." With little other choice, they stayed and they worked the summer gathering hazelnuts.
They worked seven days a week, 12 hours a day. And they're not the only ones. Other Syrian men with younger children, finding the cost of rental for shelter a heavy burden, feel they have little choice but to enlist their children alongside themselves to work in orange fields. "People who don't have enough family members to work are forced to live in plastic tents by the side of the road", said Nawwaf Ibrahim, 48, father of ten, a taxi driver in Syria.
Turkey's hazelnut crop is valued at about $1.8 billion in a good year, even as the farms struggle to be profitable. The harvest cannot be mechanized because of the rugged terrain. The size of the average farm is now less than 1.5 hectares, because farmers subdivide their land among their children. "The buyers say, 'I will give this price', and there is nothing anyone can do about it'," said Sema Otkune, a 70-year-old farm owner who inherited her 1.5-hectare plot from her father, in Akcakoca.
Nestle found in a 2017 survey that over 72 percent of workers reported they scarcely earned enough to get by, working seven days a week. Because of the Syrian war, child labour issues have "deteriorated in the last year". In the five years since Ibrahim Ergun left Syria, he views Turkish agriculture as a lifeline. "We are lucky. We can survive here. We will never be thieves. We will never have to beg on the streets."
"There's an ideological pattern that is common." The world is seen as in a bad shape, and what hinders it becoming a better place are the Jews." Gunther Jikelo, expert on European anti-Semitism, Indiana University
"Today,
mainstream European and North American politicians, even presidents,
premiers and prime ministers, don't hesitate to flirt with or embrace
overtly anti-Semitic messages and memes." David Nirenberg, dean, Divinity School, University of Chicago
"Globalization
and especially the crisis of 2008 have strenghtened a feeling of being
at the mercy of mechanisms that we do not understand, let alone
control." "From there it is only a small step to classical conspiracy theories, which have always formed the core of anti-Semitism." Stefanie Schuler-Springorum, head, Center for anti-Semitism Research, Berlin
"The
crisis surrounds Hussein Al-Taee, a new member of parliament from the
Social Democratic Party (SDP), which won a narrow victory in the April
14 elections." "A few days after the Finnish elections, Al-Taee, the son of the governor of Najaf in Iraq and a pro-Iranian regime advocate,
was exposed for having spent eight years posting anti-Semitic,
anti-American and homophobic comments on Facebook. For four of these
years, Al-Taee served as an adviser on Middle Eastern affairs to the Crisis Management Initiative
(CMI), a state-run conflict-resolution firm founded by the former
Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, and currently headed by former
Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb." "Al-Taee's campaign had centered on his CMI credentials as someone who worked at 'bridging peace'." "Although
Stubb publicly condemned
Al-Taee's hate-filled social media comments -- which included comparing
Israel to ISIS and referring to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as a
'Jew doing what a Jew does best: F***s up everybody to gain everything'
-- he has not been asked why a pro-Iranian regime advocate was working
for CMI in the first place." Kenneth Sikorski, author of the political website TundraTabloids.com, Finland
"Omar, a Somali-American and one of two Muslim women in Congress, posted
on Twitter in 2012 that 'Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah
awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.' She drew
condemnation in February even from fellow Democrats after she implied that Jewish politicians in the U.S. were bought." Gregg Re, Fox News
U.S. Democratic Representative, Ilhan Omar's infamous anti-Semitism
"Jewish groups gathered outside the UK Parliament to demonstrate against anti-Semitism. The Jewish Leadership Council, an
umbrella organization for several Jewish groups and institutions in the
UK, said that there was 'no safe space' in the Labour Party for Jewish
people. 'Rightly or wrong, Jeremy Corbyn is now the figurehead
for an anti-Semitic political culture, based upon an obsessive hatred of
Israel, conspiracy theories and fake news', the chair of the Jewish
Leadership Council, Jonathan Goldstein, said." Vox
Vox
"My
opinion on the matter has changed following the ongoing brutalization
in German society. I can no longer recommend Jews wear a kippa at every
time and place in Germany." "[About 90 percent of the anti-Semitic crimes in Germany are committed by
far-right activists], although there are Muslims who have been living
here for a while and watch Arab channels in which a murderous image of
Israel and of Jews is shown." "Many of them [Germany's police forces] don’t know what's allowed and what's not. There is a clear
definition of anti-Semitism and cops should be taught it during their
training," Felix Klein, Germany's anti-Semitism commissioner
"France has the largest Jewish population in Europe and the third largest
in the world. Anti-Semitism in the country springs not only from fringe
online groups but also from a long history of Jewish persecution and a
contemporary anti-establishment surge. Today, Jewish historians and
advocacy groups say, the far-left, the far-right, and radical
Muslims—groups with few shared interests, historically—are finding
common ground in anti-Semitism and the gilets jaunes. And as they
do so, the language of anti-Semitism is shifting, making it
particularly hard to track and filter as new laws would demand." Jess McHugh, The New Republic
Graves vandalised with swastikas at a Jewish cemetery (Frederick Florin/AFP/Getty Images)
Signs, signals, symbols, symptoms of anti-Semitism are rising steadily
in all countries of the world. Coincidentally the world is absorbing
ever greater numbers of Muslim immigrants, haven seekers, refugees from
their native Muslim-majority countries bringing with them their visceral
hatred of Jews and of Israel. Their presence in the millions dwarfs the
Jewish historical presence throughout Europe. Muslims in the Middle
East fight against the very thought of 'normalization' with a Jewish
state in 'their' Islamic geography, claiming the land never was part of
Jewish heritage.
And now that Germany has six million Muslims, a burgeoning population
displacing indigenous Germans in many towns and cities of Germany, the
200,000 Jews living there find themselves living an uneasy existence.
France, as Europe's nation with the largest Muslim demographic has
become a dangerous place for Jews to remain. Threats are viral and
attacks are deadly. French Muslims teeming in the banlieues where French
law and order dare not venture, represent a threat to all that is
European, both socially and legally.
Jewish Labour lawmakers in the United Kingdom have left their party as
it becomes ever more heavily ingrained with anti-Semitism, led by
Labour's Jeremy Corbin whose idea of partners for peace is Hamas and
Hezbollah. Jewish cemeteries across Europe have become favourite hunting
grounds for Jew-haters whose notorious actions topple gravestones or
daub them with Swastikas and messages for Jews to depart countries not
their own, but then Israel is not their own, either.
Anti-Semitism post-Second World War was kept under wraps. In this
current age of geographic destabilization and political barking, it has
lost some of its stench for those who feel entitled to hound, harass,
threaten and violate the human rights of Jewish populations wherever
they are. Jews are looked upon increasingly as a threat to national
identity; is their loyalty to the state where they live, or is it
unreservedly to Israel? A pretext for singling Jews out as unique in
this respect.
At a time when Arab Sunni-majority countries in the Middle East have
decided that the strongest, most militarily capable in their midst might
balance the scales against the aspirations of Persian Shi'ite ambitions
is worthwhile being finally accepted as a legitimate presence in the
Middle East reflecting their historically ancient Judean presence,
Europe and North America, long the recipient and beneficiary of diaspora
Jewish professionals in every aspect of civilized and social advances
have turned against their Jews.
"Sweden will host a conference of international leaders to combat
antisemitism in October 2020, the country’s prime minister announced on
Friday." "While the conference will likely highlight that Malmo’s status as a
refuge for Danish Jews fleeing Nazi occupation, as well as a home for
thousands of concentration camp survivors after the war, the city has in
recent years become a symbol of the antisemitism that has plagued the
20,000-strong Jewish community in Sweden. Emanating mainly from elements
of the city’s large Muslim population, the climate of fear in Malmo has
resulted in the shrinking of its Jewish community by 50 percent." "Lofven’s
presence in Malmo on Friday was the result of a controversy over
antisemitism in the ranks of the ruling Social Democratic Party’s youth
movement." "Members of the SSU youth league in Malmo were recorded chanting the
slogan, 'Long live Palestine, crush Zionism!' at an international
workers day rally on May 1." the algemeiner
A ‘Bagelstein’ cafe in Paris targeted with antisemitic graffiti. Photo: Twitter.
"The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has voted to adopt the
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of
antisemitism." "The move was initiated by Reverend Dr. Richard Frazer — the convener
of the Church and Socity Council — who pointed out that antisemitic
incidents in the UK were 'at a record high for the third year in a row'." "The adoption of the IHRA definition, he added, would 'aid the Church in challenging antisemitism'." the algemeiner
The Church of Scotland Offices in Edinburgh. Photo: Kim Traynor via Wikimedia Commons.
"It wasn't entirely a surprise. That's more than double the emissions we were expecting from China at the time [of the signing of the global agreement on CFC reduction]." "Was this enough to account for a substantial fraction of the global emissions rise that we saw? What we've found in this study is that, yes, it is globally significant." "[CFC-11 is about] 5,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming the climate." Matthew Rigby, lead author, study, University of Bristol
"The government [of China] has followed up on the companies we identified in 2018." "It has undertaken a nationwide enforcement effort, including raising the penalties for using CFC-11, and has shut down at least two CFC-11 production sites." Clare Petty, Environmental Investigation Agency
Much of the CFC-11 gas has been used in home insulation Getty Images
According to a United Nations report released in 2018, the huge ozone hole that had formed above Antarctica could be completely closed by mid-century, thanks to the progress of the Montreal Protocol. However, if increased emissions from eastern China hadn't been stopped, that process would have been delayed by "potentially decades". The back story of which is that unknown to anyone a mystery had developed whereby emissions of CFC had been detected at a time when none should have been released to the environment.
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) is a chemical that was used profusely and universally as a coolant in refrigerators and air conditioners along with other similar uses, such as form insulation, that was eventually found to be having a profound effect on the ozone layer that protects Earth from the sun's radiation. The Montreal Protocol saw the nations of the world come together in the 1980s to sign on to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.
This treaty was a first of its kind, universally adopted once it was fully understood the deleterious effect CFCs were having on the Earth's protective ozone layer. Signed by 197 nations, the protocol effected a significant reduction in CFCs harming the atmosphere and a slow healing of the damaged ozone layer began to take effect. Last year however, scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association found global emissions of Trichlorofluoremethane (CFC-11) was on the increase, since 2013.
Some country was obviously violating the Montreal Protocol. The violator was traced to somewhere in East Asia. A study published on Wednesday in Nature saw scientists from the University of Bristol, Kyungpook National University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology releasing the information that between 40 and 60 percent of total global CFC-11 emissions had emanated form eastern China.
An international network of measurement devices enables the scientists to identify and track gases in the atmosphere, with the team behind the study discovering data from the devices in Korea and Japan spiking since 2013. Analyzing weather and wind patterns to determine the origin of the increase in gas led to eastern mainland China, around Shandong province. Manufacturers there admitted they continued to use the banned product since it was of better quality and less expensive than alternatives.
Some factories produced the gas in secret, and other manufacturers claimed a blind eye was turned to their activities by local governments. An increase of about 7,000 tons annually in the area was emitted since 2013, slowing down the rate of ozone holes being repaired. The news was obviously of concern to the Chinese administration in Beijing because of the global embarrassment it caused, leading them to begin a crackdown on the plants.
Arrests and closure of two illicit facilities producing CPC-11 ensued.
In this graphic, monitoring stations in
Japan and Korea designed to track unwanted emissions in the atmosphere
attempt to pinpoint the origin of an increase in CFC-11 emissions.
Tracking the gas' presence and weather conditions, scientists concluded
it originated from eastern mainland China. A new study published May 22,
2019, found that 40 to 60 per cent of global CFC-11 emissions
originated from the region.UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL
"China is playing stronger, making stronger moves than it has before to try and get its own way on the world stage and western countries and democracies around the world are pulling together to point out that this not something that we need to continue to allow..." Prime Minister Justin Trudeau May 2019
Chinese and Canadian flags on show in front of the Forbidden City on December 4, 2017 in Beijing, China.
"Nobody in the Chinese government wants to meet with a Canadian minister
or special envoy -- even if the prime minister were to phone [Chinese]
President Xi Jinping, he would not take the call." "But so far, the Chinese have been adamant that unless we promise to release [Meng], they don’t want to meet with anyone." "We need to work with our partners to reinforce the multilateral system
-- an environment where we have predictable rules that apply to
everyone. Otherwise, we could end up in a situation where
countries like China or the United States would dictate the rules to
everyone else." Former Canadian Ambassador to China Guy Saint-Jacques
Chinese fury at Canada's perfidy in arresting the chief financial officer of Huawei on an extradition warrant from the U.S. in view of her role in defrauding U.S. financial institutions in defiance of the U.S. sanctions against Iran, has no bounds. Two Canadians, an ex-diplomat and an entrepreneur have been arrested, denied legal representation, kept incommunicado, questioned relentlessly, undergone subtle torture techniques, and finally charged with espionage in a vituperative quid-pro-quo. Two other Canadians have been sentenced to death for purported drug smuggling.
A series of economic trade blows encompassing everything from Canadian soy products to pork exports from Canada under various pretexts have hobbled trade in Canadian goods. Canada, on the other hand, cautions that it must respond calmly, not to further disturb the threatening monster that is China. Before he assumed the prime ministership, Justin Trudeau mused about China's "basic dictatorship", enabling it, he said admiringly, to 'swivel on a dime'. Now he knows how that dynamic swivel is capable of disabling relations with a powerful trade giant.
It was his father Pierre as prime minister before him, who opened Canada up to China, in his fabled trip to the Asian colossus. And it was Jean Chretien, another former Liberal prime minister, who while in office, carefully groomed personal contacts with the Chinese Communist Party hierarchy and business community, leading a number of trade missions, to arrange a trade and business nest for himself with China, once he stepped away from office in electoral defeat.
When the Conservatives came to power and then-prime minister Stephen Harper expressed discomfort with China's human rights record, hesitating to pursue increased trade opportunities in China, Jean Chretien scorned his tentativeness as he continued to lead trade delegations, this time working for a prestigious Quebec-based law firm. Justin Trudeau's own aborted effort to sign a free trade deal with China collapsed under the weight of his tedious feminist and workers' rights agenda.
Now, the same China that supplies the world with illegal and deadly laboratory-manufactured opioid-alikes such as fentanyl and carfentanil, powerful drugs leading to the deaths of countless drug users in Europe and North America, suddenly finds it just to condemn two Canadians to death for drug smuggling. No one is permitted to shove back against China's push-and-shove marketing of its products, and Huawai represents one of China's starring technological giants.
Canada, in honouring its extradition agreement with the U.S., which is in a trade war with its global rival China, has brought the wrath of the Communist Party down on Canada. And Justin Trudeau quakes in dismay, calling on other democracies to come to Canada's defence. Trudeau's milquetoast reaction to Beijing's relentless harassment and assaults on Canadians reveals a government and a leader out of its depths.
Anguished telephone messages are left by Trudeau's Cabinet ministers for their Chinese counterparts to respond, and just as Xi has failed to acknowledge Trudeau's messages, leaving them unanswered, it speaks volumes about the limpid efforts made by Canada and the arrogant presumption of Chinese leadership that it can quash any leader of any country that has the presumptive stupidity to challenge China's primacy on the world stage.
Canada fears doing anything to further stir China's rage. Trudeau could and should but cowers over additional consequences. Refusing Chinese goods' shipments, taxing others, halting coal shipments to China, withdrawing Canadian financial investment in the China-centred Asia Bank, outright freezing Huawei out of Canada's 5G telecommunications might be a good start.
Paralysis, it appears, becomes Justin Trudeau, the consummate thespian whose talents on the stage have failed their occupation of the world stage.
"I think there are ways in which a stronger relationship makes it easier
for our two countries to have regular, frank discussions on issues like
good governance, human rights, and the rule of law. Freedom of
expression is a true Canadian value, one protected by our Charter of
Rights and Freedoms. You see, Canada has succeeded, culturally,
politically, economically because of our diversity, not in spite of it." "I shared with them my strong conviction that acceptance of diverse
perspectives will strengthen China, just as it has Canada. In a world of
rapid change, it is a diversity of ideas, and the free ability to
express them, that drives positive change." "When Canadian companies partner with Chinese companies, it means more and better-paying jobs here in China as well." "Canada encourages China to do more to promote and protect human rights." Justin Trudeau, September 2016
Vapidly virtuous signalling; we hear you, Justin Trudeau!
"This one [problem of IV infections representing an outbreak affecting children] is just unprecedented." "It's such a very unique kind of profile, because those infected are children. [There is nothing similar in all of Asia]." "Patients say; 'If you will not give me a drip, I will go to another doctor." "Education is so critical. You can provide all this mass testing, all the treatment, but educate people." "First, on the reduction in the demand of unnecessary injections." Dr. Maria Elena Filio-Borromeo, Pakistan director for the United Nations' AIDS and HIV program
A Pakistani
paramedic takes a blood sample from a baby for a HIV test at a state-run
hospital in Ratodero in the district of Larkana of the southern Sindh
provinceCredit:
AFP
A pediatrician in Rotadero in Sindh province, Pakistan, was puzzled when eight of her young patients were unable to shake off fevers. Their condition failed to improve when they were given medicine. Eventually testing indicated that all of the eight children were HIV positive. This resulted in a screening program in the city. That program, only a month in operation, has found that of 18,418 people screened identified 607 of that number positive for HIV.
Children aged five and under represent 381 of the affected people identified with an HIV infection. The screening is ongoing, and it is expected that the numbers identified with HIV will continue to rise. While the precise source of the outbreak has not been determined, researchers believe the virus was spread by "quack" doctors specializing in injections and drips, failing to use clean needles, infecting one patient after another with a needle used for an HIV-infected patient.
The locals in this part of Pakistan have developed a culture demanding injections and drips as a cure-all for any illness. There is a pervasive belief that injections and drips are quicker, and more effective than any course of medicine, according to Dr. Filio-Borromeo. Backstreet clinics operated by unqualified quacks fill gaps in Pakistan's underfunded, overextended public health system.
There are 150,000 people in Pakistan with HIV, according to United Nation estimates; the number increasing by 20,000 annually. Only one in fifty women, and one in 25 men have been tested. Earlier in the month police in Sindh shut down a string of quack clinics, arresting a doctor accused of spreading the virus.
Lax hygiene on the part of quacks has allowed the virus to spread from a high-risk group represented by the area's sex workers, to the wider community.
According to Dr. Filio-Borromeo, the country has enacted practical regulations to ensure the virus is not spread. The problem is those regulations fail to be enforced. The result is that hundreds of babies and toddlers have been found infected with HIV, an unprecedented outbreak of the virus -- the worst affected in the population being children.
The outbreak, discovered in April, has seen nearly two-thirds of children aged five or under diagnosed with HIV, representing three-quarters of all those testing positive.
#HIV epidemic is becoming serious silently in #Larkana#Sindh#Pakistan. Just in one town #Ratodero over 16K people screened for #HIV and 500+ diagnosed HIV positive.People are so afraid, they stopped visiting barbers many people bought shaving machines to be safe from HIV virus
This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.
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