"One of the things that jumped off the page for us is the high resident-to-staff ratios at these homes." "One of our hopes is that there will be a recommendation along those lines." "Another area where we think investments need to be made is with respect to improving and modernizing medication management for both the handling of insulin but also opioids." Alex Van Kralingen, lawyer "The best-case scenario is that the government, whoever is making the decision, actually listens and actually does something about the long-term care situation." "The report is just a bunch of pieces of paper with a bunch of words on it." "What matters is the people making the decisions and what they do with it." Andrea Silcox, Woodstock, Ontario
Elizabeth Wettlaufer pleaded guilty to eight counts of first-degree
murder for killing nursing home patients. Police now believe she
committed additional attacks. (Dave Chidley/The Canadian Press)
Andrea Silcox's father James Silcox was the first to die. Murdered at a a long-term care facility for the elderly and the frail, in August 2007 at Caressant Care, in Woodstock, Ontario, a facility overseen by the provincial government. His long-term care nurse, Elizabeth Wettlaufer now known as the worst serial killer that Canadian health care has ever reeled under, was never suspected of having killed a vulnerable, helpless old man. That gave her the green light to just go on killing, until seven more elderly people in her care were dead before their time.
Through it all, she was never a suspect. She herself revealed the crimes, when she sought treatment at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto in 2015. She informed health workers at the Centre that she had taken the lives of eight elderly people -- through the process of interviews presumably to lead to a therapeutic protocol she sought for herself. The interviewer immediately contacted police. And the news became a frenzied public revelation of institutional incompetence.
Her confession to the eight murders augmented by a descriptive admission of yet another attempt to kill another four in her care and assaulting two others, made up the grim story of her murderous spree and the disinterest of authorities at any level to investigate how and why it was that vulnerable, elderly people suddenly expired inexplicably. She injected them with a deadly amount of insulin, and then awaited the results.
There were warning signs. She had been fired from a northern Ontario hospital only months after her hiring because of suspicions of drug abuse and of theft. She had been fired much later by the Woodstock, Ontario long-term care home where seven people were murdered by her. And then went on to another placement at yet another long-term facility in London, Ontario, where her final victim met his untimely end.
In her seven years of employment at Carressant Care and then Meadow Park in London, the deadly toll she took was quite simply unnoticed. Without her self-incriminating admission after the death of eight people she could quite simply have continue her killing agenda with no one, apparently, any the wiser. A two-year investigation followed by public hearings ensued. Elizabeth Wettlaufer pleaded guilty to eight first-degree murders, four of attempted murder and two of aggravated assault.
The Province of Ontario oversees more than 600 homes holding about 78,000 residents, the largest and most complex long-term care system in the country. Their oversight so lax that one nurse succeeded in carrying out a years'-long deadly crime spree with the use of lethal insulin injections. She was sentenced to prison, with no chance of parole for 25 years.
"It's been two weeks of insanity, pure insanity." "I've had no sleep. I have no voice. I would like to shake the hand of the young man who made this happen and created this monster, and also would really like to punch him as hard as I could." Connie West, proprietor, Rachel's UFO-themed hotel, Little A'Le'Inn
Joe Buglewicz / for NBC News
"Something is being covered up here." "If it was nothing they would just come out and tell you there was nothing." Phil Hartley, lecturer in electrical engineering, Bo'Ness, Scotland
"This is a very rough, tough desert [high mountains, baking heat, kilometres of jagged terrain]." "It's not a good place to get stranded or run out of gas." Roberta Park retired schoolteacher
"I cannot believe it's gotten this much attention. We deal with
this on a weekly basis but nothing to this scale."
"We could probably handle it,
[a possible influx of a thousand visitors] but it could definitely cause issues. Heaven forbid the number is 5,000
people where you almost double the size of the county."
"I
could see people with a lot of heat-related issues, and with our
limited resources up here it could definitely jeopardize their safety.
The number of people could overwhelm our EMS in a hurry." Lincoln County
Sheriff Kerry Lee
It was meant to be a bit of a lark. The person posting on Facebook declaring it was time to gather a crowd of curiosity-seekers and invade Nevada's Area 51, a military installation in the wilderness area of the state off limits, guarded by infrared cameras, buried motion sensors and private security guards, with its own airline -- the proving ground for generations of advanced U.S. aircraft, has always fascinated UFO hunters. The creator of the event urged people to sign up to attend the event. And he claims to have been surprised when 1.9 million signatures resulted.
He took it that the responses represented the same spirit of light-hearted fantasy-making as his own, in urging everyone to gather to view UFOs: to come along to "storm Area 51" and "see them aliens". It isn't really known what percentage of that close to two-million signers-on are serious about the imagined 'event', planning to arrive on September 21, the designated date for an unstoppable crowd to storm the area. If so, they would sardine-pack the tiny town of Rachel with its population of 54.
Rachel is considered to be the "back gate" to Groom Lake -- Area 51 -- accessible through the "Extraterrestrial Highway". On the highway is the Alien Research Center gift shop, and other related alien-themed pit stops. Groom Lake was chosen in 1955 by the Central Intelligence Agency as the test site for its U2 spy plane program. At the present time, that function on the site is merely one of many. The Nevada Test and Training Range is a military reservation of considerable size, a vast forbidden area wherein sit specialized areas from drone bases to botanical experimental stations.
Visitors
take pictures with a statue of an alien, known by locals as "Fred,"
outside the Alien Research Center in Crystal Springs, Nevada.Joe Buglewicz / for NBC News
Area 51 is not open to visitors , not even to Nevada Test and Training Range workers. A fleet of planes familiarly known as "Janets" ferry about a thousand workers daily to and from a private terminal at Las Vegas McCarran Airport, all employees of the facility. Up to the present the area has attracted a fairly steady stream of UFO devotees and the curious -- a boon to the shop people of the Extraterrestrial Highway to cater to.
A physicist by the name of Bob Lazar has claimed for decades that he worked on a crashed alien space craft near Groom Lake. He spoke on June 21 about the matter on a podcast with Joe Rogan, provoking the interest of student Matty Roberts, 20, who thought what fun could be had in suggesting an invasion of the area. "I think everything Bob Lazar says is true", a young sound engineer from Seattle averred, scouting the area to set up a music festival in September.
Should anyone in fact attempt to enter Area 51, they will face the reality of non-entry. The private guards are authorized in the use of deadly force should the occasion arise. And it did back in January when a man was killed as he attempted to cross the line near the town of Mercury at the opposite end of the NTTR from Groom Lake.
"Previously, our studies showed that the tramadol use was relatively low among our drug users, at about four percent, but as of 2014, about 45 percent of all clients referred to this facility were using it." "We understand that some of those taken captive by Boko Haram or who have fought with the group are given the drug to numb their feelings. We've had soldiers brought in for addiction treatment as well." Dr. Ibrahim Abdu Wakawa, director, Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Maiduguri, Nigeria
"At first, tramadol just makes you feel good and full or energy, taking all your body aches away." "But soon I needed to take it all the time. My family made me come here, but when I realized I wasn't going to be able to get tramadol any more I became very aggressive." "I'm clean now, but I kept a diary of my treatment to remind of how bad things got." Ahmed Muhammed, in-patient, Neuropsychiatric Hospital
"At first they just helped me to forget the trauma of the attack [by Boko Haram in Bama], and how we had to run for our lives." But now I take them for other reasons too: just to blot out the pain of life here in Nigeria, the boredom and hopelessness. My consumption has rocketed." "I could get some right now if I wanted. There is a dealing spot just around the corner." Abel Habila, Maiduguri, Nigeria
Nigeria is facing catastrophic levels of opioid addiction — and no one seems to know how to stop it.
Nigeria is the largest, most populous country in Africa. It has oil wealth. The population is divided between Christians and Muslims. And it is wracked by Islamist terrorism. In northeast Nigeria Boko Haram wreaks havoc, invading villages, burning homes, murdering people, raping, abducting school girls. Despite its wealth and its large military, succeeding governments have been unable to arrest the terrorism. Its soldiers are ill equipped with outdated weapons and are ill trained and poorly motivated.
For a country with a lot of potential to advance on the scale of national achievements in technological progress, economic balance, decent employment and educational opportunities, and above all, national security, corruption reigns supreme, leaving the population insecure and fearful, and riven with sectarian and tribal rivalries. Perhaps it is not surprising that an epidemic of opioid addiction is further roiling the country.
It is, after all, a epidemic of notable proportions making its dreadful way through countries with advanced economies, full employment, excellent public security and national wealth in democratic settings where opioid overdoses have become a public emergency. In Nigeria, the abuse of tramadol, meant as a prescribed pain reliever has become universal. Farm labourers, rickshaw drivers, college students all use it to energize themselves in the belief that its useful properties outweigh any negatives.
The negatives of prolonged use: seizures, psychosis, fatal overdoses -- and withdrawal symptoms can re-introduce the avid user to the very same kind of physical pain that tramadol is meant to treat. There is a wider substance abuse epidemic in Nigeria, with close to 15 percent of its 200 million people reporting a "considerable level" of psychoactive drug abuse, representing three times the global average.
Customs agents seize hundreds of millions of tablets, mostly imported illegally from Asian manufacturers. The black market price for the drug has risen twenty-fold since the Nigerian government ordered tramadol prescription-available only. Even with that, a single 200mg capsule costs under $1.60. The World Health Organization is reluctant to place tighter international controls on the trade in tramadol, arguing it would take out of circulation one of the few inexpensive painkillers hospitals and clinics in Africa can access.
Despite the scale of the crisis, there is little help for opioid addicts in Nigeria The Telegraph
"It
really is [the end of the road]. The road ends here in Manitoba. This
is the dead-end corner of the world. I see it as the perfect place to
get caught." "To
leave, they [the fugitives] would have to backtrack along the road or
walk through the forest. The only other routes of travel would be the
Nelson River or the train tracks." "Its
doable. People lived here a hundred years ago, so you can do it. People
have gone out in the forest and done fine, but it takes a certain kind
of person to stick that out. You kind of gotta want to be there. Or need
to be there." "There's
a lot of rivers they'd need to cross, a lot of swampy ground. It's wet,
vegetative ground. Soft and hard walking. Depending on where you are,
you could sink up to your waist." "Right
now, there's berries growing everywhere. I can't walk in my front yard
without making jam. It's a bumper year on rabbits. I've never seen so
many rabbits." "Anything
that floats will get out there [to Hudson Bay via the Nelson River] but
the truth is, if they made it to the bay they would be facing a whole
different element." "They'd be dealing with tide-waters, very large waves and polar bears." Jesse Taylor, 32, Gillam town employee, wilderness outdoorsman
RCMP search the area near Gillam, Man., for homicide suspects Bryer Schmegelsky and Kam McLeod on Friday. (RCMP/The Canadian Press )
So this is what 19-year-old Kam McLeod and 18-year-old Bryer
Schmelgelsky may be coping with in their determination to evade capture
as suspects in three grisly murders. Held to be responsible for the
shooting deaths of Australian Lucas Fowler, 23, and his 24-year-old
American girlfriend, Chynna Deese whose bodies were discovered close by
their van as they parked close by the Alaska Highway not far from Liard
Hot Springs in British Columbia.
Photos of Bryer Schmegelsky submitted to CBC News by an online gamer at
Steam, a video game distribution platform, where the two met. (Submitted)
The two have been charged with second-degree murder in the death of
University of British Columbia botany lecturer Leonard Dyck, 64, whose
body was found on a turnout south of Dease Lake, B.C., on Highway 37,
some 470 kilometres west of the first homicide scene. Their burned-out
pickup stood about two kilometres from Mr. Dyck's lifeless body. They
were then tracked to northern Saskatchewan and following that to
northern Manitoba, a burned-out Toyota they had stolen attesting to
their arrival there.
"There have been no confirmed sightings outside of the Gillam area, however we remain open to the possibility." "Our
plea today is that if anyone in and around those communities [of Gillam
of and Fox Lake Cree Nation] may have inadvertently helped them get out
of the community ... to just please come forward." RCMP Cpl.Julie Courchaine
Officers comb the wilderness near Gillam, Man., on Thursday. (Gilbert Rowan/CBC)
The two were last reported having been seen in Gillam on the 22nd. Since
then police have searched with dogs, drones, helicopters and patrols,
hoping to unearth their presence. The military has been brought in for
sighting by plane. Asking for help from the public in the hope that some
clue might give investigators an idea where they might possibly look.
Exiting Gillam would mean leaving the very same way they arrived. But
they destroyed the stolen vehicle they arrived with. And there have been
no local reports of vehicle theft since then.
At the end of the road there is the vast northern forest. With plentiful
food and liquid available in its natural state, in an environment
potentially hazardous to the well-being, much less survival of the
uninitiated to outdoor survival. The town of Gillam has 1,200 residents,
the Fox Lake reserve another 200. Everyone is familiar with everyone
else; a strange face is noticed immediately, and noted. There have been
no reports of the two fugitives appearing in public for the past week.
Without some kind of human intervention that might give the pair
direction, support, advice and practical help of some kind, the mystery
is where they might be in the forest with its boggy floor, the presence
of bears, and blood-sucking bugs prevalent at this time of year, to
drive animals and humans to distraction. If they are there, in the
forest, they are not enjoying themselves.
"Everybody
in this town knows everybody else and when somebody new comes into
town, a new vehicle or a new face, people recognize that right away." "As
unnerving as this whole situation is, in my opinion, it's kind of the
best scenario. Everybody knows everybody and there is only one road in
and one road out. They'll find them, it's just a matter of time", assures Jesse Taylor, the informative outdoorsman.
In the interim, the hope must be that there be no further encounters
with this deadly pair -- that anyone else might lose their lives. Two
young men led by demons of destructive violence that only they know of,
one entranced by the allure of violent fascism augmenting an
already-disturbed psychotic personality, the other an unnervingly
willing accomplice whose trail of bloodshed has left a nation stunned.
Normal kids, their parents assure the public.
"The Japanese government compiled a report on the South Pacific on May
17, affirming its targets of "maintaining and promoting environments
for realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific" and "ensuring the stability
and safety of the region." "Free and open Indo-Pacific," an
expression frequently used by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,
generally means the security of ocean routes from the Indian Ocean to
the Pacific through Southeast Asia. Stressing the importance of the rule
of law and freedom of navigation, the expression is aimed to check
China which is expanding its presence in the area." "China
is sparking conflicts with countries around the South China Sea as it
builds artificial islands there as military outposts. The Japanese
government's report adopts the same expression out of concern that China
may resort to the same strategy in the South Pacific." "China
envisions a line of defense from Japan's southern Ogasawara Islands to
Papua New Guinea via Guam and Saipan as its "second island chain"
strategy. An advisory organ to the U.S. Congress said in a report last
year that China is capable of rivaling the U.S. in air, sea and ground
forces in the island chain. In fact, China is expanding its military
influence to the South Pacific." SUSUMU KURONUMA, Nikkei Asian Review
Japan Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe, center, poses with the leaders of Pacific island
countries in a photo session during their meeting in Iwaki, Fukushima
Prefecture, in May 2018.
"Establishing a base in our neighbourhood would be a low-cost,
low-risk way for China to show off its growing military and diplomatic
reach and clout. Moreover, by ignoring the noisy complaints that would
surely emanate from Washington, Beijing would show that it is willing to
defy the United States." "And it would send an unambiguous message to us here in Australia,
signalling Beijing’s rejection of our claims to our own sphere of
influence in the South Pacific, and sending a stark warning of China’s
reach and its capacity to punish us if we side too vociferously with the
US or Japan against it." Hugh White, The Guardian
China’s aircraft carrier Liaoning takes part in a military drill of
Chinese People’s Liberation Army navy in the western Pacific Ocean in
2018. Photograph: China Stringer Network/Reuters
Australia and Japan, once bitter enemies, now recognize in one another partners in a quiet offensive against a rising China's ambitions to dominate the western Pacific. China's economic clout has bought it alliances in the Pacific through investments and loans and the gratitude of Pacific island nations. China's steadily growing fleet is next in size only to that of the United States, lacking but the power of the U.S. major fleet units. China's dominance is already on view; its ambitions clear, leaving its neighbours in a state of high anxiety.
Japan and Australia have a robust trading relationship through the 2015 Japan-Australia Partnership, Australia is now Japan's fourth-largest trading partner, Japan Australia's second-largest trading partner. And they both, of necessity and of geography, have a large trading relationship with China. But then, which country globally does not?
Now the two countries are looking at another area of cooperation, examining a formal partnership in building an architecture of security through military cooperation, hoping in the process to invite other Asian countries, perhaps even European nations to join them. In the absence of a U.S. ongoing commitment to counter the growth of China's military, its intentions and influence among Pacific Island nations, the two countries see the vital utility of working together purposefully.
The historic agreement whereby the U.S. has its protective alliance with New Zealand and Australia, and that which Japan has so long relied upon with the U.S. commitment to Japanese security have both been tipped slightly askew with statements emanating from the White House in the last few years. The U.S. pulled its surprise removal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. And seemingly snap decisions upending generations of treaties and long-held security suppositions have grown an aura of uncertainty.
Both Japan and Australia are trying to prepare themselves psychologically as well as practically for the potential of a post-U.S. Pacific, an absence of balance against the rising power of China. Geopolitical rivalry, particularly that between Japan and China recalls the turn of the 20th Century when an aggressive Japan invaded Korea and China, neither able to withstand the onslaught of a militarily assertive nation hungry for power.
Now it is Japan that has been long quiescent, and China in the ascendancy. The Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Navy, the largest in the world in numbers of seagoing ships still does not compare to striking power of the U.S. Navy with its carrier battle groups and large nuclear submarine fleets, but it is inexorably catching up, to the concern of its neighbours, in particular Australia and Japan.
Their concern is that should the U.S. withdraw from the far Pacific not only Australia and Japan but South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines and other island nations will be challenged to push back against China, or simply resign themselves to the inevitable. Both Australia and Japan have their own considerable naval power; Australia with 31 major fleet units -- submarines, assault landing ships, frigates, destroyers. While Japan has the third largest navy in the world with 65 frigates, destroyers, submarines and other ships.
But a challenge to China's ambitions of total conquest? Doubtful.
Australia's then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, talks with his Japanese
counterpart Shinzo Abe during a meeting of Japan's National Security
Council at Abe's official residence in Tokyo. 2018. Picture: AP
"Yet again, innocent civilians are paying the price for the political failure to stop the violence and do what is demanded under international law -- to protect all civilians." "Our worst fears are materializing." Mark Lowcock, UN humanitarian co-ordinator
"Most of the partners [medical facilities, hospitals] will never again share their coordinates with
the UN because it is not working."
“Last year six hospitals were attacked, and this month another
eight hospitals were attacked after their coordinates were shared with
the UN. So most NGOs in Syria decided to stop this process." Dr Mohamed Zahid, Physicians Across Continents, Syria
Amjad al-Abdullah reaches for his 7-month-old daughter who hangs from
the wreckage of their family home by a piece of her clothing following a
Syrian or Russian government airstrike in Idlib province
(
SY24
)
"There was dust everywhere in the air, and people
were screaming for help. I could see the young children clinging on to
each other."
"The father was screaming ‘Don’t move! Don’t move'!"
"The older child was still clinging on
to the baby. We rushed them to al-Shami hospital but they were running
out of blood supplies and had to take them to Idlib hospital."
"I stayed with the children, praying they would be safe."
Bashar al Sheikh, a photographer from Kafr Nabudah, Idlib
"The injuries we are seeing are horrific. It’s clear
that once again children have been killed and injured in indiscriminate
attacks."
"The children of northwest Syria have been caught
in violent conflict for 80 days with no lull. They have been denied
education, food, healthcare and forced to sleep under the trees in open
fields for months now." Sonia Khush, Save the Children, Syria
"Some of the dead bodies were torn into pieces or
burnt beyond recognition. Many of the victims were women and children,
some of them suffering the most horrific injuries."
"[The increased violence is] part
of a wave of new attacks on critical civilian infrastructure across
northwest Syria in recent months, including health facilities, schools,
water plants, and bakeries."
Mark Cutts, UN deputy regional humanitarian coordinator, Syria crisis
A Syrian girl runs for cover during an airstrike by pro-regime forces on Kfar Ruma last week
(
AFP
)
The father, Mr. Abdullah in the first photograph above, proved unable to save all of his children.
A life-shattering, soul-destroying dilemma for a father whose primary responsibility is to protect his children. Who, in their right minds, thinks of a government barrel-bombing its citizens, of a foreign entity operating in that government's airspace, bombing innocent civilians? Seven-month-old Tuqa
survived, but her five-year-old sister Riham died soon after the attack,
as did her mother, Asmaa. Two other sisters were severely injured, one
of them is still in a critical condition.
What a cruel irony that the children's mother shares the same name as the murderous tyrant's Bashar al-Assad's cosseted and protected wife whose own children are safe and secure from the heinous assaults of a mass murderer like her husband. Since 2011 when peaceful Sunni Syrian protesters rallied in protest against their status of inequality, the regime has been responsible for the deaths of a half million Syrians, and that number dated from three years ago; impossible to know how many since have died.
A member of the UN permanent Security Council is actively engaged in bombing innocent civilians of a country not its own, collaborating with a conscienceless tyrant whose response to a popular uprising of a disaffected majority of the country's sectarian-split population with all the deadly munitions, including chemical weapons, at his disposal. Iran's Republican Guard Corps, its proxy terror group Hezbollah, Shiite militant groups have all shored up Assad's military for the singular purpose of mass slaughter.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaking of the Syrian governorate of Idlib addressed it as an "abscess" needing to be "liquidated". The situation compelled humanitarian organizations to launch an appeal with the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs, warning "Idlib is on the brink of a humanitarian nightmare unlike anything we have seen this century". Idlib? Syria? Sunni Syrians? Kurds? What does it all mean? Hasn't the issue been settled? Is the rebellion still on? People still being killed?
The world is tired of Syria. Disinterested in what's happening there. Outrage has been worn out. Out of sight, out of mind. The Islamic State was defeated, wasn't it? Its caliphate is gone, is it not? What's the problem? The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has offered the world the figure of 2,641 'casualties' since the end of April, reflecting Idlib's agony under the regime's barrel bombs and Russia's fighter bombers. Bombed buildings are now rubble, upon which lie the dead and injured.
Since April 29 an estimated 25 hospitals and clinics have been destroyed. Deliberately targeted. Over 800 health workers have been killed since 2011 and 570 hospitals and clinics have been bombed. When thousands of Syrian civilians were slaughtered in Aleppo the world was aghast, calling for Assad's removal, but the Kremlin had other ideas. Without Vladimir Putin's helpful alliance with Bashar al-Assad it would indeed have been over, Assad defeated.
Now, it is the Syrian resistance that has been bombed into submission. With Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines awaiting his opportunity to move in and wreak his vengeance on the Kurdish population. Idlib's population had more than doubled, it became the catch-basin for all the rebels forced out of other surrounding areas, where they sought haven and the chance to recoup their resources. Soon joined by Islamist terrorist groups, including remnants of Islamic State. The presence gives justification cover to Assad and Russia to bomb the innocent.
Syria is absent six million of its population. Millions live in misery in Turkey whose government has begun the process of 'repatriation', ushering them back to Syria because not enough Syrian lives have been destroyed. Ankara can eye its own plans with relative impunity because the agreement with Europe to detain Syrian refugees disallowing them to reach an already-saturated Greece and Italy satisfied both Turkey's demand for payment and Europe's for disabling another potential refugee wave.
"People outside keep making claims that this is psychological. This might give them some peace and some vindication that there is something real there and it is not just in their heads." "Everyone who examined these patients feels this was real from a neurological point of view, that this was a true neurological disorder." Dr. Douglas Smith, director, Center for Brain Injury and Repair, University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine
The study was based on MRI scans of US diplomats who were in Cuba and their relatives Getty Images
"In collaboration with Health Canada, a physician is following up with each affected individual to ensure they receive appropriate medical treatment through the Canadian provincial health-care system." "All employees and their families who have reported symptoms have received medical testing in Canada. We are working closely with the Dalhousie University Brain Repair Centre to support further research." Global Affairs Canada spokesman, John Babcock
The sounds weren't those of crickets, the mind-numbing effects not psychosomatic, the controversial issue of Canadian and American mission staff in Cuba experiencing strangely mystifying exposure to a force of some kind that affected their brains has undergone scrutiny since 'Havana syndrome' first surfaced several years ago with diplomats and their families suffering concussion-like symptoms with no visible signs of traumatic head injury.
Not mass hysteria at all. The cause and motivation remain unknown. But some suspect the injuries could have resulted from directed-energy weapons, like microwaves. U.S researchers have now published a paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association, revealing their finding that advanced neuro imaging had uncovered the presence of differences of a significant quality in the brains of 40 American government personnel.
They had experienced "directional phenomena" while serving in the diplomatic core in Havana. Their brains were compared to those of a control group. The findings, according to Dr. Douglas Smith, one of the authors, represented vindication for the patients treated and studied at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine which had taken the lead in the matter. Those afflicted with the symptoms of 'Havana syndrome' were made to feel like unreliable imposters.
But it was discovered by the researchers who studied the patients, the presence of significantly smaller brain white matter in the concussion-type symptoms as compared to the control group. Tissue containing nerve fibres connecting parts of the brain and which signal nerves to communicate, is white matter. In the changes identified by researchers, the similarity to the brains of concussion patients were identified. Along with a unique change to the signals helping nerves to communicate.
Researchers found no swelling in the long fibres contained in white matter as would be the case in concussion patients; instead the opposite was found in the Havana patients, possibly indicating that the brains of Havana patients could contain a lower percentage of moisture in their white matter. "These types of changes are truly unique and don't fit any known disorder that we have come across", explained Dr. Smith.
A range of symptoms including eye tracking difficulty, headaches, problems with balance, hearing and cognition difficulties, were experienced by the patients; symptoms that have for most patients resolved, while for others they have continued. Havana syndrome or something quite akin to it has also been experienced by American diplomatic government employees posted to China, and they are similarly being treated at the University of Pennsylvania.
Some of the Canadian diplomats and their family members had travelled to the University of Pennsylvania, paying their own way to do so, in the hopes they too would be examined, only to discover that authorities at the university had been informed by the government of Canada that the Canadians should not be treated there. Since then, Canadian diplomats and their families have been examined and treated at Dalhousie University in Halifax by brain researchers there.
A common experience among those affected were sounds coinciding with the symptoms being experienced. One diplomat posted to Havana in 2017 described waking during the night to a "grinding, screeching, metallic noise" filling the bedroom, that made him nauseous and then his son entered the room with a severe nosebleed. That family experienced headaches, cognitive problems and nosebleeds. On return to Ottawa the diplomat's wife actually 'lost' her sense of direction and was unable to find her way home.
The release and publication of the study's findings has been entirely rejected by Cuban neuroscientists. Who had themselves carried out their own study from their perspective. Cuban authorities have claimed to be as puzzled as American and Canadian researchers over the peculiar events. Prof Mitchell Valdés-Sosa, the Cuban lead scientist, criticized the study's methodology and "inconclusive results".
At a news conference propelled by news of the study results, Professor Valdés-Sosa stated: "the changes in the brain
images are very small, very diverse and very diffuse. They do not
correspond to a coherent explanation."
Prof Mitchell Valdés-Sosa of the Cuban Neuroscience Center dismissed the findings of the study AFP
"These immigrants don't speak the same language. They have different religions, different ways of life. If there are too many differences, it's harder to get along." "It's interesting to meet someone from another country for maybe half an hour, but if you're going to live together, it's tough." "Either it's higher taxes, or you have to cut something." "People don't want to pay taxes to support people you don't work." "Ninety
percent of the refugees don't contribute to society. These people are
going to have a lifelong dependence on social welfare." "This is a huge problem." Urban Pettersson, local council member, Filipstad, Sweden
A church in Filipstad, Sweden, where roughly one-fifth of the nearly 11,000 inhabitants are now foreign-born.CreditNora Lorek for The New York Times
In Filipstad, Sweden there was a downturn in industry. Not enough workers. Its iron ore mines were shut, a factory producing machinery for the logging industry as well. The town's population was half its original size. And then, in 2015 a solution appeared. Refugees from Syria, Somalia and Iraq arrived and they were viewed as potential workers who could occupy vacant homes, learn to speak Swedish adapt Swedish values, take jobs in home care for older Swedes and of course pay taxes to help finance the social welfare programs that would benefit them.
Those same social welfare programs that made Sweden famous for its humanitarian care of all its population as a social welfare state. Four years have passed and with it the aspirations of a solution that failed to materialize. Swedes now view those refugees as contributing nothing to the social weal, much less the economy, much less in support of the social programs that have buoyed them as refugees. They have become a public finance drain, resulting in public antipathy to their presence that has failed to benefit Sweden, much less the refugees.
The kinder gentler nation that has long been Sweden is nowhere to be seen at this juncture. Protecting their population from economic dysfunction faced by so many other countries so vital to the Swedish outlook for equality of opportunity and outcome has come to a selective, screeching halt. The influx of immigrants into Sweden representing the largest per capita of any European nation where at the peak in 2015, 160,000 refugees found asylum in a country of ten million people has encountered a bump in public opinion.
The reality that many of those refugees will continue to rely on welfare for years has some Swedes balking at the toll it will take on their own economic well-being. "People are quite open to showing solidarity for people who are like themselves. They don't show solidarity for people who are different", observed Carll Mellin, policy director at Futurion, a Stockholm research institution.
Local officials in Filipstad received assurances from the central government when it brought refugees into the city in 2012; they would be receiving financial assistance from the national government anxious to place refugees in small towns other than hosting them in cities like Stockholm with its scarce and expensive housing. National authorities would cover rent, food, clothing and medical care for the first two years. And after that? well of course the refugees would be working, paying taxes, becoming citizens.
Only this is not quite what has occurred. Municipalities inherited responsibility for the social upkeep of the refugees; figured initially to be not much at all. One-fifth of Filipstad's 11,000 inhabitants are foreign-born now. Among them there are 750 people of working age, 500 of whom have less than a high school education, and two hundred are entirely illiterate. "The state keeps saying we need to prepare people to get jobs fast. That's impossible. You have to educate them", pointed out Hannes Fellsman, manager of work and education programs of the local government.
The cost of social programs for refugees runs about one percent of Sweden's annual national economic output. According to economists, the Nordic model is a proven one fully justifying taxpayer investments in settling refugees whose children will grow up speaking Swedish and will graduate from Swedish schools into jobs. But for the present, people must wait weeks to see dentists, local housing complexes are full of foreigners, preschools have been "inundated" with refugee children and the local government's welfare payments soared over the past decade.
"People's willingness to continue paying the very high taxes needed to finance the social welfare programs is not something that can be taken for granted. We are now beginning to see the emergence of some serious cracks", observed Marten Blix, a Stockholm-based economist. "Before, we got something back. Now, we're not getting back what we paid for", said bus driver Johnny Grahn in Filipstad.
Getty ImagesThe crush of refugees, straining governments to the breaking point, now represent 4 per cent of Sweden’s budget
"The concept was that they [airlifted Ethiopian Jews into Israel] would develop best as a community." "That was a historic mistake." Isaac Herzog, former minister of social services and welfare, Israel
"It's very difficult as someone who's black to get the same opportunities [as the rest of Israel's Jewish population]." "People find it very hard to see you as equal." Alamito Itzhak, Ethiopian Jew, 32, Netanya, Israel "[Getting to Israel was] like touching the moon." "Is this the Israel we dreamed of? It's a question I ask." Zion Getahun, Ethiopian Jew, Netanya, Israel
Ethiopian Jewish women pray during a Sigd celebration in Jerusalem in 2014. (Wikimedia Commons)
The Ethiopian Jewish community was a minority in Ethiopia dating back
1,500 years. Theirs was a nomadic lifestyle, and ancient legends kept
their Judaism alive and thriving. They call themselves the Beta Israel.
In Ethiopia they were termed the Falasha, a derogatory term meaning
"outsider". The Beta Israel faced discrimination over the millennia,
treated as the 'other'. They lived as discrete groups in little
villages, each group isolated from the others, with their own religious
traditions, rabbis and houses of worship; un-unified other than in their
Judaic faith.
Ethiopian rabbis (Kessim) at the ceremony of a new spiritual leader in Ashkelon, Israel, in 2012. (Wikimedia Commons)
The State of Israel 'rescued' Yemeni Jews from Yemen, flying tens of
thousands to Israel to become Israeli citizens, in the late 1940s. Operation
Magic Carpet brought almost 50,000 Jews of Yemenite heritage to the new
Jewish State in its first two years, responding to a forced exodus of
Jews out of Muslim-dominated countries when the State of Israel became a
reality in 1948. Much later, in 1991, Operation Solomon was launched,
when the Israeli military airlifted Beta Israel the third tranche to
their new home in Israel.
The clandestine and dangerous flights took people living in traditional
nomadic lifestyles that saw few advances in what we call civilized,
urban life and placed them overnight into a sophisticated advanced,
technological environment where everything was new and both exciting and
frightening for the transferred people. But people are adaptable, and
over time newer generations had no problems adjusting to the normal
social life everyone else took for granted.
The religious orthodox community hesitated to consider the Ethiopian
Jews as truly Jews; their exposure to the Judaic traditions and heritage
was not the same as that of the Ashkenazi Jews from Europe. Moreover,
they were black, backward, uneducated and viewed as decidedly
second-class both in their social tradition and their religious
devotion. Israelis in general may have felt happy and excited to
'rescue' Yemenite and Ethiopian Sephardic Jews, but their 'differences'
set them apart.
An Ethiopian Jewish family shortly after arriving in Israel in 2009. (Jewish Agency for Israel/Flickr)
There are now 150,000 Ethiopian Israelis in a greater population of 9
million Jews, Arabs, Kurds, Druze, Circassians and others. As a
distinctly visible minority, Ethiopian Jews feel not fully accepted as
equals in Israel, and with good reason. They are as discriminated
against in Israel as blacks are everywhere else where they represent a
minority group. They face discrimination in opportunities, in medical
care, in education, employment, housing and social benefits.
Civil institutions fail to respond to their needs equally with that of
other Israelis. Ethiopian Jews are disproportionately arrested, held in
prison for minor offences, and targeted by police. "They know we don't have money for lawyers. They know we can't defend ourselves",
said Izra Ayalo, 25, who tells a story of an officer raising his fist
against him with no exculpatory provocation, while the police commander
stood by, laughing as the young man flinched.
There is systemic racism involved, generally known and accepted, but not
by the Ethiopians. Very recently an 18-year-old Ethiopian Israeli was
shot and killed by a police officer who claimed he was defending himself
from physical violence during an altercation. And though Israeli
authorities admit to 'over-policing' being a problem where police become
overly aggressive responding to minor misdemeanors, the situation
remains, and the Ethiopian community has risen in protest leading to
riots.
A firefighter extinguishes a car fire during a
protest against the death of 18-year old Solomon Tekah, in Tel Aviv,
Israel July 2, 2019.REUTERS/Corinna Kern
The original enthusiastic reception of Israelis to the 'homecoming' of
the largest wave of Ethiopian Jews to arrive in 1991 hardly reflects the
social climate of the present. In the general Jewish population 40
percent of Jews have achieved an academic degree while only 20 percent
of Ethiopian Israelis growing up in Israel have managed to. Household
income in the Ethiopian Israel community is stuck at 2/3 of that of
other Israelis. Alamito Itzhak earned her teaching certificate but is
unable to land a teaching position, so she works as a cashier in a
supermarket.
Zion Getahun, as a teen 40 years ago, grew up hearing his grandmother's
spoken dreams about living in Jerusalem. He walked hundreds of
kilometers from his Ethiopian village to reach a camp in Sudan. From
that camp he had been airlifted to Israel. He is still waiting to view
the Israel his grandmother dreamed about, a land of recognition,
equality and opportunity.
Protesters stand opposite police during a protest for the death of
18-year old Solomon Tekah of Ethiopian descent, after he was shot by
police, in Tel Aviv, Israel July 2, 2019.
(photo credit: CORINNA KERN/REUTERS)
"The death of Solomon Tekah is a great tragedy. Our hearts are with the family and lessons will be learned, but
one thing is clear: we cannot tolerate the violence we saw yesterday, we
cannot see the blocking of roads, Molotov cocktails, attacks on police
and citizens and private property. This is something that cannot be
tolerated, and the police are preparing accordingly to prevent it." "[The Ethiopian-Israeli community] is dear to us [but Israel is a
state of law, and demands that] everyone respect the law." "One thing is certain, this cannot be dealt with
by blocking roads, and it cannot be dealt with violently." "We worked together and achieved important things for the Ethiopian
community in Israel and we have more work to do. But
the first thing I ask and expect is that you mobilize your influence to
help stop this violence. It must stop immediately." Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu
An Israeli of Ethiopian origin argues with
a police man during a protest outside the Knesset on July 15, 2019 in
Jerusalem, Israel. The protests follow the death of a young man of
Ethiopian origin who was killed by an off-duty police officer in Kiryat
Haim on June 30. Lior Mizrahi/Getty Images
"There is a big hidden fight going on between Russia and China for influence in Central Asia." "[Russia has more support from a Russian-speaking Kyrgyz population and considers Moscow a place to work or study], but the Russians don't have any money." Rasul Umbetalieve, former Kyrgyz official, energy expert
"[TBEA was chosen by the People's Republic of China, a decision representing China's right] since it financed the modernization project." former Kyrgyz prime minister, Sapar Isakov
"The whole project smelled bad from the start, but if there had not been an accident, nobody would have noticed." "Of course we are afraid [of China's influence and power]. A small Chinese town has more people in it than our entire population." Iskhak Masaliev, lawmaker, Kyrgyz Parliament
Chinese President Xi
Jinping and his Kyrgyz counterpart Sooronbay Jeenbekov hold talks in
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, June 13, 2019. Xi and Jeenbekov held talks here
Thursday, agreeing to take their countries' comprehensive strategic
partnership to new heights. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)
China is exerting its power and influence all over Asia, Africa and the Middle East, wherever it can get a toehold to haul its entire body into its universal "Road and Belt" plan to gain control and empowerment as the world's latest superpower, rivalling the United States. It uses intimidation tactics, promises of loans and guarantees, Chinese investment and plans to aid backward nations in their vital infrastructure, all in the name of enhancing China's trade routes and ensuring that these nations will be forever financially, politically and socially indebted to China's generosity.
Posing as altruistic in nature and in reality, anything but.
In Bishkek Kyrgystan, a dilemma arose when the area's one plant providing heat and electricity for the capital was failing, in its long-neglected decrepit state urgently overdue for an overhaul. Bids for reconstruction were being considered in a country that normally looks to Russia with which it has had a long and mostly advantageous relationship, to provide the professional expertise and workmanship. And then came a letter to the Kyrgyz Energy Ministry and Foreign Ministry from the Chinese Embassy in Bishkek.
The Chinese "recommended" a Chinese company called TBEA for the reconstruction. Most enticing, the prospect of a substantial loan to the nation of 6.2 million. With the offer of the loan came the provision that only a Chinese contractor be selected, leaving the Kyrgyz officials with a most discomfiting dilemma. Which is how it was that a company with little experience in building and repairing power stations was given the reconstruction contract for the energy plant.
That decision made in 2013 led to the overhaul being completed by TBEA rather than favouring choosing an experienced Russian company. And then, shortly after the completion of the overhaul most of Bishkek was left without heat or electricity in inclement, cold weather when the plant broke down, leading to a public outcry. A trial is now underway in Bishkek exposing Chinese business practices allied with local corruption focusing on Chinese cash and its allure.
The
chimneys of the power plant in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, that broke down not
long after an overhaul last year, leaving much of the city without heat
or electricity in subzero weather.CreditMaxime Fossat for The New York Times
Former Kyrgyz prime minister Sapar Isakov and other former officials stand accused of corruption in the TBEA contract granting, with prosecutors stating the bidding was rigged and the result was vastly inflated; pricing that will now cost Kyrgystan $111 million. A commission identified widespread irregularities in the contract's award and execution. In 2008 the Export-Import Bank of China loaned Kyrgyzstan $9 million; that amount is now over $1.7 billion.
Then-chief of the plant, Nurlan Omurkul, had his doubts about TBEA. The badgering by Kyrgyz officials to have him endorse the decision that they had already committed to, sat particularly ill with him. "I've worked my whole life in power and heating plants and knew all along that the Chinese price of $386 million was too expensive", he stated.
The Russian bidder, Inter RAO had bid $518 million offering to invest its own money in building a completely new plant and in return wanted partial ownership, with a share of future revenues. They lost the bid.
The new 350km highway between Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, and Naryn was built with Chinese backing. Photo: Kalinga Seneviratne
"The government [of the United States, following 9/11] considered that it had been the victim of a lack of imagination." "It is certainly not the Red Team that will decide France's military strategy and still less its defence policy." "Its role will be to help the Defence Innovation Agency think about future technologies and their impact on strategies." Bruno Tertrais, deputy director, Foundation for Strategic Research, France
"[The Barakuda, a] mule [robot could soon be deployed to provide logistical support and ferry supplies to soldiers on the battlefield]." "Aircraft capable of interacting with drones and software capable of instantly analyzing thousands of satellite images [represent other types of projects]." French Minister of Defence Florence Parly
On Bastille Day, France showcased the Nerod F5, microwave jammer shaped like a rifle that blocks a drone pilot's control signals. During the Bastille Day military parade that took place on July 14 in Paris, inventor, professional pilot, former jetskiing champion, military reservist Franky Zapata demonstrated his futuristic jet-propelled "fly-board" which enabled him to soar into the air on the hoverboard-type device well over the assembled dignitaries and spectators crowded below.
A "Red Team" of science fiction writers is being assembled by the French military for the purpose of giving inspiration to military strategists in anticipation of ongoing and future threats to national security. France's recently established Defence Innovation Agency prepared a report to the effect that four or five visionaries are in the process of being brought on board to use their imaginations to identify "scenarios of disruption" that could conceivably not be identified by military planning professionals.
From the fertile imagination of theoretical inventive geniuses like Leonardo da Vinci whose own work on military inventions such as an armoured tank which generations later became reality, to works of science fiction imagining space travel, now also being pioneered, and on forward to seeing once-imagined, and now-realized functions of transportation by unmanned vehicles like drones, those in the population whose minds work overtime to imagine scenarios that closed minds could not possibly think of, are being sought as advisers.
Creative thinking does not come readily to everyone. Deputy director of France's Foundation for Strategic Research, Bruno Tertrais speaks of the role of his team to think in ways more related to that of the mind of a science fiction writer, and to achieve that end, the enrolment of actual science fiction writers to inspire the duller minds of ordinary military personnel is envisioned as a necessary first step in out-thinking and out-imagining possible enemies before disasters occur.
Science fiction writers, he pointed out, were invited by U.S. authorities to participate in defence brainstorming sessions in the wake of the September 11 attacks. France envisions the efficacy of mind-bending similar approaches; to attempt to anticipate how terrorist groups or hostile states could make use of advanced technologies to victimize other states. The 45-year-old Mr. Zapata is an inspiration himself, planning to mark the 110th anniversary of the first aircraft crossing of the English Channel with his flyboard.
His invention is capable of flight for just over ten minutes, achieving a top speed of roughly 115 mph. The 21-mile crossing would challenge the limitations of the flyboard's current capacities. So perhaps it's back to the drawing board for Mr. Zapata, but the intention acts as a spur for further development. And this is precisely the cerebral functioning that inspires the French government to emulate in a mission of preventive self defence.
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.
