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2,505 |
Why including refugees in peacebuilding matters - 360
Kristen McConnachie
Published on March 8, 2023
Refugee women are crucial to building peace in Myanmar. Yet their experience has rarely been valued.
The need to secure women’s participation in peacebuilding has been recognised for decades, notably through the Women, Peace and Security framework introduced by the UN Security Council in 2000. However, it fails to recognise and acknowledge the role of refugee women in peacebuilding.
Refugees rarely have a voice in peacebuilding policy-making, and this exclusion is particularly acute for refugee women, who typically experience double discrimination and are invisible due to their gender.
Refugee women from Myanmar have been active in peacebuilding for many years, engaging at all levels of political and humanitarian action. Naw K’Nyaw Paw of the Karen Women Organisation met with former first lady Laura Bush at the White House and Naw Zoya Phan was elected as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. Other refugee women from Myanmar have held important leadership roles in the national political context, including Cheery Zahau, founder of the Women’s League of Chinland, and Naw Zipporah Sein, former General Secretary of the Karen National Union. Others have worked to raise the political profile for Myanmar at a more local level, through protests in their countries of asylum or by mobilising diaspora networks for assistance.
These women, and many thousands more, have dedicated their time and even their lives to work for peace in Myanmar. Groups such as the Karen Women Organisation, Shan Women Action Network, Kachin Women’s Association Thailand and other members of the Women’s League of Burma have carried out human rights documentation to establish evidence of the violence endured by women inside and outside the country.
Refugee women in Thailand have worked tirelessly to support people displaced inside Myanmar, often negotiating highly dangerous conditions to reach areas where international aid access has been denied. Refugee women in camps and cities support their communities, particularly on issues of women and children’s protection. In carrying out these activities, refugee women must work with a wide range of stakeholders, including non-state armed groups, local populations and international donors as well as state authorities.
Refugee women are crucial to service delivery, humanitarian assistance and as an action tool for peace in Myanmar. Yet this experience has rarely been valued.
From 2011 to 2021, Myanmar was widely believed by the international community to be in political transition, a belief that deepened between 2015 and 2020, when the military junta ceded (partial) political power to an elected Parliament led by the National League for Democracy.
During these years, peacebuilding was a big business in Myanmar. Australia, Denmark, the EU, Finland, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, the UK and the US joined in establishing a Joint Peace Fund, set up with USD$100 million. Most international peacebuilding projects did not engage with refugees outside Myanmar, the people who had been displaced under military rule and sought sanctuary in countries including Thailand, Malaysia and India. Instead, refugees found themselves under increasing international pressure to return to Myanmar.
An unbridgeable gulf developed between refugees’ understanding of Myanmar’s politics, and that of international agencies and donors. Refugees wanted lasting political change, with full rights for ethnic minorities, based on durable political agreements. Without these, refugees did not believe the military was acting in good faith. These views were expressed by refugee-led organisations and refugee women’s organisations on countless occasions but to little avail.
Refugees came to be viewed as quasi-spoilers, unwilling to accept that Myanmar had moved on and they must too. International funding to refugees was reduced or withdrawn in all areas, including education and food rations as well as women’s organisations and gender programming. Long-standing programmes in refugee settings were forced to close or expected to relocate to Myanmar for continued support.
Thousands of people did return, in circumstances officially categorised as voluntary but in reality, the result of considerable external pressure. In February 2021, refugees’ fears came to pass. The military once again seized power in Myanmar, deposing the elected parliament and establishing a junta, the state administration council. Violence returned throughout the country, with some of the most affected areas being the same territories where return had been most heavily encouraged, such as Chin State and Karenni State. The result, inevitably, is yet more death, injury and displacement. A shocking 40 percent of people in Karenni State have been displaced since 2021.
The human consequences of premature return are deeply tragic, the more so since at least some harm might have been avoided if more weight had been given to refugees’ voices. To prevent this from happening again, attitude change is needed, of the type that helped develop the original Women, Peace and Security statement, Security Council Resolution 1325. The international community should change approaches to peacebuilding to focus on displacement and the needs of refugees. Refugees – including refugee women – should be included as active participants in repatriation discussions.
Such discussions are currently treated as a tripartite issue between the refugee-sending state, the refugee-hosting state and the UNHCR. Four-way talks that include refugee representatives in negotiations should be the norm, and refugee women need to be part of the delegation.
In addition to the political transformation from the top, practical changes can be made at the local level to facilitate refugee women peacebuilders. This includes changing the institutional culture of international agencies and their hierarchies of authority and influence. It also includes addressing barriers to women’s participation, including basic assistance with transport, childcare and food as well as ensuring that refugee women are paid for participation and refugee women’s organisations are adequately funded so they can develop their activities and invest in supporting and training a new generation of women leaders to work for lasting peace and genuinely durable solutions to displacement.
Kirsten McConnachie is a professor of socio-legal studies at the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: In the story “International Women’s Day” sent at: 06/03/2023 10:54.
This is a corrected repeat.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on March 8, 2023
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"url": "https://360info.org/why-including-refugees-in-peacebuilding-matters/",
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2,506 |
Why India can afford to wait and watch before regulating AI - 360
Anurag Mehra
Published on August 2, 2023
India should not rush with a “comprehensive” law that might become outdated quickly
India’s position on regulating AI has swung between extremes – from no regulation to regulation based on a “risk-based, no-harm” approach.
In April this year, the Indian government said it would not regulate AI to help create an enabling, pro-innovation environment which could possibly catapult India to global leadership in AI-related tech.
However, just two months later the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology indicated India would regulate AI through the Digital India Act.
Taking a U-turn from the earlier position of no-regulation, minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said: “Our approach towards AI regulation or indeed any regulation is that we will regulate it through the prism of user harm.”
In a labour intensive economy like India, the issue of job losses because of AI replacing people is relatively stark.
However, the minister claimed: “While AI is disruptive, there is minimal threat to jobs as of now. The current state of development of AI is task-oriented, it cannot reason or use logic. Most jobs need reasoning and logic which currently no AI is capable of performing. AI might be able to achieve this in the next few years, but not right now.”
Such an assessment seems only partially correct because there are many routine, somewhat low-skill “tasks” that AI can perform. Given the preponderance of low-skill jobs in India, their replacement by AI can have a significant and adverse impact on employment.
Drafts of the upcoming Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 leaked in the media suggest that personal data of Indian citizens may be shielded from being used for training AI.
It seems this position was inspired by questions US regulators have posed to Open AI about how it scraped personal data without user consent. If this becomes law — though it is hard to see how this can be implemented because of the way training data is collected and used — the “deemed consent” that allows such scraping of data in the public interest will cease to exist.
The Indian government’s position has clearly evolved over time. In mid-2018, the government think tank, Niti Aayog, published a strategy document on AI. Its focus was on increasing India’s AI capabilities, reskilling workers given the prospect of AI replacing several types of jobs and evolving policies for accelerating the adoption of AI in the country.
The document underlined India’s limited capabilities in AI research. It therefore recommended incentives for core and applied research in AI through Centres of Research Excellence in AI and more application-focused, industry-led International Centre(s) for Transformational Artificial Intelligence.
It also proposed reskilling of workers because of the anticipated job losses to AI, the creation of jobs that could constitute the new service industry and recognising and standardising informal training institutions.
It advocated accelerating the adoption of AI by creating multi-stakeholder marketplaces. This would enable smaller firms to discover and deploy AI for their enterprises through the marketplace, thus overcoming information asymmetry tilted in favour of large companies that can capture, clean, standardise data and train AI models on their own.
It emphasised the need for compiling large, annotated, dynamic datasets, across domains — possibly with state assistance — which can then be readily used by industry to train specific AI.
In early 2021, the Niti Aayog published a paper outlining how AI should be used “responsibly”. This set out the context for AI regulation.
It divided the risks of “narrow AI” (task-focused rather than a general artificial intelligence) into two categories: direct “system” impacts and the more indirect “social” impacts arising out of the general deployment of AI such as malicious use and targeted advertisements, including political ones.
More recently, seven working groups were set up under the India AI program by the government and they were to submit their reports by mid-June 2023. However, these are not available just yet.
These groups have many mandates — creating a data-governance framework, setting up an India data management office, identifying regulatory issues for AI, evaluating methods for capacity building, skilling and promoting AI startups, guide moonshot (innovative) projects in AI and setting up of data labs. More centres of excellence in AI related areas are also envisaged.
Policy makers are excited about designing the India datasets programme – its form and whether public and private datasets could be included. The aim is to share these datasets exclusively with Indian researchers and startups. Given the large population and its diversity, Indian datasets are expected to be unique in terms of the high range of training they could provide for AI models.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has also set up four committees on AI which submitted their reports in the latter half of 2019. These reports were focused on platforms and data on AI, leveraging AI for identifying national missions in key sectors, mapping technological capabilities, key policy enablers required across sectors, skilling and reskilling, and cyber security, safety, legal and ethical issues.
India’s position on regulating AI is evolving. It might, therefore, be worthwhile for the government to assess how AI regulatory mechanisms unfold elsewhere before adopting a definitive AI regulatory law.
The EU AI Act, for example, is still in the making. It gives teeth to the idea of risk-based regulation. The riskier the AI technologies, the more strictly would they be regulated.
AI regulatory developments in the US also remain unclear. One major hurdle to AI regulation is that its evolution is so fast unanticipated issues keep arising. For instance, the earlier EU AI Bill drafts paid little attention to generative AI until ChatGPT burst on the scene.
It may be prudent for India to see how the regulatory ethos evolves in Europe and US rather than rush in with a “comprehensive” law that might become outdated quickly.
Adopting the “risk-based, no-harm” approach is the right one to follow.
However, the most fundamental AI development is happening elsewhere. Instead of being worried about stifling innovation it might be prudent to prioritise cataloguing the specific negative AI-fallouts that India might face.
They could then be addressed either through existing agencies or develop specific regulations aimed at ameliorating the harm in question.
Professor Anurag Mehra teaches engineering and policy at IIT Bombay. His policy focus is the interface between technology, culture, and politics.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
|
Published on August 2, 2023
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"author": "Anurag Mehra"
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2,507 |
Why India has most to gain from beating antimicrobial resistance - 360
Virander Singh Chauhan
Published on September 6, 2023
India is the ‘world capital’ of antimicrobial resistance and now part of a global fight to save millions of lives and trillions of dollars.
Antimicrobial resistance stands as one of the most pressing global health concerns. However, it is in developing and economically challenged nations that the true impact of this issue is felt most deeply.
Antimicrobial resistance is a health problem potentially worse than the recent COVID-19 pandemic. India bears the unfortunate distinction of hosting a significant burden of antimicrobial resistance.
However, the nation has earnestly embraced the challenge of addressing AMR, recognising the urgent need for attention to this issue.
Antimicrobial resistance refers to the ability of microorganisms like bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites to become drug resistant, or so-called ‘superbugs’.
If drugs cannot treat microbial infections, then deaths from tuberculosis, malaria, cholera and other diseases will skyrocket. Already there are seven million annual deaths globally due to bacterial infections.
Antimicrobial resistance is part of a natural evolutionary process as microbes find ways to outsmart the drugs intended to combat them. Microbes are microscopic living organisms that are invisible to the naked eye yet have co-evolved with humans and play vital roles in maintaining life on Earth.
Many microbes are essential for human existence, but specific types can cause infectious diseases, leading to millions of deaths.
As scientific comprehension of microbial entities has progressed, so have the approaches to tackling them through new treatments.
In their ongoing struggle for survival, microbes have in turn evolved mechanisms to become drug resistant.
Over the past century, antibiotics have achieved remarkable milestones in the medical realm, revolutionising global healthcare. That journey started in 1928 with Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin, leading to clinical application by the 1940s and earning him a Nobel Prize with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain.
Subsequent discoveries included antibiotics like streptomycin (1944), tetracycline (1948), and erythromycin (1952), bolstering our arsenal against infections.
However, fewer new types of antibiotics emerged in later decades, and the approval of new antibiotics further decreased going into the 21st century. Only two — telavancin and ceftaroline fosamil — were introduced.
The search for new antibiotics has been hindered by the intricate science involved, hefty development costs and reduced incentives. In this environment, antimicrobial resistance has emerged as a formidable threat, complicating the development of new drugs.
The World Health Organization estimates antimicrobial resistance could already be responsible for 700,000 deaths a year. An alarming 400,000 of these fatalities could be in developing nations.
If unaddressed, by 2050 antimicrobial resistance might claim around 10 million lives, with 80 percent of cases likely to be in developing regions.
In comparison, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to around seven million reported deaths in about three years.
Antimicrobial resistance also poses a huge economic threat, potentially causing global GDP to drop by between 2 and 3.5 percent and the livestock industry by 3 to 8 percent.
That’s a cumulative USD$100 trillion loss by 2050. Clearly, global action is needed against antimicrobial resistance to safeguard lives and protect the economy.
India is seen virtually as the home of antimicrobial resistance.
Along with many low-income and developing nations, it is also grappling with drug-resistant tuberculosis, malaria and cholera, exacerbated further by poverty, illiteracy, overcrowding and malnutrition.
Limited awareness and restricted healthcare access have led to antimicrobial self-medication in India, which is fuelled by unregulated access to over-the-counter drugs. Even in the health system patients often receive broad-spectrum antimicrobials due to insufficient diagnostics.
Low doctor-to-patient ratios and the absence of infection prevention and control guidelines contribute to increased transmission of drug-resistant strains.
All of this has compounded the antimicrobial resistance crisis.
The excessive use of antibiotics in poultry, livestock and agriculture adds another dimension to the problem and means ensuring judicious antibiotic usage in these sectors crucial to protecting both human and animal health.
Despite the gravity of the antimicrobial resistance threat and scientific advances, the development of new classes of antibiotics has been slow.
The pharmaceutical industry is generally reluctant to invest in antibiotic research and development because it involves more than a decade of meticulous research and clinical trials and can cost more than a billion dollars.
And the return on that investment is often seen as relatively limited, especially compared with drugs used for chronic conditions like cancer and diabetes that promise extended usage and greater revenue.
There are 77 new molecules in clinical trials and only 32 of these are non-traditional antibiotics. That compares with more than 10,000 molecules in clinical trials for cancer, more than 1,800 for neuropsychiatric conditions, and over 1,500 for blood immune disorders.
Antimicrobial resistance is itself another major challenge because it rapidly diminishes the effectiveness of new antibiotics and makes it hard to recoup development costs.
Stringent regulatory requirements for antibiotic approval also extend the development process and add to costs.
Despite the economic challenges for the pharmaceutical industry, new strategies to tackle antimicrobial resistance still have to be found.
All stakeholders, including pharmaceutical companies, must collaborate to discover new antibiotics for the greater good.
The World Health Organization estimates about 3.5 million individuals in developing nations suffered from infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria in 2016.
Developed countries, including select European nations and the United States, contend with notably fewer instances, owing to superior health infrastructure, rigorous infection control measures and more regulated antibiotic usage.
In 2018, India took a strategic step to combat antimicrobial resistance.
The Ministry of Health issued regulations for responsible dispensing of antimicrobials. These measures need stringent enforcement.
India had introduced the National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance in 2017, aiming to raise awareness, enhance infection control measures and encourage rational antibiotic use.
The issue also has a significant place on the G20 health agenda during India’s presidency. Over the past decade, governments worldwide have made efforts to seriously address the challenge.
The antimicrobial resistance challenge required a multifaceted approach in developing countries like India.
Strengthening healthcare infrastructure and enhancing access to quality healthcare, advocating responsible antibiotic use, boosting infection prevention and control measures, and investing in surveillance systems are pivotal strategies.
Thinking globally, a coordinated effort that involves governments, healthcare professionals, pharmaceutical firms and international organisations is imperative.
Antimicrobial resistance could very well be the next pandemic that humanity faces.
V S Chauhan is President of the Malaria Vaccines Development Program. He is also the Chancellor of GITAM University, Co-Founder of Biotide Solutions LLP and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Institution of Eminence University of Delhi.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
|
Published on September 6, 2023
|
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"url": "https://360info.org/why-india-has-most-to-gain-from-beating-antimicrobial-resistance/",
"author": "Virander Singh Chauhan"
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2,508 |
Why India risks a quantum tech brain drain - 360
Urbasi Sinha
Published on July 31, 2023
India could lose its best quantum tech talent if the industry doesn’t get its act together.
Quantum technology has the potential to revolutionise our lives through speeds which once seemed like science fiction.
India is one of a few nations with national quantum initiatives and it stands on the threshold of potentially enormous technological and social benefits.
The National Quantum Mission, approved by the national cabinet in April, is a timely government initiative that has the potential to catapult India to a global leader leading in quantum research and technologies, if leveraged correctly.
Its main areas of research are quantum computing, secure quantum communications, quantum sensing and metrology and quantum materials.
The challenge for India is how it ensures it gets the best out of the mission.
The benefits of the technology can benefit many aspects of society through processing power, accuracy and speed and can positively impact health, drug research, finance and economics.
Similarly, quantum security can revolutionise security in strategic communication sectors including defence, banking, health records and personal data.
Quantum sensors can enable better GPS services through atomic clocks and high precision imaging while quantum materials research can act as an enabler for more quantum technologies.
But the Indian quantum ecosystem is still academia-centric.
India’s Department of Science and Technology had set up a pilot programme on Quantum Enabled Science and Technologies — a precursor to the National Quantum Mission.
As a result, India has a large number of young and energetic researchers, working at places such as RRI Bangalore, TIFR and IIT Delhi who have put an infrastructure in place for the next generation quantum experiments with capabilities in different quantum technology platforms. These include quantum security through free space, fibres as well-integrated photonics, quantum sensing and metrology.
Clear career progression would help India’s quantum workforce. The risk of brain drain, where local talent moves overseas for better opportunities, could be a real possibilityif different industries which can benefit from the technology fail to recognise its transformative capabilities and how it can help create jobs and opportunities.
While there are multiple labs working in different quantum sectors, the career path of students and post-doctoral researchers remains unclear as there are not enough positions in the academic sector.
One problem is industry and academia are competing with each other for quantum research funding which is why equal emphasis on quantum technology development in the industrial sector could help.
While India does have some quantum start-ups, more lab-to-market innovations which would make the technology practically useful could give the field momentum. Currently, the big industrial firms in India are not yet committed to quantum technology.
The lack of homegrown technologies like optical, opto-mechanical and electronic components for precision research is another impediment. Most of these are imported, resulting in financial drain and long delays in research.
The National Quantum Mission could help fix a number of these problems.
Hurdles could be turned into opportunities if more start-ups and established industries were to manufacture high-end quantum technology enabling products in India.
Another major deterrent is the lack of coordination. Multiple efforts to develop and research the technology, across government and start-ups, does not seem to have coherence and still lacks maturity. People involved in quantum research are hopeful the mission will help address this.
Like most other countries, India has witnessed plenty of hype about quantum research. While this may help provide a short term boost to the field, excessive hype can lead to unrealistic expectations.
Continuing to build a skilled workforce and a clear career progression plan for those involved in research and development of quantum technologies can help secure India’s future in this space.
There is a distinction between magic and miracles and while believing in one, one should not start expecting the latter as that can only lead to disappointment in the long run.
Urbasi Sinha is Professor at the Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bangalore, India. She heads the Quantum Information and Computing (QuIC) laboratory at RRI.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on July 31, 2023
|
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"url": "https://360info.org/why-india-risks-a-quantum-tech-brain-drain/",
"author": "Urbasi Sinha"
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2,509 |
Why Indonesia's young people are swiping off the news - 360
Ignatius Haryanto
Published on May 3, 2024
The next generation of news consumers in Indonesia don’t trust the media. Fixing the problem might require a re-think of how news is written and delivered.
Almost four out of ten people avoid the news. Some don’t consume news at all, while others limit it to certain topics. Those who avoid news are more interested in more positive journalism, or solution-based journalism, and less interested in breaking news.
In Indonesia, news avoidance is also happening. Working out the causes and the effect it will have on democracy if it continues is a vexing question.
Indonesia has a literacy rate of 96 percent. But far fewer are reading the news. One survey found household members who read newspapers or magazines amounted to 43.52 percent and only 22.05 percent read news or articles on electronic media/internet.
In the context of the 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer, Indonesia has 70 percent trust in the media. It would be considered low.
The report highlights that media is actively distrusted by the public and most institutions, including media, are not trusted to introduce innovations to society. Therefore, a 70 percent trust level falls below the desired threshold for fostering trust and acceptance of innovation, but still good enough for news to be a reliable source of information.
The COVID-19 pandemic also contributed to news avoidance. With the outside world largely shut down, people spent a lot more time in front of screens. This has created its own news fatigue, both with the mainstream media and social media.
Indonesia is not alone in avoiding the news. The 2022 Digital News Report states that the phenomenon of news avoidance is increasing sharply in many countries. In Brazil and the UK, the numbers have doubled (54 percent in Brazil and 46 percent in the UK) in the last five years. Many of the respondents surveyed mentioned that news has a negative effect on their mood.
The same report also states that young people and people with less formal education say they avoid the news because they find it difficult to understand. This suggests that the media should simplify the language they use in writing news or the news should be better explained, perhaps by contextualising complicated stories.
Meanwhile, the Digital News Report in 2021 stated that news avoidance in the US increased sharply following the election of President Joe Biden as American president, especially from conservatives.
We often hear “the media is the fourth pillar of democracy”, and readers are one of the life supports of the media. Journalism and democracy are intertwined. Therefore, the existence of news readers is part of the equation to maintain democracy.
News avoidance is a phenomenon that needs to be taken seriously because media will then be deemed irrelevant by those who avoid news.
To stay relevant, the authors of Avoiding the News mention five pieces of advice to editors: Examine how news is received by its consumers; consider community and identity more seriously; pay attention to packaging and distribution issues to those who avoid news; increase literacy about the importance of news and the value of journalism; and re-emphasise the value of newsrooms and maintain professional standards.
So, the blame is not entirely on the young audience who turn away from the news, but this is a good moment for the media to consider presenting news to young people, both in terms of the choice of topics raised and also the way the news is presented to them.
When these two things are improved, it is possible news avoidance will decrease in the future and safe democracy.
is a journalistic lecturer in Universitas Multimedia Nusantara, Serpong, Indonesia. He is the founder of the Institute for Press and Development Studies (LSPP). He is a member of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and of the Ethics Council of the Jakarta branch of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJIJak).
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on May 3, 2024
|
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"url": "https://360info.org/why-indonesias-young-people-are-swiping-off-the-news/",
"author": "Ignatius Haryanto"
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2,510 |
Why Islam has two ways of looking at surrogacy - 360
Shaikh Farid
Published on July 19, 2023
Two schools of thought in Islam have different views on surrogacy. But if infertility is considered a sickness, surrogacy could be used to treat it.
Having a child is one of life’s great joys. But in many parts of the world — especially in the Muslim world — options for infertile couples to have children are limited.
Surrogacy is forbidden in much of the Middle East, although it is allowed in Iran providing that the surrogate mother is married and the parents-to-be are too.
As a result, Iran has become a go-to nation for surrogacy. And, at a time when many Islamic countries’ fertility rates are falling, surrogacy is one of the alternatives to continue a family’s lineage.
Surrogacy has been a contentious subject in Islam since its introduction in the mid-1980s. The Sunni and the Shia, two major branches of Islam, have quite different perspectives on the subject.
The Sunni school of thinking primarily adheres to Sharia law and forbids the use of surrogacy and third-party gamete (egg or sperm) donation based on maintaining family ties and upholding the integrity of religion and marriage.
The Sunni compare surrogacy to adultery and continue to have doubts about the legitimacy of the surrogate child as a result. In their eyes, the act of implanting an embryo into a surrogate mother’s womb annihilates familial ties and is therefore equivalent to adultery.
Surrogacy, according to Sunni scholars, confuses the very nature of family, descent and lineage. Lineage confusion is regarded as going against God’s will, and is therefore illegal and ethically unacceptable.
As a result, a child’s origin should be traced back to his or her original father and mother. The Islamic rule of inheritance is founded on biological fatherhood and motherhood, and inheritance proportions are explicitly specified in the Quran.
Shia Islam, on the other hand, accepts surrogacy through the application of ijtihad (individual intellect).
Ayatollah Khamenei, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Supreme Leader, issued a fatwa (a religious decree) in 1999 that authorised the use of donor technology, particularly in surrogacy, if the egg and sperm are taken from a lawfully married couple.
When compared to adultery, the act of surrogacy was distinguished by the absence of the physical act of sexual intercourse in the latter.
Shia clerics employ the idea of maslaha (public interest) to better grasp the moral dilemmas associated with medically assisted conception under Islamic law.
Shia academics have stressed the avoidance of divorce and psychological conflicts by legalising surrogacy procedures through the application of both scripture and ijtihad.
Although most Sunni scholars forbid all surrogacy agreements, some have been disputing whether gestational surrogacy, a type of surrogacy in which a woman only carries a pregnancy for the intended parents and is not genetically connected to the child she carries, is acceptable. Their arguments are based on Islamic laws, specifically Islam’s main goal of preserving humanity.
Surrogate motherhood is also interpreted differently by Sunni and Shia scholars.
Sunni scholars claim that an embryo implanted in the surrogate mother is the same as implanting the sperm of another man, to whom she is not legally married, to bear his child.
Shia scholars, employing ijtihad, regard the concept of an embryo as distinct from the concept of sperm. They do not consider the introduction of an embryo into the uterus of a surrogate mother to be analogous to the sperm of a man to whom she is not lawfully married.
Many academics also contend that the doctrines of justice, public welfare, and necessity (maslahah) can be applied in this situation.
Even some forbidden behaviours are permitted in Islam when necessary such as eating pork (banned in Islam) if it is the only source of available food to survive. Islam therefore permits banned behaviours that usually contravene the fundamental foundations of Islamic law in the interest of the greater benefit of society and need. Such a requirement for infertile couples fosters the preservation of the couple’s right to marriage, family formation, and reproduction.
The main goal of Islamic law is the preservation of the human species. As a result, if infertility is considered a sickness, surrogacy could be used to treat it.
Infertile married couples can therefore be permitted to use surrogacy due to necessity, social and psychological considerations, and to keep their marriage together, and the yearning to have a child of one’s own lineage.
Surrogacy can be viewed in the context of a progressive interpretation of Islamic law rather than being outright prohibited.
Sunni scholars could approach surrogacy using ijtihad in addition to these sources. They could read the textual sources of Sharia law considering the maqasid (objectives) of Islam rather than reading them literally.
While Islamic scholars continue to debate surrogacy in Islam from many angles and with various interpretations, it’s helpful to tackle this difficult topic sensitively, obtaining advice from scholars and placing the welfare of all people involved as a top priority.
Md. Shaikh Farid is a professor in the Department of World Religions and Culture at Dhaka University in Bangladesh. His research interests include history of education, missionary education, comparative and international education, Islam and bioethics, ethics in ARTs, organ donation. He is a member of Asia Pacific Bioethics Education Network (APBEN).
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: In the story “State of surrogacy” sent at: 17/07/2023 06:00.
This is a corrected repeat.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on July 19, 2023
|
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"url": "https://360info.org/why-islam-has-two-ways-of-looking-at-surrogacy/",
"author": "Shaikh Farid"
}
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2,511 |
Why it still pays to chase the US religious vote - 360
David Smith
Published on August 23, 2023
Religion could play a significant role in an increasingly polarised conversation about faith in US public life, but will it shape the 2024 election?
As the US Republican Party heads into yet another primary season dominated by Donald Trump — despite his multiple criminal indictments — there is a repeated lament that “it’s not (Ronald) Reagan’s party anymore.”
Reagan described the Republican Party in the 1980s as a “three-legged stool”: an alliance of military hawks, free-market capitalists and religious conservatives.
Together, they made a formidable electoral coalition that delivered the White House to Republicans in five out of seven elections from 1980 to 2004. In 2007, Republican hopeful Mitt Romney carried a physical stool around Iowa to make the point that any Republican still needed all three legs to win.
It’s hard to describe Republicans the same way now.
Leading Republican candidates all pursue the votes of religious traditionalists but are sceptical about unrestrained capitalism and American involvement abroad.
They see major corporations as harbouring “woke” agendas and are suspicious of traditionally conservative institutions like the FBI.
Regardless of their personal beliefs, they nearly all follow the template Trump established in 2016.
It is not just that Trump has replaced Reagan as the cultural guiding light of the Republican Party. Two of the three legs of Reagan’s stool suffered serious reputational damage in the first decade of the millennium.
The Iraq War soured Americans on military adventurism in the same way the Vietnam War did a generation earlier. The Global Financial Crisis shattered Americans’ faith in the major institutions of capitalism, compounding the sense of insecurity many of them blamed on free trade deals.
The consequences of these disasters were dramatised for Republicans in the presidential elections of 2008 and 2012.
Vietnam War hero John McCain, a hawk who joked about bombing Iran, was resoundingly beaten by Barack Obama. Enthusiasm about Obama faded quickly, but four years later he still handily defeated Mitt Romney, who had made a fortune in private equities and wanted deep cuts to taxation and government spending.
Trump had distrusted free trade and American military alliances for decades and was well-suited to the mood of the party in 2016. But it was less obvious how Trump, who had little familiarity with Christian scripture and a personal history as tabloid fodder, would become historically popular with the religious conservatives, who were left as the most powerful element of the Republican base.
Despite propelling presidents like Reagan and George W. Bush into the White House, religious conservatives have often felt let down by their leaders in America, where they are usually on the losing side of cultural battles even while winning political ones.
Trump promised to reverse this pattern of cultural defeat, saying he would appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade, among other things.
Trump mght not have personally exemplified Christian piety, but he made it clear to religious conservatives that he shared the same enemies they did and would relish fighting them.
The three Supreme Court justices Trump appointed have mostly followed through on this agenda.
A few days after issuing its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, the Supreme Court handed down another decision conservative religious groups had eagerly anticipated.
A 6-3 majority found a Washington State school district had violated the civil rights of a high school football coach when it suspended him because of his routine of praying with players on the field after games.
The school district unsuccessfully argued the coach had been seeking media attention and that some children felt compelled to participate in the prayers.
The case prompted a flurry of activity in American state legislatures. Conservative activists took it as a sign that the Supreme Court would be open to allowing forms of religion in public space, especially schools, that had been off-limits for decades.
In Texas, bills allowing more Christianity in public schools included a proposal requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every classroom, though that bill eventually died.
The separation of church and state is not a settled issue in America. Conservatives point out the phrase “separation of church and state” does not appear anywhere in the US Constitution, originating with President Thomas Jefferson in 1802, who wrote about a “wall of separation between Church & State”.
Jefferson’s aspiration was not the reality of the early republic, where some states maintained established churches into the 19th century. It was not until the mid-20th century that Jefferson’s wall was truly built.
There has always been significant pushback against moves to separate church and state in the US.
Supreme Court Justices Potter Stewart in 1962 and William Rehnquist in 1985 complained about what they saw as the misinterpretation of the First Amendment through Jefferson’s metaphor.
The issue of whether prayer should be allowed in public schools was the first battle of what came to be known as the “culture wars” in American politics, ultimately unifying religious conservatives around the Republican Party, where they have been ever since.
Surveys show rapidly rising numbers of Americans identifying as non-religious. The Pew Research Founation projects that Christians might be a minority in the United States by the end of this century.
The Supreme Court’s 2015 decision to strike down state bans on same-sex marriage convinced many conservative Christians they were already in a national minority on social issues.
Over the past decade, conservative activists have increasingly embraced the language of “religious freedom”, positioning themselves as needing protection from the encroachments of the secular majority.
They have also taken more aggressive action in states where they form legislative majorities, implementing hard-line restrictions on abortion, removing materials dealing with sexuality from schools and pushing for bans on everything from drag shows to “critical theory” in universities.
The idea of “Christian nationalism” has been getting a lot of attention in the United States, but the political structure and changing religious landscape of the country makes it unlikely it could ever be remade as an exclusively Christian nation like the one depicted in The Handmaid’s Tale.
A more likely future is one where some states assert an increasingly Christian identity in their laws and public life, while others become increasingly secular.
While this might sound like a reasonable federalist solution for a huge and divided country, the reality of American life is that its divisions are too complex to be neatly contained within state lines.
All major social issues become politically nationalised and are only resolved in national struggles, from slavery and civil rights to abortion and same-sex marriage.
There is unlikely to be a stable equilibrium on church-state issues in America for a long time, if ever.
David Smith is an associate professor in American Politics and Foreign Policy, jointly appointed with the United States Studies Centre and School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydney.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: In the story “Religion in politics” sent at: 21/08/2023 09:57.
This is a corrected repeat.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on August 23, 2023
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"author": "David Smith"
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Why life is about to get better for patients with rare diseases - 360
Gareth Baynam
Published on February 28, 2023
‘Rare’ diseases are anything but. And with cheaper DNA sequencing, patients’ lives will be transformed.
Imagine living with a disease that your doctor has never heard of, or only ever read about as a few sentences in a medical textbook. Imagine it took decades to get a diagnosis, or never getting one at all. Imagine if there were no treatments, no new drugs in clinical trials, and no medical or social services.
For more than 400 million people worldwide, this is their reality. With around 7,000 different rare diseases, they are collectively very common, affecting more people than have diabetes. As we approach the 70th anniversary of Crick and Watson figuring out the double helix structure of DNA, an unprecedented opportunity exists to change this bleak picture at global scale. One that could see sustainable health systems, offer new employment opportunities and deliver better lives for all of us.
One of the most exciting developments in genetics in recent years is the significant decrease in the cost of DNA screening and profiling, which has the potential to revolutionise the way we diagnose and treat rare and undiagnosed genetic conditions and diseases.
Rare diseases affect children disproportionately and can be considered the biggest global pediatric public and precision health challenge. More than 200 million children live with a rare disease globally, including tens of millions across the Asia Pacific. Rare diseases are also the biggest killer of kids, taking more children than cancer and trauma combined. Rare diseases are also the biggest hospital cost and the medical domain with the biggest direct and indirect costs when factoring in things like unemployment and lost productivity. In high-income countries, they account for two in three dollars spent on in-hospital care and nearly one in two dollars in adults.
Rare diseases, as a global, but all too frequently hidden and silent epidemic, are increasingly recognised by the United Nations, The World Health Organization, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, and other international and global bodies.
Cheaper DNA profiling has the potential to change the outlook for rare disease patients by allowing more accurate and efficient diagnosis of people with rare genetic conditions. In the past, a person may have had to go through a series of expensive and invasive tests in order to receive a diagnosis. With cheaper DNA profiling, doctors now have the potential to quickly and more easily identify the genetic mutations associated with a particular disease, which can lead to more effective treatment options and better lives.
Cheaper DNA profiling can also make a national and global difference in the field of newborn screening. Newborn screening is a process in which all babies are screened for a set of rare, and mostly genetic disorders, shortly after birth. These screens can detect serious conditions that, if left untreated, can cause significant health problems or even death. In the past, these screens were limited to a small number of conditions that were considered the most common, severe and treatable of the rare diseases. However, as the cost of DNA sequencing has decreased, it’s become possible to screen for a much wider range of conditions. This provides the potential for further life-saving treatments.
Wider newborn screening needs to be introduced in a way that builds on, but does not jeopardise, the incredible and life-saving programme. It needs to fit into the existing health system, be informed by the voices of the community, and reflect not only the cost of testing, but very importantly all the downstream medical services that will be required.
Another potential benefit of cheaper DNA profiling is that it could lead to the discovery of new genetic conditions. As more people are screened, doctors are likely to uncover previously undiagnosed diseases that have been hiding in plain sight. Scientists are currently discovering more than 200 new rare diseases per year. These discoveries can and do lead to the development of new treatments and therapies, for both rare and common diseases, as well as increased awareness and support for those affected by these conditions.
Rare disease discoveries have often transformed medical care for common diseases. The commonly used cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins came from rare diseases research. Also, many treatments for cancers and infections. Investing in the battlefield of rare diseases provides great benefit for all of us.
However, cheaper DNA profiling also raises ethical and societal questions. There is a risk the information obtained from DNA profiling could be used to discriminate against individuals or groups, either in the workplace, in healthcare or in insurance. It’s also important to consider the implications of DNA profiling for privacy and data security.
It is also critical to deliver genetic testing and services for people living with rare diseases that are culturally safe and responsive. This means designing programmes together with First Nations people, culturally and linguistically diverse populations and other people suffering from health inequity, such as the disabled. It’s important we have open and honest conversations about these issues as a society, so we can ensure the benefits of cheaper DNA profiling are realised without negative consequences.
With the cost of DNA profiling continuing to fall, there are potential implications for the truly enormous number of people on our planet living with rare diseases. It is also important to remember rarity is the factor that underlines the common needs of all people living with rare disease, irrespective if they have a genetic cause or not. Genetic testing will be transformative, but let’s not forget the many things we can also do to improve support for people living with rare diseases, right now by better and more integrated access to health and social services.
Gareth Baynam is the medical director of the Rare Care Centre at Perth Children’s Hospital, programme director the Undiagnosed Diseases Program-WA, chair of the Interdisciplinary Committee of the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium and founder of multiple initiatives launched to improve the lives of people living with rare diseases — such as Cliniface, Lyfe Languages and Project Y. He is also a clinical professor at Notre Dame University, and the University of Western Australia.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on February 28, 2023
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"author": "Gareth Baynam"
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Why lunar touchdown offers real payoff for India - 360
Daniel Ricardo
Published on August 23, 2023
More than national pride will be on the line when India undertakes its second attempt to land on the Moon later this week.
On 23 August, India’s Chandrayaan-3 will attempt to land on the Moon — an event with the potential to unlock real economic benefits.
Chandrayaan-3 is the third lunar exploration mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation and if it’s successful, India will become the fourth country after the United States, the former Soviet Union (now Russia) and China to achieve a soft landing on the lunar surface.
Crash landings — like what happened with Chandrayaan-2 — don’t count.
After Chandrayaan-3 lands, the plan is for it to then deploy a rover on the Moon and explore the lunar south pole.
But it’s not just national pride on the line for this spacefaring nation: the success of Chandrayaan-3 could have a very real impact on India’s economy.
The world has already seen everyday benefits from previous space efforts like accessibility to clean drinking water with water recycling on the International Space Station, near-global internet access provided by Starlink for education, advances in solar power generation and health technologies.
With an increasing demand for global data of satellite imaging, positioning and navigation, multiple reports indicate the world is already in an exponential growth phase of the space economy. A report by Deloitte highlights how since 2013, over USD$272 billion has been raised by private equity into 1,791 companies.
In their annual report, the Space Foundation noted the global space economy has already reached a value of USD$546 billion in the second quarter of 2023. This represents a 91 percent increase in value over the past decade.
For many countries, participating in the nascent space economy has the potential to have huge downstream benefits for their own economies, as well as inspiring their citizens to engage in the new space age.
India’s space economy is expected to be worth USD$13 billion by 2025.
By comparison, the Australian Civil Space Strategy 2019–2028 aims to triple the sector’s contribution to GDP to AUD$12 billion and create an additional 20,000 jobs by 2030.
A successful Moon landing will also speak to India’s technological prowess.
Although NASA did successfully put humans on the Moon during the Apollo Program more than 50 years ago, many seem to have forgotten the incremental steps and huge amounts of money it took to get there.
There were also many unknowns, including real worries that the lunar surface was so soft and dusty due to billions of years of meteorite bombardments that spacecraft would sink into the surface like quicksand — a concern that luckily proved unfounded.
But even with 21st century advanced computing and cutting-edge technology, the difficulties of spaceflight remain the same — can your system maintain stable communications and operate autonomously under a wide variety of extreme conditions?
India’s first attempt to reach the Moon with Chandrayaan-1 succeeded in almost all of its mission objectives and scientific goals, including detecting evidence of water on the lunar surface for the first time.
But the Indian Space Research Organisation lost contact with the spacecraft after only 312 days of its intended two-year mission.
Nonetheless, Chandrayaan-1 is considered by many to be a phenomenal success, having achieved awards from the National Space Society and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
On 6 September 2019, India again attempted to reach the Moon with the Vikram lander carrying the Pragyan rover as part of the Chandrayaan-2 mission.
However, 2.1km above the lunar surface contact with the lander was lost, and images taken by NASA later confirmed it had crashed into the surface.
Issues associated with onboard coordination of the five engines and orientation of the lander during the camera coast and final braking phase of its descent have been attributed to the spacecraft’s failure.
Issues with onboard software and autonomous landing sequences have also resulted in the failure of two other countries’ attempts to land on the Moon in the past three years.
On 11 April 2019 the Israeli Beresheet lander attempted a soft landing in the northern part of the Mare Serenitatis, but an Inertial Measurement Unit gyroscope failed during the braking procedure resulting in the loss of communications 2.1km above the surface.
If it had been successful, Beresheet would have been the first successful privately-funded mission and Israel’s first mission to the Moon.
On 25 April 2023, the privately funded Japanese company iSpace attempted a soft landing of their Hakuto-R lander carrying the United Arab Emirates Rashid rover.
Analysis by iSpace engineers later confirmed that the onboard computer was programmed to ignore the laser radar altimeter if it conflicted with the predicted position of the spacecraft.
Due to a last-minute change of the intended landing zone, a sudden change in altitude as the spacecraft crested the lip of a crater was interpreted as a mistake, causing the spacecraft to hover 5km above the lunar surface before it exhausted its fuel and plummeted to the surface.
Together, the failures of Chandrayaan-2, Beresheet and Hakuto-R highlight the difficulties of modern spaceflight and the importance of software redundancy, systems engineering and change management, even in an age of advanced sensing and high processing power.
Taking the lessons learned from Chandrayaan-2, Chandrayaan-3 has several improvements from its predecessor.
The intended landing zone has been increased to an area of 4.2km long and 2.5km wide, meaning the spacecraft has a higher margin of error rather than the risk of choosing a single point and drifting, as occurred with Chandrayaan-2.
Chandrayaan-3 will also have four engines with adjustable throttle and slew (orientation) as well as a Laser Doppler Velocimeter, meaning it can control its attitude and orientation in all phases of descent — unlike Chandrayaan-2.
The Vikram lander is carrying more sensitive versions of instruments already on the lunar surface including a seismometer to detect moonquakes, a Langmuir plasma probe to measure the behaviour of charged particles from the Sun at the lunar surface, and a NASA-contributed retroreflector like the one left by Apollo 11.
A thermal probe will also be inserted 10cm into the ground and provide measurements of the temperature gradient throughout the day, which can improve scientists’ knowledge of stability zones for resources like water ice at the poles of the Moon.
The Vikram lander is also carrying a six-wheeled 26kg lunar rover called Pragyan, about the size of a golden retriever.
It is carrying two payloads: an Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer and a Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope to measure the composition of lunar rocks and soil.
Although these instruments have previously been used by NASA on several of its Mars rovers as well as by the China National Space Administration on its Yutu rovers on the Moon, Pragyan will explore new regions.
If Chandrayaan-3 is successful, it will highlight how space is becoming more accessible, and demonstrate India’s continued perseverance and tenacity in achieving difficult missions.
It also bodes well for India’s participation in the new space race to build permanent infrastructure on the Moon. In 2021, China and Russia announced they’ll be building a Moon base together and invited others to join their International Lunar Research Station, as an alternative to the American Artemis program. India became a signatory to the Artemis Accords in July 2023.
With each successful mission, humanity’s knowledge of the lunar surface and environment continues to grow, meaning the risks associated with getting to, and staying on the Moon are reduced.
Daniel Ricardo is a PhD student with the Extraterrestrial Resource Processing Group at Swinburne University of Technology and Co-Founder and Mission Director of the Australian Rover Challenge.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: In the story “Indian Moon landing” sent at: 20/08/2023 14:09.
This is a corrected repeat.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on August 23, 2023
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"author": "Daniel Ricardo"
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Why pessimism has taken hold of Australia's youth - 360
Lucas Walsh
Published on December 18, 2023
New data about the mental health of young people raises red flags about cost-of-living pressures – and offers a glimpse at a better approach.
Young Australians are pessimistic – and for good reason: cost-of-living pressures have hit young people hard.
Struggles around personal finances and access to food, employment and housing are all taking a toll on 18- to 24-year-olds.
Two results are an increase in mental health issues and pessimism about the future. Such pessimism is anchored in, and inflamed by, the conditions under which many young people are living now, as well as how they think about the future.
Each year, we ask young Australians aged 18 to 24 about the kinds of pressures they are experiencing across areas such as employment, education, relationships, and health and well-being.
Unsurprisingly, the rising cost of living has been a common thread running through their responses every year.
What was surprising and unsettling in 2023 was the severity in which they are experiencing these pressures.
We have been conducting the Australian Youth Barometer each year for the last three years in collaboration with market research company Roy Morgan. The Barometer involves a survey of over 500 young Australians and interviews with 30 more. Here are some examples of what we found this year.
Nine in 10 respondents experienced difficulties with personal finances in the past year.
Only 52 percent of young Australians who responded to the survey thought it was likely or extremely likely that they would achieve financial security in the future, while 43 percent were often or very often able to save part of their income. Some respondents highlighted financial instability.
Just over one in five (21 percent) experienced food insecurity – that is, they could not access culturally appropriate and/or nutritious food. They are some of the 3.7 million Australian households that have experienced food insecurity in the past 12 months.
Just over six in 10 (61 percent) thought they would be financially worse off than their parents.
Turning to housing and rental affordability, only 35 percent felt confident about affording a place to live in the next year. Only 41 percent thought they would purchase a property in the future.
On employment, high proportions of young people typically work in short-term, casual work. Half reported participating in the gig economy at some point in the last 12 months. Only 59 percent thought it was likely or extremely likely they would work in a job they like in the future.
Perhaps this is why 83 percent were doing something extra, with the goal of improving their chances of getting desirable work.
Most had a clear vision for their future employment. The three most important factors young people considered when thinking about the type of work they want to undertake were location (70 percent of respondents), high salary (68 percent) and long-term security (67 percent).
Some are going without food and questioning the purposes of post-school education and training.
There is an implicit promise that education and training will lead to desirable work. But that promise is eroding. Only 52 percent felt that their education prepared them for the future.
Cost-of-living pressures might in part explain the poor mental health of young Australians. This year, nearly all (97 percent) survey respondents reported feeling anxiety or pessimism.
In our study, 26 percent rated their mental health as poor or very poor, in contrast to the 36 percent who rated it as good or excellent. Nearly a quarter (24 percent) sought mental health care in the past year.
Many worried about their ability to live a happy and healthy life (41 percent) or even to cope with everyday tasks in the future (41 percent).
The top three pressing challenges nominated by young Australians for immediate action included housing (70 percent of respondents), employment opportunities for young people (51 percent) and climate change (42 percent).
At a recent roundtable in Old Parliament House in Canberra, a colleague from the University of Newcastle, Dr Julia Cook, rightly observed that we need to change the way we think about housing and accommodation.
Dr Cook argued that we need to stop thinking about houses as assets but as places to live.
There is also an argument that in other parts of the world, such as Europe, home ownership is not necessarily the norm and people expect to rent throughout their lives (particularly those living in cities). But important in this regard is the fact that there are protections and safeguards for renters in other countries that are arguably less available in Australia.
Young people, like most of us, seek security, so we need to find better ways of providing the necessities of life (such as food and shelter), as well as the appropriate education and training to build a better one.
In our survey and interviews, young Australians’ understanding of health is expansive and holistic, including lesser-recognised aspects, such as financial security and access to secure housing. It is time for policy to adopt a similar, more holistic approach.
Professor Lucas Walsh is lead author of The Australian Youth Barometer: Understanding Young People in Australia, which is produced by the Monash Centre for Youth Policy and Education Practice. It can be downloaded here.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on December 18, 2023
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"url": "https://360info.org/why-pessimism-has-taken-hold-of-australias-youth/",
"author": "Lucas Walsh"
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Why police need to unlearn policing - 360
Andrew Poe
Published on October 3, 2022
“Please send the police now”. This is certainly a horrific message for anyone to read, but this particular text is especially troubling. It was sent by student at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday, 24 May 2022. Writing this message from inside the school, the student was calling for help in response to an active shooter. The gunman eventually killed nineteen students and two teachers, and wounded seventeen others.
The school shooting at Uvalde was catastrophic. The psychological trauma of struggling to make sense of what exactly has happened in this event, what allowed such horrific acts to be perpetuated, and how to continue after such a tragedy, is an impossible task for any community. But this violence was magnified in ways that distinguish it from other mass shootings: sixty officers assembled outside the elementary school in response to calls for help; and yet, for an hour and seventeen minutes, these officers did not intervene.
The incomprehension from the community at this failure of the police to act can, however, be explained by an understanding of contemporary policing.
Policing is a learned set of activities, produced through education in academies and approved professional courses, as well as through workplace instruction and culture. Learning policing provides for standardisation of tactics, monitoring practices, and preparing police for the work that their profession entails. We may not often think of it this way, but ‘the police’ are a complex array of sociological phenomena with an evolving history. Today police are members of the public, employed by the state, to uphold and enforce the law. When we speak of police now, we may imagine the figure of the uniformed officer. This officer comes with an association of their history, their purported authority, and the function and activity of their work. But, as with most professions, the tasks and activities that make up their present work may not have always been a part of that labour.
Policing has a long history in modern states. In the past, police have built roads or conducted census reporting. As new elements of policing emerged, so too did new practices and a new culture of police work. It evolved to include the recording of crimes after they had been committed, and beyond, to the detection and prevention of criminal acts. Contemporary policing now includes such ‘violence work’ and, while it comprises very little of the actual daily work of police departments on the whole — with most estimates suggest it is between 5 to 8 percent of actual police labour — it is that aspect of policing which has drawn prominent attention from recruiters, the media, scholars, reformers, and abolitionists.
Violence work comes with certain risks. Being paid to enter dangerous situations, facing physical or psychological harm, requires significant training. But because it is also paid work, those who engage in it rightly have demanded training and protections from the risks these harms pose. And these demands have thus shaped police work along very specific martial pathways.
The profession of policing has evolved along militarised lines, where the patrol has taken on key aspects of the squadron and the platoon. Military units learn to protect themselves, and in addition to tanks, assault weapons, and amour, a key aspect of training has emerged. In what is now commonly referred to as the “first rule of law enforcement,” the primary objective of police work is to complete the work, finish the day, and return home safely. In other words, the police are trained to protect themselves and other police first. Their concern for safety, and the safety of their fellow officers is of course understandable: how can police do their job if they aren’t keeping themselves safe?
But this logic also creates an important tension. Police are paid to encounter harm, so what effect does the primacy of the protection of police produce on police themselves and on the communities they patrol?
Crucial to this violent work of policing and the shifts in structure it has produced has been the important question of who police work is for. When a child sends a text message calling for police help to stop a gunman shooting students in a school, communities have a legitimate right to expect police assistance. But the way policing has evolved has perpetuated its own narrative about the importance for police to protect themselves.
Once, police forces were primarily volunteer services, parallel to volunteer fire departments. As policing became more professional, an unforeseen consequence has been police becoming separated from the communities they patrol. That separation has disproportionate consequences in communities where racial and class differences exist. Indeed, the conflict between ‘black lives’ and ‘blue lives’ manifests through this separation.
The history of policing highlights one crucial fact: policing as an activity can change. The militarisation of police is not simply a result of increased availability of weapons or techniques, nor is it inevitable. As policing has become more ordered, and more professional, it has also sometimes become separated from the communities police were designed to protect and serve. The rise of police violence could be reduced by changes in police education, but also in police work itself. Mutual aid practices between community members can shift policing entirely, from violence work to health work and social work. And in so doing, policing could transform from a separate force outside or against communities, to the work of communities for themselves. This change requires an important unlearning of policing for all of us.
Andrew Poe is associate professor and teaches social and political thought at the Australian Catholic University, Sydney. He declares no conflict of interest.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on October 3, 2022
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Why Singapore isn’t gridlocked - 360
Walter Edgar Theseira
Published on February 16, 2023
Singapore doesn’t struggle with traffic jams the way other cities do. It hit upon a winning strategy in the 1970s and stuck to it.
As cities around the world return to life after the COVID-19 pandemic, one thing may be missed: the near absence of traffic jams during the pandemic years. Traffic congestion is costly. In 2016, motorists in the EU were estimated to have lost time worth €196 billion sitting in traffic.
But we could have the benefits of free-flowing roads while still allowing people to travel freely if we took a more efficient approach to managing traffic congestion.
Charging motorists who choose to drive during peak hours encourages them to drive during less crowded periods, carpool, or take public transport. It can sustainably solve traffic problems, unlike building more roads, which often just attracts new traffic. And, congestion charging is not a thought experiment: it has been implemented successfully in more than half a dozen major cities worldwide.
Singapore was the first. Since 1975, the small city-state of 5.6 million people has been charging peak-hour motorists tolls. Singapore’s congestion charging system started with printed pay-and-display licenses for city-area traffic, and was upgraded to electronic tolling in 1998, and in the mid-2020s will transition to satellite-based tolling.
Despite passenger car ownership increasing from about 100,000 cars in 1965 to half a million in 2019, traffic speeds have remained remarkably consistent in Singapore. This has been achieved by adjusting congestion charges to maintain maximum peak hour traffic flows on Singapore’s expressways and in the city.
Policymakers may hesitate to consider congestion charges because of opposition from motorists and residents. Only a handful of cities have implemented congestion charges. However, these cities also hold lessons for how to persuade the public to accept congestion charge reforms.
In London, congestion charge revenues were largely earmarked for improving public transport, providing residents with alternatives to driving. In Stockholm, a six-month trial resulted in substantial reductions in traffic congestion and growing public acceptance of the congestion charge.
In Singapore, the introduction of a congestion charge in 1975 was combined with a comprehensive park-and-ride system to encourage carpooling and public transport use. To address congestion outside the central city, Singapore started restricting car growth in 1990 through a vehicle quota system, which resulted in high car prices.
This created a new concern — that the middle class was being priced out of car ownership. The introduction of Electronic Road Pricing in 1998 was thus accompanied by promises that restrictions on car ownership could be relaxed if expanded congestion charging successfully managed traffic snarls. Singapore today focuses on a ‘car-lite’ strategy of improving public transport to reduce the need to own and use a car as much as possible.
The experience from cities as diverse as London, Singapore and Stockholm shows policymakers can persuade the public to accept congestion charging through a combination of promoting the benefits of reduced congestion, using revenues to improve public transport and roads, and adjusting other motoring policies to manage motorists’ concerns.
Congestion in cities will only get worse, especially in rapidly growing parts of the world. Congestion charging can be both a politically acceptable and economically efficient solution, reducing traffic congestion while providing the funds to improve public transport and urban liveability.
Walter Edgar Theseira is associate professor of economics, School of Business, Singapore University of Social Sciences; and Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Asia Competitiveness Institute, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. His PhD is in applied economics and managerial science from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He has advised government agencies on economics research, and is a board member of the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore. He served as a member of the 13th Parliament of Singapore.
This research was funded by an honorarium from the International Transport Forum of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Dr Theseira also received consultancy fees for related research from the Land Transport Authority, Singapore, the government authority responsible for Singapore’s congestion charging and management system. However the content of this article is solely the responsibility and views of the researcher.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on February 16, 2023
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Why social media health check must include Global South - 360
Grace Wangge
Published on October 9, 2023
There is plenty of evidence showing how social media use can affect youth mental health but studies often omit the developing countries of the Global South.
A staggering 4.89 billion people around the world use social media — a huge proportion of them young people — as concerns grow about how their online time is affecting health.
Yet while there is plenty of research pointing to how social media content — a lot of it inaccurate — contributes to mental health problems, little of the work looks at the Asia Pacific, home to most users and growing fast.
Even the work that has been done might not accurately reflect the state of play in developing economies in that region and others in the Global South.
Social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok are now indispensable for Generation Z and Alpha, who were born after 1996.
As of 2023, more than half of the world’s population is on social media and they spend an average of two hours and 26 minutes daily on it.
Nearly 60 percent of these users live in the Asia-Pacific region.
Such huge numbers and forecast growth in social media use is particularly significant for mental health when platforms often promote unrealistic body ideals, disseminating false information that contributes to body dissatisfaction, eating disorders, and body dysmorphic disorder.
A systematic review underscored social media’s role in exacerbating these issues.
A 2023 randomised controlled trial also revealed that restricting daily social media use to one hour for people aged 17 to 25 led to significant improvements in appearance and weight self-esteem within three weeks.
Yet a recent report examining Facebook’s impact on the well-being of nearly one million individuals across 72 countries suggested limited evidence of psychological harm linked to global social media use.
Though Asia Pacific is the most populous region, 70 percent of participants in social media impact studies were from the Global North, highlighting problems with the sample diversity.
Given differing levels of digital access and different cultural values, it means study findings might not directly reflect what is happening in the Global South.
It underscores the need to not increase the diversity of study populations in future research but also emphasises the importance of taking non-Western socio-economic and cultural factors into account.
A qualitative study of urban Indonesians aged 12 to 15 with good online access revealed they talked more about skills to foster social relations like chat or calls than skills to engage in self-expression like posting or editing photos or videos.
Social media’s disruption of daily activities and learning processes was more prominent among these groups than body image issues.
The varying degrees of regulations overseeing the safety of social media users worldwide should also be considered as influential factors in these dynamics.
A United States Surgeon General’s advisory has said excessive social media use poses a significant threat to adolescent mental health. It has urged families to set limits on social media and for governments to establish stricter standards for social media use.
The advisory also wants technology providers to include experts on developmental psychology and user mental well-being in their product teams as a way of limiting potential harm to young users.
It’s a particularly significant move by the Surgeon General given that many social media platforms are headquartered in the United States.
However, it also underscores the Global South’s reliance on social media safety regulations from Global North countries.
The focus needs to shift from merely controlling the negative impacts of social media on public health to its potential to provide access to mental health support, especially where resources are limited.
A 2016 report revealed that social media serves as a “digital safe haven” for adolescents in Afghanistan, enabling discussions on critical topics such as women’s rights, sexuality, domestic violence, and abortion.
The study in Indonesia also shows that adolescents perceive social media as a novel medium that might offer benefits to be considered by parents and other relevant stakeholders.
Social media emerged as a crucial source of public health information, notably during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, its value as a tool for enhancing health literacy may be more pronounced during health crises.
Harnessing social media’s potential as a public health tool requires sustained investment in media literacy for healthcare workers.
Critically, it also requires proactive delivery of accurate, balanced health information. That proactive delivery can reduce the need to later debunk whatever inaccurate information is also on social media.
Regulatory authorities in Global South should recognize their pivotal role in this endeavour.
If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, visit https://findahelpline.com/i/iasp.
Grace Wangge is an associate professor at Monash University Indonesia. She is a co-founder of the Indonesian Anti Hoax Educator Community (Relawan Edukasi Anti Hoax Indonesia — Redaxi).
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: In the story “Young minds on screens” sent at: 05/10/2023 09:44.
This is a corrected repeat.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on October 9, 2023
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"url": "https://360info.org/why-social-media-health-check-must-include-global-south/",
"author": "Grace Wangge"
}
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Why space is the next frontier in mining - 360
Alex Gilbert
Published on September 22, 2023
Private companies and governments are reaching for the stars in an effort to ease Earth-bound shortages.
In August, India made history by conducting the first soft landing near the south pole of the Moon. This low-cost mission — its budget was well under USD$100 million — heralds a new era of space exploration and deep space commerce.
Among other objectives, the mission confirmed the presence of water in lunar regolith, the local dirt. The findings, building on recent scientific discoveries, underscore an emerging paradigm.
A global resource rush is starting to find and extract the first accessible natural resource in outer space: lunar water.
This resource rush, enabled by space-sector innovations, has led to many new players in the space energy sector, with solar power a leading option for development. Emerging economies like India and the United Arab Emirates are joining existing space powers and dozens of private commercial firms in this race.
The United States and China are developing competing international collaborations to access these resources: the Artemis Accords and International Lunar Research Station respectively. Access to and development of space resources can bring significant economic benefits to Earth.
Space resources are now feasible because technological innovation has made lunar missions cheaper, from single digit billions to double digit millions, with promises for further cost reduction.
Falling launch costs, particularly due to reusable rocketry and commercial innovation, are one of the two economic factors accelerating the commercialisation of space and the lunar resource rush.
The other is the decreasing costs of spacecraft design, enabled by the digital revolution.
Two American companies, SpaceX and Blue Origin, are developing super heavy lift launch vehicles that can put 75-100 tonnes into low-Earth orbit. Many other reusable vehicles are in the pipeline globally.
There are two primary space resource types — lunar volatiles, which include water, and regolith — to provide local and export materials.
Water is cheap on Earth but costs USD$10,000 or more for each kilogram delivered to space. Water is the oil of outer space, making the Moon the Saudi Arabia of the solar system. Although dry by Earth standards, the lunar south pole contains significant water deposits.
The Moon has lower gravity, so it is easier to extract and transport this water to orbital locations than send it from Earth. Water’s two components, hydrogen and oxygen, can be split to produce rocket fuel.
Existing satellites contribute hundreds of billions in telecommunications and other services for global economies. But they are not refuelled. This limits their life and number of useful missions.
Spacecraft fuel produced from lunar water can supercharge the orbital economy, support defence activities in Earth orbit, and even lay the foundation for human exploration of the Moon and Mars.
Beyond water, the regolith on the Moon, Mars and asteroids contains useful materials to build habitats, bases and mines on planetary surfaces. They can provide food, water, air and other goods for future astronauts.
NASA’s recent MOXIE experiment on the Perseverance rover produced oxygen from Mars’ carbon dioxide atmosphere, the first demonstration of space resources production.
Mass is a primary economic barrier to expanded space activities. By allowing future explorers to ‘live off the land’, space resources could provide mass multipliers that enable lunar and Martian settlement.
Regolith can also produce useful metals and other goods to return to Earth. The clean-energy transition on Earth is metal-hungry for bulk metals like nickel and cobalt and more exotic metals like rare earths.
Prices are soaring while new mines bring environmental and social consequences. Exotic sources like deep sea mining or asteroid mining are being considered.
Some asteroids, and even parts of the Moon, contain especially high concentrations of the elements that could support terrestrial economies.
Recent missions such as by Japan’s Hayabusa spacecraft, brought back asteroid materials to Earth but only in small amounts. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is expected to bring more than a hundred grams of samples from the asteroid Bennu.
Advanced technologies in the 2030s and 2040s could increase payloads to kilograms or even tonnes, potentially justifying high costs of extraction.
There are three primary elements that shape the environmental sustainability of space mining. These consequences must be better understood to ensure space mining benefits rather than harms the global environment.
First, launching hundreds or even thousands of rockets to kickstart a space economy would have a significant effect on the atmosphere. Pollution from high-altitude rocket burns is poorly understood and previous studies suggest potential impacts on climate and the ozone layer.
Similarly, returning materials to Earth requires atmospheric re-entry, which can cause high nitrous oxide formation and potentially affect the climate.
Second, sending metals back to Earth could greatly reduce the environmental impact of terrestrial extractive industries. Current metal mining on the planet is tremendously disruptive, threatening local land, air and water quality, as well as communities.
The few alternatives, like deep-sea mining, threaten biodiversity damage, engendering political opposition. Producing platinum, cobalt, nickel or rare earths in space could limit damage to the biosphere.
Third, and poorly understood, space mining can affect the space environment.
While that environment is already deadly from radiation, microgravity, extreme temperatures and other factors, it is also extraordinarily fragile.
Landing a spacecraft on the Moon shoots out a dust cloud that can damage other spacecraft and pose a threat to astronaut health.
The study of lunar, Martian and asteroid sustainability has barely begun, but requires development to ensure long-term productive use of our collective space resources.
Alex Gilbert is a fellow at the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines and is a PhD student in its Space Resources program.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on September 22, 2023
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Why standing up for domestic workers matters - 360
Gabriela Fernando, Sabina Puspita
Published on March 8, 2024
In most countries around the world, domestic workers are excluded from general labour laws. Indonesia’s Domestic Worker Protection Bill can change that.
How can a domestic “helper” run for legislative office? Does she know her job as a Member of Parliament is different from cleaning a parliamentary office?
These were some of the questions people posted in the comments section of a social media post about Yuni Sri Rahayu, a domestic worker who ran for a seat in the Jakarta City Government’s subnational Parliament at the Indonesian election on February 14.
Counting is ongoing but Yuni currently holds more votes than the wealthier and dynastic candidates of her electoral district such as Astrid Kuya and Fauzan Fadel Muhammad.
There are more than 4.5 million domestic workers in Indonesia. At least 90 percent of them are women, and thousands underage. Some migrate from local villages to major cities across Indonesia, while others go abroad.
A striking difference of social status and protection exists between Indonesia’s migrant domestic workers and domestic workers at their own home country.
The government and public view migrant domestic workers as foreign exchange heroes for their remittances, while Indonesian domestic workers in their own home country are vulnerable to exploitation and slavery at worst.
In most countries around the world, domestic workers are totally or partially excluded from general labour laws, including those concerning working conditions, minimum wage, legal rights, or regarding their health and safety.
Dozens of women’s rights groups have organised a march to the presidential palace in Central Jakarta on International Women’s Day 2024 on March 8 to voice their pressing demands before the government.
These include calls for the government to better implement the 2022 Law on Sexual Violence Crimes, revoke the controversial 2023 Government Regulation in lieu of Law on Job Creation, and ratify the 20-year-old Bill on the Protection of Domestic Workers.
The bill is urgently needed and this year’s International Women’s Day provides a good opportunity for women’s rights activists and their allies to attract broader public attention to its contents and overarching goals.
The delayed Bill on the Protection of Domestic Workers regulates the minimal terms and conditions for employers and placement agencies to hire a domestic worker and for domestic workers to be lawfully employed.
Ultimately, the bill requires employers to ensure their domestic worker’s regular remuneration, clear job description, and occupational health and safety through a written agreement between the domestic worker and employer. If an employer uses a placement agency, the bill requires the placement agent to also be a signatory of the agreement.
Establishment of the bill means not only recognising domestic workers as a legitimate workforce but also redistributing state resources to this historically marginalised group of workers.
It lays down the provision of domestic workers’ access to national insurance, social safety net, humane working hours and free training from placement agencies or the government. These components are critical to domestic workers’ overall and long-term wellbeing.
Research has shown the mental and physical health risks they have had to endure in the absence of affordable access to healthcare, especially during times of crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bill also regulates the procedures for mediating domestic worker-employer disputes and the terms for ending employment lawfully.
However, the latest version of the bill does not acknowledge domestic workers’ unions, nor their freedom to participate in union activities.
Hence, domestic workers are legally bound to accept only neighbourhood leaders and the respective regional government’s agency as mediators when a dispute arises.
With such an arrangement that maintains the unequal power relations between domestic workers and authorities, domestic workers would still be highly prone to intimidation or victimisation.
Many female domestic workers leave their children home with grandparents and migrate in hope of better income. Both migrant domestic workers and their children left behind in a poverty-ridden area are vulnerable to human-trafficking.
JALA PRT, a Jakarta-based civil society organisation that advocates for domestic workers, has received 2,641 reports of violence toward domestic workers from 2018 to 2023.
Cases generally involve a range of abuses from verbal to psychological, physical, financial, and sexual abuses such as being yelled at, locked inside the house, starved, molested, and unpaid for months.
According to the National Commission on Violence Against Women, among the severe cases that escalated to the police and courts, only 15 percent of perpetrators were subjected to Indonesia’s 2004 Law on the Elimination of Domestic Violence. Most perpetrators received either light sanctions or acquittal.
Hence, the bill also regulates the procedures for reporting to neighbourhood leaders the domestic worker’s employment status as well as monitoring by central and local governments to detect any indication of abuse, exploitation, and trafficking.
It further specifies the fines and jail time for placement agents and employers who intimidate, harass, or discriminate against domestic workers.
Parliament members’ inaction is largely due to two things.
First, pressures from their political donors or business elite constituents who either supply or employ domestic workers.
Existing studies have demonstrated how lucrative the business of labour agencies in supplying domestic workers to other cities or countries can be for local governments.
The bill potentially prevents further client-patron relationships which give incentives to politicians to ensure such businesses in their districts experience minimal disruption at the expense of domestic workers’ wellbeing.
Second, conflict of interests stemming from their personal interests in employing several domestic workers for their own households.
Several parliament members have raised objections to the bill’s clause on minimum wage and potential to disrupt local kinship systems — domestic workers tend to accept low wages in exchange for receiving food and shelter from the households they work for.
The bill will put a stop to exploitative sociocultural norms.
Historically, domestic workers together with activists and researchers have been quite successful in advocating for the usage of ‘maid’ or ‘servant’ on paper and in public or private discourses as socially unacceptable.
International Women’s Day — that started off from female factory workers’ strikes and struggles for better working conditions and pay in another context — is a critical moment to garner public awareness and support for advocating the rights and better protection of domestic workers and future generations’ wellbeing in Indonesia and similar contexts.
Better participation and leadership can also challenge existing sociocultural norms that perpetuate job hierarchy and gender inequalities, undermining the essential role of domestic workers.
While advancing policy and law reforms, researchers, journalists, and activists can help influence the conditions that would enable more domestic workers like Yuni to run for Parliamentary seats and shape better policies for domestic workers and other minorities.
Dr Sabina Puspita is Assistant Professor in Public Policy and Management at Monash University, Indonesia. She is also Deputy Director of the Monash Herb Feith Indonesian Engagement Centre. Her main research interests are democratisation, political institutions, social movements, and gender politics in Northeast and Southeast Asia.
Dr Gabriela Fernando is an Assistant Professor of Public Health at Monash University, Indonesia. Her key research interests are in interdisciplinary concepts across global health & policy, health equity, women’s health and gender equality, with a particular focus on the South and Southeast Asian regions.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: In the story “Investing in women” sent at: 07/03/2024 06:00.
This is a corrected repeat.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on March 8, 2024
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"author": "Gabriela Fernando, Sabina Puspita"
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Why stigma remains the biggest challenge in the fight against HIV - 360
Elizabeth Armstrong-Mensah
Published on December 1, 2023
HIV care and treatment have made huge advancements, but stigma remains a major obstacle.
People living with HIV are living longer nowadays, thanks to several factors, including the successful implementation of public health interventions and campaigns, advances in science and technology, and strong global leadership and advocacy.
With the development of antiretroviral therapy (ART), HIV testing uptake improved globally, as it became apparent that only people diagnosed with the disease through testing would receive the medication. In Asia and the Pacific, ART coverage among people living with HIV increased from 19 percent in 2010 to 41 percent in 2015, an increase of 24 percent from 2010, and by the end of 2022, about 76 percent of people living with HIV globally had access to ART.
With over 20 approved ART medications and the rapid global scale-up of ART coverage, the mortality rate of people living with HIV is decreasing and the age at HIV diagnosis is increasing. Consequently, there is a growing proportion of people living with HIV who are over 50 years old.
Alongside the establishment of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in 1996, the global community launched the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) in 2000, and the subsequent Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, with their respective targets of reversing HIV by 2015 (MDG 6) and eliminating AIDS by 2030 (SDG 3).
Despite these efforts and scientific advances, by the end of 2022, about 39 million people were living with HIV, 1.3 million had acquired new HIV infections, and about 630,000 had died from AIDS-related causes globally.
The achievements of the last four decades in HIV prevention, treatment and care face a critical threat of reversal due to the stigma associated with HIV.
Defined as prejudice, negative attitudes and abuse directed at people living with HIV, HIV-related stigma significantly impedes the health outcomes, well-being and life experiences of people living with HIV. It also discourages people living with HIV from seeking treatment and staying in care.
Characterised by its multidimensional nature, HIV-related stigma manifests in the form of discrimination, familial and societal shunning, the erosion of rights, violence and psychological trauma. It drives discrimination in several sectors of society, including healthcare, education, the workplace, the justice system, and within social settings. According to the World Health Organization, one of the main reasons people are reluctant to get tested for HIV is the fear of stigma and discrimination.
HIV-related stigma is also worsened by one’s sex, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status or national origin. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), key populations in certain countries such as men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender people and people who inject drugs, have trouble accessing HIV services at public health facilities due to the fear of violence and arrest.
Ageism — negative attitudes, stereotypes and behaviours directed towards older adults based solely on their perceived age — is a particularly challenging aspect of HIV prevention, treatment and care. Older people are more likely than younger people to receive a delayed diagnosis for HIV. This is because older people may mistake HIV symptoms for signs of normal ageing and thus, not discuss symptoms with their doctors. Late HIV diagnosis causes older people to receive a delayed start to HIV treatment, poorer prognosis and shorter survival rates. According to a CDC report, 34 percent of people aged 55 and older in the US in 2021 had late-stage infection when diagnosed with HIV.
A 2021 study on HIV, ageism and stigma documented social isolation, lack of social support and discrimination among older adults living with HIV. The stigma experienced negatively affects the quality of life, self-image and behaviour of the elderly, and often prevents them from disclosing their HIV status or seeking HIV treatment and care.
The elimination of HIV-related stigma is key to achieving the global aspiration of leaving no one behind and meeting the SDG target of ending AIDS by 2030. It is also at the heart of the 2021–2026 Global AIDS Strategy and its 10–10–10 targets on societal enablers.
Thus, by adopting the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS, UN Member States echoed the Global AIDS Strategy and committed to implement urgent and transformative action to end social, economic, racial and gender inequalities, restrictive and discriminatory laws, policies and practices, stigma, and multiple intersecting forms of discrimination, including those based on a person’s HIV status, and human rights violations that perpetuate the AIDS epidemic.
To address HIV-related stigma, countries are beginning to tackle intersectional stigma simultaneously as it is key to ensuring health equity, as HIV-related stigma is not only associated with whether a person is living with the disease or not, but also with their gender identity, sexual orientation, place of treatment and the communities in which they live.
Additionally, the CDC, through the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), is providing ‘safe space’ clinics for key populations. While this approach is working in the short-term, sustainable solutions, such as expanding training for nurses and doctors on HIV-related stigma and discrimination, and the provision of culturally competent care for key populations in various countries are important. It must be noted that although the White House and Congress through a bipartisan vote reauthorised PEPFAR through the PEPFAR Extension Act of 2018 through 2023, budget cuts could irreversibly threaten the momentum gained over the past 16 years.
Furthermore, the widespread adoption of the people living with HIV Stigma Index 2.0 has created opportunities for countries and communities to obtain evidence‐based data on the intersectionality of stigma and to effectively implement stigma mitigation interventions.
The global community recognises the impact of HIV-related stigma on HIV prevention. To effectively address the issue, ongoing efforts to eliminate HIV-related stigma should continue, with a focus on additional culturally innovative, meaningful, comprehensive and sustainable responses adopted by the global community
Dr Elizabeth Armstrong-Mensah is a clinical associate professor at the Georgia State University School of Public Health. Her research interests include global health, HIV, health inequities and disparities.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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Published on December 1, 2023
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"author": "Elizabeth Armstrong-Mensah"
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Why supply chain issues do not cause inflation - 360
Andrei Kwok
Published on March 23, 2023
While there is some correlation, it is wrong to say supply chain kinks are a primary cause of inflation.
There is a common misconception that when supply chains are disrupted, entities along the supply chain shore up more resources to overcome the supply and demand imbalance.
With the excess cost ultimately passed onto consumers, this supposedly causes an inflationary ripple effect across the economy. A further myth is that this inflation then boomerangs onto the supply chain, leading to a vicious cycle.
When the global supply chain was disrupted during COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, one ubiquitous component that had vast implications on the supply chain was the computer chip.
The chip, also known as a semiconductor, is a fundamental component in all electronic devices such as computers, mobile phones, lightbulbs, home appliances and credit cards.
At the onset of the pandemic, chip production was halted and shipping slowed down due to various factors, including a predicted drop in demand.
However, with a large proportion of the population working and studying from home and the rapid digitalisation of businesses, the demand for electronic devices actually increased significantly.
This soon led to a global chip shortage affecting most manufactured goods’ supply chains worldwide. On the supply side, the chip shortage caused the automotive industry to reduce vehicle production and delay delivery to consumers.
On the demand side, when the world emerged from COVID-19 and business activities resumed, consumer demand for vehicles exceeded supply, resulting in an increase in price.
What compounds the supply-demand imbalance is the fear of further shortages when entities along the supply chain stockpile inventory in anticipation of even higher demand.
With one firm — the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation — dominating more than half of global chip manufacturing, including almost 90 percent of advanced made-to-order chips essential for emerging technologies, the acute shortage worsened.
But inflation began to slow down even when the trajectory seemed to be heading towards a vicious cycle of supply chain disruption and inflation impeding the supply chain even further.
External shocks are usually temporary, and supply and demand will eventually balance out. Inflation can solve itself. Consumers are not always willing to pay more for goods they do not need. As prices of consumer goods surge, consumers cut back on their purchases and demand recedes.
Previous production expansions and equipment tooling up to resolve the shortage can turn into inventory surplus and excess capacity. Given the oversupply, manufacturers begin to reduce capital spending and hiring. Hence, amid weaker demand, prices will fall.
The semiconductor industry, primarily driven by market factors, often undergoes cyclical peaks and troughs. Inflation and supply-side disruptions associated with shortages are usually short-term. Therefore, the inflationary myth.
Research has shown that improvement in operations and supply chain efficiencies, shortened production times and investment in new fabrication plants and technologies mitigate disruptions over time.
Except for COVID-19 as an anomaly, while there is a correlation between supply chain disruption and inflation, the former is not the primary contributor.
The impact of supply chain disruption on core consumer prices is, in fact, not significant. The reality of inflation goes beyond its effect on consumers’ income and household purchasing power.
One thing businesses need to be aware of is the ‘bullwhip effect’ in resolving shortages. The bullwhip effect is a supply chain phenomenon often used to explain inaccurate information in assessing demand.
Slight order variations progressively become amplified upstream from the retailer to the manufacturer. The bullwhip effect often leads to inventory build-up and ultimately price deflation.
Care needs to be taken so distortion of information along the supply chain does not lead to excessive fluctuations.
Lessons from past natural disasters, such as the 2011 Thailand flood crisis, can be instructive. Computer prices skyrocketed when flood waters inundated hard disk drive manufacturing hubs in Southeast Asia.
Given the concentration of production in a single location, supply chain disruption in one region had sizable ramifications globally. But market forces tend to solve bottlenecks.
As the hard disk drive fabrication plants resumed operations, so did the inventory level, and eventually, prices came down. In addition, solid-state drives became preferred over hard drives in the long run after the clamour for a viable alternative to overcome the shortage.
The chip debacle highlights the susceptibility of the global supply chain to external shocks and hence the need for risk management to ensure supply chain resilience.
Although government policies can support the supply chain in mitigating inflation, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, the Internet of Things, robotic process automation, cloud computing and big data analytics also have the potential to improve supply chain visibility and agility in handling unusual circumstances.
Their increasing use in smart factories is expected to drive future demand for advanced chips. Given their importance to almost all major industries, this means chip demand should increase in the long term but the contention that this is a primary cause for inflation needs to be backed up.
Andrei Kwok is Senior Lecturer and Director of Graduate Coursework Studies, Department of Management, School of Business, Monash University Malaysia. He declares no conflict of interest.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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Published on March 23, 2023
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"author": "Andrei Kwok"
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Why the APEC Summit in San Francisco is significant - 360
Bharat Bhushan
Published on October 30, 2023
The rise of China and the US response are set to dominate discussions at the meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders in San Francisco.
All eyes are on the visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to the US from 26 October.
Wang Yi’s visit, ostensibly to reciprocate the visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Beijing in June, takes place in the run up to the Asia-Pacific Summit in San Francisco which kicks off on 11 November.
There are expectations that US President Joe Biden will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping there.
China has not yet confirmed Xi’s visit to the annual APEC Summit.
However, both the US and China do not seem to wish to escalate disagreements despite their strategic competition.
APEC is a significant platform for its 21 member economies to shape regional trade and collaborate on challenges including climate change, economic disparities and geopolitical issues.
However, instead of promoting regional trade integration, it seems to have become hostage to the trade and political rivalry between the US and China as both seek regional hegemony in the Asia Pacific.
China seems to be done with US-led economic trade forums. It is exploring a host of free-trade agreements, including with Japan and South Korea; regional trade agreements, strengthening trade ties with Latin America and setting up alternative regional trading structures like the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
The US is focusing on creating alliances with individual countries like India and roping in ASEAN to counter China while promoting the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. Both countries are making powerful bids to shape global trade while expanding their geo-political interests. Grand multilateral narratives of global trade are clearly floundering on the shores of nationalism.
The APEC Summit, therefore, assumes special significance.
It will test the efficacy of multilateralism in trade in the context of growing economic nationalism. The summit takes place not only against the backdrop of increasing competition between the two superpowers to shape global trade, but also growing US-China strategic rivalry, most acutely being felt over the ongoing war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict.
By working together in APEC, both countries can signal to the world they can pursue their common economic interests, despite misperceptions, miscommunication and rising global challenges and live up to the theme of this year’s summit “Creating a Resilient and Sustainable Future for All”.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: In the story “APEC Summit” sent at: 26/10/2023 09:17.
This is a corrected repeat.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on October 30, 2023
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"url": "https://360info.org/why-the-apec-summit-in-san-francisco-is-significant/",
"author": "Bharat Bhushan"
}
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2,523 |
Why the Rohingya are being treated the way they are - 360
Nasreen Chowdhory
Published on March 27, 2024
Leading precarious lives in camps in Bangladesh and India, stateless Rohingya face an uncertain future
Rows and rows of neatly set blocks of two-roomed tenements line the eastern corner of Bhasan Char, a 40-sq km sand-bar island off the coast of Bangladesh on the Bay of Bengal within Bangladesh’s territorial waters.
Women cradle their babies in the narrow and cramped balconies of this sprawling mass of concrete while the men idly wander about this bleak island colony that is now home to about 20,000 Rohingya refugees, relocated a few years ago when the settlements in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar began to get over-populated.
This is just a fraction of the total number of Rohingya refugees – about a million now in Bangladesh – who were settled in temporary shelters in Cox’s Bazar in the wake of the 2017 violent ethnic conflict in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
Around the same time, about 40,000 Rohingya fled to India – via Bangladesh – while several thousands were settled in Indonesia and Malaysia as part of an international effort to address the emergent refugee-humanitarian crisis.
The Bangladesh government’s efforts to resettle the Rohingya refugees in Bhasan Char, which has an eerie and ominous ring about it – bhasan in English translates to drifting – has met with little success.
Several Rohingya dared the sea, often with fatal consequences, to return to Cox’s Bazar, bringing into sharp focus the limits and extent of humanitarianism, especially when they have mostly been ‘top-down’.
Even as the Bangladesh government aims to relocate 100,000 refugees to Bhasan Char, the Rohingyas’ insecurities spring primarily due to extreme weather conditions and restrictions imposed on their right to mobility.
Interestingly, the Rohingyas have refused to be resettled to such a distant location that was, until recently, submerged under water. This has contributed further to their uncertain and precarious future in Bangladesh.
Today, as the military situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, home to the Rohingya, has turned in favour of the rebel Arakan Army, the spotlight has squarely shifted back on the refugees and their condition in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and Malaysia. After all, the conflict in the Arakan state seven years ago forced the Rohingya to cross the borders into Bangladesh and further afield.
The Rohingya have often been termed as ‘stateless’ – with none of the ‘receiving’ states truly willing to admit them as a ‘people in crisis’ and therefore deserving of ‘protection’ – primarily because of their troubled past in Myanmar.
In the post-1941 period, after the Japanese invasion of British Burma, the Rohingya were integrated into the host Bengali community, owing primarily to their religious, cultural and linguistic similarities.
The Rohingyas’ shared sense of belonging in the host state did not correspond with the territorial borders of post-colonial states. Rather, this was shaped by common cultural kinship, and religion or language.
Two concepts, statelessness and rightlessness, are key to understanding the Rohingyas’ plight and the corresponding state responses or the lack of these.
In popular parlance, the statelessness construct is antithetical to citizenship; it is an ‘othering’ of a citizen who also stands rightless. The Rohingya refugees experience everyday statelessness and rightlessness in the camps where the impact of such denial is negotiated almost daily.
Over the years, as the Rohingyas’ condition in the camps did not improve significantly, the states increasingly prioritised national security over principles of refuge and hospitality which is essentially a performative act of “political responsibility”.
Scholars argue that the “harm” done to refugees and stateless people is both “legal and political”, entailing the denial of citizenship and “fundamental human qualities”.
From the perspective of refugees, humanitarianism is rooted in morality, justice and mutual aid. At the same time, sanctuary revolves around the idea of belonging based on the territorial notion of citizenship.
In the absence of a protection regime, refuge is provided on the basis of deep-rooted customs and practices.
While the practice of providing sanctuary is embedded in the cultural norms of individual nations, “their adaptations involve an inherent variation due to the differences in the modalities of laws, rules and regulations that are applied on an everyday basis”.
When humanitarianism in India, from the state’s perspective, has largely been ‘identity-based protection’, the Rohingya refugees in India, sprinkled across Jammu, Haryana, Delhi, and Hyderabad have constantly been described – explicitly and implicitly – as outsiders and therefore the ‘other’.
The Indian government’s anxieties with certain kinds of migrants, forced or otherwise, consistently viewed the “Rohingyas’ illegal migration” through the security lens.
“…Their stay in India, apart from being absolutely illegal, is fraught with security ramifications”, the government said in an affidavit, and based this on “credible input about a large number of Rohingyas indulging in activities of obtaining fake/fabricated Indian identity documents, human trafficking, subversive activities in different parts of the country, which poses threat to internal and national security”.
The Rohingyas’ situation is very precarious both because of their ethnic origin and India being the second country of asylum.
However, the precarious nature is also evident in the 34 camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district.
The refugee communities residing in these camps are stateless and yet “nationals of Myanmar”. The refugee communities rely on humanitarian assistance of aid agencies for protection, food, water, shelter and health, and reside in temporary shelters in highly congested camp settings.
Caught between the devil and the deep sea, the Rohingya consider the camps as home in the countries of asylum. Their collective condition is pitiable as they lead a life of indignity in exile with little or no hope of returning to Myanmar, their country of origin.
Nasreen Chowdhory is Professor at Delhi University where she teaches Comparative Politics, Indian Politics, Ethnicity and Nationalism and Forced Migration and Citizenship. She earned a PhD in Political Science from McGill University, Canada, in 2007. Her dissertation was on Belonging in Exile and ‘Home’: The Politics of Repatriation in South Asia. Chowdhory previously taught at Concordia University and McMaster University in Canada.
This article is part of a Special Report on the Rohingya refugees produced in collaboration with the Calcutta Research Group and the Asian Broadcasting Union.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on March 27, 2024
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"url": "https://360info.org/why-the-rohingya-are-being-treated-the-way-they-are/",
"author": "Nasreen Chowdhory"
}
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2,524 |
Why the Voice vote matters in the Pacific - 360
Jioji Ravulo
Published on October 12, 2023
Australia’s Indigenous Voice referendum could also be seen as a referendum on how the nation will be perceived by its Pacific neighbours.
Pacific nations have put Australia on notice as it prepares to vote in the Indigenous Voice referendum after witnessing the bruising and often ugly campaign.
They believe Australia’s image in the Pacific is on the line when voters decide whether to recognise its First Peoples with a representative Voice to Parliament on 14 October. That’s the message delivered in strong comments from eight former Pacific leaders.
The Pacific Elders Group — comprised of former heads of state and diplomats — backed the referendum as a “first step” towards a treaty with Australia’s First Nations people and said they “pray that Australians find it in their conscience” to vote in favour of the constitutional amendment.
The Pacific has many paths to help its Indigenous populations be involved in issues important to them.
The Indigenous Voice referendum is, in some ways, a referendum on how Australia will be viewed by many within the Pacific.
Will Australia be seen as an inclusive neighbour, striving to learn from its own people? Or will it perpetuate what is seen in the Pacific as an ongoing paternalistic and privileged status quo that discounts diversity?
Already, Western countries like Australia have a contradictory relationship with the Pacific — providing funds and advice on how the region can mitigate climate change that they caused, while not doing enough themselves.
Pacific Islands states and territories receive aid from Australia — AUD$1.9 billion (USD$1.2 billion) over five years — but it’s given without considering Pacific-Indigenous perspectives and values.
Australia’s Pacific Regional development program is underpinned by three key pillars: health security, stability and economic recovery. At each turn, Western and white models of healthcare, governance and development are espoused and enacted. Pacific-Indigenous models of care, leadership and economic approaches are not incorporated into any of these pillars.
The exclusion of Pacific people who know the local context has made aid projects in the region less effective. For example, health literacy and help-seeking behaviour in Pacific communities improved once more Pacific Indigenous perspectives were included in mental health and well-being planning.
The debate around Australia’s Indigenous Voice referendum has also drawn out ugly reminders of the nation’s relationship with race. In some of the country’s most prominent media, what might be viewed by many as white hysteria and moral panic reigns.
Former prime minister John Howard has rallied No campaigners to “maintain the rage”. Misinformation runs wild, from linking the Voice to payment of reparations to conspiracy theories about the Voice deposing the federal government.
It’s a debate burdened by what many scholars would describe as whiteness. Whiteness is the construct that a society sees only one correct way — ‘’white is right’’, ‘’west is best’’ — and sidelines diverse perspectives. When whiteness wins out, those who question the status quo risk being denigrated.
Australia’s status quo caters to a specific type of person: white, middle to upper class, cis-gendered, tertiary educated, Christian, heterosexual and able-bodied Australians.
The country’s structures, systems and services are tailored towards meeting their needs and preferences. Many who do not fit have poorer experiences, with healthcare, education, policing and beyond.
Multicultural and faith groups in Australia have been prominent supporters of the Voice: from June 2023, more than 110 ethnic and cultural community organisations in Australia signed a joint resolution to indicate their “steadfast support” for the referendum.
There are signs the tone of the debate is taking a toll on some. The health and wellbeing of First Nations Australians is suffering from the referendum debate.
In September, Australian mental health not-for-profit Black Dog institute called on politicians to complete a “respectful referendum” pledge to be mindful and considerate of their words when debating the Voice.
The starting point for an inclusive Australia begins with First Nations communities, the traditional owners of the land. If the referendum fails, this might block progress in other areas of diversity — perpetuating an ‘‘us and them’’ binary approach to policy and practice.
Australia’s Pacific community might see the potential benefits of a more diversity-friendly approach.
If the referendum vote transcends the misinformation and toxicity of the debate leading up to it, it would challenge the perceived status quo in Australia.
Many other forms of diversity could also benefit — providing a platform for diverse voices, views and values to transform the binary approach to social structures, systems and services.
The strongest communities are shaped by the diversity of those within: they have resilient, responsive health, legal, education and welfare systems, that are tailored to meet the varied needs of the people in them.
Australia’s Voice debate needs to move beyond the fear, confusion and outrage. Failure to do this will only reinforce social norms and values that are divisive, leading to ongoing exclusion. Inclusion of diverse voices is key, and can promote better outcomes for all.
Jioji Ravulo is Professor and Chair of Social Work and Policy Studies at The University of Sydney
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on October 12, 2023
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"url": "https://360info.org/why-the-voice-vote-matters-in-the-pacific/",
"author": "Jioji Ravulo"
}
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Why Ukraine is winning the media war - 360
Galyna Piskorska
Published on February 23, 2023
Access to the internet, journalists and a charismatic leader have ensured Ukraine is winning the propaganda war against Russia.
It may not seem like it when you’re far from a bomb shelter, cowering in your bathroom as missiles and drones rain death down on Kyiv, but the Ukraine war is the first real war of the digital age.
And while soldiers and civilians are killed each day, the biggest media war in the history of mankind is also being fought. As in any war, propaganda is a key ingredient.
As independent media from around the world has mostly accurately reported events, for Ukrainian journalists, February 24, 2022 was the day ‘propaganda’ ceased being a dirty word. Indeed, all the media in Ukraine is now part of the propaganda machine to one degree or another, because they work for the victory of Ukraine.
Twelve months ago, Russian media described President Vladimir Putin’s invasion as a “special military operation” to “denazify” Ukraine, which was painted as the aggressor, even as Putin massed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border.
When the attack came, Russian media did not report the bombing of civilian targets, hospitals, or atrocities against the civilian population. It tried to disguise the goals of the invasion and shift responsibility for the war and the resultant global food crisis to Ukraine and the West.
The majority of the Russian population seems to have bought into this narrative and supports Putin.
In the West, public opinion could not resist the anguish and heroism of Ukrainians, recorded by the world’s most prominent outlets. Thanks to western journalists, the world has seen evidence of Russian war crimes, such as the massacre of civilians in Bucha. This coverage has helped refute the slogans about the “denazification” and “demilitarisation” of Ukraine, used by Russia to justify its invasion.
What Moscow failed to consider is that almost 80 percent of the Ukrainian population is plugged into the internet. More than half the population owns a smartphone. Not even Russian propaganda had an answer for the thousands of amateur videos showing what really took place. The Ukrainian border guards on Snake Island, famously telling a Russian warship to “go f… yourself “. The defenders of Mariupol, encircled by Russian forces and living underground awaiting the inevitable, gave many interviews to Ukrainian and foreign journalists. Or President Volodymyr Zelenskiy recording his famous address to Ukrainians on his mobile phone, refuting reports that he fled or surrendered in the early days of the invasion.
It’s clear Ukraine is winning the media war.
Zelenskiy has become the star of the crisis. His communication skills and media background helped. In a televised address on February 24 ,2022, the first day of the full-scale invasion, he told Russian troops: “When you attack us, you will see our faces, not our backs, but our faces”. This defiant message kicked off a series of video messages that became his trademark.
He quickly managed to convince the West this was an ‘us’ or ‘them’ conflict. Ukrainians are fighting for our existence. We will stand until the end. We don’t have a choice. If Russia is allowed to win, it gives tacit approval to big nations aggressively bullying smaller nations. A world order based on rules would be destroyed.
Zelenskiy, a former actor and comedian, has surprised many with his leadership. He is greeted with a standing ovation in both houses of the British Parliament and, as a sign of respect, they stand and listen to his speech “Combat aircraft for Ukraine – wings for freedom”.
Zelenskiy is convincing the rest of Europe that its future lies with Ukraine, a belief few shared before the Russian invasion.
Ukraine could be considered lucky to get all this attention. After all, there is fighting every day in many other parts of the world. About 2000km from Kyiv, a simmering conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan goes mostly unreported.
For the first time, the world’s eyes are focused squarely on Ukraine. In 2022, “Ukraine” was the most searched term on Google News. Ukraine was the state of the year according to The Economist. Zelenskiy and the “spirit of Ukraine” were recognised by Time magazine as the person of 2022.
But Ukraine is far from a perfect democracy. The government was hit by a wave of resignations related to corruption scandals. Ukrainian investigative journalists have helped fight corruption, and the reaction of authorities was clear, decisive and peremptory.
We learned from World War II that there is Goebbels’ propaganda and there is Churchill’s propaganda. There is propaganda from aggressors and those who are on the right side of history.
While Ukraine’s journalists have partially put aside impartiality in response to the national emergency, with the war moving into a protracted phase, new challenges will emerge. Under the state of emergency, Ukrainian journalists are now trying to find a balance between media freedom and national security interests.
Piskorska Galyna PhD is Associate Professor, Institute of Journalism, Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, Ukraine and a visiting research fellow at the University of Melbourne. She is a member of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine and has written more than 100 scientific and educational and methodological works, including 15 monographs and textbooks and been published in multiple foreign publications.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on February 23, 2023
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"url": "https://360info.org/why-ukraine-is-winning-the-media-war/",
"author": "Galyna Piskorska"
}
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2,526 |
Why video referees ruin football - 360
Kjetil K. Haugen, Knut P. Heen
Published on February 2, 2023
Technology to assist football referees was introduced to ensure lineball decisions were correct. But at what cost to the game of chance?
Why do we watch football, the ‘beautiful game’? As the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar demonstrated, it was for the fairytales (Lionel Messi capping his career with a win) the sublime skills of the world’s best players (Messi, Mbappe, Modric), wondrous goals (Richarlison’s scissor kick), dramatic finishes (so many) and the chance of an underdog upsetting a favourite (Morocco, Japan, Saudi Arabia).
Sport thrives on this last ingredient, the magic of David beating Goliath. In football, one thing is certain: a little bit of uncertainty about the outcome can go a long way.
Which leads us to VAR — the video assistant referee. The Argentina-France decider was billed as one of the greatest finals, but the match was halted six times as officials deliberated over TV screens on the sideline. Six times, millions around the world waited as a game of skill and chance became hostage to pixels and certainty.
Football fans, like all sports fans, cherish spontaneity. The chance to literally jump for joy when their team scores. But the VAR system adds stops in game play. When the tech takes over, as the on-field referee — wired up to communicate with a team of other officials in a room watching the action on myriad screens and from multiple camera angles — spends what seems like hours (in reality only minutes) checking a screen for an offside, a foul or similar.
The difference between a goal being allowed or disallowed and, therefore, the outcome of a big match, comes down to mere millimetres invisible to the naked eye.
Many football fans think football already has enough stops — for free kicks, corners, injuries and blatant time-wasting. VAR just adds to these delays. It’s not too far-fetched to foresee European football becoming more stop-start like sports such as American football or handball where stops (or time-outs) are the norm.
The main rationale for the introduction of VAR was fairness. Why should a bad, cowardly, or maybe even corrupt referee be granted the power of life and death, as Liverpool’s legendary manager Bill Shankly might have said.
In sports economics there is a name for this, it is called uncertainty of outcome. This is a simple concept meaning that if we think we know the result beforehand, we will probably not spend time watching the match. Or in economic terms, the value of a sport event increases with the uncertainty of the outcome of the event.
Of course, this uncertainty cannot be too high. Complete randomness of the outcome means a lottery. Hence uncertainty must be balanced: too high (too unpredictable) or too low (same teams win all the time) and an event’s value will not be maximised. VAR puts that balance at risk.
European football has been in a competitive decline for years and it’s accelerating. Wealth disparity is one of the biggest issues. But the introduction of VAR threatens to hasten that decline by reducing the uncertainty of the outcome and giving already-dominant teams another advantage. It works like this: If the number of penalty kicks increases due to slow motion replays made available to the referee, this would surely favour the better teams which are more likely to be attacking their opponent’s goal more often, leading to more fouls and potentially more penalty kicks (and goals).
Penalties are converted around 75 percent of the time. Surely, weaker teams should utilise all legal means to improve their results: buying and selling the right players, hiring the best coaches, signing the best sponsor deals and so on. However, if shirt pulling or other fouls on attacking players become more visible to the referee via VAR, the weaker teams will lose a 100-year advantage of the referee only having one set of eyes. In short, the better teams get better, and the not-so-good teams get worse.
The uncertainty of outcome in England’s Division One (which became the Premier League) over the last 50 years has steadily declined, meaning matches are becoming more predictable. VAR will only hasten this development. As to what happens next, the signs are already there: just four or five teams have a realistic chance of winning the Premier League each year. These clubs are also the richest. It’s a trend being replicated across Europe.
The danger is interest will wane in uncompetitive leagues. Who will want to keep paying to watch games (either live or via pay-for-view television) if the same teams keep winning? Ultimately, fewer fans means less revenue.
While VAR is not the only culprit in this, it is a sign of the playing field becoming less even. Which is ironic, given it was introduced to make things fairer. Getting rid of it could be one step in giving weaker teams more of a chance to square the ledger and bring back the uncertainty that makes football magic.
is Professor of Logistics at Molde University College, Norway. He has a PhD in ComputerScience and an Msc. In Management Science from the Norwegian Institute of Technology. After initially doing research in Computer Science he moved into Sports Economics/Science. He has been published in the Journal of Sports Economics, Sports Economics Review, European Sport Management Quarterly and Sports Economic Review.
is an associate professor at Molde University College, Norway. He holds a PhD in Business Economics from NHH Norwegian School of Economics and an MSc in Applied Geophysics from Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He has published on football related issues in Mathematics for applications, Sports , and European Journal of Sport Studies.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: In the story “Game changer: sport tech” sent at: 30/01/2023 09:57.
This is a corrected repeat.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on February 2, 2023
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"url": "https://360info.org/why-video-referees-ruin-football/",
"author": "Kjetil K. Haugen, Knut P. Heen"
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Why we can’t rely on air conditioning to keep us cool - 360
Niamh Murtagh
Published on March 17, 2023
It’s the first thing to be turned on when the weather warms but air-conditioners are not the only answer to cooling our homes.
In summertime in Chongqing, China, Xi Yu* (35) hates the short walk from his apartment to the subway station on his commute to the university where he works. With temperatures often hitting 38°C in high humidity, even the daily water spraying of main roads by the local municipality does little to help.
Yu is grateful the subway station and trains are air-conditioned but is always relieved to arrive at his office. He likes to keep the air-conditioning at a chilly 19°C, even though his colleagues complain it’s too cold. Leaving the office is usually a shock to the system with the dramatic change in temperature.
Back home, Yu turns on the air conditioning as soon as he gets in, although he knows it will eat up almost half his monthly energy bills. Later, he and his wife will phone the children who are staying with their grandparents in the mountains for the summer, as most other families do. Come Friday, Yu and his wife will make the slow, traffic-congested journey to join them for the weekend.
This scenario could be the future for city dwellers globally as the climate warms. Universal dependence on air-conditioning and temporary or permanent migration away from hotter zones, for those who can afford it.
The most recent physical science report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated extreme heat events over land will become 4 to 9 times more frequent this century, and 1.9°C to 5.1° degrees hotter.
This month’s IPCC synthesis report for policymakers will again emphasise the risks of extreme heat. But air-conditioning is no panacea as recent research on experiences of living with air-conditioning has found. This in-depth, qualitative analysis of coping with heat in Dubai, Chongqing and London showed, alongside the benefits, the social and health challenges of air-conditioned urban lives, as well as ways to reduce dependence on air-conditioning.
In contrast to London, where air-conditioning in homes is rare, air-conditioning is the norm at home, in the office, on public transport and in public buildings in Dubai and Chongqing. Use of air-conditioning in these cities means people perceive themselves as unaffected by the weather and feel that work in offices continues without impact.
But the lifestyles they described told a different story. In both Dubai and Chongqing, life during the summer months is lived indoors. People noted that they take less exercise and miss the feelings of freedom, space and being closer to nature from being outside. While most had a balcony or garden, these are unusable in the hottest months.
Indoors, hard flooring is common in Dubai but so too is floor-to-ceiling glazing and a lack of external shading. In summer, going out is limited to trips to air-conditioned locations, almost all of which are commercial in nature (shopping malls, gyms), with one fascinating exception.
In Chongqing, war-time bunkers have been repurposed and are used as cool social spaces. In both cities, people socialise less in the hot weather. In Dubai, people plan their holidays to travel to relatively cooler countries during the worst of the heat. In the summer months in Chongqing, the retired and the children are sent to the mountains where it is cooler – working parents try to visit on weekends.
Surprisingly, despite their reliance on the technology, many people do not see air-conditioning as either comfortable or healthy. For some, the temperature is too cold in order to accommodate others at work or at home. For others, over-use is intentional.
For example, Fei, a 29-year-old postgraduate student, said: “The hotter it is outside, the lower I will set on the air conditioner. Sometimes I wear a long-sleeved blouse and a pair of trousers, then go to bed with a thick cover.”
Overall, people acclimatise physiologically and behaviourally, not to hot weather, but to a narrow range of relatively cold temperatures created by ubiquitous air-conditioning. Perceptions are common of poor air quality, overly dry air and a lack of fresh air, leading to a range of minor health complaints, such as colds, rhinitis and joint pain. Moving from low indoor temperatures to the heat of outside is particularly unpleasant and seen as a risk to health. While most people interviewed worked indoors, there were some insights into the challenges for outdoor workers including construction workers and delivery drivers, for whom air-conditioning has limited benefits.
The participants’ accounts of living with air-conditioning showed the extent to which air-conditioning is already culturally embedded, to the extent of over-reliance, in some climate zones.
Given the history of commercialisation of air-conditioning as a consumer product, bolstered by extensive marketing over 70 years to emphasise its progressive, modern nature, it’s unsurprising that people see it as essential. While the use of air-conditioning will continue to provide benefits in the rapidly-warming world, complementary approaches are vital to reduce outright dependence and our analysis points to several possibilities.
From a technological and regulatory perspective, minimum set points for air-conditioning units which dynamically increase in line with outside temperatures would end practices of setting temperatures unnecessarily low. This would also help physiological acclimatisation to hotter weather.
Revising building regulations to address local context and predicted weather, using established adaptations such as limiting glazing and requiring exterior shading, will reduce indoor temperatures. So too will householder changes such as hard flooring inside and increasing greenery outside.
Providing civic cool spaces allows equitable access to relief from heat and these can be designed for passive cooling that is, remaining cool through their form and design rather than from electro-mechanical air-conditioning systems. From a social and cultural perspective, repositioning air-conditioning as a form of cooling system rather than as providing ‘thermal comfort’ could challenge its primacy.
Educating people on the benefits and importance of physiological acclimatisation to heat will help to shift behaviour away from air-conditioning dependence. Reminding people of behavioural adaptations, such as keeping in the shade or sucking ice, and changing social routines in the heat, such as shifting working and education patterns away from the hottest hours, are additional ways to reduce air-conditioning use.
Air-conditioning will not solve all the problems of coping with global heating. Changes to technology, building design, regulation, social routines and personal behaviour will help avoid some of the downsides of the chilly, expensive and fragmented lives that Xi Yu and many others already experience.
*Xi Yu is a pseudonym.
Dr Niamh Murtagh is a Principal Research Fellow at the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, University College London (UCL). An environmental psychologist, her research investigates experiences and behaviours relating to climate change mitigation and adaptation to the heating climate.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on March 17, 2023
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"author": "Niamh Murtagh"
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Why we don’t need to go to space to mine its resources - 360
Chaitanya Giri
Published on September 22, 2023
Meteorites could show us the perfect chemical models we need to end the natural resource crisis — but we don’t have to leave Earth to mine them.
The world’s fascination with asteroids knows no bounds, from ongoing interest in space travel to some cultures putting meteorites in shrines. In 2022, the auction house Christie’s landed a record-breaking price of around USD$189,000 for a meteorite that originated from the Moon.
But meteorites are also abundant, with resources worth billions of dollars, and there is plenty of material hiding in plain sight on Earth for those who know where to look.
Nearly 40,000 tonnes of meteoritic chunks and dust fall to Earth each year. They land in oceans and on land, are more visible in desolate regions of Antarctica, Siberia, the Sahara, the Canadian Steppes and the Australian outback.
The true commercial value of fallen meteorites is yet to be realised, but some projections slate the global market for space mining to grow to USD$1.99 billion by 2027.
Graphene, a material China identified as a top national priority and which the European Union invested EUR$1 billion (USD$1.07 billion) in developing, has been found in two meteorites: one that fell in Allende, Mexico, and the other in the Queen Alexandra Range of Antarctica.
Graphene, a form of carbon made up of a single layer of atoms, has high conductivity and super strength and is seen as a wonder material with a huge range of applications.
Tetrataenite — an iron-nickel alloy found only in meteorites — is being touted as a replacement for rare earth minerals used in permanent magnets, a product used in car manufacturing, computing and many other everyday items.
Not every meteorite holds materials as valuable as graphene or tetrataenite. But they might offer the perfect mineralogical and chemical models of what needs to be replicated on Earth to help resolve our most pressing demand for critical minerals.
However, mining asteroids or the Moon is not easy given that we have not prospected any lunar zone suitable for mining commercial quantities. Also, the commerce of extraterrestrial mining, removal of gangue, and returning the ore to Earth is enormously higher than present-day sample return missions.
It seems more ergonomic and economical to extract from meteoritic material back on Earth instead of sending humans into space to extract ores.
Eventually, humans are likely to routinely extract resources from extraterrestrial bodies in order to sustain a presence on bases away from Earth, such as on asteroids, when we develop the capacity.
That capacity is still a way off. NASA’s many missions to asteroids or comets — Stardust, OSIRIS-REx, JAXA (twice), Hayabusa-1 and Hayabusa2 — have each returned with less than 10 grams of extraterrestrial samples.
For the short term, space mining remains unaffordable, unless these missions yield a magical ‘’hardtofindium”, the mythical substance that fuelled a battle suit in a Green Lantern spin-off. In the real world, it would take a substance so valuable that a few micrograms could fetch billions to make space mining feasible.
Experts forecast a golden era of space exploration. The words are laced with optimism but until we develop the capacity, that optimism is a little unrealistic.
Asteroid mining will happen — perhaps it has always happened, if American meteoriticist Harvey Nininger’s studies count — but the modern narrative has made us miss more realistic solutions.
Any notion that the natural resource needs of humans can only be met by mining asteroids or the Moon is misplaced.
Sustainable Development Goal 12 and initiatives such as India’s Lifestyle for Sustainable Environment advocate responsible consumption and production.
Solutions to the increasing terrestrial demand for water and minerals can be found in our backyard. The cosmos is ready to help if we are prepared to peer into meteorites we can already find on Earth.
Chaitanya Giri is Associate Professor of Environmental Sciences at FLAME University. He is a consultant at the Research and Information System for Developing Countries, New Delhi, India, and an affiliate scientist at the Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. He sits on the Advisory Board of the Satcom Industry Association-India and is a Member of the NITI Aayog Committee on Space Economy.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on September 22, 2023
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"author": "Chaitanya Giri"
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Why we need to talk about male infertility - 360
Moira O’Bryan, Robert McLachlan
Published on November 6, 2023
The rate of infertility is nearly equal between sexes before middle age, yet women still bear the brunt of society’s pressure.
Almost exactly a year ago, the eight billionth person was born, apparently in the Philippines. In just 11 years, the world had added a billion people to the population.
It might sound bizarre then, to learn that there is a worldwide fertility problem.
The fact is in the last 60 years, the global birth rate has dropped from 5.3 to 2.3 births per woman. This is seen by many as a product of modern life, where couples choose to have fewer children later in life. Such choices are valid and have contributed to improved economics and health of many, notably women and children, across the globe.
That narrative is false.
The blanket perception of ‘choice’ hides the reality that the World Health Organization estimates that 1 in 6 couples are in fact infertile. In April, a WHO report claimed that an estimated 17.5 percent of the adult population is infertile and that number is increasing yearly.
Perhaps more surprisingly to many the incidence of infertility between sexes is almost equal— estimated 35 percent of the time due to women and 30 percent due to the male, with the remainder due to a combination or unknown causes.
Male infertility is common and does not discriminate based on wealth or geography.
It is the unspoken canary in the coalmine of male health.
Compounding this is the failure of health systems to recognise the burden of male infertility at a more significant level and the potential that infertility may be caused by or be a marker of other illness.
For most men, the cause will remain unidentified. Often, this is because there isn’t enough knowledge about the production of the reproductive cells, known as gamete, and how they are affected by environmental and lifestyle factors.
Defining the precise causes of male infertility demands more effort to identify its subtypes. We must move beyond characterising patients based only on semen composition and automatically moving to assisted reproduction which, after all, is a strategy to bypass the problem rather than treat it.
Alarmingly, tests to provide a precise diagnosis of male infertility are rare, and consequently, few targeted treatments exist.
Unlike many areas of health, DNA or genome sequencing is not currently standard practice – and even if it was, researchers are yet to develop the tools to read the genetic map of how to produce functional sperm. Research into achieving such knowledge is essential.
Each man entering into medically assisted reproduction without a thorough consideration of the potential causes of infertility and co-morbidities is a missed opportunity. Furthermore a woman with no identified reproductive disease or history often becomes the patient to ‘treat’ a presumed male fertility issue.
This highlights the inherent gender inequity in the approach to infertility treatment. Procedures are performed on women when it’s men’s infertility that may be the problem.
The misnomer of ‘treatment’ for male infertility is emotionally taxing for the man and woman and involves considerable time and financial commitment. It is also invasive and includes a risk to the woman’s health.
The failure to identify precise causes of male infertility at a molecular level, also means that few real treatments exist.
This inequity works both ways, by circumventing male infertility as a problem it denies treatment of the underlying medical for the individual and further pushes community awareness of the growing portion of the population going through the same situation further from the surface. This is in spite of the fact that evidence suggests that men are searching in greater numbers for the cause of their infertility.
There are multiple complex reasons why people experience infertility, almost certainly involving a mix of biological changes, environmental and lifestyle exposures.
A roadmap for governments, society and health bodies, to change the conversation surrounding fertility, could work to address the current level of concern and ultimately provide real treatments for the benefit of men, their partners and their children.
First, the simple goal could be that all parties need to acknowledge male infertility is a common, serious medical condition, and patients have a right to meaningful diagnoses and targeted treatments.
Equally, the bodies controlling public health funding could establish a global network of registries and biobanks containing standardised clinical and lifestyle information linked to national healthcare data systems for testing so as to unpick those sub-types of infertility caused by genetic changes, environmental insults, or an interaction between the two.
Potentially environmental causes may be removed by governments or individuals. Importantly, such databases should encompass a wide geographic distribution.
With the identification of precise molecular causes of male infertility, true treatments may be developed.
Agencies can implement regulations to ensure the rigorous testing of compounds for adverse effects on male fertility and the sharing of results globally – notably, and urgently, around classes of compounds known as endocrine disrupting compounds.
In parallel, regulatory policies that control the use of compounds that alter reproductive health in products, the workplace and the environment could be enacted while investing in research to develop safe chemical alternatives.
Society at large could normalise the conversation around male infertility to encourage action to achieve these formidable goals.
Normalisation comes through education and public health campaigns, where infertility becomes recognised as a common, serious and urgent disease.
Ideally, such campaigns should be lifelong, easily understandable, accessible and linked to healthcare systems through improved and continuous education of the healthcare workforce in the broad area of male reproductive health.
The training for the industry could be emphasised during medical school, providing ongoing training and resources to health professionals integrating services across urology, internal medicine, endocrinology, gynaecology and paediatrics.
The task is considerable, but the public is not starting from zero. Many laboratories have made impressive advances. Adopting new sequencing technologies is already revealing a rapidly expanding number of genetic causes of human infertility.
Success in research leads to the treatment of male reproductive disorders, and through implementation into standardised global healthcare practices, men, their partners, and future generations will live long and healthy lives.
Professor Moira O’Bryan is a professor and Dean of the Faculty of Science at The University of Melbourne. The focus of Dr O’Bryan’s research is sperm development and function, genetic and environmental causes of human infertility.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on November 6, 2023
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2,530 |
Why we need to wake up the snake - 360
Anne Poelina
Published on December 21, 2022
The solution is before us: integrating Western and Indigenous law creates a path to a better future.
According to the United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres, the world is “on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator.” It is not only the hell of human lives and species lost amid climate chaos, but also the hell of mental ill-health from what world health expert Dr Lynne Friedli has described as “economic growth at the cost of societal recession”: in too many situations, we are putting financial gain ahead of communities and nature.
Indigenous leaders are some of the clearest voices recognising that it can’t be business as usual. As they stand, Western laws are inadequate to the task of preventing climate change and ensuring protection of Indigenous sacred sites and the cultural, spiritual, environmental, social and World Heritage values of these unique places.
But the solutions are right before our eyes. If we are to survive, we need to understand how different systems work together; and the relative roles and responsibilities of participants in integrated systems. Those include biological systems, such as ecosystems, but also human systems, such as law.
Solving climate change is impossible without reforming the politics of money. This is critical if we want to create peace with Indigenous people and with nature. Indigenous philosophy and First Law can help build better legal and institutional systems for all.
As law scholar Christine Black has written, First Law, or customary law, says the law comes from the land and not from man. It was nature that bestowed these laws. The ancient (but continuing) First Law stories, using animals, birds, the wind, the moon and stars to create objectivity, teach people to be good and decent human beings to each other, but also to respect their teachers.
Indigenous leaders across the planet recognise First Australians as the oldest living culture on the planet. First Australians say to address climate, we must return to a system that has stood the test of time, some 60,000 years or more: a bioregional governance model.
This dictates that jurisdictional areas are created not by arbitrary lines on a map, but dictated by biology and geography. Governance for bioregions links Indigenous rights, environmental rights, and what legal scholars Kabir Bavikatte and Tom Bennett describe as biocultural rights – that is, a “community’s long-established right, in accordance with its customary laws, to steward its lands, waters and resources”. As a distinct order of rights, biocultural rights seem to offer a way to bring legal regimes together.
Biocultural rights are grounded in a moral law of obligation. They demand ethics of care and love for everyone and everything around us as understood by anIndigenous world view. They rely on trust, reciprocity and a lifelong practice of stewardship. This role reflects a way of life where a community’s identity, its culture, spirituality and system of governance are inseparable from its lands, living waters and people. Biocultural rights are not ‘ownership’ in the Western legal sense but rather a duty of care and protection. Corporate governance pioneer Shann Turnbull, explains these rights and responsibilities as “owneeship” rather than “ownership”.
To strengthen existing legal systems, the mindset of keeping Western law as the dominant structure should be jettisoned. Merely ‘allowing’ Indigenous law into small pockets of the overarching legal system continues a colonial mindset. Without decolonisation, rules and regulations and policy and procedure sustain business as usual.
Indigenous and Western legal scholars working together to examine alternative legal approaches is the best way to address Australia’s review of its environmental protections laws, which examine existing differences in power and authority. Together, governments can address matters of public interest impacting people and place, particularly water and environmental laws.
A biocultural approach for Indigenous nations in the Kimberley region of Australia continues to rely on Indigenous laws.
The Indigenous people of Australia’s north-west have for millennia lived and created a continuous knowledge system. The knowledge could be applied more broadly to take humanity into a new era where the economy is not based on an extractive system, but based on that collective wisdom and the sharing between non-Indigenous and Indigenous people. As the people of the Kimberley say, we need to “wake up the snake” of that knowledge. Waking up the snake brings everyone along.
Professor Anne Poelina is a Nyikina Warrwa woman from the Kimberley region of Western Australia. An active community leader, human and earth rights advocate, filmmaker and a respected academic researcher. See website: www.martuwarra.org – – Personal : www.majala.com.au She declares no conflict of interest.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: In the story “Indigenous lessons” sent at: 19/12/2022 11:33.
This is a corrected repeat.
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Published on December 21, 2022
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"author": "Anne Poelina"
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Why we should be talking about shock mobility - 360
Bharat Bhushan
Published on June 19, 2023
Professor Ranabir Sammadar talks about the importance of increasing media awareness of the phenomenon of shock mobility.
Shock mobility is a term used to describe sudden waves of migration.
For example, in the wake of an environmental catastrophe, famine, floods or sudden outbreak of violence like the Ukraine conflict or the Syrian war.
Distinguished Chair in Migration and Forced Migration Studies at the Calcutta Research Group, Professor Ranabir Sammadar, says we should be talking about it more.
While the phrase shock mobility has been in currency for the last decade or so, shock immobility was recognised during the COVID-19 pandemic when people were suddenly forced to be immobile — quartered in their respective areas, towns, cities, villages, rooms, tenements.
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Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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Published on June 19, 2023
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"url": "https://360info.org/why-we-should-be-talking-about-shock-mobility/",
"author": "Bharat Bhushan"
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Why we should not reuse plastic water bottles - 360
Sarva Mangala Praveena
Published on February 9, 2023
Whether microplastic particles cause long-term damage is uncertain but reducing our exposure to them will be wise.
Taking a swig from your plastic water bottle will do more than slake your thirst — you will also be gulping down microplastics — tiny plastic particles measuring less than 5mm.
Being plastic, these particles do not decompose all that easily and will accumulate over time in our bodies — a process called bioaccumulation.
While there is not yet any clear evidence between microplastics and serious illnesses, researchers are increasingly concerned over their long-term effects on our bodies.
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Key to this concern are the chemicals used in the manufacture of plastics, some of which have already been linked to serious diseases.
The presence of microplastics in human stool suggests we are exposed to microplastics in our daily lives. They have found their way into the food chain, raising concerns about food safety.
They are also present in bottled water globally. Studies investigating microplastics in bottled water have reported particle sizes of less than 1mm in most, released from the bottle material, the bottleneck and the cap.
The colour of the particles coming from the bottle material itself is transparent while those originating from the caps are either blue or green.
The highest detected plastics polymer is polyethylene terephthalate (PET) which is used to manufacture both the bottle material and cap.
Studies also provide evidence that microplastic in bottled water is due to multiple factors such as physical stress during transport, bottle shaking and high-pressure water injection into the bottles at the production plants.
Additionally, thermal impact during storage also worsens the fragmentation process.
Reusable PET water bottles have higher microplastic particles than single-use PET bottles. Frequent opening and closing of the bottles also cause more particles to be formed due to friction.
The critical question remains unanswered: to what extent do microplastic particles found in bottled water threaten human health? Researchers have developed a number of hypotheses on both the physical and chemical hazards.
No published study has directly studied the impact of plastic particles on humans. The only existing research relies on laboratory tests that expose cells or human tissues to microplastics or those that employ rodents.
According to the World Health Organization, only microplastics with particle sizes smaller than 1.5 μm (1.5 micrometres) can be ingested or absorbed due to their solubility and excreted directly.
Thus ingested microplastic particles (<1.5 μm) from bottled water are capable of migrating through the intestinal wall and reaching various body tissues, including the gut, liver and lymph nodes.
Minute particles (<1.5 μm) which enter cells or tissues might irritate just by being a foreign presence causing lung tissue inflammation which could lead to cancer.
The accumulation of these particles in human tissues has been linked with chemical toxicity. Compounds such as plasticisers, stabilisers and pigments used in the production can be released by microplastics and travel through our bodies in the bloodstream.
These chemicals have been linked to health problems such as inflammation, genotoxicity, oxidative stress and damage to the gastrointestinal tract.
Chemicals released from bottled water packaging materials are now known as emerging pollutants and endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that can cause serious health problems including cancer and developmental defects.
The long-term effects of microplastics exposure on human health are not yet fully understood and research is progressing. But it is clear they are a potential hazard and steps should be taken to limit our exposure to them in daily life.
In the event you use bottled water as your primary source of drinking water, you should make an effort to minimise the shaking movements of the bottles and also unnecessarily opening and closing the bottle.
And it is not recommended to reuse plastic water bottles. Reuse increases the rate of inner surface abrasion, releasing additional microplastic particles from the inner surface of the bottle.
It is also essential to store bottles in a cool and dry place to minimise their exposure to heat and sunlight. Sunlight can accelerate bottle degradation — they become more brittle and fragile — which leads to more microplastic particle release.
Additionally, the heat also causes these PET bottles to leach chemical pollutants such as plasticisers which can contaminate the water. These chemicals, such as phthalates and bisphenol A (BPA) are harmful to human health if consumed in large amounts.
Sarva Mangala Praveena is an associate professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia. She declares no conflict of interest.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
This article was updated on March 28, 2023 to replace the term "unhealthy dose of microplastics" with "microplastics".
This article has been republished for World Environment Day 2023. It was originally published on February 9, 2023.
Editors Note: In the story "Microplastics time-bomb" sent at: 09/02/2023 11:21.
This is a corrected repeat.
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Published on February 9, 2023
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"author": "Sarva Mangala Praveena"
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Why we shouldn't lose our minds over sleep - 360
Nadrah Shafik
Published on February 12, 2024
Our quest for the perfect slumber lies in the intricacies of REM sleep, circadian harmony, and the impact of modern technology.
Sleeping accounts for one-third of our lives yet often slips through the cracks of our fast-paced modern lives.
In the past, sleep issues have been regarded as an outcome of mental health issues but research also shows that sleep issues may play a role in triggering new mental health issues.
The relationship between sleep and mental health is complex. It’s a dynamic interplay where sleep issues not only stem from mental health conditions but can also sow the seeds for new challenges and perpetuate existing ones.
While we are asleep, our brain remains active and we go through four stages of sleep characterised by different brain waves with two main phases — non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.
The NREM sleep phase is further separated into three stages: Stage 1 occurs in the first few minutes after dozing off when the mind is still partially alert. Stage 2 is in between light and deep sleep; Stage 3, also known as slow-wave sleep, is the deepest stage of sleep. The REM sleep stage concludes the final sleep cycle. Every stage is accountable for its unique role in preserving brain function.
A study using neuroimaging has shown that during REM sleep, brain areas associated with emotion see notable spikes in activity. Sleep disorders or sleep deprivation can make it difficult to get enough REM sleep, which can interfere with the brain’s ability to process emotions.
Sleep problems therefore have the potential to endanger a person’s emotional and mental wellbeing. Behavioural changes, tension, and irritability are typical results.
In the worst-case scenario, it can cause a mental disorder to develop or worsen. Individuals with diagnoses of anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) sometimes report difficulties with their sleep.
Our body performs amazing feats, one of which is its regular rhythmic functioning. Our heart rate and menstrual cycle, as well as our sleep-wake cycle, are rhythmic systems. The circadian rhythm — our body’s internal clock, is closely connected to sleep as it governs the body’s sleep-wake cycle.
According to recent studies, mental health issues and the circadian rhythm are mutually interrelated. Disruptions to the circadian rhythm may interfere with the clock-regulated responses such as melatonin secretion, responsible for the sleep-wake cycle, and cortisol secretion, responsible for regulating the body’s stress response, and this disruption may lead to mental health issues.
In other words, sleep disturbances will disrupt the body’s circadian rhythm and lead to detrimental effects on mental health. People with mood disorders such as bipolar disorder, and depression have a more sensitive body clock, making them more susceptible to relapsing when their circadian rhythm and sleep are disrupted.
The 24-hour cycle known as the circadian rhythm regulates many bodily functions aside from sleep such as hormone release and appetite. The light and dark are the most important environmental cues that control the rhythm. Our circadian rhythm aligns with the day-night cycle. A circadian rhythm that is in balance may encourage restorative sleep. Stabilising the circadian rhythm is essential for enhancing the physical and emotional well-being of those who have sleep difficulties.
Every person’s existence is contingent upon the regulation of their circadian rhythm, which is impacted by a range of universal occurrences related to environmental factors (light, day and night duration, and seasons) and lifestyle choices (alcohol and caffeine intake, shift work, taking long naps during daytime, and unstable sleep schedule).
The social and physical environmental states whereby night-time light exposure and nightlife especially in urban areas may also contribute to this issue. These changes cause disruptions to the circadian rhythm, which increases the likelihood of mental health problems and jeopardises sleep quality.
While some factors that may cause sleep disturbances are not exactly avoidable, such as medical conditions like chronic pain, neurological conditions, heart disease, medication side effects, and mental disorders, sleep is still a targetable area for intervention.
One may opt for the prescription of sleeping pills or psychotherapy. While sleeping pills are effective for short-term treatment, cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-i), is often recommended as a first line of treatment by addressing the root causes of sleep disturbance.
The body’s regular sleep cycle is restored with (CBT-i), which encourages a learning process. The individual adopts lifestyle habits that support the body’s natural circadian rhythm and gains knowledge about how to reduce the conditioned arousal that fuels insomnia.
Technology has ignited a paradigm shift including within the healthcare sector, allowing modern technology to be incorporated into therapy. A new wave of therapy, digital cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia, includes the same components as CBT-i but is delivered through digital platforms such as websites or phone apps.
Smartwatches such as Apple Watch and Fitbit can also track their sleep patterns, and the data can be used to provide insight into one’s sleep pattern. Nevertheless, users should be aware that the data from such devices may not be accurate and valid.
Experts in sleep medicine are increasingly concerned that using wearable sleep trackers to monitor our sleep quality might result in less restful sleep causing, “orthosomnia“, an obsessive fixation with getting the ideal sleep.
The best course of action would be to maintain good sleep hygiene or, for those experiencing severe sleep problems, to consult a specialist. After all, it’s not only about the quantity of sleep but also the quality of sleep that steers the direction towards restorative sleep.
Nadrah Shafik is a lecturer and clinical psychologist at the Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Health Program, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Her research interests are in mood disorders and circadian rhythm — focusing on the sleep-wake cycle.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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Published on February 12, 2024
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"author": "Nadrah Shafik"
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Why we won't have a super El Niño this year - 360
Wenju Cai, Guojian Wang
Published on September 22, 2023
Reports of a possible ‘super El Niño’ this year might have been greatly exaggerated.
Media headlines may be saying the world could be set to face a ‘super El Niño’ this year, but in reality the likelihood of that is low.
After a triple-dip La Niña, in early July the World Meteorological Organization declared an El Niño is underway, and Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology followed suit this week.
Looking to history as a guide, this makes the likelihood of a so-called ‘super El Niño’ this year low. What scientists refer to as extreme El Niños such as the 1997 and 2015 events tend not to follow consecutive La Niña events.
Since 1950, there have been five three-year La Niña events — 2020-2022, 1998-2000, 1983-1985, 1973-1975 and 1954-1956.
None of them were followed by an extreme El Niño, and only one was followed by a strong El Niño in 1957.
All of this may be bad news for newspaper headline writers, but it’s probably better for the rest of us.
During the neutral phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, westward-blowing trade winds pile up warm sea surface temperature water in the western Pacific Ocean, and drive the upwelling of cold, subsurface water in the east along the equator and off the west coast of South America, forming a cold tongue extending to central equatorial Pacific.
Warm and moist air masses rise high into the atmosphere — referred to as atmospheric deep convection — over this western Pacific warm pool, producing rainbands or convergence zones over the western Pacific.
But during an El Niño, these trade winds weaken and warm sea surface temperature anomalies develop in the eastern equatorial Pacific.
Many scientists, like those at the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, define an El Niño partly as when these sea surface temperature anomalies are 0.5 degrees Celsius above average, whereas Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology looks for 0.8 degrees Celsius above average.
El Niños can vary in strength, from weaker ones with generally small effects, to strong ones. The strongest of them are sometimes called extreme El Niños. The last extreme El Niño was in 2015.
Scientifically, when an extreme El Niño occurs, the equatorial eastern Pacific anomalies are particularly large, meaning the sea surface temperature of the water is much warmer than normal.
All the convergence zones congregate in the equatorial eastern Pacific too, generating a massive reorganisation of the atmospheric circulation — for example, the centre of the western Pacific convection moves approximately 18,000km to the east.
This reorganisation also leads to devastating extreme weather events, like severe thunderstorms and tropical cyclones. For example, during the 1997 El Niño, extreme tropical cyclones killed many in the Cook Islands.
During past extreme El Niño events, severe droughts and wildfires have occurred in western Pacific regions, including Australia such as the Ash Wednesday bushfires in February 1983. There have also been catastrophic floods in the eastern equatorial region of Ecuador and northern Peru.
The South Pacific convergence zone shifted equatorward, spurring floods and droughts in south Pacific Island countries and inducing extreme cyclones to regions normally not affected by such events.
Other impacts have included floods in the southwest US, the disappearance of marine life, and the decimation of the native bird population in the Galapagos Islands because of absence of upwelling water that otherwise brings nutrients to the surface.
The associated global economic losses of such events amounts to several trillions of dollars each time.
The intensity of an El Niño event can be measured in two ways.
One definition uses the equatorial eastern Pacific sea surface temperature anomalies.
However not everyone uses this definition in the same way. Some people define an extreme El Niño as when the sea surface temperature is at least 2 or 2.5 degrees Celsius warmer than average.
A stricter definition of an extreme El Niño is when the average of the warm anomalies over the peak season of December, January and February is within the top five percent of all seasonal average anomalies or more than two standard deviations of the long-term time series.
The 1982, 1997, and 2015 El Niño events meet this definition, all with peak sea surface temperature anomaly averages between 2 to 3 degrees Celsius.
Whereas the strong El Niño event in 1957 was only in the top 20 to top five percent of seasonal average anomalies.
Another way of measuring the intensity of an El Niño event is to use the rainfall over the equatorial eastern Pacific. This reflects the impact arising from the shift of atmospheric convection and convergence zones to the equatorial eastern Pacific.
An extreme El Niño defined this way is when the equatorial eastern Pacific rainfall averaged over the peak season of December, January and February is more than 5mm per day.
The eastern equatorial Pacific is normally cold and dry, receiving approximately 1mm of rainfall per day. But the arrival of the convergence zones brings dramatic increases in rainfall, as much as 11mm per day during the 1997 extreme El Niño event.
One advantage of the rainfall definition is that it helps scientists assess how extreme El Niños may change under global warming.
For example, under global warming, the equatorial Pacific and particularly the eastern equatorial Pacific, is projected to warm faster than regions away from the equator.
The warming differential means that it is easier for the atmospheric convection centre and convergence zones to shift to the eastern equatorial Pacific.
Although this year is unlikely to be an extreme El Niño year, other research shows that rare extreme El Niño events are projected to occur more often under global warming.
Steps taken to limit greenhouse gas emissions will help stabilise El Niño-Southern Oscillation-associated economic and social risks in the centuries ahead.
Dr Wenju Cai is a Chief Research Scientist at CSIRO and a visiting scientist at Ocean University of China. He specialises in research into global climate variability and change, including conceptual nonlinear frameworks for extreme El Niño and La Niña, and the Indian Ocean Dipole.
Dr Guojian Wang is a senior research scientist at CSIRO and a visiting scientist at Ocean University of China. His research interests include the mechanisms of extreme El Niño–Southern Oscillation and extreme positive Indian Ocean Dipole, their impacts on regional and global climate, and their response to greenhouse warming.
The authors’ research referred to in this article was supported by the Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub of the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program.
This article has been updated and republished after Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology declared an El Niño on 19 September 2023. It was originally published on 10 July 2023.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: In the story “El Nino returns” sent at: 22/09/2023 17:32.
This is a corrected repeat.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on September 22, 2023
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"author": "Wenju Cai, Guojian Wang"
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Why we're still playing measles whack-a-mole - 360
Shelly Bolotin
Published on February 19, 2024
Measles is eliminated in some parts of the world, but it’s starting to make a comeback.
There is a gathering storm in many parts of the world right now. India, England, the Americas.
Health experts are sounding the alarm about a resurgence of measles — a completely preventable disease that can have devastating consequences.
Even in Australia, a handful of cases were reported in January after a woman travelled to India where the disease still has a foothold. The cases sparked renewed calls for parents to ensure their children have been vaccinated.
In England, inadequate vaccine uptake has led to a rise in measles cases in children and young adults.
Between 2022 and 2023, the World Health Organization reported a 45-fold increase in measles cases in Europe. Outbreaks have since occurred across the UK, Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia, prompting public health officials to issue urgent calls for vaccinations.
This recent resurgence of measles threatens to undo decades of progress made in controlling and eliminating the disease since the vaccine became available 60 years ago. Turning around this trend — even wiping out measles entirely — is not impossible, but it will require real commitment and learning from past mistakes.
Measles is one of the world’s most infectious diseases. In an unprotected population, each case can infect up to 18 other people. It affects several organ systems, can lead to complications like pneumonia, ear infections and brain swelling, and is estimated to kill one in every 1,000 infected. Since it affects the immune system, it can reduce a person’s ability to fight off other infections, even years later.
The measles vaccine saved an estimated 57 million lives between 2000 and 2022. This vaccine is the key to measles elimination (preventing the circulation of the virus) and eventual eradication (making measles disappear altogether).
Measles diagnosis is usually straightforward through laboratory testing or clinical exam. Vaccination is an inexpensive, safe and very effective preventative measure.
Although several primate species can be infected with measles, humans are the only natural host and other primates are not thought to be able to effectively transmit the virus. This means it’s possible to eliminate measles from several parts of the world, and make eradication feasible.
The challenge in eliminating measles is that about 95 percent of the population would need to be immune.
Achieving such high vaccine uptake is difficult even in the best circumstances. Since measles is so infectious, even small decreases in vaccine uptake can quickly result in outbreaks and allow measles to take hold in areas where it hasn’t appeared in decades.
Vaccine hesitancy, limited vaccine access in remote or resource-challenged areas, and conflict around the world resulted in nearly 900,000 cases of measles in 2019 — the highest number of cases seen globally since 1996.
The COVID-19 pandemic compounded the issue of missed vaccinations, with approximately 61 million missed measles vaccine doses in kids between 2020 and 2022.
These factors have now created a perfect storm as pandemic restrictions ease and people start mixing and travelling, while levels of immunisation remain dangerously low.
Retreating from the brink of measles resurgence will be a challenge. As the Measles and Rubella Partnership states, “Measles moves fast, we must move faster”.
However, measles elimination is within reach if the lessons learned about immunisation during the pandemic and previous to it are applied.
The first priority is to raise vaccine uptake, ensuring that children are vaccinated as soon as they are eligible, but also targeting older children and adults to close immunity gaps, with the ultimate goal of 95 percent coverage with two doses of measles vaccine. Doing this requires public health officials to be nimble and flexible.
Since different groups have different needs, concerns and challenges that must be addressed, vaccination programs cannot take a one-size-fits-all approach. Rather, the key to success is making vaccines accessible and convenient based on the needs of local communities.
This tailored approach — which is being recommended in England — can include mobile immunisation services, expanded clinic hours, and easy booking for appointments.
When cases arise, adequate disease monitoring systems to detect cases are required so outbreaks can be controlled.
Based on 2022 data, half of the countries that reported on their ability to monitor measles did not meet WHO standards for monitoring, meaning that it is possible that measles is circulating within their borders but they are not aware.
Simultaneously, it is essential to continue to tackle vaccine hesitancy and misinformation.
As was seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing information about vaccines — what they do and how they work, addressing specific concerns from the public and particular groups — builds trust between communities and healthcare providers and can help increase vaccine uptake.
As experience teaches us from the Americas, which achieved regional measles elimination in 2016 but unfortunately was not able to sustain it, political will and strong commitment are required so that each country can take ownership of its fight to eliminate, and eventually eradicate, measles.
Dr Shelly Bolotin is the Director of the Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases, and an Associate Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, at the University of Toronto. She is also a scientist at Public Health Ontario. Her research program utilizes a multidisciplinary approach to evaluate whether our population is adequately protected from vaccine-preventable diseases.
The CVPD is supported by the University of Toronto, which funds infrastructure, and faculty and staff salaries through a mix of operational funding, grant funding and financial support from private sector entities, including Merck, Sanofi and Pfizer. It has a robust set of governance processes at the University of Toronto to ensure independent operation of the Centre without influence from donors.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on February 19, 2024
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"url": "https://360info.org/why-were-still-playing-measles-whack-a-mole/",
"author": "Shelly Bolotin"
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Why women are often overlooked in household surveys - 360
Christopher Choong Weng Wai
Published on March 8, 2022
Women’s voices are systematically discriminated against when it comes to the generation of knowledge that underpins national policies.
The categories used in Malaysian household surveys are gendered, leaving women sidelined from receiving recognition and support.
Malaysia’s household surveys, which encompass income, expenditure and basic amenities, are used as tools to shape society and policies. However, the surveys’ categories introduce a form of injustice described by philosopher, Miranda Fricker, as ’hermeneutic marginalisation. This marginalisation prevents certain groups—in this case, women—from participating in the generation of social meanings.
However, the categories in household surveys are not confined to Malaysia. The Canberra Group Handbook which Malaysia references, is commonly used to set the standards for household income statistics and has been applied in other countries. It is an internationally accepted standard published by the United Nations.
The problem arises from using the ’head of household’ as the ‘representative person’ to arrange households into a set of categories, including citizenship, ethnicity, state, age, occupation, and industry.
If the household head is Bumiputera (a term used in Malaysia to describe indigenous groups including Malays, the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia, and the Orang Asal of East Malaysia), then the household is classified as a Bumiputera household; if the household head is in manufacturing, then the household is classified as a household in manufacturing.
In Malaysia, the household heads are selected by household members. While there is no clear standard for determining household heads, there is a common understanding that household heads are the main breadwinner. For example, a 2014 report by the National Population and Family Development Board states that ’[c]ulturally, a male is deemed to be the head of household wherein the said head of household is the main provider for the household.’
Indeed, household heads in Malaysia are predominantly listed as male. As such, the construction of social meanings derived from household surveys is premised on categories that are determined by male characteristics. This is not to say that women are not counted; they are, but their realities are arranged using male-centric categories, hidden under the household as a unit of analysis.
The idea of household heads being the main provider is based on the notion that a household is an income-pooling unit. However, in a 1981 study of the household budgets in a Malaysian village, researcher Diana Wong observed that household members, women and men, strictly maintained separate financial accounts. When they do make contributions to the household, their contributions are reflected as gift transfers rather than income pooling.
The effect of these gendered categories is perhaps best illustrated by the issue of citizenship. From 1989, Malaysia’s household income data has been ‘based on Malaysian citizens’ (the published data began from the year 1970).
Nonetheless, not all non-citizens are excluded, nor are all citizens included. Instead, what is omitted from the data is ’non-Malaysian households’ while what is maintained is ’Malaysian households’. Suffice to say, there can be Malaysians in non-Malaysian households and non-Malaysians in Malaysian households.
Given the male pattern of household heads, a Malaysian woman who married a non-Malaysian man is more likely to be excluded from the published data, but a non-Malaysian woman who married a Malaysian man is more likely to be included. This means that whether a woman is included or excluded ultimately hinges on the citizenship of the household head, regardless of the women’s citizenship.
The ’Malaysian household’ that is bound to the male household head also hides the fact that there are often live-in, predominantly female, foreign domestic workers in Malaysian households.
Malaysia’s surveys conceive of households as private residential units, as distinct from non-private dwellings like hostels, hotels, and welfare homes. However, from the standpoint of a foreign domestic worker, the household is neither private nor solely a residential space. The household is also a place of employment in which the boundaries of public and private are not clearly defined.
The ‘Malaysian household’ that excludes some non-Malaysian women, women in non-Malaysian households, and erasure of the realities of female foreign domestic workers is therefore a form of ‘epistemic injustice’. That is, knowledge production, representation, authority and understanding of their own lives is denied to Malaysian women.
The categorical rather than individual nature of the problem highlights how this kind of gender inequality cannot be easily resolved with more sex-disaggregated data, something the UN Sustainable Development Goals may be more prone to.
A practical solution is to release household statistics at the level of household members to enable a more detailed analysis of household dynamics. But gendered categories would still remain at the household level.
Solving the problem requires alternatives to how Malaysia categorises households without being fixated on the male-dominated notion of household heads. Only then, can this form of systemic discrimination be challenged.
Christopher Choong Weng Wai is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Warwick and a recipient of the Chancellor’s International Scholarship. Christopher Choong is also the Deputy Director of Research at Khazanah Research Institute in Malaysia, and a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity at the International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics. He tweets at @chrischoongww.
The author declares no conflict of interest.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on March 8, 2022
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"author": "Christopher Choong Weng Wai"
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Why your grandma doesn't want to Zoom - 360
Barbara Barbosa Neves
Published on November 24, 2021
By Barbara Barbosa Neves, Monash University
June, 73, has been living alone for 20 years. She tells everybody she loves living by herself, but she actually hates it. The silence of having no one around “becomes too much after a while”. Gurney, in his 90s, has been living in a care home for almost 10 years. The noise surrounding him is a reminder he is not by himself. Yet, he feels “so alone”.
June and Gurney share an affliction causing them endless sorrow: loneliness. Whether in aged care facilities or living alone – loneliness makes older people feel miserable and forgotten. And we know loneliness not only causes emotional suffering, it increases the risk of health issues from depression to dementia. According to the World Health Organization, it is a serious but overlooked social determinant of health in later life.
Loneliness, driven by social restrictions and physical distancing measures of COVID-19 was termed “the shadow pandemic” in 2020. While loneliness already existed before the pandemic, COVID-19 drew attention to those vulnerable to loneliness and to the fact we can all experience it.
Many people turned to technology to cope with the isolation of restrictions and lockdowns. But can technology help with loneliness in later life?
We feel lonely when we miss companionship, when we lack meaningful interaction with others. We can be surrounded by others and feel lonely, because what matters here are quality relationships, not just relationships.
Being older does not mean being lonely – loneliness is not a universal condition in later life. June and Gurney are part of older groups vulnerable to loneliness: those living alone or in aged care facilities, whilst facing health and social issues that restrict their opportunities for connection.
Digital technology can help create and support those opportunities – but its effectiveness depends on how it is designed and used.
Several technology-based interventions have been employed to address loneliness in later life, including general Internet use, apps, social media, virtual reality, and robotic companions. Using the Internet is associated with lower levels of loneliness among older people. And new evidence suggests animatronic pets can be successful in alleviating loneliness in later life.
Yet, technology-based interventions often neglect the diverse contexts and needs of older people. For example, we know little about the long-term impact and sustainability of these measures. Likewise, we tend to forget that interventions can have the opposite effect and unintentionally increase rather than reduce loneliness.
June likes her iPad, but she gets bored after a while.
Gurney can’t live without his computer, but frailty is affecting the time he is able to spend online.
Technology-based responses to loneliness can miss the mark.
The ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach is limited. Despite recurrent stereotypes, older people are a very heterogeneous group with different desires, aspirations, and capabilities. One technology or feature does not cater to everyone. Tackling loneliness with the help of technology requires more personalised and tailored interventions that overcome the idea of the single user or profile.
Loneliness is not a simple phenomenon, it’s a complex social issue. Western societies are more individualistic and place higher value on independence and self-reliance. But older people facing health and social issues that constrain their ability to reach out to others and engage in social activities are left out. And when they do talk to others about loneliness, they are usually dismissed or shamed for not “being more resilient” or “more active”.
There is stigma about loneliness. It’s seen as a personal failure. Older people who experience loneliness think they are no longer interesting or relevant. They internalise blame and guilt about feeling lonely. The social stigma of loneliness interacts with the stigma of being old and frail in a society that devalues both. Many older people don’t tell their families and friends about their loneliness because of how it affects their sense of personhood. They don’t want to be seen as dependent or an added burden. They suffer in silence.
And not all older people use or want to rely on new technologies. While many older people use new technologies and are tech-savvy, others do not for a variety of reasons from lack of skills to accessibility. The digital divide still impacts some older populations. During the pandemic, many found that learning to use new technologies on their own was difficult. Instructions were hard to follow, and technology support services were indifferent to their struggles. It made them feel incompetent and excluded. How we design and implement technologies and services is vital to avoid digital ageism or marginalisation and facilitate digital inclusion.
Techno-solutionism is popular, but social problems can’t be solved by just throwing more technology at them. Technology is often insufficient to fully lessen loneliness. People also need face-to-face contact and activities. Technology can help if it’s part of a suite of responses that include, for example, community-based initiatives to destigmatise loneliness.
It also helps to include older people, ironically often excluded from designing or testing technology expected to help them. Older people have critical life experiences and perspectives that can inform interventions and including them respects their autonomy and dignity.
June and Gurney are excited about technologies, but they don’t want us to forget that loneliness is not a technological problem – as they both noted, it’s a “people problem”.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Dr Barbara Barbosa Neves is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Monash University. She is a sociologist of technology and ageing, examining the impact of emerging technologies in later life. Her research bridges Social and Computer Sciences and focuses on the role of inclusive technologies to address loneliness and social exclusion among older people.
The research was undertaken with funding from Monash University and The University of Melbourne. Dr Neves declared no conflicts of interest in relation to this article.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on November 24, 2021
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"author": "Barbara Barbosa Neves"
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Wildfire spreading like the plague - 360
Stephen J. Pyne
Published on January 18, 2022
The way we think of fire informs how we manage it. For a long time we considered it physics, but perhaps fire is a biological phenomenon, like a virus.
By Stephen J. Pyne, Arizona State University
What is fire? Usually, it’s defined as the physical chemistry of combustion. The definition matters because it prescribes how we think about fire and what we do with it. If fire is a chemical reaction shaped by its physical surroundings, then we can deconstruct it into its constituent parts. Fuel plus oxygen plus spark equals fire. We can harness it, put it into machines, and contain it by physical countermeasures.
Another perspective might be that fire results from life – biological processes create the oxygen and furnish the fuel. Fire takes apart what plants put together through photosynthesis. Fire’s chemistry is therefore a biochemistry.
Fire depends on the living world to flourish, and facilitates a wide gamut of ecological effects. Perhaps fire is less like a Bunsen burner than it is a virus. Not alive, but dependent on life, it spreads as a contagion of combustion. Often thought of as a natural disaster, perhaps fire more emulates COVID-19 than a hurricane. If so, it responds to biological, not just physical, conditions.
The fire-as-biology analogy is surprisingly robust. When ancestors of modern humans captured fire, it more resembled domestication than tool-making. Tamed fire is more a sheepdog than a torch. The allusion seems strange because we are so accustomed to imagining fire in strictly physical terms and because, while fire radiates metaphors, it rarely receives them. Fire is fire, elemental: other phenomena are compared to it, not it to others. A plague spreads like wildfire. We don’t hear that wildfire spreads like a plague.
Where urban spaces meet the bush – the built environment most vulnerable to burning – protective strategies are similar for wildfire as for COVID. Clearing combustibles around structures is like practicing social distancing. Sealing houses against embers and direct contact is like wearing masks against aerosols and washing hands. Building firebreaks against spread – isolating the infected. Enough buildings shielded to limit damage from the unprotected ones achieves herd immunity.
Fire plagues result from breakdowns in how people and the natural world interact. They emerge, like so many new viruses, from unbalanced environments, when natural reservoirs intersect with human meddling. The flames of wildfires are not so much wild as feral. Thinking about fire in physical terms informs how to halt a fire that is blowing-and-going, but it doesn’t explain how to manage fire on a long-term landscape scale. A strategy for living with fire would mend the ecological fractures on which fire feeds and substitute controlled fire for wild. When outbreaks occur, a biological strategy for fire might respond not only with physical counterfire but with analogues of public health measures like vaccines, quarantines, and disease-specific treatments.
Plenty of burning happens in the undeveloped world, and massive land-converting fires are a characteristic of developing countries (think Brazil and Indonesia). But uncontrolled conflagrations are a pathology of the developed world. Rich countries who are most committed to an understanding of fire that deconstructs it into simple combustion and puts it in machines are the ones that have the poorest fire ecology, experience the worst build-up of fuels, and contribute the most to climate change.
Earth first experienced fire when plants began to colonise continents. Fire and early life on Earth evolved together – call it first nature. Then human ancestors acquired the ability to systematically manipulate fire. Early people grew bigger brains and smaller digestive systems because they learned to cook their food. With this second fire as a catalyst, humans created a second nature. But it was one with internal checks and balances since burning was contained within living landscapes. Ever looking for more stuff to burn, people turned to lithic landscapes – once living, now fossilised plants – coal and oil. These burned in special combustion chambers, and they lacked ecological barriers and buffers; they could burn day and night, winter and summer, through wet and dry.
The advent of third fire resulted from the dominance of the physical model in science and practice. And this unbounded combustion is unhinging the climate, acidifying oceans, and forcing living landscapes to reorganise. This third fire is remaking the planet, informed by fossil-fueled societies that are sublimating fire into electricity, replacing animals with machines, and rewiring geochemical cycles with plastics and petrochemicals.
The third fire challenged the first two. Fossil fuel combustion offered an alternative source of heat and light. It powers machines to suppress fire. It creates landscapes such as cities and farms intended to exclude free-burning flame.
But after a brief grace period, the three fires have begun colluding.
It is as though the world of the ice ages has passed through the looking glass and ice is being replaced with fire. Everywhere fire-catalysed change is driving off the vestiges of ice. Instead of massive ice sheets, there are fire-shaped ecosystems; instead of glacial outwash plains, there are smoke palls; instead of permafrost, biochar. Sea level is changing. A mass extinction is underway. The signature of humanity, long inked in charcoal and now in plastic, is being written into the geological record. A fire age is replacing an ice age.
The Earth has too much bad fire, too little good, and too much combustion overall. This is an artefact of humanity and how we imagine fire. We’ve treated it as a physical event that we can segregate from everything else like an axe or harness in a factory farm, rather than a process entwined with living landscapes and a companion on our journey. Fire may be our ecological signature, but it is not ours to do with as we please. Its power brings obligations.
Definitions, it seems, matter.
Stephen Pyne is a fire historian, urban farmer, and emeritus professor at Arizona State University, USA. His most recent book is The Pyrocene: How We Created an Age of Fire, and What Happens Next.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on January 18, 2022
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"author": "Stephen J. Pyne"
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Will AI help or hinder trust in science? - 360
Jon Whittle, Stefan Harrer
Published on April 17, 2024
AI tools are already being widely used in science. But can they, and the science they help produce, be trusted?
In the past year, generative artificial intelligence tools — such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and OpenAI’s video generation tool Sora — have captured the public’s imagination.
All that is needed to start experimenting with AI is an internet connection and a web browser. You can interact with AI like you would with a human assistant: by talking to it, writing to it, showing it images or videos, or all of the above.
While this capability marks entirely new terrain for the general public, scientists have used AI as a tool for many years.
But with greater public knowledge of AI will come greater public scrutiny of how it’s being used by scientists.
AI is already revolutionising science — six percent of all scientific work leverages AI, not just in computer science, but in chemistry, physics, psychology and environmental science.
Nature, one of the world’s most prestigious scientific journals, included ChatGPT on its 2023 Nature’s 10 list of the world’s most influential and, until then, exclusively human scientists.
The use of AI in science is twofold.
At one level, AI can make scientists more productive.
When Google DeepMind released an AI-generated dataset of more than 380,000 novel material compounds, Lawrence Berkeley Lab used AI to run compound synthesis experiments at a scale orders of magnitude larger than what could be accomplished by humans.
But AI has even greater potential: to enable scientists to make discoveries that otherwise would not be possible at all.
It was an AI algorithm that for the first time found signal patterns in brain-activity data that pointed to the onset of epileptic seizures, a feat that not even the most experienced human neurologist can repeat.
Early success stories of the use of AI in science have led some to imagine a future in which scientists will collaborate with AI scientific assistants as part of their daily work.
That future is already here. CSIRO researchers are experimenting with AI science agents and have developed robots that can follow spoken language instructions to carry out scientific tasks during fieldwork.
While modern AI systems are impressively powerful — especially so-called artificial general intelligence tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini — they also have drawbacks.
Generative AI systems are susceptible to “hallucinations” where they make up facts.
Or they can be biased. Google’s Gemini depicting America’s Founding Fathers as a diverse group is an interesting case of over-correcting for bias.
There is a very real danger of AI fabricating results and this has already happened. It’s relatively easy to get a generative AI tool to cite publications that don’t exist.
Furthermore, many AI systems cannot explain why they produce the output they produce.
This is not always a problem. If AI generates a new hypothesis that is then tested by the usual scientific methods, there is no harm done.
However, for some applications a lack of explanation can be a problem.
Replication of results is a basic tenet in science, but if the steps that AI took to reach a conclusion remain opaque, replication and validation become difficult, if not impossible.
And that could harm people’s trust in the science produced.
A distinction should be made here between general and narrow AI.
Narrow AI is AI trained to carry out a specific task.
Narrow AI has already made great strides. Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold model has revolutionised how scientists predict protein structures.
But there are many other, less well publicised, successes too — such as AI being used at CSIRO to discover new galaxies in the night sky, IBM Research developing AI that rediscovered Kepler’s third law of planetary motion, or Samsung AI building AI that was able to reproduce Nobel prize winning scientific breakthroughs.
When it comes to narrow AI applied to science, trust remains high.
AI systems — especially those based on machine learning methods — rarely achieve 100 percent accuracy on a given task. (In fact, machine learning systems outperform humans on some tasks, and humans outperform AI systems on many tasks. Humans using AI systems generally outperform humans working alone and they also outperform AI working alone. There is a large scientific evidence base for this fact, including this study.)
AI working alongside an expert scientist, who confirms and interprets the results, is a perfectly legitimate way of working, and is widely seen as yielding better performance than human scientists or AI systems working alone.
On the other hand, general AI systems are trained to carry out a wide range of tasks, not specific to any domain or use case.
ChatGPT, for example, can create a Shakespearian sonnet, suggest a recipe for dinner, summarise a body of academic literature, or generate a scientific hypothesis.
When it comes to general AI, the problems of hallucinations and bias are most acute and widespread. That doesn’t mean general AI isn’t useful for scientists — but it needs to be used with care.
This means scientists must understand and assess the risks of using AI in a specific scenario and weigh them against the risks of not doing so.
Scientists are now routinely using general AI systems to help write papers, assist review of academic literature, and even prepare experimental plans.
One danger when it comes to these scientific assistants could arise if the human scientist takes the outputs for granted.
Well-trained, diligent scientists will not do this, of course. But many scientists out there are just trying to survive in a tough industry of publish-or-perish. Scientific fraud is already increasing, even without AI.
AI could lead to new levels of scientific misconduct — either through deliberate misuse of the technology, or through sheer ignorance as scientists don’t realise that AI is making things up.
Both narrow and general AI have great potential to advance scientific discovery.
A typical scientific workflow conceptually consists of three phases: understanding what problem to focus on, carrying out experiments related to that problem and exploiting the results as impact in the real world.
AI can help in all three of these phases.
There is a big caveat, however. Current AI tools are not suitable to be used naively out-of-the-box for serious scientific work.
Only if researchers responsibly design, build, and use the next generation of AI tools in support of the scientific method will the public’s trust in both AI and science be gained and maintained.
Getting this right is worth it: the possibilities of using AI to transform science are endless.
Google DeepMind’s iconic founder Demis Hassabis famously said: “Building ever more capable and general AI, safely and responsibly, demands that we solve some of the hardest scientific and engineering challenges of our time.”
The reverse conclusion is true as well: solving the hardest scientific challenges of our time demands building ever more capable, safe and responsible general AI.
Australian scientists are working on it.
Professor Jon Whittle is Director of CSIRO’s Data61, Australia’s national centre for R&D in data science and digital technologies. He is co-author of the book, “Responsible AI: Best Practices for Creating Trustworthy AI Systems.”
Dr Stefan Harrer is Program Director of AI for Science at CSIRO’s Data61, leading a global innovation, research and commercialisation programme aiming to accelerate scientific discovery through the use of AI. He is the author of the Lancet article “Attention is not all you need: the complicated case of ethically using large language models in healthcare and medicine”.
Stefan Harrer is an inventor on several granted US and international patents that relate to using AI for science.
CSIRO is funded by the Commonwealth Government of Australia.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on April 17, 2024
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"author": "Jon Whittle, Stefan Harrer"
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Will AI replace doctors’ 'gut instincts'? - 360
Michelle Lazarus
Published on December 20, 2023
Doctors’ intuition plays a key role in healthcare, even when computers suggest another treatment approach. But with AI advancing, is that all about to change?
The value of healthcare workers’ intuition in effective clinical care has been verified by reports around the world again and again.
From doctors’ ability to spot sepsis in critically ill children, to ‘nurse worry‘ as a ‘vital sign’ predictive of patient deterioration, to helping GPs navigate complex patient care — intuition appears to play a large role in supporting high risk patients — even when data or computer outputs suggest another treatment approach.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has already begun to transform healthcare, and the health sector will only continue to consider AI innovations in 2024 and beyond.
In this increasingly technological world, questions swirl on what is the role of these human hunches in healthcare practice and whether AI is about to overtake doctors’ ‘gut feelings’ entirely.
As Thomas Davenport from Babson College and Deloitte consultant Ravi Kalakota explain elsewhere, AI healthcare includes ‘rule-based expert systems’, which use prescribed knowledge-based rules to solve a problem, and ‘robotic process automation’, which uses automation technologies to mimic some tasks of human workers.
Such technology can help with automated patient monitoring, where alerts are signalled once a rule criterion is met, patient scheduling reminders and medicine management.
Other forms of AI used in healthcare include robots, natural language processing and machine learning.
Robots can help move and stock medical supplies, lift and reposition patients and assist surgeons. One Finnish hospital has launched a €7 billion project, set to be completed in 2028, which will engage robots to collect patient data typically reliant on human physical touch: from measuring pulse, to taking temperature and calculating oxygen saturation.
The release of ChatGPT in 2023 marked a leap forward for AI in popular consciousness. This type of AI, which requires training on large data sets (supported by human feedback), focuses on giving computers the ability to read, support and manipulate human language. Such natural language processing has changed the communication landscape with its language mimicry.
While some note that the hype hasn’t quite been reflected in reality, professionals in a range of sectors — including healthcare — now use ChatGPT for correspondence, such as with drafting “sick notes” medication management, or to manage healthcare information.
There are predictions that healthcare Natural Language Processing will be a $USD7.2 billion business by 2028, with this type of AI being deployed to help translate complex published papers for public consumption, for analysis of electronic health records to help identify at-risk patients, and to interact with patients to help with triage or answer healthcare questions.
In 2024, some say this type of AI is likely to focus on more sophisticated language models that power chatbots and virtual assistants, and will be built into word processing programs.
Machine Learning gives computers the ability to learn without explicitly being programmed for a given task. The algorithms driving these types of AI are based on statistical and predictive models. Like Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning often relies on ‘training’ from existing data sets, which have been human reviewed and annotated.
Essentially, Machine Learning doesn’t automatically know what to look for, and without human-informed training this type of AI tends to provide lots of noise and useless predictions. Once trained, Machine Learning can take previously unseen patient information and apply its prior ‘training’ to analyse the data and predict outcomes, or make recommendations.
In healthcare, Machine Learning can recognise patterns which may be missed by humans such as described for AI’s role in patient survival of gastric cancer, identification of primary causes of cancers, and reducing breast cancer false positives.
In 2024, Machine Learning algorithms are likely to continue to be used for probing healthcare data analytics, with vast medical data provided by wearables, medical devices and electronic health records.
With all forms of healthcare AI — it is clear that humans are still needed for AI training, evaluation of outputs, and considering the impacts of the AI recommendation.
Given the global healthcare workforce shortages the proverb may be true: Necessity breeds invention.
It may not be long until healthcare includes integrated AI forms where a robot greets you in your native language for your annual check-up using Natural Language Processing, takes your vital signs, and sends a recommendation to the doctor on which patient to prioritise and what investigations need to be ordered using Machine Learning algorithms designed to analyse collected vital signs.
What AI can’t do is replace the natural ‘gut feel’ of a healthcare professional. And this won’t change in 2024.
The clinical reasoning and thinking process that healthcare providers engage is so complex, and the sources of information that the human brain considers in patient care are too numerous to capture with current algorithms. The implicit knowledge an expert relies on for effective clinical care is so deeply embedded in human automation, that methods to get at these data points often fail.
On top of this, AI-accessible data and the AI algorithms themselves can have flaws.
Machine learning can be overly sensitive, leading to over-diagnoses in some patients. Natural Language Processing AIs can act as healthcare trojan horses, where the technology is so convincing in its communication approaches that it tricks the user into thinking it is knowledgeable in the same way a human is.
There are also privacy concerns with such AI applications.
AI typically relies on data input to continue learning — and the clarity about what happens to confidential patient information when input into AI remains an open question for many platforms.
There are also challenges that the healthcare AI field is tackling related to bias and responsibility, and questions about what we consider ‘mundane’ and ‘repetitive’ tasks which AI can truly take off humans.
In reality (ironically), all existing AI is devoid of the necessary context within which healthcare occurs. It misses the complexity, the empathy, and important data points that human intelligence has access to, and can therefore only replicate specific human tasks.
A better description of the role of AI in healthcare in the future might be: “AI won’t replace the doctors, but those doctors will be replaced who don’t use Artificial Intelligence,” as Dr Sangeeta Reddy, director at India’s Apollo, has put it.
Healthcare AI is increasingly taking on roles of “clinical decision-making support”, meaning the healthcare provider is in charge and human intelligence is prioritised, while AI augments this.
Under this model, AI could be programmed to alert the healthcare provider on all the variables not considered in an algorithm, to help the healthcare provider explore to what extent the AI recommendations can be valuable in a specific context or with a specific patient.
For instance, if an AI is recommending antidepressants for a patient who is also pregnant, it would alert the doctor that such medications aren’t yet tested in this population — allowing the doctor to consider other data points in deciding the next best step.
To support this model — in which humans lead, but AI support — the AI-integrated future shouldn’t just focus on improving AI. An AI-augmented healthcare system must include healthcare worker training and support in both AI literacy and human intelligence literacy.
Education can also focus on helping healthcare providers recognise when to question patterns; how to challenge predictions; and the value of trusting intuition — essentially building capacity to tolerate uncertainty.
This future-protecting healthcare education would help reduce the risk of “automation bias,” whereby humans allow the AI to work autonomously and the algorithm is trusted, even in the face of clear evidence that it’s wrong.
AI has given us a valuable gift: the opportunity to explore what aspects of human intelligence are critical in healthcare, and which tasks can be enhanced with technology.
After all, both human brains and AI are wired for prediction, but humans have the power to interrogate, question and evaluate these predictions while AI has computing power beyond a human brain.
Both are needed to manage the complexities of patient care.
Michelle D. Lazarus, SFHEA, PhD, is the Director of the Centre for Human Anatomy Education and Deputy Director of the Centre for Scholarship in Health Education at Monash University in Australia. She is an award-winning educator, having received the Australian Universities ‘Teaching Excellence’ award amongst others, and is the author of the “The Uncertainty Effect: How to Survive and Thrive through the Unexpected“.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on December 20, 2023
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Will charges follow Israel's strike on aid workers in Gaza? - 360
Published on April 16, 2024
International law is supposed to protect civilians in war zones, but the enormous death toll in Gaza suggests rules aren’t being adhered to.
Since Israel’s invasion of Gaza last October, more than 200 aid workers have been killed. But it was the April 8 Israeli drone strike which hit a convoy of aid workers from the nonprofit World Central Kitchen, killing seven people, which has outraged world opinion.
Israel took responsibility for the deaths of the World Central Kitchen workers, which included three British nationals and Australian Lalzawmi Frankcom, citing “a mistaken identification, errors in decision-making and an attack contrary to the standard operating procedures”.
But, as University of Sydney Professor Emily Crawford tells 360info, the evidence suggests that Israel has been “pretty cavalier, possibly bordering on negligent” in its attacks leading up to the World Central Kitchen strike.
Contrary to the strictly defined laws of armed conflict, which prioritises the protection of civilians, Israel’s activity in Gaza has brought about considerable harm to non-combatants.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health reports over 33,000 people have been killed by the Israeli army, including more than 13,800 children, with the precise number likely higher on account of missing people and bodies buried under rubble.
What happens next rests with a domestic Israel Defence Forces (IDF) investigation and the response from world leaders. On chances of the strike leading to prosecutions, Prof Crawford says it “doesn’t look good”.
“Normally, the only option available when it appears that aid workers are being targeted ring is for the aid organisation to withdraw from the field,” she said.
See the full Q&A below.
When an aid worker or what could be perceived as a non-combatant enters an area of engagement, what are the rules protecting them? What kind of protection should they expect?
Any person who is not classified as a combatant under the laws of armed conflict is considered a civilian. Under these laws, civilians are entitled to a raft of protections, chief among them that they are immune from targeting by parties to the armed conflict. Any intentional targeting of civilians amounts to a war crime in both international and non-international armed conflicts.
Parties to the armed conflict are also obligated to minimise, as far as possible, any collateral damage to civilians and civilian objects, and to protect civilians from the effects of the conflict. This includes rules on not targeting civilian objects or other protected objects like hospitals, cultural property, food and water supplies.
What are the processes for identifying targets and authorising a strike? Does this involve considering whether it is lawful and if it meets a specific military objective?
Under laws of armed conflict, parties to an armed conflict, prior to and during an attack, must take steps to ensure that any object or person identified for targeting is a military objective and not civilian. Essentially, this involves the parties to the conflict assessing, based on their intelligence, whether the person targeted is clearly a combatant or otherwise directly participating in the hostilities as a fighter.
When targeting an object, the parties to the conflict must ensure that it is clearly a military objective. Any targeting exercise must also meet additional requirements of necessity and proportionality — that the attack was necessary to achieve a concrete military advantage that the means and methods of attack were proportional to achieving that advantage and it did not disproportionately impact the civilian population or civilian objects.
Any attack that does not meet these legal standards should not go ahead and, if it becomes clear during the attack that the civilian impact would outweigh the military advantage, the attack should be cancelled or suspended.
How does the application of the rules of engagement differ between the variety of roles being undertaken by combatant forces? To what extent do the rules of engagement vary between different methods of warfare?
Rules of engagement are set for each conflict and shouldn’t vary as they are based on laws of armed conflict, which is the minimum set of applicable rules.
Essentially, there is no difference between someone on active patrol to someone guarding a base to someone operating a drone: don’t target civilians, only launch an attack when positive the target is military, don’t target persons who are hors de combat (out of combat due to illness, injury or because they have surrendered or been captured).
Rules of engagement aren’t meant to vary, even in different circumstances.
How do NGOs and aid organisations seek to engage with combatant forces to ensure they can operate in the same environment to ensure their safety? Is it common to see these failures like the deaths of the World Central Kitchen workers?
Aid workers and other NGOs usually follow the practice of getting permission to be in the field and then engaging in constant dialogue with all parties to the armed conflict to let them know where they will be operating (known as ‘deconfliction’).
Medicins Sans Frontieres operates hospitals in war zones. They liaise with parties to the armed conflict, giving them, for example, the coordinates of where they are located (or transponders for vehicles/helicopters) so that the parties know that the site is civilian in nature and not to be targeted.
However, this dialogue and transparency can lead to intentional or accidental misuse.
In the case of Medicins Sans Frontieres, their hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan was bombed by the US in 2015. There were conflicting claims about why and how this happened.
Initially, the US claimed that Taliban militia were using the hospital as a base (which, if true, might have rendered the hospital a legitimate target). However, there were later reports that US forces had the wrong coordinates and that the bombing was a mistake.
Is there any publicly available evidence that might suggest that the deaths of the World Central Kitchen staff were something other than an accident? What factors suggest it was or wasn’t?
The Israeli Defence Forces’ (IDF) position is that a “series of mistakes and miscommunications” led to the convoy being targeted. However, the bulk of the evidence suggests that IDF targeting policy has been pretty cavalier, possibly bordering on negligent.
As noted by co-director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, Janina Dill: “If you have a humanitarian assistance vehicle that is clearly marked, that had communicated its route to the IDF and that was taking a route the IDF allegedly designated as safe, and you still misidentify that vehicle as a military objective, it is a very safe inference that your precautions in attack are insufficient, that the IDF’s procedures for target verification are insufficient.”)
If the killings were accidental or negligent, what sanctions could be expected?
If it was found that the IDF failed to properly observe the rules on proportionality and precautions in attack, anyone who ordered or carried out the attack could be found guilty of a war crime.
However, this would have to be prosecuted domestically in Israel under Israeli criminal law (or in a military court). IDF investigators are apparently preparing a report which, when finished, will be handed to military prosecutors to see if there are grounds to start proceedings.
For a potential case to be brought before, say, the International Criminal Court, there are jurisdictional hurdles to be overcome, such as Israel not being a member state to the Court. Although there is an open investigation in the ICC, including with regards to the events which have transpired since Hamas’ October 7 attacks.
What sanctions or potential prosecution may be available against the individuals in this case? What have been the consequences elsewhere where aid workers have been targeted?
While domestic prosecution or action in the ICC are possibilities, there is a poor track record of prosecutions for the targeting aid workers. Normally, the only option available when it appears that aid workers are being targeted is for the aid organisation to withdraw from the field.
What impact would this have on aid agencies and their ability to continue operations in the region?
This clearly has a massive impact on the ability of aid agencies to continue to operate. World Central Kitchen, among others, has paused operations in Gaza. At the moment, Gaza is one of the most dangerous places in the world and it’s not uncommon for aid agencies in war zones to decide that it’s too risky for their personnel to remain.
Given the amount of aid worker deaths in Gaza in the past six months, what can be done to protect aid workers better, and what culpability is there for those who have killed them?
Obviously, a ceasefire would be the ideal outcome for aid workers.
Given how unlikely that is, the best thing that could be done is for all parties to the conflict to continually review and assess their rules of engagement to ensure that laws of armed conflict in regards to civilians are being scrupulously observed.
All sides also should ensure that any targeting procedures do not take a negligent, cavalier or biased view of what renders someone lawfully targetable.
Parties to the conflict should also ensure they stay in constant contact with aid agencies and respect their civilian status. In terms of culpability – honestly, it doesn’t look good. There haven’t been many prosecutions that have resulted from the deaths of aid workers.
The latest information suggests that the IDF has fired two senior officers who authorised the attack, but whether they face further sanction remains to be seen.
Emily Crawford is a Professor of International Law and lecturer at The University of Sydney. She is also co-director of the Sydney Centre for International Law (SCIL).
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on April 16, 2024
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Will Gaza jeopardise India's energy resilience? - 360
Saswata Chaudhury, Sanchit S Agarwal
Published on November 1, 2023
India relies heavily on oil from the Middle East. The Israel-Hamas conflict could put that at risk.
India’s renewable energy transition has been commendable, but the nation still relies heavily on fossil fuels.
It is the world’s third largest oil consumer and imports 85 percent of its oil supply which makes it particularly vulnerable to any market volatility.
Around 60 percent of India’s oil comes from the Middle East which means any upheaval in that region is a major cause for concern. The Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is just the kind of crisis that could lead to destabilisation in oil production and affect the world oil prices.
India is also a close ally of Israel which could potentially affect Delhi’s trade relationship with Arab nations and therefore jeopardise oil imports, although India’s huge consumer market might shield against any harsh step by the Gulf oil states.
To complicate things, about 70 percent of India’s public sector refineries’ oil import is through term contracts while the rest are spot purchases. This means while supply is ensured, price and other conditions favour the sellers.
However, the duration of any conflict becomes crucial, too. If the war does not continue beyond the duration of India’s term contracts with suppliers, everything should be fine. But if the Gaza conflict drags on like the Russia-Ukraine war, India might need to generate import alternatives, although it would have time on its side.
India’s strategic petroleum reserve has enough crude oil supply for just 9.5 days. Private companies, on the other hand, have a cumulative reserve capacity of 64.5 days.
Many countries have their own strategic reserve plans to secure energy supplies in a crisis.
The US has the world’s largest reported reserve capacity of 727 million barrels which roughly amounts to 60 days of supply. China has 475 million barrels and Japan 324 million barrels.
All members of the international energy agency, which India joined as an associate member in 2017, are required to maintain an emergency oil reserve which can be released to stabilise prices in the event of any oil shocks.
India and Israel’s bilateral trade and economic relationship began in 1992 and is now worth about USD$11 billion. India is Israel’s second largest trade partner in Asia with USD$8.4 billion of exports and USD$2.3 billion of imports in 2022-23. Thus, any long-term conflict could be detrimental to the Israeli economy and therefore India’s balance of payments.
The Abraham peace accords, mediated by the US, and signed by Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in September 2020 benefits India, opening doors to many multilateral agreements with other nations.
India and Israel are also part of the I2U2 group, along with the UAE and US. The group focuses on joint investments and cooperation on water, energy, transport, space, health, and food security.
At the G20 meet in New Delhi in September 2023, a memorandum was signed between India, the US, Saudi Arabia, UAE, France, Germany and Italy to develop the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor’ (IMEEC) which would run through Saudi Arabia to Haifa port in Israel and onward to Greece.
The corridor would connect Mumbai and Gujarat port with the UAE through a shipping route and then a rail network connecting UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel. Haifa is strategically very important as it connects to Greece and the rest of Europe.
This proposed network could significantly enhance regional energy security. If energy security is affected by geopolitical issues like war, diversifying energy supply alternatives is a more realistic strategy. The Gaza war puts all such multilateral initiatives under strain.
Decarbonisation has received sufficient focus in Indian policy making, which was revealed by India’s nationally determined contributions, Net Zero announcement at COP 26, formulation and implementation of EV policies, and establishment of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) to promote renewable power and energy efficiency.
However, due to the inherent variability in generation of renewable energy, complete reliability on solar, wind and others to meet India’s huge and increasing demand for power seems far-fetched.
Energy transition through focus on renewable energy also faces other challenges in India. The major one is India’s dependency on China for renewable technologies and related important raw materials (such as rare earth materials).
Without indigenous technology development, the transition to renewable energy will merely transfer India’s dependence on oil sourced overseas to a dependence on renewable technologies and raw material from overseas.
In addition, the market for renewable technology and related raw materials is very concentrated which could lead to severe energy security threat in case of geopolitical issues.
However, a focus on green hydrogen and cross border electricity trade (CBET) could address those issues. While green hydrogen technology is still in its infancy, CBET is already taking place with Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. But reaping full potential benefits of CBET requires significant infrastructure development and various other cross border common regulations.
Given all these challenges, short- or medium-term geopolitical disturbance like Gaza would not be expected to influence the momentum to India’s energy transition but India will definitely follow its own decarbonisation pathway.
Saswata Chaudhury is a Senior Fellow, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi.
Sanchit S Agarwal is an Associate Fellow, TERI.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: In the story “Energy transition” sent at: 29/10/2023 10:45.
This is a corrected repeat.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on November 1, 2023
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"author": "Saswata Chaudhury, Sanchit S Agarwal"
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2,543 |
Will India's vote reshape ties with Malaysia? - 360
Rahul Mishra
Published on May 24, 2024
Deep historical and economic ties fuel India-Malaysia cooperation as they navigate the evolving Indo-Pacific landscape.
With India’s ongoing general election results expected on June 4, speculation swirls about New Delhi’s future foreign policy agenda.
One key region in focus will likely be Southeast Asia, with India’s Act East Policy reaching its ten-year mark in 2024. Within ASEAN, Malaysia stands out as a crucial partner for India.
Malaysia’s leadership role in ASEAN takes on added significance in 2025 as it assumes the Chair position. Malaysia’s ability to navigate complex regional issues, including the Myanmar crisis, South China Sea dispute, regional economic integration and connectivity, and managing relations with China and the US will be vital for ASEAN’s role in shaping the Indo-Pacific. India, as a like-minded democracy, is a natural partner for a peaceful, inclusive, prosperous, rules-based, and stable region.
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s upcoming visit to India scheduled for the fourth quarter this year underscores the commitment to strengthening strategic cooperation. This follows a period of increased bilateral interaction, including enhanced joint military exercises.
India and Malaysia boast a rich tapestry of connections woven from historical, economic, and cultural threads. The vibrant Indian diaspora of more than 2.77 million in Malaysia acts as a bridge between the two nations. Economically, Malaysia is India’s third-largest trading partner in ASEAN, with bilateral trade poised to reach USD$25 billion in the next three years. Malaysia’s leadership in the semiconductor sector aligns with India’s tech ambitions.
Indian citizens are now able to enjoy visa-free travel to Malaysia which permits a stay of up to 30 days for each entry and visit to the country, showcasing Malaysia’s commitment to strengthening bilateral ties with India.
Both New Delhi and Putrajaya are mindful of the importance of their partnership on diplomatic, trade and investments, technology, and higher education fronts but also for regional peace, stability, and growth.
The future of this bilateral relationship holds promising potential for further cooperation in areas such as digital economy, semiconductor, renewable energy, pharmaceuticals, traditional medicine, artificial intelligence, small and medium enterprises (SME) and cooperatives and regional security frameworks, making Malaysia an indispensable partner for India.
As one of the world’s biggest markets with huge skilled human resources, India offers equally important possibilities for Malaysia.
India is poised to become the world’s third-largest economy by 2030, with an expected 7 percent GDP growth in 2026-2027 fiscal year.
India is currently the fifth-largest economy globally, trailing the US, China, Germany and Japan. Foreign investment and the movement of supply chains are two positive elements for India’s future development. Over the last few years, India has increased its bilateral interaction, not only with the US and its security partners in Europe and Asia, but with countries in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia.
Despite the strong foundation, challenges remain.
Geopolitical issues, trade disagreements, and diplomatic sensitivities require candid dialogue and mutual respect. The humanitarian crisis in Myanmar and heightened tensions in the South China Sea are worrisome for both New Delhi and Putrajaya.
While the 2009 ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement is being reviewed by the two sides, ASEAN members have also urged India to reconsider joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. The recent increase in bilateral visits, including Anwar’s upcoming trip, signifies a commitment to addressing these concerns.
Since Anwar assumed office as Malaysia’s Prime Minister in November 2022, there has been an upswing in bilateral visits, highlighting a shared commitment to address bilateral and regional matters through meaningful consultations.
In March this year, India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar paid a courtesy call on Anwar and the two leaders discussed cooperation in the areas of trade, science and technology, education, agriculture, tourism, defence and also on regional issues including Myanmar.
Although the outcome of the Indian elections may not directly influence India-Malaysia relations, India’s rising trajectory in global politics and growing economic prowess are key factors why Malaysia should take India more seriously.
Malaysia’s economic platforms and strategic role has significance for India in sustaining regional security and stability, especially considering its Indo-Pacific engagement plans such as the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative and Security and Growth for All in the Region initiatives or SAGAR. The two countries have boosted their defence cooperation through enhanced and upgraded joint exercises, training programmes, and high-level military exchanges.
With over 30 years of institutional partnership between ASEAN and India and centuries of close ties between Malaysia and India, there is optimism that a shared Indo-Pacific vision can contribute to maintaining a peaceful, prosperous, inclusive, and rule-based Indo-Pacific region with ASEAN at its core and Malaysia playing a crucial role in engaging the rising new India.
Dr Rahul Mishra is a senior research fellow at the German-Southeast Asian Center of Excellence for Public Policy and Good Governance, Thammasat University, Thailand and an associate professor at the Centre for Indo-Pacific Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on May 24, 2024
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Will quantum technologies live up to their hype? - 360
Tara Roberson, Julia Cramer
Published on July 31, 2023
Quantum technologies have been the subject of much hype. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Quantum technologies are an emerging field that promise a wide range of technological advancements and applications, but with that promise has also come a lot of hype.
Hype is not unique to quantum.
Most areas of science and technology have examples of hype, which is used to evoke excitement about potential new developments and attract popular support.
But this form of communication can be problematic, especially given the potential for deception when hyped-up promises are not accompanied by disclaimers related to the conditions required for a promised future to eventuate.
Quantum technologies are based on quantum science, a relatively new field of physics. The laws of quantum mechanics were first explored only a century ago.
Quantum science describes the physics of particles at the small scale, such as electrons and photons. Such particles can, according to the laws of quantum physics, show wave-like behaviour.
These properties are now being explored as the basis of these new technologies such as quantum computers, quantum networks and quantum sensing.
With anticipated uses in a broad variety of sectors that stretch from health and telecommunications to finance and defence, quantum technologies are the subject of speculation and investment by nations and corporations worldwide.
These new technologies could have significant impacts, which research groups around the world are starting to review and monitor.
Quantum is often framed as ‘spooky’ or ‘enigmatic’ and the recent developments in quantum technology are often narrowly described, both in terms of the impact they will have on society as well as their possible applications.
This might hinder people engaging with this emerging technology coming from fundamental science, while the technology is already envisioned to be ‘disruptive‘ to society.
One area that is being studied is the communication that guides the evolution of the quantum technology sector and the structures that govern it.
One focus of this work is quantum hype, or sensationalist promises and exaggerated claims focused on quantum technologies.
However, this hype can have an unexpected — and potentially unintended — use.
The outcome of hype is heightened attention on the topic at hand. So, quantum-focused hype in recent years has elevated the profile of one specific type of quantum technology, quantum computing.
This heightened attention comes at a cost, which is the potential for increased scrutiny around the value the science or technology — in this case, quantum computing — brings and when this value may be delivered in full.
Questions have also been asked about the potential negative impacts of quantum computing, such as whether this technology will result in a cybersecurity crisis.
Parallel increased discussion on quantum technologies has also invited reflection on the problems and challenges this emerging sector may pose.
Potential problems include the worsening of unequal power distribution and human rights impacts as well as reinforcement of existing challenges like problems of data use and ownership, privacy, and algorithmic discrimination.
Simple solutions to the social challenges presented by quantum technologies do not yet exist within the sector.
Some suggestions for future work include working on policy that can help govern the sector and provide guidance on how technology developers can fulfil society’s expectations around privacy, security, and fairness.
Other areas of work include discussion on principles that can support responsible development of quantum technologies.
Popular communication — and hype — of quantum technologies has so far been created by experts in the field. This may change as new stakeholders are impacted by the emerging technologies, potentially introducing new aspects into the discussion.
Dr Tara Roberson is an associate investigator at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, based at the University of Queensland’s node. She is a science communicator whose work helps pre-empt positive and negative impacts of quantum technologies. This will help shape technologies that are both socially desirable and created in the public interest.
Dr. ir. Julia Cramer is an assistant professor of ‘Quantum and Society’ at Leiden University in The Netherlands. She is a quantum physicist and science communication researcher, interested in the boundary between fundamental science and society, and fascinated about communicating science to (non-obvious) publics. Her research focus is on quantum and society.
The authors’ research referred to in this article was supported by the Dutch National Growth Fund (NGF), as part of the Quantum Delta NL programme and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on July 31, 2023
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Will regional parties stop the Modi juggernaut? - 360
Satish Jha
Published on May 15, 2024
The battle for India is being fought in the states as the general election turns local.
India’s parliamentary election is no longer the one-horse race many had initially imagined.
The National Democratic Alliance, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is being challenged by the Indian National Democratic and Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), a grouping of opposition parties.
The 2024 general election has turned into a highly localised affair. This helps Modi’s adversaries.
It seems regional parties will play a decisive role in the contests taking place in various states. If the Modi juggernaut is halted, the regional parties are likely to have the last laugh.
Modi’s electoral applecart is being upset in five ways:
The regional parties are rejuvenated after a decade of hibernation and are putting up a good fight in their zones of influence. In the last two general elections of 2014 and 2019, they could not stop the Modi-led BJP. But this time around, they have regained their mojo.
Regional parties in India have a chequered history.
India being a federal polity, some parties rose on the plank of regional deprivation and sub-nationalism laced with caste and ethnic considerations.
However, many others were products of the socialist movement of the 1950s and 1960s. They got a new lease of life after the implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations for reservations in government jobs for the socially and economically backward classes (largely equated with backward castes) in 1990.
There are also Dalit (downtrodden or the castes listed in the Indian Constitution) political parties. They stand for Dalit empowerment and are tied to the political ideologies of social reformers like Jyotiba Phule and B R Ambedkar.
Then there are groups that have split from the Congress over personal and local issues. They exist in Bengal, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. There are also ethnic regional parties which are prominent in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kashmir, Sikkim and the other northeastern states.
The Aam Aadmi Party ruling Delhi and Punjab is an outlier among the regional parties. Though a product of an anti- corruption movement, it is a party with a neutral ideology and social identity which always looks for an opening wherever the BJP and Congress slip.
Most regional parties share two qualities: Barring those that splintered from the Congress, they are products of mass movements and they use identities — regional, linguistic, cultural and ethnic — to mobilise people.
Modi’s electioneering, based on the slogan of “Abki baar, 400 paar (this time around, 400-plus seats)”, in the 545-member Parliament has backfired. It has boomeranged as it has created apprehensions that the Modi-led BJP is eyeing a brute majority to change the Constitution.
Marginalised sections of society like Dalits, tribals, backward classes and other minorities fear that the constitutional guarantees of special rights, privileges and protections they enjoy may be taken away.
In the communal fear of constitutional change, the caste-based regional parties that have been struggling against the BJP have suddenly found a campaign issue to galvanise their constituency.
The Congress party, weakened and demoralised under Rahul Gandhi, has been advocating a countrywide caste survey and joined the chorus. It too claims that a third term for Modi would mean the end of constitutional democracy in India and the scrapping of reservations.
Modi has been put on the back foot — reduced to issuing denials and explanations.
In the past, the divided opposition votes in the states tended to hobble the performance of regional parties against Modi. However, this time around, the formation of the INDIA bloc has ensured that the opposition parties have put up a one-to-one fight in most states against the BJP.
The only major exceptions are Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
Despite the Opposition’s best efforts in Uttar Pradesh, the Bahujan Samaj Party of Mayawati refused to align with the Congress and the Samajwadi Party. In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress walked out of the opposition alliance and decided to go it alone.
In this election, the pro-reservation regional parties in the northern states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have tried to check the fragmentation of the backward caste votes by fielding candidates from the non-dominant castes among them.
The caste-based parties of North India have also learned a lesson from earlier failures. They have fielded non-dominant and extremely backward castes in good numbers based on their presence at the constituency level. This neutralises BJP propaganda that these parties favour only the dominant sections among the backward castes.
Over the years, the BJP has used the bogey of caste majoritarianism within backward castes and Dalits and by dissolving these castes through co-option and representation. It paid good dividends in Uttar Pradesh, in particular.
However, this election will put this strategy of BJP to test because there is no Modi-wave in sight and there is no all-India campaign narrative at play. These two facts have made this general election a highly localised affair — varying from state to state, as well as within a state at the constituency level.
Modi has to bear the brunt of the anti-incumbency of his alliance partners in some states like Bihar. Also, given the low turnout in the initial phases of the election, an anti-incumbency swing against 10 years of Modi’s rule cannot be ruled out.
The electorate also seems upset with the BJP’s undemocratic shenanigans — capturing and toppling state governments by engineering wholesale defections of legislators and splitting opposition parties through inducements of power and pelf.
It seems that the BJP-led alliance is struggling hard to retain its 2019 victory tally. It has either failed to form alliances with important regional players (as in Tamil Nadu) or formed them with parties already on a downward slide (as in Karnataka and Bihar).
After many years, it seems that the regional parties hold the key to this election’s outcome. Their performance will decide whether they succeed in eroding the so-called “Modi magic”.
Satish K Jha is Associate Professor of Political Science at Aryabhatta College, Delhi University.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on May 15, 2024
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"author": "Satish Jha"
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2,546 |
Will Russia push Biden on a path of techno-nationalism? - 360
Jacob Shively
Published on May 16, 2022
US President Joe Biden is attempting to unravel the tone of the Trump administration, but his actions don’t always match his words.
When US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral John Aquilino spent his April seeking to deepen regional strategic ties, technology figured prominently on this agenda. In India, he emphasised “integrated deterrence”, a recent US push to share more technological capabilities and security operations with partners. In Australia, he visited the joint US-Australia spy satellite facility at Pine Gap. The site exemplifies US efforts to extend technological integration with partner governments.
Aquilino’s agenda was inspired partly by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an act that has reinvigorated US President Joe Biden’s commitment to supporting partners and allies. And yet Biden’s strategic agenda remains a mix of nationalism and internationalism, embodying long-running US tensions between techno-nationalist policy and internationalist cooperation.
One of the US Senate’s youngest-ever members, Biden absorbed the chamber’s ethos of collaboration, deal-making, and mutual benefit. A cold warrior for 20 years but rarely a standout hardliner, he championed deals for nuclear arms reductions and boosted the liberal postwar order. In this strategic framework, international alliances and organisations married US military dominance and economic integration. It proved a winning strategy by the late 1980s. Biden never forgot the lesson.
Despite this, Biden’s team has also carried forward some of the Trump administration’s hard line on trade and technology transfer to China and Russia. And with supply chain pressures exposed by COVID-19, talk of greater national self-sufficiency has grown.
Biden sees emerging technologies and technology-heavy sectors in terms of jobs and self-reliance. He also worries that a great-power competitor like China might steal a march on US industry and national defence.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine activated his muscle memory: contain Moscow, avoid escalation, actively support partners and allies, leverage US dominance in the global economic and political system.
To his Indian counterparts, Aquilino described the war as “a violation of the international rules-based order. It is an attack on sovereignty and integrity.”
In a classic study of Japanese modernisation, Richard Samuels found that the country’s early 20th century strategists saw economic growth and national security naturally linked through technological prowess. Even after World War II, policies emphasised relative technological self-sufficiency and dual-use investments for corporate and military capacity.
The Biden team’s approach embodies these urges. Senior US officials across the Trump and Biden administrations have found themselves reaching for what might be termed ‘techno-nationalism’.
For Biden, liberal integration is geopolitically important, and technological co-operation is a key pillar of that platform. His administration’s push for greater co-operation ranges from military operations to the AUKUS deal to cyberspace coordination with a wide range of governments.
In late 2021, US officials formally adopted “integrated deterrence”. The concept remains hazy, however US strategic planners appear to be aiming toward deeper co-operation with allies who might help deter a rising China. Technical integration would play a key role in this approach.
In April 2021, at the University of South Florida’s biannual Great Power Competition Conference, a cadre of the United States’ top national security professionals grappled with cybersecurity in the shadow of the SolarWinds hack of US government systems, one of the “largest and most sophisticated” ever.
The professionals agreed that cybersecurity is an asymmetric challenge: adversaries have strong incentives to attack systems and infrastructure, and face few serious consequences. Policy responses aim to shift those adversaries’ cost-benefit calculations. But how?
Many reached for a catch-all: “collective defence”. It is a classic internationalist concept implying close collaboration with partners and allies in response to threats. But security professionals at this event referred only vaguely to international co-operation. For them, the real core of cybersecurity collective defence seemed to be arranging responses across domestic government and private actors.
In short, cybersecurity is a classic internationalised challenge, but under pressure, national security professionals reached for national solutions.
During the Trump years, officials had already pushed in this direction. Trump himself devoted little attention to cybersecurity, but he cast US strategic priorities in a markedly nationalist mould. In this environment, senior US strategists like Paul Nakasone, advocated a “defend forward” posture. This would involve proactively collecting intelligence on other nations’ capabilities and developing capacity to actively counter those threats.
The push emphasises US national capabilities and US talent. US planners remain alarmed by their own struggle to maintain internal cyberspace cohesion. Working with foreign partners, no matter the tactical and ideological benefits, may remain on the wish-list more than the must-have agenda.
Within days of taking office, the Biden administration initiated a policy review to press government agencies on acquisition of “Made in America” services, hardware, and computer technology. Another order activated a review of critical materials, agricultural, and manufacturing resilience alongside cybersecurity risks. SolarWinds triggered a cascade of executive orders. In June 2021, Biden revoked Trump’s blanket ban on specific Chinese-owned smartphone applications; yet, the order explicitly reaffirmed the Trump language about national security threats and the dangers of unguarded supply chains. In all these moves, Biden seemed to shift the tone, not the underlying logic of the Trump administration’s approach.
Yet another Biden executive order cast a broad agenda to “improve the nation’s cybersecurity”. It included processes to create “baseline security standards” for software purchased by the US government and to develop an energy star-type designation “so the government – and the public at large – can quickly determine whether software was developed securely”.
After reviewing critical energy infrastructure, the White House also released a national security memorandum, updating and clarifying methods for the federal government and private industry to “monitor control systems to detect malicious [cyber] activity” and then to share information and coordinate response practices. For some observers, the Biden failure to choose between nationalism and internationalism shows US foreign policy to be unserious about great power competition.
Whatever the case, sensible actions in themselves, each policy step to secure technological exposure further emphasises national self-sufficiency.
Biden and his team embrace international partnership, US military strategy values integrated deterrence, yet US technological exposure is sprawling, and the pressure to act is immediate. Accountable to constituents and his own ideological history, Biden embraces diplomatic co-operation but often ends with operational nationalism.
Jacob Shively received his PhD in political science from Indiana University and is an associate professor in the Reubin O’D Askew Department of Government at the University of West Florida in Pensacola, USA. His 2020 book is entitled Make America First Again: Grand Strategy Analysis and the Trump Administration.
Dr Shively declared no conflicts of interest in relation to this article.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on May 16, 2022
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"author": "Jacob Shively"
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Will self-driving cars solve traffic congestion? - 360
Susilawati
Published on February 16, 2023
It depends on whether we share them among the city’s commuters
Someday in the future, if you believe the hype, we’ll all get around in self-driving cars. With little to no human input these cars are expected to plan their trajectory and navigate using advanced sensing technology. The cars will communicate with other self-driving cars and road network infrastructure, increasing reaction time, and maintaining a consistent speed and distance from other vehicles.
In addition to making our roads safer, these capabilities are hoped to eliminate stop-and-go traffic, increasing road capacity, and optimising traffic flow. Over all, the prediction is that autonomous vehicles will reduce traffic congestion. But just how realistic a future this is remains unclear.
To realise the full potential of the congestion-busting self-driving future, substantial upgrades to existing communication technologies and transportation infrastructure are required. To handle the range of movements an autonomous vehicle can make, roads must be redesigned. To facilitate the car’s camera vision and object identification, road markings and signs will need to become clear and uniform.
Meanwhile, individually-owned self-driving cars may contribute little to traffic congestion reduction. Due to their convenience, self-driving cars may actually increase the number of trips taken. Self-driving cars may exacerbate urban sprawl with commuters content to relax in their vehicles for a long commute.
But shared self-driving cars may combat these problems and deliver the much-longed for free-flowing traffic. Like ride-sharing ‘pool’ services today, such as Uber, Didi, Lyft and Ola, self-driving cars trips could be shared with one or more riders. They could provide convenient and low-cost mobility-on-demand services. Shared self-driving cars may even complement or replace conventional fixed-schedule and fixed-route transit systems, such as buses.
Shared shared self-driving cars coupled with transit could be one solution to cities’ traffic congestion problems. For example in Malaysia, during peak hours, Kuala Lumpur’s road users endure delays totalling 480 million person-hours each year, costing the nation up to 19 billion ringgits (or 1.8 percent of Malaysia’s GDP).
Recent studies showed that middle-income commuters between 20 and 39 years old were the most likely to adopt shared self-driving cars, especially if they think it will save travel and walking time. Modelling of traffic flows showed shared self-driving cars could increase public transport use by 3 percent and reduce personal car use by 6 percent. But the study also suggested that when wait times for the shared self-driving car were shorter, passengers would be more willing to skip the switch to public transit and ride in the car for the whole journey.
Self-driving car technology is still a long way from being widespread, and there are plenty who doubt it will ever fulfill its promise. In the meantime, traffic congestion continues to grow. Strategies to reduce congestion exist already, such as public transport, congestion charging and flexible work schedules that allow employees to begin work at various times of the day. Pinning all hopes on a still developing technology would seem a poor solution to traffic congestion today.
Susilawati is a senior lecturer at Monash University Malaysia. Before joining Monash, she worked in multinational consulting firms as a spatial analyst in Indonesia and Australia. Her research interests are dynamic transport planning and modeling for autonomous mobility that considers the stochastic nature of traffic demand and road capacity to create reliable transport systems. She led two research grants on sustainable and intelligent transport and is co-principle investigator on several multidisciplinary projects on smart cities and active mobility. In 2010, she was awarded the Inaugural Young Researcher Award by the Australian Road Research Board. She declares no conflict of interest. She tweets @_uci_
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on February 16, 2023
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"url": "https://360info.org/will-self-driving-cars-solve-traffic-congestion/",
"author": "Susilawati"
}
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2,548 |
Will Trump make anger great again? - 360
Lachlan Guselli
Published on March 4, 2024
Attacking populists has been easy pickings for those trying to explain an increasingly angry world, but will ignoring the causes see history repeat in November?
The anticipated coronation of Donald Trump as Republican nominee for November’s US election is set to reinvigorate the debate of what a media savvy, celebrity, boastful, populist can potentially do to democratic institutions.
Much of the past decade has echoed a familiar drumbeat. Commentators, both experienced and newly formed, project their reason why Donald Trump will or will not make America great again.
However, few are willing to connect the dots that outside of any potential foreign interference or media collusion, Trump’s electoral success rightly or wrongly has been his power to connect with disparate groups of people.
In 2016, Trump had not aligned on policy or vision, but instead emotion. The vibe of the nation. A nation that believed it was in decline.
The millionaire New York property developer turned man of the people routine had effectively tapped into a deep seated anger within the community, one that felt it had been left behind.
The pace of modern life offers little time for reflection, but many draw a line from the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis, which cratered the American middle class, to the growth of populism and a decline of trust in institutions.
Effectively, the faces of the same institutions that bailed out the banks rather than the American people were now requiring help to defend democracy and all its sharper edges.
Trump leveraged that anger in areas that had been impacted by spiralling levels of wealth inequality, aided by manufacturing jobs flight from the United States, in search for higher profit margins.
The same impacts are being felt across the world, in India where unemployment among 20 to 24 year olds sits at 44.49 percent.
Pramod Kumar from the Institute for Development and Communication, Chandigarh told 360info: “Civil society organisations have claimed that unemployed young people are being radicalised by some political parties with their anger channelled into igniting communal insecurities, hatred and riots.”
Josh Roose from Deakin University who has served on multiple government panels on violent extremism says that this social dislocation and an economic model that has changed over the decades had created a much narrower gap for those who lionise masculinity to find success in the modern world.
He writes that “Many men have consequently turned online to find community and fill this vacuum and to air their grievances. Michael Kimmel refers to this as ‘aggrieved entitlement’, though increasingly, no expectation of success amongst some younger men emerges.
“We see men being drawn in to the ‘manosphere’, an online ecosystem of anti-women online actors that includes influencers such as Andrew Tate and that promote hyper masculinity, affluence, competitiveness and most importantly, belonging.”
Trumpism or even the populism of Narendra Modi in India is not unique, because the trick is leveraging emotion against logic. Emotion is deeply personal, anger is individual.
According to Queensland University of Technology’s Sebastian Svegaard, the presence of anger in the world is not new, but he claims
“What is certainly new is our level of exposure to polarising opinions and events, and this exposure happens in large parts on social media, where we spend so much of our time and, increasingly, get our news,” he writes.
“That anger breeds engagement online, giving rise to the term “rage-farming”.
Victoria Fielding from the University of Adelaide describes how traditional media such as Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and the radio shock jocks that still hold sway in countries like Australia are using “anger-tainment” as a model to keep holding of fleeing audiences.
“A form of “anger-tainment” has become a staple as the hard work of reasoned debate makes way for emotional reactions to the complex nature of modern life,” she writes.
The intersection between media and politics within the Trump eco-system gives the populist his popularity. Be it social or traditional the development within media of an almost reaction economy that rewards emotion over reason needs constant refuelling to pay dividend.
Svegaard believes that all consumers should take time to consider the way they interact with political communication: “Take a moment to reflect on why we are feeling this way. Do we really feel angry, or sad, or touched, or did we get drawn in by effective communication? Is it legitimate disagreement or are we being manipulated?”
Anger however is not simply used for those who choose to inflame pre-existing tensions. It is also the underpinning emotion behind progress.
Anger is also seen in the actions of Greta Thunberg, her scowling at world leaders triggered a youth climate movement which strives for a better world for her generation and a more just climate future.
writes for 360info that understanding emotional responses are key in understanding education too. A school student not being heard will eventually disconnect from the process.
“By acknowledging their concerns, respecting their differences and valuing their contributions, schools can support hope and aspiration that may combat the despondency and despair that is sadly a part of life for many.”
This example could be extrapolated across communities, potentially even in the United States or India.
Where the antidote to a crisis of democracy and the anger presented as the public face of trumpism requires a keen ear and support for mutual aspiration, rather than telling people they are wrong and leaving them behind from the spoils of victory.
Because so far, that hasn’t worked.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: In the story “An angry world” sent at: 04/03/2024 09:55.
This is a corrected repeat.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on March 4, 2024
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"url": "https://360info.org/will-trump-make-anger-great-again/",
"author": "Lachlan Guselli"
}
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Will we ever cure dementia? - 360
V. Srikanth
Published on November 24, 2021
By V. Srikanth, Monash University
If there is one dreaded word uttered by doctors to rival cancer, it’s dementia. Patients the world over fear its impacts: the lack of independence; the higher likelihood of ending up in a nursing home. As with cancer, there is currently no “cure” for dementia.
But the prognosis is not entirely bleak. It’s now becoming more apparent we may be able to prevent or delay the onset of dementia symptoms by living more healthily in our earlier years.
An often forgotten and more pressing need is how do we care for people living with dementia? Doing so will require investment both now and into the future.
Meanwhile, a large section of the scientific community is squarely focused on the search for effective treatments. Millions of dollars have been invested over the last three decades in search of a “holy grail”.
This despite the reality that dementia is a complex condition, an enigma to researchers.
For two important reasons, dementia cannot be “fixed” quickly and with great effectiveness – like a heart attack or angina is with a stent, or like some cancers can be with surgery. First, it’s a cumulative condition with multiple causes that impact on the brain at various times during a person’s life span. Second, dementia creeps up on a person with changes in the brain beginning decades before a person actually starts to show symptoms.
For most people, there is not a single cause behind their dementia symptoms, at least for the commonly seen progressive loss of memory and other functions in older age. In fact, some of the most comprehensive autopsy studies conducted in large populations find the majority of people dying with dementia show a variety of different types of brain changes probably occurring over a few decades.
Not only is there a build-up of proteins in the brain called amyloid and tau that are traditionally regarded as markers of Alzheimer’s disease, but also changes seen in other conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, and importantly, evidence of damage from poor cardiovascular health such as strokes.
People are more likely to show symptoms of dementia during life if they have a combination of these brain changes rather than just one of them, suggesting that a little of each may add up over time.
Many of these brain changes occur silently and at various times during a person’s lifespan, and at varying rates in different people. There comes a point when the brain’s ability to function well becomes compromised, and this is when the first symptoms occur.
This is why there is no one “thing” we can blame for causing dementia, and why it’s so hard to find that silver bullet to stop dementia – particularly at older ages.
Even benefits of the handful of medications developed for dementia are, at best, very small and debatable. They’re also not easily available for a large section of the global community.
The prescription of the newest, and most hotly contested medication for people with early dementia requires a highly specialised brain scan not available to the majority of people in high-income countries, let alone for those in middle and low-income countries.
A logical question that follows is, what can be done about reducing the burden of dementia?
The answer is in fact, quite a lot.
There are several things people and governments can do to drive down symptoms of dementia and “flatten the curve” of dementia in whole populations.
For the general public, this means promotion of healthy diets and physical activity. For people with risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart rhythm abnormalities, and high cholesterol, good management of cardiovascular health is required.
In high-income populations there is evidence of a reducing incidence of new cases, most likely due to the benefits of improvements in lifestyle and cardiovascular health over the past three decades.
The challenge is translating this to middle and low-income countries with larger, more diverse populations where the burden of dementia is fast increasing. Education and health literacy is a key element of protection against dementia, a measure that requires investment.
But the elephant in the room is the serious lack of investment to support people already living with dementia. Removing the stigma related to dementia and improving environments, access to care, connectedness to communities, and health services should be supported by investment, research effort and actions equal to, if not greater than the resources directed towards the finding of a magic cure.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™
Prof V. Srikanth is a clinical specialist in Geriatric Medicine and a research expert in health related to ageing. He is the Director of the National Centre for Healthy Ageing. His primary expertise are in the fields of dementia, cerebrovascular disease, falls and frailty.
Prof Srikanth declared no conflicts of interest in relation to this article.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on November 24, 2021
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Winning over Jakartans key to implementing congestion charging - 360
Sugiarto Sugiarto
Published on February 16, 2023
Congestion charging might be unpopular, but other cities have shown it works to get traffic moving. The Indonesian government could take note.
Congestion charging is coming to Jakarta, despite public opposition. Evidence from around the world shows it is the best policy to get traffic flowing in Indonesia’s congested capital.
The traffic in Jakarta is getting worse. Economic growth has led not only to rapid urbanisation, but also to the metropolitan area sprawling into endless suburbs. Commuters in private cars have caused the city centre to suffer from heavy traffic congestion increasing travel times, air pollution, energy consumption, and causing serious economic loss.
As far back as 2004, an Integrated Transportation Master Plan for greater Jakarta, known as Jabodetabek, proposed a congestion charge.
Early attempts to reduce congestion included requiring each vehicle to have at least three passengers during peak hours. But people offered themselves, or their children, up as passengers to get around the rule, which led to its abandonment in 2016. Then, the government tried an odd-even licence plate policy. A three-month trial of electronic road pricing (ERP) technology took place in 2014.
But since the end of last year, the government has been preparing the groundwork for implementing an ERP policy. The ERP is aimed to be in place by 2024 and is expected to cut private vehicle use by about 30 percent.
Congestion charging has been successfully implemented in countries around the world, from Singapore and London to Stockholm and Milan. The UK capital effectively reduced car traffic by up to 18 percent after the first year of congestion price implementation.
Yet, congestion charging is a challenging policy to implement. Indonesia’s various attempts to date have failed. And congestion charges have been rejected by the people of Edinburgh, New York City and Manchester, among others. The public glare surrounding the referenda on some of these proposals led to their rejection by 70–80 percent of voters.
It is social and legal issues rather than technical hurdles that will make the ERP difficult to implement in emerging cities like Jakarta. The public is generally sceptical about such a policy, and car users typically oppose it.
But one investigation found emphasising certain aspects of traffic congestion can lead to greater acceptance of congestion charges.
People who had “awareness of the city’s environment” and “awareness of the problem of cars in society” were the most accepting of congestion charging. Emphasising the problem of cars and their negative effects on the air and environment of Jakarta could be key to winning over the doubters.
If implemented correctly, the ERP could alleviate some of the relentless traffic jams of Jakarta. The social and legal issues are still the government’s homework that is yet to submit. But the greater challenge will be convincing Jakartans that the charge is in their best interests.
Sugiarto is a professor in transport planning and policy at the Department of Civil Engineering, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Aceh Province, Indonesia. His special interest and experience are in transport planning and policies, specifically his research focuses on travel behaviour analysis, choice modelling, travel demand forecasting, investigation of transport policies, exploring interrelations between transport and environment, sustainable transport planning, transport psychology, and traffic safety analysis and management.
He tweets @WsSugiarto
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: In the story “Gridlock unlocked” sent at: 13/02/2023 09:19.
This is a corrected repeat.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on February 16, 2023
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"url": "https://360info.org/winning-over-jakartans-key-to-implementing-congestion-charging/",
"author": "Sugiarto Sugiarto"
}
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With HIV PrEP one size does not fit all - 360
Gilda Tachedjian
Published on December 1, 2023
Access to a variety of PrEP methods allows women to choose what best suits them, depending on their context and where they are in their reproductive lifespan.
Oral pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP are medications that are highly effective at reducing the risk of HIV transmission, but they don’t work for everyone.
HIV has been around for more than 40 years, yet it remains a major public health problem.
While HIV is commonly thought of as an infection that predominantly affects men who have sex with men, 53 percent of people living with HIV in 2022 were women and girls.
And of the 1.3 million new HIV infections that year, 46 percent were among adolescent girls and women, the majority living in sub-Saharan Africa.
Driving down new HIV infections is a key part of achieving a 90 percent reduction in HIV infections by 2030, as called for in the Sustainable Development Goals.
But it will require access to a variety of prevention methods to ensure all those at risk of contracting HIV can choose methods that best suit their circumstances.
Eliminating HIV transmission currently relies on using antiretroviral drugs in two different ways.
The first is ‘treatment as prevention‘, whereby the viral load in someone living with HIV is suppressed to undetectable levels.
This strategy underpins UNAIDS 90-90-90 campaign to test 90 percent of individuals, ensure that 90 percent of these individuals are on treatment, and that 90 percent of these individuals are fully suppressed to decrease transmission of HIV.
A study published earlier this year in The Lancet confirmed that if someone’s viral load is less than 1,000 copies of the HIV virus per millilitre of bodily fluids, the risk of HIV transmission through sex is virtually zero. This finding supports the Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U) global campaign.
The second strategy is HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, in which antiretroviral drugs are used to protect individuals at high risk of acquiring HIV through sex from their partners.
First generation HIV PrEP was approved in 2012. An oral pill called Truvada combines two antiretroviral drugs, tenofovir disoproxil and emtricitabine, which target reverse transcriptase, a key HIV protein the virus needs to reproduce.
Oral PrEP works, as long as those using it remember to take it.
Men can miss some doses of PrEP and still be protected from HIV, but oral PrEP is less forgiving if a woman misses taking her daily pill.
Daily pills are needed to maintain protective drug levels in the vagina, which is the main route of HIV acquisition in women. In contrast, higher drug levels are reached in the rectum, which is the main route of HIV entry in men who have sex with men.
Context is important is understanding why women don’t just take their daily oral PrEP.
Oral PrEP use in adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa is associated with stigma due to lack of pill storage options, which makes discrete use of the medication difficult, and side effects.
In addition, daily oral regimens are challenging for adolescent girls and young women to stick to. While adherence might be high at the start of taking oral PrEP, it decreases over time.
Having the ability to choose from and access a variety of PrEP methods allows women to choose what suits their different contexts and what is suitable at different points of their reproductive lifespans.
Women may prefer PrEP that is delivered in a different way — for example, via injection or implant, or vaginally — as well as medication that is longer-acting and requires less frequent dosing — for example, once every two months or less often, as opposed to daily.
Choice and diversity of options resulting in an increase in adherence and uptake is well established for contraceptives to prevent unplanned pregnancies. The same options could be provided for women to protect themselves against acquiring HIV.
Second-generation PrEP options include the long-acting injectable cabotegravir. Cabotegravir belongs to the class of HIV drugs called integrase inhibitors. It is delivered into the body by intramuscular injections once every eight weeks for protection against HIV.
A phase three randomised clinical trial performed in seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa showed that the efficacy of injectable cabotegravir was greater when compared to daily oral Truvada for preventing HIV in uninfected cisgender women. Only four women became infected in the cabotegravir group, compared with 36 in the Truvada group.
While oral and injectable PrEP medications are effective, not all women want to take systemic forms of PrEP, because of fear of side effects. These women may prefer a topical form of PrEP, for example direct delivery of the antiretroviral drug into the vagina.
Vaginal delivery of drugs is an untapped frontier for drug discovery.
For topical PrEP, this has the advantage of delivering high antiretroviral drug levels locally in the vagina, with minimal drug levels in a woman’s system, minimal side effects and a reduced chance of the virus becoming resistant to the drug.
Vaginal delivery can come in a variety of forms, including gels, tablets, films and intravaginal rings.
However, the only form of topical PrEP that has so far shown efficacy in preventing HIV infection in phase three clinical studies is the dapivirine ring.
The dapivirine ring is the only PrEP strategy specifically designed for women. It is an intravaginal ring made of flexible silicone loaded with 25mg of the antiretroviral drug, dapivirine, which is gradually released into the vagina over a four-week period.
Phase three studies showed the dapivirine ring could reduce HIV acquisition by 30 percent compared to a placebo ring, with efficacy being lower in women younger than 21 years of age due to low adherence.
However, follow-up studies with the dapivirine ring showed that it could provide about 50 percent or more protection if used consistently.
The ring received WHO prequalification in 2020 and has regulatory approvals in a limited number of countries, including Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
There are also devices in the development stage that go one step further, called multipurpose prevention technologies.
These include intravaginal rings designed to not only prevent HIV but also prevent unplanned pregnancy and even treat bacterial vaginosis.
Bacterial vaginosis commonly occurs when the bacteria living in a woman’s vagina are out of balance.
The condition results in vaginal inflammation and increases the risk of a woman acquiring HIV and other STIs, as well as increasing the risk of other adverse sexual and reproductive health outcomes.
In contrast, women who have an optimal vaginal microbiome, dominated by beneficial bacteria, are protected against HIV.
A product delivering molecules to the vagina that can target or prevent bacterial vaginosis as well as prevent HIV may also increase the efficacy of topical PrEP.
One device addressing multiple targets has the advantage of potentially addressing stigma associated with an agent specifically being used to prevent HIV, in addition to improving compliance and ultimately effectiveness.
Women having choice and access to diverse biomedical HIV prevention strategies and input into the design of these interventions will be important for achieving the goal of eliminating HIV transmission by 2030.
Professor Gilda Tachedjian is a Senior Principal Research Fellow at the Burnet Institute and Adjunct Professor at Monash University. Her research focuses on antivirals for HIV treatment and prevention, with a particular focus on HIV prevention in women and understanding the role of the vaginal microbiome in modulating HIV acquisition. Her ultimate goal is to translate her discoveries into novel interventions to optimise the vaginal microbiome to transform women’s sexual and reproductive health.
Professor Tachedjian’s research has been funded by Burnet Institute, the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC), the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), the Australian Centre for HIV, Hepatitis B/C and HTLV Virology Research, the Campbell Foundation and the Victorian Medical Research Acceleration Fund (VMRAF). Professor Tachedjian is co-inventor on a granted US patent for a method to decrease genital inflammation.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on December 1, 2023
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"author": "Gilda Tachedjian"
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With suicide no longer a crime, the real work begins - 360
Maryam Ayub, Sadiq Naveed
Published on April 19, 2023
In December 2022, Pakistan repealed the penal code criminalising attempted suicide. Now the focus can shift to better understanding the scope of the crisis.
Content warning: This article discusses sensitive topics such as suicide that some readers may find distressing.
Last year a female student from Lahore jumped from the third floor of her university college, in an attempted suicide.
She had been married 15 days before the event, and her mother said she had some issues with her marriage and was mentally disturbed. She was taken to hospital in a safe but critical condition.
Research shows most suicides in Pakistan are completed by people under the age of 30, with more men than women dying by suicide.
Like other low- and middle-income countries, it bears a heavier burden of suicide than high-income countries. Nearly 2,300 suicides were reported by Pakistani newspapers in 2019 and 2020 but the real figure is likely to be much higher due to significant under-reporting.
Data also suggests being married could be a suicide risk factor for Pakistani women, which is in contrast to Western countries where marriage has been shown to be a protective factor against suicide.
Due to a recent change in the law, individuals with suicidal behaviours would now be unlikely to face criminal penalties with the repeal of the section of the Pakistan Penal Code criminalising suicide attempts in December 2022.
But decriminalisation on its own may not be enough to tackle Pakistan’s suicide crisis.
It can lead to pathways for comprehensive healthcare programs that target suicide reduction, specifically focusing on reducing the stigma attached to suicides. This will enable people to seek the help they need.
Previously, suicidal behaviour may have been concealed due to a lack of reporting or misclassification of the event due to the law.
The dread of intimidation and humiliation by police and social stigma prevented people from visiting public hospitals. Cases were brought to private hospitals, where they were neither investigated nor reported to the authorities because of the difficulties with police reporting.
All mainstream religions including Islam, condemn those who complete suicide. There are no clearly indicated legal and societal punishments in the Quran for those who survive suicide attempts.
Religions can govern morality and dictate a code of conduct, but religious principles must be used carefully if used in the formulation of criminal laws. Using religion as a basis for devising legislation is a delicate issue and needs careful consideration.
Moreover, the lack of a liaison between mental healthcare providers and legal systems, and primary healthcare workers’ inability to recognise suicidal signs and conduct risk assessments for high-risk patients also contributed to the suicide crisis.
Thus, the previous rates of completed and attempted suicide in Islamic countries such as Pakistan may be misleading.
Decriminalisation may allow better quality data around suicidal behaviour in Pakistan to be collected, so the phenomenon can be better understood and diagnosed.
Other proven suicide prevention strategies that can now be applied more widely are restricting the means to attempt suicide — for example pesticides and firearms, improving mental health literacy and access to psychosocial support and responsible media coverage of suicide.
For example, according to 2020 data from the WHO, the Pakistani population has very poor access to psychiatric treatment facilities.
For a population of over 200 million people, there are only 0.14 registered psychiatrists, 0.05 psychologists, and 0.28 social workers per 100,000 people in Pakistan.
The majority of the population lives in rural areas, but most psychiatric services are available in urban settings.
There are also thought to be other health issues at play.
For women in Pakistan, studies have consistently reported that the effects of men’s patriarchal dominance over women, lower socio-economic status of women and girls in the family and society, lower female educational attainments, forced and/or early marriage, divorce or threat to divorce, forced childbearing, infertility, conflicts with in-laws and different forms of abuse and oppression are strongly associated with suicidal behaviours among women and girls.
The rates of depression are high in population-based studies from Pakistan due to the higher prevalence of socioeconomic challenges.
Depression and other mental health problems are often undiagnosed and untreated in Pakistan, which likely contributes to the suicide rates in the country.
Responsible reporting about deaths by suicide can be used to raise awareness of mental health issues and notify readers about helpful resources they can access, like helplines.
If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, visit https://findahelpline.com/i/iasp.
is a Resident Physician, Academic Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, King Edward Medical University, Lahore, Pakistan. Her research interests are public mental health, suicide prevention and mental health advocacy.
is the Psychiatry Program Director, Eastern Connecticut Health Network, Connecticut, USA. Dr Naveed is also an Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Connecticut, USA. His research interests are suicide, evidence-based medicine, and infant mental health.
They declared they have no conflict of interest and did not receive any specific funds.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: In the story “Decriminalising suicide” sent at: 19/04/2023 10:42.
This is a corrected repeat.
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Published on April 19, 2023
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"url": "https://360info.org/with-suicide-no-longer-a-crime-the-real-work-begins/",
"author": "Maryam Ayub, Sadiq Naveed"
}
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2,553 |
Without data Indonesia’s gender equality promise falters - 360
Antik Bintari, Universitas Padjadjaran
Published on March 8, 2022
Missing gender data means Indonesia’s development programs are poorly targeted, hindering gender mainstreaming goals enacted 22 years ago.
Indonesia, a strongly patriarchal society, is trying to close the gender gap. Progress has been slow.
Indonesia’s gender inequality index is among the highest of the ASEAN countries, according to the UN. Only Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar rank lower. Indonesia is 85th out of 149 countries in the global gender gap rankings.
Despite having the same level of education, Indonesian women and men still experience significant wage differences, with women earning 59.27 percent of what their male counterparts with the same level of schooling bring home.
Many Indonesian women choose jobs related to domestic work as caregivers, nurses, and teachers. They also tend to work in the informal sector, missing out on the empowerment formal work offers. The wage gap is not just large in rural areas, data for urban areas shows the average salary of female workers is IDR2,722,531 (US$190), while men get an average wage of IDR 3,503,050 (US$244).
Indonesia’s government isn’t ignoring the issue — it ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women some 22 years ago But it lacks the gender-differentiated data and information to thoroughly assess the situation and develop appropriate, evidence-based responses and policies.
Indonesia has adopted the idea of gender mainstreaming – bringing gender perspectives and the goal of gender equality to all activities – policy development, research, advocacy/ dialogue, legislation, resource allocation, and planning, implementation and monitoring of programs and projects. But the promise isn’t reflected in government budgeting.
Despite a strategy launched in 2013 to adopt gender-responsive budgeting, Indonesia does not state exact figures regarding the nominal financing for gender-responsive programs. It could learn from the Philippines. Its government requires all national agencies to set aside 5 percent of their allocation of funds for gender and development. In 1998 this was expanded so both local and national government agencies could develop gender-responsive planning and budgeting capabilities.
Indonesia’s progress toward gender equality also remains slow because gender mainstreaming is largely just aligned with governments or institutions focused on women’s empowerment affairs. This simply reinforces the outdated understanding that gender issues are not mainstream and don’t cut across all sectors.
There’s also a lack of skilled people in government with an understanding of gender issues and the need for gender-disaggregated data.
Ideally, several years’ of data would be available for policymakers to allow them to track changes and take corrective action. In reality a lack of sex-disaggregated data has resulted in an incomplete picture of women’s and men’s lives — and the gaps that persist between them.
Globally, close to 80 percent of countries regularly produce sex-disaggregated statistics on mortality, labor force participation, and education and training. But less than one-third of countries disaggregate statistics by sex on informal employment, entrepreneurship (ownership and management of a firm or business) and unpaid work, or collect data about violence against women.
More and better data is required to contribute to a meaningful policy dialogue on gender equality and provide a solid evidence base for development policy. Disaggregated data can be hard to come by in some regions of Indonesia. Data is available only in certain fields that are relatively easy to measure such as education, health and employment.
As an example of data on the poor, some data sources list the number of poor women and men, but give no clear age division. But poverty impacts children, adults and the elderly in different ways. As a result, many programs are not well targeted because they do not take into account the needs of the different recipients of poverty reduction programs.
Indonesia’s Central Statistics Agency is responsible for disaggregated data, most of which is quantitative and general in nature. Getting specific and qualitative data is costly.
This unintegrated data collection is a problem for many institutions, considering not all government institutions in the regions have a budget for data collection.
The best hope for change is in the realm of Indonesia’s development planning. Gender equality can contribute to economic growth, and programs making it onto Indonesia’s development planning are assigned funding. Scrutiny of gender-responsive programs within this envelope could help improve planning and funding in future budgets.
Antik Bintari is a researcher and lecturer at the Gender and Children Research Centre at Indonesia’s Universitas Padjadjaran. Her works focuses on politics, governance, gender and child issues.
The author declared no conflict of interest in relation to this article.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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Published on March 8, 2022
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"url": "https://360info.org/without-data-indonesias-gender-equality-promise-falters/",
"author": "Antik Bintari, Universitas Padjadjaran"
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Women and men in charge differed in their pandemic message - 360
Supriya Garikipati University of Liverpool
Published on November 29, 2021
By Supriya Garikipati University of Liverpool, and Uma Kambhampati University of Reading
When the COVID-19 pandemic took hold at the start of 2020, citizens the world over looked to their leaders. They watched and listened intently as their heads of state navigated an unprecedented global health emergency. What leaders said reflected how they acted, and how they acted had nation-altering implications.
At key flashpoints in the pandemic response, a trend began to emerge: women who led countries generally responded with more urgency, going into lockdowns earlier and saving more lives in the process. The men in charge tended to take longer to close down their state’s economies. As a result, their countries broadly suffered from higher COVID-19 transmission and more deaths in the early stages of the pandemic. Women leaders not only acted faster, but their speeches showed more focus on saving lives, whereas their male counterparts were perceived as being torn between protecting lives and worrying about the economy.
To illustrate, consider speeches given by three women leading states in the Asia-Pacific: Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen. Then match these against a male-led country with a similar profile, accounting for a variety of factors such as GDP per capita, population, population density and proportion of elderly.
Lam’s Hong Kong compared with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s Singapore, Ardern’s New Zealand against Trudeau’s Canada, and Ing-wen’s Taiwan alongside President Moon Jae-in’s South Korea. Comparing three public speeches per leader made between Feb. 15 and Apr. 15, 2020 delivers an interesting spread – one speech given before lockdown was imposed, one speech announcing lockdown, and one that came post-lockdown announcement.
In the speeches about lockdown, 72 percent of the words in women leaders’ speeches were related to lockdown measures, compared to 36 percent of words in speeches by male leaders. A third of the words in male leaders’ speeches spoke about other government priorities and economic measures, while this was only about 7 percent for the women.
These differences were most apparent in the speech before lockdown. In the speeches announcing lockdown, the gap between the genders narrows: 74 percent of female speeches were about lockdown compared to 65 percent of male speeches. In the speeches made post-lockdown, both sets of leaders spoke mainly about the economic support being provided by the government. Taking a deeper dive into the speeches helps explore these initial results further.
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During the pandemic’s early stages, women leaders focused very closely on issues related to containing transmission and lockdown measures, while male leaders spoke about wider government priorities and gave far more attention to their state’s economic response to the pandemic.
For instance, as early as Feb. 25, Carrie Lam told her people that the Hong Kong government “accorded top priority to the prevention and control of the disease”.
Reinforcing this message, on Mar. 25 she said that the country was facing “a critical moment in the fight against the disease and also a moment for testing the resilience of Hong Kong people in the face of the epidemic.”
The early emphasis on controlling the spread of COVID-19 was mirrored by Tsai Ing-wen in Taiwan. Speaking about the measures her government was taking to reduce transmission on Apr. 1, she said:
“Beginning next Thursday, residents will be able to buy nine adult face masks or 10 childrens’ face masks every 14 days. We have also set regulations for shipping face masks overseas to help keep Taiwanese citizens living overseas safe.”
In New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern was candid about the challenge of containing the virus: on Mar. 21 she said the country “must fight by going hard and going early with new measures to slow the transmission of the virus”.
Ardern also used a lot of direct and emphatic phrasing in her speeches: “If in doubt, don’t go out,” (Mar. 23) and “the best economic response continues to be a strong health response” (Apr. 9 ). Aside from the content of her speeches, Ardern was also one of many women in leadership who went beyond traditional media to speak to her people: her daily briefings on Facebook Live, for instance, was praised as exemplary crisis communication.
While women in charge tended to focus on saving lives, male leaders were attempting to strike a balance between public health and other government priorities, mainly about the economy. Trudeau, for instance, addressed a wide range of concerns in his Mar. 13 speech:
“I know that you’re worried. You’re worried about your health, about your family’s health. About your job, your savings, about paying rent, and the kids not being in school,” Trudeau told his people.
“I know that you’re concerned about uncertainty in the global economy.”
Few other leaders talked about the economy this early in the pandemic.
In Singapore, Lee’s speeches made wide-ranging references to international responses while drawing comparisons to what Singapore was doing.
“In South Korea, the cases spread through the Shincheonji church group,” Lee said in a speech on Mar. 12.
“And several Singaporeans who attended a big international religious gathering, a tabligh gathering, in Kuala Lumpur recently have caught the virus.”
In the same speech, Lee also cited Saudi Arabia’s temporary halt on umrah pilgrimages and the Pope’s decision to live-stream sermons to justify his own state’s pandemic response measures.
This message remained consistent nearly a month later. On Apr. 10, Lee said:
“This has been the experience of countries like China, South Korea, and New Zealand. They all adopted similar tough measures after a surge in infections.”
In South Korea, Moon generally kept his speeches very short and concentrated instead on praising his citizens. Whilst his female counterpart in Taiwan pushed government initiatives to reduce community transition, Moon focused on a different message:
“I cannot help but be left in solemn awe upon hearing the news about Daegu citizens taking care of each other regarding matters that the nation cannot address,” he said on Mar. 4.
The initial stages of the pandemic brought into clear view the differences in the way men and women in leadership reacted to the crisis. The difference in language translated to a difference in policy: women, who tended to emphasise saving lives in their speech, locked down their countries faster on average than men, who seemed more split between the challenge of saving citizen’s lives and saving the economy. Perhaps contrary to expectations, politicians for once said what they would do and did what they said.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Supriya Garikipati is an Associate Professor in Gender and Development at the University of Liverpool, where she also teaches in this area.
Uma Kambhampati is Professor of Economics at the University of Reading. She is also Head of the School of Politics, Economics and International Relations.
Abhilash Kondragantiis a doctoral researcher and graduate teaching fellow at the University of Liverpool.
The authors declared no conflict of interest in relation to this article.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on November 29, 2021
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"author": "Supriya Garikipati University of Liverpool"
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Women are neglected in peace building. That needs to stop. - 360
Noraida Endut
Published on March 8, 2023
There should be more women at the negotiation table to achieve gender equality and inclusiveness in peace processes.
War is dangerous. But it is even more dangerous if you’re female. Women and girls experience specific risks. Sexual violence is often used as a tactic of war. Domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment and human trafficking often escalate or are exacerbated due to a breakdown in social structures. Women and girls are also particularly affected by the interruption of education and healthcare.
Displacement is another significant problem. In 2021, 48 percent of the global refugee population were women and girls. UN Women, on the other hand, estimated that women living in protracted displacement slightly outnumbered men. Refugee women and girls often do not get adequate access to reproductive healthcare related to pregnancy, maternity, postnatal health and menstruation. Based on UN reports, 60 percent of preventable maternal deaths occur in humanitarian settings.
While women are severely affected by conflict and post-conflict situations, they have been marginalised in the global peace and security agenda.
This year’s International Women’s Day theme is#EmbraceEquity. Equity recognises differences in circumstances and experiences between women and men and the intersections of women’s and men’s lives.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, women constituted only about 14 percent of peace negotiators worldwide between 2015 and 2019. Between 1992 and 2019, they formed only 6 percent of mediators and 6 percent of signatories in major peace processes around the world.
Until 2020, when Stephanie Williams was appointed the acting head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, no woman had led a peace process. The lack of women’s representation in peace negotiations means that peace agreements will continue to inadequately address women, girls and gender issues about conflict and post-conflict situations. An analysis of 1860 peace agreements since 1990 shows only 20 percent contain references to women, girls and gender while only 6 percent specifically address violence against women.
A 2018 study found there is a strong correlation between peace agreements signed by female delegates and enduring peace. In several post-conflict African countries (e.g. Liberia, Uganda, Angola), when women’s groups took advantage of post-conflict political reform, increased female legislative representation followed. Other than the fundamental importance of achieving gender equality in all spheres, these findings provide a strong case for urgently increasing space for women to play an active role in peacebuilding processes.
In 2000, the UN Security Council passed the first Resolution that addressed the issue of women and peace and security. In Resolution 1325, the security council expressed concerns that women and children accounted for a large majority of civilians adversely affected by armed conflict and they became internally displaced persons and were increasingly targeted by combatants. The resolution urged UN state parties to ensure “increased representation of women at all decision-making levels in national, regional and international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict”.
A 2015 study concluded that gender equality programming generally contributes to the improvement in access to and use of services, increases the effectiveness of humanitarian outcomes and reduces gender inequalities in conflict situations.
In Mindanao, Philippines, when high equality programming was introduced in households, boys and girls were 60 to 75 percent less likely to drop out of school compared to children in households with low-intensity equality programming. In Nepal, single mothers particularly benefited from cash or food-for-work programmes targeting women. They were then able to use the income for school fees and materials to enable their children, especially girls, to continue their education. Gender equality programming in the improvement of health-related infrastructure and services greatly improved maternal and child health in three countries such as Philippines, Kenya and Nepal.
In October 2020, the UN adopted Resolution 45/28 to promote and protect the human rights of women and girls in conflict and post-conflict situations. It recognised the role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and peacebuilding and confidence-building. To achieve women’s meaningful participation and full involvement of women in the promotion of peace and security, UN signatories were called on to help enable more women mediators, a women’s mediator network, women peacebuilders, women human rights defenders and women’s civil society organisations.
The slow opening of space for women in conflict intervention and peacebuilding is due to one thing. Policy advisor Thania Paffenholz says peace processes have typically consisted of “elite peace talks”, which usually means men, who tend to dominate government leadership roles.
Around the world, there is still a big gender gap in political participation and empowerment. In 2022, there remains a 78 percent gap in gender parity in global political empowerment for women.
If women do not have equal say in socio-political leadership, they may not be effectively included in peacebuilding. Women’s participation in peacebuilding should not only be in separate women-focused sub-committees, as often happens. Gender quotas for peacebuilding stages could be a solution. During a peace process in Yemen between 2011 and 2015, it was agreed the draft constitution included a provision for a 30 percent quota for women in decision-making positions.
In conflict intervention and peacebuilding, recognising the diversity of experiences and contexts and being inclusive in decision-making are crucial to achieving gender equality in peace processes. They are also urgently integral towards achieving the relevant targets of SDG16 by 2030.
Noraida Endut is a professor at the Unit for Research on Women and Gender (KANITA), Universiti Sains Malaysia. She teaches gender studies and law and development and researches violence against women, women and work and gender and law. Noraida tweets at @noraida_endut
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: In the story “International Women’s Day” sent at: 06/03/2023 14:16.
This is a corrected repeat.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on March 8, 2023
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"author": "Noraida Endut"
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Women bear the brunt of Asia's climate failures - 360
Gabriela Fernando, Samanthi Gunawardana
Published on December 29, 2023
What does the future hold for the millions of women left to work in Asia’s agriculture sector battling a climate in collapse?
As the world digests the confused legacy of the COP28 summit in the United Arab Emirates, the realities of those on the frontlines of the climate crisis remain muted among the noise of the major polluters and the fossil fuel industry looking to sustain its dominance in global commerce.
Less publicised was the introduction of the Gender-Responsive Just Transitions & Climate Action Partnership as part of the conference’s Gender Equality Day. At the lavish conference hosted at the Dubai Exhibition centre just 68 states endorsed the intrinsic link between gender equality and just transitions.
This is despite a UN Women report released during the conference that predicted “by 2050, climate change may push up to 158 million more women and girls into poverty and see 236 million more face food insecurity”.
Women disproportionately face the impacts of the climate crisis. A recent UNFPA report cited that the 14 countries most impacted by climate breakdown are also where women and girls are more likely to die in childbirth, marry early, experience gender-based violence or become displaced and homeless by disaster.
The Gender-Responsive Just Transitions & Climate Action Partnership explicitly commits to working to drive gender-responsive just transitions to mitigate and adapt to this reality. Partners have committed to enhance gender analysis of climate change finance, support collecting sex-disaggregated data, and improve equal employment opportunities.
However, the realisation of this vision remains obscured by persisting gender inequalities. According to the UNFAO‘s report on the status of women in agriculture, substantial efforts are yet to be undertaken to prioritise agricultural women’s opportunities, needs, and engagement in agriculture, especially for those in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
According to the Global Climate Risk Index 2021, a majority of the world’s most climate impacted countries are low- and middle-income countries, whose economies are heavily dependent on agriculture and agrifood systems.
Climate change impacts due to extreme weather events and temperature fluctuations have profound impacts on the global agricultural practices and crop yields, disrupting traditional growing seasons. Between 2008 and 2018, climate-induced disasters cost USD$49 billion in Asia alone from a decline in crop and livestock production.
Droughts, floods and heatwaves have become more frequent and intense, directly impeding crop growth, causing soil degradation and jeopardising agrifood systems, including farming, trading, entrepreneurship, livestock production, water harvesting and irrigation.
Rural populations of South Asia and Southeast Asia, where women dominate the agricultural workforce, have borne the disproportionate impacts of climate shocks.
Global agrifood systems play a more important role in the livelihoods of women than men in many agriculture-dependent countries, particularly for young women aged between 15 and 24. For example, in South Asia, 71 percent of women engage in the agrifood sector, compared to 47 percent of men.
In Sri Lanka, elderly women also rely on the agrifood sector when other avenues of income are closed to them. Despite their significant role and contribution, women often confront challenging working conditions and limited economic opportunities due to pervasive gender inequalities.
These inequities fail to recognise women’s roles in both skilled and unskilled labor, issues of land ownership and rights, restricted access to financial resources and the unequal distribution (often unpaid) of domestic care responsibilities.
The impact of climate-induced livelihood loss has also led to men abandoning the land, leaving women behind to grapple with traditional norms and legal frameworks that often discriminate against their access to crucial resources such as land, water, agricultural subsidies, insurance and credit.
These issues are compounded as women continue to face gender-based obstacles to recognition of their leadership, meaningful participation in livelihoods and decision-making processes in formal and informal governance structures, including natural resource management.
In response to the catastrophic climate impacts and ensuing livelihood loss, agricultural households try to cope financially by selling household assets and livestock to generate immediate income or borrow cash at high interest rates from local sources or community networks.
Farmers sometimes turn to multiple high-interest micro-loans for financial relief, resulting in over-indebtedness. Women also engage in unpaid work in exchange for food to feed their families.
There is a need to understand the gendered impacts of climate change and ensuing economic insecurity on health. Although climate-induced livelihood loss directly impacts everyone’s health, there are important gendered ways in which women’s health is affected.
Given their dependence on outdoor agricultural work, and accounting for physiological differences, heat-related health risks affect women more than men. This has been associated with an increase in pregnancy complications.
As climate impacts increase food scarcity and hunger, and with a lack of government-led food assistance programs, women often prioritise the needs of male family members (breadwinners), increasing rates of malnutrition and anemia.
Stress-induced livelihood loss also increases mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and increasing suicide among male and women farmers.
The infrastructure damage, geographical barriers and poor financial assistance also create significant barriers for women to seek timely and essential healthcare services, including sexual and reproductive health. Women may delay or forego healthcare, resulting in pregnancy complications, miscarriages, unsafe abortions, poor contraceptive use, chronic disease mismanagement and domestic violence.
The economic strain exacerbated by climate disasters often compels agriculture-dependent households to resort to traditional practices such as bride prices and dowries. Studies have found that in countries such as Vietnam and India, the economic pressure can force young girls into early marriages, resulting in school drop-outs, teenage pregnancies and increased gender-based violence and femicide.
Women are already at the forefront of just transitions, given their strong engagement in advocacy, social movements, agriculture and building green economies. Ironically the failure to fully recognise women’s leadership, including at the recent COP28, and their integral role in the agrifood sector, women often face systemic barriers that hinder their full participation in shaping sustainable, inclusive, and gender-just transitions.
To build upon the commitments of the Gender-Responsive Just Transitions & Climate Action Partnership, it is imperative to prioritise and recognise the pivotal role of agricultural women.
Women-led initiatives such as Women-Led Climate Resilient Farming (WCRF) models hold promise to reposition and promote women as farmers, leaders and agents of change to empower the health and wellbeing, food security, livelihoods and natural resources of farming communities.
There is also the pressing need for gender-responsive, gender-just and transformative policies and programs. Such initiatives could encompass needs-based insurance products designed to mitigate climate-related health impacts, along with cash-based assistance programs that have integrated healthcare deliverables.
These measures could specifically target the health and climate vulnerabilities of girls and women, mitigating the unintended consequences of current farming and agricultural practices.
Dr Gabriela Fernando is an Assistant Professor at Monash University, Indonesia. Her key research interests are in interdisciplinary concepts across global health & policy, health equity, women’s health and gender equality, with a particular focus on the South and Southeast Asia region regions.
Dr Samanthi Gunawardana is a Senior Lecturer in Gender and Development in the Faculty of Arts at Monash University Australia. Her research examines the impact of development policy on employment systems, labour, and livelihoods among rural women in South Asia, particularly emphasising gender, development and labour in Sri Lanka.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on December 29, 2023
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"author": "Gabriela Fernando, Samanthi Gunawardana"
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'Women do not have to go through hell just to birth their babies' - 360
Deborah T. Esan, Blessed Obem Oyama
Published on December 14, 2022
Mofoluwake Jones has two children, but their entries into the world could not be more different. Mofoluwake’s first child was born in Nigeria, a nation with a cultural tradition of women suffering silently in childbirth.
“I guess that’s how we were all programmed to see labour,” says Mofoluwake. “It seems we are yet to adopt the mindset that women do not have to go through hell just to birth their babies.”
Mofoluwake’s second baby was born five years later, by which time she was living in Canada. “All the health workers were courteous, they took their time to explain what they needed to do on me and why. For each cervix examination, my consent was sought before they went ahead to examine me,” she says.
“The moment I got to the hospital, they had started asking if I had thought about my pain management plan, they explained the different options available and gave me a booklet on … the risks associated with each and benefit.”
While labour pain is expected, it can be managed to reduce risks and provide optimal comfort to the mother. But in many developing countries, pain relief during childbirth is underutilised due to cultural myths and taboos.
In some cultures, the woman is expected to scream and cry uncontrollably, while in others, the woman may not express much distress in her labour. Some women refuse to accept pain relief during labour because they see the pain as natural. Some women believe they should not take pain medications in case it causes harm to the baby.
In the Christian faith, the pain of labour pain is referenced in the Bible as God’s punishment on women for being disobedient (Genesis 3:16). Labour pain is therefore considered normal by many women and midwives.
In such cultures, as girls approach womanhood, they are taught about the suffering and pain of childbirth so they are prepared for it.
In Nigeria, among the Hausa people of northern Nigeria, there is great social pressure not to show any sign of pain. Going through labour quietly and without any pain relief indicates virtue. The Fulani girls from Nigeria are taught from an early age how shameful it is to show fear or cry during childbirth. The Bonny people of southern Nigeria are taught to believe that when a woman endures pain during childbirth, it shows how strong and capable she is as a woman. She is made to believe that no amount of screaming and shouting can reduce the pain, so it is better to bear it in silence.
The perception of health professionals, especially nurses and midwives, also influences the use of pain relief.
Despite pain relief being safe for mother and child, a study by British obstetrician Mary McCauley and colleagues found more than half of all health-care professionals in Ethiopia were concerned about the effect of pain relief on the baby, mother and the labour process. Previous studies have found that these concerns are shared by women as well, even when they agree the pain should be relieved. Many health-care professionals in developing economies do not provide women with options for pain management during labour other than support from family. Neither is it included in antenatal classes.
A study in south-eastern Nigeria revealed only 39.5 percent of expectant mothers were aware of labour pain relief. Similar results were found in northern Nigeria. Lack of awareness is the principal obstacle to greater use of pain relief during childbirth.
If the obstetrician discusses the options, benefits and risks associated with pain relief with the mother, irrespective of her beliefs, she is more likely to have a better birth experience, with optimal labour pain control, in line with her values.
When pregnant women in developing economies are made aware of pain relief in antenatal discussions, it will allow for increased use. Individual preferences and fears women may have regarding labour pain relief can be addressed using client-centred education in antenatal care, dispelling myths that may persist.
For Mofoluwake Jones, having discussed her options thoroughly with the medical staff in Canada, she chose an epidural for her second baby. A birth consultant coached her through the pushing stage, helping her manage her energy and providing advice on the best times to push.
“It was such a beautiful birth experience. I was in the hospital for about three days and the way I was treated — with respect and made to understand that labour does not have to be hell — made me have a paradigm shift which I can only hope and pray my country, Nigeria adopts with time.”
Deborah Tolulope Esan (RN, RM, RPHN, BNSc, MPH, PhD) is an associate professor of public health nursing/community health nursing at Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. Mofoluwake Jones is her sister.
Blessed Obem Oyama (RN, RM, BNSc) is a graduate student, at the department of nursing science, Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: In the story “Pain treatment myths” sent at: 09/12/2022 16:53.
This is a corrected repeat.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on December 14, 2022
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"author": "Deborah T. Esan, Blessed Obem Oyama"
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Women fish too: invisible women in tuna industries - 360
Kate Barclay
Published on March 8, 2022
The assumption that the tuna fishing industry is a man’s world is not only misleading, but also damaging.
In the coastal Indonesian city of Bitung, women who fish cannot formally register their occupation and miss out on government support provided to fishers.
The assumption that the fishing industry is dominated by men, or that only men fish, is not only wrong, but damaging.
Given women make up half of the population, it’s important to know if the development of fishing industries benefits both women and men. A first step is making women visible through gender-disaggregated data to have a better picture of how women are impacted.
It’s estimated more than 300,000 people are employed in tuna value chains in Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands. There are around 22,350 tuna-related jobs in Pacific island countries, about one third in fishing — almost all men — and about two thirds in processing and ancillary industries, where women are the majority in many areas.
Around 80,000 people — mostly women — work in tuna processing in Thailand. Tuna fishing, processing and trading are also big industries in Indonesia, which has by far the largest catch of any country in the region, and the Philippines.
But there is still so much we don’t know. The US$6 billion Western and Central Pacific Ocean tuna fisheries produce more than half the world’s tuna and are an important source of social and economic development for coastal countries. There are no reliable figures on how many people are employed in tuna industries, and employment data are often not gender-disaggregated.
In Indonesia, the national identification recording system assumes that only men fish professionally and defaults women’s occupation to ‘housewife’.
There is also insufficient data on small-scale tuna fisheries and informal value chain workers, crews on fishing vessels operating in the Pacific but not flagged in member countries of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (‘distant water’ fleets), and all forms of informal trading.
Women are overlooked in tuna industries for similar reasons that they are overlooked in fisheries more broadly. International researchers found women make up about 11 percent of participants in small-scale fishing activities globally, and the economic impact of women’s portion of the catch is around US$14.8 billion per year. Despite this, the assumption that fishing is a man’s world persists.
Small-scale fishing may be from hand gathering by wading in shallow waters rather than from a boat, with much of it going directly to family members, or sold informally in local markets. For example, in the port city of Bitung, women make up most small-scale tuna retailers and intermediate traders. Referred to locally as tibo-tibo, they supply tuna for local communities in the area.
Tibo-tibos were vulnerable during a supply slump in 2014, with suppliers prioritising their larger customers. In Pacific nation communities, informal fish traders have difficulties accessing banking services and markets often lack amenities, with women having additional problems such as sexual harassment.
Data collection is skewed towards formal, large-scale and export-oriented fisheries, which renders much of the work done by women invisible. A fisheries consultant visiting the Pacific island territory of Wallis and Futuna was once told by a government official that “women do not fish in this country”, despite women gathering the shellfish later consumed for dinner.
The fisheries sector tends to be socially conservative, governed by marine and biological sciences rather than social science, and initiatives inspired by feminism are often viewed with suspicion. Public policy towards fishing views social benefit as the gross value of production or contribution to the national gross domestic product, perhaps total job numbers, and that’s as far as it goes. It is a blunt instrument.
Research into several key regional tuna fishing ports — Bitung in Indonesia, General Santos City in the Philippines, the town of Noro in the Solomon Islands and the town of Levuka and the city of Suva in Fiji — aimed to better understand where women are in tuna value chains. It found industrial tuna vessel crews are 100 percent men in Bitung and General Santos City.
Noro, Levuka and Suva were an exception with a handful of women trained as cadets in recent donor-funded programs. Women are usually involved in fishing companies as office workers and managers. However, they are generally at lower levels, with the higher prestige and remuneration roles mainly occupied by men.
Fishing vessels are some of the most dangerous workplaces in the world. The negative impacts of industrial tuna fishing include long absences, the risky nature of both fishing work and the living conditions on some vessels where human rights abuses have been recorded, including when docked in ports. Port areas tend to have high rates of gender-based violence, sexually-transmitted infections, and drug and alcohol use. These problems affect crewmembers, as well as their families.
As in other kinds of seafood industries, processing line work is mostly done by women. In Bitung 70 percent of cannery employees are women, although managers are virtually all men. In General Santos City processing plant employees are 80 percent women. In Noro and Levuka, women make up 64 percent and 65 percent of tuna processing plant employees respectively.
Women gain employment at all levels of processing plants from the processing lines to quality control, and some in management. The wages are not often high but formal employment brings benefits such as maternity leave and insurances that informal work does not offer.
In informal tuna processing, the picture is much more diverse. Smoked tuna, or cakalang fufu, enterprises in Bitung are often owned by women but the labour is done by men. Women are heavily involved in making tuna snacks and condiments chicharon and dayok in General Santos City. In the Solomon Islands, women cook tuna rejects from industrial fleets, tuna from small-scale fisheries as fish and chips or traditional baked products, and sell it in local markets.
The case of SolTuna cannery in Noro shows the benefits that can come from taking a ‘gender lens’ to the processing environment leading to better understanding of the reasons behind high absenteeism and turnover. Some female factory workers, who are first in their families to have a regular wage, had little financial literacy and were unable to make their wages last the full pay period. They took days off to raise cash in the markets. Women were also leaving factory work once they had children due to a lack of affordable child care nearby and informally sold items in the market instead due to the convenience.
Once the company had a better understanding of their female workforce, they worked with human resources specialists who devised a culturally appropriate family budget. The result was a 6 percent drop in absenteeism and reports of a happier workforce. A childcare centre is now being built near the factory.
All of these strategies that can be considered and implemented in many other factory lines in tuna-dependent communities to improve the lives of women, and the communities they’re part of.
Kate Barclay is a Professor in the Climate, Society and Environment Research Centre (C-SERC) at the University of Technology Sydney where she researches marine social science in the Asia Pacific region.
Kate Barclay received funding for research mentioned in this article from the World Bank and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
The views expressed in this article are her own, she is not speaking for her funders.
The author has no conflict of interest regarding the content of this article.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on March 8, 2022
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"author": "Kate Barclay"
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Women, given equity, can drive Australia's economic recovery - 360
Tania Dey
Published on December 20, 2021
By Tania Dey, University of Adelaide
Australia will forgo A$60 billion in GDP in the 20 years to 2038 if it fails to improve female workforce participation.
The Australian economy — already facing challenges in its ageing population, low fertility rates and ongoing structural changes — is now confronted by stalled migration in the wake of COVID-19.
The pandemic has highlighted and intensified entrenched gender inequalities in Australia.
Working from home — catalysed by a rapid technological uptake in response to lockdowns — was initially heralded as a boon for work-life balance, but it often reinforced the gendered distribution of labour as women took on a larger share of unpaid housework and caring.
Australian women were almost twice as likely to spend 20 or more hours a week on unpaid caring and supervision of children, spent five or more hours on unpaid housework and two in three women spent this amount of time on unpaid cooking and baking compared to men.
Women also spent twice the time doing unpaid work compared to men and men did twice the paid work of women. The deeply embedded social and cultural norms behind this are reinforced by parental leave and childcare policies.
Lockdowns led to a decline in female labour market participation due to school closures and women caring for elderly and disabled family members.
Unequal workforce participation currently contributes to a gender wage gap, a retirement income gap and greater financial insecurity for Australian women.The pandemic recovery provides an opportunity to address these gaps.
Higher female workforce participation will help cover the shortfall in migration and empower women financially, providing higher tax revenues in the short term and less demand for pensions and allowances over time.
KPMG projects better participation would bolster Australian living standards by A$140 billion over the 20 years to 2038. And it’s female-dominated industries such as healthcare that are expected to grow the fastest in coming years.
Australian women are highly educated — a higher proportion of women have bachelor degrees than men — but once they have children many reduce work hours or drop out of the labour market. This is not the case in countries with more gender-equitable parental leave.
Some parental leave policies have a non-transferrable individual component for a parent (often referred to as the father quota in Nordic countries), or a ‘family’ component which can be transferred from one parent to another. This supports female participation in the workforce, while confronting the social norms of gender inequality.
Australian parental leave payments are designed with women as the primary caregiver in mind. For example, if a mother earns more than A$150,000 per annum, the couple is not eligible to receive parental leave payments. In contrast, if the mother earns less than A$150,000 she is eligible irrespective of the father’s income. This scheme ultimately discourages female breadwinners and stay-at-home dads.
Scandinavia and Quebec have found the benefits of more inclusive parental leave policies outweigh the costs and “transform the level of cultural support” for equal parenting.
Australia’s tax and childcare policies further underscore traditional breadwinner models and gender roles by disincentivising women to work more than three days per week. Women are considered as individuals for tax purposes but childcare subsidies are based on household income.
Since most women are secondary income earners, they need access to childcare. The decision to increase work days is then based on out of pocket expenses for childcare costs relative to the mother’s salary rather than household income.
Under the current tax and childcare subsidy scheme, working an extra fourth or fifth day means a woman’s marginal wage after tax and child care subsidy declines such that her marginal wage from the fourth day is A$121 and from the fifth day is A$110. Although her take home pay may be larger in aggregate if she works more days, the marginal decline in her daily take home pay is a strong disincentive to work more days.
Investing in childcare pays off for governments. Universal childcare would cost the Australian government A$12 billion, but boost GDP by A$27 billion.
In contrast, the recent boost to the childcare subsidy for second and subsequent children costs the government A$3 billion, translating into 5 percent more participation and a A$6 billion increase in GDP, according to Grattan Institute research.
The economic fallout from COVID-19 hit women harder than men, and government stimulus packages failed to address this disparity, in some cases making it worse. Wage replacement schemes failed to benefit many women since short term casuals were excluded along with the female-dominated higher education sector.
A construction industry scheme was introduced, yet no direct support was provided to the hardest hit female-dominated sectors. And wage support in the female-dominated childcare sector was withdrawn ahead of schedule — earlier than any other sectors — which in turn made childcare unaffordable for many families who lost jobs or hours.
Increasing female workforce participation is needed to aid Australia’s economic recovery, but policy levers need to be reset so men get time to step in while women get time to step out to ensure a better work-life balance and more prosperous future for all Australians.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Tania Dey is a Research Economist at the South Australian Centre for Economic Studies (SACES) at the University of Adelaide. Her work encompasses macroeconomic issues, energy economics, labour market issues, economic evaluation and impact assessment, social issues, public policy and regional development. She has a special interest in gender economics. Prior to joining SACES, Tania has worked at the Essential Services Commission of South Australia (ESCOSA) on utility regulation. Tania Dey has declared no conflicts of interest in relation to this article.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on December 20, 2021
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"author": "Tania Dey"
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Women make gains in changing job market - 360
Michelle Rendall
Published on March 8, 2024
Women have mostly benefited from the polarisation of the workforce but the challenge is to keep those gains.
Despite the extensive gender pay gaps exposed in the release of Australian data last week, women have mostly benefited from big changes to the workforce in recent decades.
The loss of middle-skilled jobs, such as technicians, sheetmetal trades workers and industrial machine operators, means workers are now concentrated more in either high- or low-skilled occupations.
This polarisation of work has been driven since the 1980s by technological and economic changes, which led to the disappearance of manufacturing jobs in developed economies.
Because of that, there has been a renewed discussion about how to return middle-wage manufacturing jobs to developed economies.
In the US, Donald Trump campaigned on repeated promises of returning manufacturing jobs to “Make America Great Again”. In 2020, the Australian government proposed the “Modern Manufacturing Strategy” planning an expenditure of AUD$1,509.8 million by 2024.
With every technological advancement, there are winners and losers. In the case of employment polarisation, women have been winners.
This is because middle-skill jobs used to be mostly male-dominated jobs in manufacturing, construction, and mining.
As women gained more education they benefited from a rise in high-skilled jobs. As these highly educated women entered the workforce , they also purchased more services, such as childcare, cleaning and food, that replaced their own domestic labour.
So, from a rise in high-skilled jobs, the demand for low-skilled typical female-dominated jobs followed.
Based on my calculations using Australia’s Jobs and Skills Australia data, the largest middle-income occupation (at a 1-digit ANZSCO occupation classification) are technicians and trades workers.
Women make up only 20 percent of these workers.
At the bottom third of wages the largest occupation group is community and personal service workers, where women make up 60 percent of employees.
At the top of the income distribution, the largest employment group are professionals, of which half are women.
While trade jobs have gradually been disappearing, the other two occupation groups have been growing. The Jobs and Skills Australia’s five-year employment projections suggest a continuation of this trend to 2026.
Thus, reversing the documented employment polarisation could have a large negative impact on gender equality in the labour markets.
While technological change has generated a lot of progress in terms of reducing gender inequality, women still earn less than men and work more hours in the home.
The gender pay gap in Australia still remains with the average man earning 22 percent more than the average woman according to the official data released by the government in February of 2024.
But decade-long research has shown repeatedly that the widening gap is not due to the popularised idea of discrimination or labour market biases.
The main problem is that many high paying jobs, either have long and unpredictable hours or carry large penalties for taking extended career breaks both issues that are still hard to reconcile with caring for children and family.
Governments have three obvious policy tools to further reduce the persistent gender gap: income tax, child-care subsidies and maternity/paternity leave policies.
Most countries tax individuals separately and progressively, but marriage penalties persist, and many social policies are administered on a household not individual level.
Take the child-care subsidy in Australia.
It requires a “Work, Training, Study test” for the applicant and their partner, which is a way to encourage active labour market participation. However, the percentage of childcare subsidy each family is entitled to depends on the family’s income.
This policy generates wealth/income redistribution on a household level reducing societal inequity, but it also discourages the secondary worker, typically the woman, with a high-income partner to enter or remain in the labour market.
It is important to stress that taking time out of the labour market does not only have the short-term extra wage loss but has persistent long-term consequences for women’s career path.
Childcare in Australia remains one of the more expensive across OECD countries with a cost of 22 percent (after government benefits) of the average wage of a married household.
The picture in terms of shared maternity and parental leave is no better. Australia offers up to two weeks at minimum wage of paid leave for fathers.
The Australian government has the possibility to further improve women’s labour markets through thoughtful policy aimed at all women, low- to high-skilled.
Addressing wealth/income inequality through individual taxation, but providing child-care subsidies based on secondary worker’s income would be a more effective policy to encourage women to stay in the labour market, pick more demanding occupations and not take costly career breaks or settle for part-time family friendly work schedules.
Policies could also be shaped to encourage greater paternity leave uptake to share any burden of time-off/career breaks due to caring responsibilities more equally across spouses.
Instead of creating a false promise of a return of the middle-income manufacturing job, men should be encouraged to take up studies and training necessary for the new employment landscape.
Michelle Rendall is an Associate Professor at the Department of Economics and a CEPR research fellow. Her research in macroeconomics focuses on human capital, labour and gender issues. Her research in labour economics focuses on early childhood education, peer effects, and gender inequities.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on March 8, 2024
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"author": "Michelle Rendall"
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Women on the frontline of peace - 360
Tasha Wibawa
Published on March 8, 2023
Women face specific and systematic gender-based issues in conflict situations. The challenge is how to empower more women in the peacebuilding process.
More and more women are taking up combat roles on the front line, playing a key role a year on from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But this hasn’t always been the case.
All military roles available to men were only opened to women last year, with a wave of new recruits joining after the February 2022 invasion.
Gender-inclusive reforms in 2018 gave women the same legal status as men in the armed forces and ended bans on women holding 450 different occupations in Ukraine – including welding, firefighting and many defence roles – in an attempt to abolish Soviet-era stereotypes maintaining that some work was damaging to reproductive health.
Women and girls in conflict environments, in combat roles or otherwise, may seem to face the same dangers as men. But in the lead up to International Women’s Day this week, we’re reminded that females face specific and systematic gender-based issues like sexual violence, human trafficking and maternal deaths. The UN special advisor to the secretary-general on gender issues estimates 70 percent of non-combatant casualties in recent conflicts are mostly females.
In 2000, the United Nations adopted the landmark Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, recognising the need for women’s participation in peace building processes and the importance of their role in global peace and stability. It also recognised that women are not just victims, but active participants as peacebuilders, negotiators and peacemakers.
But more than a decade later the resolution has fallen short of expectations – violence against women persists, and many barriers, both cultural or societal, remain for women to be fully involved in building and maintaining peace.
In Afghanistan, historical patriarchal norms and attitudes have posed significant challenges to the overall development of women and their participation in any constructive activity.
“People in Afghanistan believe that a woman is born only to give birth and care for her children and husband. She should not be doing anything else,” said Fatima (not her real name) an Afghani student studying overseas.
“Many women work for peace, albeit secretly in most cases. I, too, worked as a teacher for the UNHCR.”
Between 2005 and 2020, nearly 80 percent of peace talks in Afghanistan have excluded women, with women participating in only 15 of 67 meetings and negotiations, according to Manzoor Hasan and Arafat Reza at the Centre for Peace and Justice at BRAC University, Bangladesh.
“With limited access to education and deliberate exclusion from decision-making processes exacerbated by [a] patriarchal mindset, it is unsurprising that the path before Afghan women to make any meaningful contribution to peace-building and conflict prevention is fraught with countless obstacles,” they said.
“Afghan women have played an important role in preventing violence and building peace with the help of some local and international organisations. They are involved, among other things, in raising public awareness about the importance of education and peace, women’s rights, and countering extremist beliefs.”
But with the Taliban back in power, many women are likely to fear participating at all.
Research suggests that the presence of civil society organisations, including women’s organisations, reduces the possibility of peace agreements failing by 64 percent.
But there is still progress to be made even in the leading global peace organisations like the UN. Eleanor Gordon, senior lecturer at Monash University, said mothers can face a dilemma in continuing their career in the sector due to “organisational, work culture issues and gendered assumptions about who does peace and who does care work.”
Gordon previously worked for the UN for a decade before leaving to have her son.
“Women with children are often disinclined to raise issues about their caring responsibilities for fear they will be judged as unprofessional or not committed,” she said.
“Conversely, women with children may sometimes be judged as poor mothers when they choose to work in this sector, seemingly prioritising the needs of their work above their children.
“These barriers to the engagement of parents in peacebuilding is a significant factor in the underrepresentation of women in the [peacekeeping] sector.”
She said reccomendations to improve the culture to be more supportive towards caregivers include more parental leave, re-engagement support for returning employees, transfering spouses to the same mission and prioritisation of family duty station posts.
“Crèches and safe spaces for nursing mothers, flexible work schedules and more part-time and job-sharing opportunities, work-life balance messaging and practice, and transparent disciplinary procedures to guard against discrimination [would also help],” she added.
On a national basis, women’s full and equal participation in public life is critical to building and sustaining strong democracies. Yet in conflict-affected or post conflict countries, their representation in parliament is lower than 21 percent, according to the UN.
Even in partriarchal societies like Malaysia and Thailand, some women are bucking the trend, with their involvement crucial to advancing gender equality.
For decades, Thailand’s southernmost regions have been plagued by armed conflict and insurgency. Despite numerous failed attempts at resolution, women have been absent from formal peace negotiations, but the appointment of the first female Muslim governor in Pattani province, Pateemoh Sadeeyamu, may change that.
“Her leadership style is about bridging divides between communities; she embraces both Muslim and Buddhist communities, youth and seniors, political and non-political agendas,” said Anna Christi Suwardi, lecturer at Mae Fah Luang University.
“Southern Thai Muslims — whose ethnicity, culture and language differ from the Buddhist majority — believe they are treated as second-class citizens.”
Since the escalation of violence in 2004, women’s groups in the three Thailand border provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat have been trying to engage in peacebuilding initiatives.
“Peace negotiators in Thailand’s deep south could learn from the peace process in Mindanao, the Philippines, that included women at decision-making level,” Suwardi said.
Consolidating women’s groups can unify their voices to become a bridge between the security sector and their wider communities.
“When women are part of the negotiations, they will ensure that the peace agreement is fair and takes into account the needs of both men and women,” she said.
This is a reissue of a previous article.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: Reissuing with correction
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Published on March 8, 2023
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"url": "https://360info.org/women-on-the-frontline-of-peace/",
"author": "Tasha Wibawa"
}
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Women still do most of the unpaid work - 360
James Goldie
Published on March 8, 2024
See and embed our interactives: Women across Asia-Pacific continue to take on a larger share of domestic work and caring for family than men.
Surveys across Asia-Pacific continue to show how much additional unpaid work is done by women.
As parts of its Survey on Gender Equality at Home, Meta asked Facebook users in 2021 how many hours they spent each day on unpaid domestic or care work.
The results show stark differences between men and women in most countries. In New Zealand, for example, only 22 percent of men reported doing more than three hours a day of unpaid domestic or care work, whereas 39 percent of women did. In Malaysia, 38 percent of men reported more than three hours a day, compared to 63 [percent of women.
Leaving unpaid domestic or care work to women is a problem in most countries across Asia-Pacific.
Similar surveys of Australians break this disparity down even further and show just how little improvement there has been in the last 20 years.
Australian men spent far less time doing housework and playing with their children than women.
In 2022, women aged 25–35 averaged 15.6 hours a week on housework and chores and another 17.5 hours a week playing with their children, compared to 7.9 hours of housework and chores for men and 7.3 hours a week playing with their children.
While total hours for paid and unpaid work appear similar between working aged Australian men and women, men continue to spend more of that time on paid employment and their commute at the expense of unpaid forms of work — particularly housework and playing with their children.
This problem is about both who does unpaid work and how much time they spend doing it.
A pre-pandemic survey of time use in India showed that in both urban and rural areas, girls and women aged 6+ were several times more likely than boys and men to do care work and especially domestic work — and the ones who did spend several times as long doing it.
These multiplying disparties mean domestic work takes up about 10 times as much of girls’ and women’s time.
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Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on March 8, 2024
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"url": "https://360info.org/women-still-do-most-of-the-unpaid-work/",
"author": "James Goldie"
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Women's football closing the gap, but it's not all down to FIFA - 360
Adam Beissel, Andrew Grainger
Published on August 9, 2023
FIFA is proud of its hugely successful 2023 Women’s World Cup, but momentum could evaporate if issues around pay and player safety aren’t properly addressed.
In the 92nd minute of South Africa’s drawn FIFA Women’s World Cup match against football giant Italy, striker Hilda Magaia runs onto a pass at the top of the box. Magaia, who scored her country’s first ever Women’s World Cup goal a week earlier, springs past three lunging Italian defenders and curls the ball in to find Thembi Kgatlana, who blasts the ball into the net. South Africa, in its first Women’s World Cup, is through to the round of 16.
It is perhaps the most striking upset result of this World Cup, but far from the only one: Nigeria beating co-host Australia, Colombia’s last-minute winner against Germany, Portugal holding the United States to a draw and Jamaica advancing at the expense of Brazil are signs of the closing gap in women’s football that pundits are noticing.
The gap is closing and the game is growing: ticket sales in Australia and New Zealand are exceeding expectations, domestic television ratings for Australia’s Matildas are shattering records and their merchandise sales are easily out-pacing their male counterparts, the Socceroos.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino says he’s “a happy man”, but the women on the pitch deserve the most credit, not the men at FIFA.
The Women’s World Cup has been a grand stage for Infantino’s administration to celebrate “FIFA 2.0“, with it being the first tournament to be awarded, developed and delivered since the much-hyped ‘roadmap’ for the ‘restructuring’ of football’s global governing body.
Released in 2016 following a series of high-profile corruption scandals, FIFA 2.0 sets out reforms pledging greater transparency, accountability and cooperation. A central plank of the new agenda is an overt commitment to growing women’s football and, in FIFA’s words, “bringing it into the mainstream”.
Undoubtedly, some of the interest and excitement surrounding the 2023 Women’s World Cup is due to FIFA’s growing support and investment in women’s football.
The rousing underdog success stories so far vindicate FIFA’s call to expand the World Cup to 32 teams (though Infantino’s pre-tournament suggestion that the expansion would encourage investment because it gave some countries “a realistic chance of qualifying” left many wisely wary).
FIFA has also introduced the largest prize pool for its flagship women’s tournament, tripling the prize money from USD$30 million four years ago to USD$110 million in 2023. After decades of underfunding and underpayment, players are starting to see due recognition and rewards for their exploits.
A further USD$42.5 million has been allocated for preparation funding and club benefits, and FIFA has introduced nearly USD$49 million in “ring-fencing” player payments, meaning each athlete is allocated at least USD$30,000 for participating in the tournament.
While the disparity between the men’s and women’s World Cups is still steep (the men at the 2022 Qatar World Cup competed for a prize pool roughly three times the size as the women’s in 2023), FIFA has set a target to provide equal rewards across the competitions by 2027.
The boost in prize money is backed by a new commercial strategy that no longer treats sponsorship and media rights like an afterthought. With a broadcast rights budget of over USD$500 million to supplement investment in players, the 2023 tournament is showing tangible signs of progress under FIFA 2.0.
But while FIFA is showing signs of catching up to the social and sporting zeitgeist, it is important to consider who should ultimately be credited with the closing of the gap in women’s football on its biggest stage.
FIFA has prioritised the women’s game more recently, but as football correspondent Rory Smith recently argued, the expansion of the World Cup has “worked despite the national associations … rather than because of them.”
The successes of this year’s tournament come down to a host of factors that have little to do with FIFA or the World Cup itself.
For instance, FIFA’s promotion of its increased prize pool fails to mention that it has no plan to guarantee players will actually be paid what they have earned. Instead, FIFA has ceded responsibility to member federations who are under no legal obligation to distribute the USD$30,000 payments to every player as promised.
This is particularly troubling in light of the disputes between players and their national federations that dominated the build-up to the World Cup: Canada, Jamaica and South Africa were all involved in battles over clear disparities between the women’s team and men’s team in payment and bonuses, working conditions and resourcing.
The Nigerian team were rumoured to be contemplating a boycott of their first match over withheld payments and interference from their federation.
In England, where the women’s game is seemingly more professional and better supported than elsewhere, there has been long-running disagreement between its women’s national side and federation over bonus payments for the 2023 tournament.
Outside of pay inequality, abuse and harassment of players continue to plague the women’s game. A range of tournament qualifiers are among the countries in which allegations of abuse have been reported in football, including Argentina, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Haiti, Ireland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The US case is the most high profile. A year-long independent investigation found its National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) was “a league in which abuse and misconduct – verbal and emotional abuse and sexual misconduct – had become systemic, spanning multiple teams, coaches, and victims”.
The report also found a failure at all levels to put in place basic safeguards for players, pointing the finger at teams, the NWSL and the sport’s governing domestic body, US Soccer.
In 2023, Australia’s football players’ union announced a plan to tackle abuse and harassment of players in response to alleged systemic failures to protect women in the sport.
Just as FIFA could bring about pay parity with a stroke of the pen, it could do more to hold national member associations accountable for protecting the wellbeing of the players.
It could for instance require member associations to mandate employment contracts with minimum legal requirements in line with national and international labour standards. It could also institute stronger checks and balances to ensure prize money for major tournaments is distributed in an equitable way.
Much has been made of the possibilities for the 2023 Women’s World Cup to be a watershed moment for women’s football and even gender relations more broadly.
There are hopes that the tournament will help the sport grow and bring more commercial backing into the women’s game. As the adage goes, “if you can see it, you can be it”, and backers are confident that making the world’s top female stars more visible will help attract more women and girls.
But there’s a long way to go and, despite FIFA’s steps forward, anybody with a passing interest in football knows that FIFA is an organisation known for its cronyism, corruption and self-interest.
When it comes to women’s football, FIFA’s long history of misogyny and disinterest paved the way for undervaluing its players, coaches and officials, which might not yet be over: during this World Cup, FIFA’s vice president admitted to “not believ[ing] in equal pay.” He went on to question what the “ceiling” of women’s football might be.
Giving credit where it’s due is important, but so too is critically examining narratives around the World Cup that celebrate successes while neglecting the long-entrenched issues that remain in the women’s game.
The pioneers are on the pitch, where they always have been.
After decades of unprecedented success in competition and years of contentious courtroom battles, the US Women’s National Soccer Team won a historic collective bargaining agreement in 2022 to guarantee its players equal pay with their male counterparts. Other countries including Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and Ireland have also reached equal pay deals with their national football associations.
These breakthroughs have not come about because of FIFA benevolence or oversight: they are the result of years of persistence from players, relentless campaigning, media appearances, court filings and endless negotiation.
That same determination from athletes on the pitch has driven the rising interest in women’s football, rather than the organisations which are now reaping the financial rewards.
Exactly one month before the South African women’s national squad overcame Italy in Wellington, the players went on strike and boycotted a pre-tournament friendly against Botswana.
They sat in the stands, watching an embarrassing makeshift “national team” lose 0-5, fielding a lineup that included a 13-year-old girl.
Three weeks later, the team’s captain told the media the dispute had been settled and players had been guaranteed their money. A week later, Magaia found Kgatlana in the 92nd minute and the rest is history.
Dr Adam Beissel is an Assistant Professor of Sport Leadership and Management (SLAM) at Miami University (OH).
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on August 9, 2023
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"author": "Adam Beissel, Andrew Grainger"
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Women’s rights in the balance as India weighs criminalising marital rape - 360
Saumya Uma
Published on November 29, 2023
India’s Supreme Court is poised to deliver a landmark judgement that may make marital rape a crime, a fiercely debated subject with roots in colonial law.
The Supreme Court of India is poised to deliver a landmark judgement that may make it a crime for a husband to rape his wife.
In recent months, the court has heard a batch of petitions that have challenged the current “marital rape exemption” to the criminal offence of rape. The judgment, expected to be handed down in the coming months, may bring India in line with the almost 150 countries that have already criminalised marital rape around the world.
The act is alarmingly common across India: Among married women aged 18-49 who have ever experienced sexual violence, 83 percent report their current husband and 13 percent report a former husband as a perpetrator, the latest National Family Health Survey shows.
Marital rape already has civil remedies in the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA) 2005 under the concept of sexual violence as a form of domestic violence, as well as in matrimonial law, which allows for divorce and judicial separation on the ground of ‘cruelty’.
However, the criminal law provision on rape has an exception for husbands. Exception 2 to Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code states:”sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife …is not rape.”
Another provision (section 376B of the Indian Penal Code) makes a husband’s rape of his wife who has separated from him a criminal offence punishable with a lesser penalty than in other cases of rape.
These provisions are remnants of British colonial law that reflect the then-existing English legal standard. While the marital rape exemption was overturned in England in 1991 through a judgment, India is still grappling with the ramifications of the exemption in 2023.
The provisions reinforce and embed in law the notion of a husband’s ‘ownership’ of his wife’s person — which is incongruent with the Indian constitutional guarantee to all of right to life, dignity, equality and non-discrimination on grounds including sex.
In May 2022, a two-judge Division Bench of the Delhi High Court delivered a split judgment, with one judge striking down the marital rape exemption as unconstitutional, and the other upholding the constitutionality of the exemption.
The judicial reasonings for the findings contrast starkly.
Justice Rajiv Shakdher found that the marital rape exception violates provisions of the Indian Constitution as it leads to “denial of bodily autonomy and agency of married women, which must be rectified”. He further observed that the marital rape exemption “suffers from manifest arbitrariness and discrimination as a crime as heinous as rape is not recognised as an offence in marriage”.
Justice Hari Shankar, meanwhile, wrote that within a marriage, a “cut and dry” approach cannot be adopted. He argued that, often, consent is given for sexual intimacy though will may not exist, and the state does not have the right to interfere in the private space within a marital relationship.
His reasoning resonates with a much-criticised judgment of the Delhi High Court in 1984 when it was stated that “introduction of constitutional law in the home is most inappropriate. It is like introducing a bull in a china shop. It will prove to be a ruthless destroyer of the marriage institution and all that it stands for.”
Much water has flown under the bridge since the 1990s when feminist scholarship analysed the public-private dichotomy, drawing attention to the manner in which the domestic sphere — which is a primary site of inequality for women — was kept shielded from regulation by law and policy that may protect and promote women’s rights.
The concept of privacy in law is often a double-edged sword for women. When associated with individual dignity, bodily integrity and sexual autonomy, it can be a tool for women to assert their rights.
But when the privacy of the family seeks protection from ‘external interference’ — including of law — it can potentially harm the rights of women, especially given gendered power dynamics within the family.
In several instances, state responsibility has already countered the public-private dichotomy to protect women’s rights: Enacting section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, which defines and punishes cruelty on a wife by husband and his relatives as well as Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA), 2005 and Dowry Prohibition Act 1961 are good examples.
They convey a clear, unequivocal message that the domestic sphere is an important sphere for legal intervention, as power dynamics in the home can be exploited by the powerholders to perpetuate violence and discrimination.
In that sense, the patriarchal myth of home as a safe space for all is busted. Justice Hari Shankar’s observations that the state has no right to interfere in the privacy of a marital relationship fly in the face of current legal thinking.
Some critics argue removing the marital rape exemption could undermine the institution of marriage.
The Justice Verma Committee famously recommended removing the marital rape exemption in its 2013 report into how India’s criminal system could better deal with sexual violence. However, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs rejected that recommendation, concluding that if marital rape were criminalised, “the entire family system will be under great stress”.
In 2016, the Union Minister for Women and Child Development argued that there could not be a law against marital rape because marriage was a ‘sacrament’ and due to factors such as poverty, illiteracy and religious beliefs.
During the 2022 proceedings before the Delhi High Court, X (formerly Twitter) witnessed a ‘marriage strike’ by men as a counter to a possible move to deleting the marital rape exemption.
They felt entitled to rape their wife in marriage, and were ready to boycott marriage if the licence to rape was deleted. Women responded with ‘May #Marriage Strike Remain for Centuries’.
The polarisation focused on the bodily autonomy and sexual integrity of married women vis-à-vis their husbands.
Deleting the marital rape exemption would create a normative standard of acceptable behaviour within a marriage, in line with the Indian constitutional guarantee of fundamental rights.
Additionally, my own research points to the need for law to treat the institution of marriage as one with mutual love, care and companionship as its foundations, rather than coercion and violence. As a logical corollary, the marital rape exemption breeds coercion and violence in the name of sanctity of marriage and warrants deletion from the statute books.
Dr. Saumya Uma is a Professor of Law and Director, Centre for Women’s Rights, Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University. She researches, writes and teaches at the intersections of human rights, gender and the law.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: In the story “Gender violence” sent at: 28/11/2023 15:17.
This is a corrected repeat.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on November 29, 2023
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"author": "Saumya Uma"
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Work is changing so fast can employers keep up? - 360
Shiwangi Sharma, Nandini Srivastava, Gauri Bhasin
Published on February 28, 2024
COVID changed the way we work. It also changed the way employees see their work. It could have huge implications.
Change is coming so fast in the workplace that employees are asking existential questions about what they’re doing and why.
While billionaire Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy wants India’s young people to work 70 hours a week to “boost the Indian economy“, employees are more likely to be re-evaluating the meaning of their jobs.
Among their questions: How does my work matter? What is the purpose of my work? Am I proud of my workplace? Is there any meaning in my work? Do I enjoy this work?
They’re also asking what gives work true meaning. Is it the number of hours someone works, what they produce, or something else?
These questions have come into sharper focus since COVID changed the way we work and prompted organisations to rethink work culture.
The idea of a more human-centric workplace has taken root and is producing results.
One report revealed that 65 percent of employees said the pandemic forced them to rethink the purpose and importance of their work. More than eight in 10 said organisations were focusing more on them as individuals as opposed to just a faceless employee.
This human-centric work environment leads to drastic reductions in worker fatigue, better retention numbers and performance, which is improved more than threefold.
But there remain challenges in the transition, with organisations encountering difficulties in managing talent, worker fatigue, social shifts due to external changes in environment and technology, costs and a surge in the use of artificial intelligence and automation.
For many, work needs to value them and be aligned with their values.
Business success can better be measured when the purpose of the workplace is aligned clearly with the individual goal, not a massive increase in work hours, as suggested by Mr Murthy.
To ensure a meaningful work environment, bosses are encouraged to provide and enhance strategic clarity, coaching and empathy to their employees. Team performance, collaboration, tech innovations and improving their employees’ skills can all help this.
There is also a need to recognise, respect and reward individual acumen and have provision for training and upskilling to expand employees’ abilities beyond their own role to engage meaningfully in different roles and opportunities in the organisation.
But not all organisations will hold on to their people.
It is estimated that one in every 16 employees may switch jobs by 2030. That equates to more than 100 million people across eight major economies — China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Spain, the UK and US.
Retaining talent will mean changes in work practices. Redesigning the workplace, restructuring talent and skills, digital enablement, hybrid working, cultural rejuvenation and human-centric work design will all play a role.
Whether with on-site or hybrid work, sustaining workers’ performance is another challenge. For organisations to keep up with global workforce transitions needs a reworking of existing attitudes towards work.
As attitudes change, so does the nature of individual jobs.
Highly skilled work in healthcare and science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) will increase in demand.
E-commerce, the green economy, remote working culture, digital technologies, AI and automation are some more areas which are set for growth.
With their incorporation, organisations can direct change in the context of technology-driven and automated systems. These approaches lead towards a key area of restructuring and creating a new framework for the future of work.
Indeed, these shifts are redefining work culture and signal the need for collaborative, often technology-driven practices while also nourishing interpersonal interaction.
This brings us back to the first question about what gives this new form of work its meaning.
It will be for employers to align employees’ work with the organisation’s larger purpose, redesign employee retention strategies to increase their sense of ownership, enhance their well-being and create a sense of belonging.
It is when this happens that employees can value and appraise their jobs beyond monetary terms and as meaningful work.
Dr. Shiwangi Sharma is Assistant Professor, School of Leadership and Management-Post Graduate, Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies.
Dr. Nandini Srivastava is Director of the Council for Doctoral Program and Professor, School of Leadership and Management-PG, Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies.
Dr. Gauri Bhasin is Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director, Marketing and Admissions, Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on February 28, 2024
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"author": "Shiwangi Sharma, Nandini Srivastava, Gauri Bhasin"
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Workers lose as laws can't keep pace with rideshare apps - 360
Nabiyla Risfa Izzati
Published on December 27, 2023
Gig platforms have mushroomed in Indonesia in the past decade. But regulations have lagged and it’s the workers who pay.
In just eight years, the gig economy has grown from nothing to being the primary source of income for up to 2.3 million Indonesians.
Known as the Go-jek effect, so called because of the pioneering ride sharing app, the industry has seen dozens of companies pop up across the country since 2015 offering mostly rideshare and food delivery, along with other services.
But regulations governing the app-based sector have struggled to keep up. Workers have few or no rights. They have no sick leave, or holidays. And they’re working longer hours for less pay.
Gig platforms have mushroomed in Indonesia in the past decade. From super apps like Gojek and Grab to more specific apps like Shopee Food, Maxim or InDrive to local platforms like Jogja Kita. Ride-hailing and food delivery dominate.
There are anywhere from 430,000 to 2.3 million people (0.3 to 1.7 percent of the workforce) whose primary job is in the gig economy in Indonesia, latest research shows.
This is similar to the US, Europe, and the UK, which range between 0.5 to 5 percent of the workforce.
The difference is, in these countries, the gig economy has been regulated much more seriously, especially concerning labour rights of gig workers. In the UK, for example, platforms can no longer categorise its workers as independent contractors. Gig workers in the UK are entitled to core employment protection like the national minimum wage to paid leave.
In the early days, most gig platforms emerged from the unregulated voids. Motorcycle ride-hailing platforms, for example, were about to be banned by the Ministry of Transportation in 2015 but the decision was reversed within 24 hours, with President Joko Widodo asserting the apps were essential for the Indonesian people’s needs and, therefore, “a regulation should not harm the interest of the people.”
Regulations were later put in place, with the Ministry of Transportation Regulation in 2018 and in 2019.
Although both platforms and workers consider these a “victory” as they provide legitimacy and a regulatory framework for the ride-hailing business, both regulations are limited in substance.
First, they apply only to rideshare apps, which means Gojek and Grab are bound by these regulations, while food delivery platforms such as Shopee Food aren’t
These legal disparities impact workers. For instance, those who work for Shopee Food or other food delivery platforms earn less than those on the ride-hailing platforms.
Second, these regulations focus more on the responsibilities of the workers than the platforms’ responsibilities. Permenhub 12/2019, for example, imposes the obligation to fulfil the safety, security, comfort, affordability, and regularity of ride-hailing services to the drivers, not the platforms.
The logic is that those who provide the transportation services are the drivers, not the platforms. Indeed, platforms never referred to themselves as transportation companies but technology companies, and therefore, the Transportation Ministry regulation cannot be used to regulate these ‘technology companies’.
Third, the main problem with these regulations is they do not solve the central issue regarding gig workers’ welfare and working conditions.
Gig workers in Indonesia are not considered workers but ‘partners’. This means they do not have legal protections, as the Manpower Law does not apply to them. They are instead bound in ‘partnership relations’, or hubungan kemitraan, relations in which legal protections are almost non-existent.
Various studies have criticised the use of partnership relations in the gig economy. The partnership relation or independent contractor model is considered a ploy so platforms can avoid their obligation to provide employment rights for gig workers, such as minimum wage and unpaid leave.
Court decisions in several countries have made it clear that relationships in the gig economy should not be considered partnerships but employment relationships.
But not in Indonesia.
There have been no significant regulatory developments impacting the welfare and overall working conditions of gig workers in Indonesia. One study found most gig workers in Indonesia work an average of 12 hours a day.
Other studies highlight an apparent decline in gig workers’ earnings, with many now earning less than the minimum wage. The partnership relations are also normalising piecework, because minimum wage regulations do not bind this so-called partnership.
The partnership relations in the gig economy are simply unfair because even though they are called “partners”, the majority (if not all) of the decisions regarding the “partnership” are decided only by one party: the platforms. In that sense, the term “partnership” itself is misleading.
Currentgig economy’s regulations are limited to the services (even those that are limited towards specific transportation services), without any policies that acknowledge the root of the problems: the partnership relation in the gig economy.
The imbalance between platforms and their workers, exacerbated by legal loopholes, is making the gig workers’ welfare decline over time.
Gig workers enjoyed decent earnings during platforms’ honeymoon period,when platforms paid bonuses and gave incentives to workers and customers.
But now, with the honeymoon over, it has become a race to the bottom. Research shows that poor working conditions mean many gig workers want to quit.
However, finding new jobs in the Indonesian labour market is challenging. For those who cannot leave gig work, a policy intervention to improve the quality of their welfare is desperately needed. Regulating partnerships is one logical way to move forward.
Nabiyla Risfa Izzati is a PhD candidate in Queen Mary University of London and Labour Law Lecturer in Faculty of Law at Universitas Gadjah Mada Indonesia. Her dissertation research is about gendered work in Indonesia’s gig economy, and she works with Centre for Research in Equality and Diversity (CRED).
This article is part of a Special Report on the Asian Gig Economy, produced in collaboration with the Asian Research Centre – University of Indonesia.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on December 27, 2023
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"author": "Nabiyla Risfa Izzati"
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Working out how work now works - 360
Sam Hendricks
Published on February 28, 2024
People’s connection to labour is facing big changes and big questions.
Work just isn’t what it used to be.
Actually, work has never been what it used to be.
The daily grind has been evolving from the get-go.
An obsession with figuring out how people can work less – or better, faster, more efficiently — has driven eons of human invention.
Then we might have more time to enjoy all the other inventions aimed at our amusement — ping-pong, Donkey Kong, jet-propelled surfboards.
Despite intentions, things haven’t entirely gone to plan.
Many people are feeling overworked, and they are facing stress, burnout and a lack of support from employers.
A recent survey of more than 8,700 workers around the world found almost two thirds of Australian respondents reporting increased stress due to aggressive performance demands, while nine in ten said greater empathy from managers would help them be more productive.
Politicians appear to be paying attention, though they may disagree furiously about what to do.
Earlier this month, legislative changes to Australia’s Fair Work Act 2009 were passed, including an amendment on ‘the right to disconnect’, allowing employees to ignore ‘unreasonable’ work communications outside paid working hours.
The ensuing debate brought charges from the opposition that the new law would lead to a “continuation of the productivity problem in our country”.
But if the four-day workweek ever gets off the ground, people will have even more time not to answer the boss’s phone calls.
It’s one of several ideas about workplace innovation that have gained traction in the post-pandemic working world.
COVID-19 ushered in a ‘new normal’ around work routines that is still loaded with uncertainty, as companies and workers alike try to anticipate future trends.
The implications for ‘flexible’ work go far beyond working out how to keep the cat off the keyboard while you work from home: at the forefront of organisations’ approach to flexibility is figuring out ‘how work can fit people — not the other way around’.
Meanwhile, automation and AI are driving speculation about the future of human labour.
A recent McKinsey & Company report predicts that technology-driven shifts, along with other factors, will mean up to 1.3 million workers in Australia will have to make ‘occupational transitions’ by 2030 — that’s nine percent of the country’s total workforce forced to reskill to keep working.
As the cost-of-living crisis in Australia shows no sign of letting up soon, cultural change of this magnitude adds even more pressure.
Without a radical rethink around the relations between people and work, widespread uncertainty and anxiety about the future will persist, with unpredictable social, political and economic consequences.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on February 28, 2024
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"url": "https://360info.org/working-out-how-work-now-works/",
"author": "Sam Hendricks"
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World prepares for El Niño as records fall - 360
James Goldie, Suzannah Lyons
Published on September 22, 2023
El Niños often mean droughts and fires for some countries and flooding rains for others. As impacts worsen with climate change, is the world prepared?
The last three years of consecutive La Niñas have seen floods in southeast Australia and Pakistan, as well as drought in eastern Africa.
Now the climate system is shifting gears. In early July the World Meteorological Organization and national meteorological authorities started lining up to declare an El Niño is underway. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology followed suit this week.
The announcements happened against a backdrop of tumbling global temperature records. Last week, the world had its hottest day ever measured, and then broke that record the very next day.
El Niños tend to push global temperatures up, increasing the chance of 2023 being the hottest year ever recorded.
But the possible impacts of an El Niño go beyond statistics. In Southeast Asia, authorities are preparing residents for the physical and mental health impacts of severe smoke haze. India’s production of major crops like rice and maize is less certain as monsoon timing is affected.
As El Niño takes hold, the race is on to understand what’s coming, to avert the worst of what may come, and to prepare us for the impacts we can’t avoid.
This article has been updated and republished after Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology declared an El Niño on 19 September 2023. It was originally published on 10 July 2023.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: In the story “El Nino returns” sent at: 10/07/2023 07:08.
This is a corrected repeat.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on September 22, 2023
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"url": "https://360info.org/world-prepares-for-el-nino-as-records-fall/",
"author": "James Goldie, Suzannah Lyons"
}
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Would eradicating smallpox be possible today? - 360
David Heymann
Published on February 18, 2024
The World Health Organization declared smallpox eradicated in 1980. But would a similar eradication of the disease be possible today?
It’s been over 40 years since smallpox was declared eradicated by the World Health Organization — the only human disease to reach that milestone so far.
The declaration brought to an end a disease that had plagued humanity for at least 3,000 years and was estimated to have led to the deaths of 300 million people in the 20th century alone.
Yet equitable vaccine distribution challenges during the recent COVID-19 pandemic raise the question as to whether a similar smallpox eradication effort would be possible today.
Smallpox had a massive impact around the world.
In 1967 — the year smallpox eradication efforts were intensified — there were an estimated 2.7 million deaths from the disease.
Compare this to estimated deaths from other infectious diseases in 2019, and smallpox would still dominate, even without calculating the greater theoretical number of smallpox deaths that would have been proportional in 2019 due to population increases.
In contrast, acute respiratory infections accounted for an estimated 1.9 million deaths in 2019.
The completion of smallpox eradication in 1980 likely happened just in time.
AIDS was first identified the following year, and HIV, the virus that causes it, spread rapidly throughout the world.
In 1985 a military recruit in the US had a serious reaction to a smallpox vaccination, which led to his death six months later. US military personnel have been routinely vaccinated against smallpox – despite its eradication – because of the fear it might be used as a biological weapon.
At the time he was vaccinated, the recruit was infected with HIV, which caused decreased immunity and led to the vaccine reaction and the recruit’s death. Only later did it become known that the smallpox vaccine poses safety concerns for HIV-infected people.
If smallpox hadn’t already been eradicated before HIV started spreading rapidly, we would have lost the window of opportunity to do so.
Smallpox eradication was possible because the smallpox virus has no reservoir in nature outside humans — like polio and measles, but unfortunately not the case with other diseases such as COVID and mpox.
There was an effective vaccine, it was possible to identify each person infected due to the distinctive rash, so no infections were missed — again more of an issue with COVID and asymptomatic infections — and nations were more willing to work together.
Public health workers from around the world — including from the US and USSR — worked side by side coordinating strategy, logistics and vaccine donations to accomplish eradication despite the political tensions of the Cold War.
Health was, and in many instances today remains, a neutral point for collective public health action, such as in the eradication of polio and guinea worm.
The strategy to eradicate smallpox was simple: identify those who had signs and symptoms of smallpox, with health workers searching in markets, at religious gatherings and from door to door.
Ensure that those with smallpox had healthcare support and were isolated to prevent spread to others, vaccinate their contacts and neighbours, and in some instances send specimens to remote laboratories for confirmation.
Searching for smallpox was costly and time-consuming for health workers. Sending specimens for confirmation was likewise costly, and results were slow. Vaccinators often required hand-drawn maps to find those who were infected.
But the efforts of some 10,000 health workers who administered an estimated half a billion vaccinations led to the final achievement of the disease’s eradication.
While the intensified effort is estimated to have cost global donors US$300 million, on top of country contributions, it’s now thought to have saved the world more than USD$1 billion a year since 1980.
Technical innovations available today would have helped facilitate the eradication of smallpox, as they are now doing for the eradication of polio and guinea worm.
Smartphones, for example, allow community members to participate in their own monitoring by reporting suspect infections through dedicated applications.
More sophisticated point-of-care diagnostic tests can confirm diagnosis in hours rather than weeks.
Environmental surveillance at multiple sites through the use of genetic sequencing allows for the presence of diseases to be detected, even when human infections have not yet been found.
Geopositioning and digital cartography have brought mapping into the 21st century.
Surveillance for infectious disease eradication has been turned upside down since the days of smallpox eradication, with communities reporting to health workers rather than health workers travelling to communities to identify those with infections.
In 2011, a second infectious disease was declared eradicated by using an effective vaccine and technologies such as participatory surveillance and geopositioning.
That disease was rinderpest, a highly fatal disease of domesticated cattle that at times spread to other domesticated animals and wildlife.
With continued use of new technologies developed since the days of smallpox eradication, polio and guinea worm may also soon be relegated to the history books.
Smallpox eradication was the first time the world came together to ensure equitable distribution of a vaccine, and polio eradication continues along the same path.
The recent example of the COVID-19 pandemic, when a special international mechanism called COVAX was established to ensure more equitable access to vaccines, demonstrates the importance the international community continues to place on equitable distribution of vaccines as has been accomplished for smallpox and polio.
Becoming complacent, or letting geopolitics and national rivalries impede international collective action could prevent successes such as those of smallpox and other disease eradication programmes.
Professor David Heymann is Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a Distinguished Fellow at the Centre on Universal Health at Chatham House, London. He worked in India for two years as a medical epidemiologist in the WHO smallpox eradication programme. In 2009 Professor Heymann was appointed an honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for service to global public health.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: In the story “Disease elimination” sent at: 15/02/2024 10:15.
This is a corrected repeat.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on February 18, 2024
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"url": "https://360info.org/would-eradicating-smallpox-be-possible-today/",
"author": "David Heymann"
}
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2,570 |
You can't mine the seabed without proper rules - 360
Pradeep Singh
Published on July 5, 2023
Mining the seabed without proper regulations seems outlandish. But it could happen sooner than we think.
July 10, 2023 is shaping as D-Day for the world’s oceans.
That is the day after a two-year deadline placed on the International Seabed Authority to finalise mining regulations in seabed areas beyond national jurisdiction is set to expire.
The possibility of mining the seabed being green-lighted in the absence of regulations has caused a lot of uneasiness among member states, environmental groups and the public.
And there is now a growing chorus for a moratorium on deep sea mining.
If the Authority misses the deadline, which is almost certain since its council will only meet from July 10, member states would have to “consider and provisionally approve” any application for mining received — despite the absence of regulations intended to govern such activities.
This is especially worrying given there’s a long way to go in the negotiations and the risks could outweigh any benefits.
How the International Seabed Authority reacts — whether to approve mining without proper regulations or not — remains to be seen.
The International Seabed Authority is an autonomous international organisation established under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982.
Comprising 168 member states and the European Union, it is responsible for the administration of the mineral resources of the seabed area beyond the limits of national jurisdiction – which have been legally designated as the common heritage of humankind.
All member states are represented at the assembly, the supreme organ of the Authority. Thirty-six are elected to the executive council for four-year cycles.
While the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea provides the regulatory backdrop for deep seabed mining on the international seabed, an implementing agreement concluded in 1994 modified certain aspects of the initial framework.
One pivotal modification was the inclusion of a provision called the “two-year rule”, which is tucked away in the annex to the 1994 agreement.
Although the assembly bears the responsibility to approve mining regulations, it is the Council that has the power to negotiate, adopt and apply them.
However, to adopt the regulations at the Council, consensus among the 36 member states is needed.
Crucially, just one formal objection would impede the adoption of the regulations.
The “two-year rule” provision was inserted to ensure that a deadlock can be circumvented and mining cannot be blocked by one or a few formal objections.
But the provision was not envisaged to allow mining activities to commence if just one or a small number of states or private entities wished to proceed.
And it was certainly not inserted to accelerate the negotiations and hasty adoption of regulations – as is being done now.
At the last meeting of the Council in March 2023, member states reached an understanding and adopted a decision that commercial exploitation should not commence in the absence of regulations.
The Council also concluded that member states retain the power to reject any application submitted in the absence of regulations.
The Council also emphasised the legal obligation of the Authority to safeguard the marine environment and ensure effective protection from the harmful effects of any mining activities.
That meant protection of the marine environment must take priority over any individual mining interests.
Without any agreed rules, clear environmental thresholds and binding standards, it seems impossible for the Authority to decide to approve any mining application and supervise operations with confidence.
There is little weight to arguments made by advocates that deep seabed mining could be the solution to climate change by providing critical metals needed for the clean energy transition.
Extracting these minerals would be energy intensive and the problems experienced in terrestrial mining — including habitat destruction and pollution — would be replicated at sea.
Deep seabed mining may also be perceived as an assault on Indigenous groups that share a profound cultural connection and bond to the deep ocean.
No monetary compensation for such losses would suffice, and in any case, it would be impossible to put a price tag on what is priceless.
Besides, the Authority is yet to have a debate on how to distribute the revenues from mining operators.
The Authority now faces a difficult decision.
Allowing mining in the absence of regulations would undermine the letter as well as the spirit behind the 1982 Convention and the 1994 Agreement.
Since the 1982 Convention has been regarded as “the constitution for the ocean”, allowing mining activities to commence now may be deemed as “unconstitutional”.
It will also almost certainly expose the Authority to litigation — it cannot yet guarantee the environmental and societal implications, or that it is fit for purpose as a regulator to exercise control over mining operators.
If the global community is to be successful in fighting climate change, the solutions we consider and invest in would need to be responsible, prudent and measured.
Deep seabed mining does not appear to fit the bill, at least certainly not now.
On July 10, the Authority could easily state the obvious: postpone mining activities and not allow unregulated mining to occur.
There is a time for everything, and at this moment of reckoning, states should unite to send a clear message calling for more circumspection, adherence to good governance and informed decision-making.
Pradeep Singh is a Fellow at the Research Institute for Sustainability – Helmholtz Center Potsdam and a doctoral researcher at the University of Bremen in Germany. He’s also the Lead of the IUCN Commission of Ecosystem Management’s Deep Seabed Mining thematic group and the Deputy Chair of Ocean Law specialist group at the World Commission on Environmental Law.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: In the story “MINING THE DEEP” sent at: 03/07/2023 07:29.
This is a corrected repeat.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on July 5, 2023
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"author": "Pradeep Singh"
}
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2,571 |
'You don't look autistic': Why neurodivergent women have been sidelined - 360
Emma Craddock
Published on February 21, 2024
‘Neglecting and causing harm’: Overlooking autistic and ADHD women has been the norm for generations. Gender bias in this field is a public health concern.
I walked into the gym and froze. The kettlebells had been moved. Their colours were in a new order. The cardio equipment had been relocated. Nothing seemed how it was.
I felt uneasy and exclaimed to my personal trainer: “Everything’s wrong! They’re meant to be by the window!”
This wasn’t the first time I had experienced a visceral reaction to changes in my environment. I once became particularly distressed at the sofa being changed in my counsellor’s room.
I used to torture myself over why I was like this. Why did I get so upset about things that didn’t seem to bother others?
I was intelligent and a high achiever despite leaving my work until the last minute and operating on a constant rollercoaster of high productive peaks and deeply depressed troughs.
Yet the many decisions, steps and multi-tasking involved in cooking a meal could send me over the edge. It didn’t make sense. I was constantly exhausted. People exhausted me. Life exhausted me.
I now know I am dyspraxic, autistic and ADHD. The depression, anxiety and panic attacks I struggled with for years were likely burnout and sensory overload.
Neurodivergent women and girls have been overlooked by the medical profession for decades.
Traditionally, ADHD and autism have been perceived as male conditions, contributing to a two– to fourfold higher likelihood of diagnosis in males compared to females.
The diagnostic criteria for ADHD and autism exhibit a male bias — partly because researchers historically recruited only boys and men to scientific studies. This has led to clinicians failing to identify women’s presentations of these conditions.
Clinicians, accustomed to recognising autistic features in boys, may also overlook or misdiagnose autism in girls.
That’s if they are referred at all. Research shows girls are less likely to be referred for diagnosis despite exhibiting characteristics of both conditions. The chances of recognition are even slimmer if you aren’t white or middle-class.
Women also often display less overt inattentive symptoms of ADHD; these differ from the externalised hyperactivity symptoms predominantly observed in males, resulting in underdiagnosis of ADHD in girls.
Reading Sarah Hendrickx’s Women and Girls with Autism Spectrum Disorder was a lightbulb moment. She was describing me, my childhood, my unique weirdness.
I couldn’t cope with uncertainty and change, however small. The wrong texture of clothes could drive me to losing my temper. I was an extremely bland and fussy eater. I couldn’t stand when things were ‘wrong’ or unjust. I would get fixated on what others could easily let go of.
I spent my whole life trying to figure out what others meant when they spoke, because they never said what they meant. I would become obsessed with topics and immerse myself, shutting everything else out.
Animals were my biggest allies. I couldn’t master gears in a car, I was clumsy; I had overwhelming emotional outbursts that I should have grown out of decades ago; I was always late, I lost everything. If I can’t see something, it no longer exists — I have multiple copies of things, having forgotten I’d already bought them.
I feel like I have multiple monkeys in my brain that all need to be kept busy at the same time in order for me to wrestle control over my mind and body. The racing thoughts never stop.
When I discovered I was autistic, I suddenly realised: It wasn’t just me. There wasn’t something deeply wrong with me. I wasn’t failing at life and unable to cope with the same mundane tasks others breezed through. I experience the world in a different way.
But this wasn’t the whole story. I didn’t fit neatly into the ‘autistic’ box. Learning about ADHD explained why — I was AuDHD.
My story is not unique.
My research about late-diagnosed women’s experiences of autism and ADHD shines a light on the rollercoaster lives, misdiagnoses, mental health difficulties, and negative self-perceptions of AuDHD women who lived a life undiagnosed.
Girls with ADHD and late-diagnosed autistic females often engage in effective “masking” behaviours (that is, the emulation of neurotypical behaviours) because there is more pressure on girls to conform, to behave, to silence their struggles.
Masking can make these conditions less visible and less likely to be diagnosed. Masking is protective but it can also be harmful, causing neurodivergent individuals to feel “disconnected” from their true sense of identity, and being linked to higher rates of depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation.
Up against these systemic challenges, women are left to figure out the puzzle of their lives, and themselves, before even embarking on a battle to attain a diagnosis. It means they often miss out on the benefits afforded by early diagnosis.
Yet even a diagnosis is not an automatic ticket to recognition.
Media portrayal of autistic characters, typically played by men, hampers the public’s ability to envision autistic women (hence the all-too-common refrain “you don’t look autistic”.)
The surging popularity of ADHD on social media sites such as TikTok has resulted in scoffs that “everybody has ADHD nowadays”.
It is impossible to adequately depict the multitude of challenges that autism and ADHD bring to everyday life and interactions. It is not ‘just’ being a little forgetful, ‘overly’ sensitive, lacking motivation, easily overwhelmed and emotionally dysregulated. It is also not all negative.
Adding a combined diagnosis of autism and ADHD into this mix complicates things further. The conditions can mask each other. They are often experienced paradoxically, leading to further distress, as I have written elsewhere. Because of these contradictions in the diagnostic criteria, a combined diagnosis was not even possible before 2013.
Change is underway as an increasing number of women gain awareness of these conditions, actively pursue diagnosis, and receive one.
In the US, the ratio of boys to girls diagnosed with autism was 3.8 to 1 in 2023 — a shift from 4.7 to 1 in 2012. In the UK, 23 percent of new diagnoses of autism were female in 2018, up from 18 percent in 1998.
Some researchers and advocates, including me, have also called for further efforts to de-medicalise autism, and to promote the social model of disability — for example, by raising awareness of autistic and ADHD strengths and not focus solely on impairments or deficits.
To some extent, the emergence of high-profile neurodivergent women such as Grace Tame and Emma Watson may have also challenged old stigmas and increased awareness of how autism and ADHD might show up in women.
Despite these positive trends, women face substantial obstacles in accessing care and support.
Waiting periods can extend to years, pre-and post-diagnosis support is often insufficient, and diagnostic criteria remain sex-biased. Women still face lifetimes marked by misdiagnoses, compromised mental health, and internalisation of negative perceptions about their character—all without adequate assistance.
The delayed diagnoses of autism and ADHD in women is a critical public health concern.
The repercussions of being undiagnosed are severe, leading to a lifetime of traumatic experiences, bullying, and feelings of not fitting in.
Neurodivergent women are particularly vulnerable to gender-based violence and sexual assault, with research indicating higher odds of such incidents for ADHD and autistic women. Earlier identification of neurodivergent conditions could help to mitigate these risks.
There is a need for funded holistic, women-centred, and trauma-informed neurodiversity assessments and pre- and post-diagnosis support.
While resource constraints are often cited as the reason for slow progress in this space, advocates have correctly pointed out that the costs of delayed intervention, multiple waiting lists, assessment processes, mental health treatments, economic impacts of unemployment, and the human toll of suffering are much higher.
We urgently need to stop neglecting, silencing, and causing harm to neurodivergent women and girls.
Dr Emma Craddock is a Senior Lecturer in Health Research in the Faculty of Health, Education, and Life Sciences at Birmingham City University. She completed her ESRC-funded PhD in Sociology at the University of Nottingham in 2017 with a thesis focused on gender and local anti-austerity activist cultures. Emma’s monograph Living Against Austerity: A Feminist Investigation of Doing Activism and Being Activist was published in 2020. Emma continues to develop feminist research in the area of women’s health, and is currently researching women’s experiences of being diagnosed with autism and ADHD in adulthood.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on February 21, 2024
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"author": "Emma Craddock"
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You say potato, I say property rights - 360
Shalini Bhutani
Published on July 20, 2022
A battle between PepsiCo and Indian farmers highlights the gap between international trade law and countries seeking to protect their farmers’ seed rights.
India is in an ongoing legal battle over a potato, with the next skirmish set to come before Delhi’s High Court in late July.
On one side is PepsiCo, a food and beverage multinational armed with intellectual property (IP); on the other are farmers, and the Indian law designed to protect their seed rights. At play is the diversity of food on our dinner plates, and crucially, farmers’ ability to freely produce a variety of plants and their seeds year after year.
The battle all stems from India’s decision to forge its own path to protect farmers’ rights, but still comply with international trade laws. Using the flexibilities in World Trade Organization (WTO) rules on IP, contained in the TRIPS Agreement, India’s Patents Act considers plants, animals and seeds as inventions that are not patentable.
When India chose to exercise the option in the TRIPS Agreement not to grant patents on plants, like many other developing countries it was shown the route of the industry-led UPOV Convention, which covers new plant varieties, as a possible way of remaining compliant with the WTO rules by providing some form of IP on plants.
The International Seed Federation (ISF), representing the global seed industry, says the UPOV Convention is the most appropriate IP tool for plant breeders. It offers ‘plant variety protection (PVP)’, giving IP holders such as PepsiCo the exclusive right to reproduce seeds (unless national governments insist on farmers’ rights). When enforced under IP law and grower contracts, it can violate the rights of seed farmers.
India chose another legitimate option available to WTO members: the sui generis way. It designed its own unique PVP law, which recognises farmers’ rights and regards them as breeders too.
India is not a member of the UPOV Convention, but it is a member, along with 148 other countries, of the seed treaty, the international law that recognises farmers’ rights. India is co-chair of the treaty’s expert group on farmers’ rights, representing developing economies; the other co-chair is from Norway, representing developed economies.
As India prepares to host another round of talks on the seed treaty in September, the PepsiCo case shows the importance of reviewing the influence of international trade laws against how governments design and implement farmers’ rights in their national laws.
The intent of India’s lawmakers is clear from the farmers’ rights chapter they added to the national plant variety protection law more than two decades ago, recognising a farmer as a breeder as well, but also expressly wording the law to entitle farmers to “save, use, sow, resow, exchange, share or sell [their] farm produce”. These legally recognised farmers’ entitlements were extended to the seed of a plant variety that is granted plant variety protection under this law. This is also in line with the seed treaty.
The farmers’ rights provisions were tested in the PepsiCo cases of 2018 and 2019. The Indian subsidiary of the US company PepsiCo filed cases in courts in the state of Gujarat alleging that farmers had violated its IP rights, granted under Indian law, over the potato variety from which it makes its Lay’s chips.
Indian law makes it clear that farmers’ seed rights are “notwithstanding anything contained in the Act”. This clarifies that other legal provisions recognising holders of IP rights under the Act are subject to farmers’ rights. But the company misinterpreted the so-called plant breeder rights (“to produce, sell, market, distribute, import or export” the potato variety) provided in the Act, by virtue of a certificate of registration given to the company, and acted as if it owned that particular variety of potato.
In December 2021 India revoked PepsiCo’s registration of the potato variety. The company has appealed to the High Court of Delhi, seeking a stay on the revocation order as well as on the rejection of the company’s IP rights renewal application. The case is scheduled to be heard on 21 July 2022.
The rights of Indian farmers are not just in black and white in Indian plant variety protection law.
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas, adopted in 2018, contains a very clear directive to nation states to “ensure that seed policies, plant variety protection and other intellectual property laws, certification schemes and seed marketing laws respect and take into account the rights, needs and realities of peasants and other people working in rural areas”.
It is often assumed that the users of IP-protected processes and products are predominantly in resource-poor countries. But the original producers of seeds in the biodiversity-rich Global South are farmers. In other words, the innovators are the farmers themselves.
As stated in the seed treaty, “the enormous contribution that the local and indigenous communities and farmers of all regions of the world, particularly those in the centres of origin and crop diversity, have made and will continue to make for the conservation and development of plant genetic resources which constitute the basis of food and agriculture production throughout the world” has to be recognised.
PVP laws, if they are designed or implemented in disregard of farmers’ contributions and seed rights, put at risk the very knowledge systems that feed us. There is a global movement away from IP on seeds and towards more ‘open source’ seed systems.
As newer planetary crises emerge, local varieties that ensure agro-biodiversity and are more climate resilient need to be mainstreamed. This makes the ethic of sharing that is at the centre of farmer-managed seed systems a fundamental principle to protect and promote.
Shalini Bhutani is a legal researcher and policy analyst. She has been guest faculty at various universities, including the National Law University, Delhi.
The author has declared no conflict of interest in relation to this article.
Main image used under Creative Commons.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: In the story “Who owns IP” sent at: 13/07/2022 10:48.
This is a corrected repeat.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on July 20, 2022
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"url": "https://360info.org/you-say-potato-i-say-property-rights/",
"author": "Shalini Bhutani"
}
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Young men in Bali lead a new HIV prevention approach - 360
Dinar Lubis
Published on December 1, 2023
Condom giveaways and printed flyers are out. Inclusive and engaging digital content is the way to change high-risk behaviour.
In Indonesia, the HIV epidemic is a pressing public health concern. While the general population’s HIV prevalence is low, at 0.3 percent, it reaches almost 18 percent among specific high-risk groups, including female sex workers, transgender women, men who have sex with men, and intravenous drug users.
Young people, especially young men who have sex with men, are particularly vulnerable to HIV due to increased societal marginalisation, higher likelihood of engaging in unprotected sex and reluctance to access health and social services.
The media’s tendency to portray the behaviour of men who have sex with men as conflicting with traditional values exacerbatesthe issue, leading to discriminatory regulations, censorship of LGBTQ-related content, and limitations on transgender individuals’ participation in various activities.
The delivery of HIV prevention services faces significant challenges in Bali, particularly in addressing the needs of young men who have sex with men.
The existing HIV prevention approach lacks appeal and relevance to young men in Bali. Almost 10 years ago, an initiative to distribute free condoms was started with the aim to prevent transmission of HIV. Not everyone was happy with the action, especially among Bali’s young gay community.
The condoms were perceived as lower quality than commercially available condoms. This, coupled with social stigma and disapproval, has contributed to the failure of prevention efforts.
The distribution of low-quality condoms and printed flyers in gay bars is outdated and ineffective. Peer educators, often older, are perceived as irrelevant, which creates a barrier to communication.
Young people advocate for a more inclusive, engaging and up-to-date approach – for example, emphasising the importance of conveying key information on HIV prevention through apps used by the gay community.
Recognising the limitations of current strategies, there is a growing call for interactive online HIV prevention, with customised messaging, broader outreach and interaction through chat spaces and interactive projects.
However, the challenge lies in making online information appealing and relevant. Young men who have sex with men frequently criticise existing websites for being outdated and unattractive, noting low engagement among their peers.
A group of nine young men who have sex with men in Bali engaged in participatory action research to design a more effective HIV prevention strategy. They advocated for a “So Us” campaign that is fun, creative, social and up-to-date — attributes that resonate with others in their cohort.
The campaign used blogs, websites, social media and chat rooms to share information on HIV prevention, counselling and testing, safe sex practices, and updated news relevant to young men who have sex with men communities.
The participants suggested strategies such as creation of appropriate websites and apps, using the chat feature in gay-themed apps, developing an online forum, and placing online HIV prevention messages in existing gay social media and dating apps.
They also considered the inclusion of games, interactive and moving images, the use of state-of-the-art technology and content that engages young men who have sex with men, but with less focus on medicalised content.
Participants noted that despite the availability of the internet for delivering HIV prevention messages, social and cultural norms continue to pose challenges in online promotion of healthy sexual behaviour.
Another benefit of using online methods in Indonesia is the creation of a comparatively secure communication platform that can preserve an individual’s privacy, particularly when addressing sensitive topics such as sexuality and HIV prevention.
Nevertheless, the persistent presence of stigma and risks remains an obstacle in the development and implementation of online HIV prevention initiatives.
Engaging in this initiative proved to be fulfilling and exhilarating for the group, fostering a sense of collective expression and empowerment, where each member is recognised as an expert. And it led to meaningful relationship building.
While these ideas are in the early stages of development in Bali and Indonesia, they hold promise for addressing the unique needs of young men who have sex with men in HIV prevention. The participatory action research approach has empowered the group, fostering a sense of collective expression and valuable relationship building.
As efforts progress, it is crucial to ensure the safety and privacy of young men who have sex with men, especially in the face of an increasingly challenging social environment in Indonesia.
Implementing these approaches cautiously and adapting them to the local context may pave the way for more effective HIV prevention strategies for young men who have sex with men across Indonesia.
Dinar Lubis is a lecturer at School of Public Health, Udayana University, and a consultant at Center for Public Health Innovation (CPHI), under Medical Faculty, Udayana University. Her research interest is in youth health, qualitative studies, mixed methods and participatory methods.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on December 1, 2023
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"author": "Dinar Lubis"
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Young voters care about climate change. Politicians don't - 360
Ika Idris, Derry Wijaya, Eka Permanasari
Published on February 14, 2024
Young people want action on climate change but research shows Indonesia’s political class isn’t listening.
Climate change matters a lot to young Indonesians.
Several national surveys show that Generation Z and Millennials are concerned about the impact of climate change on their lives.
Politicians, however, appear to be ignoring the issue if their public pronouncements are anything to go by.
A survey of 4,020 young voters in 2021 showed that 70 percent of respondents were concerned about climate change, behind corruption (85 percent), environmental degradation (82 percent) and pollution (74 percent). Around 61 percent believe climate change is a severe problem.
Around 89 percent of Indonesian respondents to a survey by Bath University, UK, were anxious about the possible impact of climate change on their lives while 66 percent said they would be directly affected by climate change. Most worried respondents live in disaster-prone provinces such as Jakarta, South Sumatra, and North Sumatra.
A survey by the Climate Change Communication Center at Yale University in 2023 of 3,490 adults in 34 provinces showed that respondents prioritise environmental concerns, with water scarcity topping the list at 91 percent, storms or tornadoes (88 percent), droughts (87 percent), forest fires (86 percent), water pollution (85 percent), air pollution (83 percent), floods (83 percent), rising sea levels (77 percent), and extreme heat (69 percent).
So, there is strong interest in climate change among Indonesia’s younger people.
The same cannot be said of Indonesia’s politicians who have yet to make it a priority.
Our study of 157 Indonesian politicians’ Facebook posts showed that politicians rarely talk about climate change.
Data from 2019 to 2023 on accounts belonging to ministers, governors and deputy governors, party chiefs and 48 heads and deputy heads of commission at the House of Representative, revealed 106 (out of 983) had posted about climate change at least once.
The dominant topics from the analysis were global partnership, sustainable transportation and infrastructure, mangrove management and environmental conservation, and economic recovery after the pandemic.
Topics that directly impact people’s lives were talked about the least by Indonesian politicians. Agriculture and food security, the importance of clean water, extreme weather and climate change awareness made up just 112 posts or 11.39 percent of all posts. A mere 18 posts (1.83 percent) related to youth involvement in climate change and environmental issues.
We also analysed the proposed vision and mission from the three candidates that they submitted to the election commission. None pay much attention to climate change and environmental conservation.
By scanning the vision and mission documents of the three candidates for four keywords (“environment”, “climate”, “ecology”, and “energy”), we found they were barely mentioned (around 1 percent).
The Ganjar-Mahfud candidates used these words most (47 times) (1.09 percent), followed by Anies-Muhaimin with 44 (0.6 percent) and Prabowo-Gibran with 44 (0.58 percent).
The documents show that climate change and the environmental issues were not a priority, even though people clearly feel the threat and impact of climate change.
According to news monitoring on each candidate, climate change, environmental issues, and energy transition were mainly associated with the poor quality of Jakarta’s air and the urgency of electric vehicles.
Most candidates only touch on the general problem of green economics and solar panels. No one really seemed to educate the public about climate change or strongly declared promises to solve problems.
Climate change impacts are felt by everyone, from villages to cities. In cities, air pollution affects residents, while in remote areas, drought and crop failureare continual threats.
However, during the vice president candidates’ debate on climate change, they did not touch on the main causes of climate change Indonesia is facing, such as deforestation, illegal logging, and mining.
The Indonesian presidential election has so far failed to recognise environmental issues.
Instead of addressing climate issues in their agendas, politicians prefer to hire influencers and appear on contemporary social media platforms (TikTok and Instagram Live) to attract new, younger voters.
When they do address issues, it’s more likely to be more populist things like free meals for preschool students, raising teacher salaries, or direct financial subsidy for pregnant women.
The lack of climate change discussion and debates is mainly due to political priorities, economic concerns, and current political attitude towards each candidate and often takes precedence over long-term environmental considerations.
Ika Idris is associate professor at Public Policy & Management Program, Monash University Indonesia.
Derry Wijaya is associate professor at the Data Science Program, Monash University Indonesia.
Eka Permanasari is associate professor at Urban Design Program, Monash University Indonesia.
All the three writers are researchers at Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub, Indonesia Node.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on February 14, 2024
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"author": "Ika Idris, Derry Wijaya, Eka Permanasari"
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Your aircon could make 2024 the hottest on record - 360
Hannah Della Bosca
Published on December 29, 2023
As the world reels from the hottest year on record, the weather outlook for the future looks grim, with extreme heat set to be unavoidable unless we act now.
This year, 2023, has been the hottest on record, marked by heatwaves across North America, China and Europe.
It is likely to be a short lived record, with 2024 expected to be even worse.
While El Nino conditions are supercharging heatwave intensity, a recent study confirms that the primary driver of extreme heat is human-induced climate change.
As we navigate the warmest decade in recorded history, the trajectory continues to rise.
Extreme heat, once an anomaly, is now a recurring weather pattern, necessitating urgent behavioral and systemic actions on all fronts to effectively manage its impact.
Heading into 2024, the liveability of your neighbourhood hinges on community choices and regional government actions to urgently transition away from fossil fuels and take steps to protect communities from heatwave dangers.
As COP28 demonstrated, climate outcomes are jeopardised by extensive coal and gas lobbyist attendance and the COP28 leader’s resistance to fossil fuel reduction.
Heatwaves are one of the world’s deadliest and most disruptive yet most overlooked disasters. Unlike hurricanes or earthquakes, the invisibility of heatwaves has hindered public awareness and risk recognition.
Misreported or delayed information about extreme heat impacts has impeded broad acknowledgment of the dangers these events pose to community physical and mental health, including increased hospitalizations and fatalities.
The classification of a heatwave is periods of exceptional temperature relative to the historical climate of a specific area, so the thermal value of a heatwave in Kenya is very different to that of a heatwave in Scotland.
Record-breaking events are predicted throughout the world in coming years, with the greatest population exposure likely to be in the Beijing region of China, Central Europe, and Central America.
Less densely populated areas in Australia, Russia, Afghanistan and Papua New Guinea are also likely to experience exceptional heat.
A staggering 76 percent of the global population, equivalent to 6.13 billion people, may experience heatwaves by 2030.
While some countries are investing in heatwave research, significant gaps persist in understanding the impacts on vulnerable regions.
Without drastic steps, Western Asian areas may become uninhabitable, and prolonged extreme heat is expected in Sub-Saharan Africa. The implications of global temperature rise are stark, particularly for cold climate Scandinavian nations facing the most dramatic relative change.
More than half of the world’s population lives in cities. This is expected to rise to 70 percent by 2050. With their amplified urban heat island effect, cities will likely endure heightened heat impacts, worse air pollution, and exacerbated health conditions.
While air conditioning appears to be a solution to rising temperatures, it is a band-aid solution that only exacerbates climate risks.
Significantly contributing to greenhouse emissions, air conditioning also strains local energy grids, leading to blackouts during heatwaves.
The energy required to power air conditioning units may surge by over 40 percent in the next couple of decades, particularly as sales skyrocket in India, China, and Southeast Asia.
COP28 commitments may improve air conditioning technology and regulation, but ultimately aircon cannot sustain the agricultural and ecological systems supporting global populations.
Moreover, those most affected by climate change often cannot access or afford air conditioning. Research suggests that cooling the body is a more affordable and sustainable strategy than cooling the air.
Encouraging people to use a combination of fans and wet towels can significantly alleviate the impact of extreme heat.
As we go into 2024, effectively addressing the challenges posed by escalating heat demands a multifaceted approach at the community and regional levels. National commitments to eliminate fossil fuel use are crucial, followed by improving domestic heat strategies.
At the household level, adopting simple measures such as keeping blackout curtains closed during the day and staying hydrated is essential.
Sustainable housing design, adjusting outdoor work schedules, and regular check-ins on vulnerable neighbours are vital components of community-level adaptation.
On a broader scale, cities must implement strategic planning actions. Emergency heatwave responses, including community cooling centers and adjusted outdoor work hours, are essential.
Long-term changes require widespread urban greening initiatives, stringent building regulations promoting heat-abating designs, and public awareness campaigns.
National strategies reflect a global community still struggling to recognise the implications of a heating climate.
China is responding to heatwave energy outages by commissioning more coal power stations, while in the United States, extreme heat is not officially classified as a disaster by the federal emergency authority despite being the deadliest natural hazard.
The lack of consolidated action on heat policy underscores the need for a paradigm shift in recognising and addressing the drivers and threats of climate change more broadly.
The consequences of intensifying heat cycles will disproportionately affect communities worldwide, with those least responsible for climate change likely to be worst affected.
Research indicates that within 80 years, tropical regions may experience daily extreme heat, while currently temperate areas will face annual heatwaves.
Periods of extreme heat are no longer rare or unexpected, and unless communities act now, they will be unavoidable in many parts of the world.
Hannah Della Bosca is PhD Candidate and Research Assistant at Sydney Environment Institute whose work focuses on community resilience and climate adaptation. She is currently working on projects related to environmental justice and multispecies justice.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on December 29, 2023
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"author": "Hannah Della Bosca"
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Your quick guide to the Solomon Islands elections - 360
Priestley Habru
Published on April 17, 2024
Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare could retain power on April 17, but who stands in his way of making history?
Solomon Islands sits on the edge of a monumental moment.
Solomon Islands writer Dr Tarcisius Kabutaulaka called the April 17 election “perhaps the most important to the Solomon Islands since independence.” If you monitor the interest in the vote from Washington, DC, Canberra and Beijing, you can begin to understand why.
To understand why major global and regional powers are narrowing in, look back to 2019. After winning the last election, incumbent Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare made a diplomatic switch. Instead of recognising Taiwan as China, the Solomon Islands now recognised Beijing, accepting the People’s Republic of China’s “one China policy.”
After exposing a significant faultline in Pacific geopolitics, a fast-growing friendship between Honiara and Beijing followed. The relationship worried the US and allies like Australia about the potential of Chinese military bases on the islands. Sogavare called the reaction hysterical and hypocritical.
But on the ground in places like Honiara, the people of the Solomon Islands could see the change around them.
The Sogavare government didn’t just welcome China’s recognition policy but also Chinese companies and development money with open arms. Soon, several infrastructure projects were underway.
While the Chinese government built the stadium that hosted the Pacific Games, the US opened an embassy in Honiara.
Because of this, Sogavare’s OUR Party has the upper hand going into this election, as his coalition was instrumental in facilitating Chinese investments in the country, tapping into Beijing’s PRC Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to finance infrastructure developments.
Chinese media claims the country has carried out “thousands of small-scale projects in fifty constituencies to improve the livelihood of local people.”
On April 17, Solomon Islands will vote, with more than 1 million ballot papers flown in from Australia for the parliamentary, provincial, and Honiara City Council elections.
For the parliamentary election, 334 candidates are contesting 50 seats in Parliament, 219 of whom are contesting under political parties, while 115 will run as independents.
Sogavare, already a four-term prime minister, will look to secure back-to-back terms. In addition, despite Sogavare’s coalition of 33 members out of 50 in the last parliament, a single-party government has never been formed in Solomon’s political history. Independent MPs have always determined the formation of government in the Solomon Islands.
In 2019, this was no different, with Independents claiming two-thirds of the seats.
Thirteen parties have registered to take part in the election .
In 2024, the highest number of candidates will run under the banner of the PM’s’s Ownership, Unity, Responsibility (OUR) Party — 43 in total.
Sogavare is determined to form the next government with former members of his current coalition, the DCGA, which includes 21 candidates from the Kadere Party and a fleet of independents.
All members of Sogavare’s coalition are re-contesting except for his former Education Minister Lanelle Tanangada and government backbencher Ethel Lency Vokia. Both of them came through in by-elections after their husbands were unseated through successful high court petitions. They have decided to step aside to allow their respective partners to contest.
Sogavare’s platform leverages the China relationship, vowing to “look north” in deepening security and economic ties with Beijing while maintaining its relationship with Australia.
The second highest number of candidates at 37 are from Solomon Islands Democratic Party (SIDP) of former opposition leader Matthew Wale.
Wale, has claimed the vote is “a choice between a government that serves only a few, and a government that will care for all Solomon Islanders.” He is trying to claim that Sogavare is out of step with the concerns of local people and too wedded to foreign interests.
Ten candidates from the Democratic Alliance Party of opposition member and one-time Prime Minister Ricky Houenipwela will join Wale’s coalition. They are campaigning under the Coalition for Accountability Reform and Empowerment (CARE).
One of its key policies will be offering a 15 percent pay rise to public servants, teachers and police while also promising to cut salaries for members of parliament.
Supporting the opposition but not running in the parliamentary election is Daniel Suidani.
Suidani is best known internationally for his anti-China stance as the former premier of the country’s most populated island, Malaita.
Suidani was removed from his provincial role as premier in 2023 after two votes of no confidence in his position by pro-China politicians.
Suidani is not contesting a national set but is running with the Umi for Change Party (U4C) in the Malaita Provincial Assembly seat in his Ward 5 of West Baegu and Fataleka which will be voted for on the same day.
This is perhaps the first time in the history of provincial elections that a provincial candidate is contesting under a political party.
It demonstrates the political power any provincial leader and former premier like Suidani can influence national politics in the country. This is unprecedented, especially due to his anti-China stance.
Suidani’s former advisor Celsius Talifilu is vying for the Baegu Asifola national seat of Malaita Province. U4C is fielding seven candidates vying for places among the 50 seats in the national Parliament.
Misinformation surrounding the election has seen Suidani accused of planning an assassination attempt on Sogavare.
The accusation of Chinese involvement in spreading such information campaigns raising another concern for the Solomon Islands democratic resilience against the mismatch of resources between the two entities.
Peter Kenilorea Junior’s Solomon Islands United Party would also welcome Taiwan back as its Chinese diplomatic partner—a message that the PRC and Chinese companies will loudly hear.
Kenilorea Junior is a former opposition member and son of the late Peter Kenilorea, the Solomon Islands’ first prime minister. Many anti-Sogavare sections of the country desire to see Kenilorea Jr. ‘s United Party join the CARE coalition to form the next government.
The majority of CARE or United Party members winning in the election will determine whether Wale (CARE) or Kenilorea Jnr becomes the next prime minister and the other their deputy.
Many analysts believe democracy is at risk in the upcoming election, a concern heightened following Sogavare’s criticisms of the democratic process as immoral claiming it allows you to “do whatever you want” while lauding China’s economic success.
However, Solomon Islands elections are more often than not decided on local issues, and Beijing and Washington cannot vote for the local people, no matter how hard they try.
Is there a hidden cost of China’s Pacific play?
China’s influence weighs heavily on Solomon Islands election
Priestley Habru is a PhD Candidate at The University of Adelaide researching Public Diplomacy and its implications in the Pacific. Habru has worked as a journalist in Solomon Islands for over 15 years.
A previous version of this article contained an incorrect figure for the number of candidates standing at the election.
Editors Note: In the story “Solomon Islands election” sent at: 17/04/2024 10:30.
This is a corrected repeat.
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on April 17, 2024
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"author": "Priestley Habru"
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Youth anger finds expression in religious hate - 360
Pramod Kumar
Published on March 4, 2024
Youth anger in India has changed from collective action for a better society to competitive religiosity and hatred.
Indian youngsters are venting their anger by violating the sanctity of religious symbols, forcible exclusion and subjugation of the Dalits (once known as “untouchables”) and minorities.
The headlines of Indian newspapers are testimony to this phenomenon.
“Youths attack Class 9 student for not chanting Jai Shri Ram in Jharkhand”. “Muslim college student beaten and pushed off a private bus for travelling with a Hindu girl in Karnataka”. “Disabled senior citizen ‘suspected of being Muslim’ thrashed, found dead in Madhya Pradesh”. “Dalit youth thrashed for touching food at a wedding in Uttar Pradesh”. “Tribal man lynched for drawing water from tube well in Rajasthan”. “Mob sexually assaults Adivasi woman”.
Civil society organisations have claimed that unemployed young people are being radicalised by some political parties with their anger channelled into igniting communal insecurities, hatred and riots.
However, there are other forms of expressing anger as well.
Unemployed youngsters in December last year breached the security of Indian Parliament and jumped into the well of the House to attract the attention to growing youth unemployment. They are now being tried for terrorism.
Rumours of recruitment scams in government jobs have led to youth anger and even suicides across India earlier as well.
This anger reflects the massive unemployment rate among young people.
According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, an independent think tank, in the October-December 2023 quarter, joblessness among 20 to 24 year olds grew to 44.49 percent.
The desperation of the government is also evident in its attempts to export youngsters to Israel to take over the jobs of the Palestinian workers evicted after the war in Gaza.
It’s no surprise young people are angry.
This anger can manifest itself in various ways – ranging from suicides, drug addiction and domestic violence to religious radicalisation.
From India’s Independence in 1947 to the 1960s, youth frustration was mainly a collective response to the non-fulfilment of the dreams nurtured by the freedom struggle.
Issues like poverty, feudalism, farmers’ exploitation by moneylenders and the remnants of the colonial mind-set fuelled youth anger.
The period until the mid-1960s can be characterised as a phase of hope and romance.
This reality was also mirrored in commercial Indian cinema. Take, for example, the narrative of the iconic film Mother India (1957). It portrayed the aspirations of a newly independent nation striving for equality, empowerment and social justice.
However, the model of development adopted did not deliver on the promises. The unfulfilled dreams of young India found expression in collective protests, such as the armed Maoist Naxalite movement, assertive trade unions leading major strikes and numerous peasant protests.
These class-based protests were not merely an expression of frustration but an attempt, even if ultimately inconsequential, at realising the dream of building an equitable society.
From the late 1970s to the late 1990s, youth anger was expressed collectively but shaped by class and religious identities.
It was spurred by the aspirations for upward mobility being thwarted by systemic injustices and moral compromises.
The mid-1970s also witnessed an economic recession, price rises, food shortages, the fading away of the aura of the freedom movement and a marked erosion in democratic institutions.
Hope gave way to frustration and produced a wave of intense anger in younger people.
There were revolts in Gujarat and Bihar which quickly gathered momentum to become a national movement, which was led by an ageing Gandhian, Jayaprakash Narayan. To quash it, then-PM Indira Gandhi imposed an internal emergency in 1975 imprisoning thousands and curtailing basic civil liberties.
Along with class-based protests, youth anger also found expression in displaced targets through their participation in communal riots. Communal riots between the periods 1954-69 and 1969-82 almost doubled.
This phase also witnessed expression of youth anger in secessionist movement launched by the Sikh militants leading to assassination of Indira Gandhi followed by the Sikh carnage.
The post-Emergency events changed the character of democracy in India dramatically. The economic policies of the government became more dole-oriented. They provided hope to the downtrodden, without actually providing any tangible gains.
This was the beginning of what one might call the third phase of youth anger in India post 1990.
Once again the hopes of young people were thwarted.
A cocktail of frustration about the present and anxiety about the future produced religious revivalism. This again was reflected on the silver screen – the epic Ramayana and Mahabharata serials on TV gripped the nation. Young people were spellbound.
The mobilisation of Hindus for building a Ram temple at a disputed mosque site in Uttar Pradesh was launched on September 25, 1990 by BJP leader L.K. Advani and on December 6, 1992 the Babri Masjid was demolished by so called ‘karsevaks’ (volunteers), prompted youth anger to take the communal route.
This period also saw the implementation of neo-liberal economic reforms.
The state surrendered to the market but also resorted to populism. Poverty eradication and mitigation of inequalities through positive affirmation (reservation in government jobs) for the intermediate and lower castes was given priority. This resulted in protests by upper caste youngsters who saw job opportunities for them shrinking.
Nehruvian secularism was replaced by an indigenous (Hindu) concept of majoritarian nationalism.
Youngsters became flag bearers of competitive religiosity, insecurity and hate.
But disturbingly, it would seem that youth anger, except in the large scale farmers’ protests in 2020-21 where it found collective expression, has also turned inwards.
There has been a marked increase in youth suicides.
The share of unemployed youth in the total number of suicides has increased from 1.8 percent to 9.2 percent from 1995 to 2022.
Youth frustration is also leading to drug addiction and domestic violence. The share of domestic violence in registered crimes, for example, went up from 3.1 percent in 1995 to 31.4 percent in 2022 .
The government’s failure in job creation is palpable.
The question then is: Will competitive religiosity and hatred continue to be the opiate of India’s young people or could it manifest in a different form if the current unemployment situation does not improve?
Pramod Kumar is Professor and Chairperson of the Institute for Development and Communication, Chandigarh.
This article was updated on March 11, 2024 to correct two dates. Indira Gandhi imposed a national emergency in 1975 and the large-scale farmers’ protests were in 2020-21.
Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.
Editors Note: In the story “An angry world” sent at: 29/02/2024 06:00.
This is a corrected repeat.
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news-360info
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2024-05-27T18:22:32.821463
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Published on March 4, 2024
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Home - Alt News
Shinjinee Majumder & Mahaprajna Nayak
1st December 2022
To make an instant donation, click on the "Donate Now" button above. For information regarding donation via Bank Transfer/Cheque/DD, click here.
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news-altnews
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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1st December 2022
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/",
"author": "Shinjinee Majumder & Mahaprajna Nayak"
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1 year after opting out, more than 1 lakh people across India have again started to avail LPG subsidy - Alt News
Alt News Desk
10th April 2017 / 6:18 pm / Last updated: 12th July 2018
In March 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the privileged sections of the country to give up subsidy on cooking gas as part of the “Give it up” initiative. Many people responded positively to PM’s appeal and opted out from the Government subsidy that they used to avail in the past. Domestic LPG is heavily subsidised by the Government of India and those who get subsidised gas cylinders get a cut of about Rs 200.
In regards to the ‘Give it up’ campaign, Mr Dushyant Chautala, the Member of Parliament from Hisar, had recently raised a question in the Lok Sabha directed at the Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Mr Dharmendra Pradhan. His two-part query was:
1) Whether the Government has given an option to the consumers who have given up their LPG subsidy to switch back to the subsidised cylinders after one year of
opting out from LPG subsidy.
2) If the Government does provide an option of letting customers switch back to subsidised cylinders after having opted out, then what is the total number of consumers who have utilised the said option so far. He also asked for these statistics to be given for every State/Union Territory.
The starred question had a deadline of 10th April. Mr Dharmendra Pradhan, the Minister of State (Independent Charge) in the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, replied to the said query and stated that “The LPG consumers who give up their LPG subsidy have an option to switch back to avail the subsidised cylinders after one year of giving up their subsidy”. The reply further contained a breakup of the number of LPG consumers who have utilised the aforesaid option to switch back to the subsidised cylinders for every State and Union territory. The provided data contains the State/UT-wise statistics available till April 1st.
It can be seen from the data provided by Ministry of Oil and Natural Gas that more than one lakh people have opted back for LPG subsidy 1 year after having opted out with the highest number of people opting back from Maharashtra.
One reason for people opting back could be that the price of non-subsidised cooking gas (LPG) was recently hiked by a steep Rs 86 per cylinder on March 1st. As a result of the hiked price, non-subsidised LPG cylinders bought by those who have either given up their subsidies or exhausted the quota of 12 bottles of 14.2-kg in a year at below market price, will now cost Rs 737.50. It was priced at Rs 651.50 per 14.2-kg cylinder till a few days back. LPG rates have been on a constant upswing since September 2016. A non-subsidised LPG cylinder was priced at Rs 466.50 in Delhi in September and has risen by Rs 271 per bottle or by a whopping 58% in six instalments.
In the past, many had complained that they are losing their LPG subsidy after falling prey to the confusing interactive voice response system. People alleged the recorded message through IVRS is leading to an automatic cancellation of their LPG subsidy. If you press ‘0’ even by mistake, your LPG subsidy is take away. While booking LPG cooking gas through mobile phones, we get an automated Interactive Voice Response (IVRS) message saying: “if you are capable then give up your subsidy so that the same could be given to poor brethren, if you wish to surrender subsidy press 0, if you want refill press 1 ”
“The problem is cylinder is not getting booked on the first attempt by pressing 1 and confused consumers sometimes end up pressing the 0 button in their second attempt, leading to the automatic cancellation of their subsidy,” said a consumer to Hindustan Times, wishing anonymity.
Those who wish to avail LPG subsidy because they lost out either because of the faulty IVRS system or they wish to do so because of the massively hiked prices of LPG, the petroleum ministry has laid out the procedure on their website and is available here => http://petroleum.nic.in/dbt/conditions.pdf.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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10th April 2017 / 6:18 pm / Last updated: 12th July 2018
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"author": "Alt News Desk"
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Decade-old photo morphed to show women in Afghanistan walking with feet chained - Alt News
Abhishek Kumar
19th August 2021 / 3:55 pm
A photo of a man walking in front of three women in burqas has been shared on social media. He has a chain in his hand which is tied around the women’s feet. The image has been shared with another photo of women in western attire. Viral posts attempt to draw a contrast between Afghanistan in the 1960s and 70s and Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover.
Below is a tweet by TV9 Bharatvarsh anchor Shubhankar Mishra sharing the pictures. (Archive link)
A few hours later, Mishra again tweeted the pictures in a different graphic. (Archive link)
The image is viral on Twitter.
The photo also made its way to Facebook. (1 and 2)
Alt News spotted several red flags that made us question the veracity of the image. We noticed that the shadow of the shackles in the picture looked a bit odd. The shadow is clearly visible between the man and the woman right behind him but missing between the first two women. It then reappears between the second and third woman.
We performed a reverse image search of the image along with some keywords. This led to a 2017 article by ABP Ananda, the Bengali arm of ABP News. There were no shackles in the picture featured in the article.
The photo was also shared in a 2017 article in Modern Diplomacy. There were no shackles seen here either.
In addition, upon further research, we found a few blog posts from 2011 and 2012 containing the original picture without the shackles. [Link 1 (Archive link), Link 2 (Archive link), Link 3 (2012 Archive link), Link 4 (2016 Archive link)]
Using the Internet Archive Library, Alt News located an archived version of one of the blog posts. The original photo was shared in May 2011. This means that the picture is at least 10 years old.
All of these blog posts are identical, or rather they have been copy-pasted word for word. Each one recounts an incident where American journalist Barbara Walters was doing a story in Afghanistan and spoke to an Afghani woman. Walters asked her the reason she was walking behind her husband, to which she responded saying, “Land mines.”
In 2017, Abhijit Iyer Mitra shared the same story on Twitter, citing WhatsApp. Therefore, this anecdote had also been shared in India earlier. (Archive link)
American fact-checking agency Snopes also investigated the Barbara Walters-reported story in 2014. It concluded that this was just a satirical post, versions of which have been shared on the internet since 2001.
To sum it up, a ten-year-old image was edited and shared as recent after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.
Abhishek is a senior fact-checking journalist and researcher at Alt News. He has a keen interest in information verification and technology. He is always eager to learn new skills, explore new OSINT tools and techniques. Prior to joining Alt News, he worked in the field of content development and analysis with a major focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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19th August 2021 / 3:55 pm
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"author": "Abhishek Kumar"
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10 year old video being shared as BJP/RSS cadre attacking a church in Mangalore - Alt News
Pratik Sinha
17th May 2018 / 5:31 pm / Last updated: 11th July 2018
“BJP/RSS workers celeberating their victory by attacking a Church in Manglore, Police arrested them all. Media is present but not showing on News Channels Immediate.” A video is viral on social media in which police can be seen beating up people inside a church. It is being claimed that this video is of an instance of BJP/RSS cadre attacking a church in Bangalore after BJP emerged as the single largest party in the 2018 Karnataka state elections.
BJP/RSS workers celeberating their victory by attacking a Church in Manglore, Police arrested them all.
Media is present but not showing on News Channels Immediate
1/2 pic.twitter.com/hd9C95eauc
— #Ramadan (@New_Shahbazkhan) May 17, 2018
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
A longer version of the video with a similar claim was shared on a page called “Muslim-Pro” and has been viewed over 44000 times.
Bjp and sanghi cadres attacked church in Mangalore to install bhagwa and bjp flags
Police arrested all of them.
Posted by Muslim-Pro on Wednesday, 16 May 2018
This video is viral on all forms of social media including Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp. The screenshot below illustrates how widely it is being shared on Facebook.
An attack on a church involving as much police as can be seen in the video above will always be reported by at least some sections of the media if not all. When we looked up reports of any such incident, we could not find anything in recent past. Therefore, the claim didn’t add up. When we looked for similar incidents on YouTube, we stumbled upon a 2008 report by Al Jazeera which includes the viral video being shared presently.
As mentioned in the Al Jazeera report, the incident happened in the St Sebastian Church in Permannur in Mangalore. The Al Jazeera report is dated October 5, 2008. Daijiworld.com which focuses on news from coastal Karnataka reported this incident on September 15, 2008. Later, witnesses blamed Bajrang Dal for the attack on the church in their testimonies before Justice B.K. Somasekhara Commission of Inquiry.
A video of an incident from 2008 is being shared as a present incident to create an impression that members of the Sangh Parivar, who in the past have attacked religious institutions of the minority community, have gained additional courage because of BJP emerging as the single largest party.
Co-Founder Alt News, I can be reached via E-mail at [email protected] and on Facebook at https://fb.com/freethinker.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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17th May 2018 / 5:31 pm / Last updated: 11th July 2018
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"author": "Pratik Sinha"
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#100DaysofKashmirSiege: Video from Bihar shared as Kashmiri Muslim child tortured to death - Alt News
Archit
13th November 2019 / 11:11 am
November 12, 2019, marked the 100th day since sections of Article 370 were abrogated in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). Many people used #100DaysofKashmirSiege on Twitter to share their views on the government clampdown. One such individual was Suhaib Saqib, who describes himself as a London-based “activist on Kashmir and Islamophobia.” Saqib tweeted a video saying, “A Kashmiri Muslim child has just been tortured to death by RSS Hindutva Nazi goons. My question to western leaders: would you allow this to happen to your children & silently spectate? Can any sane mind justify this? #100DaysOfKashmirSiege.” The video in Suhaib’s tweet is violent, viewer discretion is advised.
A Kashmiri Muslim child has just been tortured to death by RSS Hindutva Nazi goons. My question to western leaders: would you allow this to happen to your children & silently spectate? Can any sane mind justify this? #100DaysOfKashmirSiege pic.twitter.com/dsS3kuCY5C
— Suhaib Saqib (@SuhaibSaqib1) November 12, 2019
The same video was shared by Saqib on his Facebook profile as well.
This video was fact-checked by Alt News last month in the article ‘Murder-accused brutally beaten in Bihar; police deny communal angle.’ The incident took place in Kaimur’s Bhabua Nagar, a district in Bihar on October 2, 2019. The same video was shared on October 5, 2019, by Md Salim, a Politburo member-CPI(M). Salim later took down the clip.
The victim’s name is Shahid Rain. He was thrashed after allegedly killing Madhav Singh, a resident of Sikhathi village. “There is no communal angle to the crime. They had a land dispute”, said SHO Shashi Bhushan to Alt News. Kaimur Superintendent of Police, Dilnawaz Ahmed, also informed that there was no communal angle to the incident. An FIR was lodged against the men who assaulted Shahid.
The video shared by Saqib on Twitter, which was also pinned on his profile on November 12, 2019, has gone viral. The claim made by him – ‘a Kashmiri Muslim child has just been tortured to death by RSS Hindutva Nazi goons’ – is false. In fact, it’s an incident from Kaimur, a district in Bihar in October. Read the full report here.
🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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13th November 2019 / 11:11 am
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"author": "Archit"
}
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#10YearsChallenge: BJP Karnataka tweets three sets of images, get all three wrong - Alt News
Jignesh Patel
19th January 2019 / 9:26 pm / Last updated: 19th January 2019
On January 17, BJP Karnataka tweeted a collage of images drawing comparison between 2009 and 2019 to depict the positive changes in India brought about by the Modi-led government at the Centre. Latching on to the 10yearschallenge trend currently viral on social media, in an attempt to bolster its image as a development-oriented regime, the party tweeted the photographs with the hashtag #10YEARCALLENGE by misspelling Challenge as ‘Callenge’.
#10YearCallenge Modi style ! 😎 pic.twitter.com/2z0Qqnqc9c
— BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) January 17, 2019
BJP Mysore MP Pratap Simha was among the few individuals who have shared the image.
Interestingly, the image tweeted by the official Twitter handle of BJP Karnataka bears a logo of the Facebook page, Nation with NaMo. The post by Nation with NaMo has been shared more than 3000 times. Another Facebook page, Bharat Positive has also shared the image.
Using tools like Google reverse image search and Yandex image search, Alt News was able to trace back to the instances when the images were first shared on the internet.
The image on the left represents a shot clicked during a documentary, “Vulnerable without a toilet”. The documentary was uploaded on May 23, 2014 by Video Volunteers, a global initiative that empowers disadvantaged communities with a story. A still pertaining to a documentary, based on the lack of basic sanitation facilities in a village of Varanasi district in UP, was passed off as an image from 2009. The image on the right dates back to an article published by Mint on October 11, 2011. Ironically, the image showcased by the BJP government to bolster the success of the free toilet scheme under the Swacchh Bharat initiative was originally captioned, “A woman using the toilet constructed by ‘Hyundai’ in Irungattukottai village”. The article stated that Hyundai Motor India Ltd has undertaken to construct a toilet for each of the 205 homes without sanitation facilities in the village.
The image on the left is a representational image used in several articles. Alt News found that the image was used by a website named Green Drinks Singapore in an article published on August 7, 2012. The website has credited the image to Global Alliance For Clean Cookstoves, a non-profit organization launched in 2010. On the right is an image from a 2018 article published by Down to Earth. The article stated that Swalia Bibi, who became the 20 millionth beneficiary of the Ujjwala Yojana scheme can no longer afford an LPG cylinder. Thus, the image which depicted the limitations of the scheme was ironically used to showcase its benefits.
On the left is a representational image which has been used in several articles and blogs to depict the scarcity of electricity. We found a blog post published on January 10, 2011 which had captioned the image, “Students in the village of Tahipur in Bihar used kerosene lanterns for studying”. It was credited to a non-governmental organization named Greenpeace. Moreover, we found that the image on the right dates back to February, 2010. A Getty Image clicked by a photographer for The Mint was captioned, “Electricity in village of Bazida Zattan Village, photographed on February 24, 2010 in Karnal, India.” This claim was earlier fact-checked by The Print.
In conclusion, multiple images pertaining to the UPA tenure were used to showcase development accomplished under the BJP regime. At least two images belonging to the Congress tenure were passed off by the BJP as their achievements. Earlier, BJP Bihar had passed off a 2009 image to boast about rapid development undertaken in the last five years.
Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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19th January 2019 / 9:26 pm / Last updated: 19th January 2019
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"author": "Jignesh Patel"
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Video from 2011 revived as SP leader Kamal Akhtar thrashed by UP police - Alt News
Kinjal
28th October 2021 / 5:49 pm / Last updated: 28th October 2021
A news broadcast of a speech by SP leader Kamal Akhtar has been making the rounds online. He is heard saying that to date no IPS, PCS or officer has had the courage to refuse him. This video has been taken from an ABP News broadcast and it is followed by another clip wherein the police are seen beating a man with sticks. It’s being claimed that UP police personnel beat Akhtar over his remarks. The accompanying viral message reads, “Yogi is not just a Yogi.”
User Arun Shukla shared the visuals with the same claim. (Archive link)
दोस्तों कमाल अख्तर यूपी में जिस की तूती बोलती है यह बोलती थी योगी यूं ही योगी नहीं है.पुलिस निभा रही है ड्राई क्लीनर्स का रोल कपड़ों उसमें से धूल झाड़ रही है 😂😂😁 pic.twitter.com/5U0MUb3JES
— 💞अरुण शुक्ला 💞 (@shukla28) October 23, 2021
Another Twitter user also amplified the clip and accompanying message. (Archive link)
*हमें तो आजतक पता ही नहीं था कि योगी के UP में एक नया नेता पैदा हुआ ” कमाल अख्तर ,, की तूती बोलती है और योगी को खुला च्यालेँज करता है । इसे तो कोई छू भी नहीं सकता । आप भी पूरी VDO देखें ।* 🤔🤔🤔🤔 pic.twitter.com/Vr8JdfbRmD
— Satyendra Chaurasia🇮🇳 सनातनी #TeamSP (@satyendra_jhind) October 25, 2021
The video is widespread on Facebook and Twitter.
Alt News found the original ABP Ganga broadcast dated April 9, 2021. Scenes from the viral video appear at the 1:18 mark. The video is titled, “SP leader in Amroha gives a controversial speech, says no officer has the courage to refuse me”.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myZm3IIMk-E?start=78]
Alt News had already fact-checked the second video shared with the broadcast back in December 2017. At that time too, it was shared with the claim that Akhtar had been beaten up by the UP police. This video uploaded on April 25, 2011, actually features SP leader Raja Chaturvedi. It is titled, “Samajwadi Party leader Raja Chaturvedi 21 February 2011 at Vidhan Sabha UP”. YouTube has banned this video, but you can access it in full here.
According to an Indian Express report dated February 23, 2011, Samajwadi Party leaders opposing the then Mayawati-led state government were thrashed by cops. It is also mentioned that SP had accused the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party of resorting to hooliganism by forcibly driving away MLAs who had been protesting against them in the assembly.
A video of SP leaders being lathi-charged for staging a demonstration in 2011 has been circulating over the last five years with the false claim that the UP police beat up SP leader Kamal Akhtar. It was revived after Akhtar’s speech in April 2021.
Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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28th October 2021 / 5:49 pm / Last updated: 28th October 2021
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"14-lane highway will lead to rise in pollution"- Fake quote ascribed to Ravish Kumar goes viral - Alt News
Priyanka Jha
2nd June 2018 / 11:05 am / Last updated: 10th July 2018
“14 लेन का हाईवे बढ़ने से चोरी बढ़ेगी, हजारो पेड़ काटे जाएंगे, प्रदुषण बढेगा!” If 14-lane highway is built, it will lead to rise in theft and pollution- translated“. There is a page on Facebook named Hindustan Support Modi, which has posted an image on May 29, 2018 and attributed these words to journalist Ravish Kumar. This image with the quote has been shared more than 8500 times from this page alone which has almost one lakh followers. The post also says, “ये हैं पत्रकार के नाम पर कलंक, देश में कुछ काम हो या ना हो, इन्हें आलोचना करनी ही करनी!” (He is a shame to journalists. Even if development takes place, he will only criticise- translated) On the top left side of the post, the logo of Hindustan SupporT Modi can be seen.
इनके लिए 2 शब्द कहें??
Posted by Hindustan SupporT – Modi on Tuesday, May 29, 2018
This image has also been posted by the page Youth India. This page has more than 22 lakh followers. At the time of writing, it had been shared over 3500 times. The page I Support Modi has posted this image among its 14 lakh followers who have shared it over 2000 times. It has also been posted by the page ‘हिंदुत्व से बढ़कर कोई धर्म नहीं”गौ गीता गंगा और गायत्री’ which has more than 1 lakh followers.
It has also been posted on Facebook by many individual users and has been shared on numerous pages which have followers in lakhs. Another page ‘गर्व से कहो भारतीय हो’ has posted a slightly tweaked version of this quote. This page has a whopping 58 lakh followers.
‘गर्व से कहो भारतीय हो’ page writes, ”हद होती है दलाल पत्रकारिता की भी 14 लेन रोड बनने के बाद उद्घाटन होने पर रिपोर्टर रवीश कुमार का बयान। 14 लेन रोड बनने से गाड़ियाँ दिल्ली से मेरठ में 45 मिनट में बेच दी जाएगी और रोड बनने से प्रदुषण बढ़ेगा।” There is a limit to pandering. Reporter Ravish Kumar’s statement after inauguration of road: Building of 14 lane road will lead to cars being stolen and sold from Delhi to Meerut in 45 minutes, and it will result in rise in pollution- translated). This post has been shared over 2000 times.
Posted by गर्व से कहो भारतीय हो on Thursday, May 31, 2018
This page had earlier posted another fake quote of Kumar which said, ““मुझे दुःख है कि मोदी जैसा गुंडा मेरे देश का प्रधानमंत्री है” (I am pained that a goon like Modi is the country’s Prime Minister- translated) which was spread widely on WhatsApp. In the image below the logo of ‘गर्व से कहो भारतीय हो’ can be seen. We have observed that for pages which have following in lakhs, their images in their posts are embossed with the logo of the page.
PM Modi on May 27, 2018 had inaugurated the first phase of the 14-lane Delhi-Meerut expressway. After this event, some of the pages with massive following had posted this quote and attributed it to Ravish Kumar following which it became viral.
This quote is viral on Twitter as well.
“बीसयों हज़ार पेड़ काटकर “दिल्ली मेरठ हाईवे” बनाने से कितना प्रदूषण फैलेगा …क्या इसका अंदाजा है इस मोदी सरकार को दिल्ली और मेरठ के लोगों की जिंदगी नरक हो जाएगी” (Cutting of 20 lakh trees to build the Delhi-Meerut highway will lead to such pollution…does the Modi Govt realise this the life of the people of Meerut will become hell- translated). With these words, this quote said to be of Ravish Kumar has also circulated widely on WhatsApp.
Alt News contacted Ravish Kumar over this viral quote. He said, “मैंने इस तरह का बयान नहीं दिया है। इस तरह के मीम बनाकर काफ़ी वायरल किए जा रहे हैं। मुझे कई मेसेज मिले जिसमें इसके हवाले से मेरे चैनल को और मुझे भला बुरा कहा गया जबकि इस तरह का बयान मैंने नहीं दिया और न ही चैनल पर चला। सच बात ये है कि जिस दिन प्रधानमंत्री इस सड़क का उद्घाटन कर रहे थे उस दिन मैं दफ़्तर ही नहीं गया। तो चैनल पर बोलने का सवाल ही पैदा नहीं होता। मैं अपने आधिकारिक फ़ेसबुक पेज @RavishKaPage पर लिखता हूँ, वहाँ भी कुछ नहीं लिखा, फिर ये कौन लोग हैं जो मेरे नाम से ये बयान चला रहे हैं। हाल ही में गीता रेप मामले में मेरे नाम से झूठा बयान बनाकर वायरल किया गया ताकि लोगों को भड़काया जा सके। इस बार भी वही कोशिश है। जिस तरह के पेज से यह प्रयास हो रहा है उससे साबित होता है कि संगठित राजनीतिक प्रयास है। मैं प्रधानमंत्री का उम्मीदवार भी घोषित नहीं हुआ हूँ फिर भी ये लोग हर मसले पर मेरे नाम से बयान बनाकर चलाते हैं, पाठकों को भड़काते हैं। क्या पता इन्हें लगता हो कि इस वक़्त मैं ही चुनौती हूँ उस पद पर बैठे उनके नेता नरेंद्र मोदी के लिए। यह कितना दुखद है। एक बीजेपी और प्रधानमंत्री मोदी के लिए प्रचार करने वाले फ़ेसबुक पन्नों और व्हाट्स अप समूहों के ज़रिए मेरे ख़िलाफ़ लोगों को भड़काया जा रहा है।” (I have not made any such statement. Such memes have been made viral. I got many messages in which my channel and I have been abused when I have never said this and nor has the channel. The truth is that on the day when PM Modi inaugurated the highway, I had not gone to office. So there is no question of having said this on the channel. I usually write on my official page @RavishKaPage but I havent written anything there, so who are these people who are circulating statements in my name? Recently, a fake quote related to the Geeta rape case was spread widely so that people can be provoked. The same attempt has been made this time. The kind of pages from which this is happening suggests that this is an organised political effort. I have not been declared a PM candidate, still these people make quotes in my name and spread them, and provoke people. Possibly they feel that at this point in time, I am the only one questioning the leadership of Narendra Modi. It is sad that pages that campaign for PM Modi and BJP and WhatsApp groups are being use to incite people- translated)
We recently saw how Ravish Kumar was called and abused from different phone numbers. Not just that, he was also openly threatened with murder in a video. This is not the first time that Ravish Kumar has been targeted via a fake quote. Alt News had earlier reported how in the rape case of 11-year old Geeta, a fake quote was shared widely, according to which he had equated rape with consent. Another fake quote had been circulated at the time when Govt had announced electrification of every village.
Citizens who target journalists because they may hold ideologically different views ought to understand that diversity of opinion and ideology is a necessary pre-condition for a healthy democracy.
She specializes in information verification, examining mis/disinformation, social media monitoring and platform accountability. Her aim is to make the internet a safer place and enable people to become informed social media users. She has been a part of Alt News since 2018.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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2nd June 2018 / 11:05 am / Last updated: 10th July 2018
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"author": "Priyanka Jha"
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17 year old video of Imam Bukhari abusing Shabana Azmi being circulated with a false claim - Alt News
Arjun Sidharth
15th September 2018 / 7:59 pm / Last updated: 15th March 2019
“Barkha Dutt conducted a debate in NDTV Studio in which Imam Bukhari openly Called @AzmiShabana a prostitute in front of Owaisi and Farooq Sheikh. No one vomited. In Fact Shabana said “Mein Bahut Khush Hoon”, tweeted Rishi Bagree, a social media user who is followed on Twitter by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several top BJP leaders.
Barkha Dutt conducted a debate in NDTV Studio in which Imam Bukhari openly Called @AzmiShabana a Prostitute in front of Owaisi & Farooq Sheikh.
No one Vomited.
In Fact Shabana said “Mein Bahut Khush hoon”pic.twitter.com/1z6YuUXazt
— Rishi Bagree 🇮🇳 (@rishibagree) September 11, 2018
In the video clip, Imam Bukhari can be heard saying that he does not wish to respond to ‘dancers’ and ‘tawaifs (prostitutes)’, in a reference to Shabana Azmi. Bagree posted this message along with the video on September 11, and it has garnered more than 5700 retweets so far. This is not the first time that Bagree has tweeted this video with his claim that there was no outrage over Bukhari’s words.
In Tolerant India , Imam Bukhari abused Shabana Azmi, Called her prostitute
But likes of #AamirKhan never protestedhttps://t.co/cIv6FjdZG0
— Rishi Bagree 🇮🇳 (@rishibagree) November 24, 2015
The above tweet is of November 24, 2015. Bagree had tweeted the same a few days before that as well, on November 7.
The debate aired on NDTV is of the year 2001. Rishi Bagree’s claim that ‘no one vomited’ and that there was a lack of outrage over the Imam’s words is simply not true. Shabana Azmi has tweeted on September 15, 2018 that both houses of Parliament had unanimously passed a resolution condemning Imam Bukhari for his comment. Moreover, Barkha Dutt who had hosted the show too has tweeted in response to Azmi saying that Bukhari had been asked to leave the show after he refused to retract or apologise.
And I threw him out of the show when he refused to retract or apologize. Such fake news peddlers these fools are
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) September 15, 2018
Moreover, Shabana Azmi had spoken out against Bukhari when she had responded to Bagree’s tweet of November 2015. Barkha Dutt had corrected Bagree by responding in the same thread that Bukhari was told he could not continue on the show unless and until he apologised.
@AzmiShabana agree and I shut him down and said he couldnt continue on show till he apologized @rishibagree
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) November 7, 2015
Here is the link to the full video of the debate published on the NDTV website. It can be seen and heard from 07:36 to 8:25 that following Imam Bukhari’s comment, Barkha Dutt intervenes and seeks an apology from him.
Rishi Bagree is a repeat offender who has been caught spreading misinformation and disinformation on multiple occasions. A 17-year old incident which had been addressed at the time was once again raked up simply to target those who hold dissenting political and ideological views. This is despite the fact that Bagree had been corrected earlier in 2015, yet chose to share the video and the false claim again.
Arjun Sidharth is a writer with Alt News. He has previously worked in the television news industry, where he managed news bulletins and breaking news scenarios, apart from scripting numerous prime time television stories. He has also been actively involved with various freelance projects. Sidharth has studied economics, political science, international relations and journalism. He has a keen interest in books, movies, music, sports, politics, foreign policy, history and economics. His hobbies include reading, watching movies and indoor gaming.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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15th September 2018 / 7:59 pm / Last updated: 15th March 2019
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/17-year-old-video-of-imam-bukhari-abusing-shabana-azmi-being-circulated-with-a-false-claim/",
"author": "Arjun Sidharth"
}
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9 |
Fact-check: Is this a photo of Bhagat Singh being flogged under British rule? - Alt News
Kinjal
14th September 2021 / 1:29 pm
A photo of a man being flogged with his hands tied has been gathering a lot of traction recently. It is claimed that the photo shows Bhagat Singh being punished by the British police. The caption below reads, “This photo of Bhagat Singh being flogged for freedom was printed in the newspaper so that no one else dared to follow in his footsteps in India…Are there any such pictures of Gandhi or Nehru? How can I consider him the father of the nation? How can I believe that the spinning wheel brought freedom?”
Twitter user Umang had posted this photo as Bhagat Singh in 2020. (Archive link)
आजादी के लिए कोड़े खाते भगत सिंह जी की तस्वीर उस समय के अखबार में छपी थी ताकि और कोई भगत सिंह ना बने हिन्दुस्थान में..
क्या गांधी-नेहरू की ऐसी कोई तस्वीर है आपके पास ?
फिर केसे उनको राष्ट्र पिता मान लू ?
कैसे मान लूं कि चरखे ने आजादी दिलाई ?
RT if you agree ..#BhagatSingh pic.twitter.com/ScpdNB0l0u
— ♛ उ मं ग ♛ (@umanngjain) September 28, 2020
It is being widely circulated on Twitter with the same claim.
The image is widespread on Facebook. It has made its way to WhatsApp as well.
We performed a reverse image search and found the original photo in a report by Sabrang India dated April 7, 2019. There is no mention of Bhagat Singh anywhere in the report. It is noteworthy that this article is on the Jallianwala massacre. On April 13, 1919, General Dyer had ordered his men to open fire on civilians gathered at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar.
We found another similar photo in a History Today article dated April 4, 2019. It states that a man was flogged in the wake of the Amritsar massacre of 1919. It also mentions Kim Wagner’s book on the Jallianwala massacre, where the author identified the massacre as the first step in the fall of the British Raj.
Wagner is a British historian who tweeted two images on May 22, 2018, describing them as public floggings in Kasur, Punjab. He revealed that Benjamin Horniman, a British journalist, had secretly smuggled these pictures from India in 1920 and had them published.
Here are two of the photographs of public floggings at Kasur, in Punjab, that were smuggled out of India and published by Benjamin Horniman in 1920 #AmritsarMassacre pic.twitter.com/qoUZOPypsY
— Kim A. Wagner (@KimAtiWagner) May 22, 2018
Indian historian Manan Ahmed had tweeted a set of pictures on February 10, 2019, including the photo in question. It was described as a Sikh student-soldier being publicly flogged.
British Terror in India (1920) by the Hindustan Gadar Party (SF, CA) pic.twitter.com/exoruBNLqb
— Manan Ahmed (@sepoy) February 10, 2019
It is noteworthy that Bhagat Singh was born on September 28, 1907, which would make him 12 years old in 1919. However, the individual in the viral image appears to be much older than 12. This confirms that he cannot be Singh.
Back in 2020, The Logical Indian, India Today, and Fact Crescendo had published fact-check reports debunking this picture.
Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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14th September 2021 / 1:29 pm
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/1919-image-shared-with-false-claim-that-bhagat-singh-was-flogged/",
"author": "Kinjal"
}
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10 |
Old image from Congress rally shared as farmers take out rally in bullock carts - Alt News
Anuradha Prasad
4th February 2021 / 1:09 pm
Twitter and Facebook users have been sharing a photo of a fleet of bullock carts. The people riding on them are seen holding placards and flags. “This is a slap on the face of Godi media …the farmer’s movement has now reached the country’s most remote villages too,” reads the accompanying message.
This post by Facebook user Aarti Yadav received more than 400 shares at the time of writing.
ये थप्पड़ है गोदी मीडिया के मुंह पर… देश के सबसे पिछड़े गांवों तक भी किसानों का इन्कलाब पहुंच गया है..
#किसान_एकता_जिंदाबाद
Posted by आरती यादव on Sunday, January 31, 2021
Several other Facebook users also shared this picture of bullock carts linking it to the farmers’ movement.
The claim has been amplified by many Twitter users as well. (Archive link)
Alt News performed a reverse image search and came across an article by Patrika. The headline reads, “Congress launches bullock cart rally to protest petrol and diesel price hike”.
The story is dated September 13, 2018. It states that the Youth Congress and the National Student Union of India (NSUI) held a protest against the government in Madhya Pradesh’s Balaghat over the continuous increase in the prices of petrol and diesel.
The words “District Youth Congress Balaghat” and “Petrol Hua…Abki…Panje Ki…” are seen on some of the posters upon zooming into the viral image (the other words in the second poster are not visible). The flags of the Youth Congress can also be clearly seen. Apart from this, ‘UI’ is written on the NSUI flag.
Nai Dunia also published a report on this rally on September 14, 2018.
Therefore, a picture of a line of bullock carts was being shared online as proof of the widespread reach of the farmer protests. But the image is actually from a two-year-old Congress rally organised by the Youth Congress in Madhya Pradesh to protest against the rising prices of petrol and diesel. However, according to a January 25 Dainik Bhaskar report, farmers in Jaipur’s Sawai Madhopur held a bullock cart rally against the new farm laws.
A journalist and a dilettante person who always strives to learn new skills and meeting new people. Either sketching or working.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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4th February 2021 / 1:09 pm
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/2-year-old-image-shared-a-bullock-cart-rally-in-support-of-farmers-protest/",
"author": "Anuradha Prasad"
}
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11 |
Old video from Bangladesh viral as RSS members harassing woman in India - Alt News
Kinjal
10th July 2020 / 7:09 pm
A video of a group of men moral policing and harassing a burqa-clad woman on a roadside has been shared on social media with the claim that the men belong to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Twitter handle ‘@RoflSaba_saikh’ tweeted the video and wrote, “इन @#$यों , @#$ की वजह से देश मे बेटिया Safe नही है ये वही संघी है जो बेटी बचाओ बेटी पढ़ाओ का नारा लगाते है असल मे इनकी औकात ये है। रिट्वीट रुकना नही चाहिए आपका एक रिट्वीट इन सुअरो को गिरफ्तार करवा सकता है।”
Another user @shahjhan_malikk shared the video and wrote that India is the most dangerous country for women.
This is one of the reasons why poll ranks #India the world’s most dangerous country for #women.
pic.twitter.com/mLmI6kETKq
— Shahjhan Malik | #StayHomeSaveLives (@shahjhan_malikk) July 7, 2020
A Facebook page Nagma Khan-Humanity First had posted the video via Facebook Live on May 12, 2020. The clip is viral on Facebook with the ‘RSS’ angle.
A reverse-image search of one of the keyframes of the video revealed that it was uploaded by a Bangladeshi channel on YouTube in 2018. While the channel did not provide details, the men in the video are conversing in Bengali in a Bangladeshi dialect.
One of the men in the clip can be heard asking the woman, “বাসা কোথায়? টেকেরহাটে? কোন জায়গায় টেকেরহাটে? (Where is your home? In Teherkat? Which place in Tekerhat?)” Tekerhat is an area in Madaripur District, Dhaka Division, Bangladesh. This was earlier fact-check by Boomlive.
Therefore, an old video of a group of men moral policing and harassing a woman in Bangladesh has been shared with the false claim that the incident took place in India and RSS members were behind the harassment.
Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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10th July 2020 / 7:09 pm
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/2-year-old-video-of-a-group-of-boys-harassing-a-girl-in-burqa-shared-as-recent/",
"author": "Kinjal"
}
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12 |
2007 image of Adivasi woman stripped, beaten in Assam shared as recent incident from Bengal - Alt News
Pooja Chaudhuri
6th September 2018 / 12:00 pm
A Facebook user Hindu Akhilesh Gupta, on August 31, shared an image of a woman stripped naked, chased down the street and beaten by a group of men. The narrative used to circulate the photograph suggested that a Hindu woman was thrashed by Congress workers for chanting pro-BJP and pro-Modi slogans at their rally in West Bengal. The post was shared 15,000 times.
Hindu Akhilesh Gupta’s bio reads that he ‘works for Bharatiya Janata Party’. His timeline is a collection of posts favouring the government and those criticising Opposition parties, oftentimes with the use of provocative narrative.
The image and its accompanying text was also circulated by several others on social media, including one Pritam Rituji. He describes himself as “भाजपाई हूँ (I am BJP)” on Twitter and is followed by Railway Minister Piyush Goyal’s Office.
Alt News reverse searched the image on Google and found that it has been circulating with the identical narrative for some time now. It was shared in a group called We Support Narendra Modi Ji in 2016 and by several individual users in 2017.
However, we found that the image does not pertain to West Bengal but is of an incident that took place in Assam in 2007. The state’s Adivasi tea workers had taken out protest marches to demand inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes list. As a response to the protests, angry local residents attacked the Adivasi woman in the picture. The incident was covered by various media outlets at the time, including The Times of India, News18 and The Telegraph. SM Hoaxslayer had debunked the fake news last year.
West Bengal has often been targeted by right-wing users on social media to portray the state as “anti-Hindu”. Alt News has busted several cases of misinformation along religious lines ascribed to Bengal in the past (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Any information propagated using provocative language or imagery should be verified before circulating it further.
Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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6th September 2018 / 12:00 pm
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/2007-image-of-adivasi-woman-stripped-beaten-in-assam-shared-as-recent-incident-from-bengal/",
"author": "Pooja Chaudhuri"
}
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14 |
Old image of Amitabh Bachchan's visit to Ajmer Sharif shared as recent visit to Haji Ali dargah - Alt News
Kinjal
14th September 2020 / 9:36 pm / Last updated: 14th September 2020
A picture of actor Amitabh Bachchan has gone viral recently, allegedly from his recent visit to the Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai. It is being claimed that he made the offering of a chaddar (sheet) in the mosque. Social media users have been sharing this image discussing how even though Hindu temples held prayers and ceremonies for his recovery, he instead went to the Sufi shrine to offer a sheet once he got better. We would like to point out that Bachchan had informed the public about testing positive for coronavirus in a tweet on July 11, 2020. He was discharged on August 2, 2020, once his reports came back negative for the virus.
A user shared the image on a Facebook group called ‘Desh Ki Pukar Hindu Rashtra Shri Ram Rajatilak‘ with the same claim and called for a boycott of ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ (archived version of the post). Another Facebook user posted this picture on September 12.
[Translated from जागो हिंदू जागो जब अमिताभ बच्चन को कोरोना हुआ था सारे हिंदू ईश्वर से प्रार्थना कर रहे थे ठीक होने के बाद हाजी अली दरगाह अमिताभ बच्चन गए थे चादर चढ़ाने कौन बनेगा करोड़पति सीधा भाई काट करो जय श्री राम]
It had also been shared on Twitter with users claiming it’s a recent image.
We also received a few requests to verify the picture on the Alt News official Android app.
A reverse image search revealed that this picture is not recent and was taken in July 2011. An article by Aaj Tak from July 5, 2011, had some photos of the actor’s trip to Ajmer Sharif in Rajasthan, which include the image that has currently gone viral. In these photos, the veteran actor can be seen dressed in the same clothes that he is seen wearing in the image in question. According to the article, he had come to Ajmer Sharif after 40 years. Here, he offered a sheet to the shrine and untied a sacred wish thread to commemorate a wish from 40 years ago getting fulfilled. This photo of the Bachchan’s visit to Ajmer Sharif had also been included in a photo story by India Today dated July 4, 2011.
Bachchan himself had written about this trip to Ajmer Sharif in a series of tweets.
He can be seen inside the Ajmer Sharif Dargah in NDTV’s video report from July 5, 2011. We would also like to point out that there has not been any news of him going to the Haji Ali Dargah recently.
The being made online about Amitabh Bachchan’s recent visit to the Ajmer Sharif Dargah are incorrect. Along with the picture, users have been calling for a boycott of his show, ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’. The picture being shared with these claims was actually taken when the actor had visited the shrine back in July 2011.
Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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14th September 2020 / 9:36 pm / Last updated: 14th September 2020
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{
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/2011-image-of-amitabh-bachchan-visit-ajmer-sharif-shared-as-he-went-there-after-tested-coronavirus-negative/",
"author": "Kinjal"
}
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15 |
Aftermath of recent rainfall in China? No, 2011 Japan tsunami video viral - Alt News
Kinjal
29th July 2021 / 1:20 pm
More than 50 people have died so far as record-breaking rainfall and flooding continue to ravage China. Against this backdrop, a video of vehicles and a helicopter floating in floodwater began circulating online. It has been claimed that the visuals show the Chinese airport. Facebook user ‘Påthankőtiya- PB 35 walá’ posted the video, writing, “This is not a scene from a Hollywood movie, but the state of China’s airport. No one can withstand the wrath of God. May He have mercy on us.” (Archive link)
*यह कोई हॉलीवुड की मूवी का सीन नहीं है बल्कि यह चाइना के एयरपोर्ट का मंजर है😕 भगवान के कहर के आगे कोई नहीं टिक सकता भगवान सब पर रहम करें
Posted by Påthankőtiya- PB 35 walá on Sunday, July 25, 2021
Facebook page ‘Namo Blogs’ also shared the footage as visuals from China.
The clip is widespread on Twitter and Facebook. It has also made its way to WhatsApp.
Alt News performed a reverse image search of stills from the video, which led us to a Daily Mail story dated April 30, 2011. The accompanying images resembled scenes from the viral video. The British outlet reported that following the tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011, a newly released video showed cars, minibuses, vans, light aircraft, and helicopters being washed away. These visuals were from Japan’s Sendai Airport. Over 14,000 people were killed in the natural disaster.
Daily Mail also stated that the video was released by the Japan Coast Guard, a government agency. Several media outlets promoted these visuals, including The Telegraph UK and The Wall Street Journal.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTeQt3KmpNA]
To conclude, a video of the aftermath of 2011 tsunami in Japan has been circulating on social media with the false claim that it depicts the recent floods in China.
Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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29th July 2021 / 1:20 pm
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/2011-video-from-japan-shared-as-flood-situation-in-china/",
"author": "Kinjal"
}
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16 |
2011 video of domestic help lacing food with urine, spit viral with false communal spin - Alt News
Priyanka Jha
2nd March 2021 / 2:09 pm
A clip from a news broadcast by channel News 24 has gone viral on social media recently. It is being claimed that a Muslim domestic help in Bhopal was caught adding saliva and urine into the food she was cooking for her employer Mahesh Suri. A Twitter user named Anurag Tamarkar shared the clip with this claim on February 25, where it amassed more than 23,000 views before it was taken down.
Akash RSS, who has been caught spreading misinformation on several occasions, also posted the video and accompanying claim. A Facebook page titled ‘Kadar Sher Hindu’ shared the visuals as well.
#शेयर
*मूत जिहाद*
*लव,जमीन,थूक जैसे कई जिहादो की श्रेणी में अब नया नाम*
*भोपाल में मुकेश सूरी जी ने ‘हसीना’ नामक मुस्लिम नौकरानी को काम पर रखा और नौकरानी ने अपने इस्लामी मज़हब के अनुसार आचरण करना शुरू कर दिया!! अपने थूक और पेशाब से बना कर खिलाती थी खाना!*
Posted by कट्टर हिन्दू शेर , Kattar Hindu sher on Thursday, February 25, 2021
Several people on Facebook also claimed that a Muslim domestic help employed in a Hindu household was lacing her employers’ food with urine and spit.
It is noteworthy that while the viral texts give a communal angle to the incident, the broadcast does not mention the maid’s name or her religion. But the channel does say that the incident took place in Bhopal and carries a statement by complainant Mukesh Suri. We also observed that the date on the CCTV footage aired is 17/10/2011.
A report in The Times of India dated October 18, 2011, identifies the woman in question as Asha Kaushal. Dainik Jagran also reported in 2011 that her name is Asha Kaushal.
A local news channel named Janadesh News covered the incident. In a video story from October 2011, she is referred to as Asha. “The employers had previously suspected Asha of theft and fired her and her granddaughter. However, she returned to work after an apology. Perhaps she had decided on getting revenge on the same day. And she committed this atrocious act to teach them a lesson,” the report stated.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9poLjC9vaAM]
Therefore, the name of the accused is not Haseena, but Asha and the incident occurred back in 2011. A 10-year-old video on social media has been shared with a false Muslim angle.
She specializes in information verification, examining mis/disinformation, social media monitoring and platform accountability. Her aim is to make the internet a safer place and enable people to become informed social media users. She has been a part of Alt News since 2018.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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2nd March 2021 / 2:09 pm
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/2011-video-of-domestic-help-contaminating-food-shared-with-false-communal-angle/",
"author": "Priyanka Jha"
}
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17 |
Video of 2011 Japan tsunami shared as 'Three Gorges Dam of China' overflowing - Alt News
Kinjal
12th August 2021 / 2:46 pm
Floods caused by heavy rains have ravaged parts of China recently. 80,000 people were evacuated from the Sichuan area due to incessant rainfall and floods. Because of the continuous rainfall, the water levels in the country’s Three Gorges Dam have been rising steadily.
Against this backdrop, a video of a large boat overturning in floodwater is being shared widely on social media. It is being claimed that the footage shows the Three Gorges Dam of China.
Due to heavy rain the Gorges Dam in China was opened. See what happened next. @MeenaDasNarayan pic.twitter.com/YcVjtlYU0T
— Narayan Ned (@NarayanNed) August 7, 2021
Another Twitter user posted the video as scenes from China’s Three Gorges Dam. (Archive link)
The Gorges Dam in China on 2nd August 2021 due to heavy overflowing..!!#China #ChinaFloods #chinaflood #Flood #چائینہ pic.twitter.com/fCWvD0w0N7
— IjAz Ali SaGHar (@SaGHar1214) August 5, 2021
A Facebook page named ‘Tobacco World’ shared the visuals with the same claim.
Alt News received a few requests to verify the video on its mobile app. The footage has also been circulated on WhatsApp as scenes from the recent floods in China.
Alt News performed a keyword search and we located the original video posted by Russian news channel RT as the 2011 tsunami in Japan. According to the caption, this video shows the aftermath of the tsunami in the Japanese city of Mayako. It is also mentioned that the waves were so high that everything that came in their way was swept away, including boats and vehicles. According to officials, more than 1,400 people were killed in the quake and hundreds went missing after the tsunami hit.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-zfCBCq-8I]
Comparing the frames from both the video’s establishes that this footage is of the 2011 tsunami in Japan.
More visuals from the 2011 tsunami in Japan can be found in these reports from The Atlantic, Nairaland Forum, and ABC News.
A video of cars, buses, and aeroplanes drifting in floodwater was previously shared as China too. Alt News investigated this clip and discovered that this was also shot during the tsunami that hit Japan in 2011.
Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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12th August 2021 / 2:46 pm
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/2011-video-of-japan-tsunami-shared-as-flood-situation-in-china/",
"author": "Kinjal"
}
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18 |
No, this video doesn't show North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's funeral - Alt News
Jignesh Patel
30th April 2020 / 9:48 pm / Last updated: 2nd May 2020
A video of a dead body placed inside a coffin surrounded with flowers is doing the rounds on social media. It is being claimed that this video confirms the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un who hasn’t been in the public eye lately. The leader’s absence from the commemoration of his grandfather Kim Il-sung’s 108th birthday on April 15 has fuelled rumours of his death. A Twitter user posted the video with the message, “Confirmed North Korea Dictator Kim Jong UN is Dead.”
Confirmed North Korea Dictator Kim Jong UN is Dead.#KimJongUn #KIMJONGUNDEAD pic.twitter.com/7uRmoSoYse
— ಸೆಕ್ಯುರಿಟಿ ಜಮೀರ (@SmJameer) April 29, 2020
A frame from this video along with another image of a body inside a coffin was also broadcasted by TV9 Bharatvarsh.
Alt News has received several requests on its official Android application to fact-check this video. The same video has been shared by several individuals on Facebook and Twitter.
Alt News found that the video dates back to 2011 and shows Kim Jong Il’s body laid out in a memorial palace in North Korea’s capital Pyongyang.
“Footage filmed by APTN North Korea showed the glass coffin holding Kim’s body, surrounded by blossoms of his namesake flowers, red ‘kimjongilia’. He was covered with a red blanket, his head placed on a white pillow.” reported American news agency Associated Press. The video is dated December 20, 2011.
The image which is claimed to be the image of Kim Jong-Un’s dead body lying on the floor has been fact-checked Polygraph. It was found that the image appears to be a morphed version of a photograph of the late Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un’s father. However, we are unable to independently confirm this.
In conclusion, a video of late Kim Jong Il’s dead body lying at a memorial palace has been shared as of Kim Jong-Un’s dead body to confirm his death. At the time of writing this fact-check, there are no credible reports in the media which confirm the speculation about the death of the North Korean leader.
Jignesh is a writer and researcher at Alt News. He has a knack for visual investigation with a major interest in fact-checking videos and images. He has completed his Masters in Journalism from Gujarat University.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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30th April 2020 / 9:48 pm / Last updated: 2nd May 2020
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{
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/2011-video-of-korean-dictator-kim-jong-ils-funeral-shared-as-confirmation-of-kim-jong-un-death/",
"author": "Jignesh Patel"
}
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19 |
Farmers' protest: 2011 video viral as 'Nazir Mohammed' from SDPI disguised as Sikh man - Alt News
Pooja Chaudhuri
30th November 2020 / 5:28 pm / Last updated: 1st December 2020
Several Facebook users have posted a video of policemen apprehending a man and removing his Sikh turban. This video is shared with the text, “Nazir Mohammed an SDPI worker, dressed as a Sardarji in farmers strike in Hariyaana is arrested this morning,” against the backdrop of protests led by farmers from Punjab.
Facebook user Naresh Shenoy posted this video on November 30.
Nazir Mohammed an SDPI worker, dressed as a Sardarji in farmers strike in Hariyaana is arrested this morning.
Posted by Naresh Shenoy on Monday, 30 November 2020
BJP supporter Renuka Jain, who is followed by Prime Minister Modi, took down her tweet promoting similar misinformation.
Several Facebook users have posted the viral video.
The video was also shared on Twitter with the claim that the man is from the Popular Front of India (PFI).
Nazir Mohammed a Popular Front extremist was caught by police as he was participating in Farmers agitation in disguised as a sikh pic.twitter.com/0Q54fiT3m7
— Sandeep pandey (@butterf23893966) November 30, 2020
Last year, the same video was shared with the claim that the man was a Muslim impersonating as a member of the Sikh community. Alt News debunked the clip in December and found that Sikhnet.com reported that the incident took place on March 28, 2011, near PCA Stadium, Mohali, Punjab.
The report said, “A Sikh youth, participating in a peaceful sit-in staged by retrenched rural veterinary pharmacists and employees, was pulled aside by police officials and his Turban was forcibly removed without cause.”
Non-profit organisation United Sikhs filed a criminal complaint before the Mohali Judicial Magistrate against Punjab police for removing a Sikh youth’s turban. They also wrote letters to the then Prime Minister, CJI, NHRC, among others.
The last week of March 2011 saw protests by retrenched rural veterinary pharmacists in Mohali to demand regularization of their jobs. The agitation turned violent on March 28 when protestors violated prohibitory orders and gathered near PCA stadium. “Several vehicles were damaged as the police resorted to canecharge, firing teargas shells and using water cannons to disperse the stone-pelting mob,” reported The Indian Express.
The same video of a cop apprehending a Sikh youth and removing his turban was uploaded on YouTube on March 29, 2011.
Thus a 2011 video that was debunked in 2019 was shared again with the claim it shows Nazir Mohammed from Social Democratic Party of India pretending to a Sikh farmer in Haryana during farmers’ protests. This was yet another attempt to delegitimise the movement. Earlier, a Muslim man’s photographs from Facebook were misused to claim he dressed up as a Sikh man to participate in the protests.
Pooja Chaudhuri is a senior editor at Alt News.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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30th November 2020 / 5:28 pm / Last updated: 1st December 2020
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{
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/2011-video-revived-with-false-claim-that-muslim-man-wore-sikh-turban-during-farmer-protest/",
"author": "Pooja Chaudhuri"
}
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20 |
This video of girl confronting soldier is 10 years old and from Palestine - Alt News
Priyanka Jha
1st March 2022 / 4:59 pm
All India Parisangh (AIP) recently tweeted a video of a young girl screaming at an armed soldier and gesturing punches at him. The soldier subsequently walks away. The tweet was later taken down but an archived link can be viewed here.
NDTV India also published a report based on the viral video while adding a disclaimer that it could not independently verify the visuals. (Archive link)
NDTV shared the article from its Facebook page and Twitter handle. Though the tweet was deleted, the Facebook post is accessible as of this writing. Lokmat Marathi and Asianet also covered the video. A part of Asianet’s title reads, “Even Putin would feel defeated seeing this little girl’s spirit.”
A few social media users also shared a screengrab of the video linking it to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
An 8 year Ukraine girl confronts a Russian soldier telling him to go back to his country. This is courage simplicitta. pic.twitter.com/0CiT7JJdVg
— Ifedolapo Osun (@IfedolapoOsun) February 27, 2022
In the comments of one of the posts sharing the video, some users wrote that it is nine years old and the little girl was from Palestine. Alt News performed a keyword search based on this information and found a longer version of the video posted on YouTube in December 2012. The girl has been identified as Ahed Tamimi.
Another video of Ahed Tamimi, where she was seen slapping an Israeli soldier, went viral in 2017. Following this, then 16-year-old Ahed was taken into custody for eight months. Al Jazeera aired a video report on the activist in 2018, which carried a photo from 2012 of her confronting the army man. The report also states that she was only 11 years old at the time, and has now become a symbol of resistance. In 2012, Israeli soldiers had arrested Ahed’s older brother. This prompted her to raise her hand while yelling at the troops in protest.
To sum it up, the viral video is actually from 2012 and features a Palestinian girl confronting the Israeli army. It is not linked to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
She specializes in information verification, examining mis/disinformation, social media monitoring and platform accountability. Her aim is to make the internet a safer place and enable people to become informed social media users. She has been a part of Alt News since 2018.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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1st March 2022 / 4:59 pm
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{
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/2012-video-from-palestinian-girl-tried-to-slap-soldier-shared-as-ukrain-russia-conflict/",
"author": "Priyanka Jha"
}
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21 |
Video of US soldiers returning medals is from 2012; 50, not 40k participated in the protest - Alt News
Kinjal
14th October 2021 / 6:31 pm
A video of US army men coming on stage and throwing their medals while criticizing the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan is viral. It is being claimed that 40,000 American troops returned their medals in protest against the US’s involvement in war in the two countries. Twitter user Rais Mohammad tweeted this video with the same claim. It amassed 2,400 views at the time of writing. (Archive link)
40,000 US soldiers who fought in Afghanistan and Iraq, resigned and threw away their war medals in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan and Iraq. The accepted that “the war on terror” was a fake war. They are apologizing from the people of Afghanistan and Iraq. pic.twitter.com/Qxa5TfHBE2
— Rais Mohammed🌟🇮🇳 (@rais4u) October 10, 2021
Facebook user Mir Hamid also posted this video with the same claim. It has been viewed about 9,500 times.
40,000 US soldiers who fought in #Afghanistan and #Iraq, #Resigned and #Threw away their war Medals in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan and Iraq.
40,000 US soldiers who fought in #Afghanistan and #Iraq, #Resigned and #Threw away their war #Medals in #Solidarity with the people of Afghanistan and Iraq. The accepted that “#The_War_on_Terror” was a Fake war. They are appologizing from the people of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Posted by Mir Hamid on Thursday, October 7, 2021
It is widespread on Facebook and Twitter.
The video is also being circulated with an identical message in Hindi. It has made its way to WhatsApp as well.
Alt News found a video report by ‘Democracy Now’ dated May 21, 2012, where scenes from the viral video appear at the 8:20 mark. According to the report, a group of American soldiers who fought in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan resigned in protest of the 2012 NATO summit and returned their medals while apologizing to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ctEQqlf2xw?start=498]
Reuters also covered this on May 21, 2012. According to the report, about 50 American soldiers threw their service medals in the street in protest of NATO and the US-led fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. A soldier named Zach Laporte, who served in Iraq in 2005 and 2006, was quoted as saying that though the medals were supposed to be for acts of heroism, he did not feel like a hero or that he deserved them. It is noteworthy that the person sporting the red scarf around his neck identified himself as Jake Laporte in the Democracy Now report. Laporte also appears in the viral video.
NBC News and People’s World reported that 40 to 50 soldiers had relinquished their medals with thousands of people having joined in this demonstration. The viral message exaggerates this number to 40,000.
Thus, American military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan threw away their medals in protest of the NATO summit in Chicago in 2012. A video of this demonstration was shared as recent on social media with a false claim of 40,000 American troops returning the medals.
Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization.
Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar…
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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14th October 2021 / 6:31 pm
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/2012-video-shared-with-false-claim-thar-40-thousand-us-soldiers-threw-their-medals-afganistan-iraq/",
"author": "Kinjal"
}
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22 |
Old photo from UK falsely shared as Indian flag desecrated during farmers' protest - Alt News
Aqib Pathan
7th December 2020 / 12:49 pm
Amidst protests led by farmers from Punjab against the centre’s new agricultural bill, a photograph of a Sikh man holding his shoe over the Indian national flag, while many others have stepped on it, is being shared on social media. Facebook user Manohar Bhardwaj shared the image along with the Hindi caption, “Arrest these traitors immediately. They are (farmers) insulting the national flag by rebelling against the country in the name of the farmers’ movement”, which was shared over 700 times. (Archive link)
इन जाहिल गद्दारों को तुरंत गिरफ्तार करो । किसान आंदोलन के नाम पर देश से बगावत कर राष्ट्रीय ध्वज का अपमान कर रहे है।
Posted by Manohar Bhardwaj on Saturday, December 5, 2020
The same image was shared by Twitter user @RashmiBhadoriy2. She alluded, “It seems as if foreign terrorists have entered the country under the guise of farmers.” (Archive link)
क्या इन्हीं किसानों पर भारत गर्व करता है।ऐसा लगता है जैसे की विदेशी आतंकवादी , किसानों के भेष में देश में घुस आए हैं ।अपने ही देश के झंडे का ऐसा अपमान हमारे राष्ट्रीय ध्वज का अपमान करना ही किसान आन्दोलन है , हमें धिक्का है ऐसे किसान आन्दोलन पर😠😠😡😡 pic.twitter.com/QyHNemfrwx
— रश्मि भदौरिया (@RashmiBhadoriy2) December 5, 2020
This image is massively viral on Facebook and Twitter.
Alt performed a simple google reverse image search and found the full-size image posted on Twitter in August 2019. We then performed a second reverse image search and came across a blog post on Dal Khalsa from August 17, 2013. According to the blog, “Sikhs, Kashmiris & other minority groups gathered on the 15th of August 2013 in Central London to protest against Indian Oppression & Occupation.” The blog post includes other pictures of the protest, where the same man in a saffron turban can be spotted.
We also found a tweet of Sikh Sangat news posted on August 20, 2013 which carries a link to a news report of the protest.
Therefore the image of a Sikh man desecrating the Indian national flag during a protest held in London in 2013 has been falsely shared as the ongoing farmers’ protest.
Aqib is monitoring and researching mis/disinformation at Alt News
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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7th December 2020 / 12:49 pm
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/2013-image-from-londan-shared-as-khalistani-supporters-disrespect-indian-flag-during-farmer-protest/",
"author": "Aqib Pathan"
}
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23 |
Image of pro-Khalistan rally held in 2013 falsely linked to farmers' protest - Alt News
Anuradha Prasad
5th December 2020 / 9:04 pm
Misinformation is on a rise since farmers began protesting the union government’s farm bills. Recently, several Facebook users shared a picture of a man in a blue turban and holding a ‘WE WANT KHALISTAN’ placard. It is being suggested that the farmers’ protest is being led by Sikhs who want to establish a sovereign state of Khalistan and that ‘real’ farmers are not a part of the movement.
Facebook user Ranjana Jain shared the image along with the caption, “They don’t want farm laws but Khalistan. They are shaming farmers across the country.”
(Translated from: “इन्हे कृषि कानून नहीं खालिस्तान चाहिए पुरे देश के किसानों को शर्मसार कर रहे हैं.”)
इन्हे कृषि कानून नहीं खालिस्तान चाहिए
पुरे देश के किसानों को शर्मसार कर रहे हैं
Posted by Ranjana Jain on Thursday, December 3, 2020
The screenshot below shows the extent to which the claim is viral.
A few Twitter users also shared the picture along with the same claim. (First post and Second post)
Do you saw any farmers in this protest ?
They all are Khalistans,
They all are chanting we want Khalistan 😡
That’s why #BoycottKhalistan pic.twitter.com/HLxEbqLTUH
— अंकिता सिंह (@indiaAnkita) November 30, 2020
We did a reverse image search on Google and found numerous articles where the image was used for representational purposes. Some reports gave credit to AFP while others to Getty Images. We looked for the image on Getty which has credited AFP’s stringer Narinder Nanu.
According to its description, “Activists from various radical Sikh organizations after prayers at Sri Akal Takht at the Golden Temple in Amritsar stood holding placards in support of Sikh leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and Khalistan on June 06, 2013.” This was on the 29th anniversary of Operation Bluestar. Tribune India also reported about the event.
Therefore, a 7-year-old image of a group of Sikhs holding a placard in support of Khalistan state has been falsely linked to the farmers’ protest.
A journalist and a dilettante person who always strives to learn new skills and meeting new people. Either sketching or working.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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5th December 2020 / 9:04 pm
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/2013-image-of-khalistan-supporter-shared-as-recent-farmer-protest/",
"author": "Anuradha Prasad"
}
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24 |
Photo from 2013 Kumbh Mela shared as tents installed for protesting farmers - Alt News
Anuradha Prasad
8th January 2021 / 7:55 pm / Last updated: 8th January 2021
Social media users have shared an aerial picture of tents with different captions and linked it to the farmers’ protest. Twitter user Sanghamitra wrote in a now-deleted tweet, “Tents are giving nightmares to this regime. This fear is good.” More than 500 people had retweeted this post before it was taken down.
Another user @GDnarbhakshi’s tweet was retweeted by over 400 people. (Archive link)
The image has also been shared on Facebook.
After a reverse image of this picture, we found an article from a Finland-based travel website kerranelamassa.
The article carries pictures of the Maha Kumbh Mela, including the viral image described as, “Maha Kumbh Mela 2013.” The end of the article gives information about the Maha Kumbh Mela held in Prayagraj in 2013. The image has been credited to Ville Palonen.
Palonen is a photographer from Finland and kerranelamassa is his website. “Yes, I took this picture during the Maha Kumbh Mela in Allahabad in 2013,” he told Alt News. He added that apart from kerranelamassa, this picture was also published on issuu.com. Other similar pictures of Maha Kumbh 2013 can also be found on Getty Images and Alamy.
At least an 8-year-old photo from Kumbh Mela was shared as a huge number of tents installed for protesting farmers. It is, however, noteworthy that agitating farmers have also set up tents in the ongoing protest.
#India
Farmers walk in front of their tents on a blocked highway during a protest against the central government’s recent agricultural reforms in Ghaziabad, along the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh state border, on December 29, 2020.#AFP pic.twitter.com/mtI8uNtelI
— AFP Photo (@AFPphoto) December 29, 2020
A journalist and a dilettante person who always strives to learn new skills and meeting new people. Either sketching or working.
Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi recently performed aarti at the Narmada Ghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Omkareshwar…
In the wake of the alleged murder of Shraddha Walkar by his partner Aftab Amin…
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Last week during the G20 summit in Bali, world leaders were informed of a missile…
Recently, several prominent BJP leaders claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had intervened to stop…
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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8th January 2021 / 7:55 pm / Last updated: 8th January 2021
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/2013-image-of-mahakumbh-shared-as-farmers-tent/",
"author": "Anuradha Prasad"
}
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2013 image of Mexican MP protesting energy bill viral with misleading claims - Alt News
Archit
16th October 2020 / 7:54 pm / Last updated: 17th October 2020
Several people have shared an image of a man standing behind a podium wearing just his briefs. As per the social media claim, he is Mexican MP Antonio Garcia protesting against corruption. The claim also ascribes the following quote to him, “You are ashamed to see me naked and you are not ashamed of your people whose money you have striped, plundered and stolen so that you can live in complete luxury with high wages and enjoy with your families.” This has been widely shared on Twitter and Facebook.
Twitter user @MuthuiMkenya’s tweet gained over 1,700 retweets. (archived link)
Mexico MP Antonio Garcia undressed in parliament and said, ” you are ashamed to see me naked and you are not ashamed of your people whose money you have striped , plundered and stolen so that you can live in complete luxury with high wages and enjoy with your families” pic.twitter.com/agvvpLu9Rp
— MuthuiMkenya 🇰🇪 (@MuthuiMkenya) October 12, 2020
The image is also being shared with the Hindi translation of the English text on Twitter. @Ms_Marmat is one such user who tweeted in Hindi. (archived link)
#मेक्सिको 🇲🇽 में संसद के एक सदस्य ने संसद में बहस के दौरान अपने सारे कपड़े उतार देता है और बोलता है की ” तुम्हे मुझे नग्न देखने मे शर्म आती है लेकिन आपको अपने देश को नग्न, नंगे, हताश, बेरोजगार और निजी कंपनियों को जब इस देश का सारा धन लुटा रहे है और आम आदमी को गुलाम बना रहे है😢 pic.twitter.com/XfjTqx1Fd0
— Mansingh Meena(आदिवासी) (@Ms_Marmat) October 14, 2020
Similarly, several Facebook users posted the image. The Hindu’s political editor Nistula Hebbar quote-tweeted @MuthuiMkenya’s tweet and made the following remark, “The lady official sipping coffee while all this is going is just…” (archived link)
The picture is viral across the globe. It received close to 8,000 shares from a page ‘World Press‘ that wrote a slightly different caption, “In Mexico, a member of Parliament removes all his clothes in Parliament during debate… “You are ashamed to see me naked, but you are not ashamed to see your people in the streets naked, barefooted, desparate, jobless and hungry after you have stolen all their money and wealth”………he told the Parliament!! What a courageous man, this is how it should be.” The image was shared with the same caption on 9gag.
Alt News performed a reverse image search on Google and found that the image was published in 2013 by BBC, The Wall Street Journal and Daily Mail. As per the reports, the man is Democratic Revolution Party MP Antonio Garcia Conejo. He stripped down to his underwear to show his rejection of the energy law that allowed private companies to drill for oil and gas with the state-run firm Pemex in exchange for a share of the profits.
In August, The Guardian reported that Emilio Lozoya, the former head of Mexico’s state oil company Pemex accused former Mexican presidents — Enrique Peña Nieto, Felipe Calderón and Carlos Salinas — of corruption.
Next, we performed a keyword search on YouTube and found that the historic speech by Conejon was uploaded by Cámara de Diputados, Mexican parliament’s lower house. Alt News used Google Transcribe app to transcribe the entire speech, then translated Spanish to English on Google translate. We did not find him making the statement attributed on social media.
In the video, he began to strip around 11:30 minutes and said (translated via Google), “I am not ashamed because of what they are doing. They [government] took away and privatized the telecom [industry] in Mexico. Where is the profit? Railroads of Mexico are not going to achieve [profits] either. Shame on you! …. You can call it whatever you want. You are a coward! You are a coward! You are a coward!”
We also looked for media reports that may have carried the statement ascribed to the MP but to no avail. BBC quoted Conejo as, “This is how you’re stripping the nation. Where is the benefit? I’m not ashamed, what you’re doing is a shame.”
Therefore, an image from a speech given in Mexican parliament by Democratic Revolution Party MP Antonio Garcia Conejo in 2013 has been shared as him protesting against corruption and poverty in the country. He was protesting against an energy bill that would invite private players to invest in state-run oil and gas company.
🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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16th October 2020 / 7:54 pm / Last updated: 17th October 2020
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/2013-image-of-mexican-mp-protesting-energy-bill-viral-with-misleading-claims/",
"author": "Archit"
}
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Old images of Kumbh Mela shared amidst 2021 gathering during COVID - Alt News
Archit
15th April 2021 / 6:07 pm
Nearly 30 lakh people have gathered by the banks of the Ganga in Haridwar for the Maha Kumbh Mela, one of the largest religious gatherings in the world. As the result, COVID-19 cases continue to spike. PTI has reported that over 1,700 attendees have tested positive in the past 5 days.
Haridwar Kumbh Mela commenced in Uttarakhand on April 1. The Hindu festival is celebrated approximately once in 12 years at four riverbank pilgrimage sites: the Allahabad (Ganges-Yamuna Sarasvati rivers confluence), Haridwar (Ganges), Nashik (Godavari), and Ujjain (Shipra). This year the festival shall be observed till April 30.
In the backdrop of this, images of a huge crowd near a riverbank is being shared with the claim that it is from the 2021 Kumbh Mela.
Columnist Zainab Sikander Siddiqui tweeted the image and wrote, “The kumbh mela will never be called a covid hotspot. The devotees at the kumbh mela will never be called superspreaders. The bias cannot get more stark.” This tweet gained over 1,000 tweets.
The kumbh mela will never be called a covid hotspot.
The devotees at the kumbh mela will never be called superspreaders.
The bias cannot get more stark. pic.twitter.com/pSa6JBCBUm
— Zainab Sikander Siddiqui (@zainabsikander) April 7, 2021
Samajwadi Party leader Rais Shaikh posted the image and wrote, “May be they are celebrating India’s #2 position at the global #COVID index.”
Director Ram Gopal Varma had also shared the image.
The Delhi Jammat super spreader of March 2020 is like a short film compared to today’s BAHUBALIian KUMBH MELA ..All us Hindus owe an apology to Muslims because they did back then when they dint know and we did this one year after we fully know 🙄🙄🙄 pic.twitter.com/2fMF3uUtiG
— Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) April 12, 2021
The image in question dates back to January 2019. It was uploaded on Alarmy, a stock images website. The caption of the image reads, “Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. 15th Jan 2019. Allahabad: A sea of devotees gathered to take bath at Sangam on the occasion of Makar Sankranti, the first Shahi Snan, during Kumbh Mela 2019 in Allahabad (Prayagraj).” The photo credit states the image was clicked by Prabhat Kumar Verma.
RPG Enterprises chairman Harsh Goenka tweeted another image of pilgrims and wrote, “Meanwhile at the #KumbhMela the international press is appalled at how low we wear our masks!”
TV Host Simi Garewal and author Raju Parulekar also posted the image.
This photograph was published on a travel website called Remote Lands in 2013. The article’s headline reads, “Maha Kumbh Mela: 100 Million Attend The World’s Largest Festival”. It was written by the website’s co-founder Jay Tyndall.
While the above images are old, readers should note that COVID-19 protocols are being breached in the ongoing Kumbh Mela celebrations. Getty Images and Reuters have uploaded several recent pictures that show huge crowds flouting social distancing norms and not wearing masks. The following slideshow displays some of the pictures. (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5)
On April 12, ANI posted a few images from Har Ki Pauri, Haridwar.
Uttarakhand: People take a holy dip in Ganga river at Har Ki Pauri in Haridwar.
Kumbh Mela IG Sanjay Gunjyal says, “General public will be allowed here till 7 am. After that, this area will be reserved for akharas”. pic.twitter.com/9PtcP9WwwG
— ANI (@ANI) April 11, 2021
🙏 Blessed to have worked as a fact-checking journalist from November 2019 to February 2023.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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15th April 2021 / 6:07 pm
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/2013-images-of-kumbh-mela-shared-as-recent/",
"author": "Archit"
}
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Photo of Russian army revived as Indian army men at Siachen - Alt News
Kinjal
22nd December 2020 / 10:22 pm / Last updated: 8th February 2022
A few images, allegedly of Indian soldiers at sub-zero temperature, has been shared on social media. In the photos, the men are seen sleeping and standing guard under a blanket of snow.
The post below was made on the Facebook page ‘बुलंद भारत की बुलंद आवाज़‘ and has 24,000 likes.
The same images were shared in 2020 with users claiming that they show Indian soldiers at Siachen glacier, located on the eastern side of the Himalayas. Retired IG BN Sharma tweeted a collage with the same claim. It had received more than 2,900 retweets at the time of writing. (Archive link)
One of theost Harshest conditions on this planet, soldiers facing at the highest battlefield Siachin. Other high altitude areas along LC and LAC are no different except the temperature is few celcius higher.
Jai Hind Ki Sena pic.twitter.com/soAvUyBCuC
— 🇮🇳 BN Sharma, IG (Retd) (@BholaNath_BSF) December 19, 2020
Arun Pudur was one of the users who retweeted the post. Pudur has shared misinformation on social media several times in the past that can be read here.
Facebook page ‘Police News – English’ also shared the image and accompanying claim. (Archive link)
One of theost Harshest conditions on this planet, soldiers facing at the highest battlefield Siachin. Other high…
Posted by Police News – English on Saturday, December 19, 2020
In December 2017, Alt News published a fact-check report on the viral photo when BJP MP Kirron Kher had tweeted it. Alt News found that these photos were actually of the Russian army. The original images were first shared in 2013 according to StopFake’s December 2014 fact-check report.
Upon further research, we found the pictures in a 2012 article by a Russian website.
Fact-checking website SMHoaxSlayer had also published a fact-check report on this collage back in December 2016.
Therefore, pictures of Russian soldiers sleeping in the snow are at least eight years old and are repeatedly circulated on social media as Indian soldiers.
In December 2017, Bollywood actress Shraddha Kapoor also shared the collage on Twitter. Despite being informed of the truth, her tweet is accessible as of this writing. (Archive link)
They freeze to make sure that we are warm. They protect to make sure that we feel safe. Can never thank you Jawaans enough. pic.twitter.com/z1Df4sw0dA
— Shraddha (@ShraddhaKapoor) December 17, 2017
Apart from this, Facebook page ‘Laughing Colors’ also posted the image in a now-deleted post. The page has previously shared false news on multiple instances. Read Alt News’s in-depth report on the page.
Kinjal Parmar holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. However, her keen interest in journalism, drove her to pursue journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. At Alt News since 2019, she focuses on authentication of information which includes visual verification, media misreports, examining mis/disinformation across social media. She is the lead video producer at Alt News and manages social media accounts for the organization.
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2024-05-27T18:24:05.489452
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22nd December 2020 / 10:22 pm / Last updated: 8th February 2022
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"url": "https://www.altnews.in/englishclone/2013-images-of-russian-army-soldiers-revived-as-indian-army-soldiers-at-siachen-glacier/",
"author": "Kinjal"
}
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