The Zika Scare: a Political and Commercial Maneuver of the Chemical Poisons Industry

Evaggelos Vallianatos

Researchers discovered the Zika virus in the Zika forest of Uganda – in 1947. It is a virus not much different than the viruses causing dengue, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis, West Nile fever, and St. Luis encephalitis. The Zika virus eventually spread throughout most of the world. Mosquitoes carry and spread the Zika virus. But for decades the Zika disease afflicting humans was free of brain deform or the shrinking of the infant’s brain  known as microcephaly (a Greek term meaning tiny brain-head).

The 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

I heard the name Zika for the first time in 2016 during the Summer Olympics in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Reporting on the PBS Newshour offered warnings for those going to Brazil. Other large media went almost berserk. They were shouting that women near the Olympics site were giving birth to babies with tiny brains. They blamed Zika virus. They blamed the mosquitoes for the malformation of the brain of the babies. The Olympics should be delayed or moved to another country. Brazil was dangerous.

Imagine hundreds of athletes and hundreds of thousands of tourists returning to Europe and the  United States with this dreadful Zika disease, especially pregnant women likely giving birth to deformed babies.

Astonishing as these unverified news stories were, government agencies rushed to give them credence. I heard representatives of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention repeating the questionable newspaper and TV stories about the Zika virus. In addition, CDC keeps saying that fighting Zika virus-carrying mosquitoes in Brazil and Florida with a neurotoxin named “naled” is harmless. After all, farmers and mosquito controllers have been spraying naled for more than fifty years in the United States.

CDC said nothing about the deleterious effects of naled: that this chemical is an organophosphate compound linked to chemical warfare agents: targeting and harming the central nervous system and the brain of man and beast, of birds and insects and fish, of all wild animals.

So, what caused the tiny brains of Brazilian babies during the 2016 Summer Olympics? The Zika virus-infected mosquitoes or pesticides sprayed intensely in the environment, including in the drinking water of the urban slum mothers afflicted by the Zika virus?

Poverty and Poisons

A Berkeley team of scientists published a 2017 study in which they said: “Zika is, and will continue to be, a disease of the urban poor.” A group of physicians from Argentina and Brazil had already explained why.

In a February 2016 report, they argued that the Zika disease in Brazil, and other tropical countries, is not simply a disease of infected mosquitoes stinging pregnant women. They saw the Zika disease as a symptom of a much larger pathology: that of deforestation, the destruction of flora and fauna, massive pesticide sprayings of the natural world and cities, ecological imbalance, global warming and inequality.

Furthermore, these physicians say the massive air spraying of toxic pesticides against mosquitoes is “criminal” and “useless”: nothing but a political and a commercial maneuver of the chemical poisons industry.

They reported that there are countries like Colombia where the Zika virus causes disease but not microcephaly. In Brazil, however, the population that suffers from the Zika virus disease and, potentially, from microcephaly, has been drinking water intentionally treated with pyriproxyfen. This is a potent teratogen that causes monstrous changes in the development of the mosquito, foreclosing its chance of growing normally.

Pyriproxyfen: Insect and Human Growth Regulator?

Experts describe pyriproxyfen as an “insect growth regulator” – an apt name for a chemical made up of insect parts and chemicals formulated into a biological bomb: destroying the insect from within: wrecking the insect’s embryogenesis and metamorphosis to adult.

This powerful biological weapon — that annihilates mosquitoes or other insects – is not benign to humans drinking it in their water or exposed to it in any other way like in spraying it against mosquitoes. In fact, it harms human blood and the liver.

The real danger of pyriproxyfen, however, comes from what it does to developing mosquitoes: giving them malformations, which cause “death or incapacity.” The developing mosquito can’t grow wings or mature external genitalia. It moves to death through its disrupted evolution to a nymph or larva. Pyriproxyfen makes it impossible for the developing mosquito to become an adult.

The physicians from Argentina and Brazil urge us to get off our horse of hubris and think in biological terms. About 60 percent of our genes are identical to the genes of insects like the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that potentially carry the Zika virus. In addition, they emphasize our evolution – going from the zygote to embryo to fetus to newborn — is not that much different than the development process of the mosquito: larva-pupa-adult.

The implications of this biology, including the effects of pyriproxyfen on mosquitoes, are frightening. It is not out of the question that, under certain conditions, like massive and chronic sprayings of the environment, pyriproxyfen could probably do to people what it does to mosquitoes. It has the potential of becoming a “human growth regulator.” Is microcephaly one of the deadly consequences of that potential?

Environmental and Political Origins of Teratogens

“Malformations detected in thousands of children from pregnant women living in areas where the Brazilian state added pyriproxyfen to drinking water is not a coincidence, even though the Ministry of Health places a direct blame on Zika virus for this damage, while trying to ignore its responsibility and ruling out the hypothesis of direct and cumulative chemical damage caused by years of endocrine and immunological disruption of the affected population,” wrote the physicians from Argentina and Brazil.

What these scientists are saying is that Brazil, like the Unites States, is hooked on toxic sprays, used all over the country for decades. In about five years, vector control is projected to approach $ 20 billion per year earnings for the poisons industry.

Like America, Brazil, Argentina and other Latin American countries hire experts from the industry to run their mosquito spraying programs. These experts have been occupying key positions in ministries of health.

Second, the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization have vector control committees that decide what chemical should be sprayed in what country. The Argentinian and Brazilian physicians accuse these pesticide committees of “imperial” policies. They say the “hegemonic strategies” they advocate for “diseases spread by mosquitoes and multiplied by poverty” avoid the threats from bad sanitation, lack of safe drinking water, and responsible health policies. Instead, such programs rely entirely on the spraying of chemicals.

Such practices “demobilize the population” because they leave the people out of decisions, relying instead on the killing of mosquitoes. However, the sprays also affect the population, making people sick and weak. In addition, the sprays kill the natural predators of mosquitoes, which necessitate additional spraying, the only winners being the poisons industry.

Many of the chemicals targeting mosquitoes are endocrine disruptors, weakening the immune system of the exposed population. So, adding pyriproxyfen to that soup of chemicals and adding it to the drinking water and intimate environment of impoverished slum dwellers, you are asking for big trouble: the birth of babies with tiny brains.

“The governments of Mercosur [Mercado Comun del Sur – Southern Common Market of countries of South America] are causing alarm with the threat of Zika and microcephaly, proposing ‘more of the same.’ The agribusiness is offering the services of the ‘Soya Air Force’ to be used for spraying over cities and villages…. To social inequality, these epidemics will add health inequalities, and governments with their chemical attacks will generate environmental inequality,” wrote the physicians from Argentina and Brazil.

These inequalities are increasing ecological damage and the schism between the rulers and the ruled: the vast majority of the people. The rulers cover up the harms with the prestige of international health organizations, universities, business, experts – and the media. Brazil enforced its Zika policies with soldiers.

Religion, Reformation, and Modernity

Nyla Ali Khan

It is extremely important for educated Muslims to argue for a rational Islam and to seek to reconcile Islamic teachings and democracy. We cannot afford to disavow the space of religion for fundamentalists to do whatever they like with it. To keep fundamentalist forces at bay, educated and rational people must endeavor to bring about a reformation, so that religion can be perpetuated in a modern age as a liberal force. We can try to combine the concepts of an Islamic state with the principles of a socialist state, advocating social equality and economic and political democratization. We need to keep in mind that communities can grow historically within the framework created by the combined forces of modern national and transnational developments.

I agree that the politics of religion as a monolith is hostile to pluralism and evolution, because it insists on the uniform application of rights and collective goals. Such uniformity is oblivious to the aspirations of distinct societies and to variations in laws from one cultural context to another.

For fundamentalist organizations, religion is meant to be a hostile and vindictive force that ignores art and tradition. For instance, impassioned appeals of the clergy to the outdated concept of Islam have bred rancorous hate against “outsiders” and exploited the pitiful poverty and illiteracy of the majority of Muslims in the subcontinent, who are unable to study progressive concepts of the religion for themselves. This strategy of fortifying fundamentalism has created a bridge between the “believers” and “non-believers,” which, I would argue, is rooted in contemporary politics. The ideology propounded by the ruling fundamentalist order reflects and reproduces the interests of the mullahcracy. Mullahs justify repression of the poor and dispossessed classes, subjugation of women, and honor killings with the language of culture and religion. Such practices have led to regrettable ruptures of the Indian subcontinent and to a denial of science, technology, and historical understanding of the precepts of Islam. I am highly critical of the kind of nationalist logic in theocratic countries in which an image of the non-Islamic world as chaotic valorizes the dominance of the fundamentalist order.

Here is my concrete example of social equality, economic and political democratization, and empowerment of minorities in a predominantly Muslim society:

Historical foundations for pluralist democracy in my State, Jammu and Kashmir, which is predominantly Muslim, were established by revolutionary actions during the 1950s to keep the forces of religious fundamentalism at bay. Land was taken from exploitative landlords without compensation and distributed to formerly indentured tillers of the land. This metamorphosis of the agrarian economy had groundbreaking political consequences in a previously feudal economy. With landlord rule abolished and land distributed to peasants who formed cooperative guilds, the economy started working better for all those who cultivated the land and made livings from the forests, orchards, and fish-filled waters. Mineral wealth was reserved for the betterment of the entire populace, while tillers were assured of the right to work on the land without incurring the wrath of creditors and were newly guaranteed rights to basic social and health benefits. These measures signaled the end of the chapter of peasant exploitation and subservience and opened a new chapter of peasant emancipation.

Building on the earlier gains, a pluralistic government ensured further economic, social, and educational gains for women and marginalized groups.

The “Women’s Charter” in the “Naya Kashmir Manifesto” accorded equal rights to women with men in all fields of national life – economic, cultural, political, and in government services. Women had the right to work in every line of employment for terms and wages equal to those for men. Women would be assured of equality with men in education, social insurance and job conditions, though the law should also give special protections to mothers and children.

The convergence of religion with social and economic democratization increases my faith in camaraderie, humanity, and the resilience of the human spirit.

Safety questions emerge after 189 people die in Indonesian plane crash

Oscar Grenfell 

Since a Lion Air flight crashed into Indonesia’s Java Sea on October 29, killing all 189 passengers and crew members on board, information has emerged indicating that mechanical faults may have contributed to the aviation disaster, the country’s worst in over two decades.

The plane reportedly fell out of radio contact some 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta on a routine flight to Pangkal Pinang, the capital of the Bangka Belitung Islands province. Witnesses reported seeing it nosedive as it plunged into the sea.

Over the past week, rescuers have combed the area near the crash site, searching for the remains of those who perished. Tragically, on November 2, Syachrul Anto, a 48-year-old member of the rescue team, died while recovering material from the plane.

The plane’s black box, containing flight information, was recovered on November 1. A second black box, with audio from the cockpit, has yet to be discovered. Indonesian aviation authorities are expected to release a preliminary report at the end of November, while the findings of a full investigation will not likely be made public for several months.

Already, however, major questions have emerged about whether the plane should have been in use at the time of the accident. The crash has again drawn attention to issues of maintenance and safety in the Indonesian and global airline industry. There is continuous cost-cutting and a relentless drive by every carrier to win market share amid a rapid growth in the number of low-cost carriers.

On Thursday, the plane’s manufacturer, Boeing, issued a bulletin instructing crews to review an existing safety procedure in the event that Angle of Attack (AOA) sensors failed to provide accurate information. It stated that Indonesia’s “National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) has indicated that Lion Air flight 610 experienced erroneous input from one of its AOA sensors.”

The news has sparked fears of other potential dangers around the world. The Lion plane was a Boeing 737-Max 8, one of the company’s newest models, which has been rolled out internationally. According to the company, the United States Federal Aviation Administration ordered domestic US carriers to follow its bulletin on AOA failures, and would “take further appropriate actions depending on the results of the investigation.”

AOA sensors feed information about the angle of wind passing over the wings of a plane, and how much lift it is getting. Such data can be decisive in stopping a plane from stalling—an outcome that would be consistent with reports that the Lion Air flight nose-dived.

On Monday, NTSC head Soerjanto Tjahjono and Nurcahyo Utomo, who is investigating the crash, confirmed that black box data revealed issues with the plane’s airspeed indicator on the four flights prior to the crash. On the last flight before the disaster, the right and left AOA sensors had given indications that diverged by about 20 degrees from one another.

The discrepancy reportedly resulted in a sudden dive, but the pilots were able to recover altitude. They completed the flight, from Bali to Jakarta, at a lower than usual height in a bid to avoid more powerful wind gusts associated with high altitudes. An anonymous pilot told Reuters that the captain had requested to return to Bali, a claim later denied by airport authorities.

Gerry Soejatman, an aviation analyst, told the Guardian that the problems encountered by the plane in the days before the disaster “may be wider than initially believed.” He said the combined issues with airspeed indications and the AOA sensors could indicate flaws in the air data reference unit.

That key unit provides data from indicators for temperature, AOA, airspeed and altitude to the pilots’ electronic flight instrument system. If it is malfunctioning, pilots may be fed incorrect information.

Boeing is one of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the world and the biggest US exporter by dollar value. Last year, it had a net income of over $8 billion. The company, along with aviation authorities, will inevitably seek to ensure that any safety concerns do not affect its profitability.

The revelations sparked an angry response from relatives of those who died. Bambang Sukandar, whose son was killed, told Reuters: “Lion Air said the problem was fixed. Is it true the problem was cleared? If not, technicians in charge must be responsible.”

The father of Shandy Johan Ramadhan, another passenger, said Lion Air had “failed” the victims’ families. “Since the time of the crisis, I was never contacted by Lion Air,” he said. “We lost our child, but there was no empathy that Lion Air showed to us.”

Indonesia has a long history of airplane disasters. Lion Air, a cut-price carrier, has had 12 recorded accidents since it began operations in 2000. Some of the incidents pointed to lax safety and maintenance procedures.

In February 2016, a Lion Air flight overshot the runway at Surabaya’s Juanda International Airport. The NTSC found that the incident, which did not lead to any fatalities, was a product of poor crew resource management, resulting in incorrect landing procedures.

In April 2017, one of the company’s planes spilt 300 litres of fuel on the tarmac of Juanda International Airport, forcing the plane’s emergency evacuation. An initial statement by a Lion Air official indicated that the accident resulted from a non-functioning safety valve and overflow detector.

A host of accidents, including serious incidents involving the national carrier, Garuda Indonesia, have left Indonesia with a poor aviation reputation. In 2007, the European Union banned all Indonesian airlines from flying into the continent. The ban was subsequently lifted, but the latest disaster has led to speculation of possible similar restrictions.

The aviation issues are part of a broader crisis of public transportation. Ferries, carrying hundreds of people across the archipelago, are frequently unseaworthy. In one of the latest incidents, more than 193 people were killed in June after a wooden vessel capsized on Lake Tabo, in northern Sumatra. Despite its legal capacity of 43 people, it had almost 200 passengers on board.

Pakistan’s government bows to Islamist right, victimises anew woman in blasphemy case

Sampath Perera

Bowing to the demands of the Islamist right, Pakistan’s three-month-old Tehrik-e-Insaaf (PTI) government has ordered the country’s Supreme Court to review its decision vacating the blasphemy conviction and death sentence imposed on Asia Bibi, an impoverished Catholic woman.

The government has also ordered that Bibi, who languished on death row for eight years, not be allowed to leave the country.

On Wednesday, Pakistani and international media claimed that Bibi had been allowed to go into exile. But Foreign Office spokesperson Dr. Mohammad Faisal has denounced these reports. “There is no truth in reports of her leaving the country—it is fake news,” Faisal told Dawn News Television. It subsequently emerged that the authorities had merely released Bibi from a Multan jail and flown her to Islamabad where she remains closely guarded for her own protection.

Pakistan’s highest court struck down Bibi’s 2010 blasphemy conviction and ordered her immediately freed in an October 31 ruling. While the Supreme Court framed its ruling within a defence of the legitimacy of Pakistan’s reactionary blasphemy laws, it said there was insufficient evidence against Bibi, including inconsistencies in the testimony of her accusers.

The Islamist right—which has long been cultivated by Pakistan’s ruling elite, especially the military-intelligence apparatus, as a bulwark against the working class and a weapon in its strategic rivalry with India—responded to the court’s verdict with calls for immediate mass protests.

From Wednesday, October 31, through Friday, November 2, Pakistan was rocked by violent protests led by the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). In Karachi, Peshawar, Lahore and other cities, TLP supporters clashed with the police and set fire to vehicles and other property.

TLP co-founder Muhammad Fatal Badri told a Lahore rally that the three-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by the chief justice “deserve to be killed.” “Either their security, their driver, or their cook should kill them,” he declared. Badri also publicly urged Pakistani army officers to mutiny against the chief of the military, General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

Such threats by Islamists in Pakistan are not empty rhetoric. In 2011, Salman Taseer—Punjab’s provincial governor and an influential leader in the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan’s then ruling party—was killed by his bodyguard after he advocated for Bibi’s release. Shahbaz Bhatti, the federal minister for Minorities Affairs and a Christian, was assassinated two months later, after declaring his opposition to Bibi’s incarceration and threatened execution. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the latter killing.

The TLP’s founding in 2015 and subsequent expansion was connected to the Pakistani state’s conviction and hanging of Taseer’s assassin. Sectarian attacks—especially those by suicide bombers linked to the TTP—have frequently targeted minorities in recent years, killing hundreds of men, women and children.

The rise of the TTP was itself a product of the Pakistani state’s decades-long promotion of Islamic fundamentalism and US-sponsored alliance with the Afghan mujahedin, on the one hand; and the brutal methods it has used—including carpet bombing and colonial-style collective punishments—in militarily suppressing support for the Taliban within Pakistan’s tribal areas since 2001.

In a televised speech on the evening of October 31, Prime Minister Imran Khan supported the Supreme Court’s ruling, admonished the protest leaders for their remarks against the judges and the military, and decried the violence and blocking of roads. He warned the protesters against pushing “the state to a point where it has no option but to take action.” However, two days later, as the Islamist rampage continued and the highway connecting Islamabad with Lahore remained blocked, the government pulled back from its harsh rhetoric and bowed to most of the TLP’s demands.

In addition to ordering the Supreme Court to review its decision, and placing Bibi under an arbitrary travel ban so as to prevent her from leaving the country, the government agreed to the immediate release of all TLP supporters arrested since the protests began.

In response, the TLP issued a token apology, mainly to appease the military.

A year ago this month, the TLP waged a campaign against the former Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) government’s attempts to amend the religious oath taken by election candidates, denouncing the government’s action as tantamount to blasphemy. This campaign, which brought the TLP to prominence, was tacitly supported by Pakistan’s military. The protests crippled Islamabad and involved a demand for the resignation of the minister for law and justice, Zahid Hamid, which the government carried out after the military announced it was “neutral” and would not disperse the protests.

The threat of the Supreme Court reversing its decision, turning Bibi, who is in her early 50s and a mother of five, back to the hangman’s noose, remains real. Her whole family also faces the threat of assassination or mob attack. Such attacks, resulting from blasphemy allegations, have caused the deaths of at least 65 people since 1990. Since 2010, Bibi’s husband has been living in hiding. Their two mentally and physically disabled daughters have had to live apart from him out of fear for their safety.

Bibi’s lawyer, Saiful Mulook, left the country last Saturday. “In the current scenario, it’s not possible for me to live in Pakistan,” he told the AFP. “I need to stay alive as I still have to fight the legal battle for Asia Bibi.”

The origins of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws lie in the British Raj, which promoted communalism as a key element in its colonial “divide-and-rule” strategy. They have been upheld and dramatically expanded under a succession of governments led by the military and all factions of the political elite, including the PPP, which once claimed to be an “Islamic socialist” party and today passes itself as the votary of Pakistani liberalism.

The blasphemy laws have served to intimidate critics of the government and religious obscurantism and to harass and terrorise minorities like the country’s Christians, who make up 2 percent of the population and are largely drawn from groups historically discriminated against as low-caste and “untouchable.” No one has yet been executed by the state after being convicted of blasphemy, but 1,472 people were charged under the laws between 1987 and 2016, according to the Lahore-based Centre for Social Justice.

The charges against Bibi, an impoverished farm labourer, emerged out of a 2009 dispute in a rural Punjab field. While harvesting falsa berries, she was asked to fetch water to share with the rest of the farmhands. After drinking from a cup next to the well, she was accosted by a Muslim neighbor of hers. The woman and the other farmhands refused to drink from the same well, claiming that being a Christian she had tainted it. As a result of the ensuing argument, Bibi was accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad and arrested.

The backsliding of the Khan government is not a surprise. Khan has long courted the Islamist right, including by championing the blasphemy laws and supporting the disenfranchisement of the several-million-strong Ahmadi religious minority.

In September, Khan revoked the appointment of economist Atif Mian to his Economic Advisory Council when the TLP threatened protests against the inclusion of a member of the Ahmadi sect, which Islamic fundamentalists view as comprised of apostates. “The government wants to move forward with the religious leaders and all segments of society,” declared Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry in justifying Khan’s decision.

US imperialism has played a major role in the growth of the Islamic right in Pakistan. It staunchly supported the military regime led by General Zia ul-Haq (1977-1988), whose “Islamicisation” campaign spearheaded a political-ideological offensive against the working class and the left, and made Pakistan’s military-intelligence apparatus the linchpin of the CIA operation to organise and arm the mujahedin to wage war on Afghanistan’s Soviet-backed government .

It was under Zia that the punishment for blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad was raised to “death, or imprisonment for life.”

While the government appeases the Islamist right and bows before its threats of violence, Pakistan’s military with the support of the PTI and complicity of the rest of the political establishment uses the threat of terrorist attacks and disorder to extend its power and reach.

This has included using the anti-terrorism laws against striking workers and to arrest leftists, and subjecting the press and social media to ever more severe censorship. Last week, the editors of the Dawn lamented that while the government had responded to the violent threats of the TLP leaders with talks, “Editors have been threatened; the distribution of newspapers disrupted; news channels taken off air or consigned to anonymous slots” for doing their “job and reporting events, facts and information.”

Factional conflict in Sri Lankan elite underscores dangers facing working class

K. Ratnayake

The political crisis triggered by Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena’s dismissal of Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister and his replacement with former President Mahinda Rajapakse continues. The infighting between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) led by Sirisena and Rajapakse and Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP) points to the dangers facing the working class.

Both sections of the political elite, which have consistently suppressed the basic rights of the working people and the poor, are falsely posturing as defenders of democracy in order to secure government control and deepen the drive to place the burden of the country’s economic crisis on the masses.

In their bid to form a government, Sirisena and Rajapakse have appointed ministers on a virtual daily basis and plan to have 30 cabinet ministers. Mahinda Samarasinghe, the newly-appointed government spokesman and ports minister, yesterday said the appointments would be completed by November 14.

Sirisena initially suspended parliament until November 16 but, in response to international pressure, brought the date forward by two days. The suspension sought to give Rajapakse time to secure a parliamentary majority via new ministerial appointments and other horse-trading deals.

Parliamentary party leaders met with Speaker Karu Jayasuriya yesterday to discuss the November 14 agenda. Jayasuriya said he would give priority to a no-confidence motion submitted by 116 MPs against Rajapakse. The vote would determine which faction had a majority.

SLFP members of parliament insisted that President Sirisena’s address should come first, followed by a “vote on account” to provide temporary budget allocations to the ministries, and, if necessary, a no-confidence motion.

Sirisena, who is desperately attempting to garner parliamentary support for a Rajapakse-led government, met with Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leaders, including R. Sambandan. The TNA has 16 MPs so its support is decisive for a parliament majority. Thus far, Rajapakse has won the support of just one TNA MP, who was rewarded with a ministerial post.

The TNA leaders told Sirisena they opposed Rajapakse’s appointment and called for the reconvening of the parliament at an early date to determine who had a majority. The TNA, a bourgeois nationalist formation, usually responds to the political signals from Washington and New Delhi, so as to secure the interests and privileges of the Tamil elites.

Sirisena is using the crisis to strengthen the autocratic and repressive powers of the presidency. Apart from his position as defence minister, which he holds under the constitution, Sirisena has the law and order ministry, which controls the police, and the media ministry.

Many advisers to Rajapakse and Sirisena claim the president’s appointment of a new prime minister is constitutional and openly declare he has the authority to dissolve the parliament if he deems it necessary. These claims are a travesty of the 19th constitutional amendment, previously introduced by Sirisena himself, which pruned some of these powers.

These self-serving interpretations are aimed at using the president’s executive powers for further anti-democratic actions, not just to consolidate the Sirisena-Rajapakse faction but to suppress the basic rights of working people.

Wickremesinghe’s UNP will hold another rally in Colombo on Monday to call for the immediate reconvening of the parliament and a no-confidence vote.

Yesterday Wickremesinghe briefly spoke to his supporters, declaring that they were fighting to defend democracy and the freedom of the nation. This is a canard. Wickremesinghe heads the oldest bourgeois party in Sri Lanka. It has always served the interests of big business and trampled on the democratic rights of the masses.

The UNP is relying on the support of the so-called international community, in particular the US. Its constant appeals for major power backing were again revealed in a letter sent by Speaker Jayasuriya on Monday to foreign diplomats in Colombo.

According to the constitution, the parliamentary speaker is supposed to be impartial. Jayasuriya, however, is a senior member of the UNP. Sections of his letter were published in a Reuters report on Wednesday.

“The entire series of events [Sirisena’s actions] can only be described as a coup, albeit one without the use of tanks and guns,” Jayasuriya’s letter said. The “entire matter was pre-planned,” it continued, accusing Sirisena of acting “contrary to all norms of transparency, decency, democracy and good governance, and contrary to the Constitution which he has sworn to uphold and defend.”

The letter amounts to a direct appeal to the major powers to intervene. While Sirisena and Rajapakse denounce the UNP for turning to foreign powers, their government would be just as subservient to the dictates of major powers and their financial institutions, such as the IMF and World Bank.

From the outset, the US has been hostile to Rajapakse’s appointment. During the January 2015 presidential election, Washington orchestrated a regime-change operation to oust Rajapakse as president and install Sirisena.

While the US supported Rajapakse’s brutal war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and turned a blind eye to his anti-democratic rule, it bitterly opposed his close relations with Beijing, regarding it as an impediment to US strategic interests.

The newly-appointed US envoy, Alaina B. Teplitz, met with Jayasuriya on November 6. In a twitter message she said they discussed “the importance of parliament reconvening to put an end to this political crisis.” She also met with TNA leader R. Sambandan at his residence on Tuesday.

Washington has stepped up its intervention during the past week. In a tweet on Wednesday, US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert declared: “We urge Sri Lanka’s President to reconvene parliament immediately to resolve the political crisis.” She warned that any delay “compounds uncertainty in Sri Lanka, and undermines its international reputation.”

The Trump administration has no regard for democracy in Sri Lanka or anywhere else, including in the US. Its only concern is to advance Washington’s geopolitical interests against China.

Earlier this week, a delegation headed by Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake met with the TNA leadership, including Sambandan, to discuss its stance. Both parties said they reached an agreement to defeat Sirisena’s unconstitutional acts in the parliament.

At press conference yesterday, Dissanayake thanked Speaker Jayasuriya for his opposition to Sirisena’s actions, saying his letter was “very strong.” The media reported that the JVP said it would support a parliamentary vote against “violations of the constitution” and support a UNP no-confidence motion.

The JVP, which is part of the political establishment, has consistently maneuvered with one or another faction of the bourgeoisie, and is now stepping up its efforts to sow illusions in the crumbling façade of parliamentary democracy. It plans to hold another protest rally in Colombo to promote its stance.

In the face of a resurgence of the class struggle and the deepening economic crisis and geopolitical tensions, all factions of the ruling elite have moved further to the right and are preparing a major onslaught against the social and democratic rights of the workers and poor.

In its statement on the political crisis, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) wrote: “We urge the working class to take stock of the political situation and to chart its own independent course based on the Theory of Permanent Revolution.

“Workers must take the initiative in forming independent action committees in workplaces, neighbourhoods and the estates, mobilising the support of the rural poor and youth to fight for their democratic rights and class interests. The struggle for democracy is bound up with the question of state power and the fight for a workers’ and peasants’ government to implement socialist policies.”

Afghanistan war veteran kills 12 at a southern California dance club

David Walsh

Another horrible mass shooting took place in the US on Wednesday night, the 307th such episode on the 311th day of the year, according to a website that tracks gun violence.

A 28-year-old Marine Corps veteran of the Afghanistan war walked into a country music dance club in Thousand Oaks, California on Wednesday night and opened fire with a handgun, killing 12 people and wounding 25. The attacker, Ian David Long, who lived with his mother in the Newbury Park section of Thousand Oaks, some six miles away, then apparently turned the weapon on himself.

The incident is the deadliest in the US since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in mid-February, in which 17 people were killed and 14 wounded, a tragedy that sparked mass outrage and protest.

Hundreds of college students and others were on hand late Wednesday at the Borderline Bar & Grill, some 40 miles west of downtown Los Angeles, when the gunman entered. The club, located near both California Lutheran University and Pepperdine University, has a College Country Night on Wednesdays, permitting those under the drinking age to enter, with a black X marked on their hands.

By all accounts, Long, armed with a Glock 21, whose magazine had been illegally extended so it could hold more than the standard 10 rounds, carried out his attack with precision and determination.

According to witnesses, the gunman—dressed entirely in black and wearing a black baseball cap, sunglasses and a bandana covering the lower half of his face—first shot a security guard standing outside the club. Tim Dominguez told KABC television in Los Angeles that the intruder “shot the doorman, bouncer … just a young man. Then, he shot the cashier, just a young girl.”

Dominguez’ stepson John Hedge told reporters that the two were preparing to leave the bar when Long entered and threw several smoke grenades, before pointing his handgun and opening fire. Hedge explained to NBC News, “You start hearing pop, pop, pop. It sounded like fireworks or something … My stepdad dove and took cover and yelled at me, ‘John, hit the deck! Hide!’ So I got down. And the gunman started opening fire on the cashiers, the people working the cash register on the front desk.”

Teylor Whittler, who was celebrating her 21st birthday at the club, told Fox News, “As soon as he walked in, he had perfect form. I was born in a military family and I’ve been around guns my entire life so I know a bit about them. He looked like he knew what he was doing. He had practiced, he had been shooting before.”

Whittler also explained, “While I was inside I would say [I heard] … about a good 30 seconds [of gunshots] … He had two [magazines] that I know with him. He changed them within about six seconds, which was really fast.”

Another survivor of the shooting simply said, “He just kept firing.”

Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean commented, “It’s a horrific scene in there … There’s blood everywhere.” He described the shooting as “by far, the most horrific thing I’ve seen in my 41 years.” One of the victims was a local police officer.

Long served in the Marines from 2008 to 2013 (i.e., when he was approximately 18 to 23 years old) as a machine gunner. He was deployed to Afghanistan from November 2010 to June 2011. During his time in the Marines, Long was awarded a Combat Action Ribbon, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.

According to Buzzfeed, Long belonged to “a special forces internet forum where he wrote sporadically about his experience in the military.” In one post, he wrote that “he had been deployed to Marjah in Afghanistan, where in 2010 thousands of US, British and Afghan troops launched the largest joint offensive in the war. The town in Helmand Province was a Taliban stronghold and site of Operation Moshtarak from February to December 2010, the first attack launched after the Obama administration announced plans to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. Long’s deployment to Afghanistan overlapped for the last month of that operation.”

Operation Moshtarak, also known as the Battle of Marjah, involved some 15,000 US, Afghan, Canadian, British, Danish and Estonian troops. The aim was to drive Taliban forces out of Marjah. The latter withdrew from Marjah before the large number of foreign occupiers, but by 2016 the Taliban was back in control of the area.

Long was later deployed to Okinawa, where he served as a Jungle Warfare Training Center instructor. He left the Marines as a corporal.

Officials suggested that Long was likely suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Neighbors told the media that the young man was struggling mentally and emotionally.

USA Today reported that Long’s “various interactions with police over the years pointed to a man who needed professional help. None came. Neighbor Richard Berge said everyone on the block was aware when the police came to the Long home earlier this year after an incident.

“Although Berge had never been inside the Long house, he said a neighbor had reported seeing walls that were ‘full of holes,’ adding that the neighbor got the impression that Long had kicked the walls in. ‘She [Long’s mother, Colleen] was worried because he wouldn’t get help,’ Berge said. ‘I asked her, ‘Can’t he just get help.’ She said, ‘He can’t get help.’” Berge further asserted that Long’s mother “lived in fear,” not for herself, but for her son and for others.

The newspaper reported that neighbors called police “to complain of loud noises earlier this year that sounded like he [Long] was damaging the house, neighbor Tom Hanson told local TV stations KTLA and KTTV. ‘It sounded like he was tearing down the walls of the house,’ Hanson said.”

The connection between the eruption of US militarism in every corner of the globe and the epidemic of anti-social violence and mayhem at home could hardly be clearer.

American imperialism recruits young men and women, often “economic conscripts,” to do its dirty work in the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa and elsewhere, forcing them to commit horrendous crimes and undergo brutal, psyche-destroying experiences. When the Pentagon has done with them, it releases them to their families and into the general public. In too many cases, these veterans are walking time-bombs.

Hugh Gusterson, professor of anthropology and international affairs at George Washington University, argued in 2015 that while veterans accounted for 13 percent of the adult population, “more than a third of the adult perpetrators of the 43 worst mass killings since 1984 had been in the United States military.” He added, “It is clear that, in the etiology of mass killings, military service is an important risk factor.”

Gusterson also noted that a recent study in the Annals of Epidemiology had found “that military veterans kill themselves at 1.5 times the rate of their civilian counterparts. … Although more veterans with PTSD take their own lives than kill others, military service is a risk factor for both homicide and suicide.”

The list of mass killers with military backgrounds, according to Gusterson, included George Jo Hennard, who killed 22 in Killeen, Texas in 1991 (US Navy); Michael McDermott, who shot seven people in Wakefield, Massachusetts, in 2000 (also US Navy); Robert Flores, a veteran of the Persian Gulf war, who shot his three nursing professors in Tucson, Arizona, in 2002; Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the US Army psychiatrist who killed 13 at Fort Hood, Texas in 2009; Wade Michael Page, the white supremacist who killed six at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, had served six years in the US Army; in 2012, Radcliffe Haughton, an ex-Marine, killed three women, including his wife, at a spa in Wisconsin; in 2013, Aaron Alexis, another Navy veteran, killed 12 at the Washington Navy Yard; in 2014, Ivan Lopez-Lopez, an Iraq War veteran, killed three at Fort Hood in Texas; and Timothy McVeigh, whose truck bomb killed 168 in Oklahoma City in 1995, was a Persian Gulf War veteran.

We could add the name of Washington, DC sniper John Allen Muhammad, another Gulf War veteran, who, along with an accomplice, killed 10 people in the so-called “Beltway sniper attacks” in October 2002. More recently, Scott Paul Beierle, who posted racist and sexist videos online and murdered two women at a yoga studio in Tallahassee, Florida earlier this month, had been in the US Army from 2008 to 2010. The killer in the Parkland, Florida shooting, Nikolas Cruz, was a member of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC). The list goes on and on.

More generally, the spree of mass killings has its deeper roots in the toxic soil of American capitalism. Gun Violence Archive estimates that the 307 shootings involving four or more victims this year alone have claimed 1,328 lives and injured another 1,251. The website calculates that there have been 49,000 gun violence incidents so far in 2018 in the US, leading to more than 12,000 deaths. Some 45,000 Americans took their own lives in 2016, while drug overdoses killed more than 72,000 in the US in 2017.

No remotely healthy society could generate such appalling statistics. America, as we have previously noted, is a nation at war with itself.

An Associated Press reporter was obliged to point out almost despairingly: “The bloodshed was the latest in what seems to be a never-ending string of mass shootings that are happening with terrifying frequency across the United States.”

No general social state of affairs can fully explain an individual act of madness. Every person guilty of a mass killing like the Thousand Oaks tragedy has his or her specific history and psychosis. But it is possible to enumerate certain of the conditions that have created the atmosphere in which these ghastly events occur with “terrifying frequency”:

• A quarter century or more of increasingly unrestrained imperialist violence, exercised in many cases against largely defenseless peoples. America’s rulers talk and act like killers, and not only in regard to Iraqis, Afghans, Libyans and Mexican and Central American migrants. The poor and working class in America, when they resist, will also feel the full force of state savagery.
• Vast and malignant social inequality, which creates at one pole of society a Mount Olympus of oligarch-gods with almost unlimited economic and political power, and, at the other, a mass of people who count for nothing and who are made to feel on a daily basis that they count for nothing.
• The filthy, corrupt, widely despised political system, to which none of the tens of millions suffering or in need can look for any assistance or relief, or regard with hope. The recent election campaign brought home the reality that both major political parties are the dedicated and declared enemies of the working class and oppressed. It cannot be an accident that the November 6 election has now been bookended, so to speak, by the massacre of 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh by a fascist anti-Semite less than two weeks before Election Day and the mass killing in Thousand Oaks, carried out by a former Marine, two days after it.
• The general brutalization and debasement of American society, including popular culture and the media. Nowhere on earth is life cheaper than in American films, television and popular music. Over the period of the “war on terror,” a good many film and television writers and directors have turned their attention to glorifying homicidal killers, in or out of uniform, torture and other barbarisms.

The sickness of American society is reaching a terminal state. Only social revolution can cure the disease.

US Government Global Exchange Program (Global UGRAD) 2019/2020 for Emerging Leaders

Application Deadline: 31st December, 2018

Eligible Countries: International (See list below)

To be taken at (country): United States

Eligible Field of Study: Students from all academic disciplines are encouraged to apply for the Global UGRAD program. Possible fields of study include the humanities, arts, social sciences, mathematical science, natural and physical sciences, engineering and applied science.

About the Award: The Global Undergraduate Exchange Program (Global UGRAD) provides a diverse group of emerging leaders with a scholarship for one semester of non-degree academic study at a U.S. college or university. The program is sponsored by the U.S Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and aims to recruit participants from underrepresented, non-elite backgrounds. Successful applicants can expect an in-depth exposure to U.S. society, culture, and academic institutions, as well as an opportunity to enhance their professional skills.
All participants will be enrolled in full-time, non-degree, undergraduate course work chosen from their host institution’s existing curriculum. Participants will be required to take one, 3-credit U.S. studies course to enhance their understanding of the United States. Participants will live in campus housing facilities with American peers, and will be required to participate in twenty hours of community service. There will also be a virtual arrival orientation and an in-person end-of-program workshop.
Global UGRAD is a substantive exchange program designed to expose students to the U.S. educational system, society, and culture. Finalists represent diverse disciplines, from architecture to engineering, biochemistry to literature and education.  A small number of students will also receive additional English language training in the US prior to the start of their academic program. All students are required to participate in volunteer community service activities and are encouraged to participate in professional development activities as part of the Global UGRAD Program. Exposure to U.S. civil society, as well as the cultural and ethnic diversity of the United States, gives the participants a strong example of tolerance in a democratic society.

Type: Undergraduate non-Degree Exchange Programme

Eligibility: The Global UGRAD Program is open to anyone who is/has:

• over 18 years of age;
• a citizen of a UGRAD participating country, currently residing in that country;
• enrolled as an undergraduate in good standing at any accredited university, public or private, and has at least one semester remaining at their home university at the conclusion of the UGRAD program;
• completed secondary education in their home country;
• a solid command of written and spoken English (English Language training for some finalists is possible);
• able to begin studies in the United States in August 2019 or January 2020 (selected participants may not defer to a later date);
• eligible to receive and maintain the US student exchange visa (J-1) required for the program;
• cleared by a physician to participate in the program;
• committed to returning to their home country after the completion of the program.

Individuals in the following circumstances are not eligible for the Global UGRAD Program:

• U.S. citizens and permanent residents of the United States;
• Individuals currently studying, residing, or working outside of their home country;
• Local employees of the U.S. missions abroad who work for the U.S. Department of State and/or the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); employees are also ineligible for one year following the termination of employment;
• Immediate family members (i.e. spouses and children) of U.S. Department of State and USAID employees; family members are also ineligible for one year following the termination of employment;
• Current World Learning employees and their immediate family members.

Number of Awardees: Global UGRAD will provide a select group of approximately 250 students with scholarships for one academic semester of undergraduate, non-degree study in the United States.

Value of Scholarship: The scholarship will cover international travel, tuition, room and board, accident/sickness insurance, a small monthly stipend, and funding for books.

Duration of Scholarship: One semester

Eligible Countries: Algeria, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, China, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Georgia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Macedonia, Mauritania, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Oman, Palestinian Territories, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Korea, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, UAE, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zimbabwe.

How to Apply: Apply online

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details


Award Provider: U.S. Department of State

Dell EMC Graduation Project Contest 2018/2019 for Undergraduate Students from Middle East and Africa

Application Deadline: 15th December 2018

Eligible Countries: Countries in the Middle East and Africa

About the Award: The competition is intended to spark the creativity of students for their graduation projects to play an active role in the Transformation of IT and get the opportunity to shine and win prizes.

Fields of Contest: Students are invited to submit their project abstracts in areas related to the advancement of technology and applications related to the following focus areas:

1. Cloud Computing
2. Big Data
3. High Performance Computing (HPC)
4. Internet of Things (IoT)
5. Artificial intelligence (AI)
6. Virtual and Augmented Reality (VAR)
7. Secure Systems

Please be advised that the Competition Steering Committee might decide to accept project ideas that are of exceptionally high quality even if they do not fall exactly within these focus areas.

Type: Contest

Eligibility: 

• Students who wish to participate should be in their senior year and should be enrolled in any of the Dell EMC External Research and Academic Alliance in the Turkey, Middle East and Africa region.
• Students should have a faculty member as their official academic advisor and mentor.
• Students should have a strong academic standing, validated by the Head of their Department.
• The correctness of the information provided by the students should be validated by the official signature and stamp of the Dean of their college/institute.
• No students should be listed in more than one project.
• At the time of submission, all the members of student teams should not be full time employees of any organization whatsoever, whether it is private, public, or non-governmental.

Number of Awards: 3

Value of Award: Winners of the competition will receive cash prizes as below:

•  First place will receive a cash prize of $5,000
•  Second place will receive a cash prize of $4,000
•  Third place winner will receive a cash prize of $3,000

All the team will get recognition certificates for their achievement.
In addition to in-kind gift for the academic supervisor
A formal award ceremony will be organized at one of the major Dell EMC events in the region. All the members of the winning team and their academic advisor(s) will be invited to attend the ceremony along with senior officials from their university/college.

How to Apply: Apply Now

Visit the Program Webpage for Details


Award Providers: Dell

4th İstanbul Fellowship Program 2019 – Publishers Meeting for Publishers in Developing Countries (Fully-funded)

Application Deadline: 30th November 2018

Eligible Countries: Developing countries

To be taken at (country): Turkey

About the Award: Istanbul Fellowship Program was initiated in 2016 by Turkish Press and Publishers Copyright & Licensing Society (TBYM), the largest professional organization of publishers in Turkey. The aim of this program is to contribute to bilateral cooperation between Turkish and foreign publishers, and to make Istanbul a marketplace for copyrights exchange.

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: Publishing managers, editors, copyright agencies, publishers’ associations and non-governmental organizations can apply to the program.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: A number of packages, offered in response to perceived need, will be given to successful applicants, all of which cover meals and translation support, and some of which cover both flights and accommodation in Istanbul for the duration of the fellowship. Participants will be announced on New Year’s Day 2019.

Duration of Programme: 26-28 February 2019

How to Apply: Apply here

Visit Programme Webpage for Details

Hilton International Elevator Programme 2019 for Middle East & Africa

Application Deadline: 1st December 2018

Eligible Countries: Turkey, Middle East & African countries

To be taken at (country): All placements will be located in Middle East and African countries

About the Award: Elevator consists of an 18-month training programme which encompassess two international 9-month placements. During your placements, you will combine operational, all-round experience working in the 4 main hotel business areas of Operations, Business Development, Human Resources and Finance. You will also participate in off-the-job training and have business driven projects to complete.
During Elevator your progress is constantly assessed, so you always know how you are developing. As the programme is so flexible, it will take into account all training that you have had to date and build on it, rather than making you repeat things unnecessarily.

Type: Internship, Training

Eligibility:

• You have a true ambition to become General Manager
• You have to be graduated in the period of July 2017 until 31 August 2019 from a well-respected Hotel or Business School.
• You must be willing/able to live and work in MEA
• You will be fluent in English.
• A second modern language would be considered a plus
• You are internationally mobile within MEA, with preferably hotel or hospitality work experience.

Selection Criteria: 

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: 

• During your 18-month training you will take part in four residential courses. As an Elevator participant you will also have access to the Hilton University, our on-line learning and development tool, through which you can complete e-learning courses, learn a language on-line and make use of our on-line business library.
• Elevator participants are supported throughout their career progression with the Elevator Mentoring Programme where senior managers within Hilton take on the role of Mentors.

Duration of Programme: 18 months. The 2019 MEA Elevator Program starts on 01 September 2019.

How to Apply:  Apply Now

Visit Programme Webpage for Details