Modi Has Awakened a Sleeping Giant

Aijaz Zaka Syed

Indians are marching in millions to assert that they remain a united nation and are not prepared to be divided all over again as Hindus and Muslims

I have never felt so proud of my country in a long, long time. Led mostly by students and youth, Indians are marching in their millions across the length and breadth of the country to assert that India belongs to Muslims, as much as it does to anyone else.

Millions and millions of students from schools, colleges and university campuses as well as ordinary people across India have come out on the streets in solidarity with the students of Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University. They are not just protesting against the brutal, unprecedented crackdown unleashed on the students of the two central universities earlier this week, they are also demonstrating against Narendra Modi’s new brazenly fascist and Islamophobic Citizenship law as well as the relentless targeting of Muslims under this order over the past few years.

The nationwide protests and demonstrations that rocked the country on Thursday, December 19, the Martyrs Day by the way, bringing out people on to the streets in every village and city of the country have not been seen in India in a long, long time — perhaps not since the 1974 Emergency. The protests see every section of society united in their opposition to the highhanded actions of the BJP government. As Yogendra Yadav put it, these protests are no longer about one religion or region.

It goes without saying that the majority of these students and protesters happens to be Hindu, naturally reflecting the demographic profile of the country. And they have firmly and resolutely rejected this government’s attempts to do to India’s 200 million Muslims what Hitler’s Nazis did in Germany to the Jewish minority. That is, politically isolate, disenfranchise and disempower the already marginalised Muslims, turning them into non-citizens, like Myanmar’s Rohingya, or worse, like the persecuted Jews in Nazi Germany.

After the stifling darkness and oppression of the past six years, Indians appear to be finally waking up to say enough is enough. They have been resisting and defying the tyranny of the BJP and its deadly duo.

In its hubris and sheer arrogance of power, the BJP has ended up uniting this country, reminding it of the lofty ideals and values that inspired the founding fathers of the nation and their hard-won freedom.

Modi and Shah have managed to awaken a sleeping giant of a nation, not to mention the long docile and voiceless Indian Muslims who have silently suffered over the past few years, taking every injustice and atrocity in their stride.

The BJP managed to ram through the Citizenship Amendment Bill — just as it had rammed through the Triple Talaq Bill, the dismemberment of Jammu and Kashmir — notwithstanding the fact that it does not have enough numbers in the upper house of Parliament. This was chiefly because of the coercive tactics of Modi and Shah and shameful disunity in the opposition ranks.

President Kovind dutifully signed on the dotted line, approving the legislation that openly discriminates against Muslims and strikes at the very heart of India’s secular and liberal Constitution. It appeared as if nothing stood in the way of the BJP’s agenda to turn the Gandhian democracy into a Hindu Rashtra.

Even though people in the Northeast began taking to streets in their thousands against the proposed law, viewing it as an existential threat, even as the bill was being debated in Parliament, for the rest of the country it had been business as usual.

Until our youthful heroes from Jamia Millia and Aligarh decided to rise up in defiance of this black law, provoking the now infamous and unimaginably cruel response from the thugs in uniform who report to Amit Shah.

From raining lathis and firing bullets on peacefully protesting students to molesting girls and destroying Jamia’s historical library, the Delhi Police did everything possible to terrorise and intimidate students.

Many of them sustained serious injuries and broken limbs. Across the world, students are viewed as a nation’s future. Their voices are heard by powers that be with the seriousness that they deserve.

Under this order though, everything is viewed through the twisted prism of fallacies that it has invented for itself. The Dear Leader chooses to see those protesting against the divisive policies and agenda of his government not as Indians but by the clothes they wear. In doing so, he is once again doing what the BJP does best – trying to divide this country by pitting Hindus and Muslims against each other.

The Home Minister is hardly joking when he says that by bringing in the Citizenship law and, its next logical stage, the NRC, which would cleanse India of “termites” (read Muslims) in his own words, the BJP is “correcting the historic wrongs of Partition.”

This is the real agenda of the BJP and its Parivar: 72 years after the catastrophe of Partition, divide the Hindus and Muslims all over again in the name of religion. The CAA-NRC is nothing but yet another shameless attempt to fracture this country along religious lines, portraying the BJP as the sole guardian of the Hindus.

Many of us including this writer had been under the impression that the Parivar has nearly succeeded in this mission. But, no, we couldn’t have been more wrong. The spontaneous protests in the length and breadth of this country against the Jamia and AMU crackdown and the whole injustice of the CAA and NRC prove that all is not lost. There is still hope for India.

The majority of this nation remains steadfast in its belief in the secular and plural ethos that we all inherited. It is beginning to see through the dangerous game that the BJP has been playing to perpetuate itself in power at the cost of the nation and its future and stability.

As Pavan Verma, who has revolted against his party and its president Nitish Kumar’s stand on the CAA, put it, ordinary Hindus in whose name the Parivar has been waging this relentless war on the Idea of India want no part of this perpetual strife created by the BJP. They want peace and stability and simply want to get on with their lives. This is what all Indians except the Parivar of course want. And they have clearly concluded that it is time to speak up. Enough of this regime’s perpetual fighting of phantoms at the cost of real challenges like a floundering economy and deepening unemployment crisis.

Enough of peddling hate and bigotry against minorities, Dalits and women. Enough of lynchings and rapes. Enough of the reign of terror that has brought so much shame and infamy to India. Newspapers around the world have been reporting on their front pages how the BJP is destroying the world’s largest democracy by ramming through its sectarian agenda.

The salutary act of defiance by the students of Jamia Millia, a university that was born out of India’s freedom struggle and founded by Maulana Mohammed Ali Johar, and AMU, has clearly set off a revolution, sparking a million mutinies throughout the land.

Young girls like Ayesha Renna and Ladeeda Farzana, the Jamia students who valiantly took on the might of the Orwellian state, have overnight become heroes or ‘sheroes’, as they are being called by the media, of a nation that desperately wants to return to its original noble self and its all-embracing spirit.

By rising in revolt in solidarity with JNU and AMU students, Indians have demonstrated that they remain a united nation and are not prepared to be divided as Hindus and Muslims all over again.

Fast food nations and global nutrition

Colin Todhunter

Daniel Maingi works with small farmers in Kenya and belongs to the organisation Growth Partners for Africa. He remembers a time when his family would grow and eat a diversity of crops, such as mung beans, green grams, pigeon peas and a variety of fruits now considered ‘wild’.

Following the Structural Adjustment Programmes of the 1980s and 1990s, the foods of his childhood have been replaced with maize. He says that in the morning you make porridge from maize. For lunch, it’s boiled maize and a few green beans. In the evening, a dough-like maize dish is served with meat. He adds that it is now a monoculture diet.

The situation is encapsulated by Vandana Shiva who says if we grow millets and pulses, we will have more nutrition per capita. But If we grow food by using chemicals, we are growing monocultures, which leads to less nutrition per acre, per capita.  Monocultures do not produce more food and nutrition but use more chemicals and are therefore profitable for agrochemical companies.

Junk food and free trade

Moving from Africa to Mexico, we can see that agri-food concerns have infiltrated the food system there too. They are taking over food distribution channels and replacing local foods with cheap processed commodities. Free trade and investment agreements have been critical to this process and an alarming picture is set out of the consequences for ordinary people, not least in terms of their diet and health.

In 2012, Mexico’s National Institute for Public Health released the results of a national survey of food security and nutrition. Between 1988 and 2012, the proportion of obese women between the ages of 20 and 49 increased from 9 to 37 per cent. Mexican children are increasingly overweight, while one in ten school age children suffered from anaemia. Diabetes is now the third most common cause of death in Mexico.

The former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food Olivier De Schutter concluded that the trade policies currently in place favour greater reliance on heavily processed and refined foods. He added that the overweight and obesity emergency that Mexico is facing could have been avoided or largely mitigated if the health concerns linked to shifting diets had been integrated into the design of those policies.

The North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has led to foreign direct investment in food processing and a change in the country’s retail structure. As well as the emergence of global agribusiness companies in Mexico, there has been an explosive growth of chain supermarkets and convenience stores. Traditional corner shops are giving way to corporate retailers that offer the processed food companies even greater opportunities for sales. For example, Oxxo (owned by Coca-cola subsidiary Femsa) was on course to open its 14,000th store sometime during 2015.

In Mexico, the loss of food sovereignty has induced catastrophic changes in the nation’s diet and trade policies have effectively displaced large numbers of smallholder farmers. India should take heed. The Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey 2016-18 highlights similar disturbing trends in India.

Bad food in India

Policy makers have been facilitating the corporatisation of Indian agriculture and the food processing and retail sectors, both of which have tended to be small scale and key to supporting local (rural) economies and livelihoods. There are of course major implications for food security and food sovereignty, but what this could mean for the nation’s diet and health is clear to see.

The commodification of seeds, the selling of more and more chemicals to spray on crops or soil, the chemicalisation of food and the selling of pharmaceuticals or the expansion of private hospitals to address the health impacts of the modern junk food system is ‘good for business’. And what is good for business is good for GDP growth, or so we are told. This is nonsense.

In the latest edition of India’s Current Science journal, a guest editorial by Seema Purushothaman notes the importance that small farms could play in addressing poverty, inequality, hunger, health and climate issues. But the development paradigm is obsessed with a misguided urban-centric GDP ‘growth’ model.

And that author is correct. Whether it involves Mexico or India, to address nutrition, we must focus on small farmers. They and their families constitute a substantial percentage of the country’s poor (and undernourished) and are the ones that can best supply both rural and urban populations with nutritious foods cultivated using agroecological farming practices. Numerous high-level official reports have emphasised the key role that such farmers could have in providing food security.

However, western agri-food corporations are acquiring wider entry into India and are looking to gain a dominant  footprint within the sector. This is being facilitated by World Bank ‘ease of doing business’ and ‘enabling the business of agriculture’ directives as well as the implementation of the corporate-driven Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture (KIA), which was signed with the US in 2005.

These corporations’ front groups are also hard at work. According to a September 2019 report in the New York Times, ‘A Shadowy Industry Group Shapes Food Policy Around the World’, the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) has been quietly infiltrating government health and nutrition bodies. The article lays bare ILSI’s influence on the shaping of high-level food policy globally, not least in India.

ILSI helps to shape narratives and policies that sanction the roll out of processed foods containing high levels of fat, sugar and salt. In India, ILSI’s expanding influence coincides with mounting rates of obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Accused of being little more than a front group for its 400 corporate members that provide its $17 million budget, ILSI’s members include Coca-Cola, DuPont, PepsiCo, General Mills and Danone. The report says ILSI has received more than $2 million from chemical companies, among them Monsanto. In 2016, a UN committee issued a ruling that glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s weed killer Roundup, was “probably not carcinogenic,” contradicting an earlier report by the WHO’s cancer agency. The committee was led by two ILSI officials.

From India to China, whether it has involved warning labels on unhealthy packaged food or shaping anti-obesity education campaigns that stress physical activity and divert attention from the role of food corporations, prominent figures with close ties to the corridors of power have been co-opted to influence policy in order to protect agri-food corporations’ bottom line.

Cultivation

In the absence of government support for agriculture or an effective programme for delivering optimal nutrition, farmers are also being driven to plant crops that potentially bring in the best financial returns. A recent article on the People’s Archive of Rural India website highlights farmers in a region of Odisha are being pushed towards a reliance on (illegal) expensive genetically modified herbicide tolerant cotton seeds and are replacing their traditional food crops.

The region’s strength lay in multiple cropping systems, but commercial cotton mono-culture has altered crop diversity, soil structure, household income stability, farmers’ independence and, ultimately, food security. It is also undermining farmers’ traditional knowledge of agroecology which has been passed down from one generation to the next.

Although agri-food capital has been moving in on India for some time, India is an agrarian-based country underpinned by smallholder agriculture and decentralised food processing. Foreign capital therefore first needs to displace the current model before bringing India’s food and agriculture sector under its control.  This is precisely what is happening.

Although this article touches on many issues, at the heart of the discussion is how we regard food. Are we to be denied the fundamental right to healthy food and well-being or is food just another commodity to be controlled by rich corporations to boost their bottom line? 

Planetary arson

Andrew Glikson

“Meeting the climate goals of the Paris Agreement is going to be nearly impossible without removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere” Kevin Drum (2019). No one knows how to impose 1.5 or 2.0 degrees Celsius limits unless drawdown /carbon sequestration of atmospheric CO2 is attempted, nor are drawdown methods normally discussed in most political or economic forums.

The release of some 910 billion tons of carbon dioxide is leading human society, indeed much of nature, to an existential impasse. The widest chasm has developed between what climate science is indicating and between climate policies and negotiations controlled by governments, politicians, economists andjournalists—none of whom fully comprehends, or is telling the whole truth about, the full consequences of the current trend in the atmosphere-ocean-land system.

The evidence for future projections, as understood by climate scientists, has been largely putto one side, mainly because it is economically and politically “inconvenient” or is frightening. Reports from the Madrid climate COP-25 Conference suggest negotiations, focusing on emission reductions, are overlooking the evidence that at the current concentration of CO2, which have reached 412 ppm and 496 ppm-equivalent[1], amplifying feedbacks from land and ocean are pushing temperatures further upwards.This is driven by the replacement of sea ice and land ice and snow-surfaces by open water surfaces, by methane leaks, desiccated vegetation, fires and reduced CO2 absorption by warming oceans.Given the long atmospheric residence time of CO2(Solomon et al. 2009, Eby et al. 2009) and the short life span of aerosols, attempts at CO2 drawdown are essential if complete devastation of the biosphere is to be avoided

Figure 1.(a) 1990-2019 Global growth of  CO2 emissions (gigaton); (b) 1960-2019 Annual fossil CO2 emissions from coal, oil, Gas and cement (gigaton).

Figure 2(a) Distribution of global fires (NASA); (b) Fire storms over the southwest USA; (c) Pine forest fire California.

The prevailing political and economic focus in international climate projects, conferences and advisory councils is concerned with (a) limits on, or a decrease of, carbon emissions from power generation, industry, agriculture, transport and other sources; (b) limits on the current rise in global temperatures to +1.5 degrees Celsius, and a maximum of +2.0 degrees Celsius, above mean pre-industrial (pre-1750) temperatures.

However, no one knows how to impose these limits unless drawdown/sequestration of atmospheric CO2 is attempted, nor are drawdown methods normally discussed in most forums.

At the present the concentration of greenhouse gases of just under-500 ppm CO2-equivalent is activating amplifying feedbacks of greenhouse gases from land, oceans and melting ice sheets, namely further warming:

1. An increase in evaporation due to warming of land and oceans leads to further warming due to the greenhouse effect of water vapor but also to increased cloudiness which retards warming. The water vapor factor, significant in the tropics, is somewhat less important in the dry subtropical zones and relatively minor inthe Polar Regions (Figure 3).
2. The melting of ice sheets, reducing reflective (high-albedo) ice and snow surfaces, and concomitant opening of open water surfaces (heat absorbing low-albedo) is generating a powerful positive (warming) feedback. Hudson  (2011) estimates the rise in warming due to total removal of Arctic summer sea ice as approximately +1.0 degrees Celsius.
3. The release of methane from melting permafrost and bubbling of methane hydrates from the oceans has already raised atmospheric methane levels from about 800 to 1863 parts per billion which, given the radiative forcing of methane of X25< times,renders methane highly significant.
4. As the oceans warm they become less capable of taking up carbon dioxide. As a result, more of our carbon pollution will stay in the atmosphere, exacerbating global warming.
5. As tropical and subtropical climate zones overtake temperate Mediterranean-type climate zones, desiccated and burnt vegetation release copious amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. For example the current bushfires in Australia have already emitted 250 million tonnes of CO2, almost half of country’s annual emissions in 2018.

Figure 3.Total water vapor that can precipitate, as observed by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite.

With rising global temperatures and further encroachment of subtropical climate zones desertification and warming can only become more severe.

Abrupt reductions in emissions may be insufficient to stem global warming, unless accompanied by sequestration of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, recommended as below 350 ppm CO2. According to Hansen et al. (2008)carbon sequestration in soil (the biochar method) has significant potential, applying pyrolysis of residues of crops, forestry and animal waste.Biochar helps soil retain nutrients and fertilizers, reducing release of greenhouse gases such as N2O. Replacing slash-and-burn agriculture with a slash-and-char method and the use of agricultural and forestry wastes for biochar production could provide a CO2 drawdown of ~8 ppm or more in half a century.

Stabilization and cooling of the climate could include two principle approaches (Table 1): (a) solar shielding, and (b) CO2drawdown/sequestration. However, solar shielding by injected aerosols or water vapor is bound to be transient, requiring constant replenishment.

Table 1.Solar shielding and atmospheric CO2 sequestration methods

Method	Supposed advantages	Problems
SO2 injections	Relatively cheap and rapid application	Short atmospheric residence time; ocean acidification; retardation of precipitation and of monsoons
Space satellite-mounted sunshades/mirrors	Rapid application. No direct effect on ocean chemistry	Longer space residence time. Does not mitigate ocean acidification by CO2 emissions.
Streaming of air through basalt and serpentine (Figure 4)	CO2 capture by Ca and Mg carbonates	In operation on a limited scale in Iceland. Significant potential
Soil carbon burial/biochar	Effective means of controlling the carbon cycle (plants+ soil exchange more than 100 GtC/year with the atmosphere)	Requires a collaborative international effort by millions of farmers. Significant potential
CO2 capture by sea weeds	An effective method applied in South Korea	Decay of sea weeds releases CO2 to ocean water.Significant potential
Ocean iron filing fertilization enhancing phytoplankton	CO2 sequestration	Phytoplankton residues would release CO2 back to the ocean water and atmosphere.
Ocean pipe system for vertical circulation of cold water to enhance CO2 sequestration	CO2 sequestration	Further warming would render such measure transient.
“Sodium trees” – pipe systems of liquid NaOH sequestering CO2 to sodium carbonate Na2CO3, followed by separation and burial of CO2.	CO2 sequestration, estimated by Hansen et al. (2008) at a cost of ~$200/ton CO2 where the cost of removing 50 ppm of CO2 is ~$20 trillion.	Unproven efficiency; need for CO2 burial; $trillions expense, though no more than the military expenses since WWII.

Figure 4.Iceland: The streaming of CO2-containing air and of water through basaltic rocks and CO2-capture as carbonate minerals.

The big question is how effective are the above methods in reducing CO2 levels on a global scale, at the very least to balance emissions, currently 36.8 billion tons CO2 per year.Whereas each of the methods outlined in Table 1has advantages and disadvantages, it is hard to see an alternative way of cooling the atmosphere and oceans than a combination of several of the more promising methods.Budgets on a scale of military spending ($1.7 trillion in 2017) are required in an attempt to slow downthe current trend across climate tipping points. The choice humanity is facing is whether to spend resources on this scale on wars or on defense from the climate calamity.

Time is running out.

While Mandarins Run Amok in Bangladesh

 Taj Hashmi

As late as the 16th century, the Chinese indigenised “mandarin”, a variant of Sanskrit “mantri”, Malay “mantiri” via Portuguese “mandarim”, which stands for minister, counselor, or a very high government official. Chinese mandarins were highly educated, well-groomed, powerful, and influential people having sharp intellect and immaculate mannerism. Their attire, mannerism, and language represented the mainstream of Chinese high culture encompassing the cultural objects of aesthetics, collectively esteemed by society as exemplary. So much so, that since the 16th century, the court language of the Beijing-based central government is also known as Mandarin, which was the standard Chinese used by the mandarins and government officials. Bangladesh also has its mandarins, ministers and advisers of the government. However, the similarity ends there. The Chinese mandarins, with superior intrinsic qualities, qualifications, and finesse, are simply not comparable with their modern counterparts in Bangladesh.

Unlike their Chinese counterparts before China became a republic in 1911, when mandarins had been very powerful and influential, Bangladeshi mandarins, barring the Chief Mandarin or Prime Minister, are neither influential nor powerful, let alone role models for the people at large. However, of late, almost all the mandarins in the country have come to the limelight, interestingly, mostly for the wrong reasons. Not as role models or inspiring leaders but as not-so-desirable entities for their clumsy – if not clownish – behaviour, demeanour, and assertions made in public! Seemingly, they are competing against each other only to prove two things, their loyalty to the Prime Minister; and their intelligence-cum-foresight to guarantee their indispensability for the Government!

We may classify this unenviable behaviour of Bangladeshi mandarins both as signs of their job insecurity; and their gross incapability to behave normal, and weigh in each word they speak in public, especially before media, so that neither they themselves, nor the government and country they represent become objects of ridicule, and “inaudible loud laughter” of intelligent people at home and abroad! We may classify Bangladeshi mandarins’ unintelligent, unnecessary, ridiculous, and laughter-evoking public statements as their “running amok syndrome”. At the outset, I warn my readers that I cannot catalogue all the unbelievably crude, vulgar, and ridiculous assertions Bangladeshi mandarins made in the last ten years or so, because that would well-surpass the word limit of newspaper articles.

One recalls some antics by AM Abdul Muhith, one of the longest surviving Finance Ministers of Bangladesh. He often ridiculed unpalatable facts with his atypical, favourite, and rejective expression, “rubbish”. When some financial institution defrauded the national exchequer to the tune of 4,000 crore taka, his reaction to the news was not only hyper exclamatory garnished with his atypical “rubbish”, but he also explained the whole scam (as if in defence of it!) in the most ridiculous manner. I paraphrase him: “Rubbish! Four thousand crore taka is nothing for the robust economy of Bangladesh”. He once also defended government officials’ resorting to bribery as “speed-money”. Yet another Bangladeshi mandarin, Nurul Islam Nahid, who was in-charge of the Education Department once publicly defended bribery. While addressing employees of his Department, he advised them not to cross the “limit of corruption”, in the most ridiculous manner. To paraphrase him: “Everybody is a thief in Bangladesh, I am also a thief. But please restrain yourself from becoming too greedy. Take bribe, but in moderation!”.

One of Hasina’s most garrulous and not-so-refined mandarins, Obaidul Qader is well-known for his rustic statements and behaviour. Once he publicly humiliated a rickshaw puller for violating some minor traffic rules in front of TV cameras. It was a violation of the law of the land. A minister or any official or citizen of Bangladesh has absolutely no right to behave like a law-enforcer or magistrate. The same minister once slapped a railway clerk in presence of several journalists at a railway station for his alleged acceptance of bribe from someone. The minister committed a criminal offence, and was (and still is) liable to punishment (fine and imprisonment) for physically assaulting someone, in accordance with the Criminal Penal Code (CRPC) of Bangladesh. This prominent minister – who is also the Secretary General of the ruling Awami League party – almost incessantly ridicule the main opposition party (BNP) and its leaders, including the 74-year-old Khaleda Zia (sentenced to 17-year-imprisonment on trumped up charges). He ridicules the BNP for not being able to launch a movement to topple the Hasina Government, which ironically would also unseat him from the privileged position of a minister! Several other ministers and ruling party MPs are included in the list of Awami mandarins who ridicule the opposition for its failure to topple their government. One wonders if some sort of guilt or acceptance of their illegitimacy in their subconscious evokes this sort of ridiculous blabbering, apparently to ridicule the opposition!

One may go on and on in preparing a laundry list of Awami mandarins’ idiosyncratic assertions and behaviour. Not-so-infrequently they violate traffic rules by driving on the wrong side of the road, right in the heart of the Capital city. Late Suranjit Sengupta, who was once the Railway Minister in Hasina’s cabinet, once came in the limelight in the most ridiculous way. His Personal Secretary’s chauffeur was arrested in the wee hours of the night for (literally) carrying a sack-full of money, seven million taka in his car, presumably some bribe meant for the Minister. He just got a slap on his wrist. Hasina simply removed him as her minister but retained him as a “minister without portfolio” – an unheard-of expression in any civilized country – by condoning his gross misconduct! He was also seen driving on the wrong side of the road in front of TV cameras. Interestingly, not only mandarins drive on the wrong side of the roads in Bangladesh, but as seen on TV, even the Prime Minister’s motorcade also did this – at least once – in the past. Bangladeshi mandarins are also very good at inflating the GDP growth rate, the extent of alleviation of poverty, and higher life expectancy of the people and the “phenomenal” rise in their per capita income. So much so, that one of them has said recently that (to paraphrase him) the world “no longer looks at Switzerland but at Bangladesh as the role model of growth and development”! Minister Imran Ahmed has even gone a few steps ahead of his colleague in surmising that Bangladesh would soon surpass the United States in the level of overall development!

Yet another minister has come up with the absurd claim that the Bangladeshis are so well-off that now-a-days they take chicken curry and rice on a regular basis. Last but not least, the Information Minister Hasan Mahmud’s latest antics could be an eyeopener to see how Bangladeshi mandarins hurl insults and vitriols at their political rivals. Soon after a massive fire destroyed a large slum or shantytown at Mirpur (Dhaka) on 26th December 2019, he said the BNP had been behind the fire as it wanted to disrupt the forthcoming city council elections in Dhaka city. Meanwhile, on 23rd December 2019, the day after the severe thrashing of the DUCSU VP Nurul Haque Nur, presumably by pro-Government Chhatro League members, instead of condemning the attack the Minister took the victim to task for condemning the Modi Government of India for its discriminatory anti-Muslim policies. Very shocking indeed! In sum, mandarins, with few exceptions, blame the “untamed” opposition parties (BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami) on a regular basis for “hatching up conspiracies against Bangladesh” as being “foreign agents” and “anti-Liberation” forces are linked with Islamist terrorist groups, mainly based in Pakistan! Of late, defending the Modi Government’s high-handed policies towards Muslims and Bangladesh has become a favourite pastime of Bangladeshi mandarins.

It is unbelievable but true that Hasina’s Foreign Minister Abdul Momin – who holds a Ph.D from a prestigious US university – has been the leading proponent of giving as much concessions as possible to India, which has always been intrusive and unfriendly towards Bangladesh since its emergence in 1971. Recently, he compared the un-even Indo-Bangladesh relationship as one that exists between a husband and his wife. He has, however, for some known or unknown reasons refrained from even hinting at the husband’s (India’s) chauvinistic, intrusive, and exploitative behaviour with the wife (Bangladesh). Recently, he publicly asserted that friendship with India had been the best thing that has ever happened to Bangladesh. Another highly educated mandarin, Hasina’s International Affairs Adviser Gowher Rizvi, who holds a Ph.D from Oxford and long teaching experience at Oxford and Harvard, said something in Kolkata on 17th December, which grossly ridicules and undermines the Liberation War of Bangladesh. He said without Indira Gandhi’s active support, Bangladesh would not have been liberated even today, 48 years after Bengalis had started their Liberation War in the name of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

There is not much to add here in conclusion of this article. One only wonders why people – even highly educated, apparently urbane and self-respecting people like Momin and Rizvi – could be so partisan, biased, subjective, sycophantic, and power hungry, while they have had multiple opportunities to lead a comfortable life without stooping so low! And, what is even more surprising that being more intelligent than the hoi polloi, these mandarins know the bulk of Bangladeshis laugh behind their back, they relentlessly defend what is not defendable, and justify what are most unjustified, and malignant to the best interests of Bangladesh. In sum, one may impute why Bangladeshi mandarins have run amok to the following factors: a) Low-level of intelligence and education; b) Extreme political bias; c) Machiavellian love of power and wealth, which neutralizes high-level of intelligence and education.

UK Whirlpool recall highlights threat to millions from defective domestic appliances

Margot Miller

Whirlpool recently announced the recall of 519,000 models of washing machines sold to UK customers because they pose a potential fire hazard. The appliances were manufactured between 2014 and 2018 under the Hotpoint and Indesit brands, since taken over by Whirlpool.

As of December 17, 39 different Hotpoint models and three Indiset models were listed as affected by the problem. Whirlpool also owns the Creda, Swan and Proline brands.

The American-based transnational, which employs 92,000 globally and sells 68 million appliances a year, said safety engineers discovered a fault in the door lock system. When the heating element in the washing machine activates, the locking mechanism can overheat, posing a fire risk.

Not only washing machines, but tumble dryers, cookers, fridges, freezers—everyday household items often taken for granted—are turning the homes of millions of people around the world into death traps.

Governments have long known about the dangers but have covered up for manufacturers to aid their voracious drive for profit.

A Whirlpool appliance on a showroom floor (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, file)

In 2015, the Consumers’ Association magazine Which? reported malfunctioning household appliances caused almost 12,000 fires in the UK from 2011-2014.

It reported fire statistics revealing 3,203 household fires solely due to faulty appliances in a single year between April 2016 and March 2017. Which? found washing machines, tumble dryers and dishwashers the most likely culprits, followed by cookers, fridge/freezers and everyday electrical appliances.

In 2018, Which? revealed that faulty appliances accounted for 60 house fires a week in Britain—figures obtained from freedom of information (FOI) requests. These appliances are now the second main cause of fires in the home after cooking.

Whirlpool also withdrew 500,000 tumble dryers in July this year, citing risk of fire. The problem affecting more than 600 models of vented and condenser tumble dryers was isolated to an accumulation of fluff that could fall onto the heating element during operation.

The company has known about the fault for years, after a spate of fires associated with its Hotpoint, Indesit, Creda, Swan and Proline brands—sold for 11 years from 2004.

Last month, a report by the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee investigating Whirlpool’s record, noted that the firm said this year that the actual number of faulty tumble dryers in homes across the country could be 800,000. By November, just 65,000 machines had been either replaced or modified since the recall notice, meaning that up to 735,000 faulty machines may still be in use.

In November 2015, Whirlpool revealed fire risks with 5.3 million dryers sold in the UK between April 2004 and September 2015. These dangerous appliances were also sold throughout Europe—in Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.

Customers were advised to continue using the faulty dryers but not when they were out or in bed until they had been modified! A year later, tragedy almost struck when a dryer caused a fire in the Garnham family home in Guildford, burning the house down. Fortunately, the family were up and escaped unharmed.

In August 2016, the Defreitas family had a similar experience, escaping with their lives from their seventh-floor flat in Shepherd’s Bush London after their faulty Indesit tumble dryer caught fire. Flames enveloped the side of the 18 storey Shepherd’s Court high rise building and 100 families escaped with their lives. As with the Grenfell inferno, the flames rapidly took hold outside the building as it was covered in flammable cladding.

The London Fire Brigade (LFB) found that the cladding panels comprised a 17-23mm plywood board, covered by blue polystyrene foam and a 1mm steel sheet. The fire melted away the polystyrene foam, causing the metal sheet to fall and exposing the foam and wood to the flames. The LFB said this is “likely” to have occurred to the panels above the flat where the fire started, as flaming droplets fell and the flames spreading upward. Experts investigating the blaze concluded it was “likely to have assisted the fire in spreading up the outside of the building, as this mechanism progressively exposes a plywood surface to a developing fire.”

Whirlpool did their utmost to avoid recalling the lethal machines, instead opting for risk assessment and repair—adding a widget to the product so fluff and the heating element never came into contact.

A BBC investigation by journalist Kevin Peachey, “The Danger in our Homes,” published emails obtained by FOI requests between the company and Peterborough Council's Trading Standards department.

One email asked: “...[a] further question from the Whirlpool side if I may—is there a way at all of possibly weaving into this sentence in any way that: ‘this is not a recall campaign…’”

The response from trading standards was to comply, replying, “The initial advice that we gave was based on a risk assessment which deemed the level of risk to customers to be low… we acted within government regulations at all times.”

But even after modifications, dryers still caught fire.

Another fault emerged at an inquest in 2017 into the October 2014 deaths in a house fire in Wales of Bernard Hender, 19 and Doug McTavish, 39. Whirlpool declared their dryer ignited due to “spontaneous combustion.”

Assistant Coroner David Lewis concluded the cause of the fire was “on the balance of probabilities” an electrical fault with the door switch on the dryer. Forensic evidence revealed an issue with the protection of the wiring and fluff getting into the door switch.

On December 18, a man suffered burns after his Indesit dryer burst into flames, igniting aerosol cans which triggered an explosion causing a wall in his home to collapse. He is reported to be recovering in hospital.

A committee of MPs concluded in a 2018 report that the defect in these dryers resulted in at least 750 fires in the UK since 2004. The response of Whirlpool was “woefully inadequate.” The report noted Whirlpool used “chilling” non-disclosure agreements “to silence customer” as a condition for a refund/replacement.

A faulty Whirlpool-branded freezer was responsible for a fire which caused six fatalities in 2011. Muna Elmufatish, 41, her daughters Hanin Kua, 14, Basma, 13, Amal, nine, and sons Mustafa, five, and Yehya, two, died in a fire in their home in London. Bassam Kua desperately tried to rescue his wife and children but only he and daughter Nur survived.

“By the time a smoke alarm goes off, you still may not have much time—and your reaction times are slower if you are asleep,” commented then LFB Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Charlie Pugsley. The LFB launched a total recall campaign of known faulty appliances. Fridges and freezers are of major concern because they are switched on 24 hours a day.

It was a fire in a defective fridge-freezer that started the Grenfell Tower inferno in London June 2017, killing 72. The fridge-freezer had plastic backing, though an investigation concluded the appliance carried a low fire risk. The fire had such catastrophic consequences because of the shoddy “refurbishment” of Grenfell, including wrapping the block in highly flammable cladding. Which? is calling for all fridges to be metal rather than plastic backed, as is the case in the US and Canada. The backing covers a layer of flammable insulation foam material, which when ignited gives off dangerous gases and thick, toxic smoke.

Charlie Pugsley, a fire investigator who was involved in the investigation into the causes of the Grenfell fire, likened the combination of plastic backing and insulation to a “solid block of petrol.”

When Which? performed tests using a naked flame, the plastic-backed fridge ignited within 30 seconds, emitting toxic fumes that can knock someone unconscious in seconds. According to firefighters such a fire would render a two-storey three-bed house “unable to support life within three minutes of a fire breaking out.”

Metal-backed products withstood an open flame for five minutes.

The UK authorities attempted to alter international standards so the safety of the plastic-backed models could not be challenged abroad. The British Standards test, far less rigorous than the Which? tests, involved a hot wire penetrating the fridge backing. According to the LFB, in the US, there is one injury for every 25 fridge-related fires, compared to one in five in the UK.

Though a new government safety standard was introduced this year requiring fridge backing to withstand an open flame for 30 seconds—making the manufacture of plastic-backed appliances less likely—manufacturers are busy selling off stocks of unsafe plastic-backed products.

Manufacturers are also avoiding fire-proof labeling products—making it difficult for fire investigators to name the product models responsible for fires—so unknown numbers of dangerous appliances remain on sale.

Between April 2016 and March 2017, there were more than 2,100 household fires where investigators were able to determine the faulty appliance that caused the fire, but not the brand or model number. These details were therefore only recorded for a third of the 3,203 fires caused by faulty appliances that year—a noticeable decrease from the three years previous.

The number of electrical products identified as faulty and unsafe is growing. B&Q has issued an urgent safety notice on a Cooke & Lewis slimline dishwasher sold between 2012 and 2017 because the model has components that could “overheat and result in a fire.”

British Gas engineers found 26,000 unsafe or dangerous gas and electric appliances while making home visits in the first seven months of this year. Problems were found most in boilers and cookers. Which? reported in September that there are a huge number of the USB chargers, travel adaptors and power banks with serious faults selling on sites including Amazon Marketplace, eBay, Wish and AliExpress. Almost three-quarters of the 33 unbranded products failed electrical safety tests. Which? reached the damning conclusion that “Dangerous products in Britain’s homes are putting millions of people at risk. Britain’s product safety regime is no longer fit for purpose.”

Former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron is remembered for his promise in 2014, a year before taking office in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, to make a “bonfire” of regulations to eliminate red-tape governing safety standards. He pledged to “kill off” the “excessive health and safety… albatross around the neck of British businesses.”

Cameron started his career in politics, straight after leaving Oxford University, working as a researcher for the Conservative Research Department in 1988. In a briefing paper on the necessity to scale up the deregulation of business, he wrote, “The completion of the [European] single market will require a substantial volume of new community legislation… It is essential that this should not add unnecessarily to the burden of regulation on business.”

He warned, “Substantial deregulation in the UK is wasted if business is then wrapped in Euro red tape.”

Cameron quoted approvingly then Tory Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe, who said, “We need to see a Europe free of regulations, quotas, licences and restrictions, a bonfire of controls on a European scale even bigger and better than what we have seen in this country.”

Not only have regulatory bodies been cut, but they answer to governments which do the bidding of manufacturers. In 2015, the Cameron government set up a review into the system of recalling dangerous products, chaired by former presenter of BBC consumer programme Watchdog, Lynn Faulds-Wood. She later refused an MBE on the grounds that her main recommendation—for an agency to be set up akin to the Food Standards Agency in charge of product safety—were “kicked into the long grass.”

The key recommendations of the 2017 parliamentary report of the Working Group on Product Recalls and Safety did little to rectify this, other than setting up a government website listing faulty appliances that put the onus on the consumer to register products.

Whirlpool will not be offering repair or replacement of faulty washing machines until at least January. Customers have complained of difficulty contacting the company either online or by phone.

Nothing less than a moratorium on the production of faulty appliances is necessary, with free, safe replacements provided to all.

This latest scandal underlines the incompatibility of production for profit and consumer safety—which increasing international competition post-Brexit will compromise further. While millions are put in unnecessary danger by its products, the Whirlpool Corporation’s net earnings for the third quarter in 2019 shot to $358 million, up from $210 million for the same period last year.

Research explains how the measles virus destroys immune “memory”

Frank Gaglioti

The measles virus is one of the most contagious and virulent diseases affecting humanity. The virus is rendered even more dangerous as it wipes out immunity previously acquired after exposure to other microbes. The effect is the equivalent of taking a very strong immune suppressant. Although scientists have known of this phenomenon, “immune amnesia,” for some time, recent research in Europe and the US is starting to elaborate the mechanism involved.

The disease is making a comeback internationally, as immunisation rates decline. Currently the tiny Pacific island state of Samoa with a population of 200,000 people faces a measles epidemic. As of December 20, there were 5,463 confirmed cases and 78 deaths. The main reason was the country’s very low vaccination rates of between 30 and 40 percent.

Data from the pre-vaccination period, prior to the 1950s, linked measles to 50 percent of all childhood deaths. Scientists estimate that between 1855 and 2005 the virus killed 20 million people worldwide. An effective vaccine was developed in the 1950s, which today is part of the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps and rubella) commonly delivered in early childhood.

The measles virus acts to suppress the body’s immune system, leaving it susceptible to secondary infections. Exposure to the virus also wipes out immunity to other diseases, but renders children immune to further infection by the measles virus itself.

The immune system is extremely complex and has evolved to protect the human body from attacks by bacteria, viruses or other invaders, such as parasites. The immune system is able to detect their presence then act to destroy them. The system can distinguish between the body’s own cells and any invaders.

B lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell, detect foreign proteins on the invading body known as antigens, and then secrete antibodies that lock on to specific antigens. Antibodies come in various types and are part of a group of chemicals called immunoglobulins. T lymphocytes, another type of white blood cell, are involved in coordinating the immune response and killing viruses.

Once the body has developed an antibody to a microbe it acts to give the person immunity to the disease throughout his or her lifetime.

The two recent studies were published simultaneously in Science Immunology and Science on 31 August led by immunologist Velislava N. Petrova from the Welcome Sanger Institute and Cambridge University in the UK and Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Immunology Michael J. Mina from Harvard medical school in the US respectively.

The studies examined children in an orthodox Protestant community in the Netherlands who had not received the measles vaccination. The children were looked at before and after a measles outbreak in 2013. Scientists conducted tests to determine the degree of B cell [B lymphocyte] impairment after measles infection.

The ability of the immune system to fight off infections depends on the range of immune system cells with different receptors. “The more diverse range of them (receptors) we have, the better,” Petrova told the Guardian.

The Petrova study showed that after the measles infection, the immune cells had a reduced range of receptors and thus a lower capacity to deal with infections. “We show that measles directly causes the loss of protection to other infectious diseases,” Petrova said.

The measles virus works by inserting itself into B cells to reproduce itself. The B cells acquire the ability to detect and destroy infections due to earlier encounters with microbes. B cells have receptors remain “naïve,” ready to react to new infections. The Petrova study found that the measles destroys both types of B cells.

Petrova only examined children after six weeks of being infected, so it is not clear how long the “immune amnesia” lasts.

In a related study, Colin A. Russell from the University of Amsterdam, a co-author on the Petrova study, used a virus akin to measles, the morbillivirus, to infect ferrets. The ferrets had been given an influenza vaccine. Scientists found that after being infected with the morbillivirus the animals became susceptible to the influenza virus again. The vaccinated ferrets who had not been infected with measles still remained immune to the flu.

“For the first time we see that measles resets the immune system and it becomes more baby-like, limiting how well it can respond to new infections… In some children the effect is so strong it is similar to being given powerful immuno-suppressive drugs,” Russell stated.

Michael Mina in the US used the same cohort of students as Petrova to examine their antibody recognition to common viruses and found a much-reduced range of antibodies in subjects who had suffered measles. Mina showed that damage from the measles virus was due to the loss of long-lived plasma cells that secreted antibodies. Plasma cells are white blood cells that produce a single type of antibody.

Mina and his team showed the Dutch students, before they were infected with measles, were able to produce antibodies to a range of viruses and bacteria. They found that after the measles infection the children lost between 11 and 73 percent of their antibodies.

Mina surmises that in order for the immune system to go back to its original state children would have to be re-exposed to the viruses and bacteria once more. “This work highlights the importance of MeV (measles virus) vaccination not only for the control of measles but also for the maintenance of herd immunity to other pathogens, which can be compromised after MeV infection,” the Mina study stated.

The two studies highlight the importance of maintaining the MMR vaccinations in the population, under conditions where the number of measles cases is multiplying rapidly across the world.

Scientists estimate that 95 percent of the population has to be vaccinated in order to cover people who are unable to take the vaccine for various medical reasons. This level of vaccinations is sufficient to make a society free of measles.

Although the US was given measles-free status in 2000, in April 2019, 695 cases of measles from 22 states occurred.

In Europe in the first six months of 2019, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported 90,000 cases across 48 of the 53 countries in the WHO European region resulting in 37 deaths.

Ukraine was the worst affected, with more than 54,000 cases and 18 deaths. Britain lost its measles-free status in the first half of 2019, with 489 cases reported. Albania, Czech Republic and Greece also lost their measles-free status in this period.

The main reason for the decline in vaccination rates in countries such as the UK is because of government cuts to health services. Britain’s Health and Social Care Act of 2012 led to lower vaccination rates because of the loss of key staff such as immunisation coordinators. Public health programs were shifted from the National Institute of Health (NIH) to local authorities that systematically cut their budgets.

Anti-vaccination campaigns have also had an impact on declining rates. Most of these focus on the promotion of bogus claims that vaccinations cause diseases such as autism. Several studies involving 1.5 million children found no link between vaccinations and autism.

In poor countries in Africa and Asia, vaccination rates are very low resulting in high numbers of deaths. In Madagascar, off the coast of Mozambique, there have been 150,000 cases resulting in more than 1,000 deaths. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to Doctors without Borders, 2,700 deaths were reported from January.

One important outcome of the two recent studies is that it places renewed emphasis on the boosting of public vaccination to reach the 95 percent rate required to give herd immunity. It is entirely possible to eliminate the deadly measles virus. A vaccine has existed for decades, but poverty and cuts in public vaccination programs are eroding the gains made in an earlier period.

Killing of two Indonesian journalists points to criminality in palm oil industry

Owen Howell

The dead bodies of two Indonesian activists were discovered in late October on a palm plantation in the province of North Sumatra. According to police, the two men were allegedly murdered by a group of hired killers carrying out the orders of a local palm oil company owner.

Within a week of the discovery, police had arrested five suspects, including the company owner, Kompas reported. They are currently being detained at police headquarters in the provincial capital Medan, charged with murder. Three other suspects are still at large.

The two victims, Maraden Sianipar, 55, and Martua Siregar, 42, both worked as journalists for an online news portal, Pindo Merdeka, before going freelance in 2017. They then became renowned throughout the area for their activism in environmental issues and land disputes, in which they advocated for struggling peasants in their conflicts with company officials.

According to Tribun Medan, Wibharry Padmoasmolo, the owner of palm oil company KSU Amelia, allegedly commissioned the killings by hiring seven men—company employees and security guards—and paying four of them nearly $US3,000. At a press conference, police commissioner Andi Rian said Wibharry told Janti Hutahaean, the leader of the seven hired murderers: “Yes, just brush them off if there’s still someone annoying us. If you need to, finish them off.”

KSU Amelia claimed ownership of a vast plot of forest area and repeatedly expelled outraged farmers from the property, who felt the company had unlawfully taken control of their land. Last year the company’s concession was sealed off by government authorities after it cleared 750 hectares of rainforest to plant oil palms. It had been engaged in a fierce dispute with the impoverished farmers since 2015, after the firm’s expansion onto forested land was ruled to be illegal.

Violent conflicts were common between the plantation’s guards and local people trying to access the land. In the end, the residents called upon environmental groups for assistance. At this point Maraden and Martua stepped in to act as mediators and attempt to resolve the dispute.

As the Tribun reported, the incident occurred on the afternoon of October 29 when Maraden and Martua visited the plantation to speak with company officials and discuss a solution. At the front gate they were allegedly met by seven men armed with bladed weapons called kelewangs. The hired men reportedly tortured the two activists to death, stabbing them multiple times.

Pos Metro Medan wrote that their bodies were found over the following two days on the KSU Amelia plantation in Labuhan Batu Regency, North Sumatra. Maraden’s body lay at the bottom of a ditch with his left arm hacked off and deep gashes around his head. Martua was found in the bushes near a warehouse, covered with stab wounds to his abdomen, back, and other body parts.

North Sumatra police chief Agus Andrianto related to the press that Wibharry denied owning the company when under police questioning, saying his father-in-law was one of the owners.

According to Tempo, police also explained that Joshua Situmorang, another top official at KSU Amelia, had once offered a wage of $US1,000 to a security guard to kill Ranji Siallagan, the head of an association of palm smallholders, in an effort to silence opposition from local farmers to the company. Ranji survived the attack.

Less than a month before Maraden and Martua were murdered, an environmental activist named Golfrid Siregar was found dead in suspicious circumstances. Golfrid was the attorney of the North Sumatran chapter of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI), the nation’s largest environmental group. He was involved in exposing illegal logging practices and provided legal guidance for local communities ensnared in conflicts with big companies.

Golfrid was found lying unconscious beside a motorcycle on a traffic overpass in Medan early on October 3 and died three days later. At the time police asserted that Golfrid died in a drink-driving accident. His work colleagues and relatives, however, according to an article by Mongabay, rejected this claim and argued instead that the evidence, including severe head injuries, indicated he was killed elsewhere and his body was dumped to conceal the crime.

The deaths of these activists have heightened concerns over the operations of palm oil companies among observers in Indonesia and internationally. Various civil society groups have noted that intimidation against those who investigate human rights abuses in the palm oil business is growing more violent.

Greenpeace campaigner Annisa Rahmawati, when asked about the two activists, told Reuters that the running of palm oil firms “was, and is, built upon the smeared blood and suffering of residents.”

Plantation companies now employ soldiers and police as guards to stave off the infuriated rural masses from occupying their newly-acquired properties. Over the past decade certain firms in Sumatra and Borneo, where exploitative conditions are at their worst, have begun to hire the notorious paramilitary unit Brimob as a security force.

The highly lucrative international trade of palm oil, regarded as “the poor man’s oil,” is founded on the exploitation of cheap labour. Most plantation workers across Indonesia are casual daily labourers with no health insurance. Amnesty International reported in 2016 that companies used forced labour and child labour, and allowed dangerous working practices. The illegal burning of forests, moreover, which is responsible for the annual haze that blankets Southeast Asia, is a cheap method to clear land, with no consideration for the extreme ecological damage inflicted.

In a 2015 paper, the Centre for International Forestry Research documented the political corruption which propels the industry, concluding there was a link between land clearing and local elections. Regional elections regularly involve “land transactions,” in which prospective regional leaders give residents access to land to attract their sympathies. Businessmen provide financial assistance to prospective regional heads, in return obtaining extra-judicial land permits when the candidate is elected.

The sudden rise in the practice of land grabbing during the Yudhoyono administration of 2004-2014 was the product of new government regulations making it easier for private companies to gain permits for land clearing. Over the past five years, the Widodo administration has likewise continued to make life easy for palm oil companies, turning a blind eye to the deep-rooted corruption and criminality that permeates the industry.