Harvard University Radcliff Fellowship 2022

Application Deadlines:

• The deadline for applications in humanities, social sciences, and creative arts is 8th September, 2022.
• The deadline for applications in science, engineering, and mathematics is 29th September, 2022.

Offered Annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: All

To be taken at (country): USA

About the Award: Each of the more than 850 fellows who have been in residence at the Radcliffe Institute has pursued an independent project, but the collaborative experience unites all of them. Scholars, scientists, and artists work on individual projects, or in clusters, to generate new research, publications, art, and more at the Harvard University Radcliff Fellowship.

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: No matter their field, Radcliffe Fellows demonstrate an extraordinary level of accomplishment.

Humanists and Social Scientists

Eligibility
Applicants in the humanities and social sciences must:
1. Have received their doctorate (or appropriate terminal degree) in the area of their proposed project at least two years prior to their appointment as a fellow (December 2020 for the 2022-23 fellowship year).
2. Have published a monograph or at least two articles in refereed journals or edited collections.

Individuals who are in doctoral or master’s programs at the time of application submission are ineligible to apply.

Former Radcliffe fellows (1999-present) are ineligible to apply.

Application Materials
The application comprises the following:

• Completed application form
• Short curriculum vitae
• Project proposal, with bibliography when appropriate
• Writing sample
• Three letters of recommendation

For more detailed application guidelines, consult the Application Materials section of our FAQs.

Creative Artists

Eligibility
Applicants need not have a PhD or an MFA to apply; however, they must meet the following discipline-specific eligibility requirements:

Film and Video: Applicants in this discipline must have a body of independent work of significant achievement. Such work will typically have been exhibited in galleries or museums, shown in film or video festivals, or broadcast on television.

Visual Arts: Applicants in this discipline must show strong evidence of achievement, with a record of at least five years of work as a professional artist, including participation in several curated group shows and at least two professional solo exhibitions.

Fiction and Nonfiction: Applicants in these disciplines must have one of the following:
a) one or more published books;
b) a contract for the publication of a book-length manuscript; or
c) at least three shorter works (longer than newspaper articles) published.

Poetry: Applicants in this discipline must have had published at least 20 poems in the last five years or published a book of poetry, and must be in the process of completing a manuscript.

Journalism: Applicants in this discipline are required to have worked professionally as a journalist for at least five years.

Playwriting: Applicants in this discipline must have a significant body of independent work in the form. This will include, most typically, plays produced or under option.

Music Composition: It is desirable, but not required, for applicants in music composition to have a PhD or DMA. Most importantly, the applicant must show strong evidence of achievement as a professional artist, with a record of recent performances.

Individuals who are in doctoral or master’s programs at the time of application submission are ineligible to apply, unless the dissertation has been accepted and degree is forthcoming.

Former Radcliffe fellows (1999-present) are ineligible to apply.

Application Materials
The application comprises the following:

• Completed application form
• Short curriculum vitae
• Project proposal
• Work sample
• Three letters of recommendation

For more detailed application guidelines, consult the Application Materials section of our FAQs.
Scientists, Engineers, and Mathematicians

Eligibility
Applicants in science, engineering, and mathematics must:
1. Have received their doctorate in the area of the proposed project at least two years prior to their appointment as a fellow (December 2020 for the 2022-23 fellowship year).
2. Have published at least five articles in refereed journals. Most science, engineering, and mathematics fellows have published dozens of articles.

This is not intended to serve as a post-doctoral fellowship. We fund individuals who clearly evidence a strong body of independent research and writing.

Individuals who are in doctoral or master’s programs at the time of application submission are ineligible to apply.

Former Radcliffe fellows (1999-present) are ineligible to apply.

Application Materials
The application comprises the following:

• Completed application form
• Short curriculum vitae
• Project proposal
• Three reprints
• Three letters of recommendation

For more detailed application guidelines, consult the Application Materials section of our FAQs.
Practitioners

Radcliffe welcomes applications from mid-career practitioners who have held senior leadership positions in non-profits, government, or the private sector. Many mid-career practitioners propose to write a book or series of articles during their year; others plan for the launch of their next venture. For examples of previous practitioners, please see the bio pages of former fellows Hernan del Valle and Kaia Stern.

To apply as a practitioner, please use the application for the Humanities and Social Sciences. When selecting a disciplinary area on the application form, please select “Practitioner” from the drop-down menu. You will have additional opportunities to specify your area of focus.

Eligibility and Evaluation
Practitioners should have at least ten years of relevant professional experience and be acknowledged as leaders in their fields. Proposals from practitioners are evaluated based on their professional experience, project feasibility, collegiality, and suitability for the Radcliffe community.

Application Materials
The application comprises the following:

• Completed application form
• Short curriculum vitae
• Project proposal
• Writing sample
• Three letters of recommendation

For more information about applying as a practitioner, consult the Practitioners section of our FAQs.

Number of Awards: 50

Value of Program:

• Radcliffe Institute fellows are in residence for a period of nine months from September 1, 2023 through May 31, 2024 and receive a stipend plus an additional for` project expenses. Fellows are expected to be free of their regular commitments so that they may fully devote themselves to the work outlined in their proposal.
• As this is a residential fellowship, fellows are expected to reside in the Greater Boston area for the duration of their fellowship. Fellows may be eligible to receive additional funds for moving expenses, childcare, and housing to aid them in making a smooth transition. Healthcare options are made available as needed.
• Radcliffe Fellows receive office or studio space in Byerly Hall and full-time Harvard appointments as visiting fellows, granting them access to Harvard University’s various resources, including libraries, housing, and athletic facilities. If fellows would like to hire Harvard undergraduate students as Research Partners, we will cover their hourly wages.
• Fellows are expected to engage actively with the colleagues in their cohort and to participate fully as a member of the Radcliffe community. To this end, all fellows present their work-in-progress, either in the form of a private talk for their cohort or a public lecture, in addition to attending the presentations of all other fellows during that academic year (up to two talks per week). We offer group lunches and other opportunities to connect with members of your cohort, but attendance at these is optional.

How to Apply: The online application for the 2023–2024 fellowship year is now available.

Visit Programme Webpage for details

The United States Contests the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative with a Private Corporation

Vijay Prashad

Yangshan Port of Shanghai, China. Photograph Source: Wikipedia – Public Domain

At the G7 Summit in Germany, on June 26, 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden made a pledge to raise $200 billion within the United States for global infrastructure spending. It was made clear that this new G7 project—the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII)—was intended to counter the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Given Biden’s failure to pass the Build Back Better bill (with its scope being almost halved from $3.5 trillion to $2.2 trillion), it is unlikely that he will get the U.S. Congress to go along with this new endeavor.

The PGII is not the first attempt by the U.S. to match the Chinese infrastructure investment globally, which initially took place bilaterally, and then after 2013 happened through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In 2004, as the U.S. war on Iraq unfolded, the United States government set up a body called the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), which it called an “independent U.S. foreign assistance agency.” Before that, most U.S. government development lending was done through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which was set up in 1961 as part of then-President John F. Kennedy administration’s charm campaign against the Soviet Union and against the Bandung spirit of non-alignment in the newly assertive Third World.

Former U.S. President George W. Bush said that USAID was too bureaucratic, and so the MCC would be a project that would include both the U.S. government and the private sector. The word “corporation” in the title is deliberate. Each of the heads of the MCC, from Paul Applegarth to Alice P. Albright, has belonged to the private sector (the current head, Albright is the daughter of former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright).

The word “challenge” in MCC refers to the fact that the grants are only approved if the countries can show that they meet 20 “policy performance indicators,” ranging from civil liberties to inflation rates. These indicators ensure that the countries seeking the grants adhere to the conventional neoliberal framework. There are also great inconsistencies among these indicators: for instance, the countries must have a high immunization rate (monitored by the World Health Organization), but at the same time they must follow the International Monetary Fund’s requirements for a tight fiscal policy. This essentially means that the public health spending of a candidate country should be kept low, resulting in the required number of public health workers not being available for the immunization programs.

The U.S. Congress provided $650 million to the MCC for its first year in 2004, as a U.S. government official told me; in 2022, the amount sought was more than $900 million. In 2007, when Bush met with Nambaryn Enkhbayar, the former president of Mongolia, to sign an MCC grant, he said that the Millennium Challenge Account—which is administered by MCC—“is an important part of our foreign policy. It’s an opportunity for the United States and our taxpayers to help countries that fight corruption, that support market-based economies, and that invest in the health and education of their people.” Clearly, the MCC is an instrument of U.S. foreign policy, but its aim seems to be not so much to tackle the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (on hunger, health and education), as Bush said, but to ensure extension of the reach of U.S. influence and to inculcate the habits and structures of U.S.-led globalization (“market-based economies”).

In 2009, then-U.S. President Barack Obama developed a “pivot to Asia,” a new foreign policy orientation that had the U.S. establishment focus more attention on East and South Asia. As part of this pivot, in 2011, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave an important speech in Chennai, India, where she spoke about the creation of a New Silk Road Initiative. Clinton argued that the United States government, under Obama’s “pivot to Asia,” policy was going to develop an economic agenda that ran from the Central Asian countries to the south of India, and would thereby help integrate the Central Asian republics into a U.S. project and break the ties the region had formed with Russia and China. The impetus for the New Silk Road was to find a way to use this development as an instrument to undermine the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. This U.S. project floundered due to lack of congressional funding and due to its sheer impossibility, since Afghanistan—which was the heart of this road project—could not be persuaded to submit to U.S. interests.

Two years later, in 2013, the Chinese government inaugurated the Silk Road Economic Belt project, which is now known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Rather than go from North to South, the BRI went from East to West, linking China to Central Asia and then outward to South Asia, West Asia, Europe and Africa. The aim of this project was to bring together the Eurasian Economic Community (established in 2000) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (set up in 2001) to work on this new, and bigger project. Roughly $4 trillion has been invested since 2013 in a range of projects by the BRI and its associated funding mechanisms (including the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Silk Road Fund). The investments were paid for by grants from Chinese institutions and through debt incurred by the projects at rates that are competitive with those of Western infrastructure lending programs.

The U.S. government’s “Indo-Pacific Strategy Report” (2019) notes that China uses “economic inducements and penalties” to “persuade other states to comply with its agenda.” The report provides no evidence, and indeed, scholars who have looked into these matters do not see any such evidence. U.S. Admiral Philip S. Davidson, who previously commanded the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, told the U.S. Congress that China is “leveraging its economic instrument of power” in Asia. The MCC, and other instruments, including a new International Development Finance Corporation, were hastily set up to give America an edge over China in a U.S.-driven contest over the creation of infrastructure investment globally. There is no doubt that the MCC is part of the broad Indo-Pacific strategy of the United States to undermine Chinese influence in Asia.

Only a handful of countries have thus far received MCC grants— starting with Honduras and Madagascar. These are often not very large grants, although for a country the size of Malawi or Jordan, these can have a considerable impact. No large countries have been drawn into the MCC compact, which suggests that the United States wants to give these grants to mainly smaller countries, to strengthen their ties with the United States. Nepal’s accession to the MCC must be seen in this broader context. Although the discovery of uranium in Nepal’s Upper Mustang region in 2014 seems to play an important role in the pressure campaign on that country.

In May 2017, Nepal’s government signed a BRI framework agreement, which included an ambitious plan to build a railway link between China and Nepal through the Himalayas; this rail link would allow Nepal to lessen its reliance on Indian land routes for trade purposes. Various projects began to be discussed and feasibility studies were commissioned under the BRI plan. These projects, more details for which emerged in 2019, were the extension of an electricity transmission line and the creation of a technical university in Nepal, and of course, construction of a vast network of roads and rail, which included the trans-Himalayan railway from Keyrung to Kathmandu.

During this time, the United States entered the picture with a full-scale effort to disparage the BRI funding in Nepal and to promote the use of MCC money there instead. In September 2017, the government of Nepal signed an agreement with the United States called the Nepal Compact. This agreement—worth $500 million—is for an electricity transmission project and for a road maintenance project. At this point, Nepal had access to both BRI and MCC funds and neither of the parties seemed to mind that fact. This provided an opportunity for Nepal to use both these resources to develop much-needed infrastructure, or as former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal told me in 2020, his country could get new loans from the Asian Development Bank.

After both deals had been signed, a political dispute broke out within Nepal, which resulted in the split of the Communist Party of Nepal and the fall of the left government. One major issue on the table was the MCC and its role in the overall Indo-Pacific strategy of the United States, which seems to be targeted against China.

Sri Lankan health employees strike over fuel shortages and inability to travel to work

Saman Gunadasa

Health workers in Sri Lanka walked out on strike on June 29 and 30 in protest against the lack of fuel and their inability to get to work. It followed the Rajapakse-Wickremesinghe government’s announcement on June 20 of a virtual national two-week shutdown.

Health workers at Cancer Hospital Maharagama protest against the Rajapaksa government, Sri Lanka, May 6, 2022 [Photo: WSWS]

The lockdown is another desperate measure to deal with extreme shortages of fuel and other basic needs produced by the worsening collapse of the economy. The country’s heavily-indebted economy was seriously hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and then catastrophically impacted by the US-NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.     

Last week’s strike involved public health inspectors (PHIs), family health service employees, ECG and EEG recordists, laboratory technicians, health entomology science officers, dental doctors and nurses.

The walkouts disrupted work at several hospitals across the island, including the National Hospital in Colombo and provincial hospitals in Polonnaruwa, Wathupitiwala, and Balapitiya. Health workers also took action on July 2 at provincial hospitals in the Puttalam district.

In a separate campaign over the same issue, doctors, nurses and junior health staff members joined a march on June 29, organised by the Alliance of Health Services, from the National Hospital in Colombo to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s residence. Police forcibly blocked the march before it reached the residence.

Health workers from the Lady Ridgeway Hospital in Colombo, the country’s main children’s hospital, protested outside the facility on the same day. They carried handwritten placards saying, “End to patience,” “Stop the collapse of the health service,” and “Provide transport facilities,” and demanded the government resign.

Nurses protest outside Lady Ridgeway Hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka, April, 2022 [Photo by image supplied to WSWS courtesy of nursing staff]

Interviewed by the media, protesters denounced the government, accusing it of allowing the health service to collapse by not providing health workers with transport or fuel. The government claimed workers could get fuel from specified filling stations. This was rejected by protestors, who told the media that some had been forced to wait in queues for over a week to get small amounts of fuel.

The official monthly fuel allowance for PHIs, moreover, is just 1,200 rupees ($US3.35), which is not enough for three litres of petrol at current prices. Health workers said their entire monthly wage would be spent on the fuel they needed to travel to work.

Last week’s strikes and protests by health workers are a part of a rising wave of industrial action by the working class over fuel shortages and the collapse of transport. On June 28, postal workers began strike action over their inability to report for work, forcing them to do a week’s work in a three-day period. On July 1, railway workers walked out for several hours in protest over the same issue.

These struggles are part of the working-class uprisings that erupted in April and May over worsening scarcities and skyrocketing cost of essentials, such as food, fuel and cooking gas, and hours-long daily power outages.

On April 28 and May 6, millions of workers participated in general strikes demanding President Gotabhaya Rajapakse and his government resign. On May 9, health workers and other key sections of the working class played a leading role in the walkouts over the violent attacks in Colombo on anti-government protesters by ruling-party goons.

These struggles are part of rising class struggles internationally, not just in South Asia, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, but also the imperialist centres, including in the US, UK, Europe and Australia.

The recent action by Sri Lankan health workers was organised by eight health sector trade unions: the Public Health Inspectors Union, the State Midwives Service Association, the Family Health Services Officers’ Unions, ECG and EEG Recordists’ Unions, Associations of Technicians of Medical Laboratories and Public Health Laboratories, Health Entomology Science Officers’ Associations and the Dental Association.

These unions claim that putting pressure on the government through protests and limited strikes will force the government to grant workers’ demands, but these organisations, along with the other health unions, have betrayed health workers’ struggles over the past two years.

Notably, the Federation of Health Professionals (FHP), the main health union alliance, did not participate in the June 29–30 industrial action and protests, and maintained a stony silence over the desperate situation facing their members.

FHP leaders previously declared they were “managing the anger of their members” in order to block ongoing strikes. This, however, was becoming increasingly difficult, they said, and called on the government to be “wise,” and to “assist” them in this endeavour.

FHP president Ravi Kumudesh recently promoted Prime Minister Wickremesinghe—a pro-US, right-wing figure—declaring that he could be pressured into granting concessions for working people. Kumudesh advised Wickremesinghe not to turn his back on the people, saying he had become prime minister because of the people’s struggle.

Government Nursing Officers Association (GNOA) chief Saman Ratnapriya, who is another FHP leader, has been promoting government attempts to get health workers, including nurses, to look for foreign employment. This perspective, which is in line with International Monetary Fund demands for major cuts in public sector jobs, will worsen the dilapidated state of the health sector, already in deep crisis over the lack of drugs, equipment, staff and essential facilities.

Kumudesh, Ratnapriya and the FHP leadership played a key role in winding down the anti-government uprising in April and May, replacing the general strikes and other industrial action with limited protests.

The lack of fuel and the government’s declared shutdown has brought the country to a grinding halt. Major cities, including the capital Colombo, increasingly resemble ghost towns. Public sector offices are limited to skeleton “essential” staff, schools are closed and replaced with online education, and the private sector has been asked to implement “work from home” practices.

Workers are being forced to use scarce filled-to-capacity trains or buses. Rising numbers of deaths and serious injuries are being reported, caused by dangerous riding on the footboards and roofs of buses and trains.

The ruling establishment, including the corporate media, is becoming increasingly nervous about a revival of mass working-class struggles. A July 2 editorial in the Island nervously warned: “Industrial action tends to snowball, and the unions that down tools at this juncture are likely to trigger a wave of strikes, which will deliver the coup de grace to the economy on oxygen support.”

One year since President Biden declared “independence” from COVID-19

Benjamin Mateus

One year ago, President Joe Biden spoke on the White House’s South Lawn with more than 1,000 maskless people in attendance, declaring the country’s independence from the coronavirus to much applause.

He noted at that time, “Today, all across this nation, we can say with confidence: America is coming back together… Two hundred and forty-five years ago, we declared our independence from a distant king. Today, we’re closer than ever to declaring our independence from a deadly virus.”

But as if to give himself an out, Biden admitted, “That’s not to say the battle against COVID-19 is over. We’ve got a lot more work to do.”

He then invoked his vaccine-only strategy, stating, “Thanks to our heroic vaccine effort, we’ve gained the upper hand against this virus. We can live our lives, our kids can go back to school, our economy is roaring back.”

The essence of the speech was not to pronounce the achievement of any meaningful elimination of the virus as China recently did in Shanghai. He intended to place the country on notice that America was abandoning any significant mitigation measures that would impede the complete reopening of the US economy, including the full reopening of schools to in-person instruction, whatever the cost.

And one year later, the Biden administration has completed what his predecessor Donald Trump began—the dismantling of all mitigation measures to contain the virus and even any reporting and measurements to determine its impact, effectively declaring it a permanent fixture in society.

Travelers wearing protective masks as a precaution against the spread of the coronavirus check in at the Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia, Tuesday, April 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Biden remarked last year, “Businesses are opening and hiring again. We’re seeing record job creation, and record economic growth, the best in four decades, and I might add, the best in the world. Today across this nation, we could say with confidence, America is coming back together … Today, while the virus hasn’t been vanquished, we know this—it no longer controls our lives, it no longer paralyzes our nation.”

Biden’s seeming blunder was a deliberate lie. The World Socialist Web Site noted back on March 13, 2021, that his assurances to Americans that the country was on track to defeat COVID-19 and “mark our independence from this virus” by July 4 were misleading, distorted and full of lies.

International public health experts had repeatedly warned that a vaccine-only strategy, while allowing the virus to spread across communities unimpeded, raised the danger of newer and more contagious and lethal variants evolving.

The comparison of Biden’s remarks to former President George Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” speech delivered on May 1, 2003, aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln is obvious and instructive. The war itself wasn’t declared over until December 15, 2011, an eight-year conflict with horrific ramifications to the region’s populations that will linger for generations.

A 2013 analysis by researchers from the US, Iraq and Canada estimated that from March 1, 2003, to June 30, 2011, there were 405,000 excess deaths directly attributed to the conflict. A Lancet study placed the number of civilians and fighters who died at 650,000. Mortality surveys and public health measurements place the death toll as high as 2.4 million.

The consequences of COVID-19 could well be even worse, and on a global scale, not just in the United States. When Biden made his infamous declaration of independence from the coronavirus speech last year, the official number of COVID-19 deaths in the US had reached 625,000. One year later, another 418,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. And according to the Economist’s “excess death” modeling, more than a half-million Americans have perished in past 365 days.

The Biden administration’s campaign to ensure schools were opened for in-person instruction in the fall of 2021 led to the most extensive mass infections among the youngest in the country. More than 75 percent of children under 18 have been infected at least once. This has fueled the Delta variant and numerous iterations of the Omicron variant across the US since.

When Biden gave his “independence” speech, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provisional data placed COVID-related deaths among children under 500. However, after August 2021, the death toll among children rapidly escalated, reaching over 1,250 by mid-February of 2022. There have also been more than 90,000 children hospitalized during the pandemic.

And according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, another 200 children have died since then. Yet, not once has the Biden administration apologized to the children and parents of these families for his brazen lie during a CNN presidential town hall, when he reassured an 8 year old about her low risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19.

Additionally, 200,000 American children have been orphaned by these criminal policies attempting to prioritize business profits over the population’s well-being. More than a quarter-million between 18 and 64 died, of whom nearly 68,000 were under 50. The Delta variant was particularly deadly among this age group. From Biden’s speech until February 2022, COVID was either the second or third leading cause of death in the US.

Meanwhile, a growing number of COVID-related deaths occur among those previously considered fully vaccinated. In January and February of 2022, more than 50,000 vaccinated Americans died from COVID-19 caused by Omicron, which has evolved into a highly infectious, immune-evading strain. The vaccines have also proven to offer only a relatively brief period of immunity, necessitating multiple courses of booster shots to sustain reasonable protection from severe disease.

Evidence is also mounting that reinfection with SARS-CoV-2 is very common, and without any mitigation measures, the population can expect to be infected twice yearly. Recent population studies have also indicated that reinfections increase the chances of dying or becoming hospitalized compared to those with just one previous infection. These risks also apply to people previously vaccinated.

This condition is well-known as Long COVID, a multisystem disorder that commonly affects the lungs, heart, vasculature and other organ systems. Besides the common symptoms of fatigue, joint pains and brain fog, the damage it does to critical systems can have long-term consequences. The post-acute COVID syndrome can impact approximately one in five to one in four people, and debilitating Long COVID has been seen in one-third of them.

Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and co-author of the VA study on reinfection with SARS-CoV-2 noted, “We show that compared to people with first infection, people with reinfection exhibited increased risks of all-cause mortality, hospitalization, and several prespecified outcomes. The risks were evident in subgroups including those who were unvaccinated, had one shot, or two or more shots prior to the second infection … altogether, the findings show that reinfection adds non-trivial risks of all-cause mortality and adverse health outcomes in the acute and post-acute phase of reinfection.”

And while Americans are facing a catastrophic economic hardship with inflation soaring and gas and food prices climbing, 727 US billionaires have amassed another $1.7 trillion in wealth as the country marked the needless death of more than one million people from COVID-19.

However, the White House has said that unless Congress approves a $22.5 billion COVID funding request (less than one-60th of the increase in billionaires’ wealth), there will be no monies for next-generation vaccines and therapeutics such as monoclonal antibodies and antivirals. During the spring, the Washington Post reported that the Biden administration officials were predicting the possibility of a massive wave of infections and deaths during the fall and winter months. The uninsured and underinsured would be left destitute.

On May 9, 2022, Biden made a statement appealing for more funding for COVID and the US-NATO proxy war in Ukraine against Russia, which has led to a substantial number of civilian and military casualties, including the internal and external displacement of millions of Ukrainians. It has also been implicated in the ongoing energy and food crisis that is producing massive social catastrophes across the globe.

In his statement on the war funding, Biden remarked, “I have nearly exhausted the resources given to me by a bipartisan majority in Congress to support Ukraine’s fighters. This aid has been critical to Ukraine’s success on the battlefield … I am pleased that, in my conversations with Congressional leaders, there appears to be strong support for the proposal I submitted, and Congress is likely to pass it in substantially the form I proposed.” And without virtually no opposition, Congress committed $54 billion to the war effort.

In his appeal to Congress for COVID funding, Biden noted, “Without timely COVID funding, more Americans will die needlessly.” No one in the media or Congress has bothered to point the contradiction between this statement and his “declaration of independence” from COVID-19 one year ago.

And as recent hearings in Congress have shown, there will be no future funding for the pandemic, which will hold the population hostage for years, leading to further loss of life and health in the United States, as the pandemic continues to rage around the world, unchecked in every major country except China.

Prisoners in Haiti’s Les Cayes National Penitentiary being starved to death

Alex Johnson

Shocking video footage released last week further exposed the torturous and inhumane conditions inmates face inside Haiti’s National Penitentiaries and prisons and confirmed findings in United Nations reports. The horrific video leaked last week showed prisoners in Les Cayes, the largest city in the country’s southwestern peninsula, who are being systematically subjected to forced starvation and dehydration. 

A still from the footage of starving prisoners in Les Cayes [Photo by @HaitiInfoProj]

The footage at the Les Cayes Penitentiary had been publicized in a tweet by HaitiInfoProj and received thousands of views in a few hours. The camera shows dozens of extremely malnourished and underfed detainees crowded together outside the prison facility, with prison authorities looking on and merely walking past. 

The searing images of prisoners, a majority of whom have never been seen a trial for alleged crimes, forced to endure hunger is a testament to the repression and criminality of Haiti’s ruling class and puppet regime led by President Ariel Henry, who do the bidding of the imperialist powers operating in Haiti.

Many of the bodies of those captured on camera carry a skeleton appearance, with the camera panning around to scores of prisoners clearly wasting away from food deprivation. At the beginning of the two-minute clip a detainee can be seen nearly unconscious on the floor and barely able to move, with two other prisoners struggling to help him stay upright. 

A report last week revealed that at least eight inmates have starved to death recently at the overcrowded prison, which currently houses 833 prisoners.

According to Ronald Richemond, the city’s government commissioner, hunger and scorching heat contributed to the inmates’ deaths in Les Cayes. The deaths resulted from the prison running out of food two months ago, adding to dozens of similar deaths this year inside the country’s dilapidated and crumbling prison system. The food crisis is the result of soaring inflation and that has caused food insecurity to skyrocket throughout the nation. 

The United Nations Security Council released a report last week that found 54 prison deaths related to malnutrition in Haiti between January and April alone of this year. 

By law, prisons in Haiti are required to provide inmates with water and two meals a day, which itself consists of an insufficient amount of porridge and a bowl of rice with fish or some type of meat. In recent months, however, inmates have been forced to rely solely on friends or family for food and water. Often, prisoners are unable to receive visitors because of gang-related violence throughout the major cities. 

The cell occupancy rate in Haiti stands at a staggering 280 percent of capacity, with 83 percent of inmates lodged in pretrial detentions that in some cases drag on for more than a decade before an initial court appearance is scheduled. Many prisoners are forced to take turns sleeping on the floor while others stand or try to make hammocks and attach them to cell windows, paying someone to keep their place. 

Moreover, Les Cayes and other cities in Haiti’s southern region have been affected by the spike in gang violence that has blocked the main roads leading out of Haiti’s capital, making it almost impossible to distribute food and other supplies to the rest of the country, according to Pierre Espérance, the executive director of Haiti’s National Human Rights Defense Network.

The harrowing footage from Les Cayes recalls the images of survivors rescued from the Nazi extermination camps at the end of World War II, as food rations had been deliberately lowered in the four years prior and a wave of death through starvation was set in motion. In fact, Haiti’s prison network has for years been documented as a bastion of political reaction and brutality meted out against the country’s most vulnerable and destitute.

In a report published in 2021 by the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, testimony from over 800 prisoners in twelve detention facilities documented the hellish conditions inmates face inside Haiti’s prisons. Spanning from January to March 2021, interviews from prisoners and first-hand observations exposed how most detainees live in overcrowded, poorly lit cells without proper ventilation, clean water or sanitation facilities. Prisoners are forced to urinate and defecate in buckets that are not regularly emptied and only receive one daily ration of food while having limited or no access to health care. 

Under mounting pressure and outrage following the release of the leaked video, the BINUH felt compelled to make a perfunctory statement on Twitter feigning concern for the unfed prisoners and to evade criticisms over its own complicity in overseeing mass starvation. The BINUH account noted that the organization was “very concerned” about the “increase in deaths in Haitian prisons in recent months particularly in the prison of Les Cayes where inmates died of hunger, thirst and suffocation.”

The US-led BINUH was established on June 25, 2019 by the UN Security Council. In a resolution developed at the council meeting, the BINUH was given a mandate with two proposals focusing on “advising the Government of Haiti in promoting and strengthening political stability and good governance,” which includes “protecting and promoting human rights” and, secondly, assisting Haiti’s government with efforts at “dialogue and reforms,” elections, “police professionalism,” and reducing gang violence. 

But three years after the UN resolution took effect with promises to “improve the lives of the Haitian people,” the agency’s tenure has seen the most appalling attacks against democratic rights and the breakdown of Haiti’s judicial procedures, worsened by the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in the summer of 2020 which left the country in shambles. 

Mechanisms to protect prisoners from such horrendous conditions have either been almost entirely abandoned or not pursued at all. Although tasked with monitoring Haiti’s prisons, officials from the Haitian Prison Administration have proven incapable of visiting prisons regularly due to scarce resources. A so-called “special office” opened in 2018 tasked with inspecting prisons has not carried out any visits. Furthermore, there is no formal mechanism for detainees to report abuses to the General Inspectorate of the National Police.

In March 2021, the UN Security Council called on Haitian authorities to end the practice of prolonged pretrial detention but not one of the UN’s hollow resolutions has been taken seriously while the billions of dollars of investments that have poured into the country from the international agency have not gone to reforming Haiti’s “justice system” or providing food and water to inmates in overcrowded prisons but to beefing up Haiti’s violent and gang-affiliated police apparatus. 

A new criminal code and procedure inaugurated by a presidential decree in 2020 and slated to be put in practice by June 2022 was touted as a new mechanism to pursue policies for the implementation of pretrial detention and establish detention of children as a measure of last resort. But the procedural code has yet to be enforced, while the proper legal or judicial infrastructures even needed for its enforcement remain absent because of the total collapse of Haiti’s parliament due to the expiration of legislators’ terms.

The abysmal conditions in Haiti’s prisoners predate the COVID-19 pandemic and blatantly violate the UN’s own Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment outlined in its human rights charter. In scapegoating Haiti’s corrupt National Police and haphazard regulating agencies, UN officials seek to cover up the fact that all institutions responsible for turning Haiti’s prisons into veritable concentration camps are under UN oversight. 

In contradiction to the BINUH’s claim of adopting a “national strategy to reduce gang and community violence,” mountains of evidence have emerged linking the same UN-supervised state officials and authorities under Haiti’s national police to the warring gangs. A report by the Harvard Law School in May 2021 along with a Haitian crime observatory confirmed allegations that state officials and police had been assisting in gang attacks that left hundreds of people dead, exposing  how the government has helped to unleash criminal violence on the nation’s working class and poor. 

The most notorious of the attacks occurred between May and July 2020, when gangs stormed the commune of Cité Soleil, killing at least 145 people. The gangs involved in the attack were all part of the G9 an Fanmi (G9 and Family), an alliance brokered among at least nine gangs in Port-au-Prince who continue to unleash havoc on the city’s civilians. Two armored vehicles belonging to the National Police “passed through an area under G9 attack and shot at passersby in the direction of homes,” killing at least five civilians in early July of 2020, the report stated.

The headmaster of the gang federation is Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, a former police officer who has a history of involvement in extrajudicial killings and deep ties to the corrupt Moïse regime and various state operatives of Haitian Tèt Kale Party, which is now currently led by Moïse’s successor Henry.

US paramilitary forces on the ground in Ukraine

Andre Damon

The New York Times reported Monday that dozens of US ex-military personnel are operating on the ground in Ukraine and that retired senior US officers are directing portions of the Ukrainian war effort from within the country.

Coming after revelations that the United States was directly involved in coordinating and planning the assassination of Russian generals and the sinking of the Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea fleet, the report further refutes the false claim by the Biden administration that the United States is not at war with Russia.

In its report, the Times wrote:

Americans are in Ukraine. An unknown number are fighting on the front lines. Others volunteer to be members of casualty evacuation teams, bomb disposal specialists, logistics experts and trainers. At least 21 Americans have been wounded in combat since the war started, according to a nonprofit organization that evacuates them. Two have been killed, two have been captured and one is missing in action.

In February, US President Joe Biden said, “Our forces are not and will not be engaged in a conflict with Russia in Ukraine.” In March, Biden reiterated, “The idea that we’re going to send in offensive equipment and have planes and tanks … going in with American pilots and American crews, just understand, don’t kid yourselves, no matter what you all say, that’s called World War III.”

Since that announcement, the United States has provided over 200 armored personnel carriers and over 20 helicopters to Ukraine, as well as M109 self-propelled armored howitzers, Harpoon anti-ship missiles and HIMARS long-range missiles.

In addition to these military armaments, it is now clear that the United States has sent troops. The US military claims that these forces, including one colonel and one lieutenant colonel, are operating on their own and are not under the command of the US military.

But these denials are a lie, meant to deceive the American people, who overwhelmingly oppose their government going to war with Russia. The officers admitted as much, telling the Times that their actions give the United States “plausible deniability.”

The Times interviewed Andrew Milburn, a retired Marine Corps Special Operations colonel on the ground in Ukraine, who declared that his actions and those of the dozens of American soldiers “are executing U.S. foreign policy in a way the military can’t.”

Speaking by phone from a village about 15 miles from the front lines in eastern Ukraine, Mr. Milburn said his efforts supported US goals while insulating the United States from involvement. “I’m plausible deniability,” he said. “We can do the work, and the U.S. can say they have nothing to do with us.”

Significantly, the US officers are “helping to plan combat missions,” serving as a critical conduit for US direction of the war effort.

The Times reports of the existence of a so-called “Mozart group” of dozens of US soldiers who are actively engaged in training thousands of Ukrainian troops on how to use weapons provided by the United States, such as javelin anti-tank missiles.

The Times report does not constitute investigative reporting but rather a controlled release of information designed to condition the American population to accept the unthinkable: A “hot war” between nuclear-armed powers.

Bit by bit, Biden’s lying claim that the United States is not at war with Russia is being replaced with the reality that the United States is, in fact, at war with the world’s second largest nuclear power. The American population is simply to be presented with a fait accompli and accept the facts on the ground that they are at war.

This course of action faces overwhelming popular opposition. In a YouGov poll published this week, 40 percent of respondents said the US should be “less militarily engaged in conflicts around the world,” compared with 12 percent who said it should be “more engaged.”

In the poll, 46 percent of respondents said they “oppose the United States military becoming directly involved in combat in the Russia-Ukraine war,” compared to just 23 percent who support such a move.

Despite a series of military setbacks for Ukraine, the United States has only intensified its involvement in the war.

Congress has officially allocated $54 billion in military and economic aid to Ukraine since the start of the war, translating to at least $418 million per day. The US and its allies have sent over 100,000 anti-tank weapons, hundreds of drones, hundreds of armored vehicles, and dozens of helicopters and other aircraft. Since the start of the war, the United States has permanently deployed 20,000 additional troops to Europe.

Last week, at the conclusion of the NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, the members of NATO, including most European states as well as the United States and Canada, adopted a strategy document pledging to “deliver the full range of forces” needed “for high-intensity, multi-domain warfighting against nuclear-armed peer-competitors.”

This language has not been published in the New York Times, Washington Post or Wall Street Journal or cited by any of the major broadcast networks. Behind the backs of the American people the United States government is making preparations for world war, of which the conflict in Ukraine is just the opening salvo.

Ireland-Africa Fellows Programme 2023/2024

Application Deadline: 31st July 2022

Eligible Countries: Djibouti, Eswatini, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Malawi, Liberia, Lesotho, Kenya.

To be Taken at (Country): Ireland

Field(s) of Study: Eligible courses are in areas such as agriculture, health, education, human rights, computer science, engineering, business and more, and are listed in a Directory of Eligible Programmes

About the Award: The Ireland Fellows Programme enables early to mid-career professionals from eligible countries, with leadership potential, to benefit from a prestigious, world-class, quality education contributing to capacity building. It offers selected students the opportunity to undertake a fully funded one-year master’s level programme at a higher education institution (HEI) in Ireland. The award covers programme fees, flights, accommodation and living costs. Eligible master’s level programmes in Ireland commence in August or September each year and, depending on the programme, will run for between 10 and 16 months. The Ireland Fellows Programme promotes gender equality, equal opportunity, and welcomes diversity.

The aims of the Programme are to nurture future leaders; to develop in-country capacity to achieve national SDG goals; and to build positive relationships with Ireland. 

The Programme is intended to support graduates on their return home, through the skills they develop, to contribute to capacity building in their home countries and to become one of the next generation of leaders in their respective fields. It is also envisaged that they will contribute to building enduring positive personal and professional relationships with Ireland, promoting institutional linkages.

The Ireland Fellows Programme is fully funded by the Irish Government and is offered under the auspices of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). The Programme aligns with the Irish Government’s commitments under Global Ireland and the national implementation plan for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), The Global Island: Ireland’s Foreign Policy for a Changing World, A Better World: Ireland’s Policy for International Development, and Ireland’s International Education Strategy. The programme is managed by the relevant Embassy responsible for eligible countries. Programme implementation in Ireland is supported by the Irish Council for International Students (ICOS).

Type: Masters

Eligibility: To be eligible for an Ireland Fellows Programme – Africa scholarship commencing at the beginning of the academic year 2022 applicants must:

• Be a resident national of one of the following countries: Djibouti, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
• Have a minimum of two or three years’ work experience that is directly relevant to your proposed programme(s) of study, depending on the country (see the Guidance Note for Applicants).
• Hold a bachelor’s level academic qualification from an accredited and government-recognised higher education institution, with a minimum grade point average of 3.0 (4.0 scale) – i.e. a first class honour, or second class honour, Grade 1 (in some cases a second class honour Grade 2 may be accepted, if the applicant has sufficient directly relevant work experience). It must have been awarded in 2010 or later (i.e. within the last 12 years).
• Not already hold a qualification at master’s level or higher. Not currently undertaking a programme at master’s level or higher, or be due to start a programme at master’s level or higher in the academic year 2021/22.
• Be applying to commence a new programme at master’s level in Ireland no sooner than August 2021.
• Be able to demonstrate the following: leadership abilities and aspirations; a commitment to the achievement of the SDGs within your own country; and a commitment to contribute to building positive relationships with Ireland.
• Have identified and selected three programmes relevant to your academic and professional background from the Directory of Eligible Programmes.
• Have a clear understanding of the academic and English language proficiencies required for all programmes chosen.
• Must not have applied to the Ireland Fellows Programme on more than one previous occasion.
• Be in a position to take up the Fellowship in the academic year 2023/2024.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value and Duration of Award: The programme offers selected students the opportunity to undertake a fully-funded one-year master’s programme at a prestigious higher education institution (HEI) in Ireland. The award covers course fees, flights, and accommodation and living costs. Eligible master’s courses in Ireland commence in August or September each year and, depending on the course, will run for between 10 and 16 months. The Programme promotes equal opportunity and welcomes diversity.

How to Apply: Please read the Applicant Guidance Note carefully before completing as eligibility criteria may differ from country to country. 

The application process consists of three stages:

• Stage 1   Preliminary Application;
• Stage 2   Detailed Application;
• Stage 3   Interviews.

All applicants who are selected to go forward to second stage will be required to sit an IELTS exam, unless they are already in possession of an IELTS certificate that is dated 2019 or later at the time of application which shows the applicant has achieved the necessary score for the course they intend to apply to. Early preparation for the IELTS exam is strongly advised, even for native English speakers.

• It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit Award Webpage for Details