China-India: Beijing's Intransigence over the South China Sea

Prashant Dikshit


History always plays a major role in the sovereignty disputes between nations in the global system. Since the history of the dispute in the South China Sea (SCS) is itself part of the dispute, the initiative by the Philippine regime to seek an arbitration by the Permanent  Court of Arbitration (PCA) at The Hague was logical. This PCA was rightfully constituted under the Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). It was expected to consider all claims on a legal framework to address the conflictual condition created by the claims of the regime in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). But its July 2016 award ruled against the PRC's maritime claims. Importantly the “fact of history” in the latter's claims were outright rejected. The PRC chose “not only” to not acknowledge the legitimacy of this award but rejected it and claimed that any resolution of the dispute should be through bilateral negotiations between claimants. Analysts are viewing this attitude as that of “strong arming” the claimants into submission.

The vastness and gross intermingling of interests of several key players in the SCS exacerbates the situation with PRC on one side and Brunei, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines on the other.  It is not merely about the Spratly and Paracels Islands as was largely understood. There are several disputes involving both island and maritime claims of these Southeast Asian countries, each of which is linked with a different collection of countries; but at the heart of this dispute is the Nine Dash Line area claimed by the PRC, which covers most of the SCS and aggressively overlaps Exclusive Economic Zones of the abovementioned countries. The Chinese rhetoric smells of enforcement of maritime control of tracts of the sea they claim. Throughout the period of deliberation by the PCA, the PRC inflicted a continuous barrage of media harangue against the process whilst publicly abstaining from participation.

However, all sea faring nations, including India, would want the SCS to remain as international waters, with the US conducting operations quite evidently in the conceptual edifice of the “Freedom of Navigation in the International Waters” as spelt in the UNCLOS, notwithstanding that Washington is not a signatory to this protocol.

Several postures emanating from the PRC clearly and deliberately aim at interfering with Indian interests in the affected region. There is a report of INS Airavat, an Indian Naval Ship, whilst on a friendly visit to Vietnam, having been told that the Indian ship was entering Chinese waters. This incident occurred on 22 July 2011 when the Indian ship was about 80 kilometers from the Vietnam's coast when it was communicated with by a source that “identified” itself as the Chinese Navy. Although there was no confrontation faced by the naval vessel, the communication clearly conveyed an obstruction to the “Freedom of Navigation and right of passage in international waters.”

A little over a month later, in September 2011, after the PRC and Vietnam signed an agreement with a view to contain the dispute over the SCS, India’s state-owned foreign oil exploration arm, “ONGC Videsh Limited” signed a three year agreement with the Vietnamese “Petro Vietnam” for exploring some segments in the SCS. This legitimate deal elicited a rather ominous response from the PRC when a member of their foreign ministry tersely broadcast that “China enjoys indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea and the island. China's stand is based on historical facts and international law. China's sovereign rights and positions are formed in the course of history and this position has been held by Chinese Government for long ……we are opposed to any country engaging in oil and gas exploration and development activities in waters under China's jurisdiction. We hope the foreign countries do not get involved in South China Sea dispute.”

Recently, on 08 August 2016, during Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to New Delhi, a Chinese state run daily warned that “India should avoid "unnecessary entanglement" in the SCS dispute to prevent it becoming yet "another factor" to impact bilateral ties. In the immediate backdrop of the PCA award, this move was clearly viewed as an attempt at containing the legitimate Indian point of view on the SCS. Or for that matter, even the progress on the border dispute between the two countries. During the visit of the Foreign “a carrot and stick policy” was quite evident, with the Chinese officials in New Delhi making it known that the doors to the Nuclear Suppliers Group can still be opened - which is a matter of great interest to India.

The vast maritime expanse of the SCS encompasses major sea lanes traversing the waters. These are the arteries of trade of deep interest to not only countries straddling the sea but also to the rest of the world including India. The PRC regime therefore, should not play war games.

Iraq's Hashd Militias: Ineluctable Politics on the Road to Mosul

Derek Verbakel

On 26 July, the Iraqi government officially declared its intention to integrate the mostly-Shia militias known as al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation Units) as an ''independent military formation'' part of the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF). The move, which somewhat reiterates an April 2015 cabinet order, was approved in February 2016 by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi through a decree called Office Order 91; and will nominally place the Hashd under his command. Abadi claims the Hashd – accused of widespread human rights abuses, but a crucial part of the Iraqi government's strategy against the Islamic State (IS) – will be subject to military law and barred from maintaining political party affiliations. Abadi will struggle to implement Order 91, and to what extent he does, this development is unlikely to improve. Contrarily, it has the potential to worsen, instability in Iraq.

Abadi's declaration to incorporate the Hashd into the ISF is inseparable from power struggles over Iraq. Broadly, Abadi and aligned nationally-oriented Shia groups have been set against a collection of Iran-backed militias and their political wings. Militias connected to both camps comprising the Hashd saw their power expanded following its formation as a government-approved umbrella organisation in June 2014. This took place after the Iraqi army's near-collapse in the north prompted a call by Shia cleric Ali al-Sistani for all Iraqis to join the fight against IS. Heretofore exercising little control over the militias, Abadi has attempted to change that perception while marginalising, and signalling strength to political rivals, including prominent militia leaders. Abadi, who is under pressure as corruption and dysfunction plagues his government, is trying to consolidate power in the run-up to an attempt to re-take Mosul from IS.

Contextualising HashdOffice Order 91 states the Hashd will be detached from “all political, party, and social organisations, and political work shall be prohibited within its ranks.” However, severing the leading militias' political affiliations is unlikely, given the extent of ideological, material, and financial ties to Iran and the fact that many of the militias function as military appendages of longstanding Iraqi Shia political parties. For instance, nationalist Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Peace Companies, while loyal to the Iraqi state rather than Iran, is an outgrowth of his political movement and party; the Badr Brigade is the armed wing of the formidable Badr Organisation and is still rooted to its founding in Iran, and as with Asaib Ahl al-Haq, receiving Iranian support; the head of Kataib Hezbollah, who has acted as the official commander of the Hashd, works hand-in-hand with Iran's special operations Quds Force in Iraq; the leader of the Harakat al-Nujaba militia proclaimed in November 2015 that he would overthrow Iraq's secular government if ordered by Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei.

Integrating Hashd members into the ISF as a distinct formation would entail imposing a hierarchical military structure on horizontally organised factions. This would meet with resistance and prove difficult to sustain, as there is no reason to believe that militias will accept their own disempowerment. Nor will they cease following existing leaders or reverse efforts to pursue their own political ambitions, especially given the increasing illegitimacy of those currently leading the government. Given the fragmented dispensation of power in Iraq, it is unclear whether the integration of the Hashd into the ISF would represent the state taking over the militias or vice-versa.

Implications: InternalAs they become more powerful, the Hashd militias risk fuelling sectarian tensions and violence, and closer association with the state risks exacerbating national disunity. In enabling government efforts to reclaim population centres from IS control, Hashd militias have on numerous occasions perpetrated violence against Sunni civilians. For many inhabitants of predominantly Sunni areas, the expulsion of IS may be welcomed, but their replacement with Shia militiamen is viewed as hostile re-occupation. Participation of Iran-backed Shia militias in Iraqi government military operations in Sunni areas also fuels the IS's propaganda and recruitment by ostensibly validating IS narratives of the Iraqi government being an Iranian pawn. Such dynamics render Shia Hashd forces ill-suited to stabilise Sunni-majority Mosul and entice inhabitants to return.

Implications: ExternalA deepened integration of the Hashd could complicate the US assistance in Iraq, including Mosul. In the recent years, while insisting on restraint, particularly in Sunni areas, Washington has gradually softened its opposition to Baghdad’s instrumentalisation of Shia militias. Already siding awkwardly with forces variously supported by Iran, to be seen as more directly backing officially designated 'terrorist groups' such as Badr or Kataib Hezbollah would provoke thorny political disputes in Washington. These and other Hashd militias have in past years fought American forces in Iraq and more recently raised uncomfortable questions by threatening to target US advisors to the ISF, whose move closer to the battlefront since April has corresponded with IS losing ground.

And, despite Abadi’s politicking around the issue, allegiances to Iraqi political parties and Iran will preclude the transformation of the Hashd into a non-sectarian national force representing all Iraqis.

Even if it were feasible, the Hashd's incorporation into the ISF would scarcely allay concerns regarding what might unfold vis-a-vis Mosul, including in terms of US involvement and its far-reaching implications for future stability in Iraq.

Indian Drought 2015-16: Lessons To Be Learnt

Ashish Singh & Raghu Pilla


Categorized as one of the worst droughts in the history of India, drought 2015-16 has affected more than 330 million people in more than 2.5 lakh villages of 266 districts from 11 states in India. It has had a devastating impact on people’s lives as it affected water availability, agriculture, livelihoods, food production and food security, natural resources and also put a huge burden on exchequer. But rather than classifying drought as a meteorological condition, we need to look into the aspects of drought in a more holistic way, as argued by Amartya Sen in his work on Poverty and Famine (1981), beside the factors such as harvest failures, reductions in food imports etc, social systems determine how a society’s food is distributed. This is an important point to reflect upon and use as a pretext while discussing situations of drought in India.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines Drought as a period of abnormally dry weather long enough to cause a serious hydrological imbalance. Drought is a relative term; therefore any discussion in terms of precipitation deficit must refer to the particular precipitation-related activity that is under discussion.

ActionAid India, along with many other civil society organisations and social movements responded to the drought this year. Bihar & Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan & Gujarat, Telangana & Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh &Uttarakhand regional offices of ActionAid India initiated ground work in seven states reaching out to the most marginalised and in solidarity with them advocated for relief and other support from the state. As part of the advocacy work, ActionAid conducted public consultations and hearings in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan with solidarities. A multistate study was also conducted to capture the crises, the responses to the crises, the gaps therein and the status of various government programmes and provisions which either helped in mitigating or aggravating the crises. Village surveys covering 279 villages in 30 districts and seven states were part of the process. ActionAid India regional offices came up with respective state level briefs.

This volume presents the issues and challenges faced by people while keeping the government and Supreme Court’s directives and decisions in mind.

In Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan public hearings and consultations were held. More than 2000 agriculturists- small farmers and workers, including women farmers, participated in them. People expressed their desires to have a right to relief and protection, the wanted efforts towards revival and development of water sources, land, forests, and commons.

Situations like drought bring up issues related to improper functioning of government schemes and programmes. Across the states surveyed significant proportions of households were excluded from lists despite their eligibility under National Food Security Act- about 43% in Madhya Pradesh, 10% in Jharkhand and 2% in both Odisha and Telangana. In Jharkhand, despite having NFSA cards another 14% were not getting ration because of various reasons. In Madhya Pradesh 33% families had reported that they were not getting the ration on regular basis. Shops were open only for 2 to 3 days in a month. In Madhya Pradesh 48% of villages reported that ration shops were open only for 3 days in a month and 33% villages reported shops were open for only 2 days and 19% villages said only one day. In Rajasthan out of a total of 75 villages, 20 villages reported that they were not getting food grains on regular basis.

Aadhar linkage issues have been reported from Telangana, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh due to which families are not getting ration. Many districts have not appointed the grievance offices to address the issues. Though the Supreme Court order mandated provision of mid-day meals during the summer vacation, it was found that the orders were partially implemented in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan while it was implemented better in Jharkhand and Telangana states. However, it was not all implemented in Odisha. In case of Maharashtra, the field reports contradicted the information provided by the official sources.

Food intake has also been affected because of severe drought and women are at the receiving end in this context.In Odisha field observations revealed that in case of 70% households there has been significant change in food consumptionand 71% females had reported decreased food intake due to the prevailing drought situation. The small andmarginal farmers could barely meet 30% of the food requirement for the whole family.

Drought and mismanagement of water resources have created water crisis in many states. In significant proportions handpumps were found to be defunct, in Uttar Pradesh 25%, in Jharkhand 27% and Telangana 42%. Even among the functionalhand-pumps, two thirds are partially functional and with insufficiently safe water. Water tankers were arrangedby the district administration, but it was not sufficient to cater to the demands of the drought affected population. Theproportions of dysfunctional hand-pumps were higher in the case of Odisha 53%, Rajasthan 56% and Maharashtra90%. The response of the concerned water department in taking up either repair of existing pumps or digging newbore wells was scanty and not seen in villages. Acute scarcity of drinking water was reported in Sundergarh districtof Odisha. In Odisha upto93% of traditional water bodies have not been renovated for the last 10 years and 57% of water bodies created underMGNREGS have dried up without proper inlet and outlet arrangements.

State surveys revealed that the scale of damage done by drought was huge, proportions of farmers who reported crop lossranged from 60% to 94%. In 19 villages of Telangana it was found that 5562 acres of land was left fallow.Compensation for crop loss had not been received by all farmers, in Uttar Pradesh in 11 villages it was reported thatonly 420 farmers (18.4%) out of 2275 farmers got crop compensation for crop loss pertaining to the 2014-15 kharifseason and 1834 farmers (74%) got compensation out of 2454 farmers for the 2014-15 rabi season. Madhya Pradeshhad interesting findings in relation to crop compensation. It was found that 24% did not receive any compensationand among those who received compensation, 69% received less than Rs.1000/-. These findings have also highlightedthe fact that majority of tenants and sharecroppers (88%) were excluded from compensation framework. Other majorissues came to light was that non timber forest produce (NTFP) losses that impacted tribal families were not countedas part of losses.

It was reported that 40-65% of the farmers were indebted and facing extreme depressing conditions due to theburden of loan. In the villages of Uttar Pradesh this proportion was as high as 87.5%.

Drought works as a push factor for migration. It was found that migration, a common phenomenon in these regions, especially in Marathwada, Bundelkhand and

Telangana, has increased significantly. There was more than 20% population migration from affected villages. Alongwith young population, a significant number of children and women also accompanied their families to cities. In UttarPradesh 896 children (12.3%) in the age group 0-6 years and 945 children (13.1%) in the age group 6-14 years joinedtheir parents migrating to uncertain and unsafe locations to live in precarious conditions.

In the absence of agriculture work and other land/water dependent works, work under Mahatma Gandhi NationalRural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is the only alternative for survival and livelihood for millions of wageseekers. It is evident that specific efforts were not made to activate wage work under MGNREGA. Moreover delayedpayments had severely impacted the interests of the workers and crippled its implementation. In Madhya Pradesh 17%,in Telangana 9.3% and in Jharkhand 20% had no job cards despite their interest in securing MGNREGA work. In UttarPradesh also such problems were found in 15 villages. Further despite their need and willingness to work, a significantproportion of workers/villages did not get work under MGNREGA — this percentage ranges between 5% and 30%.Delayed payments were reported across all the villages studied. There was delay (almost six months) in releasing fundsfrom the Central government to the State governments. This was corroborated by Madhya Pradesh study in 43 villageswhere only in case of 20% villages wages were paid on time and in 80% of the villages the payments were delayed for aperiod ranging from one to six months.

Field reports revealed that thousands of cattle were left abandoned due to prevailing conditions in the villages. In the study villages of Madhya Pradesh 91% of the cattle was abandoned, while Jharkhand reported 3008 cattle as abandonedand Uttar Pradesh reported 22% loss in cattle population when compared to the last year. Further, Uttar Pradeshalso reported 1543 cattle deaths while villages from Rajasthan reported death of 1391 cattle due to scarcity of water andshortage of fodder. It has further reported that out 77 villages, 73 reported scarcity of fodder. Distress sale of cattle wasreported from all villages.

Alternatives that build drought resilience are available as local success stories. These include stories of water harvesting in tribal village of Odisha and Uttar Pradesh, the cultivating of drought resistant paddy in Odisha, alternate models of water harvesting structures in Maharashtra, de-siltation of lakes in Karnataka, rain harvesting in Laporiya village inRajasthan. In order to enriching learning, we have also added two cases from organizations having rich experience on water conservation.

The report concludes by saying that establishing relief as a right for communities affected by emergencies including drought,ensuring community access and control over natural resources especially water, to create a comprehensive law for equitable distribution and just governance of water and a critical review of current market-driven extractive development paradigm to build sustainable and equitable futures for all.

This report is a good resource material for those willing to understand the causal relationship between drought, access to basic amenities and livelihood opportunities for have nots. Academia and policy makers should get more involved in formulating and executing such studies so that the outreach can be extended.

Political Repression And Emergence Of Youth Uprising In Kashmir

Mir Suhail

The Kashmir experienced most difficult challenge in present time due to conflict. The conflict broughtcataclysmic impact on the entire Kashmir related to large scale economic loss,societal disorder , Educational Backwardness , Mass psychological Depression , forced Brutalization , oppressionetc.The conditions of everyday life are in threat.Consequently, the generation was gone astray in this social inferno. Conflict affects all segments among the suffering groups; the youth also stand at the top of qualitatively as well as quantitatively. This group endured more than other groups in their life of work and future.  They lost everything they had. Some among them were exterminated, killed, tormented,battered, harassed and handicapped. Tragically, their fundamental rights have been quelled. They confronted the problem of state suppression. Thousands of Kashmiri youth became the target of radicalism. The reason offered was they were labeled as insurgents, dissenters, and extremists. Their psychological and physical development is ruined. The level of psychosocial misfortunes is impossible to gauge.

For a youth generation of Kashmir, the constant hyper-nearness of military and paramilitary in their lives is the evidence in the aforementioned that they live in horror and restrictions. Youth in Kashmir have only seen armed forces with lethal weaponries, Military hegemony enters every facet of life,Restrictions,curfews and closures are intermittent. Mis-governance, hopefulness, broken promises, deaths and destructions made every Kashmiri especially youth shaky.In the ongoing protest, nearly 69 people were killed; most of them were youth or students. The fomenting young people are from the cohort born during early 90s. The era (1980-1990) is a persecuted era; they have confronted the lot of ruthless repression.In the continuous unsettling, this persecuted era gives asset to challenge/stone-pelting (kani-jung).In the continuous unsettling, this persecuted era gives asset to protest/stone-pelting (kani-jung).The present uprising has changed the entire Kashmir into bloodletting, apprehension and misfortune. Everyone in Kashmir is the victim of this tumult.The resentment is more visible among deprived and oppressed segments of society. The currentuprising has changed the whole Kashmir into carnage, fear and loss. Everybody in Kashmir is the victim of this tumult. The way security forces are vexing to fit   on Kashmiri youth is beyond the imagination of anyone. In a nutshell, the security constrains completely inundated the Valley with lethal arms. Youth continue to suffer Even after militancy was reduced to a vast degree. Majority of people mostly youth lost their lives.In Kashmir, everybody has a sensation of uncertainty for each other.Guardians have sentiment unreliability, sisters feel shaky for their siblings and vice versa.

Ironically, the political parties in Kashmir stand divided in politics of Jammu and Kashmir. Youth have become increasingly isolated and dissatisfied with democratic setup of India. They have complete disillusionment with the politics and representatives, with the decisions and decision makers, all political parties have history of adopting process of political exploitation. The response of state government towards subjugated/angry youth of valley has not been convincing and satisfactory. Both center and state government failed to resolve the demands of youth,instead of resolving their demands, they deepened the alienation among them, the alienation among youth arises because of political disempowerment in state.

It is commonsensical to know when there is trust deficit between people and political arrangement of the state; the youth turns into unrest and adopts the way of uprising or protest.A protest expresses a strong expression of happenings or conditions. In Kashmir, the government braced human expression by overwhelming their expressions, thanlibertycatches itsconceivable route either through slogans or through rocks or other violent means. Irrespective of so-called democratic political setup in Jammu and Kashmir, the resentment of youthon its streets remains. The fundamental reason is political victimization, oppression and state suppression. People of Kashmir are feeling politically and economically disempowered. Youth wenttheirresentment with political system through confrontation because they find no way for expressing their political opinion, they prefer to hurl stones. The most effectiveexpression of changes in Kashmir’s politics was the massive street demonstrations. The stone- peltingin this wayhas entered each edgeof Kashmir as the distinguishingexpression of the demonstration.

In response to protest, Security forces used disproportionate, often lethal force in the face of teenagers. The state responds to non-violent protest with ferocity that explicitly creates, rather than simply exposes, a lack of status quo in Kashmir. In Kashmir, the Army and paramilitary forces maneuvers  under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which gives armed forces  authorization to fire upon or otherwise use force even to the extent  of causing death , it has acted as an incentive to bellicose behavior and   have little external check on their actions. The armed forces in Kashmir use such draconian decrees as buffer their violent behavior. In response to the protest, the government is using the public safety act (PSA/Lawless Law)or indiscriminately using pelle tguns on protesters.

“Kashmiri youth uprising or turmoil is not for the sake of any developmental concerns or employment but the tyrannical approach of the state. If India wants stability in Kashmir,first it needs to acknowledge Kashmir a dispute that needs to resolve with the consent of people of Kashmir. If masses of Kashmir will not be set free, than the future of Kashmir and Kashmiri youth will be extremely very agonizing and dreadful“.

New Zealand: Thousands infected by contaminated water in Havelock North

Tom Peters

Over the past fortnight an estimated 4,500 people in Havelock North have become sick with a gastrointestinal infection linked to campylobacter bacteria in the town’s water supply. As of August 21, 10 people remained in hospital, down from 22 a few days earlier. At least one person, 89-year-old Jean Sparksman, died after contracting the disease, which is fatal in rare cases.

Havelock North has 13,000 residents and is located in the Hawke’s Bay region, just outside the city of Hastings on the North Island.

Hawke’s Bay District Health Board (DHB) chief executive Kevin Snee told TV3 on August 23 there was “a risk” cryptosporidium and giardia were also in the water. Cryptosporidium takes up to 20 days to affect people, meaning there could be “another wave of sickness.”

On August 12, the Hastings District Council received test results showing the presence of E. coli bacteria, an indicator for faecal contamination, in one of the bores that feeds Havelock North’s water supply. The council was also informed by the DHB of numerous recent cases of vomiting and diarrhoea. A warning was issued to Havelock North residents to boil drinking water while the council began to chlorinate the water. Not all communities in New Zealand have chlorinated water.

This is the worst waterborne disease outbreak in the country’s history. With about a third of residents having fallen sick, schools in Havelock North were closed for much of last week and so were many local businesses. A council spokesperson told Radio NZ “the highest percent of sick people were the children.”

Local reporter Marty Sharpe, who was sick for three and a half days, wrote in Fairfax Media that many residents “are angry that such a thing could happen in a first-world nation... There is also plenty of anger at the perceived delay between when Hastings District Council and the [DHB] believed there was a problem, and when they informed the public.”

The DHB said the bacteria probably entered the water supply between August 5 and 8, when clusters of people began to report being sick. Mayor Lawrence Yule told TV3’s “The Nation” on Saturday that the water supply tested negative for contamination on August 9. A positive indicator for E. coli was discovered in a test on the morning of August 12, but the council only issued a public warning at 6:40 p.m.

Last weekend, National Party MP Craig Foss and the DHB declared that the situation was under control. However, on August 23 a unit of the Mary Doyle Lifecare retirement village, where Jean Sparksman was a resident, was placed in lockdown after a second outbreak of campylobacter illness.

Politicians have scrambled to contain the damage. Prime Minister John Key announced on August 15 that the government and the council would hold inquiries into how the contamination occurred. Yule and council chief executive Ross McLeod issued a public apology, stating: “The council is charged with supplying you safe, reliable water. The council has failed to do this on this occasion.”

Tests carried out last week found that two water bores supplying the town had most likely been contaminated with faecal matter from livestock, such as cattle, sheep or deer. The outbreak followed a period of heavy rain, which may have caused runoff into the water supply. What exactly happened has not been confirmed.

On August 15, Yule told TVNZ: “We’ve never had this happen before, we have some of the most pristine water in the world in our aquifer.” However, a third water bore supplying Havelock North was closed last October after E. coli was found. The source of that contamination was never confirmed, although a nearby mushroom farm was fined for illegal earthworks. The farm uses manure made from chicken faeces.

The opposition Labour Party criticised the National Party government for not declaring “a drinking water emergency” and providing more support for local agencies in response to the crisis. On August 16, Labour MP Stuart Nash told parliament that people should not “go to hospital from drinking water out of our taps... This is a wake-up call that we need to now take the issue of water quality and water security very, very seriously.”

In fact, according to Massey University ecologist Mike Joy’s recently published book, Polluted Inheritance: New Zealand ’ s Freshwater Crisis, New Zealand has “the highest per capita frequency of [waterborne diseases] coliform enteritis, campylobacteriosis, cryptosporidiosis and salmonellosis in the developed world.” There are between 18,000 and 34,000 cases per year. Joy noted that “62 percent of the length of all waterways at some time fail to meet the contact recreation standard” for E. coli levels, and “the worst areas for faecal contamination are in intensively farmed and lowland urban areas.”

One indicator of increased pollution was that the number of freshwater fish species threatened with extinction “skyrocketed in the past twenty years from about 20 percent in the early 1990s to a shocking 74 percent now.”

Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei criticised the government for not specifically including land use in the terms of reference for its Havelock North inquiry, “when it is well known that intensive agriculture is linked to declining water quality.”

Notwithstanding the opposition’s criticisms, the unregulated intensification of agriculture took place under both National Party governments and the 1999–2008 Labour government, which was backed by the Greens. Joy wrote: “There has been a four-fold increase in dairy production since 1992, from nearly twice as many cows. This has mostly happened in the absence of regulation or enforcement aimed at containing nutrient losses, so farmers have, in effect, been incentivised to pollute.”

The South Island dairy farming region of Canterbury is particularly prone to outbreaks of waterborne disease. On March 23, ecologist Alison Dewes told Fairfax Media “economics and dairy intensification are trumping public health and welfare” in the region. Canterbury District Health Board medical officer Alastair Humphreys said bluntly: “We are polluting our water and it will get worse.”

On August 23, ecologist Russell Death told Radio NZ that major rivers in Hawke’s Bay were the most polluted he had seen in the country and another outbreak like the one in Havelock North was “highly likely.”

Dairy products are New Zealand’s main export and the conglomerate Fonterra is one of the world’s largest dairy companies. Whether the industry had any involvement in the Havelock North crisis is not known. What is clear is that in order to maximise profits, successive governments have placed New Zealand’s water supply in peril.

ILO report: Global youth unemployment to rise for first time in three years

Niles Niemuth

The number of unemployed young people worldwide between the ages of 15 and 24 will rise to 71 million this year, increasing for the first time since 2013. This is the news from the annual World Employment and Social Outlook report released this week by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The United Nations labor agency estimates that the global youth unemployment rate will reach 13.1 percent this year and hold steady through 2017, increasing from 12.9 percent last year.

Broken down by region, the unemployment rate was worst for young people living in the Arab states and Northern Africa, where 30.6 percent and 29.3 percent respectively live in poverty. The greatest numbers of unemployed young people are found in Asia, where nearly 33 million are looking but unable to find work.

Eight years after the outbreak of the world financial crisis and following years of tepid economic growth, an increasing number of young people across the globe are being condemned to a life of unemployment and poverty. Governments around the world have implemented harsh austerity policies over the last decade, attempting to resolve the economic crisis on the backs of the working class and the poor.

The increase in youth unemployment is being driven by a slowing and outright reversal of economic growth globally, especially in emerging and developing economies.

Global economic growth for 2016 is currently expected to be 3.2 percent, nearly half a percentage point below what was predicted by economists at the end of last year. Economic growth in developing countries was just 4.2 percent, the lowest rate of growth since 2003.

In the depths of the Great Recession, leading economists had predicted that developing economies, in particular Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, would serve as the economic engines to revive the global capitalist system.

The report, however, points to the continual slowdown in the Chinese economy and deeper than expected recessions in Russia and Brazil as the culprits for rising global youth unemployment

Russia’s economy is expected to contract by 1.2 percent this year following a contraction of 3.7 percent in 2015, after it was hit by the collapse in oil prices and economic sanctions implemented by the United States and the European Union. Russia’s youth unemployment rate has risen noticeably, from 13.9 percent in 2013 to 15.5 percent this year.

Brazil, currently in the midst of its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, has seen its youth unemployment rate rise to nearly 18 percent, up from 15.1 percent three years ago.

While China’s economy is still officially growing, growth in the world’s second largest economy has slowed significantly. The share of young people in China looking for but unable to find a job has risen from 11.8 percent to 12.3 percent in the last three years.

On top of the 71 million unemployed youth, the ILO reports that there are another 156 million young people who are employed but still live in moderate to extreme poverty. This means that approximately 38 percent of the world’s young people, despite working, still struggle to subsist in the direst circumstances.

The working poverty rate is the worst in sub-Saharan Africa, where 70 percent of young people who work live in poverty. Young people in these countries are forced to work just to meet the basic necessities of life. Often their wages do not even cover these expenses.

Young people between the ages of 15 and 24 have replaced the elderly as the group most at risk of poverty in those countries the UN defines as developed, including in the European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia and Japan.

According to the ILO report, 12.9 percent of young workers in the European Union are at high risk of poverty, meaning they earn less than 60 percent of median income. The poverty rate for young workers varies significantly from country to country within the EU, from less than 5 percent in the Czech Republic to 35 percent in Romania.

Young people in EU countries have been increasingly forced to take on part-time jobs, which pay lower wages and do not include the benefits of traditional full-time work, leading to higher rates of poverty. Employment is particularly tenuous for young people living in countries that have been subjected to brutal anti-working class austerity regimes by the EU and IMF since 2008, including Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal.

The share of youth forced to take on temporary employment because they could not find a full time job was greater than 50 percent in Portugal, Greece, Poland and Italy. Involuntary part-time jobs accounted for 70 percent of all part-time employment in Italy and around 60 percent in Greece and Spain.

The ILO estimates the youth unemployment rate in the US at 12 percent, an increase from last year. The report also found that a significant number of young Americans are neither in education nor in job training, with nearly 20 percent between the ages of 25 and 29 falling into this category.

The difficulties confronted by young workers in the US are further reflected in the increasing share of young people who are living with their parents. A Pew Report released earlier this year found that for the first time in modern US history, those between the ages of 18 and 34 were more likely to be living with their parents than with a partner or spouse.

While the ILO report shows that living conditions vary for young workers from country to country, whether they live and work in sub-Saharan Africa, Russia or the United States they confront a common enemy in the capitalist system.

There will be no end to the misery of poverty and tenuous employment forced on young people across the globe without a united struggle by the working class, across divisions of age and international boundaries, to overthrow capitalism and reorganize society to meet human need rather than the interests of private profit.

aKoma/MasterCard Foundation Paid Fellowship Programme for Talented African Storytellers and Creators 2016

Brief description: aKoma is making a call for applications for Amplify, a paid Fellowship program for talented African storytellers and creators. Amplify is a partnership between aKoma and MasterCard Foundation, who have been awesome in working with us to make this happen.

Application Deadline: September 2016

Eligible Countries: Kigali (Rwanda), Nairobi (Kenya) and Lagos (Nigeria)

To be taken at (country): Kigali (Rwanda), Nairobi (Kenya) and Lagos (Nigeria)

About the Award: Do you want to make a difference for your community and country, but don’t know how? Do you have a burning desire to contribute, but don’t know where to start? Do you need help mastering new storytelling skills and tools, but don’t know where to turn to? Do you have the creative energy, the ideas, the compelling stories, but don’t have access to the networks to get your voice heard?

This is a really great time to be a content creator, storyteller or fan of content in Africa. And aKoma is all about all of it. aKoma has a simple and clear mission: to make Africa come alive.

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: young, aspiring content creators 21-34 years old that show significant upside and looking for careers in media and content development. At least 8-10 hours a week commitment for Amplify.

Number of Awardees: 25

Value of Fellowship: training, projects and mentoring in content creation and media. As an Amplify Fellow, you will be exposed to the craft plus techniques to help you succeed in the digital age, connecting you with a circle of mentors to provide the necessary guidance in constructing your personal stories about Africa to appeal to a wider audience.

Duration of Fellowship: 6 Months

How to Apply: apply for the program here.

Visit Fellowship Webpage for details

Award Provider: aKoma

Royal Agricultural University Fully-funded Masters Fellowship for African Scholars 2017 – UK

Title of Fellowship: Africa’s land & food fellowship

Brief description: This funding is provided for leadership training; the development of professional networks and supporting industrial experience, together with study opportunities on Master’s programmes in agriculture, agri-business, food and rural development at the Royal Agricultural University.

Application Timeline: The fellowship will be open for application between 1 November and 1 December 2016.

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: All countries or regions in Africa are eligible

To be taken at (country): Royal Agricultural University Cirencester Gloucestershire UK

About the Award: Over £1.8 million has been generously provided by the private sector, foundations and charities in support of the programme. Since 2012 the UK Government has also supported Fellows through Chevening Scholarships.

Fellows return to Africa and many are now making significant leadership contributions through their various occupations to managing change in rural development, food supply and security, farming, agribusiness, agricultural education, research and in government. The programme is linked to four Masters Programmes: MSc’s in International Rural Development, Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security and Business Management plus the MBA in International Food and Agri-business.

Offered Since: 2005

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: Fellowships are open to Africans from Sub-Saharan Africa who have experience in agriculture, agri-business, food or natural resource management; an interest in land reform; and a desire to make a strategic and sustainable contribution to Africa’s development. In short, tomorrow’s innovators and leaders.

Number of Awardees: 10

Value of Fellowship: Scholarships cover tuition fees, board and accommodation, flights to and from the UK, provision for networking and a short industrial placement either in Africa or in the UK. Scholarships also cover incidental costs whilst in the UK and on placement; however, applicants are advised that funding does not include provision for home and family costs. Furthermore, Fellows are expected to return to their own countries following their UK studies to complete their programme and ‘begin to make a difference’.

How to Apply: Application information can be found here

Visit Fellowship Webpage for details

Award Provider: Royal Agricultural University UK

Danish Government Masters in Engineering Scholarship for International Students 2017

Brief description: The University of Denmark through the Danish Government, is pleased to offer scholarships to certain overseas candidates of the highest quality, in recognition of the important investment that overseas students are making in their education.

Application Deadline: 14th December 2016

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: non-EU/EEA countries

To be taken at (country): Denmark

About the Award: There are a few scholarship schemes at the University of Southern Denmark. The largest one is the Danish Government Scholarship – supported by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Higher Education.

Through this scheme the Faculty of Engineering offers scholarships to highly qualified students enrolled in the following two-year master degree study programmes:

• MSc(Eng) in Innovation and Business (Campus Soenderborg)
• MSc(Eng) in Mechatronics (Campus Soenderborg)

Type: Masters taught

Eligibility: 

• Candidates must come from a non-EU/EEA country and be eligible to pay tuition fees.
• The scholarship will be awarded to the best qualified of the eligible applicants to the above mentioned master degree study programmes.

Selection Criteria: The best qualified candidates based on grades and a motivated application will be awarded the scholarship.

Value of Scholarship: The scholarship covers all tuition fees. Students must be able to finance living expenses.

Duration of Scholarship: 2years

How to Apply: To be considered for the scholarship an application form and a motivated application must be submitted with the required documentation as described in the application form.

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

Award Provider: University of Southern Denmark, Danish Government Ministry of Science, Innovation and Higher Education.

Important Notes: Application for admission must be submitted separately. The scholarship application is only for the scholarship.

Those who are awarded a scholarship will be informed before the end of January.

The Terrors of Free Speech: Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act

Binoy Kampmark

When sections in a piece of legislation assume their own properties, the state of debate is bound to be strained. In Australia, the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA), notably section 18C, has again become a central ball of political play.

Sections 18C and 18D were introduced as legislative responses to the 1991 National Inquiry into Racist Violence and the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. The assumptions of these reports attribute to words, particularly those used in a certain way, dangers that can cause emotional and psychological harm.

Australia then joined much of the world in legislating against speech of a certain variety. In many European states, bad ideas expressed with the good faith of a denialist, specifically on the subject of the Holocaust, is bound to earn you a prison sentence or a steep fine.

In placing Australian society on the road of good intentions, section 18C renders unlawful something reasonably likely to “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” someone (a person or groups) because of their race, colour or national or ethnic origin. Given that individuals take offence regularly using race as a poor alibi should already demonstrate that the argument, and implementation, are bound to be flawed.

The defenders of the provision argue that haters, dissenters and rabblerousers dabbling in the seedy world of racial discrimination are perfectly protected (within bounds of decency, of course), by Section 18D.

The dispensing section is supposedly enlightened, exempting the application of section 18C in cases of artistic works, scientific debate and fair comment on matters of public interest. The railroading proviso is that these are all made “reasonably” and in “good faith”.

This is all fine for Meredith Doig, who writes that the courts “have consistently held that the conduct under question must involve ‘profound and serious’ effects, not ‘mere slights’.” Doig triumphantly produces a statistic that is meant to prove the rule. “Less than 3 per cent of racial hatred complaints ever make it to court.” You have to begin somewhere.

Given that much argument and hate is fought in a world of insult (the cleverer the better) often waged intemperately and unreasonably, the protections of such an exempting section are bound to be skimpy. Australia’s continued hostility to a Bill of Rights insists that judges and lawmakers, not the public, which is regarded with suspicion, should determine reason and good faith.

A sense of the state of such argument can be gathered every time chatter about reforming Section 18C disturbs the political landscape. Self-proclaimed vulnerable groups come out of the woodwork agitating against inappropriateness. Submissions are rushed off, with free speech being their enemy.

In 2014, when this issue of reforming the RDA also cropped up, the Australian Tamil Congress submission to the Attorney General’s department (Apr 29) spoke of the constant stream of “stories from Australian Tamils of racism and racial discrimination.”

The organisation wanted to be “free from verbal insults and offensive comments when walking down the street, when on public transport, in the workplace and online, let alone when they are reading the newspaper, listening to the radio or watching television.” A world, in other words, cocooned from anything that might smack of any form of offence based on race.

The reformers have not come up with decent truck on the subject either. Former Federal Court Judge Ronald Sackville argues that two amendments might do the trick in balancing legitimate protection of groups against vilification with the pursuit of free speech.

This would involve replacing “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” with “degrade, intimidate or incite hatred or contempt”. Supposedly, the latter is meant to be more onerous to demonstrate, though again, it would be a judicial matter as to how degradation or intimidation is measured. In free speech land, many on the losing end of an argument, notably touching on the untouchables of racial identity, would argue to be intimidated and degraded.

The second point would entail that most deceptive, problematic and foolish of legal devices, the surpreme excuse for judicial meddling: the objective test that simply conceals subjective prejudices and assessments.

For Sackville, the legislation’s effects might be softened by abandoning the subjective test on hurt and offence and adopting an objective test on how “a reasonable member of the community at large” would respond to certain words and conduct.

The policing of words and the means to give a stern refutation, rebuke or attack, however vicious, is always a flirtatious move towards broader policing. Such policy also attributes to a few individuals (the courts, in other words) the means to decide what might have constituted “fair comment” or appropriateness on words. The unfree mind is a safe one, and the authorities will help you stay that way.

Free speech remains the terror of the Antipodean mind, one ever faithful to penal control and state regulation. If a multi-ethnic society cannot broach the subject of discussing race, as opposed to its more hideous alternative of banishing discussion altogether, then its claims to legitimacy must be questioned. One can only be genuinely tolerant in accepting those who are intolerant, even foolishly so. Let me be degraded, in due course, before the sheer force of well-founded argument.

Britain’s Slavery Legacy

Julian Vigo

When giving lectures at universities around the UK last summer, one of my priorities when at a conference near Liverpool was to make it to the International Slavery Museum there to learn about this country’s involvement in slavery, to include its role in the transatlantic slave trade.  Indeed, most every culture in the world has a historical tie to one form of slavery or another and one need not search very far when on holiday this summer at any travel destination to educate oneself about this topic.  For instance, Rome’s Coliseum was built by 20,000 Jewish slaves brought to the city by the emperors Vespasian and Titus and in Granada, Christian slaves built the Alhambra.  And you needn’t leave the UK since much of the original city of London was built by British slaves who were later slaughtered by the Romans circa 50CE.

For more than 200 years Britain was the heart of a most lucrative transatlantic human trade which enslaved millions of Africans.   In the 245 years between John Hawkins first voyage and the abolition of the Slave Trade in 1807, merchants in Britain despatched about 10,000 voyages to Africa for slaves, with merchants in other parts of the British Empire perhaps fitting out a further 1,150 voyages.  Even with the passing of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act by Parliament in 1807, slavery was not abolished in the British colonies until the Slavery Abolition Act (1833).  At this point in time, according to the Slave Compensation Commission, the government body established to evaluate the claims of the slave owners, there were 46,000 slave owners in Britain.  Between 1562 and 1807, British ships carried up to three million people into slavery in the Americas.  Most bizarrely when slavery was abolished, it was not the slaves who were compensated but the approximately 3,000 British slave owners who received £20m (£1.6bn today) in compensation.

Still, many in the UK today are oblivious to the history of slavery which not only made this country extremely wealthy, it is the paradoxical basis of its affluence at a time when money divided one class from the next as much as the freedom self-determination ascertained who embodied “core British values” and those who simply could not. Terms like “West India merchants” and “West India planter” were common euphemisms for slave trader and slave owner respectively.  Indeed, the relatively recent history of Great Britain is marred by a slavery past that is either not acknowledged or is overlooked in favour of framing a national heritage in terms of the enormous wealth that was leveraged off the backs of slaves.  So what was a cruel trade in human life and the promotion of slavery, thus buttressing a nation’s wealth, has historically been cast within the language of “trade.”

Take the East India Company which manifested Britain’s trading and political control in India and East Asia from 1600 through 1874.  The East India Company served as a springboard to colonial rule in south Asia and became the site of competition between European countries for trade, power and profit leading to the conquest of new territories. The colonisation of the Caribbean and parts of North and South America as well as the development of the transatlantic slave trade was an indication of British wealth along with the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and British all establishing strong footholds in these areas.

For instance, in 1662 the British established its headquarters on the Gold Coast (today Ghana) a few miles east of Elmina, giving competition to the Dutch who were already in the region. And just one hundred miles south from the mouth of the Senegal River is the island of Gorée where the French had built a fort and extended its colonial presence to the north bank of the Gambia River.  Across the river: a British fort. This area became for many years to follow a conflict zone between the competing colonising powers of France and Great Britain.  So when you look at a map of how African nations are geographically, it is often a sign of where one colonial power had influence over the local people and/or other colonising nations.

And in tandem with slavery labeled as “trade,” the East India Company was directly involved in the East African slave trade and also brought slaves from the west coast of Africa to work on its settlements in South and East Africa, India, and Asia. As well, the father of the future British Prime Minister William Gladstone, Sir John Gladstone, was directly involved in the “importation” of slaves from India, renamed “indentured servants,” to work in his sugar plantations in the West Indies.  Indentured servants in the Caribbean through the mid-19th century not only worked in the landowner’s field for a defined term of bondage (usually four to seven years), but as many as half a million Europeans were taken by force to the Caribbean to work off their bondage, ultimately being paid their “freedom dues.”  In many respects this system functioned as a precursor to the current system which defines an individual’s economic autonomy based upon having been in debt to someone at some point in time. 

While these workers were not paid wages as they were considered to be working to pay off their “debt” to Gladstone (for the “favour” of being tossed into a ship and brought to the Caribbean), the reality is that these people were slaves in everything but name.  More cynically Gladstone and other slave exerted pressure during the drafting of the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 that permitted slavery inside India and enslavement of Indians for colonial markets operated by the East India Company excluding “the Territories in the Possession of the East India Company, or to the Island of Ceylon, or to the Island of Saint Helena.” These exceptions were eliminated in 1843.

Colonisation was merely a precursor to contemporary capitalism as nations overtook territories in order to expand their wealth utilising the local labour to mine the oil, petroleum, copper, chromium, platinum and gold.  Slavery and indentured servitude were effectively the world’s first industry and served as the model to later forms of capitalism.  Like mega-wealthy corporations around the world, slavery was actually run by a few hundred families, many of which are the great aristocratic families of Britain with a hidden past in the slave trade (ie. to include the ancestors of Graham Green, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sir George Gilbert Scott, David Cameron, and George Orwell).  And because of the exploitation of slaves and resources by the British, slavery has paved the economic heritage of the British economy and the British pound’s stability since 1880.

Despots “Donate” To Clinton Foundation, Receive Weapons From Hillary: Leaked Docs

Robert J. Barsocchini

Newly leaked documents provide further details on what Harpers magazine calls the Clinton family’s “slush fund”, the Clinton Foundation.

As Secretary of State (the US government position chiefly responsible for coordinating US international arms trafficking), Hillary Clinton accepted millions of dollars in “donations” from the dictator of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa al Khalifa, then increased US weapons sales to him by 137% during his brutal, Saudi-backed crackdown on pro-democracy protestors.

The crackdown, as reported by Amnesty International, has included murder and child-torture.  In 2009, a Clinton State Department official stated that al Khalifa’s weapons coordinator was a “good friend of ours”.

Within Hillary Clinton’s increase in arms trafficking to the dictator of Bahrain was a 10,000% increase in transfers of “toxicological agents”.

IB Times also points out that beyond Bahrain, US arms exports in general “substantially increased to governments that donated to the Clinton Foundation”.*

The revelations have forced the Clinton campaign to essentially promise that if elected President, Clinton would not be as corrupt as she was as Secretary of State: “Clinton’s campaign said the foundation would stop accepting foreign government donations if she is elected president”.

It will be up to the minority of people in the US who are still willing to vote for Clinton to decide whether giving her more power is likely to make her more or less corrupt.

*This included the biggest weapons deal in history, a US effort to traffic over $60 billion in arms to the dictator of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz, including illegal explosive devices that he has since used against civilians in the US proxy war against Yemen, which includes direct US executions of “suspects” and US rescue and refuel missions for Saudi pilots.  The US, unlike several other countries including India, Russia, and China, has refused to rescue its own citizens in trapped in the Yemen war and starvation zone, citing “danger”.