Brazil’s defense minister issues threat over probe into Bolsonaro’s handling of COVID-19 pandemic

Tomas Castanheira

The swearing-in of the new commander of the Brazilian army on Tuesday was marked by a threat of military intervention to halt any attempt to hold fascistic President Jair Bolsonaro accountable for mass COVID deaths.

Brazil's Defense Minister Walter Braga Netto (Credit: Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil )

The main speech at the ceremony, delivered by the newly sworn-in defense minister, Gen. Walter Braga Netto, warned that the armed forces are ready to act to secure Bolsonaro’s reactionary project.

“The moment requires a greater effort at national unity, with a focus on fighting the pandemic and supporting vaccinations. Today, the country needs to be united against any kind of institutional destabilization initiative that alters the balance of power and harms Brazil’s prosperity,” Braga Netto announced.

The defense minister continued: “Those who believe we are on fertile ground for initiatives that could jeopardize the freedom won by our nation are mistaken. We must respect the democratic rite and the project chosen by the majority of Brazilians to guide the destiny of the country. The society, attentive to these actions, may rest assured that its armed forces are ready to serve the national interests.”

These words expose the fraud of the political narrative promoted by the bourgeois media, the Workers Party (PT) and its pseudo-left allies that Bolsonaro’s dictatorial moves are nothing more than an “authoritarian delirium,” and that his sacking of the entire military high command on March 30 only reinforced the generals’ commitment to democracy.

Such political forces point to the growing opposition of sections of the bourgeoisie and the military to the government as a guarantee against Bolsonaro’s dictatorial threats.

The launching of a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) that will investigate Bolsonaro’s criminal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seriously deepened the crisis of his administration, has only reinforced these arguments.

The pandemic in Brazil is spiraling out of control, with over 3,000 deaths a day. The country has now recorded over 14 million infections and more than 381,000 deaths. The CPI is expected to target the government’s deliberate promotion of mass infection of the population, sabotage of vaccinations, and promotion of potentially harmful drugs like chloroquine as quack cures for the deadly virus. The investigation increases the possibility of impeachment proceedings being opened against Bolsonaro.

Tremendous social forces—and not merely the individual actions of the fascistic president—are behind the attacks on democracy in Brazil. The explosive growth of the economic and social crisis, and the disaster of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country are accelerating the mortal crisis of bourgeois rule in Brazil.

The devastating effects of the pandemic are compounded by a massive increase in unemployment, wage cuts, and a sharp reduction in the living standards of the Brazilian working class. These conditions, producing unprecedented levels of social inequality in what was already one of the most unequal countries in the world, are rapidly turning Brazil into a powder keg on the verge of exploding. The growth of mass popular opposition is already finding expression in a wave of strikes against workplace deaths and economic attacks suffered by the working class.

Bolsonaro, like the Brazilian ruling class as a whole, is extremely sensitive to these seismic tremors that threaten the entire edifice of capitalist class rule. While a section of the ruling class fears that keeping Bolsonaro in the presidency will accelerate the explosion of resistance by the working class in the streets and factories, the president is seeking to prove that his imposition of dictatorial measures today is fundamental to preventing the crisis from spinning out of control.

After stating that he has been appealing to the Armed Forces in the face of an imminent social explosion in the country, Bolsonaro declared on Wednesday, April 14: “Brazil is at the limit. People say that I must take action. I am waiting for the people to give me a sign. Because hunger and unemployment are there.”

The “sign” demanded by Bolsonaro was immediately manufactured by his fascist advisers. On social media, his allies started a campaign with the hashtag “I Authorize,” which literally means: “I give a green light for Bolsonaro to install a presidential dictatorship in Brazil.” Based on this slogan, street demonstrations have been called for May 1.

These demonstrations have been endorsed by two federal congresswomen allied to Bolsonaro, Clara Zambelli and Bia Kicis, who defended two parallel demands of the fascistic demonstrations: the reopening of street commerce, and the adoption of printed ballots in Brazil (an argument Bolsonaro has borrowed from Donald Trump to prepare an electoral coup in 2022).

Another pro-Bolsonaro congressman, Otoni de Paula, referring to the opening of the CPI to investigate Bolsonaro, tweeted: “I warn the senators and federal deputies, the PR [President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro] will not trade his honor for the chair of the presidency and will only leave it once he is dead. I am warning you, the gentlemen’s plan will unleash a civil war in this country.” He ended his post with the hashtag “I Authorize, President.”

The choice of the date for these demonstrations, designed to coincide with May Day, expresses the long-term goals of the fascistic movement driven by Bolsonaro: to suppress the political movement of the working class through a pseudo-populist movement that backs the financial elite’s most brutal attacks against the working masses.

These demonstrations recall nothing so much as the “March of the Family with God for Freedom,” which was a series of reactionary middle-class demonstrations in 1964 used as “popular” cover for the military coup engineered by the Brazilian bourgeoisie and US imperialism.

The narrative that the military seized power and installed a dictatorship in Brazil in response to a call by the population to “defend democracy,” a gross and criminal historical falsification, has been aggressively promoted by the Bolsonaro government and the armed forces.

Braga Netto used his first day as defense minister to issue an order of the day stating that the 1964 coup began with a popular movement in the streets and that through it the military guaranteed the “democratic freedoms we enjoy today.” His speech on Tuesday is a further development of this narrative, lauding the military as the guarantor of the “project chosen by the majority of Brazilians.” The implications are unmistakable. Should either the legislature or the judiciary challenge Bolsonaro’s drive toward presidential dictatorship and thereby threaten “instability,” the military may once again be forced to intervene to “defend democracy.”

The dictatorial project being pushed by Bolsonaro, with the aim of imposing upon the working class the most brutal levels of exploitation and the normalization of mass murder, cannot be allowed to triumph. This depends, however, on breaking the political grip of the so-called political opposition to his government within the framework of the bourgeois state, led by the PT and its pseudo-leftist satellites.

Germany’s Greens select Baerbock as chancellor candidate

Peter Schwarz

Germany’s Greens will participate in the federal election on 26 September with Annalena Baerbock as their candidate for chancellor. The party’s two co-leaders, Baerbock and Robert Habeck, made the announcement at a joint press conference on Monday morning.

Annalena Baerbock

The decision had been awaited with anticipation. If the current trends in the polls persist, the Greens have a chance of nominating the successor to Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is stepping down after 16 years in power.

Baerbock and Habeck took the final decision in a one-on-one meeting, and concealed it from party committees, the party membership, and the public. What the Greens, who once upon a time swore by grassroots democracy, would have previously described as a rotten backroom deal, was praised by Baerbock as a new political culture in which everyone works together instead of against each other.

In reality, all political discussion was suppressed because the Greens are determined to continue the policies of the Merkel government, even though it is deeply despised. Since their poor election result in 2017, the Grand Coalition parties, the Social Democrats (SPD), Christian Democrats (CDU), and Christian Social Union (CSU), have lost a further 10 percentage points in support, leaving them with a combined support of less than 45 percent.

Revealingly, Baerbock and Habeck did not criticise the Grand Coalition’s policies at their press conference. Instead, they promised a different style of politics, a “different political culture” and a “new understanding of political leadership.” In other words: the same policies packaged anew.

When Helmut Kohl’s 16 years as chancellor came to an end in 1998, things were very different. The SPD and Greens won the federal election because they promised more social and peaceful policies—promises which they transformed into their opposites as soon as they entered government. The Greens paved the way for the first foreign interventions by the armed forces and adopted with the SPD the Agenda 2010, the greatest social counter-revolution since the formation of the Federal Republic.

Following Merkel’s 16-year chancellorship, which deepened the militarist and anti-social policies of the Agenda 2010 and is responsible due to the “profits before lives” policy for over 80,000 deaths from the coronavirus, the Greens do not even pose as a political opposition.

Baerbock promised to “unleash” all forces to strengthen the country, prompting the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung to comment with satisfaction, “She didn’t just speak about core Green issues, but also about the competitiveness of German industry and mid-sized businesses.” Spiegel editor Dirk Kurbjuweit enthused that after the CDU “mismanaged the economy,” the “highly-disciplined Greens could be the next anchor of stability for the Federal Republic.”

The 40-year-old Baerbock is well qualified as the Greens’ chancellor candidate because she embodies more than perhaps anyone else the party’s rightward shift. She joined the Greens in 2005, when the SPD/Green government fell apart because workers abandoned the SPD in droves.

She studied political science, public law, and international law in Hamburg and at the London School of Economics and was active in various leadership functions for the Greens at the European, national, and state levels. She was elected to parliament in 2013 and as co-leader alongside Habeck in January 2018. This marked the first time that the right-wing so-called “realo” wing of the party nominated both co-leaders.

While the Greens were formally an opposition party at the federal level under Baerbock and Habeck, they were in reality the fourth wheel on the Grand Coalition’s wagon. In 2017, they negotiated a coalition deal with the CDU, CSU, and Free Democrats (FDP) that only fell apart after the FDP balked at the last minute.

The Greens then supported the government’s deadly coronavirus policy more fervently than some of the government parties’ own deputies. They also focused on attacking the government from the right on its militarism and foreign policy, especially towards Russia and China. For example, Baerbock rejected the building of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea.

At the state level, where the Greens are involved in 11 out of 16 governments, they collaborate with the CDU, SPD, FDP, and Left Party in all conceivable combinations. In Baden-Württemberg, where the Green politician Winfried Kretschmann is entering his third term as Minister President, he has long ago become a favourite of the auto industry.

In June 2020, the Greens published a new party programme that called for a massive build-up of the military and the domestic forces of state repression, and the pursuit of an aggressive European imperialist foreign policy. “The EU must be able to manage world politics,” it stated, and the armed forces must be equipped “in line with its responsibilities and tasks.”

At the party congress that adopted the programme in November, Baerbock made clear that the party’s central issue, climate change, would be aimed at supporting German capital. “Fear not, this climate change revolution is just about as crazy as a building loan contract. A new structuring of the economic system does not mean overturning it, but merely about protecting the world,” she insisted.

Shortly thereafter, Baerbock spoke out explicitly in a lengthy interview with the Süddeutsche Z eitung in favour of a major rearmament programme and new military interventions. It was high time to respond to the proposals of French President Emmanuel Macron for a sovereign European defence policy, she said, “And that also means talking about foreign interventions. That won’t be easy. But we can’t avoid the issue.”

On refugee policy, Baerbock also supports the strategy of sealing borders pursued by the Grand Coalition and European Union (EU). She advocates building reception centres on Europe’s external borders, where refugees will be “swiftly registered, given a security check, and have their data analysed.” According to Baerbock, a “humanitarian refugee policy” can only work with a stricter policy of deportations.

Politically, Baerbock and Habeck agree on all issues. If the Greens—undoubtedly following extensive consultations with influential sections of the ruling elite—decided Baerbock should be the chancellor candidate, this was not only because of her gender, as many media outlets are speculating. She is considered to be more hard-line, ruthless and able to impose her will than Habeck, who is 11 years her senior.

Baerbock’s secret weapon is “demanding more from herself and her party than is pain-free,” wrote the Süddeutsche Zeitung. By contrast, Habeck belongs “to a Green generation that once broke out of the parental household in search of freedom, including from the performance culture.”

Baerbock is not merely a “Merkel in Green” with an “instinct for high stakes gambling,” but also a Margaret Thatcher. She represents those privileged elements of the middle class—the most important base of support for the Greens—which has profited from the stock market boom over recent years and the impoverishment of the working class that has accompanied it. They are now responding with increased hostility to growing worker radicalisation.

The naming of Baerbock as chancellor candidate underscores that there is no electable alternative for the working class among the established parties. The SPD and Left Party govern with the Greens in several states and would immediately join a Green-led government at the federal level. They advocate the same right-wing policies.

President Zelensky says Ukraine “ready” for war with Russia as tensions mount

Jason Melanovski & Clara Weiss

Amid mounting tensions in the Black Sea region, President Volodymyr Zelensky declared on Tuesday night that Ukraine is “ready” for war with Russia. He warned that the country would “stand to the last man” in the event of a war.

Zelensky also signed a law allowing the Ukrainian army to mobilize its reservists without notice within 24 hours. Those avoiding the draft will be subject to criminal prosecution. The new law had been proposed by the Ukrainian General Staff.

SSO fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during training [Credit: Wikipedia/ArmyInform]

Zelensky’s aggressive declarations came amidst reports of growing NATO activity near Russia’s borders.

On Wednesday, the Russian press reported that two NATO aircraft, an American P-8A Poseidon and a British RC-135W, and an American drone had conducted reconnaissance flights for several hours near the Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea.

A French military aircraft carrier was spotted off the Romanian Black Sea coast, and several NATO aircraft carriers took off over Estonia, Latvia and Poland on Tuesday to intercept and escort Russian reconnaissance aircraft, fighters and bombers over the Baltic Sea. On April 19, Ukraine and NATO-member Romania had conducted joint military exercises in the Black Sea.

The Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported that more than 20 American F-16 and F-15 fighters had been suddenly deployed from the UK to Poland. It quoted a Russian military expert who indicated that two American missile destroyers, USS Donald Cook and USS Roosevelt, were “now in the northern part of the Aegean Sea [just off the Black Sea], participating in the maneuvers of NATO Rammstein Dust II 21.” Last week, the US canceled the deployment of two warships to the Black Sea at short notice but just days later, the UK sent two warships to the region.

Russia just concluded its own military exercises in the Black Sea, involving 20 warships from the Black Sea Fleet and over 50 fighter jets. Most of the troops and military equipment the Kremlin moved there for military exercises remain in the region.

On Monday, the Kremlin declared that large parts of Crimea, including its southern part where the naval base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is located, as well as parts of the Black Sea itself, would be “temporarily dangerous for aircraft flights.” Russia has also closed the sea passage between the Azov Sea and the Black Sea for foreign war ships from April 24 through October 31.

The activities by NATO dangerously heighten tensions in a region where the military situation is already on a knife edge. The last few weeks have seen an uptick in fighting between the Ukrainian army and Russian-backed separatists in East Ukraine.

A civil war has raged here since a February 2014 US- and German-backed coup in Kiev ousted the pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovich. The war has killed an estimated 14,000 people and displaced millions. This year, over 30 Ukrainian soldiers have already been killed, compared to 50 Ukrainian troops during all of 2020.

On Monday, another Ukrainian soldier was killed just hours before representatives of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France were scheduled to meet in an attempt to renegotiate a failed ceasefire between the east Ukrainian separatists and the Ukrainian army. The talks reportedly accomplished little.

The immediate backdrop for the recent escalation of military clashes was the Ukrainian government’s adoption of a strategy to launch an offensive in the Donbass and “recover” Crimea. The peninsula in the Black Sea was annexed by Russia in March 2014, following the coup in Kiev and a popular referendum in which Crimea’s residents overwhelmingly voted in support of becoming a Russian territory.

Over the past few weeks, the Ukrainian government of Volodymyr Zelensky has aggressively lobbied the US and EU to accelerate Ukraine’s admission to NATO. However, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have refused to support Ukraine’s NATO admission at this point.

The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany has threatened that the Kiev government is considering the acquisition of nuclear weapons “on its own” should its request to join NATO not be granted. According to Russian press reports, the Ukrainian parliament is now also preparing a letter to the US Congress to request the status of “major non-NATO ally” (MNNA).

On Wednesday, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba revealed that he had asked US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to provide Ukraine “powerful means of electronic warfare” for its stand-off with Russia. He also said that he had called upon EU Foreign Ministers to cut Russia off the SWIFT system, an international communication system for banks and other financial institutions. Such a step is understood to potentially lead to the complete collapse of the Russian financial system.

The Ukrainian ruling class is also stepping up its domestic preparations for war. This Monday, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) announced that it would be carrying out “multi-stage anti-terrorist” drills across the country. In an indication that the government is preparing for martial law, the announcement said that “a special regime may be temporarily introduced in certain areas amid the drills, as well as restrictions or bans on the movement of motor vehicles and pedestrians, ID checks, and inspection of vehicles, etc.” A precedent for this was set by former President Petro Poroshenko in 2018, who declared martial law after staging a provocation in the Azov Sea.

At a meeting last Thursday with the country’s National Security and Defense Council, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the government’s military readiness. Urging citizens to “trust the official statements of our General Staff or the President’s Office only,” he stated. “The army is ready—that’s the most important thing.”

The press service of the city of Kiev had previously published a map of updated bomb shelters and revealed that government funds had been used to build civil defense structures to shelter the population in case of war.

Well aware that the continuation, let alone expansion, of the war in East Ukraine, is deeply unpopular, the Ukrainian ruling class is seeking to mobilize the country’s far right. Neo-Nazi forces have already played a central role in the 2014 coup and the subsequent civil war.

Last week Arsen Avakov, Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, a man close to the far right and one of the country’s most powerful politicians, appealed to these forces on Facebook. Calling them “patriots” and using fascistic language, he asked them to prepare for war and protect the “Motherland.” Avakov suggested that Ukraine would fare better than it did in 2014 due to the over $2 billion in military aid and equipment it has received from the US since.

As Minister of Internal Affairs, Avakov controls the country’s National Guard, which was created in 2014 and incorporated the neo-fascist Azov and Donbass battalions. In recent years, his ministry has played a central role in protecting and developing the country’s far-right forces. Organizations like the Azov Battalion and C-14 have carried out a number of deadly attacks on journalists and ethnic minorities, with near immunity from prosecution.

Within the Ukrainian press, the notion that the United States and NATO will militarily back Ukraine against Russia continues to be pushed. Much was made of recent comments by acting US Ambassador to Ukraine Kristina Kvien, who suggested that the US may consider deploying more troops to Ukraine in the event of a war with Russia.

While speaking with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal, Kvien stated, “We are constantly assessing the situation and making an assessment of the needs of the Ukrainian side. And we have a permanent presence of 160 American troops. And if, according to our estimates, the needs change and need to be increased, we will consider the issue.”

There is widespread opposition in the population to an all-out war between Ukraine and Russia, which threatens the lives of tens of millions. Thousands of Ukrainians have deserted the front in the civil war in East Ukraine. Zelensky himself was only elected in 2019 due to mass opposition to the former president’s rabidly anti-Russian policies and war mongering.

Museum workers worldwide lose jobs, income—many plan to leave field

David Walsh

On April 13, the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) made public the findings of a survey, “Measuring the Impact of COVID-19 on People in the Museum Field,” conducted in March. Some 2,700 individuals responded, 87 percent of them (pre-pandemic) museum staff in the US.

Unsurprisingly, the results paint a picture of economic hardship, professional uncertainty and mental turmoil. The more precarious a given respondent’s position in the field, generally speaking, the greater the financial loss (as a percentage of previous income) and the deeper the skepticism about the future.

Forty-three percent of museum workers as a whole saw their income fall by an average of 31 percent over the course of 2020. More than 60 percent of part-time staff, already living at poverty levels, testify to “having lost income due to the pandemic, with a median of eight thousand dollars lost due to reduced salary, benefits, or hours for a median reduction of 50 percent.” Independent contractors have also been hard hit—78 percent of individuals in that category lost income last year, according to the AAM study, “at a median of twenty-five thousand dollars, the equivalent of about 50 percent of pre-pandemic income.”

Only 57 percent of respondents are “cautiously optimistic about the future of the museum sector,” while 28 percent are “somewhat pessimistic.” Just over one-fifth of paid staff and students “think it is unlikely they will be working in the sector in three years, with some of the biggest barriers being compensation, burnout, and a lack of opportunities for advancement.”

The Louvre in Paris (Photo credit-Louvre)

The survey also warns “of a second pandemic within the COVID-19 pandemic: the current and delayed impacts on mental health including rising anxiety and depression.” The museum workers report “a grave toll on their mental health and wellbeing from the pandemic.” The authors observe that the respondents reveal “a deep care for one another,” underscoring “the compassion and empathy that exists among the people that make up the museum field.” Despite personal adversity, those surveyed indicate their greatest shared concern is “for the wellbeing of colleagues.”

The museum field, like every other sphere of public life, is a class battleground. While staff members and freelancers alike struggle to keep their heads above water, or abandon the field altogether, museum board members and top officials exist in another economic and social realm.

Museums in the US, both private and ostensibly public, are held especially tightly in the grip of the wealthy. On the eve of the pandemic, the New York Times published a column by Michael Massing, a writer and former executive editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, headlined “How the Superrich Took Over the Museum World” (December 14, 2019).

Massing pointed to the preponderance of the extremely wealthy, for example, on the board of trustees of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, noting that 45 out of 51 trustees “work in finance, the corporate world, real estate or law, or are the heirs or spouses of the superrich.” He added that MoMA’s “dependence on the kindness of billionaires comes at a price. Today’s museum world is steeply hierarchical, mirroring the inequality in society at large.”

The column noted that in 2018, “MoMA received a paltry $22,000 in government funds (from New York City), compared with the $136 million it got from private sources. In fact, MoMA does not seek or receive federal or state funding.”

Museum of Modern Art (Photo credit–MoMA)

The influence of the billionaires on every aspect of museum operations is already immense. Massing indicated his “most serious concern” in regard to “baronial boards,” the “possible constraints they place on what museums can exhibit.” In the face of the pandemic, with museums and other arts institutions now under greater stress and in more financial need than ever, the role of the corporate oligarchy can only grow larger and more oppressive.

COVID-19 has deepened processes well under way: the subordination of the interests and needs of artists, museum staff and the population’s own cultural wellbeing to the whims and vagaries of the financial oligarchy. The situation is increasingly untenable.

The situation may be most pronounced in certain regards in the US, but the museum crisis is a global one.

A recent study from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), “Museums around the world in the face of COVID-19,” highlighted the disastrous condition of museum attendance and funding worldwide.

The UNESCO report explained that even for those institutions, out of a global total of 104,000, “that remained open with sanitary measures in place, the drastic decrease in world tourism resulted in a drop in attendance of 70 percent.” The revenues of the various institutions (especially the national museums) “decreased between 40 percent and 60 percent in comparison to the revenues from 2019,” and “the situation for museums will remain very difficult this year.”

The “financial consequences for the museum sector,” UNESCO argued, with some degree of understatement, have been “considerable.”

For its part, the Art Newspaper ’s annual survey of museum attendance, published March 30, found that overall attendance in 2020 at “the world’s 100 most-visited art museums dropped by a staggering 77 percent in 2020—from 230 million in 2019 to just 54 million as museums worldwide were forced to close.” Resorting to the same adjective once more, the survey revealed that museums “were shut for a staggering 41,000 days in total—more than a century’s worth of visits missed last year.”

The publication cited some of the particulars. The Louvre in Paris, the world’s most widely visited art museum, experienced a 72 percent decline in attendance in 2020, losing 90 million euros ($US 108 million) in the process. The number of visitors to the National Museum of China fell by 78 percent, while attendance at the Tate Modern in London dropped by 77 percent, at the Vatican Museums by 81 percent, at the British Museum by 80 percent, at the State Russian Museum by 50 percent and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York by 83 percent.

Tate Modern in London (Photo credit-Tate Modern)

“The steep decline in footfall,” the Art Newspaper observed, “contributed to huge financial losses. The self-generated income of the Tate’s four museums fell from £94m [$US 131 million] in the 2019/20 financial year to an estimated £38m for 2020/21, a 60 percent drop. Similarly, the Victoria and Albert Museum [in London] saw a 63 percent loss of income, with its self-generated funds falling from £64m to £24m.”

New York’s “four art behemoths,” the Metropolitan Museum, MoMA, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, received 2.2 million visitors in 2020, as opposed to 11 million the year before. The Metropolitan alone lost an estimated $150 million.

The Art Newspaper disclosed that data from 19 Brazilian institutions surveyed indicated that the museums “were closed for an average of 203 days last year, which is more than any other country in our report.”

The potential consequences of such figures for the future of the globe’s cultural institutions and their workers are also “staggering.”

It would be a serious mistake to imagine that the end of the pandemic, whenever that may come, will return art museums and galleries to their previous condition. The demands for greater and greater “sacrifice” on the part of museum workers and staff will continue.

The contention of organizations such as Museum Workers Speak that enrolling museum workers in the SEIU or AFL-CIO member unions will improve their conditions and lives is false and dangerous. Workers will painfully discover that such organizations are merely an arm of management determined to suppress every one of their struggles.

Tokyo plans to dump contaminated water from Fukushima reactors into the ocean

Ben McGrath

Japan announced on April 13 that it intends to dump 1.25 million tonnes of radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean, beginning in approximately two years. Workers in fishing, aquaculture, and other related industries have denounced the decision along with governments in the region, including South Korea and China.

Tokyo claimed that the water would only be dumped after it had been treated to remove harmful radioactive isotopes. Arguing that there was no alternative to the dumping, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga stated on April 13, “Releasing the treated water is an unavoidable task to decommission the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and reconstruct the Fukushima area.”

A massive earthquake on March 11, 2011 created a huge tsunami that devastated coastal towns and caused partial meltdown in three reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant. To cool them, water was pumped through the reactors, a process that continues to this day, with the water then collected and stored in large steel tanks outside the facility. It is estimated that it will take another three decades to complete the decommissioning of the plant.

IAEA experts at Fukushima nuclear plant in 2013 (Wikimedia Commons)

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which owns the plant, claims that it will filter out all dangerous isotopes from the water except tritium, which is difficult to remove. It will then dilute the water to levels considered harmless. The government claims that this process replicates what takes place at nuclear plants around the world. It has supposedly set a limit of 50 becquerels of radioactive activity per kilogram (Bq/kg) in food coming from Fukushima in order to prove its safety, far below the 1,200 Bq/kg standard in the United States. However, tritium, when ingested, can still raise the risk of cancer.

Furthermore, there is little reason to believe TEPCO. The company claimed for years that it had been filtering dangerous isotopes out of the water and only admitted in 2018 that it had been lying. TEPCO has a long history of violating safety regulations and ignoring warnings in pursuit of profit, including creating the conditions that led to the tsunami crippling the plant in the first place.

For all the claims of having learned lessons from the 2011 disaster, TEPCO continues to cut corners. It admitted in February to knowing that two seismometers installed in the Number 3 reactor, one of the three that melted down, had malfunctioned last year and not been repaired. The Nuclear Regulation Authority only instructed the company to install the measuring devices in March 2020. The issue came to light after the devices failed to record an earthquake in February.

Ayumi Fukakusa, a member of the Japanese branch of Friends of the Earth, drew attention to the lack of trust with the company and the government. Speaking to the US-based National Public Radio, she stated, “This process of decision-making is quite undemocratic. The government and TEPCO said that without consent from the fishing communities, they won’t discharge the contaminated water. That promise was completely broken.”

Residents and citizens’ groups held a protest in front of the Fukushima Prefectural Government building on April 13, shortly after Tokyo’s decision was announced. Tomoko Sato, who attended the demonstration, told the Mainichi Shimbun, “Before deciding on releasing radioactive wastewater into the sea, I’d like the national government to think about the issue as they address prefectural residents head on. I want them to think ahead to what will become of our children's future.”

Fishermen in the area are rightly worried about the impact and that they will be unable to sell their catches. TEPCO claims it will compensate those who suffer losses, but fishermen have rejected this as insufficient. “The government may allocate budgets on measures against reputational damage, but such damage will not disappear easily. All that we have done to resume fishing was for nothing,” a fisherman from Namie, near the plant, told the Japan Times .

Many coastal cities in the region rely heavily on fishing, not only in Japan. In the east coast city of Pohang, South Korea, for example, approximately 5,000 people work directly in the fishing industry while an additional 30,00 work in related fields, including markets and restaurants.

On April 19, South Korean fishermen staged a demonstration at sea off the southern coast near Yeosu involving about 150 vessels. A separate demonstration the same day of 50 vessels took place off the coast of Geoje Island. “If Japan releases radioactive water, there is no guarantee that we will not eat radioactive fish. I can hardly control my anger,” a fisherman from Geoje said.

Seoul is considering legal action against Japan at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and has requested relevant information from Tokyo, but has so far been rebuffed. Japan’s Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso dismissed concerns, declaring, “Even drinking the [contaminated] water wouldn’t be a big deal.”

China’s foreign ministry released a statement on Tokyo’s decision, saying, “This action is extremely irresponsible, and will seriously damage international public health and safety, and the vital interests of people in neighbouring countries.”

He Farui, of the China Fisheries Association (CFA), stated: “There are up to 130,000 fishermen in Shandong and perhaps 1 million nationwide. If the nuclear wastewater is dumped into the sea, the impact will go beyond food safety to the health of these people.”

While workers and fishermen in Japan and throughout the region worry about the impact on their jobs and health, the various governments protesting Tokyo’s decision are far more concerned about protecting big business interests in the fishing industry. At the same time, they are utilizing anti-Japanese sentiment to sow divisions between Japanese, Korean, and Chinese workers.

India reports the highest number of COVID-19 cases ever seen during the pandemic

Benjamin Mateus

Yesterday, India, a country with a population of 1.366 billion people, reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases ever seen across the globe by a single nation. The United States had set the previous record on January 8, 2021, with 307,581 COVID cases during its horrific winter surge. After a low of fewer than 10,000 cases on February 11, India confirmed 315,728 cases on April 21, 2021. The country’s epidemiologic curve of new COVID cases continues to spiral upwards.

Worldwide, 144.4 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported, with over 3 million deaths. This accounts for less than 2 percent of the world’s population having been infected. Still, given that most infections are asymptomatic, the true extent of the disease remains unknown. The World Health Organization made an estimate back in October 2020 that roughly 10 percent of the world’s population may have been infected with the coronavirus. One could surmise that perhaps the actual figure is double but remains far from any meaningful herd immunity.

In this April 15, 2021, fie photo, medical staff tend to a patient affected by coronavirus in the ICU unit at the Charles Nicolle public hospital in Rouen, Normandy. Hospitals in many European countries are again under strain, treating increasingly younger patients with severe COVID-19 as older age groups benefit from the vaccinations. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)

As rich nations have rapidly deployed their COVID-19 vaccines to immunize their populations, aside from the present tally of cases, the brunt of the pandemic has shifted to South Asia, specifically in India where access to vaccines and health care remains for the millions upon millions of the impoverished and destitute a hopeless matter. Less than 8 percent of its population have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Globally, a new one-day high of more than 871,000 new COVID-19 cases was also reported. The seven-day moving average of new COVID cases has reached a new high with over 790,000 infections each day and continues to climb. For comparison, the winter peak of the last global surge came close to 746,000 on January 12, 2021. Last week saw 5.27 million confirmed cases, a 15 percent increase from the previous week. Cases have been climbing for eight consecutive weeks. At this pace, daily COVID cases could easily reach 1 million before next month.

The moving average for the death toll is now over 12,000 fatalities per day and soaring. The peak of the last surge had reached 14,408 deaths per day on January 27, as death is a lagging indicator of COVID infections. It has been predicted that this high will soon be surpassed.

India’s official COVID cases are fast approaching 16 million, with more than 184,000 people having thus far perished from their infections. Yesterday, 2,100 more died. The seven-day average of deaths has surpassed the first wave as it continues to soar.

Despite these horrific figures, data obtained by the Financial Times on the number of cremations of COVID-19 victims over the same period indicate that the death toll may be 10 times higher than what public health officials are reporting to the media. Yet, senior health officials have attempted to play down these figures, stating that the increase in numbers was “due to cremations being done using COVID protocols.”

Dr. Bhramar Mukherjee, professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Michigan, told Reuters that officials were in a state of “data denial.” “Everything is so muddy. It feels like nobody understands the situation very clearly, and that’s very irksome.”

John Burn-Murdoch, the Financial Times senior data-visualization journalist, explained on his Twitter account: “I collated news reports across seven districts, finding overall, numbers of COVID victims who have been cremated are ten times larger than official COVID death counts in the same areas.” In the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, the number of cremations for COVID-19 was 24 times higher than the official death count. In Vadodara, the third-largest city in Gujarat state, it was 21 times.

Given these confirmations, on a per capita basis, this places India’s death toll on par with the worst period of the United States experience with the pandemic. But for India, this is just the beginning of the present surge.

The furnaces at the crematoriums in Gujarat have been running so intensely and non-stop that the metal supports have begun to melt. Kamlesh Sailor, the president of the trust that runs the crematorium in Surat known for diamond polishing, told Reuters that “we are working around the clock at 100 percent capacity to cremate bodies on time.” He added that six gas furnaces at their crematorium have been running 24 hours a day.

Prashant Kabrawala, who manages the Ashwinikumar crematorium, told Reuters that cremations have more than tripled in the last few weeks. He noted, “I have been regularly going to the crematorium since 1987 and been involved in its day-to-day functioning since 2005, but I haven’t seen so many dead bodies coming for cremation in all these years.”

In what has become familiar news stories, it was just reported that a medicinal oxygen tank leak at the 150-bed Dr. Zakir Hussain Hospital, a civic-run hospital in the ancient city of Nashik in the state of Maharashtra, led to the death of 24 COVID-19 patients who were on ventilators.

Oxygen supply suddenly ceased after a malfunction in the hospital’s main storage tanks leading to the asphyxiation of the patients. Eleven of them were between the ages of 33 and 60. According to the Indian Express, the 13-kiloliter oxygen tanks had only recently been made operational.

“As per preliminary information, the socket of the…oxygen tank broke, which led to leakage in the tank and affected oxygen supply. The hospital used jumbo cylinders to help patients. Some patients who could be moved were taken to other hospitals. However, 22 patients died as supply was cut off suddenly.” Two more died later in the evening.

Many of the patients who eventually come to the hospitals are in extremely critical condition and die before medical treatments can be rendered. Many are brought there already dead by their families. Most are untested, leading to the disparities between official figures and what is transpiring. Fewer than a quarter of deaths in India are officially certified by a medical examiner, which implies that the extent of the pandemic may be challenging to ascertain.

Two days ago, India’s capital, Delhi, announced a week-long lockdown, allowing government offices and essential services to remain open, which amounts to a meaningless measure. The chief minister of the city, Arvind Kejriwal, speaking at a virtual press conference, admitted that the intensive care units are at capacity and medicinal oxygen was in critical shortage. But he then added, “I have always been against lockdowns, but this one will help us amplify the number of hospital beds in Delhi.” These are political stunts that have been repeated by politicians alike throughout every continent where the pandemic has wrought devastation. Little will be achieved with short-term half-hearted measures.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, beholden to the interests of major corporations, has been adamant that he will not impose a nationwide lockdown. Like Trump, he declared that India must be “saved” not from the scourge but from the catastrophe a lockdown would bring to the country’s economy. According to Oxfam, the year before the pandemic hit, India’s wealthiest 1 percent held 73 percent of its wealth, while 670 million people, who make up the poorest half, saw their wealth decline 60 percent.

USAID/Nigeria COVID-19 Food Security Challenge 2021

Application Deadline: 9th May 2021 at 5:00 PM WAT

About the Award: Nigeria is facing a food security crisis that is compounded by the COVID-19 global pandemic and its effects on the food value chain in the country. The pandemic has significantly disrupted already fragile value chains across the country, including people’s ability to produce, process, and distribute food. The disruption to agricultural productivity and markets has a knock-on negative impact on livelihoods, especially among the most vulnerable households.

The Challenge aims to:

• Increase food and agriculture system productivity and enhance efficient production along the value chains in order to unlock agricultural production that has been limited by COVID-19’s impact on food production, processing, and distribution in Nigeria.
• Increase income for Base of the Pyramid (BoP) women and men in both rural and urban areas.
• Provide youth-led and mid-stage companies the technical assistance and capital they need to sustainably scale solutions to meet the requirements of the Challenge.
• Promote climate and environmental resilience as well as biodiversity through the sustainable, holistic management of natural resources and ecosystems.
• Develop and promote innovative and local food-based models, including the local production, processing, and marketing of highly nutritious foods to prevent and/or treat wasting/acute malnutrition.
• Promote socially responsible marketing/advertising to increase demand for safe, nutritious foods and other nutrition-related commodities and services.

Type: Contest

Eligibility: Applicants must meet the following requirements to participate in the COVID-19 Food Security Challenge Request for Applications. All applications will undergo an initial eligibility screening to ensure they comply with the eligibility criteria.

• Organization Type: This Challenge is only open to registered for-profit companies who have a local presence in Nigeria (see more details on local presence below). We encourage applications from micro, small, and medium enterprises that have not previously worked with USAID.
• Size: The Challenge is open to all relevant companies regardless of size.
• Local Presence: All applicants must be registered and authorized by the national government in Nigeria or have at least one registered Nigerian local partner. This local partner could be a commercial partner, joint venture partner, or candidate for a merger or acquisition. If working with a registered Nigerian partner, the local partner should have a tangible stake in the innovation and its development rather than, for example, a local merchandiser who stocks the product.
• Company Maturity: All applicants must have a sustainable and financially viable business model for their innovation in the Nigerian food security value chain. The eligibility requirements for mid-stage and youth-led applicants are as follows:
  • Mid-stage applicants must have existing services or products in the Nigerian food security value chain with a minimum of 1,000 existing customers.
  • Youth-led applicants must have a founder under the age of 29 at the time of submission, must have a pre-revenue or post-revenue business model innovation in the Nigerian food security value chain, and must have a working prototype or minimum viable product along with a demonstrated BoP market segment being targeted.
• Leveraged funds: All mid-stage applicants are required to have 50 percent leveraged funds. The external funds may pay for activities that further the growth, development, or commercialization of the innovator’s technology. The final amount of leveraged funds will be determined on a case-by-case basis for each applicant. Mid-stage awardees will be required to provide evidence of the commitment of the leveraged funds at the time of award. There are no leverage funds requirements for youth-led applicants, but youth-led applicants are encouraged to demonstrate leveraged funds when possible.
• Eligible to receive USAID funds: All Apparently Successful Applicants will undergo a responsibility determination prior to award to ensure that they have the technical and organizational capacity to manage a USAID-funded award. Apparently Successful Applicants must have a DUNS number and be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM). See Appendix 4 in the Request for Applications for additional information.
• Impact: Applications must demonstrate a direct, tangible linkage between their COVID-19 response and food value chains. Applications must also demonstrate a direct or indirect benefit to the BoP in Nigeria.
• Language: Applications must be written in English.
• Completeness and timeliness: Applicants will not be assessed if all required fields have not been completed. This applies to any stage of submission and relates to missing documentation that may have been requested. Late entries may not be accepted.
• Currency: All references to a currency in the Challenge should be in United States Dollars (USD). Please use the exchange rate of 1USD = 409 naira.
• Agricultural Commodities: Applicants are NOT permitted to use Challenge funding to purchase agricultural commodities as defined in ADS 312.3.3.1.

Eligible Countries: Nigeria

Number of Awards: 15-25

Value of Award:

• The Challenge anticipates making $1.25 million available for 15-25 awards of $25,000 to $75,000 in funding and technical assistance for commercially viable, youth-led (up to age 29) companies to improve food production and/or food security.
• The Challenge also anticipates making $1.75 million available for 10-15 awards of $75,000 to $150,000 in funding and technical assistance for mid-stage enterprises (with an existing customer base of more than 1,000 people) that can rapidly expand their activities to improve food production and/or food security.

How to Apply:

• Read the Request for Applications to understand the application process and requirements
• Review the Challenge’s Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and Fact Sheet
• Email us any questions you have about the Challenge by April 23, 2021
• Register(link is external) and join us for our informational webinar on April 28, 2021 at 2:00 PM WAT
• Apply by May 9, 2021 at 5:00 PM WAT through the Online Application Portal

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

Visit Award Webpage for Details

Girl Up Scholarship Fund 2021

Application Deadline: 17th May 2021

About the Award: Girl Up is committed to bridging the gender gap and breaking down barriers everywhere they exist. Supported by partners and donors, the new Girl Up Scholarship Fund honors young leaders’ unwavering commitment to making the world a better place for every girl, everywhere. In its first year, the Fund will support 20 Girl Up members as they pursue higher education.

Type: Undergraduate

Eligibility:

To be eligible for the Girl Up Scholarship Fund, applicants must:

• Be a Girl Up member from anywhere around the world
• Enrolled in a 2-year, 4-year, or technical college by the time of selection (graduating high school seniors can apply!)
• Be pursuing education related to select categories:
  • Storytelling – If you are majoring in communications, creative writing, videography, graphic design, journalism, or a related field OR you are using storytelling to create change in your community.
    Examples: being on your school newspaper, organizing poetry readings, using your social media as a platform for change, etc.
  • Sports – If you are majoring in kinesiology, sports medicine, athletic training, sports administration and management, pre-physical therapy, physical education teaching, or a related field OR you are using sports to create change in your community.
    Examples: mentoring younger female athletes, playing a collegiate sport and using your platform for social good, increasing spectators at female sporting events, etc.
  • STEM – If you are majoring in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, or a related field OR you are using STEM to create change in your community.
    Examples: teaching younger students to code, creating an app for social good, tutoring female students in STEM, etc.

Eligible Countries: Developing countries

Number of Awards: 20

Value of Award: If you are selected to receive a scholarship, the funds will go directly to your higher education institution and credited to your tuition expenses.

How to Apply: If you have questions about the above categories please email info@girlup.org

For full eligibility and more information on the Girl Up Scholarship Fund or application, CLICK HERE.

Once applications open on April 15, 2021 the deadline to apply for the current scholarship cycle is May 17, 2021, 11:59 pm EST.

APPLY HERE

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

Visit Award Webpage for Details

International Finance Corporation (IFC) “Pitch@IFC” Food Safety Challenge 2021

Application Deadline: 26th April 2021 (09:00 East Africa Time EAT)

About the Award: The stakes are high: Africans suffer the highest burden of foodborne diseases worldwide, with an estimated 137,000 deaths and 91 million illnesses annually, according to a recent report from the Global Food Safety Partnership. Unsafe food has enormous economic ramifications on Africa’s economy, with estimated losses of up to $16.7 billion in annual productivity. IFC seeks to change this dynamic and focus on solutions for providing safer food for Africans. 

Food companies in Africa face numerous challenges, including limited access to finances to support food safety procedures, lack of incentives to improve domestic markets’ food safety, and outdated food safety policies and regulations. A strong and effective food safety system signifies a sustainable business and is evidence that risks are being identified and controlled.

The IFC Food Safety Challenge recognizes that food safety improvements are necessary and can save economies worldwide millions of dollars. Specifically, our focus is on continuously innovating and finding ways to trace and trail the food journey, better monitoring processes, and analyzing data efficiently to make the right decisions.

Type: Contest

Eligibility: IFC calls on the public, food companies, and all innovators to develop digital/technology-based solutions for the food industry to trace food products, monitor processes and improve data analysis.

Selection Criteria: IFC is looking for digital solutions to improve operations within the following areas continuously:

• Traceability
• System monitoring
• Data analysis

Eligible Countries: International

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: Through your submission of a solution to this Challenge, you/your organization can benefit from:

• Potential to advance the state-of-the-art in Food Safety
• Potential to receive funding for rapid prototyping and prospective further development of your solution
• Potential contract or agreement and continuing business partnerships
• Potential for official recognition for you and your company, if selected, through publication on internal and external IFC communication channels
• Potential opportunity to collaborate and work with industry and the government to positively impact Food Safety, ultimately creating a more resilient food system
• Potential to present at the 9th International Food Safety Forum in May 2021
• The winner will receive the title and prize for the “Food Safety Top Innovator 2021”

THE WINNER WILL ALSO RECEIVE:

• 1- year of mentorship and coaching
• Publicity on IFC’s social media channels

How to Apply: Participate Here

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

Visit Award Webpage for Details

Nigerian Agip Exploration Limited (NAE) Post Graduate Scholarship Award 2021/2022

Application Deadline: 30th April 2021

About the Award: Nigerian Agip Exploration (NAE) Limited, on behalf of the NNPC/NAE PSC, is committed to the training and development of manpower as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme.

In pursuance of this, NAE invites applications from suitably qualified and interested Nigerian graduates for the 2021/2022 Post Graduate Scholarship Award Scheme. The award is in two categories: –

1. Overseas – For study in a reputable overseas university
2. Local – For study in a recognized Nigerian university

Eligible Countries: Nigerian Students

Fields of Study: Only candidates with offer of admission in disciplines related to the following areas should apply;

• Geosciences
• Engineering (Petroleum, Mechanical, Civil, Subsea, Electrical/Electronics, Marine, Chemical)
• Petroleum Economics
• Law (Oil and Gas/Petroleum)

Type: Postgraduate (Masters)

Eligibility: To qualify for 2021/2022 NAE Post Graduate Scholarship Award scheme, applicants MUST:

1. Possess a minimum of Second Class Upper Bachelor’s degree from a recognized Nigerian university.
2. Have secured admission into a Nigerian or Overseas university (based on the category being applied for) for a one year Master’s Degree programme in any of the disciplines listed below.
3. Not above 28 years of age by December 31st, 2021.
4. Have completed the one year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme.
5. Possess an international passport valid for travel at least one year from September, 2019 (applicable to overseas category).

Number of Scholarships: Several

What are the benefits? The NAE scholarship award applies to tuition, books, field trips, accommodation, living expenses and a return economy ticket for selected one-year course of study.

Duration of Scholarship: As determined by the sponsor

How to Apply: 

SECTION A
1. Candidates should have the following clearly scanned documents before starting the application process:
a. Passport photograph (450 × 450 pixel) with white background not more than 3 months old
b. Provisional admission letter for post graduate studies 2021/2022 session into any reputable university – Local/Overseas. This admission letter must be for the course stated on the candidate’s application.
c. First Degree Certificate
d. NYSC Discharge Certificate
e. Valid ID card (Driver’s license, Voter’s card, National Identity card)
f. Valid International Passport Data Page for Overseas category only (Valid for travel at least one year from September 2021)
g. Birth Certificate from Local government
h. NAE Compliance Declaration Form
2. All candidates are required to fill and sign the NAE compliance declaration form. To download the NAE compliance declaration, click https://dragnetscreening.ng/files/NAE_compliance.pdf

3. Label the scanned documents accordingly, to avoid mix up during upload.
4. Attach the right documents in the appropriate upload section.

SECTION B
To apply, follow the steps below:
 1. Click on “Apply Now” tab.
2. Click on “Register Now” to create an account.
3. Proceed to your email box to activate your account
4. Click on www.scholastica.ng to return to Scholarship site
5. Enter your registered email and password to create your profile.
6. Candidates are required to fill the Personal Details, Undergraduate and Postgraduate Sections only. Candidates are also required to upload only applicable documents (refer to section A).
Note to Overseas category applicants: Applicants for the Overseas category are encouraged to also apply for the Local Post Graduate Scholarship Award.
7.  Candidates are not required to fill the Secondary Level, Bank details or download the undergraduate profile verification form in the application portal.
8.  Ensure the name used in application matches the names on all documentation in same order. Upload a sworn affidavit or certificate if otherwise.
9.  Ensure you view all documents after uploading, to eliminate errors during uploading.
10. Recheck application information to avoid errors
11. Click “Apply Now” to submit information at https://candidate.scholastica.ng/schemes/naescholarships2021 or return to the home page www.scholastica.ng and select the 2021/2022 NAE Postgraduate Scholarship Awards to be redirected to the application page 

12. You will receive an email that confirms your application was successful.

NOTE: ·
• Multiple applications shall lead to disqualification.
• Kindly review your profile before applying.

For further information on how to apply for this scholarship, Visit the Scholarship Webpage