COVID-19 daily case numbers exceed 1,000 in Fiji

John Braddock

The Fiji government reported a daily record 1,285 cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8am Monday. That compares to 626 cases and nine deaths in the previous 24-hour period. The seven-day average of new cases has risen to 1,046 per day.

A nurse stands outside Tamara Twomey hospital in Suva, Fiji, Friday, June 25, 2021. (AP Photo/Aileen Torres-Bennett)

Fifteen deaths, including that of a 102-year-old woman, and 918 cases were reported on Thursday. That followed 1,091 infections and 21 deaths on Wednesday, the sixth of seven days that had topped 1,000 cases, including 1,054 cases and 12 deaths last Tuesday.

Fiji has over 18,000 active cases in isolation, with 195 deaths, all but two of them from the outbreak that started in April, and all but three unvaccinated. There have been 24,354 cases recorded during the current outbreak and 24,424 total cases since March 2020. In the whole of last year, just 70 cases had been recorded.

Health Secretary James Fong said that while the recent surge was contained to the main island, Viti Levu, primarily in the Lami-Suva-Nausori corridor, the Health Ministry had seen increasing cases in the Western Division over the past week. Tens of thousands of people who live in crowded conditions in “informal” settlements, in the affected areas, are particularly vulnerable.

The latest victims include a pregnant health worker and two other pregnant women. The health worker from Suva presented to a medical facility on July 16 with shortness of breath and chest pain. Her baby was delivered by emergency caesarean section two days later, but her condition worsened and she died five days after admission.

The other two pregnant victims had been unwell with COVID-19 symptoms at home, before going to health facilities in severe respiratory distress. Physicians made the decision to conduct emergency caesarean operations, saving both babies. Fong noted that the maternal deaths were a “clear indication of the severity of this outbreak.”

Fiji’s national seven-day average daily test positivity has hit 22.8 percent and continues on an upward trend. Just three weeks ago it was 7.4 percent. The World Health Organisation’s benchmark rate, which indicates widespread and uncontrolled community transmission, is 5 percent. A rising positivity rate signals that the virus is spreading faster than the growth seen in confirmed cases.

The latest surge in cases has seen the government issue Viti Levu residents with new curfew hours, from 6.00 pm to 4.00 am. However, Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama continues to oppose a full lockdown, declaring such a move would “cripple” the economy and impact jobs. With no change to its pro-business strategy, the government is pursuing a mandatory vaccination campaign. Workers have been told they must be fully vaccinated by November or face losing their jobs. Only those who are vaccinated can obtain the paltry government income support.

While 441,171 people, or 75.2 percent of the target population, have received their first dose of vaccine, only 97,268, or 16.6 percent, have received both doses.

Auckland University modelling expert, Shaun Hendy, told Radio NZ that a full lockdown would be the “logical” way to address the crisis. He said whether Fiji had a lockdown or not, New Zealand should be moving faster to get supplies of vaccine to Suva, and offering financial assistance to support the economy. A supply of 500,000 doses of the AstraZeneca and Modena vaccines is due to be sent from NZ, but not until next month.

Head of the Pasifika Medical Association (NZ) Debbie Sorensen appealed for more international medical staff, as her Fijian colleagues were “exhausted and overworked.” Only about 20 medical specialists, from Australia and New Zealand, are currently in Fiji.

Describing the situation as “grim,” Christchurch anaesthetist Wayne Morriss, said doctors and nurses in Fiji were working incredibly hard, often seven days a week. The main hospital was effectively closed a month ago to patients other than COVID cases. With ongoing health needs during the pandemic, “there’s still lots of patients with medical or surgical problems that need treatment,” he said.

More than 4,000 COVID-positive people have been turned away from hospitals because there are not enough beds. They are being forced to try to recover at home. There are also 87 crew members and passengers, who have been placed into isolation on four inter-island ships.

TVNZ Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver reported on July 23 that a leaked document from Fiji’s Ministry of Health showed that health workers who have tested COVID-19 positive, but have exhibited no symptoms, are being ordered to keep working. NZ epidemiologist Michael Baker said he was extremely worried as it was still possible to catch the virus from someone who is asymptomatic. “There are many vulnerable people in Fiji’s health system,” he noted.

Cellphone footage from Suva’s Colonial War Memorial Hospital, released to TVNZ, has highlighted the dire situation. Distressing scenes show patients sharing wards with dead bodies that have been left for hours; people in and around the COVID Care tents unmasked; and only one filthy toilet for all patients. “Even the dead wouldn’t want to go in there,” the woman who did the filming declared.

With the highest official daily infection rate per capita in the world, the Fiji government is no longer testing for COVID-19. “One way of getting rid of that statistic is to stop testing. What we are seeing is a disintegrating health system, a health system in crisis, and a tragedy unfolding for the people of Fiji,” Dreaver observed.

The escalating economic, social and health crisis is producing sharp political ruptures within the ruling elite. At least seven opposition politicians were arrested last Sunday, following their criticism of the government’s proposed amendment to the iTaukei Land Trust Act 1940, which covers the use of iTaukei (indigenous Fijian) land holdings. The parliament is due to sit this week to debate the land legislation, as well as the 2021/2022 budget.

The annual budget, worth $US1.78 billion, relies on loans to make up almost 45 percent of the funds to run the country into 2022. National Federation Party leader Biman Prasad said the budget was designed to quell increasing anti-government sentiment. He called it a “bogus budget” that was overly optimistic and avoided acknowledging the reality of the COVID crisis, which would require “deep cuts” to government spending.

The fresh arrests highlight the increasingly authoritarian methods of the government, which still rests on the military, following the 2006 coup, led by Bainimarama. The opposition politicians taken into custody include those who have lately criticised the government’s failed handling of the COVID-19 crisis.

Indonesian government moves to loosen restrictions amid mass deaths

Robert Campion

Despite a surge in death rates, amid an uncontrolled outbreak of the Delta variant of COVID-19, the Indonesian government of President Joko Widodo is moving to loosen localised restrictions.

Last week, deaths due to COVID-19 broke record highs on four separate days, the heaviest toll being 1,566 on Friday. Daily fatalities were 1,487 on Monday, bringing total deaths in Indonesia, since the pandemic began, to more than 84,000. As the world epicentre of the virus, the death rate remains three times higher than the global average, according to Our World In Data.

Workers in protective gear lower a coffin of a COVID-19 victim for burial at the special section of the Pedurenan cemetery designated to accommodate the surge in deaths during the coronavirus outbreak in Bekasi, West Java, Indonesia, Monday, July 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)

While it took over a year for Indonesia to reach 2 million infections—a mark that was registered in early June—a million more were recorded in the past month alone. Due to dire testing levels and very limited contact tracing, the official figures likely understate real infection levels by several orders of magnitude.

The positivity rate, a key indicator of the true spread, is just under 30 percent across the country. In Jakarta, the capital city and a major hotspot, it is at 43 percent, meaning that almost half of all tests return positive. World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines state that anything above a five percent positivity rate indicates substantial transmission that is going unrecorded.

The surge of the virus is producing a catastrophe. On the hardest hit island of Java, hospitals have “functionally collapsed,” the Indonesian Medical Association has stated. Hallways are overflowing with patients, spilling out into tents outside. Gravediggers are working around the clock, and coffin makers are struggling to keep up with the demand.

According to Edhie Rahmat, executive director for Indonesia at the nonprofit healthcare group Project HOPE, about two-thirds of adult patients are being forced to self-isolate at home, increasing the chance that other community and family members will be infected. This has led to the highest infection rate for children in the world, making up 1 in every 8 cases. The Indonesian Pediatric Society reports that more than 700 children have died from the virus, half of them under the age of five.

As the government scrambles to fast-track its inoculation program, with only 7 percent of the adult population fully vaccinated, the country has lost ground in vaccinating for other diseases, such as measles and polo.

Al Jazeera reported that thousands of puskesmas, or common vaccination centres, on Java had been converted into isolation wards and temporary morgues. This comes on the back of reports, by the World WHO and UNICEF, that last year, 800,000 Indonesian children missed out on routine vaccinations, a jump of 40 percent compared to 2019.

“It is true that there was a drop in routine immunisation for kids from March to December last year, because kids don’t go to school, public places and hospitals, so the coverage was low,” Dr. Siska Sinardja, a spokeswoman for the Indonesian Pediatrician Association, told Al Jazeera. “The effect of the delay on the immunisation of children will be an increase in infectious diseases. But no data is available on this yet, because the COVID rate is still increasing and all the focus is on fighting COVID in Indonesia.”

In the midst of this unprecedented medical disaster, President Widodo announced the easing of localised restrictions on Sunday, despite a clamour of warnings from health experts.

“With our hard work together, God willing, we can soon be free from COVID, and the socio-economic activities of the community can return to normal,” Widodo insisted.

Under the new guidelines, restaurants, small businesses, offices and even select shopping malls have been allowed to reopen, as well as parks and mosques. These measures are being applied to the hardest hit islands of Java and holiday-island Bali, even in the worst affected areas. The limited restrictions in place have only been extended for a week, until August 2, when there may be a further lifting of safety measures.

The government is seizing on a sudden drop in the number of daily cases, to press ahead with a “reopening,” based on the profit interests of big business. According to government figures, infections dropped from their daily highs of 50,000 late last week, to 28,228 on Monday.

At the same time however, testing has reportedly decreased, making it impossible to tell if transmission is actually decreasing. The government has generally fallen far short of its stated target of 400,000 tests a day, with a daily low of 115,000 last week.

Senior minister Luhut Pandjaitan, said the government factored the “sociological condition of the people” into its decision to wind back the already inadequate safety measures. This was a cynical reference to the social crisis facing millions of people, who have been given the alternative of starving at home or risking infection and death by continuing to work.

“Lifting restrictions will bring more infections and deaths,” Indonesian epidemiologist Dicky Budiman told Agence France Presse on the weekend. “Restrictions must be in place for a minimum of four weeks and [the government] needs to increase testing, tracing and treatment to have maximum results. Otherwise, it’s just the same as having no restrictions.”

Alexander Raymond Arifianto, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, stated: “The government has never taken this pandemic seriously from the beginning. The voice of the actual experts in how to best handle the pandemic is simply not being heard.”

With a population of over 270 million people, the removal of minimal restrictions in place threatens an even-greater catastrophe than has already occurred, including that COVID-19 becomes widely transmitted on islands of the archipelago, where transmission has been low. Virologists are also warning of the potential for new variants to emerge, something that has previously occurred when the virus has been allowed to run rampant in countries with large populations.

“All I can say is that when you give an RNA virus like this the opportunity to run wild, it will accumulate random mutations more frequently, and the chances of a new variant will increase,” said Indian virologist Shahid Jameel in an interview with Al Jazeera.

“They should learn from India’s experience,” he said, referring to the emergence of the Delta variant, which ravaged that country and has driven the humanitarian catastrophe in Indonesia. Among those lessons, Jameel said, was the need for a “very quick surge in hospital capacity and oxygen availability. Because unfortunately, the worst is yet to come for the region.”

Dr. Robert Bollinger, a professor of infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, warned that COVID-19 “has the potential to mutate into a new variant every time it infects a new person. So the risk of new variants is highest in communities and countries with the highest number of new cases, which includes Indonesia.”

Sex Workers and COVID-19: Resisting the Pandemic and Criminalization

Taroa Zúñiga Silva

Georgina Orellano, secretary-general of the Association of Women Sex Workers of Argentina (AMMAR), says that “the pandemic has highlighted the inequality” in society and deepened the problems faced by sex workers. Sex work, which is not recognized in Argentina, has become more precarious, she says.

Although in Latin America many countries do not have legislation criminalizing sex work, the lack of a legal framework in this regard lends itself to all kinds of abuses. According to an investigation published by the Network of Women Sex Workers of Latin America and the Caribbean, “the application of laws is interpretative and discretionary,” resulting in recurrent violations of the rights of workers, including arbitrary detention; torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment; discrimination in access to health care; and unequal treatment within judicial systems.

Multilateral organizations have called for inclusive responses to cushion the impact of COVID-19. Such policies should not neglect the workers who are criminalized, such as sex workers. There is nothing inclusive about the policies that states have adopted. “If we have something to celebrate about the pandemic,” Orellano tells me, “it is that it made it clear—to ourselves—that the only way out of this type of context is to strengthen unionization.”

The Organization of Women Workers

For labor movements in most industries, there is usually a clear target for workers to organize against, such as business owners or factory managers. But in the context of a sex workers’ union, who takes the place of a boss—the client or the state?

“The historical boss of us,” Orellano tells me, “was for a long time the police.” But Orellano is aware that the police—in turn—play a role as agents of the market. It is the police who de facto work to regulate the marketplace of sex work. AMMAR was formed in the 1990s to respond to the desire to end “the naturalized logic in our collective of having to make financial arrangements with the police in order to work,” Orellano says.

“What the state does not regulate,” Orellano says, “the market regulates.” The market, for sex workers, is framed by the fact of the criminalization of sex workers. Because sex workers “lack recognition and rights, markets emerge that thrive through our precariousness,” states Orellano.

Overcoming Fear to Organize

AMMAR was born from the first marches organized in Argentina to demand the rights of sex workers. During these marches, it was common for sex workers to attend wearing wigs or oversized dark sunglasses. In interviews with the media, sex workers would ask the television producers to distort their voices, show only their hands but not their faces, or give the interview with their backs to the camera. All this, Orellano explains to me, was “so that the family would not know that the person speaking, defending the rights of sex workers, was their mother or daughter or neighbor.”

Sex workers who rally for unionization and fight for their employment rights carry the additional burden of having to overcome the stigma associated with sex work. Orellano says shame, concealment, and silencing are unfortunate byproducts of the prejudices against the industry. “Basically,” she says, sex workers can’t effectively organize when they are hamstrung by the feeling of “not being able to truly tell [people] who you are [when you march or speak to media], for fear of being ostracized by your community.”

AMMAR’s approach is to fight the self-marginalization of sex workers. The demand to emerge from the shadows opened several doors. First, it encouraged sex workers to overcome the stigma associated with their work. Second, it permitted many sex workers to move toward unionization. Third, it forced the state to ensure that sex workers have rights and that these rights are not violated—“to accept that we are an existing group,” says Orellano, and to ensure “that not only are our rights as sex workers not violated, but, basically, that our rights as citizens are not violated.”

Pandemic and Sex Work

The restrictions imposed by governments to curb the advance of COVID-19 are a direct threat to the possibility of working in the streets. Quarantines, physical distance, and time restrictions—among other measures—have narrowed the possibilities of livelihoods for sex workers. Many have turned to the virtual world, but those who have continued working on the streets—either because of their own work preferences or because of technological and/or generational gaps—have suffered from institutional violence.

Faced with this, AMMAR had to respond, to “occupy the role of the absent state,” in the words of Orellano. The organization has focused on establishing codes of self-respect for sex work in public spaces. And it has focused on building psychological and economic support networks, which are urgently needed in view of the growing number of women who do not know if they will be able to pay their rent or feed their children every month.

Even if they comply with basic sanitary measures, this is a job that involves close contact. There is a lot of fear of COVID-19 among clients. Some clients wait to receive vaccines before resuming contact; many have also lost their jobs or lost income as a result of the pandemic, and so they constantly haggle over rates. “This is a fact,” Orellano tells me, “that does not differentiate between those of us who work virtually or those who work on the street.”

Political Recognition

The fact that sex workers are the ones who have supported their peers to survive the pandemic has reinforced awareness within this labor sector of the importance of political agency and collective organizing, Orellano concludes. AMMAR is part of the Argentine Workers’ Central Union(CTA). One of the most important achievements they have had in recent years, from Orellano’s perspective, has been the recognition of sex workers within political and labor organizing spheres.

“During the pandemic, our organization has done everything it had to do as a union and much more,” states Orellano. “We have given absolutely everything so that our coworkers can subsist and go through the pandemic on equal terms with the rest of the population.” This has been possible thanks to this labor sector’s efforts to articulate with local and central governments recognition of the political agency of sex workers.

“The advance of the expansion of rights—that is, of the visibility of our claims—has generated a lot of violence from some sectors,” adds Orellano. “But also, we received a lot of solidarity from other unions, and from social, feminist and partisan organizations that stretched out their hand to [be] with the whores.”

Human Progress

James Haught

Enormous human betterment has occurred since The Enlightenment, chiefly because crusading liberals overcame conservative resistance, time after time.

Modern democracy arose because America’s radical founders renounced the divine right of kings and took up arms against England and George III. They created government of the people, with no aristocracy.

Slavery ended because radical abolitionists hammered the entrenched institution until the horrible Civil War wiped it out.

Following the new knowledge given to humankind by Gandhi, many more gains in human rights started to be made with nonviolent struggle instead of war.

Women gained the right to vote because radical suffragettes fought for decades against their inferior status.

Couples gained the right to birth control because radical feminists – especially Margaret Sanger – battled against prudes and the church.

Workers gained the right to organize unions because Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal defeated corporate opposition and legalized it.

Retirees gained Social Security pensions because the progressive New Deal created the safety net program.

Jobless people gained unemployment compensation – and those injured on the job gained worker’s compensation — because the New Deal created them too. Additionally, it set the 40-hour work week, banned child labor, and set a minimum wage.

The poor gained welfare protection from the liberal New Deal also.

Censorship of sexy books, magazines and movies was wiped out by progressive court cases. So were bluenose laws forcing stores to close on the Sabbath.

The historic civil rights movement and the progressive Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren struck down America’s cruel Jim Crow segregation.

The Warren court also ended government-led prayer in schools. And wiped out state laws against birth control. Later liberal justices gave women and girls a right to choose to end pregnancies.

Taboos against lotteries, liquor clubs and other “sins” fell away.

Strides toward universal health care as a human right for everyone included Medicare, Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance, Veterans care, government employees coverage and finally Obamacare.

Conservatives tried to prevent teaching of evolution in public schools, but they failed.

Conservatives tried to block sex education in public schools, but they failed.

Conservatives tried to teach “creation” in public schools, but they failed.

Puritanical right-wingers made racial intermarriage a crime, but the liberal Warren court legalized it.

Puritanical right-wingers jailed gay lovers, but progressives on the high court legalized gay sex.

Fundamentalists fought gay marriage, but Democratic state legislatures and the Supreme Court legalized it.

Humanism means helping people, and secular means doing it without supernatural religion. Decade after decade, century after century, leftist reformers defeated conservatives to advance secular humanism. At the same time, churches and their magical beliefs faded enormously from western democracies. And recently, international warfare has virtually disappeared.

Pioneer Unitarian minister Theodore Parker said the arc of history bends toward justice – and Martin Luther King Jr., who spent young years as a Unitarian, adopted the phrase masterfully.

The past shows a clear pattern of human progress – of civilization bending toward justice. Let’s hope it continues.

New Studies on High Risks of Wireless Devices and Non-Ionizing Radiation

Bharat Dogra

A recent peer reviewed study by the Environmental Working Group (USA) has made an important addition to the growing number of warnings by experts  regarding the high possibility of risks from radiofrequency radiation emitted by wireless devices including cell-phones and tablets. This study,  published in  Environmental Health journal, has made an important plea for revising the highly outdated health standards for wireless radiation which were set up by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), USA, about 25 years back in 1996.

This was a time when these devices were being used to a much lesser extent, particularly by children. Hence separate standards were not even set up for children. However since then the use of these devices has increased very rapidly, even by small children. Also sporadic research has revealed the risks to be particularly very high for children. Hence there is a pressing need for revising the health standards and in fact this should have been done a long time back.

In fact the Environmental Working Group (EWG) guidelines recommend that the exposure limits for children should be 200 to 400 times lower than the whole body specific absorption rate (SAR)  limit set by the FFC in 1996. For adults this should be 20 to 40 times lower than the  limit set by the FCC set up 25 years back. The EWG study says that the exposure limit should be set at whole body   specific absorption rate  of 0.2 to 0.4 milliwatts per kilogram while for adults this should be set at  2 to 4 mW/kg.

Earlier studies like those of the National Toxicology Program ( USA)  had also drawn attention to serious health risks of 2G and 3G wireless radiation, as observed in laboratory animals. The findings of Ramazzini Institute( Italy) have also been significant in drawing attention to these serious hazards.

This year (2021) another organization of prominent international experts  issued an important statement on serious and adverse health impacts of Non-Ionising Radiation (NIR). This statement was issued by Physicians’ Health Initiative for Radiation and Environment (PHIRE). PHIRE is an independent association of medical doctors and associated specialists assembled for the purposes of improving education regarding health effects of non-ionising radiation.

This statement says– Medical experts and practitioners from around the world have united once again to make clear their concerns regarding the health effects of escalating non-ionising radiation (NIR) exposures. NIR is electromagnetic energy ranging from Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) waves right the way up to Ultraviolet (UV). In particular, they are concerned about radiofrequency (RF) emissions from existing mobile phone networks, Wi-Fi, and the rollout of 5G.

Further this statement adds–Whilst such emissions were historically presumed to be biologically inert, and are still purported to be safe by many to this day, there is now highly credible evidence to the contrary. The main risks associated with exposure to such (wireless) non-ionising radiation in the peer-reviewed scientific literature include: increased cancer risk, cellular stress, increase in harmful free radicals, genetic damage, structural and functional changes of the reproductive system, learning and memory deficits, neurological disorders, and negative impacts on general well-being in humans.

Summarizing the mounting evidence on high health impacts of NIR this statement asserts – Mounting human epidemiological evidence of increased cancer has now been corroborated by ‘clear evidence’ of carcinogenesis from animal studies. These include the two largest investigations ever undertaken globally, from the widely respected National Toxicology Program (USA), and Ramazzini Institute (Italy). What is more, law courts are now validating such links: with compensation for health damages from mobile phone radiation being won in a growing number of cases internationally. Some legal teams are so certain of negative health effects that civil suits for Wi-Fi and other wireless injury are now being brought on a ‘no win no fee’ basis, and insurance underwriters consider related risks to be ‘high’.

This statements draws attention to the fact that hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific studies have demonstrated adverse biological effects occurring in response to a range of NIR exposures below current safety guidelines; however, emissions continue to escalate. Medical evidence of harm has now reached the critical mass necessary to inspire the medical community to step out of their usual roles, stand up and speak out regarding their concerns.

The document has been signed by medical groups representing over 3,500 medical doctors so far, including experienced clinicians and widely published and respected scientists who are experts in this field. It declares current safety levels to be inadequate and highlights some of the disease processes linked with NIR exposure in peer-reviewed publications; it points out the vulnerabilities of children  and other hypersensitive groups, whose symptoms may include sleep problems, impaired concentration, headaches, and mood disturbance.

Professor Anthony B. Miller, MD. Professor Emeritus, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto (UofT) has said, “This statement has been supported by several senior medical experts – This is an important statement that should be read by all concerned with public health. Those responsible for exposing children to non-ionising radiation, especially in schools, should take immediate action to reduce exposure to non-ionising radiation of the children entrusted to their charge. There is sufficient evidence to now classify radiofrequency radiation as a human carcinogen. Action must be taken now to reduce human exposure to non-ionising radiation to as low as can be achievable, including a moratorium on the introduction of 5G.”

The recent statements by EWG and PHIRE  as well as the opinion of several independent experts and scientists provide convincing evidence of the seriousness of these hazards and urgent action should be taken to reduce these hazards, above all for children.

Tibet and Xinjiyang: Cultural Revolution From Above

Hiren Gohain

Left-inclined people in India are usually left in a twilight between belief and scepticism when faced with conflicting reports on affairs in Tibet and Xin Jiyang from Western and Chinese sources.

Western sources dwell on massive social and cultural oppression attempting to recast by force the native identities of the peoples of these two regions. But Chinese sources trot out impressive-sounding figures on development of those regions. Recently important African politicians were taken on a conducted tour of Xin Jiyang, and reportedly they expressed admiration for the fantastic progress by the peoples of these regions under tutelage of CPC.

Some years ago the ‘Frontline’ magazine also reported fact-checking visits by Indian journalists to Tibet and according to the reports published in the magazine the widespread news on suppression of Tibetan cultural identity were also a lot of poppycock. It must also be pointed out in this connection that during that particular period there had been a remarkable relaxation of restrictions in place allowing not only visits by foreigners but also attempts to build bridges with the Tibetan leaders in exile. But the experiment ended with Deng Xiao Ping ruling out any sort of autonomy for Tibet and insisting that the Dalai Lama should reside in and work from Beijing! Yet the picturesque images of cultural rape of Xin Jiyang in Western media like banning beards, namaj and Roja, and the Koran to boot, appear too thickly laid on paint.

China is actually deeply concerned about foreign interference in its national security in these regions, which cannot be dismissed as baseless. Its memory of such interference dates back to the nineteenth century when British imperialism used Tibet and Central Asia as cockpits to stage their covert conflict with Russian imperialism with scant regard for Chinese claims of suzerainty over Tibet.

But that is not acceptable as sufficient reason to support wholesale disinfection of regional cultures of any element that poses a challenge to unifying, homogenizing thrust of modern Chinese culture. This sense of cultural superiority based on material parameters mutilates against the self-respect of minorities. But while it is true that for nearly three centuries China acted as a Suzerain power in Tibet, there had also been times in the past when Tibet had prevailed against China and indeed had once occupied Beijing. Tibetans may not feel like being clients of a superior power, however mighty and glorious it is made out to be.

The main bone of contention is of course the different religious heritages of the two regions. Tibet adhered to a form or type of Buddhism different from that which had marked Chinese Buddhism. And Xin Jiyang had an Islamic past which CPC finds disturbing. But any attempt to surgically eliminate those inheritances is just as impractical as any attempt to erase all traces of a broadly Hindu heritage from different regions of India will be bound to be infructuous.(This does not mean support for many unlovely and inhuman aspects.)The challenge is to adopt a vibrant modern culture without obliterating native cultural heritage. Secondly the change from a religious to a secular frame of mind is a momentous episode full of drama, and which may not be grafted at will on some culture without a spontaneous social stir.

This brings us to the vexed question of cultural revolution. Revolutionary leaders are vexed with the strong roots of outdated and reactionary traditions in the culture of vast numbers of the masses in their country, and they have often taken drastic steps to uproot them root and branch and replace them with new ideas, attitudes and values. Mao Ze-Dong introduced some variety by tasking the youth of the country with the hatchet job. But in the end results do not appear to have been any more fruitful. People forget Mustafa Kamal had attempted something similar in Turkey, but after a hundred years it has come unstuck and the country is back to square one.

Actually the system and signs of culture are imbibed through a thousand diverse practices, multiple daily exposure to strongly held beliefs and collective cultivation of values. It gives a certain colour even to his emotions and tastes and reaches out to unconscious regions of the mind. It is not possible to erase the lot by compulsion and threats. Even if some force succeeds in obliterating all such traces that does not automatically ensure the success of a new system.

Under incessant pressure from a newly imposed set of beliefs, practices and values, an individual may perform like a zombie or a parrot, but will not himself derive any satisfaction from it. He may even feel a singular lack of depth in his new habits of mind. The release of energy expected from cultural transformation will simply not be there. Worse, in his eagerness to prove his commitment he may engage in excesses that do more damage than good. This is far from the creative exuberance a new sprouting of cultural life usually stimulates.

This is not to brush aside the imperative need for dynamic cultural change, but rather affirm caution and circumspection in bringing the process of transformation. An immediate radical change in all is simply a pie in the sky. One can at best motivate a section of society to pioneer the change‌ and wait as the others are persuaded and moved in the new direction. It is likely that the younger generation will heed the call sooner and more eagerly than older members of society, but it will be foolish to drive a wedge between them. Some may remain stubbornly wedded to the old culture. But if they are a minority, there will be no need to suppress them.

Besides contradictions must be allowed to be played out in various spheres of culture rather than summarily and artificially accelerated by diktat. An abstract formula of contradiction applied in total oblivion of the concrete, grounded nature of the culture in question will destroy but scarcely regenerate.

It is here that the examples of Tibet and Xin Jiyang appear unsatisfactory, even if one concedes material improvement in conditions of life. In their native environments the indigenous people might not be able to draw the same kind of mental vitality from a replication of what works in Beijing and Shanghai. So far there has not been any independent, unforced, positive appreciation of the spontaneity and vitality of the new culture imposed on these regions by impartial observers, even if we dismiss the exaggerated lurid image of these regions as vast camps of slave-labour. Military strategic necessity as understood by CPC seems to be the motive force behind whatever changes, fundamental or superficial, have taken place there.

Drone war whistleblower Daniel Hale remains steadfast as federal prosecutors demand nine-year sentence

Kevin Reed

In advance of a sentencing hearing set for Tuesday, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) urged a federal court to send drone war whistleblower Daniel Hale to a minimum of nine years in federal prison.

In a 20-page sentencing memorandum in the case of the United States v. Daniel Everette Hale published on July 19, federal prosecutors argue vindictively that the former Air Force analyst stole classified information in order to “ingratiate himself” with journalists and that a “significant sentence is necessary to demonstrate that the unauthorized disclosure of classified information is a serious crime with significant consequences.”

Even though, in an effort to avoid a long prison term, he pled guilty last March to one of the five counts against him, and he has been held in custody at the William G. Tisdale Detention Center in Alexandria, Virginia since April, the DoJ is demanding the judge give Hale the harshest possible punishment.

Daniel Hale. (Image credit: Stand With Daniel Hale)

For example, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia refused to drop the four remaining charges against Hale and instead has been holding them in reserve for a potential trial if the sentencing by District Court Judge Liam O’Grady is deemed insufficient.

Part of the strategy of the DoJ is to compel Hale to admit that by turning over classified information about US military’s drone warfare program to the Intercept co-founder Jeremey Scahill, he risked “serious” or “exceptionally grave” damage to US national security. The prosecutors are holding out the possibility of a seven-year-and-three-month sentence for Hale, who is 33 years old and suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from his service in Afghanistan, if he agrees to the DoJ demands.

An important part of the prosecution’s argument for a harsh sentence for Hale is the existence of previously undisclosed and concealed “evidence” that a faction of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has published an “internet compilation” that includes two of the documents that the whistleblower disclosed.

Given that the US military itself is known to have collaborated with various Islamic fundamentalist militia groups, this particular aspect of the federal government’s sentencing memorandum shows the desperation of the DoJ and the military-intelligence state to successfully bring an Espionage Act case against a whistleblower.

Numerous attempts have been made by the DoJ to punish harshly those who have leaked or published classified information, including Reality Winner and Terry Albury, who both served limited sentences after reaching plea agreements, and deterring future exposures. There is also, of course, the ongoing case of WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange, who has also been charged with Espionage Act violations and is being held in London’s Belmarsh Prison while facing extradition to the US to face them.

Similar claims have been made by the US government that the material published by WikiLeaks exposing war crimes—as well as the details about the mass electronic spying on the public by former intelligence analyst Edward Snowden—“endanger national security” and “threaten the lives of servicemen.” However, as in Hale’s case, no evidence of harm or death to US programs or people has ever been presented to prove the assertion.

Hale joined the US Air Force in 2009 and was deployed to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan to work for the National Security Agency (NSA). In 2013, he left the Air Force and went to work for a private contractor with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) where he held a top security clearance. Due to his experiences with the military-intelligence apparatus, and the drone assassination program in particular, Hale became alarmed by the indiscriminate murder of individuals posing no threat to the US.

According to the original charges against him—which included four offenses for violating the Espionage Act and one for theft of government property—Hale began his collaboration with journalists while he was still in the Air Force and this collaboration continued after he was working for the NGA. In the information he provided to Scahill, Hale gave details about the drone “kill list” maintained by President Barack Obama, including the targeting of American citizens for assassination overseas without a trial or conviction of a crime.

In a powerful and moving letter to Judge O’Grady submitted to the court by Hale’s lawyers on July 22, the courageous whistleblower defends his decision to disclose the classified information to the media. Hale’s 11-page letter, written by hand from prison, is a devastating exposure of the criminality that he witnessed and an expression of his determination to remain steadfast in his exposures.

In the letter, Hale explains that he suffers from depression in connection with his PTSD and that his experiences in Afghanistan have “irreversibly transformed my identity as an American. Having forever altered the thread of my life’s story, weaved into the fabric of our nation’s history.” He then proceeds to explain how, beginning with his deployment in 2012, he “came to violate the Espionage Act, as a result.”

Hale also explains that he witnessed a drone strike within days of his arrival. He gives details about a group of armed men who had gathered before dawn to brew some tea and were targeted

for death. Hale writes, “I could only look on as I sat by and watched through a computer monitor when a sudden, terrifying flurry of hellfire missiles came crashing down, splattering purple-colored crystal guts on the side of the morning mountain.”

He writes that he witnessed several such episodes of graphic violence and that he began to question everything he was told about the “rules of engagement” in Afghanistan and holds himself responsible for being a part of it. “Not a day goes by that I don’t question the justification for my actions. By the rules of engagement, it may have been permissible for me to have helped to kill those men—whose language I did not speak, customs I did not understand, and crimes I could not identify—in the gruesome manner that I did. Watch them die.”

Hale draws broader and informed conclusions from his experiences, writing: “how could it be that any thinking person continued to believe that it was necessary for the protection of the United States of America to be in Afghanistan and killing people, not one of whom present was responsible for the September 11th attacks on our nation. Notwithstanding, in 2012, a full year after the demise of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, I was a part of killing misguided young men who were but mere children on the day of 9/11.”

Hale’s letter exposes the prosecution’s claim that he “ingratiated himself” with journalists to be a complete fabrication. The vendetta against him is part of the ongoing attacks on basic democratic rights associated with the wars of aggression carried about by US imperialism that have spanned the Bush, Obama, Trump and now Biden administrations. Class-conscious workers, students and young people must demand the freedom of Daniel Hale and all whistleblowers such as Julian Assange who are being persecuted for telling the truth about the war crimes of US imperialism.

Over 100 dead in landslides, flooding in the Indian state of Maharashtra

Wasantha Rupasinghe

Adding more victims to the millions who have died from COVID-19, devastating landslides and flooding triggered by torrential rains over the last three days have killed more than 100 people in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Maharashtra, where India’s financial capital Mumbai is located, is also the state worst hit by COVID-19 in the country.

According to media reports, the toll from rain-related incidents in the state has risen to 112 as of July 25, while 99 people remain missing. Among the deceased are 38 people killed by multiple landslides in Raigad district’s Talai village on Thursday. India Today reported that officials fear 30 to 35 more victims are trapped under the debris.

Parts of India’s west coast have received up to 594 mm (23 inches) of rain, while the hill station of Mahabaleshwar recorded its highest ever rainfall: 60cm in 24 hours. As many as 54 villages were severely damaged by floods with 821villages partially hit. Nearly 100,000 people were shifted from flood-affected areas to safer places in Western Maharashtra’s Pune division on Friday, as rains battered the region. Major rivers are reportedly at risk of bursting their banks.

Rescuers work at the site of a mudslide triggered by heavy monsoon rain and flooding killed at least 15 people and buried 20 homes of tea plantation workers in southern India on Friday, police said. (AP Photo)

Media reported that rescuers are struggling to reach affected residents, as landslides have blocked roads, including the main highway from Mumbai to Goa. As a result, thousands of trucks were stuck for more than 24 hours on a highway linking Mumbai to the southern technology hub of Bengaluru, Reuters reported.

According to an NDTV article, “in Ratnagiri's Chiplun town, another of those completely flooded, rescuers raced to save people from a COVID-19 hospital cut off from aid. Other visuals from the town showed a terrifying image—a few people on the roof of a building pulling up a woman with rope.”

People trapped in the mudslide-hit areas recounted the horrific conditions there. Mujaffar Khan, a survivor from Mahad, told PTI, “there is a thick layer of mud … it is not just soil, there are dead animals in it … like rats.”

Apart from 30 teams from national and state disaster response agencies, the Indian Air Force, Army, Navy, the Coast Guard and other services also were called for flood-relief operations.

Like always after this type of tragedy, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi rushed to his Twitter account to express his “condolences to bereaved families.” Modi said he was “anguished by the loss of lives due to a landslide.” In another tweet, Modi announced a payment of 200,000 rupees ($US2,690) each to next of kin of those who lost their lives to landslides in Raigad and 50,000 rupees ($670) each for the injured.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray also announced a payment of 500,000 rupees ($6,700) each to next of kin of people who died in the landslide and promised the injured will be treated in hospitals “at state expense.” Maharashtra is controlled by the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition government with Indian National Congress, Thackeray’s Shiv Sena and National Congress Party, along with the support from several other parties.

By providing these meagre compensations to people who lost their loved ones or their homes, Modi’s central government and Thackeray’s state government are trying to shamelessly cover up their own responsibilities for the current flood disaster.

Climate experts have raised fears about the impact of climate change, which has played a major part of this devastation. Flooding in India was reported days after heavy rain across Western Europe and across China, as well as heat waves across the US. While it is true that all these are natural disasters, the principal responsibility for the human cost must be placed on the capitalist ruling elites. For decades it is those ruling elites that have failed to build infrastructure control to prepare for these disasters, failing to act upon warnings made by climate scientists.

They have also gone ahead with reckless construction projects based solely on profit motivations, with complete disregard for the impact these buildings have in facilitating floods.

In an article dealing with urban flooding, the DownToEarth website on October 11, 2019 noted: “Overburdened drainage, frenzied and unregulated construction, buildings constructed without paying any heed to the natural topography and hydro-geomorphology all add to the damage.” It highlighted that property developers have illegally built “on reclaimed wetlands, flood plains and law lands of the city as these areas have a cheaper land rate.”

The article gave a number of examples of how the government itself has been engaging in this reckless practice of building mega projects right on the flood plains of various rivers.

The article particularly highlights the recurrent urban flooding in Mumbai, where the city’s old drainage system is “heavily silted and damaged.” Citing from a report tabled in the Maharashtra state assembly in early 2019, it notes: “The BRIMSTOWAD (Brihanmumbai Strom Water Disposal System) project, proposed in 1993, was intended to be a long-term road map for the city’s vulnerability to flooding; but no action was taken on it till the major flooding of 2005. The system has not been fully updated yet.”

This year alone, India has witnessed numerous natural disasters spanning from heat waves, cyclones, floods and wildfire. Some of the major incidents include:

Uttarkhand flood was also known as the Chamoli disaster. On February 7, 2021, flooding in the Chamoli district ensued after an avalanche near Raini Village, Tapovan washed away the Rishiganga small hydro project and also hit the downstream hydroelectric power project at Tapovan on the river Dhauliganga. At least 72 workers were confirmed to have been killed. According to Wikipedia, the Indian government had disregarded warnings made by scientists for many years prior to the disaster that “the Himalayas had been warming at a dangerously high rate and the region’s ecosystem had become too physically exposed to the dangers of development projects.”

Cyclone Tauktae was a powerful and deadly tropical cyclone in the Arabian Sea which traveled parallel to the coasts of the Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra in May 2021. It brought heavy rainfall and flash floods to areas along the coast of Kerala and on Lakshadweep, an archipelago off the coast of Kerala. The storm displaced over 200,000 people in Gujarat. Overall, 169 people were confirmed dead and another 81 people missing. Losses from Cyclone Tauktae are estimated at $2.1 billion.

Cyclone Yass was a strong and very damaging tropical cyclone that made landfall in Odisha and devastated West Bengal in late May. More than 4,500 villages were damaged, and various rural homes and agricultural lands were hard hit. In West Bengal, over 1,100 of the damaged villages were submerged in floods triggered by storm surges, displacing about 500,000 people. Overall, around 1 million people were affected in the state alone. The state government estimates total damages from the storm to be $2.76 billion in West Bengal.

The Modi government and Indian ruling elite have repeatedly shown their complete indifference to the lives of millions of Indian toilers. Their reckless “herd immunity policy” has led to deaths of several million people by COVID-19 which has spread across the country, according to a recent study by US-based Center for Global Development. This government lavishly spends hundreds of billion of dollars on the military, while leaving hundreds of million of people to their fate.

Germany’s grand coalition presses ahead with military rearmament

Clemens Huber & Johannes Stern

Ahead of Germany’s federal election on 27 September, the federal grand coalition government is pressing ahead with military rearmament. In its last sitting of the legislative session, the parliamentary budgetary committee approved spending for 27 rearmament projects with a total value of close to €20 billion at the end of June.

The projects include major purchases for the navy, air force and land-based armed forces. According to an official report on the Defence Ministry’s website, the investments cover “a broad spectrum of land, air, naval, and cyber dimensions.” Some of the most comprehensive projects are:

• The purchasing of five P-81 Poseidon aircraft. (Cost: €1.43 billion)
• The construction and delivery of two 212 Common Design class submarines (U212CD). (Cost: €2.79 billion)
• The conclusion of a contract for the production and supply of long-range Naval Strike Missile 1A. (Cost: €512.2 million)
• The construction of three class 424 fleet service vessels (FDB424). (Cost: €2.1 billion)
• The purchasing of combat and reflecting gunsights, as well as laser modules for the army’s Sturmgewehr System. (Cost: €304.05 million)

Almost €2 billion was set aside for the modernisation of the Puma tanks. The goal is to equip the already existing 150 Pumas with technology so that they are operationally ready for the NATO spearhead Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF). In other words, the tank rearmament programme is aimed directly at Russia. The VJTF was established in 2014 as part of the NATO Response Force (NRF) with the declared goal of deploying troops more rapidly to NATO’s eastern flank.

Bundeswehr soldiers from Camp Marmal on patrol (Image: ISAF / CC BY-SA 2.0)

The largest sum, €4.4 billion, was made available to push ahead with the development of the gigantic Future Combat Air System (FCAS) project. “In the next stages, the technologies required for the development of a new jet fighter system in the areas of aircraft, engines, unmanned components, system operations, sensors, signature reduction and simulation environment … should be brought to the development stage,” wrote the Defence Ministry.

The FCAS is Europe’s largest armaments project. It is an integrated air combat system, linking drones, fighter jets, command-and-control aircraft and satellites with each other. Another element is the development of a sixth generation fighter jet. It is to possess stealth capabilities, a more powerful engine, and potentially cyberwar capabilities and energy weapons.

French Defence Minister Florence Parly described the project as “one of the most important tools for Europe’s sovereignty in the 21st century.” The participating European nations, Germany, France and Spain, believe the project promises more autonomy in combat and better coordination between other air units and ground forces.

In tandem with the FCAS, a German-French central ground combat system (NGCS) is under development to produce a tank. The budgetary committee demanded its rapid implementation. A “guideline decision” explicitly passed for the purpose by the federal government called for “the immediate adoption of measures to ensure a simultaneous timeframe for the FCAS and NGCS in the foreseeable future.”

The estimated costs of these projects are gigantic. Projections for the tank system alone amount to €100 billion. According to the Handelsblatt, the cost for the FCAS will reach “up to €500 billion … by mid-century.”

Under conditions of the coronavirus pandemic and the current flood catastrophe in western Germany, the financing of these projects is an even more despicable crime. With the sum of €600 billion, it would be possible to finance the entire health care budget for 2021 (€35 billion) for 17 years. And the €20 billion approved for weapons systems is 100 times more than the emergency aid approved by the government for victims of the floods on July 21.

As in the last century, the massive military rearmament is aimed at preparing for war. Just days before the multi-billion euro rearmament proposals were passed by the budgetary committee, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (Christian Democrats) held her third keynote foreign policy address since becoming Defence Minister. In it, she threatened the nuclear-armed powers Russia and China, and announced an increase of the defence budget.

“Next year, 2022, we will be over €50 billion for the first time,” she said. “For many people,” that is “according to their values an ‘obscene’ amount of money. But that is a misconception for many reasons,” she cynically added. “For almost a quarter of a century…the defence budget (has been) used as the quarry for the federal budget.” Measured against this, the “budget is comparatively small.”

In reality, the defence budget is the second-largest segment of the federal budget, and it has increased continuously since 2014. Over the past four years alone, it has risen by more than €10 billion under the Social Democrat Finance Minister and Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz. Nonetheless, the plan is to increase it still further.

“In the face of modern new threats,” it is necessary to “invest massively in the most modern defence technology,” continued Kramp-Karrenbauer. Defence will be “much more expensive in the future because it will be more demanding. This is not even to touch upon the growing operational costs for personnel, capabilities and equipment.” The budget will “therefore have to increase if we want to remain safe. And if the German army is going to be a key player in Germany’s future.”

This “future player” status means militarism and war. In an emergency situation, “defence” and “deterrence” can mean “the use of military force, fighting,” said Kramp-Karrenbauer.

The Defence Minister is apparently making advanced preparations for a German submarine war. She explained that “prior to purchasing,” she went “diving with one of our submarines.” She enthused, “A highly modern, highly complex weapons system. A weapons system that can deter and fight if necessary. There are good reasons why we operate these weapons systems. It is important not only to know this but to understand it.”

She was speaking “so clearly because it is a commandment of decency towards our soldiers that we don’t deny them by shamefacedly describing their actual tasks.” This “honesty” must be “an expectation” of Germany. Anyone who defends “freedom and peace” must “know that they have to pay a moral price,” and they must “be prepared to pay this price.”

Coming from the mouth of a German Defence Minister, these statements are a warning. On June 22, 1941, the murderous war of the Wehrmacht against the Soviet Union began, in the course of which 27 million Soviet citizens died and the industrial extermination of 6 million Jews was organised. Eighty years later, the Foreign Ministry is more or less openly declaring that Germany must be ready once again to commit war crimes. This is not about “freedom and peace,” but the imposition of geopolitical and economic interests with military force.

The grand coalition and the Defence Ministry can only press ahead so aggressively because they are supported by all parties in parliament, including the nominal “lefts.” In the budgetary committee, which is significantly led by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the Green representatives voted for many of the rearmament projects. In the election campaign, Green Chancellor candidate Analena Baerbock regularly attacks the grand coalition from the right and demands a more aggressive course towards Russia.

The Left Party also plays a key role in the return of German militarism. While it makes certain public criticisms of the massive rearmament campaign, the Left Party, in the person of its former foreign policy spokesman Stefan Liebich, was involved in the drafting of the notorious document “New power – New responsibilities.” The document served as the basis for the aggressive great power speeches at the Munich Security Conference in 2014 and the subsequent rearmament offensive and military build-up led by the grand coalition.

Critical milestones in Germany’s return to an aggressive foreign policy, including the right-wing coup in Ukraine, and the imperialist interventions in Syria and Iraq were actively supported by the Left Party. In the election campaign, the Left Party’s lead candidates, Dietmar Bartsch and Janine Wissler, are demanding a government coalition with the pro-austerity, pro-war Social Democrats and Greens. In the process, they have made repeatedly clear that as a party of government, the Left Party would support NATO and the German army’s foreign interventions.