30 Sept 2017

Quebec Government Research Internship for International Students 2018 – Canada

Application Deadline: 1st March, 2018, 11:59 PM
The internship must start no later than March 31, 2018.
Eligible Countries: All
To be taken at (country): Quebec, Canada
About the Award: The FRQNT’s (Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies) international internship aims to foster international mobility of students whose research activities are part of the scientific program of a strategic cluster funded by the FRQNT.
The internship is a supplementary tool available to a strategic cluster to strengthen its position at the international level through research projects and partnerships that have already been established or which are under development.
The proposed research outlined in the application as part of the internship must be part of the scientific program of the strategic cluster.
Type: Research, Internship
Eligibility: 
  • All of the strategic clusters supported by the FRQNT may submit an application to this program.
  • The applicant proposed by the strategic cluster must meet all of the eligibility requirements listed here after.
  • The applicant must have the valid study permits or visa for the entire duration of the internship;\
  • The applicant can’t be enrolled in a co-degree from more than one institution including a Québec university. For the students enrolled in a co-degree see the rules of the Frontenac program.
  • Students who are jointly supervised by a researcher in a foreign university (co-degree) are not eligible to apply for an international internship scholarship to visit one of their home universities.
Selection Criteria: 
  • The academic excellence and research aptitude of the candidate: 50 points
  • The correspondence of the internship with the scientific program of the cluster’s: 25 points
  • The insertion of the internship in international action of the strategic cluster: 25 points
Number of Awardees: Not specified
Value of Internship: The scholarship for internship is of a maximum value of $15,000. However, the FRQNT will allow no more than the equivalent of $2,500/month in living expenses and will permit internship expenses (ex.: airfare, room rental agreement, etc.) to be covered by the strategic cluster.
Duration of Internship: The internship must be of a minimum duration of 2 months and a maximum of 6 months.
How to Apply: 
  • Candidates interested within this program must file their application within their strategic cluster (see list on FRQNT’s Web Site) Validate the list of documents required for this application with the specific strategic cluster.
  • The strategic clusters which recommend a candidate must fill the specific form available on FRQNT’s Web site as well as transmit it electronically. The form includes the complete addresses of the student, the academic supervisor, and the internship supervisor. A brief description of the nature of the internship is also required.
  • The strategic clusters must also submit the selection committee report that states the results for each of the three criteria in effect, the assessment process and the names of the committee members.
  • The strategic clusters must also send in the electronic form, a letter signed by the supervisor of the student specifying the start and end dates of the internship.
  • Any internship application must be filed by the strategic cluster and approved by the FRQNT before the leaving of the trainee.
Award Provider: FRQNT’s (Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et technologies)
Important Notes: All projects involving human subjects or biological materials (body parts, products, tissues, cells or genetic material from a human body, of a person living or dead) or administrative, scientific or descriptive data from human subjects, require the approval of the research ethics board of the principal applicant’s institution (Common General Rules , article 5.3). Furthermore, if applicable, researchers must report any environmental impacts of their research and employ reasonable efforts to minimize them. To this end, they must obtain the required authorization and permit before the start of the project.

Kenya DAAD Postgraduate Training Program 2018/2019 – Germany

Application Deadline: 31st October 2017
Eligible Countries: Kenya
To Be Taken At (Country): Germany
About the Award: The Kenya Vision 2030 policy document recommends investment in Science, Technology & Innovation (ST&I) in priority key sectors. One such area involves capacity building in the universities through advanced training of personnel.
The programme will offer twenty-one (21) PhD vacancies to eligible academic personnel teaching in Kenyan universities (both public and private) for a duration of up to forty-five (45) months (exclusive six (6) months German language course) at a German university.
The general aim of the programme is to train young academics and scientists through funding of Ph.D. degree studies in Germany.
The German Academic Exchange Service or DAAD is the largest German support organization in the field of international academic co-operation.
Type: PhD 
Eligibility: To be eligible, candidate must:
  • Be a citizen of the Republic of Kenya;
  • Be teaching (full or part-time) in Kenyan universities (both public and private);
  • Should have obtained the Master’s degree preferably within the past 6 years (date of graduation);
  • Be willing to undertake a six (6) months German language course.
Number of Awards: 21
Value of Award: 
  • 6 months preparatory German language course (fulltime) including accommodation and pocket money
  • co-financed monthly scholarship instalment
  • Reimbursement of travel costs through an adequate travel lump sum that is disbursed after arrival in Germany, during the funding period respectively
  • study and research allowance
  • accident, health and personal liability insurance cover
  • further individual allowances upon application
Duration of Program: Up to forty-five (45) months (exclusive six (6) months German language course).
How to Apply: The following documents must be prepared for the online application:
  • Curriculum Vitae and list of publications (use the Europass specimen form at http://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/documents/curriculum-vitae)
  • Abstract of one page, research proposal (not more than 10 – 15 pages) including detailed timetable; academic degree certificates and transcripts, whereby the Bachelor’s degree must have been passed with at least second class upper division and a Masters degree with at least a B+ grade (or equivalent).
Invitation letter from a German supervisor OR admission letter to a structured PhD programme at a German university
  • Two academic reference letters from university professors (forms provided in the online portal below)
  • A no objection Letter from the university, indicating the prospective function of the applicant within the university after return to Kenya and a commitment by the University to the job security of the applicant till the period of return (those on who qualify will be required to produce the Bonding document).
Award Providers: DAAD

Open Society Internship for Students (Fully-funded to Hungary) 2018

Application Deadline: Ongoing
Eligible Universities: Applications will only be accepted from the following universities:
  • An-Najah National University, Faculty of Economics & Social Sciences
  • An-Najah National University, Faculty of Law
  • American University of Beirut, Faculty of Arts & Sciences
  • Birzeit University Muwatin Institute for Democracy and Human Rights
  • Harvard Kennedy School of Government
  • Makerere University School of Law
  • School of Public Policy at Central European University
  • Sciences Po Paris School of International Affairs
  • The International University of Rabat, School of Political Science (Science Po Rabat)
  • The University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy
  • The University of Hong Kong, Journalism and Media Studies Centre
  • The University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Law
  • University of the Andes, Alberto Lleras Camargo School of Government
  • University of the Andes, Masters in International Law
  • University of Pretoria Centre for Human Rights
  • University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs
To Be Taken At (University): Centreal European University, Budapest
About the Award: The Open Society Internship for Rights and Governance is a project of the Open Society Foundations that launched in the summer of 2013 in partnership with the School of Public Policy at Central European University. It is designed to inspire a new cohort of practitioners committed to working both in the public interest and at the forefront of global policy.
The highly competitive program allows a limited number of students from top public policy schools to immerse themselves in the ideas and practice of open society through a clinical seminar held in Budapest at the School of Public Policy at Central European University, followed by an 8- to 12-week intensive internship at a policy- and rights-oriented nongovernmental organization selected for its outstanding work.

Type: Internship
Eligibility: 
  • Only candidates of the above schools will be accepted.
  • If you are not a master’s candidate in one of the programs listed above, we cannot accept your application at this time.
Number of Awards: Not specified
Value of Award: The OSIRG program is fully funded. The cost of student travel and accommodations during the clinical seminar and internship period will be covered by OSF. The Foundations will also provide a stipend during the seminar and internship periods. The stipend is comprehensive and will include a per diem as well as visa costs, travel insurance, and currency conversion fees. In addition to funds to cover accommodations, students will also be awarded a relocation fund during the internship period. OSF will not be responsible for any costs that exceed the allocated stipend.
Duration/Timeline of Program: Please consult your university for the specific timeline.
How to Apply: Applications for 2018 participation will be released to eligible universities in fall 2017.
Award Providers: Open Society Foundations and the School of Public Policy at Central European University.

Goethe-Institut Game Mixer Contest for Game Developers in Africa 2017

Application Deadline: 5th October 2017
Eligible Countries: South Africa and other countries in Sub Saharan Africa
To Be Taken At (Country): Johannesburg, South Africa
About the Award: Within the program “Game Mixer”, the Goethe-Institut aims to promote professional exchange between game developers from around the world. In 2015, the first Game Mixer Program took place in Jakarta and Bandung,
Indonesia. The following year, the second iteration of the program took place in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In its third iteration, the Game Mixer program seeks to mix up the international game development scene even further by not only including game developers from Germany and the host country of South Africa, but by also inviting participants from broader Sub-Saharan Africa and the former host countries Indonesia and Brazil, too.
Type: Contest
Eligibility: If you are interested and want to apply, you should:
  • be a professional developer from an African game company that has released at least one game;
  • be committed to participate full-time during the whole ten-day program; and
  • be able to communicate in English.
  • Smaller, emerging studios are preferred, since they would benefit most from this programme.
Selection:  The participants will be chosen by a jury of the Goethe-Institut and Interactive Entertainment South Africa.
Number of Awards: Seven from South Africa and eight from Sub Saharan Africa
Value of Award: The Goethe-Institut will provide:
  • travel expenses to and from Johannesburg
  • accommodation (for participants not living in Johannesburg)
  • local transfers
Duration of Program: 16-24 November 2017
  • Thursday 16 November – Arrival of guests in Johannesburg, get together, welcome dinner
  • Friday and Saturday 17 and 18 November – Game Camp
  • Sunday 19 November – Public showcase of the games
  • Monday 20 November – Leisure time or Sightseeing
  • Tuesday 21 November – Studio visits
  • Wednesday 22 November – Internal showcase for participants
  • Thursday and Friday 23 and 24 November – Game Jam
  • Saturday 25 November – Departure of guests
How to Apply: Your application should include:
  • a CV highlighting your professional background
  • a one-page letter of motivation;
  • a one-page profile of your studio including: founding date, number of games produced / released, number of developers, performance (e.g. downloads, users, revenue);
  • a one-page summary of one product that you want to highlight in the showcase including: game details, game performance (e.g. downloads, users, revenue, KPIs), screenshots
Please send your application to Ralf.Eppeneder.extern@goethe.de.
Award Providers: The project is funded by the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany.

19th World Bank Annual Conference on Land and Poverty 2018

Application Timeline:
  • Deadline: 13th October 2017
  • Conference registration should be completed by 1st February, 2018.
  • Full papers should be uploaded by 15th February, 2018.
To Be Taken At (Country): Washington, DC, USA.
About the Award: The Land and Poverty conference will present the latest research and practice on the diversity of reforms, interventions, and innovations in the land sector around the world. The 2018 conference theme will be: Land Governance in an Interconnected World
The conference has become one of the largest international events on land governance, attracting over 1,300 participants in 2017 from governments, academics, civil society, and the private sector. Please consult the  World Bank Land and Poverty Conference website  for video recordings, papers and powerpoints presented at the 2017 conference.
Field of Study: Conference priority themes for oral presentations and posters:
  1. New academic research on the impact of land tenure security for sustainable development, equity and prosperity, (results and their policy relevance;  new research methodologies);
  2. New rigorous impact evaluations on scalable approaches toward strengthening land governance;
  3. New ways of using spatial data (imagery, drones, mobile phones etc.) to strengthen land governance, sustainable land use, and/or support land administration services in urban and/or rural settings;
  4. Innovations for securing land and resource rights in customary settings, gender, collective action, and role of customary authorities;
  5. Progress with land governance performance monitoring, approaches to (gender) disaggregation, and Sustainable Development Goals;
  6. Requirements for moving from pilots to land administration service delivery at scale: good, cheap, fast and equitable;
  7. Improving resilience and resilience impact of national land and geospatial systems; and seamless, unified and comprehensive geospatial data for enhanced management of landscapes and inclusive land reform;
  8. Modernizing and financing land service delivery and organizations, contribution private sector;
  9. New insights on land governance strategies for conflict prevention and supporting peace agreements;
  10. Fair leverage of land for realizing and financing infrastructure, housing, urban expansion, and public goods;
  11. Achieving responsible large-scale land based investments: lessons learned 10 years on.
Type: Call for Papers/Conferences
Eligibility: 
  • Abstracts should be between 800 and 1,500 words, anonymous, written in American English, and submitted online in Word format. Abstracts less than 800 words will not be reviewed.
Selection Criteria: Abstract selection for presentation is on the basis of a double blind peer-review process. Criteria are
  • relevance to conference thematic tracks;
  • evidence-based and methodological appropriateness;
  • innovative and new;
  • significance of findings for policy or research agenda; and
  • clarity of presentation.
More than one abstract can be submitted; due to space limitation only one accepted abstract can be presented by a participant.
Duration of Program: March 19 – 23, 2018
How to Apply: Please submit abstract for oral presentation of an individual paper, poster, or MasterClass by October 13, 2017 via Conftool (Please view guidelines on how to create a new user account and submit an abstract).
Award Providers: The World Bank
Important Notes: 
  • Abstract acceptance for oral presentation, poster and masterclass will be communicated by December 4, 2017.
  • Kindly note that inclusion of an accepted presentation in final conference program is conditional on timely conference registration and uploading of full paper or poster.

Living Territories Young Scientist Travel Grant for Developing Countries

Application Timeline: 
  • Deadline: 13th October 2017
  • Notification Date: 20th October 2017
Eligible Countries: Developing countries
To be Taken at (Country): France
Type: Grants
Eligibility: 
  • The application to LVT2018 YSTG is restricted to citizens from developing countries (UN definition)
  • The YSTG aims primarily at PhD students and young postdoctoral fellows (3-6 years after PhD thesis completion)
Number of Awards: Not specified
Value of Award: YSTG will include travel stipend, registration fees and accommodation.
How to Apply: 
  • Applicants must submit a complete and signed application form, together with all required documents for examination by the YSTG Committee.
  • Only files with the file extensions “.pdf” or “.doc” (word) are accepted.
Download the application form here
Award Providers: Living Territories

Wasted Lives: The Worldwide Tragedy of Youth Suicide

Graham Peebles

The pressures of modern life are colossal; for young people — those under 25 years of age — they are perhaps greater than at any other time. Competition in virtually every aspect of contemporary life, a culture obsessed with image and material success, and the ever-increasing cost of living are creating a cocktail of anxiety and self-doubt that drives some people to take their own lives and many more to self-abuse of one kind or another.
Amongst this age group today, suicide constitutes the second highest cause of death after road/traffic accidents, and is the most common cause of death in female adolescents aged 15–19 years. This fact is an appalling reflection on our society and the materialistic values driven into the minds of children throughout the world.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that in total “close to 800,000 people die due to suicide every year, which is one person every 40 seconds. Many more attempt suicide,” and those who have attempted suicide are the ones at greatest risk of trying again. Whilst these figures are startling, WHO acknowledges that suicide is widely under-reported. In some countries (throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, for example) where stigma still attaches to suicide, it is not always recorded as the cause of death when in fact it should be, meaning the overall suicide figures are without doubt a great deal higher.
Unless there is fundamental change in the underlying factors that cause suicide, the WHO forecasts that by 2020 – a mere three years away, someone, somewhere will take their own life every 20 seconds. This worldwide issue, WHO states, is increasing year on year; it is a symptom of a certain approach to living — a divisive approach that believes humanity is inherently greedy and selfish and has both created, and is perpetuated by, an unjust socio-economic system which is at the root of many of our problems.
Sliding into despair
Suicide is a global matter and is something that can no longer be dismissed, nor its societal causes ignored. It is the final act in a painful journey of anguish; it signifies a desperate attempt by the victim to be free of the pain they feel, and which, to them, is no longer bearable. It is an attempt to escape inner conflict and emotional agony, persecution or intimidation. It may follow a pattern of self-harm, alcohol or drug abuse, and, is in many cases, but not all, related to depression, which blights the lives of more than 300 million people worldwide, is debilitating and deeply painful. As William Styron states in Darkness Invisible, “The pain of severe depression is quite unimaginable to those who have not suffered it, and it kills in many instances because its anguish can no longer be borne. The prevention of many suicides will continue to be hindered until there is a general awareness of the nature of this pain.”
Any suicide is a tragedy and a source of great sadness, particularly if the victim is a teenager, or someone in there twenties, who had their whole life ahead of them, but for some reason or another could not face it. As with all age groups, mental illness amongst young people is cited as the principle reason for, or an impelling cause of suicide, as well as for people suffering from an untreated illness such as anxiety anorexia or bulimia; alcohol and drug abuse are also regularly mentioned, as well as isolation.
All of these factors are effects, the result of the environment in which people — young and not so young — are living: family life, the immediate society, the broader national and world society. The values and codes of behavior that these encourage, and, flowing from this environment, the manner in which people treat one another together with their prevailing attitudes. It must be here that, setting aside any individual pre-disposition, the underlying causes leading to mental illness or alcohol/drug dependency in the first place are rooted.
Unsurprisingly young people who are unemployed for a long time; who have been subjected to physical or sexual abuse; who come from broken families in which there is continuous anxiety due to job insecurity and low wages are at heightened risk of suicide, as are homeless people, young gay and bi-sexual men and those locked up in prison or young offenders institutions. In addition, WHO relates that, “Experiencing conflict, […] loss and a sense of isolation are strongly associated with suicidal behavior.”
Lack of hope is another key factor. Absence of hope leads to despair, and from despair flows all manner of negative thoughts and destructive actions, including suicide. In Japan, where suicide is the leading cause of death among people aged between 15 and 39 (death by suicide in Japan is around twice that of America, France and Canada, and three times that of Germany and the UK), the BBC reports that, “young people are killing themselves because they have lost hope and are incapable of seeking help.” Suicides began to increase dramatically in Japan in 1988 after the Asian financial crisis and climbed again after the 2008 worldwide economic crash. Economic insecurity is thought to be the cause, driven by “the practice of employing young people on short-term contracts.”
Hope is extremely important, hope that life will improve, that circumstances will change, that people will be kinder and that life will be gentler. That one’s life has meaning. Interestingly, in the aftermath of Princess Diana’s death in 1997, suicides in Britain increased by almost 20 per cent, and cases of self-harm rose by 44 per cent. To many people she was a symbol of compassion and warmth in a brittle, hostile world, and somehow engendered hope.
The list of those most vulnerable to suicide is general and no doubt incomplete; suicide is an individual act and flows from specific circumstances and a particular state of mind. Generalizations miss the subtleties of each desperate cry. Some suicides are spontaneous acts, spur of the moment decisions (as is often the case in Asian countries, where poison is the most common method of suicide), others may be drawn out over years, in the case of the alcoholic for example, punctuated perhaps by times of relief and optimism, only to collapse under the weight of life’s intense demands once more.
It is these constant pressures that are often the principle causes of the slide into despair and the desire to escape the agony of daily life. They are all pervasive, hard to resist, impossible, apparently, to escape. Firstly, we are all faced with the practical demands of earning a living, paying the rent or mortgage, buying food, and covering the energy bills etc. Secondly, there are the more subtle pressures, closely related to our ability to meet the practical demands of the day: the pressure to succeed, to make something of one’s life, to be strong – particularly of you’re a young man, to be sexually active, to be popular, to know what you want and have the strength to get it; to have the confidence to dream and the determination to fulfill your dreams. And if you don’t know what you want, if you don’t have ‘dreams’ in a world of dreamers, this is seen as weakness, which will inevitably result in ‘failure’. And by failure, is meant material inadequacy as well as unfulfilled potential and perhaps loneliness, because who would want to be with a ‘failure’?
These and other expectations and pressures constitute the relentless demands faced by us all, practical and psychological, and our ability to meet them colours the way we see ourselves and determines, to a degree, how others see us. The images of what we should be, how we should behave, what we should think and aspire too, the values we should adopt and the belief system we should accept are thrust into the minds of everyone from birth. They are narrow, inhibiting, prescribed and deeply unhealthy.
The principle tool of this process of psychological and sociological conditioning is the media, as well as parents and peers, all of whom have themselves fallen foul of the same methodology, and education.
Beyond reward and punishment
Step outside the so-called norm, stand out as someone different, and risk being persecuted, bullied and socially excluded. The notion of individuality has been outwardly championed but systematically and institutionally denied. Our education systems are commonly built on two interconnected foundations – conformity and competition – and reinforced through methods, subtle and crude, of reward and punishment. All of which stifles true individuality, which needs a quiet, loving space, free from judgment in which to flower. For the most sensitive, vulnerable and uncertain, the pressure to conform, to compete and succeed, is often too much to bear. Depression, self-doubt, anxiety, self-harm, addiction and, for some, suicide, are the dire consequences.
There are many initiatives aimed at preventing suicide amongst young people – alcohol/drug services, mental health treatment, reducing access to the means of suicide – and these are of tremendous value. However iff the trend of increased suicides among young people is to be reversed it is necessary to dramatically reduce the pressures on them and inculcate altogether more inclusive values. This means changing the environments in which life is lived, most notably the socio-economic environment that infects all areas of society. Worldwide, life is dominated by the neoliberal economic system, an extreme form of capitalism that has infiltrated every area of life. Under this decrepit unjust model everything is classed as a commodity, everyone as a consumer, inequality guaranteed with wealth and power concentrated in the hands of a tiny percentage of the population — 1% of 1%, or less in fact. All facets of life have become commercialized, from healthcare to the supply of water and electricity, and the schooling of our children. The educational environment has become poisoned by the divisive values of the market place, with competition at the forefront, and competition has no place in schools and universities, except perhaps on the sports field: streaming and selection should be vetoed totally and testing, until final exams (that should be coursework based), scrapped.
All that divides within our societies should be called out and rejected, cooperation inculcated instead of competition in every area of human endeavor, including crucially the political-economic sphere; tolerance encouraged, unity built in all areas of society, local, national and global. These principles of goodness together with the golden seed of social justice – sharing – need to be the guiding ideals of a radically redesigned socio-economic paradigm, one that meets the needs of all to live dignified, fulfilled lives, promotes compassion, and, dare I say, cultivates love. Only then, will the fundamental causes of suicide, amongst young people in particular, but men and women of all ages, be eradicated.

Western Hypocrisy on the Kurds

Brian Cloughley

On September 29 the BBC reported that “People living in northern Iraq voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence for the Kurdistan Region in Monday’s controversial referendum.  The electoral commission said 92% of the 3.3 million Kurds and non-Kurds who cast their ballots supported secession.”
It all seems clear-cut.  But it’s not, because there are lots of powerful people who don’t want Kurds to be free.
***
Ten days before the referendum, Donald Trump delivered an excoriating harangue of swaggering abuse and arrogant belligerence in the UN General Assembly, but his first public utterance, the day before, was not as spiteful and malevolent. Indeed it was greeted with relief and surprise by the many people who had expected a tirade against the United Nations Organization on the lines of his comment that it was “just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time,” which was as absurd, insulting and vulgar as most of his remarks.
But he rightly adjured the UN to concentrate “more on people and less on bureaucracy” which, as known by anyone who has had anything to do with the UN, would be a gratifying improvement.
It is obvious that reform of the UN is essential, and we should all applaud the Trump proposal, providing his strictures do not adversely affect the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) which, although admittedly far from perfect in administration, is a particularly saintly agency that needs to be helped and not hindered.
Trump is not sympathetic to refugees and wishes to ban them from his country, but the US does help UNHCR a great deal, and we must hope this policy continues. The UNHCR financial allocation for this year is 7 billion US dollars, which is a great deal of money.  But it is obvious that its budget is not over-generous when the UN reports that there are nearly 22.5 million refugees, worldwide, over half of whom are under the age of 18. There are also 10 million stateless people who are denied access to education, healthcare and employment.  As a result of the US war on Iraq 4.2 million Iraqis have had to flee from their towns and villages, and we are all only too well aware of the consequences of the sixteen-year war in Afghanistan.  All of these people need help.
Among the wretched victims around the world are two million Kurdish “displaced persons” of a total of 30 million Kurds who, CNN reports, “make up about 10% of the population in Syria, 19% in Turkey, 15-20% of Iraq, and nearly 10% of Iran.”  They have no country of their own and are subjected to varying degrees of intolerance by the nations within whose borders they are forced to live, and from where, periodically, they are forced to flee.
Many years ago, when I lived in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, my evening walk took me past the office of the UNHCR (see this piece of 2004), since relocated far from the residential section of town. The move was made so that the office could be more easily guarded from would-be petitioners such as Kurdish refugees, some of whom had erected a neat and tidy tent hamlet on the opposite side of the road. As I walked past in the evening, one of them, a particularly villainous-looking fellow, greeted me with a charming smile. His flinty blue eyes softened as he bade me Hello, and after a few days of mutual greeting we began to chat.
The story of his group was of unrelieved persecution and privation. Having fled the savage reprisals of Saddam Hussein, following encouragement by George Bush senior for Kurds and Shias to rise against their oppressor (after which Bush did exactly nothing to help either of them), they made their way across Iran to Pakistan’s province of Balochistan, and then to Islamabad, a trek of about two thousand miles. There, they hoped, the UNHCR would look after them and relocate them to a country in which they could live like human beings, which to them, as to the other desperate displaced persons round the world, would be Paradise.
Where on earth could they go, these Kurdish orphans of Washington’s Operation Desert Storm? Who would take them? Answer came there none, except from the administration of the prime minister of Pakistan, a disreputable knave called Nawaz Sharif (recently dismissed after a High Court corruption hearing), whose solution was to gather up the Kurds in dead of night and move them all to the deserts of Balochistan, hundreds of miles away.  In fact, not quite all of them ; for left behind in one tent was a tiny baby, discovered at dawn by the scavengers who gathered to see what the Kurds, the poorest of the poor, might have left behind after they were once again hounded from one hell to another. Horrified local Pakistanis and some of us foreign do-gooding busybodies inquired about the fate of the child. But we came up against the usual brick wall of bureaucratic nonchalance. “There is no problem” we were told. No ; of course not. For the baby was only one of millions of anonymous and helpless mites born into a world grown only too accustomed to hideous inhumanity.
This band of despairing, hopeless, helpless, hounded Kurds was but a microcosm of the Kurdish problem as a whole. They are truly the world’s forgotten people, and we should be ashamed of our lack of concern about their plight.
The Kurds in Iraq have just voted for creation of a nation state, which is right and proper. After all,  referendums are regarded by Western governments as a truly democratic way for people to express their opinion. In 2008 Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, following a referendum that was energetically supported in 2014 by President Obama. The recent disastrous ‘Brexit’ referendum in Britain, in which 17,410,742 people (out of a total of 46,501,241 eligible voters) voted for the country’s economic self-destruction by leaving the European Union was of course supported by the British government. They are strident about it having been the Will of the People.
President Obama declared that “the people of the United Kingdom have spoken, and we respect their decision,” and Mr Trump, then a presidential candidate, said it was a “great thing” that the people of the UK have “taken back their country,” which was in line with Washington’s overwhelming support of referendums — except when they are held in such places as Crimea and Kurdistan.
America and Britain condemned the referendum in Crimea because its people, mainly Russian-speaking, Russian-cultured and therefore liable to persecution by the US-assisted   government in Kiev, succeeded by popular vote in rejoining Russia of which Crimea had been part for centuries. And they abhor the Kurdish referendum, too, because Kurdish independence would be awkward for them.
It doesn’t matter to Britain and America that northern Iraq — the Kurdish part of the country — is the only stable area in the entire region. The five million Kurds in northern Iraq have a semi-autonomous parliamentary democracy and the result of the plebiscite is not legally binding.  So why on earth have the Great Western Democracies objected so vehemently to a Kurdish referendum?
Britain’s defense minister, a studied oaf, to be sure, but nevertheless a person who must be taken as representing his government, said in Baghdad on September 18 that “I will be this afternoon in Arbil [the Kurdish capital] to tell Massud Barzani [the Kurdish prime minister] that we do not support the Kurdish referendum.” It escaped him (as most things do) that making such a statement in the capital of the fractured country that mightily opposes Kurdish independence is just a tiny bit ironic.
Nowadays, alas, the United Kingdom has little international standing or influence, and it can hardly be expected that Massud Barzani will pay the slightest attention to anything said by anyone from London, which has naturally followed Washington’s official line that “”The United States has repeatedly emphasized to the leaders of the Kurdistan Regional Government that the referendum is distracting from efforts to defeat ISIS and stabilize the liberated areas.” The White House declared that the Kurdish people’s referendum vote is “particularly provocative and destabilizing.”
What nonsense. What possible “distraction” could a Kurdish non-binding referendum create that might possibly affect the fight against the savages of Islamic State?
But of course it could be “provocative,” in a way, because in 2013 UPI reported that “Exxon Mobil, the world’s biggest oil company, is pushing ahead with its controversial drive to develop oil fields in Iraq’s independence-minded Kurdish enclave . . .  Exxon Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson flew to Baghdad to meet [the then Iraqi prime minister] Maliki in late January but apparently refused to quit Kurdistan.”
Mr Rex Tillerson is now US Secretary of State and, as Reuters recorded on September 18, “Russian oil major Rosneft will invest in gas pipelines in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan, expanding its commitment to the region ahead of an independence referendum to help it become a major exporter of gas to Turkey and Europe.”
Then things became clearer when World Oil noted that “Rosneft has completed its due diligence on infrastructure of the export oil pipeline in Iraqi Kurdistan . . . [the] pipeline will not only supply natural gas to the power plants and domestic factories throughout the region, but also enable exporting of substantial fuel volume to Turkey and European market in the coming years.”
There is little wonder that Mr Tillerson and other western tycoons and their supportive government aren’t happy about independence for the Kurds and expansion of their economic influence. Their ferocious opposition to a Kurdish referendum has got nothing whatever to do with Kurds or democracy or fighting Islamic State;  it has everything to do with getting in to Northern Iraq and making money from oil. And in this they are supported by the Baghdad government which, as noted by the BBC, has, since the US invasion,  “struggled to maintain order, and the country has enjoyed only brief periods of respite from high levels of sectarian violence. Violence and sabotage hinder the revival of an economy shattered by decades of conflict and sanctions. Iraq has the world’ third largest reserves of crude oil  . . .”  What a bunch of hypocrites.

Nuclear Plants Plus Hurricanes: Disasters Waiting to Happen

Harvey Wasserman

Although the mainstream media said next to nothing about it, independent experts have made it clear that Hurricanes Harvey and Irma threatened six U.S. nuclear plants with major destruction, and therefore all of us with apocalyptic disaster. It is a danger that remains for the inevitable hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters yet to come.
During Harvey and Irma, six holdovers from a dying reactor industry—two on the Gulf Coast at South Texas, two at Key Largo and two more north of Miami at Port St. Lucie—were under severe threat of catastrophic failure. All of them rely on off-site power systems that were extremely vulnerable throughout the storms. At St. Lucie Unit One, an NRC official reported a salt buildup on electrical equipment requiring a power downgrade in the midst of the storm.
Loss of backup electricity was at the core of the 2011 catastrophe at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan when the tsunami there and ensuing flood shorted out critical systems. The reactor cores could not be cooled. Three melted. Their cores have yet to be found. Water pouring over them flooded into the Pacific, carrying away unprecedented quantities of cesium and other radioactive isotopes. In 2015, scientists detected radioactive contamination from Fukushima along the coast near British Columbia and California.
Four of six Fukushima Daichi reactors suffered hydrogen explosions, releasing radioactive fallout far in excess of what came down after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Extreme danger still surrounds Fukushima’s highly radioactive fuel pools, which are in varied stages of ruin.
“In addition to reactors, which at least are within containment structures, high-level radioactive waste storage pools are not within containment, and are also mega-catastrophes waiting to happen, as in the event of a natural disaster like a hurricane,” says Kevin Kamps of the activist group Beyond Nuclear.
In 1992 Hurricane Andrew paralyzed fire protection systems at Florida’s Turkey Point and so severely damaged a 350-foot-high tower it had to be demolished. The eye of that storm went directly over the reactor, sweeping away support buildings valued at $100 million or more.
There’s no reason to rule out a future storm negating fire protection systems, flinging airborne debris into critical support buildings, killing off-site backup power, and more.
As during Andrew, the owners of the nuclear plants under assault from Harvey and Irma had an interest in dragging their feet on timely shut-downs. Because they are not liable for downwind damage done in a major disaster, the utilities can profit by keeping the reactors operating as long as they can, despite the obvious public danger.
Viable evacuation plans are a legal requirement for continued reactor operation. But such planning has been a major bone of contention, prompting prolonged court battles at Seabrook, New Hampshire, and playing a critical role in the shutdown of the Shoreham reactor on Long Island. After a 1986 earthquake damaged the Perry reactor in Ohio, then-Governor Richard Celeste sued to delay issuance of the plant’s operating license. A state commission later concluded evacuation during a disaster there was not possible. After Andrew, nuclear opponents like Greenpeace questioned the right of the plant to continue operating in light of what could occur during a hurricane.
Throughout the world, some 430 reactors are in various stages of vulnerability to natural disaster, including ninety-nine in the United States. Numerous nuclear plants have already been damaged by earthquakes, storms, tsunamis, and floods. The complete blackout of any serious discussion of what Harvey and Irma threatened to do to these six Texas and Florida reactors is cause for deep concern.