Nearly 300 meat-processing workers infected by coronavirus at German slaughterhouse

Marianne Arens

At a slaughterhouse in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, almost 300 workers have tested positive for COVID-19. The Romanian government appears to have been the first authority to break the news, since about 200 of the affected workers are Romanian nationals.

According to reports, the workers are not seasonally employed, but are fully legal employees in Germany’s meat processing industry. They belong to a large, super-exploited group of Eastern European workers who are typically hired by sub-contractors, who contract the workers out to German companies where they are paid starvation wages and labour under appalling conditions.

The slaughterhouse, which is in Birkenfeld near Forzheim and operated by Müller Fleisch, has 1,100 employees, including around 500 workers from Romania. Other workers come from Hungary and Poland.

Following the recent death of a Romanian fruit picker, Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner described the authority’s response to COVID-19 cases among migrant workers as “practical quarantine with a simultaneous opportunity to work.” This appears to have been the approach taken at the slaughterhouse as well.

This approach would be more accurately summed up as highly dangerous forced labour.

As early as April 7, the Schwarzwälder Bote reported on the first indications of a coronavirus outbreak at the facility. According to the newspaper, a worker at the meat processing firm, who lived in communal accommodation, felt so bad that he called the police. He was immediately taken to hospital and received a positive test result for COVID-19 two days later.

Subsequent tests on fellow residents revealed that 10 other people were already infected. By this point at the latest, the local health agency, the police, the slaughterhouse operator, the sub-contractor, and the accommodation provider recognised that coronavirus was spreading unhindered at the facility. Nonetheless, the slaughterhouse was not shut down.

The only countermeasure taken was that those who had tested positive were transferred to a separate accommodation facility, which was described in reports as “isolation.” Over the past 14 days, tests were gradually carried out on all of the 1,100 workers. Full results are yet to be made public, but 270 workers have already tested positive.

At least five are in hospital, with one in intensive care who is struggling for his life on a ventilator.

The mayor of Höfen, a local town, explicitly complained about the meat processing firm. Company management failed even to provide information about where the affected workers were housed and where they were registered, he said. Many were allegedly not even officially registered with the authorities. It is “hardly surprising” that one infection “triggered an avalanche,” said the mayor.

The fact that the meat processing workers were not even officially registered is typical for the entire industry. The chains of subcontractors that bring these workers to Germany operate like the mafia. To evade taxes and charges, workers are not officially registered, and they hardly ever receive written contracts. Their wages are often far below the legal minimum wage. They are accommodated in run-down buildings, former hotels, or containers. They typically sleep four to one room, and the washing facilities are abysmal: perfect conditions for the spread of COVID-19.

The Müller Fleisch workers are accommodated in several communal facilities in small towns near Forzheim. The anger of the mayor of Höfen, where confirmed cases jumped rapidly from three to 26, reflects the outrage and concern among the broader population. Even so, the slaughterhouse is not being shut down.

On April 24, when it was already clear that at least 230 workers were infected, the local health agency decided that the Müller Fleisch facility could continue operating.

The Schwartzwälder Bote cited Bastian Rosenau, a local councillor, who claimed at a press conference on April 23, “There is no increased risk for consumers.” The plant has to continue operating, he added, because it would be impossible to send all 1,100 workers home or into quarantine overnight. Trying to do so would certainly cause the virus to spread uncontrollably, he added. By contrast, within the Müller firm, there is a “closed system” where all of the infection chains can be traced.

All of those infected must now be accommodated at a single location, the local councillor demanded. “Therefore, the district authorities will remove all of those infected from their communal housing and accommodate them in a few locations together ... in serious cases halls may be used.” The Schwarzwälder Bote concluded, “One issue is the medical treatment, but the other is of course the ease of control.”

In other words, the authorities are focused on isolating the impoverished workers from the rest of the population while allowing production to keep running. The two heads and owners of the company, Martin and Stefan Müller, stated in a telephone conference, according to Focus, that nothing about the quarantine would change “whether Müller Fleisch continues to operate or not.”

The two businessmen made clear the real economic reason for their stance, stating that the meat packing company has to fulfill contracts with its suppliers and purchase animals from farmers. What this means is that the economic position of the company takes priority over the health and well-being of its workforce.

With incredible cynicism, they added that the idea that the company could influence the way in which its workers are accommodated is “horrifying” and “absolutely forbidden under the law.” They arrogantly declared that the company is not obliged to bear the costs of quarantine, but added that out of a sense of “moral duty” they would make a contribution to the cost.

On April 28, the Romanian consul Radu Florea made a failed attempt to contact the Romanian workers and their supervisor at Müller Fleisch. Instead, Forzheim’s first mayor, Dirk Büscher (Christian Democrats), reassured him that the workers are being “well looked after” and there have been no complaints, reported the Forzheimer Curier.

The cold-heartedness with which politicians, businessmen, and journalists disregard the health and well-being of workers is breath-taking. It represents a grave threat to the working class, including those who have a German passport.

The idea that the pandemic can simply be set aside is an illusion.

This bitter truth is currently being experienced by Singapore. It is paying for this illusion with a powerful second wave of the virus. The government appeared to have instituted the World Health Organisation’s advice, “test, trace contacts, and isolate” for its “own” population to the letter. But it did nothing for the most oppressed layers, migrant workers, who live in communal housing shut off from the rest of society. The virus was left to run rampant there and is now spreading throughout society as a whole.

Similarly, in Germany the attempt to isolate meatpackers, fruit pickers, refugees and prisoners from the local population will not protect the general population from the virus.

German government accelerates its deadly back-to-work initiative

Johannes Stern

Despite the continuing spread of the COVID-19 pandemic throughout Europe and internationally, the German government is accelerating its policy of lifting the limited restrictions that were imposed to prevent the transmission of the virus. Following a conference call with Germany’s 16 state minister presidents on Thursday afternoon, Chancellor Angela Merkel unveiled a further loosening of restrictions at a press conference. Religious services will once again be permitted, and museums, galleries, memorials, zoos and playgrounds will open provided they meet certain conditions.

“Today’s consultations” are “only an intermediate step,” Merkel declared, before thanking all of those who are “thinking about ... restarting” economic and social life. Already on May 6, next Wednesday, a “comprehensive package will be adopted.” Among other things, the heads of government will “discuss the proposal from the education ministers,” which includes the general opening of all schools and kindergartens. Subsequently, they would also focus on providing a perspective for restaurants, tourism and other sectors, she said.

Similar to two weeks ago, when the government announced the initial lifting of some regulations, Merkel combined her statements with a warning about being “careful” and pledged to do everything to avoid a “relapse.” She justified the drive to reopen the economy by saying, “We have managed to reduce the spread of the virus.”

This is nothing more than propaganda. The reality is that the pandemic continues to spread worldwide, and the number of infections and deaths in Germany is still rising on a daily basis. On Friday, the death toll rose above 6,700 and total cases surpassed 164,000. This is the sixth highest total in the world, behind the United States, Spain, Italy, Britain and France.

A few hours prior to the government’s press conference, the head of the government’s own Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany’s federal agency for infectious diseases, admitted at a press conference that the number of deaths from the coronavirus was continuing to rise. “We see that the fatality rate is rising in Germany,” Lothar Wieler noted. The agency even “assumes that more people have died from COVID-19 than have actually been reported.”

The government’s “easing” of regulations has nothing to do with being “careful.” The reality is that almost no other country is going so far and in such an organised manner than Germany. Schools and businesses are reopening, auto plants and industrial facilities are restarting production, and all other sectors of society are now to follow suit as soon as possible.

The ruling elite is thus all but provoking a situation like in Italy or the United States, where health care systems collapsed under the weight of the pandemic and tens of thousands have died under horrific conditions. The drive to reopen the economy is endangering the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers and flies in the face of all scientific research on the coronavirus.

Already last week, the head of virology at Berlin’s Charite Hospital, Professor Christian Drosten, warned against “gambling away the advantage that Germany has.” He stated that the “activity of the epidemic could suddenly” return “in a disproportionate way or with unexpected power” if the reproduction rate “goes above 1 again.” Over recent days, he repeated his warning in interviews with the British and Belgian media.

On Thursday, Drosten and a team of researchers published a pre-print of a study that warned against “an unlimited re-opening of schools and kindergartens in the present situation.” New research and data suggest “that viral loads in the very young do not differ significantly from those of adults. ... Children may be as infectious as adults.”

The catastrophic consequences of a premature return to school and the factories are becoming ever clearer. At the beginning of the week, a high school in Dormagen in North Rhine-Westphalia was forced to close after just a few days when the mother of a student tested positive for COVID-19. In factories, where the hygienic conditions are no less appalling, the virus is running rampant. At the Amazon distribution centre in Winsen, at least 68 of 1,800 employees have been infected. At a slaughterhouse operated by the meat processing firm Müller Fleisch in Birkenfeld near Forzheim, 300 workers are infected.

Despite this, the grand coalition, with the support of all parties in parliament and the trade unions, is aggressively pursuing its “back-to-work” policy. In a previous comment, the World Socialist Web Site analysed the objective interests that are driving the ruling class and its organisations. Firstly, the hundreds of billions of euros in “coronavirus bailout” funds, which above all went to the major corporations, banks and super-rich, are now to be squeezed out of the working class.

A second factor is the geostrategic and economic interests of German imperialism, which views the crisis as an opportunity to strengthen its international position against its rivals. “There are also geostrategic interests,” noted an article in Der Spiegel in April. Under the headline “The Path Out of the Lockdown: German Carmakers Prepare To Ramp Up Production,” the article observed: “Executives at companies in Europe want to strengthen the European market in order to establish it as a counterweight to the United States and China as economic powers …”

The class character of the crisis is becoming increasingly apparent. While German capital is readying itself to boost corporate profits and preparing for trade war and military conflict among the major powers, millions of workers and their families face destitution. Yesterday, the Federal Labour Agency announced that German companies have applied for short-time work payments for 10.1 million employees. The number of unemployed workers rose by 308,000 in April to 2.6 million. Economy Minister Peter Altmeier projected on Wednesday a contraction of gross domestic product by 6.3 percent this year, which would be the deepest economic recession in Germany since the end of the Second World War.

All of these developments have revolutionary implications. The “back-to-work” campaign, which is being pursued in every country, has already provoked an explosive response in the working class. Recent days have seen spontaneous strikes in Mexico, Zimbabwe, Greece, Brazil and Britain. A centre of the strike movement is the United States—the global epicentre of the pandemic—where there have been at least 140 strikes since the beginning of March. In Germany, a growing radicalisation of young people, students and workers is also taking place.

In spite of the official propaganda—which seeks to downplay the seriousness of the pandemic and claims, in a fascistic manner, that human life should be sacrificed for corporate profits—a plurality of Germans oppose current developments. According to a survey by polling agency Yougov, 49 percent of Germans think the lifting of restrictions is taking place much too quickly. Twenty-eight percent said they were satisfied with the pace of developments, while only 15 percent stated that the restrictions were being eased too slowly.

Workers must reject the false alternative they are being confronted with: either return to work and be exposed to the virus or be subjected to unemployment and poverty. They must unify their struggles internationally in order to counterpose their own socialist strategy to the deadly plans being pursued by the ruling elite. They must adopt a programme that places the big banks and corporations under democratic workers’ control and expropriates the vast wealth of the super-rich in order to deploy it to combat the pandemic and meet other urgent social needs.

Record 50.8 million people internally displaced in 2019

Jean Shaoul

Some 50.8 million people worldwide were forced from their homes by conflicts and natural disasters in 2019, living as internally displaced people (IDPs). This is the highest number ever recorded, 10 million more than in 2018, and is in addition to 71 million refugees, also a record number.

Not having crossed any borders but living as de facto refugees in their own countries in informal settlements, emergency shelters and crowded camps, their plight is virtually ignored, attracting little global attention. These highly vulnerable people have limited or no access to healthcare, now making them highly susceptible to the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the same time, the recession engulfing the entire world, which the corporate and financial elites everywhere are using to corral people back to work irrespective of the health risks, will be used as the pretext for reducing the already limited humanitarian aid for people they view as so much surplus labour.

The Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre’s (IDMC) Global Report on Internal Displacement highlights the extent and consequences of local wars and conflicts throughout the world. It omits to state that most of these conflicts have been stoked by the imperialist powers, while calling on the same international agencies and governments responsible for creating these disasters to address the issue. It cites approvingly United Nations Secretary General António Guterres’ call for a “decade of action” on global equality and sustainable development.

The report states that by the end of 2019 conflict and violence in 61 countries (or nearly a third of the 193 UN member states) had internally displaced 45.7 million people, many of whom had fled their homes more than once.

Some 34.5 million, three-quarters of the 45.7 million displaced by conflict, were concentrated in just 10 predominantly poor or middle-income countries: Syria, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia, Nigeria, Sudan, Iraq and Ethiopia.

Of the new displacements, the majority were in the world’s poorest countries in sub-Saharan Africa where conflicts in the Sahel, Somalia and South Sudan have caused hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.

In 2019, sub-Saharan Africa was again the region most affected by displacement due to armed conflict, communal violence and jihadist attacks in countries where endemic poverty, government corruption, struggles over natural resources—often driven by international powers and their local proxies—and the effects of climate change exacerbate the risk of displacement. Some 19.2 million, or nearly 40 percent of the world’s total, were living in internal exile.

DRC is by far the worst affected country with 1.7 million new IDPs, making a total of 5.5 million. Torn apart over 25 years by wars in which 200 armed groups are fighting each other for control of the country’s vast mineral resources, it has seen the bloodiest war since World War II, with over 5 million dead, as well as its second largest Ebola outbreak and measles and cholera outbreaks that killed thousands of people. DRC saw heavy rains and flooding in 12 of its 26 provinces, displacing another 250,000 people. Around 15.9 million of its 87 million people were expected to need humanitarian aid in 2020.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, saw 250,000 new displacements, making a total of 2.6 million. Home to vast oil and gas wealth, Nigeria is one of the most socially unequal countries on earth, with 10 individuals controlling a total net worth in excess of $26 billion while over 50 percent of the population subsist on less than $2.00 a day, according to the World Bank. More than 23 percent of Nigerians are unemployed.

It has faced years of conflicts and insurgencies, particularly in the northern part of the country against the Islamist group Boko Haram, and is overrun by criminal gangs engaging in kidnappings, extortion, and assassinations. Nearly half a million IDPs are living in camps without adequate shelter in the northeast.

The Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa, encompassing Burkino Faso, Mali and Niger saw a particularly sharp spike in violence and displacement, with nearly 1 million new IDPs, as unpopular governments, with the backing of France and Germany, fight off local militias.

The source of the escalating conflicts in the Sahel is the growing conflict between the major powers over control of resources, including gold and uranium. France, the former colonial power, and other European imperialist powers are seeking to defend their interests against the US, China, Russia and even India, all of which are trying to gain a foothold in Africa. France and Germany are also trying to prevent refugees from Africa from reaching the Mediterranean and Europe by sealing off the borders and setting up concentration camps.

Cameroon’s crisis—it has nearly 1 million IDPs, as anglophone secessionists in the west have clashed with security forces—is one of the world’s most neglected.

The Middle East and North Africa accounted for more than a quarter (12.5 million) of all IDPs in 2019, mostly in Syria (6.5 million), Yemen (3.6 million) and Iraq (1.6 million), which have been subject to wars and conflicts launched by the US and/or its regional clients and proxies. Whether displaced in their own countries or elsewhere in the region, the large number of refugees from these and other wars, including Libyan and Palestinian refugees, have been living for a protracted period in terrible conditions. With conflict and violence ongoing, many face the risk of secondary displacement.

In Syria, clashes between pro-regime forces and US-backed ISIS militias in the east around Deir el-Zur and Turkey-backed Islamists in the northwest in Idlib province triggered 1.8 million new displacements.

In Yemen, where Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with US and UK backing, have been fighting the Houthi-led rebellion against the stooge government of now exiled Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, 400,000 became homeless in 2019, almost double the number in 2018. For many, it was not the first time, heightening their vulnerabilities. With 80 percent of the population in need of humanitarian assistance and 3.6 million living in internal displacement, Yemen is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. More than half of IDPs live in rented accommodation, while 35 percent live in informal settlements, tents or out in the open.

In Libya, the war between General Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA), which is backed by the UAE, Egypt and Russia, and the UN-recognised Government National Accord, which is backed by Turkey, for control over the capital Tripoli has escalated. What was a relatively low intensity conflict has morphed into a high intensity war involving sophisticated weaponry, guided missiles and drones and led to 215,000 new IDPs, with 451,000 people living in settlements at the end of 2019.

The West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza recorded 1,500 new displacements in 2019, bringing the total number of IDPs in Palestine to nearly 250,000. This was the result of house demolitions, forced evictions, the confiscation of property and acts of violence carried out by Israeli settlers and the military. The number of Palestinian homes demolished in East Jerusalem in 2019 was the highest in 15 years, while Palestinians living in Area C in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Hebron are at high risk of eviction.

A significant feature of the IDMC’s report was the presentation for the first time of the numbers displaced by natural disasters. It estimated 5.1 million people in 96 countries were displaced as a result of natural disasters not only in 2019 but in previous years, many of which go unreported in the world’s press. Of the 5.1 million, 3.4 million were living in Afghanistan, India, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Sudan, South Sudan, China, Iran, DRC and Nigeria.

In 2019, tropical storms and monsoons displaced millions in south and east Asia, with India, China, the Philippines, Bangladesh and China each recording at least 4 million displacements. Many were preemptively evacuated by their own governments and of these, most but not all, were subsequently able to return to their homes.

Euro zone economy contracts at record pace

Nick Beams

Data released on Thursday by Eurostat showed that the euro zone economy contracted by 3.8 percent in the first quarter compared to the last three months of 2019, an annualized fall of 14.4 percent.

This is the largest shrinkage on record and far exceeds the annualized drop in the US economy of 4.8 percent over the same period. The biggest falls were in France, where separate data showed the gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 5.8 percent in the March quarter compared to the previous one, and Spain, where the GDP shrank by 5.2 percent over the same period.

France’s Office for National Statistics said the fall in the French economy was driven by an “unprecedented” contraction in household consumption spending of 6.1 percent and an 11.8 percent drop in investment.

The GDP for Germany, the euro zone’s largest economy, is expected to contract by 6.3 percent for the year, with data showing that retail sales fell at the fastest rate in more than a decade despite a lift in online sales and increased food purchases.

The country’s employment agency reports that more than 10 million workers have been registered to have part of their wages paid by the government, and a quarter of the workforce has either been sent home or is working reduced hours.

The euro zone GDP figures for the second quarter will be much worse because lockdowns across the region, resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, only began to take effect from the first weeks in March.

Jessica Hinds, European economist at Capital Economics, told the Financial Times the contraction in the first quarter “will pale in comparison with the complete collapse that will surely be recorded in Q2.”

Meeting on Thursday as the new GDP figures were being released, the governing council of the European Central Bank (ECB) took the same road as the Fed in the US, committing itself to pump more money into the markets, though there was some criticism from finance circles that it was falling short of the action taken by its American counterpart.

ECB President Christine Lagarde said the euro zone economy could contract by as much as 12 percent this year and the shape of any recovery was highly uncertain.

“The euro area is facing an economic contraction of a magnitude and speed that are unprecedented in peacetime,” she said.

The ECB left its interest rate unchanged, but indicated it would provide four-year loans to banks at an interest rate of minus 1 percent—effectively paying them to borrow money.

There was some criticism from financial circles that the ECB did not expand its €750 billion Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program (PEPP), through which it buys government debt and corporate bonds, to more than €1trillion.

Signalling that the financial markets want more, Andrew Cunningham, an economist with Capital Economics in London, said the ECB’s failure to upscale the PEPP “will leave investors with nagging doubts about its commitment to underwrite government borrowing during the coronavirus crisis.”

The ECB has so far used €100 billion from the program since it was introduced in mid-March, indicating that at the present rate it will run out by October. But the ECB statement said the governing council was “fully prepared to increase the size of the PEPP and adjust its composition by as much as necessary and for as long as needed.”

In her remarks to the press, Lagarde underscored this commitment. “Let us understand the whole firepower which the ECB has available, which is north of €1 trillion,” she said. The ECB would use the “full flexibility to deploy this firepower” where it considered there was a “particular risk” of a tightening of financial conditions.

Lagarde indicated the program could be extended beyond the end of the year and be used to purchase the corporate bonds of so-called “fallen angels,” that is, companies whose debt was previously rated as investment grade but had dropped to below that level.

She said the purchases would be carried out in a “flexible manner” over time, and across asset classes and among jurisdictions.

Lagarde’s remarks were aimed at finally quelling the storm of controversy set off at the previous ECB meeting when she said it was not the task of the central bank to close the spread on the yields of government bonds. This was seen as a lack of commitment to support Italian government debt, on which interest rates tend to rise higher than those of Germany and the northern economies because of concerns over the stability of the Italian financial system and the level of government debt.

Answering a question as to whether it was now ECB policy to control spreads on government debt, Lagarde said “we will use any and all flexibility” to make sure that monetary policy was “properly transmitted to all jurisdictions, from east to west, from north to south, to all sectors of the economy.”

The situation in Italy sounds a warning about what is to come and its impact on the working class across Europe. At the end of last year, Italian public debt stood at more than 130 percent of GDP and is expected to grow still further as a result of the pandemic.

On Tuesday, Fitch Ratings downgraded Italy’s credit rating to just one notch above junk status. It warned that “downward pressure on the rating could resume if the government does not implement a credible economic growth and fiscal strategy that enhances confidence that general government debt/GDP will be placed on a downward path over time.”

Given the massive contraction of the Italian economy and the euro zone as a whole, the only way this ratio can be reduced is by slashing government spending on vital social services. That is, the working class, not only in Italy but across Europe, will be made to pay for the money provided to corporations and the financial system.

This is a matter not of prediction, but of the historical record. In the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008, governments in the major economies committed themselves to stimulus packages to “save” the economy. But by June 2010, once the immediate financial crisis had passed, there was a decisive shift and a turn to austerity programs. This led to the slashing of public spending, not least in health care systems, creating the disastrous conditions exposed by the pandemic.

Today, with the bailout measures going far beyond those of 2008–2009, finance capital will demand, as the Fitch statement indicates, that these measures be implemented even more ferociously and broadly.

Volvo Environment Prize 2020 (USD 150,000 Award)

Application Deadline: 10th January 2021

About the Award: The Volvo Environment Prize is awarded by an independent foundation. A Scientific Committee does the initial screening and evaluation of candidates. The International Prize Jury, a group of internationally renowned scientists, makes the final selection of prize laureate.

Type: Contest

Eligibility: The span of disciplines and activities for which nominations can be made is wide and includes all disciplines which have relevance to the environment. The research of nominees should be based on scientific grounds but must clearly show impacts outside of the specific discipline.

Eligible Countries: All

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award:The Volvo Environment Prize is awarded annually. The Prize consists of a hand-crafted diploma, a glass sculpture and a cash award for SEK 1.5 million (approximately EUR 140,000 or USD 150,000). The award ceremony is in Stockholm in November each year.

How to Apply: Nominations must include the following:

1. A short letter of motivation
2. A detailed description of the research the nominee has conducted and how it adds to our knowledge around environmental science. Main achievements and their importance should be emphasized.
   Emphasis must also be placed on the impacts of the research outside of the particular discipline e.g. impacts on policy development, impacts on sustainability and/or contribution to changed behaviour. 
3. CV of the nominee + list of published paper/s and links if available.
4. Letter/s of reference. Maximum 3 letters written by someone other than the nominator.
5. Nominations should be submitted in English using the official form available at www.environment-prize.com. When not feasible, please contact the secretariat info@environment-prize.com
6. When submitting nominations for a group of named individuals please send one nomination for each person (maximum 3 persons) and specify in the description of achievements that the nomination is for a shared prize.
7. A nomination remains valid for three years.
8. Please note that self-nominations are not accepted.

NOMINATE

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

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Mozilla Fellows for Tech + Society Fellowship 2020 for Developing Countries

Application Deadline: 28th May 2020 12pm PT

About the Award: Critical civil society organizations fight inequality, protect the public, and partner with the public sector to serve its citizens. In the era of ubiquitous technology, it’s paramount that civil society also work to address societal issues, as they converge with the digital world. Building capacity at the intersection of technology and society will help ensure the relevance and sustainability of these institutions.
The Ford Foundation and Mozilla are partnering to strengthen organizations in the Global South by layering technology strategies into their work. This will help create a ‘third space’ where key civil society organizations and tech-focused individuals address issues at the intersection of technology and society. This will also seek to address the political element of technology — that technology as a neutral tool is affected by its creators and their biases. Benefits, harms and side effects come from how systems are designed, what data is selected to train them and what business rules they are given.
We envision that, in 10 years, this collaborative ‘third space’ will flourish in the Global South in which civil society organizations demonstrate strong capacity to address major issues at the nexus of social justice and technology. These organizations will leverage technology to promote these issues while preventing or mitigating their risks.
At the program level, Ford and Mozilla will place senior technology strategists as Fellows within select organizations and coalitions that are foundational to the strength and capacity of regional civil society.
Fellows will help increase the impact of the organization’s work by supporting them to recognize, design, and implement a strategy that accounts for the impact of technology on the organization’s mission.

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: Mozilla Fellows are web activists, open-source researchers and scientists, engineers, and technology policy experts who work on the front lines of that movement. Fellows develop new thinking on how to address emerging threats and challenges facing a healthy internet. They hail from a range of disciplines and geographies

Eligible Countries: Developing countries

To be Taken at: Selected countries (see in Webpage Link)

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: Mozilla Fellows have the opportunity to learn from and contribute to a variety of issues and approaches to ensure the internet remains a force for good. As a Fellow, you will:

• Expand your network and sphere of influence. Meet the Mozilla Fellows.
• Design impactful projects with the potential to reach millions. See what Fellows and their collaborators are working on.
• Learn from and collaborate with a global community of Mozillians. Meet more than 10,000 Mozilla contributors around the world.
• Receive competitive compensation and benefits.

Duration of Award: 10 months

How to Apply: The application for a Mozilla Fellowship is a two part process: 1) registration and 2) full application. The registration form and full application must be submitted in English using Mozilla’s Fluxx portal.

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

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Huawei NEXT-IMAGE Awards 2020 Photography Contest

Application Deadline: 31st July 2020

About the Award: HUAWEI NEXT-IMAGE Awards consists of 6 conceptual categories. The contest aims to explore alongside HUAWEI mobile users the possibilities of next-generation visual expressions and culture.

Eligible Field(s):

• Faces
• Near far
• Good night
• Storyteller
• Live moments
• Hello, life!

Type: Contest

Eligibility:

• Any HUAWEI/HONOR phone user from around the world can participate. However, submissions that have won an award in any award-winning contest or have been published in a public periodical will not be accepted for submission.
• ِAll submissions to the NEXT-IMAGE Awards must be created with HUAWEI/HONOR phones. There are noِِِِِِ restrictions on when you took the photos/videos or which model of HUAWEI/HONOR phone you used.
• The images/videos you submit can only be processed on a HUAWEI/HONOR phone, although third-party processing software is allowed. Images must be in .jpg format. The image must not be less than 1,000 pixels on the shorter side, and the data volume of a single image must not exceed 20 MB. The videos you submit can be processed by computer or phone software, but must be taken on a HUAWEI/HONOR phone. The data volume of a single video must not exceed 500 MB. Videos must be in .mp4 format.
• Each participant can upload a maximum of 30 works, which can be a photo, group of photos, or videos.

Eligible Countries: All

To be Taken at (Country): Online

Number of Awards: Numerous

Value of Award:

Grand prize winners (3)

• NEXT-IMAGE creation fund US$10,000
• A HUAWEI P40 Pro smartphone (8+256G)
• An electronic certificate

Category winners (15)

• NEXT-IMAGE creation fund US$1,000
• A HUAWEI P40 Pro smartphone (8+256G)
• An electronic certificate

Runner-up winners (50)

• A HUAWEI P40 Pro smartphone (8+256G)
• An electronic certificate

Honorable mentions (5)

• A HUAWEI P40 Pro smartphone (8+256G)
• An electronic certificate

Duration of Award:

• Shortlist announcement: 15 August
• Final Judging: 23 August
• Award announcement: Mid September

How to Apply: Apply here.

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

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Huawei Consumer Management Trainee 2020 for International Students

Application Deadline: Ongoing

Type: Job

Eligibility: Professional Knowledge Requirement:
No specific expertise is required. How great your ambition is, how much potential you may have.
1.There is no limit to academic or professional background: Whether you majored in science or in arts, and whether you got a master degree or a bachelor degree, as long as you have passion for this industry, you are warmly welcome.
2.We hope you are willing to learn and good at learning, have a strong practical ability and can be highly creative; we also expect you to be experienced in social activities;
3.You are also expected to be highly potential as a saleperson, specifically you are good at networking and target-oriented.

Eligible Countries: International

To be Taken at (Country): South Africa　Morocco　Saudi Arabia　Egypt　Russian Federation/Moscow　Ecuador　Colombia　Peru　Chile　Uruguay　Paraguay　Mexico　Panama　Costa Rica

Number of Awards:

Value of Award: You will work in a global, highly efficient, and friendly team. This job is also a continuous learning process. Continuously updated marketing theories and practices will make you more powerful, confident, and different.
Choosing to become a “”channel retail manager”” can make you grow to:
1.Sales master: Responsible for achieving the sales target of channels, developing and managing channel customers in the region, and enhancing the sales abilities of channel partners to achieve the sales target.
2.Retail expert: Responsible for achieving the retail target of devices, managing the retail marketing (store/planning/activity execution, etc.), personnel, and data, etc., in the region.
3.Product owner: Responsible for the operation (strategy) of rolling out a certain product in the region. Responsible for implementing the specific operation strategy of a certain product, according to the company’s overall plan and competition strategy.

Duration of Award: Fulltime

How to Apply: Application

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

Visit Award Webpage for Details

Google Kick Start 2020 Online Coding Contest ($15,000 + Google Career)

Application Deadline: 15th November 2020

About the Award: Kick Start is a global online coding competition, consisting of three-hour rounds of a variety of algorithmic challenges designed by Google engineers. Participants can compete in one or all online rounds held throughout the year, and will have the opportunity to develop and grow their programming abilities while getting a glimpse into the technical skills needed for a career at Google (top participants may be invited to interview at Google).
Google kick start heavily focuses on proficiency in Data Structures and Algorithms and to prepare for it is not an easy task but sure an enjoyable one.

Type: Contest

Eligibility: You:

• must be eighteen (18) years of age or older at the time of registration to be eligible to be contacted by a Google recruiter.
• are not a resident of Crimea, North Korea, Syria, or Quebec or anywhere that the contest is prohibited by law.
• are not restricted by applicable export controls and sanctions programs;
• are not a current employee (including intern), contractor, officer, or director, of Google or its affiliates;
• Check terms and conditions here

Eligible Countries: All (except Crimea, North Korea, Syria, or Quebec or anywhere that the contest is prohibited by law).

To be Taken at (Country): Online

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award:

• $15,000 for the winner, smaller prizes for runners-up.
• Top Competitors may be contacted by Google for a chance to interview for a career at google.

Duration of Award: Consisting of three-hour rounds of a variety of algorithmic challenges.
Next Competition is
Round C 2020: May 17 2020, 11:00 to May 17 2020, 14:00 (3 hrs)

How to Apply: Create a profile by clicking below “apply now”.

Second Step:
 You must have or create a profile before you’re able to register for a contest:

1. Once the Round starts, a link on the homepage will direct you to the dashboard for that Round.
2. On the Round Overview page, you’ll see the problems. They will be listed in approximate order of difficulty, so we recommend starting with the first one.
3. Read the problem description:
   1. The statement describes the problem that you need to write code to solve.
   2. The Input and Limits sections describe the test sets, which are an ordered list of difficulty targets for your program to hit. These sections make guarantees about the sort of data your code will have to run on for each test set.
   3. The Output and Sample Cases sections clarify what your code has to do.
4. Write a solution that you think can pass at least Test Set 1.
5. If you’d like, you can test your solution on test cases of your choice.
6. When you submit a solution, we will first run your code against the sample cases (for non-interactive problems). If it passes those, we will run the code against Test Set 1, and on the next test set if that passes, and so on.
7. For Visible Verdict Test Sets, you will learn during the Round whether your code passed. You can submit as many times as you like, with minor penalties.
8. Solve as many test sets for as many problems as you can before the Round ends. The more test sets you solve, the higher your score.

Apply Now

Visit Award Webpage for Details

ClimateLaunchpad: The Green Business Ideas Competition 2020

Application Deadline: June 2020 (The important thing is to get your form submitted before your country’s deadline)

About the Award: We are working on solutions to keep our programme going in this new reality with safety and accessibility as our primary drivers. The most significant change is that the entire 2020 edition of our competition will be remote and executed online.
To enter the competition submit your idea or innovation with environmental impact. We’ll help you fast track that idea into a business and bypass all possible pitfalls along the way. You’ll learn how to get your idea funded and launched.
Once you are selected to join ClimateLaunchpad, the Boot Camp and coaching sessions will help you develop your idea to a rock-solid plan. You will pitch this during your National Final and the Regional Finals. The winners of each Regional Final will go on to compete in the Global Grand Final.
Even if your idea is on the back of a napkin, you’re most welcome to join.
All entries will be reviewed and ideas that fit the bill of our competition get invited to join.

Type: Contest

Eligibility: Your idea can be an innovation in renewable energy, a sustainable transition in the food chain, a mind shift in urban mobility or any other way to tackle climate change.
Even if your idea is on the back of a napkin, you’re most welcome to join.
Let us challenge you, join the competition. But before you do, we just want to make sure that you:

• have not yet started a business or you started it less than one year ago;
• have no substantial revenue;
• you have attracted no more than € 200,000 in investment;
• you have not yet sold products, solutions or prototypes on commercial terms.

Eligible Countries: Select countries

To be Taken at (Country): Online

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: There is prize money to be won. The overall winner of the Global Grand Final receives € 10,000, the runner up gets € 5,000 and the idea that comes in third place wins € 2,500. The top 16 teams selected by the jury to perform in the Final Round of the Global Grand Fina, will automatically get direct access to the Climate-KIC ClimateLaunchpad Accelerator, the renowned business school where great ideas grow into great businesses.

Duration of Award:

• Online Course & Boot Camps May-July 2020
• National Finals June – early August 2020
• Regional Finals late August – early September 2020
• Global Grand Final End of September

Check the competition calendar for all countries

How to Apply: Apply now

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

Visit Award Webpage for Details

Taliban Peace Talks

Naveed Qazi

In February 2020, the United States signed a peace deal with Taliban in Qatar, and set to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan, in following fourteen months, provided Taliban upheld the conditions of the agreement, including distancing itself from Al-Qaeda. The U.S. said that it was also committed to close its five military bases, within one hundred thirty five days, and also expressed to end economic sanctions on the Taliban, by August 2020.

The Afghan government, which was not party to the deal, rejected the U.S. and Taliban call for a prisoner’s swap, in the following month, because President Ashraf Ghani believed such a swap would require a further negotiated agreement, and that it should not be implemented as a precondition for future peace negotiations. However, on March 10, 2020, Ashraf Ghani signed a deal to swap fifteen hundred Taliban soldiers, provided they did not return to combat. The United Nations Security Council also announced to back the U.S. –Taliban peace deal the same day. However, also on the same day, the news became widespread that U.S. was not withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan. On the next day, on March 11, 2020, Taliban distanced itself from the prisoner swap talks. The U.S.-Taliban peace deal became exposed to danger when Ghani delayed the release of Taliban prisoners on March 14. The Taliban officially withdrew from prisoner swap talks, on April 7, 2020, which had been taking place in Kabul on March 30, 2020. It eventually resulted in release of hundred Taliban soldiers on April 8, 2020.

However, these developments do represent the fragility of the deal. Most of the commentators have argued that the deal is fruitless, to say the least. Ever since it was signed in late February, violence in Afghanistan has escalated, and a power struggle over the Afghan presidency has deepened.

According to an article by John R. Allen in Brookings: “the official U.S.-Taliban deal details a number of talks that would continue well into the future between the U.S., Taliban, and the government of Afghanistan. And yet, ongoing violence, especially against innocent civilian communities, largely negates the value in these discussions.”

The Afghan government said the Taliban’s move “indicates a lack of seriousness about peace,” according to a statement, from Javid Faisal, spokesman for the Afghan national security adviser’s office. The Taliban statement, in reiteration, warned that continued violations would “create an atmosphere of mistrust that will not only damage the agreements, but also force mujahideen to a similar response, and will increase the level of fighting.”

The Taliban recently had said that their peace deal with U.S. is at their breaking point, as they have accused Washington of killing civilians with drone attacks. Despite violence escalating, they have further said that they had restricted attacks against Afghan security forces to rural outposts, had not attacked international forces, and had not attacked Afghan forces in cities, or military installations. They have specifically stated that the limit of these attacks are specifically laid down in the agreement with the U.S., signed in February 2020. But, they have warned of more violence, if tenets of the deal are breached.

Also, the prospect of talks between the Afghan government, and the Taliban is complicated by disputed election results that fractured political power in Kabul, lately. Frustrated by the lack of political progress, the State Department vowed to cut one billion US dollars in aid, as they believe the situation has harmed U.S.-Afghan relations. This move would prove detrimental for a country whose institutions solely depend on it. The United States has spent more than one hundred thirty three billion US dollars, in aid programs, reconstruction, and Afghan security forces since 2001.

In recent times, negotiations had been advocated by the former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, as well as British and Pakistani governments, but it was only the Americans who resisted it. Karzai initially offered peace talks with the Taliban in September 2007, but it was rejected by the Taliban, citing presence of foreign troops. After being re-elected in 2009 presidential election, Karzai made a televised speech, and called Taliban to leave jihad, and embrace their homeland by coming home. He also laid plans for a loya jirga. But, these plans were underlined by Obama administration, as he wanted to increase the troops in the country. Although, in 2010, Karzai again pledged to reach out to Taliban so that they could lay down their arms. At United States Institute of Peace, he said that peace process would be with Taliban, and other militants, who were not part of the Al-Qaeda network.

At that time, Taliban’s co-founder and second in command, Abdul Ghani Baradar, favoured talks with the U.S. and Afghan government. He held talks with Karzai, but was soon captured in a joint U.S. –Pakistani raid in the city of Karachi, in Pakistan. His arrest had made Karzai furious because he thought Pakistan’s ISI was opposing the Afghan peace talks. For the reason of Baradar’s arrest, Taliban did not attend Afghan Peace Jirga in June 2010. Later, in 2011, Karzai had confirmed that secret talks were talking place between United States and Taliban, but they soon collapsed without leaving any impact. In 2012, the former Afghan president accused Taliban of running a government in exile, after Taliban opened a political office in Qatar. Again in 2016, Pakistan hosted a round of four-way talks with Afghan, Chinese and American officials, but the Taliban did not attend. However, the Taliban did hold informal talks with the Afghan government, in 2016.

With Trump in office, his statements threw libel against Pakistani politics in handling the Afghan peace process. He accused Pakistan of harbouring the Taliban, because according to him, there was certain inaction from Pakistani state actors.

In 2018, following an increase in violence, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani proposed unconditional peace talks with the Taliban, offering them a status of a legal political party, and an offer to release its prisoners. He then called on America and reprimanded that military action was no solution to the Afghan problem. On March 27, 2018, a conference of twenty countries in Tashkent, Uzbeikistan  backed the Afghan government’s peace offer to the Taliban. However, for some reason, the Taliban refused to attend. Following a peace march called Helmand Peace March, in 2018, which was a response to a car bomb that killed fourteen people, Ghani and Taliban agreed to a mutual ceasefire in June 2018, during the Eid celebrations. Although, these celebrations didn’t last long.

Trump also tried to further facilitate the peace process, by appointing Zalmay Khalidzad as special advisor on Afghanistan in the U.S, States Department. As a result, Khalidzad led further talks between Taliban and U.S. in October 2018. Before the appointment, several American officials had met secretly at Taliban’s political office in Qatar.

Russia also played its part in the resolution process, by organising a separate peace talk, in November 2018, between the Taliban, and officials from Afghanistan’s High Peace Council. The talks, in Qatar, resumed in December 2018, but the Taliban refused to allow the Afghan government, considering them as pawns of the U.S. government.

When Baradar was released, at the behest of U.S. in Pakistan, a further round of talks sustained in February 2019. Khalidzad had believed that this round of negotiations was more productive, as a draft version of the peace agreement was finalised. Following this important development, the Taliban, however, did not attend the four-day loya jirga, to discuss peace talks between April-May 2019.

According to Washington Post, it was in the eight round of talks between Taliban and U.S. that were held in August 2019, that made America agree to reduce around five thousand troops from Afghanistan. This development needed Trump’s approval in September, but as violence mired in Kabul, where an American soldier and eleven others were killed, Trump cancelled the peace talks. However, in the same month, Taliban announced that doors for peace talks were open, should Trump decide to re-engage. It was only in early 2020, after a brief ceasefire, when Taliban and U.S. decided to draft a peace agreement.

As of now, the U.S. – Taliban deal is on a road to nowhere. It also seems highly unlikely that Taliban would breakaway from the Al-Qaeda – when they didn’t break away in the presence of one hundred fifty thousand coalition troops, and hundreds of thousands of Afghan security personnel, why would they now? It was Sirajuddin Haqqani, the number two in Taliban, who orchestrated the introduction of the pivotal members of al-Qaida into the war against the Soviet Union. These connections run deep, and would most likely be not given up at once, precisely at the moment when the U.S. would be leaving Afghanistan.

Australian governments rushing to reverse lockdown measures

Oscar Grenfell

State and territory leaders are rushing to overturn lockdown measures introduced in response to the pandemic, even though their own modelling indicates that this will result in the more rapid spread of the coronavirus.

The Northern Territory is today lifting a raft of restrictions, while South Australia and other states have outlined “roadmaps” out of the crisis. This is despite continuing deaths and illness linked to at least four active COVID-19 clusters across the country, and ongoing community transmission.

The aim of all the governments is to create the conditions for broad sections of the working class to be herded back onto the job, so as to resume the flow of corporate profits.

The dangerous implications of this policy have already been demonstrated in sectors that have remained open throughout the crisis. In the construction industry, for instance, the unions and property developers have forced tens of thousands of workers to continue production despite the impossibility of social distancing and have refused to shut sites even when infections have occurred.

The state and territory announcements have been timed to coincide with a meeting today of the expanded national cabinet, composed of the federal government, along with premiers and chief ministers. Each of these gatherings, followed by a press conference of Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy have been markers in the escalating “back to work” campaign.

In the lead-up to the meeting, Morrison has pressed for the state governments to plan for the reopening of restaurants, bars and clubs. The sector is clearly not “essential,” but accounts for at least $20 billion in revenue per year.

At the same time, state and federal authorities are rapidly moving to resume face-to-face teaching in the schools, despite widespread opposition, as a precondition for workers returning to their jobs.

The Northern Territory Labor government has thus far gone the furthest in reversing lockdown measures, announcing that from today outdoor activities involving pools and children’s playgrounds will reopen, while weddings and funerals can proceed with an unlimited number of attendees.

Beginning on May 15, indoor activities at cafes, gyms and food courts will be permitted and on June 5, all restrictions on mass sporting events, TAB gambling venues and cinemas will be abolished.

The territory is being used as a test case for broader measures, because its small population and isolation appear to have buffeted it from the worst effects of the pandemic.

That the NT cannot be shut-off from broader developments, however, as was shown this morning with the announcement that four Australian Defence Force personnel had been hospitalised in Darwin after reportedly contracting COVID-19 in the Middle East.

The territory is a hub of the Australian military, with Darwin hosting a major marine base directed against China. Some 2,500 US marines are set to arrive at the base in July, while an unknown number of US intelligence assets come and go from the spy base in Pine Gap near the town of Alice Springs, all year long. The US is currently one of the epicentres of the pandemic and there have already been large-scale outbreaks on board its naval vessels.

The move in the NT is particularly reckless, given that fewer than 5,000 tests have been conducted out of a population of some 250,000.

More than a quarter of Territorians are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. They suffer the health consequences of centuries of oppression and many continue to live in communities that lack the most basic amenities. While for other demographics, individuals over the age of 60 are considered at risk of serious illness or death if they contract the coronavirus, among Aborigines, the warning age is just 50.

The South Australian state government is reportedly seeking to lift many of its restrictions within three weeks. The Victorian state of emergency concludes on May 11, which is the date that Morrison and state leaders have assigned for a review of all lockdown measures.

In New South Wales, the country’s most populous state and the largest centre of infections, government claims that the worst of the crisis is over have been dealt a blow by a spate of tragic deaths at the Newmarch House aged care home in Western Sydney and by ongoing reports of community transmission.

This morning state authorities announced the thirteenth death at the Newmarch facility. Family members have protested over several weeks that they have been denied information about the plight of their relatives and their health status.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian also revealed that there had been nine new confirmed infections over the previous 24 hours. At least four of them are a result of community transmission in the Penrith area.

The state is nevertheless proceeding with back to work measures, including the reopening of the schools.

This week, the Daily Telegraph published details of a previously secret “matrix,” which the NSW government is using to plan the end of the lockdown. It appears to provide a cost versus health analysis of a series of measures.

For instance, it is noted that the removal of restrictions on large-scale outdoor gatherings would result in a “medium” risk of new COVID-19 infections, but this is counted against the “high” economic and “well-being” benefits that would result from such a measure. The reintroduction of widespread retail shopping would similarly result in a “medium” risk of a coronavirus outbreak, but would have “high” economic benefits.

According to the Telegraph, the NSW state government is hoping that its recently announced abolition of limits on family visits will have been normalised by mid-May, prior to the lifting of other restrictions.

The Murdoch-press, however, claims that there is “a group of cabinet ministers in NSW pushing for a faster relaxation of lockdown laws, including Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, Deputy Premier John Barilaro and Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello.” Two of those have portfolios that would receive a direct boost from a rapid reopening of the economy.

Similar calculations are being made nationally. This week the media revealed modelling by the “Group of Eight” universities, commissioned by the government to advise a route “out of the crisis.”

The academics presented two models. One would require the maintenance of most lockdown measures until at least June, aimed at the effective elimination of the spread of the virus. The other would involve the phased overturn of restrictions and a subsequent policy of “controlled adaptation” to COVID-19.

The proponents of the latter strategy bluntly stated that it would lead to a “slightly higher number of cases, hospitalisations and deaths.” All of their modelling is predicated on untested assertions that the health system will be capable of dealing with a rapid spike in infections. Nevertheless Morrison and other government representatives immediately declared that they were not seeking to eliminate the virus, because to do so would have too great an effect on the economy.

Governments are touting a decline in cases to justify the removal of lockdown measures. The reduction, however, is clearly the result of the policies they are seeking to overturn. Within the corridors of power, it is openly discussed that the abolition of the social distancing measures will result in a rapid spike in infections, and inevitably, in deaths.

The Murdoch-owned Australian has been among the most insistent advocates of a speedy return to work. Yesterday, its foreign editor Greg Sheridan spelt out what this would mean, declaring: “[B]ased on everything we know about COVID-19 there will likely be a second and a third wave of the pandemic. They could easily be worse than the first.” He concluded: “Don’t think the worst cannot come here.”