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Tag: Opinion

  • NBA’s sudden change of heart on load management is odd, but better late than never

    NBA’s sudden change of heart on load management is odd, but better late than never

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    The NBA’s 180 on load management is giving me whiplash.

    Five seconds ago, every available piece of science the NBA told us it had in its possession from its teams said – screamed – the same thing: players not only needed more time off but that the league would be derelict in its partnership with its players if it didn’t align with teams, whose data said: rest.

    The league cut way back on back-to-back games. Many teams eliminated morning shootarounds, as they were viewed as disruptive to players’ sleep patterns. Every team had a “Director of Very Important Sports Science and Cutting Edge MahnaMahna” and scores of eager data collectors. Wearables tracked every waking moment of every player, what they ate, and when. Cameras high above each arena tracked every movement of every player on the court.

    So, Joel Embiid rested. Kawhi Leonard rested. LeBron James rested. Everyone rested. Including in your city, after you plunked down $300 to take the family to see the Dubs’ one appearance in your city that season. Sorry, Felicity and Mikal: Steph’s in street clothes tonight. Wave to him; he’ll wave back.

    And now … psych.

    “Before, it was a given conclusion that the data showed that you had to rest players a certain amount, and that justified them sitting out,” NBA executive vice president of basketball operations Joe Dumars told national media in a conference call Wednesday.

    “We’ve gotten more data, and it just doesn’t show that resting, sitting guys out correlates with lack of injuries, or fatigue, or anything like that. What it does show is maybe guys aren’t as efficient on the second night of a back-to-back.”

    Dumars’ words echo those of Commissioner Adam Silver, as he introduced the league’s new “Player Participation Program” that was approved by the league’s Board of Governors last month.

    “Honestly, that’s what I’d been told as well, that it was the science,” Silver said. “I think it may be why the league didn’t become involved maybe as deeply as we should have earlier on. Part of the discussion today was about the science, and frankly, the science is inconclusive.

    “I think in the case here, that part of the commitment here from the league office is we are putting together a group of team doctors and scientists and others and trying to better understand it. One thing I want to make clear: The message to our teams and players is not that rest is never appropriate. And realize, there’s a bit of an art to this, not just a science.”

    GO DEEPER

    Load management has frustrated NBA, fans and TV partners. But will new rules help?

    Now, the NBA has a lot of smart, smart people in its sports medicine department. The department, led by Dr. John DiFiori, helped create the Orlando Bubble in 2020 out of thin air – and, more or less, pulled it off. It then created a comprehensive return-to-play program for the following season that was lauded by other medical people for its thoroughness and honesty about how to deal with COVID cases when and if they occurred. The league had extensive and continuing dialogue with the Players’ Association, before, during and after the two sides hammered out the newest Collective Bargaining Agreement about these kinds of issues. It’s a partnership.

    And during all of this, the NBA’s position was consistent: the science, the science, the science tells us so.

    Just eight months ago(!) this is what Silver said during All-Star Weekend in February, in Salt Lake City: “I hesitate to weigh in on an issue as to whether players are playing enough because there is real medical data and scientific data about what’s appropriate. Sometimes, to me, the premise of a question as to whether players are playing enough suggests that they should be playing more – that, in essence, there should be some notion of just get out there and play. Having been in the league for a long time, having spent time with a lot of some of our great legends, I don’t necessarily think that’s the case.

    “The world that we used to have where it was just, ‘Get out there and play through injuries,’ for example, I don’t think that’s appropriate. Clearly, I mean, at the end of the day, these are human beings – many of you talk to and know well – who are often playing through enormous pain, who play through all kinds of aches and pains on a regular basis. The suggestion, I think, that these men, in the case in the NBA, somehow should just be out there more for its own sake, I don’t buy into.”

    And now … forget all of that?

    To be fair, Silver has said, multiple times over the last few years, that he was concerned about the effect of load management on the league’s fans, who were increasingly paying to attend games in which no one they hoped to see play had on a uniform. And it became especially hard for the NBA to push teams to push their players to play after COVID reached our shores, though the league’s $100,000 fines instituted in 2020 for teams that group rested players was limited to nationally televised games.

    The league also clearly leaned into, let’s say, encouraging its players that more participation was warranted by tying a minimum games played requirement for many of its individual awards going forward.

    But at every turn, the league dropped back to its default position: We’re following the data.

    So, are we to believe the science turned on a dime? Since February?

    Did NBA players skip the line in the evolutionary process this spring, and suddenly grow a third lung, that now gives them greater breathing capacity? Have they been enhanced, like Grace in Terminator: Dark Fate, now better able to withstand the grind of an 82-game season, after not being able to go on past game 65 or so without congealing?

    And, coincidentally, I’m sure: the data changed that quickly just as the league is reaching a key moment in its discussions with its current and potentially new media partners on a new rights deal, to replace the expiring one in 2025? Or, did the networks and/or tech companies vying to air or stream NBA games in the near future say, with justification: “For our eleventy billion dollars we’re spending to buy these rights, you damn sure are gonna make sure that Giannis and Steph and the Joker suit up on the regular”?

    I’m not saying it’s the only consideration for TV/tech companies — who don’t know that they’re scheduling the Lakers back-to-back when they make their schedule requests; they don’t see the full 82 until you or I do. But it’s hard to believe they don’t push hard on that particular action item with the league’s media committee.

    go-deeper

    GO DEEPER

    Let’s talk load management: Is it a problem? How do we know it works?

    For the last decade-plus in the NBA, it’s been all about the numbers, all about the data, all about the science, even as the league (he noted, quietly) implemented both a Play-In tournament after the 82-game regular season, and before the two-month-long playoffs, and will now have an in-season tournament during the 82-game season, which will add an 83rd game to the two teams that make the in-season tournament final.

    Rest, but play a little more, too, so that the regular season actually means something – and so we have another package to parlay into another sweet revenue stream.

    The numbers ruled. And so, midrange jumpers were now stupid; rebounds no longer mattered. Big men who got in the way of all the driving and kicking were anathema; we only want rim runners now. And teams’ medical staffs all erred on the side of caution, to try to head off stress injuries and similar maladies before they got worse, by sitting players as much as possible. The days when players, proudly, would play all 82 games because that was what was expected of them were dismissed as Codger Thinking, ridiculous clinging on to the old days by old people who didn’t understand that they were shortening their careers by playing in meaningless games. (It wasn’t as if players back in the day didn’t deal with mental health issues as well.)

    The NBA seems to want everyone to forget.

    What’s more likely: All the teams’ data for the last half-dozen years has suddenly been discovered to be irreparably, incontrovertibly wrong? Or, the league went along with that data, ignoring those who said “Wait; Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and Isiah Thomas and John Stockton and Karl Malone and Patrick Ewing all suited up as much as possible, year after year, and didn’t fall apart,” because it didn’t want to push back against alleged “modern thinking”? That it couldn’t take a position of “Well, we trust our players,” because someone would present a paper at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference calling such thinking outdated? That it had to justify what every team, from its hedge fund CEO ownership on down, was now saying was “best practices?”

    Dumars, one of those codgers, said Wednesday: “Obviously everybody’s not going to play 82 games, but everyone should want to play 82 games. And that’s the culture that we are trying to reestablish right now.”

    Whatever the process the NBA used to go back to the future, I’m glad it did. It’s all right to keep some old-school thinking along with the new jack intel.

    Fans can’t be guaranteed they’ll see the league’s top stars when they buy tickets; legit injuries happen. But if the league leaves it up to teams to make close calls on player health, the teams will protect their investments, every time. And I know enough about most players to know that, given the choice, they’ll opt to play. Whether out of ego or incentives or genuine care about the fans who pay top dollar to see them, they want to suit up.

    That’s how you make the regular season more meaningful.

    (Photo of Adam Silver: AAron Ontiveroz / The Denver Post via Getty Images)

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    The New York Times

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  • Rosenthal: Dodgers need to sign Ohtani and do more to change the narrative

    Rosenthal: Dodgers need to sign Ohtani and do more to change the narrative

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    If you’re a Los Angeles Dodgers fan, how exactly are you going to get fired up about the 2024 regular season?

    Two words: Shohei Ohtani. Yet, even if the Dodgers sign the two-way superstar as a free agent, they would not be assured of a different outcome in October.

    No matter. The Dodgers essentially took last offseason off while waiting for Ohtani to hit the open market. Now, after another crushing October disappointment, they need to change the narrative.

    Their biggest need is starting pitching. Ohtani will not pitch next season while recovering from elbow surgery. Even if his only task initially is to replace J.D. Martinez at designated hitter, he will not dramatically improve a Dodgers offense that just scored 900 runs for the first time in 70 years.

    Ohtani, 29, also will not be the answer to the Dodgers’ postseason woes. Not if he hits in the playoffs the way Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman did in going a combined 1-for-21 against the Arizona Diamondbacks. And not if the Dodgers fail to adequately address a 2024 rotation that presently includes only one proven starter: Walker Buehler, who will be coming off his second Tommy John surgery.

    Strictly from the standpoint of team building, the above points are quite relevant. But the Dodgers this offseason cannot simply be concerned with simple roster construction. For all their regular-season success, if ever a franchise needs to give their fans a reason to stay engaged, it’s this one.

    If you’re a Dodgers fan, you’re still likely to buy tickets to see Betts, Freeman and Co. next season, even if president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman does nothing. The Dodgers have led the league in attendance for each of the past 10 full seasons. Their average attendance of 47,371 this season was the highest in the majors by more than 7,000.

    Then again, if you’re a Dodgers fan, you’re probably experiencing just a bit of October fatigue.

    Your team has made the playoffs each of the past 11 years, yet secured a World Series title only in the shortened 2020 campaign.

    Your team has won 100 or more games in each of the past four full seasons, yet advanced past the Division Series only once.

    Your team, based on a comparison of regular-season records, has suffered three of the six biggest upsets in postseason history in the last three years!

    That’s … a lot.

    One can rationalize the true test of a franchise is its ability to build teams capable of repeatedly dominating the 162-game regular season, which the Dodgers have done.

    One can rationalize that, in an era when teams play at least three and sometimes four rounds of playoffs, a team needs considerable luck to win the World Series.

    One can rationalize in any number of ways, but many Dodgers fans will not want to hear it. Their team is this generation’s version of the 1990s and early 2000s Atlanta Braves, who won 14 straight division titles but only one World Series, in a 1995 season reduced by a player’s strike to 144 games. And really, enough is enough.

    Clayton Kershaw was the Dodgers’ most expensive signing, for one year, $20 million. Noah Syndergaard, one of the season’s bigger busts, was next, for one year, $13 million. Then came Martinez, for one year, $10 million, and a few lesser moves, including one, Jason Heyward, that worked out quite well.

    Friedman’s additions at the deadline (Lance Lynn, Joe Kelly, Amed Rosario, Kiké Hernández) were mostly meh, though Eduardo Rodríguez’s rejection of a trade from the Detroit Tigers to the Dodgers deprived the team of a potential difference-maker. The thin trade market foreshadowed what will be a relatively thin free-agent market. But the Dodgers surely know they cannot exercise restraint for a second straight winter, and rely on all of their young pitchers to mature at once.


    Dave Roberts will very likely get votes for NL Manager of the Year. (Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today)

    Manager Dave Roberts will be a topic of discussion, as he often is after playoff disappointments, but this one isn’t on him. After coaxing 100 wins out of this team, Roberts almost certainly will get votes from the baseball writers for NL Manager of the Year, perhaps even be a finalist.

    In the end, Kershaw’s bum shoulder, combined with injuries to Buehler, Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin and the absence of Julio Urias, left the team’s rotation too vulnerable. Urías, the team’s Opening Day starter, was charged with a domestic violence felony after a physical altercation with his wife in early September. Major League Baseball placed him on paid administrative leave, and he missed the rest of the season.

    The free agent who makes the most sense for the Dodgers, and every other club, is Japanese right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who will hit the market at 25. But Blake Snell, a pitcher the Rays drafted under Friedman, also will be available. Ditto for Aaron Nola and Sonny Gray, among others.

    Kershaw’s uncertain status further increases the urgency to bolster the rotation, and Ohtani actually fits into that plan, if not for ‘24, then perhaps beyond. Ohtani is not a sure thing coming off a second Tommy John surgery, and that surely will complicate his market. But his work ethic is impeccable. His character seems to be as well. The offense he will provide, along with the marketing boost, still makes him a perfect fit.

    This is about winning, yes, but the Dodgers have proven quite proficient at that. Even if they fail to sign Ohtani, they again should be the team to beat in the NL West. Well, been there, done that, for pretty much a decade and counting. No one should diminish Friedman’s accomplishments. But fans can be forgiven for wanting more.

    Ohtani would provide not just the steak, but also the sizzle. And maybe, come October, the dessert fans are craving, too.

    (Top photo of Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)

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    The New York Times

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  • Behind Each Climate Disaster Awaits a Tuberculosis Crisis

    Behind Each Climate Disaster Awaits a Tuberculosis Crisis

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    Tuberculosis remains the leading infectious cause of death in the world, responsible for 1.6 million deaths a year, and is an active and acute crisis in many countries. Credit: Athar Parvaiz/IPS
    • Opinion by Maria Beumont (new york)
    • Inter Press Service

    NEW YORK, Oct 13 (IPS) – Maria Beumont, MD, is Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for the TB AllianceAt the end of September, two weeks after the United Nations held a High-Level Meeting on Tuberculosis (TB), a torrential storm dropped 6” of rain on New York City. The intensity of the storm recalled that of Hurricane Ida two years earlier, which—in the largest city in the United States—damaged more than 3% of buildings, killed 13 people, and left 380 families homeless.

    As recently as the early 1990s, New York City was a hotspot for TB. Throughout the decade, the city spent more than a billion dollars to contain the disease, which had become entrenched in its more impoverished communities—including those without homes. TB has plagued the world for millennia, for as long as communities have been separated by wealth.

    Today, it remains the leading infectious cause of death in the world, responsible for 1.6 million deaths a year, and is an active and acute crisis in many countries.

    The low-resource settings where much of the world’s TB burden is concentrated are the same places set to bear most of the impact of climate change and whose health systems are ill-equipped to handle added burden.

    In August, two typhoons slammed into the coast of Southern China, forcing the evacuation of almost one million people. At the same time, a surprise cyclone hit Southern Brazil, leaving 1,600 people without homes. And earlier this year, Cyclone Freddy hammered Mozambique and Malawi, forcing hundreds of thousands of people into temporary shelter. All four countries have a high burden of TB cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

    India, another high-burden TB country, has been hit hard this year by heat waves and drought. It is estimated that 17 million Indians will face climate-change induced hunger by 2030. Increases in climate-induced food insecurity will only add to the existing crisis; the UN estimates that 735 million people around the world faced food shortage in 2022.

    If rises in human displacement and hunger are tragic first order effects of climate change, TB is a giant, looming second order effect. Displacement and malnutrition are established risk factors for TB, and both are exacerbated by climate change. Though such impacts are not directly tracked, we can assume that recent climate-enhanced superstorms, heat waves, and droughts amplified the TB burden in Brazil, China, India, Malawi, and Mozambique.

    While climate change is a leading topic at major global forums around the world, including at the UN, the TB pandemic remains largely ignored. In 2018, TB appeared on the global radar when the UN held its first High-Level Meeting (HLM) on TB. National delegations agreed to four ambitious goals on providing treatment to people with TB, preventive treatment to people at risk, and drastically increasing the amount of funding devoted to tackling the disease and developing new tools for this effort.

    The world was already behind in fulfilling these commitments when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, derailing TB funding and care. As COVID-19 raged, the limited funding and attention for TB had to be diverted to face the new threat. As a result, TB deaths increased for the first time in more than 20 years. Ultimately, not one of the primary commitments from the HLM were met.  As climate change intensifies along with the effects of displacement and malnutrition, it may lead to future TB outbreaks and further strain already fragile health systems.

    Despite these setbacks, there have been notable achievements in TB research and care. A treatment for the highly drug-resistant forms of the disease was approved by the US FDA and other regulatory authorities, and was endorsed by the WHO. Additionally, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidance on a four-month treatment for drug-sensitive TB, reducing treatment duration for the first time in decades.

    TB researchers remain optimistic. Changing the way we fight TB is achievable, and we have a strong research pipeline of promising new TB treatments, diagnostics, and vaccines. Breakthroughs are on the horizon—and they are sorely needed. The impact of safe, shorter, effective, and affordable tools to control TB is anticipated to be significant.

    At the UN’s second High-Level Meeting on TB this past September, another batch of ambitious goals were adopted—including a six-fold increase in funding for services and research. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we all witnessed the results of focused efforts and appropriate funds. The same is true for TB: with adequate funding and resources, we can develop the next generation of tools to fight TB. Support from world leaders now is critical, as we can end one of humanity’s oldest diseases if we come together, while also mitigating the impact of one of the climate change crisis. This opportunity cannot be missed.

    © Inter Press Service (2023) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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    Global Issues

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  • These are the biggest money mistakes we make in our 20s, 30s and 40s

    These are the biggest money mistakes we make in our 20s, 30s and 40s

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    Financial literacy peaks at age 54, according to a 2022 study. That’s around the time you’ve gained enough knowledge and experience to make sound money decisions — and before your cognitive ability might start to ebb.

    “As we get older, we seem to rely more on past experience, rules of thumb, and intuitive knowledge about which products and strategies are better,” said Rafal Chomik, an economist in Australia who led the study.

    If people in their mid-50s tend to make smart financial moves, where does that leave younger generations?

    Advisers often educate clients at different stages of life to avoid money mistakes. While those in their 50s usually demonstrate optimal prudence  in navigating investments and savings, advisers keep busy helping others — from twentysomethings to mid-career professionals — avoid costly financial blunders:

    Navigate your 20s

    Perhaps the biggest blunder for young earners is spending too much and saving too little. They may also lack the long-term perspective that encourages long-range planning.

    “The mistake is not establishing the saving habit early, and not appreciating the power of compounding” over time, said Mark Kravietz, a certified financial planner in Melville, N.Y.

    Similarly, it’s common for young workers to delay enrolling in an employer-sponsored retirement plan. Not participating from the get-go comes with a steep long-term cost.

    “ Better to prioritize debt with the highest interest rate, which can result in paying less interest over the long run. ”

    People in their 20s process incoming information quickly. But their high level of fluid intelligence can work against them. Cursory research into a consumer trend or hot sector of the stock market can spur them to make rash investments. Such impulsive moves might backfire.

    “It’s important to resist the hype,” Kravietz said. “Don’t chase fads or try to make fast money” by timing the market.

    Many young adults with student debt juggle multiple loans. Eager to chip away at their debt, they fall into the trap of choosing the wrong loan to tackle first, says Megan Kowalski, an adviser in Boca Raton, Fla.

    Rather than pay off the highest-interest rate loan first (so-called avalanche debt), they mistakenly focus on the smallest loan (a.k.a. snowball debt). It’s better to prioritize debt with the highest interest rate, which can result in paying less interest over the long run.

    Navigate your 30s

    “ Resist the temptation to lower your 401(k) contribution to boost your take-home pay. ”

    By your 30s, insurance grows in importance. You want to protect what you have — now and in the future. But many people in this age group neglect their insurance needs. Or they misunderstand which coverages matter most.

    “If you have a life partner and kids, get the proper life insurance while in your 30s,” Kravietz said. 

    It’s easy to get caught up in your career and assume you can put off life insurance. But even low odds of your untimely death doesn’t mean you can ignore the risk of leaving your loved ones without a cash cushion.

    Another common blunder involves disability insurance. If your employer offers short-term disability insurance as an employee perk, you may think you’re all set.

    However, the real risk is how you’d earn income if you suffer a serious and lasting illness or injury. Don’t confuse short-term disability insurance (which might cover you for as long as one year) with long-term disability coverage that pays benefits for many years.

    Assuming you were wise enough to enroll in your employer-sponsored retirement plan from the outset, don’t slough off in your 30s. Resist the temptation to lower your 401(k) contribution to boost your take-home pay.

    “You want to give till it hurts,” Kravietz said. “Keep putting money away” in your 401(k) or other tax-advantaged plan until you feel a sting. Weigh the minor pain you feel now against the major relief of having a much bigger nest egg decades from now.

    Navigate your 40s

    “ ‘The 40s are often the most expensive in anyone’s life. Life is getting more complicated.’”

    For Kravietz, the 40s represent a decade of heavy spending pressures. Mid-career professionals face a mortgage and mounting tuition bills for their children.

    “The 40s are often the most expensive in anyone’s life,” he said. “Life is getting more complicated.”

    As a result, it’s easy to overlook seemingly minor financial matters like updating beneficiaries on your 401(k) plan or completing all the appropriate estate documents such as a will.

    “People in their 40s sometimes fail to update beneficiaries,” Kravietz said. For example, a new marriage might mean changing the beneficiary from a prior partner or current parent to the new spouse.

    It’s also easy to get complacent about your investments, especially if you’re the conservative type who favors a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. Instead, think in terms of tax optimization.

    “In your 40s, you want to take advantage of what the government gives you,” Kravietz said. “If you have a lot of money in a bank money market account and you’re in a top tax bracket, shifting some of that money into municipal bonds can make sense” depending on your state of residence and other factors.

    If you’re saving for a child’s college tuition using a 529 plan — and you have parents who also want to chip in — work together to strategize. Don’t make assumptions about how much (or how little) your parents might contribute to your kid’s education.

    “Rather than assume you’ll have to pay a certain amount for educational expenses, coordinate between generations of parents and grandparents” on how much they intend to give, Kowalski said. “That way, you’re not duplicating efforts and you won’t put extra funds in a 529 plan.”

    More: 7 more ways to save that you may not have considered

    Also read: ‘We live a rather lavish lifestyle’: My wife and I are 33, live in New York City and earn $270,000. Can we retire at 55?

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  • Silent Struggles: Unraveling Korea’s Startling Elderly Suicide Surge

    Silent Struggles: Unraveling Korea’s Startling Elderly Suicide Surge

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    An image illustrating the ‘No-senior zone’ in a Korean café. Credit: The Nation
    • Opinion by Hyunsung Julie Lee (seoul)
    • Inter Press Service
    • In this, the fourth of IPS’ Youth Thought Leaders series, the author looks at suicide rates in older persons and concludes we should break barriers and celebrate the diversity each generation brings.

    SEOUL, Oct 13 (IPS) – Growing up in a culture that values respect for elders, I was acutely aware of the importance of caring for our aging population. However, my journey to understanding the gravity of this issue truly began with a personal anecdote. I watched my grandmother, a pillar of strength throughout my childhood, gradually withdraw from the vibrant world in which she once thrived. The cheerful twinkle in her eyes began to dim, replaced by an eerie sense of isolation.

    This experience opened my eyes to a stark reality: a disturbing surge in elderly suicide rates hidden beneath the facade of cultural reverence for seniors in Korea and Japan. In 2021, these rates reached 61.3 deaths per 100,000 people in Korea, primarily driven by profound social isolation.

    Suicide deaths in Korea. Credit: Statista
    Suicide deaths in Korea. Credit: Statista

    Some may argue that these figures are insignificant, but the persistence of a high suicide rate cannot be dismissed. Moreover, they are poised to become even more critical as we approach a world where, according to WHO, the elderly population over the age of 60 is expected to double by 2050, and those 80 years or older are projected to triple.

    So how severe are the elderly suicide rates due to isolation in Korea and Japan? Well, research highlights that this is due to the significant rise in the elderly population. Such an increase has been concurrent with the rising elderly suicide rates. The Global Burden of Disease study emphasizes that the global elderly suicide rate is almost triple the suicide rates across all other age groups. For example, in South Korea alone, there has been a 300% increase in elderly suicide rates.

    If the world’s elderly population has increased overall, why is it that the elderly suicide rates within Korea and Japan have been especially severe? This was particularly confusing as I believed that due to cultural and social standards of filial piety and respecting your elders, such suicide rates would be low. However, I found the answer to my own question when I visited Korea in July this year.

    When I arrived in the country, one of the first things I did was to visit a cafe to meet with a friend. However, as I was about to enter the cafe, I saw a group of elderly men and women leaving the cafe while comforting each other, saying, “It’s okay; it’s not the first time we’ve been rejected.” As I later found out, this was because the cafe was a ‘no-senior zone.’

    Similar to how some places are designated as ‘no-kid zones,’ this cafe, and others, did not allow people over the age of 60 to enter.  According to Lee Min-ah at Chung-Ang University, “The continuous emergence of ‘no-something zones’ in our society means that exclusion among groups is increasing, while efforts to understand each other are disappearing.”

    I also discovered that age discrimination is also present in other aspects of the elderly’s life, more specifically, in the workplace. According to a survey by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, in 2018, 59 percent of the Korean elderly found it difficult to be employed due to age restrictions, and a further 44 percent experienced ageism within their workplace. The increase in discrimination against the elderly has heightened their sense of isolation, eventually leading to cases of suicide in extreme circumstances.

    Jung Soon Park, the Secretary General of World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGo) with the author Hyunsung (Julie) Lee.
    Jung Soon Park, the Secretary General of World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGo) with the author Hyunsung (Julie) Lee.
    Interview with Jung Soon Park, the Secretary General of WeGo at the Seoul Global Center
    Interview with Jung Soon Park, the Secretary General of WeGo at the Seoul Global Center

    I wanted to learn more about the current action being taken to help the elderly feel more included in our society, as I believed this would be key to preventing isolation-related suicide cases. To gain further insight, I decided to interview Jung Soon Park, the Secretary General of the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGo).

    WeGo is an international association of local governments, smart tech solution providers, and institutions committed to transforming cities worldwide into smart and sustainable cities through partnerships. I believe that by interviewing the Secretary General of WeGo, I would be able to learn more about the specific solutions that governments and organizations are implementing collaboratively.

    Through my interview, I gained an understanding that the South Korean government and social organizations are currently focusing on addressing age discrimination, recognizing it as a key factor in isolationism.

    Park mentioned that one specific approach to resolving this issue involves the use of ‘meta spaces’ and technological wristbands. She emphasized that in today’s technology-driven world, enabling the elderly to adapt to such technology could bridge the generation gap between the younger and older generations. She further explained that meta spaces, allowing for anonymous communication, and technological wristbands, which could include features like a metro card and direct access to emergency services, would facilitate the elderly’s integration into modern society. Park concluded that enabling the elderly to adapt efficiently to the current social setting could break down the generational barrier between youth and the elderly, fostering a direct connection between these two disparate groups.

    During my research, I coincidentally came across a website called Meet Social Value (MSV). MSV is a publishing company that specializes in writing and publishing insightful articles about contemporary social issues. Their most recent article, titled ‘Senior,’ delves into the social challenges faced by the elderly in Korean society and explores solutions involving inclusive designs and spaces.

    MSV serves as a prime example of how contemporary social organizations are taking steps to address the issue of elderly discrimination. This is especially significant because, through youthful and trendy engagement on social media, it becomes easier to raise awareness of this issue among younger generations.

    Meet Social Value's most recent article, titled 'Senior,' delves into the social challenges faced by the elderly in Korean society and explores solutions involving inclusive designs and spaces.
    Meet Social Value’s most recent article, titled ‘Senior,’ delves into the social challenges faced by the elderly in Korean society and explores solutions involving inclusive designs and spaces.

    As I continued my research, I started pondering what I, as an 18-year-old, could do to contribute to resolving this issue. Even though I’m still a student, I wanted to find ways to make a difference, especially after witnessing age discrimination and its consequences firsthand.

    I found the answer to my question when I learned about the initiatives undertaken by the government of Murakami City and the Murakami City Social Welfare Council to bridge the gap between the youth and senior citizens. They introduced the Murakami City Happy Volunteer Point System, which aimed to encourage more people to assist seniors through various volunteering activities such as nursing facility support, hospital transportation services, and operating dementia cafes, among others. The system rewarded volunteers with points that could be exchanged for prepaid cards, creating an incentive for more individuals to get involved in helping their senior citizens.

    Taking this into consideration, I believe that the younger generation, especially students, may contribute by creating such an incentivization system. For example, students may create senior volunteering clubs within their schools and take turns volunteering and connecting with elderly citizens every weekend. By doing so, clubs may incentivize their members through points which may later be traded for a snack or lunch at the school cafeteria. Through small incentives, this may naturally encourage more students to participate and thus naturally allow for the youth to create a relationship with the elderly, hence contributing to mitigating the issue of elderly isolation.

    The webpage of the Murakami City Happy Volunteer Point System containing the system’s details.
    The webpage of the Murakami City Happy Volunteer Point System contains the system’s details.

    In Korea’s battle against ageism, we find ourselves at a turning point. To navigate this societal shift successfully, we must recognize that age discrimination not only undermines the dignity of our elders but also hampers our collective progress. The solution requires a comprehensive approach. Policy reforms are crucial, emphasizing stringent anti-ageism measures in the public space and the workplace. Equally significant solutions are awareness campaigns to challenge stereotypes and foster inter-generational understanding.

    However, true change starts with the youth. By confronting our biases and engaging in volunteering activities, we can break down barriers and celebrate the diverse experiences each age group brings. Through such efforts, we can create a society where age is not a determinant of worth but a source of strength and wisdom. It’s a journey demanding our collective commitment, but one that will lead us towards a more inclusive and harmonious future for all.

    Edited by Hanna Yoon

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  • Seize Opportunity to End Last Major Mercury Device

    Seize Opportunity to End Last Major Mercury Device

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    • Opinion by Charlie Brown (washington dc)
    • Inter Press Service

    WASHINGTON DC, Oct 13 (IPS) – As the Minamata Convention on Mercury’s fifth Conference of the Parties (COP5) approaches, momentum builds to adopt the Africa Region’s proposed amendment to phase out dental amalgam – a cavity filling material that is approximately 50% mercury.

    Specifically, the Africa Region has filed a proposal to amend the Minamata Convention to add a 2030 phase-out date for amalgam, bringing it in line with many other mercury products. The proposal also adds common-sense measures to facilitate this phase-out, including (1) submitting to the Secretariat a national plan for phasing out the use of dental amalgam and (2) excluding the use of dental amalgam in government insurance policies and programs.

    This amendment is already getting support from governments around the world. On 9 October the World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry hosted a webinar on phasing out amalgam, featuring distinguished speakers ranging from the Honorable MP Nilto Tatto of Brazil to the Honorable Minister Roger Baro of Burkina Faso, from Dr. Luu Hoang Ngoc of Vietnam, the longest-serving Minamata delegate in Asia, to Joshua Sam of SPREP, architect of the Mercury-Free Pacific campaign—as well as dentists from three continents.

    The momentum to end use of this primitive pollutant from the colonial era is substantial; more than 40 nations have enacted amalgam bans or partial bans:

      • Ending amalgam use in children, pregnant women, and breastfeeding women (e.g., the European Union, Vietnam)
      • Setting a phase-out date for all amalgam use (e.g., Tanzania, Italy)
      • Banning amalgam use by law (e.g., Philippines, Moldova, Mongolia, Bolivia, New Caledonia)
      • Ending amalgam use by shareholder consensus (e.g., St. Kitts & Nevis, Zambia)
      • Ending amalgam imports (e.g., Cuba, Colombia)
      • Ending amalgam use in public programs (e.g., Indonesia, Poland)
      • Ending amalgam use in armed forces (e.g., India, Bangladesh)

    These countries are working to end amalgam because they understand the many benefits of moving away from mercury products like amalgam – and toward a mercury-free world.

    First, moving away from amalgam protects the environment from amalgam’s mercury. Between 226 and 322 tonnes of dental mercury is used around the world annually. Dental mercury enters the environment via many unsound pathways, polluting air via cremation, dental clinic emissions, and sludge incineration; water via dental clinic releases and human waste; and soil via landfills, burials, and fertilizer.

    Studies show that after environmental costs are factored in amalgam is more expensive than mercury-free fillings, but these mercury-free alternatives eliminate the high environmental costs of amalgam.

    Second, moving away from amalgam reduces human exposure to mercury. Dental amalgam releases mercury throughout its lifecycle. Higher levels of exposure to mercury (for both patients and dental workers) are associated with placement and removal of dental amalgams.

    Once implanted in teeth, dental amalgam continues to release low levels of mercury vapor, with higher amounts released during mastication, gum chewing, tooth grinding, and tooth brushing. Phasing out amalgam will eliminate this source of exposure.

    Third, moving away from amalgam actually improves oral health because of the advantages of mercury-free fillings. Studies show mercury-free composite fillings can last as long as – and even longer than – amalgam.

    They preserve tooth structure that must be removed to place an amalgam filling, which can increase the longevity of the tooth itself. They can even help prevent future caries.

    While support for the Africa Region’s proposed amalgam phase-out amalgam has been steadily building, the amalgam industry has been pushing back. Led by the pro-mercury World Dental Federation, the industry has issued a controversial letter that seemingly promotes a two-tiered system of dentistry: toxic-free dentistry for wealthy countries and mercury-based dentistry for lower-income countries.

    Such health inequity and environmental injustice is unacceptable. The world has witnessed such outrageous disparities before, such as when Western nations banned lead paint at home but sold it to Asian, African, and Latin American nations. All countries worldwide, not only wealthy ones, deserve to benefit from mercury-free dental care.

    At COP4, held last year in Indonesia, the Parties to the Minamata Convention added the Children’s Amendment, which requires each Party to “…Exclude or not allow, by taking measures as appropriate, or recommend against the use of dental amalgam for the dental treatment of deciduous teeth , of patients under 15 years and of pregnant and breastfeeding women…”

    Now the Parties have a great opportunity take the next logical step at COP5: phase out the 200-year mistake of mercury amalgam dental fillings. During the week of 30 October to 3 November, the world will choose whether to accept the industry’s two-tiered system of dentistry that off-loads mercury into Africa, into Asia, and into Latin America – or embrace a mercury-free future for dentistry. It’s time to make dental mercury history!

    Charlie Brown is president, World Alliance for Mercury-Free Dentistry

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  • It’s Time to Close the Sustainable Energy Gaps in Asia & the Pacific

    It’s Time to Close the Sustainable Energy Gaps in Asia & the Pacific

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    Credit: ESCAP
    • Opinion by Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana (bangkok, thailand)
    • Inter Press Service

    BANGKOK, Thailand, Oct 12 (IPS) – This year we pass the halfway mark both on our journey towards implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and the signing of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

    Asian and Pacific countries have seen mixed progress on both. One of the most pressing challenges is the transition to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all, as encapsulated by SDG 7.

    Without a significant acceleration of effort, reaching SDG 7 and its targets for energy access, renewable energy and energy efficiency will elude our region. Given the significance of Asia and the Pacific in terms of global energy supply and consumption, actions taken here will set the tone for the global trajectory of progress on SDG 7 and the fight against climate change.

    The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) will place these issues at center stage during next week’s (19-20 October) Asian and Pacific Energy Forum. This meeting will provide a platform for the region’s energy ministers to plan a regional agenda for a sustainable energy transition.

    https://www.unescap.org/events/2023/APEF3

    Looming large among these issues is the lack of access to electricity and clean cooking fuels for hundreds of millions of people. This deprivation has far-reaching consequences, and is a harsh reminder that, while the region has made significant strides in economic development, not everyone has enjoyed the fruits of progress.

    Lack of access to electricity hinders healthcare, education and economic opportunities. Moreover, the reliance on traditional cooking fuels such as fuelwood contributes to respiratory diseases that disproportionately affect women and children. Energy poverty exacerbates existing inequalities, trapping communities in a cycle of deprivation.

    To bridge the energy gap and promote climate-friendly sustainable development, increasing renewable energy and energy efficiency is an imperative. The transition to renewables opens avenues for economic growth and job creation.

    Energy efficiency lowers the need for new supplies, relieves pressures on our energy systems, increases productivity and reduces waste, simultaneously saving money for households and businesses. Together, renewable energy and energy efficiency foster energy security.

    Realizing the SDG 7 targets requires increased financial flows. According to the Secretary-General’s Global Roadmap for Accelerated SDG Action, annual investments in access to electricity must increase by $35 billion and by $25 billion for clean cooking by 2025.

    A tripling of renewable energy and energy efficiency investment is needed by 2030. Scaling up finance at this rate requires a large infusion of private finance to bolster insufficient public sources, alongside a shifting of national budgets away from fossil fuels. Carbon pricing mechanisms can incentivize businesses to transition towards cleaner energy solutions. Innovative business models and financial instruments can attract international finance. But for these to be successful, governments must provide predictable and enabling policy environments.

    To ensure the stability of the energy transition over the long term, governments must keep an eye on over-the-horizon risks. Key among these is the ensuring and adequate, stable and predictable supplies of critical raw materials needed to construct the millions of solar panels, wind turbines and batteries of the future.

    Our region holds immense potential for critical raw materials production, making it a key player in the global energy transition. However, regional collaboration is needed alongside responsible mining and extraction practices that minimize environmental damage and social disruptions. Moreover, investing in recycling of critical raw materials can reduce our consumption of finite resources.

    While transitioning towards clean energy is a moral and environmental imperative, a just transition ensures that no one is left behind as countries move away from fossil fuels and towards sustainable resources and technologies. This includes reskilling and reemployment opportunities for workers in declining industries, as well as community support to mitigate the socio-economic impacts of the energy
    transition.

    Achieving SDG 7 requires a multifaceted approach. This is not a challenge that any one country or sector can solve in isolation; it demands collaboration, innovation and shared responsibility. As we reflect on our progress at this halfway point, it is timely for countries across Asia and the Pacific to recommit to a regional vision where all citizens have access to clean and modern energy and the full potential of renewables and energy efficiency are realized.

    The momentum behind these changes is growing and the opportunity to close these gaps must be seized.

    Armida Salsiah Alisjahban is Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

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  • West urges Israel to show restraint amid escalation fears

    West urges Israel to show restraint amid escalation fears

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    Western governments are urging Israel to show restraint in its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, as fears grow that the conflict could spiral out of control. 

    On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French President Emmanuel Macron combined their support for Israel’s right to retaliate with a warning: That response must be fair. 

    “Israel has the right to defend itself by eliminating terrorist groups such as Hamas through targeted action, but preserving civilian populations is the duty of democracies,” Macron said on Thursday night. “The only response to terrorism is always a strong and fair one. Strong because fair.”

    On Thursday, for the first time the United States hinted at Israel’s responsibilities. Speaking alongside Benjamin Netanyahu at a press conference, Blinken said that while “Israel has the right to defend itself … how Israel does this matters.” 

    In a call with Netanyahu late Thursday evening, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “reiterated that the UK stands side by side with Israel in fighting terror and agreed that Hamas can never again be able to perpetrate atrocities against the Israeli people,” according to a Downing Street readout. But the readout also added: “Noting that Hamas has enmeshed itself in the civilian population in Gaza, the Prime Minister said it was important to take all possible measures to protect ordinary Palestinians and facilitate humanitarian aid.”

    These concerns were privately echoed by other Western officials, who warned that the world is facing a precarious moment. 

    As Israel scales up its powerful counteroffensive in Gaza, the fear in some European governments is that a full-blown regional war could erupt. 

    “Whatever Israel and the Palestinians do now risks contributing to the increasing bipolarization over the conflict,” one French diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly. “One big worry is the risk that the conflict spreads to the region.”

    Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, already called the Hamas attacks and the subsequent kidnapping of civilians “Israel’s 9/11.”

    But the 2001 attacks on the U.S. also led Washington to launch a global “War on Terror,” with American-led military involvement in Afghanistan and, two years later, Iraq, with the loss of many lives. The unified international support the U.S. enjoyed in the days and weeks immediately following 9/11 splintered over President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003. 

    “Israel clearly sees this as a casus belli [an act that provokes or justifies war],” one EU official said. “There is a real danger Israel simply uses this for a major ground offensive and wipes out the whole of Gaza.” 

    Shock and fury

    Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis even publicly warned about making the same mistake. 

    “The shock and fury in Israel are reminiscent of the emotions in the US after 9/11,” he said on X. “That provoked a display of American unity and power. It also led to a misconceived and self-destructive war on terror. Israel may be heading down the same dangerous path.” 

    Hamas’ attacks against Israel last weekend, which left more than 1,200 dead, led to an incomparable wave of sympathy and outrage across the West. The Israeli flag was projected across the European Commission’s headquarters and Berlin’s Brandenburger Tor.

    But already, Israel’s retribution against Hamas is being scrutinized. Its counteroffensive has killed more than 1, 500 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and put the coastal strip of land under “complete siege.” 

    The United Nations has already sounded the alarm. Just two days after the attacks, Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “deeply distressed” at Israel’s announcement of a siege on Gaza. He also warned Israel that “military operations must be conducted in strict accordance with international humanitarian law.” This was echoed by the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. 

    NGOs and Western governments now fear a humanitarian crisis, with the Red Cross warning that Gaza hospitals could turn into “morgues” without electricity. 

    So far, Israel seems to be doubling down. 

    On Thursday, Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said there would be no humanitarian exception until all hostages were freed and that nobody should moralize. 

    Speaking to POLITICO’s transatlantic podcast Power Play, Israel’s ambassador to Berlin, Ron Prosor, said the West must continue to stand with Israel as it fights the “bloodthirsty animals” of Hamas.

    Talking about Israel’s retaliatory measures in the Gaza Strip, Prosor said Israel decided to move “from containment to eradication” of Islamic jihadists. “This is civilization against barbarity. This is good against bad.”

    Haim Regev, the Israeli ambassador to the EU, acknowledged on Tuesday that there were few critical voices so far. “But I feel the more we will go ahead with our response we might see more.”

    Abdalrahim Alfarra, the head of the Palestinian Mission to the EU, told POLITICO on Thursday that a change in atmosphere is already underway. “It’s starting, since [Wednesday] there are several voices in the European Union itself that have started to ask Israel and Netanyahu’s government to at the least open up a passage for food aid to stop the Israeli aggression and war against the Gaza strip,” he said. 

    Gordian knot 

    Just like the U.S. response to 9/11, the escalation of the conflict risks destabilizing the entire region, Western diplomats fear. 

    “This whole conflict is a Gordian knot,” said one EU diplomat, describing the risk of escalation toward other countries in the region. The diplomat said the focus should now be on stabilizing the situation and to getting the parties back to the negotiating table.

    “The Middle East conflict has the danger of escalating and bringing in other Arab countries under the pressure of their public opinion,” former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger warned, while pointing to the lessons learned from the 1973 Yom Kippur War, during which an Arab coalition led by Egypt and Syria attacked Israel.

    Despite the historical peace efforts of the U.S. in the region, Washington is far from a neutral broker, as it has been traditionally a strong supporter of Israel. In previous crises in the region, Washington appeared to give Israel carte blanche in its response, but over time ramped up pressure to compel the Israeli government to agree to a cease fire.

    The EU official cited above doubted whether Washington will follow that playbook this time. “Biden has no more room for maneuvering domestically after the Hamas attacks,” the EU official said. “He has to support Netanyahu all the way.”

    Eddy Wax, Suzanne Lynch, Sarah Wheaton, Elisa Braun, Jacopo Barigazzi and Laura Hülsemann contributed reporting.

    This article has been updated with a readout from U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s call with Benjamin Netanyahu, and to reflect the Palestinian death toll.

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  • Brock Purdy is good and only getting better and better

    Brock Purdy is good and only getting better and better

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    SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The most important Brock Purdy Debate isn’t what you thought it was. The old arguments are done. The ridiculous discourse has been burned to bits. That part is over. Purdy is a good NFL quarterback. Case closed.

    Here’s the real question in the aftermath of yet another classic Purdy game Sunday in the San Francisco 49ers’ smashing 42-10 victory over the Dallas Cowboys at Levi’s Stadium:

    Is Purdy destined to be a Pro Bowl QB by the middle of next season, the end of this one, or could it be even sooner than that? Could it have already happened?

    All this is developing before our eyes, pass by pass, touchdown by touchdown, game by game and interview by interview. All of the proof is accumulating: Matched against the No. 1-rated defense in the league, Purdy threw four more touchdown passes on Sunday, which raised his season tally to nine. He has yet to throw an interception this season. For his two-season career, he has a 22/4 TD-to-interception ratio. And oh yes, of course, the 49ers have never lost a game that Purdy both started and finished.

    On Sunday, Purdy started off so hot and stayed so hot that Kyle Shanahan, who lives to call running plays, said he had to resist calling passes on just about every play. Folks, Shanahan never talks this way. Well, at least he didn’t when Jimmy Garoppolo and Trey Lance were his starting QBs. Shanahan didn’t say this in the first set of Purdy’s starts, either. But he’s saying it now.

    “Yeah, I felt that way with him all day,” Shanahan said after Purdy completed 17 of 24 passes for 252 yards and registered a 144.4 passer rating. “There wasn’t a time that I didn’t feel he was (in great rhythm). You’ve just gotta be careful when you feel that way beginning to end that you don’t just start calling too many passes. That’s the challenge of the play caller because you do too many and eventually you’re going to give (the defense) a chance to make a big play. But we felt if we were mixing enough that he was pretty ‘on.’”

    Because Purdy is this good. And he’s getting better.

    The key part of this is that Purdy had a tough time against the Cowboys in last season’s divisional round. The 49ers won the game 19-12, but Purdy didn’t throw a TD, completed only 65.5 percent of his passes and had a career-low (for a full game) passer rating of 87.4. Last week, Purdy openly discussed how the Cowboys’ defense disrupted him and said he’d gone over the game film frequently.

    “Last year, that was probably his worst game, not to be confused with bad, but just compared to all the others,” Shanahan said. “They stopped us on a number of big plays, they kept us out of the end zone the first play of the fourth quarter. We were down there in the red zone, we had a couple chances and just missed. Just watching him today, I didn’t sense that at all. He was extremely poised when we got down there, he hit all of them right away. And didn’t turn it over.”

    Purdy didn’t look uncomfortable for a single millisecond this time, leading the 49ers downfield on the first series of the game, which he concluded with the first of three TD passes to George Kittle. At halftime it was 21-7, then Purdy really caught fire, torching the Cowboys in back-to-back drives in the second half — featuring multiple pinpoint strikes deep downfield to Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel — to push the lead to 35-10.

    Sometimes Purdy’s teammates semi-jokingly call him a robot, just because he seems like he’s programmed to play this position. Because he almost never does the wrong thing. And the robot keeps upgrading its software.


    Brock Purdy throws a pass during the first quarter against the Cowboys. Purdy completed 17 of 24 passes for 252 yards and registered a 144.4 passer rating. (Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)

    “It was, ‘All right, they play a lot of the same guys on defense, really the same scheme,’” Purdy said after the game. “So for myself, it’s another challenge for me. I want to be better than I was last time. But was that my only motivation, my only goal this week? No. I was just doing what I was asked. I knew that the game would come to me over time, gotta get into rhythm, hit the open guys, do my part as a quarterback. Don’t try to force stuff and be a superhero. And that’s that.”

    He’s only 23. He still hasn’t started a full slate of regular-season games. He’s better than Garoppolo ever was. He’s much, much better than Lance (who was on the opposite sideline Sunday as the Cowboys’ third QB). And Purdy’s arrow is only pointing up.

    Did Kittle think Purdy was particularly “on” in this game?

    “I think Brock’s always ‘on’ — when you see him on Wednesday, he’s on,” Kittle said. “He’s just so prepared every single day.”

    Purdy delivered all of this on national TV, against Dallas’ ferocious pass rush and in front of as many critics as could possibly be assembled, waiting for him to crumble even just a tiny bit. And all he did was throw lightning strikes and make you wonder, what’s he going to be like when he has even more experience?

    “Brock was a rookie last year; he got thrown into the fire at the end, not even midway, but the end of the year. You know what I’m saying?” Trent Williams said. “So the player you’re looking at now and the player you saw back in early January, late ’22, it’s a different player. The mental bank has more in it. …

    “I think he’s going to continue to grow. What we’re seeing now is not where he’s going to be. He’s going to be better than that. He’s going to continue to get better every week. Our job is just to keep him upright so he can continue to develop.”

    You can point out that Purdy has an amazing collection of receiving weapons, which was only underlined when the 49ers put 42 points on the Cowboys without a ton from Christian McCaffrey and Samuel. But there’s a complication in that, too. Kittle hadn’t caught a TD all season before Sunday. If Purdy sticks with one target and ignores others, there theoretically could be hurt feelings and frustrations.

    go-deeper

    GO DEEPER

    How a 49ers play called ‘Gumby’ unleashed George Kittle and throttled the Cowboys

    But none of that is happening on this 5-0 team, largely because every star on offense knows he’s going to get the ball eventually if he’s open. and because Purdy has accelerated everything about the 49ers’ offense since the day he took over after Garoppolo’s foot injury last December.

    “Everyone wants to win, everyone knows that they’re good,” Purdy said. “So it’s going to be just a matter of time when it’s their game. This game George had touchdowns, great opportunities. But still, Deebo, BA, Christian, everyone’s contributing. … When their time comes, they know that.”

    Purdy’s already on the same historic tier of 49ers QBs as Colin Kaepernick and Jeff Garcia. I think Purdy is better than both of them, but it’s close. And if he’s better than both of those guys, he’s the 49ers’ best since Steve Young. And that is saying something. At the top, every QB is measured by Super Bowls. We shall see if Purdy can lead the 49ers to this highest point. But it’s in the discussion. It’s absolutely in the discussion.

    “Thirteen’s cold, man,” Kyle Juszcyzk said, referring to Purdy’s uniform number. “He’s cold. He can go out there and play with the best of them and we have all the faith in the world in him.”

    The old debate is history. Brock Purdy is good. Now if you want to argue about how far he can take this and how many Super Bowls he might win … you’re onto something.

    “The TK Show”: Go to Tim Kawakami’s podcast page on Apple, Spotify and The Athletic app.

    go-deeper

    GO DEEPER

    Fred Warner, 49ers humble Cowboys and look like NFL’s best doing so

    (Top photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)

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  • Kazakhstans Interfaith Initiative: Fostering Global Harmony through Wisdom and Leadership

    Kazakhstans Interfaith Initiative: Fostering Global Harmony through Wisdom and Leadership

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    Press Briefing was held at Ministry of Foreign Affairs ahead of the XXI anniversary meeting of the Secretariat of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions on October 11, 2023. The agenda for the meeting includes an exchange of views on the outcomes of the VII Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. Discussions will also focus on the Concept of Development of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions for 2023-2033. Credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan
    • Opinion by Katsuhiro Asagiri (astana, kazakhstan)
    • Inter Press Service

    ASTANA, Kazakhstan, Oct 11 (IPS) – In the heart of Central Asia, a nation renowned for its rich cultural diversity, multi-ethnic society, and spiritual traditions has emerged as a global beacon of interfaith harmony and understanding. Over the past two decades, Kazakhstan’s Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions (The Congress) has played an instrumental role in promoting dialogue, forging unity, and advocating for peace among diverse faiths worldwide. Rooted in Kazakhstan’s deep spiritual heritage and wisdom, this initiative has evolved into a symbol of international cooperation and tolerance. As we reflect on its remarkable journey and look ahead to its future under the leadership of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, it becomes evident that the Congress is poised to make even greater strides toward fostering global harmony and unity.

    A History of Resilience and Tolerance

    Kazakhstan’s history is a tapestry woven with threads of resilience, tolerance, and spiritual fortitude. A nation that transitioned from a nomadic civilization to a modern, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious society faced numerous trials and tribulations along the way. Yet, the Kazakh people maintained a steadfast connection to their spiritual roots, allowing them to thrive in a diverse and inclusive society.

    The hardships endured by the Kazakh people throughout history have shaped their deep spirituality and wisdom. From Russian imperial expansion to the ravages of the USSR era, Kazakhstan faced tremendous challenges. Forced settlement policies, famine, and the suppression of cultural and religious identity were stark realities. However, these trials also ignited a collective spirit of survival and resilience, demonstrating the importance of cultural preservation and the celebration of diversity.

    Press Briefing was held at Ministry of Foreign Affairs ahead of the XXI anniversary meeting of the Secretariat of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions on October 11, 2023. The agenda for the meeting includes an exchange of views on the outcomes of the VII Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. Discussions will also focus on the Concept of Development of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions for 2023-2033. Credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan

    Kazakhstan’s journey to independence brought with it a commitment to religious freedom and tolerance. From 1949 to 89, the USSR conducted 456 nuclear tests at the Semipalatinsk nuclear testing site in eastern Kazakhstan, an area roughly equivalent in size to Belgium. It is estimated that about 1.5 million people suffered health effects because of these tests. Despite this history of adversity, when the USSR dissolved, Kazakhstan, not only guaranteed equality for all ethnic groups and religious freedom but also successfully secured the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear testing site and the complete abandonment of the world’s fourth-largest nuclear arsenal. Since then, Kazakhstan has been one of the most active countries in advocating for a “nuclear-free world” based on the UN framework.

    Despite Soviet policies aimed at eradicating nomadic culture and promoting settlement, Kazakhstan successfully preserved its rich cultural heritage. The nation not only maintained traditions passed down from ancestors but also enshrined in its constitution a policy that treats the traditions, cultures, and religions of non-Kazakh people as equal to Kazakh culture. This forward-thinking approach promotes social harmony and serves as a powerful lesson from the suppression of Kazakh culture during the USSR era.

    The Congress: A Shining Beacon

    The Congress stands as a beacon of interfaith harmony, powered by Kazakhstan’s deep commitment to religious tolerance. Serving as a distinctive forum, it unites leaders from myriad faiths to jointly foster global peace. Kazakhstan, with its mosaic of Islamic, Turkic, and nomadic influences, offers a melting pot for dialogues that intertwine East with West and bridge diverse religious doctrines. Upholding a neutral stance in global affairs, Kazakhstan ensures the Congress remains a sanctuary for unbiased, apolitical discussions. Addressing urgent issues like religious extremism, terrorism, and environmental threats, the Congress strives for collective solutions.

    President Tokayev’s Vision for the Future

    As the Congress is poised for further evolution. President Tokayev’s leadership brings a renewed focus on interfaith dialogue and cooperation in a world grappling with increasing complexity. While he believes diplomacy is essential in facilitating cooperation, he sees religious leaders (Approximately 85% of the world’s population identifies with a religion) as indispensable agents of change in building a new world system focused on peace. He emphasizes the shared principles of all religions, such as the sanctity of human life, mutual support, and the rejection of destructive rivalry and hostility, as the foundation for such a system.

    President Tokayev outlines practical ways in which religious leaders can contribute to world peace, including healing societal wounds following conflicts, preventing negative trends that undermine tolerance, and addressing the impact of digital technology on society. He highlights the need to cultivate spiritual values and moral guidelines to navigate the challenges posed by rapid technological advancements.

    A Future of Unity and Harmony

    As the Congress continues to evolve, it serves as a beacon of hope in an increasingly divided world. Kazakhstan’s steadfast dedication to interfaith dialogue reminds us that spirituality and wisdom can pave the path to a more peaceful and harmonious global society.

    Kazakhstan’s journey from its tumultuous past to a beacon of hope for interfaith dialogue is a testament to the deep spirituality and wisdom of its people. The Congress continues to illuminate the path to global harmony and unity, demonstrating the power of dialogue, mutual understanding, and the enduring human spirit.

    Katsuhiro Asagiri is President of INPS Japan

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  • Dividend stocks are dirt cheap. It may be time to back up the truck.

    Dividend stocks are dirt cheap. It may be time to back up the truck.

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    The stock market always overreacts, and this year it seems as if investors believe dividend stocks have become toxic. But a look at yields on quality dividend stocks relative to the market underlines what may be an excellent opportunity for long-term investors to pursue growth with an income stream that builds up over the years.

    The current environment, in which you can get a yield of more than 5% yield on your cash at a bank or lock in a yield of 4.57% on a10-year U.S. Treasury note
    BX:TMUBMUSD10Y
    or close to 5% on a 20-year Treasury bond
    BX:TMUBMUSD20Y
    seems to have made some investors forget two things: A stock’s dividend payout can rise over the long term, and so can it is price.

    It is never fun to see your portfolio underperform during a broad market swing. And people have a tendency to prefer jumping on a trend hoping to keep riding it, rather than taking advantage of opportunities brought about by price declines. We may be at such a moment for quality dividend stocks, based on their yields relative to that of the benchmark S&P 500
    SPX.

    Drew Justman of Madison Funds explained during an interview with MarketWatch how he and John Brown, who co-manage the Madison Dividend Income Fund, BHBFX MDMIX and the new Madison Dividend Value ETF
    DIVL,
    use relative dividend yields as part of their screening process for stocks. He said he has never seen such yields, when compared with that of the broad market, during 20 years of work as a securities analyst and portfolio manager.

    Dividend stocks are down

    Before diving in, we can illustrate the market’s current loathing of dividend stocks by comparing the performance of the Schwab U.S. Equity ETF
    SCHD,
    which tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index, with that of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust
    SPY.
    Let’s look at a total return chart (with dividends reinvested) starting at the end of 2021, since the Federal Reserve started its cycle of interest rate increases in March 2022:


    FactSet

    The Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index is made up of “high-dividend-yielding stocks in the U.S. with a record of consistently paying dividends, selected for fundamental strength relative to their peers, based on financial ratios,” according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

    The end results for the two ETFs from the end of 2021 through Tuesday are similar. But you can see how the performance pattern has been different, with the dividend stocks holding up well during the stock market’s reaction to the Fed’s move last year, but trailing the market’s recovery as yields on CDs and bonds have become so much more attractive this year. Let’s break down the performance since the end of 2021, this time bringing in the Madison Dividend Income Fund’s Class Y and Class I shares:

    Fund

    		 2023 return

    		 2022 return

    		 Return since the end of 2021
    SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust

    		 14.9%

    		 -18.2%

    		 -6.0%
    Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF

    		 -3.8%

    		 -3.2%

    		 -6.9%
    Madison Dividend Income Fund – Class Y

    		 -4.7%

    		 -5.4%

    		 -9.9%
    Madison Dividend Income Fund – Class I

    		 -4.7%

    		 -5.3%

    		 -9.7%
    Source: FactSet

    Dividend stocks held up well during 2022, as the S&P 500 fell more than 18%. But they have been left behind during this year’s rally.

    The Madison Dividend Income Fund was established in 1986. The Class Y shares have annual expenses of 0.91% of assets under management and are rated three stars (out of five) within Morningstar’s “Large Value” fund category. The Class I shares have only been available since 2020. They have a lower expense ratio of 0.81% and are distributed through investment advisers or through platforms such as Schwab, which charges a $50 fee to buy Class I shares.

    The opportunity — high relative yields

    The Madison Dividend Income Fund holds 40 stocks. Justman explained that when he and Brown select stocks for the fund their investible universe begins with the components of the Russell 1000 Index
    RUT,
    which is made up of the largest 1,000 companies by market capitalization listed on U.S. exchanges. Their first cut narrows the list to about 225 stocks with dividend yields of at least 1.1 times that of the index.

    The Madison team calculates a stock’s relative dividend yield by dividing its yield by that of the S&P 500. Let’s do that for the Schwab U.S. Equity ETF
    SCHD
    (because it tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index) to illustrate the opportunity that Justman highlighted:

    Index or ETF

    		 Dividend yield

    		 5-year Avg. yield 

    		 10-year Avg. yield 

    		 15-year Avg. yield 

    		 Relative yield

    		 5-year Avg. relative yield 

    		 10-year Avg. relative yield 

    		 15-year Avg. relative yield 
    Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF

    		 3.99%

    		 3.41%

    		 3.20%

    		 3.16%

    		 2.6

    		 2.1

    		 1.8

    		 1.6
    S&P 500

    		 1.55%

    		 1.62%

    		 1.79%

    		 1.92%
    Source: FactSet

    The Schwab U.S. Equity ETF’s relative yield is 2.6 — that is, its dividend yield is 2.6 times that of the S&P 500, which is much higher than the long-term averages going back 15 years. If we went back 20 years, the average relative yield would be 1.7.

    Examples of high-quality stocks with high relative dividend yields

    After narrowing down the Russell 1000 to about 225 stocks with relative dividend yields of at least 1.1, Justman and Brown cut further to about 80 companies with a long history of raising dividends and with strong balance sheets, before moving further through a deeper analysis to arrive at a portfolio of about 40 stocks.

    When asked about oil companies and others that pay fixed quarterly dividends plus variable dividends, he said, “We try to reach out to the company and get an estimate of special dividends and try to factor that in.” Two examples of companies held by the fund that pay variable dividends are ConocoPhillips
    COP,
    -0.29%
    and EOG Resources Inc.
    EOG,
    +0.52%    .

    Since the balance-sheet requirement is subjective “almost all fund holdings are investment-grade rated,” Justman said. That refers to credit ratings by Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service or Fitch Ratings. He went further, saying about 80% of the fund’s holdings were rated “A-minus or better.” BBB- is the lowest investment-grade rating from S&P. Fidelity breaks down the credit agencies’ ratings hierarchy.

    Justman named nine stocks held by the fund as good examples of quality companies with high relative yields to the S&P 500:

    Company

    		 Ticker

    		 Dividend yield

    		 Relative yield

    		 2023 return

    		 2022 return

    		 Return since the end of 2021
    CME Group Inc. Class A

    		 CME,
    +0.47%         		2.04%

    		 1.3

    		 31%

    		 -23%

    		 1%
    Home Depot, Inc.

    		 HD,
    -0.39%         		2.79%

    		 1.8

    		 -3%

    		 -22%

    		 -25%
    Lowe’s Cos., Inc.

    		 LOW,
    +0.27%         		2.17%

    		 1.4

    		 3%

    		 -21%

    		 -19%
    Morgan Stanley

    		 MS,
    -1.54%         		4.24%

    		 2.7

    		 -3%

    		 -10%

    		 -13%
    U.S. Bancorp

    		 USB,
    -0.25%         		5.89%

    		 3.8

    		 -22%

    		 -19%

    		 -37%
    Medtronic PLC

    		 MDT,
    -4.32%         		3.62%

    		 2.3

    		 1%

    		 -23%

    		 -22%
    Texas Instruments Inc.

    		 TXN,
    -0.21%         		3.30%

    		 2.1

    		 -3%

    		 -10%

    		 -12%
    United Parcel Service Inc. Class B

    		 UPS,
    -0.16%         		4.17%

    		 2.7

    		 -8%

    		 -16%

    		 -23%
    Union Pacific Corp.

    		 UNP,
    +1.52%         		2.52%

    		 1.6

    		 2%

    		 -16%

    		 -15%
    Source: FactSet

    Click on the tickers for more about each company, fund or index.

    Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information available for free on the MarketWatch quote page.

    Now let’s see how these companies have grown their dividend payouts over the past five years. Leaving the companies in the same order, here are compound annual growth rates (CAGR) for dividends.

    Before showing this next set of data, let’s work through one example among the nine stocks:

    • If you had purchased shares of Home Depot Inc.
      HD,
      -0.39%
      five years ago, you would have paid $193.70 a share if you went in at the close on Oct. 10, 2018. At that time, the company’s quarterly dividend was $1.03 cents a share, for an annual dividend rate of $4.12, which made for a then-current yield of 2.13%.

    • If you had held your shares of Home Depot for five years through Tuesday, your quarterly dividend would have increased to $2.09 a share, for a current annual payout of $8.36. The company’s dividend has increased at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.2% over the past five years. In comparison, the S&P 500’s weighted dividend rate has increased at a CAGR of 6.24% over the past five years, according to FactSet.

    • That annual payout rate of $8.36 would make for a current dividend yield of 2.79% for a new investor who went in at Tuesday’s closing price of $299.22. But if you had not reinvested, the dividend yield on your five-year-old shares (based on what you would have paid for them) would be 4.32%. And your share price would have risen 54%. And if you had reinvested your dividends, your total return for the five years would have been 75%, slightly ahead of the 74% return for the S&P 500 SPX during that period.

    Home Depot hasn’t been the best dividend grower among the nine stocks named by Justman, but it is a good example of how an investor can build income over the long term, while also enjoying capital appreciation.

    Here’s the dividend CAGR comparison for the nine stocks:

    Company

    		 Ticker

    		 Five-year dividend CAGR

    		 Dividend yield on shares purchased five years ago

    		 Dividend yield five years ago

    		 Current dividend yield

    		 Five-year price change

    		 Five-year total return
    CME Group Inc. Class A

    		 CME,
    +0.47%         		9.46%

    		 2.44%

    		 1.55%

    		 2.04%

    		 20%

    		 42%
    Home Depot Inc.

    		 HD,
    -0.39%         		15.20%

    		 4.32%

    		 2.13%

    		 2.79%

    		 54%

    		 75%
    Lowe’s Cos, Inc.

    		 LOW,
    +0.27%         		18.04%

    		 4.14%

    		 1.81%

    		 2.17%

    		 91%

    		 109%
    Morgan Stanley

    		 MS,
    -1.54%         		23.16%

    		 7.62%

    		 2.69%

    		 4.24%

    		 80%

    		 108%
    U.S. Bancorp

    		 USB,
    -0.25%         		5.34%

    		 3.60%

    		 2.78%

    		 5.89%

    		 -39%

    		 -26%
    Medtronic PLC

    		 MDT,
    -4.32%         		6.65%

    		 2.90%

    		 2.10%

    		 3.62%

    		 -20%

    		 -9%
    Texas Instruments Inc.

    		 TXN,
    -0.21%         		11.04%

    		 5.24%

    		 3.10%

    		 3.30%

    		 59%

    		 82%
    United Parcel Service Inc. Class B

    		 UPS,
    -0.16%         		12.23%

    		 5.56%

    		 3.12%

    		 4.17%

    		 33%

    		 56%
    Union Pacific Corp.

    		 UNP,
    +1.52%         		10.20%

    		 3.37%

    		 2.07%

    		 2.52%

    		 34%

    		 49%
    Source: FactSet

    This isn’t to say that Justman and Brown have held all of these stocks over the past five years. In fact, Lowe’s Cos.
    LOW,
    +0.27%
    was added to the portfolio this year, as was United Parcel Service Inc.
    UPS,
    -0.16%    .
    But for most of these companies, dividends have compounded at relatively high rates.

    When asked to name an example of a stock the fund had sold, Justman said he and Brown decided to part ways with Verizon Communications Inc.
    VZ,
    -0.94%
    last year, “as we became concerned about its fundamental competitive position in its industry.”

    Summing up the scene for dividend stocks, Justman said, “It seems this year the market is treating dividend stocks as fixed-income instruments. We think that is a short-term issue and that this is a great opportunity.”

    Don’t miss: How to tell if it is worth avoiding taxes with a municipal-bond ETF

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  • Israels 9/11 is a Slogan to Rationalize Open-Ended Killing of Palestinian Civilians

    Israels 9/11 is a Slogan to Rationalize Open-Ended Killing of Palestinian Civilians

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    • Opinion by Norman Solomon (san francisco, usa)
    • Inter Press Service

    SAN FRANCISCO, USA, Oct 11 (IPS) – When Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations spoke outside the Security Council on Sunday, he said: “This is Israel’s 9/11. This is Israel’s 9/11.” Meanwhile, in a PBS NewsHour interview, Israel’s ambassador to the United States said: “This is, as someone said, our 9/11.”

    While the phrase might seem logical, “Israel’s 9/11” is already being used as a huge propaganda weapon by Israel’s government — now engaged in massive war crimes against civilians in Gaza, after mass murder of Israelis by Hamas last weekend.

    On the surface, an analogy between the atrocities just suffered by Israelis and what happened on Sept. 11, 2001 might seem to justify calls for unequivocal solidarity with Israel. But horrific actions are in process from an Israeli government that has long maintained a system of apartheid while crushing basic human rights of Palestinian people.

    What is very sinister about trumpeting “Israel’s 9/11” is what happened after America’s 9/11. Wearing the shroud of victim, the United States proceeded to use the horrible tragedy suffered inside its own borders as a license to kill vast numbers of people in the name of retaliation, righteousness and, of course, the “war on terror.”

    It’s a playbook that the government of Benjamin Netanyahu is currently adapting and implementing with a vengeance. Now underway, Israel’s collective punishment of 2.3 million people in Gaza is an intensification of what Israel has been doing to Palestinians for decades.

    But Israel’s extremism, more than ever touting itself as a matter of self-defense, is at new racist depths of willingness to treat human beings as suitable for extermination.

    On Monday, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant described Palestinians as “beastly people” and said: “We are fighting animals and are acting accordingly.”

    Indiscriminate bombing is now happening along with a cutoff of food, water, electricity and fuel. Noting that “even before the latest restrictions, residents of Gaza already faced widespread food insecurity, restrictions on movement and water shortages,” the BBC reported that a UN official said people in Gaza “were ‘terrified’ by the current situation and worried for their safety — as well as that of their children and families.”

    This is a terrible echo from the post-9/11 approach of the U.S. government, which from the outset after Sept. 11, 2001 conferred advance absolution on itself for any and all of its future crimes against humanity.

    In the name of fighting terrorism, the United States inflicted collective punishment on huge numbers of people who had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11. The Costs of War project at Brown University calculates more than 400,000 direct civilian deaths “in the violence of the U.S. post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere.”

    Early in the “war on terror,” Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had fashioned a template to provide approval for virtually any killing by the U.S. military. “We did not start this war,” he said at a news briefing in December 2001, two months into the Afghanistan war. “So, understand, responsibility for every single casualty in this war, whether they’re innocent Afghans or innocent Americans, rests at the feet of the al Qaeda and the Taliban.”

    Rumsfeld was showered with acclaim from the U.S. media establishment, while he not only insisted that the U.S. government had no responsibility for the deaths caused by its armed forces; he also attested to the American military’s notable decency.

    “The targeting capabilities, and the care that goes into targeting, to see that the precise targets are struck, and that other targets are not struck, is as impressive as anything anyone could see,” Rumsfeld said. He lauded “the care that goes into it, the humanity that goes into it.”

    Even before its current high-tech attack on Gaza, Israel had amassed a long track record of killing civilians there, while denying it every step of the way. For instance, the United Nations found that during Israel’s 2014 “Operation Protective Edge” assault, 1,462 Palestinian civilians died, including 495 children.

    There’s no reason to doubt that the civilian death toll from the present Israeli military actions in Gaza will soon climb far above the number of people killed by the Hamas assault days ago. As in the aftermath of 9/11, official claims to be only fighting terrorism will continue to serve as PR smokescreens for a government terrorizing and inflicting mass carnage on Palestinians.

    Deserving only unequivocal condemnation, Hamas’s killing and abduction of civilians set the stage for Israel’s slaughter of civilians now underway in Gaza.

    Absent from the New York Times home page Monday night and relegated to page 9 of the newspaper’s print edition on Tuesday, a grisly news story began this way: “Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza on Monday, flattening mosques over the heads of worshipers, wiping away a busy marketplace full of shoppers and killing entire families, witnesses and authorities in Gaza said.”

    “Five Israeli airstrikes ripped through the marketplace in the Jabaliya refugee camp, reducing it to rubble and killing dozens, the authorities said. Other strikes hit four mosques in the Shati refugee camp and killed people worshiping inside, they said. Witnesses said boys had been playing soccer outside one of the mosques when it was struck.”

    Along with releasing a statement about the latest tragic turn of events, at RootsAction.org we’ve offered supporters of a just peace a quick way to email their members of Congress and President Biden. The gist of the message is that “the horrific cycle of violence in the Middle East will not end until the Israeli occupation ends — and a huge obstacle to ending the occupation has been the U.S. government.”

    Norman Solomon is national director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He is the author of many books including War Made Easy. His latest book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, was published in summer 2023 by The New Press.

    IPS UN Bureau


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    © Inter Press Service (2023) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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  • The Frogs Are Drying Up! Let’s Explore What We Can Do!

    The Frogs Are Drying Up! Let’s Explore What We Can Do!

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    Atashi Kitchen in Karuizawa operates a children’s cafeteria (Kodomo-Shokudo), providing free or low-cost meals and distributing food to those in need.
    • Opinion by Karuta Yamamoto – Seiji Takano – Shun Shikii – Sota Yoshihar (tokyo)
    • Inter Press Service

    TOKYO, Oct 10 (IPS) – In the third in our series by Youth Thought Leaders, the students write about the impact of human activity, including food waste, on the environment. They are positive that with incremental changes a sustainable and humane world is possible.Have you ever seen a dried frog? We have, and it’s making us rethink our impact on the environment. Frogs are incredibly sensitive to dry conditions, and they are facing the threat of extinction due to global warming. Amphibians, like frogs, make up a significant portion of endangered species, with 41 percent vulnerable compared to only 25 percent for mammals like polar bears.

    Frogs, as amphibians, require both land and water habitats, and their thin, specialized skin makes them highly susceptible to changes in humidity and temperature. Climate shifts can disrupt their breeding patterns, leading to population declines.

    This sensitivity to heat and drought means that frogs can easily die on scorching days. What’s more, a decrease in the frog population can trigger a chain reaction in the ecosystem, affecting animals that rely on them for food, like owls, snakes, and raccoons.

    Recognizing this, we’re reevaluating our lifestyles to reduce carbon emissions, a major contributor to global warming.

    IUCN Red List
    IUCN Red List
    Frogs are sensitive, but with the right conditions can survive, as this X post shows.
    Frogs are sensitive, but with the right conditions, they can survive, as this X post shows.
    These are pet frogs. One is colloquially known as a ‘crown horn frog’, and the others ‘house mega frogs.’ Once, our crown horn frog faced a health issue. At first, we had it on a white electric mat, but we later discovered that an earthen floor was a better choice. Unfortunately, it turned out that the soil was contaminated and made the frog sick. This experience taught us that frogs are incredibly sensitive to changes in their environment.
    These are pet frogs. One is colloquially known as a ‘crown horn frog,’ and the others ‘house mega frogs.’ Once, our crown horn frog faced a health issue. At first, we had it on a white electric mat, but we later discovered that an earthen floor was a better choice. Unfortunately, it turned out that the soil was contaminated and made the frog sick. This experience taught us that frogs are incredibly sensitive to changes in their environment.

    Food Loss and Global Warming

    Are you familiar with the term’ food loss?’ Discarding food that is still edible is not just about wasting food; it also contributes to the environmental issue of global warming. It is estimated that Japan discards approximately 5.22 million tons of food annually. To dispose of such a significant amount of food waste, incineration is necessary, which generates greenhouse gases and contributes to global warming. Another concern arises from the necessity of developing new final disposal sites for the ash produced from incineration, which often entails the destruction of sea and forest areas. This, in turn, exacerbates environmental issues.

    Analyzing data from the World Resources Institute (WRI), an environmental non-profit, reveals that food loss contributes to about 8-10 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, only one out of three people recognize its link to food loss. Similarly, Japan, although concerned about climate change, rarely sees articles connecting it to food loss.

    Volunteer students at the Atashi Kitchen in Karuizawa. The kitchen operates a children's cafeteria offering free or low-cost meals to those in need.
    Volunteer students at the Atashi Kitchen in Karuizawa. The kitchen operates a children’s cafeteria offering free or low-cost meals to those in need.
    Student volunteers at the Atashi Kitchen in Karuizawa. Food loss contributes to global warming.
    Student volunteers at the Atashi Kitchen in Karuizawa. Food loss contributes to global warming.
    Students help prepare meals at the Atashi Kitchen in Karuizawa.
    Students help prepare meals at the Atashi Kitchen in Karuizawa.

    Driven by this realization, we decided to combat global warming by efficiently using surplus food, essentially functioning as food banks. Our search led us to Atashi Kitchen in Karuizawa, Japan, which operates a food bank as part of a children’s cafeteria (Kodomo-Shokudo), providing free or low-cost meals and distributing food to those in need.

    On July 22, 2023, our group of eight Grade 8 students from Dalton Tokyo Gakuen Junior School volunteered at the children’s cafeteria. Witnessing the diverse array of food, from fresh vegetables donated by local farmers to meat from contributions and observing strangers sharing joyful conversations while enjoying their meals, we realized this place was about more than food; it was about sharing happiness.

    The Ministry of the Environment reported that in 2020, Japan generated about 5.22 million tons of food loss, with businesses contributing 2.75 million tons and households 2.47 million tons. This data prompted us to search for environmentally conscious companies in Japan.

    Group photo at the Suntory Odaiba Office
    Group photo at the Suntory Odaiba Office
    From front left: Hikari Kujime (Corporate Sustainability Department, Yusuke Sasaki( PR Department), Tomoyuki Ichida, and Tamon Koshino?General Manager, Corporate Sustainability Department? from Suntory Holdings.
    Hikari Kujime (Corporate Sustainability Department), Yusuke Sasaki (PR Department), Tomoyuki Ichida, and Tamon Koshino (General Manager, Corporate Sustainability Department) at Suntory Holdings are with the students learning about sustainability in business.

    Suntory actively harnesses artificial intelligence (AI) to accurately predict sales, a practice that significantly reduces food waste. Additionally, at Meissen, their restaurant, Suntory, ingeniously repurposes leftover bread crusts as feed for pigs. What struck us most during our visit was Suntory’s wholehearted dedication to ecological sustainability, which aligned perfectly with our mission as teenage writers.

    Beyond witnessing their sustainability practices, we seized the opportunity to engage in educational activities for elementary school students. These activities centered on the significance of water conservation, bird protection, and the crucial role played by mountain forests in ensuring clean water sources. This hands-on experience kindled our fervor for safeguarding water resources and passing on this invaluable knowledge to the next generation. It further solidified our unwavering commitment to environmental education and conservation efforts.

    Food Safety and the Environment

    Japan’s strong emphasis on safety and security, while commendable, inadvertently results in food loss. This has not only environmental implications but also economic repercussions for manufacturers. To address this issue, let’s consider the “one-third rule.” It dictates that the delivery deadline extends until one-third of the best-before date remains, and the sell-by date covers two-thirds of the best-before date. This rule aims to accommodate consumers who tend to be overly cautious about expiration dates. To combat food waste effectively, it’s essential to ensure consumers understand these dates, promote awareness of waste reduction, and shift the mindset away from avoiding products nearing their expiration date.

    Maybe we can put it more straightforwardly: In Japan, food is often deemed expired much earlier compared to the United States or Europe. Here’s a comparison of delivery deadlines in these developed regions: In Japan, it’s one-third of the best-before date, while in the United States, it extends to one-half. European countries, like Belgium, allow up to two-thirds, and in the United Kingdom, it’s three-quarters. This clearly reflects Japan’s inclination to exercise greater caution concerning expiration dates.

    Food expiry dates leads to food losses too.
    Food expiry dates lead to food losses, too.

    So, what does food loss mean to teenagers like us? For us, it signifies a mission to heighten awareness about the intricate interplay between food loss, global warming, the safeguarding of frogs and various other creatures, our deepened appreciation for the environment, and the responsible utilization of food resources.

    In conclusion, our journey has taught us that small actions can lead to significant change. As teenagers, we often hear that we are the future, but we believe that we can make an impact in the present as well. The frogs drying up symbolize a larger issue – the delicate balance of our planet’s ecosystems. It’s a call to action, a reminder that our actions matter.

    We, as young individuals, have a crucial role to play. By raising awareness about the interconnectedness of issues like food loss, global warming, and the protection of our fellow creatures, we can inspire change in our communities. We can choose to reduce waste, conserve resources, and make sustainable choices. We can advocate for policies that protect our environment. By embracing knowledge and taking action, we can be the driving force behind a healthier planet.

    So, let’s continue this journey together, with the frogs as our inspiration. Let’s be the generation that not only stops the drying of our amphibian friends but also works towards a world where nature thrives and all creatures, including us, live harmoniously.

    Remember, it all starts with awareness, and it’s our responsibility to pass on this knowledge to others. Together, we can create a more sustainable and compassionate world for all.

    IPS UN Bureau Report

    Note:Karuta Yamamoto and Seiji Takano were the team leaders

    Edited by Hanna Yoon

    IPS UN Bureau Report


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    © Inter Press Service (2023) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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  • Here’s the real reason the stock market is so horrid. And, yes, it’s rather spooky.

    Here’s the real reason the stock market is so horrid. And, yes, it’s rather spooky.

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    Some say it’s the fear of stagflation.

    Some say it’s chaos on Capitol Hill.

    Some say it’s turmoil in the Middle East.

    But we all know the real reason the stock market is so crummy, right?

    It’s October! Of course stocks are down!

    It is a bizarre, inexplicable, and yet undeniable, fact that, throughout history, Wall Street has produced almost all of its gains during the winter months of the year — from Nov. 1 to April 30. It is an even more bizarre, inexplicable and yet undeniable fact that the rest of the world’s stock markets have done the same thing.

    The so-called summer months, meaning the half of the year from May 1 to Halloween, have generally given you bupkis or worse. 

    Around the world, over the course of centuries of recorded financial history, stock-market returns have averaged four full percentage points higher from November to April than from May to October, report researchers Ben Jacobsen at Tilburg University and Cherry Yi Zhang at Nottingham University’s Business School in China. This so-called Halloween Effect seems “remarkably robust,” they concluded, after studying the financial returns of 114 different countries going back as far as they could find reliable monthly data — starting with the stock market in 1693 London. 

    Even more extreme: In the 65 countries for which they had extensive data both about the stock market and about short-term interest rates, it’s fair to say you would have been better off selling your stocks on May 1, putting the money in the bank, then taking it out again at the end of October and buying back your stocks (ignoring fees and taxes, of course).

    “In none of the 65 countries for which we have total returns and short-term interest rates available — with the exception of Mauritius — can we reject a Sell in May effect based on our new test. Only for Mauritius do we find evidence of significantly positive excess returns during summer.”

    Italics mine. Mauritius? 

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA
    is now lower than it was at the end of April. So is the Russell 2000
    RUT
    index of small-cap U.S. stocks. The benchmark international stock index, the MSCI EAFE, is down about 6%. Japan’s Nikkei
    NIY00,
    +1.90%
    is slightly up, as the yen has tanked.

    The S&P 500
    SPX
    is hanging on to a small gain, but that is only because of the early summer gains of a few tech titans. The average S&P stock is down about 2.5% since the end of April — while an investment in no-risk Treasury bills is up more than 2%.

    Meanwhile, let the record show that, over the same period, according to the record keepers at MSCI, the stock market in Mauritius is up 12%.

    Booyah!

    Every time I write about this Halloween or “sell in May” effect, I make the same two points, and I make no apologies for repeating them here, because they are unavoidable.

    The first is that, every spring, after looking at this data, I am tempted to sell all my stocks at the end of April, and every year I don’t, because I think it’s absolutely ridiculous. (And someone on Wall Street who is much smarter than me usually persuades me not to.) And most years I end up kicking myself for not doing it.

    The second is to recall the old economists’ joke: “I don’t care if it works in practice! Does it work in theory?” Selling in May — or, sure, the Halloween Effect — has absolutely no reason that anyone can find for working in theory. But apparently, it works in practice — which is pretty much where we are now.

    Does this mean stocks are going to rally? It’s anyone’s guess. It would be crazy if it were that simple. But, then, the whole Halloween Effect is crazy.

    If history is any guide, now is the time to buy stocks, not sell them, because the next six months are likely to be the time when they make you money. And if history isn’t any guide, well, aren’t we all sunk anyway?

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  • To End Child Marriage in Southern & East Africa, Governments Need to Strengthen Laws & Implementation

    To End Child Marriage in Southern & East Africa, Governments Need to Strengthen Laws & Implementation

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    Nafissa, 17 from Niger, was married at 16. Three months after marrying she became pregnant. She gave birth to a still born baby. Credit: UNICEF/Marieke van der Velden
    • Opinion by Divya Srinivasan (geneva, switzerland)
    • Inter Press Service

    The UN commemorates International Day of the Girl Child on October 11 — an annual and internationally recognized observance that empowers girls and amplifies their voices.

    New research reveals that while some SADC countries have taken commendable action to strengthen legal protections in this area, other Member States have made little or no progress.

    These findings feature in new policy briefs produced by Equality Now in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF). Ending Child Marriage In Southern Africa: Gaps And Opportunities In The Legislative Frameworks and Domesticating The SADC Model Law On Child Marriage analyzes laws across the 16 SADC countries and identifies positive legal advances, best practices, and challenges.

    A third brief, Ending Child Marriage in Eastern and Southern Africa: Challenges in Implementing Domestic Laws and the SADC Model Law on Child Marriage, examines the implementation of domestic and regional laws on child marriage, focusing on Malawi, Uganda, and Zambia as case studies.

    While the SADC Model Law is having a positive impact, its success depends on effective implementation and enforcement by states. To assist governments, the briefs also provide recommendations on strengthening elimination efforts through good application of child marriage laws and policies.

    SADC Model Law

    Child marriage severely harms girls and exposes them to various human rights violations. It impedes their right to education, as marriage often entails being forced to drop out of school to assume adult responsibilities. This lack of education perpetuates a cycle of poverty, limiting girls’ opportunities for personal development and financial independence.

    Early marriages increase the likelihood of early pregnancies, posing significant health risks to girls whose bodies aren’t mature. This can result in complications during pregnancy and childbirth and is associated with higher maternal and infant mortality.

    Moreover, child brides are often subjected to domestic violence and marital abuse as they lack the power to assert their rights, and alternative safe spaces are rarely available.

    The SADC Model Law defines a child as any person below the age of 18 and recognizes that child marriage violates children’s rights, including the right to education, health, and protection from harm. It calls for prohibiting child marriage, creating prevention and response mechanisms, and promoting birth registration. Other components include supporting child brides and their families and ensuring access to education and healthcare.

    The Model Law sets 18 as the minimum age for marriage for both boys and girls without exception and is applicable to all types of marriages – whether under statutory, religious or customary law — with marriages involving a child declared null and void.

    To address the complex root causes contributing to child marriage, the Law promotes a comprehensive, multi-sectoral approach based on coordination and collaboration between legal, education, healthcare, and social services sectors.

    Inconsistencies and weak implementation of laws

    It is important to recognize that some progress in reducing child marriage has been achieved in Eastern and Southern Africa. However, progress is too slow as the prevalence rate has only reduced from 39% to 32% over the past 25 years, while other regions have made much faster progress.

    At the current trajectory, it is estimated that child marriage in the region won’t end until 2240.

    Concerningly, most progress in Sub-Saharan Africa has occurred amongst the wealthiest families, while in poorer communities, there has been a rise in child marriage. This perpetuates an unacceptable and deeply entrenched divide along socio-economic lines and demonstrates how governments need to focus more on prioritizing elimination of child marriage.

    Problems include a lack of adequate resourcing to programs addressing child marriage and a general lack of effective implementation of laws and policies, which feeds into low prioritization of decision-making and lack of action on child marriage.

    Out of the 16 countries in Southern Africa, only six countries – DRC, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, and Zimbabwe – set 18 as the minimum age of marriage for both boys and girls, with no exceptions.

    Five countries – Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Madagascar, and Namibia – set the minimum age as 18, but allow exceptions for customary and religious marriages and for marriage with consent from judicial or other government officials.

    Statutory law in the remaining five countries – Eswatini, Lesotho, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia – provides for a minimum age ranging between 15 and 18. These are different for boys and girls, with the boys invariably having a higher age limit.

    In addition, all five countries allow for judicial or parental consent to lower the age of marriage even further, and in Eswatini and Lesotho, there are exceptions for customary law that permit marriage from the age of puberty.

    These domestic laws violate the international and regional human rights standards that SADC countries have signed on to. Deeply entrenched cultural practices, poverty, and limited access to education and sexual and reproductive healthcare are slowing progress and hindering reform efforts.

    Such is the case in Tanzania. In 2016, the Tanzanian High Court gave a landmark ruling that struck down sections of the Marriages Act of 1971, which set the marriage age at 18 for boys and 15 for girls, with additional exceptions allowing marriage at 14 with court approval.

    Despite the ruling being upheld by the Court of Appeal in 2019, Tanzania’s government has thus far failed to amend the law accordingly.

    However, there is encouraging progress elsewhere.

    In Zimbabwe, the Constitutional Court ruled in 2016 that child marriage is inconsistent with the Constitution. A new Marriage Act enacted in 2022 prohibits marriage for those under 18 in all cases, including for customary marriages, and allows up to five years imprisonment for offenders.

    In addition, the country’s National Action Plan and Communication Strategy to End Child Marriage requires registration of all marriages.

    In February 2023, the Constitutional Court of Uganda issued a ground-breaking decision in the case, Kirya Martins & Aboneka Michael v. Attorney General, striking down provisions of customary and religious law, including in Hindu and Muslim family laws, that conflicted with the minimum age of marriage set out in the Constitution.

    Prioritizing legal reforms to end child marriage

    Contradictory provisions in different laws on child marriage create confusion in the application of the law and the inconsistencies make jurisprudence difficult to interpret and implement. All SADC countries must prioritize legal reform and enact robust legislative and policy frameworks that comply with international and regional human rights obligations. This means setting the minimum age of marriage at 18, without any exceptions.

    While legal reform is crucial, governments must close the divide between legal approaches and those aimed at influencing social and community norms. Prosecution and punishment of perpetrators should be accompanied by a multi-sectoral approach with an ample budgetary allocation.

    Community awareness-raising is key and requires comprehensive sexuality education and behavior change campaigns that foster understanding about the negative impact of child marriage on girls and the wider society.

    So too is the empowerment of girls through education and other opportunities that increase their agency and decrease their vulnerability to human rights violations.

    Child marriage prevention must also be fully integrated into climate change mitigation and disaster response strategies. Africa is bearing the brunt of global warming, with extreme weather events, prolonged droughts, and food shortages intensifying economic hardships, conflicts, and forced migration.

    Girls are especially vulnerable, as families may view marrying daughters as a strategy to cope with financial difficulties and as a way of protecting them from the heightened risks of sexual violence and exploitation found in unstable environments.

    Having the right laws in place is the foundation upon which access to protection and justice is built. But only through a multifaceted approach championed by governments can we create a future where every child and young woman in East and Southern Africa can reach their full potential, free from the shackles of child marriage and early motherhood.

    Divya Srinivasan is Global Lead for End Harmful Practices at Equality Now.

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  • Setting the Record Straight

    Setting the Record Straight

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    As Key Note Speaker at the Dissemination of the World Mental Health Report, and National Mental Health Strategic Plan 2020-2030, Bangladesh, 2022. Credit: Jishan Sultana
    • Opinion by Saima Wazed (dhaka, bangladesh)
    • Inter Press Service

    DHAKA, Bangladesh, Oct 09 (IPS) – This year, three of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) six regions elect new Regional Directors (RD). The South-East Asia Region (SEARO) is composed of only 11 Member States, yet is home to over a quarter of the world’s population. Two SEARO Member States, Nepal and Bangladesh, have nominated their candidates to contest for RD.

    I have the privilege of being Bangladesh’s nominated candidate.

    The SEARO RD election has generated a surprising amount of attention and news coverage, and several prominent regional & international publications have published pieces expressing alarm at my candidacy, and doubts about my suitability for the role.

    In building their argument these articles rely on damaging biases, and perpetuate harmful stigmas and stereotypes.

    The first contention is that because my mother is the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, my nomination must be fuelled by nepotism.

    While I accept it is inevitable that there will be greater scrutiny of me due to my mother’s position, what is unfortunate is the erasure of my years of work, study and accomplishments.

    Despite being in the public domain, the articles avoid mentioning my work with Chatham House’s Global Health Program or their Commission for Universal Health.

    They ignore that I have been an advisor to WHO’s DG on Mental Health & Autism, or that I have been a member of the WHO’s Expert Advisory Panel on Mental Health for almost a decade.

    They do not mention that I am Chief Advisor to Bangladesh’s National Mental Health Strategic Plan, or that I was a Technical Expert for Bangladesh’s National Mental Health Act of 2018.

    They ignore any of my teaching engagements, and do not inform their readers that the WHO awarded me in 2014 for Excellence in Public Health.

    The articles also neglect to mention that I am currently finishing my Doctorate in Education (EdD) in Organisational Leadership. This is a practitioner-doctorate for complex problem solving to improve the performance of organisations and individuals.

    As countless women around the world will attest, we are sadly used to differing standards when being compared professionally to men. The overt and intentional erasure of my experience, and the attendant reduction of me to being simply my mother’s daughter, is sexism and must be called out as such.

    The articles proceed to cast doubt as to whether my chosen area of study and work – psychology – is a suitable specialisation for one vying for the role of RD.

    When I started my career, I knew that a lot of work needed to be done to mainstream matters of mental health. The persistent stigma which dogged mental health was dangerous and damaging, and I set about to try right this. In the context of South Asian cultures, open and honest discussions about mental health were unfortunately taboo. Over many years of hard work, we have been able to change this somewhat – but I acknowledge that there is still much work to be done.

    This stigma is what commentators feed in to when they insinuate that other aspects of medical science are preferable over mental health specialists in this election.

    The WHO itself reminds us that it “continues to work with its partners to ensure mental health is valued, promoted, and protected,” and that “one in eight people globally are living with mental health conditions.”

    Given this reality, it is highly irresponsible of these articles to continue to minimise the work of psychologists and other related specialists.

    On behalf of my broader profession I would like to state loudly and unequivocally – mental health specialists are in no way inferior or unsuited for leadership roles in public health. In fact, I contend that it is desirable for one with such a background to have a seat at the leadership table alongside the existing technocrats and bureaucrats in the WHO.

    Finally, some of the reporting on the SEARO RD election makes unfounded claims that Bangladesh is waging a political campaign of arm-twisting and coercion to ensure victory for its candidate.

    Quite frankly, the lack of faith that these commentators have in the SEARO Member States is appalling. Each Member State has the agency and independence to assess the candidates and make an informed choice. No amount of scaremongering will change that.

    Instead of political pieces focusing on individuals, a responsible writer would correctly frame the choice in this election as that of a policy choice between Bangladesh and Nepal’s candidates.

    This would lead to a more reasonable consideration about which of these two countries has better public health outcomes, and therefore more likely to make better choices for the public health of the region. I am proud of the many public health successes of my country, and I am proud to be nominated by Bangladesh for Regional Director of WHO SEARO.

    The reaction we are seeing in this campaign reaffirms two unfortunate truths. The first is that challenging the status quo in large established global networks and organisations always generates a partisan pushback. The second is that women competing for positions of power in major institutions face opposition laced with a vicious strain of sexism. In this campaign we have a toxic cocktail of both.

    But I will not back down. I will continue advocating for the most vulnerable amongst us, I will continue telling my regional neighbours my vision for our shared future, and I will continue fighting for what I think is right.

    My message to fear-mongering commentators is simple: do not be afraid of a woman or her experience, do not be afraid of mental health specialists, and trust the Member States to make the best decision for themselves.

    Saima Wazed wears multiple hats including being the Chairperson of the National Advisory Committee for Autism and NDDs, Bangladesh, Chairperson of Shuchona Foundation, and Thematic Ambassador for Vulnerability for the Climate Vulnerable Forum. For more information, please visit www.saimawazed.info and www.shuchona.org.

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  • Effective International Aid Depends on the Application of Girl-Centered Design

    Effective International Aid Depends on the Application of Girl-Centered Design

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    Give girls an opportunity to lead by putting them in the forefront of change efforts; hearing their voices; responding to their asks; and welcoming them in decision-making spaces – it is one of the ways to invest in a future that believes in girls’ agency. International Day of the Girl Child is an annual and internationally recognized observance on October 11 that empowers girls and amplifies their voices. Credit: UNFPA Burkina Faso/Théo
    • Opinion by Amy West, Aysel Madra (washington dc)
    • Inter Press Service

    WASHINGTON DC, Oct 09 (IPS) – In a year that is rapidly becoming the costliest on record for climate-related disasters, the International Day of the Girl Child appeals to the global community for greater investments for and with adolescent girls.

    https://www.un.org/en/observances/girl-child-day

    Mounting evidence continues to show that the wellbeing of our households, our communities, and our world, especially amidst climate change, hinges on how seriously we take this call-to-action for half of the world’s population.

    Protecting the rights of girls is key to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The Coalition for Adolescent Girls believes this prioritization of girls’ rights is all the more urgent among those who live in underserved and traditionally marginalized communities, many of which sit at the crossroads of poverty and climate fragility.

    It is estimated that 80 percent of those displaced by climate-related disasters are women and girls. In the wake of cyclones, wildfires, floods, and earthquakes, adolescent girls have an even harder time accessing services and are often forced to forage for basic needs.

    A direct correlation exists between natural disaster (climate-related or otherwise), girls’ inequitable access to education, skills training, and health and wellbeing supports, and increased exposure to sexual and gender-based violence.

    Credit: UN Women/Ruhani Kaur

    Further, the breakdown in family and community, as well as the loss of a key information and knowledge resources – namely, school or other learning centers – exposes girls to exploitative behaviors and multidimensional and intersecting vulnerabilities.

    Thus, the notion of disaster preparedness and disaster response must evolve to include girl-centered protection solutions to reduce these increased risks and their ripple effect on larger social and economic development goals.

    The recent earthquakes in Turkey, Syria, and Morocco have seen unprecedented levels of devastation, both in terms of human life and the infrastructure necessary for accessing public services and ensuring protection from sexual exploitation, abuse, and violence.

    In the southeastern provinces of Turkey alone, 9.1 million people were affected by the earthquake there, 3 million displaced, and nearly 300,000 buildings were destroyed. Among this wreckage, an estimated 320,000 people or more continue to live in temporary shelters.

    Initial reports observe that for adolescent girls there has been significant increases in domestic care and responsibilities, domestic abuse, sexual and gender-based violence, and child marriage along with reduced enrollment rates in school.

    Committing to Girl-Centered Design

    Girl-centered design is one protective and pro-active approach to finding new solutions to the challenges that international humanitarian and development sector practitioners struggle to address at scale.

    This process thinks about how spaces, programs, and activities can be developed for and with girls based on child safety protocols and girl-led participation. It is applied to ensure that all girls, especially the most underserved, are recognized and engaged.

    In Pazarc?k, and Antakya, Turkey—areas hardest hit by the February earthquake—adolescent girls, and their families, still live in temporary shelters. Several of these girls were asked recently, “if you oversaw international aid, what would you do differently?”

    “I would have done something to meet the self-care and clothing needs of the girls here. Then, the girls were cared for, I would send them to school,” said one 14-year-old from Pazarc?k. Adds a 13-year-old from the same area, “There could have been classes. There could have been information for us. There is nothing here.”

    Their counterparts in Antakya talk about music, painting, dance, and sports. One 13-year-old says these creative activities would not only occupy girls, but also make them “happy.” One 14-year-old girl states, “I would make girls feel valuable. I would find out what girls are interested in and organize activities to engage them.”

    Recent targeted research by Suna’n?n K?zlar? cites that girls spend the majority of their waking hours “pacing” and “waiting,” or else occupied with minding younger siblings or helping their mothers with household chores. Many girls yearn for and remark on the absence of “fun.”

    Creating the Spaces for Girls to Occupy

    With additional evidence on the intersection of wellbeing with outdoor activities, or the powerful learning and healing that occurs with ensuring girls’ right to play, there is a collective cry for doing better by them. Shelters should be constructed to include safe outdoor spaces for girls to play, strengthen the availability of the kinds of information they need, and provide access to basic services that support healthier prospects for their immediate and future needs.

    To date, when such spaces or services are available, they are used predominantly by boys and men.

    Adolescent girls inherently understand what it means to be a girl, to feel safe (or not), and to be valued as equals (or not). For the girls in Pazarc?k and Antakya, investing for and with them means not only applying girl-centered design to expand the physical safe and green spaces in which they can learn, play and grow, but also the decision-making spaces where their voices and ideas can be heard and taken seriously.

    And while there are some welcome signs in this direction, it is not enough. If prioritized, girl-centered design and girl-led solutions before, during and after disaster may reap the results that have heretofore eluded us.

    Amy West is co-lead of the Adolescent Girls and Young Women Initiative and principal international technical advisor at Education Development Center and Aysel Madra is a research coordinator at Suna’n?n K?zlar? (Suna’s Daughters). EDC. They are both active members in the Coalition for Adolescent Girls (CAG), a member-led and-driven organization dedicated to supporting, investing in, and improving the lives of adolescent girls.

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  • Our Teachers, Our Heroes

    Our Teachers, Our Heroes

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    • Opinion by Yasmine Sherif (new york)
    • Inter Press Service

    NEW YORK, Oct 05 (IPS) – Education Cannot Wait Executive Director Statement on World Teachers’ DayWe are in a race to deliver on our global promise of education for all by 2030 – especially for the 224 million girls and boys impacted by armed conflict, climate change, forced displacement and other protracted crises who so urgently need our support. At the frontlines of this movement are the inspiring, caring, brilliant teachers who work tirelessly to educate future generations.

    As we commemorate World Teachers’ Day – along with key partners such as the International Labour Organization, UNICEF, UNESCO and Education International – Education Cannot Wait honours the sacrifice, compassion and dedication of the world’s teachers. We know you work long hours, with low pay. We know that after COVID-19, we face a massive learning and achievement gap. We know that world leaders have done far too little to support education or people like you on the frontlines, making learning happen day-in, day-out in classrooms around the world.

    In the best of circumstances, being a teacher is a challenge. Now imagine what it is like for teachers in a crisis or conflict-hit area in Afghanistan, Colombia, Syria or Uganda. Imagine what it’s like teaching while being one of the millions fleeing wars, conflicts and disasters without any support. Teachers walk to school in fear of attack, bombings, abductions, and other forms of violence and threats. They see their schools swept away in floods and sometimes their family wakes up hungry because of climate change-related droughts. This is the reality facing millions of teachers in the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

    We must do better. Education Cannot Wait, the UN global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, puts teachers at the forefront of everything we do. The teachers are themselves affected by conflicts and climate-induced disasters, and yet they have to serve as mentors and caretakers – inspiring their students to develop and reach their full potential. We cannot underestimate the heroic work carried out by teachers in the most difficult circumstances.

    Through ECW’s joint programming, or Multi-Year Resilience Programmes, 100% of the teachers we support receive skills building and training to succeed in the work they do. Since inception, we have trained over 140,000 teachers. In 2022 alone, we recruited and provided financial support to over 22,000 teachers and school administrators. We place a special emphasis on recruiting female teachers, with about half of all recruited teachers being women.

    Now we must also focus on the quality of the training we provide in order to elevate and deepen the quality of education provided. That means expanded skills training and continued education for students, it means smaller classroom sizes, it means enabling policies at the local and national level, it means climate resilience in the classroom, so when the next disaster strikes, we are ready.

    Together, we can make a better world. Teachers everywhere deserve our respect and admiration. Teachers cannot and should not wait! Join ECW and our strategic partners in supporting teachers in the toughest humanitarian crises on the globe. Let us all bow to them. Let us contribute with funding and a donation today.

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  • The Issue Preventing Female Students in Thailand from Flourishing: No, Its Not Just the Poverty Youre Thinking Of

    The Issue Preventing Female Students in Thailand from Flourishing: No, Its Not Just the Poverty Youre Thinking Of

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    Hyolim Lee and Eunseol Cho, interview Sharon Park at the Songdo Grace Church, Incheon, South Korea.
    • Opinion by Hyolim Kelly Lee – Eunseol Rachel Cho (bangkok & seoul)
    • Inter Press Service

    BANGKOK & SEOUL, Oct 05 (IPS) – Four acrylic panels stood like soldiers around the perimeter of my body, bolted upright by the men who installed them, light proudly bouncing off the inherent gloss on those walls as I sat on the toilet.

    My backpack, rugged with zippers and the harshness of high school, chafed against the bare skin of my thighs–doughy in comparison. My hands were frantic – searching through every folder and handout and library book hoping for one thing. I could not spend any more time missing out on class. I could not lose the trust of my teacher, who had let me go to the bathroom.

    Every second I spent rummaging through a compartment I had already looked at was another second I was wasting—but what other choice did I have? As my fingers foraged for a sanitary pad, the tactile familiarity of the delicate white plastic taped around it all, my breath got sharper and shorter. The enclosure of soldiers seemed to contract in accordance with my lungs, seemingly not wanting to release me until I found one, the walls cramming closer and closer…

    Every month, humans, in the ridiculously bureaucratic world we live in, must do a myriad of things to continue living in normalcy.

    As daughters living under the authority of adults, both of us (the writers of this editorial) have witnessed our parents get caught up in this whirlwind of paying their rent and going to the supermarket to buy groceries. But when we began the trials and tribulations of puberty, we realized that not only would our parents need to spend their cash on shelter and food every month, but also on menstrual products.

    Hyolim Lee and Eunseol Cho, interview Sharon Park at the Songdo Grace Church, Incheon, South Korea.
    Hyolim Lee and Eunseol Cho interview Sharon Park at the Songdo Grace Church, Incheon, South Korea.
    Hyolim Lee and Eunseol Cho participate in a campaign to ensure period dignity, seen here with The Pink Book, a Thai and English book written by a former member of HER Period Dignity ISB to educate girls on puberty and menstruation, and ensuring that free sanitary pads are placed in the ISB High School Bathroom, a result of the project Code Red.
    Hyolim Lee and Eunseol Cho participate in a campaign to ensure period dignity, seen here with The Pink Book, a Thai and English book written by a former member of HER Period Dignity ISB to educate girls on puberty and menstruation, and ensuring that free sanitary pads are placed in the ISB High School Bathroom, a result of the project Code Red.
    From Scars to Stars, written by Sharon Park, and a pamphlet written by the Grace Academy on display.
    From Scars to Stars, written by Sharon Park, and a pamphlet written by the Grace Academy on display.

    And this isn’t a result of bureaucracy or self-indulgence – but rather the fated one of Mother Nature. The worst part is that periods are a biological cycle. So, unlike the other two tasks, purchasing menstrual products cannot be scheduled later. However, not only am I one of many who have experienced an absence of menstrual products, but we have also seen inconveniently high prices and inaccessibility.

    “Period poverty results from limited access to menstrual products,” explain Ayaka Bijl, Sarisa (Monie) Sereeyothin, Julia Pugliese, and Kashvi Chauhan in an email interview with IPS about the organization they are officers for – HER Period Dignity. The writers of this piece are also involved in this organization.

    The difference I have realized is that my experience is momentary – a product of forgetfulness, and theirs is enduring: a scarcity or a kind of “poverty” caused by financial and social barriers. Yet, in a world where we have found reliable information at our fingertips, and efforts to combat inequality and human rights violations are more shared than ever in our generation, the term and nuances of “period poverty” are still one that remains frustratingly shrouded in obscurity. 

    One of the most significant contributors to the fog surrounding period poverty, clouding it just enough for it not to immediately cross the minds of the upper echelon of society, is period stigma. It is a term for the discrimination menstruating people face, in which misleading cultural norms and beliefs regarding menstruation are utilized. While menstruation is a natural bodily process, numerous religious beliefs prompt denigrating misconceptions about period stigma, often assuming it to be unclean and unholy.

    These surrounding misinterpretations of periods continue to invigorate feelings of shame and, therefore, avoidance among both rural and urban communities, especially for the girls and women who might even need to talk about it. Even as someone attending a culturally progressive international school, I still had to rely on a desperate tone of voice and the euphemism of simply “really needing” to go to the bathroom to end up there in the first place.

    “Generally, we don’t view it as intrinsically negative, but we acknowledge that society indirectly attaches stigma to menstruation, which can shape how our classmates perceive it … it’s not necessarily a common topic,” states the HER Period Dignity club officers at the International School of Bangkok. Women shouldn’t have to rely on the tentative inferences of others to maintain reproductive hygiene. We need to combat period poverty because doing so means fighting period stigma–which would decrease discrimination and vitriol against menstruating people.

    The ramifications of period poverty in a young, school-aged girl’s life are glaringly obvious. As someone just starting high school, I cannot help but think about the things I would not have been able to do had I been forced to stay home due to period poverty. With exams just around the corner, I would have been forced to catch up through vague instructions sent to me on a Google Document. Sweating alongside my teammates under the unabashedly fierce Bangkok sun would not have been an option. Instead of being hot on the heels of my passions at school, I would have been forced to sit still. My entire present would have been on pause, and my future questioned. But this is only the experience of someone standing on a pedestal in society.

    For those without the economic privilege that I hold, the result of period poverty would have been so aggravated that hope would either be luxury or delusion. The World Bank estimates that broader society and national economies can profit from better menstruation management: with every 1 percent increase in the proportion of women with secondary education, a country’s annual per capita income grows by 0.3 percent.

    But for those who “were not able to go to school in the first place due to economic poverty, not period poverty,” according to Sharon Park, who volunteered in Cambodia for the Songdo Grace Church, their potential would never be fulfilled. The future of the local Thai girls living in the slums next to our school would not be a question; it would be an answer to the generational poverty in their family: inheritance.

    Nonetheless, something is more immediately destructive to the young schoolgirls currently experiencing this. Though I was lucky to find a new pad at the bottom of my backpack, for others, health issues are bound to occur when dirty rags and leaves become the new pads and tampons without proper menstrual products. Urinary tract infections and thrush can escalate to life-threatening degrees when left untouched, and continued use of such substitutions could hinder reproductive ability—rendering a woman “useless.”

    As someone who faces enough anxiety at school regarding the leakage of period blood, I cannot imagine what these girls are going through without the safety net of a pad or tampon. The issue impacts mental health, too, with a Kenyan school girl committing suicide after facing humiliation in the classroom due to the lack of a pad. These are not isolated cases, with even 68.1 percent of U.S. college students who underwent period poverty monthly reporting symptoms consistent with moderate or severe depression. Period poverty is suppressive and life-threatening in every aspect for young female students.

    The 50th Ms. Korea candidate, Park, has helped girls who are beginning menstruation.  She has established an association that aids lower-income women in South Korea by establishing the HER Period Dignity Club. The club is constantly finding ways to ameliorate the issue in Thailand through fundraisers, education, and collaboration with other NGOs.

    Bijl explains why the club is crucial at her school. “Although our club’s primary focus is on period poverty, we also prioritize the normalization of period stigma.”

    In a personal email exchange, the NGO-based club explains the process behind one of its most significant projects.

    “We started by meeting the CFO of ISB and the Dean of Students and presented our idea through a formal proposal that detailed the way we would satisfy the needs of our community,” installing free pads in all the female high school and eventually middle school bathrooms. We chose the name ‘Code Red’ to evoke the sensation of surprise associated with experiencing your period unexpectedly,” say the leaders.

    As an extension of this, they “went to speak in middle and elementary school classrooms about menstruation from a destigmatizing perspective.”

    The club at the International School of Bangkok was first established after having “the opportunity to meet Pear (Manyasiri Chotbunwong), who leads the HER Period Dignity NGO,” at a service conference. Hearing about Pear’s
    proactive efforts to address this issue motivated us to actively participate in her mission. Pear founded HER (Health. Equity. Respect.).

    The NGO also provides “reusable pads help individuals break free from the constant need to buy new ones, improving access to menstrual products,” says Bijl.

    The ISB club can be found sharing awareness on Instagram (@herperioddignity.isb), and the HER Period Dignity NGO can be found as well (@herperioddignity).

    From my mother to your daughter and her friends, from the waitress at a restaurant you are ordering at to the beautiful model posing in an advertisement at the bus stop, every menstruator deserves period products. We, the authors of this editorial, are members of a generation pushing for radical change in the overarching matters of our lives. This includes acting upon the philosophy above in this paragraph. The Code Red initiative has helped me breathe in the bathroom, knowing there was always a collection of pads in a basket next to the sink I could rely on.

    “We hope that from here, it only continues to improve,” Bijl.

    Everyone deserves that continued normalcy in the beautiful yet chaotic world that we live in—which includes life with minimal hindrance from periods. In the future, Eunseol and I aim to further clear the fog of obscurity around the issue at school.  As Park stated, “Change begins with the people, when we are aware.”

    Note: Edited by Hanna Yoon

    IPS UN Bureau Report


    Follow IPS News UN Bureau on Instagram

    © Inter Press Service (2023) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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    Global Issues

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  • Football should embrace, not scorn, the Swifties — and hope they stick around

    Football should embrace, not scorn, the Swifties — and hope they stick around

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    The New York Jets were my first introduction to professional football, too, so believe me when I say that I understand what many Taylor Swift fans experienced on Sunday night.

    My dad bought season tickets in 1997, Bill Parcells’ first season, when tickets were dirt cheap. The Jets had just won one game the previous season under head coach Rich Kotite, who never got another job in the NFL. My dad’s second cousin was one of those diehard Jets fans who joked (and sometimes wasn’t joking) about wearing paper bags over their heads in the stands, and he knew plenty of people who were selling tickets.

    By the time I got to middle school, I was playing three sports: tennis in the fall, basketball in the winter and softball in the spring. But I wasn’t yet a Jets fan. My relationship to sports changed fundamentally when I got into football.

    I started to go to games with my dad during the 2001 season, and together we experienced the end of the Vinny Testaverde era. He bought me a Chad Pennington jersey after he took over, and I wore it to school — mostly to annoy my friends who were Eagles fans, but also because I loved being part of the fandom. I could speak a language that most 13-year-old girls couldn’t.

    There is nothing inherently exclusionary about sports, though some fans acted like there was when millions of Swifties tuned into something they’d maybe never seen before: a Jets-Chiefs game. There’s no good reason so many people treat football fandom as something you need to prove in order to be able to watch the games. So, let’s stop doing that. We should welcome those who are new to football and maybe felt too intimidated to enter the arena before.

    GO DEEPER

    When Taylor Swift showed up to the Chiefs’ game, Fox’s TV crew had itself a challenge

    I thought about my entry point into football fandom a lot this weekend, as I heard NBC’s Mike Tirico open the “Sunday Night Football” broadcast by welcoming in the Swifties. I thought about it again as I saw Ari Meirov, an NFL commentator with a large social media presence, mock the NFL for changing its Twitter/X bio to Taylor Swift lyrics and Sports Illustrated media critic Jimmy Traina state unequivocally that “legitimate NFL fans” hated a broadcast that included cutaways to Swift and her famous friends enjoying the Jets-Chiefs game. Traina wrote that he couldn’t believe NBC decided to cater to more casual sports fans who would want to see “Taylor Swift jump around and make faces in the suite.”

    Plenty of people made similar jokes, assuming that Swift knows nothing about football. Ah, yes, the woman who is famously an Eagles fan couldn’t possibly know what was happening in the game. She’s just jumping around because someone told her something good happened, right? Surely these people know the level of Swift’s fandom — because of course it’s some sort of test. She couldn’t possibly be enjoying an Isiah Pacheco touchdown because it was a terrific run and helped the Chiefs build a lead. Because she was actually watching the game the whole time, interested and engaged.

    Every female sports fan has had her fandom questioned. It’s the quiz. Every woman reading this knows what I’m talking about. You’re at a sports bar trying to watch a game, and some guy comes up to you and demands that you prove your sports knowledge on the spot. Name the backup center for the Jets. Name the co-defensive coordinator of the Pats. Name seven players from the 1948 New York Yankees. It never ends well, because the only way the quiz ends is when you, the woman, get so pissed off that you leave the sports bar to watch the game at home in peace.

    The NFL spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year trying to reach potential new audiences. The league puts on annual games in Europe in an attempt to attract international fans. It broadcast a game on an animated “Toy Story” set just this weekend and has produced alternate Nickelodeon broadcasts in an attempt to get kids engaged. No one makes fun of those efforts, by the way. Swifties who may have never watched an NFL game but now are tuning in to Kansas City Chiefs games to catch a glimpse (or 10) of Swift and her maybe-boyfriend are just another potential new audience.

    go-deeper

    GO DEEPER

    The NFL (Taylor’s version): How league is ‘leaning in’ to Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce relationship

    Every single football fan had an entry point to this wonderful sport. Maybe your dad got you a football for your crib and signed you up for pee wee football as soon as he could. Perhaps, instead, your dad just asked one day if you might want to go tailgate in a parking lot and sit in the nosebleeds of section 310 in old Giants Stadium.

    And maybe that parking lot is where you first learned to throw a football, which it turns out isn’t that hard because you’d already been playing softball for a while. And maybe those nosebleed seats turned into a community of mostly cranky Long Islanders who’d had tickets for decades and always assumed the worst when it came to the Jets. And maybe that experience led to you asking your dad if you could watch “Monday Night Football.” And the whole day of games on a Sunday.

    Maybe you’d even drag your dad to a local sports bar just so you could watch all the games at once. Because you both loved Peyton Manning and you didn’t always get the Indianapolis Colts games, he would say yes.

    Even if the Swifties didn’t tune in on Sunday night solely for the football, maybe this was the entry point that they needed to our favorite pastime. God forbid we make an American sport more accessible, interesting and entertaining to people who for whatever reason haven’t given the sport a chance.

    Viewership among girls aged 12-17 increased 53 percent from the season-to-date average of the first three weeks of Sunday Night Football, according to Variety. The audience among women aged 18-24 was up 24 percent; among women 35 and older, it increased by 34 percent. What if some of them stick around? What if they realize that a close game between the Chiefs and Jets sparked something within them? What if we look at the potential upside instead of mocking a supremely talented pop star’s largely young and female fan base? The NFL has chosen the former, seeing the business and marketing opportunity it’s been gifted. And for those of us who love both football and Swift’s catalog? It’s been a fun couple of weeks.

    go-deeper

    GO DEEPER

    Jets’ Gardner: Maybe no flag if I’m a ‘Swiftie’

    I hope that some of these girls fall in love with the sport I love, too. I don’t wish Jets fandom on them — I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemies — but I want them to feel welcomed, like I did by my dad and my cousins and those Long Islanders we hung out with every week. They taught me the rules. They taught me the importance of a good run game. They taught me a language I’d speak the rest of my life.

    “This idea that you get to judge who is or isn’t a good fan doesn’t go with the sport of football,” my dad told me when I called him Monday night. “You show up, it counts. You let them in and just hope that it sticks.”

    That’s my hope, too.

    (Photo: Elsa / Getty Images)

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    The New York Times

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