At least 200,000 tonnes of supermarket own-label food fit for human consumption ends up as animal food or is used to generate energy, according to research by the sustainability group Anthesis.
The surplus food could be going to hungry families instead of going to waste.
“What we are doing is not making it worse for the Taliban, it is making it worse for the people. We are not punishing the Taliban. It is ordinary Afghans that are paying the price of peace.”
David Miliband, the former UK foreign secretary and chief executive of the International Rescue Committee.
Puerto Rico government employees and supporters have taken to the streets, emboldened by thousands of public school teachers who abandoned classrooms in early February to demand raises and better pensions. Protests have multiplied. Government workers are grappling with rising prices while getting the same salaries they had in 2008.
Legislators are the only public workers who have an automatic cost-of-living increase for their salaries. Most of the other public employees in Puerto Rico, which is a United States territory, have not gotten pay raises in more than a decade — sometimes two — as the cost of living has risen and the island has suffered a lengthy economic crisis and a government bankruptcy in the aftermath of deadly hurricanes, earthquakes and the coronavirus pandemic.
Power and water bills are nearly 60 percent higher in Puerto Rico than the US average. Groceries are 18 percent more expensive than on the mainland. Many public employees work one or two additional jobs to make ends meet.
‘They’re fed up’: Workers in Puerto Rico take to the streets | Workers’ Rights News | Al Jazeera
Despite charges of voter fraud, Juan Orlando Hernández was elected president of Honduras in late 2013 with full support from the United States.
On Feb. 15, nine years after his election and one month after he left office, Hernández was arrested on charges of drug trafficking at the request of the United States, which has also requested his extradition. Once his power was gone, Hernández, the U.S. ally, instantly became the United States’ enemy. When he served the interests of the United States, Hernández was untouchable.
The real power in Central America is and always will be Washington. Once you no longer serve a purpose, Washington may exhibit that power. Hernández being arrested for drug trafficking by a country that consumes the most drugs in the world is riddled with hypocrisy, but it reminds Central America that the U.S. will always be in charge.
The United States effectively painted Honduras as a backward country, when it is, in fact, a victim of American intervention and condescension. Even now, as the Biden-Harris administration works to end corruption in Central America as a means to end migration, the framing is always the same. Honduras is corrupt. The U.S. is exceptional. Where was that exceptionalism during the Hernández’ administration? The U.S. knew who he was but expressed no problem with him until his arrest.
This American tradition of supporting political criminals will never go away.
Ex-Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández arrested on drug trafficking charges (msnbc.com)
Fircroft College in Birmingham
19th – 21st August 2022.
This year’s Summer School theme is ‘The Class Divide’.
The Class Divide
The richest 10% of people own more than 80% of global wealth, and the 10 richest men have six times more wealth than the poorest 3.1 billion people combined. These vast inequalities in wealth reflect how society is split into two classes: the capitalist class get their wealth through owning industries and corporations, and the working class rely on wages or benefits to buy what is needed.
The Socialist Party’s weekend of talks and discussion looks at why capitalism is divided into classes and how the antagonism between them impacts the way we live. What is ‘class consciousness’ and how does it develop? To what extent is it meaningful to say that there is a middle class? What classes were there before capitalism, in previous stages of history? And what could a future classless society be like?
The full residential cost (including accommodation and meals from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon) is £100; the concessionary rate is £50.
Book online here or send a cheque (payable to the Socialist Party of Great Britain) with your contact details to Summer School, The Socialist Party, 52 Clapham High Street, London, SW4 7UN.
Day visitors are welcome, but please book by e-mail in advance.
E-mail enquiries to spgbschool@yahoo.co.uk.
In 2015 and 2016, many people also had little understanding for this attitude. They did not want to take in refugees and migrants. The xenophobic protest movement gave rise to the far-right populist Alternative for Germany party (AfD).
The nonprofit Bertelsmann Foundation in its representative study “Willkommenskultur zwischen Stabilität und Aufbruch,” (Welcome Culture Between Stability and Departure) has now taken a closer look at changes in Germans’ attitudes and identified a trend: Germans are more optimistic about migration and immigration than they were a few years ago.
“In essence, our survey shows that skepticism toward immigration is still widespread in Germany, but it has continually declined in recent years,” says Ulrike Wieland, co-author of the study: “More people now see the potential benefits of migration; especially for the economy. When it comes to perceptions of integration, we find that more respondents than in previous years see inequality of opportunity and discrimination as significant obstacles hampering integration of individuals.”
Many see immigration as a way to help solve Germany’s demographic and economic problems. For example, two out of three respondents see immigration as helping to balance out an ageing society, more than half of those polled said it could also compensate for the ongoing shortage of skilled workers, and half of all respondents expect immigrants to generate additional revenue for Germany’s pension fund.
Germans have overall become more accepting of refugees. But over one-third of respondents (36%) believe that Germany cannot take in any more of them. In 2017, that number stood at 54%. Currently, 20% consider the refugees to be “temporary guests” who do not need to be integrated into society.
“We see that one-fifth of the population is skeptical of refugees or outright rejects them. These people seem to have a worldview that supports the idea of a (far-reaching) social closure against migration,” explains co-author Ulrike Wieland.
However, respondents still remain skeptical. The Bertelsmann Foundation study also clearly shows that there is still a lot of skepticism in Germany when it comes to refugees.
67% say that immigrants place an additional burden on the welfare state, 66% say they worry about conflicts erupting between people born and raised in Germany and immigrants, and many respondents fear that schools are facing major problems integrating immigrant students.
Skilled immigrants seeking employment or academic opportunities are more accepted (71%) than refugees who are primarily seeking protection (59 %).
Aid worker Christian Osterhaus looks back at when he started working with refugees: “At the time, I really had the impression that German society had opened up and changed and had actually learned a lot.” He believes that interpersonal connections and friendships are the foundation for the path to building a real welcome culture in Germany. Osterhaus was one of hundreds of thousands of people in Germany who set out to help those fleeing civil war in Syria and other countries, and to help integrate them into German society. “We wanted to give these people a new home,” Osterhaus says looking back.
The Eagle and the Bear
Again, the bear growls and the eagle flaps,
Claws and talons brandished, bristling with pride,
Each self-righteous, claiming the other lied,
Another squabble over lines on maps
Drawn and redrawn at the beck of capital.
Markets tremble, armies muster and march,
While those with only their labour to sell
Are, too often, employed in martial hell,
Not heeding lessons history has to teach.
How many stones need to be cut and dressed,
Assembled into cenotaphs, then incised
With gilded names of the slaughtered? How prized
Is rhetoric when profits are assessed?
Whichever country victory chooses,
The world entire, and its future, loses.
D. A.
“Bill Clinton sought to lead from the “center,” but by then the “center” had moved so far right that Clinton gutted public assistance, enacted “tough on crime” policies that unjustly burdened the poor and people of color, and deregulated Wall Street. All of which put me further to the left of the center—although my political views had barely changed.” – Robert Reich, served as secretary of labor in the Clinton administration
“Bill Clinton sought to lead from the “center,” but by then the “center” had moved so far right that Clinton gutted public assistance, enacted “tough on crime” policies that unjustly burdened the poor and people of color, and deregulated Wall Street. All of which put me further to the left of the center—although my political views had barely changed.” – Robert Reich, served as secretary of labor in the Clinton administration
Climate change is both “risk” and “threat multipliers”. The Bay of Bengal coast, home to a quarter of the world’s population, is a perfect example of the fight over fast-disappearing land. Disastrous floods, deadly heatwaves and devastating cyclones are taking a heavy toll in the Bay of Bengal region, which covers more than 2 million sq km (772,204 sq miles.) Rising sea levels, in particular, could result in land and infrastructure loss in the future, besides altering the location and allocation of strategic military assets, researchers said.
Military and civil conflicts could intensify along the Bay of Bengal coastline, fuelled by climate change-linked migration, land loss and displacement, researchers a report, by think-tanks the Netherlands-based Clingendael Institute and India’s Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, said. The area is seeing frequent extreme weather, which combined with its strategic, social and economic fault-lines, makes it “fertile ground” for social friction and violence, they warned
The region was already dotted with conflicts over resources, identity and growing migration flows. The report pointed to conflicts between social groups, communities and the state over control of valuable but shrinking natural resources like land, forests, water and minerals. It also pointed to a dozen ethnic separatist movements triggered by conflict over resources in Northeast India.
“Climate change can widen socio-economic divides that in some cases can snowball into political instability and widen conflicts,” said Angshuman Choudhury, one of the report authors. “Migration is a key link in this chain of consequences… The so-called ‘insider versus outsider’ conflicts are increasing,” he said, referring to tensions between those on the move and their host communities.”
Pointing to porous international borders cutting across countries that are home to socio-culturally similar groups, the report flagged growing conflicts triggered by migration, identifying “climate-induced” movement as a key driver. In India, anti-immigrant violence in northeast Assam state has been triggered by people moving across the India-Bangladesh border, while Bangladesh has seen local protests against Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.
Climate pressures could also aggravate land depletion, dispossession and degradation, fuelling economic and social insecurity among agrarian communities and ethnic minorities, leading to new phases of violent conflict, the report added.
“Climate change increases the risk of various types of violence and human insecurity,” said Florian Krampe, director of the climate change and risk programme at SIPRI, a Swedish institute dedicated to research into conflict and disarmament.
Climate migration worsens conflicts in Bay of Bengal region (trust.org)