Gaza’s flower industry wilts under Israeli blockade

A Palestinian worker prepares carnations for export at a farm in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, in February 2013.-

Eyad Al BabaAPA images

Isra Saleh el-Namey-13 April 2016

Ayman Awkal’s flower farm is shrinking every year.

The 56-year-old farmer used to cultivate 60 dunums (60,000 square meters) of every imaginable kind of flower including roses, chrysanthemums, anemones and carnations before the Israeli blockade came into effect in 2007.

“Flowers have been the only source of livelihood for my family for many years,” he said.

Now, however, that livelihood has vanished. It is pointless, said Awkal, to continue growing flowers under Israel’s devastating blockade of the Gaza Strip. Flower exports used to go overseas. Now, that is impossible.

“I had to give up farming flowers and turn to vegetables even though they fail to make much profit. It is better than nothing,” Awkal said.

It is a significant problem for a farmer who used to turn a good profit selling to European markets, from where they were sold on worldwide. One flower could fetch one euro in Europe, and the demand was high because flowers grow all year round in Gaza’s mild coastal weather. For a while, Gaza’s flower industry enjoyed a moment of prosperity.

Now, Awkal cultivates flowers on only three dunums of his land and only for the local markets at local prices. Quality has suffered and demand is low.

No support

Holland was the main export market for Gazan flowers. The country funded projects across Gaza to enable farmers to maintain their yields to European standards.

But Dutch support — which also included providing seeds — stopped three years ago.

According to a spokesperson for the Dutch Representative Office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the Dutch government decided to end its support for flower cultivation for a number of reasons, among them that it was felt money could be better spent elsewhere, that flowers were too water intensive for Gaza and that priorities should lie with food security and therefore food crops.

But the head of Gaza’s committee of flower farmers, Ibrahim al-Dahbour, said Israeli-imposed constraints at Gaza’s crossings played a big role.

“Israel is effectively killing the flower industry in Gaza by preventing support from Holland and other countries with its closure policy,” he told The Electronic Intifada.

These restrictions, often in the form of long delays for “security” inspections, and no facilities to keep produce or flowers fresh and shaded, made exports precarious and has ultimately undercut a thriving industry.

According to al-Dahbour, Gaza grew less than 5 million flowers in 2012, down from production highs before 2004 of 60 to 80 million flowers a year. And the reduced production has resulted in less land being allocated for cultivating flowers.

“In the past, Gaza used to cultivate flowers on about 1,200 dunums. There were some 100 projects. Now less than 15 dunums are being used to grow flowers and they are produced with lower quality and only for the domestic market.”

Jobs lost

With no exports to rely on, al-Dahbour said, flowers are simply too expensive to grow. He estimates the cost of cultivating one dunum of flowers to a suitable standard at $9,000. It is too costly for farmers who have had to turn to other crops, especially those in demand on the local market and outside the possible interference of Israeli restrictions.

Since Gazan flowers can be grown year round, they were exported to cover all traditional flower-giving occasions, from major holidays to Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and so on.

That in turn meant regular work. Just as Gaza’s flowers have wilted, so have an estimated 600 jobs after nearly a decade of severe Israeli export restrictions.

Issa Fawji ran one of the more famous flower farms in Gaza, in Rafah in the south. But the 25 dunums he devoted to growing flowers has now been given over to strawberries and other fruit.

“All these fields were covered in colors. I used to employ dozens of workers to care for the flowers and pick them by hand. Now nothing remains,” he said.

Fawji, 56, who has been in the flower business for nearly 40 years, said that when he was able to export the flowers — all exports from Gaza have to go through Israel — he and others would often see their crops held at the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing so long they would wither.

It was deliberate, he said.

“Even when it was still possible for us to export, the Israelis used to turn us back dozens of times so our flowers died,” he said.

All Gaza’s exporters need to go back and forth to Kerem Shalom where their goods and produce are carefully inspected by Israeli soldiers. For produce in particular, this could be disastrous, as cargos would be left out in all weather without shade or cover for long hours.

And the farmers bore the costs.

The perfect climate

When flower shipments were held too long, Fawji would be forced feed the wilted flowers to livestock. “It was my only choice,” he said.

Fawji also benefitted from Dutch support, though, he said, what had started as a Dutch-sponsored project covering 10 dunums in 2010 began to taper off quickly and ended in 2012.

He is keen for such support to start again and refuses to believe that European countries have surrendered to the Israeli blockade.

“The climate here is perfect for flowers,” he said. “Why not help us revive the industry?”

Isra Saleh el-Namey is a journalist based in Gaza.

Turkey and Saudi Arabia: Are tensions lurking behind the smiles?
Analysts point out that vast differences have divided the two regional powers for centuries, although changes may be in the offing 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, poses with Saudi King Salman at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Summit in Istanbul (AFP) 

Suraj Sharma-Thursday 14 April 2016

ISTANBUL, Turkey - The Turks and Saudis cosied up for a photo opportunity at the summit of leaders of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on Thursday, but some experts say the policy gap between them is too wide for long-term cooperation.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan greeted each of the 55 guests upon arrival with a handshake, but a special peck on the cheek was reserved for a select few. The Saudis got one, the Iranians did not. 

  

Unlike the genuine partnership Turkey has developed with the Qataris over the last decade, some observers say the Turkish-Saudi alliance is based on sheer expedience. Recent visits between the two leaders have been conducted with a fanfare that may be partially a consequence of the vacuous nature of the bond.

“This Turkish-Saudi coming together cannot be long term. It is simply a practical move to deal with some short-term issues,” Yalim Eralp, a retired Turkish ambassador who also served at the NATO command, told Middle East Eye.

According to Eralp, on an ideological level the two countries have long been at odds. 

In recent years, ties between Riyadh and Ankara were severely tested by their division over how to react to the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Egypt and elsewhere. The Saudis fought against their rise, seeing them as an existential threat, but Ankara backed them as a matter of principle. While Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has no direct ideological ties with the MB, it opposes the overthrow of democratically elected governments because of their Islamic-based politics.   

These divisions are not new. Turkish media were quick to point out the contrast between Saudi King Salman’s state visit and the fate of his great-grandfather, who was publically executed in Istanbul for starting an armed Wahhabi insurgency against the Ottoman Empire. Even after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk came to power in the 1920s, the new Turkish Republic all but ignored the Saudis for decades, choosing to look to Europe instead of the Middle East.

Much has been made of the Saudi-led 34-nation Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism. Turkey was one of the first countries to sign up, yet it has not made any firm commitments.

Even in the Northern Thunder war games held in Saudi Arabia in mid-February, Turkey participated only as an observer. Ankara has, however, allowed Saudi fighter jets to use its Incirlik airbase, used also by the US and by other coalition partners for attacks against the Islamic State group.

“As a NATO member, Turkey cannot just enter military alliances as it pleases. It could impact Article 5, which is the cornerstone of NATO,” said Eralp. “This Saudi-led military alliance is more a moral project. I don’t think it has any military significance.”

Article 5 in the NATO charter concerns collective defence, where an attack on one member is considered an attack on all members.  

This is in sharp contrast to the genuine military agreement made with Qatar, where Turkey is building its first military base in the Gulf.

But Muhammed Zahid Gul, a political commentator and writer in various Arabic-language media, told MEE that the relationship is only going to strengthen.

He said he knows of 14 agreements in the pipeline between Riyadh and Ankara, many of which concern military investment.

“Many of these soon-to-be-signed agreements are about Saudis investing in Turkey’s military and armaments industry and getting Turkish-made military hardware in return. This does not violate any of Turkey’s NATO obligations,” he said.

According to Gul, while ideological differences may exist, current geo-political conditions have made them irrelevant.

“Due to the increasingly sectarian nature of conflicts in the region, Turkey and Saudi Arabia now simply have to see themselves as Sunni instead of wondering how Turkey can be more compatible with the Wahhabi Saudis,” Gul said.

“This applies to wider regional issues as well. For instance, there is no real ideological similarity between the Muslim Brotherhood and the majority of the Turkish leadership. So that shouldn’t affect things.” 

Both countries feel let down by their major ally, the US, in different areas. The Saudis fear they are being ignored as Iran grows in prominence and becomes increasingly aggressive in the region.

The Turks, meanwhile, see the US as no longer a reliable partner, particularly over Syria and perceived US support for Kurdish factions there, which Turkey fears will cause further issues with its own Kurdish minority.

Turkey, like many countries in the West and elsewhere, is also keen to maintain optimal ties with resource-rich Riyadh, hoping to secure investment and capital.

Gul said that an accord made today to establish a strategic council of cabinet officials from the two countries meeting at regular intervals to smooth coordination “is a major step in firmly establishing this alliance”.

Still, for all the unifying gestures, there continue to be signs of tensions beneath the surface.

Another signal that Ankara may not be ready to fully align with the Saudi position came in January, when tensions flared over the Saudi execution of Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr.

Although Erdogan had harsh words for Iran and sided with the Saudis, Turkey did not respond to further pressure from Riyadh. Unlike other Gulf states, he refused to withdraw Turkey’s ambassador from Tehran and maintained normal relations.   

The Saudis have also fallen flat in their attempts to reconcile Cairo and Ankara, which have been extremely frosty since Egypt's Saudi-backed president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, helped overthrow the democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi.

Egypt sent only its foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, to the OIC summit in Istanbul and he didn’t participate in the traditional group photo, leaving the summit after reading Sisi’s message.

According to Eralp, Turkey’s policies in the Middle East have become so convoluted that they have begun to hurt the country’s image.

“Egypt represents just one Turkish foreign policy blunder. Turkey’s image has been so badly damaged that even such close ties with the Saudis no longer make it any worse.”

Donald Trump isn’t even the best presidential candidate in his family

Ivanka Trump. (Yana Paskova for The Washington Post)

I watched the CNN town hall with Donald Trump and his family on Tuesday night. Then I annotated it. 

And the one thing that stood out very clear to me was this: Ivanka Trump is not only well-spoken and impressive but is a natural at handling tough questions with aplomb and skill.

Two passages, in particular, stood out to me.

CNN hosted a town hall featuring Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, his wife Melania and four of his children on Tuesday, April 12. (CNN)

By Chris Cillizza-April 14

Here's the first, when moderator Anderson Cooper asked why Ivanka missed the deadline to register as a Republican in New York:

COOPER: Ivanka, Eric, it's no surprise, I got to ask you, there was … news just this week that both of you were not registered to vote in the primary. What happened?

IVANKA TRUMP: Well, I'm an independent, and I've always voted based on the candidate as opposed to based on the party, and it was actually a very interesting experience. So, we're not a family of politicians. We haven't been in politics very long.

And, here's the second —  a question from the crowd:

QUESTION: Hi, Ivanka. You and Chelsea Clinton are personal friends. Has the campaign put a strain on your friendship? And with both you and Chelsea working on your prospective parents' campaigns, is there a common ground where you guys can kind of find an issue to agree on? And do you think you will still be friends with her after this election cycle?
IVANKA TRUMP: Well, look, we're children and we love our parents, so that's the great equalizer and that's the great common ground. So I'm incredibly proud of my father. I'm amazed and truly in awe of what he's accomplished and what he's accomplished throughout the course of his life up until this point. But, you know, the last 10 months have really been a whole different level. So I think that she would probably say the same about her mother, so she's probably very proud of her mother, and we certainly would share that, I would think.

Neither of those are easy questions to answer — particularly when your dad, who is also leading the GOP presidential race, is sitting on stage with you. And Ivanka hit both of them out of the park.

On the first, Ivanka takes a question that amounts to "How could you let this happen?" and pivots easily — and seamlessly — to an explanation of her desire to choose the candidate rather than the party, a sentiment that will get lots and lots of heads nodding. Then she notes that the other reason she missed the party switch deadline is because "we're not a family of politicians" -- a pitch-perfect echo of her father's outsider message.

On the second, Ivanka is asked a question that could be very uncomfortable: What's it like to be friends with Chelsea Clinton when your parents are savaging one another day in and day out? Again, Ivanka nails it. "We're children and we love our parents, so that's the great equalizer and that's the great common ground," she said. Boom. Who is against kids loving their parents and being proud of them?

One of the hallmarks of very talented politicians is to take questions, issues and policies that have the potential to be very divisive and guide the conversation to a common ground you either didn't know existed or simply hadn't thought of before. In both of those answers, Ivanka does exactly that and, best of all, you never see the hard work and practice that goes on behind the scenes to make it all seem so effortless.

She is, as has been often pointed out, the polar opposite of her father in that regard. Where he is bravado and threat, she is cool and soothing.  Where he is divisive, she is uniting.  It's what leads so many people who dislike Donald Trump to admit that his daughter is very impressive and wonder why she isn't the presidential candidate instead. (She'll turn 35 — presidential age — in October.)

Ivanka, herself, has been somewhat coy about her interest in a political career. "It's not something I've ever been inclined to do, but I'm 34, so who knows?" she told Town & Country magazine (!) in December.

"At this point I would never even contemplate it, but that doesn't mean that when I'm 50 I won't have a change of heart."

Judging by how she has handled herself in this campaign, Ivanka would make a terrific politician. And, yes, a better one than her dad.

Chris Cillizza writes “The Fix,” a politics blog for the Washington Post. He also covers the White House.

Obama Poked Putin. And Putin Poked Back.

Washington’s decision to beef up NATO in Eastern Europe will compel Moscow to reciprocate with an equally aggressive response.

BY JEFFREY TAYLER-
APRIL 14, 2016

In February, as the Syrian civil war raged on and the Islamic State entrenched itself in Libya, the White House announced plans to quadruple the defense budget’s 2017 allocation for — of all places — Europe, from $789 million to $3.4 billion. On March 30, the U.S. Defense Departmentfleshed out these plans. They include dispatching troops and materiel, like combat vehicles and heavy weaponry, to Romania, Hungary, and the Baltic states so that a NATO combat brigade will remain at the ready. The troops will be rotated in and out of the region, ostensibly avoiding any violation of the letter (if not the spirit) of the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act, which sought to allay Russian fears stemming from the alliance’s expansion into former Warsaw Pact countries.

This was a delicate time for such an announcement: the 2015 Minsk accord, which could settle the separatist conflict in Ukraine’s Donbass region, has turned into a deal that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko cannot live up to. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government, hit hard by economic sanctions, had been indicating a desire to “reset” its relations with the West (if on its own, more equitable, terms) and had used its intervention in Syria torestore its battered status as a major power on the world stage.

Back in Washington, a senior White House official explained that the defense spending and deployments were not motivated by “something that happened last Tuesday.” They were, instead, part of “a longer-term response to a changed security environment in Europe,” reflecting a “new situation, where Russia has become a more difficult actor.” It also aligns with the Pentagon’sdesignation of Russia as the top threat to U.S. security.

In response to the NATO deployments, Russia announced that it would take “all necessary measures to defend [its] security.” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg then accused Moscow of brandishing its nuclear arsenal to bully its neighbors and destabilize “the European security order.” Speaking at a recent security conference in Munich, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev followed up by asking NATO to cooperate with Russia, rather than enter a “new Cold War,” adding that nearly “every day they call Russia the main threat for NATO, Europe, the U.S. and other countries. It makes me wonder if we are in 2016 or in 1962.”

This is not an absurd proposition. It’s time to consider adopting a different perspective on the newly perilous situation that Russia and NATO find themselves in.

NATO already has forces positioned in its Baltic member states, and U.S. President Barack Obama has visited the region, reaffirming the alliance’s support. Today, Russian and American nuclear arsenals alike stand on hair-trigger alert — which, given the breakdown in relations between Moscow and Washington, makes for an especially dangerous situation. It’s worth noting that Russia’s military doctrine foresees using nukes if a conventional attack poses a grave threat to its existence. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has, accordingly, set its doomsday clock at three minutes to midnight. Just as it was during the worst days of the Cold War.

The risk of armed conflict between Russia and NATO has not been merely a matter of conjecture: Since the start of the Ukraine crisis in 2014, Russia hasrepeatedly violated NATO airspace; flown reconnaissance missions over Europe — using aircraft with their transponders turned off, thereby risking midair collisions; buzzed U.S. warships off its Black Sea coast; simulated nuclear strikes on Eastern European targets and even Sweden; and held a large-scale military drill to practice the invasion of Scandinavia, in addition to other huge exercises. This is only a partial list of bellicose operations, apparently conducted with one message in mind for NATO: Russia is back.

But in assessing Russia’s actions, a great deal depends on whether you think the Kremlin and its other post-Euromaidan maneuverings — annexing Crimea and supporting rebels in the Donbass, in particular — and an expensive defense buildup (reduced, of late, for economic reasons) have been proactive or reactive. Former U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger has summed up the case for the latter view: “It is not conceivable that Putin spent 60 billion euros on turning a summer resort into a winter Olympic village [for the 2014 games, held in Sochi] in order to start a military crisis the week after a concluding ceremony that depicted Russia as a part of Western civilization.”

The logical conclusion: Putin is reacting, as evinced first by the occupation of Crimea, which began on Feb. 27, 2014, to the fall and departure of his ally, then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, which occurred five days before the invasion. Even as Putin had hoped for constructive relations with the West, he could not be expected to sit by and watch Ukraine slip out of Russia’s orbit, with the possibility, as he himself stated, that Russia’s strategically vital Black Sea port (which it had leased from Ukraine since 1997) would end up in NATO hands.

Today’s tensions trace back much further than the dispute over the events during Ukraine’s Euromaidan, of course. But the origin of the confrontation lies as much — or more — with the West as it does with Moscow. To Russians, U.S. foreign policy since the 1990s can only appear as a decades-long bid for global hegemony, manifested most clearly in the relentless eastward expansion of NATO. More than 20 years ago, George Kennan, the architect of America’s containment policy vis-à-vis the Soviet Union, warned that introducing NATO into onetime Warsaw Pact countries (to say nothing of former Soviet republics like the Baltic states) would provoke “a new Cold War, probably ending in a hot one, and the end of the effort to achieve a workable democracy in Russia.”

That view seems to have been vindicated by Putin’s reaction to Kiev’s political pivot to the West, which culminated in the country’s Euromaidan revolution. Ukraine is not joining anytime soon, of course, but NATO has pledged that one day it will be a member. (And the alliance is growing elsewhere in Eastern Europe.)

There is good reason to believe that the Ukrainian crisis can still be resolved, along the lines previously suggested by both Kissinger and fellow former Secretary of State Zbigniew Brzezinski, by striking a deal with Russia: no NATO membership for Ukraine in return for Russia’s allowing the country to go its own way in other, nonmilitary spheres (which could include EU membership). Such an arrangement would be ratified at a summit between the United States and Russia. A highly visible public ceremony would be necessary to conclude the deal, in order to give both sides a stake in sticking to the terms.

Resolving the Crimean aspect of the conflict will be more difficult. A U.N.-supervised referendum on the peninsula’s status might do the trick, but the territory’s return to Ukraine seems unlikely, given poll results indicating that some 80 percent of Crimeans prefer to remain within Russia. The United States and its allies would have to cede to their wishes — and be prepared to lift sanctions and normalize relations with Moscow nonetheless.

In an ideal world, neither Russia nor any other country would have any influence over what alliances Ukraine joins. But we don’t live in that world. The compromise outlined above would allow us to cooperate more effectively with Moscow to face the serious, persistent, and growing threat from the Syrian civil war and all that goes with it: an upsurge in Islamist terrorism; huge, destabilizing outflows of refugees bound for the United States’ key ally, the European Union; legions of battle-hardened Islamist rebels (including thousands of Europeans) who are returning to Europe and could even, given their passports, find their way to the United States; and the Islamic State itself, which menaces the Middle East, North and West Africa, Afghanistan, andeven Indonesia.

As Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent visit to Moscow showed, Western and Russian interests converge in ending the Syrian war and stopping the Islamic State. Russia wants to keep the Islamic State militants (which include an ever increasing number, already in the thousands, of its own citizens) from carrying out terrorist acts on its own soil and forestall the further radicalization of its Muslim Caucasus region, where a low-level, partly Islamic State-backed insurgency against Moscow grinds on. Russia’s intervention in Syria, notwithstanding heavy civilian casualties, is succeeding, insofar as it aims to preserve Bashar al-Assad’s government and prevent the Islamic State from taking more terrain. Neither Europe nor Washington wishes to send ground forces into Syria. And no one wants a world war.

So, does now seem like the time for the United States to quadruple defense spending aimed at “containing” Russia, using, no less, funds destined for operations in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan? The question answers itself.

The Obama administration is setting the stage for endless confrontation, and possibly even war, with Russia, and with no public debate. Presidential candidates from both parties should be asked what their views are on all this and how they plan to handle relations with Russia (aside from refusing to talk to Putin, or even “punching the Russians in the nose,” as Ohio Gov. John Kasich apparently wants to do). The economic sanctions the West has imposed on Moscow have only solidified support for Putin, whose popularity rating remains at more than 80 percent. If it is, in fact, U.S. policy to “break” Russia, it is not working. Yet it is wrecking what little cooperation remains with the country. A new approach to dealing with Moscow is urgently needed. Too much is at stake — for us all.

Photo Credit: Mikhail Svetlov / Contributor

Correction, April 14, 2016: This piece previously suggested that NATO’s presence on Russia’s border has been unprecedented. This is not true, as NATO posted troops in Turkey, on what was then the Soviet border, during the Cold War.

Cambodia’s new Trade Union Law violates workers’ rights, activists say

Ath Thun, center, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers' Democratic Union, delivers a speech during a protest rally at a blocked street near National Assembly, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, last week. Pic: AP.

A Worker Union member, Suth Chet, 36, center, is beaten by district security personnel during a protest rally at a blocked street near National Assembly, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, last week. Pic: AP.

By Alexandra Demetrianova- 14th April 2016

LAST week, a controversial Trade Union law was passed in Cambodia, which has put the country on the map for those who don’t abide by international labor standards. The legislature is in violation of the Cambodian constitution, activists say, while the law fails to include international standards on freedom of association and the forming of unions by workers.

On the contrary, the new legislature will bring trade unionists under an ever closer government radar, while giving it extra powers to dissolve unions.

Members of the Labor and Human Rights’ Defenders Alliance (HALDA) said in an open letter to the government and international community, that new Trade Union law should “align with Cambodian Constitution, UN’s International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and ILO Conventions 87 and 98”, which it currently doesn’t. The law lacks ILO convention 87, which stipulates “Freedom of association and protection of the right to organize” and convention 98 on “Right to organize and collective bargaining.” And since it limits freedom of association, it in fact could be unconstitutional, as the activists suggest.

“This sector is the rice pot for all of us. The government has the duty to protect this pot, so there is rice for us to eat.”

Despite pressure from workers and trade unions, as well as members of opposition and international labor rights groups, Prime Minister Hun Sen’s CCP-led government has drafted and finalized the law without adding requested amendments to include the two key articles of ILO conventions. In parliament the law has been passed by 67 governing CCP votes against 31 opposition delegates from Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) voting against it.

Moeun Tola, from labor rights group Central, said prior to the voting last week: “The draft law is definitely unconstitutional and against the conventions. So when the law violates the Constitution and conventions, it will impact the international brands as well,” referring to the big international brands, who have their garments made in Cambodia. The sector employs 700,000 people, mostly women, who often support their families in the provinces. Therefore ILO “seal of approval” is crucial, Moeun Tola said.

The CCP-led government has defended the new law. Labour Minister Ith Sam Heng told Cambodian media, that “the legislation would bring stability and bigger investments.” Chheang Vun from CCP added, that the bill will ultimately benefit the workers themselves: “This sector is the rice pot for all of us. The government has the duty to protect this pot, so there is rice for us to eat.”

The “rice pot sector” is the US$5 billion textiles and footwear industry, which is the single biggest employer and driver of the economy in Kingdom of Cambodia. Mostly young women produce clothes and fashion goods in hundreds of sub-contractor factories across the country for big brands such as Nike, Gap, Wallmart, H&M, Puma, Adidas, Levi Strauss, Marks and Spencer and Inditext. But these are just a few of the major international brands making their textiles in Cambodia. These big companies have seen some disruption to the production in the sub-contractor factories through protests and strikes over low wages and workers’ rights.

NGO campaigns and media coverage have in the last decade exposed widespread abuses in non-air conditioned, hot and overcrowded factories, with long shifts, unpaid overtimes, low wages and exploitative practices such as harassment, violence at workplace and illegal short term contracts. All of this happens through growing trade unions and active civil society among garment industry workers. So once the freedom of trade unions is put under tight government control, the sector will truly stabilize, but at the cost of encroaching on workers’ rights.

“We’re worried as it will affect our rights to hold strikes.”

The efforts against the Trade Union Law and for labor rights in Cambodia’s garment sector have been internationally led, among many others, by Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC). The pressure CCC has created has been directed at the big international brands, producing cheap textiles in developing Cambodia while earning huge profits on cheap labor and lack of workers’ rights.

“We have continously called on the brands to publicly support the union’s efforts to make the law in line with ILO conventions 87 and 98, both ratified by Cambodia. So far only few brands have come out with a statement. We continue to call on the brands to make sure they use their leverage and make sure that the women and men stitching their clothes in factories in Cambodia can exercise their rights to organize,” CCC said in a statement to Asian Correspondent.

Only H&M and Tchibo have joined the call on the Cambodian government to introduce a Trade Union Law aligned with ILO standards and conventions on freedom of association for workers. Other companies have remained silent.

The legislature has been controversial from the start and some 100 people clashed with notorious security forces of Dawn Penh district in front of the National Assembly, beating protesting workers and injuring at least two. Just moments after, the new Trade Union Law was voted for and passed last week.

“We’re worried as it will affect our rights to hold strikes. They (the government) will interfere in our work, they can suspend and dissolve us,” said Ath Thon, president of Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union at the protest prior to the voting at the National Assembly. The rules approved in the new Trade Union law in fact date back to rules from 2007, when business owners requested measures to prevent strikes by unions representing the 700,000 workers in garment industry. Since then, the sector has grown rapidly, reflecting the rising cost of labour in China.

The ever rising voices for workers’ rights and decent wages in Cambodia have seen a violent backlash from Cambodian government. This is not only the case for a garment sector dominated by international brands, but also local companies exploiting their employees. Workers’ attempts to strike and stand up for themselves regularly end up in violent clashes with security forces or pro-government groups. Recently in Phnom Penh, employees of Capitol Bus Company and their trade union leaders were attacked by members of government affiliated with the Cambodia for Confederation of Development Association (CCDA).

Capitol Bus employees and unionists had been protesting against trade union harassment, dismissal based on trade union activities and 6 months of unpaid work, only to be attacked with sticks, hammers and metal bars. Security forces, who intervened, targeted the striking group and arrested some of them. 

None of the people from CCDA were arrested. Later, four trade union leaders were charged with several offences, even though none of them was present at the Capitol Bus Company protests.

The treatment of striking workers has prompted strong reactions from Clean Clothes Campaign and International Trades Union Confederation, who condemned the violence and charges.

“We already had our concerns regarding freedom of association in Cambodia; These charges show a new level of deterioration in the state of trade union freedom in Cambodia, which is very bad news for Cambodian workers, in the garment industry and elsewhere,” Carin Leffer of CCC said.

Thousands of refugees flee for Turkish border after surprise Isis attack

The camps were abandoned en masse, with up to 5,000 people heading towards the main border point in the area. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Martin Chulov and Ian Black-Thursday 14 April 2016

Syrian refugees flee after camps are overrun by Isis but find themselves being shot at by Turkish border troops

A new wave of refugees has fled northern Syria for the Turkish border afterIslamic State opened fire on communities that had sheltered them, killing at least three people and uprooting thousands more.

The killings came as the terror group pushed back Syrian opposition forces who had edged to within five miles of Dabiq, a highly symbolic village that the group’s leaders believe is the pre-ordained epicentre of a clash that will herald an apocalyptic showdown.

The Isis advance appeared to catch the opposition off guard after 12 days of gains in the same area, which had seen it move closer to Dabiq than at any time in the past three years.

Units linked to the Free Syria Army, which led the offensive, said they never intended to seize the village, and were instead intending to push further across the north towards the town of Minbij, which lies roughly halfway between Isis’s two largest hubs in the area, al-Bab and Raqqa.

“We knew they would fight for Dabiq like crazy, so why bother attacking them there,” said a leader of an opposition unit whose forces had earlier this week seized the adjoining village of al-Rai. After being beaten back by Isis, he said: “It was never strategic for us. The east of their so-called caliphate is the target that matters.”

Up to 10 camps for internally displaced people were overrun by Isis on Thursday. Camp residents told the Guardian that members of the group had first approached them with loud speakers, urging them to move towards areas they controlled.

Some tried instead to cross the Turkish border but were shot at by Turkish troops. The camps were then abandoned en masse, with up to 5,000 people heading towards the main border point in the area, near the town of Azaz.

That crossing has remained closed for most of the year, with Turkey resisting pressure to allow earlier exoduses fleeing a three-month Russian air bombardment of eastern Aleppo and the northern countryside, all of which are in opposition control.

“The border is supposed to be a refuge, but it is a barrier to push us back into hell, said Abdul Aziz Rizk, who had fled the Iqdah camp. “All we want to do is get out of here.”

Azaz is already home to up to 30,000 refugees from earlier in the year, and Turkish officials have insisted they will continue to refuse permission to cross to all but urgent medical cases and essential family visits.

The International Rescue Committee said it would provide aid to the new arrivals. “We are seeing thousands of people arrive at the border, and more than a thousand families supported by the IRC at a displacement camp in Aleppo province have fled to Azaz and nearby villages,” said Turkey country director Frank McManus. “The IRC will be responding by providing clean water to as many of the new arrivals as possible.”

The Isis gains come as peace talks between the opposition and Syrian regime continue to grind on in Geneva. On the second day of the latest round of talks, the opposition said it was ready to share power in a transitional governing body with members of Assad’s government but not with the president himself or anyone else with blood on their hands.

The statement appeared designed to seize the initiative and emphasise a readiness for compromise after the Syrian government repeated that it would not go along with any transition – the central theme of the UN-brokered process.

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura has made clear he want to see concrete steps towards transition, which he calls “the mother of all issues”.

De Mistura told reporters there was disappointment and frustration that efforts to improve humanitarian access to besieged areas had made so little progress since the start of the partial ceasefire six weeks ago. Douma, Daraya and Harasta - all near Damascus - remained inaccessible to aid workers.

Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the only way to end the five-year war was for all parties to hold talks, adopt a new constitution and hold early elections

Strong quake hits Japan, nuclear plants safe, two dead: media

Firefighters check a collapsed house after an earthquake in Mashiki town, Kumamoto prefecture, southern Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo April 15, 2016. Mandatory credit-REUTERS/KYODO

building after an earthquake in Mashiki town, Kumamoto prefecture, southern Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo April 15, 2016. Mandatory credit-REUTERS/KYODO

BY KIYOSHI TAKENAKA-Fri Apr 15, 2016 

An earthquake of magnitude 6 hit southwestern Japan on Thursday, bringing down some buildings, killing at least two people and injuring hundreds, local media said, but the nuclear regulator reported no problems at power plants.

The initial tremor struck 11 km (7 miles) east of the city of Kumamoto, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). It said the magnitude was 6.2 but later revised it down.

There was no tsunami warning, but one person was killed after being crushed by a collapsing building, and the other by a fire that broke out after the quake, with at least 400 people being treated at local hospitals, public broadcaster NHK said.

NHK showed footage of firefighters tackling a blaze in a building in Mashiki, a town of about 34,000 people near the epicenter of the quake.

"We will do our utmost and carry on with life-saving and rescue operations throughout the night," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters.

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• › Fresh quake of magnitude 6.4 strikes south west Japan: USGS

Japanese media showed residents, some of them wrapped in blankets, huddling in parking lots and other open space for fear of further building collapses.

"The apartment building I live in is now tilting. Everything fell down inside. It's a mess," a male resident in Mashiki said on NHK.

About 16,500 households in and around Mashiki were without electricity as of 2 a.m. (1700 GMT), according to Kyushu Electric Power Co Inc (9508.T).

The Nuclear Regulation Authority said there were no irregularities at three nuclear plants on the southern major island of Kyushu and nearby Shikoku.

In March 2011, a quake of magnitude 9 struck offshore north of Tokyo, causing tsunami waves along the coast that killed nearly 20,000 people and triggered a nuclear power plant meltdown.

After Thursday's quake, some high-speed trains were halted as a precaution.

Honda Motor Co (7267.T) suspended output at its motorcycle factory near Kumamoto following the quake, a company spokesman said. Honda planned to inspect production equipment at the factory, which has an annual output capacity of 250,000 units, on Friday to see how soon production can be resumed.

Mitsubishi Electric Corp (6503.T) and tire maker Bridgestone Corp (5108.T) also suspended operations at their factories in the area, Kyodo news agency said.

(Reporting by Tokyo bureau; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Superbugs are on track to kill 10 million people by 2050 if things don’t change—fast

David Cox-April 12, 2016

In November of 2015, scientists in southeastern China were combing through bacterial samples collected from hospitals in the Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces when they discovered something that would immediately grab the attention of the entire medical community.

Many of the bacteria collected were carrying a new gene called MCR-1. It’s an innocuous-sounding name for a sequence of DNA code, but it poses a potentially deadly threat to millions around the world. MCR-1 produces an enzyme that makes bacteria invincible to one of the world’s most powerful antibiotics, a drug called colistin, which is only used as a last resort when all other antibiotics have failed.

This rogue gene is making hordes of bacteria immune to colistin–and it is spreading rapidly across the globe. So far, MCR-1 has been detected in at least ten countries, including Canada, China, and the UK.
According to research published in The Lancet, the gene’s emergence appears to be at least partially linked to the use of colistin in agriculture. While the use of the drug in hospitals is now extremely restricted, an almost mind-boggling 12,000 tonnes (13,228 tons) of colistin were used in animal production last year. Over the next five years alone, its annual use is predicted to rise to 16,500 tonnes (18,188 tons).

The threat to colistin is far from a one-off. Over the past few decades, our existing antibiotics have increasingly been rendered useless, one by one. But no one can say we haven’t been warned.
Drug resistance is inevitable

More than 70 years ago, Alexander Fleming was awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery of penicillin. In his lecture at the Nobel Banquet on Dec. 11, 1945, it seemed Fleming could already see cloudy skies ahead. “The time may come when penicillin can be bought by anyone in the shops,” he told his audience.

Fleming knew that overuse of penicillin would drive microbial resistance. Prophetically, he warned that the biggest threat to the future of antibiotics was not so much the bacteria themselves, but ignorance. But few were listening. In 1950, scientists from a New York laboratory discovered that adding antibiotics to livestock feed accelerated their growth.

Prophetically, Alexander Fleming warned that the biggest threat to the future of antibiotics was ignorance.

This realization, coupled with innovations in mass production, made the drugs cheaper than conventional supplements. Data collected in 2010 and published in the journal PNAS by an international consortium of scientists revealed that more than 63,000 tonnes(69,446 tons) of antibiotics are being used in livestock production across the globe, particularly in the developing world.

But with exposure comes evolution. Over time, mutations occur, resulting in bacterial strains resistant to elimination until the development of a new chemical. The more times an antibiotic is used, the greater the likelihood of provoking a mutation.

The mortality rate rises       Full Story>>>

What Alzheimer’s Feels Like from the Inside

This video is a finalist for a 2016 Webby Award. You can vote for it here.

BY GREG O’BRIEN-APRIL 7, 2016

Iwas up again at 4 a.m. the other night, one of five nocturnal ramblings in the early morning, the new me. No sleep. Picking my way in the dark, familiar territory of a home on Cape Cod where I have lived with my family for 34 years.

I fumbled into the bathroom as I felt the numbness creep up the back of my neck like a penetrating fog, slowly inching to the front of my mind. It was as if a light in my brain had been shut off. I was overcome by the darkness of not knowing where I was and who I was. So I reached for my cellphone that substitutes as a flashlight, and called the house. My wife, deep asleep in our bed just 20 feet away, rose like Lazarus from the grave to grab the phone in angst, fearing a car crash with one of the kids or the death of an extended family member.

It was me, just me. I was lost in the bathroom.

Iwas diagnosed in 2009 with early-onset Alzheimer’s, after Alzheimer’s stole my maternal grandfather and my mother, and several years before my paternal uncle died of Alzheimer’s. Clinical tests, MRIs and a brain scan confirmed my diagnosis. I also carry the Alzheimer’s marker gene APOE4. Two traumatic head injuries “unmasked” a disease in the making, my doctors tell me.

Today, 60 percent of my short-term memory can be gone in 30 seconds. I often don’t recognize friends, including, on two occasions, my wife. I get lost in familiar places, fly into inexorable rages, put my keys and cellphone in the refrigerator, my laptop in the microwave, and wash business cards in the dishwasher simply because they are dirty.

And at times, I see things that aren’t there. The most disturbing symptoms in my private darkness are the visual misperceptions, the hallucinations—those crawling, spider-and-insect like creatures that crawl along the ceiling regularly at different times of day, sometimes in a platoon, turning at 90 degree angles, then inching a third of the way down the wall before floating toward me. I brush them away, almost in amusement, knowing now that they are not real, yet fearful of the cognitive decline. On a recent morning, I saw a bird in my bedroom circling above me in ever-tighter orbits, before it precipitously dove to the bed in a suicide mission. I screamed. But it was my imagination.

Years ago as a journalist, I thought I was Clark Kent, Superman, an award-winning reporter who feared nothing. But today, I feel more like a baffled Jimmy Olsen. And on days of muddle, more like a codfish landed on the dock. A fish rots from the head down.

I never know who’s going to show up. Will I be on or off? I was off the other night, yet another reminder of the denouement of this plot. Stephen King couldn’t have written a better thriller.

When I sat down to write my own story, in my book, On Pluto: Inside the Mind of Alzheimer’s, my purpose was to offer a blueprint of strategies, faith, and humor, a day-to-day focus on living with Alzheimer’s, not dying with it—a hope that all is not lost when it appears to be. I was with my mother in the nursing home when she passed away, and told her moments before she died, “Mom, we’re riding this one out together.” She had always taught me to confront the demons in life.

And so, when producer Nathan Dappen called me about appearing in a short film, I told him he had me with hello. I was honored by the opportunity, and saw my mother’s face in the camera, urging me in spirit to tell my story. And so I did. As a journalist, answering questions, rather than asking them, and then seeing the remarkable finished product, is a humbling, out-of-body experience—a bit like Alzheimer’s.

I’m not stupid; I have a disease. Hey, it’s just me, the guy lost in the bathroom …

Greg O’Brien is the author of On Pluto: Inside the Mind of Alzheimer’s. It is the first book written by an investigative reporter embedded inside the mind of Alzheimer’s chronicling the progression of his own disease. On Pluto has won several international book awards, and has been the subject of numerous television, radio, newspaper and magazine stories.

Video produced by Day’s Edge Productions and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as part of its “Think Like a Scientist” series for Nautilus.

This article was originally published in our “Stress” issue in December, 2