For women only: Coffee, billiards and cards in Gaza cafe

The space allows women to learn new hobbies, such as dominoes and cards, while offering a place just for them

Women playing billiards at the cafe, situated on Gaza's longest street (Mohammed Asad/MEE)--Heba Fayez, 33, one of the cafe's creators (Mohammad Asad/MEE)

Women playing cards at the cafe, which is the first of its kind in Gaza (Mohammed Asad/MEE)--Billiards has proved especially popular among the cafe's customers (Mohammad Asad/MEE)

Mousa Tawfiq-Wednesday 12 April 2017

GAZA CITY - For visitors and at first glance, Al-Jalaa is just like any other cafe in Gaza City, which is full of cafes and restaurants, usually the preserve of men.

This cafe has nothing in particular to distinguish it when empty of customers: the familiar fragrant smell of coffee fills the air, some playing cards are on the tables from the previous night, and billiard balls are scattered on the felt table in the middle of the room.

But once it receives its first customers at around 8am, Al-Jalaa – named after the street, Gaza’s longest, on which it is situated - transpires to be the only women’s cafe in Gaza.

Last February, friends Heba Fayez, Yasmeen Ali and her sister Doaa decided to start their own business and open a cafe for women.

“As women in Gaza, we have always needed a special place where women can spend their time, just like men. But we had never thought that we might be the creators of this place,” Doaa Ali, 25, says.

The three friends, who work as teachers at the Al-Jalaa social club’s kindergarten, mentioned their idea to the club’s directors and convinced them to let them open their cafe.

“Al-Jalaa club has a kindergarten - where we work - a gym, and a cafe for men. We noticed that the cafe is always empty from 8am to 4pm, as men’s time at the gym starts at 5pm,” Doaa says.

So the women asked the club’s directors if they could use the cafe as a women-only space while it was empty, Doaa, who has a BA in accountancy, explains.

The young women’s goal was to both have a profitable project and one with its own unique style. They also wanted to help the local community, and especially women, by introducing the first project of its kind.

Although the place was already a cafe for men and it was fully equipped, the young women wanted to add their own touches.

“We immediately started to work on it by giving it a feminine touch,” she explained. “I was responsible for decorating the cafe and embellishing the walls. My sister Yasmine, who likes cooking, suggested our menu. On top of that, our friends helped clean it up and arrange the place.”

'Where are the parents of these girls?'

One of the most interesting features of the Al-Jalaa cafe is that it allows women to openly practise their hobbies and learn new ones. The freedom of this new space has attracted a lot of women of different ages to try things they have never experienced before, such as billiards, playing cards and dominoes.

“It was a dream. We moved step by step until we achieved our goal,” Fayez, 33, says. “We wanted to have a place that gives women the full space to play cards, pool and dominoes. They can also work together here or just chat.”

However some were not happy with the opening of a cafe for women where cards and games were played.

According to Fayez, they were “violently attacked” on social media for just “enjoying their free time”. Some people sent religious fatwas prohibiting women from playing pool or cards. Other people sent comments such as “Is this in Gaza? Is it a cafe or a nightclub?” and “Where are the parents of those girls?”

Although they expected this kind of feedback, Fayez and her friends were shocked by how people judged them.

“Men come to the same place and do the same activities we do, after we leave at 4pm. Why is it allowed for them and prohibited for us?”

Fayez, who has an MA in geography, says they fully understand that the concept of a women-only space, where customers play billiards and dominoes, is new to Gaza.

But, she adds, she asked a local mufti for his advice, and he confirmed that playing such games is not prohibited.

Billiards – not just for men

The determined friends held onto their dream and say they were not negatively affected by the criticism. They also stress their families’ role in encouraging and advising them, in addition to protecting them from any possible problems.

“Our families inspire us and make us feel safe, especially after the criticism we received. They understand and appreciate the decision we took and its positive impact on us and on society,” Fayez says.

More women started to come to the cafe to play billiards and to simply enjoy spending time together.

The success of their project has encouraged the three friends to start thinking of their next step.

“Women were curious to try billiards, which they used to consider a game for men. So we are now preparing a course at the cafe to teach women how to play billiards. We will bring in a professional billiard player to teach our customers,” she adds.

Fayez says they have been very satisfied with their achievements with their cafe so far and feel confident of continued success – many of their customers are friends and relatives. It has also been hugely beneficial to have a gym and a kindergarten in the same building, she adds.

Some women pop into the cafe before or after working out at the gym – which has women-only hours – and mothers come by after dropping off their children at the nursery.  

A place to grieve

The cafe menu is very simple. They offer snacks and cheese sandwiches in addition to hot and soft drinks. However, every Thursday they offer different lunch meals and sandwiches because it’s “families' day,” according to Samar al-Rayes, 52, one of the customers.

For some customers, the cafe has offered a lot more than simply a place to learn new hobbies.

Rayes says the women-only space has helped her in the grieving process.

“I lost my son and his wife in the sea. They were trying to migrate to Europe. After that, I’d been living in despair,” she says.

“But when I started to come to this cafe with my friends, I felt better, especially when doing new things such as playing billiards,” Rayes says, while sitting with her friends.

“It’s a warm place,” she adds, “where women from different generations meet. University students, single and married women share the same space,” she adds.

For Heba al-Gherbawi, 26, another customer, the cafe is a calm place where she enjoys relaxing. The newly engaged young woman describes how her fiancé is more comfortable when she is at the Al-Jalaa cafe, as it is just for women.

“I feel free here. I play cards and billiards with my friends. I also don’t like hookah, which is usually smoked in men’s cafes, so I’m glad it isn’t available here,” she says.

Literature club

The ambitious women have recently decided to open a cultural corner at their cafe. They have brought books in to start a small library, and have organised meetings for women to discuss literary issues.

“We want to encourage women to read and share their writings between them. I think that one day we will have a book written by our customers describing their experiences in Gaza and in our cafe in particular,” Doaa says.   

But the three young women are also trying to exercise caution when it comes to marketing their cafe, so as to avoid any misconceptions or negative responses. They also have to consider the wishes of the Al-Jalaa club owners.

“We need to be careful in order to protect our project and to succeed in the face of difficulties,” Doaa adds.

The women are excited about the future and watching their project continue to improve.

‘It’s our first experience in having a personal project and working in a cafe. We are very happy that we have taken this step,” Fayez says.

“Despite the difficulties we face, we look forward to the future of this space, and we like to imagine how it will progress, year after year, full of women doing what they like to do, regardless of social misconceptions and circumstances."

Deadly Aleppo suicide attack targets evacuees from besieged areas

Dozens killed as suicide bomber uses aid supply vehicle to target busloads of people waiting for evacuation

A screengrab from video provided by the Thiqa news agency shows the aftermath of the attack. Photograph: AP

Emma Graham-Harrison and Damien Gayle-Saturday 15 April 2017

A suicide car bomber has killed and injured dozens of people and fractured a complex deal to evacuate four besieged towns in Syria, leaving thousands of people trapped in limbo.

The bomber targeted buses full of evacuees from government-held towns as they waited in a rebel-held area on the outskirts of Aleppo. He drove his explosives up to their vehicles in a van meant to carry aid supplies.

Syrian TV put the toll at 39, while the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring organisation, said at least 43 people had been killed and that the toll was expected to rise.

Images from the scene showed bodies on the ground around blackened vehicles, as thick smoke rose into the air. A senior rebel official said about 20 fighters guarding the buses had been killed, along with people inside.

Residents of rebel-held towns waiting in buses in government territory said they were terrified they could face reprisal attacks.

They appealed to international organisations including the UN for security guarantees, asking them to “provide the necessary protection to reach our final destinations”.

Several hours after the explosion, the Lebanese TV channel al-Manar, which is close to the Syrian government, showed new buses arriving to replace those damaged, as reports suggested the stalled exchange would soon restart.

Activists in opposition-held areas said they were waiting for confirmation that buses were on the move again. Both groups of evacuees, effectively being held as hostages, are just a short drive from their destinations.

About 7,000 people and fighters were being evacuated this weekend in a complex humanitarian deal that took months to agree.

Under it, 5,000 people were offered safe passage from the government-held towns of Foua and Kefriya, which are surrounded by rebels, and 2,000 left the rebel-held towns of Madaya and Zabadani near Damascus, which are besieged by government forces.

Both groups became stranded outside Aleppo, however, after the deal stalled and the two sides started wrangling over the number of fighters to be evacuated.

Ahmed Afandar, a resident evacuated from his home near Madaya, said: “The people are restless and the situation is disastrous. All these thousands of people are stuck in less than half a kilometre.”

The evacuees from Madaya were expected to head to rebel-held Idlib, 30 miles south-west of Aleppo.

NASA ‘sting’ operation against 74-year-old widow of Apollo engineer draws court rebuke

Joann Davis of Lake Elsinore, Calif., in 2011. (Sarah Burge/The Press-Enterprise via AP)

By Fred Barbash April 14

Agents of the U.S. government are entitled to immunity from lawsuits for what they do in the line of duty, as long as they do it right, in accord with the Constitution.

But what one NASA investigator did to Joann Davis, a financially distressed widow of an engineer on the Apollo program who was trying to raise a little money, was too much for a federal court of appeals to stomach. And on Thursday, the judges let her suit against him go forward.

Here’s what happened, as described in an opinion issued by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Pasadena.

Robert Davis was, by all accounts, a brilliant engineer, employed by North American Rockwell as manager of NASA’s Apollo 11 program.

When he left, he took with him two mementos: One “contained a rice-grain-sized fragment of lunar material, or ‘moonrock;’ the other contained a small piece of the Apollo 11 heat shield.”

According to “family lore,” Neil Armstrong gave the paperweights to Davis in recognition of his service to NASA.

Robert Davis died in 1986. His widow, Joann, who later remarried, fell on hard times in 2011. Her son had become ill, requiring over 20 surgeries. Her youngest daughter died, and she found herself raising several grandchildren in her 70s.

In need of money, she thought of selling the paperweights, only to find that auction houses were uninterested.

She then contacted NASA for help in finding a buyer for what she described as “2 rare Apollo 11 space artifacts.”

Her innocent email inquiry produced a wholly unanticipated result when it arrived in the NASA bureaucracy. It wound up not in the hands of some kindly space veteran but in the office of NASA’s Inspector General at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

There, an agent smelled a crime. Perhaps, he thought, she was trying to unload purloined government property, a crime.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Pasadena allowed a suit against a NASA investigator to go forward. The NASA investigator conducted a "sting" operation against a 74-year-old widow of a Apollo engineer, who was attempting to sell moonrock and a piece of the Apollo 11 heat shield. (United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit)

The IG’s office launched an investigation, getting a “confidential source” to call Davis pretending to be a broker. He called himself “Jeff.”

Jeff pretended to have previously worked at NASA and promised to help her sell the paperweights.

The two exchanged seven phone calls, during which Davis expressed concern that NASA would confiscate the paperweights unless she could prove they were a gift. She explained, according to court documents, that she wanted “to do things legally” because she was “just not an illegal person.”

Jeff said he was a legal person too, but reminded her that the sale of a moon rock “can’t be done publicly.”

After the phone calls, Norman Conley, a criminal investigator in the IG’s office, obtained a warrant stating that Davis was “in possession of contraband.”

They then planned a sting operation on the 74-year-old woman.

Jeff arranged to meet with Davis on May 19, 2011, at a Denny’s Restaurant in Lake Elsinore, Calif., for purposes, she was led to believe, of finalizing the sale of the paperweights.

Davis went with her second husband, Paul Cilley.

Greeting Davis, who is 4-foot-11, were three armed federal agents, with three Riverside County Sheriff’s officials present but not visible, apparently as backup.

The court opinion described what happened next:

Davis placed the paperweights on the table. Jeff said he thought the heat shield was worth about $2,000. Shortly thereafter, Conley announced himself as a “special agent,” and another officer’s hand reached over Davis, grabbed her hand, and took the moon rock paperweight. Simultaneously, a different officer grabbed Cilley by the back of the neck and restrained him by holding his arm behind his back in a bent-over position. Then, an officer grabbed Davis by the arm, pulling her from the booth. At this time, Davis claims that she felt like she was beginning to lose control of her bladder. One of the officers took her purse … Four officers escorted them to the restaurant parking lot for questioning after patting them down to ensure that neither was armed.

She kept telling the officers she needed to use the bathroom. Undeterred, they continued walking her to the parking lot for interrogation, however, the court said. She then “urinated in her clothing.”

She was soaked in urine, visibly, the court said. Still, they continued interrogating her in the restaurant parking lot for between an hour and a half and two hours. They read her Miranda rights, ultimately allowed her to leave and referred the case to the U.S. attorney in Orlando.

There never was a crime, of course. She didn’t steal the artifacts. Ultimately, the investigation was closed when the prosecutor in Orlando declined to bring a case.

In 2013, Davis and Cilley sued the government and Conley, seeking damages for a violation of their constitutional rights. Conley claimed “qualified immunity” from the suit, legally available to federal agents unless they violate “clearly established” constitutional rights, in this case, Davis’s Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure. A district court rejected the claim and he appealed.

A very small piece of moon rock taken from Davis during a sting operation. (U.S. District Court for the Central District of California via AP)

On Thursday, the appeals court ruled against him. He might be entitled to qualified immunity, had his actions been reasonable, wrote Chief Judge Sidney Thomas for the panel. But they weren’t.

“Conley knew that Davis was a slight, elderly woman … less than five feet tall,” Thomas wrote. He knew she lost control of her bladder and “was wearing visibly wet pants.” He knew she was unarmed and he knew she had “not concealed possession of the paperweights, but rather had reached out to NASA for help in selling” them. And he knew from the phone conversations that she wanted to sell the paperweights “in a legal manner.”

“Despite all of this knowledge, Conley did not inform Davis that her possession of the paperweights was illegal or ask her to surrender them to NASA. Instead, he organized a sting operation involving six armed officers to forcibly seize a lucite paperweight containing a moon rock the size of a rice grain from an elderly grandmother.

Conley “had no law enforcement interest in detaining Davis for two hours while she stood wearing urine-soaked pants in a restaurant’s parking lot during the lunch rush,” the court wrote.

The detention was “unreasonable … unreasonably prolonged and unnecessarily degrading.”

The future of Davis’s suit is uncertain. A federal court found against her in her separate suit against the government itself, according to the San Francisco Chronicle,

John Rubiner, an attorney for Conley, told 5KPIX in San Francisco that he was examining the ruling and had not decided what to do next. He said that a trial court considering her case against the government determined that Conley had asked Davis if she wished to use the bathroom to clean up and whether she wanted to speak with him at her home, but she declined.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the trial court dismissed the suit against the government on the grounds that Davis had given “free and voluntary” consent to the agent’s questioning in the parking lot and was not in custody while being questioned.

Davis’s lawyer, Peter Schlueter, told the Chronicle his client can sue for an abusive interrogation even if she was not in formal custody, however.

Highlights from the Apollo 11 mission on July 21, 1969. (NASA

The Daily 202: Trump doesn’t know much about history. It’s making his on-the-job training harder.

Donald Trump welcomes Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago on April 6. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

With Breanne Deppisch---Donald Trump makes a dramatic entrance from inside the Lincoln Memorial during a "Make America Great Again" concert the night before his inauguration. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Mark Thompson is escorted last night from his court-martial at Quantico. (J. Lawler Duggan/For The Washington Post)-Mark Thompson is escorted last night from his court-martial at Quantico. (J. Lawler Duggan/For The Washington Post)

By James Hohmann April 14 at 11:25 AM

THE BIG IDEA: Donald Trump believed he could convince China to pressure North Korea to stop its nuclear activities. Then President Xi Jinping tutored him on the history of the region.

“After listening for 10 minutes, I realized that it’s not so easy,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, recounting the session at Mar-a-Lago. “You know, I felt pretty strongly that they had a tremendous power over North Korea. But it’s not what you would think."

This comment is funny because, in 2011, Trump claimed that he has read “hundreds of books about China over the decades,” including works by Henry Kissinger, American journalists and Chinese novelists. Looking to do more business with Beijing, he provided a list of 20 books about China to Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, that he said had helped him understand the country, its politics and its people. “I know the Chinese. I've made a lot of money with the Chinese. I understand the Chinese mind,” Trump said six years ago. His list had some surprising titles on it, including “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.”

President Trump is changing his tune on NATO, China's currency, Syria and many other policies he campaigned on. The Post's Jenna Johnson looks at why his stances have shifted now that he's in the White House. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

The lawyer for United passenger David Dao said his client suffered "a significant concussion" a "serious broken nose, injury to sinuses and he is going to be undergoing shortly reconstructive surgery." (Reuters)

The Air Force released video of a 2003 test of a bomb, called a GBU-43. The military dropped same type of bomb on Islamic State forces in eastern Afghanistan on April 13, 2017. (U.S. Air Force)
 After U.S. forces dropped a 22,000-pound bomb on the Islamic State in eastern Afghanistan on April 13, President Trump called the operation a “successful job.” (Reuters)

Washington Post columnist David Ignatius takes a look at the developing foreign policy of the Trump administration. (Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)

Color me skeptical that Trump has read anything by Amy Chua.

-- Even if he has, the fact our president needed an introductory tutorial on Sino-Korean relations to understand how hard it is to contain Pyongyang is just the latest illustration of one of his blind spots: He and his inner-circle have very little sense of history.

-- It is a cliché, but there is truth to it: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Read More

Trump Flip Flops Once Again, Now Allowing Hedge Funds Their $180 Billion Tax Dodge

By Robert Greenwald, Charles Khan / Brave New Films-April 14, 2017

Imagine a tax scam so outrageous that even Donald Trump admits it’s inexcusable. Hard to believe, I realize, but it’s all on tape right here – along with more information about how organizers are sidestepping the cash-drunk powers that be in Washington and working to put billions of dollars back into state budgets.

The scam is called the carried interest loophole and its beneficiaries are private equity partners and hedge fund moguls – aka virtually everyone at the top of the Trump Administration. Now that he’s in office, Trump isn’t touching it, which surprises exactly no one.

The carried interest loophole allows partners at private-equity firms and hedge funds to treat a big portion of their income as capital gains – that is, as profit on the sale of an investment. Capital gains are taxed at 20 percent, plus a 3.8 percent surtax typically. Compare that to the tax rate for ordinary income – salaries earned by the rest of us – which is 39.6 percent, and you see the problem.

The rational justification for carried interest is nonexistent. The term itself comes from the 12th century when ship captains where paid by percentages of the sale of the cargo they carried. The idea, which was eventually enshrined in the tax code, was to encourage certain kinds of investments by rewarding those who took risks to build businesses. How that got twisted to reward private equity and hedge fund partners who make the vast majority of their millions in fees is lost to history.

Brave New Films: Trump Slams "Hedge Fund Guys" For Tax Evasion:

There is one billionaire who claims that the carried interest loophole is good for America because it gives him the money to support philanthropy. Beyond that single example of hubris so mind-blowing you would be forgiven for thinking it is satire, there is virtually no one who will defend carried interest on any rational terms. There is an effort every year in Congress by Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Rep. Sander Levin to get rid of it and even some halfhearted support from one or two Republicans but nothing gets done.

Meanwhile, $15.6 billion that could be going to schools, to clean energy investments, to repairing our nation’s crumbling infrastructure, instead sits in the vaults of multimillionaires.

Fed up with congressional inaction, states are now getting serious and creative about the issue. They can’t change federal tax law, but they can mitigate the damage it does by “repatriating” lost revenue. Some are well into the process, pushed along by Hedgeclippers and other groups standing up for the rest of us.

Several eastern states and Illinois are already well along that path with legislation that taxes the carried interest income of hedge fund and private equity partnerships headquartered in their states.

New York’s proposal would get around this congressional inaction by raising state income taxes on private equity and hedge-fund partners who live in New York. The increase would be equal to the tax savings they receive from using the loophole at the federal level. The aim is for the tax increase to take effect once various states have closed the loophole. That way, the tax could not be avoided by moving to a neighboring state.

Closing the loophole would raise $3.7 billion a year in New York. Estimated annual revenue would be $938 million in Massachusetts, $535 million in Connecticut and $112 million in New Jersey.

Labor, community and activist groups are building coalitions to spread the movement to other states including California, DC, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio and Minnesota. Check out how much money each state stands to gain here. Then check out the Hedgeclippers and see how you can help.

Robert Greenwald is a producer and director, and the founder and president of Brave New Films. He is a board member of the Independent Media Institute, AlterNet's parent organization. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

Charles Khan is the Organizing Director at the Strong Economy For All Coalition, a Coalition of Labor Unions and Community groups focusing on legislative driven campaigns to fight for economic equality, equal funding of public schools, and corporate accountability in New York State.

Trump Should Make the Case for Trade With China

 BY MARK R. KENNEDY-APRIL 14, 2017

Transformations sometimes emerge from the most unlikely of sources. The phrase “Nixon goes to China” heralded the surprise outreach by a president who had been China’s staunch critic.
Hopefully President Donald Trump’s recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and his acceptance of Xi’s invitation to visit China marks the beginning of a similar metamorphosis. Past administrations have made progress in enforcing trade rules with China, but not in convincing the American public of their effectiveness. Perhaps Trump
can convince Americans we are achieving progress, thereby permitting a more constructive path on trade policy.

Getting “tough on China” was not invented by the Trump administration. As President Barack Obama said in September 2016 when filing a World Trade Organization (WTO) complaint, “This is the 14th WTO case we’ve launched against China since I took office and the 23rd overall, and we’ve won every case that’s been decided.” The tough enforcement I witnessed as a member of a presidentially appointed trade advisory panel during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Obama seem to have escaped public view. Hopefully Trump has better luck.

The Trump administration is correct in concluding that current WTO agreements are insufficient levers for opening up China. But talk of bypassing the WTO would only be of strategic value if it were merely a tactical maneuver to strengthen the global trading system. Arguably nothing has done more to avert not just trade wars, but wars themselves, than the WTO’s globally acknowledged dispute resolution mechanism.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would have established a higher benchmark, including on state-owned enterprises, which would have pressured China to accept a higher standard. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says he will “reexamine” his approach if there is no progress with China in 100 days. Any reexamination should include reconsidering the TPP or advancing a comparable effort. Otherwise, talk of progress with China would be just that — talk.

Yet even talk by Trump could be valuable if it convinces the American people to stop channeling all their economic frustrations against efforts to legitimately address them by enacting trade agreements beneficial to American workers. When I was one of the deciding votes in Congress in support of the Central American Free Trade Agreement, nearly everyone who expressed opposition began by mentioning China, even though it was not a party to the agreement. What makes this myopia more concerning is that it fails to recognize how such agreements strengthen our North American economic zone in its competition with China.

The talk has indeed begun. Commenting on the summit, Ross claimed that China had expressed for the first time in bilateral talks an interest in reducing its trade surplus with the United States in order to minimize impacts on money supply and inflation, while  Trump opined, “lots of very potentially bad problems will be going away.”

Yet businesses must not outsource the task of renewing America’s faith in markets to any administration. They must not only become adept at engaging the non-market actors that shape individual opportunities and risks (what I call shapeholders), but also social attitudes that shape the environment for all businesses. It is in their best interest for more people to understand that the primary culprits for economic pressures on the middle class are advances in productivity-enhancing technology and the spread of globalization, neither of which are reversible.

Businesses must help the public understand that lower barriers to American products being sold overseas is a solution, not something to be demonized. They must educate not just members of Congress when a trade vote is pending, but their own workers on a continuous basis. Why not disclose how much of each worker’s paycheck is a result of trade, as former United States Trade Representative Carla Hills has long advocated? Why not host a picnic for employees at the point in the year marking the proportion of production exported?

If businesses hope to reverse poisonous attitudes towards trade, they must more aggressively push for actions that truly address economic angsts, including tax reform that levels the playing field for job-creating small businesses that can’t afford legions of lawyers and accountants to access loopholes, increased investment in lifelong learning to keep workers of all ages prepared for today’s economy, and enhanced encouragements to save for retirement.

When Trump goes to China, he could surprisingly catalyze a re-embrace of America’s free enterprise heritage. This will only happen if American businesses step up to both more aggressively make the case for markets and to make markets work for all Americans.

Photo credit: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

Interpol issues ‘red notice’ for Scottish teacher wanted for murder in Burma

Buildings in downtown Yangon. Binotti and Ferguson had been teaching in an international school in the city. Source: Joanne Lane

14th April 2017

A SCOTTISH teacher suspected of killing his international school colleague in Burma last year is still at large and has been put on a “red notice” for a wanted person, Interpol says.

According to the BBC, 26-year-old Harris Binotti fled Burma in November following the murder of Gary Ferguson, an English teacher in Yangon.

The notice says Binotti faces murder charges and describes him as measuring about 1.68m (5ft 5in) tall and having brown hair and blue eyes.

While the notice is not an arrest warrant, it serves as an international alert for a person wanted by national jurisdictions for prosecution based on an arrest warrant or court decision, the BBC reported.

SEE ALSO: Burma: British international school teacher murdered in downtown Yangon

Binotti had reportedly taken a flight to Thailand a day prior to the discovery of Ferguson’s body in his flat.

The victim was found dead in the apartment, and was said to have been out drinking the night before with Binotti.

Ferguson, who has been working in Burma’s commercial capital for a year and who had a four-year-old son, was discovered with his body covered in black and blue bruises, with chest and head wounds.

The two teachers taught English at the Horizon International School in Yangon.

Ferguson’s brother, Martin, was quoted as saying the family was relieved the red notice for Binotti had finally been issued.

“After such a hard and long fight, I am in tears to announce Binotti has finally been put on the Interpol list of wanted persons,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

“He can now be arrested internationally.”

Congo’s pricey passport scheme sends millions of dollars offshore

SMILE FOR THE CAMERA: President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo at the launch of the country's new biometric passport in Kinshasa in November 2015. Kabila remains in office despite protests that new presidential elections are overdue. RTNC/Handout via Reuters TV---EXPENSIVE: An immigration official displays a Democratic Republic of Congo biometric passport. They cost about a third of the average citizen’s annual per capita income. REUTERS/Stringer

TRAVELLER: The passport photograph of Makie Makolo Wangoi, reported to be a relative of President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The impoverished Democratic Republic of Congo has introduced biometric passports costing $185 apiece. But most of that money does not go to the state. Instead millions of dollars go to a private company in the Gulf - and sources say it is owned by a relative of President Joseph Kabila.

(En français) 

By David Lewis-Filed April 13, 2017

KINSHASA - One day in November 2015, President Joseph Kabila visited his foreign ministry and smiled broadly as a computer took his photograph and fingerprints. He was there to mark the launch of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s new biometric passport, fitted with a chip to store details of his identity.

Congo’s pricey passport scheme sends millions of dollars offshore.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

India’s Supreme Court’s Observations On Tamil Nadu’s Farmers Issue

by N.S.Venkataraman-Apr 15, 2017

( April 15, 2017, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Supreme Court has issued a stern message to the Tamil Nadu government that silence would not be the answer to the farmers issues.

While there is no doubt that farmers have suffered in Tamil Nadu in recent months due to failure of monsoon and drought conditions, it is certainly not the case that the governments are silent on farmers’ issue.

Further, the Supreme Court has issued a notice to Tamil Nadu government that it should respond within two weeks to announce schemes and measures intended to help the farmers. The fact is that several schemes have already been announced by the governments.

When the Supreme Court says that Tamil Nadu government should not treat the litigation before the court as an adversarial litigation but a participative one to relieve the agony of the farmers, everyone would agree with this sentiment. At the same time, many would wonder as to whether the Supreme Court has taken into consideration the ground conditions and the limitations faced by the state government in the present extremely severe drought conditions.

The farmers in Tamil Nadu :

There are around 75 lakh farmers in Tamil Nadu and the farmers affected by drought in the delta regions is around 30 lakhs. Of this, it is estimated that around 90% of the farmers have less than 5 acres of land who are affected by the drought.
It is reported that around Rs. 86000 Crores has been the loan amount availed by the farmers all over Tamil Nadu , including the farmers living in the drought affected areas.

What has state government done ?

On 28.2.2016, Tamil Nadu government has waived the loans to farmers by cooperative banks of Rs. 5780 Crore benefiting 16.94 lakh farmers having less than 5 acres of land.

Later on, Madras High Court ordered that 3.01 lakh farmers in the affected areas who have more than 5 acres of land should also be given the benefit of loan waiver that would amount to Rs. 1980 crore. Tamil Nadu government has not contested this order.

Further, Tamil Nadu government has extended relief amount between Rs. 3000 and Rs. 7000 to each affected farmer that would benefit 30 lakh farmers , with an expenditure of Rs. 2247 crore for the state government.

Further,on 13th April, 2017, the Chief Minister has ordered an additional disbursement of Rs. 20 crores to procure animal feed in April- May from the State’s Disaster Relief Fund to mitigate the fodder shortage caused by the drought in the state which will also benefit the farmers.

What has the Central government done?:

Central government has approved sanctioning of Rs. 1793.63 crore to Tamil Nadu for the Khariff drought and has released Rs.1499 Cr. to Tamil Nadu after adjusting Rs. 345.64 Cr. lying in the State Disaster Response Fund.

Crop Insurance Scheme :

Government has introduced liberal crop insurance scheme for the farmers with very low premia of 2% of the insured value for Khariff crop and 1.5% for the Rabi season . Around 15 lakh farmers have registered themselves for crop insurance in Tamil Nadu but the amount is yet to be disbursed in most cases. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has ordered quick disbursement of drought relief to farmers under the Prime Minister’s Crop Insurance Scheme.

What demand by farmers ?

The farmers have demanded that around Rs. 39,000 crore of farm loans should be waived. Further, long term issues such as inter linking rivers, and formation of Cauvery Water Management Board have been demanded.

Farmers’ protest in Delhi:

Around 50 farmers from delta regions have been sitting in protest in Delhi insisting on the above demands for more than thirty days now. Several central ministers including Finance Minister have met them and have assured relief measures shortly. But the farmers insist that the Prime Minister should meet them.

Several opposition political leaders have met the agitating farmers in Delhi, spent some time with them, sat for photograph with them and issued public statements supporting the farmers and decrying the government. To draw the media attention, the farmers have done all sorts of things including undressing themselves in public.

Many wonder as to whether the farmers agitation has become political in character and style ,which will not help the cause of the farmers.
It is also not clear as to whether all the farmers in Tamil Nadu in drought affected regions ( round 30 lakh farmers) approve the methods of protest indulged in by around 50 farmers in Delhi, which may ultimately affect the image of the farmers themselves as well as Tamil Nadu state.

Supreme Court’s observations:

While insisting that the Tamil Nadu government should not be silent on the problems of the farmers, Supreme Court has not given an impression that it has recognized the measures already taken by the governments.

While the farming community has a special place in the hearts of everyone, it has also to be said that there is a limit upto which the governments can help them in overcoming the present acute stress conditions due to financial limitations and the funds needed for various other schemes.

While the fact is that the finance of the Tamil Nadu government is in an extremely bad shape due to various reasons, one cannot deny that the Tamil Nadu government has extended financial support to the extent possible for it in the present circumstances. The government has not shied away

The farmers demand that the central government should waive Rs. 39,000 crore of loan extended by public sector banks to the farmers. One has to keep in view that there are 27 states and 7 union territories in India and such demands are being made by farmers of several states. There is a limit beyond which the central government cannot oblige the demands of all the states fully.

It is also necessary to keep in view that there are 27 crore people in India who live below poverty line and who do not know as to where their next meal would come from. The government has responsibility to serve the needs of these deprived people too.

What can the governments and society do additionally now ?

With regard to the demand for loan waiver , in addition to what has already been provided by state government by waiving the cooperative bank loans , the Central government can issue order that the banks would not insist on repayment of loan for the next two years. The accrued interest should be completely waived off.

In such severe conditions , the government does not have a magic wand to solve the problems in one stroke. While drought has happened
now, the rains will come in the coming months, that would give big relief to the farmers.

There are many people in Tamil Nadu including cinema actors as well as political parties who have huge funds at their disposal, as we have seen in the R K Nagar by polls in Chennai. They are all expressing sympathy for the farmers. Why not they go a step further, collect atleast Rs. 500 crores between themselves and extend relief to the farmers.

The farmers’ distress conditions call for response from the entire society in Tamil Nadu and there is no indication so far that Tamil society has realized it’s responsibility which should be by way of adding to the government relief schemes.

What about agri workers ?

Apart from the farmers, there are lakhs of agricultural workers in Tamil Nadu, who work on the farms as daily wage earners.

When the drought conditions affect the agricultural operations, the agricultural workers consisting of men and women also suffer enormously.
Why nobody has brought their plight into limelight? Why do the farmers remain silent on the plight of these unfortunate workers, who do not have not farm land or perhaps any other worthwhile possession.