Jerusalem rocked with clashes despite end to Al-Aqsa boycott

Director of Al-Aqsa warns of escalation on Friday, saying Israeli forces are looking for revenge

Unrest continued into night as Israeli forces entered mosque to evacuate protesters (MEE/Mahfouz Abu Turk)

Lubna Masarwa-Friday 28 July 2017

JERUSALEM - Israeli police fired stun grenades and tear gas at Palestinians inside Jerusalem's Noble Sanctuary, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the execution of a Palestinian who killed three Israeli settlers last week.

Clashes also broke out next to the Hutta Gate, as thousands of Muslim worshippers entered the compound, ending a boycott after Israel removed the new security measures installed after a 14 July attack left two policemen dead.

After the clashes, Israeli police were allowing people out of the Al-Aqsa site, but preventing anyone from entering.

The unrest continued into the night, as Israeli forces entered the mosque to remove protesters, according to Al-Aqsa director Omar Kiswani.

Kiswani warned of further clashes on Friday, saying Israel's crackdown on worshippers is a worrying sign.

"I think the occupation forces want to escalate and unleash violence on peaceful worshippers," he told MEE.

A 12-year-old boy was injured, along with others, and several young men were arrested on Thursday night, Kiswani added.

"What happened today is intended to exact revenge on worshippers and protesters who came to pray at Al-Aqsa," he said.

Kiswani slammed the Israeli attack on protesters, calling it a violation of human norms and international law. "The world is unfortunately silent to the Israeli transgressions at Al-Aqsa." 

There was also violence at Lion's Gate, the main site of protests against Israeli security measures introduced after the attack.

The Palestine Red Crescent said at least 115 people were injured in the latest violence.

Outside the compound, clashes in one area erupted when a group of policemen walked in the middle of a crowd. Palestinians threw plastic bottles and Israeli forces fired stun grenades.

Israeli police said stones were thrown at officers inside the compound.

"Upon the entry of worshippers into the Temple Mount compound, some began throwing stones at officers, during which some stones fell into the Western Wall plaza," Israeli police said in a statement, referring to the Jewish holy site below the compound.

"A police force at the site pushed back those disrupting the order using riot dispersal means. An officer was hit by a stone on his head. He was treated at the site."

The head of the Arab League warned on Thursday that Israeli attempts to control highly sensitive religious sites in Jerusalem by force risks igniting a "religious war".

Israel's actions are "playing with fire, and will only ignite a religious war and shift the core of the conflict from politics to religion," Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit said.

He was speaking at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo on the latest violence in Jerusalem.

"I invite the occupying state (Israel) to carefully learn the lessons from this crisis and the message it holds," Gheit said in a televised speech.

"Handling holy sites lightly and with this level of arrogance seriously threatens to ignite a religious war, since not one single Muslim in the world would accept the desecration of Al-Aqsa mosque," he said.

Palestinian flag removed

Videos shared on social media showed Israeli forces removing a Palestinian flag, raised hours earlier, from the entrance to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The fresh clashes were in stark contrast to the preceding hours, where Palestinians held street parties around the Old City after the withdrawal of Israeli police checkpoints at access points into the Noble Sanctuary, or Haram al-Sharif.

Ahmed, who was inside the mosque compound when the clashes broke out, told Middle East Eye that Israeli police had fired rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas canisters at those who had come to pray.

"It got nasty real quick, the Israelis threw stun grenades and rubber bullets near where people were praying," said Ahmed, a British student volunteering in Palestine.

"Then they sent in the riot police and stormed the mosque compound. They then shut the gates for a while.

"People couldn't run away from the police because they're trapped inside the compound."

"Women were running and screaming to their children to avoid the rubber bullets, while the older men were telling people to calm down, and not to be afraid, that 'Al-Aqsa is ours'."

"Many people were chanting, 'We're going to Al-Aqsa'."

Speaking at a memorial service for three Israelis stabbed last week in their settlement home, Netanyahu said the death sentence should be used for "terrorists."

"The death penalty for terrorists – it's time to implement it in severe cases," he said while speaking with family members of the victims, a video of which was posted on Netanyahu's Twitter account.

"It's anchored in the law. You need the judges to rule unanimously on it, but if you want to know the government's position and my position as prime minister - in a case like this, of a base murderer like this – he should be executed. He should simply not smile anymore."

Additional reporting Areeb Ullah and agencies.

Asleep at the wheel? Germany frets about economic car crash

Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, takes part in the ground breaking ceremony for the second battery factory at Daimler subsidiary ACCUMOTIVE in Kamenz, Germany May 22, 2017.

Emma Thomasson and Edward Taylor-JULY 27, 2017

BERLIN/STUTTGART, Germany (Reuters) - Daimler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche beamed as he posed for cameras in a Mercedes-Benz electric car after meeting politicians to discuss the future of the auto industry in Stuttgart, birthplace of the combustion engine.

What the pictures do not reveal is that the Mercedes EQ car was a prototype that had to be dragged into the city square by four employees before the shoot.

Daimler's EQ brand will only hit the road at the end of the decade. It's a sign of how Germany has been slow to embrace electric vehicles and associated technology as it clings to the combustion engine that has driven its post-war prosperity.

"China dominates the production of solar cells. Tesla is ahead in electric cars and Germany has lost the first round of digitalization to Google, Apple and the like," said Winfried Kretschmann, who is premier of the region where Daimler is based and hosted the meeting with Zetsche and other car bosses.

"Whether Germany has a future as an industrial economy will depend on whether we can manage the ecological and digital transformation of our economy," Kretschmann said.

Despite booming car exports and high employment in the industry, there is a sense of unease: "Is the car finished?" asked the weekly Die Zeit. "Fear in car country," said Stern magazine.

Those fears have been mounting since the Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) emissions scandal broke in 2015.

But the angst extends beyond cars to the broader economy, even though exports are booming and unemployment low. Politicians fear Germany is failing to invest enough in new technology and infrastructure.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has made preparing Germany for the digital age big part of her campaign for national elections on Sept. 24, pledging to boost research and development spending.

Digital Era

"I firmly believe that digitization does not mean we will have fewer jobs per se," Merkel said last month.

"If, however, jobs that are lost are not replaced by new jobs created by the management of large amounts of data ... then we will have problems," she added.

Merkel is aware of the risks to Germany's auto industry, noting that only one maker of horse-drawn carriages - U.S. firm Studebaker - survived the invention of the modern car by German engineer Karl Benz 131 years ago.

"We must manage the move of today's auto industry to the car of the 21st century better than the switch from horse power to the car," she said in a speech in January.

Merkel's main rival for the chancellery, Social Democrat (SPD) Martin Schulz, wants to compel the state to raise spending on infrastructure and education.

In the SPD election program, the party says building up battery cell production in Germany is of "central strategic importance" to help the country remain the leading car maker.

In May, Merkel said Germany should do more to invest in battery research as she laid the foundation stone for a new Daimler battery factory in the town of Kamenz that will rely on imported cells.

Germany has fallen behind in developing the cells that are at the heart of electric vehicles, with most imported from Asia, and has also been slow to build charging stations, abandoning a target to have 1 million electric cars on the roads by 2020.

The country needs to spend between 50 to 80 billion euros on electric cars infrastructure, Rolf Bulander, a board member at auto supplier Bosch, told Reuters.

Ketchup Bottle

In March, Daimler said it was speeding up its electric car program, aiming to bring more than 10 new models to market by 2022 through 10 billion euros of investment.

In a video for Daimler staff, Zetsche said: "Electric mobility is a bit like the ketchup bottle. You know that it is coming, but not when or how much," he said as he struggled to shake sauce onto a plate of fries. "We are convinced now is the time to fully jump in."

At Daimler's Mercedes-Benz plant in Untertuerkheim outside Stuttgart, workers are still worried. In July, they refused to work overtime to push their demand for a commitment from Daimler to make components for electric cars at the factory.

"Our future here is closely tied up with the future of the powertrain. That is why it is important to pave the way for the future today," said Wolfgang Nieke, head of the works council at the factory.

The plant, where 19,000 employees produce engines, axles and transmissions for more than 1 million vehicles per year, is one of Daimler's oldest factories, where the Mercedes-Benz brand was established more than 100 years ago.

Frank Deiss, head of the factory, says workers should not fear job cuts as Daimler is expecting so much growth that more combustion engines will be needed by 2025 than now even if electric cars account for 20 percent of Mercedes sales by then.

After tough talks, Daimler earlier this month agreed to make electric car components and batteries at the factory.

But the concerns are being voiced at other car makers too.

"Many people in the factories are saying 'why should we stop what has made us so successful?' There is fear of the future – they know electromobility means less employment in Germany," said Thomas Steg, VW's chief lobbyist.

"We need to make it clear to them that if we don't go this thorny, stony path, the future will look even worse."

In 2015, workers at VW-owned Porsche agreed to a longer workweek and lower pay to secure production of an all-electric sports car.

"In view of the huge responsibility of the auto industry for many jobs, I think it is important to focus on future issues but at the same time not to lose sight of our own profitability," Chief Executive Oliver Blume told Reuters.

The Ifo economic institute has warned that more than 600,000 jobs could be at risk in Germany from a ban on combustion engine cars by 2030 proposed by the Greens.

How Germany copes depends on how quickly the shift takes place, according to IG Metall, the country's biggest union with more than 500,000 car worker members.

Knut Giesler, head of the IG Metall branch in North Rhine Westphalia, demanded that the regional government, IG Metall and local employers come up with a plan for securing jobs in the automotive and supplier industry which is home to 200,000 jobs in North Rhine Westphalia.

Frederic Speidel, head of strategy at the union, says the industry could adapt if the change comes gradually over the next 10 to 15 years as many baby-boomer workers will reach retirement by then and others can be retrained.

However, that timetable is not a given, especially as the price of electric cars is set to fall rapidly as mass production ramps up and battery costs fall. Some expert predict electric cars will cost the same as combustion motors by 2022.

While carmakers like Daimler and Porsche hope to be able to ride the electric wave, it is an existential threat to suppliers of combustion engine parts.

Christian Hochfeld, director of transport think tank Agora, said pressure is mounting.

"We know that companies at the peak of their success can disappear from the market, like Nokia," he warned.

Additional reporting by Andreas Cremer and Ilona Wissenbach; editing by Giles Elgood

South Sudan: 'When we came home for lunch our parents had been killed'

One hundred children a day are now crossing the border into Uganda from the war, without their parents – creating a ‘children’s emergency’

 Nadal, 16, and his sister Talia, 12, who are refugees from Juba, South Sudan. Photograph: Samuel Okiror


South Sudanese children at a refugee camp in Uganda. Most of of the children have witnessed terrible violence, and face exploitation and abuse. Photograph: Samuel Okiror

Samuel Okiror in Bidi Bidi-Wednesday 26 July 2017

Nadal and his four siblings went to school as normal on a bright day in late summer. They returned to carnage.

“When we came back home for lunch, we found it had been bombed and our parents killed. They threw a bomb into the house that killed my father and mother,” says Nadal, 16.

“We left our parents in a pool of blood. We ran and walked for three weeks from Juba to Lanya. We were sleeping in the bush and didn’t have food to eat. It’s good samaritans who used to give us something to eat for survival.”

Nadal, his three sisters, Rachael, 14, Talia, 12, Lamya, 19, and brother Isaac, eight, are being looked after by another family at Imvepi refugee settlement in northern Uganda. Half a million children are here without mothers or fathers.

“I miss my parents so much,” says Nadal. “But there is nothing much I can do. I want to get quality education in Uganda and go back to South Sudan to take over what my father was doing. He was a great doctor.”

Uganda is struggling to cope up with a staggering number of unaccompanied children fleeing violence in neighbouring South Sudan. They have lost or been separated from their families since the renewed fighting in their homeland broke out in July last year between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and his former deputy, Riek Machar.

The majority of these children have witnessed haunting acts of violence and face exploitation and abuse – both along the journey and in Uganda’s camps.

Agencies working in the area say around 100 children a day on average, 60% of the nearly 1 million South Sudanese refugees, are crossing into Uganda, a country now hosting more refugees than any other in Africa.

“Uganda is experiencing the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world … Many of the children have lost one or both parents to the senseless violence that is being perpetrated in South Sudan,” says Charlie Yaxley, a spokesman for the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency. He says the war is creating a “children’s emergency”.

Amalia, 14, from Yei, in eastern Equatoria, says: “We witnessed terrible things on our journey. I was terrified and feared being killed. I can’t forget how the armed people attacked and killed people on our way here.

“I am facing a lot of challenges. I have no one to take care of me. I lost my parents.” She doesn’t know if her aunt, who also fled, is dead or alive. “We took off in different directions when the fighting started,” she says.

“We don’t have anything here. We at times have one meal a day.” She does odd jobs for the foster family who have taken her under their wing so that they can afford to feed the extra mouths.
Judy Moore, World Vision’s response director in Uganda, says the challenges the children face are enormous. “We hear many stories of children’s parents being shot by opposing forces. Some children as young as 10 are raped, they are deeply traumatised and they should not see and experience what they have seen and experienced.

“Psychologically the children need counselling, food, assistance and stability. They need to adapt and learn different languages and different cultures, they have lost all of their friends and families so even socialising for them has become challenging. They think of how I can get a meal, where do I live.”

This week, the NGO is attempting to highlight the affect of the conflict on children through its #BearsOnStairs campaign – on Thursday, 700 teddy bears will be placed on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral in London to represent the number of children who arrive in Uganda weekly.

As well as giving accompanied children medical and psycho-social care, the UNHCR and its partners place them with foster parents at refugee camps.

World Vision has helped about 1,000 separated children reunite with their relatives and runs “child-friendly” spaces for counselling and play across Uganda.

“The dream for an unaccompanied or separated child is reunification with the family. We are stressing family reunification of these children as the best option,” says Robert Baryamwesiga, the Bidi Bidi settlement commander. “We should be supporting the foster parents with housing units, shelter and providing basic items, which we are not doing now because of the funding constraints. That creates a bit of a problem.”

The UN appeal for money to support South Sudan’s refugees is only 20% funded. “Chronic and severe underfunding is severely hampering the efforts of the refugee response,” says Yaxley.

“There are not enough social workers, meaning one social worker is currently responsible for 70 refugee children. There are not enough child-friendly spaces, meaning some kids are being deprived of a critical mechanism for addressing psycho-social distress.”


For many of the children, all they have left are their aspirations. “I am studying in a congested class,” says Amalia. “But I am determined. I want to go to university and become a lawyer, to help the community address the injustices and dispense justice to the oppressed.”

Survey Says: Hungarians Aren’t Feeling Great About Their Economic Future

BY EMILY TAMKIN-JULY 27, 2017

In the past year, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has championed a campaign to keep out refugees, led a crackdown on NGOs, and threatened to shutter a globally renowned university.
Orban’s bashing of Hungarian-born Jewish billionaire George Soros and the European Unionmay be popular with some voters, but it’s not making most Hungarians believe that life is going to get better in their country, according to a new pollfrom the International Republican Institute.

After conducting 1,000 interviews across Hungary in early March, IRI concluded that 50 percent of Hungarians believe their country is headed in the wrong direction, while 74 percent do not believe today’s youth has a good future. Sixty-eight percent feel politicians don’t listen to the needs of young people.

As for what’s actually posing a threat to those young people: 34 percent feel it is “bankruptcy and [the] disappearance of health and social security systems” that is most likely to threaten Hungarians’ way of life and their children’s futures. By comparison, only 19 percent see migration and demographic change as the greatest threat, while only 3 percent would blame loss of culture and values.

And, asked to spontaneously answer what is the biggest problem facing Hungary today, 28 percent said poverty and social inequality; 15 percent said corruption; and 13 percent said unemployment and jobs. (Only four percent said immigration, but Hungary has refused to take in a single refugee.)

It might appear government-sponsored attacks on Soros and the institutions to which he’s directly or indirectly linked, and threatening the public with the specter of Islam, aren’t instilling optimism about the country’s future.

Yet 42 percent of decided voters said they would vote for the ruling party if elections were “this Sunday,” far more than any other party. “This survey shows that Hungarians are deeply dissatisfied with a host of economic indicators, and fear that they are not leaving a better future behind for their children,” IRI Europe Regional Director Jan Surotchak said in a statement. “On a range of issues, it is clear that many Hungarians haven’t felt an economic uptick since the crisis began in 2008.”

But the ruling party — Fidesz — has been in power since 2010, suggesting that voters aren’t sure where to turn for a better, brighter future.

Photo credit: Carl Court/Getty Images

How students have been misled and lied to for 20 years

By Martin Williams-27 JUL 2017

It has been twenty years since the government first announced its intention to charge students tuition fees.

Back in 1997, the move sparked a day of national protests, with the National Union of Students (NUS) pledging a “full-blooded” campaign to stop the charges.

How students have been misled and lied to for 20 years.docx by Thavam on Scribd

Biological Annihilation on Earth Accelerating

So time may be short, the number of issues utterly daunting and the prospects for life grim. But if, like me, you are inclined to fight to the last breath, I invite you to consider making a deliberate choice to take powerful personal action in the fight for our survival.

by Robert J. Burrowes-Jul 26, 2017

( July 26, 2016, Victoria, Sri Lanka Guardian) Human beings are now waging war against life itself as we continue to destroy not just individual lives, local populations and entire species in vast numbers but also destroy the ecological systems that make life on Earth possible.

By doing this we are now accelerating the sixth mass extinction event in Earth’s history and virtually eliminating any prospect of human survival.

In a recently published scientific study ‘Biological annihilation via the ongoing sixth mass extinction signaled by vertebrate population losses and declines’ the authors Gerardo Ceballos, Paul R. Ehrlich and Rodolfo Dirzo document the accelerating nature of this problem.

‘Earth’s sixth mass extinction is more severe than perceived when looking exclusively at species extinctions…. That conclusion is based on analyses of the numbers and degrees of range contraction … using a sample of 27,600 vertebrate species, and on a more detailed analysis documenting the population extinctions between 1900 and 2015 in 177 mammal species.’ Their research found that the rate of population loss in terrestrial vertebrates is ‘extremely high’ – even in ‘species of low concern’.

In their sample, comprising nearly half of known vertebrate species, 32% (8,851 out of 27,600) are decreasing; that is, they have decreased in population size and range. In the 177 mammals for which they had detailed data, all had lost 30% or more of their geographic ranges and more than 40% of the species had experienced severe population declines. Their data revealed that ‘beyond global species extinctions Earth is experiencing a huge episode of population declines and extirpations, which will have negative cascading consequences on ecosystem functioning and services vital to sustaining civilization. We describe this as a “biological annihilation” to highlight the current magnitude of Earth’s ongoing sixth major extinction event.’

Illustrating the damage done by dramatically reducing the historic geographic range of a species, consider the lion. Panthera leo ‘was historically distributed over most of Africa, southern Europe, and the Middle East, all the way to northwestern India. It is now confined to scattered populations in sub-Saharan Africa and a remnant population in the Gir forest of India. The vast majority of lion populations are gone.’

Why is this happening? Ceballos, Ehrlich and Dirzo tell us: ‘In the last few decades, habitat loss, overexploitation, invasive organisms, pollution, toxification, and more recently climate disruption, as well as the interactions among these factors, have led to the catastrophic declines in both the numbers and sizes of populations of both common and rare vertebrate species.’

Further, however, the authors warn ‘But the true extent of this mass extinction has been underestimated, because of the emphasis on species extinction.’ This underestimate can be traced to overlooking the accelerating extinction of local populations of a species.

‘Population extinctions today are orders of magnitude more frequent than species extinctions. Population extinctions, however, are a prelude to species extinctions, so Earth’s sixth mass extinction episode has proceeded further than most assume.’ Moreover, and importantly from a narrow human perspective, the massive loss of local populations is already damaging the services ecosystems provide to civilization (which, of course, are given no value by government and corporate economists).

As Ceballos, Ehrlich and Dirzo remind us: ‘When considering this frightening assault on the foundations of human civilization, one must never forget that Earth’s capacity to support life, including human life, has been shaped by life itself.’ When public mention is made of the extinction crisis, it usually focuses on a few (probably iconic) animal species known to have gone extinct, while projecting many more in future. However, a glance at their maps presents a much more realistic picture: as much as 50% of the number of animal individuals that once shared Earth with us are already gone, as are billions of populations.

Furthermore, they claim that their analysis is conservative given the increasing trajectories of those factors that drive extinction together with their synergistic impacts. ‘Future losses easily may amount to a further rapid defaunation of the globe and comparable losses in the diversity of plants, including the local (and eventually global) defaunation-driven coextinction of plants.’

They conclude with the chilling observation: ‘Thus, we emphasize that the sixth mass extinction is already here and the window for effective action is very short.’

Of course, it is too late for those species of plants, birds, animals, fish, amphibians, insects and reptiles that humans have already driven to extinction or will yet drive to extinction in the future. 200 species yesterday. 200 species today. 200 species tomorrow. 200 species the day after…. And, as Ceballos, Ehrlich and Dirzo emphasize, the ongoing daily extinctions of a myriad local populations.

If you think that the above information is bad enough in assessing the prospects for human survival, you will not be encouraged by awareness or deeper consideration of even some of the many variables adversely impacting our prospects that were beyond the scope of the above study.

While Ceballos, Ehrlich and Dirzo, in addition to the problems they noted which are cited above, also identified the problems of human overpopulation and continued population growth, as well as overconsumption (based on ‘the fiction that perpetual growth can occur on a finite planet’) and even the risks posed by nuclear war, there were many variables that were beyond the scope of their research.

For example, in a recent discussion of that branch of ecological science known as ‘Planetary Boundary Science’, Dr Glen Barry identified ‘at least ten global ecological catastrophes which threaten to destroy the global ecological system and portend an end to human beings, and perhaps all life. Ranging from nitrogen deposition to ocean acidification, and including such basics as soil, water, and air; virtually every ecological system upon which life depends is failing’. See ‘The End of Being: Abrupt Climate Change One of Many Ecological Crises Threatening to Collapse the Biosphere’.

Moreover, apart from the ongoing human death tolls caused by the endless wars and other military violence being conducted across the planet – see, for example, ‘Yemen cholera worst on record & numbers still rising’ – there is catastrophic environmental damage caused too. For some insight, see The Toxic Remnants of War Project.

In addition, the out-of-control methane releases into the atmosphere that are now occurring – see ‘7,000 underground gas bubbles poised to “explode” in Arctic’ and ‘Release of Arctic Methane “May Be Apocalyptic,” Study Warns’ – and the release, each and every day, of 300 tons of radioactive waste from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean – see ‘Fukushima Radiation Has Contaminated The Entire Pacific Ocean – And It’s Going To Get Worse’ – are having disastrous consequences that will negatively impact life on Earth indefinitely. And they cannot be reversed in any timeframe that is meaningful for human prospects.

Apart from the above, there is a host of other critical issues – such as destruction of the Earth’s rainforests, destruction of waterways and the ocean habitat and the devastating impact of animal agriculture for meat consumption – that international governmental organizations such as the UN, national governments and multinational corporations will continue to refuse to decisively act upon because they are controlled by the insane global elite. See ‘The Global Elite is Insane’ with more fully elaborated explanations in ‘Why Violence?’ and ‘Fearless Psychology and Fearful Psychology: Principles and Practice’.

So time may be short, the number of issues utterly daunting and the prospects for life grim. But if, like me, you are inclined to fight to the last breath, I invite you to consider making a deliberate choice to take powerful personal action in the fight for our survival.

If you do nothing else, consider participating in the fifteen-year strategy of ‘The Flame Tree Project to Save Life on Earth’. You can do this as an individual, with family and friends or as a neighbourhood.

If you are involved in (or considering becoming involved in) a local campaign to address a climate issue, end some manifestation of war (or even all war), or to halt any other threat to our environment, I encourage you to consider doing this on a strategic basis. See Nonviolent Campaign Strategy.

And if you would like to join the worldwide movement to end violence in all of its forms, environmental and otherwise, you are also welcome to consider signing the online pledge of ‘The People’s Charter to Create a Nonviolent World’.

We might be annihilating life on Earth but this is not something about which we have no choice.

In fact, each and every one of us has a choice: we can choose to do nothing, we can wait for (or even lobby) others to act, or we can take powerful action ourselves. But unless you search your heart and make a conscious and deliberate choice to commit yourself to act powerfully, your unconscious choice will effectively be the first one (including that you might take some token measures and delude yourself that these make a difference). And the annihilation of life on Earth will continue, with your complicity.

Extinction beckons. Will you choose powerfully?

Robert J. Burrowes

Biodata: Robert J. Burrowes has a lifetime commitment to understanding and ending human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in an effort to understand why human beings are violent and has been a nonviolent activist since 1981. He is the author of ‘Why Violence?’ His email address is flametree@

Health, wealth and well-being: Do expats have it worse than locals?



(File) Foreign expatriates perceive themselves as worse-off than individuals who reside in their home country. Source: Shutterstock

By A. Azim Idris | 28th July 2017

IN Asia, there is the perception foreign expatriates enjoy a quality lifestyle compared to those working within their home country, but a recent survey shows this sentiment is not shared by all.

Contrary to popular belief expats receive better perks than others, it seems people working overseas generally perceive themselves as worse off compared to locals when it comes to their physical, social, family, and even financial well-being.

While it might come as a surprise to many, this year’s Well-being Survey – Globally Mobile Individuals conducted by global health insurance service company Cigna, found overall, the survey’s “well-being” index score for expats is 61.5 points, which is 1.8 points lower than their domestic counterparts.

The most significant gap, the survey shows, is in “family well-being”, which is 9.4 points lower.

SEE ALSO: Singapore is Asia’s best city for expats, says new survey 

Cigna International Markets President Jason Sadler said the results also show globally mobile individuals are more concerned than the general working population about their health and well-being, and that of their families.

“Without exception, this group is worried about the consequences of personal or family member illness; an issue compounded by a gap in health benefits provided by their employers,” he said in a statement to the Asian Correspondent earlier this week.

The global survey – involving a total of 2,003 online interviews with expats aged 25-59 – follows the publication of the 2017 Cigna 360-degree Well-being Survey in April, which looked at five underlying trends that affect the health, well-being and sense of security of people around the world.

In this study, Cigna examined the perceptions of globally mobile individuals living and working in 20 markets about their outlook on the same trends – physical, financial, social, family and work health.

Allure of working overseas

International exposure makes up for a significant draw to working overseas, the survey said, with globally mobile individuals highlighting the opportunity to accumulate wealth, better career prospects, good working hours and positive relationships with co-workers as bright aspects of their experience.

However, their prospects are fraught with challenges.

“While individuals have the opportunity to accumulate wealth while working overseas, only a third of respondents considered their current financial situation satisfactory,” the survey said.

SEE ALSO: Foreigner-tracking SIM cards do not apply to expats, says Thailand’s telecoms commission

“Lack of time spent with their family and their children’s education are other concerns; exacerbated by not having a family support network around them.”

The survey also found expats, who Cigna defines as “Globally Mobile Individuals”, often experience anxiety. All respondents are concerned about illnesses.4

At the centre of their worries is contracting cancer or facing accidents, followed by mental illness, such as depression.

Source: Cigna

Twenty-five percent of the respondents raised concerns about alcohol-related diseases; significantly more so than the general working population.

Health care

Around half of the respondents said they would choose to return to their home country for treatment if they suffer a critical illness.

The survey also found out of those who prefer to return to their home market for treatment, usually those based in Asia Pacific and the Middle East, one in five say the opportunity to be close to family and friends for support is a deciding factor.

Safety concerns and long-distance loneliness

Owing to global political turmoil and other macro-economic factors, the expats feel the world is a less secure and safe place with over a third of the respondents feeling less safe than they did 24 months ago.

However, Asia was not the continent where foreigners felt the least safest as their sense of insecurity was highest in the US, at 42 percent of respondents, and in Africa, where 31 percent face similar issues.

“Many respondents also report having problems socialising outside of work. One-fifth suffer from loneliness, which increases to nearly one quarter for those who are single or live alone,” the survey found.

Lack of insurance

Sadler, in pointing out a “surprising” figure, said 40 percent of respondents revealed they did not have any medical benefits offered by their company, and 15 percent have no health coverage at all.

“The survey shows health benefits are a very important factor when deciding to take an overseas posting,” he said.

“There is a clear need for employers to pay attention to the health and well-being of their globally mobile employees.”

He said the duty of care should extend outside of the office when employers are interacting with their families and the local community.

The Health 202: Republicans look to chop off just one of Obamacare's three legs

By Paige Winfield Cunningham July 27 at 9:25 AM

Obamacare is often referred to as a three-legged stool: Americans must buy health insurance, insurers must sell them generous benefits without discriminating and the government provides subsidies to help pay for it all. Using that metaphor, let's consider how Senate Republicans have struggled to pass an Obamacare repeal bill over the past two days.

First, Republicans tried to chop off all three legs with a bill replacing much of the Affordable Care Act. That failed Tuesday night.

Then, they tried to chop off just the first and third legs -- the individual mandate to have coverage and the subsidies -- in a repeal-only bill that failed yesterday.

Now, they're down to a third potential option: Chop off just one leg -- the individual mandate -- and leave the stool lopsided. 

No. 3 Senate Republican John Thune said yesterday that they're "edging closer and closer" to 50 votes for this "skinny repeal" option, my colleagues Juliet Eilperin, Kelsey Snell and Sean Sullivan report. Details are still emerging, and could always change quickly, but the aim is to pass a bill repealing just the ACA's individual and employer mandates, its medical device tax and its public-health fund. Funding for extra Obamacare subsidies for cost-sharing discounts may be attached, too, and the legislation may also retain a provision blocking Medicaid reimbursements from Planned Parenthood clinics.

Once passed, the bill could be sent to a conference committee where members of the House and Senate could hash out an agreement. Leaders are betting Republican senators who defected on other votes this week would feel enough pressure at that point to support whatever the final measure looks like. Kaiser Family Foundation senior vice president Larry Levitt noted that it could look very different from "skinny repeal:"

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