‘A total joke’: Trump lashes out at Koch brothers after political network slams White House

President Trump said the Kochs were being driven by a desire to “protect their companies outside the U.S. from being taxed.” (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

By Michelle Ye Hee Lee and John WagnerJuly 31 at 11:54 AMEmail the author

President Trump lashed out at the Koch brothers Tuesday, saying their conservative political funding and policy network has “become a total joke in real Republican circles” and is “highly overrated.”

The president’s assessment, made in a flurry of morning tweets, followed a weekend gathering at which top officials affiliated with billionaire industrialist Charles Koch sought to distance the network from Trump and his base in the Republican Party, citing tariff and immigration policies and “divisive” rhetoric out of Washington.

The Koch network released a video July 29, criticizing "protectionism." (The Seminar Network)

On Monday, the network also announced that it does not currently plan to support Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer in his effort to unseat Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, one of the most vulnerable Democrats up for reelection this November. That decision was at odds with Trump, who campaigned for Cramer at a rally in Fargo last month.

“The globalist Koch Brothers, who have become a total joke in real Republican circles, are against Strong Borders and Powerful Trade,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “I never sought their support because I don’t need their money or bad ideas.”

Trump asserted that the Kochs “love” some of his policies, including tax cuts and conservative picks for federal courts. But he said the Kochs were being driven by a desire to “protect their companies outside the U.S. from being taxed.”

“I’m for America First & the American Worker — a puppet for no one,” Trump said. “Two nice guys with bad ideas. Make America Great Again!”

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

The globalist Koch Brothers, who have become a total joke in real Republican circles, are against Strong Borders and Powerful Trade. I never sought their support because I don’t need their money or bad ideas. They love my Tax & Regulation Cuts, Judicial picks & more. I made.....

6:14 AM - Jul 31, 2018

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Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

....them richer. Their network is highly overrated, I have beaten them at every turn. They want to protect their companies outside the U.S. from being taxed, I’m for America First & the American Worker - a puppet for no one. Two nice guys with bad ideas. Make America Great Again!

6:23 AM - Jul 31, 2018

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• 22.9K people are talking about this

Trump’s comments mark the first aggressive attack on the Koch network since the 2016 presidential campaign, when he criticized Koch-backed politicians as “puppets” and when the network pointedly declined to endorse him as the GOP presidential candidate.

The tension between Trump and the most powerful network of donors for the political right highlights the tortured relationship between the Republican president and the powerful network that has worked for years to help elect like-minded conservatives.

The president’s broadside against the Koch network on Tuesday came in the wake of the recent departure from the White House of legislative affairs director Marc Short, who was a top Koch network official before joining the administration.

During a television interview Tuesday, Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel also took shots at the Koch network, saying it was “very disappointing to see yesterday that they are not going to support Kevin Cramer in this all too-important North Dakota Senate race.”

“They’re ideologues,” McDaniel said of the network. “They’re not just supporting Republicans. They’re also supporting Democrats.”

In a statement Tuesday in response to Trump’s tweet, James Davis, a spokesman for the Koch network said: “ We support policies that help all people improve their lives. We look forward to working with anyone to do so.”

Under Trump’s administration, the network has gained major policy wins — as Trump noted — including tax cuts, deregulation and judicial nominations. The network spent tens of millions of dollars pushing for, and promoting, Trump’s tax cuts. And Trump’s support is crucial for some of the network’s biggest legislative efforts currently underway, including overhauling the criminal justice system and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

But the trade war brewing under his leadership breaks sharply with the anti-protectionist priority of the libertarian-leaning network — which was created in 2003 when Charles Koch convened a small group of like-minded business leaders to oppose steel tariffs and increasing federal spending under the George W. Bush administration.

At the weekend gathering of the Koch network in Colorado Springs, officials reiterated their plans to spend as much as $400 million on policy issues and political campaigns during the 2018 cycle.

Earlier this year, they announced heavy spending aimed at helping Republicans to hold the Senate. 

But in a warning shot at Trump and the GOP, network co-chairman Brian Hooks lamented “tremendous lack of leadership” in Trump’s Washington and the “deterioration of the core institutions of society.”

He called out the White House and Trump-allied GOP lawmakers, particularly over trade policy and increased federal spending, and added that “the divisiveness of this White House is causing long-term damage.”

In remarks to reporters Sunday, Charles Koch — now solely at the helm after the retirement of his ailing brother David this year — stopped short of blaming the president personally for the political divisions, saying the divisiveness in Washington predated his arrival.

While the network is expected to be a powerful force for the political right in some states where Senate Democrats are vulnerable, it has made clear in recent days that it will not be marching in lockstep with Trump.

In all, Koch groups are backing GOP candidates in just four Senate races right now and steering clear of five out of the eight toss-up races.

Some of Trump’s most controversial actions — including his tendency to lob attacks on Twitter — have led to the network’s decision to distance itself publicly from the president.

Yet some of the network’s biggest donors remain steadfast supporters of Trump, despite his rhetoric and his views on trade.

During the twice-annual gathering of more than 500 major donors to the network in Colorado Springs, several donors said they were generally satisfied with Trump’s leadership, and that they believe he is ultimately working toward open trade despite his policies and rhetoric.

“I’m absolutely a Trump supporter,” said John Saeman, a Republican and Koch donor from Colorado. “I think on balance, he’s unafraid, he’s willing to lead, strong, and I think he’s making Americans first, and that’s important.”

When asked about the network’s criticism of Trump over trade, Saeman said he believes Trump is taking a “circuitous” route to open trade.

“I’m not a trade expert. The argument that I do understand is that open trade is best trade, and I hope that that’s where he’s trying to go,” Saeman said. “It’s kind of a circuitous way to get there, but I think a lot of people are on notice that the unfair trade deals from the past aren’t going to stand. So, how are they going to stand [now]? Well, we’ll see.”

John McConnell, who owns a laboratory equipment manufacturing company in Missouri, said steel costs have hurt his company. He said he agrees with the Koch network on free trade and that Trump “is a bit of a bomb-thrower” on trade but that he believes the president will find a resolution.

“Arguably, and maybe this is Trump talking, arguably, there are more [tariffs] against this country than there ought to be,” McConnell said, pointing to soybean and auto tariffs.

Chris Wright, Colorado-based energy investor and libertarian Koch donor, said he did not support Trump due to his views on trade.

“Have there been a lot of anti-freedom things the last six months? Absolutely. We agree 100 percent” with the network in its criticism of Trump’s trade policies, Wright said. “Is the trade thing, the immigration thing, the rhetoric, alarming? Absolutely.”

Paul Jost, a libertarian donor based in Florida, said Trump is unnecessarily creating a trade war for political gain. He was sharply critical of Trump and said he is backing moderate Democratic candidates who are willing to challenge Trump.

“He manufactures a crisis and then he goes in and claims that he resolved it . . . The free trade stuff, he’s going to back down hopefully, but he’ll claim that he got some kind of victory,” Jost said. “I understand why Republicans can’t stand up to Trump, because their base is so strongly behind him. So somebody’s got to stand up to him, and I think it’s going to be Democrats.”

Realistic Imran openly acknowledges military’ role in Pakistan’s governance

2018-07-31

Waiting for more than two decades in the Opposition to grab power from established political parties like the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan’s Prime Minister- to-be Imran Khan has had the time to deeply analyse Pakistani politics and arrive at some home truths. 

One of the truths he has learned is that the supremacy and pre-eminence of the armed forces, particularly the army, cannot be, and should not
be, challenged.  

Challenging the military will be both futile and dangerous. All said and done, with all the institutional trappings of a modern democracy, Pakistan continues to be under the tutelage of the armed forces, or to be precise, the army, the largest and the most important of the three services.  

The army is “the final arbiter” of the destiny of Pakistan. This is so for historical reasons but also because,these days, practically every national question is subsumed under the rubric of “national security”. Even established “democratic states” are becoming de facto “national security states.”  

Speaking about the place of the army in the Pakistani national scheme, Imran told an interviewer: “I think a democratic government rules from moral authority. And if you don’t have moral authority, then those who have the physical authority assert themselves.”  

“In my opinion, the army is a Pakistani Army and not an enemy army. I will carry the army with me.”  

Unlike Nawaz Sharif, who had fallen out with the army over the issue of peace with India and lost power twice because of that, Imran has consistently praised the army and acknowledged its stabilizing role in Pakistani politics and governance.  

Pakistan has a long history of seeking the help of the army to restore governance made dysfunctional by squabbling politicians. It was political confusion and frequent changes in government which brought the army into the game for the first time in 1958

He blames corrupt and irresponsible civilian leaders and neighbouring India and Afghanistan for the entry of the army into Pakistani politics and governance. 
“The hostility of India and Afghanistan toward Pakistan forces the military to play an outsize role in the country. I have very clear foreign policy objectives, and where there are security concerns of the army, we will address them. It is our army,” Imran said.  

On another occasion, Imran declared that nothing can be done in Pakistan by maligning the army and rhetorically declared: “Now is the time to decide whether we want to be used by the enemy and turn against the Pakistan army. The country will not survive if the army does not.”  

Imran was close to the extremist former Inter-Services Intelligence Chief Gen. Hamid Gul who he had hailed as a “Mujahid” (one who strives for the cause of God). 
Nawaz Sharif had dubbed Imran as the “ladla” or the “pet” of the army for all his utterances. Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz had dubbed him a “stooge”. But Imran retorted saying that Sharif was “brought up on the lap of Gen. Zia-ul-Haq”, the military dictator of the 1980s who Islamized Pakistan. Subsequently, Sharif had used army financial backing to rig elections in 1990. In 2012 the Supreme Court had officially ruled that two Army Generals, Mirza Aslam Baig, and Asad Durrani (Head of ISI) along with President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, had provided financial assistance to Sharif’s election campaign in 1990.  

In 1993 the then army Chief Gen. Abdul Waheed Kakar had persuaded both President Ghulam Ishaq Khan and Prime Minister Sharif to step down. During his second term, which began in 1997, Sharif appointed Gen. Pervez Musharraf as Army Chief in 1998. But Musharraf sacked Sharif in 1999 because of his soft policy towards India.   

According to the Pakistani military historian Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa, in 2007, when President Gen. Musharraf was committing excesses against the Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Choudhry, the then Army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani put Musharraf under a “brief but forced detention” to make him relent.  

Prior to that Mushrraf had to back out of his bid to strike a deal on Kashmir with India because the army’s three star Generals felt that hostility to India is the army’s “raison d’etre” and, therefore, confrontation should be maintained.  

Pakistan has a long history of seeking the help of the army to restore governance made dysfunctional by squabbling politicians. It was political confusion and frequent changes in government which brought the army into the game for the first time in 1958.   

Since then there have been three successful military coups and four periods of military rule. Pakistan was under direct military rule for 17 years (between 1956-62/1969-71/1977 to 1988/1999 to 2002). It was under an elected civilian government but functioning under a military President for 15 years (from 1962 to 1969/1985-1988/2002-2007). Between 1988 and 1999, civilian governments were under the close watch of the army. Pakistan had untrammelled civilian rule only between 1971 and 1977 under Z.A. Bhutto.  

Since the earliest days, Pakistani politicians had made it a habit to hobnob with the military and use it to achieve their narrow political ends. The military naturally took advantage of this and dictated terms, which the politicians generally accepted. In case they didn’t or they failed to live up to the army’s expectations or fell out of line, they would get thrown out, either through a coup or through electoral rigging.  

Military in Pakistani Economy 

According to Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa, authoress of “Military Inc. Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy (Penguin-Random House 2007 and 2017) the military’s nett worth is more than British Pounds 10 billion (US$ 13.1 billion). She found that in 2007, the army owned 12% per cent of the country’s land, its holdings being mostly fertile soil in the eastern Punjab. Two thirds of that land were in the hands of senior current and former military officials, mostly Brigadiers, Majors-General and Generals. The most senior 100 military officials were estimated to be worth GBP 3.5 billion (US$ 4.5 billion).  

Many of the country’s largest corporations are controlled by the military, thanks largely to an opaque network of powerful ‘Foundations’ originally set up to look after the pension needs of army personnel, Siddiqa says. The largest three — the Fauji, Shaheen and Bahria Foundations, controlled by the army, air force and navy respectively, run more than 100 commercial entities involved in everything from cement to cereal production. Only nine had ever published partial financial accounts. 
The Fauji foundation, the largest, is estimated by Siddiqa to be worth several billion pounds. The Army Welfare Trust runs one of the country’s largest banks, Askari Commercial Bank, along with an airline, a travel agency and even a stud farm. Then there is the National Logistic Cell, Pakistan’s largest shipper and freight transporter and the country’s largest corporation, which builds roads and bridges and stores grain.   

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf banned the 2007 edition of Siddiqa’s book. In his blog he published an article refuting her data. Firstly the military running businesses is not peculiar to Pakistan, the article pointed out.   

The army is “the final arbiter” of the destiny of Pakistan. This is so for historical reasons but also because,these days, practically every national question is subsumed under the rubric of “national security

The US and UK have Private Military Enterprises (PME). Prominent US PMEs are: Halliburton, Black Water World Wide, Defence security, Titan Corporation, Kellogg Brown and Roots, Air Scan, Dyn Corp’s and CACI International. The UK has Black Op’s, and Aegis Defence Services, which were beneficiaries of the Iraq war. Worldwide PMEs are worth US$ 100 billion.  

Musharraf’s blog also pointed out that Pakistan’s military businesses (MILBUS ) were only a fraction of the enterprises in the country. Out of the 24 cement factories in Pakistan only one was owned by the Fauji Foundation; only one of 10 fertilizer plants belongs to the military; and only 10 of the 924 hospitals were run by a military foundation.  

In 2007, the total value of MILBUs in Pakistan was only US$ 1.1 billion, which was only 0.8% of the country’ US$ 160 billion free market economy, Musharraf’s blog said.   

Elections & Future Of Democracy In Pakistan

By Latheef Farook –JULY 30, 2018

Latheef Farook

Pakistanis have voted Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to power in the general elections held on 25 July 2018. This was a remarkable departure from the tradition of voting for Pakistan Muslim League and the Pakistan People’s Party. This is also sent a clear message to the politicians who dominated Pakistani politics ignoring the burning issues of the country.

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sheriff, disqualified as he was found guilty of financial corruption, is now serving a ten year sentence. Corruption has been one of the main issues blocking smooth functioning of democracy.

For example Nawaz Sheriff and the assassinated Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto were each elected thrice as prime ministers. All three times both were sacked due to corruption.

Founder of Pakistan Quaid E Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah told on 9 June 1947 that “I do not know what the ultimate shape of the constitution is going to be, but I am sure it will be a democratic type, embodying the essential principles of Islam”.  

It can be safely assumed that on that day the two philosophies outlined by the founder as the basis of any future government in Pakistan were Islam and democracy. 

However Islam and democracy were floundered at the hands of their keepers. Islam exploited shamelessly by those that pretend to be its defenders has divided instead of uniting the nation and democracy has been reduced to a sham by those that never tire to proclaim themselves as its guardians.

Since establishment in 1947, Pakistan has been facing lot of turbulences in the path of democracy. The main causes of failure of democracy in Pakistan are summarized as follows: 

Overdeveloped state structure, political instability, military intervention, and massive corruption, lack of accountability, weak infrastructure, feudal dispensation, institutional crises, constitutional crises, strong bureaucracy, and low level of political socialization, extremism, weak civil society and absence of mature leadership.

The monopolization and centralization of power have blocked while political instability created unnecessary barriers in the process of democracy since independence.  

Military intervention has been dead blow to democracy. In Pakistan, democracy faced four military intrusions. Massive corruption paved the way for military to intervene in the internal affairs of country.  

In the presence of corruption and absence of accountability make infrastructure weak. Weakness of infrastructure is creating constraints in the path of democracy.

Feudalism is threat to democracy. After emergence, feudal class had more power and wealth. This class created barriers in the way of democracy. Feudal class has been engaged in the accumulation of power. They are power lusty. This power must be snatched from them for proper flow of democracy.

Landlords and feudal cum politicians hijacked the political system. Of the major causes of failure of democracy, the substantial ones are related to those in authority i.e., the leadership, army and bureaucracy.

Clash between judiciary and executive class has been threatening democratic practice.  

In the initial year of establishment only two institutions were powerful to face the challenge of early establishment. Quaideazam gave chance to military elite and bureaucrats to complete the task of establishment. Soon after completing the task, they maintained strong control over the state institution which created a lot of problem for Pakistan.

Weak civil society created a big gap in the establishment of democracy. Both are dependable on each other.

Extremism has been spreading like ulcer in Pakistan. It has deep roots in the past history. It creates a lot of hurdles in the development process.  

Lack of dynamic leadership since the death of Quaideazam  

Judicial reforming is very important for the establishment of democratic practices as judiciary is very powerful branch of government and it needs reformation in its own spheres.

Exploring the last 70 years of Pakistan, democracy was taken as a comic relief between military regimes. Assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan, the first elected Prime Minister, was in fact the demise of democracy in Pakistan.    

The state must practice the principle of equal citizenship and ensure equality of opportunity to all for advancement in social, economic and political domains and guarantee security of life and property of its citizens.

The failure to institutionalize participatory governance has caused much alienation at the popular level. A good number of people feel that they are irrelevant to power management at the federal and provincial levels.  

History is witness to the fact that Pakistan has lost territory while under direct military rule. The dictators’ hawkish attitude has fanned various separatist movements across the country. Absence of Democracy is a significant reason for nurturing terrorism in a country. A democratic government is supposed to represent the people and provide political means to voice grievances, hence essentially providing a sphere where terrorism has no place. 

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Healing through Reparations: Canadian Experience

2018-07-31

A source of great shame for Canadians, residential schools were meant to make indigenous children “more British”. From 1883 until 1996, the children were taken from their homes and placed in church-run schools far from their communities. The goal of the government-led residential school policy was to destroy the indigenous culture and language. During this time, it is estimated that 150,000 children were placed in residential schools and 6,000 of those children were killed. At the schools, indigenous children faced physical, sexual, emotional, and psychological abuse from the staff.  

The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) between residential school survivors, Ottawa, and the Crown was announced in 2006. IRSSA recognises the need for reconciliation and is made up of five components: the Common Experience Payment (CEP); Independent Assessment Process (IAP); the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC); Commemoration; and Health and Healing Services. IRSSA allocated $1.9 billion USD for CEP to be distributed out to former residents of the schools. Additional funds have been set aside for the IAP, which deals with sexual, physical and psychological abuse claims, as well as for collective reparations, such as commemorative projects and health services.  

Supporting the need for a reparations process, the TRC visited hundreds of indigenous communities across Canada from 2008 to 2015 to document the experiences of residential school attendees. They declared that the residential school policy was in fact “cultural genocide” and the schools had been filled with unimaginable horrors.  

It was discovered that the government had been able to fill the schools by threatening the parents with jail time. This left the families with very little choice in the matter. Either the children are left alone while their parents go to jail or they go to the residential schools. In some testimonies, such as Isaac Daniels statement to the TRC, children decided so their parents would not have to.  

“I heard my dad talking to my mom there, and he was kind of crying, but he was talking in Cree now. He said that, “It’s either residential school for my boys, or I go to jail.” He said that in Cree. So, I overheard him. So I said the next morning, we all got up, and I said, “Well, I’m going to residential school,” ’cause I didn’t want my dad to go to jail.”  

· TRC, AVS, Isaac Daniels, statement to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, 22 June 2012, Statement Number: 2011-1779.  

The abuse suffered in the residential schools highlighted the need for reparations. Throughout the Truth Commission, survivors spoke of the terror they faced in the schools from staff and their peers.  

“Every day was, you were in constant fear that, your hope was that it wasn’t you today that were going to, that was going to be the target, the victim…”  
· TRC, AVS, Timothy Henderson, Statement to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 28 June 2011, Statement Number: 2011-0291.  

Today, the after-effects of the residential schools are apparent. The trauma experienced by older generations and passed down to their children has left a large age gap in life expectancy between indigenous and non-indigenous people, high poverty rates, high suicide rates, and a high percentage of indigenous children in foster care.  

Through their work, the TRC made a list of recommendations for the Canadian government called the 94 Calls to Action. The 94 Calls to Action relate to child welfare, education, language and culture, health, and justice. As of March, 2018, the Canadian government and communities have proposed projects for 31 of the Calls to Action, are implementing 18 of them, and have yet to start 35 of the recommendations. So far, Canada has completed 10 of the 94 Calls to Action, such as Calls for more inclusive media and education about the past and why apologies are necessary.  

The IRSSA-started reparations process for residential school survivors is widely seen as an ongoing success story, however, Canada has only just begun righting the wrongs of its past against indigenous communities

The IRSSA-started reparations process for residential school survivors is widely seen as an ongoing success story, however, Canada has only just begun righting the wrongs of its past against indigenous communities. Canadians and the international community are calling for more reparations for groups harmed by discriminatory policies throughout Canada’s history. Most recently, for the indigenous children who survived the “Sixties Scoop” adoption programme, which forced thousands of children into child welfare services and global adoption from the 1960s to the 1980s. On 6 October, 2017, the Canadian government agreed to pay out $640 million CAD in legal settlements for those affected by the adoption programme.  

Canada is still facing its own challenges in the impartiality of the TRC, providing reparations that are acceptable to all victims, and implementing all of the Calls to Action. Despite this, the reparations process emphasises the needs of victims when deciding what remedies are appropriate. In Sri Lanka, there will be similar challenges in providing reparations appropriate to all victims who were harmed, purposefully or not. However, there is an opportunity for inclusiveness, victim-centrality and healing by addressing all experiences of civil unrest and conflict.  

Once oil wealthy, Venezuela's largest state struggles to keep the lights on

Legs of Sibilina Caro are seen as she rest on bed at her daughter Judith Palmar home in Maracaibo, Venezuela July 25, 2018. Picture taken July 25, 2018. REUTERS/Marco Bello

Mayela Armas-JULY 31, 2018

MARACAIBO, Venezuela (Reuters) - Across Maracaibo, the capital of Venezuela’s largest state, residents unplug refrigerators to guard against power surges. Many only buy food they will consume the same day. Others regularly sleep outside.

The rolling power blackouts in the state of Zulia pile more misery on Venezuelans living under a fifth year of an economic crisis that has sparked malnutrition, hyperinflation and mass emigration. OPEC member Venezuela’s once-thriving socialist economy has collapsed since the 2014 fall of oil prices.

“I never thought I would have to go through this,” said bakery worker Cindy Morales, 36, her eyes welling with tears. “I don’t have food, I don’t have power, I don’t have money.”

Zulia, the historic heart of Venezuela’s energy industry that was for decades known for opulent oil wealth, has been plunged into darkness for several hours a day since March, sometimes leaving its 3.7 million residents with no electricity for up to 24 hours.

In the past, Zulians considered themselves living in a “Venezuelan Texas”, rich from oil and with an identity proudly distinct from the rest of the country. Oil workers could often be seen driving new cars and flew by private jet to the Dutch Caribbean territory of Curacao to gamble their earnings in casinos.

Once famous for its all-night parties, now Maracaibo is often a sea of darkness at night due to blackouts.

The six state-owned power stations throughout Zulia have plenty of oil to generate electricity but a lack of maintenance and spare parts causes frequent breakdowns, leaving the plants running at 20 percent capacity, said Angel Navas, the president of the national Federation of Electrical Workers.
Energy Minister Luis Motta said this month that power cuts of up to eight hours a day would be the norm in Zulia while authorities developed a “stabilization” plan. He did not provide additional details and the Information Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

The Zulia state government did not respond to a request to comment.

Although Caracas has fared far better than Maracaibo, a major outage hit the capital city on Tuesday morning for around two hours due to a fault at a substation. The energy minister said “heavy rains” had been reported near the substation.

Venezuelans were forced to walk or cram into buses as much of the subway was shut. Long lines formed in front of banks and stores in the hopes power would flick back on. The fault also affected some phone lines and the main Maiquetia airport just outside the capital.

Judith Palmar mops her home in Maracaibo, Venezuela July 25, 2018. Picture taken July 25, 2018. REUTERS/Marco Bello

“This is terrible. I feel helpless because I want to go to work but I am in this queue instead,” said domestic worker Nassari Parra, 50, as she waited in a line of 20 people in front of a closed bank.

MARACAIBO “GHOST TOWN”

Retiree Judith Palmar, 56, took advantage of having power to cook one afternoon last week in Maracaibo.

When the lights do go out, Palmar wheels her paralyzed mother outside because the house becomes intolerably hot. One power cut damaged an air conditioning unit, which Palmar cannot afford to replace on her pension of about $1.50 a month due to inflation, estimated by the opposition-run Congress in June at 46,000 percent a year.

Outages are taking a toll on businesses in Zulia.

Zulia used to produce 70 percent of Venezuela’s milk and meat but without power to milk cows and keep meat from spoiling, the state’s production has fallen nearly in half, according to Venezuela’s National Federation of Ranchers.

Zulia’s proportion of Venezuela’s total oil production has also slipped over the past 10 years from 38 percent to 25 percent, figures from state oil company PDVSA show.

Maracaibo, Venezuela’s second largest city, seems like a “ghost town,” said Fergus Walshe, head of a local business organization. He said businesses had shortened their operating hours due to the lack of power.

“Before, business activity here was booming,” he said.

Small businesses are also affected. In an industrial park in Maracaibo’s outskirts, 80 percent of the 1,000 companies based there are affected by the power cuts, according to another business association in Zulia.

Sales at Americo Fernandez’ spare parts store are down 50 percent because card readers, which are crucial because even the cheapest goods require unwieldy piles of banknotes, cannot be used during power cuts.

“I have had to improvise to stay afloat. I connect the car battery to the store so that the card readers can work,” Fernandez said during a power outage at his home, surrounded by candles.

Slideshow (8 Images)

 

Reporting by Mayela Armas in Maracaibo, additional reporting by Andreina Aponte and Shaylim Castro in Caracas; Writing by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Alistair Bell

MPs accuse aid groups of 'abject failure' in tackling sexual abuse

Damning report says sector has shown ‘complacency verging on complicity’


 People walk past an Oxfam sign in a camp for people displaced after the 2010 earthquake, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince in Haiti. Photograph: Andrés Martínez Casares/Reuters

Rebecca Ratcliffe-Tue 31 Jul 2018 

Charities have shown “complacency verging on complicity” in responding to sexual abuse that is endemic across the sector, according to a damning report by MPs.

In the report, the international development committee (IDC) said the aid sector had a record of “abject failure” in dealing with longstanding concerns about exploitation by its own personnel and appeared more concerned for their reputations than for victims. The response to abuse claims has been reactionary and superficial, it added.

MPs called for the establishment of an independent aid ombudsman to support survivors and for a global register of aid workers to prevent abusers moving through the system.

Stephen Twigg, the committee chairman, said the sector’s failure to deal with the issue had left victims at the mercy of those who sought to use power to abuse others.

The report, published on Tuesday, also criticised the UN, which it said had failed to display sustained leadership in tackling abuse, and said the historical response of the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) was disappointing.

The committee launched its inquiry into sexual exploitation and abuse after revelations that Oxfam covered up claims that its staff had used sex workerswhile working in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The sector has faced intense scrutiny, with further allegations of sexual misconduct emerging at Save the Children.

Twigg said the aid sector was first made aware of concerns in 2002, when a report by the UN agency for refugees (UNHCR) and Save the Children documented cases of abuse. Despite this, and a series of other warnings, little action was taken. “There are so many reports that go back over this period of 16 years and the system has failed to respond anything close to adequately over the period,” the Labour MP said. “This is 16 years of failure by the entire international system of governments, the UN and the aid sector.”

He added: “I find it hard to escape the conclusion that organisations have put their reputations first.”
The report said experts believed the documented cases were the tip of the iceberg. The globalised and often chaotic nature of aid work made it “an attractive sector for people wishing to exploit others”, it said.

The inquiry examined the sexual exploitation and abuse of the intended beneficiaries of aid, as well as sexual harassment and abuse of aid workers. A failure to robustly investigate and respond to allegations was apparent in charities’ UK offices, and across the UN, the report said.

MPs concluded that self-regulation within the sector had failed and there had not been enough money to implement safeguarding policies and procedures.

The report called for a culture change, with greater representation of women at senior levels in charities, and victims and survivors put at the centre of the sector’s response to abuse claims. It warned of “a strong tendency for victims and whistleblowers, rather than perpetrators, to end up feeling penalised”.

 The committee chair, Stephen Twigg: ‘I find it hard to escape the conclusion that organisations have put their reputations first.’ Photograph: Chris Ison/PA

MPs said charities must proactively seek reports of sexual exploitation and abuse, and respond robustly with feedback to survivors. They called on DfID and other donors to provide funding to improve reporting systems, and to support broader programmes to increase beneficiaries’ rights.
Pauline Latham, a Conservative member of the committee, said the abuse had affected some of the most vulnerable girls and women in the world when they were at their lowest.

She said the committee heard evidence of “rape, sex for food, calling people prostitutes when they’re actually desperate women who need to feed their families, or young girls who are trafficked and been abused by these men. It’s absolutely shocking because they [perpetrators] don’t treat them as human beings.”

In response to the Oxfam scandal, DfID has established a safeguarding unit, and will host an international conference in October where organisations are expected to make commitments on tackling abuse. It has also enhanced due diligence standards for its partners and met with the National Crime Agency to discuss prevention and prosecution.

Twigg said DfID’s forthcoming conference was a step forward, but cannot be a stopgap. The committee will continue to monitor the sector’s efforts to tackle abuse.

“We call on DfID to report annually on the safeguarding performance of the sector, including the number and distribution of cases, the resources committee and the department’s own actions and contributions to improvement. Transparency will not be penalised but DfID must send a clear signal that improper handling of cases will be. Crucially, the voices of victims and survivors must be heard,” he said.

The government must also ensure the Charity Commission is sufficiently funded to deal with abuse and harassment reports, the committee said. The number of serious incidents reported to the commission has tripled since the Oxfam scandal.

The international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt, said she welcomed the report, adding: “Until the sector is fully prepared to address the power imbalance, cultures and behaviours that allow sexual abuse, exploitation and harassment to happen, we will never stamp it out.

“Ensuring that survivors’ voices are heard and taken seriously is paramount. As we look ahead to October’s international summit on this issue, we expect to see the sector demonstrate the progress they have made to put victims, survivors and the people we are there to help first.”

Judith Brodie, the interim chief executive of Bond, the UK’s network of international development NGOs, said the sector was taking action to tackle abuse.

“We need to see increased resourcing in safeguarding, particularly for smaller NGOs, more collaboration across organisations, donors and governments, better transparency, unwavering leadership and measures to ensure whistleblowers and survivors are at the heart of any solutions,” she said. “This sadly cannot undo previous shortcomings but it will result in a safer and more secure environment for both beneficiaries and staff.”

Parents’ Fears Are the Chinese Communist Party’s Biggest Nightmare

A huge vaccine scandal hits at Beijing's most vulnerable point: children's safety.

A child receives a vaccination shot at a hospital in Huaibei in China's eastern Anhui province on July 26. (AFP/Getty Images)

BY CHARLES ROLLET-

 JULY 31, 2018, 11:46 AM
The Chinese party-state seemed quick to respond this month after a major pharmaceutical company was found to have sold over 250,000 substandard vaccines for children. The revelations, based partly on a viral social media post that sparked a frenzy among millions of worried Chinese parents, were called “serious and appalling” by Communist Party Chairman Xi Jinping, who pledged a crackdown on unsavory practices in the industry. Premier Li Keqiang said the company’s behavior had “crossed a moral line,” and a normally throttled press was permitted to cover the topic. The China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) opened an investigation and the firm’s chairwoman, “vaccines queen” Gao Junfang, was detained along with 14 others.

But in a country repeatedly hit by regulatory scandals, these measures may not be enough to assuage public anger. China goes through regular cycles of safety-failure revelations, promises from the top of crackdowns and reform, and a rapid return to the norms of faked data and bribed personnel. Even as individual malefactors face punishments, the system is already moving to stop public rage from spreading beyond a single company. And it is unlikely that further arrests and investigations will curb the deeper malaise felt by many, who believe breakneck economic growth and social upheaval has left China with an amoral get-rich-quick culture that puts profits above everything else, even children.

Changsheng Biotechnology, the company at the center of the scandal, is the country’s second-largest maker of rabies and chickenpox vaccines. A week after state regulators announced the firm had outright faked production data about its rabies vaccine, it was revealed that a 2017 batch of 250,000 diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough vaccines had failed safety inspections. Tens of thousands of the vaccines had already been administered to children by public health authorities. While there’s no indication the substandard vaccines have directly caused any injuries or deaths, they may leave some children improperly vaccinated and thus vulnerable to diseases.

The outcry from parents has been huge. One Chinese-trained doctor was babysitting her niece in Zhejiang province when news of the scandal broke. She told Foreign Policy her cousins immediately started panicking and feeling guilty that they, like many other Chinese parents, had chosen domestic vaccines for their children instead of pricy ones from Europe or the United States. “Now there’s a huge shortage of imported vaccines and everyone wants foreign ones,” the doctor, who requested anonymity, said.

The panic was heightened by the already uneasy relationship Chinese parents have with vaccines, which are compulsory for school attendance.

 Unlike the United States, China does not have a large and organized anti-vaccine movement, while its mass vaccination campaigns have been major public health success stories.

However, distrust of China’s partially privatized health care system runs high, with lots of anger toward overprescribing doctors and corrupt medicine manufacturers. One study foundShanghai parents reluctant to get more vaccines other than free government-provided ones due to a belief doctors were promoting them just to make a quick buck. In 2013, an unsubstantiatedreport that children were killed by hepatitis B vaccines caused vaccination rates in some areas to plummet. In 2016, a criminal ring was found to have stored about 2 million vaccines in a rundown, unrefrigerated storeroom.

Meanwhile, Chinese food and drug safety remains tarred by the tainted milk formula scandal of 2008, which led to mass recalls, six infant deaths and the hospitalization of more than 50,000 others, and widespread panic by parents. (A few years later, government officials in Beijing enjoyed the exclusive use of a purpose-built organic farm.)

This troubled history meant when the latest vaccine scandal hit, all the official reactions and bluster fell flat for some Chinese. As documented in a Council on Foreign Relations blog, one Weibo user commented that China has “no rule of law. Only party governance,” while a viral post pointed out that Li Keqiang had used similar wording to describe the previous vaccine scandal from 2016. Even the reliably pro-government state media news anchor Wang Guan called the scandal a “disgrace” on Twitter, saying that “Without sound institutional design on rule of law/supervision, history will keep repeating itself.”

The problem is deeply rooted, said Bill Hsiao, a Harvard professor of economics specializing in public health who has spent decades analyzing and advising China’s health care system. Starting in the 1990s, China encouraged domestic production of modern vaccines and drugs partly to alleviate a lack of foreign exchange reserves, but the thousands of private companies this effort spawned were prone to colluding with local governments to skirt potentially costly regulations.

“For you to become a mayor and generate the revenue needed to lubricate different corrupt officials, the first thing you do is establish a tobacco manufacturing plant, and second a pharmaceutical plant,” said Hsiao, recalling a “common country saying” he’d heard among officials and others in China. “That’s how powerful stakeholders and various interest groups became so widespread in pharmaceuticals.”

Vaccines became a highly lucrative business; in 2016, Forbes estimated the net worth of Changsheng Biotechnology chairwoman Gao Junfang and her family at $1 billion. But corruption made Chinese pharmaceuticals exceedingly difficult to reform. In 2007, China executed the former head of the CFDA for exchanging state licenses for payments from pharma companies. One government-ordered self-assessment reportedly saw over 80 percent of companies withdraw their new drug applications due to faulty or fraudulent clinical trial data. Chinese media recently reported that Changsheng sales staff had been subject to more than 10 bribery convictions since 2010 for paying off hospital workers.
Yet it wasn’t supposed to be like this. When Xi Jinping became party chairman in 2013, he pledged to prioritize public health and consumer safety, saying that “if our party can’t even handle food safety properly while governing China, and this keeps up, some will wonder whether we’re up to the job.”

In March, the government announced a major reform proposal for the China Food and Drug Administration, which will merge with other regulatory ministries and create within the new agency a bureau to focus solely on drug inspection. Xi also oversaw the passage of a revised food safety law in 2015 and has regularly insisted on implementing the “strictest” controls on product safety in his speeches. Faking clinical trial data is now punishable by execution in the most extreme cases. China hadn’t seen such high-level attention toward consumer safety in years, and Xi’s moves seemed like an implicit message that he would tackle the problem more seriously than prior administrations.
But the flurry of activity was not enough. The party has a history of pledging reform in the wake of product-safety scandals without changing its culture of secrecy or allowing more freedom for civil society, meaning issues that could have been caught earlier by the press or activists often covertly metastasize before spiraling out of control in full public view.

That’s what happened in the 2016 scandal over the improperly stored vaccines. Local authorities suppressed news of the discovery for months until it was finally revealed in the press, as reported by the New York Times. Such suppression was par for the course. In 2010, the editor in chief of a Chinese daily newspaper was fired for publishing a report alleging that poorly stored vaccines had killed four children.

Even if Xi has a genuine desire to reform China’s beleaguered institutions and stop local-level corruption, the system he’s built isn’t amenable to the reforms needed. The extent of direct control amassed in Xi’s hands–who is widely viewed as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong–makes it difficult for regulatory agencies to act independently and transparently, according to Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council for Foreign Relations.

“There’s so many things competing for [Xi’s] attention: economic problems, the trade war, the environment, pollution, now regulations and food safety. He can only focus on a couple things at a time,” said Huang. “In a centralized state, within the hierarchy, you just have so many things that will have to wait for the top leader to make the decision.”

The state’s harsh punishments for those who violate food and drug laws don’t always reach those in positions of power.

 While a farmer and a milk salesman were both executed for their roles in the 2008 milk scandal, the official in charge of food safety at the time, Sun Xianze, was eventually promoted to deputy director of the CFDA, after being suspended for just two years for his role in the scandal. And as Human Rights Watch documented, the government has previously imprisoned lawyers of families who claimed their children were injured by vaccines and even charged one alleged victim’s grandmother for “provoking trouble.”

“The pervasive lack of transparency and accountability of the Chinese government contributes directly to these recurring vaccine scandals,” said Maya Wang, a senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch.

This long history clearly touched a nerve in China, helping the latest scandal explode on social media. China’s censors have closely monitored the discussion, allowing most posts but deleting those considered too radical, including the original WeChat post detailing Changsheng’s allegedly shoddy practices. One article that called for senior officials to resign was scrubbed, and so was another that urged mainland China to adapt the freer political systems of Hong Kong and Taiwan to avoid such scandals in the first place.

The pattern is clear enough: One can criticize Changsheng Biotechnology but not attack the Communist Party or the regulatory environment it’s largely responsible for creating. (Some netizens attempted creative ways to circumvent this censorship, such as placing the viral post on the blockchain.)

But such measures may breed further distrust in the state, and possibly give further air to China’s own nascent anti-vaccination movement. Hong Kong clinics are already preparingfor a wave of mainlanders coming to get their kids vaccinated anywhere outside the party’s direct control.

Censorship hasn’t stopped some deeper soul-searching from taking place, either, with one Chinese columnist writing in English-language media explicitly blaming the scandal on China’s “spiritual vacuum” caused by the Communist Party’s historical destruction of traditional values and the “dog-eat-dog capitalism” it subsequently imported.

Chinese censors can’t control the narrative outside China either. The Changsheng scandal has caused heavy reputational damage to a high-tech industry Xi was hoping to be a key part of its Made in China 2025 plan to build up more advanced Chinese exports.

On Changsheng’s website, which was recently hacked and is no longer visible,
an announcement from September 2017 in broken English read that former Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, whose name is misspelled as “Stephan Messi,” paid a visit to Changsheng’s headquarters in Jilin province after Croatia inaugurated a business pavilion in the area.

According to the release, chairwoman Gao Junfang made a speech in which she lauded the company’s achievements and said its products would soon “enter the international mainstream vaccine market.” She also noted that it was the 25th anniversary of China-Croatia relations and of Changsheng’s founding: “Both parties have good fates and opportunities.”