Sunday, June 2, 2019

HRC calls out BASL for unethical behaviour of some lawyers

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has pulled up the Bar Association of Sri Lanka after members of some of its regional branches refused to appear on behalf of members of the Muslim community arrested in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday attacks.

The areas these lawyers belong to include Mawanella and Badulla. “As a result, family members of those arrested have been compelled to obtain services of lawyers from other regions, entailing much financial hardship and inconvenience,” wrote Deepika Udagama, HRCSL Chairperson to BASL President Kalinga Indatissa.

“It was also observed that members of the Nikaweratiya Bar had protested when police had requested court not to grant bail to those arrested on suspicion of participating in the communal violence perpetrated on May 13 in some parts of the country,” she stated.

“You would agree that such positions taken by learned members of the legal profession point to conduct that is seriously at variance with the expected standards of ethical and honourable conduct of legal practitioners who are engaged in a profession based on liberal values,” her letter asserts. “Such discriminatory conduct, you would agree, denies to some of our fellow citizens the possibility of enjoying equal protection of the law under the Constitution of Sri Lanka.

“This is a serious situation which questions the core values of our legal profession,” Dr Udagama states. “Hence, we request you in earnest to look into this matter and take urgent corrective measures. We would be appreciative if you would share with the Commission action taken by BASL in this regard.”

Mr Indatissa said the “contents of the letter are wrong”. He refused to elaborate.

The yellow spines

by Sanjana Hattotuwa-June 1, 2019, 5:44 pm

Back home in Ratmalana, I have around 10 years worth of National Geographic magazines stacked on a bookshelf. My father subscribed to the magazine when I was in school. I haven’t yet asked him what drove him to do this, but I am grateful. Every year, the magazine sent subscribers a world map. The beautifully printed Mercator projection distorted size, but opened exciting new geographic possibilities to a kid who had never travelled out of Sri Lanka.

Here I could see boundaries I hadn’t realised existed, as they mysteriously snaked their way across continents - sometimes following terrain and topography, but at most times an arbitrary logic no different to an unthinking scribble. I didn’t understand then and don’t fully understand now how these borders all came to be made. But long before the vagaries of politics entered consciousness, the size of the map in relation to myself at the time gave a sense of how big the world beyond my room was. It isn’t a feeling digital media consumed on lap or palm is able to fully recreate now. Capitols, rivers, mountains, seas, cities, countries, roads and routes, harbours and hinterlands all came alive through a cartographic precision the magazine staked its reputation on.

And then there was the photography. Long before I started to appreciate photography as a medium or art, it was the message. The photographs in the National Geographic were, and still are, a visual feast. Critiques of this early, exoticisinggaze or framing are now abundant and valid, but again, to a child of the 80s who had never set foot out of the country and whose only other visual teleportation device was a 21" Sony Trinitron TV with two channels, the magazine’shigh-quality photos on glossy print were utterly captivating. From tribe to terrain, country to community, valley to village, each issue was a private portal into lands and landscapes I never thought I would see. Some of what I first saw on the magazine’s pages, I have now visited and witnessed in real life.

Many more palaces and people, I will never visit or meet. I realise now how little the father could afford the subscription, but continued with it nevertheless to bring lands to me, he could not afford to send me to. The value of this is lost on the young reader and child. But later in life, I can draw a direct link to what I love the most – travel within and beyond Sri Lanka, getting lost, mindful photography, unspoilt nature as well as mindfully constructed urban landscapes – to the framing of the National Geographic.

There was also something more. Whether the magazine set out to do it consciously, or whether for the reader, it was a more subliminal connection between stories and issues over the months and years, the National Geographic rendered the complexity, fragility and inter-connected nature of life on Earth. This is the most obvious thing now and even fashionable to tout. In the 1980s, clean energy, environmentalism, conservation, global warming and climate change weren’t issues and hadn’t even entered the popular imagination or political firmament.

Through its writing and photography, the magazine focussed on indigenous livelihoods, communities living with and the power of nature, the implications of poaching, the nature of rain forests, the life on rivers and riverbanks, how seasonal change impacted agriculture, animal migrations, the varied climates in various continents, livelihoods in littoral areas versus the lives of those in mountainous regions, space exploration and the borderless views of earth from geostationary orbit, the science of life as well as snapshots of life, in all its mundaneness, grandeur, vitality, cruelty, venom and boundless, incomprehensible love. Imagine the impact of this on readers at the time, like myself, across the world. We weren’t children of educationalists, activists, or cosmopolitan liberals.

We didn’t know or associate those richer in experience and wealth who could tell us stories of their lives and travels. We couldn’t afford to explore extensively within Sri Lanka, save for the annual pilgrimages to places where religion or relatives lived. Without any of the affordances now a thumb press, page load, click, flick, call or budget flight away, the magazine laid the foundation of appreciating, many years later, the complexity of ecosystems, essential fragility of nature and, importantly, our place in – not above – all this.

All this came back to me on Thursday evening, as I listened to a lecture by the legendary Jane Goodall. Some years ago, I listened to Maya Angelou in New York, speak about her life and then recite, as her final flourish,Still I Rise. I still get goosebumps at just the memory of her voice. Goodall, last week, offered a comparable experience, in a very different way. The two women are nothing like each other. Goodall’s diminutive figure in real life hides over six decades of experience bursting with insight, stories, forewarning and despite all she’s seen, hope.

At a meet and greet session before the formal lecture, she appeared with what appeared to be a single malt in a cut glass, perched herself on a high-chair and then signed various things for over an hour. Each person present was entitled to a professionally taken photo with her, but the usher warned us she would only look up for groups of two or more. By coincidence in the company of staff from the Jane Goodall Institute in Wellington, I learnt that she spent 300 days of the year travelling to events, fund-raisers, lectures and other meetings. The toll on the eyes of an 85 year old woman of constant flash photography was just too much to bear, but as luck would have it, the photographer informed me that she had blinked when he clicked my photo with her. Sheepishly moving back to her side, I told Goodall that at her age, she must find all of us, and all of this, a bloody nightmare.

I may have also used a mild expletive. Goodall loosened up, chuckled and through her smile for the photo, looking away from camera and straight at me, confessed it was bloody tortuous. My first and only conversation with the world’s greatest living anthropologist and primatologist was thus anchored to a honest appraisal of how little she enjoyed endless meetings with her giddy fans and ardent, loving followers.

How could one but not feel partial to and equally pained by this? I was told however that Goodall was very partial to dogs – something she hinted at in her lecture as well, when speaking about how animals showcase a range of emotions and social behaviour that were once ascribed only to humans.

Her lecture was pure magic – effortlessly enthralling, fearless, fascinating and profoundly moving. Aside from her life with and work around primates, Goodall also stressed the importance of addressing poverty as integral to and inextricably entwined with habitat preservation.

The choices she said that were made by affluent families around ethical goods and services were not those possible in poverty, where the cost of food mattered far more than source or how it was produced. Echoing David Attenborough, she spoke of how we were all part of larger systems where the loss or displacementof one species had a direct correlation with the health and well-being of humans.

Goodall’s holistic approach, which grounded the importance of environmental protection in frameworks that the disempowered and poor could also identify with, is what drives her work with communities and children.And while many would have latched on to what she said about her activism, I was more intrigued by what she said about her mother.

When girls and women continue to face derision today for taking up science, technology and medicine, she spoke of how her mother had been pivotal in supporting her choice to become what she was today – never doubting or shouting, quietly supportive, resilient, sacrificing much to ensure she had what she needed to pursue her dreams.

I have asked my parents to never give away those National Geographic magazines, which remain where I left them after I moved away from Ratmalana. Though the spines are now a faded yellow, and in various stages, succumbing to humidity, the pages remain in pristine condition. They are my Goodall. They are my Attenborough. They are my treasure. They are life.

Asia Power Index 2019: What does it say about Sri Lanka’s regional position?

Asia is where a lot of the economic and geopolitical action will be this century. It is important that Sri Lanka understands the dynamics shaping power and influence in the Asian region, and devises a clever strategy to align as well as stand out

Lankan political leaders score low on ‘demonstrating strategic ambition’
Imperative to boost trade and investment integration with region
Opportunity to deepen strategic relationships with Japan

Monday, 3 June 2019

The latest edition of the Lowy Institute’s ‘Asia Power Index’ provides an insightful picture of the power dynamics shaping the Asia-Pacific region, with many interesting takeaways for Sri Lankan political leaders, bureaucrats and businesses.

One of the overarching messages contained in the 2019 Index is that China is making strides in power and influence across the region and is closing the gap with the United States, even though the latter still remains the dominant power in Asia. Yet, even as China forges ahead with its ambitious (and sometimes contentious) ‘Belt and Road Initiative’, the report argues that the country’s internal political and structural challenges will make it hard for it to establish ‘undisputed primacy in the region’.

Closer to home, Sri Lanka’s performance paints an interesting picture. If the number of skyscrapers is an indication of a country’s ‘Prestige’ and thus, ‘Cultural projection’ as measured by the Index, then Sri Lanka ranks pretty high at 16th out of 25 countries, with three buildings above 150 meters compared to just two in New Zealand. But the Index provides a much more comprehensive picture than that of a country’s hard and soft power and influence in Asia, ranging from economic relationships to strategic ambition, which are discussed in this article.

On ‘Overall Power’, Sri Lanka ranks 21st out of 25 countries, with a score of 8.5 out of 100 and listed in the ‘Minor Powers’ category. We are above Nepal, Mongolia, Laos, and Cambodia, but below Bangladesh and Myanmar. The rest of the article highlights some of the key findings of the report across a select set of influence measures, and explores their relevance for Sri Lanka.
Snapshot of the 2019 Index

The Index, published annually by the Sydney-based think tank, is an analytical tool that ranks 25 countries and territories in terms of ‘what they have, and what they do with what they have’. It looks at countries ranging from Pakistan to the West, Russia to the North, and far into the Pacific as Australia, New Zealand and of course the United States. It analyses across eight thematic measures and 126 indicators.

In the 2019 Index, the United States is the only country to top 80 points in the Index’s score and claims the top spot in military capability and cultural influence. Yet, the report argues that it faces a narrowing power differential with China. China has made the sharpest gains in overall power in 2019, ranking first place in half of the eight measures, particularly economic resources and economic relationships. The other large economy in Asia – India - trails in 6th place for economic relationships, and has dropped down two places in diplomatic influence in 2019.

Malaysia, Vietnam and New Zealand are the ‘middle powers’ that have improved their position the most (after North Korea). Malaysia has performed better this year than last year across all the influence measures and is now in the top 10 most diplomatically-influential powers in Asia. This is likely a reflection of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed’s efforts to strengthen strategic economic positioning and bargaining power of the country and amidst power rivalries in the region. Meanwhile, Taiwan has become the only middle power to register a significant downward shift in overall power score from 2018.
Japan’s (surprising) performance

There is often a tendency to reduce the discussion on the Asian international order to focus just on China, India and the US, but this misses some other interesting developments, which are equally important for Sri Lanka to look at and this is insightfully captured in the Index.

Japan, for instance, is one of those countries that is showing a very interesting performance. It has cleverly used its limited resources to wield power in the region and rank among the top four across four of the influence measures (economic relationships, economic networks, cultural influence, and defence networks) and in the top two for diplomatic influence. As the report has aptly characterised, ‘Japan is the quintessential smart power’.

This seems to be a result of Premier Shinzo Abe’s commitment to regionalism, a rules-based trade order, and leadership to conclude the resuscitated Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2018 (later the CPTPP) after the quitting of the US. Abe is also aggressively pursuing the centrepiece of his administration’s foreign policy agenda – the ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy’ (FOIP) – aimed at counterbalancing China’s growing influence in the region. Sri Lanka is considered an important ally of Japan’s FOIP.

Japan has also been aggressive in pursuing infrastructure investment deals in South and Southeast Asia, even as China has expanded its presence. The country has also been a key FDI investor in ‘strategically pivotal’ economies in Asia Myanmar, Mongolia, the Philippines and Thailand. In Myanmar, for instance, Japan plays a dominant role in building connective infrastructure as well as setting up and running the country’s first Special Economic Zone in Thilawa, an hour outside of Yangon. Thilawa SEZ now has nearly a hundred Japanese companies.

Japan has had little FDI inflows into Sri Lanka in recent years, but has been steadily continuing its development assistance and participation in infrastructure projects. On the latter, the most recent and notable project is the Light Rail Transit (LRT) first phase from Malabe to Fort (Colombo). The new priority should be to pivot this relationship to focus more on FDI. In 1983 when the conflict broke out, top Japanese firms – Marubeni, Matsushita Corporation, Sanyo and Tokyo Mitsubishi Bank – were just about to enter the Sri Lankan market, but unfortunately pulled out.

More recently, there have been efforts to engage more strongly with Japan on the FDI front, with the visit to Tokyo last March by the President and the Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade and a series of investment forums held alongside it, in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. Sri Lanka has a useful diplomatic and political platform to leverage its economic relationship further – the 2015 Joint Declaration on Comprehensive Partnership Between Japan and Sri Lanka’, the ‘Intergovernmental Economic Policy Dialogue’ (EPD) launched in 2016, and the ‘Sri Lanka Japan Investment Roadmap’ that stemmed from the EPD.
Sri Lanka: Economic relationships with the region

The report points to the opportunity Sri Lanka has to strengthen its economic relationships with the region. For instance, our total value of trade with the Index’s countries is $ 19.9 b, compared to Bangladesh’s $ 46.6 b, Malaysia’s $ 287 b, Thailand’s $ 308 b, and Singapore’s $ 481 b. Many economists, including this author, has repeatedly emphasised the need to boost Sri Lanka’s trade and investment with the Asian region, owing to the fact that it is now the most dynamic and rapidly growing economic area. One reason for this low integration is the slow progress Sri Lanka has made on forging FTAs in Asia or globally.

Sri Lanka currently is a signatory to just three FTAs with regional partners and 3 multilateral or regional FTAs, compared to Singapore’s 15 and 23, Malaysia’s 12 and 14, and Vietnam’s 9 and 11. First steps towards improving this have been made with the forging of the Sri Lanka Singapore Free Trade Agreement in 2018, which was the country’s first comprehensive FTA and the first with an ASEAN country. Further efforts are underway to forge FTAs with China, Thailand and Bangladesh, as well as expand the current FTA with India.

Despite this low trade picture, Sri Lanka’s outward investment in Asia is encouraging. Over the past ten years, FDI outflows from Sri Lanka to countries in the region have topped $ 1.17 b. This is likely mainly driven by the competitive Sri Lankan apparel industry, where firms like MAS, Brandix, and Hirdaramani have invested in factories across Asia – in Vietnam, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and India.
Sri Lanka: Diversity and competitiveness measures

In ‘Diversity of export products’, Sri Lanka is at around the half way mark, ranked 17th ahead of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal, but just behind Pakistan and well behind Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. In diversity of export products, which is measured by the number of foreign markets to which an exporter ships at least one product (with a value of at least $ 10,000), Sri Lanka sends to 99 markets, compared to Bangladesh’s 106, Vietnam’s 119, Malaysia’s 121, and Thailand’s 122.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka fares better in its lack of concentration of trade partner. In the measure ‘Dependency on primary trade partner’ (measured by two-way trade with the primary trade partner as a share of total trade), Sri Lanka is ranked third as it is just 17%, while Vietnam, Bangladesh and Myanmar are at 23%, 32% and 38% respectively. This indicates that Sri Lanka would be a little less vulnerable to fraught relations with a primary trading partner.

One of the key sources of weakness Sri Lanka is set to face is its declining working age population and a consequent shortage of labour; a factor that is well known. On the measure of ‘Expected Labour Dividend 2045’ (measured by the forecast gains in working-age population adjusted for quality of the workforce (2017–45) with quality proxied by GDP per worker in 2017 at purchasing power parity), Sri Lanka is ranked right at the bottom, recording a 0 million forecast; in the same situation as Thailand, Japan, Singapore and South Korea. However, what the index probably does not consider is the likelihood and impact of inward migration.

Japan and South Korea – despite being very monoethnic cultures – have begun to be more open to foreign migration. Singapore is already one of the friendliest countries to foreigners. So, unlike Sri Lanka, where less than 0.5% of our population are foreigners, these other countries that we share the low ranking with, are already preparing themselves for a working age population crunch through a progressive inward migration regime.
Sri Lanka: Advancing diplomatic and strategic interests

One of the measures Sri Lanka performs the best in is ‘Multilateral Power’. Now this might seem surprising, given the country’s small size and limited voting weight (in international financial institutions for instance). However, what is driving this performance is Sri Lanka’s high rank on two key measures of multilateral power – ‘voting alignment’ and ‘voting partners’. Sri Lanka’s voting alignment with other countries in the index in adopted United Nations General Assembly resolutions is as high as 86% (giving it a rank of 3rd).

Meanwhile, in ‘voting partners’, the number of times Sri Lanka was featured among top three voting partners for other Index countries in United Nations General Assembly (in 2018) was 8 – the highest among the countries in the Index. This would be an interesting aspect to investigate further and understand to what extent Sri Lanka’s performance in this sphere can be leveraged for strategic trade and investment and economic cooperation relationships.

Despite the above, Sri Lanka fares poorly when it comes to the efficacy of our political leaders in advancing our diplomatic interests in Asia and globally; Sri Lanka scores 23 and 17, respectively (on a scale of 0 to 100). In comparison, India scores 80 and 82, Malaysia 81 and 61, Thailand 34 and 27, and Cambodia 27 and 11. Moreover, on ‘Strategic Ambition’ – which measures to what extent our political leaders demonstrate strategic ambition Sri Lanka scores a very low 4 (on a scale of 1 to 100) and ranked 22nd out of 25, only above Brunei, Nepal and Laos. This is both unfortunate given Sri Lanka’s strategic geographic location and strong desire to emerge as a key player in the Indian Ocean region.
Concluding remarks

Asia is where a lot of the economic and geopolitical action will be this century. As the report’s introduction notes, “Asia’s economic transformation is reshaping the global distribution of power, with profound implications for war and peace in the twenty-first century”. It is important that Sri Lanka understands the dynamics shaping power and influence in the Asian region, and devises a clever strategy to align as well as stand out. What is clear from the Asia Power Index is that Sri Lanka needs to do a lot better at projecting its influence in the region, regardless of its relatively smaller size (either by population or GDP).

The Index reveals that, on the measure of how well the country converts its resources into influence in Asia, Sri Lanka is an ‘underachiever’ and that we are country where ‘resources exceed influence’ (unlike Japan, which has managed to ‘overachieve’ and project more with less). As a country with strategic ambitions and in a strategic geographic location with economic and political implications, our political leaders, bureaucrats as well as private sector would find it useful to study the insights in this report and formulate time-bound strategies to project greater influence in the region – in many spheres, ranging from cultural and economic, to trade and strategic.

(The writer is an economist with a focus on international economics, innovation, trade and investment. He holds roles in Government and the private sector. Views expressed in this article are strictly the author’s own and do not represent those of any organisation he is affiliated to.)
Notes:

API measures ‘Export diversity’ as ‘Total products exported to at least one foreign market with a value of at least $ 10,000’.

World No Tobacco Day 2019 Losing life one lung at a time

31 May 2019

The design changes in cigarettes over the past several decades have not only made them both more likely to attract new underage users and more addictive, they have also made cigarettes more lethal. Studies conclude that, today’s cigarette smokers – both men and women – have a much higher risk of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) than smokers in the 1960s, despite smoking fewer cigarettes. Moreover, the increased risk of lung cancer is the result of tobacco industry changes to the design and composition of cigarettes.

Annually ‘World No Tobacco day’ is celebrated around the world on the 31st of May. This year the World Health Organization (WHO) has drawn focus onto “tobacco and lung health.” The campaign will increase awareness on; the negative impact that tobacco has on people’s lung health, from cancer to chronic respiratory disease and the fundamental role lungs play with regard to the health and well-being of all people. The campaign also serves as a call to action, advocating for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption and engaging stakeholders across multiple sectors in the fight for tobacco control.

Tobacco control

As principal scientist at Phillip Morris- the American multinational cigarette and tobacco manufacturing company, W.L Dunn stated in the 1970s, “No one has ever become a cigarette smoker by smoking cigarettes without nicotine.”

Nicotine, a chemical that exists naturally in tobacco plants, is an extremely addictive drug as we know. It is present in smoked tobacco products (e.g., cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, pipe, waterpipe), smokeless tobacco products and many electronic cigarettes.

Presently, it is not a matter of ignorance that lights up the cigarettes, for the health warnings, the life threats and the ill impact on society caused by smoking is not news to the majority. Unlike in the past, smokers now know their adversary: Nicotine fairly well. Thus, the major driver of the anti-tobacco campaign at this stage is the implementation of tobacco control.
Speaking to the Health Capsule, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo Dr. Mahesh Rajasuriya MD (Psychiatry) contributed his expertise in this regard as well.

“The single most effective measure to curb smoking is to make cigarettes less affordable. This can easily be done by increasing cigarette tax, which would create a win-win situation: The tax revenue to the government increases and due to lowering of tobacco smoking the economic cost reduces. Ban on sale of single sticks of cigarettes further make them unaffordable, especially to the poor and the young, as they then must buy a whole packet. Prohibition of public smoking makes it even more difficult to smoke.

These are some of the effective methods to reduce the availability of cigarettes. The other way to reduce smoking prevalence in a country is to reduce the demand for smoking. Demand reduction is best done by banning direct and indirect cigarette advertising and creating a negative image of smoking. I have personally found that smokers become really motivated to stop smoking when they learn how the tobacco industry has deceived them and how the industry continues to target children and teenagers,” he stated.

According to the 2017 Report on Tobacco Smoking Trends in Sri Lanka by the Alcohol and Drug Information Centre (ADIC) when the price of a cigarette stick was increased in 2016 from Rs. 35 to Rs. 50 (43% increase), of the respondents, 64.6% of current smokers said this price change caused them to change the way they smoked. 87.4% of those who altered their habit, mentioned that the change due to price increase was a “reduction of usage”.

Economic burden

The World Bank states how tobacco use poses an unparalleled health and economic burden worldwide. A new study found that the diseases caused by smoking account for US$ 422 billion in health care expenditures annually, representing almost 6% of global spending on health. Smoking causes close to 6 million deaths per year - more than the deaths from HIV/AIDs, TB and Malaria combined. And the total economic cost of smoking after including productivity losses from death and disability amounts to more than US$ 1.4 trillion per year- equivalent in magnitude to 1.8% of the world’s annual GDP.

It is obvious that in low- and middle-income countries like Sri Lanka this heavy burden falls on the impoverished populations.

“Contrary to the lies the tobacco industry spreads, the net economic benefit from tobacco smoking to a country is highly negative. You need to subtract the health costs and economic loss due to death and disease from the tax revenue and job creation due to tobacco business,” Dr. Rajasuriya quipped.

Studies show that tobacco control measures are highly cost-effective and do not harm economies. Though progress is being made in controlling the global tobacco epidemic, existing measures have not yet been used to their full potential. ‎Applying evidence-based interventions, such as significant tobacco tax and price increases, comprehensive smoke-free policies, and bans on all tobacco product advertising, promotion, and sponsorship would reduce the demand for tobacco products and significantly reduce the prevalence of tobacco use and the resulting death, disease, and economic costs.

Nicotine manipulation
As reported by The New York Times in August 2018, tobacco companies have paid social media influencers to promote cigarettes on platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as part of a marketing strategy documented in more than 40 countries. The influencers are usually young, attractive and have large social media followings. These social media campaigns have been viewed more than 25 billion times worldwide, according to social media analytics.

Profiting off the susceptibility of the youth, tobacco companies not only manipulate the addictive properties of their products, they also manipulate the product in ways that both attract starter smokers and enhance the likelihood that they will become regular smokers. Tobacco industry research on nicotine has guided the design of a variety of products over the years.
Not to mention, some argue that newer trends like ‘vaping’ or ‘e-cigarettes’ may be a healthy alternative for smokers and help them to quit or reduce.

However, Dr. Rajasuriya pointed out that, “this is not the case. Vaping has been shown to sometimes worsen tobacco smoking. The very attractive gadget will lure more young people into the habit of smoking.”

He went on to say that, “new tobacco products such as e-cigarettes and vaping are their (tobacco industry’s) latest gimmick played on the vulnerable, especially young, tech-savvy generation. The tobacco industry and their allies and friends, including certain scientists and health professionals, tend to argue that tobacco smokers need an alternative. What is the basis of this argument? In that case, people who habitually suck on their thumbs or bite their nails, should be given something else to suck or bite!” A 2016 Surgeon General’s report also concluded that youth use of nicotine in any form, including e-cigarettes, is unsafe, causes addiction and can harm the developing adolescent brain.

A growing number of studies have found that young people who use e-cigarettes are more likely to become smokers, and many are low-risk youth who would not have otherwise smoked cigarettes. A January 2018 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (US) concluded, “There is substantial evidence that e-cigarette use increases the risk of ever using combustible tobacco cigarettes among youth and young adults.”

These ‘developments’ therefore are only addicting a new generation of kids and threatening the decades-long progress our nation and the world have made in reducing youth tobacco use.

Fracturing the fad
Inhaling tobacco smoke exposes users to more than 7000 toxicants and at least 70 carcinogens, damaging the whole body. A regular smoker typically loses more than a decade of life.
It wasn’t “cool” then, and it certainly isn’t cool now. In fact, as Dr. Rajasuriya put it, “it is a shameful thing to smoke. It is a shameful thing to work to produce and market cigarettes. It is a violation of the human rights of women and children and non-smokers as the smoker pollutes the atmosphere with disease-causing fumes… Evidence is accumulating to show that tobacco smoking is a risk factor for development of schizophrenia. If you didn’t know already; tobacco smoking causes leathery skin and makes a person look older, compromises blood flow to penis resulting in erectile dysfunction, causes bad breath and the fumes linger hours after smoking a cigarette.”

However the lethality and iniquity of tobacco use is masked by a thin but wide layer of ‘voguish mania’, but like with any other trend, the moment smoking seems out of style, we can expect a massive drop in the tobacco using youth. With the tobacco industry’s business model depending on addicting the next generation of tobacco users to its products, social media companies must take action now to protect young people from the tobacco industry’s predatory marketing practices.

Policies that make tobacco products less affordable, less attractive, less socially acceptable, and less available to youth will reduce the risk of youth addiction to tobacco. Regulating the content of tobacco products, including nicotine, as well as menthol and other flavourings, comprehensively banning advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products and implementing measures that prohibit the sale of tobacco to persons under the age of 18 and other actions that limit underage access to tobacco products are a few initial steps in this direction.

Israel twists law to dodge ICC probe

More than 200 Palestinians, including 44 children, have been killed by Israeli occupation forces during Gaza’s Great March of Return.

Mohammed ZaanounActiveStills

Maureen Clare Murphy - 30 May 2019

Israel is relying on US muscle to stop the International Criminal Court investigating alleged war crimes perpetrated in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“The International Criminal Court in The Hague has no jurisdiction to discuss matters concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Sharon Afek, Israel’s military advocate general, stated at the annual Herzliya Conference, a high-profile gathering of Israel’s political and military elites, this week.

“Israel is a law-abiding country, with an independent and strong judicial system, and there is no reason for its actions to be scrutinized by the ICC,” Afek added.

The military advocate general’s office also recently published a report claiming that the military had conducted “lectures and workshops on the legal ramifications” of occupation forces’ actions, the Tel Aviv daily Haaretz stated.

“The move was prompted by weekly clashes between soldiers and Palestinians over the past year as well as by the International Criminal Court’s scrutiny of the [military’s] actions in the 2014 Gaza war,” Haaretz added.

The situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has been under preliminary examination by the International Criminal Court since 2015. Its chief prosecutor issued an unprecedented warning to Israeli leaders last year that they may face trial for the killings of unarmed protesters in Gaza.

More than 200 Palestinians, including 44 children, have been killed during the Great March of Return protests in Gaza and thousands more injured. Some 1,400 Palestinians were shot by live ammunition during protests on 14 May 2018 alone, the deadliest single day of protests since they were launched earlier that year.

Judges in The Hague have also ordered the International Criminal Court to reach out to victims of war crimes in Palestine.

Fig-leaf investigations

Afek has ordered a military police probe into the killing of 11 Palestinians during the Great March of Return.

Israel keeps up the appearance of a robust internal investigative apparatus to ward off accountability in international courts. Human rights groups have characterized the Israeli military’s investigations of its violations against Palestinians as a whitewashing mechanism.

Earlier this month the military closed its probe into the killing of Ibrahim Abu Thurayya, a double amputee shot in the head during a protest in December 2017.

In September 2016, the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq stated that “Since 1987, no Israeli soldier or commander has been convicted of willfully causing the death of a Palestinian in the [occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip].”

Since then there have been two convictions – both in high-profile cases where the slaying was captured on video.

In 2017, Israeli army medic Elor Azarya received 18 months for the point blank execution in 2016 of Abd al-Fattah Yusri al-Sharif in the West Bank city of Hebron. That sentence was later reduced by a third.

Ben Dery was sentenced to nine months in prison last year for what Defense for Children International Palestine described as “a willful killing” of 17-year-old Nadim Nuwara during protests outside a West Bank military prison in May 2014.

Twisting the law

During his remarks at the Herzliya Conference Afek accused the Hamas authorities in Gaza of sending thousands of people “to breach the border fence.”

“This raises substantive legal questions, including what is the appropriate legal framework according to which the army needs to respond,” he added.

Israel has attempted to justify its use of lethal force against Gaza protesters by saying that the demonstrations and its deadly crackdown are part of an armed conflict with Hamas.

An independent commission of inquiry launched by the United Nations, as well as Palestinian human rights groups, have refuted this. They say that the mass demonstrations along Gaza’s boundary with Israel are a civilian matter of law enforcement governed by international human rights law. The killings and maiming of protesters can, therefore, not be excused by claiming that they took part during an armed conflict.

The commission of inquiry prepared a confidential file containing dossiers of alleged perpetrators of international crimes related to the Great March of Return for submission to the International Criminal Court.

Israel has relied on threats and bullying from the US to deter a full investigation by the ICC.

Paul Ney, general counsel of the US Department of Defense, also spoke at the Herzliya Conference in what Haaretz described as “a coordinated legal attack against the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court” by the US and Israel.

Ney said that the US “has in no way consented to any exercise of jurisdiction by the ICC” and that its consideration of allegations against US personnel is viewed “as a flagrant violation of our national sovereignty and as an attack on America’s rule of law.”

ICC gives in to bullying

In April, the ICC’s pre-trial judges decided unanimously against opening an investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan, citing the poor prospects “of securing meaningful cooperation from the relevant authorities,” referring to the US.

The announcement came days after the US revoked the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor’s visa.

US President Donald Trump warned that “Any attempt to target American, Israeli, or allied personnel for prosecution will be met with a swift and vigorous response.”

At the Herzliya Conference, Ney said that the ICC has no jurisdiction to prosecute alleged international crimes by Israel and the US because neither state is a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the court.

The US has also taken punitive and coercive measures against the Palestine Liberation Organization over efforts to see Israel prosecuted at the ICC, including the closing of its mission in Washington last year.

The Palestinian Authority acceded to the Rome Statute in 2015, accepting ICC jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 13 June 2014.

EU condemns new Israeli settlements in East Jeruslaem as 'illegal'

Israel’s housing ministry announced this week plans for construction of 805 housing units in occupied portion of the city

The EU said that the settlement construction will undermine the possibility of a two state solution (AFP)

By MEE staff-1 June 2019

The European Union has condemned Israeli plans to build illegal housing units in occupied East Jerusalem.

The plans, which were announced on Wednesday by Israel’s housing ministry, include the construction of 805 housing units in Jewish neighbourhoods in the city's east, which was occupied by Israel in 1967.

In a statement released Saturday, the EU said it is "strongly opposed to Israel's settlement policy, including in East Jerusalem, which is illegal under international law and an obstacle to peace".

“The policy of settlement construction and expansion in East Jerusalem continues to undermine the possibility of a viable two state solution with Jerusalem as the future capital of both states, which is the only realistic way to achieve a just and lasting peace.

“The EU will continue to engage with both parties and with its international and regional partners to support a resumption of a meaningful process towards a negotiated two-state solution.”

Tenders were published for 460 units in the neighbourhood of Pisgat Zeev, with another 345 in Ramot, according to Israeli NGO Peace Now, which monitors settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories.

“Continued construction in East Jerusalem does not contribute to Jerusalem and does not contribute to Israel, “ the NGO said in a statement. “As long as we have not reached a permanent agreement with the Palestinians on Israel’s borders, building beyond the Green Line is illegitimate and only harms the prospects for peace and trust between the sides.”

It would make 2019 the busiest year for settlement building activity since 2014, when tenders were issued for 2,240 units. Last year saw 603 tenders issued and in 2017 there were just 130.

The NGO said that the plans are expected to “add to housing units to the existing neighbourhoods in a way that increases the density of the built-up area and does not actually expand the area on which the neighborhoods are spread”.

Peace Now added that “there is still potential for several thousand housing units, mainly in Gilo and Har Homa, but the main planning is currently increasing density and adding housing units in the existing areas”.

The Israeli move comes weeks before the US administration rolls out the economic aspects of a Middle East peace plan, dubbed the “deal of the century”

Secularism Is A Celebrated Ideal

Secularism does not mean that the state enforces the secularisation of society by removing religion from the public sphere entirely, such as by banning religious dress

by Anwar A Khan-31/05/2019

Secularism grants freedom of religion to all citizens, and therefore, citizens following different religions have equal right to profess and propagate their respective faiths. The state is duty bound to protect the religious rights of all the citizens alike. It does not mean that it rejects the reality of an unseen spirit or the relevance of religion to life, or that it teaches faithlessness. It also does not mean that secularism itself becomes a religion. It only means that no religion gets any preferential treatment of any kind at the hands of the State. The essence is that all religions, with respect to the State, stand on equal footing.

Manuel Valls wrote, “Secularism must be applied everywhere, because that is how everyone will be able to live in peace with each other.” Secularism is a stance regarding religion that is restricted to the polity, and appeals to values that promote certain moral and political goods over corresponding harms. First, this means that secularism is a political doctrine and not a personal attitude. Not only should a secular state promote neutrality toward and equidistance from all religions in a religiously plural society, it should be able to defend the shared values of a polity, such as freedom of speech, that are formed independently of religion when those values conflict with particular religious laws, such as blasphemy.

Secularism does not mean that the state enforces the secularisation of society by removing religion from the public sphere entirely, such as by banning religious dress. Instead, it seeks to build a secular polity by appealing to modes of reasoning that are internal to each community in that society.

These societies were wracked by religious warfare and political strife, culminating in the devastation of the wars after wars. Moreover, the infamous and lasting form of political sovereignty predicated on the discovery and extermination of an enemy within–minorities of religion, language, ethnicity, and so forth. Secularism as a political doctrine was formulated as a necessary counterbalance to the violent wreckage that internecine religious conflict, majoritarian politics, and nationalist sentiment had left on the world.

A commitment to secularism – namely, that the state would not be aligned with any one religion – is an important first step. But it is not enough. In a society where religion is, and remains, an important anchor of personal identity, deeply valued by individuals and closely tied to notions of self-worth and dignity, the state has to make space for plurality of religious observances and cultural practices.

For members of different communities to have a sense of equality, the state needed to create a public culture that is hospitable to religious differences – one that allows individuals to enter and participate in public life despite their religious beliefs.

To create a comfortable and non-alienating public culture, the country’s constitution should give each individual the right to observe their religious practices, and give minorities the right to set up their own religious and educational institutions.

Minority educational institutions could receive funds from the state, if they so desired. Although no firm obligation was placed on the state, this allowed subsequent governments to support minority schools.The government put together a list of public holidays that gives due consideration to different religious communities. At least one holiday is given for a major festival or event of religious importance, for each community.

The lesson is the importance of creating a diverse public sphere that is inclusive and welcoming to all. And, most of all, one where cultural choices – in dress codes, food habits, and modes of address in social interaction are not shaped entirely by the culture of the majority. This is the opposite to what we see in modern-day France, for instance.

Bangladesh’s founding framework went far beyond the idea of liberal secularism; it made a deliberate effort to give minorities the space to continue with their distinct religious and cultural practices and to pass them on. Culture and religion-related anxieties can be exploited to nurture resentment, and this has to be avoided. But after Bangabandhu’s brutal murder in 1975, amoral military dictators – rulers have ravaged our secular constitution, the spirit which we achieved through our glorious Liberation War in 1971.

This is an important starting point but it has to be supplemented by government policies that ensure equal opportunity and security for people of all religions. Governments at the political centre and in different states failed to perform these tasks. Repeated incidents of inter-community violence occurred in the past in the country and the failure to punish the perpetrators of such violence have pushed vulnerable minorities into the arms of their community for solace.

These could have been avoided. The state could have given a stern message that such forms of violence and community targeting would not be tolerated. But in case after case, governments let their citizens down. Political parties were divided, choosing to stand with different communities at different times but always with an eye on electoral gains.

In an effort to curb such communitarian politics, the Election Commission should aims to force parties to think of all citizens, and not merely one community, it does not address all concerns.

The point is that, in a democracy, it is not religion per se but efforts to stigmatise and intimidate people or groups that is a matter of concern. This is what Bangladesh has yet to tackle effectively. When political parties can reach out to religious communities, take up their concerns and show that they give representation to candidates from different religions, they give a voice to minorities. These stem the sense of alienation and neglect that radicalisation so often taps into.

The most serious challenge today is to make space for individual dissent and autonomy and protect a person from those who wish to enforce the diktats of the community or the nation. Bangladesh has focused so heavily on equality between groups that it has neglected to protect individual liberty – something that is pursued more effectively in Europe.

Anxieties about religion and the lack of respect for it can be tapped to create a rigid and more closed identity along with a politics of resentment. The focus must, therefore, be on creating a stake in democratic politics, involving different communities at different levels of institution functioning and extending avenues for equal opportunity. So, we need to open up to solutions that not to go beyond secularism, from places like Bangladesh and from elsewhere. We need to embrace differences with policies for integrating minorities into education, the labour market and overall public life.

The view of secular organisations that people should have freedom from religion is a noble one based on compassion and a deep sense of justice. In the present time of violence, killing of innocent people by terrorist attacks in the name religion, we need solidarity and a unified sense of purpose to pursue secularism to end the endless terrorist acts and all sorts of violence.

Secularism means complete and absolute freedom to practice any religious. After Independence, our Constitution declared Bangladesh to be a Secular State, guaranteeing full respect to all the religions prevailing in the country. That was reversed with religion as I have said earlier which has to be retrieved in full in its place in the greater interest of people of all religions to live together in peace and in harmony.

During the Muslim rule, there had been certain rulers, like Akbar and Sher Shah Suri, who maintained an absolute form of secularism in the Indian sub-continent. Akbar’s religious policy of toleration was a noble specimen of secularism. ChaitanyaMahaprabhu, by preaching his cult of Bhakti and Love, preached equality of all the religions of the world. Nanak, Kabir, Chishti and many other sages of India advocated the cause of religious toleration. Guru Nanak and Baba Farid, the two apostles of love and piety, worked for the unification of the finest and sublimest essences of all religions and creeds.

The religion, which is preached in our scriptures, is quite compatible with the idea of Secularism. ‘To every man belonging to any religious faith, let thy prayer float.’ It has always been the main stress in our theological commands to extend toleration to the followers of all other religions. Bangladesh, throughout her glorious past had maintained the sacred name of her secular character. In India, Akbar’s ‘Golden Age’ is also an evidence of this fact. Sher shah’s meteoric rule is yet another illustration of India’s faith in secularism. Although Shivaji was constantly at war with the Mughals, yet under his sway Hindus and Muslims lived like brothers.

There are many advantages of secularism in the present age of globalisation. Ours is an age of internationalism and cosmopolitanism. We are marching fairly rapidly to the goal of universal brotherhood. Time is not very far when the entire world will be one single unit – an international state – in which we all are to live as members of the same one family. In this age of universal fraternity the narrow concept of theocracy has absolutely no place.

So, Secularism is a celebrated ideal and we should quest after it to maintain a peaceful society in Bangladesh and elsewhere in the world. To conclude, I wish to quote from Mahatma Gandhiji, ““If I were a dictator, religion and state would be separate. I swear by my religion. I will die for it. But it is my personal affair. The state has nothing to do with it. The state would look after your secular welfare, health, communications, foreign relations, currency and so on, but not your or my religion. That is everybody's personal concern!”

-The End –

The writer is a senior citizen of Bangladesh, writes on politics, political and human-centred figures, current and international affairs.

Remembering the victims of the Virginia Beach mass shooting

Eleven of the victims were city employees, and one was a contractor, police said.

(City of Virginia Beach)

By Washington Post Staff Updated June 1, 2019

One victim worked for the Virginia Beach municipal government for 41 years. Another, for just 11 months. A third was a contractor who was filing a permit at the worst time possible. And one died checking to make sure his co-workers were safe.

Most of the 12 people killed Friday by gunman DeWayne Craddock — himself a longtime municipal employee — had the kind of job titles common for government servants. They were engineers, right-of-way agents, account clerks or administrative assistants.

During a news conference Saturday, Virginia Beach City Manager Dave Hansen released the names of the 12 victims. They were identified as:

(City of Virginia Beach)

Ryan Keith Cox

an account clerk with Public Utilities for more than 12 years who lived in Virginia Beach

When the shooting began, Cox helped shepherd co-workers to safety, and then went back to check on others, said account clerk Christi Dewar. “I think that’s when [the gunman] got Keith.”

She said they had started their jobs on the same day, and he always gave her a hug whenever she was annoyed about something. “He was the type of person who — you know he would lay down his life for you, and that’s exactly what he did,” Dewar said. “On Friday, he gave his life to save seven of us.”

Cox was from a devout Christian family.

His father, E. Ray Cox Sr., 78, is the pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Virginia Beach, where Keith Cox was known as the “golden voice.”

“Keith was one of my main go to lead singers!!” former music minister Kenneth Robinson wrote on Facebook, where members of the church mourned his death. So did his older brother, Ervin Ray Cox Jr.: “My heart is hurting because my baby brother was murdered today by the shooter in Virginia Beach mass shooting. I won’t hears his beautiful singing voice at church or home anymore. I loved my brother and will truly miss his caring soul. Until we meet again in heaven.”

— Laura Vozzella and Orion Donovan-Smith

(City of Virginia Beach)

Tara Welch Gallagher

an engineer with Public Works for six years who lived in Virginia Beach

Gallagher and her husband, Patrick, were building a life together. They had a son, Patrick Gallagher III, now 22 months old. And they had bought a fixer-upper in Alanton, an upscale community along the water.

“Most of our time was spent fixing the house and raising our son. It was all she lived for,” said Patrick Gallagher, an architect, choking back tears. “She was everything to me.”

— Ian Shapira

(City of Virginia Beach)

Mary Louise Gayle, 65

a right-of-way agent with Public Works for 24 years who lived in Virginia Beach

Gayle took great pride in her work, dealing with land appraisals and easements for new public works projects. She was preparing to fly to Portland later this month to receive a national award for her accomplishments.

Since Gayle turned 65 last month, the trip was going to double as a birthday celebration with her two children — Matthew Gayle, 33, and Sarah Leonard, 37 — and their families.

A devout Catholic who taught catechism classes for many years, Gayle was a single mother who was close to her two grandchildren, Jeffrey, 8, and Genevieve, 3.

Every winter holiday season, she made gingerbread houses for her family and friends, the sweet, spicy aroma of the baking filling the home she shared with her pug dog, Abby.

“She’d use these little almond slivers for shingles,” Matthew Gayle said. “They were really intricately done.”

She was excited about the family trip to Portland.

“We were going to wine and dine her,” her son said. “It was going to be this huge, elaborate celebration. If the shooter had just waited two weeks, she wouldn’t be there. She would be in Portland.”

— Antonio Olivo

(City of Virginia Beach)

Alexander Mikhail Gusev, 35

a right-of-way agent with Public Works for nine years who lived in Virginia Beach

Gusev, an immigrant from Belarus, was an avid soccer player. His friend, Alex Lambrino, said the two played soccer together every Sunday morning “for as long as I can remember.”

for almost 10 years. He was a great human being full of life and joy and laughter.”

Gusev came to the United States in 2003 as a student, his longtime friend Igor Musin told the Virginian-Pilot. Gusev attended Tidewater Community College and got a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Old Dominion University.

Gusev spent the past nine years working for the city’s public works department as a right-of-way agent, and previously worked at a lumber company, according to the Pilot.

His twin brother, Aliaksei Huseu, also lives in Virginia Beach, along with their mother. On Saturday, relatives gathered at the home where Gusev lived, a townhouse on a cul-de-sac where children were riding their bicycles. The family declined to speak to a reporter.

Gusev was described as a generous and thoughtful friend. Wais Sarwari, who met Gusev through mutual friends and played sports with him, said he was a “really, really nice guy.”

“All he ever did was try to help whoever he can,” Sarwari said.

One day, after Gusev learned that Musin didn’t have a lawn mower to cut his grass, Gusev showed up with a lawn mower and cut the grass for him, without even being asked, Musin told the Pilot.

“That was incredible,” Musin said.

— Samantha Schmidt, Julie Zauzmer, Justin Wm. Moyer, Orion Donovan-Smith

(City of Virginia Beach)

Joshua O. Hardy, 52

an engineering tech resident with Public Utilities for more than four years who lived in Virginia Beach

Hardy didn’t have children of his own, but he was close to his six nieces and nephews and knew how to make them laugh. One of his nieces, Tasha Milteer, considered him a father figure growing up. The two of them would play Nintendo together, and he kept old family videos of Milteer at 6 years old, singing along with commercial jingles and to ’N Sync’s “Tearin’ Up My Heart.”

“He was just the funny one,” Milteer, now 32, recalled. “He used to go get this baby doll head and scare us with it.”

Hardy grew up in Norfolk, in a family of six siblings, including his twin sister. The extended family would often go on vacations together, and he loved to cook for all of them — especially steamed crabs. He was an Oakland Raiders fan and was always running on the treadmill and making sure to eat healthy and stay fit. He was a devout Christian and a former deacon, but was also fascinated by conspiracy theories.

Hardy worked for the city of Norfolk for about 20 years before moving to his job in Virginia Beach, Milteer said. “He loved his job.”

— Samantha Schmidt

(City of Virginia Beach)

Michelle “Missy” Langer, 60

an administrative assistant with Public Utilities for 12 years who lived in Virginia Beach

Gregarious and friendly, people were drawn to Langer, said her colleague, Kimberly Millering, who remembered her as an avid Pittsburgh Steelers fan.

Both of them had been at work when the gunfire began. After a SWAT team evacuated Millering from Building 2, her fears turned to Langer, her friend of eight years.

“I tried calling Missy,” Millering said. “I didn’t get an answer and I got so worried.”

A friend of Langer’s neighbor reached out to Millering on Facebook to deliver the grim news: She was among those killed. Millering, 55, a geographic information analyst for the city, would later learn other colleagues, Katherine Nixon and Richard Nettleton, were also among the dead. But she was especially close to Langer.

“I will miss her smile and her hugs. That’s the hardest thing,” she said. “I don’t know how I can go into that building and know that’s where she died.”

Langer’s sister-in-law, Kim Langer, described the 60-year-old as a cheerful, fun-loving woman who loved the beach, working in her yard and watching football.

“She was always laughing, always smiling,” she said.

Langer was survived by her brother and sister.

Kim Langer said her sister-in-law’s body will be brought back to East Liverpool, Ohio, where she will be buried.

“We’re very distraught,” she said, her voice cracking. “Can’t believe it’s true. Just unbelievable. This kind of stuff has got to stop.”

— Alex Horton and Lindsey Bever

(City of Virginia Beach)

Richard H. Nettleton

an engineer with Public Utilities for 28 years who lived in Norfolk

Nettleton stayed on the job for nearly three decades simply because he enjoyed the work, said his boss, Bob Montague, the director of Virginia Beach’s public utilities department.

Nettleton, a die-hard Red Sox fan, helped lead the design and construction of the city’s sewer and water pump stations, water storage tank and transmission lines and pipelines.

“Rich was just a good guy and very compassionate,” Montague said. “He cared about people. He helped and mentored young engineers.”

Nettleton and Virginia Beach City Manager Dave Hansen had worked together before.

The two men were stationed together in Germany in the Army’s 130th Engineer Brigade. Their paths diverged after, but the former soldiers both wound up in Virginia Beach.

“You couldn’t ask for a better human being,” Dwight Farmer, who worked with Nettleton to streamline construction requirements, told the Virginian-Pilot. “It was never about him.”

— Ian Shapira and Alex Horton

(City of Virginia Beach)

Katherine A. Nixon

an engineer with Public Utilities for 10 years who lived in Virginia Beach

Nixon came from a family of civil engineers: Her late father Robert “Bobby” Lusich, her grandfather George Lusich, and two of her uncles, Jerry Lusich and Anthony Lusich — all engineers who loved their work.

Nixon, who was in her early 40s, was just as devoted to her husband Jason, a realtor, and her children. She had three girls, one of them just 15 months old, according to her grandmother Claudia Blodget.

Blodget, who lives in California, learned of the shooting while watching television. When the media reported that the killings took place at the Virginia Beach municipal center, Blodget reached out to relatives, who told her Kate had been shot. Later that night, she said, around 10 p.m., she learned her granddaughter had died in surgery.

“I still remember teaching her how to quilt when she was a teenager,” Blodget said. “She leaves a hole in the realm that will never be filled.”

In Virginia Beach, she performed a crucial job, said her boss, Bob Montague.

She was a senior engineer in charge of the department’s regulatory compliance. One of her jobs was to make sure the city’s restaurants did all they could to lessen the impact of fats, oils and grease on the city’s sewer system.

“All these people were such great people,” said Montague, who supervised six of those killed. “This is what makes it so difficult. They were our family.”

— Ian Shapira

(City of Virginia Beach)

Christopher Kelly Rapp

an engineer with Public Works for 11 months who lived in Powhatan

Rapp loved Scottish music.

When he wasn’t at work or with his wife, Bessie, he enjoyed putting on a kilt and playing his pipes.

Tidewater Pipes & Drums, a bagpipe band in southeastern Virginia, said on social media that Rapp had recently moved to Virginia Beach and joined the band. Bandmates described him as a quiet person who “had a passion for bagpipes and Scottish culture.”

“We are heartbroken to share the news that our bandmate, Chris Rapp, was one of the victims of Friday’s senseless shooting,” the group said Saturday morning in a Facebook post.

Jim Roberts, the band’s manager, said in a statement that Rapp had marched with the band as recently as St. Patrick’s Day.

“Chris was reserved but very friendly, quietly engaging members one-on-one after our weekly practices. Even though we didn’t have time to get to know him better, we shared a love for music that created an immediate bond. More importantly, he showed up and worked hard, which is all you can ask for in a group of amateur musicians,” Roberts said.

The band is planning to play at his funeral, Roberts said, and “will do whatever else we can to support his family at this difficult time.”

— Lindsey Bever

(City of Virginia Beach)

Herbert “Bert” Snelling, 57

a contractor who was filing a permit when the shooting happened and who lived in Virginia Beach

On LinkedIn, Snelling said he owned Standing Firm Builders, Inc. He also worked as a project manager at Golden Heritage Homes.

“From a small handyman repair to clearing a lot and constructing a home,” Snelling wrote, “I will personally attend to all ongoing jobs to ensure a job done with excellence.”

On Friday, the contractor was the first person the gunman shot, one law enforcement official told The Washington Post. Snelling was sitting in his car at the time.

The 57-year-old father led the Crosswalk Church’s security team and roamed its halls to protect fellow congregants, Mariana Rocha told the Virginian Pilot.

Snelling was the only victim in Friday’s shooting who was not a city employee.

Rocha was among hundreds to attend a Saturday vigil for the victims, where she remembered Snelling, “the sweetest, sweetest man” who just last week celebrated a wedding anniversary.

Snelling kept an eye on others outside his church. Alton Hill, his neighbor of 14 years, said Snelling would let him know if a shingle tore off the roof during a storm and was quick to offer help.

“He was just always there,” Hill said.

— Alex Horton