CORK, Ireland — For more than a decade, a shady troika of bankers, developers and government ministers stood watching the simmering cauldron of the Irish economy, and stirred it very deliberately. So, when Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in 2008, it shuddered across the Atlantic and knocked the rickety legs from under our economy, proving the saying that when America sneezes, Ireland catches a cold. Maybe it’s a little dramatic to say this, but watching the news reports of the country’s downfall over the last three years has been a bit like watching the collapse of the World Trade Center in slow-mo. You’re stunned, you know it’s bad, you know it’s going to happen. You watch the whole thing crash and there’s nothing you can do about it: Unemployment. Downgraded credit ratings. Nationalizations. Guarantees. Loans from the European Central Bank. Scramble budgets. And then, after all that, the International Monetary Fund steps in with $120 billion to bail us out. Bang. Rock bottom—we hope.

Ireland's standardized unemployment rate by percentage. (Source: Eurostat, via European Central Bank Statistical Data Warehouse)

The nation seems to be holding its breath today while a stress test of the banking system is undertaken. The way it’s being covered in the media makes it seem like the sort of thing that could yet transform every depositor into Jane and Michael Banks demanding their tuppence. The whole thing has been such an exhausting marathon of twists, turns and revelations that many of the nasty by-products of financial ruin have gone under the radar.

With so much talk of the numbers, cuts and taxes, you start to forget what it means in human terms. You forget that a slashed health budget means fewer beds or fewer nurses. You forget that unemployment means emigration. After three years of a bruising recession, you’re so frazzled by the terminology and the growing number of zeros that we owe to Germany that you simply don’t have the wherewithal to remember why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Given that this is the nation’s third time sending large swarms of Irish people packing, you could say we’re getting used to it now. Granted, it’s not as acute now as it was during the Great Famine of 1845, which resulted in 2.1 million people leaving the country by 1855, according to the Irish Times. But the statistics now are about to equal the bleak era of the 1980s, a decade that saw an 18 percent unemployment rate by 1989 and the exodus of 500,000 people, according to the Irish Times. In 2010, 65,000 people left the country, compared to 70,600 in 1989. And now, with Eurostat data reporting unemployment at 15 percent, the Economic Social Research Institute predicts a net outflow of 50,000 more people over the next year. Year-for-year across the decades, that figure puts us just about on-course to repeat our statistical feats.

We’re getting used to it now, reverting to the “Paddy Irish” type, I suppose. “Poor but happy,” some people like to say, as if economic success were a suit that never really fit and we are now returning to the familiar rags of our national upbringing. But I’m not buying it. I untangle the mess of earphone and Webcam wires, and yawn off the tiredness of the idle day. What am I doing again? Why am I doing it?

Ah, yes. With the help of three albums’ worth of Iron and Wine, I’m whiling away the five-hour time difference between Ireland and D.C. My best friend is interning there. She commutes, I type. Maybe we both hum along to “Southern Anthem” and whittle the clock down. A narrow window of opportunity in the 3,000-mile distance is about to make itself available; that rare time when she is not working and I am not sleeping or vice versa. This is the stuff that gets lost. I’m not so desperate that this recession is making me lonely. But with most of my friends more likely to be making a living in Uganda than Ireland, I have to admit that it’s getting a little barren and boring for me here. I feel like I’m the only one left. I don’t laugh anymore when I see the “Will the last graduate left in Ireland please turn off the light” Facebook page pop up on my news feed. I admit, I’m not the most gregarious of individuals and this probably hasn’t helped my case. In Ireland, shyness and sobriety do not a social network make.

Nevertheless, I feel slightly robbed. We were the first generation of Irish people who grew up with the warm and unwavering promise that we would never have to leave. And so we grew up, unprepared, only to get smacked mid-degree with a hefty layer cake of governmental corruption, incompetence and economic failure.

This is not a whinge for the country’s 20-somethings. We know it could be a lot worse. We know we could be 30-something, unemployed, with a rake of kids and a sub-prime mortgage. Or worse still, employed and footing the lengthy bill. And we know that emigration in 2011 is not the sobering and unglamorous affair that it was in the ‘80s. It’s not busloads of pasty Irish whelps queuing forlornly for boats to Holyhead, North Wales or flights to Boston’s Logan Airport. We arrive on foreign shores pre-Fitch’d and almost tanned enough to blend in. We’re globalised enough to shut our eyes, ride it out, and label it a bit of “craic.” Still, it goes against the grain to leave your home. My friend summed it up succinctly when she said, “You know, I always knew I would have to travel to pursue my ambitions. But I hate that it wasn’t on my own terms.” And right she is. There is a severe enough distinction between leaving your home and being evicted from it because you can’t pay the rent—and no amount of Abercrombie sweaters or bottles of St. Tropez can stifle that particular sting.

And so, here we are; bleary eyed and more tired for our age than we would truly like to admit. I look at my watch. The narrow window of opportunity opens and through Google Voice I converse with my friend for nearly two hours. We laugh about friends and sex. And then we talk about jobs. How is the internship going? What do things look like at home? Who is where? They’re in Seattle, Vancouver, Sydney, London. Certainly not Ireland. We lament the situation we have been shoehorned into.

The choices for emerging graduates are stark. You can stay and fill out the long application forms for social welfare payments and paper the streets with your resumé in the hope that something sticks. Or you can leave. Because the biggest problem is not the lack of jobs (although it’s hardly a reason to celebrate), it’s the lack of anything. Last September, I moved to Manhattan to do a three-month unpaid internship. It was an incredible experience and I gained so much from it, both professionally and personally. But the sheer insanity of borrowing money to work for nothing epitomises the sort of outlandish rabbit-hole that the Irish people have been pushed into.

And that’s why people are emigrating. Not only is it nigh on impossible to get a salaried job, it’s also impossible to get work experience or internships. Facing a future of meagre state payments and the slow rot of their academic skills, graduates turn instead to visa applications. They uproot their whole lives just to feel what it might be like to have a career. I read New York Times articles about 28-year-old law students who are “stuck” doing yet another internship, and I envy them. There is no such innovation on this side of the pond.

You could’ve knocked out George Foreman with the accumulated volume of newspaper reports and television programmes that have gleefully attacked the government and senior bank officials since this crisis began. I wouldn’t for one moment relent in pointing the finger at those gluttonous fat-cats who landed us in this endless mess, but there is a distinct failure of industry too, particularly in the media.

Let’s not forget that during the property boom, most national newspapers in Ireland fed into the fever pitch with large property supplements. And now that it has gone bust and they are busy playing the blame game, they are happy to ignore the thousands of graduates who come knocking on the door seeking not jobs, just the opportunity to learn and contribute. Here I am, the case in point, more likely to write for a publication located 3,000 miles away than I am to write for one located just three miles away. Ireland’s small publishing industry makes no effort to accommodate the youth that might yet keep it going. There are swathes of state and semi-state bodies that largely seem to snub our language students at a time when their skills might be most advantageous, especially when you consider how much we must parlay with Sarkozy, Merkel, et al. And what about those pharma companies who have had to make staff redundant to reduce their costs? Wouldn’t they benefit from a couple of chemical engineering interns? We score poorly in mathematics compared to our European colleagues. Is there an opportunity there for some unemployed graduates with the requisite qualification? Do we give our artists a strong network? A forum for aspiring writers? No.

And I’m not convinced by the new coalition’s guff about reinventing Ireland and creating opportunities for young people. They, too, are so entranced by the debt clock that the billions of euros that were invested in education are continuing to trickle steadily out of the country. Implementing some sort of short-term stopgap is simply not on the top of anyone’s list. It’s ironic because when national debt is weighing in at the euro equivalent of nearly $140 billion in such a small country, or about $31,000 per citizen, it seems like you might want to hang on to as many people as possible to help shoulder the deficit in the long term. Right?

MARSEILLE, France — Imagine the result if Fenway Park went uncleaned for 15 Red Sox home games in a row. This might give you a faint idea of what Marseille, France’s second largest city and most important sea port, looked like this week, 15 days into a garbage workers strike.

The Mediterranean sun cooked the rotting piles of garbage heaped on the narrow downtown streets and the sea breeze swirled debris into the air until it looked and smelled like what they were turning into: a trash dump.

When the French are unhappy, it stinks.

For the past month, life in Europe’s second largest country has been interrupted by countless strikes and protests, as the French vocalize their opposition to the government’s proposed retirement reform, which was passed on Wednesday by the National Assembly and now awaits the imminent signature of President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The reform raises the age to collect a minimum pension from 60 to 62, and for a full pension from 65 to 67.

During the 15 days of strikes in Marseille, approximately 9,000 tons of garbage amassed in nearly half of the city’s 16 neighborhoods.

During the strike people threw out furniture, food and other materials not regularly collected by garbage services, onto the curbside heaps.

Firefighters put out over 800 trash fires, including 160 in one day, and when debris reached an extreme, the French army intervened to remove 100 tons of rubbish.

Downtown stores and restaurants were forced to close during the fifteen days, which included one week of school vacation, due to garbage blocking their entrances.

Officials now estimate it will cost at least 500,000 euros to clean up the mess.

As another anti-retirement reform effort, French oil tankers blocked Marseille’s harbor for 31 days, cutting off the petrol supply to much of the country.

And in the end, the reform passed.

From our side of the ocean, these protests often seem futile, yet the French hold the tradition of the grève close to their bleu-blanc-et-rouge hearts, and year after year, they vacate their workplaces to pour into the streets, protesting against whatever new trick their government tries to pull.

This is especially true in Marseille, a city known to be clenched tightly in the grasp of workers unions.

But are the French really so quixotic to overlook the fact that these protest often seem fruitless? And can they overlook a rotting city in the hopes of changing a political system that is as unwavering as it is unpopular?

Conversations with locals last week on the odorous streets of Marseille suggest that while they take pride in their liberties, the French can only stand so much uncleanliness.

Ridvan Erkaya, 21, the manager of Cappadocia, a restaurant on the Canbière, the main street of old Marseille, said while he understands the reasoning behind the strike, it made business difficult.

“On the one hand they are right, but on the other, that forms bad habits,” Erkaya said.

He said he spent the past three weeks sweeping his patio each morning, only to find it covered in trash that evening.

“I have lived in Marseille for 11 years and this is the first time I’ve seen this,” said Erkaya, who is originally from Turkey.

What starts out as a little mess for a good cause quickly turns into a larger problem, he said.

“If the army collects the garbage, who is going to fight the wars?” Erkaya asked.

But, he said, “it’s a little complicated in Marseille. There is a little bit of everything.”

Depending on who you ask, Marseille is a charming port city or a dangerous town of crime and disorder.

In addition to business owners, residents of Marseille’s historic neighborhoods worried about sanitation risks.

Solange Houache who lives in the seaside arrondissement known for its stunning views of the port and rocky shoreline, expressed such inquietudes.

Houache said she did not sleep at all one rainy night because she feared trash would wash into her home or make the water undrinkable.

“The politicians should take actions to help the city before they worry about the retirement,” Houache said. “This could turn into a catastrophe.”

Yesterday was World Aids Day. A day we set aside to remember those who have perished as a result of the disease, and a day we use to honor those who battle it bravely.

This year has been a progressive one, in terms of treatment and accessibility to treatments. Though many have died as a result of HIV/AIDS, the overall number of those infected has no risen in the last two years.

With major efforts by the NIH and other nations planned for the upcoming year, the goal, on this World AIDS Day, is to decrease that number in the upcoming years.

Listen to find out what country is making waves with its new announcement on AIDS treatment, and what the U.S. is doing, and should do, to be a leader in the field.

(Link I speak of in the podcast: http://www.hrw.org/en/node/86936)

On November 20 we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child. Every year countless parades are held to celebrate the violations that have been overcome.

But often we fail to recognize those violations that still occur, not only in developing nations, but right here in the developed and modernized nations. The United States and Canada are not exempt because of their standing on the world stage, however violations in these two countries are often overlooked because of their reputations.

In addition, the horrible conditions in which kids live in developing nations can no longer be overlooked, especially 20 years after the document was drafted.

Listen here for some issues that affect children that you may not have known about.

It’s definitely time for action.

TORONTO — Here is the third edition of the Terra Podcast, where Blast’s world news reporter Sachin Seth visits a food bank and learns about the people who work and are served there.

Many Food Banks around North America are in dire straits. Since the recession set in, many are finding it harder and harder to secure donations from those hit hard by the global economic downturn.

In major cities like Toronto, food banks have seen close to a 30 per cent increase in clients, but no major increase in donations. Those in need of food are turned away near closing time because supplies run out.

William Shane, a board member at Fort York Food Bank, one of the largest in Toronto, says he’s seen an almost 200 per cent increase in food hampers requested in just five years. The majority of that increase has come since 2007 – the beginning of the recession.

Fort York is by no means a spacious food bank. It’s one of the largest in Toronto in terms of population served, however not in terms of space. Still, Shane tells me it costs more than $90,000 just to keep the lights and heat running. That money comes primarily from donations, save for a small stipend from their mother company that amounts to just a few thousand per year.

Almost one third of Toronto’s entire population visits a food bank every year, an astonishingly large number for a developed North American metropolis. But if you look around, numbers in other major cities across Canada and the U.S. aren’t far off.

I went to Fort York with many questions in an effort to find out how the food bank copes with such large demand. But instead of coming away with answers, I quickly fell in love with the men and women who work there. Their pasts, in some cases heartbreaking, and their ambition, in some cases inspiring.

This is the story of three of the selfless women I met who turned their lives around to give back to the community.

This is the story of Trudy, Janice and Liz.

Blast’s news department is starting up a weekly world news podcast to augment our Terra blog.

Our own Sachin Seth will be narrating the episodes, so don’t miss out!

Former President Jimmy Carter, who has been spending the last few years trying to help forge a just peace in the Middle East, said Obama will “not wait for even a month after he is president to start working on the peace process, where as you know, the previous two presidents waited till the least year they were in office before they began the peace process.”

Carter was criticized by Obama during the campaign for meeting with members of Hamas, a political party that took power in the 2006 Palestinian elections.

“I think is a very important issue, I don’t have any doubt in my mind that to find peace and security and human rights for the Palestinians and also for Israel would be a major factor in reducing the threat of terror,” Carter told CNN.

The world is indeed watching today.

Despite the United States recent economic woes, there is no doubt amongst serious observers that the country is still, by far the most powerful nation in the world. The United States military budget “" which, I think it is fair to say, gets quite a bit of use “" is astronomical. The U.S. accounts almost half of the world’s military spending, with the FY 2009 budget allocating more than $650 billion. To put this in perspective, the next highest spender is the United Kingdom with just over $50 billion. And the U.S. figures do not count the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan which are paid for with supplemental bills and have cost the nation hundreds of billions more over the last five years.

Further, the world economy, for better or worse (worse is the popular answer in 2008), is directly dependent on the U.S economy. Even though China, for example, continues to grow, they are only able to do so by sending 80 percent of their exports to the U.S. Now, as American consumers are becoming thrifty, or broke (or both), Chinese growth is in trouble.

Russia “" China’s partner in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which many see as a blossoming counter to the US and NATO “" is now losing out on all the revenues that they were getting from $147 barrels of oil. And this drop in oil occurred, at least in part, due to the massive deflation that has occurred since the US economy really hit the skids in September. Venezuela and Iran, two other oil-rich nations with hostile relations with the U.S, are facing the same problems as oil prices go down.

So why is this relevant to the 2008 election? It is a reminder of how important this election, and American policy in general, is to other parts of the world.

In Israel, for example, the right has expressed fears over an Obama presidency. While Obama has said all of the right things, and spoke in front of AIPAC when he finally won the primary, some in Israel are not sure he will be 1) as aggressive on Iran as a McCain or Bush Administration or 2) as willing to continue America’s unconditional (and totally unique) package in aid, which is at $3 billion, the most in the world. This is why the right started singing the “Obama-is-anti-Israel” tune when McCain fell sharply behind (as did Hillary Clinton when she was gasping for anything at the tail end of the divisive primary, which gives you a sense of how predictably low politicians can go when in trouble).

It is a fairly empty tale. Obama has toed the Party line with Israel, pledging continued and increased aid, and insisting that Iran poses a grave threat, despite the fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said the opposite.

Nonetheless, this election is watched with great interest from the Israeli right. To follow the coverage in Israel, I recommend, Haaretz, which is widely viewed as the “New York Times of Israel.”

Another country that must be watching with watchful eyes in Pakistan, especially given Obama’s expressed a willingness to bomb the country (which President Bush actually did recently).

Interestingly, Iraqis and U.S. soldiers may have less at stake that one might think. While Obama ran in the primary with anti-war rhetoric , his staff has acknowledged to the Wall Street Journal that he will leave around 35 “" 45 thousands troops in the country. Given that a similar draw down is likely under a McCain Administration (though the exact timeline could vary), it appears that the War in Iraq will continue in a lesser fashion, no matter who wins. Still, if anyone wants to read an English language Iraqi newspaper, visit Azzaman in English.

Iranians, too, must be watching with great interest. While both McCain and Obama are willing to talk tough on Iran, Obama has a far more moderate (supported by many Republicans from the Bush I days, such as James Baker and Collin Powell) and reasonable stance on engaging in diplomacy. To read Iranian media visit Press TV and the Islamic Republic News Agency (both state-owned, for what its worth).

And of course, every country has a stake in the U.S. economy. As I listed above, the ramifications of the economic crisis are indeed global, and countries have been scrambling with bailout and stimulus packages, request for aid from the (US controlled) International Monetary Fund and the nationalizing of some banks.

Here, world public opinion is clear: Obama is the favorite for most of the world, which has grown deeply skeptical of U.S. economic policies, and gives most of the blame to Republicans.

Some other foreign news outlets:

The Daily Star (Lebanon)

Russia Today (Russia)

The Independent (United Kingdom)

Dar al Hayet (Saudi Arabia )

]]> http://blastmagazine.com/the-news/the-world-is-watching/feed/ 0 http://blastmagazine.com/the-news/world-news/afghan-drug-trafficker-arrested-on-charges-of-financing-taliban/ http://blastmagazine.com/the-news/world-news/afghan-drug-trafficker-arrested-on-charges-of-financing-taliban/#comments Sun, 26 Oct 2008 20:58:37 +0000 Sachin Seth http://blastmagazine.com/?p=4719

Haji Juma Khan, otherwise known as Haji Juma Khan Mohammadhasni, has been arrested on charges of trafficking narcotics with the intent of financing a Taliban terrorist insurgency.

According to documents recently released by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, for at least nine years Khan has been internationally trafficking opium, heroin and morphine from headquarters based in Kandahar and Helmand, Afghanistan.‚  The trafficking ring is known as the “Khan Organization.”

The report states the Khan Organization planned on selling morphine base, which can be used to create heroin, in amounts as large as 40 tons to worldwide drug markets. Forty tons of morphine base would be able to satisfy the heroin needs of the U.S. for more than two years.

The organization also supposedly operated its own labs, producing refined heroin and selling it in quantities of 220 pounds or more.

According to DEA reports, Khan has been closely linked with the Taliban. The group draws much of its funding from drug organizations like Khan’s. In return for this funding, the Taliban provides protection over drug routes, labs and poppy fields.

Khan has supported the Taliban’s efforts to forcibly remove the U.S. and its allies from Afghanistan by backing their policy and funding their organization.‚  The terrorist group has repeatedly attacked U.S. forces and civilians in Afghanistan.

In January, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing of a hotel in which an American was killed.

“His arrest disrupts a significant line of credit to the Taliban and will shake the foundation of his drug network that has moved massive quantities of heroin to worldwide drug markets,” said Michele M. Leonhart, acting DEA administrator.

If convicted, the 54-year-old faces a minimum of 20 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life.‚  A conference will be held Tuesday before a judge.

Khan is one of the first to be prosecuted under the federal narco-terrorism statute drafted in 2006.

Do you find yourself skimming over death tolls with little remorse for those perished?‚  Ever think about the welfare of the families of the Somalis or Pakistanis killed in terrorist attacks?‚  It pains me to say I rarely do.‚  And that’ not my fault.

Over the past decade (around 9/11 and the beginning of the Iraq war) the media has been so flooded with news about terrorist attacks, death and torture.‚  It was before too, but now that American presence is so prominent abroad, more and more people read world news on a daily basis.

For those people who follow international affairs, I’m sure (at least I hope I’m not alone on this) death toll numbers aren’t staggering until they reach near a hundred or more.‚  Sometimes it doesn’t set in until it gets to a few hundred.

The numbers do hurt though if the dead are Americans (or Canadians and Indians in my case), or the tragedy happens in America (or Canada or India).‚  But if 21 are killed in a blast in Bangladesh, people tend to care more about who’s responsible than about those now without husbands, wives, mothers, sons and daughters.

Now, as I find myself reading more and more world news (as I become more and more interested) I’m becoming immune to these death tolls.‚  It’s not right, but the written word can only affect someone so much and when articles are written eloquently with such little emotion, a number is just a number.

For example, when I read about the 52 Somalis who died in the recent smuggling attempt, I was more interested in the smuggling part than the dead 52.‚  There is a disconnect between the 52 and reality, the number is just a number for me.‚  People died, 52 died, I don’t know their names, their faces, anything about them.‚  Something happened to 52 people, I couldn’t control it.

A while back, before I started journalism school, I didn’t read international news that often.‚  I’d read about dead Indians one day and a week later I’d hear an embassy was bombed in Egypt.‚  That took a toll on me, people were dying and though I couldn’t help stop it, I could tell people about it.‚  That’s why I got into the biz.‚  To make sure people knew this was all going on.

Now, I guess it’s easier that it doesn’t affect me as much because I can read about it more and educate myself without suffering any emotionally scarring.‚  Journalists need to be able to get past all that.

As I say and now understand, you have to see things like this to have them take a toll on you, the written word can only do so much.

I’m not saying its the media’s fault, I want to know about what’s going on around the world no matter how depressing.‚  I guess it’s the fault of those perpetrating the violence, those giving the media something to report on. Although without it, I’d have a lot less work to do as a journalist. So for me, it’s a catch-22.