Airlines And Wheelchairs

From Yahoo/Insider:

“Airlines break thousands of wheelchairs per year, leaving disabled passengers stranded. Activists and politicians are fighting for change”

(YouTubers Hannah Aylward and Shane Burcaw - left - and travel blogger Cory Lee's broken wheelchair - right.)

Airlines break thousands of wheelchairs, scooters, and other mobility equipment per year. A broken wheelchair impacts a disabled person's mobility, independence, and quality of life. Disability advocates are working to allow wheelchairs on flights and make planes accessible.

The day before his flight from Minneapolis to Orlando to speak at a conference, author, YouTuber, and president of Laughing At My Nightmare Shane Burcaw posted a message on Instagram begging Delta not to break his wheelchair. "My wheelchair gets damaged often enough that every flight I take feels like a terrifying gamble," Burcaw, who makes videos about disability and relationships with his wife Hannah Aylward, told Insider. "I'd estimate there has been damage on 60% of the flights I've taken, but every trip I nervously hold my breath and expect the worst." When Burcaw and Aylward boarded their flight, airport workers took his wheelchair to the cargo hold, as is standard procedure. Upon landing, Aylward filmed for the couple's channel, Squirmy and Grubbs, as she retrieved the wheelchair. One of the footrests had broken off, the seat was stuck in its fully leaned-back position, and it wouldn't turn on. "When Hannah said my chair wasn't turning on, I immediately began running through worst case scenarios," Burcaw said. "What if we can't get to the speaking engagement? What if we can't even leave the airport? What if I'm without my chair for days or weeks?"

Airlines break thousands of wheelchairs and scooters every year To board a plane, wheelchair users must surrender their devices, which are often custom made and cost tens of thousands of dollars, and hope that airlines return them from the cargo hold intact. Oftentimes, they don't, leaving passengers stranded or waiting months for repairs. Activists and politicians are fighting for change, advocating for accessible airplanes that allow passengers to stay in their wheelchairs on flights and prevent damage from happening in the first place. Airlines weren't legally required to report damages to mobility equipment until December 2018, when Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth, who uses a wheelchair herself, added a provision into the FAA Reauthorization Act. In the first full year of tracking incidents, the Department of Transportation found 10,548 wheelchairs or scooters were "mishandled" in 2019. That's about 29 damaged, delayed, lost, or stolen wheelchairs every day. That number decreased to 3,464 devices in 2020 - about 9.5 per day - as the coronavirus pandemic halted travel plans. In the first quarter of 2021, airlines reported 712 mishandled wheelchairs or scooters - almost eight per day. Spirit Airlines had the highest percentage of incidents, damaging 2.88% of enplaned wheelchairs and scooters, followed by JetBlue (2.27%), American Airlines (1.57%), and Frontier (1.55%).

Emily Ladau

(Emily Ladau is a disability advocate and author fighting to allow wheelchairs on planes. She says her wheelchair is broken on about 25% of flights)

Emily Ladau, a disability advocate and author of "Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally," says these numbers are likely underreported since it's often faster for wheelchair users to handle the repairs themselves. "Rather than following all of the channels and hoops that you need to jump through in order to report the issue and get the airline to support you in fixing it, I feel like a lot of people just want to get out of there and deal with someone who they already work with to fix their wheelchair, and not spend hours in the airport or hours on the phone fighting with people," she said. That's what Burcaw and Aylward did in Orlando. After two and a half hours of waiting for Delta's repair company, Burcaw says he and Aylward found a technician from the conference they were scheduled to speak at who successfully talked them through the repair over the phone. A Delta representative told Insider in a statement that Burcaw's wheelchair "was fully working approximately one hour after his arrival." "We're sorry about this customer's experience after he arrived on a flight to Orlando when the power supply circuit breaker on his intact wheelchair needed to be reset," the statement said. "Our teams were supporting him and his party throughout their travels including troubleshooting assistance at his direction. "I think that there's a lack of taking it seriously when it comes to handling mobility equipment and not recognizing that this thing that you're throwing around is someone else's lifeline and their source of movement and freedom," Ladau said.

In May, a video posted to TikTok showed Delta passenger Gabrielle DeFiebre sobbing at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport after her custom-made wheelchair was returned broken after a flight. The text over the video read, "Today my heart broke watching my best friend sob because Delta broke her wheelchair. She kept repeating, 'this is my life. This is the only way I can live my life.'" The video amassed over 16 million views. Delta apologized for the incident, telling Insider in a statement that they were working with DeFiebre to repair her wheelchair and were conducting a full investigation.

 (Cory Lee, a wheelchair user, on a nature trail in the Adirondacks.)

Cory Lee, founder of the Webby Award-winning accessible travel blog Curb Free with Cory Lee, has traveled to 37 countries and all seven continents, but he says his $35,000 wheelchair comes back damaged after about 25% of his flights. The day Insider reached out, in fact, he said he found his wheelchair's right armrest and operating joystick broken and dragging on the ground after a Delta flight home from a trip to the Adirondacks.  "We knew within 10 seconds of seeing the chair that it was totally damaged and not going to be working," Lee said. "We used duct tape to tape the armrest to the chair, and that's still kind of holding it in place. But the joystick keeps flipping a little bit, so it's not the easiest to drive with it like this. And it is hurting my independence today, a lot, because it's not easy for me to move around as it should be. I'm still dealing with the effects of it." Cory Lee in the Adirondacks. His wheelchair was broken on his flight back from this trip. Curb Free with Cory Lee. Lee said Delta apologized and would cover the cost, but had no way of knowing how long the repairs would take. "It could be a few days. It could be a few weeks. And in some cases I've heard from other wheelchair users, it could even be a few months," he said. (Delta ended up sending a repair person to Lee's home nine days later.) A Delta representative told Insider: "We consider a wheelchair as an extension of a person and understand that any mishandling of this mobility device directly impacts their daily living. We are affirmatively working with the customer to make things right. We're sorry for this customer's experience. We are proactively working with our Advisory Board on Disability and our cross divisional operations teams to continuously improve the travel experience for our customers with disabilities."

Activists and politicians are working to make air travel more accessible, but progress is slow From lengthy boarding and deplaning to inaccessible airplane bathrooms, broken wheelchairs are just one of many difficulties disabled passengers face while flying. "Every part of the process is, I would say, significantly more complicated simply because you're a wheelchair user," Ladau said. "And I think that much of this could be avoided if they would actually make progress on allowing wheelchair users to sit in their wheelchairs on the airplane." Michele Campanelli-Erwin is working towards this goal as the president and founder of All Wheels Up, the only organization crash-testing wheelchairs and wheelchair tie-downs for commercial flight. Aviation standards require airplane seats to withstand forces of 16 Gs, or 16 times the force of gravity. Wheelchairs and wheelchair-restraint systems in cars, buses, and trains exceed that standard, but Campanelli-Erwin says they aren't allowed on planes because the aviation industry has not invested funds in testing and certifying wheelchairs for air travel. "We're funded $25 at a time from every wheelchair user who wants to see this happen," she said. "Airlines aren't out to purposely damage someone's wheelchair, but they certainly like to stay within the box that they're given." All Wheels Up funded the first wheelchair crash test in 2016 and brought the findings to Congress, who paid the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to conduct a feasibility study for in-cabin wheelchair restraint systems. The results, which will determine the future of this research, are due in August.

In March, Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Rep. Jim Langevin introduced the Air Carrier Access Amendments Act of 2021, which includes legislation to ensure "proper stowage of assistive devices in the cargo hold to prevent damage." It would also require the Department of Transportation to establish civil penalties for violations, establish a private right of action for plaintiffs, and require new airplane designs to improve the accessibility of seats and bathrooms. Advocates like Burcaw, Ladau, and Lee hope they'll eventually be able to roll onboard an airplane without leaving their wheelchairs and risking damage to their devices - or themselves. "It will take time and money to make these conversions and to develop the protocol, but the work needs to begin," Burcaw said. "It's not an unsolvable problem, but the powers that be need to want to solve it."

^ For over a decade I travelled across the United States, Canada, the Middle East, South America, the Caribbean and Europe with a family member in a manual wheelchair and I have had many horrible experiences from countless airlines and airports.

 It doesn’t matter how much you prepare and how long beforehand you give an airport and an airline notification the employees can still ruin things at a moment’s notice that can have a horrendous impact on your trip – especially if you are in a foreign country.

 There needs to be both American Federal Government Standards as well as International Standards on what airports and airlines need to do when transporting a manual or electric wheelchair including a plan for when they are broken during carriage.

 The worst airport in the world that I had to use (many times) with a wheelchair was London's Heathrow.  The worst airline in the world that I had to use with a wheelchair was a tie between Aer Lingus and American.

 There have been issues with other airports (Denver, Houston, Boston-Logan, NYC-JFK, Munich, Zagreb, Shannon, San Jose - Costa Rica, and Kuwait) and issues with other airlines (Lufthansa, Iceland Air, Southwest, Virgin Atlantic, Delta and United) but not as bad as the worst ones I mentioned above.

 The best airport with a wheelchair was Amsterdam. The best airline with a wheelchair was a tie between KLM and Croatian Airlines. ^

https://www.yahoo.com/news/airlines-break-thousands-wheelchairs-per-183624484.html

August 31st Deadline

From Reuters:

“Biden says Afghans must decide own future; U.S. to leave on Aug. 31”

President Joe Biden on Thursday strongly defended his decision to pull U.S. military forces out of Afghanistan, saying the Afghan people must decide their own future, rather than sacrificing another generation of Americans in an unwinnable war. Speaking in the White House East Room, Biden said the Afghan military has the ability to repel the Taliban, whose major advances in recent weeks have raised fears the country will slide into civil war.

Biden set a target date of Aug. 31 for the final withdrawal of U.S. forces, minus about 650 troops to provide security for the U.S. embassy in Kabul. A long-time skeptic of the 20-year military presence there, Biden said the United States had long ago achieved its original rationale for invading the country in 2001: to root out al-Qaeda militants and prevent another attack on the United States like the one launched on Sept.11, 2001. The mastermind of that attack, Osama bin Laden, was killed by a U.S. military team in 2011. "We achieved those objectives, that's why we went. We did not go to Afghanistan to nation build. And it's the right and the responsibility of the Afghan people alone to decide their future and how they want to run their country," he said.

Biden called on countries in the region to help bring about an elusive political settlement between the warring parties. He said the Afghan government should seek a deal with the Taliban to allow them to coexist peacefully. He said the "only way there's going to be peace and security in Afghanistan is if they work out a modus vivendi with the Taliban...And the likelihood there's going to be one unified government in Afghanistan controlling the whole country is highly unlikely." The speech represented Biden's most extensive comments to date about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan under pressure from critics to give more explanation for his decision to withdraw.

Biden said U.S. plans to move thousands of Afghan interpreters out of the country in anticipation of the end of the U.S. military mission in the country. They will be moved to third countries and can apply for U.S. visas to enter the United States, he said. Locations are still being worked out. Guam, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are possible locations, a senior administration official said. The United States last weekend abandoned Bagram air base, the longtime staging ground for U.S. military operations in the country, effectively ending America's longest war. The Pentagon says the withdrawal of U.S. forces is 90% complete. Washington agreed to withdraw in a deal negotiated last year under Biden's Republican predecessor, Donald Trump. Biden overruled military leaders who wanted to keep a larger presence to assist Afghan security forces and prevent Afghanistan from becoming a staging ground for extremist groups.

Biden's order in April to pull out U.S. forces by Sept. 11 after 20 years of conflict has coincided with major gains by the Islamist militant Taliban movement against overwhelmed Afghan forces after peace talks sputtered. Taliban fighters seized control on Thursday of a district in western Afghanistan that includes a major border crossing with Iran, Afghan security officials said, as the Islamist insurgents continued their rapid military advances around the country. In the last week, the Taliban have overrun areas bordering five countries - Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, China and Pakistan. The commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, General Austin Miller, warned last week that the country may be headed toward a civil war.

The U.S. intelligence community believes the Afghan military is weak and that the Kabul government's prospects for survival in the short term are not good, U.S. government sources familiar with official assessments said. Biden's administration is also grappling with its plan for expedited visas for Afghan people most at risk of being attacked by the Taliban, including translators who worked with foreign forces. Rights groups are pushing to add up to 2,000 vulnerable women to the list. Some Republicans are criticizing Biden for the pullout, although Trump had brokered an agreement with the Taliban to end American involvement in the war.

^ While it will be good to have the majority of Americans back home from Afghanistan (minus 650 Soldiers) after 20 years of constant war it doesn’t mean Afghanistan won’t be a threat to the region or the world once the Taliban and/or ISIS takes over. As long as the world can contain the violence inside Afghanistan and it doesn’t cause a direct threat to the West I don’t see the US or NATO going back into Afghanistan once we leave – just like we didn’t in South Vietnam after 1973. ^

https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-speak-thursday-about-afghanistan-amid-swift-us-pullout-2021-07-08/

Cancel Tokyo Games

From the BBC:

“Tokyo Olympic Games: Spectators barred as state of emergency announced”

The Olympic Games in Japan are to be held without spectators due to rising cases of coronavirus. Olympics Minister Tamayo Marukawa made the announcement following discussions with officials and organisers on Thursday evening. A state of emergency in Tokyo will run throughout the Games, to combat coronavirus. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told reporters it would run from 12 July and remain in place until 22 August. Bars and restaurants will not be allowed to serve alcohol and must close by 20:00 (11:00 GMT). Coronavirus infections are rising in Tokyo as the 23 July opening ceremony edges closer. There has been widespread opposition to the Games in Japan, with calls for them to be postponed or cancelled.

Japan's battle to contain Covid before the Olympics After meeting government officials, Tokyo 2020 President Seiko Hashimoto said: "It is regrettable that we are delivering the Games in a very limited format, facing the spread of coronavirus infections. "I am sorry to those who purchased tickets and everyone in local areas." Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike said that holding Olympic events without spectators was "heart-breaking" for those who wanted to attend. Mr Suga announced the state of emergency in Tokyo earlier in the day. "Taking into consideration the effect of coronavirus variants and not to let the infections spread again to the rest of the nation, we need to strengthen our countermeasures," the prime minister said. The state of emergency was announced after a meeting between the organising committee, the government and the International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, who has just arrived in Japan. The Olympic Games are scheduled to take place in the Japanese capital between 23 July and 8 August. The Paralympic Games are between 24 August and 5 September.

What's happening with Covid in Japan? A new wave of infections began in April, but overall the country has had relatively low case numbers and a death toll of around 14,900. On Wednesday, there were 2,180 new cases reported in the country. Some 920 of those were in Tokyo, up from 714 last week and its highest since 1,010 on 13 May. Japan's vaccination rollout has been slow, and just over 15% of the country is fully vaccinated. There is rising concern over the threat of the Delta variant. In Tokyo and Osaka, the two cities hit hardest by the recent surge, authorities hope over-65s will be fully vaccinated by the end of July. Entry to Japan by foreigners from 159 countries - including the UK - is currently banned.

Do people in Japan want the Olympics? There is lots of opposition to the Games, which have already been postponed by a year because of Covid-19 and have experienced setbacks, including massive budget overruns. A June poll in the leading Asahi Shimbun newspaper suggested more than 80% of the population wanted the Games cancelled or postponed. The paper also called for them to be cancelled. Public spectator sites have been scrapped and companies have been hesitant about advertising related to the Olympics because of the widespread opposition to them.

^ Because Japan hasn’t been able to vaccinate enough of their own citizens and now foreigners aren’t allowed into Japan the 2020/2021 Olympics and 2020/2021 Paralympics should be completely cancelled. They should not even be held without spectators. If they were supposed to be held in a country (like the US) where more than half the population is vaccinated it would be another story, but Japan has not done enough to hold the Olympics or the Paralympics safely. ^

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57760883

Reopen The Border Now!

 From the CBC:

“How border restrictions have left a U.S. community stranded and surrounded by Canada”

An idyllic community of soaring pines and seaside vistas feels like a one-of-a-kind nature preserve on the West Coast, filled with a particular subset of people who roam regularly across the Canada-U.S. border for love, livelihood and everyday life.  Now their migration patterns are disrupted. And after 16 months of restrictions on Canada-U.S. travel, residents of Point Roberts, Wash., sound like they've just about had it.  This place is a perfect spot to gauge the mood of people whose lives criss-cross the international border, thanks to a freak of geography that's created an unusually high concentration of such people here.

Imagine a severed appendage of the United States, glued onto Canada's hip — that's this place. It's a peninsula tip that would be a Vancouver suburb, were it not for an international border; instead, it's a quiet American getaway. Residents of this verdant maritime getaway have waited in vain, month, after month, for the end of border restrictions that have them imprisoned in paradise.  The place has no pharmacy. The closest one is across Roosevelt Road in British Columbia. Residents habitually cross the border to get medicine; to see doctors; even in some cases to see their spouses, as some couples keep homes apart for reasons of work or citizenship.  It's such a tightly knit binational community that residents did something very unusual on the Fourth of July: dozens went to protest at the border, reached across it to hold hands with Canadian friends, and, on American Independence Day, joined in a rendition of O Canada.

(People on the Fourth of July protested at the border, shaking hands with friends on the Canadian side, left, waving U.S. and Canadian flags, singing O Canada, and hoisting protest signs.)

The gas stations here list prices in metric litres for Canadians. Businesses rely on Canadians as the local population of 800 multiplies five times on summer weekends, when visitors drop in from Vancouver.  Those businesses are now being wiped out; some closed, and surviving ones say they're barely clinging on, with revenues evaporating. The community's main source of food — its only grocery store — is threatening to close.  Canadians' summer homes lie empty; some are overrun with vines.

Caring for empty houses A pair of retired siblings are caring for these properties in Canadians' absence. Jeanette Meursing and her sister are tending to 16 empty homes, spending more than 20 hours per week tidying lawns and gardens. They're doing it for free in most cases, for friends.  "I honestly believe that these people, if I needed them, if I was sick or my husband was sick, and I needed help, they would be there to help me," Meursing said in an interview.  "I don't think there's one that would say, 'I don't have time for you.'"  Her sister Diane Thomas says she's found joy in the process, and shares a dark story to explain her perpetual sunny disposition.  She was shot in the face as a baby. A child had found an old, rusted .22-calibre rifle on a construction site in her native South Dakota.  It didn't appear to work. When it accidentally, eventually, did go off, she was in its trajectory, and the bullet tore through her mouth into the back of her head.  She's lived ever since with a bullet lodged precariously near her brainstem and says she reminds herself each day that her life is a miraculous gift.  So here she is now, at age 72, raking a yard surrounded by towering pines, expressing gratitude for being with her sister, safe, in a community that's had few cases of COVID-19 and sky-high vaccination rates. "We're having fun," Thomas said.

How a cartographic freak came into being

 

(On the right: a Vancouver suburb filled with multimillion-dollar homes. On the left: the secluded U.S. getaway of Point Roberts, where houses cost one-fifth what their Canadian neighbours do.)

The border restrictions mean Canadians can't drive down; Americans can't drive up without an essential reason for travelling, and the definition of essential travel is subject to a border guard's interpretation. They can't even access the rest of their own country without the twice-weekly foot ferry that drops them off, without a car, on the mainland of Washington state. This cartographic aberration resulted from a U.S.-U.K. deal that drew the border through the 49th parallel, back in 1846 when the area had no permanent settlement.  Conversations with Canadian border guards have left some residents fuming about unclear and arbitrarily applied rules. The locals even gossip about which border guards are the strictest.

Medical emergencies: At the guard's discretion

(Pamela Robertson had to have two teeth removed after a nasty infection. She was prevented twice by Canadian border agents from entering to see her dentist in 2020.)

Pamela Robertson recounts how guards brushed off her medical emergency.  When the pandemic struck, she had just completed part of a root canal with her dentist on the Canadian side. For months, the procedure languished unresolved. Then her gums got infected. Her face began to swell, with one cheek looking like a red billiard ball.  She was refused entry to Canada twice and asked a guard what it would take to get through. "They looked me straight in the eye and said, 'You have to be dying,'" she said in an interview. "I said, "I think I am dying. …  "They still wouldn't allow me through."  Finally, she got in on a third attempt; but she was ordered into a 14-day quarantine before she could see her dentist. She said had a fever and was dizzy by the final day. Eventually, she got surgery, and had to have two teeth removed. "I lost two of my teeth," she said, "because of … COVID and the stupid Canadian rules."

Another local man was diagnosed with glaucoma.

(Brian Calder tells the story of how a Canadian border guard refused to let him through for a scheduled glaucoma surgery that the guard deemed non-essential.)

Brian Calder, 80, says his Canadian doctor warned that he could lose vision in his left eye within six to 12 months without surgery.  By March, he was fully vaccinated and, on the day he was to have surgery, drove to the border with a medical note.  "And [the guard] says, 'That's not essential,'" Calder said. "And I say, 'Well, what's essential?' [He replies]: 'You've got to be dying.'" He's a dual Canadian-American citizen.  Calder says the guard informed him that he can't, as a Canadian, be denied entry into Canada, but that if he tried driving to the doctor's he would get a $3,000 fine, be forced into a hotel, and have to pay for quarantine for two weeks. He finally managed to find a new doctor in the U.S., and get an appointment scheduled on the U.S. mainland, which residents can get to by car for medical emergencies if they drive straight through Canada without stopping. "It's not humane," Calder says of the border situation. "It's disciplinarian. It's bullying."

Fortunately, emergency services are allowed to cross. The local fire department relies on Canadians, who comprise two-thirds of its 48 firefighters. The fire chief worries about this year's brutal forest fire season.  He also worries about something more intangible: the frayed human connections. He says members of his community have missed the deaths and funerals of loved ones.

The toll on families

(A Canadian family, right, visits with Americans near a border crossing at Memorial Park in Point Roberts, Wash., on Tuesday.)

"I do believe we've lost a piece of humanity [during this pandemic] in the world as a whole," said Christopher Carleton.  "The harshness and the lack of sympathy for people in particular situations — like a family death — it should never have happened."  The chief performs different roles in the town, which has no mayor; in fact, it's not even really a town but an unincorporated adjunct to Washington's Whatcom County. Carleton ran the local COVID vaccination drive that resulted in 85 percent of residents being fully vaccinated. One fully vaccinated is desperate to see her family in Canada. Marlene Calder, Brian's wife, has lost a precious year with her 94-year-old mother.  Her mom's memory is fading. She wants to be able to drop in a couple of days a week, to help her mom and relieve the burden on her sisters. "It's heartbreaking," she said. "It's emotionally, mentally draining to not have contact with them. Not to see them."

(The initial easing of Canadian travel rules won't help most people here. But it will help Marlene Calder drop in to visit her mom.)

She's among the minority who will be helped by new travel rules taking effect this week.  Canada says people already qualified to enter can now avoid quarantine if they're fully vaccinated, and take tests; that will allow Calder, a dual citizen, to check in periodically on her mom.

Businesses bleeding money

(Tamra Hansen has a long international career in the restaurant business. Now she's struggling to keep her Point Roberts cafe afloat, with revenues down 90 per cent.)

Recreational travel remains forbidden and that means more pain for tourism-reliant businesses, which means most of them in Point Roberts. One local merchant says he's burning through his lifelong savings, having spent millions to build  a wine bar, gas station, and UPS facility intended to supply Canadian visitors.  "I can barely make my utility bills," Fred Pakzad, 76, said. He wishes government officials could visit this place and see the effect of prolonged shutdowns. One restaurant owner has had a distinguished career, owning restaurants in New York and a Michelin-starred spot in France before settling here to be closer to family.  Now Tamra Hansen says the only reason she's survived is she cooks herself without taking a salary, and is living off credit now with revenues down 90 per cent. Hansen says she feels like this pandemic has revealed a lack of empathy for people, in different ways, in both the U.S. and Canada.  "I think it's brought out the worst in both countries," she said.   But she had reason to be happy on the Fourth of July weekend: Her mother had just arrived from Kelowna, B.C. It took two days to make a trip that usually takes several hours. It required a car ride to Vancouver for a COVID-19 test, then another ride to a small regional airport, then a flight across the border to Bellingham, Wash. — flying is still allowed. Then she took a ferry boat to Point Roberts. By the end of it all, she was sitting in her daughter's cafe. Which, in normal times, is just an hour's drive south of Vancouver.

^ For 1 year and 4 months (and counting) American towns completely surrounded by Canada and Canadian towns completely surrounded by the US have suffered even more than anyone else because of stupid travel restrictions. Some places you literally just have to walk across the street, but aren't allowed to (not even for food, gas, etc.) It's time this stupidity (on the part of the Canadian and American Politicians) stops and the border reopens! ^

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/point-roberts-border-pandemic-1.6093133

Lithuanian Border Barrier

 From the BBC:

“Lithuania plans barrier on Belarus border to stem migrant flow”

Lithuania has announced it will build a barrier on the border with Belarus and deploy troops to prevent migrants from illegally crossing into its territory. Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said more than 1,000 migrants had been held after crossing along the 679km (422-mile) border since 1 June. Lithuania, an EU member, also accused Belarus of flying in foreign migrants and allowing them to go to the border. Bilateral ties have been strained since May's arrest of a Belarusian dissident. Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega were flying from Greece to Lithuania when a fighter jet was scrambled over Belarus to escort their plane to Minsk airport over a bomb threat which turned out to be fake. They were detained as soon as the Ryanair plane landed. The EU and other Western nations also accuse Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of rigging last year's elections. Mr Lukashenko, who has been in power for 27 years and is sometimes called Europe's last dictator, rejects the allegation.

'Migrant travel agencies' At Wednesday's news briefing in Lithuania's capital Vilnius, Ms Simonyte said "an additional physical barrier" would be built on the border with Belarus. She said this would be "a certain sign and a certain deterrent to organisers of the illegal migration flows". "To assist our border officers, our army forces will be used to increase the number of people physically guarding the border," Ms Simonyte added. In the whole of last year, Lithuanian border guards detained 81 illegal migrants crossing from its southern neighbour - a far lower number than that seen in recent weeks. Ms Simonyte accused Belarus of offering migrants flights to the Belarusian capital Minsk, citing evidence found on at least one such person who had reached Lithuania. "There are travel agencies, direct flights that connect Minsk with Baghdad [Iraq's capital] for example, and there are agencies both in Belarus and other countries that operate and attract 'tourists' to Minsk," Ms Simonyte told Reuters news agency.

Meanwhile, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said a large number of illegal migrants trying to cross into Lithuania from Belarus had been flown in from Turkey. He said he had asked his Turkish counterpart to help identify any such arrivals. The EU has already sent personnel from its from its border agency Frontex to Lithuania's border to help deal with the growing migrant crisis. Mr Lukashenko has repeatedly warned that Belarusian authorities will no longer be trying to stop an influx of illegal migrants from abroad to EU members. "If some think that we will close our borders with Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine and become a camp for people fleeing Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Tunisia they are mistaken," Mr Lukashenko said on Tuesday. "We won't hold anyone, they are coming not to us but to the enlightened, warm and cozy Europe," he added mockingly.

^ Lukashenko is trying (desperately) to do anything to get ordinary Belarussians to think about other things except for his Dictatorship. ^

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57754193

Monty

From the BBC:

“Brecon Beacons: Sick dog takes final walk in wheelbarrow”

(Carlos and Monty at the top of Pen y Fan)

A dog owner took his pet on one final trip up a Welsh mountain before he died, with the help of a wheelbarrow. Carlos Fresco's labradoodle Monty had leukaemia for 18 months. After his health started to decline for the last time, Mr Fresco made sure they had one last journey together up Pen Y Fan in the Brecon Beacons. "He was so at peace in Wales. He absolutely loved that wheelbarrow and all the attention he got when we were walking," Mr Fresco, from London, said. Ten-year-old Monty initially responded well to chemotherapy but eight weeks ago the cancer returned. "I knew he was declining fast. He looked fine from the outside but the cancer meant he wasn't getting enough oxygen to his muscles - he could walk a bit but not far," Mr Fresco said. He lives in the Bayswater area of London but decided to make Monty's last days ones to remember with a road trip to Wales. Mr Fresco and Monty stayed with friends in Brecon for a week, taking Monty into the town and for walks in the wheelbarrow before heading up Pen y Fan for one final time together.

(Mr Fresco said Monty was at peace in Wales)

On their way to the top strangers stopped to fuss over Monty, with some even "shedding a tear" and offering to help push him. "That dog loved nothing more than interacting with other people. He loved attention - if you stopped he'd put a paw on you, or rest his chin on your thigh, looking at you as if to say 'stroke me again'," Mr Fresco said. Monty's health declined over the week and he died on 21 June. Mr Fresco said: "He hung on for Father's Day. We were sleeping in my friend's conservatory and I saw Monty in the garden in the early hours of the next morning. "He came in and curled up at the foot of my bed - and when I woke next he'd passed away. I think his little heart must have given out." Mr Fresco drove Monty back to London for a burial in the family garden. "He was a very special boy and has been by my side for a decade. God bless and goodnight little fella."

^ This is both a happy and a dad story. I’m glad both were able to enjoy one last trip together. ^

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-57679385

LGB WeChat

From News Nation:

“China’s WeChat shuts down LGBT accounts”

China’s most popular social media service has deleted accounts on LGBT topics run by university students and nongovernment groups, prompting concern the ruling Communist Party is tightening control over gay and lesbian content. WeChat sent account holders a notice they violated rules but gave no details, according to the founder of an LGBT group, who asked not to be identified further out of fear of possible official retaliation. She said dozens of accounts were shut down, all at about 10 p.m. on Tuesday. It wasn’t clear whether the step was ordered by Chinese authorities, but it comes as the ruling party tightens political controls and tries to silence groups that might criticize its rule. WeChat’s operator, Tencent Holding Ltd., confirmed it received an email seeking comment but didn’t immediately respond.

The Communist Party decriminalized homosexuality in 1997, but gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual and other sexual minorities still face discrimination. While there is more public discussion of such issues, some LGBT activities have been blocked by authorities. The official attitude is increasingly strict, the founder of the LGBT group said. Contents of the WeChat accounts, which included personal stories and photos of group events, were erased, according to the group’s founder. The former operator of a different group for university students, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, called the step a devastating blow. University officials asked students two months ago to shut down LGBT social media groups or to avoid mentioning their school names, according to the LGBT group founder. She said universities in the eastern province of Jiangsu were told by officials to investigate groups for women’s rights and sexual minorities to “maintain stability.”

Surveys suggest there are about 70 million LGBT people in China, or about 5% of the population, according to state media. Some groups have organized film festivals and other public events, but those have dwindled. One of the most prominent, Shanghai Pride, canceled events last year and scrapped future plans without explanation after 11 years of operation. China’s legislature received suggestions from the public about legalizing same-sex marriage two years ago, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. However, it gave no indication whether legislators might take action.

^ The Chinese Communist Dictatorship continues to impose its Draconian measures even when dealing with modern means (like apps.) ^

https://www.newsnationnow.com/business/tech/chinas-wechat-shuts-down-lgbt-accounts/

Covid Excuse

From the BBC:

“Customers fed up with Covid excuse for bad service”

Customers are fed up with being told they are getting poor service "because of Covid", according to research.Firms are being accused of using the pandemic as an excuse for long waits on the telephone or late deliveries, the UK Institute of Customer Service said. It said that consumers were initially tolerant of delays and other issues as businesses fought to cope with the effects of the crisis. But it said a blanket excuse was no longer sufficient.

The number of complaints about poor service in the last six months was at its highest level since 2009, according to the institute's survey of 10,000 people. The sectors with the biggest issues were transport, local public services - such as GP surgeries, councils and police services, and telecommunications, the survey suggested .A quarter of those asked said that some organisations had used Covid as an excuse for poor service. "Saying 'because of Covid' is not a good phrase," said Jo Causon, the institute's chief executive. Organisations must not hide behind this blanket statement." She said that many businesses had responded admirably to the difficulties created by the pandemic. She said that managed queuing systems, such as inviting people to call at quieter times, was one area of success.

Others had gone out of their way to assist people during the crisis, she said. Delays in deliveries had also arisen owing to the container ship that blocked the Suez Canal in March, and border issues as a result of Brexit. Retailers needed to be honest with customers when they started looking at a particular product about any potential delays, she said, so they were aware of how long they might have to wait to inform their decision about what to buy.

Smart meter One energy customer was surprised to see that his new smart meter suggested he was using £45,000 worth of gas an hour. The 50-year-old from Gloucestershire said the meter displayed the extreme gas usage a day after it was fitted. While the meter was clearly not working properly, the customer said he was more frustrated that his energy company had not offered an explanation, nor sent him any kind of   for four months. The problems occurred during lockdown. Covid was not used as an excuse, but he found that it seemed almost impossible to get an answer from anyone at the energy firm. "There has been no resolution. I would like to know what I owe," he said. Citizens Advice has said many gas and electricity customers are still being plagued by inaccurate bills.  The Institute of Customer Service said companies should provide "honest, genuine communication at all stages" to customers.

Pay for better service Ms Causon said that satisfaction levels has risen slightly as firms had ultimately dealt with issues, but she said businesses needed to work on preventing the complaints in the first place. Many customers were willing to pay extra, she said, if they knew they would get better customer service. Bank First Direct, department store John Lewis, online retailer Amazon, and bike and vehicle company Suzuki topped the institute's table for customer satisfaction. The first three of these were the only brands in the top 10 which featured in the same survey a year ago.

^ This is not only a problem in the UK, but in the US (and I’m sure in other places.) I can understand getting poor service and then getting an apology or explanation, but hate it when people and companies use blanket excuses like (“Because of Covid” or “Because of the Holidays.”) ^

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57734808

UKA Report

From the DW:

“Independent report details anti-Roma discrimination in Germany”

(Protestors hold up a banner that reads 'Fight Antigypsyism)

The German parliament asked the Independent Commission on Antigypsyism (UKA) to analyze the situation of Sinti and Roma in Germany. Its report shows that the ethnic minority groups still face discrimination in Germany and sets out how to tackle the problem. The foreword of the report clearly outlines what exactly the UKA means: "It requires a fundamental shift of perspective in society in order to recognize the relevance of antigypsyism and to critically reflect upon and seek to overcome interconnected structural and institutional power relations." The UKA calls for a policy that aims to make good for the injustices meted out to Roma Holocaust survivors and their offspring even after World War Two.

UKA recommendations The UKA recommends the appointment of a government commissioner to fight antigypsyism and an independent circle of advisors, the creation of a standing committee of the German federal government and the German states, as well as full recognition of the Nazi genocide of the Sinti and Roma. In addition, the report says it is imperative to set up a commission to deal with injustices done to Sinti and Roma in post-war Germany. The results of the report are based on three large-scale and several small-scale studies to analyze the needs, challenges and demands of the Sinti and Roma communities and their own organizations in Germany.

Lifelong trauma Social worker Isidora Randjelovic was in charge of one of the studies and describes the effects of lifelong trauma upon one of the interviewees: "One woman was born in a concentration camp, survived, and, as a young woman, cared for her sick parents who were deeply scarred by their experiences in Nazi detention. The family's apartment had been expropriated and they were not paid any compensation. They lived in barracks assigned to them by city authorities after the war. There, they were subject to regular checks by social workers and the police. In the 1980s she and her family were shot at when they were on holiday on a campsite by an armed gang. But when the police arrived, they did not search for the perpetrators. Instead, the traumatized family were asked what on earth they thought they were doing there. And the story doesn't end there: In the late 2000s the same woman was the victim of a racist attack when she was out walking in a park  — a man kicked her about the body several times. The woman did not seek medical treatment because of her bad experiences. Later, she suffered renal necrosis and ultimately lost a kidney." Hajdi Barz was the coordinator of a study conducted by the University of Applied Sciences in Mittweida. It illuminated the possibilities of strengthening and consolidating participative structures of Sinti and Roma organizations in Germany. She clearly describes what these groups say is needed: "Political will was given its own chapter in the study for the sake of visibility because a relevant part of the recorded cases of discrimination takes place in interaction with the structures of state institutions. In concrete terms, that means: Sinti and Roma organizations are not just fighting against racism — they are also affected by it. In addition, the representatives of community interests are barely protected from being treated as perpetrators rather than victims, from hate speech and physical violence."

Nothing without asking us This makes it all the more important, says Barz, to involve Sinti and Roma in the work and decisions made about them in order to be able to correctly gauge their needs: "The study was created with the participation of people from the communities and thereby embodies the participative approach, which is also being called for by the majority of self-organized groups. Often people speak about Sinti and Roma without asking for their opinion," she said. As a result, she believes that a lot of knowledge and skill is being missed out on. She says the study shows the broad thematic diversity and transcultural competence of the community groups. However, this much-needed engagement is, according to the study, continually under threat as a result of financial shortages or short-term funding. This stops the establishment of stable structures and the production of sustainable results. More than 90% of all Romani organizations — including local, national and international associations, initiatives, umbrella organizations and foundations — are calling for more support for their work. The UKA report also deals with the role of the media. Isidora Randjelovic says that it helps cement stereotypes: "One of the reasons for the lack of knowledge and the creation of myths in collective perception is the strengthening of stereotypes in the media, the distortion of information and the emotionalization of news in the context of Sinti and Roma communities."

"An issue for all of us" The German parliament discussed the UKA report on June 24. Several parliamentarians stressed Germany's special responsibility in the fight against antigypsyism. Helge Lindh (SPD) pointed to the fact that the phenomenon did not just exist in far-right circles: "Antigypsyism is not just an issue for the others and the Nazis. It is an issue for all of us. Including us democrats. If we do not grasp that, we will never be able to achieve justice for Sinti and Roma in this country." The Central Council of German Sinti and Roma welcomed the debate. In an official statement, it said the fact that the German government and parliament had concerned itself with the commission’s report and its recommendations was "an important step both for the minority group and for the democratic health of our society." It will only become clear in the next legislative period what will actually be implemented from the BKA report.

^ The open discrimination of the Gypsies in Germany and the rest of Europe did not end in 1945. It continued for decades and in many parts still continues today. Hopefully the UKA Report will bring about some real changes for the Gypsies in Germany. ^

https://www.dw.com/en/independent-report-details-anti-roma-discrimination-in-germany/a-58178331

Taliban Rule

From NYT:

“Taliban Try to Polish Their Image as They Push for Victory”

In June, when the Taliban took the district of Imam Sahib in Afghanistan’s north, the insurgent commander who now ruled the area had a message for his new constituents, including some government employees: Keep working, open your shops and keep the city clean. The water was turned back on, the power grid was repaired, garbage trucks collected trash and a government vehicle’s flat tire was mended — all under the Taliban’s direction. Imam Sahib is one of dozens of districts caught up in a Taliban military offensive that has swiftly captured more than one-quarter of Afghanistan’s districts, many in the north, since the U.S. withdrawal began in May. It is all part of the Taliban’s broader strategy of trying to rebrand as capable governors while they press a ruthless, land-grabbing offensive across the country. The combination is a stark signal that the insurgents fully intend to try for all-out dominance of Afghanistan once the U.S. pullout is finished. “The situation is such that it is a testing period for us. Everything done in practice is being watched,” Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban deputy commander and the head the group’s most violent wing, said in a recent radio broadcast to Taliban fighters. “Behave in a good way with the general public.”

But the signs that the Taliban have not reformed are increasingly clear: An assassination campaign against government workers, civil society leaders and security forces continues on pace. There is little effort to proceed with peace talks with the Afghan government, despite commitments made to the United States. And in areas the insurgents have seized, women are being forced out of public-facing roles, and girls out of schools, undoing many of the gains from the past 20 years of Western presence. For much of the Afghan public, terrified and exhausted, the Taliban’s gains have been panic-inducing. And there is widespread fear that worse is in store, as the Taliban already have several crucial provincial capitals effectively under siege. Regional groups have begun to muster militias to defend their home turf, skeptical that the Afghan security forces can hold out in the absence of their U.S. backers, in a painful echo of the country’s devastating civil war breakdown in the 1990s.

In places they now rule, the Taliban have imposed their old hard-line Islamist rules, such as forbidding women from working or even going outside their homes unaccompanied, according to residents in recently captured districts. Music is banned. Men are told to stop shaving their beards. Residents are also supposed to provide food for Taliban fighters. Documents and interviews with insurgent commanders and Taliban officials show that the success of the group’s recent surge was not entirely expected, and that Taliban leaders are haphazardly trying to capitalize on their sudden military and political gains. Districts were not always taken through sheer military force. Some fell because of poor governance, others because of rivalries between local strongmen and low morale among the security forces. Internally, the message from Taliban leadership to its fighters is that even though they have seen an increase in casualties, they are winning their battle against the Afghan government as international forces depart. More than 1,000 miles away in Qatar, peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban representatives have made little headway, with the two sides meeting infrequently.

For now, the Taliban are focusing their energy on improving their image in places they have taken control. Success is not a given: The group’s governance record during their time in power before 2001 was poor. Services lagged, public displays of brutality were common, and fear was rampant. In one northern Afghan district, the area’s new Taliban ruler went straight to the bottom line, trying to persuade residents they wouldn’t be killed out of hand. “Everyone’s life is safe,” Najibullah, a local resident who requested to use only his first name for his protection, recounted the commander saying from the town square. But, Najibullah added, “People are scared, and they are uneasy.” Residents filmed the speech with smartphones — technology banned and destroyed by the Taliban in some districts — with car horns echoing in the background, welcoming the new district leadership. The somewhat warm reception only highlighted the war’s enduring complexities. The district fell because of internal disputes between local politicians and militia commanders that left security weakened and locals open to the idea of new governing powers, circumstances the Taliban readily took advantage of, explained Mohammad Nasim Modaber, a member of parliament from Baghlan province who went to the front lines to help retake parts of the province.

As the Taliban gain ground, fighters have directions to treat captured government soldiers with care and ultimately release them. They have also been told to lay siege to larger provincial capitals on their outskirts, but not enter them. In places like Imam Sahib, some civil servants are being allowed to return to work — except for women — to help keep towns and cities functioning, although it is unclear who is paying them. These directives are clearly aimed at avoiding bad publicity — destroyed homes, dead civilians and damaged public works — and at least appear to adhere to the U.S.-Taliban agreement made in 2020. The deal outlined certain military tactics that both sides would refrain from, including attacking provincial capitals. But adherence to the deal was seemingly ignored when Taliban fighters entered not one, but several provincial capitals in recent weeks, with fighting reported in the streets and dozens of soldiers and civilians killed and injured, and untold amounts of property destroyed.

Reports of insurgent fighters enacting revenge on the local population have also surfaced, signaling the limited ability of Taliban leaders to control their assortment of ground commanders — all of different ethnicities, diverging loyalties and unclear levels of adherence to the group’s command structure. A Taliban commander who was not authorized to speak to the media told The Times that although he was not cleared to assault Kunduz city, a provincial capital in the north, his forces saw an opportunity and took it — a move senior leaders later endorsed. Now after weeks of fighting, Afghan government forces, propped up by aerial bombardments and an influx of the Afghan military’s elite commandos, have pushed the Taliban back to some parts of the city’s edge. But it remains surrounded. Dozens of civilians and soldiers have been killed, hundreds more wounded and more than 40,000 have been displaced around Kunduz province, according to a July 1 United Nations report. Some homes there were burned down by the Taliban, residents said. “The Taliban burned my house while my family was in the house,” said Sirajuddin Jamali, a tribal elder. “In 2015, a military base was under siege and we provided food and water for them, but now the Taliban are taking revenge,” Jamali sobbed. “Do they do the same in any area the Taliban take?” Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said the accusations of burning down homes was under investigation. The group’s public responses, though rarely sincere, play directly into a strategy meant to portray the insurgents as a comparable option to the Afghan government. And they ignore the fact that local feuds drive large amounts of the war’s violence, outweighing any official orders from the Taliban leadership.

On the battlefield, things are shifting quickly. Thousands of Afghan soldiers and militia members have surrendered in past weeks, forfeiting weapons, ammunition and armored vehicles as the Taliban take district after district. Government forces have counterattacked, recapturing several districts, although not on the scale of the insurgents’ recent victories. But little reported are Taliban losses, aside from the inflated body counts announced by the Afghan government’s Ministry of Defense. The Taliban, with their base strength long estimated to be between 50,000 and 100,000 fighters, depending on the time of year, have taken serious casualties in recent months, especially in the country’s south. The casualties are primarily from the Afghan and U.S. air forces, and sometimes from Afghan commando units. Mullah Basir Akhund, a former commander and member of the Taliban since 1994, said that cemeteries along the Pakistani border, where Taliban fighters have long been buried, are filling up faster than in years past. Pakistani hospitals, part of the country’s unwavering line of support for the insurgents, are running out of bed space. During a recent visit to a hospital in Quetta, a hub for the Taliban in Pakistan, Akhund said he saw more than 100 people, most of them Taliban fighters, waiting to be treated. But despite tough battles, the weight of a nearly withdrawn superpower, and the Taliban’s own leadership issues, the insurgents continue to adapt. Even as they seek to conquer the country, the Taliban are aware of their legacy of harsh rule, and do not want to “become the same pariah and isolated state” that Afghanistan was in the 1990s, said Ibraheem Bahiss, an International Crisis Group consultant and an independent research analyst. “They’re playing the long game,” Bahiss said.

^ The Taliban have not really changed in the past 20 years. They are just waiting for the Americans to leave Kabul before they go back to beating and murdering anyone – including women – who don’t adhere to their version of Islamic Law. ^

https://www.yahoo.com/news/taliban-try-polish-image-push-183228044.html

Blood Shortage

From News Nation:

“Hospitals face continued blood shortage: ‘Every two seconds, someone in the US needs blood’”

As the nation continues to experience a severe shortage in blood supply, medical experts are explaining the importance of having enough blood amid an ongoing pandemic — and a worsening hurricane season. Doctors with Tidelands Health, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, said blood donations are needed to make sure hospital shelves remain stocked for patients in need. “As we go into known times of increased demand or increased need, we also have to tamper that out and walk a fine line with our ability to preserve it, to safely store it,” said Ashley Capps, vice-president for nursing and operations at Tidelands.

The nation’s blood shortages, a result of increased trauma cases, transplants and elective surgeries amid the pandemic, have put stress on hospitals across the country. “Some hospitals are being forced to slow the pace of elective surgeries until the blood supply stabilizes, delaying crucial patient care,” Chris Hrouda, president of Red Cross Biomedical Services, said in a June press release. “As we return to pre-pandemic activities and resume travel to visit loved ones, we want people to remember the needs of patients this summer and the power so many of us have to help save lives.” Capps added that blood is perishable and needs to be stored carefully to make sure it doesn’t spoil. But it also needs to be used as soon as possible. “We want to use it as we receive it,” Capps said. “You don’t want to have too much, and you don’t want to have too little.” Capps said Tidelands Health communicates with the Red Cross often to make sure the hospital has enough blood supply for everyday treatment and also in case a disaster strikes. Doctors at the hospital say they’re lucky the shortage has not greatly affected the facility but still they urge people to give blood — in Myrtle Beach and elsewhere across the country. “It is kind of a tight rope that you walk there … so we do anticipate surges and we anticipate weather events. It is very critical that we maintain our courier blood products quickly and move blood within our system, and so that is what we rely on,” Capps said.

The nation’s hospitals are currently in need of all blood types, although certain blood types are in higher demand than others, the Red Cross said. As of June 14, the organization reported only “half” a day’s supply of Type O blood stockpiled. Type O, meanwhile, is “the most transfused,” with Type O negative being a universal blood type. “There is also an emergency need for platelets,” the Red Cross noted, adding that this portion of blood is often donated to cancer patients. Capps added that it is common to see a rising blood need during the summer, too. “Emergency care, trauma-related care and surgical care for our community butted to a population of patients like oncology patients or hematology patients that rely on serial blood transfusions,” Capps said.

Both the Red Cross and Capps are urging able Americans to donate blood as soon as possible. To make an appointment at a Red Cross center in your area, download the Red Cross Blood Donor App (or visit RedCrossBlood.org) or call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767). Tidelands Health is also hosting two blood drives in July. “Our teams are working around the clock to meet the extraordinary blood needs of hospitals and patients – distributing about 75,000 more blood products than expected over the past three months to meet demand – but we can’t do it without donors,” said Hrouda. “Every two seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood.”

^ The blood shortage is real and can hurt a lot of people who need a transfusion. ^

https://www.newsnationnow.com/health/hospitals-face-continued-blood-shortage-every-two-seconds-someone-in-the-us-needs-blood/

Mary Simon

From the CBC:

“Inuit leader Mary Simon named as Canada's 1st Indigenous governor general”

(Mary Simon speaks during an announcement at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., on Tuesday, July 6, 2021. Simon, an Inuk leader and former Canadian diplomat, has been named as Canada's next governor general — the first Indigenous person to serve in the role.)

Inuit leader Mary Simon will serve as the Queen's new representative in Canada, marking the first time an Indigenous person has held the role. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the Queen has accepted his recommendation of Simon, a past president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national Inuit organization, to be the 30th governor general during a news conference at the Canadian Museum of History Tuesday morning. "I can confidently say that my appointment is a historic and inspirational moment for Canada and an important step forward on the long path towards reconciliation," said Simon.

Simon, an Inuk from Kuujjuaq, a small hamlet on the coast of Ungava Bay in northeastern Quebec, worked as an announcer and producer with CBC North before starting a decades-long career advocating for Indigenous rights. She helped negotiate the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement in 1975, a landmark deal between the Cree and Inuit in Quebec's north, the provincial government and Hydro-Québec. Widely seen as the country's "first modern treaty," the province acknowledged Cree and Inuit rights in the James Bay region for the first time — such as exclusive hunting, fishing and trapping rights and self-governance in some areas — and offered financial compensation in exchange for the construction of massive new hydroelectric dams to fuel the growing province's demand for new energy sources.

Canada's 1st Arctic ambassador Simon was subsequently elected president of Makivik Corp. in 1982, the organization created to administer the funds that the Inuit received from the development on their lands. The organization now manages tens of millions of dollars worth of investments, including an ownership stake in Canadian North, a major air carrier in the Arctic. In 1986, Simon was tapped to lead the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), a group created in 1977 to represent the Inuit in all the Arctic countries. At the ICC, she championed two priorities for Indigenous Peoples of the north: protecting their way of life from environmental damage and pushing for responsible economic development on their traditional territory.  In 2002, former prime minister Jean Chrétien named her Canada's first Arctic ambassador, a position where Simon worked closely with the eight other circumpolar countries to bolster co-operation in the region.

Trudeau criticized for his vetting of Payette  The appointment comes more than five months after Julie Payette resigned from the post after a scathing external review found she had presided over a "toxic" and "poisoned" workplace at Rideau Hall, with episodes of "yelling, screaming, aggressive conduct, demeaning comments and public humiliations. "The third-party review gathered testimony from more than 90 people and was triggered by a CBC News story about alleged mistreatment by Payette and her second-in-command, who also later resigned. Payette has said she takes workplace harassment seriously.

 While largely a ceremonial role, the governor general also serves as commander-in-chief of the Canadian Armed Forces and represents Canada at events, ceremonies and official visits at home and abroad. One of the governor general's most important responsibilities is to ensure that Canada always has a prime minister and a stable government in place that has the confidence of a functioning Parliament.

Other duties include: Presiding over the swearing-in of the prime minister, the chief justice of Canada and cabinet ministers. Summoning, proroguing and dissolving Parliament. Delivering the speech from the throne and giving royal assent to acts of Parliament. Signing official documents and meeting regularly with the prime minister.

After facing heavy criticism he didn't properly vet Payette, the prime minister launched a new advisory board  — chaired by Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc and the country's top bureaucrat, interim Clerk of the Privy Council Janice Charette — to find the next viceregal this time around. The board drafted a short list of candidates for Trudeau to consider. Opposition parties had questioned Trudeau's decision to not use former prime minister Stephen Harper's advisory committee process to suggest suitable candidates and suggested Trudeau got swept up in the celebrity status of Payette, a former astronaut. Since Payette's resignation, Supreme Court Justice Richard Wagner has been juggling his top court duties with serving as acting governor general.

^ I haven’t heard of Mary Simon before and plan to do a lot of research to learn about her. I hope that Trudeau learned his lesson after he chose Payette and did a much better job this time. ^

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-gg-1.6091376

NaviLens

From the BBC:

“The codes helping visually-impaired people shop”

(Coco Pops was used in the trial and Special K will follow in January as part of a general rollout)

A new, colourful kind of barcode technology, developed by a Spanish firm, is being adopted for the first time in food packaging in the UK. It aims to help blind and partially-sighted people identify products in shops, and access health and safety information about food. "I generally don't go shopping anymore because I can't do it without any kind of help," explains Beth Fowler, who is 19 years-old. "Because I can't see, practically… most things." She is a pupil at St Vincent's School in Liverpool, a specialist school for people with sensory impairment. "Shopping in supermarkets is a complete and utter pain," adds Marcia Shaw, 20, a recent graduate from the school, who is sight-impaired too. The store layouts keep changing, and you have to get help from assistants to find what you need, she explains. But new technology is being rolled out that may help provide a solution to some of these problems. The school has been taking part in a trial with cereal manufacturer Kellogg's. The company has been testing out colourful barcodes on its packaging that mobile phone cameras can easily pick up using an app.

Normal barcodes, or QR codes, can be challenging for blind and partially-sighted people, because it takes a lot of dexterity to focus and frame them correctly, at close range, on a phone's camera. These colourful ones can be detected at a distance of up to three metres, and in low-light conditions. The technology is developed by a company from Murcia, Spain called NaviLens. Its codes are already in use in Spain across public transport networks and museums. The New York City Subway system also uses it. Heathrow Airport in London began a trial, but this was postponed due to the pandemic. All Kellogg's cereal packets will eventually display the code, starting with Special K cereal in January. "With the new app I can just pick the food off the shelf and scan it," explains Beth, "and read all the information, like ingredients, for example. Everything that a sighted person could see is made accessible." Many pupils at St Vincent's School also have food allergies, explains Dianne Waites, who teaches Braille and assistive technology at the school, so this technology is even more vital for them.

Braille is a universal language that relies on physical touch, text is read by running your fingers over indentations on a surface. These indentations can be embossed on to food packaging, but take up a lot of space to convey limited information. Only around 10% of blind and visually impaired people actually use Braille, according to the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB). All medicines in the UK must have the name of the medicine displayed in Braille on the labelling, and patient information leaflets must be available to the blind and partially sighted. But at the moment the vast majority of food products don't have Braille on their packaging, and there is no legal or regulatory requirement for them to include it. Because the NaviLens digital codes trigger audio notes, the amount of information that can be conveyed is potentially limitless. In addition to allergy warnings - like traces of nuts and the presence of gluten - the full range of information about ingredients, like fat and glucose composition, for example, can also be offered. This kind of information can already be accessed across all products if you are shopping online - however when you are choosing products in a physical shop on the High Street, it's a different matter - customers also want to access the information at home when cooking.

(The NaviLens codes are already in use on the New York metro system)

There are a few other technologies already on the market aiming to address similar problems. Google's Lookout app uses Artificial Intelligence to identify products through image recognition. This means no barcode or similar marker is necessary on the product packaging itself, but results are not perfect. Meanwhile, Supersense, developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is an app that reads out in a computer voice any text that you hover the camera over, and it can also read standard barcodes on food packages. And Be My Eyes allows users to call volunteers for assistance, who can describe in real time what they see in front of them on a video call. In 2018, Procter & Gamble introduced tactile markings on its Herbal Essences products so that people can distinguish between shampoo and conditioner. Sure deodorants, manufactured by Unilever, introduced Braille labelling this year.

Breakfast-only solution However, with a proliferation of technologies companies may choose to invest in very different solutions, meaning a confused picture for consumers. So, for now, those who download the NaviLens app will find it only helps them fill a small but important part of their shopping basket - breakfast. The RNIB surveyed its members and found that more than 95% want more assistive technology on products that can be accessed through phones. "I describe my mobile phone as my Swiss Army Knife," explains Marc Powell, strategic accessibility lead for the RNIB, who is registered blind. He says his phone allows him to access all kinds of information which he struggled to get hold of before, from bus timetables to courier delivery arrival times. "There hasn't been technology available before that provides this amount of information all at once," he says.  "Standards need to start to change, we all have equal rights to access information, to independence. Technology is playing its part in making that happen." Beth at St Vincent's school agrees it would make a really big difference to her life if the technology was adopted more widely. "If we put accessible labels on bleach and medication, why shouldn't they be on food?" she says. "They can't put Braille on everything, but with these barcodes, it shouldn't be a massively difficult thing."

^ This sounds like a really good way for the Blind and Hard-Of-Sight to be more independent (in grocery stores, pharmacies, the Subway, etc.) and that is the main thing that is needed – more independence. ^

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57679943

Tuesday!

 

50: 26th Amendment

The 26th Amendment

The 26 Amendment lowered the legal voting age in the United States from 21 to 18. The long debate over lowering the voting age began during World War II and intensified during the Vietnam War, when young men denied the right to vote were being conscripted to fight for their country. In the 1970 case Oregon v. Mitchell, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Congress had the right to regulate the minimum age in federal elections, but not at the state and local level. Amid increasing support for a Constitutional amendment, Congress passed the 26th Amendment in March 1971. The states promptly ratified it, and President Richard M. Nixon signed it into law that July.

The 26th Amendment: “Old Enough to Fight, Old Enough to Vote” During World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt lowered the minimum age for the military draft age to 18, at a time when the minimum voting age (as determined by the individual states) had historically been 21. “Old enough to fight, old enough to vote” became a common slogan for a youth voting rights movement, and in 1943 Georgia became the first state to lower its voting age in state and local elections from 21 to 18.

Did you know? According to the U.S. Census Bureau, young voters (age 18 to 24) were the only group to show a statistically significant increase in turnout in 2008, despite an overall increase of some 5 million voters.

Jennings Randolph, then a Democratic congressman from West Virginia, introduced federal legislation to lower the voting age in 1942; it was the first of 11 times that Randolph, who was later elected to the Senate, would introduce such a bill in Congress. The driving force behind Randolph’s efforts was his faith in America’s youth, of whom he believed: “They possess a great social conscience, are perplexed by the injustices in the world and are anxious to rectify those ills.”

Presidential & Congressional Support for the 26th Amendment Dwight D. Eisenhower, who led the U.S. armed forces to victory in Europe in 1945, later became the first president to publicly voice his support for a constitutional amendment lowering the minimum voting age. In his 1954 State of the Union address, Eisenhower declared: “For years our citizens between the ages of 18 and 21 have, in time of peril, been summoned to fight for America. They should participate in the political process that produces this fateful summons.”

In the late 1960s, with the United States embroiled in a long, costly war in Vietnam, youth voting rights activists held marches and demonstrations to draw lawmakers’ attention to the hypocrisy of drafting young men who lacked the right to vote. In 1969, no fewer than 60 resolutions were introduced in Congress to lower the minimum voting age, but none resulted in any action. The following year, when Congress passed a bill extending and amending the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it contained a provision that lowered the voting age to 18 in federal, state and local elections. Though he signed the bill into law, President Richard M. Nixon issued a public statement declaring that he believed the provision to be unconstitutional. “Although I strongly favor the 18-year-old vote,” Nixon continued, “I believe–along with most of the Nation’s leading constitutional scholars–that Congress has no power to enact it by simple statute, but rather it requires a constitutional amendment.”

Supreme Court Decision on the 26th Amendment In the 1970 case Oregon v. Mitchell, the U.S. Supreme Court was tasked with reviewing the constitutionality of the provision. Justice Hugo Black wrote the majority decision in the case, which held that Congress did not have the right to regulate the minimum age in State and local elections, but only in federal elections. The issue left the Court seriously divided: Four justices, not including Black, believed Congress did have the right in state and local elections, while four others (again, not including Black) believed that Congress lacked the right even for federal elections, and that under the Constitution only the states have the right to set voter qualifications.

Under this verdict, 18- to 20-year-olds would be eligible to vote for president and vice president, but not for state officials up for election at the same time. Dissatisfaction with this situation–as well as public reaction to the protests of large numbers of young men and women facing conscription, but deprived of the right to vote–built support among many states for a Constitutional amendment that would set a uniform national voting age of 18 in all elections.

Passage, Ratification and Effects of the 26th Amendment On March 10, 1971, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously in favor of the proposed amendment. After an overwhelming House vote in favor on March 23, the 26th Amendment went to the states for ratification. In just over two months–the shortest period of time for any amendment in U.S. history–the necessary three-fourths of state legislatures (or 38 states) ratified the 26th Amendment. It officially went into effect on July 1, 1971, though President Nixon signed it into law on July 5, 1971. At a White House ceremony attended by 500 newly eligible voters, Nixon declared: “The reason I believe that your generation, the 11 million new voters, will do so much for America at home is that you will infuse into this nation some idealism, some courage, some stamina, some high moral purpose, that this country always needs.”

Though newly minted young voters were expected to choose Democratic challenger George McGovern, an opponent of the Vietnam War, Nixon was reelected by an overwhelming margin–winning 49 states–in 1972. Over the next decades, the legacy of the 26th Amendment was a mixed one: After a 55.4 percent turnout in 1972, youth turnout steadily declined, reaching 36 percent in the 1988 presidential election. Though the 1992 election of Bill Clinton saw a slight rebound, voting rates of 18- to 24-year-olds remained well behind the turnout of older voters, and many lamented that America’s young people were squandering their opportunities to enact change. The 2008 presidential election of Barack Obama saw a voter turnout of some 49 percent of 18- to 24 year-olds, the second highest in history.

Text of the 26 Amendment

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of age.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

https://www.history.com/topics/united-states-constitution/the-26th-amendment

50: 18 Voters