Exploring the World, Understanding the World

by Frank Leberecht

Problems in air traffic in late October in China and the world and have led to serious trouble for passengers.   While the Australian carrier  Qantas grounded its entire fleet due to a dispute between Qantas management and labor unions and left thousands of passengers stranded at international and Chinese airports, Chinese carrier China Southern  preliminary grounded its superjumbo Airbus A 380 due to technical problems less than two weeks after its maiden flight for the Chinese carrier. On its website, China Southern  announced that it was waiting for equipment from the European Airbus Corporation to fix the problem.

According to a report in the New York Times, the Qantas management said that the airline’s fleet of 108 aircraft in up to 22 countries would remain grounded until Qantas reached an agreement over pay and work conditions with the unions representing pilots, mechanics and ground staff. But it was also the A 380 itself that had forced Qantas to take measures to ensure passenger safety before. In a report in February 2011, Financial Times wrote that Airbus A 380 problems cost  Qantas Australian $ 80 million after the grounding of its A380 fleet due to engine problems on an A 380 in late 2010. Confronted with the current situation of halting all Qantas flights, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce estimated the osses for the airline at Uus $ 20 million a day, according to a the Sunday edition of South China Morning Post on 30 October.

International air traffic is widely assumed as key contributor to globalization since it brings people from all over the world together. Still, the industry is highly sensitive to international crisis events: due to so- called “exogenous shocks” like the events of 9/11/01 or the SARS-epidemic in China in the past, the airline industry also faced massive losses. “If you want to be a millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline,” Virgin carrier CEO Richard Branson once put it.

However, the industry is highly desirable for a nation´s prestige creating such iconic design and technology products like the Boeing 747-Jumbo-Jet or the Airbus A380, the world´s biggest airplane. Boeing and Airbus are the major competitors in global civil airplane-production.

It was four years ago that China also entered the market and launched its first home-made passenger airliner in December 2007 described as a “milestone in the nation’s ambition to become a giant of the global aviation industry” according to a report in the “China Post”.

“The aviation industry is the embodiment of a nation’s level of science and technology, industry and overall national strength,” former Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan said at the launching ceremony of mid-range civil aviation ARJ-21 in 2007.

photo Eng Rimawi

by Eva Tam

More than a month after his death, the Libyan ruling National Transitional Council (NTC)is still investigating  who killed him , and how he should have been treated after his capture remains an international debate.

Gaddafi was captured on Oct. 20 with some injuries, but died from a shot in his head later that day. Government officials told journalists that a forensic report concluded that Gaddafi was shot when he was caught in crossfire. Other witnesses said that Gaddafi was shot in an execution-style. The BBC released an amateur video footage that claimed the person who shot Gaddafi was celebrating with others soldiers after his death.

Human Rights Watch said there are strong clues that Gaddafi was killed in custody. The earliest video of Gaddafi in detention shows him alive but bleeding on his face.  Another video shows that he was put in the hood of a vehicle and the next one shows him getting pulled from the car into an angry mob that appears to beat him.

“There is ample evidence to open a credible investigation into the deaths of Gaddafi and his son Muatassim. Finding out how they died matters. It will set the tone for whether the new Libya will be ruled by law or by summary violence,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East and North Africa director at the Human Rights Watch.

Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, vice chairman of the NTC, said in a press conference that the Libyan authorities have already started investigations on Gaddafi’s death.

“We had issued a statement saying that any violations of human rights will be investigated by the NTC. Whoever is responsible for that (Kadhafi’s killing) will be judged and given a fair trial,” said Ghoga.

Human Rights Watch, as with most people in the international community, felt that Gaddafi should have been put on trial.

“(This) deprives the Libyan people of the chance to see him held to account in a fair trial at the ICC for the egregious crimes he allegedly committed while suppressing peaceful demonstrations in February 2011,” said Richard Dicker, the head of International Justice Program in Human Rights Watch.

But some people, like socio-political commentator, Allan Tacca, wrote an opinion piece in  the Daily Monitor that a trial was not necessary.

“Ultimately, Gaddafi created the conditions in which only his death could end the chances of his mischief. …no person can be so large or so invincible as to defy even their mortality,” he said.

by A. Yu

567kg of cocaine worth HK$6 00million was seized from a village home in Tuen Mun,  in  what is believed to be  Hong Kong’s largest drug bust.

Working on  a tip, officers raided what they now believe to be the storehouse of a transnational drug trafficking syndicate on September 16. Four other locations were also raided, with 50kg seized at residential units in Kwai Tsing and Mong Kok.

Five Mexican nationals, an American man as well as a Chinese man and his Columbian wife carrying Hong Kong residency were arrested in connection with the case.

The drugs were stored in empty plastic automatic transmission fluid containers intended for recycling. Cocaine bricks were wrapped with plastic tape or cling film, then stored in the container through a cut at the bottom. A total of 1,241 containers were found.

Police believe that the warehouse located in Fuk Hang Tsuen, Tuen Mun, had been used as a packing and storage facility for over six months.

“Traffickers have used different ways to disguise their dealings, but this is the first time police have seen recycled materials used,” John Paul Ribeiro, chief superintendent of the narcotics bureau of Hong Kong said to the South China Morning Post.

“We believe we have successfully neutralized the multinational syndicate,” Ribeiro said.

Ribeiro also believes that a small part of the shipment was intended for the Hong Kong market but that he couldn’t ‘rule out [that] the drug would be sold to mainland [China] and other countries.’

Professor Karen Joe A. Laidler of the Department of Sociology at the University of Hong Kong stated in a report for the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute that ‘most of the cocaine coming into Hong Kong is by use of air couriers using body packs and by postal packages’.

Professor Laidler also indicated that cocaine was more commonly associated with Hong Kong’s expat community and is unpopular in Hong Kong due to it’s high  price, and thought  that the drugs seized may be have intended for further shipment into Southeast Asia.

Dr. Alfred Mak, former executive director of the Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Abuse (SARDA) in Hong Kong was surprised by the bust. He agreed that the drugs would have probably gone on to other countries.

“There is a good chance that HK is not the final destination for the distribution of

the drug load in the present case,” Dr Mak says. “Although cocaine use has been reported to have risen gradually in recent years, the increase, and the total consumption [in Hong Kong], is still small.”

Dr. Mak says that the bust would make a significant dent in Southeast Asia’s cocaine market, but he says it’s too soon to officially label Hong Kong has a drug hub.

“Being a free port standing at the door of mainland China, [Hong Kong] is always a coveted bridgehead for international drug smugglers,” said Dr. Mak. “Whether there is a change of drug tactics by shifting its target to Asia is too soon to be concluded. The haul at issue is big enough to trigger concerns from international enforcement authorities, particularly those in China, Hong Kong and nearby countries.”

Downtown Kabul ( photo Qais Musafer)

by David Hetherington

More people die of air pollution in Kabul every year than as a result of the violence in Afghanistan, according to figures released by various agencies. The Afghan National Environmental Protection Agency estimates as many as 3000 people die every year as a result of air pollution in Kabul alone, while the United Nations says that 2,777 civilians were killed in the war across the whole of Afghanistan in 2010.

With Afghanistan as volatile as it is, ‘the last thing on people’s minds here is the air quality and the environment.’ Deputy director of the Afghanistan National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) Najibullah Yamin’s words summarise what appears to be an insurmountable problem. The myriad environmental issues Kabul faces have combined to create something of a perfect storm for air pollution. An inadequate public transport system forces many to buy cars that are e old and produce a great deal of smoke. In some cases plastic and other garbage is burned as a fuel source. To make matters worse, the bowl-like landscape of Kabul, with its mountains surrounding the city, acts to trap pollution and many accuse a ‘land mafia’ of buying up areas meant for environmental renewal to develop houses and commercial buildings.

Director General of Afghan Geological Society Atiq Sediqi says because deaths from pollution are not visible ‘does not make any splash in the media’. Sediqi believes the most important obstacles are a combination of poor quality fuels, very dusty roads, trees and bushes being cut down en masse and the unique shape of the landscape. In particular he pinpoints Kabul’s roads saying that they need to be paved to avoid the massive amounts of dust kicked up from them. Trees and shrubberies also need to be replanted and there needs to be a drive towards ‘public education on environmental issues through media’ if Kabul is to see any sort of lasting change. It could take 5 to 10 years before the rate of death by air pollution drops and that’s only if the implementations Sediqi recommends are put into effect.

Sediqi is hopeful that Kabul’s mayor, Muhammad Younus Nawandish, can reduce air pollution if he stays in power thanks to his policies concerning road maintenance and a drive to replant trees but a lack of public awareness lies at the heart of the issue. As Sediqi puts it, ‘the government should realize that the worst enemy of Afghanistan is air pollution, not the Taliban.’

By Hoishan Chan

The recent conviction of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout on charges of conspiracy in attempting to sell weapons to Colombian terrorists demonstrates the need for a comprehensive international arms trade treaty, according to an arms trafficking expert.

Bout’s conviction on Nov. 2, 2011, serves as “a wake up call for nations to learn from past mistakes and put in place the tools required to prevent others like Bout from taking his place,” said Kathi Lynn Austin executive director of the Conflict Awareness Project, in an email interview with World Watch.

Bout was convicted not on charges of selling arms across international borders, but on charges that he conspired to sell weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, deemed a terrorist organization by the U.S., according to an AP report.

Albert Dayan, Bout’s attorney, made the argument during the trial that Bout did not violate international law by transporting arms. “He did transport arms … It did not violate the law of any country,” said Dayan in a report by the Huffington Post.

The Arms Trade Treaty is up for negotiations at the United Nations next summer, and human rights groups like the Conflict Awareness Project and Amnesty International have been pushing for states to “negotiate the strongest, most comprehensive treaty possible,” said Austin.

Amnesty International recently published a report titled “Arms transfers to the Middle East and North Africa: Lessons for an effective arms trade treaty.” States have a “moral obligation” to place human rights above business deals, and to correct the “stark failings of existing control regimes,” said Helen Hughes, an arms expert at Amnesty International, in an interview with Al-Jazeera.

“The Bout trial will help … states are already convinced about the need to have a treaty. The question is how deep and how much should the treaty cover,” said Louis Belanger, humanitarian media office for Oxfam International.

by Hoishan Chan

Israel has reportedly sped up plans to install an anti-missile system on its commercial airplanes out of fears of an attack from missiles smuggled out from Libya, according to a Reuters report.

The C-Music anti-missile system will use a laser to “blind” heat-seeking missiles, and will be adopted by all Israeli passenger airliners, according  to the report. The Israeli government will cover the $1 million to $1.5 million it will take to fit every airplane with the laser system,.

Plans to install the anti-missile system were prompted by fears that weapons looted from Libya after the collapse of Moammar Gadhafi’s regime would fall into the hands of terrorist organizations like Hamas and al-Qaida.

“This threat is considered more viable than in the past,” said Yoram Schweitzer, director of the Terrorism Project at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.

“It’s better to spend the money now than to spend the money later on casualties and the implications of such [an attack],” said Schweitzer.“The most sophisticated missiles have found their way to Gaza so they could be used.”

Libyan weapons were seized by Egyptian authorities in the Sinai, close to Gaza and along the border of Israel last month, as Egyptian military officials told the Washington Post last month. Heat-seeking, shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles were among the caches of weapons seized.

“We’ve intercepted more advanced weapons, and these weapons aren’t familiar to the Egyptian weapons markets; these are war weapons,” said an Egyptian brigadier general who spoke to the Washington Post anonymously.

Israel began working on the C-Music anti-missile system after the terror attacks in Mombasa, Kenya, in 2002. A car bomb brought down the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel, and a missile aimed at an Israeli passenger airliner narrowly missed, according to a New York Times report.

“It was just luck [that the missile missed] in 2002,” said Schweitzer. “[The Mombasa attacks in 2002] indicates the intent or plans of organizations like al-Qaida or Hamas.”

by A. El Hammar Castano

The Hong-Kong High Court has rejected a Government  bid to suspend an earlier ruling to allow Filipina maids from applying for permanent residence.

Government counsel David Pannick had argued that the “status quo should be maintained” pending an appeal against the ruling by the government.

“The concern of the Government is the general implication,” he said.

Earlier the High Court had ruled that Evangelyne Valejo, a Filipina maid working in Hong Kong for more than 20 years, could apply for permanent residence.

The High Court judged that it was unconstitutional to discriminate between different foreigners in Hong Kong.  Foreigners working in other areas, for example in the financial sector, can apply for permanent residency after 7 years. Domestic maids were not allowed to do so.

Many maids are believed to have begun applying for permanent residence. “We know that it’s on the right way… We have faith ! “said Julia who has been working in Hong-Kong for 10 years

For Mark Daly, Evangelynne Valejos lawyer, it’s “Definitely a question of equal treatment”. He added on CNN that  “There is still a long battle ahead” .

According to one estimate, there are  would be 292 000 foreign maids in Hong Kong  and 40 % could now apply after more than 7 years of residency in Hong-Kong.

The arguments of filing another appeal for the Government are socio-economic. Current Hong Kong taxpayers would be hit with more than $3 billion in social welfare spending for up to half a million new immigrants, spouses and children. However, it is not clear how many domestic workers would actually bring their families to Hong Kong.

“I miss my family but I’ m working 75 hours a week. My family is taking care of my kids. I don’t want to bring them here. I preferred to send them the money and that they get a good life. They can send my kids to a good school ” said Julia.

by Mandy KY Lai

Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni has rejected a resolution by the Ugandan parliament’s to delay approval of the UK-based Tullow Oil’s sale of stakes of oil in the country to two foreign partners, the Financial Times reported.

According to the UK-based newspaper, Museveni is set to give the nod to the $2.9 billion deal between Tullow and the France-based Total and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), after meeting the chief executive of Tullow, Aidan Heavey, to discuss final details of the sale.

The president ignored parliament’s decision last month to halt all new transactions in the oil sector until the investigation into Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi, Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa and Internal Affairs Minister (former Energy Minister) Hillary Onek who allegedly accepted bribes from the oil giants is completed.

The Independent newspaper  in Uganda reported last month that Kutesa had been paid by Tullow Oil 17 million Euro ($23 million) from its registered company in Nairobi, while Onek had been paid 5.6 million Euro ($7.57 million) from Tullow’s accounts in Dubai.

A U.S. diplomatic cable in 2009 released by the WikiLeaks showed former U.S. ambassador to Uganda, Jerry Lanier believed that Mbabazi and Onek accepted bribes from an Italian oil company Eni, to favour Eni over Tullow Oil in the sale of assets by another firm in 2009. However the deal was overturned and was given to Tullow seven weeks later, under the same terms as Eni.

A committee was established on October 27 by the parliament to investigate this.

The committee also aims to establish all the revenues received by the government from petroleum firms to date, how it was spent and how exploration firms operating in the country were procured, Reuters reported.

Mbabazi and Onek have refused to step aside over allegations of corruption, claiming they are innocent, while Kutesa claimed the documents were “forged” and were designed to implicate him in bribery.

“I am thoroughly hurt by these lies because if such an account really exists I deserve all the punishment on Earth,” Onek said at the parliament meeting last month, in response to the accusations.

by Andrew Swift

UNICEF and the World Health Organisation have drawn up new plans to guide Afghanistan’s polio eradication efforts, after the number of reported cases of the disease doubled over the past year.

The new approach will be run until June 2012.  According to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), a public-private partnership between governments, charities and the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the new strategy will see the establishment of a specific ‘transmission zone’, wherein efforts will be focused to rapidly boost immunity.

The new approach is a response to recent GPEI statistics announcing that the number of reported cases of polio in Afghanistan has doubled from 18 cases last year to 36 this year.

A leading bioethicist however, thinks that the eradication of polio is the wrong goal. Arthur Caplan, Professor of Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, argues that eradication is an unattainable target and only serves to divert funds away from more pressing local problems.

Caplan said that political instability and violence make it virtually impossible to access certain regions and to properly survey the rate of infection.

“Pushing hard to eradicate in a violent warzone seems hugely difficult”, Caplan said, “and it is not consistent with the health care needs or priorities of the people there.”

Indeed in 2009 the WHO reported 386,929 cases of malaria in Afghanistan alone. Leprosy, cholera and tuberculosis also featured far higher infection rates than polio.

According to Caplan, the eradication of polio is a noble goal, but by neglecting other diseases, will eventually lead to disaster. “The best that can be done is to seek to control polio,” he said in article for Project Syndicate last year, “and to hope that politics, economics and ethics allow us to get that far.”

The international community, however, shows no sign of shifting positions in its eradication policies.

Last week, WHO’s Strategic Advisory group of Experts on immunization (SAGE) said that failure to meet the complete eradication deadline, set for next year, would constitute a “programmatic emergency of global proportions for public health”, and would represent “the most expensive public health failure in history.”

“There must be consequences at all levels for individuals, institutions and governments who fail to deliver on their mandate.” SAGE reported.

At present, Kabul will likely do everything in its power to keep the international community on side.

by A Yu

While Columbia and Mexico have long been on the international drugs map, Honduras is now recognized as a major hub for  cocaine trafficking. US and Honduran authorities estimates  that 20 to 25 tonnes, or approximately half of the cocaine that reaches the United States per month, is offloaded in the Latin American country according to an AP report.

The drug makes its way to Honduras by plane or boat from various South American countries before it is smuggled across the border to Guatemala, then to Mexico.

Earlier this year, Reuters reported that the Honduran navy seized a submarine off the Mosquito coast containing 5 tonnes of cocaine that was destined for the United States – just one example of the multiple methods of transport used by drug smugglers.

Professor Aaron Schneider from the Latin American Studies department of Tulane University believes that mass corruption amongst local governments has made Honduras an especially vulnerable target for drug smuggling.

“In my opinion, Honduras is a preferred destination for drug traffickers because there was a coup in Honduras in 2009, and that coup weakened state institutions, delegitimated authorities and caused massive economic disruption,” Professor Schneider said.

The 2009 coup that ousted then-President Manuel Zelaya was widely condemned by governments in the Western hemisphere. The New York Times reported officials in the U.S. as saying the 2009 coup ‘kicked open the door to [Mexican and Colombian] cartels’ that were facing aggressive crackdowns in their home countries.

“Areas of the country and economic life [in Honduras] were now available to drug traffickers,” says Professor Schneider. “They faced a state with no popular support that was unwilling and unable to regulate or intervene in any kind of economic activity, even if that activity included drug trafficking.”

The effects of this are most evident in Honduras’ staggering murder rate at 66.8 per 100,000, compared to Mexico’s 12 per 100,000, according to the UN’s Global Study on Homicide.  Honduras’ murder rate has doubled from 2005 to 2010.

Professor Schneider believes that Guatemala, Honduras’ neighbouring country, could face a similar fate to Honduras.

“[In Guatemala], a coup almost succeeded in 2008, and conservative forces look set to win the presidential election,” Professor Scheider says. “While Honduras looks bad now, Guatemala is likely to soon join Honduras at the top of the list of drug trafficking destinations.”

But the ultimate destination of the drugs – the United States – is where many believe the solution to Latin America’s growing drug wars lies.

“Efforts to combat narco-trafficking in Honduras and the crime and violence that it fuels can have only a limited impact so long as there is an insatiable demand for and consumption of illegal drugs in the United States,” writes Marco Cáceres, editor of the independently owned and operated Honduran Newspaper Honduran Weekly. “This is a market-driven problem that can only be resolved by dealing with its source: the US consumer.”