Category Archives: Socio-economic Collapse

All hazards are natural and all disasters a result of unjust anthropogenic interactions with nature.

It is now common wisdom that all hazards are natural and all disasters a result of unjust anthropogenic interactions with nature.

Though the most recent flooding is different in nature compared to the one in 2010 the latter was a flash flood while the current is a riverine flood in both cases, it can be argued that the damage caused by both disasters is the outcome of changes in demography as well as ill-advised development policies across Pakistan.

Some of the more immediate outcomes of the latest disaster will be felt in the form of displacement, rise in illiteracy, unemployment, health crises, water and food scarcity, infrastructure damages, loss of human lives, destruction of crops, livestock losses, water-borne diseases, outward migration to cities and loss of social capital.

Faced with these multi-faceted challenges in such a short period of time, humanitarian and relief agencies must act and adapt rapidly to mitigate the problems faced by the millions of people who have been impacted in recent weeks. But are we ready to do so? Have we learnt any lessons from our long history of disasters?

Pakistan is vulnerable to most natural hazards. It is prone to floods, earthquakes, droughts and cyclone storms. It is prone to famines and heavy monsoons. And lets not forget the other kinds of disasters that its inhabitants inflict upon each other the scourge of terrorism.

Over the past 17 years, Pakistan has witnessed three major crises before the current one that have cumulatively impacted almost 28 million residents. While the nature and scale of these crises were different, two of them were caused by natural hazards the 2005 earthquake, which impacted 3.5 million people and the 2010 floods that affected more than 20 million people.

A third disaster, born out of the evil machinations of the humankind, was the 2008-2010 Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) crisis. This was triggered by an internal conflict and displaced almost 4.2 million people from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and what were then known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

As per media reports, 89 per cent of the people who were displaced chose not to stay in refugee camps arranged by the government. The remaining were housed in camps located in Swabi, Mardan Charsadda, Nowshera, Kohat and Peshawar. Almost 50pc of the IDPs were children and 90pc had lost all their assets (including livestock, crops etc).

But for the sake of brevity and the constraints of space on this platform, let us focus our thoughts on natural hazards that may not have turned into disasters. Both the super floods the one is 2010 in general and the most recent one in particular did not strike Pakistan in a single day; rather, they built up over several weeks.

For instance, in 2010, the flood started from Balochistan from July 22, 2010, and then within a span of one and half months, the gushing waters had inundated several towns and villages of Sindh. This provided ample time to the Sindh and Punjab governments to ready themselves for the impending disaster and ensure they had enough resources to mitigate any crisis.

It was almost dj vu in 2022 and yet, no lessons had been learnt. After all, disaster management is more about preparedness than response.

A similar script was witnessed in the aftermath of the 2005 earthquake when the falling debris, unauthorised construction, change of land use and dwellings in the hazardous zone converted the hazard into a disaster of biblical proportions.

Media reports following the earthquake put the death toll anywhere between 87,000 and over 100,000. Another 138,000 were injured and over 3.5 million rendered homeless.

According to official statistics, the deceased included over 19,000 children the majority due to collapse of school buildings. The quake itself damaged over 780,000 buildings, including 17,000 schools and several hospitals. Around 250,000 livestock also perished.

According to the Federal Flood Commission, Pakistan has witnessed 28 super riverine floods in its 75-year history. The first recorded super flood was witnessed in 1950, followed by 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1995 and then every year since 2010 which also saw the worst flood in the countrys history. These floods collectively affected 616,558 square kilometres of land, snatched 13,262 precious human lives and caused losses worth over Rs39 billion to the national economy.

The area compromising modern day Sindh, in particular, has a long history of recurring riverine floods. In the 19th and 20th centuries, floods hit the provinces geographical territory at least18 times.

Data is not available for the years of 1882, 1887, 1903, 1914, 1917, 1921, 1930 and 1948. In 1973 alone, however, 259,586 acres of crops were affected in eight districts Jacobabad, Sukkar, Nawabshah, Khairpur Mirs, Larkana, Hyderabad, Dadu and Thatta.

Two years later, another super flood impacted 1.13 million people. The next year, heavy rains caused yet another flood and around 28,260 villages were affected, 3,276 people displaced, 9,087 cattle were lost and 99 people lost their lives. Similar stories of damages have been reported in 1978, 1992, 1994 and 1995.

What is particularly interesting to note is that though the province has a centuries-old history of natural disasters, successive post-independence governments have largely have been less responsive to this reoccurring phenomenon and failed to act in a proactive manner.

Flash floods which are quite sudden and are often caused by a cloud burst in the mountains are also not new to the country.

On July 23, 2001, for example, record monsoon rains lashed Islamabad, as well as the districts of Mansehra, Rawalpindi and other towns and cities across Pakistan. The resultant flooding killed at least 350 people and injured another 150.

Some 125 people remain missing to this day and at least 1,500 families were rendered homeless. The most seriously affected area was the Mansehra district, where more than 200 people were killed and around 1,000 houses destroyed. A large number of cattle in this largely rural area also perished, and parts of the roadway also collapsed, making it difficult to reach those in dire need of assistance.

Apart from Mansehra, the other affected areas were Dader (Shinkiari) and Buner districts, which were struck by flood waters and landslides. At Dadar Qadeem, at least 200 homes collapsed or were completely washed away.

Narrated below are the some of the reasons only tip of the iceberg that transform a traditional hazard of floods into a horrendous disaster as seen in recent times.

In 1981, the country had a population of 84.25 million, which jumped to 207.7 million within a span of 36 years an addition of 127.2m (or 3.53m per annum). The country is passing through the third stage of demographic transitions, where both the birth and death rates are declining.

There is also a gender component associated to demography, particularly in Pakistan, where the female population growth rate is higher than males.

The total population of women in 1951 stood at 15.5 million (46.22pc), whereas in 1998 it had moved up to 47.1m (48pc). The intercensal increase in 47 years, meanwhile, stood at a whopping 302.36pc.

The 2017 census recorded a female population of 101.3 million 48.7pc of the total population. Notwithstanding the gendered aspect of this population growth which we will pick up on a little later this phenomenal rise is compelled to utilise the natural resources beyond their carrying capacity, thus challenging the notion of sustainability.

In his seminal work that correlates Pakistans development policies and its environmental issues, The Environmental Repercussions of Development in Pakistan, Arif Hasan along with the late journalist Amenah Azam Ali, states that development brought about by the colonial regime in India had four main objectives:

After independence, the Government of Pakistan continued most of these policies as a result of which a large percentage of natural resources, such as forests, lakes and mines, were taken over from the old feudal order and local communities and became the property of the state, thus making their large-scale commercial exploitation possible.

One example of deforestation would substantiate this argument. Around 4.91pc of Pakistans land is covered in forest among the lowest in the region.

The percentage of Pakistans forest area is, however, not without contestation, with the figure varying between 2.2pc and 5.1pc. What is important to remember is that trees along the land-water borders serve as the first line of defence against any incoming water streams.

Besides deforestation, another major cause of flooding is the lack of regular maintenance of canals and bunds, which in turn reduces their carrying capacity and causes water spills onto the adjourning lands.

Recent media reports and video footages from across the country have highlighted the instability of various bunds. A similar situation was witnessed in the 2010 floods, where in Sindh alone, there were several breaches due to the enormous pressure of gushing waters.

In many cases, the roads and commercial infrastructure developed over the last 30 years is less sensitive to the traditional pathways of water flow blocking it and devising alternative flows creates a back pressure effect resulting in flooding of the adjoining settlements. Similarly, encroachments on the mouth of the river outlets in the southern parts of the country has reduced the water flow which again results in flooding.

The colonial masters never allowed human settlements on katcha lands [riverbeds] as these are primarily meant for the overflow and residual water by the Indus during the monsoon floods. The post-flood alluvial soil, being rich in nutrients, acts as a natural fertiliser for the crops, so the use of katcha land was primarily related to agricultural purposes. The land is now dotted with commercial establishments and hamlets, which are the first to be inundated every time it floods.

Based on 13 years of experience on disaster management and its related issues, here are some of my observations on the current scenario for a comparative outlook with the previous calamities:

Countries in the subcontinent show wide disparities in terms of how the issues of disasters are addressed, though the impact of any disaster does not respect the political boundaries the smog in eastern and western Punjab is a case in point.

The current disaster management regime in Pakistan has its roots in the response to the 2005 earthquake which involved the private sector, civil society and government institutions. In the aftermath of the earthquake, the Pakistani government created institutions responsible for disaster preparedness and response at the national, provincial, and local levels.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was meant to be responsible for policy-making and coordination at the national level. At the provincial level, the respective Provincial Disaster Management Authorities (PDMAs) were mandated to set up a system that would immediately spring into action in the aftermath of disasters and calamities whether natural, man-induced, or accidents.

The current thinking on disasters and their management skills falls into two main paradigms the conventional and the alternative.

The former is in turn influenced by natural science and applied sciences approaches. The natural science approach equates hazards and hazardous events and also perceives disasters as synonymous with hazards. It emphasises research into geophysical and hydro-meteorological processes. Disaster management activities focus on monitoring of hazards and prediction of hazardous events.

The applied science approach emphasises documenting and analysing losses and damages associated with hazardous events. It determines the magnitude of a disaster in relation to the magnitude of the losses incurred. Initiatives influenced by this approach focus on research into the exposure and resistance of physical structures.

In contrast, the alternative paradigm is based on a combination of social science and the holistic approach. The social science approach brings vulnerability into the disaster management discourse.

It links disaster to vulnerability, which is a degree of the lack of capacity of households, communities and societies to absorb the impact of hazardous events and recover from them. This approach maintains clearly that hazards are natural but disasters are not. It also shows that the magnitude of a disaster is related to differential vulnerability between and within communities. Differences in age, gender, caste and class are among the factors making different groups of people more or less vulnerable to disasters.

The holistic approach is an important constituent of the alternative paradigm. It maintains that disasters are closely related to unsustainable development. It maintains that risk scenarios are combinations of capacities, vulnerabilities, losses and hazards. The holistic approach regards disasters as socio-economic hazards.

Experience shows that the media has a very important role to play not only during, but also in the pre- and post- phases of disasters. It is also a well-established fact that mass communication systems organise themselves under the disciplines of the market.

They produce and manufacture news items, articles, editorials, features and so on and package them in a way that it creates a sustainable market among a large and growing audience. The masses for the mass media are a market. Information becomes a commodity and readers or viewers become information consumers.

From the normative perspectives, it can be argued that the media has to act as a public interest institution by putting forward public concerns and interest. The medias convergence with disaster management efforts needs to be grounded in initiatives to inform educate and empower communities with the relevant knowledge for influencing public action and policy towards disaster preparedness and mitigation.

Various studies have found that women account for more than half of the 200 million people annually affected by disasters across the globe annually. The degree of vulnerability to disasters varies according to socio-economic influences.

Gender is a significant factor among these, with the majority of the gender-related disparity in the experience of disasters arising from the different roles and responsibilities men and women undertake in their day-to-day lives. In most South Asian societies, women have almost the entire responsibilities for maintaining the household they are responsible for providing food and water as well as taking care of the sick and the old.

In the case of a disaster, irrespective of the losses and trauma, women still have this responsibility. Disaster managers lack of awareness of gender differences has resulted in insensitive and ineffective relief operations that largely bypass womens needs and their potential to assist in mitigation and relief work.

The most important issue deserving emphasis is that contrary to popular perception, women are not helpless victims but display great strength in extreme situations. They possess skills, resilience and extensive knowledge about appropriate coping strategies, but their capacity remains largely invisible.

Infrastructure destruction figures provide a good sense of the long-term consequences of a catastrophe as we have seen in events as varied as the Sumatra floods, the Indian floods, Haiti earthquake and the Iran (Bam) Earthquake.

To mitigate the ongoing disaster of floods in Pakistan, the following steps must be taken on a war footing, as disaster response is all about timely action:

If history can be a guide here, the relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction will take a minimum period of three years. A lot of civil society veterans are of the opinion that if the Economic Affairs Division and other administrative setups can ease their procedural requirements from the civil society organisations, it would accrue to the benefit of the people of Pakistan.

The high population growth has put tremendous pressure on the resources of the region. The 90s were characterised, in particular, by declining public expenditures on the provision of social services, such as health and education, due to the increasing number of people in South Asia. This phenomenon of population growth has taken its toll on natural resources as well, which is now working against intergenerational justice and is bound to invite the wrath of nature.

The development mindset of the planners is, at best, insensitive towards their environmental obligations and treats the ecology as a mere commodity. The market-based economy does not account for the cost of ecological destruction and the natural habitats are taken for granted.

On the other hand, a shift in paradigm is needed from a reactive to a proactive mode of disaster management to alleviate the sufferings of the community. The dominant approach to dealing with disasters, which offers no space for community-based initiatives since it sees communities/victims, as part of the problem for which solutions need to be worked out is not very appealing.

There is, therefore, an urgent need for a marked shift in this paradigm. A middle- and long term community-based disaster preparation enterprise is the best response. This is what history teaches us. This is what we must heed, lest history continues to repeat itself.

Header video: An aerial view of flood affected areas in DI Khan in August 2022. Video courtesy: KP CM House

Excerpt from:

Pakistan's history of disasters and the lessons we fail to learn - DAWN.com

When a masked man with a sword killed a teaching assistant and a pupil at a school in Sweden several years ago in a racially motivated attack, the whole world was shocked that this could happen in a country known for its welcoming attitude toward immigrants.

This years election, however, is painting a different picture, as all political parties during their campaigning are using a "racist, anti-immigrant narrative in a country where, according to recent polls, the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats are set to become the second largest party in the Swedish parliament or Riksdag.

Since the 1990s, racism and discrimination have been institutionalized in the country and are being reinforced in this years election as "almost all parties in Sweden, in one way or another, have racist propaganda about migrants and marginalized people being the problem for Sweden, said Masoud Kamali, an author and one of the worlds leading sociologists who is professor of sociology and social work at Mid Sweden University.

Former Prime Minister Olof Palme, who led the expansion of Swedens welfare state, was assassinated in 1986, and since then, the country has shifted toward the U.S. model and American "policy of neoliberalism, Kamali said.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Sweden started adjusting itself to neoliberal politics and neoliberal ideology, which were dominant in other countries in Europe.

Around this time, the Stockholm-based far-right racist organization, Keep Sweden Swedish formed a political party now known as the Sweden Democrats.

The establishment of the Sweden Democrats, who were once banned from politics due to their neo-Nazi ties and are now poised to become the countrys second-largest party, led to "increasing gaps and neoliberal politics in Sweden, said Kamali.

The neoliberal policies and politics resulted in increasing inequalities and the marginalization of migrants and people with immigrant backgrounds, and "at the same time, racism increased, he added.

Kamali, who was put in charge by the Swedish government to lead a project on racism, said the ruling Social Democrats did not take warnings by experts like him seriously when they tried to warn them that "there is going to be conflict, there are going to be gangs and murders because of the increased racism and marginalization.

"I can say that all parties have accepted or adjusted themselves to these racist policies and propaganda that you can see in all election officials election propaganda in this country today, said Kamali.

For the last 40 years, "I never experienced such racist propaganda in an election that we are seeing today, he noted.

"You can just see this electoral or election propaganda everywhere on TV, everywhere on the radio, in public services. You can see that everything is about a restrictive migration policy; migration should be restricted, criminals, of course, with immigrant backgrounds should be deported from Sweden and Sweden must be tougher on migration, Kamali added.

He pointed out that immigrants are discriminated against and are not given equal opportunities, and "when you have a system that makes them unemployed and poor and then put the blame for the problems that come with poverty on them too, this falls under the individualization of criminality, or singling out and labeling immigrants as criminals, and lack of integration.

"I think this is a huge problem that we are now facing in this country, he added.

Kamali believes that Sweden is a country where racism has become deeply rooted and institutionalized but that this is also felt in everyday life "because the authorities and the government institutions are nurturing racism and discrimination.

In the last 10 years, the country has seen the socio-economic gaps increase by 35%, which means that "Sweden today is the most marginalized country in Europe, he said. "This means that the neoliberal system has already destroyed the country.

Fereshteh Ahmadi, a professor of sociology at the University of Gvle, said one of the biggest factors that contributed to the rise of racism in the country is due to the neoliberal policy, which created an "enormous gap between the poor and rich.

The country adopted the kind of capitalism that "we see maybe in the United States or some of the other European countries, but joining the European Union also affected Sweden, according to her.

"People became poorer and angrier at all these changes, and (they) see immigrants (as) the root of their problems, she said.

According to Kamali, "we are witnessing people, many people with immigrant backgrounds, almost talking about the impossibility of living in this country, as there isnt even a single party that wants to have "an integrated equal society.

He predicts that Sweden will see "more conflicts, more criminality. We are going to have a divided country.

Teysir Subhi, leader of the Swedish political party Feminist Initiative, said racism is one of the biggest security problems in Sweden.

"On a daily basis, non-white Swedes are exposed to racism and Islamophobia in the labor market, in the housing market, in the school system and in health care, said Subhi.

However, she said that racism can also have even worse consequences than that, as "racism is violence, racism kills.

According to Kamali, sociology teaches us that if we want to see whether the society is sick or not, then we should go to prisons and see which groups are there, and "in Sweden, you have about 70% of the people sitting in jails with immigrant backgrounds.

"So it's a question of structural discrimination, historic discrimination, which now shows itself in criminal records, he added.

Kamali advised that structural changes and long-term government intervention are highly needed for the country to move forward.

"But as I said, I can't see now a single party which is there to take those questions up in a situation where racism is increasing. But suggestions are there.

Sweden, however, is not alone when it comes to the rise of racism, as Europe as a whole "has a huge issue when it comes racism, said Kamali.

In 2001, he conducted research sponsored by the European Union called "The European Dilemma, in which he showed how racism in Europe is institutionalized in the labor market, education system, politics and housing market.

The research also showed that racism would increase with time if no action is taken by European governments.

As a response to Swedish researcher and author Gunnar Myrdal and his book "An American Dilemma, Kamali wanted to show that even Europe has a dilemma and that the continent is always "hiding behind American racism and American societys racism and colonialism, he said.

Ahmadi said the future is not so bright if Sweden keeps moving in one direction, as many people "may leave the country, people maybe which have immigrant backgrounds will not see this country as their own country.

This, she said, will have a very negative effect on work life, social life, and cultural life, and "I think there will be an augmentation of the polarization of people against each other, but I hope that this will not happen.

Continue reading here:

Elections shed light on rise of racism, discrimination in Sweden | Daily Sabah - Daily Sabah

To call Dr. Bruce Moses first two months at Allen Community College a blur would be an understatement.

On top of getting to know the faculty, staff, and now students at ACC, the college president has jumped headfirst into reaching out to the community.

Were in full engagement mode, Moses said this week, during an all-too-brief lull in his schedule.

Hes reached out to business and industry leaders throughout Allen County, made multiple trips to Topeka to get to know higher education officials there and reached out to administrators at other colleges in the area, including Emporia State and Pittsburg State universities.

On top of that, Moses has begun talking with school administrators at Iola USD 257 and others in the county to discuss how to strengthen Allens relationship with those districts.

This is my eighth week, and it feels like its been six months, he laughed.

Truth be told, Moses wouldnt want it any other way.

This is what we expected when we got here, Moses said. This is a big transition. I wanted to hit the ground running.

As part of the transition, Moses et al have begun the first steps in developing the colleges next strategic plan, which theyll hammer out over the coming months.

That began with an internal SCOT exercise at the start of the school year, in which ACC staffers were invited to share their opinions on Allens strengths, challenges, opportunities and threats.

The next step will be a similar exercise with members of the community this fall, in order to gain an outsiders perspective of the college, Moses said.

Allen already has a great brand, he said. We want to enhance it.

Hes already learned much, noting industries throughout Allen County are largely facing the same dilemma: trying to find quality employees.

That meshes with one of Moses passions: building career and technical education opportunities.

They need workers, skilled employees, he said. I know the traditional student population is very much interested in getting short-term training for a livable wage job without having to go two, three or four years of college. We have a window of opportunity where we can make this happen.

Moving forward, we will be a key player in the career and technology education phase, he continued. We have a lot of opportunities here, and ideal partners in the community. What Ive said to everyone is, we want Allen to be your go-to institution. We want them to pick up the phone and call Allen first.

MOSES, 54, grew up in Detroit, where his father worked in the automotive industry, and his mother worked at a state psychiatric hospital.

Young Bruce, meanwhile, saw himself going to college, the first in his family to do so.

I was trying to follow my moms brother, Moses recalled. He worked in the banking industry, and it always impressed me how he always wore suits and ties. Thats what I wanted to do. He was my role model.

Moses followed in his uncles footsteps, earning a football scholarship to Tennessee State in Nashville in his pursuit of a finance degree. A knee injury, however, curtailed his playing days after two years.

Then one day my uncle told me he was afraid the banking industry was about to collapse, and I might want to consider another occupation.

Moses took heed, and landed a job at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti initially as a physical plant foreman for the EMU campus.

His work there allowed Moses to stay with Eastern Michigan, both as an employee and as a student. Moses eventually went on to earn three college degrees there, while working his way up the college administrative ladder. He worked as a special assistant to the chief technology officer, then in accounts payable and finally as an executive director of planning.

Moses has bachelors degrees in finance and administrative management, a masters degree in educational leadership from Eastern Michigan, and a doctorate in community college leadership from Ferris State University.

Eastern Michigan is where I grew up as a professional, he said.

After 17 years at EMU, Moses went to Northwest Arkansas Community College as an executive director of planning and institutional effectiveness, then to Pima County Community College in Tucson, Arizona.

His stint at Pima was cut short after his father was stricken with prostate cancer.

Moses moved back to the upper Midwest, getting a job as a consultant at Northwestern University before subsequently returning to Pima.

The experience at Northwestern, one of the elite universities in the world, while valuable, nevertheless convinced Moses his talents were better suited for community colleges.

One of the things I felt as a first-generation college student was that I could see some of myself in community college students. Some of these students were coming from low socio-economic backgrounds, a more diverse population. This was an opportunity for them to change their trajectory, their families, their lives.

I knew when I was at Northwestern that I couldnt do anything for those kids, he continued. They were already driving better cars than I was. Their parents went to college, they were expected to go to college.

And I also wanted to get back to warmer weather, he laughed.

Kansas winters can get pretty cold as well, a Register reporter reminds him.

I grew up in Michigan, he replied, where it would snow 10 or 12 inches, then it would get cold, and then it would snow 10 or 12 inches again. I can deal with it.

My wife is the one who may be in for a rude awakening, he laughed. Shes never lived anywhere but Arizona until now.

His wife, Celina, works in the financial aid department at Fort Scott Community College.

MOSES was working as vice chancellor for educational services and institutional integrity when he was hired last fall to replace the outgoing John Masterson as Allens president.

Mastersons tenure at Allen stretched nearly 50 years, first as a student, then as an instructor and finally the last 30 years as college president.

Moses compared the experience to an NFL quarterback replacing the legendary Tom Brady.

John left a very healthy institution, financially and culturally, Moses said. Now its my chance to build on it, put my own fingerprints on it.

Hence the breakneck pace since arriving in Iola, a schedule he doesnt expect to relax anytime soon.

Ive got a great team here, he said. Im excited because theyre excited. These folks have strapped on their running shoes, too. Theyre right there with me. Theyre guiding me.

And occasionally pulling back on the reins.

Im tapping into all the resources I can, he said.

Moses relies heavily on input from Allen officers like Tosca Harris, Rebecca Bilderback, Cynthia Jacobson, Lauren Maisberger and especially chief financial officer Roberta Nickell.

Robertas been my rock, he said. She brings me back down to earth. Ill say, Heres what I want to do. And shell never tell me no. Shell say, weve got to think about it.

MOSES envisions Allen as a major player for both traditional and non-traditional students.

The education marketplace has changed, he notes. Now, you can get an education without leaving your office, or leaving your bedroom. You can get an education from multiple institutions at the same time.

While Allen traditionally has centered on a strong core of on-campus, traditional students, future growth will rely on tapping into the growing demographic of those ages 25-40 in need of new job skills.

Our community is too small to have employees uproot and leave, he said. Thats a challenge all these employers are facing. We want to shift our focus to make sure were embracing that adult learner.

Original post:

Moses parts the Red Devil sea - Iola Register

Conventional wisdom holds that cities will always endure. Empires eventually collapse. Nations change their borders, their direction and even their identity. But cities have endured for clear geographic and socio-economic reasons.

But climate change threatens to fundamentally challenge this time-honored narrative.

Will the cities of the American southwest survive without water? What will become of Miami after sea levels rise and storm surges worsen? These are fundamental questions. New York City has its own existential threat, with its own essential questions: How will we respond, and are we too late?

The climate change alarm was sounded more than 50 years ago, when scientists showed the consequences of carbon dioxide emissions on sea-level rise. Superstorm Sandy savaged New York City nearly a decade ago, costing nearly $20 billion in damage and disruption and the death of 44 New Yorkers. But the threats associated with climate change arent behind us. Theyre barreling toward us, and the overwhelming global scientific consensus says theyll be worse than what weve seen thus far. The science is clear; we must follow it and act.

With 520 miles of coastline and entire communities at risk more often than not low-income communities its time to accelerate the transformation of our built environment. If not, New York City soon will become a wholly different kind of place.

The Battery Park City Authoritys roughly $1 billion set of resiliency projects, set to begin its first phase of construction this fall, provides an example of how to do resiliency right: providing flood protection to Battery Park City and Lower Manhattan while also offering a model for coastal communities across the globe as they confront similar challenges. These projects include key components and lessons that should be replicated as other neighborhoods pursue their own protection.

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First, the project represents the best of innovative urban flood protection design, integrating flood protection measures with elements of the impacted public spaces that community members hold so dear, like Wagner Parks iconic sightlines to the Statue of Liberty, its lawns, and its intimate gardens. In the end, the plan will provide New Yorkers with a more sustainable and newly beloved Wagner Park, with nearly 100 more trees than the park currently has. The plans also include new sustainable features like a carbon-neutral pavilion and a water reuse cistern that will help reduce park users ongoing contributions to climate change.

Strong community engagement is also key to implementing urban resiliency projects. For Battery Park Citys plans, local feedback has served as the driving force in design development. Neighborhood input informed the initial concepts of the designs, and five years of feedback at dozens of public meetings yielded meaningful changes to them. These changes havent been token; for example, neighbors and local elected officials recently led the Authority to increase the projects planned lawn space by more than 70%.

While the public engagement process to develop such projects must be thorough, it of course also must be finite. Any ambitious urban project will inevitably have its detractors, even if its just a small, vocal handful. Critically, however, Battery Park Citys project has earned local support from a broad range of community members and local elected officials, in favor of the project moving forward on schedule. This, too, should provide a valuable lesson for other urban areas working to implement similar projects.

Engagement, along with improvements to public access, resilience and ecology, are all under additional scrutiny as BPCA pursues the Waterfront Alliances Waterfront Edge Design Guidelines certification. This technical review assesses whether the design meets the alliances acclaimed gold standard, including ensuring that it meets the best available sea level rise projections. While it has only completed the first of two reviews, preliminary scores for the park are very strong.

As a neighborhood literally built into the water on landfill sourced from the excavation of the original World Trade Center site the Authority is right to take its resiliency responsibility seriously. The community must continue to embrace this vision and recognize that cities must grow and change to meet the endless challenges they face.

As a city planning term, preservation is often understood solely as the practice of keeping our built environment the way it is, and resisting any change. Climate change upends that approach. Instead, we must change our cities in order to preserve them. Doing so thoughtfully will chart a path forward not only for New York City, but for other vulnerable cities around the world striving to endure, as they have over the centuries.

Ward is chair of the Waterfront Alliance and previously served as the commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and executive director of the Port Authority.

See more here:

Adapt or reap the whirlwind of the rising seas: Protect Battery Park City from the encroaching Hudson River - New York Daily News

DUBAI: Even before the economic collapse in Lebanon, Syrian and Palestinian refugees living there were struggling to get by. Many chose to uproot themselves once again and set out in search of a better life overseas, often turning to people smugglers for help.

Now, the situation looks so hopeless that a growing number of Lebanese citizens who lack the means to pay for safe and legal passage abroad are also risking their lives to make the same dangerous, illegal sea crossings to Europe.

In early June, the Lebanese military apprehended 64 people in the north of the country who were attempting to board a smuggling vessel bound for Cyprus. Among them were several Lebanese citizens, driven to desperation by severe economic hardship.

I cannot feed my family. I feel like less of a man every day, Abu Abdullah, a 57-year-old delivery worker from Tripoli, the poorest city in the country, told Arab News. I would rather risk my life at sea than hear the cries of my children when they grow hungry.

Inflation, unemployment, shortages of food, fuel and medicine, a crumbling healthcare system, and dysfunctional governance have created a perfect storm of poverty and hopelessness.

Shortage of grain as a result of the war in Ukraine has compounded Lebanons economic woes, with the prices of staples skyrocketing. Queues for bread are a common sight in many towns while public-sector workers have often gone on strike demanding better pay.

The nations currency has lost about 95 percent of its value since 2019. As of July, the minimum monthly wage was worth the equivalent of $23 based on the black market exchange rate of 29,500 Lebanese pounds to the dollar. Before the financial collapse, it was worth $444.

About half of the population now lives below the poverty line.

My salary barely lasts a few weeks and the tips I get amount to nothing, said Abu Abdullah. One of my sons roams around the neighborhood dumpster diving, looking for tins and plastic to sell. It breaks my heart having to see him do this. But in order to eat we dont have another choice.

Since 2019, Lebanon has been in the throes of its worst-ever financial crisis. The effects have been compounded by the economic strain of the COVID-19 pandemic and the nations political paralysis.

For many Lebanese, the final straw was the devastating explosion at Beiruts port on Aug. 4, 2020. At least 218 people were killed and 7,000 injured by the blast, which caused at least $15 billion in property damage and left an estimated 300,000 people homeless.

These concurrent crises have sent thousands of young Lebanese abroad in search of greater financial security and more opportunities, including many of the countrys top medical professionals and educators.

For those who remain and feel they no longer have anything left to lose, the thought of paying people smugglers to illegally ferry them across the Mediterranean to an EU country has become increasingly appealing, despite the obvious dangers.

In April, a boat carrying 84 people capsized off Lebanons coast near Tripoli after it was intercepted by the navy. Only 45 of the people on board were rescued. Six are known to have drowned, including a baby. The rest are officially classified as missing.

A relative of mine lost her husband and toddler at sea around two years ago, said Abu Abdullah. The tragedy still haunts the family. And yet, here I am mulling and entertaining the thought that I should get on the next boat.

The situation is perhaps even tougher for the millions of Syrian and Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon. Long treated as an underclass and denied access to several forms of employment and welfare, many of them now face a similar dilemma of whether to stay put or attempt a risky journey.

I escaped the war in Syria and lived in Lebanon for three years, Islam Mejel, a 23-year-old Syrian Palestinian, told Arab News from his new home in Greece.

I tried time and time again and applied for visas to travel legally by land but who would give a Syrian Palestinian man a visa? I fled from Lebanon I had to. I am the eldest and have to take care of the family I left back in Lebanon.

Mejel described the terrifying ordeal he experienced while crossing the sea to Greece.

INNUMBERS

* 22% of Lebanese households now considered food insecure.

* 1.3m Syrian refugees in Lebanon categorized as food insecure.

(Source: World Food Program)

We were a group of 50, he said. They split us between two small boats. The boats couldnt handle the passengers. The second boat sank. Some survived and the rest were lost at sea.

When we finally made it to a Greek island, the captain scuttled the boat and radioed for organizations to come and help us. Then he left. I knew the chances of me dying were high but I had to try.

The extreme risks that refugees are willing to take to find security and economic opportunity abroad, often after having been displaced several times, speak volumes about the severity of Lebanons socio-economic collapse.

For Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, there were already multiple layers of vulnerabilities they were exposed to prior to the crisis, such as the prohibition on owning houses or property and prohibitions on working in liberal professions, alongside limited social and political rights, a researcher of Palestinian refugee issues in Lebanon, who asked not to be named, told Arab News.

Whats happening now is an accumulation of crises built over time COVID-19, the economic collapse that have built upon pre-existing vulnerabilities the Palestinian refugee community previously faced in Lebanon.

The researcher said the rate of illegal immigration, according to some sources, has increased in recent months, particularly among the youth.

One well-known trafficker is said to charge more than $5,000 to get a person out of Lebanon by plane, transiting through three airports before arriving in Europe where the migrants tear up their identity papers and apply for refugee status. For those without the financial means for this air route, the option of traveling by sea is less expensive but much more risky.

However, some sources the researcher spoke to said the rate of illegal emigration is currently in decline owing to the astronomical sums charged by smugglers even for the cheaper options. Such is the desperate state of personal finances in Lebanon that even a potentially deadly sea crossing is now beyond the means of many.

This is why some are reportedly opting to apply for a program called Talent Beyond Boundaries, which offers work visas for Palestinian youths seeking employment in other countries.

Lebanon was regarded by its citizens and foreign investors as a land of promise after the end of the civil war when the buzz of reconstruction replaced the rhetoric of sectarian slogans.

But these days, its citizens, as well as the people from neighboring states who found refugee in Lebanon, are looking abroad for opportunity and economic security. As a result the country is being deprived of the skilled young workers it will need to recover from the current crisis.

The general consensus is that until Lebanons political paralysis can be overcome and long-delayed economic reforms are implemented, the human tide is unlikely to stop.It was a humiliation, day in, day out in Lebanon, said Mejel. I couldnt take it anymore.

More here:

Why Lebanese citizens are joining the migrant tide out of the Middle East - Arab News

In its damning report in October 2018, titled Blood-Soaked Secrets, Amnesty International declared, Between late July and September 1988, the Iranian authorities forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially executed thousands of prisoners for their political opinions and dumped their bodies in unmarked individual and mass graves.

In July 1988, the Iranian regimes founder Ruhollah Khomeini issued a secret religious order (fatwa) for the execution of prisoners who steadfastly supported the opposition group, the Peoples Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The fatwa later engulfed other political dissidents when the regime cleansed the prisons of MEK members and supporters.

According to survivors and eyewitnesses, the regime formed commissions comprising judicial authorities, intelligence officers, and interrogators to purge dungeons of political prisoners. The regime claimed the commissions were established for pardon, while prisoners and rights activists and groups have since referred to them as Death Commissions.

For decades, the perpetrators of the 1988 massacre, including Irans current president Ebrahim Raisi, have enjoyed impunity. Not only do they enjoy this impunity for being off the hook for their atrocious crimes against humanity, but it has allowed and encouraged them to shed more blood to strengthen their authoritarian theocracy.

Khomeinis successor, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei awarded Raisi, infamous as the Butcher of Tehran, and appointed him as the judiciary chief. During his tenure, Raisi upheld hundreds of death sentences against political activists, women, juvenile offenders, prisoners of conscience, followers of ethnic and religious minorities, and smugglerscontrary to the regimes penal code.

Judicial authorities were also actively involved in a bloody crackdown on hundreds of thousands of peaceful protesters in November 2019. Following gas price hikes in mid-November, citizens took to the streets across the country, urging authorities to cancel the hikes. The regime then responded to peoples demands with violence, killing at least 1,500 defenseless demonstrators and bystanders. Authorities also detained thousands of protesters and subjected them to inhumane torture and ill-treatment by Raisis agents.

As Amnesty reported in September 2020, Widespread torture including beatings, floggings, electric shocks, stress positions, mock executions, waterboarding, sexual violence, forced administration of chemical substances, and deprivation of medical care. Hundreds were subjected to grossly unfair trials on baseless national security charges. Death sentences issued based on torture-tainted confessions.

As was expected, Raisi and his agents were awarded yet again. In a forged election in 2021, Khameneis affiliates paved the path for Raisis presidency. Even the regimes official statistics show the 2021 Presidential election received extraordinary apathy in the regimes age.

Khamenei appointed Raisi to counter domestic and foreign crises, including ongoing protests and anti-regime activities, breathtaking sanctions, and financial failures. However, Raisi has failed to strike fear into society despite his notorious background as an executioner.

In their socio-economic rallies and marches across Iran, citizens routinely chant slogans, such as: Death to Raisi, Raisi; shame on you, let go of the country, Raisi is a liar, and The sixth-grader government [of Raisi] would collapse soon.

Raisi has also lost significant numbers of Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) supporters, not because he fought systematic corruption, but because he has failed to satisfy the mafia with adequate political-economic incentives. Today, not only do the people curse Raisi on the streets, but even Khameneis appointees in the Parliament and other government offices explicitly slam Raisi and his cabinet.

From the international standpoint, Raisis government has failed to push Tehrans interests through a new nuclear deal with world powers. Instead, the regime has been forced to withdraw from some of the red lines, such as delisting the IRGC, closing the International Atomic Energy Agencys probes, and lifting all sanctions.

In recent months, the U.S. Department of Justice has foiled the mullahs assassinating attempts against former White House National Security Advisor John Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, pushing the regime into an awkward corner and making new hurdles for engaging with it.

Raisi has been desperately trying to brag about his attendance at the UN General Assembly as a victory to ease domestic and foreign failures. On the other hand, Iranians around the world have warned the international community, particularly the U.S. administration, that they should take a firm approach toward Irans mass murdering, terrorist regime.

The Iranian people expect that the US will avoid granting a visa to Raisi and his IRGC lieutenants to prevent them from staining American soil, spreading hatred beliefs, and masterminding more terror attempts. They have launched a #NoVisa4Raisi campaign, backed by a long slate of dignitaries from the trans-Atlantic, to ensure that the Iranian delegation will be denied entry to the U.S next month.

See more here:

Iranians Call for Prosecution of Raisi, Instead of Welcoming Him at UN - Iran Focus

In the bid to save the country from imminent economic collapse, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre has called on the state governors to sacrifice their jumbo salaries and allowances rather than their one-off retirement package proposal for workers.

The CISLAC said this on Monday in a statement issued by its Executive Director, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, in Abuja.

It also described the governors recent proposal to the Federal Government as unrealistic and lopsided.

Rafsanjani, who is also the Head, Transparency International Chapter in Nigeria, said CISLAC received the proposed measure to reducing cost of governance as a deceitful approach that may amplify existing socio-economic burden, suffering and inequalities among common Nigerians.

He said: The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has been following with keen interest, the recent unrealistic and lopsided proposals to the Federal Government by the Nigerian Governors, under the auspices of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), to offer Federal Civil Servants above 50 years of age, a one-off retirement package to exit the Service.

While such proposal was tendered in view of reducing overbearing cost of governance that has hitherto rendered the Nigeria financially incapacitated to adequately finance the ailing critical sector of the economy, we cannot conceal the fact that it mirrors lopsidedness, insincerity and lack of readiness by all levels of government to holistically address the contending issues backpedalling countrys socio-economic development.

He, however, drew the attention of all levels of government to various neglected issues that he said had aggravated high cost of governance and socio-economic inequalities in the country.

Rafsanjani said these include the systemic mismanagement of nations treasury and institutionalised spending of whopping sums on irrelevant activities that continued unabated at national and sub-national levels.

He added: We maintain our advocacy against unjustified numerous jumbo salaries, allowances, benefits, and public paid expenses enjoyed by the governors, their deputies, former speakers and their deputies throughout and after their tenures.

This includes the states that erected private buildings as retirement packages for the public office holders as well as former governors who enjoy double payments from Senatorial positions.

We are also worried by the increasing clamours for life-time pensions and benefits accrued to public office holders across the states, constituting a major component of the rising cost of governance.

The Executive Director also said that poor transparency and accountability are paving way for the inherent incompetence and abuse of public funds amounting to trillions of naira by successive administrations at all levels.

As 85% of reform efforts have failed since independence, we are more worried by the dreaded impact of mismanagement and undue political interests that will continue to frustrate the success of socio-economic reforms; and without pragmatic measures could cost up to 37% of Nigerias Gross Domestic Products (GDP) by 2030, as reported by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), he added.

Rafsanjani also called for the removal of fuel subsidy, which he said had caused more harm than good to the countrys economy.

He said: We are concerned by the needless fuel subsidy regime, which serves as a major contributory challenge to high cost of governance in Nigeria, with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) estimating an average of N120 billion monthly paid by the government on petrol subsidy.

Petrol subsidy payments have reportedly increased by 349.42 per cent from N350 billion in 2019 to N1.573 trillion in 2021, while the National Assembly approved the sum of N4 trillion for petrol subsidies in 2022.

Read more from the original source:

CISLAC to Governors: Sacrifice your jumbo pays to salvage imminent economic collapse - The Eagle Online

Not all species that are not native to a specific location are invasive. To be considered as such, they must adapt to new areas easily and reproduce quickly. By outcompeting the native species, invasive species thrive and cause harm to the habitat and the economy. Humans have undoubtedly had a significant impact on the environment leading to catastrophic climate crises, and threatening the planet and its inhabitants. However, can we really say that humans are an invasive species?

The National Geographic Society defines an invasive species as an organism that is not indigenous, or native, to a particular area and can cause great economic and environmental harm to the new area. Similarly, the US National Invasive Species Information Centre defines invasive species as an alien species whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.

According to both the definitions outlined above, to be categorised as an invasive species, certain criteria must be fulfilled. These include being non-native to the locality, adapting and reproducing quickly, and causing environmental and economic harm to the area.

While the climate changes naturally, humans are now considered the main drivers of climate change. By attempting to modify the natural environment to conform to the needs of modern societies, humans have caused catastrophic events such as global warming, environmental degradation, mass extinction, and biodiversity loss that have led to an ecological crisis and ecological collapse. Humans have affected and changed biodiversity and the ecosystem in multiple ways. Approximately one million flora and fauna species are threatened with extinction, more than ever before in human history, as a direct result of human activity. A report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) found that three-quarters of land and 66% of the marine environment is significantly modified by human actions.

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One of the most famous examples of a species that became extinct because of human actions is the dodo bird, a bird once native to the island of Mauritius. Discovered by Portuguese sailors in the 1500s, the specie was erased from existence less than 200 years later. Due to their flightless nature, the fact that they likely nested on the ground, possibly only laid a single egg every year, and had no natural predators making them unafraid of humans, they were an easy source of meat. As more and more humans settled on the island, the consequential loss of habitat further threatened the existence of the bird. The settling of humans also brought other animals to the island and the unsustainable harvesting of the dodo, combined with habitat loss and a losing competition with new species settling into the island eventually led to the complete eradication of the bird.

Loss of biodiversity is not only an environmental issue but also a socio-economic one. Research has found that biodiversity in the form of ecosystem services such as food provisioning, carbon storage, and water and air filtration has a high economic value worth more than US$150 trillion annually. Loss of biodiversity comes as a significant threat to many businesses as they face higher raw material costs, as sources of food, fuel, structural materials, and medicinal resources are greatly reduced. Irreversible species loss and changes to biodiversity and ecosystem processes are likely to cause a non-linear increase in cost to society in the long run, especially once the threshold of the resilience of the ecosystem is crossed. Not only will there be economic losses to society but also social ones, as biodiversity greatly influences cultural, spiritual, and social values.

Biodiversity forms the foundation of societys food system. Not only is it directly the food we eat such as domesticated and wild livestock and crops, and aquatic species but it is also the variety of plans and organisms that are essential to production processes that maintain healthy soils, regulate water, and pollinate plants.

The economic value of this contribution is considerable. Pollinating species, like bees, birds, bats, and many more, contribute directly to between 5%-8% of current global crop production, the annual value of which was US$235-577 billion in 2015. A higher density of pollinating species leads to higher crop yields and so their dramatic decline poses a substantial threat to the economy. As found by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the loss of animal pollinators would result in a net welfare loss of approximately US$160-191 billion to crop consumers across the globe and a further loss of US$207-497 billion to producers and consumers in other markets.

You might also like: Climate Change Threats Against the Honey Bee and Endangered Bee Species

Food production has increased significantly over the years to keep up with growing demand. A key indirect driver of this loss of biodiversity and harm to the ecosystem is increased population. Since the 1970s, during which the global human population has more than doubled from 3.7 to 7.6 billion. One of the greatest risks a growing population poses is a rapid increase in per capita consumption. As the population has grown, habitat destruction such as deforestation has also had to increase to make space for agricultural land. Furthermore, urban sprawl and transportation infrastructure increase pollution and global temperatures, critically changing major habitats.

Trends in agricultural production, fish harvest, bioenergy production, and harvest of materials have increased in response to population growth, rising demand, and technological development, which has come at a steep price. Between 1962 and 2017, it is estimated that approximately 340 million hectares of new croplands were created globally and 470 million hectares of natural ecosystems around half the area of China were converted into pastures. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has predicted that the number of endangered species rises in areas with high human population growth.

Humans have been the cause of a lot of ecological and economic harm worldwide. The species unprecedented population growth has resulted in numerous instances of modified habitats, which have led to significant losses of biodiversity. However, to be categorised as an invasive species, humans must also be non-native. Most anthropologists agree that Homo Sapiens originated from East Africa and managed to spread out to every continent on Earth. As humans continued to migrate and colonise previously inhabited parts of the earth, large-mammal extinctions ensued. By crossing the land bridge into North America approximately 15,000 years ago, humans contributed to the disappearance of large animals such as mammoth and mastodons mainly due to a rapid increase in hunting activities.

As explored above, we can conclude that humans are an invasive species. As humans spread out to parts previously uninhabited by them, the increase in population caused losses in biodiversity even hundreds and thousands of years ago. This has continued to the present day and the ever-growing human population is still significantly altering the ecosystem and resulting in serious economic and ecological costs to this day.

However, there are still ways in which these impacts can be minimised. To live more in harmony with the habitat, there must be sustainable human development, focusing not only on societies needs but also on taking into consideration the threshold of the planets ecosystems. Exploiting non-renewable resources alters the habitat in an unsustainable way and unrestricted human activity threatens not only the surrounding biodiversity due to climate change but also human life itself.

The best way to develop a more sustainable relationship with the planet and the ecosystem is to phase out fossil fuels and further the development and utilisation of clean, renewable energy. Moreover, promoting education, alongside science and technology, is increasingly important to help understand efficient utilisation of natural resources and promote human awareness and participation in environmental education and living. Lastly, shifting to sustainable agricultural practices and promoting nature-based solutions for urban areas are extremely important steps to tackle the increasing human population and the consequential increase in consumption globally.

You might also like: How to Feed a Growing Global Population

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Are Humans an Invasive Species? - EARTH.ORG

Jose Rodriguez was tired, hungry and beaten down when he crossed the border from Mexico into Texas after a two-month journey. He didnt have money, and he didnt have many options. Although he had originally hoped to go to Miami, he heard there was a free bus to New York. Officials told him that if he boarded the bus, thered be help waiting for him.

Rodriguez believed there was a plan that Texas and New York were working together.

He knows now he was wrong.

Jose Rodriguez, 38, a Venezuelan migrant who arrived in New York last week, on the first bus sent by Greg Abbott. (Josephine Stratman)

We arrived deceived, he said. I didnt know that the governor had commanded this. They boarded us and brought us and thats it. We didnt know just that the bus was free. I dont know why, I thought they [Adams and Abbott] were friends.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbotts decision to bus migrants to New York has become a Red v. Blue showdown, with Abbott using migrants as political pawns to bolster his standing with tough-on-immigration Republicans ahead of midterm elections. Mayor Eric Adams has blamed an overwhelmed homeless shelter system on the influx of migrants, using them and Abbott as scapegoats for what critics say are deep-running problems in the citys shelter system.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. (LM Otero/AP)

Lost in the political rhetoric are the stories of people like Rodriguez.

A 38-year-old from Venezuela with a family of four children he had to leave behind, Rodriguez arrived in New York with the same dream that has driven immigrants for centuries the hope of a brighter future. But so far he, like many of the others on Abbotts buses, has found himself caught in the middle of a political firestorm, a casualty of a culture war over immigration and the nations southern border.

Six days after arriving in New York, Rodriguez sat on a bench at the 34th St. ferry landing. He sipped on a can of Sprite a small luxury for him and looked out at the East River under the brim of his dark camo baseball hat, watching boats come and go. Midtowns skyscrapers towered behind him.

He has a place to sleep and meals when he is at the shelter, but not much else. Since stepping off the 40-hour bus ride to New York on Aug. 5, Rodriguez has been spending his nights in the homeless shelter in Brooklyn and his days walking the streets, going door to door looking for a job. He doesnt have money to buy food when hes out job hunting. He has no family or friends in New York.

Jose Rodriguez, 38, a Venezuelan migrant who arrived in New York last week, on the first bus sent by Greg Abbott. (Josephine Stratman)

[Mayor Adams admin still mum on fed talks over asylum seekers from Texas traveling to NYC]

Rodriguez carries his belongings with him as he goes about the city, but that isnt difficult. After the long journey, his possessions dont even fill his small black backpack. An extra T-shirt, papers from immigration officers at the border, and a tennis ball, so he can practice baseball, a favorite hobby. On a recent day, he had just $1.50 in loose change in his pocket. He drinks water from a refilled Coca-Cola bottle to stay hydrated in the August sun.

Hes hoping for some extra help from mutual aid groups and charities that he hears about through word-of-mouth. He scribbles their addresses on his palm with a well-used Bic pen nearly out of ink.

Rodriguezs phone is his lifeline. On it, he navigates the confusing streets and subways of the city. As he wanders the city, he bumps music through his earbuds: Venezuela salsas, folk music from Colombia and his American favorite, Eminem. He uses the phone to take pictures and videos to send to his children; he calls them morning and night.

Im not happy to be here, no, Rodriguez said with tears in his eyes. I feel like a piece of me has been ripped off, to be without my kids ... Every day, every day it hits me.

As he sat at the ferry landing, a helicopter flew close by, attracting attention from passersby enjoying the summer day. Some stopped to watch, taking pictures as the aircraft landed. Rodriguez stayed still, imagining what his 7-year-old twins might think of it all.

New York is a city of migrants; nearly 40% of the citys residents are foreign-born. For centuries, those arriving here have searched for hope, for opportunity. Rodriguez hasnt found it yet. When he looks up at the Empire State Building, built by immigrants decades before him, he thinks of home.

Its very nice here. Its beautiful. But I dont have peace. I feel incomplete without my children. If they were here, playing, I would be happy, he said in Spanish. But when will I see that?

Rodriguez was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. Hes worked in construction since he was 15, dropping out of school to work a decision hes always regretted. Now, he encourages his four children Jnosmer, 19, Jnonder, 17, and twins Jnostin and Jhilber, 7 to study hard.

In 2018, Rodriguez fled with them to Bogota, Colombia, looking for respite from Venezuelas socio-economic collapse. Four years later, life was still difficult, with his family exposed to violence and an unstable economy. Rodriguez made the difficult decision to leave his family. It took him nine months to save around $800 for the long and arduous journey to the United States.

The trip began with a hike through the dangerous Darien Gap, a notorious stretch of jungle between Colombia and Panama and ended with him swimming across the Rio Grande. Rodriguez said he was robbed and attacked during the journey. At points, his feet were swollen and sore from walking. The food supply he packed for the journey tuna, cookies, bread, instant soup and lots of sweets, for energy slowly dwindled, and his main water supply was from rivers he passed along the way.

Two months to get here. I had to sleep on the street, he recounted. You do not eat, you lose so much money, you are robbed. You dont think youre ever going to get there. Youre thinking of your children, and youre like, Thank you, God, because I made it.

It hurts him to be this far from home, but Rodriguez knows hes doing it for his family. His kids are with their mother and dont have much food at home, and the U.S. dollar stretches far in Colombia. If he can find work, he can better support them than he could in Bogota.

$100 here? I send it to them, and its one weeks worth of work for them, he said. $200, $300? Thats around a months worth of work. I can send them in a week what I used to earn in a month. But thats what worries me right now I dont have anything to send. They dont have food right now.

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Rodriguez and the others whove come to New York in the past week dont know whats next for them.

Without papers, he cant get a job. Without money, he cant buy lunch or a change of clothes, let alone travel to Miami, where he has a friend. Without friends, he cant find work or longer-term shelter.

The only thing clear is that the political fight is worsening.

Mayor Adams is calling for increased federal help, but his administration has not spelled out exactly what that means or might look like for people like Rodriguez.

Schools in New York are scrambling to accommodate more students.

The shelter vacancy rate is hovering under one percent, leaving migrants at risk of sleeping on streets if the citys systems cant accommodate them.

And Abbott is planning to send more buses to New York.

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Jose Rodriguez came to America looking for a brighter future. He ended up a casualty in the political battle over immigration between Texas and New...

The COVID-19 pandemic has been the single most discussed issue in the world for the past two years. From the first hundred cases in Wuhan to the race to develop vaccines against the many variants, it is safe to say that the media has been effective at documenting the major impacts of COVID-19 on the world. However, rarely has mainstream media covered the impacts that the pandemic has had on smaller countries.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are a subset of 58 of the worlds countries and dependent territories that were hit especially hard by the pandemic. Although they are a heterogeneous bunch, SIDS are grouped together because they contend with similar social, environmental, and economic challenges. Amongst these challenges are high levels of poverty and inequality as well as rising sea levels and the increased frequency of natural disasters, the latter two which are driven by climate change. One issue in particular, economic vulnerability, is an especially concerning matter for the majority of SIDS.

The fragility of the SIDS economies was blatantly exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, these states were deeply impacted by the macroeconomic shock of the pandemic due to their overreliance on a narrow base of commodity exports and on a few service sectors, revealing a crippling lack of economic diversification.

Commodity Exports

When agricultural, energy, and industrial metal commodity prices and exports fell drastically during the beginning of the pandemic, the SIDS economies, most of them already boasting a negative trade balance, were greatly affected.

SIDS were affected in such a large way by this drop in prices and exports because 57 percent of them are considered to be export-commodity-dependent. This number is in stark contrast to the 13 percent of developed countries that earn this same title. Not only do many SIDS have commodity dependent economies, meaning their merchandise exports rely heavily on commodity exports, but numerous SIDS are also single commodity exporters.

For example, in Cabo Verde, Kiribati, Maldives, Micronesia and Tuvalu, seafood alone accounts for 70 percent of all exports of goods. In the Caribbean, ores, metals, precious stones, and non-monetary gold compose more than half of Jamaicas merchandise exports, while petroleum oils and bituminous minerals represent over 75 percent of Saint Lucias exports.

Tourism

The massive slowdown of international tourism from the pandemic did not spare island states. While some SIDS forbade foreign tourists from entering their territories, others welcomed tourists, but grappled with the fact that foreign governments were highly discouraging and, in some cases, forbidding international travel for non-essential purposes. However, one thing was true across the board: SIDS tourism industries, which make up almost 30 percent of their GDP, suffered crippling economic shocks.

Although official analyses and numbers have yet to be released, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimated that a 25 percent collapse in tourism receipts for SIDS as a group could decrease their GDP by US$7.4 billion, or 7.3 percent on average. For SIDS such as Maldives and the Seychelles that rely on tourism for over 50 percent of their GDP, the pandemic could have caused a contraction of up to 16 percent of GDP. These sharp declines in economic output are primarily due to previously bustling resorts becoming ghost towns and the loss of tourist spending in local businesses.

Overall, the reduction in commodity exports, and the sharp decline in tourism, deeply affected the SIDS group. The GDP of these island countries was expected to contract 6.9 percent in 2020. This number is significant in itself, but it jumps out even more when it is compared to the global average of just 6 percent and 1.7 percent for the least developed countries.

Although COVID-19 had disastrous consequences for SIDS as a group, it also revealed some opportunities. Indeed, the pandemic drew special attention to the precarious state of SIDS economies and provided them with an opportunity to initiate or accelerate economic diversification. In particular, many have been taking steps towards a blue economy, which is defined by the World Bank as the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of ocean ecosystems. For example, the blue economy comprises sectors such as fishery and aquaculture, maritime transportation, coastal tourism, and renewable energy.

Economic Diversification

The macroeconomic shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the realization that similar shock could happen again, was a wake-up call for SIDS that rely primarily on tourism to finally seriously consider economic diversification, a key element of a blue economy. To foster economic diversification and resilience, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) suggests that SIDS turn towards their oceans to find new economic opportunities. One such way to do this is to fund research and development efforts in the fishing and aquaculture industries. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) also recommends investing in subsea mining, water desalination, renewable energy, and the bioprospecting of marine genetic resources for pharmaceutical or chemical applications.

Sustainable Tourism Industry

Another important step towards a blue economy is the development of the sustainable tourism industry, an industry whose objective is to advance the socio-economic status of a countrys inhabitants and highlight a country's national features while also preserving its natural ecosystems. The need to invest in sustainable tourism was recognized by stakeholders of this industry, who took the pandemic-induced downtime to collaborate and develop ideas for novel and more effective business practices.

The Pacific Sustainable Tourism Policy Framework, for example, provides a road map to help Pacific countries develop their sustainable tourism industries. This framework, published in April 2021 and supported by SIDS in the Pacific, offers concrete suggestions for supporting sustainable tourism. Some of these suggestions are to reduce carbon emissions by transitioning to renewable energy and to improve resource efficiency by implementing better water and waste management processes. Another priority of this framework is to position this regions unique destinations and quality experiences in tourism advertising materials as being environmentally conscious.

Not only do countries need to invest in their respective sustainable tourism industries, but demand for sustainable tourism also needs to be accelerated. One way of doing this would be using multichannel marketing, and focusing on promotion via social media to highlight the positive benefits of sustainable tourism. The United Nations also stresses the importance of establishing and maintaining strong partnerships with organizations that have conservation at the core of their mission. These partnerships are beneficial to the sustainable tourism industry as they popularize responsible travel and make people aware of the importance of this industry. For example, National Geographic Expeditions supports sustainable tourism by organizing trips that are aligned with the principles of this industry.

In short, while the COVID-19 pandemic had disastrous consequences for SIDS, it also provided them with an opportunity to become economically resilient, and thus reduce their vulnerability to future macroeconomic shocks.

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Small Island Developing States: Looking Past the COVID-19 Pandemic - Harvard International Review