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  • Israel, with boost from Germany, blasts allegations of genocide against Palestinians at top U.N. court hearing
    https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2024-01-12/israel-un-court-hague-rejects-genocide-allegations

    Je comprends mieux l’ironie de l’illustration postée par @Kassem (https://seenthis.net/messages/1036222) maintenant que je découvre que l’Allemagne demande à intervenir à la Cour internationale de justice (en tant qu’Etat tiers) pour déclarer qu’il n’y a aucun fondement aux accusations de génocide à Gaza...

    On Friday afternoon, Germany said it wants to intervene in the proceedings on Israel’s behalf, saying there was “no basis whatsoever” for an accusation of genocide against Israel.

    “Hamas terrorists brutally attacked, tortured, killed and kidnapped innocent people in Israel,” German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in a statement. “Since then, Israel has been defending itself against the inhumane attack by Hamas.”

    He acknowledged that various countries view Israel’s actions in Gaza differently but that Germany expressly rejects the accusations of genocide.

    Under the court’s rules, if Germany files a declaration of intervention in the case, it will be able to make legal arguments on behalf of Israel.

    Germany would be allowed to intervene at the merits phase of the case to address how the genocide convention, drawn up in 1948 after World War II, should be interpreted, according to international lawyer Balkees Jarrah, associate director of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch.

    “That would come after the court issues its decision on South Africa’s request for urgent measures to protect the Palestinian people in Gaza,” Jarrah told the Associated Press from The Hague, where she attended the ICJ hearings.

    Germany’s support for Israel carries some symbolic significance given its Nazi history.

    Hebestreit said Germany “sees itself as particularly committed to the Convention against Genocide.” He added: “We firmly oppose political instrumentalization.”

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the announcement, saying the gesture “touches all of Israel’s citizens."

  • Quand même.

    Editorial: Cease-fire now. The killing in Gaza must stop - Los Angeles Times
    https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-11-16/editorial-ceasefire-now-the-killing-in-gaza-must-stop

    When so-called humanitarian pauses in the bombardment and ground operations are too brief to realistically permit innocents to flee, or when there is no place for non-combatants to go that is not also in the line of fire, such pauses are so deficient as to be meaningless.

    It is time for a cease-fire. It is time for the Biden administration to assert strong and sustained pressure on the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to stop attacks that have reportedly already killed more than 11,000 Gazans. The world cannot stand by to witness more slaughter of civilians.

  • Des soignants racontent comment ils se sont forgé une conviction sur l’#euthanasie : « C’est moi qui vais m’en rappeler tous les jours de ma vie »
    https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2023/11/14/euthanasie-face-au-geste-letal-paroles-de-medecins_6199974_3224.html

    Alors que le gouvernement peaufine son projet d’évolution de la loi, des praticiens racontent comment leur pratique auprès des malades, leurs dilemmes et des histoires intimes leur ont permis de se forger une opinion. Certains estiment que leur rôle est d’accompagner leurs patients jusqu’à répondre à leur demande de mourir, d’autres s’y opposent.

    https://archive.ph/HGgdk

    Fin de vie : « Mesure-t-on le risque d’ouvrir le chantier vertigineux de la légitimité de la demande d’accéder à la mort ? »
    https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2023/11/12/fin-de-vie-mesure-t-on-le-risque-d-ouvrir-le-chantier-vertigineux-de-la-legi

    Si chaque individu est « libre » de mettre fin à sa vie, ce geste n’est cependant ni un droit ni une liberté au sens juridique du terme, aucun instrument juridique ne le garantissant. Au contraire, notre droit oblige à secourir la personne qui tente de mettre fin à sa vie. Quelles que soient les motivations profondes d’un geste suicidaire, le niveau de clairvoyance de son auteur et l’autonomie de sa volonté, le code pénal sanctionne pour non-assistance à personne en danger celui qui n’aurait pas tenté de sauver une personne confrontée à un péril imminent.
    La loi autorise même, dans des cadres strictement définis, à hospitaliser sans son consentement une personne pour le soigner d’une dépression lui ôtant toute envie de vivre et la prive de discernement. Dans la même veine, les acteurs du soin engagent leur responsabilité pénale lorsqu’ils manquent à leurs obligations de surveillance et que le patient hospitalisé dont ils ont la charge met fin à ses jours.

    Fixer des critères légaux

    Ce corpus de règles témoigne de deux valeurs essentielles qui fondent notre contrat social et irriguent tout le droit : le caractère primordial de la vie et le #devoir_de_solidarité. De ces valeurs croisées et absolues – car aucun jugement subjectif sur le type de vie que la société souhaite soutenir ne commande leurs mises en œuvre – découlent des droits subjectifs en faveur des personnes vulnérables, des politiques de prise en charge du handicap et de prévention du #suicide. Ces dernières sont capitales dans un pays comme la France, où le taux de suicide par habitant est un des plus élevés d’Europe.
    Si la loi devait dorénavant garantir à l’individu la liberté de se suicider et à autrui le devoir de l’y assister au nom du respect de sa volonté, comment ces droits et obligations se concilieront-ils ? A l’évidence, les partisans de la réforme ne souhaitent pas l’abandon des politiques en faveur des plus fragiles.

    Pour autant, la seule façon de maintenir une cohérence d’ensemble sera de fixer des critères légaux qui encadreront strictement ce droit. Se posera ipso facto une question plus difficile encore : celle de savoir qui, aux yeux de la loi, est légitime à obtenir une #aide_à_mourir. La personne en fin de vie que rien ne soulage ? La jeune fille anorexique qui refuse obstinément de manger et dont la vie ne tient plus qu’à un fil ? La personne qui n’est pas en fin de vie mais dont les souffrances morales et la perspective de la maladie lui ont définitivement ôté toute envie de vivre ? Le détenu condamné à des années de prison qui, en conscience, ne souhaite plus continuer ? Le vieillard sénile qui avait demandé à recevoir une aide au suicide s’il devenait dément ?

    https://archive.ph/0SL5x

    Aide active à mourir : « Il n’est pas nécessaire d’attendre une situation d’échec thérapeutique pour se poser la question de la fin de vie d’un patient »
    https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2023/11/09/aide-active-a-mourir-il-n-est-pas-necessaire-d-attendre-une-situation-d-eche

    Les spécialistes des questions éthiques dans le domaine médical Bernard Baertschi, Jean-Charles Duclos-Vallée et Antoine Glauzy, invitent, dans une tribune au « Monde », à repenser les conditions de l’acte censé conduire le patient vers la #mort en considérant le médecin comme un accompagnateur fournissant une « aide ».

    https://archive.ph/oHPAm

    • En Belgique l’euthanasie est autorisée. J’etais assez enthousiaste sur l’idée mais il y a ce cas concret qui me fait exploser le cerveau.

      Une Belge de 50 ans a obtenu le droit de mourir. Il y a deux ans, ne supportant plus de vivre à cause d’un viol, elle a déposé une demande d’euthanasie.

      https://www.lepoint.fr/monde/belgique-l-euthanasie-accordee-a-une-femme-apres-un-viol-06-03-2023-2511005_

      Les femmes font plus de tentatives de suicide mais se ratent plus que les hommes qui ont accès à des méthodes plus efficace (arme à feu en particulier) et les femmes ont plus le soucis de la personne qui découvrira leur dépouille. Avec une methode telle que celle ci je pense que le sexe ratio va basculé sans avoir besoin d’IVG selectifs. Entre les viols subit dès l’enfance, l’inceste massif, les violences par conjoint, et la grande pauvreté passé 50 ans qui va aller en s’agravant cf- https://seenthis.net/messages/1026656

      Ca peut être un beau cadeau d’anniversaire pour les femmes à leurs 18 ans, un permis de ne plus subir leur ressenti de femme. En y repensant c’est pas si triste, l’extinction des femmes est le meilleur moyen de nous débarrassé de l’hommerie. Je vais me refaire Soleil vert en attendant que la Macronny ne m’en serve à la soupe populaire.

    • l’aide à mourir est une liberté et un droit qui peut sombrer dans l’eugénisme et une technicisation accrue de la médecine, comme le souligne la tribune ci-dessus qui évoque un « chantier vertigineux »

      https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aide_médicale_à_mourir_au_Canada

      D’après le journaliste Leyland Cecco, écrivant dans le journal The Guardian, des Canadiens malades et vivant dans la pauvreté se seraient sentis contraints à recourir à l’aide médicale à mourir depuis l’élargissement des critères d’accès de la loi14.

      « [TRADUCTION] En février, une Ontarienne de 51 ans connue sous le nom de Sophia a obtenu l’aide médicale à mourir après que sa maladie chronique soit devenue intolérable et que sa maigre allocation d’invalidité lui laissait peu de moyens de subsistance, selon CTV News.

      "Le gouvernement me considère comme une poubelle inutile, une plaignante, inutile et une emmerdeuse", a-t-elle déclaré dans une vidéo obtenue par le réseau. Pendant deux ans, elle et des amis ont plaidé sans succès pour de meilleures conditions de vie, a-t-elle dit. »

      exemples internationaux depuis le cas canadien
      Experts troubled by Canada’s euthanasia laws
      https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-08-11/disturbing-experts-troubled-by-canadas-euthanasia-laws

      le règne de l’économie fera(it) que seules les personnes bien munies, entourées ou susceptibles de nouer des relations thérapeutiques où la relation asymétrique avec le pouvoir médical reste contrôlable disposeraient d’un droit à mourir qui ne soit pas une forme d’élimination, élimination partiellement autogérée ("je coûte trop cher, tout ça ne sert à rien", etc.).

      #épineux

  • This Russian exile fights Putin’s imperialism. If you don’t want to hear from him, he gets it
    https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2023-07-25/mikhail-zugar-war-and-punishment-book-on-russian-imperialism

    Une histoire de dingues.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXqPNlng6uI&pp=ygURdGhlIGVuZCA1aGUgZG9pcnM%3D


    The killer awoke before dawn / he put his boots on".

    Quand on a été élevé dans un monde laïque ou protestant modéré on a du mal à voir l’importance des mythes et religions pour les gens moins éclairés et plus malheureux. La raison compte peu pour le développement de la pensée qui se laisse inspirer par les mythologies au service du pouvoir.

    Pour le camp bourgeois l’impérialisme est quelque chose de culturel, une émanation de l’âme slave cruelle avide de pouvoir. C’est un Russe qui vous le dit, alors ça doit être vrai, enfin parce que c’est notre Russe apprivoisé à nous.

    C’est une belle image qui sert parfaitement l’intention de définir l’action impérialiste états-unienne comme civilisatrice. Chez Zygar on est loin du travail de Lénine et des autres économistes et chercheurs socialistes qui par leur analyses des relation économiques et militaires entre les pays et les classes nous ont ouvert les yeux sur les raisons de la souffrance humaine au vingtième siècle.

    L’époque impérialiste est en train de se révéler comme l’anthropocène / le capitalocène qui se terminera vraisemblablement avec l’éradication de l’espèce humaine. Heureusement qu’il y a les nouveaux griots avec leurs histoires et mythes pour nous dire qu’il y a des bons et des mauvais qui représentent ce qui est notre essence humaine éternelle, et croyez moi mes enfants, le bien triomphera sur les forces des tenèbres slaves car dieu, enfin notre dieu à nous, le veut, DEUS VULT.

    Pour les tarés religeux à Dallas et Washington il a fallu un Cyrille de Moscou et son fidèle Poutine pour les exiter davantage que l’extase des prières contre les mollahs de Téhéran. Zygar étoffe leur conte abominable avec plein de détails afin de faire avaler le récit aux amateurs de l’american way of life moins fanatiques.

    25.7.2024 by Stuart Miller - On the Shelf : War and Punishment: Putin, Zelensky, and the Path to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

    Russian dissident Mikhail Zugar on his book ’War and Punishment’

    Mikhail Zygar was the founding editor in chief of TV Rain, Russia’s lone independent news television station until it went into exile in 2022, and the author of “All the Kremlin’s Men” and “The Empire Must Die.” But when Russia invaded Ukraine, his friend Nadia, who is Ukrainian, stopped speaking to him, considering him an “imperialist,” never mind that he wrote much of that first book at her home.

    On the one hand, Zygar knows that’s unfair. “It is a mistake to blame everyone who has a Russian passport, and it might be counterproductive,” he said in an interview from London, where he’s doing press for his new book, “War and Punishment: Putin, Zelensky, and the Path to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine.”

    When I asked whether it was fear for his personal safety or the inability to pursue independent journalism in Russia that led him to move to Berlin last year, he says those reasons were both secondary. “I felt a sense of moral obligation,” he explains. “You could not live in Hitler’s Germany; you cannot live in Putin’s Russia. It’s just impossible.”

    And yet he doesn’t strongly protest Nadia’s reproach. “I will never argue with a Ukrainian before the war is over,” he says. Indeed, the first sentences of his book take Nadia’s side: “This book is a confession,” he starts, saying that every Russian who let Putin continue down his path bears some responsibility for the war.

    But Zygar at least feels he has taken up arms: “The goal of this book is to fight imperialism.” To change the future, the author believes we must understand the past. He opens his book in the 1600s, well before Russia or Ukraine were countries with set borders and identities, and he writes entirely in the present tense as he journeys through the centuries.

    “I think it’s important to try and imagine those historical figures as real people, as today’s politicians,” he explains. “They were humans like us, not monuments made of bronze.”

    While there’s plenty of Ukrainian history in the book, Zygar says there are more complete histories of that country. “I’m not writing about Ukraine, I’m writing about Russia,” he says. “It’s like writing a crime story through the eyes of the criminal. It’s the history of Russian crimes.”

    The long, detailed and complicated history may confound Westerners, but Zygar’s target audience is Russians, people who have been “brainwashed” for hundreds of years.

    “They have to understand that imperialistic propaganda is the reason for this war,” he says. “We need to stop trying to understand Putin’s motivations — there’s no history that can justify his brutality. Destroying the imperialist idea is the only possibility for Russia to become a decent, democratic nation. That’s going to take a lot of time.”

    Zygar, who has been labeled a “foreign agent” by Putin’s government, won’t be doing a book signing in Moscow any time soon, but he says the book will be smuggled in digitally. “The only way any independent work is seen in Russia now is that way, through social media or YouTube and other sites,” he says. “I’m much more privileged than my colleagues in the Soviet era, when people had to copy books by hand to pass around.”
    The cover of Mikhail Zygar’s “War and Punishment” includes close crops of Vladimir Putin’s and Volodymyr Zelensky’s eyes.

    The government has not yet banned his previous books, simply slapping stickers on them reading, essentially, “Don’t buy this. It’s written by a foreign agent.” That, of course, has boosted sales. “Everybody wants to read the dangerous books before they’re completely forbidden,” he says.

    For all its historical scope, the book is largely focused on the post-Soviet era, with characters ranging from Boris Yeltsin to Paul Manafort. Zygar says he is always asking himself “What if” questions. “There were a lot of possibilities to have a different history and different outcome,” he says, noting that in 2000 Putin wanted Russia to join NATO. “What if that idea had been accepted — there was a chance to prevent him from becoming this bloody dictator.”

    He also argues that President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq was an inspiration for Putin’s subsequent strongman behavior in Ukraine. And he believes the now-cornered leader is buying time, hoping Donald Trump gets reelected. “He thinks if Trump wins it can save him,” he says. “Do they have a Plan B? I don’t think so.”

    He quickly adds, though, that the West doesn’t bear the blame for the war. “The biggest blame goes to Putin, then the Russian system and the oligarchs.”

    Nor does he blame only leaders. In the first paragraph of “War and Punishment,” he writes: “Regrettably Russian culture is also to blame for making all these horrors possible.” And throughout the book, he examines the views and influence of cherished Russian literary lions such as Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Joseph Brodsky.

    “In Russian society, even liberal Russians who oppose the war have a tendency to say please don’t touch our special culture, please don’t touch Pushkin, he is our saint,” Zygar says.

    Zygar calls not for cancellation but for reckoning, just as the British have reexamined Rudyard Kipling and other imperialists. “If we want to heal ourselves from the disease our nation is suffering from, then we need to be honest with ourselves,” he says. “We have to admit that the idea of Russian exceptionalism and greatness can be poisonous and that great Russian literature is to partly blame.”

    The landscape in Russia has shifted even since Zygar finished writing, most recently with the Wagner mercenaries’ semi-rebellion. “This war is making the decay of this regime happen much quicker and Putin is not the same person he used to be,” Zygar says.

    A post-Putin era may arrive sooner rather than later — and the country may be destabilized or even slide into civil war, Zygar says — but nothing would change his call for a reset on Russia’s understanding of itself.

    “I don’t believe Russia is doomed to be a dictatorship, that an empire is the only way,” he says. “I believed in the true possibility of change during the protests in 2012, but I was wrong. We’ve had a lot of chances. I hope they are not gone forever.”

    #Russie #mythes #religion

  • Joe Biden corrigé par la Maison Blanche [concernant les hallucinations de l’halluciné Joe Biden qui a assuré avoir vu les photos de bébés décapités]
    https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/international/article/joe-biden-corrige-par-la-maison-blanche-sur-le-kibboutz-de-kfar-aza-v

    La phrase de Joe Biden a été prononcée lors d’un discours après une rencontre avec des représentants de la communauté juive aux États-Unis, comme vous pouvez le voir ci-dessous. « Je n’ai jamais vu ça dans ma carrière », déplorait-il.

    Or plus tard, un porte-parole de la Maison Blanche a corrigé auprès du Washington Post.

    En fait, le président américain n’a pas vu de photos ni n’a eu la confirmation de ces exactions. Joe Biden aurait simplement relayé les propos d’un porte-parole du Premier ministre israélien Benjamin Netanyahu et les informations circulant dans les médias.

    #sans_vergogne #sick_president
    #sick_MSM

  • California’s struggle for clean water is getting harder - Los Angeles Times
    https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-09-27/californias-struggle-for-clean-water-is-getting-harder

    “The issue is, [the human right to water] is a moral obligation more than a legal obligation,” said Mark Gold, director of water scarcity solutions for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “That’s why you see the results that we’ve had. Unless there’s a legal obligation to clean up the water supply and provide it to your residents, then we end up perpetuating the system that we have, which is environmental racism.”

    #eau #eau_potable #toxiques #états-unis #priorités #milliers_de_milliards #leadership #racisme_environnemental

  • Was the Oppenheimer test site unpopulated? - Los Angeles Times
    https://www.latimes.com/delos/story/2023-07-26/oppenheimer-atomic-bomb-new-mexico-cancer-aftermath

    In the film, both the test site and the Los Alamos Laboratory in Northern New Mexico are remote, unpopulated areas — a depiction that’s largely in line with most historical accounts of the Manhattan Project. The reality is starkly different. The land acquired by the U.S. government to build and test the bomb was occupied, as was the 150-mile radius surrounding the Trinity Test — areas settled predominantly by Hispanic and Native American ranchers and homesteaders.

    #mensonges #crimes #bombe #sans_vergogne

  • Editorial: Hoping fossil fuel giants will see the light on climate hasn’t worked. Change only comes with mandates and force
    https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-07-21/editorial-its-not-enough-to-be-frenemies-with-fossil-fuel-companies-we-have

    It should be obvious by now that fossil fuel companies have no real plans to change in response to the climate crisis. And that the only way forward is without them.

    [...]

    It would be delusional to expect the trajectory to change without a fundamental shift in our economic system, including moving on from the companies that profit from the continued extraction and burning of hydrocarbons.

    If only it were that easy, right? But politicians, who are often financially beholden to these planet-wrecking industries, have wasted decades with denial, delay tactics or outright hostility to anything more than incremental steps.

    It’s alarming to see the extent to which fossil fuel industries have captured institutions responsible for slowing climate change. This year’s United Nations climate summit in Dubai is being hosted by an oil executive, which is like the climate equivalent of letting arms dealers hold peace talks. Instead of propping up and legitimizing fossil fuel companies, we ought to be stigmatizing them as morally repugnant for continuing to add fuel to a house that’s on fire.

  • Il costo nascosto dell’avocado e le nuove “zone di sacrificio” nelle mire dei grandi produttori

    La produzione globale del frutto viaggia verso le 12 milioni di tonnellate nel 2030. Le monocolture intensive interessano sempre più Paesi, compromettendo falde e biodiversità. Dalla Colombia allo Sri Lanka, dal Vietnam al Malawi. Grain ha analizzato la paradigmatica situazione del Messico, dove si concentra il 40% della produzione.

    “La salsa guacamole che viene consumata durante il Super bowl potrebbe riempire 30 milioni di caschi da football”. La stima è di Armando López, direttore esecutivo dell’Associazione messicana dei coltivatori, confezionatori ed esportatori di avocado, che in occasione della finale del campionato di football americano del 12 febbraio scorso ha pagato quasi sette miliardi di dollari per avere uno spazio pubblicitario in occasione dell’evento sportivo più seguito degli Stati Uniti.

    Solo pochi giorni prima, il 2 febbraio, era stata presentata una denuncia contro il governo del Messico presso la Commissione trilaterale per la cooperazione ambientale (organismo istituito nell’ambito dell’accoro di libero scambio tra il Paese, Stati Uniti e Canada) per non aver fatto rispettare le proprie leggi sulla deforestazione, la conservazione delle acque e l’uso del suolo.

    La notizia ha trovato spazio per qualche giorno sui media statunitensi proprio per la concomitanza con il Super bowl, il momento in cui il consumo della salsa a base di avocado tocca il picco. Ed è anche il punto partenza del report “The avocados of wrath” curato da Grain, rete di organizzazioni che lavorano per sostenere i piccoli agricoltori e i movimenti sociali, e dall’organizzazione messicana Colectivo por la autonomia, che torna a lanciare l’allarme sull’altissimo costo ambientale di questo frutto.

    La denuncia presentata alla Commissione trilaterale si concentra sulla situazione nello Stato del Michoacán, che produce il 75% degli avocado messicani. Qui tra il 2000 e il 2020 la superficie dedicata alla coltura è passata da 78mila a 169mila ettari a scapito delle foreste di abeti locali. Oltre alla deforestazione, il documento pone in rilievo lo sfruttamento selvaggio delle risorse idriche, oltre a un uso eccessivo di fertilizzanti e pesticidi che compromettono le falde sotterranee, i fiumi e i torrenti nelle aree limitrofe alle piantagioni.

    “Il Messico non riesce ad applicare efficacemente le sue leggi ambientali per proteggere gli ecosistemi forestali e la qualità dell’acqua dagli impatti ambientali negativi della produzione di avocado nel Michoacán”, denunciano i curatori. Il Paese nordamericano “non sta rispettando le disposizioni della Costituzione messicana e le varie leggi federali sulla valutazione dell’impatto ambientale, la conservazione delle foreste, lo sviluppo sostenibile, la qualità dell’acqua, il cambiamento climatico e la protezione dell’ambiente”.

    Questa vicenda giudiziaria, di cui non si conoscono ancora gli esiti, rappresenta per Grain un’occasione per guardare più da vicino il Paese e la produzione dell’avocado, diventato negli ultimi anni il terzo frutto più commercializzato al mondo, dopo banana e ananas: nel 2021 la produzione globale di questo frutto, infatti, ha raggiunto quota 8,8 milioni di tonnellate (si stima che possa raggiungere le 12 milioni di tonnellate nel 2030) e il 40% si concentra proprio in Messico, una quota che secondo le stime della Fao potrebbe arrivare al 63% entro il 2030.

    Statunitensi ed europei importano circa il 70% della produzione globale e la domanda è in continua crescita anche per effetto di intense campagne di marketing che ne promuovono i benefici nutrizionali. Di conseguenza dal 2011 a oggi le piantagioni di avocado hanno moltiplicato per quattro la loro superficie in Paesi come Colombia, Haiti, Marocco e Repubblica Dominicana. In Sri Lanka la superficie è aumentata di cinque volte. La produzione intensiva è stata avviata anche in Vietnam e Malawi che oggi rientrano tra i primi venti produttori a livello globale.

    Il mercato di questo frutto vale circa 14 miliardi di dollari e potrebbe toccare i 30 miliardi nel 2030: “La maggiore quota di profitti -riporta Grain- vanno a una manciata di gruppi imprenditoriali, fortemente integrati verticalmente e che continuano a espandersi in nuovi Paesi, dove stanno aprendo succursali”. È il caso, ad esempio, delle società californiane Misison Produce e Calvaro Growers. La prima ha aumentato costantemente le sue vendite nel corso degli ultimi anni, fino a superare di poco il miliardo dollari nel 2022, mentre la seconda ha registrato nello stesso anno vendite per 1,1 miliardi.

    “Queste aziende hanno basato la loro espansione su investimenti da parte di pesi massimi del mondo della finanza -scrive Grain-. Mission Produce e Calavo Growers sono quotate alla Borsa di New York e stanno attirando investimenti da parte di fondi hedge come BlackRock e Vanguard. Stiamo assistendo all’ingresso di fondi di private equity e fondi pensione nel settore degli avocado. Mission Produce, ad esempio, si è unita alla società di private equity Criterion Africa partners per lanciare la produzione di oltre mille ettari di avocado a Selokwe, in Sudafrica”.

    Per Grain guardare da vicino a quello che è accaduto in Messico e al modello produttivo messo in atto dalle aziende dell’agribusiness californiane è utile per comprendere a pieno i rischi che incombono sui Paesi che solo in anni recenti hanno avviato la coltivazione del frutto. Lo sguardo si concentra in particolare sullo Stato del Michoacán dove il boom delle piantagioni è avvenuto a scapito della distruzione delle foreste locali, consumando le risorse idriche di intere regioni e a un costo sociale altissimo.

    Secondo i dati di Grain, ogni ettaro coltivato ad avocado in Messico consuma circa 100mila litri di acqua al mese. Si stima che Perù, Sudafrica, Cile, Israele e Spagna utilizzino 25 milioni di metri cubi d’acqua, l’equivalente di 10mila piscine olimpioniche, per produrre gli avocado importati nel Regno Unito. “Mentre continua a spremere le ultime falde già esaurite in Messico, California e Cile, l’industria del settore sta migrando verso altre ‘zone di sacrificio’ -si legge nel report-. Per irrigare l’arida Valle di Olmos in Perù, dove operano le aziende californiane, il governo locale ha realizzato uno dei megaprogetti più contestati e segnati dalla corruzione del Paese: un tunnel di venti chilometri che attraversa la cordigliera delle Ande per portare l’acqua deviata dal fiume Huancabamba a Olmos”. All’eccessivo sfruttamento delle risorse idriche si aggiunge poi il massiccio utilizzo di prodotti chimici nelle piantagioni: nel solo Michoacán, la coltura dell’avocado si porta dietro ogni anno 450mila litri di insetticidi, 900mila tonnellate di fungicidi e 30mila tonnellate di fertilizzanti.

    https://altreconomia.it/il-costo-nascosto-dellavocado-e-le-nuove-zone-di-sacrificio-nelle-mire-
    #avocat #agriculture #Mexique #globalisation #mondialisation #cartographie #visualisation #Michoacán #déforestation #produits_phytosanitaires #fertilisants #pesticides #plantation #fruits #Misison_Produce #Calvaro_Growers #multinationales #financiarisation #bourse #hedge_funds #private_equity #Criterion_Africa #industrie_agro-alimentaire #eau #Pérou #Huancabamba #Olmos #exploitation #insecticides

    • The Avocados of Wrath

      This little orchard will be part of a great holding next year, for the debt will have choked the owner. This vineyard will belong to the bank. Only the great owners can survive, for they own the canneries too... Men who have created new fruits in the world cannot create a system whereby their fruits may be eaten… In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”

      So wrote John Steinbeck when, perhaps for the first time, the immense devastation provoked by capitalist agribusiness, the subsequent expulsion of peasant families from the Midwest, and their arrival in California in the 1930s became visible.[1] Perhaps, if he were writing today, he would replace grapes with avocados. The business model for this popular tropical fruit is the epitome of agribusiness recrudescent, causing rampant deforestation and water diversion, the eradication of other modes of agriculture, and the expulsion of entire communities from the land.

      Avocados are, after bananas and pineapples, the world’s third-largest fruit commodity. Their production is taking up an ever-growing area and continually expanding into new countries. What are the implications of this worldwide expansion? What forces are driving it? How does this model, working on both global and local scales, manage to keep prices high? How did the current boom, with avocados featured at major sporting events and celebrations of all kinds, come to pass? What are the social repercussions of this opaque business?

      We begin the story on 12 February 2023 in Kansas City at the 57th Super Bowl, American football’s premier annual event. A month earlier, more than 2000 km away in Michoacán, Mexico, tens of thousands of tons of avocados were being packed for shipping. The United States imports 40% of global avocado production and the Super Bowl is when consumption peaks. “The guacamole eaten during the Super Bowl alone would fill 30 million football helmets,” says Armando López, executive director of the Mexican Association of Avocado Growers, Packers, and Exporters (APEAM), which paid nearly $7 million for a Super Bowl ad.[2]

      Despite its limited coverage in US media, the dark side of avocado production was the unwelcome guest at this year’s event. A complaint against the Government of Mexico had recently been filed with the Commission for Environmental Cooperation under the USMCA, accusing the government of tolerating the ecocidal impacts of avocado production in Michoacán.[3]

      Mexico can be seen as a proving ground for today’s avocado industry. Focusing on this country helps tell the story of how the avocado tree went from being a relic of evolutionary history to its current status as an upstart commodity characterized by violence and media-driven consumerism.

      Booming world production

      For a decade now, avocados have been the growth leaders among tropical fruit commodities.[4] Mexico, the world’s largest exporter, accounts for 40% of total production. According to OECD and FAO projections, this proportion could reach 63% in 2030. The United States absorbs 80% of Mexican avocado exports, but production is ramping up in many other countries.

      In 2021, global production reached 8.8 million tons, one third of which was exported, for a value of $7.4 billion. By 2030, production is expected to reach 12 million tons. Within a decade, the average area under cultivation doubled in the world’s ten largest producer countries (see Figure 1). It quadrupled in Colombia, Haiti, Morocco, and the Dominican Republic, and quintupled in Zimbabwe. Production has taken off at a gallop in Malawi and Vietnam as well, with both countries now ranking among the top 20 avocado producers.

      The top 10 countries account for 80% of total production. In some of these, such as Mexico, Peru, Chile, and Kenya (see Table 1), the crop is largely grown for export. Its main markets are the United States and Europe, which together make up 70% of global imports. While Mexico supplies its neighbour to the north all year long, the avocados going to Europe come from Peru, South Africa, and Kenya in the summer and from Chile, Mexico, Israel, and Spain in the winter.[5] The Netherlands, as the main port of entry for the European Union, has become the world’s third-leading exporter.

      Other markets are rapidly opening up in Asia. Kenya, Ethiopia, and recently Tanzania have begun exporting to India and China,[6] while Chinese imports from Peru, Mexico, and Chile are also on the rise. In 2021, despite the pandemic, these imports surpassed 41,000 tons.[7] In addition, US avocado companies have begun cutting costs by sourcing from China, Yunnan province in particular.[8]

      The multimillion dollar “#green_gold” industry

      According to some estimates, the global avocado market was worth $14 billion in 2021 and could reach $30 billion by 2030.[10] The biggest profits go to a handful of vertically integrated groups that are continuing to fan out to new countries, where they are setting up subsidiaries. They have also tightened their control over importers in the main global hubs.
      For two examples, consider the California-based Mission Produce and Calavo Growers. In 2021, Mission Produce reported sales equivalent to 3% of global production,[11] and its sales have risen steadily over the last decade, reaching $1.045 billion in 2022.[12] The United States buys 80% of the company’s volume, with Europe, Japan, and China being other large customers, and it imports from Peru, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, South Africa, Kenya, Morocco, and Israel. It controls 8600 hectares in Peru, Guatemala, and Colombia.[13]

      Calavo Growers, for its part, had total sales of $1.191 billion in 2022.[14] More than half its revenues came from packing and distribution of Mexican, US, Peruvian, and Colombian avocados.[15] The United States is far and away its biggest market, but in 2021 it began stepping up Mexican exports to Europe and Asia.[16]

      South Africa-based Westfalia Fruits is another relevant company in the sector. It has 1200 hectares in South Africa and is expanding to other African and Latin American countries. It controls 1400 hectares in Mozambique and has taken over large exporters such as Aztecavo (Mexico), Camet (Peru), and Agricom (Chile).[17] Its main markets are Europe, the United States, South America, and Asia.[18] Some of its subsidiaries are incorporated in the tax haven of Delaware, and it has acquired importers in the UK and Germany.[19]

      These companies have based their expansion on investment from heavyweight players in the world of finance. Mission Produce and Calavo Growers are listed on the New York Stock Exchange and are attracting investment from such concerns as BlackRock and The Vanguard Group.[20] We are also seeing private equity, endowment, and pension funds moving into avocados; Mission Produce, for example, joined with private equity firm Criterion Africa Partners to launch production of over 1000 hectares of avocados in Selokwe (South Africa).[21]

      In 2020, Westfalia sold shares in Harvard Management Company, the company that manages Harvard University’s endowment fund.[22] Also involved is the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which in 2017 acquired Australia’s second-largest avocado grower, Jasper Farms. PSP Investments, which manages Canada’s public service sector pensions, made a controversial acquisition of 16,500 hectares in Hawaii for production of avocado, among other crops, and faces grave accusations deriving from its efforts to monopolize the region’s water supply.[23]

      Finally, it has to be emphasized that the expansion enjoyed by these companies has been aided by public funding. For example, South Africa’s publicly owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) have supported Westfalia’s incursions into Africa and Latin America under the guise of international development.[24]

      A proving ground for profit and devastation

      To take the full measure of the risks looming over the new areas being brought under the industrial avocado model, it is important to read Mexico as a proving ground of sorts. The country has become the world’s largest producer through a process bound up with the dynamics of agribusiness in California, where avocado production took its first steps in the early twentieth century. The US market grew rapidly, protected from Mexican imports by a 1914 ban predicated on an alleged threat of pests coming into the country.

      This was the genesis of Calavo Growers (1924) and Henry Avocado (1925). California began exporting to Europe and expanding the area under cultivation, reaching a peak of 30,000 hectares in the mid-1980s, when Chile began competing for the same markets.[29] It was then that consortia of California avocado producers founded West Pak and Mission Produce, and the latter of these soon began operations as an importer of Chilean avocados. In 1997, 60% of US avocado purchases came from Chile, but the business collapsed with the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).[30] Lobbying by APEAM and the US companies then led to the lifting of the ban on Mexican imports. With liberalization under NAFTA, Mexican avocado exports multiplied by a factor of 13, and their commercial value by a factor of 40, in the first two decades of the twenty-first century.

      The California corporations set up subsidiaries in Mexico and began buying directly from growers, going as far as to build their own packing plants in Michoacán.[31] One study found that by 2005, Mission Produce, Calavo Growers, West Pak, Del Monte, Fresh Directions, and Chiquita had cornered 80% of US avocado imports from Mexico.[32]

      Today, the state of Michoacán monopolizes 75% of the nation’s production, followed by Jalisco with 10% and Mexico state with 5%.[33] In 2019, export-oriented agriculture was a high-profile player in the industry, with public policies being structured around its needs. And if the business had become so profitable, it was because of the strategies of domination that had been deployed by avocado agribusiness and the impacts of these strategies on peasant and community ways of life.[34] The Mexican avocado boom is now reliant on the felling of whole forests. In many cases these are burned down or clear-cut to make way for avocado groves, using up the water supply of localities or even whole regions. The societal costs are enormous.

      In 2021, Mexico produced some 2.5 million tons of avocados; within the preceding decade, nearly 100,000 hectares had been directly or indirectly deforested for the purpose.[35] In Michoacán alone, between 2000 and 2020, the area under avocados more than doubled, from 78,530.25 to 169,939.45 ha.[36] And reforestation cannot easily repair the damage caused by forest destruction: the ecological relationships on which biodiversity depends take a long time to evolve, and the recovery period is even longer after removal of vegetation, spraying of agrotoxins, and drying of the soil.

      In Jalisco, the last decade has seen a tripling of the area under avocado, agave, and berries, competing not only with peasants and the forests stewarded by original peoples, but also with cattle ranchers.[37] “Last year alone,” says Adalberto Velasco Antillón, president of the Jalisco ranchers’ association, “10,000 cattlemen (dairy and beef) went out of business.”[38]

      According to Dr. Ruth Ornelas, who studies the avocado phenomenon in Mexico, the business’s expansion has come in spite of its relative cost-inefficiency. “This is apparent in the price of the product. Extortion garners 1.4% of total revenues,… or 4 to 6 pesos per kilogram of avocados.” It is a tax of sorts, but one that is collected by the groups that control the business, not by the government.[39] According to Francisco Mayorga, minister of agriculture under Vicente Fox and Enrique Calderón, “they collect not only from the farmer but from the packer, the loggers, the logging trucks and the road builders. And they decide, depending on the payments, who gets to ship to Manzanillo, Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán and Jalisco. That’s because they have a monopoly on what is shipped to the world’s largest buyer, the United States.”[40]

      By collecting this toll at every link in the chain, they control the whole process, from grower to warehouse to packer to shipper, including refrigeration and the various modes of distribution. And not only do they collect at every step, but they also keep prices high by synchronizing supply from warehouse to consumer.

      Dr. Ornelas says, “They may try to persuade people, but where that doesn’t work, bribes and bullets do the trick. Organized crime functions like a police force in that it plays a certain role in protecting the players within the industry. It is the regulatory authority. It is the tax collector, the customs authority, and the just-in-time supplier. Sadly, the cartels have become a source of employment, hiring halcones [taxi drivers or shoeshine boys working as spies], chemists, and contract killers as required. It seems that they even have economists advising them on how to make the rules.” Mayorga adds: “When these groups are intermingled with governmental structures, there is a symbiosis among growers, criminals, vendors, and input suppliers. If somebody tries to opt out of the system, he may lose his phytosanitary certification and hence his ability to export.” Mayorga stresses that the criminals administer the market and impose a degree of order on it; they oversee the process at the domestic and international levels, “regulating the flow of product so that there is never a glut and prices stay high.” Investment and extortion are also conducive to money laundering. It is very hard to monitor who is investing in the product, how it is produced, and where it is going. Yet the government trumpets avocados as an agri-food success.

      Official data indicate that there are 27,712 farms under 10 hectares in Michoacán, involving 310,000 people and also employing 78,000 temporary workers.[41] These small farms have become enmeshed in avocado capitalism and the pressures it places on forests and water; more importantly, however, the climate of violence keeps the growers in line. In the absence of public policy and governmental controls, and with organized crime having a tight grip on supply chains and world prices, violence certainly plays a role in governance of the industry. But these groups are not the ones who run the show, for they themselves are vertically integrated into multidimensional relationships of violence. It is the investors and large suppliers, leveraged by the endowment, pension, and private equity funds, who keep avocado production expanding around the world.[42]

      A headlong rush down multiple paths

      The Mexican example alerts us to one of the main problems associated with avocado growing, and that is water use. In Mexico, each hectare consumes 100,000 litres per month, on top of the destruction of the biodiverse forests that help preserve the water cycle.[46] A whole other study ought to be devoted to the indiscriminate use of agrotoxins and the resulting groundwater contamination. In Michoacán alone, the avocado crop receives 450,000 litres of insecticides, 900,000 tons of fungicides, and 30,000 tons of fertilizers annually.[47]

      Wherever they are grown, avocados consume an astonishing volume of water. An estimated 25 million m³, or the equivalent of 10,000 Olympic swimming pools, are estimated to be used by Peru, South Africa, Chile, Israel, and Spain to produce the avocados imported into the UK.[48]

      California has maintained its 90% share of the US avocado market, but this situation is not predicted to endure beyond 2050.[49] California’s dire water crisis has been driven to a significant extent by the industrial production of avocados and other fruits, with climate change exacerbating the problem.[50]
      In the Chilean province of Petorca, which accounts for 60% of Chile’s avocado exports, the production of one kilogram of avocados requires 1280 litres of water. Water privatization by the Pinochet dictatorship in 1981 coincided with the rise of the country’s export industry and abetted the development of large plantations, which have drained the rivers and driven out peasant farming.[51] This appears to be one of the reasons why Chile is no longer self-sufficient in this commodity. “We import more than we export now,” said the director of Mission Produce, Steve Barnard, two years ago, stating that avocados were being brought in not only from Peru but also from California.[52]

      Even as it continues to squeeze the last drops of water out of depleted aquifers in Mexico, California, and Chile, the industry is migrating into other sacrifice zones.[53] To water the arid Olmos Valley in Peru, where California’s avocado companies operate, the Peruvian government developed one of the country’s most corrupt and conflict-ridden megaprojects: a 20-km tunnel through the Andes range, built in 2014, to deliver water diverted from the Huancabamba River to Olmos. The project was sold as an “opportunity to acquire farmland with water rights in Peru.”[54]

      Colombia was the next stop on the avocado train, with the crop spreading out across Antioquia and the coffee-growing region, and with even large mining interests joining forces with agribusiness.[55] “Peru is destined to replace much of its avocado land with citrus fruit, which is less water-intensive,” said Pedro Aguilar, manager of Westfalia Fruit Colombia, in 2020, although “water is becoming an absolutely marvelous investment draw, since it is cost-free in Colombia.”[56]

      Sowing the seeds of resistance

      If Mexico has been an experiment in devastation, it has also been an experiment in resistance, as witness the inspiring saga of the Purépecha community of Cherán, Michoacán. In 2012, the community played host to a preliminary hearing of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal that condemned land grabbing, deforestation, land conversion, agrotoxin spraying, water depletion, fires, and the widespread violence wielded against the population. It laid the blame for these plagues squarely on timber theft, the avocado industry, berry greenhouses, and agave production.

      –—

      One year earlier, the population had decided to take matters in hand. They were fed up with this litany of injustices and with the violence being inflicted on them by the paramilitary forces of organized crime. Led by the women, the community took up the arduous task of establishing checkpoints marked out by bonfires (which were also used for cooking) throughout the area. Any institution or group that questioned their collective authority was immediately confronted. The newly created community police force is answerable to the general assembly, which in turn reports to the neighbourhood assemblies. A few years ago, the community gated itself to outsiders while working on restoring the forest and establishing its own horizontal form of government with respect for women, men, children, and elders.

      The community then took another step forward, opting for municipal and community autonomy. This was not a straightforward process, but it did finally lead to approval by the National Electoral Institute for elections to take place under customary law and outside the party system. This example spread to other communities such as Angahuan that are also grappling with agribusiness, corruption, and organized crime.[57]

      Clearly, this struggle for tradition-rooted self-determination is just beginning. The cartels, after all, are pursuing their efforts to subdue whole regions. Meanwhile, for their own defence, the people are continuing to follow these role models and declaring self-government.

      An unsustainable model

      “The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but … men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit—and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains.”[58]

      Per capita consumption of avocados has kept on growing in the importing countries, driven by intense marketing campaigns promoting the nutritional benefits of this food. In the United States alone, consumption has tripled in 20 years.[59] While avocados are sold as a superfood, a convenient veil remains thrown over what is actually happening at the local level, where the farmers are not the ones benefiting. While this global trend continues, various false solutions are proposed, such as water-saving innovations or so-called “zero deforestation” initiatives.

      In this exploitative model, small- and medium-sized growers are forced to take on all the risk while also bearing the burden of the environmental externalities. The big companies and their investors are largely shielded from the public health and environmental impacts.

      As we have said, the growers are not the ones who control the process; not even organized crime has that power. They are both just cogs in the industrial agri-food system, assisting the destruction it wreaks in order to eke out a share of the colossal dividends it offers. To truly understand the workings of the system, one has to study the supply chain as a whole.

      Given these realities, it is urgent for us to step up our efforts to denounce agribusiness and its corrupting, devastating model. The people must organize to find ways out of this nightmare.

      * Mexico-based Colectivo por la Autonomía works on issues related to territorial defence and peasant affairs, through coordination with other Mexican and Latin American social movement organizations, as well as legal defence and research on the environmental and social impacts experienced by indigenous and rural territories and communities.

      Banner image: Mural in Cherán that tells the story of their struggle. This mural is inside the Casa Comunal and is part of a mural revival throughout the city, where there are collective and individual works in many streets and public buildings. This mural is the work of Marco Hugo Guardián Lemus and Giovanni Fabián Gutiérrez.

      [1] John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath Penguin Classics, 1939, 2006.
      [2] Guillermina Ayala, “López: “Un Súper Bowl con guacamole,” Milenio, 11 February 2023, https://www.milenio.com/negocios/financial-times/exportaciones-de-toneladas-de-aguacate-para-la-final-de-la-nfl.
      [3] The USMCA is the trade agreement between Mexico, the United States, and Canada. See also Isabella González, “Una denuncia lleva a la producción mexicana de aguacate ante la comisión ambiental del T-MEC por ecocidio,” El País, 8 February 2023, https://elpais.com/mexico/2023-02-08/una-denuncia-lleva-a-la-produccion-mexicana-de-aguacate-ante-la-comision-amb.
      [4] In what follows, the sources for production volumes, areas under cultivation, and sales are the FAOSTAT and UN Comtrade databases [viewed 25 January 2023]. The source for 2030 projections is OECD/FAO, OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2021–2030, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1787/19428846-en.
      [5] Ruben Sommaruga and Honor May Eldridge, “Avocado Production: Water Footprint and Socio-economic Implications,” EuroChoices 20(2), 13 December 2020, https://doi.org/10.1111/1746-692X.12289.
      [6] See George Munene, “Chinese traders plan on increasing Kenyan avocado imports,” Farmbiz Africa, 1 August 2022, https://farmbizafrica.com/market/3792-chinese-traders-plan-on-increasing-kenyan-avocado-imports; Tanzania Invest, “Tanzania sign 15 strategic agreements with China, including avocado exports,” 5 November 2022, https://www.tanzaniainvest.com/economy/trade/strategic-agreements-with-china-samia.
      [7] USDA, "China: 2022 Fresh Avocado Report, 14 November 2022, https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/china-2022-fresh-avocado-report.
      [8] Global AgInvesting, “US-based Mission Produce is developing its first domestic avocado farm in China,” 8 June 2018, https://www.farmlandgrab.org/post/view/28223-us-based-mission-produce-is-developing-its-first-domestic-avocad.
      [9] Wageningen University & Research, “Improved mango and avocado chain helps small farmers in Haiti,” 2022, https://www.wur.nl/en/project/improved-mango-and-avocado-chain-helps-small-farmers-in-haiti-1.htm.
      [10] See Grand View Research, “Avocado market size, share & trends analysis report by form (fresh, processed), by distribution channel (B2B, B2C), by region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Central & South America, MEA), and segment forecasts, 2022–2030,” 2022, https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/fresh-avocado-market-report; Straits Research, “Fresh avocado market,” 2022, https://straitsresearch.com/report/fresh-avocado-market.
      [11] Mission Produce, “Mission Produce announces fiscal 2021 fourth quarter financial results,” 22 December 2021, https://investors.missionproduce.com/news-releases/news-release-details/mission-produce-announces-fiscal-2021-fourth-quarter-finan.
      [12] Sources: Capital IQ and United States Securities and Exchange Commission, “Mission Produce: Form 10-K,” 22 December 2022, https://investors.missionproduce.com/financial-information/sec-filings?items_per_page=10&page=.
      [13] The company reports that it has had avocado plantations since 2011 on three Peruvian farms covering 3900 ha, in addition to producing blueberries on 400 hectares (including greenhouses) as part of a joint venture called Moruga. See Mission Produce, “Investor relations,” December 2022, https://investors.missionproduce.com; United States Securities and Exchange Commission, “Mission Produce: Form 10-K,” 22 December 2022, https://investors.missionproduce.com/financial-information/sec-filings?items_per_page=10&page=1, and https://missionproduce.com/peru.
      [14] Sources: https://ir.calavo.com; Calavo Growers, “Calavo Growers, Inc. announces fourth quarter and fiscal 2021 financial results,” 20 December 2021, https://ir.calavo.com/news-releases/news-release-details/calavo-growers-inc-announces-fourth-quarter-and-fiscal-2021
      [15] Its main subsidiaries in Mexico are Calavo de México and Avocados de Jalisco; see Calavo Growers, Calavo Growers, Inc. Investor Presentation, 12 December 2022, https://ir.calavo.com/static-files/f4ee2e5a-0221-4b48-9b82-7aad7ca69ea7; United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Calavo Growers, Inc. form 10-K, December 2022, https://ir.calavo.com/static-files/9c13da31-3239-4843-8d91-6cff65c6bbf7.
      [16] Among its main US clients are Kroger (15% of 2022 total sales), Trader Joe’s (11%), and Wal-Mart (10%) Source: Capital IQ. See also “Calavo quiere exportar aguacate mexicano a Europa y Asia,” El Financiero, 8 January 2021, https://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/opinion/de-jefes/calavo-quiere-exportar-aguacate-mexicano-a-europa-y-asia.
      [17] See IDC, “Westfalia grows an empire,” 2018, https://www.idc.co.za/westfalia-grows-an-empire; IFC, Creating Markets in Mozambique, June 2021, https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/a7accfa5-f36b-4e24-9999-63cffa96df4d/CPSD-Mozambique-v2.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID=nMNH.3E; https://www.westfaliafruit.com/about-us/our-operations/westfalia-fruto-mocambique; “Agricom y Westfalia Fruit concretan asociación en Latinoamérica,” Agraria.pe, 9 January 2018, https://agraria.pe/noticias/agricom-y-westfalia-fruit-concretan-asociacion-en-latinoamer-15664.
      [18] Marta del Moral Arroyo, “Prevemos crecer este año un 20% en nuestras exportaciones de palta a Asia y Estados Unidos,” Fresh Plaza, 27 May 2022, https://www.freshplaza.es/article/9431020/prevemos-crecer-este-ano-un-20-en-nuestras-exportaciones-de-palta-a-asia-.
      [19] See https://opencorporates.com/companies?jurisdiction_code=&q=westfalia+fruit&utf8=%E2%9C%93.
      [20] For example, in the case of Calavo Growers, BlackRock controls 16%, Vanguard Group 8%, and five other investment 20%; see Capital IQ, “Nuance Investments increases position in Calavo Growers (CVGW),” Nasdaq, 8 February 2023, https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/nuance-investments-increases-position-in-calavo-growers-cvgw; “Vanguard Group increases position in Calavo Growers (CVGW),” Nasdaq, 9 February 2023, https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/vanguard-group-increases-position-in-calavo-growers-cvgw.
      [21] Liam O’Callaghan, “Mission announces South African expansion,” Eurofruit, 8 February 2023, https://www.fruitnet.com/eurofruit/mission-announces-south-african-expansion/248273.article. Criterion Africa Partners invests with funds from the African Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, and the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO) (Source: Preqin).
      [22] Harvard Management Company subsequently spun out its holdings in Westfalia to the private equity fund Solum Partners; see Lynda Kiernan, “HMC investment in Westfalia Fruit International to drive global expansion for avocados,” Global AgInvesting, 17 January 2020, https://www.farmlandgrab.org/post/view/29422-hmc-investment-in-westfalia-fruit-international-to-drive-global-; Michael McDonald, “Harvard spins off natural resources team, to remain partner,” Bloomberg, 8 October 2020, https://www.farmlandgrab.org/post/view/29894-harvard-spins-off-natural-resources-team-to-remain-partner.
      [23] See “Ontario Teachers’ acquires Australian avocado grower Jasper Farms,” OTPP, 19 December 2017, https://www.farmlandgrab.org/post/view/27774-ontario-teachers-acquires-australian-avocado-grower-jasper-farms; “Canadian pension fund invests in ex-plantation privatizing Hawaii’s water,” The Breach, 23 February 2022, https://www.farmlandgrab.org/post/view/30782-canadian-pension-fund-invests-in-ex-plantation-privatizing-hawai.
      [24] See https://disclosures.ifc.org/enterprise-search-results-home/42280; https://disclosures.ifc.org/project-detail/SII/40091/westfalia-intl. Westfalia is a subsidiary of the South African logging company Hans Merensky Holdings (HMH), whose main shareholders are the Hans Merensky Foundation (40%), IDC (30%), and CFI (20%) (see https://disclosures.ifc.org/project-detail/SII/42280/westfalia-moz-ii).
      [25] Amanda Landon, “Domestication and significance of Persea americana, the avocado, in Mesoamerica,” Nebraska Anthropologist, 47 (2009), https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://en.wikipedia.org/&httpsredir=1&article=1046&context=nebanthro.
      [26] Ibid., 70.
      [27] Jeff Miller, Avocado: A Global History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020), https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/A/bo50552476.html.
      [28] Maria Popova, “A ghost of evolution: The curious case of the avocado, which should be extinct but still exists,” The Marginalian, https://www.themarginalian.org/2013/12/04/avocado-ghosts-of-evolution/?mc_cid=ca28345b4d&mc_eid=469e833a4d, citing Connie Barlow, The Ghosts of Evolution: Nonsensical Fruit, Missing Partners, and Other Ecological Anachronisms, https://books.google.com.mx/books/about/The_Ghosts_Of_Evolution.html?id=TnU4DgAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y.
      [29] Patricia Lazicki, Daniel Geisseler, and Willliam R. Horwath, “Avocado production in California,” UC Davis, 2016, https://apps1.cdfa.ca.gov/FertilizerResearch/docs/Avocado_Production_CA.pdf.
      [30] Flavia Echánove Huacuja, “Abriendo fronteras: el auge exportador del aguacate mexicano a United States,” Anales de Geografía de la Universidad Complutense, 2008, Vol. 28, N° 1, https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/aguc/article/download/aguc0808110009a/30850.
      [31] Calavo Growers, Calavo Growers, Inc. Investor Presentation, 12 December 2022, https://ir.calavo.com/static-files/f4ee2e5a-0221-4b48-9b82-7aad7ca69ea7.
      [32] Flavia Echánove Huacuja, op cit., the evolution of these companies in the sector was different. Chiquita withdrew from the avocado industry in 2012, while for Del Monte, this fruit accounts for a steadily declining share of its sales, reaching 8% ($320 million) in 2021 (see https://seekingalpha.com/article/1489692-chiquita-brands-restructuring-for-value; United States Securities and Exchange Commission, Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. Form 10-K, 2022; Del Monte Quality, A Brighter World Tomorrow, https://freshdelmonte.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/FDM_2021_SustainabilityReportFINAL.pdf. )
      [33] Source: SIAP (http://infosiap.siap.gob.mx/gobmx/datosAbiertos_a.php) [viewed 27 November 2022].
      [34] María Adelina Toribio Morales, César Adrián Ramírez Miranda, and Miriam Aidé Núñez Vera, “Expansión del agronegocio aguacatero sobre los territorios campesinos en Michoacán, México,” Eutopía, Revista de Desarrollo Económico Territorial, no. 16, December 2019, pp. 51–72, https://revistas.flacsoandes.edu.ec/eutopia/article/download/4117/3311?inline=1.
      [35] Enrique Espinosa Gasca states: “The Ministry of the Environment, Natural Resources, and Climate Change (Semadet) in Michoacán acknowledged in March 2019 that in the first twenty years of the millennium, Michoacán has lost a million hectares of its forests, some due to clandestine logging and some due to forest fires set for purposes of land conversion”; “Berries, frutos rojos, puntos rojos,” in Colectivo por la Autonomía and GRAIN, eds, Invernaderos: Controvertido modelo de agroexportación (Ceccam, 2021).
      [36] Gobierno de México, SIACON (2020), https://www.gob.mx/siap/documentos/siacon-ng-161430; idem, Servicio de Información Agroalimentaria y Pesquera (SIAP), http://infosiap.siap.gob.mx/gobmx/datosAbiertos_a.php.
      [37] “Se triplica cosecha de agave, berries y aguacate en Jalisco,” El Informador, 23 December 2021, https://www.informador.mx/Se-triplica-cosecha-de-agave-berries-y-aguacate-en-Jalisco-l202112230001..
      [38] María Ramírez Blanco, “Agave, berries y aguacate encarece precio de la tierra en Jalisco, roba terreno al maíz y al ganado,” UDG TV, 31 January 2023, https://udgtv.com/noticias/agave-berries-aguacate-encarece-precio-tierra-jalisco-roba-maiz.
      [39] Agustín del Castillo, Territorio Reportaje, part 8, “Negocio, ecocidio y crimen,” Canal 44tv, Universidad de Guadalajara, October 2022, https://youtu.be/WfH3M22rrK8

      .
      [40] Agustín del Castillo, Territorio Reportaje, part 7, “La huella criminal en el fruto más valioso del mundo: la palta, el avocado, el aguacate,” Canal 44tv, Universidad de Guadalajara, September 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSz8xihdsTI
      .
      [41] Gobierno de México, Secretaría de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural, “Productores de pequeña escala, los principales exportadores de aguacate a Estados Unidos: Agricultura,” 29 January 2020, https://www.gob.mx/agricultura/prensa/productores-de-pequena-escala-los-principales-exportadores-de-aguacate-a-estados.
      [42] Our results and arguments coincide with those found in Alexander Curry, “Violencia y capitalismo aguacatero en Michoacán,” in Jayson Maurice Porter and Alexander Aviña, eds, Land, Markets and Power in Rural Mexico, Noria Research. Curry is skeptical of analyses in which violence can be understood in terms of its results, such as the coercive control of a market square or highway. “Such analyses forget that violence is part of a social process, with its own temporal framework,” he writes. It is therefore necessary to frame the process within a broader field of relations of inequality of all kinds, in which the paradox is that legal and illegal actors intermingle at the local, national, and international levels, but in spheres that rarely intersect. The avocado industry cannot be explained by the cartels but by the tangled web of international capitalism.
      [43] See https://www.netafim.com.mx/cultivos/aguacate and https://es.rivulis.com/crop/aguacates.
      [44] Jennifer Kite-Powell, “Using Drip Irrigation To Make New Sustainable Growing Regions For Avocados”, Forbes, 29 March 2022: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferhicks/2022/03/29/using-drip-irrigation-to-make-new-sustainable-growing-regions-for-avocados .
      [45] See Pat Mooney, La Insostenible Agricultura 4.0: Digitalización y Poder Corporativo en la Cadena Alimentaria, ETC Group, 2019, https://www.etcgroup.org/sites/www.etcgroup.org/files/files/la_insostenible_agricultura_4.0_web26oct.pdf. See also Colectivo por la Autonomía and GRAIN, eds, Invernaderos: controvertido modelo de agroexportación.
      [46] Colectivo por la Autonomía, Evangelina Robles, José Godoy, and Eduardo Villalpando, “Nocividad del metabolismo agroindustrial en el Occidente de México,” in Eduardo Enrique Aguilar, ed., Agroecología y Organización Social: Estudios Críticos sobre Prácticas y Saberes (Monterrey: Universidad de Monterrey, Editorial Ítaca, 2022), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365173284_Agroecologia_y_organizacion_social_Estudios_criticos_sobre_p.
      [47] Metapolítica, “La guerra por el aguacate: deforestación y contaminación imparables,” BiodiversidadLA, 24 June 2019, https://www.biodiversidadla.org/Noticias/La-guerra-por-el-Aguacate-deforestacion-y-contaminacion-imparables.
      [48] Chloe Sutcliffe and Tim Hess, “The global avocado crisis and resilience in the UK’s fresh fruit and vegetable supply system,” Global Food Security, 19 June 2017, https://www.foodsecurity.ac.uk/blog/global-avocado-crisis-resilience-uks-fresh-fruit-vegetable-supply-sy.
      [49] Nathanael Johnson, “Are avocados toast? California farmers bet on what we’ll be eating in 2050,” The Guardian, 30 May 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/30/avocado-california-climate-change-affecting-crops-2050.
      [50] GRAIN, “The well is running dry on irrigated agriculture,” 20 February 2023, https://grain.org/en/article/6958-the-well-is-running-dry-on-irrigated-agriculture.
      [51] Danwatch, “Paltas y agua robada,” 2017, http://old.danwatch.dk/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Paltas-y-agua-robada.pdf.
      [52] Fresh Fruit Portal, “Steve Barnard, founder and CEO of Mission Produce: We now import more to Chile than we export,” 23 August 2021, https://www.freshfruitportal.com/news/2021/08/23/steve-barnard-founder-and-ceo-of-mission-produce-we-now-import-mor.
      [53] Sacrifice zones are “places with high levels of environmental contamination and degradation, where profits have been given priority over people, causing human rights abuses or violations”: Elizabeth Bravo, “Zonas de sacrificio y violación de derechos,” Naturaleza con Derechos, Boletín 26, 1 September 2021, https://www.naturalezaconderechos.org/2021/09/01/boletin-26-zonas-de-sacrificio-y-violacion-de-derechos.
      [54] See Catalina Wallace, “La obra de ingeniería que cambió el desierto peruano,” Visión, March 2022, https://www.visionfruticola.com/2022/03/la-obra-de-ingenieria-que-cambio-el-desierto-peruano; “Proyecto de irrigación Olmos,” Landmatrix, 2012, https://landmatrix.org/media/uploads/embajadadelperucloficinacomercialimagesstoriesproyectoirrigacionolmos201. The costly project was part of the Odebrecht corruption case fought in the context of the “Lava Jato” operation: Jacqueline Fowks, “El ‘caso Odebrecht’ acorrala a cuatro expresidentes peruanos,” El País, 17 April 2019, https://elpais.com/internacional/2019/04/16/america/1555435510_660612.html.
      [55] Liga contra el Silencio, “Los aguacates de AngloGold dividen a Cajamarca,” 30 October 2020, https://www.biodiversidadla.org/Documentos/Los-aguacates-de-AngloGold-dividen-a-Cajamarca.
      [56] “Colombia: Los aguacates de AngloGold dividen a Cajamarca,” La Cola de Rata,16 October 2020, https://www.farmlandgrab.org/post/view/29921-colombia-los-aguacates-de-anglogold-dividen-a-cajamarca.
      [57] See Las luchas de Cherán desde la memoria de los jóvenes (Cherán Ireteri Juramukua, Cherán K’eri, 2021); Daniela Tico Straffon and Edgars Martínez Navarrete, Las raíces del despojo, U-Tópicas, https://www.u-topicas.com/libro/las-raices-del-despojo_15988; Mark Stevenson, “Mexican town protects forest from avocado growers and drug cartels,” Los Angeles Times, https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-01-31/mexican-town-protects-forest-from-avocado-growers-cartels; Monica Pellicia, “Indigenous agroforestry dying of thirst amid a sea of avocados in Mexico,” https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/indigenous-agroforestry-dying-of-thirst-amid-a-sea-of-avocados-in-mex
      [58] The Grapes of Wrath, op. cit.
      [59] USDA, “Imports play dominant role as U.S. demand for avocados climbs,” 2 May 2022, https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/gallery/chart-detail/?chartId=103810.

      https://grain.org/e/6985#_edn36

      #rapport #Grain #land_grabbing #accaparement_des_terres

  • Column : Musk is the beginning of the end for #BlackTwitter - Los Angeles Times
    https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-04-25/elon-musk-buying-twitter-will-silence-black-twitter

    Un élément important sur la « liberté d’expression » version Musk : alors qu’il est en procès pour ségrégation dans ses entreprises, il vient d’achetyer Twitter, qui est le principal outil du #BlackTwitter, l’outil d’expression et de mobilisation de la communauté africaine-américaine des Etats-Unis. Une grande peur pour les activistes de #BlackLivesMatter.

    It’s all rather disturbing and yet somehow fitting in these doublespeak-steeped times.

    Elon Musk, the founder of a company that California is suing for allegedly silencing thousands of Black employees who complained about racism, is buying a company that has given millions of Black people a megaphone-like voice to complain about racism.

    And the California-hating billionaire insists he’s doing it all to protect free speech.

    “Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said Monday, announcing that he had succeeded in taking over the San Francisco-based social media company for $44 billion.

    Consider this the beginning of the end of #BlackTwitter.

    Not of Black people on Twitter but of #BlackTwitter — the community of millions that figured out how to turn a nascent social media platform into an indispensable tool for real-world activism, political power and change.

    And entertainment too. Where do you think the best memes and GIFs come from?
    Elon Musk

    Business

    Elon Musk reaches $44-billion deal to buy Twitter

    April 25, 2022

    #BlackTwitter gave us hashtags that turned into movements.

    #BlackLivesMatter and #ICantBreathe became rallying cries for hundreds of thousands of protesters after the 2020 murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. And for years before that, when fewer Americans were paying attention to the disproportionate number of Black women being killed by police, there was #SayHerName.

    It was #OscarsSoWhite that led to pressure for changes at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. And let’s not forget that #MeToo, which roiled the halls of power in corporations and government, was started by a Black woman.

    There’s also #BlackGirlMagic and #BlackBoyJoy, both celebrations of the beauty of Blackness in a country that so often devalues it — and us.

    On Monday, the mood on #BlackTwitter was neither magical nor joyful.

    “There goes #BlackTwitter — new owners will call it CRT and ban it.”

    “Um… #BlackTwitter we need to schedule a meeting ASAP! Where we meeting up when we leave Twitter?”

    “So, where’s the back of Twitter? Asking for #BlackTwitter

    “It was nice getting to know you all. Especially everyone on #BlackTwitter. Now a white South African man owns it. Bye Y’all. #RIPTwitter

    Meredith D. Clark, an associate professor at Northeastern University in Boston who studies race, media and power and is working on a book about #BlackTwitter, wasn’t surprised.

    “I think you will definitely see more people move off in larger waves,” she said. “I think there will still be a remnant left, but you know?”

    The problems with the Twitter deal are multifold for Black people.

    First, there’s Musk himself.

    He’s the world’s richest person. Or, as Clark put it: “This is yet another example of how we’re falling prey to oligarchies. Men with billions of dollars who get to decide what our communications look like.”

    He’s also a businessman with questionable ethics. Musk’s company Tesla is being sued by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. It’s the largest racial discrimination suit ever brought by the state and was filed on behalf of more than 4,000 former and current employees, all of whom are Black.

    Some of those employees described their experiences to The Times. They alleged that they were often the targets of racist slurs by co-workers and supervisors and that Tesla segregated Black workers, gave them the hardest work at the Fremont, Calif., manufacturing plant and denied them promotions. And they say the company ignored their complaints about the treatment.

    Given the long-standing diversity problems at tech companies, including at Twitter, this is troubling. Even more concerning is the climate on Twitter itself, which — despite the content moderation that happens now — is still full of racist trolls.

    “With the knowledge that I have about Musk as a businessperson, and as someone who seeks to have great influence over culture, I’m concerned,” Clark said. “I’m concerned about some of the statements that he’s made in the past and how they reflect on his character and his mind-set.”
    Monica Chatman is a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit for discrimination and harassment against Tesla

    Business

    Black Tesla employees describe a culture of racism: ‘I was at my breaking point’

    March 25, 2022

    The second problem is what Musk plans to do with Twitter.

    He has repeatedly complained about the content moderation, even though it is applied sparingly and inconsistently. If he has his way, he could very likely get rid of it altogether.

    Prominent white supremacists who got kicked off the platform for good reason could return — among them former President Trump, who, through his account, helped incite the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

    Perhaps more troubling, conspiracy theories could become easier to find and share and, therefore, grow in complexity and number of believers.

    We’ve already seen the effects of disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and of QAnon, including the latest tall tales linking gender identity to pedophilia that are being echoed by reckless Republican politicians. What happens when those conspiracy theories, bolstered by more than a dash of white supremacy, escalate into violence? It happened once; it can surely happen again.
    FILE - This July 9, 2019, file photo shows a sign outside of the Twitter office building in San Francisco.
    Consider this the beginning of the end of #BlackTwitter, the community of millions that figured out how to turn a social media company into a platform for real-world activism, political power and change.
    (Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)

    #BlackTwitter knows this.

    On Monday, Musk tweeted: “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter because that is what free speech means.”

    #BlackTwitter also knows that, no, that’s not what free speech means, because Twitter is a company — soon to be privately held — and has no obligation under the 1st Amendment to allow racism, transphobia, homophobia or misogyny to percolate through its platform.

    And so, rather than safeguarding the “bedrock of a functioning democracy,” as Musk describes free speech, he just destroyed it — because the people whose tweets were the most effective at that are leaving.

    “I don’t think that you’re going see the same sort of replication of a Twitter-like climate or #BlackTwitter on another platform. I don’t think you’ll ever get that lightning in a bottle back,” Clark said. “But I do think that you will see Black people doing what we have always done. And that is bend communication and other technologies to our needs and our will. And find ways to thrive in those various areas of the internet.”

    #Twitter #Elon_Musk #Black_Lives_Matter

  • Russia’s Ukraine invasion has escalated a brewing battle over space - Los Angeles Times
    https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2022-04-11/russias-invasion-of-ukraine-has-also-made-it-a-pariah-in-space
    https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/93aad60/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3360x1764+0+64/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.

    Space has long been a barometer of the U.S.-Russia relationship. Cold War competition pushed Moscow and Washington toward new human feats in the 1960s, including the U.S. moon landing in 1969. Anxiety over President Reagan’s “Star Wars” defensive weapons program drove arms negotiations in the 1980s that presaged the end of the Soviet Union.

    The 1998 space station agreement — which also includes the European Union, Japan and Canada — signaled a new era of shared advancement in the post-Cold War period. For more than two decades, the jointly operated station has been spinning around Earth.

    That space détente was waning long before Russia invaded Ukraine in February, and the U.S. and its allies targeted Moscow’s space industry in a raft of economic sanctions. For two decades, Russian President Vladimir Putin has pushed for an aggressive expansion of his country’s space weapons program.

    American officials have alleged, starting in 2009, that the Kremlin was developing anti-satellite missiles and more recently an anti-satellite mobile laser.

    Russia launched what it described as an inspector satellite in 2017, prompting deep skepticism from American officials over what they labeled the craft’s “abnormal behavior,” suggesting it may also have a military use. Two years later, Russia placed a satellite within close range of a U.S. spy satellite, prompting concerns of an unintentional confrontation between the two military powers.

    In November, Russia tested a missile that struck a satellite and blasted it into more than 1,500 large pieces of debris, any chunk of which could doom manned and unmanned commercial and military spacecraft, including the crew of the space station, which was forced to take shelter.

    The U.S. and its allies sharply criticized Russia over the test, with Vice President Kamala Harris calling it an “irresponsible act [that] endangered the satellites of other nations as well as the astronauts on the International Space Station.”

    Meanwhile, the Trump and Biden administrations have ratcheted up efforts to counter competition from Russia and China in space. This was underscored by Trump’s decision to start a new branch of the military, the Space Force.

    The new military branch is one of his few legacies that Biden has embraced, with the White House submitting a recent budget request of $24.5 billion for the Space Force, a bump of about 40% over the prior year. That’s almost as much as the $26 billion Biden requested for NASA, which predates Space Force by more than 60 years.

    Those lingering tensions have complicated attempts to rewrite international rules on space debris, and the invasion of Ukraine has led U.S. officials to put on ice any direct talks between Washington and Moscow over space-related issues.

    “We see no need for those discussions while they are in conflict with the Ukrainians,” Eric Desautels, acting deputy assistant secretary of State for emerging security challenges and defense policy, said in a recent interview hosted by the National Security Space Assn., a nonprofit that encourages cooperation between government and industry.

    Desautels said that Russia and China would like a future treaty that constrains the U.S. from placing space-based missile defenses in orbit. One of the biggest stumbling blocks is defining defensive weapons versus those with offensive capabilities. The U.S. argues that commercial actors could be caught up in more restrictive rules, even if their work lacks a military intent.

    Complicating potential negotiations are a raft of economic sanctions imposed on Russia over the Ukraine war. The U.S. has taken intentional aim at the Russian space industry, with Biden vowing on the day of the invasion that U.S. sanctions were designed, in part, at degrading “their aerospace industry, including their space program.”

    The economic crackdown against Russia has prompted a series of threats from its space officials. The head of Russia’s space program, Dmitry Rogozin, tweeted on April 2 in Russian that “the restoration of normal relations between partners in the International Space Station and other joint projects is possible only with the complete and unconditional lifting of illegal sanctions.”

    Even before the Ukraine invasion, Moscow had indicated that it may leave the partnership in the next few years — citing safety concerns with aging metal — as it signs new agreements with China on space exploration and lunar research. The station, which has also become a rental hub for billionaire space tourists, is set to retire by 2030.

    Zhanna Malekos Smith, a senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Russia has created “strategic fog” with its mixed signals over the space station pact. But she pointed to signs of hope, including the March 30 return from the station of American astronaut Mark Vande Hei, who traveled back to Kazakhstan with two cosmonauts — Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov — in a Russian capsule.

    When Shkaplerov handed control of the station to astronaut Thomas Marshburn a day earlier, he said that whatever problems existed on Earth — “in orbit, we are like one crew.”

    West, the researcher with Project Ploughshares, said the invasion of Ukraine has accelerated and reframed many of the conversations around the militarization of space, including the interplay between civilian and government interests. Satellites, in particular, connect so much of the modern world while helping militaries coordinate troop movements and pinpoint missile strikes.

    It’s a dramatic change in mindset compared with a ground war, where “you’re either in a war zone or you’re not,” she said.

    She pointed out that other countries, including Australia, the United Kingdom, France, India, China, Russia and Japan, have moved toward creating more formalized space commands, like Space Force, a recognition that the battlefield has shifted.

    They are all coming to the conclusion that space is not just for exploration. It’s also a new front line.

    #Espace #Communs #Militarisation

  • Read Volodymyr Zelensky speech from the 2022 Grammy Awards - Los Angeles Times
    https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2022-04-03/grammys-2022-volodymyr-zelensky-ukraine-speech

    Zelinsky aux Grammy Awards : faut-il en rire ou en pleurer ? Quel scénario ! Netflix est définitivement enfoncé par les spin doctors du Pentagone (ou se sont les mêmes ?)

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared onscreen Sunday at the 2022 Grammy Awards to deliver a powerful speech about the war in his home country.

    Before singer-songwriter John Legend launched into a moving tribute performance of a new song, “Free,” Zelensky spoke via video about the devastation Ukrainians have endured since Russia began invading that nation earlier this year.

  • Hiltzik: The horrifying toll of Sweden’s lax pandemic policy
    https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-03-31/sweden-covid-policy-was-a-disaster

    The details of Swedish policies as described by Brusselaers and her co-authors are horrifying. The Swedish government, they report, deliberately tried to use children to spread COVID-19 and denied care to seniors and those suffering from other conditions.

    The government’s goal appeared geared to produce herd immunity — a level of infection that would create a natural barrier to the pandemic’s spread without inconveniencing middle- and upper-class citizens; the government never set forth that goal publicly, but internal government emails unearthed by the Swedish press revealed that herd immunity was the strategy behind closed doors.

    Explicit or not, the effort failed.

  • Sigue la cuenta fatal: asesinan a otro periodista en México
    https://www.latimes.com/espanol/mexico/articulo/2022-02-11/sigue-la-cuenta-fatal-asesinan-a-otro-periodista-en-mexico
    Otro periodista fue asesinado en México. Ahora el turno le tocó a Heber López Vásquez, quien fue ejecutado el jueves, en el municipio de Salina Cruz, Oaxaca. Este es el sexto periodista que cae abatido por manos criminales en lo que va de este año y el número 43 del sexenio del presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador

    • TLDR : plus il y a d’infections, plus il y a de proba que des mutations génèrent des variants, mais plus dangereux encore : plus il y a d’infections chez des personnes semi-vaccinées seulement (protégées qu’à 33%), plus il y a de proba que des mutations génèrent des variants resistants au virus (arg).

      This fall, if ventilation is poor and people are packed closely together without face coverings, the Delta variant — which has been shown to replicate robustly in the upper respiratory passages of unvaccinated and vaccinated people alike — will find ample ways to spread.

      J’ai l’impression d’avoir déjà entendu ça… ya un an. :’(

  • OPINIÓN: Dos periodistas asesinados en menos de una semana, México vuelve a ser el país más peligroso del mundo para ejercer el periodismo
    https://www.latimes.com/espanol/mexico/articulo/2021-07-23/opinion-dos-periodistas-asesinado-en-menos-de-una-semana-mexico-vuelve-a-se
    Luego de cinco meses de haber salido de la lista negra de agresiones a periodistas, otra vez México se vuelve a colocar como el país más peligroso del mundo para ejercer el periodismo. El regreso de México a la cuestionada lista se da luego de que en menos de tres meses han sido asesinados seis reporteros

    • Quand le Monde présente les hypothèses d’une mission d’enquête de l’OMS sous l’angle des « gagnants », on peut difficilement s’étonner ensuite que les gens abordent n’importe quelle question scientifique sous un angle paranoïaque : c’est-à-dire de « valider » un énoncé non pas sur sa rigueur scientifique ou journalistique, mais sous l’angle « à qui profite cet énoncé ? ».